Hundreds Head to Lisbon for Anti-Austerity Demo: Unions
Hundreds of protestors were heading to Lisbon on Saturday to take part in a demonstration against austerity measures ahead of next week’s talks with international creditors, unions said. “Judging by the hundreds of cars that are en route to Lisbon … I think that we will have a big demonstration of indignation,” said Armenio Carlos, general secretary of the CGTP union which called the protest.
Organisers said that vehicles were heading to the capital from both northern and southern areas. The protest comes just days before officials from the so-called Troika — the European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — arrive in Portugal on their latest mission to evaluate progress on the country’s bailout programme.
Portugal became the third European Union member state — after Greece and Ireland — to seek international aid when it received a loan of 78 billion euros ($103 billion) from the EU and the IMF last May.
In return it agreed to sell-offs of public companies and labour reforms including less holiday time, which sparked protests in several cities.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Protestors Mass in Greece After Cabinet OKs Debt Deal
(ATHENS) — Thousands of protestors massed in Greece under heavy police watch Saturday after the government approved unpopular austerity cuts to get vital rescue funds and avoid the “chaos” of a default. More than 3,500 people streamed to Syntagma Square in Athens on a second day of protests and a general strike, with hundreds of riot police standing guard following clashes that erupted during the rallies on Friday.
The defection-hit coalition government approved in the early hours on Saturday the painful belt-tightening measures that the EU and the IMF have demanded in return for a 130 billion euro ($171 billion) rescue package that Athens needs to avoid default in March. “We are here to say no to what they want to impose on us,” said Sophia, a 38-year-old researcher, as other protestors held up a banner reading: “They Are Ruining Our Lives.”
The general strike brought public transport to a halt in the Greek capital, with no metro, bus or trolley services. In the northern city of Thessaloniki, police estimated a crowd of some 4,000 at a similar protest.
As the cabinet debated the measures on Friday, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos issued a stern warning after six members of his coalition government resigned in protest at the new cuts.
“A disorderly default would plunge our country into a disastrous adventure,” he told the cabinet. “It would create conditions of uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion.” “Sooner or later, (Greece) would be led out of the euro,” he warned.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spanish Unions Call for Mass Protests on February 19
Spain’s two biggest unions called Saturday for nationwide protests on February 19 against labour reforms which they said would destroy jobs. “On February 19 we want the streets of Spain to be filled with noisy protests against the labour reforms,” the head of the CCOO union, Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, told a joint news conference with UGT union boss Candido Mendez.
“We will set in motion a process of mobilisation that we hope will grow,” Toxo said. The reforms “will destroy jobs in the short term and increase job insecurity in the medium term (and) increase the frustration of people” already reeling under earlier austerity measures, Mendez added.
Spain’s conservative government on Friday slashed employees’ maximum severance pay as part of sweeping labour reforms to confront a jobless rate of nearly 23 percent. “The government’s goal is to fight joblessness,” Employment Minister Fatima Banez told reporters.
Hundreds of people protested in Madrid on Friday night against the reform, in the latest of a string of demonstrations against austerity measures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Diana West: “Why Wasn’t Obama in Contempt of Court?”
One thing I’ve learned while researching my new, nearly finished book is that both history and news, history’s so-called rough draft, are not written by the “victors” as much as they are censored, twisted and reconfigured by what I can best describe as “the mob.”
I’m not referring to the Mafia. What I’m talking about is a mob-like amalgam of sharp elbows and big mouths who dictate acceptable topics, their narrative flow and an approved range of opinion — the consensus-makers. Defying consensus, breaking what amount to Mafia-like vows of “omerta” — silence — and delving into the verboten, is the worst possible crime of anti-mobness, punishable by eternal hooting and marginalization.
Few transgress. Which explains the news blackout on an extraordinary chain of recent events that took place in and around a Georgia courtroom and pertained to challenges to President Obama’s eligibility to be a presidential candidate in Georgia in 2012. In the end, the president defeated the challenge. He will be on the Georgia primary ballot come March. But therein lies an amazing tale.
Already I can feel the chill hiss of “birther” at the mere mention of these events, all because I haven’t included the mob-requisite catcalls that are “supposed” to go along with such accounts. But there’s nothing to mock here.
Last month, after Administrative Law Judge Michael Malihi denied motions by President Obama’s lawyer Michael Jablonski both to dismiss proceedings against the president and to quash a subpoena, three attorneys made history. For the first time, attorneys were permitted to enter evidence into the court record challenging Barack Obama’s constitutional eligibility to be president.
Georgia state law stipulates: “Every candidate for federal and state office … shall meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for holding the office being sought.” Plaintiff attorneys Van Irion and Mark Hatfield, who is also a Georgia state representative, argued that President Obama, an American citizen, fails to meet these qualifications because he is not a “natural born” citizen, the constitutional requirement for the presidency. This is due, they argued, to the uncontested fact that his father, Barack Obama Sr. of Kenya, was a British subject, not an American citizen. A third plaintiff attorney, Orly Taitz — object of an eternity’s worth of “two-minute hates” within the media mob — introduced evidence that the 44th president of the United States has engaged in what appears to be identity fraud.
Such evidence, as gleaned from a partial list of exhibits introduced in the hearing and published at the American Thinker website, included affidavits from security professionals and other documentation attesting that Obama is using a Connecticut Social Security number (he never lived in Connecticut); that Obama’s purported Social Security number was never issued to him; and that — my favorite — his Social Security number “does not pass E-Verify.” Another affidavit from an Adobe Illustrator expert maintains that Obama’s birth certificate, released last spring to much hype and ballyhoo, is a computer-generated forgery.
Frankly, I was unimpressed with the presidential defense in pre-hearing arguments…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Minneapolis Helps Muslim Businesses Follow Sharia Law
Loans that collect interest are considered by some to be sinful under Sharia law.
In 2005, Afrik Grocery and Halal Meat on Cedar Avenue needed to expand. Owner Abdi Adem, who operates his business under Sharia law, needed to find a loan that funded the expansion and complied with his religious beliefs. Finding the loan was easier than he expected. Since December 2006, the city of Minneapolis, in partnership with the African Development Center, has given out 54 loans in a way that is compliant with Islamic law by using a fixed rate in place of a variable interest rate, which some considered sinful.
Instead of charging interest, the city and the ADC estimate how long it will take the business to pay off the loan and totals what the interest would be. That amount is added as a lump sum to the total cost of the loan. “It feels like, looks like and acts like a loan, but it’s just a different way of looking at it,” said Hussein Samatar, executive director of the ADC.
Abdulwahid Qalinle, an adjunct associate professor of Islamic law at the University of Minnesota, said interest rates can be considered sinful under Sharia law. “Islam has specific guidelines where people can acquire wealth and how to spend their wealth,” Qalinle said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Occupy DC Plans Mayhem for Major Conservative Conference
The “Occupy DC” protest group is planning to disrupt the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference using a range of potentially illegal tactics that could even include violence against participants, Scribe has learned.
The planned disruptions at CPAC come only days after U.S. Park Police raided Occupiers’ tent cities at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., confiscating a number of tents, and prohibiting Occupiers from camping out there any longer.
During a Thursday meeting at McPherson Square, until Saturday the epicenter of the protests, Occupiers brainstormed tactics for shutting down or disrupting the conference, according to a source who was present at the meeting.
The protesters suggested pulling fire alarms in the hotel where the conference will take place, screaming “fire” during conference activities, “glitter-bombing” participants, cutting electrical power, and barricading entrances to the hotel, according to the source, who requested anonymity.
“Speakers will be physically assaulted, not just verbally confronted,” the source told Scribe in an email. Two Occupiers, who the source also identified as members of the New Black Panther Party, “said they would be disappointed if they didn’t get arrested and planned to ‘make it count.’“
The source quoted another protester as saying, “Mitt (Romney) has Secret Service now, but (Newt) Gingrich and (Andrew) Breitbart don’t,” seemingly suggesting that the latter two would not be as heavily guarded.
Protesters planned to conduct most of these activities on Saturday, the last day of the conference, so as not to overlap with the recently announced protests by labor groups on Thursday and Friday.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
OWS & the Planned “Endgame” For the U.S.
Buckle up, America. It’s going to be a very long, hot summer
Are you baffled by the wording, timing and bipartisan support of recent legislation such as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the Expatriation Act, SOPA, PIPA and ACTA? Are you concerned over the enhancement of domestic security measures that appear to be targeting and incrementally ripping away the rights of law abiding American citizens? Are you concerned about the evolving DHS “domestic extremist” definitions? Have you wondered about the true origins of the financial crises and what appears to be a quickening of events in all sectors of our lives? How about the origins of the current “Occupy Movement?” When and why everything started? Who and what is to blame? If so, you’re not alone.
We conducted an extensive investigation of the occupy movement to identify the people involved, as well as the money and influence behind it. What we found is that nothing related to the “Occupy Movement” is what it appears. In fact, nothing from Arab Spring, to DHS policy and beyond is what it appears to be. We found unsettling relationships between people, elected and appointed officials, groups, and organizations that extend back many years.
Investigative integrity demands a deliberate blindness to political party affiliations, but not ignorance to political associations. Consequently, our results will most assuredly anger many on both sides of the political aisle. If it does, we’ll know that we’ve done our job. Our findings might also brand us as conspiracy theorists too. If so, we’ll know that we’ve done our job well. Our findings are bound to make some people nervous. We hope they do, as we will then know that we’ve put our investigative skills and experience to good use.
Based on our investigative findings, we have arrived at a very startling and irrefutable conclusion. We are witnessing the orchestrated destruction of America. Soon, in the streets of the U.S., we will see some of the most violent events in modern history take place, likely to result in the implementation of public curfews, restrictions on travel, and possibly even Martial Law. That appears to be the plan. It is not a new plan, but one that has been in the works since the early twentieth century. We have created an in-depth report that reveals the individuals and groups behind these events, their motives, tactics and methods. The following is a summary of that report and our investigative findings…
| [Return to headlines] |
U.S. Air Force May Buy 18,000 Apple iPad 2s
The U.S. Air Force may buy as many as 18,000 iPad2s in what would be one of the military’s biggest orders of computer tablets, accelerating Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s inroads into the federal government. The service’s Air Mobility Command plans to issue a request for proposals to buy between 63 and 18,000 “iPad 2, Brand Name or Equal devices” to lighten the load of flight crews, according to a notice posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website.
The goal is to replace the bag of manuals and navigation charts weighing as much as 40 pounds that are carried by pilots and navigators, said Captain Kathleen Ferrero, a spokeswoman for the command. “The airline industry is way ahead of us on this,” she said in a telephone interview. “Most, if not all of the major airliners are already switching to tablets.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mosque May be Shipped to Iqaluit From Winnipeg
Zubaidah Tallab Foundation shipped a mosque to Inuvik, N.W.T., in 2010
The Winnipeg group that sent a mosque to Inuvik, N.W.T., is planning to send another one north, this time to Iqaluit. The Zubaidah Tallab Foundation transported a pre-built mosque by road and barge from Manitoba to Inuvik in 2010. People who worship there say the Midnight Sun Mosque has helped bring people in the community together. Hussain Guisti, general manager of the foundation, said it wants to do the same for Muslims living in Nunavut’s capital. “For a Muslim community, a mosque is everything. It’s the epicentre of daily life,” he said. The igloo-shaped St. Jude’s Anglican church is one of Iqaluit’s landmarks. There’s also a Catholic church, a Pentecostal church and a place of worship for people of the Bahai faith, but no mosque. There are few plots of land available in the quickly-expanding town and just getting the building to the city would be difficult. There are no roads to Nunavut, and the building would have to come as freight on the annual sealift, which would be expensive. But Guisti said he’s ready for those challenges and wants to help the 80 or so Muslims that live in Iqaluit. “They’re cold and there’s not much to do. So a mosque would serve to bring the entire community together as a social and gathering place for Muslims.” He said the city could have it by this fall, if he can collect enough funds.
[Reader comment by Allworld on 11 February 2012 at 09:04 ET]
“Have mosque, will ship”
Says the Muslim man,
A mosque for Iqaluit
In Canada’s Northern land.
“Will ship it by Sealift”
To arrive in the Fall,
Although it’s costly to ship this way
Iqaluit’s Muslims will have a place to meet and pray.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Preparing for Annual Eid-E-Milad Event
Muslims in Calgary will again be celebrating their annual Eide-Milad event, which celebrates the birthday and the life of the Prophet Muhammad. The program takes place Sunday at the Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts, at Jack Singer Hall, 205 8th Ave. S.E. The program will start at 5 p.m. Atthar Mahmood, vice-president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada and president of Muslims Against Terrorism, says the guest speakers include: Brig.-Gen. Paul F. Wynnyk; Qari Syed Muhammad Fassiuddini from Karachi, Pakistan; Dr. Munir El Kassen; Senator Grant Mitchell; MP Ralph Goodale; and MP Jim Karygiannis. Local speakers include Senior Imam Syed Soharwardy, Imam Qari Ghalib Chisty, Imam Zareef, and Mahmood. “This is a program of learning for everyone about the life of (the) Prophet Muhammad,” says Mahmood. Dinner will be served as part of the program. “Calgary holds one of the largest programs in Canada, where approximately 1,500 to 1,800 people every year (attend),” Mahmood says.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Court: Norway’s Breivik to Undergo Constant Psychiatric Scrutiny
Oslo, Norway (CNN) — A Norwegian court ordered Anders Behring Breivik, charged with killing 77 people last July, to undergo a month-long psychiatric evaluation as experts seek to determine his mental state ahead of a trial.
Breivik is accused of killing eight people in a bomb attack in Oslo and 69 more in a gun rampage on nearby Utoya Island on July 22. It was the deadliest attack on Norwegian soil since World War II.
Two court-appointed psychiatric experts recommended that Breivik should spend four weeks under 24-hour psychiatric monitoring so the court can get the fullest possible picture of his behavior, according to court documents released Friday.
He should be kept away from other patients but will still have to interact with psychiatric staff, the documents say. The observation will be carried out in facilities at Ila Prison, where he is being held.
Breivik has said he will not cooperate with the two psychiatric experts, which underlines the need for constant observation, the court documents said.
The two experts were appointed last month to evaluate his mental state after the court requested a second opinion because of the importance of the question of his sanity to Breivik’s trial.
In November, prosecutors said psychiatrists had determined Breivik was paranoid and schizophrenic at the time of the attacks and during 13 interviews experts conducted with him afterward.
Breivik has pleaded not guilty, though he has admitted carrying out the attacks, the judge handling his case said previously.
It may not be possible for him to be sentenced to the maximum punishment for the crimes if he’s deemed insane.
A court ruled Monday that Breivik can legally be kept in custody until his trial starts in April.
Breivik reiterated some of his extremist views during Monday’s hearing, which began with him entering with a smile and offering up a raised, clenched-fist salute.
Breivik says nobody could believe that he was insane, and describes questions about his mental condition as ridiculous, his lawyer, Geir Lippestad, told the court.
Breivik claims the shooting rampage was a matter of self-defense, meant to save Norway from being taken over by multicultural forces and to prevent ethnic cleansing of Norwegians, Lippestad said.
Authorities have described him as a right-wing Christian extremist. A 1,500-page manifesto attributed to Breivik posted on the Internet is critical of Muslim immigration and European liberalism, including Norway’s Labour Party.
The victims on Utoya Island were among 700 mostly young people attending a Labour Party camp on the island.
Breivik’s trial is scheduled to begin April 16 and is expected to last 10 weeks.
| — Hat tip: The Observer | [Return to headlines] |
Dutchman to Sell Rare 250-Year-Old Liquor Collection
Thousands of bottles of rare cognac and other drink, some dating back to the French Revolution, went up for sale Friday, with its Dutch collector expected to reap several million dollars. Describing it as the “largest collection of old liquors in the world”, a spokesman for Breda publisher Bay van der Bunt said around 5,000 bottles of cognac, whisky, armagnac and other liquors are to be sold for a total estimated price of eight million dollars (six million euros).
Van der Bunt “promised his wife he’d sell his collection when she retired at age 65 and he’s making good on that promise,” Bart Laming told AFP. He said that Van der Bunt, 63, who inherited part of the collection from his father and grandfather and stored it in a cellar at his home in the southwestern Dutch city, had no children to hand it to.
The collection includes a hand-blown six-litre bottle of 1795 Brugerolle cognac believed to have been requisitioned by French revolutionary army officers. “It is believed this bottle also accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his campaigns and is the only one left in the world,” Laming said.
On its own, the bottle has an asking price of 138,000 euros, although Van der Bunt is hoping to negotiate a sale for most of the collection as a single lot.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
EU Slams PVV Anti-Polish Website
Brussels has come out strongly against the website for complaints about Central and East European migrants in the Netherlands launched by Geert Wilders’ populist Freedom Party PVV. The European Commission is calling on Dutch citizens not to heed “this open call for intolerance”. Instead it says they should leave messages on the website pointing out that Europe is a place for freedom.
European Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Commissioner Viviane Reding says the PVV site flies in the face of European principles. “In Europe, we stand for freedom. We stand for an open continent where citizens can move, work and study wherever they want,’ she said. “We solve our problems by showing more solidarity, not by telling tales about our fellow citizens.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
How Your Cat is Making You Crazy
Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia? A biologist’s science- fiction hunch is gaining credence and shaping the emerging science of mind- controlling parasites.
By Kathleen McAuliffe
No one would accuse Jaroslav Flegr of being a conformist. A self-described “sloppy dresser,” the 63-year-old Czech scientist has the contemplative air of someone habitually lost in thought, and his still-youthful, square-jawed face is framed by frizzy red hair that encircles his head like a ring of fire.
Certainly Flegr’s thinking is jarringly unconventional. Starting in the early 1990s, he began to suspect that a single-celled parasite in the protozoan family was subtly manipulating his personality, causing him to behave in strange, often self-destructive ways. And if it was messing with his mind, he reasoned, it was probably doing the same to others.
The parasite, which is excreted by cats in their feces, is called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii or Toxo for short) and is the microbe that causes toxoplasmosis—the reason pregnant women are told to avoid cats’ litter boxes. Since the 1920s, doctors have recognized that a woman who becomes infected during pregnancy can transmit the disease to the fetus, in some cases resulting in severe brain damage or death. T. gondii is also a major threat to people with weakened immunity: in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, before good antiretroviral drugs were developed, it was to blame for the dementia that afflicted many patients at the disease’s end stage. Healthy children and adults, however, usually experience nothing worse than brief flu-like symptoms before quickly fighting off the protozoan, which thereafter lies dormant inside brain cells—or at least that’s the standard medical wisdom.
But if Flegr is right, the “latent” parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents. And that’s not all. He also believes that the organism contributes to car crashes, suicides, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. When you add up all the different ways it can harm us, says Flegr, “Toxoplasma might even kill as many people as malaria, or at least a million people a year.”…
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Foreign Minister Calls for End to Female Genital Mutilation
United Nations could pass resolution in 2012
(ANSA) — Rome, February 2011 — Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said Monday that Italy would continue to support the worldwide campaign against female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C).
In a statement released on Monday, the International Day of Zero Tolerance against female genital mutilation, Terzi said that 2012 “could be the year that the international community, through a United Nations General Assembly resolution, condemns the barbaric practice that strongly damages the dignity and psychophysical well-being of women”.
Over 140 million women each year are victims of the practice.
“Our country has always supported measures against FGM/C,” added Terzi, who has been personally involved since 2009 when Italy organized a meeting in New York of African countries actively addressing the issue. The minister underlined the need for “persistent educational initiatives while respecting cultural traditions, and to promote social and cultural changes from within the countries involved”.
The true protagonists in the battle are the African countries dedicated to the abolition and “the best way to commemorate the day is to continue to encourage these countries in their efforts,” concluded Terzi.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi’s Party, PD Find Common Ground on Election Reform
Parliament’s two biggest groups agree on need to change law
(ANSA) — Rome, February 8 — The prospect of Italy’s much-criticised electoral system being changed has increased after the country’s two biggest parties, former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) and the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), found common ground on the issue.
The current law has been widely criticised for distancing politicians from voters, who effectively cannot pick their representatives, as party leaders have the power to name candidates on so-called ‘blocked lists’, which are then voted on.
As a result, candidates do not need to champion the concerns of constituents so much but they do need to lobby within their parties to get high enough on the lists to be elected.
The law has earned derision from many experts and even its author, Northern League heavyweight Roberto Calderoli, who famously admitted soon after he conceived it in late 2005 that it was “crap”.
The PD, who were in opposition to Berlusconi’s government but have joined their centre-right rivals in supporting Premier Mario Monti’s emergency administration of technocrats, and the PdL released a statement of areas of agreement following a meeting of party officials on Tuesday.
The parties agreed on the need to change the current system and said that voters should be given back the power to choose their representatives.
They also both thought that the new system should be designed to limit political fragmentation, so that there are not too many parties in parliament, and conserve the current party system based on two major rival coalitions.
PdL representatives will meet with officials from a coalition of the centrist parties calling itself the ‘Third Pole’ and the left-wing SEL for more talks on electoral reform on Wednesday.
The parties are trying to reach an agreement for a new system after a proposal for a referendum to change the electoral law was rejected last month by the Constitutional Court.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Case Dropped Against ‘Bunga Bunga’ Witnesses
Fede took them to alleged Berlusconi sex party, women say
(ANSA) — Rome, February 8 — A Milan judge has dropped a case filed by veteran TV anchor Emilio Fede accusing two young women of defamation for saying he took them to an alleged sex party at ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Milan villa.
In his lawsuit filed last April Fede said the statements leaked to the press were “absolutely false and denigratory” to himself and other persons cited.
The two former beauty contestants, Ambra Battilana and Chiara Danese, gave detailed accounts of the former premier’s alleged ‘bunga bunga’ parties and claimed Fede said they should have sex with him and Berlusconi if they wanted to further their careers.
Berlusconi said he was “disgusted” by the women’s account while Milan prosecutors said the testimony was an “important” part of their case.
The ex-premier denies having sex with an underage prostitute called Ruby and using his power to spring her from a jail cell in an unrelated case.
Fede denies separate charges of supplying Berlusconi with prostitutes.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Massive Street Protests Wage War on Acta Anti-Piracy
The world is witnessing the largest offline protest against copyright legislation today. Massive demonstrations against the draconian anti-piracy treaty ACTA are spanning four continents, with protests in more than 200 European cities alone. Hundreds of thousands of people are taking to the streets to prevent their countries and the European Parliament from putting the free Internet at risk by ratifying ACTA,
Last month the European Union officially signed the controversial “anti-piracy” trade agreement ACTA.
The EU followed in the footsteps of Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States, who already signed it last October. This brings ACTA a step closer to passing, but individual EU member states and the European Parliament still have to ratify the treaty later this year.
To prevent this from happening, hundreds of thousands of people across the world are taking to the streets today, and millions more are expected to do their part online. In Europe demonstrations are being held in more than 200 cities, the largest in Sofia, Bulgaria, with more than 50,000 participants.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Scotland: Rare Whisky Sells for £44,000
A rare bottle of 1955 Glenfiddich single malt whisky has sold at auction for £44,000 — around £1700 a nip.
The bottle of Glenfiddich Janet Sheed Roberts Reserve was sold at auction in London to an anonymous telephone bidder. It is the second of 11 bottles to be released to the public. The first sold at Bonhams in Edinburgh in December for a record breaking £46,850, topping the previous world record of just under £30,000 for a bottle of single malt.
The 11 bottles of the 1955 tipple are being released to honour Janet Sheed Roberts, the granddaughter of William Grant who founded the Glenfiddich distillery. Mrs Roberts, who celebrated her 110th birthday in August, is the oldest living person in Scotland, a spokeswoman for the distillery said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Any Fool Can See It’s About Floating the Tumbleweed
[…]
Here’s some unsurprising news: the BBC has apparently banned its reporters from referring to Abu Qatada as an “extremist”. He has to be described as a “radical”. Well, quite. It really wouldn’t do to describe Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man, who has twice been convicted of terrorist bomb plots and who has said it is the duty of Muslims to kill Jews, as an extremist. This is not surprising, because the BBC has for years been in thrall to a form of liberal cringe, a mindset which holds that expressing anything which might be construed as a value judgment is the ultimate journalistic crime. But there’s a huge irony. So suffused is the BBC with Lefty-liberals that what it considers non-judgmental reporting is actually riddled with its own prejudices. There are certain views which, in the BBC worldview, “normal” people don’t hold. Anyone who has heard the way advocates of withdrawal from the EU are treated, for instance, knows how true this is. But the giveaway is that word “extremist”. On the day the BBC edict was issued about Abu Qatada, its reporters referred to “far-Right extremists” in their coverage of a select committee report about terrorism. For the BBC, if you’re a far-Right terrorist, you’re an extremist. If you’re a Muslim terrorist, you’re just a bit outré.
[…]
[JP note: The BBC is floating the tumbleweed on behalf of multiculturalism.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fury Over Moves to Hold More Court Cases in Secret Which Will ‘Sweep Away Centuries of Fair Trial Protections’
Radical changes to the justice system will sweep away centuries of fair trial protections, senior lawyers and civil liberty campaigners warned yesterday.
Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke wants ministers to have the power to withhold evidence they deem ‘sensitive’ from civil court hearings.
But critics say the reforms will lead to a rise in the number of secret hearings and would deny defendants the right to challenge evidence used against them.
There would be more ‘Closed Material Procedures,’ where evidence is only disclosed to a judge, minister or ‘Special Advocate’ — a barrister authorised to work on national security cases.
Often, the minister exercising this new power would be a party to the case in a move which campaigners argue is an extraordinary conflict of interest.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Fears Over Future of Sun Newspaper After More Arrests
Fears are mounting over the future of The Sun newspaper after more of the tabloid’s journalists were arrested by police investigating alleged corruption.
Five top journalists, believed to include Geoff Webster, the newspaper’s deputy editor, were detained on suspicion of making illegal payments to police officers and other officials. For the first time, the arrests broadened beyond payments to police, with a Ministry of Defence employee and a member of the Armed forces also being held by police.
The development suggests Scotland Yard’s Operation Elveden, set up to investigate illegal payments to police officers, is now focusing on a wider range of alleged illegal activity than previously thought. The five Sun staff were held in a series of early-morning raids after information was handed to the Metropolitan Police by News Corporation, the tabloid’s parent company.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Former Pub Could Become Mosque
AN ISLAMIC group is hoping to convert a former pub into a mosque to meet the need for its own place of worship. With no mosques in the town, the Bury group of the Suffolk Islamic Cultural Association (SICA) hires a room each Friday at the Centre in St John’s Street, Bury St Edmunds. But the group has now launched a petition to gather support from the community to turn the former Falcon Pub in Risbygate Street into a mosque. Pub giant Greene King recently closed the pub, despite a campaign to save it, citing poor trading conditions and competition from nearby licensed premises. The firm successful applied for planning permission for it to be turned into three homes and it is now on the market at a guide price of £325,000.
SICA wants to purchase the former pub — which had served the community for more than 130 years — and will be submitting a planning application soon. President Syed Nurul Haque said there was a great need for a mosque in the town, adding that about 60 to 70 people on average came to worship at the Centre. His son, Umor Haque, said there was no mosque within a 10-mile radius. He said: “People praying as a Muslim in this town have had to do so in a whole mixture of makeshift places. The Suffolk Islamic Cultural Association feels it’s now time to have a mosque because it’s been many, many years coming to be honest.” He said over the 14 or so years the group had been going members had worshipped in collection of places, including restaurants. “I think due to the fact we are in the year 2012 and lots of places already have mosques and for a town like Bury — it’s a very big town and its quite known across the country — I think it would make sense to have a mosque.”
As well as allowing the Muslim community to be together more and worship more frequently in a better-suited location, Umor said another advantage of having their own mosque was increasing people’s awareness of their faith. If their plans for a mosque are successful they are hoping to have a conference to bring together people from all faiths each month.
Cynthia Capey, an inter-faith consultant who is involved with the Suffolk Inter-faith Resource (SIFRE) and the East of England Faiths Agency (EEFA), said it was “very important” for a group to have its own place of worship. “For Muslim communities a mosque is the centre of their lives, it’s not just the place they go for prayer. It becomes a community centre as well.” Ward councillor Paul Farmer said: “This is certainly an interesting change of use which I hadn’t expected. I look forward to finding out its details when the application has been registered, and hearing the views of local people.”
To support the proposal contact Syed on 07595 827323.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Taj Hargey Renews Attack on Tablighi Jamaat Over Newham ‘Mega-Mosque’
A Muslim scholar who has courted controversy in Islamic circles for his progressive views on women has stepped into the equally fiery territory of contemporary architecture.
Taj Hargey is an imam and the director of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford who is best known for allowing men and women to pray together and for discouraging veils. He describes himself as a “thorn in the side of Muslim hierarchy”. Now he is risking a similar status in architecture after weighing into the long-running row over plans for a giant mosque on the Olympic fringes. Cambridge practice Nicholas Ray Associates & Plastik Architects (NRAP) is the third architect in five years to work on the project in Newham for Islamic group Tablighi Jamaat, after it dropped Mangera Yvars and then Allies & Morrison.
Newham Council insists the 7ha project must be mixed-use and the latest plans are for a 9,500-capacity mosque surrounded by a park, shops and 300 flats in five blocks of up to seven storeys. But Hargey described the plans as “smoke and mirrors” designed to “dupe” the local authority into granting planning permission. “Tablighi Jamaat presents itself as inclusive but is anything but,” he said. “It is a sectarian group that does nothing much for social cohesion with its fundamentalist view of Islam. If someone wanted to open a lingerie shop there, can you imagine they would be allowed to? It will only be Muslim-approved businesses.” He added: “This should have been a golden opportunity for a fusion of the best of British indigenous architecture fused with eastern design. Islam does not have a culture — Muslims do. Muslims in Britain want to bring the culture and style of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia but it’s not healthy, especially in this post-9/11 world.” A statement on the Riverine Centre website insisted Tablighi Jamaat was a peaceful group and said: “We believe that our plans will give the site a new lease of life and allow the community to make better use of it. This is an important boost for the local economy, being financed entirely from private donations and creating a new wave of jobs in the construction industry as the Olympic construction comes to an end.”
Building Design, 10 February 2012
Hargey, you may recall, has been campaigning against the Newham project in an alliance with right-wing Christian fundamentalist Alan Craig.
[JP note: Link to the Riverine Centre website: http://riverinecentrenewham.co.uk/about/ ]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: There’s No Place for Dreaming Spires in Professor Les Ebdon’s World
by Charles Moore
Should this epitome of educational mediocrity be gatekeeper to our finest universities?
In Thomas Hardy’s great and gloomy novel, Jude the Obscure, the poor boy Jude hears of Oxford (called Christminster in the novel) from his good teacher who is heading there. Jude wants to follow him to this place of promise. His aunt discourages it — “We’ve never had anything to do with folk in Christminster” — but Jude longs at least to see from afar what he imagines to be “the heavenly Jerusalem”. Reflecting that “the higher he got, the further he could see”, he climbs a ladder on to the roof of a barn and looks out. Across the vale, he discerns the university of Christminster in the evening light, and gazes “on and on till the windows and veils lost their shine” in the dusk. If you look on the website of Parliament, you can watch the proceedings of the House of Commons Select Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills. Last week, the committee interviewed Professor Les Ebdon, who is the Government’s preferred candidate to run OFFA, the Office for Fair Access. This is the body which forces our universities to make agreements with it about how they will admit more pupils from “disadvantaged” backgrounds.
The quality of the recording is rather poor, and so, unless one listens intently, one can hear only Professor Ebdon’s vast stock of cliche’s and buzzwords — “I’m passionate about… social mobility… transform hundreds of thousands of lives… best practice… evidence-based… open and transparent…” — droning out across the floor of Parliament’s Thatcher Room (named after someone who, despite being a woman from a lower-middle-class family none of whose members had been to university, and having had no assistance from any “access regulator”, got into Oxford in 1943). At one point, however, Prof Ebdon does something more striking. He praises the young woman called Elly Nowell who recently applied to Magdalen College, Oxford, but then sent it a “rejection” letter. At her interview, she wrote, the college had failed to pass her exacting tests of suitability, and had intimidated her by putting her in “grand formal settings”, so she would be applying elsewhere. Prof Ebdon agreed with Miss Nowell that universities “can make ourselves look rather frightening” and that it was unfair of them to sit interviewees in “baronial halls”.
People such as Professor Ebdon will never understand poor people like Jude the Obscure. Without even thinking about it, the Ebdons reject the dream that lies behind that phrase “the higher he got, the further he could see”. They do not recognise that what they call the “frightening” quality of a great university is part of its allure, as it must be frightening to face selection to play football at Old Trafford or cricket at Lord’s. The fear one feels is a function of one’s respect for something great and challenging — for the best, in its field, that there is. It is a proper fear, and if you don’t feel it, you probably aren’t cut out for a really good education. For Professor Ebdon, the sort of awe Jude felt is a bad thing. If any student arriving for interview is frightened, then the university in question is at fault. It must be “elitism” at work. From which it follows that it is our best universities that will always be seen by the Ebdons of this world as our worst. No doubt he would boast that candidates for his own University of Bedfordshire are welcomed in a “user-friendly” way and feel no fear. But then I don’t suppose that latterday Judes climb barns to gaze upon his Luton campus and dream of what they might learn there.
Thanks to a selection process that is run by bureaucrats who naturally advance their own kind, it was only at a regrettably late stage that anyone began to notice the problem with Professor Ebdon. This man is a trade unionist for the former polytechnics. He chairs their “think tank” (actually a pressure group) called million +, whose chief executive was a would-be Labour candidate at the last election. He writes articles in favour of teaching “Mickey Mouse” subjects at university. He is the epitome, the crème de la condensed milk of the cult of educational mediocrity. He seems perfectly nice, by the way, but to put him in charge of who gets in to some of the greatest universities in the world would be like putting a scoutmaster in charge of recruitment to the Army.
It would be hard to imagine someone less likely to win the respect of the top universities, such as the Russell Group, which Professor Ebdon wishes to put in the access spotlight. Surely the trick would be to appoint a “poacher turned gamekeeper”, such as a leading ex-public school headmaster who understands the game of admissions to top universities, or a non-partisan professor of unimpeachable academic reputation, or the head of a slum school who had made it great. To put in a member of the old “polyocracy” is the precise reverse of this Government’s wider educational aims. At the very moment when Sir Michael Wilshaw has been asked by Michael Gove to make our worst schools raise their standards, along comes Professor Ebdon to order our best universities to lower theirs.
It was only when, at the committee hearing, Professor Ebdon spoke of using the “nuclear option” of refusing access agreements to universities if they did not satisfy him, that MPs at last woke up. He also told them that he would like a “tactical strike option” to sanction particular universities. MPs noted with dismay that he placed no blame on schools for the failure of children from difficult backgrounds to apply for good universities. The committee withheld parliamentary approval for Prof Ebdon’s appointment. So now there is something which, in Coalition parlance, is called a “pause”. The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, wants Professor Ebdon, and the appointment is his. The universities minister, David Willetts, whose famed two brains enable him to listen to both sides of any argument for a dangerously long time, is also supporting Professor Ebdon, sort of. Most Tories, however, are exasperated, especially the Prime Minister. During the current parliamentary recess, some thinking will go on.
It would be rash to predict the result. On the one hand, Mr Cameron has to assuage Liberal Democrat guilt about voting for the increase in tuition fees. In ministerial terms, this is Mr Cable’s call. On the other hand, the point of these select committee hearings is to give more authority to Parliament. If this committee does not want this candidate, how will he have the political backing to do his job? The most Machiavellian way to handle it would be to let Professor Ebdon take on the post and fail, as he surely will. Mr Cameron is quite capable of Machiavellianism, and the needs of the Coalition are pressing, so this outcome is possible. But surely coalitions discredit themselves when they become no more than the means of dividing the spoils of office. The public likes them when they add to the possibilities of what a government can do. In the field of education, this Government is more seriously committed than any of its predecessors to letting good schools flourish and making bad ones close. Tories and Liberals agree on this to a surprising extent. Getting bright pupils from poor backgrounds into good universities is the natural, wonderful result of that policy. Finding ways, with universities, of advancing that access, is a proper, though delicate part of it. So government must appoint people who go with the spirit of what it wants. When they go against that spirit, nothing works.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Presidential Candidate Says No Freedom in Islam
by Raymond Ibrahim
In a recent TV interview, Hazim Abu Ismail, a candidate for Egypt’s presidency with affiliations to both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis, made clear that the hijab, or veil for women, would be enforced under his leadership. More importantly, along the way he exposed his general views—that there is little freedom under Islam. Especially telling is the military analogy he used: being a Muslim is like being a member of the military; you must obey all its dictates, including dress codes. He fails to add, however, that, whereas much military service is voluntary, in Islam, if you are simply born to Muslim parents, then you have joined Islam—whether you like it or not. Hence, all the persecution of Muslim apostates. But, as Abu Ismail puts it, “This is Islam.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Authorities Arrest American and Australian
(AGI) Cairo — Egyptian authorities have arrested an American student and an Australian journalist. The two are accused of paying workers to take part in the general strikes called by unions to pressure the Supreme Military Council to affect an immediate handover. The strikes took place on the first anniversary of former president Mubarak’s ousting. According to the Washington Post the two foreign nationals were arrested along with their two local guides in the town of Mahalla al-Kobra after being denounced by locals. The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, is in Cairo in attempts to bring about mediation.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Iran: Supreme Leader: Unified World Muslim to Conquer All Enemies
Tehran, Feb 10, IRNA — Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Friday that Muslim Ummah will attain dignity and prosperity through their allegiance to the path of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
The Supreme Leader made the remarks in a meeting with a group of officials, participants and ambassadors of the Muslim countries attending the 25th Conference on Islamic Unity in Tehran on Friday. In the meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei congratulated the audience on the occasion of the auspicious birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and birth anniversary of Imam Jafar Sadeq (the sixth Imam of infallible prophet’s household). Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is the manifestation of science, justice, ethics, blessings, said the Supreme Leader, adding that the people throughout history have always sought high morals and the role and responsibility of the Muslim Ummah is of prime importance to this effect.
God has promised to help the true followers attain their lofty aspirations, said Ayatollah Khamenei. World Muslims are in dire need of unity, said the Supreme Leader and referred to awakening of world nations and their uprising. ‘Regional and global developments along with unleash of revolutions in the region have placed the US and the Zionist regime in their weakest status which have created an unprecedented situation for Muslim Ummah,’ he added.
Ayatollah Khamenei said that there is no doubt that the Muslim Ummah will attain its dignity once again in the world. The enemies of the Islamic revolution spared no effort to quell the voice of this revolution, but to no avail they failed achieving their objectives, said the Supreme Leader. The Supreme Leader went on to say that the Iranian nation who remained committed to the path of Late Imam Khomeini could conquer all plots hatched by the enemies with success. Prior to Supreme Leader’s remarks, President Ahmadinejad also congratulated the auspicious occasion and said the Islamic revolution and other freedom-seeking movements throughout the world have been inspired by the teachings of prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Recent developments in the region should be regarded as the continuation of path of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) which will lead the world to a desirable status to get rid of all tyrants and Zionists, said the Iranian president.
[JP: Calm down, dear, and have a nice cup of tea.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syrian Military Hospital Chief ‘Killed in Damascus’
The government says 2,000 members of the security forces have died fighting “gangs and terrorists”
The head of a Syrian military hospital has been killed by members of an “armed terrorist group” in the capital Damascus, the state news agency says
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Russia Sounds Alarm Over Spiralling Teenage Suicides
Top Russian psychiatrists on Friday called for urgent measures to battle the soaring teenage suicide rate, one of the world’s highest. The number of 15 to 19-year-olds taking their own lives is almost three times higher than the world average at 19 to 20 per 100,000, the health ministry’s chief psychiatrist Zurab Kekelidze told a round table in Moscow.
Four thousand teenagers commit suicide every year, Russia’s presidential ombudsman for children, Pavel Astakhov, said Thursday. Kekelidze said psychology must be taught in schools to help children resolve their problems by and also called on the Russian Orthodox Church to extend support to disturbed youths.
“We have developed a programme and very soon …start implementing it,” Kekelidze said, cited by the RIA Novosti news agency. He also denounced controversial Internet forums that advise on the different ways of commiting suicide. Boris Polozhy, one of the main doctors at Moscow’s Serbsky Centre psychiatric hospital said: “The situation is extremely bad in our country.”
This week, two teenage girls jumped together off the roof of an apartment building in the town of Lobnya in the Moscow region in the third such double suicide in Russia since October. On Friday investigators said they were looking into the death of a 12-year-old boy, who hung himself on a horizontal bar at his home in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region.
Russia now has the world’s third highest rate of suicides among adolescents, according to UNICEF and the Russian health ministry. Since the turbulent 1990s, the country saw an overall fall in the number of suicides, with statistics showing a decline from 42 suicides per 100,000 people to 23.5 suicides between 1995 and 2010.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bagladeshi Jamaat-E-Islami Activists Vandalize Hindu Temples
Several Hindu temples were ransacked and vandalized by Islamic extremists on Friday. Footage of the temples shows broken windows, overturned and smashed furniture, and even statues and paintings of Hindu deities thrown to the ground or broken.
| — Hat tip: A. Millar | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Jamaat-E-Islami Activists Vandalise Hindu Temples
New Delhi: Fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami activists vandalised several Hindu temples in the Hathazari area of Chittagong in Bangladesh on Thursday and Friday, forcing the law enforcement authorities to impose Section 144 of the Bangladesh Penal Code that bans public gatherings in the affected area. According to the website bdnews.com, Muslims, allegedly instigated by the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, first damaged a temple in the compound of the Loknath Sebasram at Nandirhat on Thursday evening and blocked the Chittagong-Rangamati Road on Friday morning in retaliation to a mosque being damaged by people coming out of the Loknath Sebasram. The website report further said that at least three other Hindu temples were attacked by the Islamic activists. It said that damage was inflicted on the Sri Sri Jagadeshwari Ma Temple, the Jagannath Bigroho Temple at Nandirhat and the Kalibari Temple in Sadar Upazila. The Sri Sri Jagadeshwari Ma Temple was also burnt, it added. The Primary and Mass Education Minister of Bangladesh, Afsar-ul-Ameen, has visited the area and instructed local authorities to take steps to normalise the situation. Local administration officials blamed the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, the Islami Chhatra Shibir, for the incidents.
Reacting to the incident, liberal and secular minded people in Bangladesh said such events could pose a threat to the country’s secular fabric. Haroon Habib, a 1971 war veteran and a senior journalist, told ANI in a telephonic interview that: “These are very tragic events. Bangladeshis were never communal even under military rule. People must see a definite political motive behind these events.” He added: “There is a definite extremist political agenda behind these attacks. There are elements who want to destabilise the incumbent Hasina Government.” Haroon also blamed the local administration for not acting tough against fundamentalist elements in the area.
Allegations have it that houses belonging to Hindus in the area were also vandalised. Leaders of the minority Hindu community have blamed the “indifference” of the administration for the prevailing situation. Rejecting suggestions of fundamentalism being on the rise in Bangladesh, Haroon said there was no existential threat to the current regime, but he cautioned the Sheikh Hasina government not to be complacent. He also opined that there were many elements in Bangladesh who were unhappy with Sheikh Hasina’s close ties to New Delhi, as also her move to make the Constitution of the country more secular. Recently, the Bangladesh Army had foiled a coup attempt by retired and serving Army officers who had fundamentalist leanings. India has said that it is keeping a close watch on emerging developments in both Bangladesh and Maldives.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
India: Woman Killed for Practising Witchcraft in Assam
A woman was killed and buried by villagers for allegedly practising witchcraft in Assam’s Sonitpur district, police said today. The woman, identified as Lakshmi Gaur, was killed and buried at Misamari’s Milanpur area on Thursday on suspicion of her practising black magic and witchcraft, police said
Police have apprehended six persons in this connection. In a similar incident on Friday, a 45-year-old tribal woman, a mother of five children, was burnt alive.
An estimated 200 persons were killed during the last five years for allegedly practising sorcery and witchcraft
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
India: Something Wicked This Way Comes
In a village near Suryapet, Nalgonda, a man parades around the village with his mother’s head attached to his bicycle. Her crime? She happened to be visiting around the same time her grandson happened to fall deathly ill. The village, which had earlier driven her away on the same charge, immediately concluded that it was her “witchcraft” that caused the boy’s affliction, not the water contamination prevalent in the village.
The rising number of cases relating to witchcraft in the State tell their own story. But the government has taken no discernible actions to address the issue despite cases of torture, child-sacrifice, kidnapping, discrimination, murder and even displacement of whole villages routinely make headlines. Veeraswamy, director of NGO Spoorthi, works towards empowerment and education in Suryapet.
He says, “The official numbers are misleading because most of these cases are not reported. Personally, I have known of over 100 of these incidents in the past six years. The government knows, the ministers know, everyone knows. No one cares enough to do anything about it. The police arrive after the crime is committed and book the offenders under some petty sections. So there is no real fear of repercussions.”
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Cares Little About Its “Citizens”, a “Domestic Market” Is Needed to Save China
Asia’s juggernaut is the world’s second biggest economy but only 8 per cent of its GDP is for local needs and consumption. The rest goes into useless speculation that is harmful to the national economy. Change is needed before it is too late. The great dissident provides his analysis.
Washington (AsiaNews) — China’s current Communist government only wants to make “money” and does not feel “accountable to the people”. However, by lowering the cost of money and developing a domestic market, it could avoid social, political and economic “collapse”, this according to Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng who in this article looks at economist Lang Xianping’s own analysis to outline ways to save China.
Recently, Economics Professor Lang Xianping had some accurate comments about the current economic situation in China. However, he was not willing to link the responsibilities to the political system, and thus was unable to provide a realistic prescription. Nevertheless, the situation he described according to the surveyed data is indeed the real picture of China’s economy. The data may seem like exaggerations; in fact, they are not. Not only is the data true, long ago, a lot of the contents were already haltingly delivered by other experts who are familiar with the matter. The reason that Professor Lang’s comments produced a sensational effect is because he dared to voice a conclusion that others have not dared.
One of his important conclusions is that Chinese economic structure is extremely irrational and very deformed. During a speech in Shanghai, he pointed out that the Chinese people’s total consumption is a shocking 8% of the total GDP (Gross Domestic Product), even lower than the least developed African nation at 16%. During his recent lecture in northeast China, he also pointed out that 70% of the GDP used in construction and related industries. The words Professor Lang used were “to produce reinforced concrete”. That leaves only 30% for all the Chinese people across the country, and most of that is exported in exchange for foreign currency.
Most of that 30% went to the pockets of corrupt officials and both Chinese and foreign capitalists. Thus, the 1.3 billion Chinese people could only consume that mere 8% of the GDP — a living fraction lower than that of Third World countries in a country that is known as the world’s second largest economy. The two irrational structures, the minimal public consumption and the excessive construction are the root cause of unsustainable development in China, as well as the root cause of most of social conflict in China. Not only is China’s economy not sustainable; its politics is unsustainable as well.
So, regardless of whoever is in power, whether the Communist Party dictatorship or a democratic replacement, that government must change the economic structure making the whole and each detailed part more reasonable. Then, the development of China and the Chinese people’s living standard could be on the right track, the society could be in relative harmony, and politics would be relatively stable. Otherwise, intense social and economic conflicts will inevitably lead to the collapse of the government and social unrest.
How to change to make it reasonable? Let us examine the problems first. The two irrationals pointed out by Professor Lang, minimal consumption and excessive construction, are in fact two aspects of one irrational policy. From one perspective, the peoples’ consumption is too low, which results in a small domestic market. From another perspective, the government invests most of the money on real estate projects for high profit, meanwhile holding down the exchange rate in an effort to dump consumer goods, which could be used domestically, in the international market. Some of this foreign currency was used for foreign goods in an attempt to increase consumption, mostly among the wealthy, but that was just a small part. This profiteer type of development strategy, like fishing by draining the whole pond, is the root cause that leads to deformities of the economic structure. This is that mercantilist strategy very politely referred to by the international media and scholars.
Under the control of this profiteering strategy by Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao, the people of China and the United States have given away high profit to the Chinese government, and the bureaucratic capitalist class and international capital that has relations with the Chinese government. The result after they united and made huge money is the impoverishment of the people in China and other countries including the United States, thus resulted the decline of the global consumer market, thus the global economic recession. During this recession, the most miserable ones are the Chinese people.
The consumption level of the Chinese people was designed at a minimum for survival. Now with the economic recession, naturally the Chinese government transfers the crisis to its poorest citizens. More and more people cannot survive by relying on their meagre income. This is when politics has entered a state of crisis. So adjusting the economic structure is not only what the people need, but also any government in China would pressingly need.
From the overall level, this adjustment must start from increasing the domestic consumption of the Chinese people first. Simply put, there are two things that must be done immediately. One is to stop the real estate investment contributing to the bubble economy, and move toward investment in other consumer goods. The lower real estate prices could help to recycle the surplus of currency in circulation, and to curb inflation in China. Another is to improve the RMB exchange rate, to increase imports to fill in the shortage of the domestic market. This can also recycle currency in circulation in the domestic market and curb inflation.
These two simple measures could both curb inflation and improve people’s living standards. The subsequent result is that China’s economic development model would gradually move towards something more reasonable, while political crisis will tend to ease. However, the cost of these measures is what the Communist Party and its bureaucrat-capitalist class would not accept. The cost is that the government’s revenue, along with that of the bureaucrat-capitalist class and the multinational companies, would drop significantly, even becoming negative.
If the Chinese government was a democratic government that must be accountable to the people, or even if it was only a kingdom or dynasty having a leader who is not fatuous enough to be irresponsible for the regime, it would take these simple measures of Robin Hood to save the country, unless it has already lost authority to take the measures.
But the current China is a deformed country, with a deformed government. The government does not need to be accountable to the people, nor responsible to the state. They are only responsible to the interest groups of their own bureaucrat-capitalist class. When the class of rich and powerful say no, the government will not do anything. You need not ask them what they would do when this country collapses. That is easy. They already know this government will collapse. They have already transferred or are transferring what they treasure — their wallets, their wives and children — to other countries that are governed well. Even their mistresses have opened money-laundering enterprises in the West, which has traumatized anti-drug police to wonder which kind of money is getting laundered. So there is a modern vocabulary term in China now called “stripped officials”, along with a saying called: “I am a rogue, so why should I be afraid”. Whether China collapses or nor really has little to do with these Communist officials.
Under the control of a bureaucrat-capitalist class that is not responsible and does not want to be responsible, will anyone be able to pay a price of their own to save this country? So Professor Lang had to use language that does not belong to a professor: “You all should go cry.” Although he does not dare to say the meaning clearly, his conclusion is indisputable. Without overthrowing the rule of the bureaucrat-capitalist class that is neither responsible nor wants to be responsible, there is no hope for China. So, crying becomes the only option and no one can save you all.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kenya: Four Injured at Clashes at Mosque
A former envoy’s son was among four people seriously injured on Thursday night at a mosque after two groups of faithful clashed over the annual Maulidi festival
Mr Amir Hemed, son of former Kenyan envoy to Saudi Arabia Said Hemed, was among dozens of Muslims who had gathered at Mombasa’s Mlango wa Papa mosque to mark the annual event when a group opposed to the festival stormed the mosque, demanding its cancellation.
War of words
The war of words degenerated into a fight that left several injured and property damaged. Police rushed to the scene and ended the clashes. Senior clerics and Mombasa DC Abdi Hassan who tried to reconcile the rival sides failed as both camps stood their ground. The two factions eventually dispersed but police remained on guard at the mosque until early Friday morning. Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya organising secretary Sheikh Mohamed Khalifa on Friday called for restraint from both sides. “For Muslims to fight inside a mosque is great disrespect to the house of Allah,” he said. Maulidi celebrations are usually held worldwide every year in the third month of the Islamic Calendar to commemorate the birth of Prophet Muhammad.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Argentina: Falkands Are Britain’s ‘Last Refuge of Declining Empire’
Argentina has claimed Britain is treating the Falkland Islands as the “last refuge of declining empire” as it urged the United Nations to stop the “militarisation” of the area.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Sex Attacker’s ‘Human Right to Family Life’ To Stay in the UK (But Are His Wife and Child Even Here?)
A foreign nurse who sexually assaulted a pregnant patient has avoided deportation because of his ‘right to family life’ — even though his wife and children may have returned to India.
Milind Sanade was jailed for 12 months after he groped a vulnerable 21-year-old he was examining for signs of breast cancer.
Following his release from prison, Indian national Sanade, 36, should have been deported.
But he appealed on the grounds of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, after fathering two children in England. He was granted leave to stay because his family life deserved ‘respect’.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Same-Sex Marriage Not Unconstitutional, Minister
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, FEBRUARY 7 — Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon does not see elements of “unconstitutionality” in the law on same-sex marriage, though the Constitutional Court still has to give its verdict on the appeal that was lodged in 2005 by the People’s Party. This statement was made today on radio Cadena Ser by Minister Gallardon, who specified that his remark is a “personal view”. The government of PP leader Mariano Rajoy has not taken a public stance yet on the possible revocation of the law on same-sex marriage, legalized by the Zapatero government in June 2005. The new government has confirmed that it wants to reform the abortion law on the other hand. “My party will respect the verdict of the Constitutional Court” on same-sex marriage, said Gallardon. “My personal view is that the law is not unconstitutional, but the Court must decide on that.” The Minister added that the law on same-sex marriage will be in force until the supreme court reaches a verdict.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tel Aviv More Gay-Friendly, Taboos Turn Into Business
Pockets of prejudice & unpunished violence in Israel remain
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, FEBRUARY 6 — In Tel Aviv, homosexuality is not a taboo, it is increasingly becoming a business. The Israeli Tourism Ministry has understood this for some time, and in the last three years in particular has developed special communication strategies to consolidate Tel Aviv’s fame as “the gay-friendly capital of the Middle East”. Although there are no official figures, rough estimates show that the move is paying off and the city’s fame at an international level is on the rise. Last month, the city that is already nicknamed the “Israeli Barcelona” due to its intense nightlife and many pickup bars that have sprouted up over the last decade, conquered the title of “Best Emerging City for Gay Tourists” in a competition sponsored by GayCities.com and American Airlines. Tel Aviv, where the second largest homosexual community in the world in terms of percentage after San Francisco resides, beat cities like New York, Berlin and Toronto. Labour Party Mayor, Ron Huldai, rubbed his hands in satisfaction: “It is a victory for a free city, where everyone can be proud of themselves,” he commented on his Facebook profile. In any case, fighting homophobia pays off. According to Thomas Roth, the president of Community Marketing (a research centre based in San Francisco which specifically deals with the gay market), “gay tourism now contributes to over 10% of the Israeli tourism industry and is a sector that is undergoing constant growth”. Gay-friendly bars, parties and beaches do not draw negative attention. On the street or at the sea, few people are shocked if they see a same-sex couple holding hands or showing affection. “Tel Aviv,” Adir Steiner added, who coordinates the traditional and colourful local Gay Pride parade each year, far from the identity-related tensions in Jerusalem, “is highly appealing because it is an oasis in a region — the Middle East — where homosexuality still provokes widespread marginalisation and repression.” Excluding Tel Aviv and the surrounding area, Israel is no exception. “Our reality, and even more so for transsexuals, is highly contradictory in this country,” said Shaul Gonen, a gay activist and member of Agudah, “the only GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) association active in the entire Middle East”. On the other hand, Jerusalem is just 60km from Tel Aviv, and it is there that Orthodox Jews and Arab Muslims represent two-thirds of the nearly 800,000 inhabitants. For many of them, “homosexuality is a disease, a perversion that needs to be repressed,” admitted Kobi Arieli, a fervently religious journalist, but with a very open mind. “Among strictly observant Jews,” he said, “homosexuality is severely in contradiction with divine law. In the Torah it is written: ‘You will never have relations with a man that you will with a woman’. And the same holds true for lesbian relations.” In ultra-Orthodox areas, just as in similarly conservative Arab areas, intolerance and discrimination are frequent. Children who find the courage to come out are usually forced to cut ties with their family and community, and many end up on the streets.
Even in Tel Aviv the scar of the ‘2010 massacre’ has gone unpunished, when an unknown man (never identified, aside from suspicions raised by police of a mentally unbalanced man close to Jewish far right nationalist circles) broke into a support centre for young homosexuals in the city centre, and went on a killing rampage with an automatic weapon. A bloody memory that seems to underline how (gay) pride and prejudice in Israel still go hand and hand.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Doreen’s Story: The Heart-Rending Truth About ‘Lazy Cow Syndrome’
by Damian Thompson
A five-minute film called Doreen’s Story went viral this week. It begins with the heart-rending throb of synthesised strings that the BBC reserves for tragic documentaries. “I first noticed it was a problem when I was, like, 20,” says a woman with a strong Black Country accent. She’s fighting back tears. “I went to the doctors and he sent me to the specialist and he spotted it and I shall never forget his words. He says it’s confirmed. I’m a lazy cow. My mother had it, and there’s a good chance I shall pass it on to my kids. ‘Cos it’s genetic.
“Of course, my movements are severely restricted even today after all the therapy. I have trouble shifting me a***, and I’m on loads of drugs. Heroin. Ecstasy. Bit of crack at the weekend.”
I need hardly tell you that this isn’t a BBC film. It’s a “mockumentary” by David Tristram satirising benefit scroungers and the exaggerated respect with which they’re treated by right-on filmmakers. He says it isn’t intended as a political statement, but it will drive the Left bananas. “Let’s be honest, there’s prejudice,” says Doreen, played with artful sincerity by the actress Gill Jordan. She describes the ordeal of the job interview: “As soon as I tell them I don’t want the job they ain’t interested.” Fortunately, Doreen can rely on the support of her daughter Trojan, who’s expecting a baby — “her fourth, by five different fathers and one of them’s twins…” The “demonisation” of “chavs” is the Right’s new tactic for dismantling the welfare state, according to Owen Jones, a young Left-wing historian who could claim disability benefit himself if they handed it out for crippling smuggery. (“The specialist told me I was pathologically pleased with myself. And it’s incurable.”)
But Doreen’s Story has been watched nearly 400,000 times on YouTube. That’s an awful lot of heartless Tories laughing at the plight of people on benefits. There’s another possibility, however, which is that the 400,000 hits come from a cross-section of the public — including working-class people from the West Midlands who have a Doreen living next door and don’t see why they should subsidise her lifestyle while they work their butts off to pay the electricity bill. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate benefit scroungers. I once shared a council house with some: an “unemployed” mechanic and his girlfriend who persuaded Thatcher’s brutal government, no less, to pay for at least a dozen pints of lager a day in the local pub. These were fun people who were happy to tip some of their taxpayers’ beer down my throat. I don’t recall refusing on ideological grounds. This was in the Eighties, when the Left could get away with presenting all benefit claimants as victims and anyone who disliked the Tories would buy the argument.
No longer. Solid Labour voters have equal contempt for oily bankers and obese chav slackers. They cheerfully “demonise” people from their own class — and they don’t recognise the distinction between benefit claimants and benefit cheats because they’ve been watching it disappear in front of their eyes. The message for the Tories is simple: you can safely push through these welfare reforms. Working-class people aren’t about to take to the streets to defend Doreen. As for the lady herself, I’m sure she’s bitterly aggrieved at the thought of losing her pocket money — but she won’t be joining Owen and Laurie Penny on one of their awayday demos because lazy cow syndrome makes it very, very difficult to shift your backside.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Gay Killing Trio Jailed Under New Hate Crime Legislation
Three men were yesterday jailed after becoming the first to be convicted of stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation for handing out a leaflet calling for gay people to be executed.
Ihjaz Ali, Kabir Ahmed and Razwan Javed gave out the pamphlet, entitled The Death Penalty?, that showed an image of a mannequin hanging from a noose and quoted Islamic texts that said capital punishment was the only way to rid society of homosexuality.
Ali was jailed for two years and Ahmed and Javed for 15 months each.
the first prosecution of its kind since legislation came into force in March 2010.
Two other men, Mehboob Hussain and Umar Javed, who were also charged with the same offence, were found not guilty.
Sentencing the men, Judge John Burgess, Recorder of Derby, told them: “You have been convicted of intending to stir up hatred.
“It follows that your intention was to do great harm in a peaceful community.”
He went on: “Much has been said during the course of this trial about freedom of expression, and the freedom to preach strongly held beliefs; beliefs, which may have some foundation in scripture. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy and a basic ingredient of any free society.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: We Must Stop Anti-Religious Groups From Removing the Christian Fabric of Our Society
by Nadine Dorries
Parliament now has to face a new problem, which is how to legislate to reverse the decision made yesterday by Mr Justice Ouseley, that the 600 year old practice of Bideford council to say prayers at the start of each council session are not lawful under section 111 of the Local Government Act of 1972. Because there is one thing which is for certain, the attack upon Christian belief in this country is plumbing the depths of what reasonable people will accept. This ruling is in itself a catalyst which will have prompted a fight back which will set those determind to impose their own secular beliefs upon a Christian society into reverse. In December, David Cameron described Great Britain as ‘a Christian country and we should not be afraid to say so’. This sentence in itself is revealing. Of course we shouldn’t be afraid to say so, but when a van driver loses his job for hanging a crucifix from his cab mirror or a social worker is suspended for wearing a cross and chain around her neck, people are afraid, which is why those words were included in the speech. There is recognition that Christians are being silenced by systemic attack upon their faith and constantly being challenged through the courts.
Bideford council had already voted twice to continue with their prayer tradition following attempts by Liberal Democrat councillor, Mr Bone to have them stopped on the basis that he, a lonely-voiced councillor who wanted them to cease, was having his human rights infringed as he felt embarrassed having to leave the chamber whilst the prayers took place. Not happy, lonely LibDem Mr Bone went to court. It seems he’s not too keen on democracy. Interestingly, and with a sigh of relief from many, the judge found that Mr Bone’s human rights had not been infringed and it appears the judge took his decision upon what would be described as a narrow technical point. I have bad news for Mr Bone. Parliament doesn’t have much difficulty in dealing with ‘technical points’. Mr Bone is no hero secular warrior. As the voice upon earth of the Bideford branch of the National Secular Society, his action was supported by the larger organisation.
I once regarded the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association in much the same vein, two organisations which believed in, well, nothing much really and were therefore harmless. I have learnt during my time as an MP that both are very far from harmless, extremely political and intent on imposing their anti-faith view, which is in itself rigid and dogmatic, pursued mainly by zealots, so it can only be described as a form of belief in its own right. This, in a country in which 70% of people describe themselves as Christian. If the National Secular Society had its way, all vestige of religion would be removed from the state and society. Without doubt, their next move will be to have the same ruling applied to Parliament, but that isn’t going to happen. If Mr Bone had won under section nine of the Human Rights act it can only be imagined what would happen to the Queen as head of the Church of England and her role within the state. Would prayers be said at a Coronation or a state funeral? Would the Queen be able to continue as the Monarch? What would have happened to Remembrance Sunday, bank holidays at Easter and Christmas?
It is only when someone attempts to unpick the accepted fabric of our society that one begins to realise the extent to which the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association wish to alter our spiritual landscape which is based upon tolerance and freedom. In Parliament, we also have prayers which take place each and every sitting day before the chamber’s business commences. The division bell will ring five minutes before and we MPs who wish to participate in prayers attend the chamber. It is an intimate service which takes place before the cameras are switched on, presided over by the Speaker and the House of Commons Chaplain during which we all say the Lord’s Prayer together, pray for the Queen and ask to be given wisdom during the day in executing our duties.
The three minutes of prayer are a time for sombre reflection and always during this time the privilege I have been afforded to serve my constituents in the historic mother of parliaments washes over me as I am sure it does others. It is a wonderful thing to begin your days work saying sorry for what you have done wrong and thank you for all that has gone well. Those MPs of no faith will sit or stand and read the order paper or simply take the time to reflect upon the day ahead. It works for us. Until this is sorted, and I am sure it can be with existing legislation or via a Statutory Instrument, I would urge Bideford councillors to meet five minutes before their agenda begins until legislation can allow them to continue with a practice which has been in place since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It would be a travesty for Mr Bone to win in reality. What is certain though is that re-election for Mr Bone is unlikely. The British people are reasonable by nature and don’t like bullies, and Mr Bone appears to shun one and embody the other.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Why White Men Are More Attracted to Women With Asian Faces: Humans Are Hardwired to Fancy Other Races
Are human beings ‘hardwired’ to find different the faces of different races attractive?
Scientists have discovered that white people tend to choose other races when asked to rate which faces they find most attractive.
The scientists discovered that white men prefer the facial features of Asian women while white women go for the faces of black men.
Dr Michael Lewis, who led the research project, said: ‘It will come as no surprise to many that facial attractiveness makes up part of the decision of who we marry.
‘And it’s no coincidence that groups perceived as more attractive — black males and Asian females — feature more often in mixed-race marriages.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
1 comments:
so we are only having white babies because white people are around us.now we have other races around us we can get on with having mixed race children because that is what deep down we would prefer...........more multi culti rubbish and an insult to black woman and asian men never mind south americans and aboriginies.people like what is new no doubt but more people like what they are familiar with.having sex with a person is different to having a family with them.does this explain why there are so many black chinese?one day they will make a quota for mixed race couples in order to make us caremel citizens
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