The most interesting news story of the day concerns the actual mechanism used by the Chinese authorities to censor the internet. It’s not what you’d expect — rather than a direct filter on content, it’s a 21st-century variant of the “Panopticon”.Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, El Ingles, Insubria, JD, KGS, Steen, TB, Wally Ballou, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Arizona’s Napolitano to Head Homeland Security Border Governor Will Now be Responsible for Immigration Policy, Border Security
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) has been chosen to serve as secretary of the vast and troubled Department of Homeland Security for President-elect Obama, Democratic officials said. Napolitano is a border governor who will now be responsible for immigration policy and border security, which are part of Homeland Security’s myriad functions.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Girl Scouts Go Hard Left — and Downhill
“Change” was the buzzword for the Obama campaign. Change was also the buzzword at the 51st Girl Scout National Council Session and Convention held earlier this month in Indianapolis, Ind. It stands as further proof that change is not always for the better.
[…]
Patriotism has been replaced with globalism. This year, the traditional flag ceremony was trashed. The girls didn’t respectfully carry the U.S. flag into the hall. Instead, it was bunched together with the flags of other countries and pulled in by a golf cart to the nonsensical — some say drug related — ‘70s Chicago tune “25 or 6 to 4.” After the girls recited the promise, the band broke into “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire.
[…]
The highlight of the convention was the unveiling of the latest “Journeys” program inspired by the Ashland Institute and created with the help of Brian Bacon of the Oxford Leadership Academy, who is a practitioner and teacher of the Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga and a “senior member” of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University. These programs are billed as a “leadership experience.” Girls are encouraged to become “agents of change” — ah, there’s that word again — for the global good.
These programs are egocentric and devoid of any mention of family. There is a strong anti-boy tone. Instead of mother and father, the books refer to “trusted adults.” Gone is the Judeo-Christian tradition on which the Girl Scouts was founded. The emphasis is on moral relativism and “self.” The books are salt and peppered with Eastern religious practices. Girls are encouraged to make a Zen garden, use yoga and martial arts as a form of relaxation and use a Japanese tea ceremony to “clear the mind.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Home-School Family Harassed by Social Worker
A home school legal advocate is disturbed by the recent actions of a social worker in Florida.
According to Kris Klicka of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), a social worker in Miami, Florida, overstepped the boundary of law when she demanded to interview a home schooler’s children. He says the social worker showed up at the family’s home when the father was at work — and out of fear and intimidation, the mother let the social worker into the home to interview her children, even though the worker neither had a warrant nor would disclose why she was there.
The social worker — according to HSLDA — then partially stripped the children and searched them, but found nothing.
During the ordeal, the mother called Klicka for legal advice. Klicka was able to talk with the social worker and inform her that she was violating federal law.
“[E]very family needs to realize that the Constitution of the United States has a Fourth Amendment that states that no one from the government can enter a home unless they have a warrant [that has been] signed by a judge,” Klicka explains. “And the judge cannot sign it unless there is probable cause — and most of the time these social workers do not have probable cause or credible evidence.”
According to HSLDA, the allegations the social worker was supposedly following up on were based on an anonymous tip concerning a situation from eight months earlier. After the social worker could not find any evidence to support those allegations, she suggested that the entire family get psychological evaluations — which the family declined.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Obama T-Shirt Earns Middle School Teacher a Trip to Principal’s Office
“I am very liberal, I admit that, but I was trying to be ultra, ultra fair,” he said. “My car has a “Republicans for Obama” bumper sticker and peace sign on it, so I parked it in a place where the kids couldn’t see it.”
His remark on the news, he said, was one of patriotism in support of the new president-elect. Another teacher had jokingly referred to the school as the “Barack Middle School of the Arts” on the same broadcast.
[…]
As a side note, I am no stranger to Yuzenas’ teaching methods. Years ago, two of my children were his students, and they’d frequently sit around the dinner table retelling the day’s American history lesson in “Mr. Y’s” class. It was never boring, rarely from textbooks (which he despises), and usually with the idea that history is a living, debatable subject, rather that something that’s dead and settled.
In Mr. Y’s class, even the 1969 Moon landing was an alleged event.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Some Gitmo Prisoners Don’t Want to Go Home
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Fearing militants or even their own governments, some prisoners at Guantanamo Bay from China, Saudi Arabia and other nations do not want to go home, according to transcripts of hearings at the U.S. prison in Cuba.
Uzbekistan, Yemen, Algeria and Syria are also among the countries to which detainees do not want to return. The inmates have told military tribunals that they or their families could be tortured or killed if they are sent back.
President Bush has said the United States transfers detainees to other countries only when it receives assurances that they will not be tortured. Critics say such assurances are useless. The U.S. has released or transferred 267 prisoners and has announced plans to do the same with at least 123 more in the future.
Inmates have told military tribunals they worry about reprisals from militants who will suspect them of cooperating with U.S. authorities in its war on terror. Others say their own governments may target them for reasons that have nothing to do with why they were taken to Guantanamo Bay in the first place.
A man from Syria who was detained along with his father pleaded with the tribunal for help getting them political asylum—in any country that will take them.
“You’ve been saying ‘terrorists, terrorists.’ If we return, whether we did something or not, there’s no such things as human rights. We will be killed immediately,” he said. “You know this very well.”
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Soros-Funded Democratic Idea Factory Becomes Obama Policy Font
Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) — Three blocks from the White House, on the 10th floor of a sleek glass building, young workers pound at computers, with giant flat-screen TVs overhead. It has the look and feel of a high-tech startup.
In many ways it is. The product is ideas.
Thanks in part to funding from benefactors such as billionaire George Soros, the Center for American Progress has become in just five years an intellectual wellspring for Democratic policy proposals, including many that are shaping the agenda of the new Obama administration.
[…]
Just eight days after the Nov. 4 election, CAP released a 300,000-word volume called “Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President” that offers advice on issues such as economic revival and fixing the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Work on the book began almost a year ago.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pilot Has Mid-Flight Mental Breakdown
Air Canada co-pilot’s ‘belligerent, uncooperative’ behavior forces landing.
DUBLIN, Ireland — An Air Canada co-pilot having a mental breakdown had to be forcibly removed from the cockpit, restrained and sedated, and a stewardess with flying experience helped the pilot safely make an emergency landing, an Irish investigation concluded Wednesday.
[…]
The report did not identify any of the Air Canada crew by name. Nor did it specify the psychiatric diagnosis for the co-pilot, who was hospitalized for 11 days in Irish mental wards before being flown by air ambulance back to Canada.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
EU is Costing Britain £106k a Minute
That’s £900 for each man, woman and child in the UK
The European Union is costing Britain a staggering £106,000 a minute, a think-tank has revealed.
As the UK teeters on the brink of what experts predict will be the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Government has surrendered £55.8billion to Brussels this year.
That is equivalent to paying a whopping £900 for every man, woman and child in the country.
[…]
The report, published today, calculated that the full financial cost to Britain of being part of the EU was £55.8billion — up £400million on the previous year.
This was made up of the Treasury’s £4.7billion net contribution to Brussels, plus a £3billion handout to other EU bodies, such as the European Space Agency and the European Investment Bank.
The controversial Common Agricultural Policy costs the UK an additional £16.8billion while the Common Fisheries Policy adds up to another £3.3billion. Some of this is paid direct to the EU, whilst being part of the policies means food on our tables is more expensive.
Finally, red tape imposed by the EU has cost British business about £28billion, according to statistics calculated by the European Commission’s vice-chairman Günter Verheugen.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Fury Over £100million Plan for Hundreds of Gipsy Sites Across the Country
Towns and villages across England are bracing themselves for ‘bombshell’ news on the location of hundreds of new and upgraded gipsy and traveller camps.
Work on some of the proposed 7,500 extra pitches will get the go-ahead within weeks under a controversial £97million scheme.
Targets imposed by the Government mean local authorities must provide a specified number of permanent sites with rubbish collection, running water, electricity and other services. In return travellers will have to pay rent and council tax.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 80,000 Convicted for Domestic Violence in 3 Years
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 4 — More than 80 thousand people have been convicted in Spain for domestic violence since 2005, the year that the socialist government introduced a law against so-called “domestic terrorism”, which causes tens of deaths each year. According to data from the Domestic Violence Observatory of the General Council of Legal Power — as reported today by the media — in the last three years (June 2005 to June 2008), 79% of those accused of domestic violence against women have been convicted while 75% of restraining orders have been granted. The number of accusations of domestic violence shows a continuous rise over the period but is particularly marked since January 2007: in just a year and a half, up to June this year, there have been more than more than 200 thousand accusations of mistreatment or aggression. The Observatory’s data also reflect the fact that the victims and aggressors of the violence are increasingly foreigners. Whilst three years ago, immigrant women who were treated violently in this way made up 30% of female victims, by June this year the figure had risen to 37%. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Switzerland: Family-Friendly Cantons End Birth Rate Decline
A handful of Swiss cantons has slowed trends in declining birth rates by improving child care facilities and offering higher family allowances, a study has found.
Giuliano Bonoli, of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Public Administration in Lausanne, reviewed changes in the birth rate in 26 cantons between 1980 to 2000, in a study published in the Journal of European Social Policy.
The cantons of Geneva, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Basel City and Zurich managed to maintain the number of births at 1980 levels or even increase birth rates. All are among the cantons offering more day care for children and awarding comparatively higher family allowances.
“People living in those cantons where it is relatively easier or more acceptable to be both a mother and a worker tend to have more children,” Bonoli told swissinfo.
“My interpretation of these results is not so much that women or parents decide to have a child once they have found that they have a day care centre.
“I don’t think that such irrational calculations are behind decisions to have children, but I think these indicators of family policy are also indicators of a more favourable climate for the reconciliation of work and family.”
Working women
The study was undertaken against a backdrop of low fertility rates in most member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Bonoli says that if current fertility trends continue over the next several decades it will lead to dramatic population decline and ageing in these countries.
In Switzerland most cantons reported falling birth rates between 1980 and 2000, which Bonoli attributes to an evolving society, with more women joining the workforce.
“We did this study because we realised that there were big differences in fertility rates across the Swiss cantons. The differences are on a scale comparable to those one finds across Europe,” said Bonoli.
“The most powerful variation is the number of day care centres per 1,000 of working women. A second indicator also found to be positively related and statistically significant is a composite indicator of the generosity of child allowances.”
Bonoli says that the Swiss study offered “almost laboratory-like conditions”, with broadly similar living and labour status across the country making the results less subject to variables.
He found that the monthly amount of standard child benefit varied between SFr150-300 ($125-250) depending on the canton. Inter-cantonal differences in family benefits have been stable over the last two decades, which allowed for more reliability in reviewing that as a factor in fertility rates.
He said it was possible that the level of family benefits did not matter as much for the first or second child, but became more relevant for the third or fourth.
“A positive effect on fertility can be obtained by simply meeting the demands of women and families in the field of reconciling work and family life.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Holocaust Denier Fredrick Toben Wins German Extradition Fight
The German Government has backed down from its fight to extradite the Holocaust denier Fredrick Toben from Britain, it emerged today.
The controversial historian was arrested at Heathrow Airport last month on a European arrest warrant accusing him of racism and anti-Semitism. German prosecutors were forced to appeal to the High Court after Britain refused to hand him over.
Dr Toben’s solicitor, Kevin Lowry-Mullins, confirmed today that the appeal had been withdrawn and that he had signed a consent order with the German Government to end the case…
| — Hat tip: El Ingles | [Return to headlines] |
Balkans: Serbia to Sue Croatia After World Court Ruling
Belgrade, 19 Nov. (AKI) — Belgrade will countersue Croatia for war crimes after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said it will try a genocide case against Serbia brought by Croatia. Foreign minister Vuk Jeremic told Belgrade television late on Tuesday that Serbia will sue Croatia for alleged ‘ethnic cleansing’ during the 1990s conflict that sent hundreds of thousands of Serbs fleeing the country.
Jeremic said Belgrade will seek to prove that Croatia committed war crimes when it expelled its Serb population during the Operation Storm military offensive.
“Croatia hasn’t adequately responded to the offer of reconciliation which Serbia has made on many occasions,” Jeremic said.
“Croatia will now be sued to finally determine the truth,” he added.
Around 200,000 Serbian refugees fled into Bosnia and Serbia ahead of the advancing Croatian military. Serbia’s countersuit will also touch on the atrocities by Croatia’s puppet state against Serbs, Jews and Roma Gypsies during World War II, Jeremic stated.
News of the ICJ ruling on Tuesday granting Croatia the right to sue Serbia was met with shock by Serbian media and politicians.
Pointing to alleged double standards by the ICJ, Belgrade daily Press said in a front page headline the ruling amounted to “The rape of Serbia”.
Another Serbian daily, Pravda, said it was a “new genocide” against Serbs.
Other Serbian politicians reacted in a similar manner and opposition leaders criticised the government for having failed to sue Croatia earlier for the mass expulsions of 1995, which they called “the biggest exodus in Europe” after World War II.
But Croatian president Stipe Mesic said the ICJ decision “was expected, considering everything that happened” during the war.”
Croatian Prime minister Ivo Sanader said that it was time for Serbia to confront its past
Croatia argues that Serb attacks during the 1991-1995 war of independence left 20,000 people dead.
Zagreb daily Jutarnji list claimed there was an outside chance that the ICJ would rule in Croatia’s favour.
The ICJ ruling coincided with the anniversary of the takeover of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar on 18 November 1991 by the former Yugoslav Army, after months of shelling and devastation.
In February last year, the ICJ ruled that Bosnian Serb forces committed genocide in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995, when 8,000 Muslim civilians were killed. The court exonerated the Serbian state from genocide charges, but blamed it for failing to prevent genocide.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Commerce: Serbia; Italy is Second Foreign Trade Partner
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 19 — Italy is Serbia’s second most important foreign trade partners, right after Germany, vice-President of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Mihailo Vesovic said at a meeting with Italian businessmen, reports Tanjug news agency. Over the past seven years, there has been a seven-fold increase in Serbia’s trade with Italy, and it reached a value of USD 2.6 billion in the first nine months of this year, Vesovic said at the meeting, which was attended by domestic businessmen and a business delegation from Italy’s region of Basilicata. Vasovic said that the cooperation between the two countries is possible in the areas of agricultural and food industries, wood processing, textile and footwear industries, logistics and intermodal freight transport, hunting and spa tourism. Director of Italy’s Foreign Trade Institute, Fabio Corsi, said that there are conditions for bilateral cooperation, adding that Serbia has favorable labor prices and educated workers, as well as an environment for good work. He evaluated that the future of the cooperation between the two countries is in investments and that Italy’s Fiat will become one of the main investors in Serbia’s industrial sector. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Mantica in Belgrade, We Understand Serb Minority
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 19 — The Italian undersecretary for foreign affairs, Alfredo Mantica, has said that Italy hopes “that the case of the Serbian minority is accepted” and that it “includes the six points” indicated by Belgrade (but refused by Pristina) to overcome to stall in the deployment of European civil mission, EULEX, in Kosovo. The statement gives a clue as to what the undersecretary will say to the Serbian foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, in their forthcoming meetings. Other than the Eulex issue (“which now goes back to the UN”, said Mantica) the questions of Serbian cooperation with the AIA international criminal tribunal, the journey towards European integration and bilateral relations will also be discussed. In the course of his visit to Belgrade the Italian undersecretary will also meet with the minister for Kosovo, Goran Bogdanovic, the cabinet chief of the Foreign Ministry, Borislav Stefanovic, and the Director of the office for European integration, Milica Delevic. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Kosovo: Thousands Protest Against UN Plan
Pristina, 19 Nov. (AKI) — Thousands of Kosovars protested on Wednesday in the capital Pristina against a plan by the United Nations Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon for the deployment of the European Union’s mission (EULEX). According to local media, the protest, organised by several non-governmental organisations, drew a crowd of over 10,000 people.
The protesters marched through Pristina’s streets carrying banners reading “Against Ban Ki-moon’s plan”, “Together with Europe, but not under Europe” and other slogans. The protests passed without any incidents.
The President of “Vetevendosje” (Self-determination) Albin Kurti told the crowd that Kosovo was an independent state and that Ban’s plan “legitimises Serbia” as a part in the process.
‘Vetevendosje’ is a group that opposes the UN administration and advocates for the independence of Kosovo.
“We say no to Serbia,” added Kurti.
Serbia opposes Kosovo’s independence and has resisted the deployment of EULEX, unless it had the approval of the UN Security Council.
To break the deadlock, Ban has proposed a six-point plan granting minority Serbs concentrated in the north of the province autonomy in police, customs, judiciary, communications and transport matters.
The plan was accepted by Belgrade, but ethnic Albanian leaders have rejected it, saying it would infringe upon Kosovo’s sovereignty.
“The international presence in Kosovo should be negotiated with Kosovo, not with Serbia,” Kurti said.
Kosovo’s president Fatmir Sejdiu and prime minister Hasim Taci have said that EULEX was welcome on the entire territory of Kosovo, but not on Belgrade’s terms.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: France, a New Guide for Pilgrimages to Mecca
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, NOVEMBER 19 — For the fifth year in a row, the French government has published a guide for pilgrims heading to Mecca, in order to remind them of some ‘‘indispensable precautions’’ to be taken before the journey and on arrival at the site. The guide — of which there are 50,000 copies in French and Arabic — is joint-edited by the Foreign Minister, the Interior Minister and the Economy Minister. It calls attention to the fact that agencies offering journeys to Mecca (one of the five pillars of the Muslim faith, which generally takes place 70 days after the end of Ramadan and this year falls on December 8) must have a licence or authorisation number from the prefecture, and are breaking the law if they do not. Fraudulent operations on the part of such agencies are in fact very common: in just 2007 more than 3,500 pilgrims (out of a total of 30,000 leaving from France) were left behind, despite having paid out their earnings or diligently amassed savings. They never even saw an air ticket. Hundreds more returned dissatisfied with the travel conditions. This problem has recently led the Sos Pelerins association to create the Hajj Academy in Paris. The organisation is dedicated to the Hajj and offers seminars of training and preparation for the pilgrimage. Aspirant pilgrims are taught how to keep themselves healthy and which vaccines are necessary. The information is, naturally, contained in the government’s booklet which offers practical information on visas, insurance and useful addresses. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy-Libya: La Russa, Govt Treaty, Reimbursement for Exiles
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 19 — “We have approved a treaty between Italy and Libya and I have been given assurance from the government of reimbursement for Italian exiles”. This was stated by Defence Minister, Ignazio La Russa, speaking with reporters while entering Chigi Palace at he end of the Council of Ministers. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Med: New Economic Frontier, Proposed Alliance EU-Meda
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 19 — The Mediterranean as “our new frontier, especially now that we are in a recession” and “this crisis needs new responses”. The Euro-Med TDS president Antonio Paoletti repeated more than once, today, that the concept of a new “frontier” became the connecting thread between all of the speeches at the conference “The Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean, The Contribution of Services” organised by Euro-Med TDS at the offices of Confcommercio institute. Before the group of representatives of entrepreneurial organisations and chambers of commerce of Euro-Mediterranean countries, in his speech Paoletti evoked the experience often reminded of (and feared) of growth in China: in spite of “the Euro-Mediterranean population of 720 million is a little over half of that of China, the Mediterranean manages a volume of produced wealth (in terms of GDP) close to seven times that of China”. On the base of this economic force, and above all that “now the development of Asia brings back to our waters the central avenues of communication” it is necessary to think of a “strategic scenario EU-MEDA”. The president of Euro-Med TDS didn’t hide the difficulties which still come from “rather strong differences” between the two sides of the common sea. Starting from the per capita GDP, a value which oscillates from two thousand euros a year (and sometimes less) in Syria, Palestinian Authority and Morocco, to the three thousand in Tunisia and Algeria, to the five thousand in Lebanon. Low figures, which clash with the Europe 27 figure of 22,500 euros. Unemployment is the other obstacle which keeps the two sides of the sea so far apart: in 2020 OECD estimates that there will be 12 million unemployed people in the MEDA countries. “There is a lot of work to do” and a lot depends on the actions of the tertiary sector, “the sector that creates jobs”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria-Germany: Two Agreements to Strengthen Cooperation
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 18 — Access to good quality drinkable water for, more than 1.6 million people will be one of the results of two agreements signed yesterday in Damascus by Syria and Germany, the first having to do with financing, and the second on the reduction of the water waste in Aleppo. According to reports from Syrian press agency, Sana, the economic value of the agreement is more than 52 million euro of which 47.8 million are in the form of credit, and 5 million as a donation. This will strengthen relations between the two countries, through “a cooperation that has become more significant year by year, starting back in 2002” commented the German Ambassador to Damascus. Signed yesterday by the head of the Syrian State Planning Organisation, Tayssir Radawi, the General Director of the Public Agency for Drinking Water and Drainage, Nabil al-Hassan, the Vice-President of the German Construction and Reconstruction Fund, Claudia Arsi, and by the Head of Cooperation Relations with Syria under the same Fund, Webique Rikhard, the agreements aim to renew drainage networks in the regions of al-Achrafieh and Cheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo. The German Ambassador also underlined that currently, cooperation with Middle Eastern countries is benefiting from the presence of ‘50 German technical experts from the water, superior education, and urban development, and economic reform process sectors’’. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
550 Egyptian Schoolgirls Harassed in One Day
Egyptian police announced Wedneday they had arrested more than 550 teenagers suspected of sexually harassing girls outside schools in several Cairo districts in a single day. The culprits were awaiting interrogation and trial Thursday.
The police launched an extensive clampdown targeting stores and internet cafes near schools. Security forces raided six internet cafes that did not have permits, and another five that played pornographic videos for truants, according to a statement issued by the Cairo Security Department on the day of the crackdown.
After many families complained about girls being targeted outside schools in several neighborhods the head of the Cairo Investigations Bureau, General Farouk Lashin, launched a campaign against sexual harassment, an interior Ministry source told AlArabiya.net.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that most of the harassers were between 16 and 18 years old.
According to the source police launched an earlier campaign that resulted in the arrest of almost 300 people for harassment in Cairo streets.
“Sexual harassment is the scare of parents now and this was very obvious in the complaints we get,” he said. “That is why security forces are posted all over Cairo streets and around schools and universities.”
An increasingly common problem in Egyptian society, sexual harassment extends to females from all walks of life.
A recent survey by the BBC found that more than four out of five women reported being sexually harassed. The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR) in Egypt described it as a “social cancer,” according to the BBC.
Pressure on the government to introduce legislation to control the problem culminated in the first verdict on the first sexual harassment case involving Noha Ostath in Egypt issued in October of this year.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Ban on Drug Imports, 1.3bln Spent in 2008
(ANSAmed) — ALGIERS, OCTOBER 23 — In the first nine months of 2008, Algeria spent just under 1.3 billion dollars for pharmaceutical imports, reported the secretary of the Algerian labour union that represents the pharmaceutical industry (SAIP), M. Chibila, emphasising the “courage” of the Algerian government that a few days ago decided to ban imports of pharmaceuticals already produced locally. “Sales of imports was in a state of continuous growth: in the first half of this year it increased by 30%”, Chibila said “while many Algerian pharmaceutical producers couldn’t compete with the big foreign producers and had to close down”. According to the SAIP secretary, of the 400 drugs that cover 80% of imports, at least 300 can be produced by Algerian companies. Local pharmaceutical production currently covers just 18% of national demand. Other than banning the imports from foreign companies of the drugs that are physically produced in Algeria, the decree, approved two days ago by the government council, foresees “the obligation on the part of foreign pharmaceutical producers to distribute their products in the Maghrebi country and invest in Algeria”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Author Ali Salem Receives Courage Award
LONDON (Reuters Life!) — Egyptian author and playwright Ali Salem, an outspoken critic of radical Islam and a proponent of peace with Israel, won the $50,000 Civil Courage Prize on Wednesday.
The 72-year-old has not had a play produced in Egypt since 1994 when he traveled to Israel and wrote a book, “My Drive to Israel,” about his experiences.
Since then, he has visited Israel several times and in 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Salem was expelled from the Egyptian Writers Federation for maintaining contacts with Israelis, and, according to the organizers of the annual award, has endured “campaigns of threats, vilification and censorship.”
“It’s very important on a psychological level, because I’m happy that people see what you do,” Salem told Reuters by telephone, referring to the prize, now in its eighth year.
“I’m happy there are people who can evaluate (my work),” he added, speaking in English.
He said the prize, awarded by the U.S.-based Train Foundation, recognized both his calls for peace with Israel and his opposition to Islamic extremism.
“They are the same. There is an interrelation between them because the lack of peace in the Middle East will encourage extremism, so there must be a peace.”
Ali Salem has written 25 plays dating back to the 1960s and 15 books. Some of his productions became classics of the Egyptian theater, including “The Phantom of Heliopolis,” “School of Troublemakers” and “The Comedy of Oedipus.”
Salem will receive the award, which honors “resistance to evil at great personal risk,” at the American ambassador’s residence in London on Wednesday evening.
The Train Foundation is named after U.S. investment adviser John Train, whose family has been the principal donor to the organization which funds the prize.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Barak, Likud Win Would Isolate Us, Criticises Oz
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, NOVEMBER 19 — An election victory by Likud in the February 2009 elections risks provoking confrontation between Israel and the rest of the world, is the fear expressed today by Labour leader Ehud Barak in an interview on military radio. “In these elections” he said “the main battle is between the centre-left forces linked to the Labour party and the right of Benyamin Netanyahu, or Likud. Likud risks taking us down a blind alley in questions of policy and security, of bringing us into a conflict with the world and the Middle Eastern region and also of fracturing Israeli society”. As for Kadima, Barak considers them “a temperamental party” without a clear physiognomy. Barak then criticised writer Amos Oz, who last week said that Labour “is ending its own historic role” and hoped for the constitution of a new social-democratic party. Oz, said Barak, is a great novelist, but in his political analyses he should bear in mind the examples of other Labour supporters (Yossi Sarid, Shulamit Alloni and Yossi Beilin) “who left the party and then we saw where they ended up”, at the margins of Israeli politics. “It is a real shame that instead of joining forces against the Right, people now decide to set up new movements”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
IAEA: Syria Site Bombed by Israel Bore Features of Nuclear Reactor
A Syrian complex bombed by Israel bore features that would resemble those of an undeclared nuclear reactor and Syria must cooperate more with UN inspectors to let them draw conclusions, a watchdog report said on Wednesday. Advertisement According to the report, nuclear inspectors took samples from the site, which was bombed by Israel Air Force jets in September 2007, on their lone visit in June 2008. Lab results showed traces of uranium, according to the report, which stressed that the traces had undergone chemical processes.
The report states that the high number of water pumping installations was sufficient to serve a nuclear facility that would be built near the Euphrates River.
The International Atomic Energy Agency report stresses that Syria refuses to produce documents in relation to the site as it is required to do. The report accuses Syria of denying access for further inspections to the site as well as three other locations believed to be tied to the construction of the suspected reactor.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Admits to Blocking Millions of Websites
In unprecedented speech, Islamic Republic’s prosecutor general says regime has censored over five million sites due to ‘unethical content’; bloggers concerned over new bill that would allow execution for publishing anti-Islamic material online.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Iraq/Italy: No to Christian Attacks
Officials say country must safeguard minorities
(ANSA) — Baghdad, November 20 — Iraq has a duty to put an end to the persecution of Christian minorities, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Thursday.
‘‘It’s not a concession but a duty for Iraq to defend Christians, who were the first to arrive in this country,’’ said al-Maliki.
‘‘We mustn’t empty the East of Christians nor the West of Muslims,’’ he added.
Frattini, who was on an official visit to Baghdad, said al-Maliki’s words were ‘‘an important formal undertaking’’.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari also assured Frattini that the Iraqi government has ‘‘taken actions to safeguard’’ religious minorities, especially in Mosul, an important historic centre for the Catholic Assyrian Church of the East where the prophet Jonah is buried and which has the highest proportion of Christians of all the Iraqi cities.
Thousands of Christians fled their homes in Mosul in recent months following a spate of Christian killings which prompted al-Maliki to send extra police to the city. There are currently around 35,000 police and army troops in Mosul.
Around 16 Christians have been killed since the beginning of October, according to media reports, including two sisters who were shot dead on Tuesday by a gang of armed men.
Before American’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 there were a some 800,000 Christians living in the country, but around 250,000 are estimated to have since fled the country.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Saga of Fatah Al-Islam, a Thriller-Political Arm
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 18 — Dead, hiding or detained? The saga of Shaker al-Absi, leader of the Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam group, has become a thriller and instrument to settle political accounts between Syria and its Lebanese nemesis. Lebanese al-Akhbar daily said Abssi, whose group is accused of terrorism by Beirut and Damascus, is jailed in Syria where he made a “complete” confession about his men’s activities ahead, during and after the three-month 2007 battle with army troops in north Lebanon and about an attack on Lebanese soldiers. Al-Akhbar report came few days after army intelligence arrested a man who had allegedly sneaked Abssi out to Syria. However, Abssìs fate remains a mystery since he “escaped” from Nahr al-Bared before it was flatted. At first, Abssìs daughter, Wafaa, said she identified the corps of her father at a local morgue. She than retracted her testimony. Two weeks ago, she appeared on the Syrian state-owned Tv along with other so-called Fatah al-Islam members — minus her father — who “confessed” that they had carried out the bombing in Damascus last September 27 that killed 17 people. They said the attack was financed by al-Mustaqbal party of Saad Hariri, leader of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian parliamentary majority. Al-Mustaqbal rejected the allegations and its newspaper replied by publishing “confessions” by Fatah al-Islam militants held in Lebanon about their ties with Syrian secret services. Hariri accuses Syria for the assassination of his father ex-Premier Rafik Hariri in Beirut in 2005 and asked for an Arab probe into the Fatah al-Islam issue which, Lebanese observers say, is being used by both parties to settle political accounts. Anti-Syrian Lebanese say Fatah al-Islam is “invented” by Syria to destabilize their country, where Damascus was forced to end 29 years of political and military tutelage in 2005. Damascus’ Lebanese allies say Al-Mustaqbal is being “used” by Sunni Saudi Arabia to counter the powerful Shiite Hezbollah and its backers —Iran and Syriàs ruling minority Alawite community of President Bashar Assad. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Syria: Repeated Attacks on Oil/Gas Distribution Network
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 19 — Six attacks have taken place in the last week, 11 since September, and 22 since the beginning of the year: this is the frequency with which the Syria oil and gas distribution network has been “damaged” by unknown persons, according to what was reported today by Damascus government newspaper, Tishrin. Citing sources in the state company which manages the national network of oil and gasducts, the newspaper specified that the last three “attacks” occurred between Sunday night and Monday morning, and another three “sabotages” were registered last week, all damaging an oil duct which connects Homs, 162 km north of Damascus, and Adra, the terminal near the capital. The newspaper did not make any referral to possible suspects in the attacks, which stating however, that they have “forced the state company to intensify night and day patrols” and that the attacks inflict an “elevated economic damage” to the country. The Syrian internal network of distribution for gas and oil is 1000 km long and draws from two refineries in Homs and Baniyas, a port 190km north west of Damascus. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: 15 Fully Equipped Ambulances Donated to PNA
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 19 — Turkey has donated 15 fully equipped ambulances to the Pna, Anadolu news agency repors. The ambulances, which are worth approximately USD 1 million, have been presented to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah by the Turkish International Cooperation Agency (Tika). Ten ambulances will be used in the West Bank while five others in Gaza Strip. Turkey has assured Palestine that it will provide USD 30 million in the next three years to be used in the health sector. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
China’s Eye on the Internet
The “Great Firewall of China,” used by the government of the People’s Republic of China to block users from reaching content it finds objectionable, is actually a “panopticon” that encourages self-censorship through the perception that users are being watched, rather than a true firewall, according to researchers at UC Davis and the University of New Mexico.
The researchers are developing an automated tool, called ConceptDoppler, to act as a weather report on changes in Internet censorship in China. ConceptDoppler uses mathematical techniques to cluster words by meaning and identify keywords that are likely to be blacklisted.
Many countries carry out some form of Internet censorship. Most rely on systems that block specific Web sites or Web addresses, said Earl Barr, a graduate student in computer science at UC Davis who is an author on the paper. China takes a different approach by filtering Web content for specific keywords and selectively blocking Web pages.
In 2006, a team at the University of Cambridge, England, discovered that when the Chinese system detects a banned word in data traveling across the network, it sends a series of three “reset” commands to both the source and the destination. These “resets” effectively break the connection. But they also allow researchers to test words and see which ones are censored.
Barr, along with Jed Crandall, a recent UC Davis graduate who is now an assistant professor of computer science at the School of Engineering, University of New Mexico; UC Davis graduate students Daniel Zinn and Michael Byrd; and independent researcher Rich East sent messages to Internet addresses within China containing a variety of different words that might be subject to censorship.
If China’s censorship system were a true firewall, most blocking would take place at the border with the rest of the Internet, Barr said. But the researchers found that some messages passed through several routers before being blocked.
A firewall would also block all mentions of a banned word or phrase, but banned words reached their destinations on about 28 percent of the tested paths, Byrd said. Filtering was particularly erratic at times of heavy Internet use.
The words used to probe the Chinese Internet were not selected at random.
“If we simply bombarded the Great Firewall with random words, we would waste resources and time,” Zinn said.
The researchers took the Chinese version of Wikipedia, extracted individual words and used a mathematical technique called latent semantic analysis to work out the relationships between different words. If one of the words was censored within China, they could look up which other closely related words are likely to be blocked as well.
Examples of words tested by the researchers and found to be banned included references to the Falun Gong movement and the protest movements of 1989; Nazi Germany and other historical events; and general concepts related to democracy and political protest.
“Imagine you want to remove the history of the Wounded Knee massacre from the Library of Congress,” Crandall said. “You could remove ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ and a few other selected books, or you could remove every book in the entire library that contains the word ‘massacre.’“
By analogy, Chinese Internet censorship based on keyword filtering is the equivalent of the latter — and indeed, the keyword “massacre” (in Chinese) is on the blacklist.
Because it filters ideas rather than specific Web sites, keyword filtering stops people from using proxy servers or “mirror” Web sites to evade censorship. But because it is not completely effective all the time, it probably acts partly by encouraging self-censorship, Barr said. When users within China see that certain words, ideas and concepts are blocked most of the time, they might assume that they should avoid those topics.
| — Hat tip: Wally Ballou | [Return to headlines] |
Australia: Local Muslim Clerics Accused
SOME Muslim religious leaders in Victoria are condoning rape within marriage, domestic violence, polygamy, welfare fraud and exploitation of women, according to an explosive report on the training of imams.
The report says some imams apply Sharia (Islamic law) when it benefits men but not when it benefits women, and that they hinder police from pursuing domestic violence charges.
Women seeking divorces have also been told by imams that they must leave “with only the clothes on their back” and not seek support or a share of property because they can get welfare payments.
And the report says some imams knowingly perform polygamous marriages, also knowing that the second wife, a de facto under Australian law, can claim Centrelink payments.
The report is based on a study commissioned and funded by the former Howard government and conducted by the Islamic Women’s Welfare Council of Victoria.
It was presented yesterday at a National Centre for Excellence in Islamic Studies conference at Melbourne University.
It is the result of extensive community consultation, interviews with police, lawyers, court workers and academics, and meetings with and questions to the Victorian Board of Imams.
The board’s role is to provide an Islamic view and religious guidance to the community and represent it to the media. The report claims that the 24-man board ignored or did not directly answer many of the questions.
It says women, community and legal workers and police involved in the consultation were particularly concerned about domestic violence, and suggested that imams aimed to preserve the family at the cost of women.
When cases came to court they were often dropped after family and community elders pressured women to withdraw charges.
The report says some women who were legally separated but not religiously divorced had their husbands enter their houses, demand sexual intercourse and take it by force.
“Workers who have assisted women in this situation said that the advice women received from the imams was that it was “halal” — permitted — because there was a valid “nikah” — marriage,” it says.
The report also cites sexual assault allegations connected with under-age marriages.
It says polygamy is steadily increasing and gaining acceptance among Melbourne Muslims, and Shepparton police report many “de facto” relationships that are really polygamous marriages.
“Community workers who have provided support to women whose husbands took another wife religiously said that women blame the availability of Centrelink benefits … since one or the other wife will be claiming it, relieving the husband of the responsibility of supporting two families,” the report says.
Community members quoted in the report believe that imams’ narrow religious training in an increasingly complex world, lack of life experience, poor English and lack of understanding of Australia create problems for the community. For example, ill-informed comment by imams drew a wedge between the mainstream and Muslim communities.
The report suggests the Muslim community believes many imams are ill-equipped for the role, which involves much higher expectations in Australia than in predominantly Muslim countries, including marriage counselling, pastoral and spiritual care, marriages and divorces.
“They come from their own little village and culture and say this is what Islam is,” one woman is quoted saying. “They come from a village where there is no running water and electricity, and they bring their dark ideas into this country.”
The secretary of the Board of Imams, Sheikh Fehmi Naji El-Imam, said he could not understand how the council could write such a report and denied the complaints “absolutely”.
“They must have heard stories here and there and are writing about them as though they are fact,” he said.
Sheikh Fehmi, who is also Mufti of Australia, said no authorised imam would conduct a polygamous marriage, and it was absolutely wrong that women’s rights were ignored in marriage or divorce, or that imams ignored domestic violence.
“I haven’t heard of any case where the board disregarded a woman or did not try to help her,” he said.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Pirates: Somalia; Another Seizure, Greek Ship Captured
(ANSAmed) — MOMBASA (KENYA), NOVEMBER 19 — Somali pirates have taken over another ship — a Greek cargo ship of notable size — despite the large international naval presence off the coast of the country. The news was reported by a regional maritime group. The assistance programme for those sailing past east Africa has affirmed that the Greek ship was captured on Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden. It is the second ship to be taken over since the spectacular capture, last Saturday, of the huge Saudi oil tanker, Sirius Star, which is 330 metres long, has a tonnage of 318,000 tons and was loaded with around two million barrels of crude oil with a value of more than 100 million dollars. Yesterday a Hong Kong cargo ship, the ‘Delight’, was also captured by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Meanwhile, the pirates now in charge of the Sirius Star are making ransom demands, according to a man presented as one of the pirates by the Arab satellite television station, Al Jazeera. Since Tuesday, Sirius Star has been anchored opposite the Somali port of Harardere. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Falling Pound ‘A Barrier to Immigrants’ as New Arrivals Hit Half a Million
Ministers were left predicting yesterday that a falling pound would help to curb immigration as figures showed the arrival of more than half a million new foreigners last year.
The figures represent the second-largest increase in new arrivals on record and an overall rise in the net figure on last year. The Conservatives said that they proved that the Government had lost control of immigration. Ministers said that the official figures did not reflect current trends, and released statistics showing a fall in demand for work permits from Eastern European workers.
Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, said the falling pound was reducing the value of foreign workers’ remittances while the economies of countries such as Poland were booming. The estimated number of people arriving to live in Britain for 12 months or more was 577,000 last year, compared with 591,000 in 2006, while the number of people leaving the country fell from 400,000 to 340,000 over the same period, according to the Office for National Statistics.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
France: Intolerance Towards Roma Gypsies Rising Says Rights Watchdog
Strasbourg, 18 Nov. (AKI) — Violence and intolerance towards the Roma Gypsies is growing across the continent, Europe’s top human rights watchdog, The Council of Europe’s chief Terry Davis warned on Tuesday. In a statement after a far-right mob late on Monday tried to attack a Roma Gypsy suburb in the Czech city of Litvinov, Davies urged governments to take urgent action to protect the Roma.
“Seventy-five years almost to the day after the Kristallnacht marked the beginning of the Holocaust, a stone throwing mob tried to attack a Roma suburb in the Czech city of Litvinov,” said Davis.
On 9-10 November, 1938, the windows of Jewish shops and offices were smashed and premises vandalised, and many synagogues were torched by Nazi stormtroopers in the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht). Approximately 100 Jews were killed, and another 20,000 arrested, some of whom were sent to the newly created concentration camps
Fifteen policemen were wounded in Monday’s clashes in Litvinov, as they used batons and tear gas to push back rioters from a 500-strong rally of the far-right Workers Party who hurled petrol bombs and stones.
“I congratulate the Czech authorities on their determination in stopping the violence,” Davis added. But he stressed that the incident occurred in a climate of increasing intolerance and violence targeting the Roma Gypsy community in Europe.
“All Governments across Europe also need to look urgently at the situation of the Roma communities in their countries and act decisively to protect them against discrimination, intolerance and violence,” Davis concluded.
The European Parliament is expected this week to vote on a report that is highly critical of the current conservative Italian government’s measures towards the Roma. These include evictions from camps in several parts of Italy and fingerprinting.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Immigration: 130 on Boat Intercepted Off Pozzallo
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 19 — A boat with one hundred and thirty immigrants was intercepted by the coast guard 35 miles off the coast of Pozzallo (Ragusa). Two patrol boats intervened and towed the boat to land, escorted by a Guardia di Finanza patrol boat, among the immigrants there are reported to be five women. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Mons.Teissier, Don’t Stop Immigrants Practising Faith
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 19 — “Human rights are not negotiable, you cannot stop an immigrant of the Muslim faith from practising his religion in the name of reciprocity” said monsignor Henri Teissier, Archbishop Emeritus of Algiers, outside a meeting on the theme of inter-faith dialogue in the Mediterranean, organised this afternoon in Rome by the French Embassy at the Holy See. Mons. Teissier was outspoken on the theme of reciprocity between Muslims and Christians in the Middle East.”We need to distinguish between the political plane and relations between communities who live together”. At the political level “it is possible to ask for equal treatment, at the same time it is necessary to honour human rights”. A leading figure in dialogue between Muslims and Christians, Teissier led the Algerian Christian community from 1998 to May 2008. His ministry was carried out at a difficult time, in 1992 and 1999 saw fundamentalist violence erupt and the death of tens of religious figures, including mons.Pierre Claverie, Teissier’s successor as Bishop of Oran. “In recent years, the situation of Christians in Algeria is more difficult, but thanks to the help of moderate Muslims and intellectuals we have managed to move forward. The dialogue has not stopped, despite the international context worsening and conditions being ever more difficult”. Although life is difficult for Christians in the East, the key lies in relations with the liberal Muslim community. “More than asking for outside intervention, it is necessary that every Christian community in the Middle East finds its own interlocutors among liberal Muslims living in the countries themselves”. Who amongst the Muslim countries could help this inter-faith dialogue? “Over time, the king of Morocco, Tunisia with its university institutions have helped to move this dialogue forward. I don’t think that Saudi Arabia can guide this new impulse, seeing the conditions the two million Christians live in the Kingdom”. I believe that the Forum that was held in recent days at the Vatican, which sprang from the letter by the 138 constitutes an important step forward, but it is only the start. We need to increase these initiatives”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Iraqi Immigrants Detained in South
Brindisi, 19 Nov.(AKI) — Italian police arrested ten undocumented illegal Iraqi immigrants on Wednesday near the southern Italian city of Brindisi. The illegal immigrants were picked up at the station in Vernotico in the Province of Brindisi without identity documents. The oldest is 32 and the youngest is a minor. They were taken to the police station in Brindisi and will be expelled.
News reports did not state how the Iraqis entered Italy. Just over a quarter of illegal immigrants reach Italy aboard people smugglers’ boats from the southern Mediterranean. Most enter by land or plane, according to Italy’s Interior Ministry.
A record 24,241 illegal immigrants reached Italy between January and 16 September this year, and 3,176 in the following month, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reported last week, quoting data from Italy’s Interior Ministry.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Public Services Cannot Cope With Second Highest Immigration Flows
Despite the Government’s pledge to cut numbers coming in, overall net migration has increased fivefold since 1997 to hit 237,000 last year.
It means the population has increased by more than 1.85 million in the last decade, purely because of immigration.
The rising number of immigrants questions the Government’s claims of controlled immigration and its promise not to let the population go above 70 million.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
A New Theory of Climate Change
Svensmark’s theory of cosmoclimatology is now complete. He has discovered a complete chain of events that explains the variations in global temperature that have puzzled climatologists for so many years, and that has now led to an explanation for the recent global warming episode. It starts with cosmic rays coming to earth from exploding supernovas and collisions of remnants of stars with nebula in space. Many of these cosmic rays are shielded from striking the earth by the electromagnetic activity of the sun. When the sun is active, the solar wind prevents cosmic rays from entering the earth’s atmosphere by sweeping them around the earth. When the sun is inactive, more of them penetrate the atmosphere. Upon reaching the lower atmosphere where more sulphur dioxide, water vapor, and ozone is present, the cosmic rays ionize the air, releasing electrons that aid in the formation of more CCN and form more dense clouds. This increase in low-cloud amount reflects more solar energy to space, cooling the planet. Variations in electromagnetic activity of the sun and fluctuations in cosmic ray intensity from space result in the periodic warming and cooling of the earth.
Solar-modulated cosmic ray processes successfully explain the recent global warming episode. It would be prudent for the political leadership in the U. S. and the world to look more closely at Svensmark’s theory of cosmoclimatology for an explanation of global warming before restructuring our entire economic system to eliminate carbon dioxide. If, in fact, Svensmark is correct, reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide will have little impact, anyway.
| [Return to headlines] |
Greenland: Dogsledge Patrol Evacuated in Dramatic Fashion
Crew waits two days for evacuation of injured member
Members of a Sirius dogsledge patrol in north-eastern Greenland got a reminder of the remoteness of their territory earlier this week, when they had to wait two days for a helicopter to arrive to evacuate an injured crew member.
Arriving in the dark of night, struggling with low visibility and braving temperatures of -24 C, the Danish Royal Navy helicopter finally landed on Shannon Island, where the crew had waited after one member broke his shoulder and foot when his sledge fell over a four-metre ice cliff.
After radioing for assistance, the crew set up camp and waited for the HMS Triton, the closest ship to the crew’s position.
After being evacuated, the crew member was flown to Iceland where he was treated for a broken foot. He was expected to be sent to Denmark on Thursday.
Sirius Patrol: What is it? Highly specialised military unit. For four months in the spring and two months in the fall, six sledge teams, consisting of two men, 11 dogs and one sledge each, patrol northern and north-eastern Greenland. In summer, about 65 depots are laid out by the patrol itself for the coming winters’ sled journeys. Depot lying is carried out by naval vessels, planes and helicopters.
Why? Maintains Danish sovereignty in northern and north-eastern Greenland. Established in 1950, but traces its roots to the early 1900s, when Denmark and Norway had competing claims on the unpopulated region.
Where? The main Sirius station is at Daneborg (74 degrees N) in north-eastern Greenland.
What else? Only 27 people stationed in north-east Greenland during the winter months: two at Mestersvig, 12 at Daneborg, eight at the civilian weather station Danmarkshavn and five at the military base Station North.
Sirius is scheduled for one supply ship visit per year. However, two years of supplies are always maintained on hand because of the chance that the ship will not be able to navigate through coastal ice in a season.
The total yearly costs for Sirius and Mestersvig including salaries, transport, maintenance, equipment, human food, dog food, fuel, etc is about 15 million kroner or 93.75 kroner per square kilometre of Siruis’s patrol area.
Denmark’s Prince Frederik served as a Sirius member in 2000.
| — Hat tip: TB | [Return to headlines] |
Orwell’s Children
There were specific elements necessary for nations with a heritage of freedom to slide into the most absolute and abject slavery. These elements existed in Nazi Germany, they existed in Soviet Russia, and they exist in our free democracies today. What are the characteristics of the Orwellian state?
Start with God. He must go. The great Russian novelists knew this: “Without God, everything is permitted.” In Oceania, God simply does not exist. The Nazis bragged that they would raise a generation “…without ever having heard of the Sermon on the Mount or the Golden Rule, to say nothing of the Ten Commandments.” The Soviet persecuted anyone who followed the God of Jews and Christians. God is hounded in our world today. A generation of Orwell’s Children are growing up without thinking about God at all or thinking that God is a silly idea cherished by sillier old fogies.
Truth must go too. Nazis embraced the “Big Lie.” Soviets denied that honesty, per se, mattered. In Orwell’s Oceania, the Inner Party members learn to even lie to themselves and to hold utterly contradictory beliefs at the same time. Truth and honesty have little meaning to Orwell’s Children in our world. All truth is relative, all honesty a sham.
Language must be brought to heel. The Nazis did this by inventing meaningless words like “Aryan science.” Marxism foisted upon us words like “capitalism,” which means nothing at all but which has so infected our minds that we reflexively use this silly nonsense word instead of freedom. Politically correct language is rampant. We come to view words like “discriminate” as inherently evil, and other words like “viable fetal mass” have replaced the reality of murdered babies.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Osama Bin Lenin?
by Andrew Bostom
The Marx Brothers of Jihadism?
This brief review of “The Mind of Jihad” by Laurent Murawiec, Cambridge University Press, 2008, 342 pp., will also be appearing in print in the December issue of OUTPOST.
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Statement From G-20 Summit: in English
The Editor of Expresso in Portugal wanted my take on the recent G-20 communique. Here is my “translation” of the official statement:
1. Now that the growth of debt and derivatives bubbles has stalled, we are committed to using governmental-central bank mechanisms to cover the positions of any of the large private financial institutions whose profits are at risk due to their management of these bubbles and who can use this opportunity to squeeze and acquire smaller rivals at low cost.
2. Our commitment to use derivatives and market interventions to shift investment from the real economy and commodities into a paper economy is firm. We will continue to use centralized governmental mechanisms to subsidize and manage this process.
3. All of the organizations and players who reaped a fortune engineering the debt and derivatives bubbles will be allowed to keep their winnings…
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1 comment:
Now in China
these are all equal:
Examples of words tested by the researchers and found to be banned included references to
1) the Falun Gong movement and
2) the protest movements of 1989; 3) Nazi Germany and other historical events; and
4) general concepts related to democracy and political protest.
Democrats and nazis put in one room locked. Very interesting.
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