Belgian Debt Surpasses GDP
Belgium’s debt surpassed its total revenue for the first since 2004 and now stands at 101.8 % of its GDP, reports De Tijd newspaper. It was 98.2% during the end of 2011. Belgian’s debt is now €377.3 billion while its GDP is €370.6 billion.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China: Wen Jiabao Warns: Hard Times Ahead for Chinese Economy
The Chinese Prime Minister warns: “We are still within the limits, but over time things can get worse.” Growth and the trade estimates fall: without democratic change, China risks losing everything.
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned today of the threat to the world’s second largest economy, of having to face “new hard times” in the future. Speaking during a visit to Chengdu, in Sichuan, the prime minister said: “The economic growth rate is still within the government target range set at the year’s beginning, and stimulus policies are working to land the country on the route toward stabilization. However, we should be clear that China’s economic rebound is not yet stable, and economic hardship may continue for a period of time”.
In the second quarter of 2012, Beijing recorded its lowest growth rate of the last three years. The data on industrial production fell for the seventh consecutive month and the balance of trade with foreign countries does not bode well, however, the gross domestic product is stable.
According to Wen “at the time, economic growth holds. But government officials and businesses need to take stock of the complexity and severity of current economic difficulties in a bid to reach China’s economic and social development targets this year.” Last March, the Prime Minister had announced a 7.5% target for the year: the eighth goal to decrease in a row.
According to several analysts, Chinese growth can not resist a dictatorial one-party system. Without a democratic opening, economists and political scientists argue, China will not be able to respond to the shocks of the current financial crisis.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Crisis Puts the Brakes on European Car Sales
Car sales in the European Union slumped further in June, although the pace of decline slowed slightly. Debt-wracked nations are at the center of the industry’s troubles.
New registrations for cars in the European Union dropped by 2.8 percent to just over 1.2 million vehicles in June, constituting the ninth consecutive month of declining sales in the 27-nation bloc, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said on Tuesday.
The month-on-month decline added to a sharp 6.8 percent fall in European car sales in the first six months of 2012, resulting in 6.64 million fewer new cars being registered compared with the same half-year period in 2011.
However, the pace of the slump in Europe’s car markets was slowing, ACEA said, as June’s registration figures had been the best in eight months.
According to the ACEA figures, markets shrank most dramatically in debt-hit eurozone countries such as Greece and Ireland. Sales there were down by more than 41 percent — in Portugal, sales dropped by 37 percent, registrations in Italy slumped by one-fifth.
The overall decline in European new car registrations came despite gains of 0.7 percent and 2.7 percent in Germany and the United Kingdom in the first six months of 2012.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Foreign Investment in China Down by 6.9 Per Cent
In June, investment of just 12 billion U.S. dollars. Growth in EU investment. Beijing thinks of easing tax on dividends. Growth in non-financial foreign investment. The choices of Nissan and Fiat.
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Beijing government has announced that direct foreign investment in China fell by 5.9% in a year. To attract more capital, the second largest economy is studying ways to ease taxes on dividends.
In total, foreign investment fell to 12 billion U.S. dollars in June, marking the lowest drop since last December. According to figures published today, instead the European Union investment picked up: in the first six months of 2012 it invested 3.52 billion U.S. dollars in China, with an increase of 1, 6% from last year.
To attract more investment, China plans to reduce rates on dividends for countries that have tax treaties with Beijing, the fees will be 5% instead of 10%.
The Chinese economy is experiencing its most severe slowdown of the last three years, with growth of 7.6%. Two days ago Prime Minister Wen Jiabao warned that recovery is still ongoing and that “over time things can get worse.”
In return, the Department of Commerce announced today that non-financial foreign investment grew by 48% in the first half of the year. Car companies like Nissan and Fiat are focusing on China to increase their sales. China is the largest car market in the world.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Inflation Drops But Late Monsoons Threaten India’s Food Sector
In June, inflation stood at 7.25 per cent against 7.55 in May. Unsatisfied, India’s central bank cannot anticipate whether interest rates will be cut as the government would like to see to boost the economy. Food sector faces crisis as late monsoons threaten harvest, higher prices.
Mumbai (AsiaNews/Agencies) — India’s headline inflation fell to 7.25 per cent in June, the lowest in five months. However, the Reserve (Central) Bank of India (RBI) is not satisfied because food inflation continued to fuel the headline number. For this reason, it is likely to keep interest rates unchanged. A weaker-than-normal monsoon is also raising concerns about a possible harvest shortfall that could contribute to the continuing rise in food prices.
In May, inflation reached 7.55 per cent against 7.5 in April (revised from 7.23). At 7.69 per cent, March recorded the worst level. In January and February, it was 6.55 and 7.36 respectively. However, food inflation rose at a faster rate, 10.81 per cent in June, against 10.74 in May.
Only at the end of July will the RBI know whether to cut interest rates and meet the government’s request. In April, the RBI had already cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points, or 0.5 per cent, more than the widely-expected 25 bps.
At present, predicting what the RBI might is impossible. Back in April, the central bank had added a number of caveats for future cuts, saying they would rely entirely on what the inflation rate would be.
Unusual weather conditions are not helping the economy. Late monsoon rains, which usually come in June, could damage grain and cereal crops.
Although India has a significant stockpile of food grains and cereals, it is hobbled by a weak storage and distribution system that often causes grains to rot instead of reaching the intended recipients. This means that storage costs tend to be high.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: First Debt Auction Successful After 65 Billion Cuts
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, JULY 17 — In the first debt auction since the government approved austerity measures worth 65 billion euros, the Spanish Treasury sold a total of 3.56 billion of 12- and 18-month bonds on Tuesday at lower borrowing costs than those registered in a similar auction in June.
The result surpassed the target of 3.5 billion euros worth of bonds set for the sale.
Spain sold 2.6 billion euros in one-year bonds at an interest rate of 3.918%, compared to 5.074% last month. The Spanish Treasury also sold 18-month bills at an interest rate of 4.242%, down on 5.107% in June.
The spread between 10-year Spanish bonos bonds and the German benchmark stayed steady at the 558-points mark it opened at on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sun Vouchers ‘Could Draw Germans to Greece’
Members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition called on Tuesday to create subsidies for holidays in the sun-kissed southern European countries hit hardest by the debt crisis.
As Germans shiver through a chilly, wet summer, European Parliament deputy Jorgo Chatzimarkakis of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), junior partners in Merkel’s government, said Berlin should offer incentives to head south.
“Some kind of state-sponsored bonus that encourages Germans to travel to Greece, for example, at the last minute could be the beginning of a European stimulus programme,” Chatzimarkakis, a German of Greek descent, told the mass-circulation daily Bild.
Erwin Lotter, an FDP deputy in the German lower house of parliament, said the proposal would be a win-win for sun-starved Germans and cash-strapped countries crying out for euros generated from tourism.
“Policymakers and industry should get together to sweeten the deal,” he told Bild.
Most of the countries suffering from the turmoil are on the eurozone’s southern periphery, with Greece, Spain and Portugal seeking bailouts and Italy struggling to tame its mountain of debt. All rely heavily on tourism.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
2nd Closing of US-Canada Borders in 5 Days
(AGI) Detroit — Last night, for the 2nd time in 5 days, the border between the US and Canada was temporarily closed.
Arguably the busiest of the long border between the two countries, the crossing between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario was closed after a warning was received, indicating that there was a bomb on the Admiral Bridge. Five hours of searches with canine teams did not produce anything suspicious and the authorities reopened the crossing. Last Thursday a similar situation interested the nearby tunnel Detroit-Windsor.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Frank Gaffney: The Company They Keep
The truism that you know someone by the company they keep has rarely been more true than with respect to the Obama administration and its burgeoning ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. Just this weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the latest member of Team Obama to consort with sworn enemies of the United States when she sat down with the newly installed Brotherhood president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi.
Despite official, media and academic efforts to portray Morsi — and, for that matter, the Muslim Brotherhood more generally — as the kind of people with whom the United States can safely deal in the evolving Middle East and here, the determination of such Islamists to impose their supremacist Islamic doctrine of shariah worldwide could not be more palpable. Their hostility to America, Israel, Western civilization and other infidels goes back to the founding of the organization in 1928 and is rooted in its guiding program — shariah — and it is absolute and unwavering. Anyone who says otherwise is deluding themselves or deliberately deceiving others…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
Hill and Huma and Bill and Anthony and … The Muslim Brotherhood and … Alger Hiss
by Diana West
While my esteemed colleague Andy McCarthy analyzes the substance of Hillary Clinton’s address in Alexandria, Egypt here, I confess to remaining stuck on the description of the Egyptian crowd chanting, “Monica! Monica!” as Hill’s motorcade made its way through the city.
Must be the call of my wild old beat covering Impeachment Issues (“Monica! Monica!”) for the Washington Times editorial page years ago.
It’s hard to imagine any barb razor-sharp enough to penetrate the thick skin that allows the thoroughly disgraced Clinton couple to remain in the public X-ray eye, but if one such barb could break through their armor of brazenness, maybe it would be the utterly debasing story of Monica, Bill, and Hill, particularly as shouted by chorus of loutish misogynists on the literal Arab Street.
Of course, poor Monica was the most sensational but least significant aspect of Clintonian malfeasance and criminality, for which they have never been brought to book. Missile technology to China in exchange for campaign slush-cash? Ah, Johnny Chung and Chinagate. Fast-tracking hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to the voter rolls? Ah, Citizenship USA. Nearly 1,000 raw FBI files on Republicans that made their way to Hillary’s hands? Ah, sands of time, sands of time. Lincoln Bedroom rentals, Vincent Foster, Whitewater, cattle futures, “put some ice on that,”…. Its’a all part of the Clintons’ enduring triumph over truth, their vanquishment of shame. The Clintons’ legacy is lying as an art, shamelessness as a virtue, treason as business as usual, and oral sex as a teenage commonplace.
Such is the Clintonian subtext that the raucous Egyptian mob forced to the surface.
Wth that in mind, consider as a sidelight this piece in the New York Post:…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
Incriminating US Report Puts HSBC Under Fire
London-based HSBC has been accused by the US Senate of involvement in money laundering for drug trafficking and terrorism. The bank will attend a hearing before the lawmakers later on Tuesday.
In a hard-hitting report, US lawmakers accused the global bank HSBC on Monday of opening the doors of the financial system to terrorists, drug dealers and money launderers.
US senators found the London-based lender allowed affiliates in dangerous countries such as Mexico, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh and Syria to move billions of dollars into the United States without adequate controls.
“The culture at HSBC was pervasively polluted for a long time,” said Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a congressional watchdog panel.
“In an age of international terrorism, drug violence in our streets … and organized crime, stopping illicit money flows that support those atrocities is a national security imperative,” he added.
The report comes at a time when the banking sector is already taking heat for manipulating interest rates and for the risky sub-prime loans that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
HSBC issued an apology and said it would improve its procedures.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic Society of Augusta Readies New Mosque for Religious Holiday
The Islamic Center of Augusta will hold three times as many people as the society’s mosque off Pleasant Home Road.
The Islamic Society of Augusta’s new $3.8 million, 33,000-square-foot building is more than just a mosque. “We see it as a bridge between the Muslim community and the community at large,” said Dr. Ahmad Gill, the president of the Islamic Society of Augusta. “We don’t want people to stand outside and say, ‘We don’t know what goes on behind those doors.’ Our doors and our hearts are open.” The new mosque sits near the intersection of Old Petersburg Road and Old Evans Road in Martinez, and was scheduled to open in time for Ramadan, which starts Thursday. Construction was delayed after several changes were made to the plans, both to add more features and to reduce the overall cost and size of the project. The Islamic Society hopes the project will be finished in time for Eid al-Fitr, a holiday that marks the end of Ramadan on Aug. 19. The festival includes special services and a large, celebratory meal, often held outdoors. If all goes according to plan, Eid also will be a time to show off the new mosque and invite the public to an open house and tour.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Muslim Congressman: Islam in America Must Not Retreat
In a May 26 address before the Islamic Circle of North America/Muslim American Society (ICNA/MSA), both Muslim Brotherhood front groups, André Carson commiserated with his audience over how difficult things have been for them since the World Trade Center attacks at the hands of al Qaeda jihadists: “9/11 was tough on Muslims.” Carson is America’s race-baiting, confirmed socialist and second Muslim Congressman (Keith Ellison is the first), who had a lot of interesting things to say at this event. In video clips surfacing on the internet, Carson made the above comment as well as this eyebrow-raising pronouncement, to the applause of his Muslim-American audience:
America will never tap into educational innovation and ingenuity without looking at the model that we have in our madrassas, in our schools, where innovation is encouraged, where the foundation is the Koran. And that model that we are pushing in some of our schools meets the multiple needs of students… America must understand that she needs Muslims.
It’s unclear how the rote memorization of the Koran constitutes “educational innovation and ingenuity,” or how madrassas are “meeting the needs” of Muslim students abroad; in places like Pakistan where they abound, they don’t seem to be producing a wealth of world-class scholars or highly-trained professionals, but they do seem to produce a virulent hatred of things un-Islamic.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Norman Mosque Holds Open House, Welcomes Community Members
The Islamic Society of Norman welcomed members of the Norman community to an open house in its new mosque Sunday. The society invited guests into the 7,000 square foot Masjid An-Nur, which opened in March. The mosque is built atop the location of the society’s original site of worship, a remodeled house from the 1950s. Islamic Society officers greeted guests at the door and showed them around the mosque, which features a library, a kitchen, washrooms and prayer halls. There are separate prayer halls for the men and women of the society, both of which face Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Why Our Elites Stink
by David Brooks
Through most of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Protestant Establishment sat atop the American power structure. A relatively small network of white Protestant men dominated the universities, the world of finance, the local country clubs and even high government service. Over the past half—century, a more diverse and meritocratic elite has replaced the Protestant Establishment. People are more likely to rise on the basis of grades, test scores, effort and performance.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Many Islamist Men Don’t Understand Imperative of Consent
Women are “raw meat” waiting to be devoured by men because of their dress, declared an Australian imam in 2006. Six years later, and in our own backyard, a young convert to Islam, Al-Haashim Kamena Atangana is proposing new laws in Canada that would require women to cover up “like Muslim women,” concealing all but their eyes and hands. He contends that the high incidence of rape in North America is because of how women dress in Western countries. The new laws would make it “illegal for women to dress provocatively in the streets,” and would thereby take away the freedoms Western women enjoy.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Austria: Klimt Was Sexy and Authentic
He was known for being scandalous, but also for staying true to his passions — both on canvas and in his romantic affairs. Artist Gustav Klimt was born 150 years ago in a Vienna that was a bit too conservative for him.
His most famous painting, “The Kiss,” has been reproduced in every way thinkable — on coffee cups, glasses cases, shopping bags and dozens of other everyday items. They all pay homage to Gustav Klimt, who has become the figurehead of Art Nouveau style.
Nevertheless, he wanted to improve the art of his time, said Alfred Weidinger, art historian, Klimt specialist, and curator of the Schlossmuseum Belvedere in Vienna.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Austrian Court Bans Cowbells After Noise Dispute
Cowbells are just as much a part of Alpine culture as yodelling and Lederhosen, but the constant clanging can be annoying. An Austrian court has ordered a farmer to remove the bells after residents complained they couldn’t get any sleep.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: BHV — A Problem Solved Amidst Indifference
“BHV: it’s over “, headlines Le Soir on the vote over the carve-up of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV) district, a subject that has been the major cause of the political crisis between the Flemish and Walloons since 2007. The Flemish demand to divide in two the predominantly French-speaking territory located in Flemish territory seemed even to threaten the unity of the kingdom. The French-language daily is the only paper, along with La Libre Belgique, to devote its front page to the story.
This July 13 the Chamber of Deputies must vote on the fate of the district. The Senate already voted in favour of the split, on July 12.
“BHV” is the only bilingual electoral district in the country, encompassing 19 municipalities of the bilingual Brussels-Capital region and 35 Flemish municipalities around the cities of Halle and Vilvoorde. The newspaper applauds the redrawing of the boundary lines in its editorial —
It seems right to us to greet those in North and South who have shouldered difficult responsibilities, sealing a compromise that has provided the country with a government while a part of Europe is sinking under. This does not give us a long-term solution, but let’s be honest on this Friday the 13th of the “historic” vote by recalling that it wasn’t so long ago that we were asking for less.
In Flanders, De Morgen is surprised by the relative calm surrounding the split —
After having paralysed Belgian politics for years, no one is losing any sleep at night over this symbolic community issue. The fact that BHV pushed us to the brink has already been forgotten.
De Standaard expresses some scepticism about how long the division can last —
The strength of the BHV agreement remains to be proven. With municipal elections coming up [in October], it won’t be long before its first test. Hot flushes in the Community are guaranteed.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Breivik Case Highlights Mental Health Divide
With a verdict due in Anders Breivik’s mass murder trial, psychiatric experts are asking whether fanaticism is a form of madness. Breivik killed 77 people in Norway last July.
On Thursday, July 19, King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) holds its latest Maudsley Debate. Arguing for and against, psychiatric experts will tackle the question whether cases such as Anders Breivik demonstrate that fanaticism is a form of madness. DW spoke to the IoP’s Tom Fahy, professor of forensic mental health science and chair of the Maudsley Debate.
My own view is that this man clearly planned his murderous rampage very carefully — he was planning it, in fact, for several years, the evidence shows. He took very careful measures to avoid detection and avoid interruption during the rampage. He clearly knew that what he was doing was legally wrong.
And I think that under those circumstances, the idea that his disposal would be through mental health care rather than through criminal justice would be wrong. I’m not sure that mental health services would have much to offer in terms of treatment. Having extreme racist or xenophobic ideas is not the province of psychiatry to address. We don’t treat people like that, there’s no evidence that we can alter people’s views, so in terms of managing any future risk I think psychiatry would have a peripheral role.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Corrupt Cliques Vie for Power in Romania
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta has been heavily criticized for his political assault on both suspended President Traian Basescu and his country’s constitution. But Basescu is no angel either. The cesspool of power and corruption in Romania is a threat to the rule of law.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Corruption, Power Plays Keep Romania Under Scrutiny
The European Commission has announced plans to prolong its monitoring of Romania. According to a report, the country shows inadequate progress in respect for democracy and its fight against corruption.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France: The French Minister for Women Has Let Down Muslim Voters
by Nabila Ramdani
When Najat Vallaud-Belkacem became minister for women’s rights in Hollande’s cabinet, French Muslims had high hopes — sadly they have been disappointed
Expectations were high when a Muslim woman from a North African background was made an instant star in France’s new Socialist cabinet in May. Not only was Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, 34, made minister for women’s rights — a hugely important position in an administration committed to equality — but President François Hollande also appointed her official government spokesperson. The narrative was clear: Vallaud-Belkacem had, after a relatively deprived childhood, overcome prejudice to embark on a glittering career. This energetic, socially aware young woman not only understood the values of the egalitarian French Republic, but personified them. By articulating her country’s most pressing contemporary problems, she would be on the first step to solving them.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
France: Anger as Nail-Throwers Take Aim at Tour Peloton
Police in southern France began their search for the roadside fans whose nail-throwing antics during the Tour de France caused mayhem at the end of the hilly 14th stage on Sunday.
Dozens of riders fell victim to the saboteurs who threw small nails on the ground near the top of the Mur de Peguere climb, 38 km from the finish, and caused several leading riders to puncture.
Defending race champion Cadel Evans among the first victims. He initially lost over two minutes waiting for a spare wheel.
The Australian, who suffered three punctures in total in the finale, managed to latch back on to the peloton thanks in part to the work of his BMC team but also down to the sporting behaviour of the peloton.
Once the extent of the incident became apparent, the Sky team of yellow jersey holder Bradley Wiggins helped restore order by waiting for those delayed riders affected by the sabotage.
Wiggins himself had to change bike due to a puncture.
“Whether it was aimed at someone or something I don’t know. It’s sad, but those are the types of things we have to put up with as cyclists,” said the Briton, who leads Sky teammate Chris Froome by 2min 05sec going into the 15th stage.
Tour de France organisers immediately lodged a formal complaint with police.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Shock Proposal by Radicals: It’s Time to Legalize Harlotry
(AGI) Rome — Radical Party Secretary Mario Staderini & Radicals of Rome Secretary Riccardo Magi made set forth a shocking proposal. “Seeing the failure of the prohibitionist obsessions of Sheriff Mayors like Alemanno, it is now time to legalize and regulate the practice of prostitution”. The two Radical Party representatives also added: “It is not surprising that those who reduced a social phenomenon to an issue of urban decor reveal to be indifferent to the living conditions of thousands of sex workers. Courageous actions like the one undertaken by the inhabitants of Rome’s EUR district and City Councillor Matilde Spadaro have the merit of imposing a debate that Sheriffs and a certain number of intellectuals have always refused. Like in Milan and Caserta, where the Radicals have presented popular deliberations to regulate prostitution: it’s better to regulate work hours and places rather than having them imposed by the black market and organized crime”, concluded Staderini and Magi.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Woman Facing Berlusconi Sex-Party Charges Told to Step Down
Alfano says Minetti should quit as Lombardy regional councillor
(ANSA) — Rome, July 16 — Nicole Minetti, one of three people standing trial for allegedly providing prostitutes for alleged sex parties at Silvio Berlusconi’s home, has been told to resign from her post as Lombardy regional councillor for the former premier’s People of Freedom (PdL) party.
The call from PdL Secretary Angelino Alfano has been seen in the media as part of a bid by the party to purge itself of an element linked to corruption ahead of next year’s general elections, when Berlusconi is expected to run for a fourth term as premier.
Minetti, once Berlusconi’s dental hygienist, responded to Alfano’s call by saying “Why?” on Twitter.
Political sources have said, however, that Berlusoni has persuaded her to step down.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Higgs Particle Researchers Face Layoffs
An Italian institute heavily involved in the discovery of the Higgs particle is facing layoffs as the state slashes public spending on science to balance the budget.
Italy’s National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) was informed of the budget cuts two days after the Higgs particle was spotted. The discovery is considered one of the greatest scientific achievements in the past century.
“We have contributed heavily to these experiments,” the institute’s president, Fernando Ferroni, told EUobserver from Rome.
The INFN devoted around 450 researchers to Cern’s large hadron collider (LHC) that runs underground through France and Switzerland. INFN scientists and students were working on a number of projects, including the Atlas and compact muon solenoid (CMS) experiments. Both Atlas and CMS helped track down the elusive particle.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Monti Asks Sicily Governor to Confirm Resignation
Raffaele Lombardo accused of mafia collusion
(ANSA) — Rome, July 17 — Italian Premier Mario Monti asked the governor of Sicily to confirm his resignation Tuesday amid the region’s debt woes. “Monti has written a letter to Governor Raffaele Lombardo to receive his confirmation of his intention, declared publicly, to resign July 31,” a statement from the premier’s office said. Monti highlighted that Sicily’s debt problems, “which may push it into default,” made the situation urgent, according to the statement. Lombardo is facing charges of colluding with the mafia and announced in May that he was resigning.
Prosecutors in April presented a request to try Lombardo and his brother Angelo, an MP for Lombardo’s Movimento per l’Autonomia (MpA) party, for allegedly swapped votes for favors with Vincenzo Aiello, a prominent member of the powerful Catania-based Santapaola clan.
Aiello was arrested in 2010 on a range of Mafia charges.
Lombardo has denied the accusations.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Jihadist Anjem Choudary to Stakelbeck: “I’ll be at the Olympics”
My latest report for CBN details the security concerns surrounding the upcoming London Olympics.
I was recently in London, where I interviewed several Islamist figures, including notorious jihadist mouthpiece, Anjem Choudary.
Choudary promised me that he and his group would have a presence at the Games.
To see his comments, plus analysis from Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, click the link above and watch my report on the Olympics.
Much more to come from my lengthy interview with Choudary in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Stoltenberg Saddened by Insults Aimed at Roma
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has called on Norwegians not to discriminate against Roma people amid growing discontent over the establishment of temporary campsites in the capital Oslo.
As debate rages on internet forums, the Labour Party leader implored his fellow citizens to learn the lessons of the dual terrorist attacks that left 77 people dead last July.
“One of the things July 22nd showed us was how important it is not to judge and brand people just because they belong to a certain group. These kinds of words and expressions can only lead to more hatred and conflict,” Stoltenberg told news agency NTB.
Stoltenberg was referring to terms — such as “subhumans” and “rats” — that have been used by some internet users to describe a community of Roma people currently camped out in Årvoll and other parts of Oslo.
Some 200 people had previously camped at Sofienberg church before they were asked last week by church leaders to leave. The occupants of the site claimed they had moved there in large numbers after being routinely harassed by the police.
Stoltenberg said he was upset to hear the kind of opinions that have bubbled to the surface in the current conflict.
At the same time, the prime minster also made it clear that Roma people who come to Norway from countries like Romania and Bulgaria should expect the same treatment as any other citizens of countries in the European Economic Area.
In order to remain in the country legally, they must be in a position to earn a living and they must respect Norwegian law, he noted.
“But they also need to be treated with dignity and respect as individuals,” said Stoltenberg.
In recent months, a number of senior politicians from the Progress Party and the Conservative Party have joined the debate by calling for a blanket ban on begging, which they claim fuels organized crime in the Roma community.
This has prompted many on the left to label representatives of the two right-wing parties as racists.
Folk er Folk (People are People), a group set up to support the Roma community in Norway, has likened Oslo politicians to Anders Behring Breivik, the confessed perpetrator of the July 22nd. The group has also drawn comparisons with the persecution of Jews under the Nazis.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Romanian MEP Charged With Defrauding Over €400,000
Adrian Severin, a Romanian MEP accused of having taken bribes from journalists posing as lobbyists, has been charged with siphoning €436,000 from the EU budget.
Anti-corruption prosecutors in Bucharest on Monday (16 July) said they had filed new charges against Severin, after having started an investigation linked to the ‘cash for amendments’ scandal uncovered by the Sunday Times last year.
“Proceedings were launched for a new offence of forgery and the use of forgeries that resulted in the illegal obtaining of general European community budget funds, with serious consequences,” the National Anticorruption Directorate said in a press statement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Savoy Separatists Steal 38 French Flags
Two separatists were arrested on July 14th after stealing 38 French flags in the Savoie department to mark their condemnation of the French state and the National Bastille Day.
Overnight on Saturday, while the rest of France was partying or admiring fireworks on Bastille Day, two Savoy separatists stole 38 French flags. The flags were stolen from official buildings and towns in the Savoie department in the French Alps, French daily Le Progres reports.
The two 24-year-old men were arrested in the village of Etriemberes, near Annemasse. They told police officers they were conducting a “symbolic protest” against the French National Day on July 14th.
The men claim to belong to a splinter group of the pro-independence Savoyan League. The historic region of Savoy was annexed by France in 1792 under the first French Republic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden ‘At Risk’ Of Losing Global Battle for Talent
More than three fourths of Swedish university graduates are ready to seek jobs abroad, according to a new study, raising concerns as to whether Sweden does enough to keep talented graduates in the country.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: ‘Topless Gender Experts Ride Free’: Go-Kart Track
Following the recent backlash from a Swedish gender official about a “sexy” sausage ad, a go-kart company in southern Sweden has offered female gender experts a free pass on the condition that they ride topless.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Police Put Out Warrant for Zurich Stabbing Suspect
Swiss police have issued an international arrest warrant for Shivan Mohamed, a 21-year-old Iraqi thought to have stabbed two brothers in Zurich on Sunday morning.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Labour Mosque Appeal Refused
WANNABE LABOUR councillor Tasurraf Shah has finally had a bomb detonated under her crusade to convert a terrace of Waterloo Road takeaways into a super-mosque after Bristol-based planning infidel Michael R Moffoot threw out her appeal. Whilst supporters of the mosque were busy labelling everyone who opposed it a racist, residents put forward serious and sensible concerns that parking would be a severe problem and that traffic and pedestrian safety would be compromised by creating a mosque in this location. The planning inspector duly supported this viewpoint, citing parking demand as ‘intense’.
It was believed by residents that permission for this mosque was ‘a done deal’ due to Ms Shah’s close links to the Labour party and due to comments of support made by Labour councillors at the Revoe Area forum before the planning permission had even been considered. Adding further suspicion, mosque ward councillor Sweet Shop Fred’s parking department agreed a controversial under-the-table deal to allow free parking for Muslim worshippers on a nearby council car park that normally charges £5 for just three hours. However this was scrapped and relevant planning documents were redacted once the public found out about it. Sweet Shop Fred and his boss John Donnellon blamed underlings acting beyond their mandate.
Presumably the planning inspector’s decision now means the mosque, which also broadcasts an Islamic TV station called Ghousia TV, is no longer operating under appeal, is officially illegal and should be closed down unless they are going to start selling curry there again. I wonder how much more taxpayers money Ms Shah is going to waste in appealing this.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: New Sunderland Mosque Sparks Widespread Complaints
COMPLAINTS from across Sunderland have now been registered on the city council’s website against a proposed mosque. The controversial proposal to convert an old transport depot on St Mark’s Road, Millfield, into an Islamic place of worship has sparked a heated debate in the community as to whether it should go ahead. If the plans get the green light, they will involve the demolition of single-storey offices, the erection of parapet walls and two brick-faced columns. But many of the neighbours have objected because they believe it will result in an increase in noise and traffic. The application, which was submitted by the Pakistan Islamic Centre, has now drawn more than 1,000 comments on the council’s website.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Olympic Spirit and the Islamic Spirit
by Daniel Greenfield
In a sign of the times, the London Summer Olympics will be defended by anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles… just as they were in Ancient Greece. G4S, the world’s largest security company, was to provide 12,000 security personnel, but has so far only managed to come up with 4,000. In another sign of the times, not all of their security personnel speak English. So instead the British government will be deploying 3,000 troops, all of whom hopefully do speak English.
[…]
The armies of Muslims that have gathered in Europe, whether they know it or not, are not there to play according to any set of rules, they are not there to have fun, they are there to conquer and win.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: The Catholic Primary School Where 90 Per Cent of the Pupils Are Muslim
It was built in the 1930s to cater for large numbers of Irish families moving to the area.
Now, in a sign of changing times, a Catholic primary school in Birmingham has an intake that is 90 per cent Muslim.
All pupils at the Rosary Catholic Primary attend Catholic assemblies in the morning and Mass at the nearby church, while crucifixes and statues of the Virgin Mary line the corridors.
But only around 40 pupils out of 400 are Catholics — most of the rest are Muslims of Pakistani origin.
The school is among a few dozen Catholic primaries, mainly in the Midlands and North West, where churchgoing children are now outnumbered by Muslims.
At Rosary, in the Saltley area of Birmingham, some of the pupils’ parents are imams and some live in nearby mosques.
More…
Father Bernard Kelly, the local parish priest and Rosary’s chairman of governors, said: ‘This is a changing parish like all parishes in strong Muslim neighbourhoods.
‘Our school is largely made up of Muslim children whose parents are happy to have them attend a Christian school. For the church, this is a new reality.
‘At school, the pupils hear about the teachings of Jesus but they are not imposed on them.’
He added: ‘I’m sure we will be here in another 80 years’ time. Why not?’
The primary school, along with a church and a secondary school, were set up in the 1930s to serve a large Irish Catholic population.
Eighty years on, the school has been praised by Ofsted for ‘outstanding’ work promoting cohesion among diverse local communities.
John Gubbins, the school’s headmaster, said: ‘We follow the Catholic Diocese programme for religious education which pupils are taught for ten to 15 per cent of the week.’
All pupils, aged three to 11, take part in plays to celebrate Christmas and Easter, while Muslim holy days are also marked.
At the same time, the school provides opportunities for ‘multi-faith prayer’.
Most pupils who arrive at the school do not speak English as their first language.
Mr Gubbins added: ‘When I came here 11 years ago, it was 30 per cent Catholic and 70 per cent Muslim.
‘In September, eight out of our intake of 50 pupils will be Catholic, and many of them are from Polish or African families.’
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
UK: York Mosque Plan Resubmitted After Flood Risk Concerns
Plans for a new £1m mosque in York have been resubmitted after being earlier withdrawn amid flooding concerns.
Last year religious leaders behind the mosque pulled plans for a site on Bull Lane after the Environment Agency said it would be vulnerable to flooding. Secretary, Shadaz Hussain said the original plans had been significantly down sized, however the mosque was on the original planned site. He added that about £1m in donations would be needed if it was approved.
Mr Hussain said: “Since the plans were withdrawn, we’ve looked at the comments we’ve received from the public and we’ve looked at what we can do.” The plans for the new mosque include an inter-faith room to welcome members of the community. Also, under the new plans it has been reduced to a two-storey building.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Spring: The Islamist Ascendency
by Charles Krauthammer
Post-revolutionary Libya appears to have elected a relatively moderate pro-Western government. Good news, but tentative because Libya is less a country than an oil well with a long beach and myriad tribes. Popular allegiance to a central national authority is weak. Even if the government of Mahmoud Jibril is able to rein in the militias and establish a functioning democracy, it will be the Arab Spring exception. Consider:
Tunisia and Morocco, the most Westernized of all Arab countries, elected Islamist governments. Moderate, to be sure, but Islamist still. Egypt, the largest and most influential, has experienced an Islamist sweep. The Muslim Brotherhood didn’t just win the presidency. It won nearly half the seats in parliament, while more openly radical Islamists won 25 percent. Combined, they command more than 70 percent of parliament — enough to control the writing of a constitution (which is why the generals hastily dissolved parliament). As for Syria, if and when Bashar al-Assad falls, the Brotherhood will almost certainly inherit power. Jordan could well be next. And the Brotherhood’s Palestinian wing (Hamas) already controls Gaza. What does this mean? That the Arab Spring is a misnomer. This is an Islamist ascendancy, likely to dominate Arab politics for a generation.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Copts — at the Mercy of Mursi
“Egypt is for all Egyptians; all of us are equals in terms of rights. All of us also have duties towards this homeland. As for myself, I don’t have rights. I only have duties.”
Mohamed Mursi’s first speech on June 30 marked a historic event in Egypt, where the nation watched the Muslim Brotherhood candidate being sworn in as the first competitively elected president in Cairo. Whilst the dominant issue for many remains what kind of government it will have — Mursi is currently locked in a stand-off with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) — many minorities in the country have reacted miserably to his presidential victory, especially Coptic Christians, the largest minority group.
Despite the promise of an “inclusive” Egypt in his inaugural Cairo speech, Coptic concerns about the new president’s Islamist background remain. Rooted in the ideology and objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic party founded in 1928 as part of the anti-colonial movement, the key principle of the Brotherhood was, and still is, to promote Islamic piety as the organising force in Egyptian society. Many Copts fear that attempts to create such a society will naturally discriminate against them.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Morocco: Country Eyes First Islamic Bank
Rabat, 13 July (AKI) — Morocco is poised to get its first Islamic bank as officials hold talks with Pakistan’s Faysal bank on opening a branch in the North African country, according to local press.
The Moroccan parliament is expected as early as in September to pass a bill modifying the country’s banking laws which currently only allow traditional banks to operate.
Last week, Morocco’s prime minister Abdel Ilah Benkirane and economy minister Idris al-Azmi met Faysal directors in Rabat
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Salafite Hizb Ettahrir Party Legalized
Proponent of Sharia law
(ANSAMed) — TUNIS, JULY 17 — Leading Tunisian Salaphite party Hizb Ettahrir has been legalized, party leader Ridha Bel Hadj told Tunisie Numerique website today.
Deputy minister for political affairs Lotfi Zitoun gave official authorization in a meeting today, Bel Hadj said.
Hizb Ettahrir, which had been outlawed but de facto tolerated, wants Sharia to be the law of the land.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
West Africa: Crisis in the Sahel — After Mali What Next?
By Ahmedou Ould Abadallah
Over the last few years a crisis has been brewing in the whole of the Sahel, not only in Mali. All the ingredients for an explosion where there: poorly or ungoverned vast territories, lack of effective governance, pervasive corruption, traffic and trafficking in drugs and cigarettes, irregular migrations and armed islamist radicals. At the epicentre of the Sahel crisis is Mali. Its neighbours are, however, not immune from the contagion.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Israel’s Second Summer of Discontent
One year after waves of protests in Tel Aviv, thousands are taking to the streets again, demanding political reforms. The mood darkened over the weekend following the self-incineration of an activist.
The slogan of last year’s protests is back as young Israelis take to the streets of Tel Aviv to chant, “The people demand social justice!” Demonstrators are renewing the criticism of high living costs and low wages that they levelled in 2011. The cities of Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba have seen similar protests.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Muslims Barred IOC From Honoring Murdered Israelis
An Olympics official admits that Muslims blocked one-minute silence for 11 murdered Israeli athletes, one of the widows said.
An Olympics official admitted that Muslim countries blocked the “One-Minute of Silence” campaign to honor the 11 murdered Israeli athletes, one of the widows said. Ankie Spitzer, whose husband Andre was one of the athletes massacred in the Munich Games n 1972, told the European Jewish Press that Jacques Rogge, president of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, told her that his “hands were tied” by the admission of 46 Arab and Muslim members to the International Olympic Committee. She replied, “My husband’s hands were tied, not yours.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Indian Fisherman Killed by USA; Iran, Foreign Threat
(AGI) Dubai — Iran said, “We have said many times that the presence of foreign forces may constitute a threat to regional security.” The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, was speaking about the accidental killing of an Indian fisherman by a US naval supply vessel in the Persian Gulf. “Everywhere, when uncertainty reigns, we have always found the hand of foreign forces,” the spokesman said, pointing the finger at Washington. The US has strengthened its anti-Iranian military presence in the Persian Gulf, where the USS Enterprise group is already stationed. The Pentagon has also announced that it will send a second nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, four months earlier than planned.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: Opposition Announces ‘Declaration for Nation’
KUWAIT: The opposition majority bloc in Kuwait yesterday announced the long-awaited program which it described as a “declaration for the nation” pledging to forge major legislative and constitutional reforms that would eventually transform Kuwait into a full parliamentary system. Reading the document after a huge gathering at the diwaniya of speaker of the scrapped assembly Ahmad Al-Saadoun, member of the 2012 assembly Mohammad Al-Dallal said the opposition has agreed on the program that would immediately require a majority government.
The program calls for giving the majority of the cabinet seats to the group that controls the majority in the National Assembly as a prelude to the future for a multi-party system. The opposition also pledged to pass laws on anti-corruption, reforming and regulating the judiciary, legalizing political parties, transforming Kuwait into a single electoral constituency and establishing an independent election commission.
The opposition pledged that it will submit the necessary laws to amend several articles in the constitution to achieve the full-fledged parliamentary system which must be formed by the party that wins the election. Other amendments include requiring the new government to seek confidence from the assembly, not requiring the government attendance in parliamentary sessions, only elected members will be allowed to vote and others.
Speakers at the gathering also sent important messages to the government. Former opposition MP Mohammad Al-Khalifa warned that the opposition will boycott the forthcoming elections if the government changed the voting system and “will start peaceful protests”. Addressing the ruling family, Khalifa said that some of them are saying that late Amir Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem reduced their powers by introducing the constitution but “I say that he protected you”.
Khalfia said that to achieve social and political justice, there should be a single constituency where all Kuwaiti voters have equal rights, adding that Kuwait is protected from the Arab Spring protests by the 1962 constitution. A member of the scrapped 2012 assembly, Faisal Al-Yahya said that after 50 years of issuing the constitution, it had not been fully implemented. He said that Kuwait is at an important juncture that requires a civilized transformation to adopt a full parliamentary system and an elected government.
“I tell the decision-making Sheikhs that the governance is yours and the supremacy is for the people who are the source of the authority,” said Yahya, adding that there are attempts to dismantle the state institutions. “I tell the regime that you have forged parliamentary elections, dissolved parliament on several occasions and paid bribes. Isn’t it time to make a compromise with the constitution?” he said.
Yahya held senior members of the ruling family responsible for the deterioration of the country’s affairs. He called for the ruling family to strike a “compromise with the people who are very loyal to you. We are not against the ruling family, but against total control”. Earlier, the liberal National Action Bloc issued what they called a “national salvation document” in which they urged wide-ranging reforms with regards to the National Assembly, the government and in the country’s democracy but fell short of calling for a constitutional monarchy.
In its document, the bloc, which has five MPs in the National Assembly, called on the next National Assembly to swiftly pass anti-corruption laws especially the establishment of a corruption fighting authority. It also called for establishing an ethics committee in the National Assembly that would monitor the practices of MPs, urged passing a law to legalize political parties in Kuwait and laws to amend the election law, set up an independent election commission and to organize election campaign and funding.
The document called for issuing laws that would guarantee more independence for the judiciary, laws for human rights, forbidding hatred and consolidating national unity, in addition to economic and administrative reform laws to liberalize the national economy. The bloc said that amendments to the constitution need a consensus between MPs and the Amir, which is not available now. With regards to the government, the document called for changing the parameters of selecting the cabinet members who should be true statesmen, adding that more popular participation should be achieved in the cabinet.
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Considers Law Against Insulting Islam
(Reuters) — Saudi Arabia is studying new regulations to criminalise insulting Islam, including in social media, and the law could carry heavy penalties, a Saudi paper said on Sunday.
The potential regulations come five months after a Saudi blogger and columnist Hamza Kashgari, 23, was arrested for tweeting comments deemed as insulting the Prophet Mohammad. Kashgari said there were things he liked and disliked about him.
“Within the next two months the Shura Council will reveal the outcome of study on the regulations to combat the criticism of the basic tenets of Islamic sharia,” unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter told al-Watan, adding that there could be “severe punishments” for violators.
Criticism penalised under the law would include that of the Prophet, early Muslim figures and clerics, it said.
“The (regulations) are important at the present time because violations over social networks on the Internet have been observed in the past months,” the sources said.
Saudi Arabia follows a strict version of Sunni Islamic law, referred to as Wahhabism. Blasphemy can be punishable by death.
A spokesman from the Shura Council, the governments all-appointed consultative body, did not respond to calls for comment…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Lavrov: Assad Resignation “Unrealistic”
Al-Qaeda third force of concern, says Russian FM
(ANSAmed) — Moscow, July 16 — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is unlikely to be persuaded to resign from power, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
“Some say that the key to the Syrian solution is to be found in Moscow. We are told we must persuade Assad to step down voluntarily, but this is unrealistic,” he said. The head of Moscow’s diplomatic service also said he was very worried that al Qaeda is growing to become a third force in Syria. “We are very worried that, judging by numerous reports from the country, the so-called third force represented by al-Qaeda and other extremist organisations close to al-Qaeda has become active in the country,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria Crisis: Damascus Clashes Continue — Live Updates
9.55am: Syria: The conflict within Syria is being played out far beyond the country’s borders, not only at the UN but also on the internet where it is generating much heat, especially on the political left. Robin Yassin-Kassab, author of The Road from Damascus, is the latest to join the fray. In a post on his Qunfuz blog (it’s Arabic for “hedgehog”), he decries “blanket thinkers” from “the infantile left”.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Now is the Decisive Battle, Muslim Brotherhood Says
30 yrs after failed 1982 uprising, victory could be ours
(ANSAMed) — ANKARA — The “decisive battle” has begun in Damascus, exiled Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leaders meeting in Istanbul in their first plenary congress in 30 years said today.
Three decades after their attempted uprising against Hafez al Assad, father of the current Syrian president, ended in a bloodbath and 20,000 dead, the Sunnite Muslim Brotherhood now sees their chance for a comeback.
In spite of “long years of repression by the regime,” the movement has remained strong in Syria, said Brotherhood leader, Mohammad Riad Shakfa. The biggest force on the Syrian National Council, which is the West’s main opposition interlocutor, and very influential in the Syrian Free Army, the Muslim Brotherhood is supported by Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is also a Sunnite, and whom Assad accuses of fomenting a religious war in his country. If Syria were to follow the Egyptian model post-Assad, the country’s next leader might well be from the Muslim Brotherhood.
But Syria’s strong ethnic and religious divisions, as evidenced by tensions within the anti-Assad forces, could also cause the country to split, warned analyst Abdullah Bozkurt.
From Turkey’s point of view, the nightmare scenario would be a three-way split into a Shiite Alawite state along the Mediterranean, a Kurdish state between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan, and a Sunnite state in the rest of the country, Bozkurt said. In recent days, Syrian Kurdish National Council leader Sherkoh Abbas accused the Muslim Brotherhood of “railroading the revolution” in order to replace Assad with “an Islamic, Sunnite, Arab and nationalist regime.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: 30k UN Troops and Saigon Style Evac Plan, Dall’Oglio
Assad, his people musn’t be left to the slaughter, Dall’Oglio
(ANSAMed) — ROME, JULY 17 — Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, founder of the Mar Musa interfaith community in Syria, today called on the Italian government to convince Iran, Russia, and the Sunnite majority countries to accept a humanitarian corridor of 30,000 UN peacekeepers to stop the bloodbath in Syria.
Dall’Oglio, who was recently expelled from Syria by the Assad regime and who is a promoter of dialogue between Christians and Muslims, spoke at a House human rights committee hearing today.
“The 300 UN observers sent by (UN Syria Envoy Kofi) Annan are a sign of irresponsibility,” Dall’Oglio said. “Placing 30,000 peacekeepers along the Orontes river and through the middle of Damascus would be a sign of attentiveness.” The Syrian regime has turned into “a criminal organization,” Dall’Oglio said, adding that, should Assad fall, Syria’s former friends should also contemplate a Saigon-style evacuation plan for the president, his family and his closest supporters, so that their lives can be saved and they can be put on trial. “If the regime falls, we have to think of how to pull 25,000 of Assad’s people out of Damascus. They must not be left to be slaughtered. A way out must be found for them,” Dall’Oglio said.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
To Forgive Divine: Saudi Arabia to Punish Anti-Islam Tweeters?
Saudi Arabian leaders are discussing new laws to penalize insults against Islam, reports a Saudi newspaper. The new regulations could even extend to social media and stipulate severe punishments for offenders. “Within the next two months the Shura Council will reveal the outcome of study on the regulations to combat the criticism of the basic tenets of Islamic Sharia,“ anonymous sources told Saudi news outlet Al Watan. Saudi Arabia follows an ultra-conservative branch of Islam known as Wahhabism, under which blasphemy can be punishable by death.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
U. S. Aircraft Carrier Group to Persian Gulf 4 Months Early
(AGI) Washington — Israel’s Channel 10 TV reports on an Israeli attack on Iran in October are possibly linked to an official announcement that the U.S. Department of Defense has decided to send the nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. John C. Stennis and its support group four months early to the eastern Mediterranean on its way to the Persian Gulf. The U.S.S.
Enterprise and its group is in the area and the U.S.S. Dwight Eisenhower is going there, but is staying only briefly. The U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, which has been in the Persian Gulf with the U.S.S Enterprise, passed through the Suez Canal on its way back to the U.S. after an eight month deployment there.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi Responds to Iranian Threats With Pipeline That Bypasses the Strait of Hormuz
The facility runs from the oil fields of Abu Dhabi to Fujairah, on the Indian Ocean. Its first shipment included 500,000 barrels for a Pakistani refinery. It can carry up to 1.5 million barrels a day. Tehran dismisses the pipeline as Western propaganda to reduce the importance of the Strait of Hormuz.
Abu Dhabi (AsiaNews/Agencies) — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) inaugurated an overland oil pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. One fifth of the world’s traded oil transits through the strait, which is under Iran’s control.
Experts say that Abu Dhabi’s move is a response to Tehran’s threats to block the strait. The 380-km pipeline stretches from Abu Dhabi to the neighbouring sheikhdom of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman. It is designed to carry at least 1.5 million barrels a day of crude, though capacity is expected to eventually rise to 1.8 million barrels daily. The first shipment of 500,000 barrels went to a Pakistani refinery.
Iran angrily criticised the move. An Iranian lawmaker, Mohammad-Hassan Asferi, said the pipeline’s limited capacity would keep it from obviating the need of regional suppliers to export most of their oil through the strait.
He dismissed the project as “propaganda and political manoeuvring guided by the Western countries, especially the United States, which aims to reduce the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz”.
International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) spent US$ 4.2 billion to build the pipeline, IPIC managing director Khadem Al-Qubaisi said. IPIC plans to build a refinery in Fujairah with a capacity of about 250,000 barrels a day to produce for local sale and export.
UAE Oil Minister Mohamed Bin Dhaen Al-Hamli said the pipeline will allow oil companies to fill very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, the largest class of tanker capable of carrying 2 million barrels of oil. Filling such vessels in the Gulf of Oman will reduce shipping traffic in Hormuz, where only tankers that can carry 1 million barrels are allowed.
The UAE is the fifth-biggest oil producer in OPEC. With Oman, it is also the only Persian Gulf state with direct access to the Indian Ocean.
In the past few months, tensions between Iran, Gulf States and the United States have risen. Tehran controls a section of the Strait of Hormuz, and has threatened to block it on several occasions in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States to punish Tehran for its nuclear programme.
Iranian and US naval vessels continue to patrol the body of water.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
US Ship in Gulf Fires Killing 1 Indian Fisherman, 3 Wounded
AGI) Abu Dhabi — The United States risks a diplomatic incident with India. Sailors from an US auxilary war ship, the USNS Rappahannock in the Persian Gulf near the Arab Emirites opened fire on a number of speedboats which were coming too close, ignoring warnings to distance themselves. The report comes from the Pentagon. According to Emirite sources, on the contrary, the Americans opened fire on a fishing boat, killing an Indian and wounding another 3 persons. “The Emirate security services have opened an inquest into the incident,” says the official news agency WAM, citing Tareq Amed al-Hidann of the Abu Dhabi Foreign Ministry. In the past, the use of speedboats in the Gulf against war or merchant ships was a tactic used by Iranian Pasdarans.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Salafists Criticize Their Exclusion From National Dialogue
Abdelwahab al-Humaiqan says panel, formed by President Hadi, ‘ignores large part of Yemeni population represented by Salafists’.
SANAA — Yemen’s Salafists want to be part of a national dialogue aimed at facilitating political transition in the country, but expressed criticisms for being excluded from the process, a Salafist said. The panel, formed by President Abrabuh Mansur Hadi, “ignores a large part of the Yemeni population represented by the Salafists,” said Abdelwahab al-Humaiqan, the secretary general of the hardline Islamist Al-Rashad party formed in March, at a Sunday rally.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Memoirs of a Revolutionary by Victor Serge — Review
Red or dead.
by John Gray
Memoirs of a Revolutionary by Victor Serge, New York Review Books, 416pp, £9.99
“We revolutionaries, who aimed to create a new society, ‘the broadest democracy of the workers’, had unwittingly, with our own hands, constructed the most terrifying state machine conceivable: and when, with revulsion, we realised this truth, this machine, driven by our friends and comrades, turned on us and crushed us.” The Russian revolutionary Victor Serge’s assessment of the role that he and his comrades played in building the machine that would destroy them is striking in its candour. Virtually all of his friends who managed to survive the dictatorship that was installed in the revolution of October 1917 blamed the totalitarian repression that ensued on factors — the Russian civil war, foreign intervention, Russian backwardness — for which the Bolshevik regime was not responsible.
Refusing to acknowledge his part in constructing and using the machinery of repression, Leon Trotsky pinned most of the blame on Joseph Stalin — a single human being. Here, Serge was more clear-sighted. Trotsky, he wrote, “refused to admit that in the terrible Kronstadt episode of 1921 the responsibilities of the Bolshevik central committee had been simply enormous, that the subsequent repression had been needlessly barbarous, and that the establishment of the Cheka (later the GPU) with its techniques of secret inquisition had been a grievous error on the part of the revolutionary leadership, and one incompatible with any socialist philosophy”.
[…]
[JP note: Muslim or the living death of dhimmitude.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghanistan: Bagram Detainees Want to Use US Constitution to Argue for Release
WASHINGTON — Prisoners held without trial for years at an American air base in Afghanistan shouldn’t be able to challenge their indefinite detention with the help of the U.S. Constitution, Obama administration attorneys argued Monday. Reinforcing a hard-line view that’s prevailed in past court battles, the administration said again that the foreign-born detainees at Bagram Air Field lacked the habeas corpus rights that the U.S. Supreme Court has extended to those held at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “We want to prevent enemy fighters from returning to the battlefield,” Justice Department attorney Jean Lin told a federal judge, while adding that “the United States does not intend to hold anyone longer than necessary.”
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Gets Death for Killing 4 French Troops
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan soldier has been sentenced to death for killing four French soldiers during a joint training and operation earlier this year in eastern Afghanistan.Afghan Ministry of Defense Spokesman Zahir Azimi says a military court in Kabul on Monday ordered the solider, Abdul Sabor, to be hanged. The sentence can be appealed. It is unclear when the soldier was convicted of the crime.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Afghan Soldier Sentenced to Death for Killing French Troops
An Afghan court has handed down the death penalty to an Afghan soldier who killed five French troops during a training operation in January. His attack prompted France to withdraw its contingent early. A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, Zahir Azimi, said on Tuesday that a military court in Kabul had ordered the soldier, Abdul Sabor, to be hanged.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Couple Embark on Afghan Circus Road-Trip
A German woman and her Canadian partner set off last week to help bring a circus to children in Afghanistan. They will be braving the Taliban by taking a rickshaw on one of the world’s most dangerous road trips.
Adnan Khan, 41, and his anthropologist sweetheart Annika Schmeding, 25, have embarked on the punishing 8,000 kilometre trip to Istanbul that demands a police escort and hoisting the rickshaw onto trucks to navigate the trickiest stages.
Their purpose is twofold: raise money for a charity that uses circus training to lift the spirits of children in war-torn Afghanistan and to spread those circus skills along the way, to brighten the lives of refugees and orphans.
Adnan left Kabul by road on July 11 as Schmeding flew to Islamabad, after eight months in the Afghan capital, to prepare the way. Accompanied by Afghan police, Adnan drove to the eastern town of Jalalabad, then onto the border with Pakistan’s tribal belt.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
India: ‘Love Jihad’ Bogeyman Resurfaces
BANGALORE — A poster warning about a “love jihad” was put up in the premises of the national headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi last week. It warns “Hindu brothers” about Muslim men marrying Hindu girls to convert them to Islam. Citing the examples of Bollywood actors Saif Ali Khan and Aamir Khan, the poster points out that they married Hindu women and had children, and then went in for a divorce. “Wake up Hindus, wake up. Beware of Love Jihad,” the poster warns, appealing to people to report such incidents, and provides an e-mail address and a mobile-phone number for that purpose.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Ahmadiyah Pressured Into Apologizing for Bogor Violence, Leaders Say
Ahmadiyah community members say they have been forced to apologize, while foreign journalists deny having incited violence against the sect’s followers in Bogor’s Cisalada village on Friday. According to Bogor Police, Ahmadiyah followers and local residents agreed to end the incident peacefully after leaders of Ahmadiyah apologized for the violence. “We apologize for our negligence. We never wanted to cause any conflict, and we never invited the journalists,” said Humaedi, one of the local Ahmadiyah leaders. However, Mubarik Ahmad, another Ahmadiyah leader in Cisalada, expressed concern about whether the statement that he wrote and signed on Saturday could further endanger his people. “I have no experience in writing such things. The district police chief and military commander told me what I had to write, that it was my fault for not reporting the foreign journalists to the subdistrict head,” Mubarik said on Sunday.
[…]
[JP note: Similarly, the West has been apologizing for 9/11 since it happened.]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Kazakhstan: Syrian Consulate ‘Badly Damaged in Blaze’
Almaty, 17 July (AkI) — The Syrian consulate in Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty has been seriously damaged by a fire which staff blamed on an arson attack linked to the conflict raging in the Middle Eastern country, a local report said on Tuesay.
The blaze gutted the entire third floor of the building where the consul’s office was situated includings its document archives, Kazakh private KTK television said.
No valuables were taken from the consulate and there was no immediate comment from the local police, according to the KTK report.
Staff believe the blaze broke out when attackers threw petrol bombs at the building, KTK said.
The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar Al-Assad began last year. Opposition groups put the death-toll at over 17,000.
The Red Cross has described the current situation as a civil war.
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan was on Tuesday due to hold talks on the crisis with Vladimir Putin, president of key Syrian ally Russia amid growing pressure for tougher international action against the country.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: March Against Opening of NATO Supply Route
(AGI) Peshawar — Thousands of Pakistanis marched to the border with Afghanistan to protest against a Nato supply route. The march from the northwestern city of Peshawar to nearby Jamrud, was organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami movement in protest against the government’s decision to reopen the route to vehicles supplying the ISAF contingent. The organisers had promised the participation of at least 50,000 but according to eyewitnesses there were about 8000 protestors on Monday evening. A number of posters carried the slogan, “Yes to peace, no to NATO”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Time to Declare Victory Over Madness and Come Home From the COIN Crusades
by Diana West
From the Sydney Morning Herald a report titled ““Fears over Afghan army, Taliban collusion.” As you read it, ask yourself at what point in this tragically familiar, numbingly repetitive cycle of Afghan army/Taliban collusion do Western commanders, both civilian and military, bear responsibility for KNOWING FULL WELL that such collusion is commonplace?
In the act of betrayal described below, the target of the raid mounted by Australian troops and their Afghan “partners” was a Taliban leader of 100 men from a handful of villages. Ask yourself also: How is that those 100 measly fighters in the Afghan bush magnetically draw the concentrated might of the Western democracies? Better: tell me how is it that those 100 fighters threaten the Western democracies in the first place? The strategic vision driving this and other such assaults is a joke. The COIN strategy of remaking Afghanistan in our PC image has failed. It is time to declare victory over madness, over delusion, and leave. That’s a “winning strategy” according to an ex-Green Beret friend with multiple stints in Afghanistan, who wrote: “By ‘winning’ I mean leaving Afghanistan as soon as possible, burning in place or blowing up all our materiel we can’t carry with us quickly.”
Ten years on, we can now say with certainty that, try as we might, we did not win the people’s “hearts and minds”; we did not win the people’s “trust” — the fundamental goals of the Bush-Petraeus-Obama-Mullen-McChrystal policy. This failure was preordained by the decision to ignore the truth about Islamic culture, by our arrogant assumption that we could win over its collectivist, supremacist, misogynist, totalitarian heart with bribery and blood, with self-sacrificial ROEs and training procedures that have killed innumerable troops. The fact is, COIN didn’t work in Afghanstan — just as COIN didn’t work in Iraq (or anywhere analogous). But we fight on till our deadline, and send our Sgt. Diddams into danger, day after day.
To what end?
Read and weep…
| — Hat tip: Diana West | [Return to headlines] |
UN Polio Doctor Injured in Pakistan Gun Attack
Around 300,000 children thought to be at risk as Pakistan Taliban prohibit immunisation campaign in tribal areas
Pakistan’s drive against polio has been thrown into chaos after a foreign doctor was attacked in Karachi a day after the Taliban reiterated a ban on immunisation in the the country’s tribal areas. A three-day nationwide immunisation campaign was launched on Monday but the Pakistan Taliban prohibited its administration in the tribal area, the militant-controlled zone that borders Afghanistan, putting around 300,000 children at risk. There has been a severe backlash against polio and other vaccinations since The Guardian reported in July last year that the CIA had used a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, to set up a fake vaccination programme, as a cover for the hunt for Osama bin Laden in the northern town of Abbottabad.
Philippines: Muslims sights Ramadan crescent Thursday
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/366355/muslims-sights-ramadan-crescent-thursday
Muslims in the Philippines will join fellow Islam believers across the globe in searching for the Ramadan crescent tomorrow, Thursday, to determine the first day of fasting. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar called Hijrah. It’s the year 1433 in the Islamic calendar, compared to 2012 in the Gregorian calendar. When the Islamic holy month arrives, adult Muslims are obliged to abstain from food, drink, cigarettes, sex, backbiting, etc., from dawn to dusk.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Asphalt Powerplay in Pakistan
China is shelling out massive amounts of money and manpower to improve Pakistan’s Karakoram Highway, the highest motorway in the world. The supposed gift to its neighbor is a perfect example of China’s economic strategy of taking on short-term expenses for the sake of long-term benefits.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Taiwan Teen Dies After Gaming for 40 Hours
A TAIWAN teenager has collapsed and died at an internet cafe after playing Diablo 3, a popular online video game, for 40 consecutive hours, local media say.
The 18-year-old identified by only his surname, Chuang, booked a private room at the cafe in Tainan, southern Taiwan, around noon on July 13 and played for nearly two days without eating, the United Daily News broadsheet reported on Tuesday.
On the morning of July 15, an attendant entered the room and found Chuang resting on a table. After the attendant woke him, he stood, took a few steps and then collapsed, the report said.
He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital.
Police were investigating the cause of death and an autopsy was being carried out, the newspaper reported.
They speculated that long hours in a sedentary position created cardiovascular problems for Chuang, the report said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Church Leaders Upset Over ‘Australian Christians’ Name
Church leaders have intervened to try to stop a new political party calling itself Australian Christians. The party has already registered nationally and in two states and it is running a candidate in this week’s Victorian by-election for the seat of Melbourne. The national director of Australian Christians, Ray Moran, says the party stands up for Christian values and hopes to put in a strong showing at the next federal election. But the Victorian Council of Churches says it is astounded that the party has been allowed to register a name which implies that it represents an entire faith.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Bomb in Front of School in Jos, Child Killed
(AGI) Abuja — An Islamic school was the real target of an attack this morning in Jos, capital of the federal state of Plateau. AGI received the report on the attack in center-northern Nigeria from local sources. A bomb exploded near a city office in Bukuru, in the suburbs of the capital city, but across the street is a Koranic school, targeted immediately after the explosion by a killer shooting. According to an initial reconstruction of the events, a child was hit by the gunfire and killed. According to sources at least five were wounded.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nigeria: Police Arrest 174 Suspected Terrorists in Kaduna
Kaduna State Police Command has arrested about 174 suspected terrorists in the state within the last two months. The state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar, who disclosed this at a news conference yesterday in Kaduna, also said several materials used for making Improvised Explosive Devices, (IED) were recovered. Abubakar said 27 of the suspects were arrested in the Rigasa area of the metropolis where several policemen had been killed in the past while 147 of the suspects were arrested during the recent crisis in the state.
He revealed that the police in its efforts to clampdown on criminal elements, a confessed terrorist led a team of detectives from the command’s Anti Robbery Squad to Rafin-Guza area of the city where a house, believed to be the hide out of terrorists was raided.
Some of the items recovered, according to the police commissioner, include different cans of explosives, a bomb making powder, four military uniforms, two bags of chemical used in making bombs, two masks, one AK 47 magazine with 27 rounds of live ammunition among others.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
Luis Fleischmann: The President’s Denial of Venezuela’s National Security Threat: Will the U.S Ever Get it Right in Latin America?
Last week a major politically charged controversy erupted after President Barack Obama in an interview with Oscar Haza from the Spanish language America Teve program “A Mano Limpia” pointed out that the destabilizing role of Iran in the world is “troubling”. But in the same interview, the President pointed out that “what Mr. Chavez has done over the last several years has not had a serious national security impact on us.”
This declaration by the president prompted a reaction by Republican White House hopeful, Mitt Romney, who responded in a strongly worded statement that “Hugo Chavez has provided safe haven to drug kingpins, encouraged regional terrorist organizations that threaten our allies like Colombia, has strengthened military ties with Iran and helped it evade sanctions, and has allowed a Hezbollah presence within his country’s borders.”
Several Republican leaders including Senator Marco Rubio who echoed Romney’s words called the President’s views naïve. Congresswoman Ileana Ross Lethinen expressed shock over the President’s remarks.
In reaction to this criticism a spokesperson for the president stated, “The president has refused to surrender to the antiquated rhetoric of people like Hugo Chavez…whose power is diminishing”. The spokesperson not only suggested that Chavez’s power is declining but also that the United States is strengthening alliances with other countries in the region…
| [Return to headlines] |
25 Afghan Immigrants Found in Bari on a Truck From Greece
(AGI) Bari — A group of 25 Afghan immigrants were found in Bari hiding in a Bulgarian cold storage truck embarked on a Greek ship. The truck, bearing a Bulgarian licence plate but without the tractor cab and driver, in which the temperature had shot up because the refrigeration was off despite the human load transported, was loaded with polystyrene boxes containing mussels, which raised the suspicions of the customs officers who decided to pass the vehicle through the “silhouette scan mobile”. The scan highlighted the presence of the 25 migrants in inhuman conditions, concealed inside the cover-up cargo that could be accessed through an external man-hole hidden between the rear wheel axle. All the Afghan nationals were forced back across the border while the cargo was impounded and made available to the judicial authorities.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Census 2011: Population Surges by 3.7 Million in a Decade
The population of England and Wales has undergone its biggest surge since records began after a decade of mass immigration and a baby boom, according to the 2011 census.
Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show that the population of England and Wales grew by 7.1 per cent to 56.1 million, twice the rate recorded in the previous decade. When the census results for Northern Ireland and an estimate for Scotland are taken into account the UK population stands at around 63.1 million, up four million in the past decade; almost equivalent to adding the entire city of Manchester each year. More than half the population growth has been driven by immigration, with two thirds of immigrants coming from non-EU countries. The official figures also show:
* England is now the third most densely populated country in the EU, behind only Malta and the Netherlands. In London, population density levels are 16 times higher than in the rest of the country.
* One in six people in England and Wales is over 65, with growth in the over-90 age group “particularly strong”, according to the ONS. The number of centenarians has risen by two thirds to 11,100.
* England and Wales have seen a baby boom, with the number of children under five rising by 13 per cent in the past decade to 3.5 million.
* There are almost 500,000 more people in England and Wales than previously estimated, putting schools, hospitals and Britain’s infrastructure under greater pressure than officials had accounted for.
[…]
[Reader comment by james1 on 17 July 2012 at about 09:30 am.]
Everyone can see what is happening with their own eyes, the speed of the changing ethnic population visible on the streets is astonishing and frightening and very very obvious to everyone now. Yet the media has gone totally silent. It’s the calm before the storm, everyone knows we’re in deep trouble and most people now realise this is going to get very ugly.
Too late for your debate now DT [Daily Telegraph]. You’re part of the problem. The damage has been done and you’ve helped destroy this country along with the rest of the media and politicians. Pity our poor children, their future resembles something out of Children of Men.
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Census 2011: Why the Numbers Don’t Add Up
by Philip Johnston
Britain’s population is soaring because of immigration and ageing — yet governments have failed to prepare for the consequences
Here it is, the figure we have been waiting for since March 27 last year, when most of us sat down to fill in the census form: 57,877,800. Or rather, that is the population total for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. For some reason, the people of Scotland will have to wait for their results. However, this gives us a pretty good idea of the size of the population of the United Kingdom as a whole, since we can add roughly another five million to the total announced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday, taking it to around 63 million.
[…]
At the current rate of increase, the UK’s population in just 20 years will be over 70 million and yet, until relatively recently, it was predicted to stabilise at under 60 million. Indeed, the planning of governments since the 1970s has all been predicated upon a static population. In other words, we were not prepared for this, either logistically or culturally. Partly this was because the last government and its cheerleaders simply refused to acknowledge what was going on, especially with regards to mass immigration. Their delusion continues. Yesterday, the IPPR, a Left-leaning think tank, observed in response to the latest census figures that the rate of population increase today is half what it was between 1801 and 1910, as if that somehow made it acceptable.
[…]
[Reader comment by bbtim on 17 July 2012 at 08:04 am.]
These figures are a woeful underestimate. 70 million+ is a more realistic number. IPPR was behind the Blair policy of swamp the country -and calling any anyone who opposes it ‘racist’. They maintained that Immigration was a ‘good thing’ and that we should all rejoice in ‘Multi-culturism’ (Ie do you mind women going around dressed in black bin liners; ritual slaughter of animals; bush meat; home grown terrorism etc).
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Tories Fail to Solve Immigration Crisis That Blights Britain
by Leo McKinstry
NO greater bunch of treacherous charlatans ever held office than the last Labour Government.
Without any consent from the British people, this gang of traitors enacted an unparalleled social revolution in our country by promoting by mass immigration on an epic scale. Our national identity was shattered, our mutual sense of belonging obliterated and our civic infrastructure put under intolerable strain. Tragically, the Tory-led Coalition has dismally failed to reverse this disastrous trend. From Ministers, we have had nothing but hollow words. The colonisation of Britain by foreigners continues to accelerate.
[…]
| — Hat tip: JP | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
Although from Northern Ireland - and they know a bit about being tough and plain speaking there - Leo McKinstry speaks up for the English on immigration in a way that no Englishman, especially a middle class one, would ever dare. They would be too worried of a visit from the police or more likely upsetting the neighbours. He has said it; we are being colonised and replaced in our own country at a rate of knots but the same is true of Holland, France and Scandinavia. We have now reached the edge of the abyss and are staring over the precipice nobody knows what is going to happen. Not only Catholic schools are now 90% muslim, so is my Church of England primary school which was without a trace of cultural enrichment until the late 1960s. Now it is Anglican in name only as most of the pupils are of "Pakistani heritage". We are rapidly becoming "First Nation British". The Marxist BBC showed a visit by some of the American athletes to a school in Birmingham. There was nobody of "European heritage" to be seen on either side. Still, neither were the children Cameron took with him to Washington "First nation British". It must seem very odd for those Americans brought up on Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as if the "First nation British" disappeared after the end of the War. Well we're still here for a few more decades, thanks.
Perhaps the Swedish graduates are leaving because they can see Sweden turning into a crime-ridden third world dump where the muslims may ultimately seize power and which, according to Ingrid Carqvist, just ain't Sweden any more so they might as well be in another "foreign" country. I wonder where they are off to? Watching the citizen ceremony in Canada reminded me that 40 to 50 years ago we used to think of Canadians as British, well mostly Scottish, apart from the pesky French Canadians. It is rumoured that multiculturalism was Pierre Trudeau's way of bringing down the British Canadians. How many people given the choice would want to live in a world where everybody is mixed up like a box of liquorice allsorts, the minority I suspect as ultimately everywhere will be the same and there will be no cultures anywhere bar consumerism.
So why is it being done? Can somebody please tell me?
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