Thanks to Abu Elvis, C. Cantoni, Cimmerian, Insubria, Islam in Action, JD, TB, TV, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Details are below the fold.
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America’s Flemish Roots
A quote from The Flemish American blog, 5 October 2008:
Among high society in Eastern parts of this country [the USA], to claim descent from the ‘Dutch’ of New Netherlands assures a certain credibility. […] 2009 marks the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson’s voyage to ‘discover’ the New York area. NY state plans a huge celebration […] To that end PBS plans a major documentary. The Dutch government also has plans for a documentary. There is a major book being published by scholars of that period (‘Dutch-American Relations 1609-2009’). There will be special exhibits at NY museums. There has been special state grants to The Holland Society, The New Netherlands Project, The New Amsterdam Historical Society, etc. I think you get the idea.
Where am I going with this? Well, New Netherlands was founded, financed, governed, protected and settled by the Flemish. Plantijn, who supplied the maps for the 1609 expedition, was an Antwerpenaar. So was Van Meteren (who was also the ‘Dutch’ ambassador to England and the author of the first ‘Dutch’ history and the one who secured Hudson for this job. Judocus Hondius (from Wakken) was Hudson’s interpreter when he came to the Netherlands before the expedition. The Henry Hudson expedition had at least 3 Flemings. The follow up in 1611 for at least 10 years to the expedition (meaning the first commercial expeditions to exploit Hudson’s discoveries) were financed by Arnout Vogel (from Antwerp) and captained by Adriaen Block (from Dendermonde). Their company was De Nieuw Nederland Compagnie. It was a ‘voorcompagnie’ (predecessor company) of De West Indische Compagnie (WIC) which actually colonized Nieuw Nederland beginning in 1624 […]
[T]he first child born in Nieuw Amsterdam, Sarah Rapalje, was the daughter of an Antwerpenaar weaver. Govert Lockermans — the most successful trader in Nieuw Nederland — was from Turnhout. George Bush’s ancestor Willem Beekman, mayor of New Amsterdam was from Deinze…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Brooklyn: Lawsuit Happy Muslim Busted With Terror Literature
For years I have telling people in the United States to look towards the United Kingdom to see what is coming our way in regards to Islam. It is obvious that suing organizations in the name of their religion and obtaining terror literature are common plays out the Islamic game plan…
| — Hat tip: Islam in Action | [Return to headlines] |
Ex-Generals Misled by Pro-Obama Video
A video released by the Jewish Council for Education & Research, (JCER) which appeared to show several retired senior IDF and Mossad officials endorsing Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has proven to be misleading, with a number of officials who appeared in the video saying on Monday that their words were taken out of context.
The film’s producers stressed in response that the Obama campaign was not involved in any stage of the production.
“It’s not only misleading, it was an interview about what the next president was going to have to deal with,” former deputy chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan told The Jerusalem Post. “And to know that they used this interview and took five seconds, and put me in a list of people praising Barack Obama…
“It wasn’t about the campaign, it was about the political and security issues of the Middle East that the next president should be involved in,” he continued. “Nothing was said about Obama or [Republican Presidential candidate John] McCain.”
“I don’t want other people to interfere in my elections, and I must not interfere with the elections in the United States,” he said, adding that to do so would be neither “ethical nor smart.”
[Video follows]
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
Green Alert: MSM Ignores Hidden Carbon Tax Provisions in Paulson’s Bailout 2.0
Why is the mainstream media —which keeps lecturing Americans that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s Bailout Package Version 2.0 must be passed immediately— ignoring what might be the most earth-shattering provisions in Paulson’s package?
The media needs to start asking hard questions. Here is where they need to start. If you look at page 180 of the 451-page monster bailout bill that easily passed the Senate yesterday (PDF here), you will see that it includes at Section 116 language about the tax treatment of “industrial source carbon dioxide.” It also provides, at Section 117, for a “carbon audit of the tax code.”
What could a provision about the tax treatment of “industrial source carbon dioxide” and another provision about doing a “carbon audit” of the tax code possibly have to do with restoring confidence in Wall Street’s troubled credit markets?
The answer: NOTHING.
This appears to be an attempt by global warming fanatics to lay the foundation for an economy-killing carbon tax just like the “cap-and-tax” system that is now destroying European industry.
If you think the Mother of All Bailouts is bad, just wait till you see the carbon tax. Get ready to reduce your standard of living drastically.
It really shouldn’t be a surprise that these non-germane provisions are included in legislation that is supposed to save all of us from economic Armageddon.
After all, Henry Paulson is a confirmed environmentalist and global warming true-believer who abused his power at Goldman Sachs. While Paulson headed Goldman Sachs he simultaneously headed the Nature Conservancy and his wife was a former Conservancy board member. (See “In Goldman Sachs We Trust: How the Left’s Favorite Bank Influences Public Policy,” by Fred Lucas, Foundation Watch, October 2008.)
Henry Paulson presided over Goldman Sachs’s donation of 680,000 acres of land it owned in Tierra del Fuego, Chile to the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society.
One of the trustees of the Wildlife Conservation Society was H. Merritt Paulson, the son of Henry Paulson.
As green critic Paul Driessen observed, at no time did anyone “assess the vast area’s potential value for timber, oil or metals, so that locals and [Goldman Sachs] shareholders would at least know the true cost of the giveaway.”
And the media tells Americans to trust Henry Paulson to do the right thing when doling out taxpayer dollars to his former colleagues on Wall Street?…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
New Surveillance Program Will Turn Military Satellites on US
An appropriations bill signed by President Bush last week allows the controversial National Applications Office to begin operating a stringently limited version of a program that would turn military spy satellites on the US, sharing imagery with other federal, state, and local government agencies. The government’s own watchdog agency, the Government Accountability Office, has warned in an unpublished report that the more expansive program in the offing lacks adequate safeguards to protect privacy and civil liberties.
For now, the law restricts the NAO to “activities substantially similar” to those carried out by the Civil Applications Committee, an interagency coordinating body formed in 1976 to give civilian agencies access to military satellites for scientific and disaster preparedness purposes, such as “monitoring volcanic activity, environmental and geological changes, hurricanes, and floods.” But as a draft charter for the Office makes clear, officials at the Department of Homeland Security hope to branch out from these traditional applications, providing assistance and information to domestic law enforcement agencies.
That doesn’t sit well with some members of Congess, who in a sharply worded letter earlier this year expressed concerns that the NAO “raises major issues under the Posse Comitatus Act” barring the military from performing law enforcement duties, and worried the program could be used to “gather domestic intelligence outside the rigorous protections of the law-and, ultimately, to share this intelligence with local law enforcement outside of constitutional parameters.”
And as the Wall Street Journal reported last week, the Government Accountability Office appears to share those concerns. In an unpublished analysis-a public version of which may be released in coming weeks-the GAO found that there did not seem to be adequate “assurance that NAO operations will comply with applicable laws and privacy and civil liberties standards,” nor sufficient checks and oversight procedures to prevent the misuse of satellite imagery.
The existence of the NAO was first publicly disclosed in press reports last summer, several months after its creation at the behest of the Director of National Intelligence. Following hearings held by the House Committee on Homeland Security, Congress blocked funding for the NAO, pressing DHS for more information about the legal basis for the progam-as well as the privacy safeguard to be put in place. The current appropriations bill permits the NAO to be funded only for the purpose of carrying out the old Civil Applications Committee’s functions, pending a certification by the Secretary of Homeland Security that the Office’s compliance with the law has been vetted, and provision to the Appropriations Committee of details of how funds will be spent. The bill also directs the Inspector General to provide regular reports-somewhat oddly, to the Appropriations Committee-on the data collected by NAO.
Among the questions raised about the proposed program is whether it runs afoul of the Reconstruction Era statute that makes it a crime to use the armed forces to “execute the laws” within US borders. Tim Sparapani, senior legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, believes the new initiative to be “a prima facie violation of the Posse Comitatus Act-this is about using a military asset to do domestic law enforcement.” If law enforcement or immigration agencies need spy satellites, he argues, they should ask Congress to buy them some, rather than using the powerful eyes in the sky operated by the National Reconaissance Office for foreign-intelligence agencies not bound by domestic privacy constraints. “The military should never be used against the citizenry,” he argues. “Even if we’re talking about shooting pictures of people instead of shooting people, the principle remains the same.”…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Denmark: Akkari Goes Repentant
The former imam Ahmed Akkari, who was a central figure during Denmark’s Mohammed crisis, says that imams he supported during the crisis used it for personal gain.
“It seems as if there are some who used (the crisis) to develop a position for themselves somewhere. Or at least they were thinking in more personal terms than normally. That is something I cannot live with or keep quiet about,” Akkari tells DR.
Greenland
Akkari moved to Greenland following the Mohammed crisis in order to distance himself from the other imams and take status of the situation, although he has not yet made up his mind about his own role.
“We are all humans who make mistakes and think about them afterwards. But that is something that I will include if I ever write a book about it,” Akkari says.
He says he hopes his criticism will make more of Denmark’s muslims open their eyes and understand that their imams have a hidden agenda.
Lebanon-born Ahmed Akkari has been employed as a teacher in Narsaq in Greenland since August. He teaches English and Danish to the school’s 271 pupils.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Economists Unenthusiastic About Bank Rescue
Failed bank rescue seen as challenge for Europe
Many Swiss economists show a distinct lack of enthusiasm about the bank rescue plan adopted by the US House of Representatives on Friday night.
They are warning that the $700 billion (SFr767 billion) package rewards mismanagement and will delay necessary consolidation.
The House had unexpectedly rejected the plan on Monday night, but was then persuaded to accept an amended version. The Senate passed the package on Wednesday.
Yvan Lengwiler, an economist from Basel University, wrote in the German-language Neue Zürcher Zeitung on Saturday that by injecting funds the state was cushioning the banks against the consequence of the risks that they had heedlessly entered into.
“A disastrous incentive has thus been created,” he wrote, warning that the economy could find itself once again in a similar situation in a few years’ time.
Poacher turned gamekeeper
Lengwiler added that there is an unpleasant taste left in the mouth by the fact that US treasury secretary Henry Paulson, himself a former investment banker, should have “come out so ardently in favour of risking a large sum of taxpayers’ money to release the banks from their shabby investments”.
In the Berner Zeitung another Swiss economist, Thomas Straubhaar, director of the Hamburg Institute of International Economics, said that no-one should try to cover up with fine words “the fact that it was in the US — the mother of capitalism — that the state had to throw out an emergency anchor in the shape of a $700 billion package”.
But he warned against drawing the wrong conclusions, pointing out that rise and fall, profit and loss, and success and failure are unavoidable if progress is ever to be made and prosperity to increase.
“Every system which is based on freedom and individual responsibility is superior to all others. History has shown this often enough,” he said.
Psychologically encouraging
The rescue package is simply a confidence-building measure, Beat Bernet, of St Gallen University, told Swiss radio.
This opinion is shared by Bernd Schips, former head of the KOF Swiss Economic Institute. Writing in the St Galler Tagblatt, he called on the government, national bank and the federal banking commission to identify ways to safeguard the banking system if the situation should worsen.
“Merely sitting out” the crisis will do nothing to restore confidence in the financial system, he warned. The authorities must also show what specific steps are planned to control it, to prevent undesirable developments in the future.
“Sensible and reasonable”
One Swiss who has applauded the rescue package is UBS chairman Peter Kurer. Switzerland’s biggest bank has already been forced to write down some SFr50 billion because it took too many risks in chasing after the highest returns.
Kurer does not see the package as “violation of the free market”. On the contrary, he describes it as a “sensible and reasonable intervention”.
“Because this is an extraordinary global crisis, the state can intervene to prevent a complete breakdown of the system,” Kurer told the German-language tabloid Blick. “But the state must not intervene in the longer term, and must afterwards again allow the market the freedom it needs.”
Kurer confirmed that the UBS, which had been badly hit by the financial crisis, had a “direct interest” in the rescue plan, because it has a lot of business in the US. But until the precise conditions are known he said it was impossible to say how and whether the UBS would take part in the plan.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Free Speech for Denmark
COPENHAGEN — A DANISH politician who stood out as a moderate Muslim voice during the Prophet Mohammed cartoon crisis said in an interview published on Friday he wanted to turn Denmark into a beacon free speech.
‘My ambition is to turn Denmark into the country of freedom of expression, and we are working to organise an (international) conference every two years in Copenhagen on freedom of expression’, Mr Naser Khader, a centre-right member of parliament, told the weekly Weekendavisen.
The conference, he said, will ‘measure how far we’ve come in our efforts to fight Islamism’ and will serve as ‘inspiration for moderate Muslims around the world,’ he said.
Mr Khader, of Syrian-Palestinian origin who heads up the tiny Liberal Alliance party (previously New Alliance), catapulted onto the national stage as a voice of moderation when 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, first published in a Danish paper in 2005, sparked angry Muslim protests around the world.
He said on Friday that he and a number of other prominent critics of radical Islam had recently met in France to create an international organisation aimed at combatting Islamism.
While refusing to divulge the name of the new association or the identities of its other founders, Mr Khader told Weekendavisen they had all ‘enthusiastically embraced the idea of creating a Copenhagen conference.’
The group had chosen to work behind the scenes for the time-being, he said, adding however that the founders were all ‘world-famous people who fight for freedom of expression.’
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: CDA Introduces Islamic Prayer Before Party Meetings
THE HAGUE, 04/10/08 — The Christian democrats (CDA) are presenting a book on Saturday with 32 meditation texts. It is a collection of spiritual reflections that are not only Christian in nature but also Islamic.
“It is a common CDA tradition to open meetings with a meditation. But we noticed that branches sometimes found it difficult to find an appropriate text,” as not all CDA members are Christian. “That is why we put together the collection,” says CDA spokesman Jo-Annes de Bat.
The book, called “Reflections for political meetings,” will be distributed among the CDA regional branches. The meditations were written by a variety of CDA members: Roman Catholics, Protestants, one Jew and two Muslims: MP Ceskun Coruz and ex-candidate MP Ayhan Tonca.
For his contribution to the book, Tonca has drawn on poetry of the 14th century Turkish poet Yunus Emre: “Allah praising and extolling, for his qualities so unique, with godly reflection time after time, shall I call on you, Lord, O Lord!” is in his contemplation.
In 2006, Tonca was a CDA candidate for the Lower House, but failure to recognise the Armenian genocide by Turkey (1915-1917) led to his withdrawal. The Turkish parliament then awarded Tonca the distinction of ‘honorary parliamentarians.’
Tonca also chaired the Muslims and Government Consultative Body (CMO). In this function, he termed the meanwhile world-famous Danish Mohammed cartoons “unacceptable”.
Another contribution to the book comes from Henk Hagoort. As well as being a CDA member, he is chairman of the Dutch public broadcasters’ umbrella organisation. Other authors are former Premier Ruud Lubbers, Defence State Secretary Jack de Vries and MPs Schinkelshoek, Sterk and Ferrier.
“As CDA, the Bible is our guide, and as members, we find each other in core values such as justice. But one council member derives inspiration from the Bible and another from the Koran. We wanted to give this scope to the authors of the meditations,” says De Bat.
Tonca does not find the initiative surprising. “It would rather have been odd if there was no meditation from a Muslim in it. We want to create a society as the Creator intended. On that point, Muslims and Christians can find each other within the CDA.”
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Stock Market Clobbers Unicredit
Plan to boost capital gets cool reception
(ANSA) — Milan, October 6 — Italy’s largest bank UniCredit took a beating on the Milan stock market Monday as markets tumbled across Asia and Europe in response to what some brokers said were the inadequate measures adopted by governments to curtail the worsening global financial crisis.
UniCredit, the Italian bank with the biggest exposure abroad, fell by over 16% when trading opened to then reduce its losses to just over 6% at midday.
At the weekend the bank’s board held a special meeting to approve an emergency 6.6-million-euro plan to boost its capital and ensure it has a 6.7% Tier I capital ratio at the end of the year.
The ratio is a measure of a bank’s strength and 6% is considered the minimum, while UniCredit’s ratio is currently calculated at 5.7%.
Despite the positive objectives of UniCredit’s plan, the bank’s stock plummeted on confirmation by CEO Alessandro Profumo, in a morning conference call with financial analysts, that the bank had been forced to write down some 700 million euros in loans and bonds in the third quarter and that profits for the year would be 25% less than forecast.
In the conference call, Profumo admitted that ‘‘we made mistakes in evaluations’’ of the situation on the market which he added was ‘‘unprecedented’’ since the 1929 stock market crash.
Profumo added that it was ‘‘difficult to foresee’’ which direction the international crisis would take, but stressed that UniCredit remained ‘‘a strong bank’’.
The plan adopted by the UniCredit board to boost capital included a series of cost-cutting measures and the sale of a number of assets including its 3.5% stake in the Generali insurance company, Treasury certificates, real estate holdings and branches of Capitalia — the former Banca di Roma which was absorbed by UniCredit last year.
Bank stocks were under pressure throughout Europe where at midday HBOS was down 15% and Royal Bank of Scotland 14% in London; Commerzbank lost 15% in Frankfurt, Dexia sank 20% in Paris and in Zurich UBS fell 11% and Credit Suisse dropped 9%.
At midday the Milan stock market was down 6.21% compared to -6.06% in London, -5.85% in Frankfurt, -6.30% in Paris, -5.15% in Zurich and -15.1% in Moscow, where trading had to be temporarily suspended. Tokyo closed down 4.25% and Hong Kong 4.97%.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
US Base ‘Referendum’ Splits City
Both sides claim win after unofficial Vicenza poll
(ANSA) — Vicenza, October 6 — An unofficial referendum against the planned expansion of a US air base in Vicenza has left the city split.
Opponents of the plan hailed the 95% No vote on Sunday but supporters derided the low turn-out and called for the resignation of Mayor Achille Variati.
Variati decided to go ahead with the informal poll in the face of a state court’s ban on an official referendum on expanding the Dal Molin base.
Despite its lack of legal force, the mayor hailed the poll as ‘‘an extraordinary example of democracy’’.
‘‘It shows how wrong it is not to let people have a say in things that affect them,’’ he said.
Cinzia Bottene, a city councillor and member of the No Dal Molin Committee against the plan, said ‘‘the referendum was a great response to the authoritarians who want to impose something on the local community’’.
But the Yes Dal Molin Committee pointed out that the 28.5% turn-out meant fewer people voted on Sunday than they did for the mayoral election two months ago.
The committee also criticised the funds spent on what it called a ‘‘useless’’ consultation.
‘‘Despite strong campaigning from the No committee, backed by the mayor with the investment of significant amounts of money,’’ said No Committee member Roberto Cattaneo, ‘‘fewer citizens voted on Sunday than those who backed Variati in the municipal elections’’.
‘‘Out of intellectual honesty, he should resign,’’ Cattaneo added, calling the mayor’s drive against the expansion plan ‘‘isolationist and extremist’’.
Opponents of the base were dismayed last week when the referendum was banned by Italy’s highest administrative tribunal, but then they decided to hold it anyway.
The Council of State said a referendum would be ‘‘superfluous’’ because publicly elected officials had already ruled on the planned purchase of land for the expansion.
The referendum asked residents whether they thought the city government should acquire the land at the Dal Molin base to stop the expansion and maintain the area’s ‘‘environmental integrity’’.
Variati was elected this spring on a platform opposed to the base being expanded to accommodate 2,100 US soldiers and thus unite the 173rd Airborne Brigade, which is currently divided between Vicenza and Germany.
The Dal Molin airfield is across town from the main Ederle military base that hosts the headquarters of the Southern European Task Force (SETF), which has been in Italy since the early 1950s and includes a rapid reaction force that has seen action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Last month the Council of State overturned a regional court’s ruling against the expansion of the base.
Upholding an appeal from the Italian government, the Council of State said the TAR of Veneto, which came out against the expansion on June 20, had no remit for political questions involving Italy and the United States.
It also stressed that there was no legal requirement to sound out the local population, which is believed to be largely against the expansion.
The Council of State said there was no ‘‘hard evidence’’ for the kind of environmental damage protesters claimed the expansion of the Dal Molin base would bring.
Mayor Variati said at the time that the ruling would have no effect on the planned referendum.
‘‘I think it is the Americans who will be most embarrassed by this verdict because they are caught between a government that says ‘full steam ahead’ and a local population which has hosted them in the most friendly fashion for 50 years and just wants to have its say,’’ he said.
Opponents to the project argue that the expansion would have a ‘‘devastating effect’’ on the city’s urban fabric and the surrounding environment, with a high risk of damaging water tables.
Other arguments against the expansion include the possibility that it would make Vicenza a target in the event of a military conflict or terrorist attack.
Concern has also been voiced about the impact an expanded base would have on a city which is on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, boasting a host of buildings and villas by Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.
There are other local groups who are in favor of expanding the base because of the added business it would bring to the town.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Video: Understanding Sweden’s Signals Intelligence Law
The Swedish social media experts at Urban Lifestyle gauge reactions from prominent bloggers and politicians to the country’s controversial new signals intelligence law.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Wallonia Battles Wasteland Image
Belgian politicians are struggling to end a crisis that has paralysed government for 16 months. At its heart are tensions between the country’s north and south. In the second of a series of articles on Belgium, Henri Astier looks at French-speaking Wallonia’s efforts to change its fortunes and prosper within a united Belgium…
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
Youths Discussed Bombing the BNP
Two school friends discussed a plan to blow up members of the British National Party, a court has heard.
Dabeer Hussain and Waris Ali, now both 18, researched bomb making techniques from “recipes” found on the internet, Leeds Crown Court was told.
The teenagers, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, are accused of possessing a terrorism manual called the Anarchists’ Cookbook, on their computers.
Both deny charges of possession of an article for a terrorist purpose.
The court heard the teenagers discussed a plan to spy on and blow up members of the far right political group.
‘Chemicals bought’
Mr Ali was said to nurture a particular dislike of the BNP, the court heard.
The jury heard he bought “significant” amounts of potassium nitrate and calcium chloride on eBay and stored the chemicals under his bed and sofa.
From March this year he began to “buy chemicals in bulk”, the jury was told.
Both chemicals are innocuous in everyday use but can be used in the preparation of a bomb and are detailed in the Anarchists’ Cookbook.
Annabel Darlow, prosecuting, said the manual sets out how to make a variety of explosive devices, including pipe bombs and fertiliser bombs.
She said the plan was “no hoax or schoolboy prank” but a 3,000 page manual on how to prepare, commission and instigate acts of terrorism.
Mr Ali, of Dearnley Street, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury, denies three counts of possession of an article for a terrorist purpose.
Mr Hussain, of Clarkson Street, Ravensthorpe, denies one count of possession of an article for a terrorist purpose.
The case continues.
| — Hat tip: Cimmerian | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: Nationalist Parties Score Victory in Municipal Elections
Sarajevo, 6 Oct. (AKI) — Three nationalist parties, representing Muslims, Serbs and Croats, scored impressive victories in Sunday’s municipal elections in Bosnia, reflecting the country’s traditional division along ethnic lines.
According to preliminary results, the biggest winner is the Alliance of Independent Social democrats (SNSD) of Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik which won mayoral races in 32 municipalities and is expected to win a few more.
“We totally defeated our political opponents,” Dodik told the media.
SNSD has more than doubled its control over municipalities compared to the last election in 2006, leaving its main rival the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) trailing far behind with 15 municipalities.
Among Muslim voters, the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) of former president Alija Izetbegovic, who led the country to independence in 1992, won in 28 municipalities, followed by the Social Democratic Party with nine municipal victories.
The biggest loser appeared to be the Muslim member of the rotating state presidency Haris Silajdzic whose Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina scored only four municipalities.
Most voters of the third ethnic group, the Croats, traditionally voted for the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) which won in 15 municipalities.
Overall turnout was 55 percent, but there was a marked abstention in major cities, such as capital Sarajevo where turnout was only 40 percent.
Analysts attributed the abstention in urban areas to general disappointment with the nationalist rhetoric which had dominated the campaign.
But the election demonstrated once again that Bosnia remained a deeply divided country 13 years after the civil war which is estimated to have claimed more than 100,000 lives.
According to the Dayton peace accord which ended the war in 1995, the country was divided into two entities with most state powers: a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb entity.
Mistrust between the three ethnic or national groups has remained high and practically no voters cross ethnic lines.
“If this trend continues, the parliamentary election in 2010 will be an ethnic census of the population,” said Asim Mujkic, a political science professor at Sarajevo University.
During the war, many of Bosnia’s four million people left the country, or were internally resettled. Thirteen years later, political leaders still have not agreed to a population census.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Online Camel Adoption Comes From Sahara
(by Laura De Santi) (ANSAmed) — TAMANRASSET (ALGERIA), SEPTEMBER 11 — A click and a few hundred euro are enough in order to have a camel, or rather a ‘Camelus dromedarius’, all yours in the oasis of Djanet, 2,000 kilometres south of Algiers, ready to accompany you on the discovery of Algerian Sahara, amid the immense dunes and the reddish mountains of Tassili d’Aljer. ‘A camel to work’ is the ingenious initiative for distance adoption created by Hamiani, a young Tuareg camel driver, and Alissa, an adventurous Japanese woman overwhelmed by the fascination of Sahara, in order to fight unemployment and to safeguard the cultural heritage of the oasis of Djanet. ‘‘We wanted to find a way to repopulate the region with camels and give job to the numerous camel drivers in southern Algeria, who are already unemployed,’’ Alissa Descotes Tyosaki, founder of the Sahara-Eliki association, told ANSAmed. ‘‘In this way we came up with the idea of the distance adoption-acquisition.’’ The online acquisition of camels, launched a year ago, has already attracted dozens of fans, mostly Japanese. ‘‘Everyone can find their camel or she-camel choosing among the photos which are periodically published on the Internet,’’ Alissa continues. There is the snow white ‘Amenokal’, of the Azerlaf race, ‘Kojiro’ with the hump covered with hair, and then ‘Kotelet’, all grey and hairy, or the sweetest blue-eyed ‘Lucki’. These days’ promotion includes a calf which ‘Amina’ will give birth to in eight months (the pregnancy of a camel lasts 13 months). In order to have a ‘gift from Allah’, like the Tuareg call the animal, one can spend between 400 and 600 euro for a boy and between 300 and 450 euro for a girl. The price of the camel adds to another 25 euro per month for fodder. In normal conditions the camels are bought in Niger from where they depart organised in caravans and cross the desert up to the oasis of Djanet. In this moment, due to the unstable situation in the region, they are bought directly in the markets of the oases in southern Algeria. ‘‘The camel owners can come to Djanet to travel with their animals between October and April,’’ Alissa narrates. For six months per year the camels remain in the oasis while for the rest of the year, during the hot period, they are accompanied by the camel drivers in search of those areas in the desert where it is possible to find some blade of grass. The dromedary, the camel with just one hump, the only species in the region, guarantees survival to the nomad populations of Sahara. Apart from being a tireless and fast means of transport — it can run at up to 40 km per hour and, in the rainy season, stay two months without water, — the camel produces milk with a vitamin C content four times higher than the cow’s milk, and clothes and carpets are made from its coat. The Tuareg also consume the meat, a little tough but with high level of protein. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Police Avert Attack, Force Block on Gaza
(ANSAmed) — EL ARISH (EGYPT) OCTOBER 6TH — Egyptian police averted a terrorist attack by Islamic activists forcing a military block on the city of Gaza, impeding trucks full of supplies from crossing the border from Egypt. The police arrested the leader of the activists on he border between Rafah and Cairo, where a bus was about to leave for the border from the square across from the journalist union, a popular meeting place for demonstrations. Among those arrested, at least 20, there were noted Islamic activists Magdi Ahmed Hussein in Rafah and Mohamed Abdel Qaddus in Cairo. Hussein was part of a small vanguard that was able to flee from police and reach Rafah. The police searched villas on the beach in northern Sinai to try to find other demonstrators. The organizers had prepared trucks full of supplies, but none of these were able to cross the Suez canal. The police had blocked a similar attempt by Islamists bringing material to Gaza on last September 10th. Islamic activists were released by Egyptian police after a few hours of imprisonment. The Egyptian committee against the block in Gaza is directed by the leader of the Islamic Party of Workers, led by Magdi Ahmed Hussein. Among the arrests were also four members of the Egyptian opposition movement Kefaya (Enough Now!). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mideast: Two States But Also Cooperation Too, Luzzatto
(ANSAmed) — MILAN, SEPTEMBER 24 — “The ‘two states for two peoples’ formula is the only possible one but this is not enough: Israel and Palestine are territories so small that cohabitation is inevitable. It is also necessary to think immediately about cooperation between the two states,” former president of the Union of Italian Jewish communities Amos Luzzatto said, expressing his position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, on the occasion of the presentation of Ugo Tramballìs book “The Unfinished Dream. Men and Stories of Israel” (publisher Tropea). This formula “can be applied only if the international community commits itself in this sense,” Luzzatto added. In any case, he continued, “in order to understand what is happening an overall vision of the Middle East is necessary, without isolating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is the daughter, not the mother, of all the tensions of the region”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Forgh’s [sic] Remarks Criticised; ‘Break Ties With Denmark’
KUWAIT CITY, Oct 3: Several lawmakers and Muslim clerics have called for a complete severance of relations with Denmark in reaction to a recent deplorable statement allegedly made by Danish Prime Minister Anders Forgh [sic] about freedom of expression in Islam, reports Al-Rai daily. MP Hassan Al-Qallaf said the Danish Prime Minister is confused between freedom of expression and hurting other people. “Making such degrading remarks about other people’s faith is completely wrong and irrelevant.
“The means of using cartoons to criticize Islam’s holy Prophet (PBUH) is unacceptable and deeply hurting to Muslims,” the lawmaker noted. MPs Dr Ali Al-Omair and Abdullah Al-Bargash, said all the Muslims nations must take a more decisive stance than their earlier positions with regard to Denmark. They urged the Muslim countries to support the request of Kuwait’s Foreign Affairs Minister that the United Nations must enact a resolution to protect religions and the religious sentiments of faithful from negative propaganda. Further he said “The Danish Prime Minister is known for such remarks and it is high time he stopped hurting people of other faiths and whipping up emotions.’ Sheikh Bassam Al-Shatti strongly condemned Ander Forgh’s statement, especially because it coincided with Eid celebrations, “when all the Muslims are in a joyous mood.”
The cleric called on the Muslim community to react in unison and take stern measures to put an end to such religious calumny. “This man has made such a scandalous remark shortly after the Pope issued a statement expressing his respect for Islam.” In the same vein, the Dean of College of Sharia at Kuwait University Dr Mohammad Al-Tabtabaei said the holy Prophet (PBUH) faced various forms of criticisms during his mission but none of them could reduce his position or the greatness of the faith he preached. “Islam and Muslims will continue to grow stronger from strength to strength no matter what the detractors try to do,” he added.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: US to Allocate US60 Mln Aid for the Army, Media
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, SEPTEMBER 26 — The US pledged to provide the Lebanese Army with aid worth 60 million dollars in 2009, Beirut media reported today. The media said also that during his official visit to Washington, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman met US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who said that the aid that still have to be approved by the Congress will include combat helicopters. The website of An Nahar daily quotes an anonymous source from the US Defence Department saying that Washington has no problems in supplying the Lebanese army with Cobra helicopters or modern anti-tank missile launchers and other equipment. The source added that Washington has not received yet any official request from the Lebanese Defence Ministry for the supply with special armament. US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Hale told pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat that a delegation of the US Congress will visit Lebanon in October to elaborate on the issue. Since 2006, the United States provided Lebanon with military aid for over 410 million dollars, while over 500 Lebanese Armed Forces officers were given access to training courses carried out by American experts. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Foreign Direct Investments at USD 885 Mln in 2007
(ANSAmed) — DAMASCUS, OCTOBER 3 — Foreign direct investments (FDI) in Syria amounted to $885 million in 2007, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), titled World Investment Report 2008, citied in a statement by the office of Italian Foreign Trade Institute ICE in Damascus. The value increased by 47.5% compared with the $600 million in 2006, while in 2005 FDI amounted to $500 million. Syria thus ranks second among the 18 Arab states in terms of percentage rise, behind Qatar. According to the report, the increase was due to the improvement of the regulation on the attraction of investments, including the repatriation of profits and new tax exemptions, etc. Traditionally it is difficult to have certain figures on Syriàs FDI due to the lack of a central authority to collect them, ICE commented. In fact, currently the foreign investors use various promotion agencies such as Syrian Investment Agency for industry and trade, Tourism Investment Council for tourism, the Ministry of Oil for oil, the Central Bank, Syrian Commission on Financial markets and Securities and the Insurance Supervisory Commission for financial services. It is also suggested that the amount of inflowing FDI might be higher than the data announced by UNCTAD, ICE concluded. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Camel Wrestling Season Opens
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 24 — Traditional camel wrestling, held in the Western Turkey city of Aydin since 200 years, will begin the new season on November 30, Turkish Daily News writes. Income from the fights, held in special arenas created by municipality supported provinces, will be spent on social support initiatives such as the restoration of mosques and schools and for the benefit of local sports clubs. A reasonable share of the revenue will be given to the Aydin Society for the Preservation of Animal Rights. Camel wrestling is an event in which two male camels fight in response to a female camel in heat left in front them. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
I Can Identify Hindu Zealots Who Raped Me: Orissa Nun
New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) While demanding justice, a nun who was allegedly raped in Orissa’s riot-hit Kandhamal district has claimed that she can identify the culprits.
The nun alleged that she was dragged by her hair by men from a Hindu household where she was hiding. “…Two men were holding my hand, one raped me,” she told CNN-IBN from an ‘undisclosed location’.
She demanded justice not only for herself “but for the sake of the people she was working with.” The nun appealed to the state government for ensuring protection to the people of Kandhmal and said the situation had been bad for far too long.
The nun claimed she can recognise the culprits.
Blaming police for inaction, the nun claimed that when they were being taken towards the market, the policemen present there failed to protect them. “…They were sitting like stones. They did not talk or move,” she alleged.
She has left Orissa after the incident and is not sure whether she will return to Kandhamal. PTI
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lalji Nayak, Martyr for the Faith in Orissa
With a knife pressed to his throat, threatened with death, he did not renounce his Christian faith. But there are others who, under threat, have been forced to convert to Hinduism. Injured Christians attacked even in the hospital. Three more villages attacked in the district of Kandhamal. The missionaries of Mother Teresa want to return to take care of leprosy and tuberculosis patients.
Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews) — Lalji Nayak, tortured to force him to abandon his Christian faith, died of his injuries two days ago. Fr Manoj Nayak of the diocese of Bhubaneshwar calls him “a martyr for the faith”.
Fr Manoj recounts that “they [his radical Hindu assailants] stuck a knife in his neck and threatened to kill him if he did not renounce Christianity, but Lalji Nayak, even though he was severely bleeding, refused to abandon his faith. He died in the hospital on October 1”.
Lalji Nayak’s village, in Rudangia, was attacked by Hindu fundamentalists on September 30, at four o’clock in the morning. Rudangia is in the district of Kandhamal, the epicenter from which the pogrom against Christians began more than a month ago.
On the same day on which Lalji died, the injured were attacked even inside the hospital. Fr Oscar Tete, superior of the Missionaries of Charity, the men’s branch of Mother Teresa’s order, tells AsiaNews: “On October 1, a mob entered the Berhampur Government Hospital, causing a ruckus and commotion, they came for the six victims and were just barely stopped from attacking those six patients. These Christians are now being targeted inside the government hospital itself”. Today, Fr Tete will move the patients to the order’s house in Bhapur Bazar, also in Berhampur.
Fr Oscar Tete was in charge of the Shani Nivas hospice for lepers in Srashananda, in the district of Kandhamal,which was destroyed by radical Hindus last August 24, at the beginning of the pogrom.
Fr Oscar tells what happened that day: “We had just left our MC home in Srasananda when the mob attacked. They completely burnt down the building where the leprosy patients were admitted and the chapel which was just being rebuilt after the December ‘07 carnage. The extremists then beat up the ten general patients in an attempt to make them confess where we were hiding. These radicals then poured some chemical into the patients’ eyes and left after destroying our home this time too. These leprosy and tuberculosis patients were moved into the Udaigiri relief camp and later we brought them to this Mother Teresa’s Home in Berhampur”.
Since then, in Orissa and in other states episodes of violence and destruction have been reported every day. Yesterday afternoon, 120 homes belonging to Christians were burned in the district of Baudh, bordering on Kandhamal. The inhabitants fled into the forest.
Fr Oscar Tete is not giving up, and wants to return to Srashananda to take care of leprosy and tuberculosis patients again. “Mother Teresa always told us to be with the suffering and the poor”, he says. “We cannot abandon our mission”.
In Bhubaneshwar, Fr Manoj recounts another story of humiliation: the pain of his elderly father, who was threatened with an ax at his throat and forced to convert to Hinduism. “My father was the postmaster of the district, a respected educated person, he was a Catholic catechist of the diocese for the past 30 years. On August 27, a mob came to the Tiangia village, unleashed their fury and specifically targeted my dad, Anaklet Nayak. These radicals had prior information of the village and being the leader, my dad was identified. These men placed an ax at his neck and forced him to change to Hinduism. Now, even more than a month later, my father is literally under their guard, he is continuously surrounded by extremists and is completely helpless, these radicals are not letting him out of their control. But the pain of his forced conversion to Hinduism is the severest torture he has to undergo.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Raped Nun’s Dad Participates in Durga Puja
His daughter, a nun, was attacked by a Hindu mob and allegedly gangraped more than a month ago during communal clashes in Orissa. But Ignace Barwa, 59, has put the tragedy behind and is busy raising funds for Durga Puja, a popular Hindu festival.
“God will forgive them who committed the crime. We can’t be so inhuman,” Barwa said before leaving his thatched house to collect funds for the Puja.
Barwa’s is the only Christian family living along with about 70 Hindu families in Dakara village, 45 km from Sambalpur and some 350 kms from state capital Bhubaneswar.
Barwa originally hails from Sundargarh district but has been staying in Sambalpur district for the last 25 years.
He has five children — two sons and three daughters. While his elder son is a government employee and the eldest daughter is married, the youngest son is helping them in works.
The nun is the second daughter of the family. The youngest daughter is a nurse in Rajgangpur town.
The 28-year-old daughter was allegedly gang-raped and paraded naked in a village in Kandhamal district Aug 25 even as a dozen policemen watched. After more than a month of delay, four people have been arrested only this week.
The state government ordered a probe by the state police crime branch and also suspended the inspector in charge of the police station at Baliguda, where the nun had filed her complaint Aug 26.
The incident occurred three days after a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader was killed, triggering a spate of violence targeting Christians and churches in which at least 34 people have lost their lives.
The Barwas do not know the whereabouts of their daughter after she was raped.
“God will punish the rapist,” said her mother Rezina, 51.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: Illegal Immigrants on the Rise
Immigration is becoming a catalyst for common EU policymaking, but, aleading policy advisor says, it is also a stick with which to beat Europe
AS THE European Union prepares to take a major step towards a common immigration policy, Greece’s top policy advisor on the matter says it is conceivable that Turkey is using illegal immigration to promote its EU candidacy.
“With such large numbers of people passing through Turkey to Europe, Europe might feel that it needs someone else as a guard to stop them before they get to its shores,” says Alexandros Zavos, head of the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank that advises the government.
Turkey is a conduit for illegal immigrants from central Asia and Africa because its shores lie just a few kilometres across from the islands of Samos, Mytilene and Kos, some of the easternmost points of European Union territory.
“If Turkey were in the European Union, it could be the border,” says Zavos, opining that some European policymakers, rather than insisting “that Turkey fulfill all the criteria to enter the EU”, might be tempted to admit it under a different regime “if that served to limit immigration.”
But Zavos is quick to disclaim any knowledge of premeditation in Ankara. “Of course that’s just guesswork, and no one knows if it is a conscious thought on Turkey’s part,” he says.
Greece says it received 112,000 illegal immigrants last year, and the number is expected to rise this year.
Many of those immigrants come oversea from Turkey. “The boats they arrive in have Turkish names, or they are inflatable dinghies that couldn’t have come great distances,” says Zavos. Greece signed a bilateral agreement with Turkey in 2000 which allows it to repatriate illegal immigrants, “but this agreement has been only marginally observed,” says Zavos. “Turkey refuses to take them back.” He estimates that only about six percent of Greek applications for return are honoured.
EU requires a common policy
Greece, like other frontline states for immigration such as Spain and Italy, faces a stark choice. Illegal migrants cannot be deported because they arrive without identification, and no country will take them without proof of origin.
One option is to encourage them to remove themselves, in the hope that the job market won’t absorb them (Greece issues them with a chit ordering them to depart within a month); the other option is to legalise them, which can be controversial because it allows them, after a period of five years, to travel to the large job markets of central and northern Europe.
Spain’s legalisation of 600,000 immigrants in 2005 infuriated Germany. “If some countries are regularising illegals, they cannot look just at their own situation,” Otto Schily, then Germany’s interior minister, told the Independent.
“Spain didn’t solve its problem because the following year it had to deal with another 600,000 under the logic that ‘if I go there I get legalised and can go further into Europe’, “ says Zavos.
Greece has now carried out two mass legalisations, but hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants remain.
A new agreement for immigration and asylum being finalised by EU ministers this week, and scheduled for signature in December, forbids any further mass legalisations to protect the European hinterland; in return, it provides for border control assistance for the outlying members.
In what is perhaps the first serious attempt by the European Union to forge a common immigration policy, the agreement will bind member states in a common effort to attract skilled labour and students, claim 0.33 percent of their GDP to help develop the economies of countries where immigration originates, and commit to build a common asylum policy.
“We should deal with the problem not each country on its own, but as a whole,” says Zavos in support of the agreement.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: Multilingual Dictionary on Paediatric Emergency
(ANSAmed) — AVELLINO, OCTOBER 2 — It is available in seven languages (Arabic, French, Spanish, Albanian, English, Romanian and Chinese) and is directed to the foreign families which thanks to its help could communicate more efficiently with the Italian paediatric clinics. It is Multi-Ethnic Paediatric Dictionary for emergency wards and consulting rooms, prepared by Gianni Messi and Antonio Vitale, respectively directors of the Emergency Ward and Consulting Room of Institute for Maternal and Child Health Garofolo in Trieste and of the Department of Paediatrics of the Moscati Hospital in Avellino, as well as president of Italian Society of Paediatric Emergency Medicine (SIMEUP). Presented at the Moscati Hospital in Avellino, the publication cannot be compared to a common dictionary, but is divided in a series of data forms and medical nursing interviews which contemplate the most frequent typologies of paediatric emergency; the doctor, confronting the answers given by the foreigners on the correspondent form in Italian, could make the right evaluation of the case. “The 2007 report of Caritas-Migrantes revealed that the immigrants in Italy are 3,690,000 (6.2% of the total population), while the minors are 665,626 (80,000 more compared to last year) and represent 22.6% of the total immigrant population. Moreover, the foreigners born in Italy represent 10.3% of the total new births. This data and the direct experience of the communication difficulties with the families make necessary an instrument which would allow to the paediatrician to collect without ambiguities anamnestic data and symptomatologies,” Vitale interlined. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yes, Global Warming “Is Just Propaganda”
OPINION: by Nigel Calder.
Worldwide interest in my quite run-of-the-mill comment, on the need to debate the manmade global warming hypothesis, is pleasing but not surprising. It confirms that my fellow science writers have miscalculated badly. Most readers don’t want endless scare stories about climatic doom, accompanied by authoritarian lectures about their carbon footprints. They’re hungry for a variety of opinions.
Unfortunately only 1% of the huge number of articles on climate change in the posh London newspapers deviate from the official line of the Intergovernmental Panel. That’s not my reckoning. It comes from researchers at Oxford University who complain about the more balanced reporting in the not-so-posh papers, with a deviancy rate of 23%. They say it has ‘skewed public understanding of human contributions to climate change’. In other words, kindly abandon the journalistic principle that different points of views should be heard on controversial matters, or else a lot of dreadful people out there (you or me) may not truly believe that climate change is their fault.
Yes, you’ve got it. Man-made global warming is just propaganda. My father Ritchie Calder was a science writer too, but during the Second World War he played a leading part in Allied propaganda against Nazi Germany. He told me quite a lot about the tricks, employed in what was then a good cause. Now I watch them being used every day by the global wamers.
For example: exaggerate small facts. A brilliant wartime example came when someone in occupied Belgium was chalking V on public walls. He meant V for Vrijheid, or freedom. But London announced that in occupied Europe people were writing V for Victory everywhere. So people listening secretly to the BBC went out and did just that, to annoy the Germans and hearten their neighbours…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
The Surprising Geopolitics of Joseph Ratzinger, Pope
After three years in the pontificate, and defying the expectations of most, the refined theologian has left his mark on international politics as well. In the West, with Islam, with China. The journal of the Aspen Institute in Italy explains how, and why
by Sandro Magister
ROMA, September 19, 2008 — Unlike his predecessor, Benedict XVI is believed to be an apolitical pope. But it’s not true. Joseph Ratzinger simply engages in politics in original ways. These are sometimes imprudent, according to the canons of diplomatic realism, including those of the Vatican. And yet, after his three years in the pontificate, they have been shown to be much more productive than many foresaw, as proven in part by the unexpected “success” of the pope’s recent trip to highly secularized France.
The following is a detailed analysis of the geopolitics of the Church of Rome, in the passage from the epic, trailblazing Pope John Paul II to his successor. With the novelties introduced by the latter…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
1 comment:
Greetings Baron B,
There's much more to this unfolding story than meets the eye. Suppress the urge to scoff and write me off. Be a little patient to understand the truth and then hold their feet to the fire!
This is the long awaited opportunity to finally "kill the beast" and kick all the bums out, forever. Read what I have been saying for insights into another way to manage this civilization, without money and without evil cabals running this world. The keys to a "New Earth" are wisdom and cooperation, not the fears and follies of the past.
Here is Wisdom...
Peace...
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