One story to notice tonight is the one from South Africa about the local municipal council that has decided that it will no longer do any business with white people. Obviously, that’s not racism.Thanks to AMDG, C. Cantoni, El Ingles, ESW, Insubria, KGS, TB, VH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Berlusconi’s Honeymoon With the Italians
They call it “honeymoon”. This is no romantic movie, though, it’s the nickname that Italian newspapers gave to a new political phenomenon: Berlusconi’s personal degree of favor among the Italians, his popularity has now reached 60%. For people that are used to all kinds of promises coming from politicians before any electoral campaign, current results must be shocking; as if, suddenly, Santa Claus would arrive carrying presents in October.
There were a few very important issues on Berlusconi’s desk, immediately after the elections: a stagnant economy, unemployment, the problem with Alitalia, the garbage in Naples, security and justice. Generally speaking, it was a quite difficult situation to face. Speaking about the economy, according to a Ipr Marketing poll made for La Repubblica, 86% of Italians think that inflation should have priority in this government’s agenda. Citizens cannot afford the soaring costs of living. The house market, the food sector, transportation and school have become too expensive during the recent years, salaries, on the other end, have not followed the same trend. The result? People were scared to death about the future and when that happens, the economy tends to suffer. One of the first moves of the new government was eliminating the so called Ici, a homeowners’ tax. This tax does, however, still exist when it comes to secondary properties such as a country house or a second apartment in the city. People who only have one house though, will not have to pay a dime for it. To help older people keep up with soaring prices of energy, this government has introduced what they call the Robin Hood tax. It is an adjustment that forces oil and gas companies to demonstrate their revenues in order to keep prices of gas at an acceptable level.
The second concern, according to the same poll, is unemployment, which 78% of Italians described as their first concern. As everyone knows, Italy has been a country for trade unions since its creation as a Republic. At the end of WWII, the communist partisans who fought against the Nazi-fascist occupation created the Italian constitution with a model in mind: the Russian empire with its bureaucratic apparatus of State owned industries. As a result, over the past four decades, entrepreneurs like Berlusconi have found it very difficult to create their own businesses, since they were oppressed by a scary prototype of the man, the opposite of Alexey Stakanov: the “fannullone”. Sluggards have dominated the scene of the Italian economy until the arrival of Berlusconi. They have been stealing from the State by working for the minimum amount of hours they could, while getting paid like others colleagues that were actually working. This cancer has been fought with passion by Berlusconi’s government and by ministers like Renato Brunetta, the sluggards’ worst nightmare. The Minister of Public Administration wanted to make one thing clear once nominated: there will be no more space for idlers in Italy. The reason this government wants to get rid of such people is quite simple: they keep the job market full and prevent real workers from getting in. Workers’ rights were too rigid and in favour of trade unions before, now they have changed and young people are able to find jobs more easily. It is also true that they now have to prove their skills much more than before, but that’s globalization. If the world is flat as Friedman argues, than the toughs get going when the going gets though, right?…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Religion: Spain, 13mln Euro a Month to Catholic Church in 2009
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, OCTOBER 16 — The Spanish Episcopal conference will receive more than 13 million euro a month from the Finance Ministry in 2009 as an advance on the voluntary contribution of 0.7% of the tax that is equivalent to the personal income tax that is assigned to the Catholic Church by taxpayers. The monthly amount, indicated in the state’s new budget which should be approved by the Cortes next week, is intended for the salaries of bishops and priests in the 69 dioceses and the 22,000 parishes in the county. It is, as the daily newspaper El Pais mentioned today, the second budget following the new financing agreement signed by the Spanish government with the Catholic Church, which has increased the contribution of the income tax from 0.5% to 0.7%, which can voluntarily be allocated to the work of the Catholic Church. In exchange, bishops will pay VAT on their commercial activities, as has been repeatedly requested by the European Commission. In the 2006 agreement, the Episcopal conference also committed itself to presenting a record on the administration of money received from tax payers. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Prostitution, 50 Mln Spent on Prostitutes Every Day
(By Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, SEPTEMBER 1 — Prostitution in Spain is a nine-digit figure, among the biggest in the world, the most lucrative after arms smuggling and generating more profit than drug trafficking, according to the results of the study on prostitution presented at the Congress of Deputies and quoted by EFE news agency. The figures in the report are considerable: the Spaniards spend 50 million euro for paid sex every day with peaks in Andalusia, in the community of Valencia and in Madrid, which being the most densely populated areas also have the biggest number of prostitutes. The experts, authors of the report presented in Congress, estimate that some 100,000 call-girls are working in Spain, although the unofficial estimates speak of at least 300,000 people practicing prostitution, mostly foreign women. According to investigations quoted by EFE, at least 6% of the Spanish population are frequent clients of prostitutes, who are more likely to work in so-called clubs ‘de alterne’, or clubs where prostitution is normally practiced, rather than on the streets. According to data provided by the association of the owners of such clubs, the prostitution business in Spain generates 18 billion euro a year, the billions of euro paid to newspapers for the publication of ads for paid sex excluded. The country, which is in the front line of civil rights thanks to the gender equality laws and the laws against domestic violence adopted by the government of Zapatero, has no code of self-regulation or any legislation that prevents the newspapers from publishing thousands of advertisements for prostitution, for each gender and taste. Thanks to the regular inspections in the prostitution clubs carried out by the Guardia Civil, there is a relatively reliable census of the women practicing the world’s oldest profession in the clubs. The figure is over 96,000. The prostitutes who work on the street are estimated to some 6,000, while there is no official data on those who work in private homes. The communities with the smallest number of prostitutes are located in Northern Spain, Navarra and the Basque Country, as well as the southern region of Estremadura. The report presented in Congress shows also that despite the differences between the regions, some 50% of the women practicing prostitution in Spain (90% according to sources from the Guardia Civil) are of Latin-American origin. Of foreign origin, most often illegal immigrant, young and without a degree, this is the identikit of the prostitute provided by the report. The number of Spanish prostitutes is constantly decreasing. In the same way, the number of streetwalkers decreases in the big cities such as Madrid and Barcelona after the mayors’ orders banning prostitution and the installation of video cameras like the ones on the central Calle Montera, in the heart of the Spanish capital. Serious economic problems, no access to the labour due to the lack of documents and residence permit, problems with drugs and alcohol are the main causes that force the women to become prostitutes. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Door Thief, Piglet Rustler, Pudding Snatcher: British Courts Despair at Extradition Requests
Warrants for ‘trivial’ cases double in a year
The number of extradition cases being dealt with in the UK courts has reached record levels, fuelled by a number of “trivial” requests from Europe that have exasperated the police and clogged up the system, the Guardian has learned.
Up to 1,000 extradition cases are expected to have been dealt with by the end of the year, more than double the number last year, and four times the number in 2006 according to figures from the City of Westminster magistrates court, which handles all extradition hearings.
The increase is largely down to the volume of European arrest warrants (EAWs), many of them issued by Poland.
EAWs, requiring the arrest and extradition of suspects from one EU country to another, are being used by Poland for a “large volume of trivial extradition requests”, according to Detective Sergeant Gary Flood of Scotland Yard’s extradition unit.
He estimated that 40% of all extradition cases dealt with by the Metropolitan police originated in Poland, adding that many of the offences were so minor they would lead to either a caution or no investigation at all in England and Wales.
In one case, according to Flood, a carpenter who fitted wardrobe doors and then removed them when the client refused to pay him, was subject to an extradition request by Poland so that they could try him for theft. In another case, the Polish authorities requested the extradition of a suspect for theft of a dessert. “The European arrest warrant contained a list of the ingredients,” Flood said.
Although Poland is not the only culprit — a Lithuanian was extradited last year on a charge of “piglet-rustling” — it has made the most requests by far.
According to Flood the volume of cases from Poland has forced the Metropolitan police to start chartering special planes to return suspects to Poland. “We now arrange for a Polish military flight every three weeks,” he said.
The number of requests from Poland and other eastern European countries is due to the absence of a filtering process to weed out cases that are not worth prosecuting.
The Crown Prosection Service (CPS), which manages prosecutions in England and Wales, operates a “threshold test” whereby cases are only pursued where it is “in the public interest”.
“The Polish system requires a trial for every criminal allegation, no matter how trivial,” said District Judge Nicholas Evans, one of only five extradition judges in England and Wales.
Singling out Poland as a source of extradition requests, he said that the increase in cases was placing increasing strain on the system and “a disproportionate amount of time is expended in cases which do not merit the effort”. Poland has already made 224 extradition requests this year, with Polish interpreters required and paid for by the court on 311 occasions…
| — Hat tip: El Ingles | [Return to headlines] |
Wilders Slams Appointment of Moroccan Mayor
Freedom Party leader says appointing Moroccan Ahmed Aboutaleb as Rotterdam mayor is as ridiculous as having a Dutchman become mayor of Mecca.
AMSTERDAM — The right-wing leader of Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, on Friday slammed the upcoming appointment of Moroccan Ahmed Aboutaleb as mayor of Rotterdam.
“Appointing a Moroccan as mayor of the second largest Dutch city is just as ridiculous as appointing a Dutchman as mayor of Mecca,” he said.
Instead, Wilders said, Aboutaleb “should become mayor of Rabat in Morocco.”
“With him as mayor, Rotterdam will be Rabat on the banks of the river Maas. Soon we may even have an imam serving as arch bishop. This is madness.”
On Friday, the city council of Rotterdam determined Moroccan-born Muslim Ahmed Aboutaleb will be mayor from 1 January.
The government still has to approve 47-year-old Aboutaleb’s appointment, but this is considered a formality.
The Labour politician is the first mayor to be born and raised outside the Netherlands. He is also the first Muslim to become a mayor in the Netherlands.
Aboutaleb was born in Morocco and migrated to the Netherlands at the age of 14. He is currently deputy minister of social affairs, and previously served as an alderman in Amsterdam.
The second largest party in the Rotterdam city council, Leefbaar Rotterdam, responded furiously to development, slamming the fact that Aboutaleb has double nationality, Moroccan and Dutch.
This was supported by the national Freedom Party PVV, whose legislator Fleur Agema announced it would request an emergency debate in parliament about Aboutaleb’s likely appointment.
It is the second time in two years Aboutaleb’s Moroccan citizenship has caused controversy in Dutch politics.
On his appointment as deputy minister, the Freedom Party also criticised the fact that Aboutaleb held double citizenship, “at the least creating the appearance of double loyalties,” legislator Agema said.
Both the national Freedom party and the local Leefbaar Rotterdam advocate a strict immigration policy and harsh measures against crime by migrants.
However, Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen (Labour) praised Aboutaleb, calling him “highly capable” — although he criticised fact that Labour now has three mayoral posts of the Netherlands’ four biggest cities, while it also occupies a majority in cities of intermediate size.
“Not having any mayor from the largest government party Christian Democrats will complicate receiving national funding for local projects,” Cohen said.
Moroccan citizens cannot revoke their citizenship. Even their children born in the Netherlands are automatically Moroccan citizens.
Repeated Dutch attempts to negotiate with Morocco about granting its citizens the right to revoke their Moroccan citizenship have failed.
Some 45 percent of the 582,000 citizens of Rotterdam were not born in the Netherlands or have foreign-born parents.
In Rotterdam, which has a broad range of socio-economic problems, crime involving the migrant community is an ongoing issue that causes tension with Dutch-born citizens.
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: 550 Mln Euro in Foreign Investments Since January
(ANSAmed) — SARAJEVO, OCTOBER 13 — In the first nine months of 2008, according to data from the Agency for the Promotion of Foreign Investments (FIPA) the value of direct foreign investments in Bosnia Herzegovina has risen to 550 million euros. According to the Italian Trade Commission in Sarajevo there has been a significant increase compared to the same period in 2006, while — compared to last year (the year in which many privatisations were registered, including the sale of SRPSKE Telecom) — direct foreign investments fell. According to the director of FIPA, Haris Basic, direct foreign investments could rise to around 650 million euros by the end of the year, still at a lower level than predicted, however. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: EU, Belgrade Unilaterally Adopts Trade Agreement
(ANSA) — BELGRADE, OCTOBER 16 — The EU sympathizing Serbian government of premier Mirko Cvetkovic today unilaterally adopted the decision to enact a transitory trade agreement signed with the EU in past months, but until now was frozen by Brussels due to opposition from Holland. The initiative was announced by Cvetkovic at the conclusion of a meeting of the Council of Ministers crowned by a unanimous vote. The vice-premier head of European integration, Bozidar Djelic, specified that Belgrade will begin to apply all clauses of the agreement starting in early January 2009, reducing in particular to 22 pct the customs duties on the gross of goods imported into Serbia from EU countries and from 20 to 10 pct on new and used automobiles. The agreement represents a fundamental step in Belgradés path towards being a candidate for entrance into the EU. Brussels considers it equally an intermediate stop of the more general Agreement of association and stabilization (Asa), also signed in the past months with Serbia and suspended in expectation of further verifications on the cooperation between current Serbian authorities and the International Penal Tribunal of the Hague in the hunt for the last war criminals in hiding since the 1990’s. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: EU Delegation to Visit Egyptian Universities
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, OCTOBER 17 — A delegation of the European Commission will visit three Egyptian universities from October 20 to 23 for talks on the Union’s available scientific research programmes. The delegation will go to Cairo, Alexandria and Assiut universities to talk to Egyptian researchers, according to a statement of the Commission. The visit is organized by the commission in cooperation with Egypt’s Reserach, Development and Innovation program, which is financed by the EU by an 11- million euro grant with the aim of boosting Egyptians’ research potentials. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Syria: Urso, Here a Great Chance for Our Businesses
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 15 — “The Italian government wants to boost economic and cultural relations with Syria. We are its biggest European trade partner and we mean to keep being so”, Italy’s Undersecretary for Economic Development Adolfo Urso said today attending the meeting on “Syria: Opportunities for Italian Businesses”, organized by the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE) in Rome on the occasion of the visit to Italy by Syriàs First Deputy Premier Abhullah Al-Dardari. “Syria has made giant steps forward in recent years — Urso said, recalling the extent to which consumer expenses, GDP, private enterprise and banks have grown in that Country. “Italy — he said — has big opportunities for investment, especially in sectors including ago-food, ago-industry process, textiles, tourism, technology and engineering. Syria can become a production and trade platform for us and the nearby markets.” This is the reason why, Urso concluded,” also through ICE Italy intends to transfer know-how and assist in the social and industrial development of Syria”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Israel: Italian Industrialists Eyeing Israel
(ANSAmed) — ROME, OCTOBER 15 — Strengthening the Institutional dialogue with Israeli Authorities to boost the presence of the Italian industrial system in Israel; presenting the Israel market and its excellences to Italian companies in order to foster cooperation that may bring together Italy’s valuable industrial capability and the advanced technologies developed by Israeli companies. Such are the two main goals before the system commission that the Confederation of Italian Industry, the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE) and the Italian Banking Association (ABI) are getting ready on the occasion of the State visit to Israel by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, scheduled November 25 to 27. The mission will be in cooperation with the Authorities and the Confederation of Industry of the region Emilia Romagna and will focus on the sectors which currently seems to provide the best opportunities to Italian companies looking for opportunities abroad: hi-tech; engineering; electronics; agro-industry; infrastructure and transportation; security; communications; alternative energy and consumer goods. The programme of the Italian industrialists mission to Israel is very crammed and in a single morning on November 26 included four seminars at the same time on the sectors which offer a greater interest for economic cooperation between Italy and Israel: hi-tech, infrastructure and investment opportunities, agro-industry, consumer goods. Besides the section devoted to the dialogue between entrepreneurial realities in the two Countries, the mission included also visits to industrial parks, technological incubators and local industries. The Italy-Israel Business Forum is scheduled on November 27 with the participation of government officials from both Countries. Italy’s Minister for Economic Development Claudio Scajola, confirmed he will attend the Forum. There will also be a number of business meetings between Italian and local businesses, which is the real core of the mission to Israel, aiming at starting operational contacts to explore cooperation opportunities. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Fight Over Wine
An argument between a Coptic wine merchant, Abdou Benyamin, and a Muslim customer, Youssef Hafez Mitwalli, in the village of Sila in Matai, Minya, Upper Egypt, last Tuesday escalated into a sectarian fight in which three Copts and one Muslim were injured. Benyamin had refused to sell Mitwalli wine saying he no longer traded in alcohol, but Mitwalli did not believe him and an argument ensued. The following day the Muslim villagers began throwing stones from their rooftops at the nearby Coptic homes; the Copts answered back likewise and the incident, which lasted for some two hours, turned bloody and the injured were moved to hospital. The nine-year-old child Kyrillos Gayed who was merely sitting outside the door of his home when the fighting erupted suffered severe haemorrhage in his ear and had to be moved to Matai public hospital in a critical condition.
The police detained three Copts and a Muslim. Copts in the normally calm village of Sila form some 40 per cent of the population and their homes occupy the central part of the village, with Muslim homes on the North and South.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Oil: Deposit Discovered Off Libyan Coast
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, OCTOBER 13 — Verenex, a Canadian company, has discovered a new oil deposit in the Ghadames basin, about 250 kilometres south of Tripoli. The announcement was made this morning by the Lebanese national oil company. According to early analysis, the deposit will be able to guarantee a production of over 1,700 barrels a day. Libya, the oil third producer in Africa, after Nigeria and Angola, with about 2 million barrels a day, possesses an oil reserve estimated at 42 billion barrels. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Gay Palestinian Fears for Life, Seeks Residency in Israel
West Bank resident asks High Court to grant him permanent residency in Israel so he may reunite with domestic partner in Bat Yam; says his family objects to lifestyle, threatened to kill him
A 33-year-old gay Palestinian man petitioned the High Court of Justice on Sunday, asking it to grant him permanent residency in Israel so that he may live with his partner, who lives in the central Israeli city of Bat Yam.
The man, a resident of the northern West Bank village of Tamon, further claimed to fear for his life, since his family refuses to accept his sexual orientation and may try to harm him.
UK says it is granting refuge to homosexual who fears he could face execution if forced to return to his homeland
Attorneys Yohanna Lerman and Maya Yatziv, for the plaintiff, told the court that the man and his partner met nine years ago, and have been domestic partners ever since.
According to the brief, the Palestinian’s family found out about his gay relationship in early 2000 and subsequently warned him that if he did not “reform” he will be killed to save face.
The man chose to continue living with his lover in Israel, unbeknown to his family, but unfortunately, relatives residing in Jaffa informed his father that he was “still hanging out with homosexuals.”
Meanwhile, the man’s older brother was discovered to be a collaborator, and according to the petition, both family members and other Tamon residents began suspecting the plaintiff was one as well — since he was spending lengthy periods of time in Israel — placing him in even grater danger.
The plaintiff, noted the petition, was arrested in 2002 by security forces for being in Israel without the proper permits. The court recognized his special circumstances, sentencing him to only four months in prison. Once released, he moved to the West Bank city of Bethlehem and continued to stay with his partner as often as possible.
“The sanctity of life is beyond reproach and needs no evidence to back it up. A human life must be protected without distention of race or creed,” said the petition.
The plea urged the court to grant the man permanent residency in Israel, since forcing him to return to his village would place him in grave danger.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Minister: Imams Unable to Keep Young People From Extremism
Prince Naif asks universities to study ways to keep away ideas that distort religion and defame the nation. Studying human rights does not mean that the country lacks values.
Riyahdh (AsiaNews) — With the exception of those in Mecca and Medina, Saudi imams are unable to keep young people from extremism. The denunciation comes from the interior minister, Prince Naif. During a meeting with university professors, the minister said that “the more than 15,000 mosques in the country constitute the best forums for guidance, but the imams have failed miserably in discharging their duties.”
The minister, who spoke at the opening of a seminar on human rights in higher education and intellectual security at Al-Qura University in Mecca, specified that “frankly speaking, I would like to say that the imams of mosques, with the exception of the two holy mosques, have not played their desired role (in the fight against extremism).” In fact, Saudi Arabia is officially committed to the fight against extremism, and has launched programs of various kinds, including for the rehabilitation of people involved in terrorism.
Entering more specifically into the theme of the meeting, Prince Naif maintained that “the introduction of topics related to human rights in the education or any other area of life does not mean that our society is ignorant or deficient in human values as some quarters have been portraying.”
In his view, the universities have a significant role to play in keeping Saudi young people away from the danger of destructive ideologies. “Since universities are centers of research, it is their duty to study ways to root out ideas that distort religion and defame the nation.” More specifically in regard to questions of security, “universities should be capable of contributing to the service of the country and it is in line with the teaching of Islam which urges its followers to benefit from fruits of learning.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Assad, Threats From Northern Lebanon Extremists
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, OCTOBER 17 — Syria is in the sights of extremists from northern Lebanon; this was stated by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad cited today in the Beirut newspaper, as-Safir. According to “Arab sources” present in “a recent conversation with Assad” and cited this morning in the newspaper, the Syrian president said that his country “entered into the sights of fundamentalist extremists (operating) in northern Lebanon. They are the ones — added Assad, cited by sources -who are trying to transform Syria into a theatre of operations after having tried to make the country a passageway between Lebanon and Iraq”. Assad, still according to “an Arab source” cited in as-Safir, “circles” in the anti-Syrian coalition of the Forces of March 14th, “have in the past, financed some of these terrorist groups”. The newspaper, noted for being close to Damascus, stated that presumed head of a “terrorist cell” in hiding, Abd Ghani Jawhar, accused of being behind recent terrorist attacks in Tripoli (90km north of Beirut) is also responsible for the terrorist attack on Damascus on last September 29th. In the three episodes of violence, a total of 40 people died. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Largest Mosque Opens in Chechnya
GROZNY, Oct 17: Chechnya on Friday imposed stringent security for the opening of a mosque said to be Europe’s largest in a symbolic show of the war-torn Russian region’s return to normality.
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov led a dedication ceremony in the capital, Grozny, before an audience of more than 2,000 people in the “Heart of Chechnya” mosque which authorities say has a capacity of 10,000 people.
“The war in Chechnya was unleashed in order to destroy Russia, but the Chechen people, supported by the federal centre, foiled these filthy plans,” Kadyrov was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
He also praised Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who oversaw the 1999 war that crushed the region’s separatist leaders, later replaced by a pro-Moscow government. Putin visited the mosque on Thursday.
Access to the Grozny city centre was blocked during the ceremony as soldiers and police were stationed every 100 metres to prevent attacks by militants, which still occur frequently in Chechnya.
Dozens of guests waited in heavy rain to be let inside the mosque dedicated to late Chechen president Ahmad Kadyrov, father of the current leader.
Ahmad Kadyrov was a one-time militant and mufti who preached jihad against Moscow, then switched sides and ruled Chechnya until his assassination in 2004.
His son Ramzan has promoted a greater role for Islam in the Caucasus region even as human rights groups have accused him of involvement in mass killings and abductions.
The 35-acre complex includes a university, library, madressah and dormitories for students.
| — Hat tip: ESW | [Return to headlines] |
Troops Killed in Ingushetia Ambush
At least two soldiers are dead after coming under fire in the southern Russian province of Ingushetia, Russian news agencies have reported.
“A column of military personnel stationed in Ingushetia came under assault rifle and grenade fire,”a local interior ministry spokesman told RIA Novosti news agency on Saturday.
“As a result, two soldiers were killed and two were hospitalised.”
A spokesman for the Ingushetian interior ministry said that a convoy came under fire near the village of Muzhichi, about 25km east of the main town of Nazran, but was unable to confirm casualties.
However, a local opposition website reported that “around 50 soldiers” had died in a series of attacks by rebel fighters across Ingushetia, a small territory which shares a border which Chechnya.
“A source from the Sunzhensky region interior ministry said around 50 soldiers were killed,” the Ingushetia.org website reported.
Convoy destroyed
A regional law enforcement official told the Reuters news agency that three armoured personnel carriers and two lorries were hit by automatic-rifle fire and grenades killing all but one soldier travelling in the convoy.
“The soldiers didn’t even manage to resist, because several rocket-propelled grenades hit their trucks,” the source said.
A resident of the Muzhichi told Reuters that troops had barricaded the village and were checking passports while two helicopters circled overhead.
Moscow is struggling to control Ingushetia — a poor, predominantly Muslim province — which has seen increasing numbers of bombings and clashes between federal troops and local armed groups.
The local branch of human rights group Memorial says that 93 people, from a population of 470,000, were killed in violence in the first eight months of the year.
Russian officials blame the violence on groups of armed men, many driven by Islamist ideas, who they say have tried to overthrow Moscow’s rule since 2002.
Locals and human rights groups have criticised heavy-handed tactics by the security forces, which along with poverty and official corruption have created a groundswell of popular opposition to Moscow-backed officials.
In a separate incident on Saturday, a car exploded in the village of Kantyshevo killing its driver in what reports quoted officials as saying could be the accidental detonation of a bomb intended for “a terrorist attack”.
| — Hat tip: VH | [Return to headlines] |
Christians of Orissa Appeal to UN as “Stateless Citizens”
The government of Orissa is even closing the refugee camps, and thousands of people have nowhere to go. An appeal to the UN, that it grant Indian Christians the status of refugees, protect them, and send them the food and shelter that India is denying them.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — The government of Orissa is closing the refugee camps and driving out thousands of Christians, without food or shelter. In the meantime, the violence continues, denounced as a genocide to the United Nations, which is being asked for immediate intervention.
Fr. Manoj Digal of the archdiocesan social service center tells AsiaNews, “One of the three relief camps in Baliguda was shut down on Oct 15th, and 900 people sent away. It is ridiculous, these people have nowhere to go, they are defenseless, moreover they have been given just 10 kg of rice per family. How will they live? The government has not even given them tents, where will our people stay? They have lost everything, they are reduced to nothing, moreover, the looming fear of reconversion to Hinduism, if they return to their villages they can only stay as Hindus. The government has not ensured any security for these Christians. There is a grave risk and threat to their lives terror still haunting them, moreover, now radical women’s groups who are terrorising the Christian women. Our people are destitute.”
Sajan K, George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) has petitioned the United Nations over the decision by the government of Orissa to close the refugee camps in the district of Kandhamal. Sajan writes to the UN that “The New York Times on 3rd September 2008 reported that 1,400 homes and 80 churches had been destroyed or damaged. The actual figures in Orissa, are more than double. Hundreds have been killed for belonging to the faith and large-scale gross human rights abuse is taking place — rape, brutal injury, police atrocities, torching of churches & property belonging to Christians, their institutions and clergy. ?Even the official figures of lives lost or crores of rupees worth property vandalized in the ensuing carnage, has shocked civil society in India and abroad. Tens of thousands are rendered homeless, living in the forests or in government relief camps, where inhuman living conditions, devoid of basic food and medicine, cause many deaths. The Christian community seems to have lost all faith in the government to protect the life and property of its citizens, especially when it comes to the minority Christians, who constitute a meager 2.5% of the country’s population.”
“The states where this is happening, especially Orissa,” he continues, “are ruled by the opposition right-wing BJP and allies, and this being an election year, the government is reluctant to act, as it is not seen to be politically expedient. It’s been months since the Christmas eve massacre in Orissa and the community has ever since, been knocking at all doors — the president and prime minister of India downwards — but to no avail. As of today, the attacks continue with a renewed vigour of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Orissa and spreading to at least eight other states of India. The onslaught would have claimed more lives, if only the media and human rights activists had not played a significant restraining role, by highlighting the brutality of the Hindu extremists, backed by an inactive government, which if not abets the communal violence, certainly turns a Nelson’s eye to it. There are all indications of a worse holocaust to follow the communal carnage, which we fear cannot be prevented by the government. Christian NGOs and the Church are not allowed to even fend for their own and care for the hurt and dying.”
“These Orissa Christians and others to follow,” he concludes, “express the desire to be termed Prima Facie Refugees and urge you, through the UNHCR to deem them so, in order that they can be covered by a legal framework to protect their human dignity from rights violations and abuse. Currently, they along with tens of thousands, are a stateless people, as the writ of the government of India does not run large in the state of Orissa.” “Tens of thousands such as these will either be killed by the Hindu extremists or will die of injury and malnourishment, if no attention is paid immediately. Many of these are old, women, children, babies, clergy. who are the most vulnerable sections. We appeal to you on humanitarian grounds, not take a strictly legalistic view, as precious lives are being lost by every day, even as blood is split by the hour.” “We also appeal to the UN and its world agencies, to exercise its power and influence, to protect lives and prevent further killings in India or discrimination on the basis of race, religion or caste.”
Meanwhile, the violence is spreading through the entire country. On October 14, two churches were attacked in Erode, in Tamil Nadu: unknown assailants threw stones, at night, breaking windows and furniture.
There are still seeds of hope amid the disaster. Sister M. Suma, regional superior of the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, fled from the order’s house in Sukananda, district of Kandhamal, burned down on September 30 by Hindu extremists. She tells AsiaNews that she is being allowed to stay for a couple of days in the refugee camp in Raikia, where she says “I hope I can share with them the love of Mother Teresa. Keep the joy of loving God in your heart.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Porn Bill Committee OK’s Bikinis at Resorts
Jakarta, 17 Oct. (AKI/Jakarta Post) — The Indonesian lower house of Parliament’s special committee debating the controversial pornography bill will allow tourists to wear bikinis at beach resorts.
The move is aimed at ensuring tourism — an important source of foreign exchange revenue for Indonesia — is not damaged by the controversial legislation.
“Tourists are allowed to wear bikinis in tourism resorts like Bali and Parang Tritis beach (in Yogyakarta). The porn bill will treat recreational and leisure areas differently,” MP Husein Abdul Azis of the Democratic Party said on Thursday.
There have been fears among domestic tourism operators, especially on Bali, that the bill would deter tourists from visiting because it would recquire them to wear “appropriate” clothing.
Bali is the country’s top tourist destination. Indonesia aims to attract 7 million tourists this year and collect some 6.7 billion dollars in foreign exchange revenue.
The head of the special committee deliberating the pornography bill, Balkan Kaplale, said his team had made some changes to contentious articles in the bill, finalising its terms before lawmakers begin their recess period starting on 30 Oct.
“I can say there have been drastic changes in the bill,” said Balkan of the country’s largest party, the Golkar Party. The changes act as a compromise to the growing opposition movements to the bill.
Despite concerns for tourism, speculation continues to mount over Articles 21 and 22 of the bill, which stipulate that the public is allowed to “directly involve” itself in preventive measures against pornography.
Critics have said the articles could put the law into the hands of civilians, including hardliners.
Azis said the committee had already added additional explanations to those particular articles of concern.
“The bill has made it clear now that such preventive measures are only applicable to the authority of the police and prosecutors,” he said.
However, lawmakers are still discussing the much criticised definition of pornography, he said.
Article 1 of the bill defines pornography as any man-made work that includes sexual material in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversations or any other form of communicative message.
Lawmaker Muhaimin Iskandar of the National Awakening Party (PKB) said the committee would inform the public about changes to the bill before 28 Oct.
“We must publicise the changes in the media. This bill should no longer be creating controversy and should be ready to be passed,” Iskandar said.
The committee will bring the amended bill to the lower house of Parliament’s consultative body next Tuesday.
“If the body approves the bill, the House will bring it to the plenary session and pass it on 28 or 30 Oct,” Iskandar stated.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Kyrgyzstan to Restrict Religious Freedom
Restrictive draft bill, which passed first reading in Kyrgyz parliament, will especially affect minorities. A ban is imposed on religions not recognised by the government and on proselytising.
Bishkek (Asianews) — Kyrgyzstan’s single-chamber Parliament, the Zhogorku Kenesh, approved without discussion the first reading of a restrictive draft bill on religion. Now it is waiting for a second reading before the bill becomes law, something which could come as early as next Tuesday, 21 October, but that has not yet been announced. What the law entails remains unclear.
The Norway-based human rights organisation Forum18 said that parliament and the State Agency for Religious Affairs have refused to release the latest version of the draft bill.
The parliamentary committee that wrote it announced that it was not different from the text the government released on its website last May.
Protestant groups, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Baha’is countered however that the latest version is even more restrictive than that of May.
Kyrgyzstan has a population of more than five million people, 70 per cent of whom are Muslims. Orthodox Christians are about 5 per cent and the remaining 25 per cent is divided between atheists and other religious denominations.
Minorities are very likely to be the most affected. From what is known so far the draft bill would ban any religion not recognised by the government and would also outlaw proselytising.
Under the new law religious groups would need at least 200 adult members in order to be registered as a local community. It would also allow local authorities to ban activities by groups registered in other districts.
Kyrgyz restrictions parallel those that Kazakhstan is set to implement.
At the end of September the Kazakh parliament adopted a law like the one proposed in Kyrgyzstan. It has come in for criticism by various human rights organisation because they were denied the opportunity to see the bill before it was approved.
Both republics are home to small Catholic communities. A single church stands in Kyrgyzstan, built in 1969 in Soviet times by the German minority and expanded in the 80s.
Since 2006 the apostolic administration is in the hands of a Jesuit, Bishop Nikolaus Messmer, who is responsible for 30 communities across the country, each with about 30 members.
When Benedict XVI received central Asian bishops in ad limina visit in early October he mentioned their importance as a “small flock” in a land of mission.
Talking about restrictive policies now being implemented to fight terrorism and fundamentalism, the Pope warned that the “force of the law can never be transformed into injustice, nor can the free practice of religions be limited”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Girls’ School ‘Blown Up in Northwest’
Mingora, 17 Oct. (AKI) — Suspected militants on Friday blew up a girls middle school in Mingora, in the volatile Swat valley in North West Frontier Province, Pakistan’s Geo News reported.
The bombing follows a rocket and suicide attack on Thursday against a police station in Mingora that killed at least four Pakistani security officials and wounded twenty-six.
Meanwhile, a curfew imposed on the town of Tehsil Khwazakhela on Monday after deadly overnight clashes between Taliban fighters and Pakistani security forces has been relaxed from 8am to 5pm, Geo News said.
Twenty-five militants and two soldiers were killed in the Tehsil Khwazakhela clashes, Pakistani daily Dawn reported.
Geo News reported that American drones were on Friday continuing their flights over various areas of the Khyber Agency and North Waziristan tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, spreading panic among local villagers.
Unnamed sources quoted by Geo News said six people were killed and five others injured Thursday in air strikes by US spy planes on the village of Sam, believed to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud’s base.
It was the first airstrike by a US drone in territory controlled by Mehsud — Pakistan’s most wanted militant. It may have been been targeting a group of Uzbek militants, reports said.
There have been a series of US drone attacks inside Pakistani territory along the border with Afghanistan in recent weeks, which have angered the public and increased tension between the US and Pakistan.
In other news, a grand jirga of tribal chieftains from Kurram Agency on the Afghan border on Thursday brokered a peace deal between warring sectarian groups in the region.
The accord is expected to end the violence between Sunni Bangash and Shia Turi tribesmen that has plagued Kurram for 18 months and led to the deaths of hundreds of people.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
China Restricts Islam
Chinese authorities have enforced laws restricting Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang from practicing their faith. (NY Times photo)
CAIRO — With prayers banned in public areas, private hajj trips not allowed, teaching of the Noble Qur’an not allowed in private and students and government officials forced to eat during Ramadan, China in enforcing laws and regulations restricting the practice of Islam.
“Of course this makes people angry,” Mohammad, a teacher, told The New York Times on Sunday, October 19.
“Excitable people think the government is wrong in what it does. They say that government officials who are Muslims should also be allowed to pray.”
In recent week, Chinese authorities have enforced laws restricting the ability of Muslims in the northwestern region of Xinjiang from practicing their faith.
In Khotan, signs posted in front of the grand mosque say the weekly Friday prayer sermon must not extend beyond than a half-hour.
Prayers in public areas outside the mosque is forbidden and residents are banned from worshipping at mosques outside their town.
Under the rules, imams are banned from teaching the Qur’an in private and only official versions of the Qur’an are allowed.
Studying Arabic is only allowed at special government schools.
Government workers are banned from showing the slightest sign of religious devotion.
For example, a Muslim civil servant could be sacked for donning hijab.
Many of the rules have been on the books for years, but local authorities have publicly highlighted them in recent weeks with banners hanged in towns.
They began posting regulations mandating women not to wear hijab and men to shave their beards.
Uighur Muslims are a Turkish-speaking minority of more than eight million in Xinjiang, a northwest vast area that borders Central Asia.
Atheist China recognizes five religions — Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Taoism and Buddhism — and tightly regulates their administration and practice.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Discrimination and Hostility Making Vietnamese Catholics More United
Surveillance of the religious, cultural, and social activities of the faithful continues: members of the communist youth movement are recording classes for the police. The Politburo praises the government media for their campaign of defamation, but the national news agency praises the humanitarian activities of the faithful. Meanwhile, the number of young people who want to learn more about the Church’s social doctrine is rising.
Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) — Beyond the manifest hostility of the authorities in the affair concerning the property of the Church of Hanoi — and in which the state media that have conducted a campaign of defamation has been praised by the Politburo — the 7 million Catholics of Vietnam are suffering widespread discrimination, together with constant surveillance.
The monitoring concerns everything that Catholics do in the areas of education, cultural, the economy, and social work. “In my class,” says John Tran G., an English teacher, “in the Institute of economic administration in district 10, there are students who are members of the youth union, who work for the police and follow me in order to report to the local authorities. They report on my religious activities. They tell the directors of the Institute about my participation in prayer groups.” “Every time I give a lesson,” says a professor at Ho Chi Minh City Open University, “ I see two or three of my students recording me. They may be doing this to show what I say and think to the police. When I come to class, I am sad and uneasy. But I don’t want to leave my job, I love it and it helps me support my family.” “When I teach,” confirms a teacher at the national university, “my words are recorded by my students, who want to ‘sell’ the recordings or transcripts to the police, for little money. This makes me sad, because I’m offended in my respect for myself. It may be that the government is producing lying and mutual mistrust among human beings.”
The fact is that the objective of education has become personal enrichment, and not the progress of society, not the formation of ideals. “The system of education,” explains a professor of history, “has been degraded. The mechanism is destroying the cultural heritage of the country, concepts like ‘ton us, trong dao’, meaning the veneration of teachers and respect for traditional values. We are producing citizens of the ‘chu nghia co ho’, persons of ‘opportunism’ in society, who work to satisfy their selfish desires and not for the values of the country. They are willing to do anything for money, and this is terrible for our country.”
But this covert hostility, and the open hostility shown in Hanoi in the controversy over the building belonging to the former apostolic delegation and the land of the parish of Thai Ha, are having the unintended effect of increasing the spirit of unity among Catholics, their hope and charity. Notwithstanding the fact that the party Politburo has celebrated its “victories” over the Church.
On October 8, in fact, the sector for media affairs and propaganda praised the state media for their efforts to “spread quickly, timely, and on the right direction propaganda relating to the breaking-law incidents of priests, faithful, and Archbishop Ngo Quang Kiet at Thai Ha parish” and at the former apostolic delegation. The state newspapers have not concealed their joy at the victory over the Catholics, there have been complements and congratulations for the journalists, who expect promotions and medals from the Politburo.
Yesterday, however, the state news agency VNA dedicated an article to the humanitarian activities of believers, praising in particular what the Catholics of the province of Thua Thien-Hue have done, “doing good things for both the religion and the nation.” This could be a small signal of a change in course.
For their part, the Catholics of Hanoi take consolation from the fact that the former delegation “had been used for a night club with loudly music frequently disrupting to church services at the nearby Hanoi cathedral. Thanks to the protests, that harassment has gone now.” And Fr. Joseph Nguyen says “I have seen more people go to church even on weekdays, and more demands on Catholic social teaching studies, especially from young students. I think it’s more important than anything else.”
J.B. An Dang contributed to this report
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Melamine-Tainted Milk a “Good Thing”
Company officials say scandal enabled them to “improve the quality” of their products. Judges reject lawsuits for damages filed by parents with children now suffering from kidney problems. In Japan melamine-laced egg powder is found.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Bans and prohibitions are still being imposed on melamine-tainted milk abroad but back in China things are getting back to “normal”.
Leading companies like Yili and Mengniu, which produced melamine-laced fresh milk and powder, said they would now buy milk only from supervised producers with surveillance cameras installed to monitor the collection process. Indeed “this scandal has helped improve the quality standards of China’s dairy industry,” Yili Vice-President Zhang Jianqiu said.
Dairy producers claim they were unaware of the presence of melamine, blaming instead milk producers.
Courts in Henan for their part have turned down lawsuits filed by parents of children whose children have developed melamine-induced kidney problems.
A court in Lanzhou, Gansu province, said it cannot accept a lawsuit over the Sanlu infant formula scandal until it knows whether authorities have issued guidelines on how to deal with the sensitive topic.
The parents of six-month-old Yi Kaixuan, who died of kidney failure, filed a 1 million yuan (US$ 135,000), little by Western standards. They blame the child’s death on the Sanlu milk powder he consumed. But many experts doubt that their suit will be ever admitted.
In order to promote rapid economic growth the government has tended to protect companies by various means; conversely, consumers have had few chances to file for damages even though it is possible under Chinese law.
So far melamine-tainted milk has caused four deaths and made ill more than 53,000 infants. Few parents have asked for justice however.
More than a hundred lawyers have offered their services, but local bar associations are government-controlled and have been advised against involvement. At least 20 have dropped out.
“This is a product liability case that in a Western country would turn into a class-action lawsuit,” said Zhang Xinbao, a law professor at People’s University of China. In China, he noted, “they don’t want to see so many people getting involved in one lawsuit. This might threaten social stability.”
In the face of court inaction parents and families can still petition the government. By and large the latter has urged them to accept out-of-court settlements, partly out of a desire to keep conceal embarrassing information about collusion between dairy companies and local authorities. Such information might show how regulations were not enforced and how local governments tried to cover up the scandal and eventually delay it the release of pertinent information.
“A public health crisis like this not only involves Sanlu. It involves many officials [. . .] in the city of Shijiazhuang (where the company is headquartered), said Teng Biao, a lawyer in Beijing. “It involves media censorship, the food quality regulatory system and the corrupt deal between commercial merchants and corrupt officials. [. . .] To protect Sanlu is to protect the government itself.”
Authorities yesterday announced that 5,824 children were still receiving hospital treatment for kidney diseases.
The popular White Rabbit candy is back on Chinese store shelves but it remains banned elsewhere because of melamine.
Japan’s Mitsui & Company said late on Thursday that the company recalled 20 tonnes of mainland egg powder after detecting a small amount of melamine in it.
Egg powder is often used to flavour pastries, cooked pasta and confectionery products.
In Naples (Italy) a tonne of Chinese made powdered milk brought illegally into the country was seized. Italy’s Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia said that it might be “melamine milk.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: ‘No More Business With Whites’
Nelspruit — The Ehlanzeni District Municipality (EDM) in Nelspruit has decided that white people will no longer be allowed to do business with the council.
A racial uproar is looming in the Mpumalanga capital after this decision was taken by the council’s senior managers at a lekgotla last week.
The lekgotla was chaired by Hugh Mbatha, the council’s municipal manager, and attended by members of the council’s mayoral committee.
The decision was officially worded: “Stop the appointment of white consultants, contractors and any other service providers and empower black consultants, contractors and other businessmen.”
‘A racist decision’
According to documents in Beeld’s possession, this decision is being justified in terms of the “implementation of the government’s policy and guidelines for broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE).”
Gravett Herbst, leader of the Democratic Alliance caucus in the EDM, said: “This is a racist decision and utter discrimination against whites.”
When asked about the decision, the municipality told Beeld the decision would first have to be considered by the council. Caswell Maluleke, speaker of the council, said he was not aware of this decision by the council’s senior managers.
“The council presently has no policy that excludes whites. Such a decision would first have to be considered by the full mayoral committee. Then a decision would be made as to whether it was viable, and only then would it be tabled for discussion at a full council session,” Maluleke said.
Herbst said: “The decision is just a one-sided matter being instigated by a few people with hidden agendas.”
The DA will insist that officials not implement the decision until it has been considered by the council.
| — Hat tip: AMDG | [Return to headlines] |
Immigrants and Integration in Italy
Four out of five immigrants in legal employment do not feel discriminated against in Italy. Seven in ten have homes and adequate income
Women are the movers behind integration and the key to successful policies to overcome hardships, difficulties, fears and the risk of a racist backlash. Immigrant women are the motors driving the integration of their ethnic groups into Italian society “because they perform the functions of contrasting and stimulating for both their own and the host communities”. The phenomenon involves all nationalities without distinction, from southern Mediterranean groups to those from the eastern Mediterranean, regardless of their religious denomination, whether Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox or other Christian. Gender-related distinctions, in other words the differing approaches of men and women when faced with the same problems, seem to be crucial in successful integration and far more important than any other factors.
This unexpected result comes from a study commissioned — and here is another surprise — by the right-wing Farefuturo foundation, chaired by Gianfranco Fini and directed by Adolfo Urso. The project was carried out by the Nicola Piepoli research institute and will be presented today in Rome. Specifically, the survey reveals that the Muslim community cannot be viewed as a single entity since the positions of men and women within it are often very divergent. Of all female immigrants, “Muslim women are the ones who recognise that being in Italy offers more opportunities for their children and an enhancement to family knowledge”. The study is based on a representative sample of legal immigrants who have been resident in Italy for an average of seven years. Seventy per cent of the sample is in employment, lives in rented accommodation and has an income considered “adequate”. One respondent in two is Muslim, 30% are Christian and a similar proportion say they are “non-believers”.
It turns out that the greatest source of problems for men is housing whereas women tend to emphasise psychological factors relating to hostility they have encountered or adaptation problems, particularly in the home. Overall, however, more women than men claim “not to have encountered any particular difficulty”. In fact, fully 80% of immigrants say they feel “very” or “fairly” integrated in Italy, with significantly higher proportions among immigrants from the eastern Mediterranean.
More than half of respondents, especially women in work (16% more than for homemakers), claim that relations with Italians are “easy”. Many of these are over-35s and/or individuals with secondary education but the perception is also widespread among individuals in relationships or families, who score ten per cent higher than respondents without a partner. The 30% of respondents who said relations were difficult is made up mainly of young males, with a slight prevalence of the 18-34 age group, and is made up primarily of males with modest levels of education and individuals without a partner. The figure is yet more proof, if proof were needed, of the importance of women in integration.
Similarly, the main cause of difficulty in relations with Italians is ascribed to reciprocal lack of trust, followed by the perception of hostility and discovering little in common. The most negative assessments — “lack of trust” and “hostility” — come mainly from men whereas women more often mention Italians’ “lack of interest”. Religious affiliations do not determine any specific differences.
Respondents were also asked to indicate on a scale the level of compatibility of their national, cultural and religious characteristics with those of Italy. About half said they had an intermediate (“fairly high”) level of compatibility. Overall, however, evaluations were very positive because to this figure should be added the 13% of respondents who said compatibility was “high”. “Here, too”, says the study, “women’s positive responses are higher than men’s”. More than half the women interviewed claim they do not represent a model in conflict with the Italian woman. That proportion rises to 60% among working women, who claim that diversity is “low” or “none”. Women also make up the majority of respondents (60% of the sample) who consider polygamy to be offensive. The male position is less clear-cut. Although 37% agree that polygamy is offensive, 27% think it is “normal” and 11% consider it “advantageous” for women. Considered separately, Muslim respondents show even more clearly this polarisation between “offensiveness”, which is much higher for women, and the perception of “normality”, which is prevalently a male view.
On the question of banning headscarves for young girls at school, the sample was almost equally divided between those in favour and those against. Answers were influenced by level of education, area of provenance, and religion but less by sex. Sixty-six per cent do, however, think that Italian law should make no exceptions for adult women wearing scarves. In this case, it was mainly men, most of them Muslim, who replied that an exception should be made whereas women, whether or not they were in employment, believed that it was not necessary. Even a majority of Muslim women were against a specific measure. Finally, on the subject of schools, 80% of respondents are in favour of mixed Italian-immigrant education.
Italy’s image among immigrants, which started at 92% positive, has progressively improved over the years. There, too, according to the Farefuturo survey, it is women, and working women in particular, who are most convinced that the Bel Paese is still beautiful.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Boat With 50 Immigrants South of Lampedusa
(ANSAmed) — LAMPEDUSA (AGRIGENTO), OCTOBER 17 — A boat with fifty immigrants (including nine women) has been halted 20 miles south of Lampedusa by the Navy craft “Minerva”. The migrant passengers were transferred to the latter boat and will be taken to the island. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
3 comments:
No more business with whites in South Africa?
S. African decision makers must be emulating Zimbabwe's "brilliant" policy because everyone can see how well a black monopoly excluding whites is working out there...bread basket to basket case in a single generation.
To be consistent, those disgusting whites shouldn't be allowed to send food aid either to malnourished voters who elect bumptious black racists over and over instead of throwing them out.
Apparently no one in Africa (or among western elites) has yet figured out that Marxism for the starving masses while their corrupt leaders buy Mercedes by the fleet and jet to Paris is a dead end in the most literal sense.
Saudi Minister: Imams Unable to Keep Young People From Extremism
How ya gonna' keep them down on the farm once they've seen Mecca?
Imams unable to keep Muslim yoots from extremism is like a nymphomaniac being unable to keep from getting porked. Both put up a pretty feeble fight.
Melamine-Tainted Milk a “Good Thing”
Courts in Henan for their part have turned down lawsuits filed by parents of children whose children have developed melamine-induced kidney problems. [emphasis added]
Sure enough, dead children are a "good thing". Is anyone surprised that this legal decision came out of Henan? I'm sure you all remember Henan, home to the world's largest medically caused AIDS epidemic.
Since 1996, Dr. Gao has focused her work in the Henan countryside, where poor farmers, uninformed about the risk of AIDS, sell their blood to earn desperately needed cash. In this process, blood is collected from donors and pooled together so plasma can be extracted and sold to pharmaceutical companies. The mixed blood is then transfused back to the donors. [emphasis added]
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