Watch for all the news stories about the bailouts.Massive quantities of money are being directed EU-style (i.e. with no transparency or accountability) to favored businesses and institutions. This money is used to make good on loans that were issued to people who couldn’t pay them back and defaulted on them.
Since all this money is really just a promise by the feds to pay up in the future, it is in effect being borrowed from future taxes, which will be paid by taxpayers…
…who will have no money because of the financial catastrophe that is only just beginning to envelop us all.
In other words, the bailout money is imaginary, just as imaginary as all those subprime “assets” were. Yikes.
Thanks to Abu Elvis, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Highlander, Insubria, JD, Rachel Neuwirth, Steen, Tuan Jim, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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“The Doctor Will See All of You Now”
You are sitting in a doctor’s waiting room with eight other sick patients and the nurse announces: The doctor will see all of you now — at the same time. That’s how the Boston Globe recently described shared visits that are being used to cope with the long waits now customary in Massachusetts.
Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama are planning that the new Democratic Congress’s first order of business will be to extend the Massachusetts health-care mistake to all 50 states. Like other legislative rush-acts (i.e., the 2007 amnesty bill and the 2008 bailouts), details are currently withheld to avoid giving members of Congress and the public adequate time to analyze the bill before the vote is called.
If Kennedy succeeds in his goal of using the Massachusetts plan as a model for national health care, average Americans will no longer get immediate access to medical care. They will have the long waits and massive new taxpayer costs which the Massachusetts plan has produced.
Defending the practice of group visits, one doctor told the Boston Globe, “people came to me with similar complaints and I had these canned speeches.” The doctor does not ask the patients to take off their clothes in front of the group; he makes do with less effective, fully-clothed examinations.
The group session consists mostly of hearing other people’s complaints, while the doctor dishes out advice in front of all the patients. Privacy and modesty are gone, but you can pick up the germs of the other sick patients in the room with you.
One doctor observed that “this is not the type of medical care anyone with a modicum of intelligence would want.” Is this the change Obama promised?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bailouts: Rewarding Failure
Bailouts: The proposed $15 billion bailout of the Big Three failed in the Senate for one major reason: Some lawmakers stood up to the unions. But their stand may be moot, since automakers may get the money anyway.
For a full week, GOP lawmakers bore the brunt of the bitter battle waged over an aid package for GM and Chrysler. Though the idea is wildly unpopular among voters, some Washington politicians were desperate to pass it — particularly the Democrats, who are beholden to the Auto Workers and other unions for tens of millions in campaign donations.
In addition to major restructuring by the automakers, GOP senators insisted on givebacks by the United Auto Workers. The UAW responded with a resolute “No..” But the bailout foes won, killing the $15 billion in aid.
And they were right to do so.
As the chart shows, gold-plated union contracts are a big reason for U.S. automakers’ woes (though managerial incompetence at the Big Three also played a role). The average Big Three worker made $73.26 an hour in 2006; the average worker at a foreign transplant, $44.20. Bailout foes wanted the gap to be shrunk by the end of next year.
A chart making the rounds on the Internet tells it all: Last year, Toyota made 9.37 million vehicles. GM, virtually the same number. Yet, Toyota made a profit of $38.7 billion on its global operations, or $1,874 per car, while GM lost $38.7 billion, or $4,055 a car, almost entirely due to its operations in the U.S.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bailouts: Fed Refuses to Disclose Recipients of $2 Trillion
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it?s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests.
“If they told us what they held, we would know the potential losses that the government may take and that’s what they don’t want us to know,” said Carlos Mendez, a senior managing director at New York-based ICP Capital LLC, which oversees $22 billion in assets.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Media’s Love Affair With Obama
The “office of the president-elect,” one of the first products of Obama’s overactive imagination, gives us a glimpse into just how he thinks. He was on the job within days, proclaiming there is only one president at a time and went on to establish that it was him.
He was going to assemble an expert team of crack financial minds, the best the world has seen, and task them with following FDR’s game plan to bring prosperity back to America. A stimulus package of unprecedented government spending would soon follow, and government spending would restore your 401k, home equity and even restore your pearly, white smile.
Then came the big interview with Tom Brokaw on “Meet the Press.”
For a full hour, President Obama was asked one softball question after another, coddled by the admiring Tom Brokaw. I was waiting for Brokaw to lean over and kiss him. It was truly a Kodak moment between two liberals sharing their fantasy of the utopia soon to come.
Each question never received a full answer. Not one proposed solution offered any detail or specifics. The lack of follow up and pursuit by the interviewer was nauseating when all of a sudden it struck me: Tom Brokaw was covering the weakness of Mr. Obama’s response. Brokaw leading him through and throwing him easy escapes to the hard questions. It was so reminiscent of the press covering the physical disability of FDR.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Son of Soviet Spies: Make Obama Like Us
Calls on ‘progressive’ Democrats to plunge America into socialism
The activist son of a notorious pair of convicted Soviet spies is urging a mass “progressive” movement to pressure Barack Obama toward enacting policies that make America more socialist.
“All the stories about Obama’s economic team and his economic instincts mean is that we on the left have to shout loud and clear to make the policies move in our direction,” writes Michael Meeropol on the far-left leaning Rag Tag blog.
“I think to a large extent, we ought to stop discussing whether Obama is being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and focus on the policies we want his administration (and Congress) to follow,” Meeropol writes.
Meeropol was born Michael Rosenberg, son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the first civilians executed for espionage in American history. Though many have long claimed the couple was innocent, the Rosenbergs were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage for passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.
After the execution of his parents, Meeropol was adopted by Abel Meeropol, a liberal activist and writer.
Meeropol, who is involved in an organization that includes among its ranks former Obama mentors, has now called for a mass activist movement modeled after the Communist-led labor “people’s organizations” of the New Deal-era that were instrumental in bringing about drastic concessions from President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Tax Holiday Bill Picks Up Steam
‘No other stimulus provision will be as immediate and as effective,’ says small business lobby
[…]
But a new and very different bill, proposed by a heretofore little-known congressman from Texas, is gaining traction from Republicans — and even a few Democrats, according to the sponsor.
It’s called “the tax-holiday plan.” And one version of it picked up support from the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the nation’s largest small business advocacy organization over the weekend.
“If Congress wants to jumpstart this economy, they need to do something to help small business owners gain confidence that now is a good time to grow their businesses and create new jobs,” said Dan Danner, executive vice president of the NFIB. “Passing a six-month payroll tax holiday would do just that by putting more money in the hands of small business owners to invest in their business and by giving employees more of their own money to spend wherever they see fit.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Unsure About “Obama the Centrist”
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama has garnered praise from center to right — and has highly irritated the left — with the centrism of his major appointments. Because Obama’s own beliefs remain largely opaque, his appointments have led to the conclusion that he intends to govern from the center.
Obama the centrist? I’m not so sure.
Take the foreign policy team: Hillary Clinton, James Jones, and Bush holdover Robert Gates. As centrist as you can get. But the choice was far less ideological than practical. Obama has no intention of being a foreign policy president. Unlike, say, Nixon or Reagan, he does not have aspirations abroad. He simply wants quiet on his eastern and western fronts so that he can proceed with what he really cares about — his domestic agenda.
Similarly his senior economic team, the brilliant trio of Tim Geithner, Larry Summers and Paul Volcker: centrist, experienced and mainstream. But their principal task is to stabilize the financial system, a highly pragmatic task in which Obama has no particular ideological stake.
A functioning financial system is a necessary condition for a successful Obama presidency. As in foreign policy, Obama wants experts and veterans to manage and pacify universes in which he has little experience and less personal commitment. Their job is to keep credit flowing and the world at bay so that Obama can address his real ambition: to effect a domestic transformation as grand and ambitious as Franklin Roosevelt’s.
As Obama revealingly said just last week, “this painful crisis also provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people.” Transformation is his mission. Crisis provides the opportunity. The election provides him the power.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Third of Greek Cypriots Believe a Solution Beyond Reach
(ANSAmed) — NICOSIA, DECEMBER 8 — More than a third of Greek Cypriots do not believe the divided island will be reunified despite continuing U.N.-brokered peace talks, according to an opinion poll published yesterday. Some 38% of those asked said a solution would not happen, while a combined 57% believed a settlement was attainable in the next two years or when Turkey joins the European Union, according to a survey reported by Phileleftheros newspaper. Although the percentage of those sceptical about reunification seems high, the figure is lower than the 44% who said in April 2007 there would never be a solution. Cyprus has been divided since 1964 when Turkish Cypriots were forced to withdraw into enclaves. Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Demetris Christofias in September opened fresh reunification negotiations, hailed by the international community as the best chance for peace, in a U.N.-brokered bid to reunify the island But the initiative has made little tangible progress, as leaders bogged down on governance and power-sharing issues. The launch of negotiations marked the first major push for peace since the failure of a U.N. reunification plan in 2004, which was approved by Turkish Cypriots but overwhelmingly rejected by the Greek Cypriots. No margin of error was given in the poll of 1,005 people, which also gave Christofias a 67% approval rating for his handling of the talks. Any new peace deal will again have to be put before both communities in simultaneous referendums. The next meeting between the two leaders is scheduled for December 16. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Avalanche Danger Mounts Across Alps
An “explosive” cocktail of warm Mediterranean moisture and cold northern air has left the Alps covered by up to three times more snow than normal.
While skiers and those in tourism rejoice at the healthy start to the winter season, the storms and mounting avalanche dangers also closed motorways, disrupted rail services and caused dozens of accidents across the country.
“The facts show that this storm is something special for this time of year,” Thomas Bucheli, head meteorologist with Swiss television, told swissinfo on Friday.
Most of Switzerland received at least some snow in a storm cycle that began on Tuesday. Over the following three days storms dumped as much as 120cm of fresh powder on the mountains from southern Switzerland to the upper Engadine in canton Graubünden.
Snow depths at 2,000 metres now average anywhere from 50cm near St Gallen to two metres in a swathe that stretches from the eastern parts of canton Valais to southern areas of canton Graubünden.
That’s one-and-a-half to three times more for this time of year compared with ten-year average figures collected by the institute for snow and avalanche research in Davos.
“It’s been unreal, like heliskiing,” said Dan Caruso, a marketing director who has spent the past week testing skis in the Engadine for Black Diamond, an international outdoor gear company with European headquarters near Basel.
“It’s the best testing conditions in Europe that we’ve ever had.”…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Corus: We Will Quit EU to Avoid Carbon Regime
Philippe Varin, the chief executive of Corus, is threatening to shift the steelmaker’s European operations to China unless regulations governing carbon emissions are overhauled.
Mr Varin warned that politicians had to help fund new clean-energy technologies or face the prospect of Corus quitting the UK and Europe.
Corus employs around 25,000 workers in the UK and is in negotiations with unions over pay in an effort to curb large redundancies.
“If we are forced to buy CO2 credits on the market without a system to improve our production process, then we will not produce steel in Europe,” said Mr Varin, who is also chairman of the World Steel Association’s Climate Change Policy Group. “To cut carbon emissions of steel production, we need breakthrough technology, but this is extremely expensive, costing ?200m to ?300m to upgrade a one million ton production plant.”
Varin, who spoke exclusively to the ‘IoS’ at the UN Climate Change conference in Poznan, said: “There is no way for us to fund this and pay penalties for our CO2 emissions. This would wipe out all of our profits and put us at a competitive disadvantage with manufacturers in nations which are not subject to carbon caps.
“The only way forward is through improved technology, but this costs money and a carbon tax is not the answer, because manufacturers will just move the growth to other countries. Not only will that kill European industry, but we will produce twice as much CO2.”
Estimates suggest that every ton of steel produced in China, where factories are older and less efficient, creates twice as many emissions as in Europe. “Our customers will still need steel, so they will have to import from China or another developing nation and then you have the added CO2 associated with shipping,” Mr Varin said.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Cyprus: Warning From European Council on Human Trafficking
(ANSAmed) — STRASBOURG, DECEMBER 12 — “If Cypriot authorities have a serious intention of fighting human trafficking on the island, which particularly sees woman sent into prostitution, they have to abolish what are called ‘artist’ work permits”. This is the harsh warning contained in a report on Cyprus published today by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the European Council, Thomas Hammarberg. Cyprus is the last country in the European Union to have an ‘artist’ work permit, after Luxembourg, which under the pressure of the previous Commissioner for Human Rights, abolished the practice in 2004. According to recent estimates, it has been calculated that every year, about 200 thousand woman arrive in Cyprus through these ‘artist’ work permits who are then sent into prostitution. The total business reportedly amounts to one million euro per year. “The existence of this type of permit can be perceived as a contradiction regarding the measures enacted by the Cypriote government to combat human trafficking”, stated the Commissioner, who underlined that this “makes the fight for police against the phenomenon very difficult”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Leader in Shock After EU Assault
A bizarre confrontation in Hradcany Castle confirms the inablilty of the Euro-elite to accept anyone else’s opinions, writes Christopher Booker.
Imagine that a Franco-German MEP, invited to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace, plonked down in front of her an EU “ring of stars” flag, insisting that she hoist it over the palace alongside the Royal Standard, and then proceeded to address her in a deliberately insulting way. The British people, if news of the incident leaked out, might not be too pleased.
Something not dissimilar took place at a remarkable recent meeting between the heads of the groups in the European Parliament and Vaclav Klaus, the Czech head of state, in his palace in Hradcany Castle, on a hill overlooking Prague. The aim was to discuss how the Czechs should handle the EU’s rotating six-monthly presidency when they take over from France on January 1….
….As described to me by someone present, President Klaus greeted the MEPs with his usual genial courtesy. Whatever his own views, he assured them, his countrymen would conduct their presidency in fully “communautaire” fashion. Cohn-Bendit then staged his ambush. Brusquely plonking down his EU flag., which he observed sarcastically was so much in evidence around the palace, he warned that the Czechs would be expected to put through the EU’s “climate change package” without interference.
“You can believe what you want,” he scornfully told the president, “but I don’t believe, I know that global warming is a reality.” He added, “my view is based on scientific views and the majority approval of the EU Parliament”.
He then moved on to the Lisbon Treaty. “I don’t care about your opinions on it,” he said. If the Czech Parliament approves the treaty in February, he demanded, “Will you respect the will of the representatives of the people?”
He then reprimanded the president for his recent meeting in Ireland with Declan Ganley, the millionaire leader of the “No” campaign in the Irish referendum, claiming that it was improper for Klaus to have talked to someone whose “finances come from problematic sources”….
….This bizarre confrontation, which has been recounted and discussed with shock across formerly Communist eastern Europe, confirms the inability of the Euro-elite to accept that anyone holds different views from their own, on Lisbon, global warming or anything else. As we see from the way our own political parties are run, when it comes to “Europe”, the system has no place for opposition. Everything must be decided by “consensus”, directed from the top. There is only one approved “party line”. Apart from a few little powerless dissidents round the edges, the EU is thus in essence a one-party state.
It was a sense of this that powerfully influenced the French, Dutch and Irish people, when they were given the chance, to vote against the constitution which will cement that one-party state into place more firmly than ever. And it explains why, last week, the European Council told the Irish that they must hold their referendum again, on the understanding that this time they will get it right. That is the way one-party states behave — as President Klaus, who lived under one for the first 50 years of his life, knows only too well.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
France: No Work on Sunday, Paris Archbishop Against Sarkozy
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 12 — Work on Sunday “is not a good idea”, it could harm society’s equilibrium, according to the Archbishop of Paris, André Vingt-Trois, who stated that he is against a proposal by Nicolas Sarkozy’s government to extend Sunday work. “A society that has no points of reference in time is a society that becomes less structured”, observed the archbishop this morning in an interview with Rtl radio, reminding that already in France, millions of people are forced to work on Sunday to ensure public safety. But generalising work on Sunday is, for Vingt-Trois, “running the risk of trivialising the days of the week and not having enough days of rest which allow society to structure itself in a different way from that of work or trade”. “Does earning more have to become the main objective of existence?”, the archbishop asked repeating Sarkozy’s slogan during the presidential campaign: “working more to earn more”. But he immediately specified that his goal was “not to criticize Nicolas Sarkozy”. “Sunday is a normal point of reference in a Christian cultural system”, added Cardinal Vingt-Trois. Socialists are also against the extension of work to Sunday. According to an Opinion Way poll published today in Le Figaro newspaper, two out of every three people in France — 66% to 34% — say that they are favourable to the opening of stores on Sunday. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Government Has Lost Files So Secret Their Contents Are Unknown
The German government has lost more than 300 files that are so top secret no-one knows what was in them, it was confirmed this weekend.
The interior ministry confessed the loss in an answer to a parliamentary question submitted by the Free Democrats (FDP), according to newsmagazine Der Spiegel.
The 332 files were considered top secret, but have been lost over the last ten years, with no clue as to where they have ended up. They were of ‘considerable significance,’ the Interior Ministry has admitted.
It was also revealed that nearly 3,200 secret files have been destroyed in this legislature period alone — rather than stored in the federal archive.
The files dealt with subjects such as organised crime, ‘research activities’ of other states, and ‘surveillance’ of foreign trade.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Good Ganley
[Comment by Tuan Jim: Given that it’s unlikely the EU will go the way of the dodo anytime soon, a project like Ganley’s Libertas party seems like the next best thing IMO — any opinions from Europeans?]
Libertas may look like a nightmare vision, but its founder could make the great euro-federalist dream come true.
BRUSSELS | It’s here. Fifty years after the launch of the European project, the first pan-European political party has been born and christened Libertas by its father, Declan Ganley.
The Irish businessman started Libertas as a lobby group in 2006. Now he has registered the name as a European political party and applied for European Union funding. He recently opened an office in Brussels and is hiring staff to help recruit Libertas lists in several countries for the European Parliament elections next June. His ambition is to secure Libertas IE, Libertas CZ, Libertas UK, Libertas PL and so on….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: The Corruption at the Core of the Golden Apple…
LASHING storms finally dampened the riots on Friday. Most of the shops, bars and cafés around the main hotspots were trashed and damaged in the nights of violence this week, were back in business. It’s impressive how quickly large panes of glass were fitted and kicked-in doors replaced. But it is an uneasy calm — most people think the violence will return. This is more than a protest about police brutality and Alexis Grigoropoulos’ death.
Greeks are lawless. They are lawless because they do not trust institutions to be fair. From language schools to buying land to building a business, from getting medical treatment to importing a car there is an expectation that you must include an “incentive payment”. As an eminent lawyer said to me last night: “If you don’t have money to do that in this society, you are stuffed.”
And that’s the problem. Many people do not have much money. About 20 per cent of Greeks live below the official poverty line and the way people survive here is by exploiting any advantage they can find; through cash-in-hand second jobs undeclared to the taxman; taking bribes for “helping” people get further up the queue for an appointment; or processing papers more quickly to seal a land deal. This is a grey economy, rarely does anyone declare actual income. To be an honest man is, as my builder told me, “to be out of a job”. Factoring in a “facilitation cost” is always part of the estimate.
The result is distrust: of government institutions from the police to the parliament, from the courts to the civil service and of business. But there are many here who want to see the system change, who want a fair society, a meritocracy. But those in power whether from the New Democracy or PASOK seem impotent to tackle it.
At the Polytechnic and University campus, there is a no-go, safe-haven built into the constitution. A lecturer told me last night that the ninth floor at the University of Athens has become a haven for, as he called them, “criminals”, but whom others call anarchists — their destruction of banks and shops justified as the only way to protest against dirty capitalism and corruption. The Rector of the University resigned this week saying he could not control what was happening on his campuses.
There is no doubt that many Greeks feel some sympathy with the sentiment of the protesters if not the methods. It is a Pandora’s box of grievances that brings people onto the streets but at the heart of it is a frustration that politicians are unable, and maybe unwilling, to stem the systemic corruption at the core of this golden apple.
The fallout from this week’s riots politically is yet to be known, but economically the pictures of lawless roads have already damaged the reputation of Greece to the outside world and altered some people’s perceptions forever.
I met some Australian Greeks in their bombed out juice bar. They had taken two years to wangle their way through a web of bureaucracy and bribes to set it up, and in one night kids from a secondary school had destroyed it with a homemade petrol bomb. Not beyond repair, but enough to disillusion their Greek dream for good.
They are selling up and going back. They want more than the €10,000 promised by the government to each damaged business. They want assurance it won’t happen again, and no one can give that, because it will…
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Greece: More Demonstrations Today, Tension Remains High
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, DECEMBER 15 — After yesterday, and the long days of urban warfare following the death of Alexis Grigoriopoulos, killed by a policeman 9 days ago, Athens and Greece as a whole are calm this morning. But tension does remain as universities and many schools are still occupied and a new demonstration has been planned today near the police headquarters. Polls published by newspapers indicate that most Greeks disapprove of the action taken by the government against the worst public disorder in recent decades, and 60% of them believe the chaos shouldn’t be considered to be isolated incidents, but as a real ‘social revolt’. Over 200 people have been arrested and tens of them already indicted. Polls give the socialist Pasok party a 5-6 point lead over the governing New Democracy (ND) party. Alexis meanwhile has had a street named after him. Nameplates have been put up by his friends in Missolonghi street, in the Exarchia quarter where he was killed. The nameplates simply say ‘Alexandros Grigoriopoulos, 15 years’ and underneath there is a shrine of flowers, candles, messages and personal objects on the place where the boy was hit by a police bullet. Classmates and citizens continue to pay their respects at the site. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Islam: Catholic Theologian, Yes to Cemetery Area for Muslims
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 12 — “In days in which all those who hold human rights issues close to their hearts are confirming their value and mainly the necessity for their defence”, the inauguration, which will take place tomorrow in the cemetery of Gioia del Colle (Bari), of an area reserved for Muslims “can only create consideration and approval”. This is what was said by Luigi Renna, moral theology teacher at the “Regina Apuliae” theological institute in Molfetta (Bari), commenting to the Sir catholic agency on the decision of the Apulian town, where for years there has also been a mosque. “At the foundation of these decisions — he explained — there is an acceptance, by the town’s citizens of the needs of the Islamic community, in the spirit of article 8 of the Constitution”. Furthermore, “those who follow Benedict XVI’s speeches, and those of Cardinal Bertone for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Human Rights Declarations, can only approve”. Christians, continued Renna, “are sensitive to this recognition”, which sees them committed to “the demand of the liberty to profess onés faith” and “in support of other people who ask for the same recognition, in a style of dialogue and democracy”. “We hope -concluded the theologian- that faithful Muslims in the town of Gioia make such respect known of in their communities of origen and sew with seeds of peace many laws that are not yet able to guarantee to all the freedoms to profess their own religion”. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Businessmen Arrested for Paying Mafia ‘Protection Money’
Palermo, 28 Nov. (AKI) — Anti-Mafia police on Friday arrested 10 Sicilian businessmen who had allegedly been paying Mafia ‘protection money’ for over 40 years. Giuseppe De Riggi, who spearheaded the operation, described the arrests as “a winning move” that could encourage more businesses to go to the police.
“Today’s arrests are a surprising result that will be of future help and encouragement to business people paying ‘protection money’ who want to report their extortionists to police,” he said.
“Police and magistrates need to give support to businesses and anti-Mafia associations that oppose paying protection money,” De Riggi added.
In July this year, 18 businessmen who became victims of the Mafia’s protection racket or ‘pizzo’ chose to identify their suspected extortionists in court.
The suspected extortionists were separated in the courtroom from their victims by a two-way mirror.
The Addiopizzo (Goodbye Pizzo) anti-racket youth movement hailed the victims’ court testimonies as “historic”.
Over 255 entrepreneurs, shopkeepers and other small business people have publicly refused to pay Mafia protection money, as well as over 9,000 consumers, according to Addiopizzo.
The Italian private employers organisation, Confindustria, last year decided to expel members found to be paying Mafia protection money.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Government Declares War Upon Prostitution Racket
(by Paola Del Vecchio) (ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 12 — A plan to combat mafias dealing with trafficking of women and children, aimed at hitting prostitute bosses where it hurts, with “fast-lane seizure” of their assets, has been approved today by Spain’s governing Cabinet. As Deputy Premier Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega explained to the press today, the plan is part of a package of 172 measures aimed at stiffening up the defence of human rights, launched by the Government on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, to be presented on Monday by De La Vega herself before the United Nations. The plan includes a series of legal reforms concerning justice and equality for women, the rights of immigrants, but also freedom of worship, with a change to the 1980 organic system of law “to guarantee effective religious pluralism” which, the Deputy Premier explained, will be accompanied by a watchdog set up for the purpose. As regards the fight against the prostitution racket, to deprive the mafia of its flow of funds, the plan includes a change to the penal code allowing the seizing of assets and property owned by racketeers, a measure only up to now allowed for those involved in drug-dealing or smuggling, with the subsequent confiscation following the passing of sentence. A further change to the present law will allow women who have been forced into prostitution to testify against their own pimps during committal hearings only, without the need to repeat the accusations during the trial, so as to avoid intimidation and pressure being brought to bear on them during interrogation. A victim who collaborates against her keeper will be offered protection and social and employment integration with a residence permit in the case of an immigrant. They will have a period of 30 days, with accommodation, protection, resources and medico-psychological assistance during which they can decide whether to give evidence against their exploiters. This period is necessary for overcoming the fear felt towards the pimps and for becoming familiar with their own rights. In this respect, the programme also includes free and immediate legal aid in the victim’s language as well as protective measures for their families in their country of origin, who are often exposed to aggression on the part of human traffickers. According to leaks in the paper, Publico, checks will be introduced on advertising concerning prostitution, which fill the pages of much of Spain’s press. The programme will run for three years with financing of 44 million euro and will be subject to oversight from a committee comprising inter-ministerial representatives, from the autonomous communities and several institutions and organisations involved in combating prostitution. One measure stands out among those approved, the commitment to introducing CCTV coverage in police stations and prisons which house prisoners on solitary confinement, to avoid accusations of torture. There is also a ban on the solitary confinement of minors. Finally, the Government’s undertaking to recognise the right of non-EU immigrants to vote in municipal elections seems significant in this connection. And that, stresses the Deputy Premier, for the reform of the organic law on freedom of worship, with the creation of an ecumenical watchdog. The reform will also introduce training on the subject of liberty of worship for police officers, members of the armed forces, public officials and healthcare workers. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Betrayal All Around From the Guardians of Democracy
The apparatchiks of the European Union establishment have one thing, at least, in common with serial rapists. They cannot accept that no means no. These people all want it really, they say. They’re not victims; they’re gagging for it. And they’ll love it really when we get our way with them. What the EU establishment wants, it gets. It takes, regardless.
Last week the Brussels nomenklatura once again proved that it won’t accept a no, this time from the electorate of Ireland. In June the Irish voters firmly said no to the European constitution, or rather the Lisbon treaty, or whatever obfuscation the Europhiles dreamt up to bamboozle us. The Irish were not bamboozled; they didn’t want the EU constitution. But no is not acceptable.
So last week Brian Cowen, the taoiseach and Europhile, reassured European leaders that he wouldn’t take no for an answer from his people. He has promised to make them vote again on the matter. Dick Roche, his European affairs minister, then opined, in the majesty of his democratic office: “From a constitutional point of view, there’s no other choice than a second referendum.”
What can he mean? The truth is the precise opposite. Such deliberate untruth, backing Mr Cowen’s promise to ignore his people’s vote, gives new vigour to the phrase barefaced effrontery. Against such wilful, shameless betrayal of the democratic process it is useless to protest; democracy is being undermined by democratically elected governments that don’t understand a constitutional no and smile benignly, or self-importantly, at our helpless rage….
…..I am not so sure. In my adult life I think there has been a growth in barefaced lies and deception in public office, along with a loss of respect for due process and respect for the freedoms of others. Maybe that’s just because, with the information revolution, we know so much more about what public men and women get up to. Or perhaps there has been a real change.
It’s an odd coincidence that while democracy and meritocracy have truly spread in the past 50 years, while all sorts of institutions and activities have been opened up to people who used never to get a look-in, political democracy seems to be coming under increasing threat.
A perfect example of this is the utterly incurious way Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and his unlucky placewoman Jill Pay, the serjeant-at-arms, were prepared to let the police into the Commons. I don’t believe there was any conspiracy; both were just too ignorant to do their jobs properly and had too little real understanding of the point of parliamentary procedure.
It may be snobbish, but it’s true. Neither is really qualified for the post by education or by experience. They both showed an unquestioning deference to the police. The rise of democracy was supposed to be the end of undue deference, yet here were the defenders of the people’s Commons touching their forelocks to the filth.
The price of freedom is not just constant vigilance — it must be informed and educated vigilance. And that vigilance is protected by procedure. Yet watchers over us are often less well informed and educated than they used to be.
You see small signs of it everywhere. In little committees for local purposes, or in big ones, you see a gradual disappearance of proper procedure. In the past, trade unionists and charitable ladies always used to go by the committee book. Now the tendency is towards friendly consensus, an open show of hands and an indifference to the minutes — to the record, in fact.
One of the problems behind Haringey’s first report on the death of Baby P was that the head of children’s services, in having two roles, had conflicts of interest — a serious procedural problem that was ignored. Procedure is deadly, of course, but it’s there to protect the truth-tellers and the vigilant, especially when they face undue pressure.
The EU is all too often indifferent to procedure, indifferent to the shameful fact that the auditors have not signed its accounts for years. In ignoring, jointly, the democratic procedures of other countries, it suborns individual Europhile leaders into an equal indifference. Procedure matters: it is there to protect us from, among other things, the barefaced effrontery of totalitarianism.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Blind Man’s Guide Dog Barred From Restaurant for Offending Muslims
A blind man has been turned away from a fashionable Indian restaurant because his guide dog offended Muslim staff.
Alun Elder-Brown, a recruitment executive, said he was left feeling “like a piece of dirt” after being barred from bringing the animal into Kirthon Restaurant in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on religious grounds.
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said the decision was illegal under the Disability Discrimination Act and Mr Elder-Brown, 51, is now considering suing the establishment in The Pantiles.
It follows a series of successful prosecutions of Muslim taxi drivers who refused to carry guide dogs in their cars because they considered them unclean on religious grounds.
Mr Elder-Brown was taking his girlfriend out to celebrate her birthday with her five year-old daughter last week when he was told he would have to leave his dog, Finn, tied up outside.
He showed a card issued by the Institute of Environmental Health Officers certifying he and his dog were allowed into any premises but an argument ensued and the owners threatened to call the police if he did not leave.
“It was humiliating and degrading, especially as there were a lot of people around me,” he said.
“I was made to feel like a piece of dirt. They told me I couldn’t come in because it was against their religious beliefs to have a dog in the restaurant.
“They then said I could leave Finn tied up outside. I stayed calm but when they threatened to call police I left.”
He added: “It was horrible. It put a dampener on the whole celebration.”
Under the Disability Discrimination Act it is illegal to refuse to serve a disabled person of give them a diminished level of service because of their disability.
| — Hat tip: Abu Elvis | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Indefensible Cuts
The first responsibility of the Government is to defend the realm. The physical safety of British subjects is more important than the economy or social cohesion, vital though these are. It is therefore absolutely wrong that already overstretched Armed Services should become the first significant victims of cuts in government expenditure at a time when innumerable programmes of social engineering remain untouched. Wrong, but predictable.
Even before the economic crisis, Britain was spending a smaller proportion of its national wealth on defence than Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. Twenty years ago, we allocated 4·4 per cent of GDP to defence; now that figure has virtually halved. This week, we learnt that work on the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers will be delayed by one or two years.
Service chiefs are exasperated, and with good reason. Even if there is a case for reining in defence spending in a few areas, state-of-the-art aircraft carriers are not one of them; nor is the Defence Intelligence Staff which, incomprehensibly, is losing more than one in five of its Whitehall staff.
Baroness Taylor, a defence minister, has said that she is “satisfied that the changes we are making will not have an adverse effect”. But that comment only serves to confirm what the Services suspect: that this Government is too easily persuaded of the case for defence cuts because many ministers come from an anti-militaristic political tradition that treats defence as a low priority compared to, say, welfare.
We already live in a world of fanatical religious ideology and state terrorism. A global recession will multiply the physical dangers we face. If the Chancellor wishes to boost the economy by stepping up capital expenditure, he should bring forward, not postpone, vital projects of national defence.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Met Adviser ‘Wanted Over Terror’
A man wanted by Interpol for terrorist offences has been advising Scotland Yard, it was reported.
The Times claimed Mohamed Ali Harrath had been advising the Metropolitan Police, the UK’s biggest force, on countering Muslim extremism.
Tunisian-born Mr Harrath, 45, is listed as wanted on the Interpol website. Interpol is the world’s largest international police organisation.
The site lists his categories of offences as counterfeiting, forgery, crimes involving the use of weapons, explosives and terrorism.
The Interpol website reveals that an arrest warrant for Mr Harrath was issued by Tunisia.
The Times reported that Mr Harrath had been appointed by Scotland Yard as an adviser to its Muslim Contact Unit on preventing terrorism.
Mr Harrath is reportedly the chief executive of the broadcaster, the Islam Channel, based in London.
The Met has so far refused to comment on the story.
| — Hat tip: Highlander | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia; Russian Companies Interested in R.Srpska
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 12 — The Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, Milorad Dodik, announced that in the meeting of Serb and Russian businessmen in Belgrade, Russian companies showed interest in the Republic’s energy sector. During the meeting, as reported by the Sarajevo office of the Italian Trade Commission (Ice), the exploitation of the hydroelectric and thermal potential of the area was discussed, specifically the thermoelectric power plant of Ugljevik. The Prime Minister also stressed the good relation between Russian and the Republic of Srpska in the energy sector. The interest of Russian companies, according to the same source, should be given concrete form by the end of this year, during an official visit of the delegation of the Republic of Srpska to Moscow. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bosnia: 54 Mln Euro From EU for Reforms
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 12 — Over the past few days the European Commission has agreed to the second part of the National Programme for Bosnia Herzegovina, the European Union’s financial aid plan for the country. The ICE office in Sarajevo pointed out that the document contains plans for the realisation of 21 projects entirely financed by pre-accession funds (IPA). A total of 54 million euro is to be sent to specific economic and social areas, including the development of foreign trade, agriculture, support for institutions working towards environmental protection, integrated management of borders, coordination in the sectors relating to social support and inclusion, management of European funds, support for mine-clearing operations among others. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Michael J. Totten: Kosovo is a Model of Islamic Tolerance.
Kosovo’s Muslims are very different from their Middle Eastern coreligionists. They often call themselves “culturally Christian”—because they’re immersed in a Christian-majority region and because they used to be Christians themselves—and one might with even more accuracy call them “culturally European.” But they are Muslims nevertheless. And while the jihadist movements in the Middle East may appear to be an inevitable product of Islam, in many ways they are simply a religiously themed manifestation of the Arab world’s political backwardness. Perhaps Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians can even—as Mordechai Arbell, chairman of the World Jewish Congress Institute, said at the Tirana conference—”teach the world how people can live in harmony between religions and nations and how they can save each other.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Number of Women in Legislation Grows
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, DECEMBER 12 — Women make up 21% of the employees of Serbia’s highest legislation body, which is double the number of the previous years, and a similar trend is in neighboring countries, it was said today at a regional conference titled ‘Gender equality and association with the EU,’ which is being held in Belgrade. The conference, sponsored by Serbian President Boris Tadic, is aimed at exchanging regional experiences and expert findings on the issue of legislation and defining policy in the area of gender equality, as well as to obtain concrete proposals and suggestions from that aspect. Director of the Gender Equality Administration in the Ministry of Labor Natalija Micunovic said that it would be good to have a strategic cooperation among the neighboring countries in order to promote and solve the problem of gender equality. At the beginning of today’s conference, Minister of Labor and Social Policy Rasim Ljajic and UNDP Resident Representative Rini Reza signed a project which is aimed at fighting gender-based violence, and the project has been realized with the financial assistance of the Norwegian government.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey-Serbia to Sign Free Trade Agreement in 2009
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 9 — Turkey and Serbia will sign a free trade agreement during the visit of Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul to Belgrade in February or March 2009, according to an official statement quoted today by the financial website ReporterNet. In December last year, the two countries renewed their economic cooperation during Serbian President Boris Tadic’s visit to Turkey. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Mediterranean: Region Has Potential Market to Rival US and China
Milan, 12 Dec. (AKI) — The Mediterranean region has the potential to create an economic bloc as vast as the United States and China, a major business forum was told in the Italian city of Milan on Friday. Giuseppe Cuccurese, foreign affairs director of the Intesa Sanpaolo Bank, said the region had huge economic potential with 800 million consumers.
Cuccurese was speaking at a conference entitled, ‘Doing business in the Mediterranean — Opportunities for Italy’, held in Milan on Friday. The conference was organised by the ISTUD Foundation.
“Today with the agreement of the Mediterranean Union and a new pact involving 43 nations, we are predicting a very positive future,” Cuccurese said.
Cuccurese said that Intesa Sanpaolo and other banks, including French and Spanish savings banks and the European Investment Bank, have proposed an analysis of various countries in the region to guage potential for companies that operate in these markets.
“Infrastructure is fundamental for the development of economic relations with the countries of the Mediterranean,” he said. “Without this there can be no commercial traffic.”
Intesa Sanpaolo is involved in 30 percent of the commercial trade of these countries, he said.
“With SACE ( or Italian Export Credit Agency) we have invested 50 million euros to assist small Egyptian importers and support their activities.”
Francesca Brigandi di Castelbarco, president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce for the Mediterranean countries noted the huge opportunities in the region and called for a roundtable forum in 2009 to explore business potential.
Luigi Scordamaglia, administrator of Inalca, a subsidiary of Cremonini one of Italy’s largest beef producers and processors, said Italy lacked forward planning in its approach to the region.
“It is too easy to arrive in these markets when everyone knows there is an opportunity,” he said. He said to beat the competition Italy must move at “twice the speed”.
The Cremonini group which already has a presence in Ghana and Togo, was looking at future expansion in central Africa and eventually Nigeria, he said.
Hechmi Chatman, from FIPA, the Agency for the Promotion of Foreign Investment in Tunisia, said the Mediterranean could be considered “ a new dragon in the world”.
He said Italy can play an important role building on what the country already does very well, by consolidating and reinforcing its presence
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Animal Rights Activists Against Killing of Stray Dogs
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 12 — An association for the defence of animal rights has denounced the campaign to eliminate the stray dogs in the tourist areas of Egypt, which has already seen 4,562 animals put to death. So reported today the Egyptian press, according to whom the Egyptian Society of the Friends of Animals is requesting an official complaint from the prime minister, Ahmed Nazif, of the governor of Assuan (south), Moustafa el-Sayd, who is deemed to be responsible for this “brutal and inhuman” act, which has been going on for more than two months. The campaign, claims the association, is threatening tourism as it gives a bad impression of Egypt. Last year President Moubarak made arrangements for an inquest into a similar campaign of animal killing which was also heavily criticised in the press. This summer, the press reported the death of the US Ambassador to Egypt’s dog: the animal had eaten poisoned food intended for stray cats. At the time the embassy refused to comment on the incident. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: 80% Own Their Homes, Average Income Increasing
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, DECEMBER 11 — Eighty percent of Tunisian families own the home they live in; this is one of the most relevant statistics released today for Family Day’ celebrations in Tunisia. The data also highlights the fact that annual average income per person increased in 2007 to 4,300 dinars (approximately 2,200 euro), compared to 2,096 (approximately 1,100 euro) in 1996. Regarding the environment and the quality of life, the park areas in urban zones, according to the 2006-2007 data, amount to 14,65 square metres per person compared to 8,14 in the 1998-1999 period. Last year 93% of homes were connected to a potable water system last year; in 1987 only 27.2% had water connections. Additionally, of the nearly 10 million inhabitants, 8 million 345 thousand have fixed and cellular telephone lines. As for the internet, the number of users in 2007 was almost two million compared to 150 thousand in 1999. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Protest Leaders Sentenced to 10 Years
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, DECEMBER 12 — The six leaders of the protest movement against unemployment and high costs of living which in June shook the mining area of Gafsa, Tunisia, have been sentenced to ten years in prison. This became clear last night from sources in justice and the defence of the accused. The sentence was read by the court of the city that is situated 350km south-west of Tunis, after the second hearing of the trial against 38 Tunisians accused of being involved in the protests. On June 6th hundreds of people demonstrated in Redeyef (near Gafsa) to ask for jobs in the phosphate mines in the region. The police opened fire killing a 25-year-old man and injuring 18 more protesters to disperse the crowd. The court has decided to “release five defendants and has sentenced the others to 2 to ten years in prison”. The defendants have been found guilty of criminal association with the purpose of preparing or committing attacks against people or goods and of armed revolt” the source specified. The trial started on December 4th. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Former US President Carter Meets Hamas Leader
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter met with the exiled leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas for the second time this year.
Sunday’s meeting in Damascus is part of Carter’s regional discussions on Middle East conflicts.
Officials from the anti-Israel Hamas kept reporters away from the venue and no news conference was scheduled.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: Release of Palestinian Prisoners Underway
Jerusalem, 15 Dec. (AKI) — Israel on Monday began its planned release of 227 Palestinians prisoners in a goodwill gesture to the Palestinian Authority in honour of the Muslim Festival of Sacrifice, Eid al-Adha. Israel’s High Court earlier gave a green light for their release after rejecting a petition by terrorism victims arguing that freeing the jailed Palestinians place the region at risk of renewed violence.
Israel announced last month that it would free 250 prisoners, but the final list included only 227 names and it was not immediately clear exactly how many would be freed.
Most of the prisoners were to be sent to the West Bank, where Abbas’ government is based. Ten were expected to go to the Gaza Strip, which Hamas Islamists seized in June 2007 after routing secular Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The prisoners represent a fraction of the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Arab Education System is Archaic and Medieval
by Sami Alrabaa
Unless the Arab states drastically change their education systems, they will stay backward, weak, and a breeding machine of parrots and fanatics. In a program on the current Arab education system on the German-French TV, Arte, 1 December, 2007, Sheikh Saleh Al Fozan, a leading member of the Saudi Council of Senior Ulema (religious leaders), said, “Some of our own people want us to become like the infidels, like the Jews and Christians, Allah condemn them. They want us to renounce our Godly religious beliefs and follow in their footsteps by changing our educational curriculum that is base on the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet, peace be upon him. A parrot is one who repeats the demands of the enemies of Islam that we should stop teaching the Koran so that we abandon our faith.” This came in the wake of publishing the UN Arab Human Development Report 2006 authored by a group of distinguished Arab intellectuals.
Commenting on pressure form the United States on Saudi Arabia since Sept. 11 to reform its educational system, Sultan Al Saud, the Saudi Crown Prince told the Saudi TV on 16 Sept. 2005, “America and the rest of the infidel world should go to hell. We are not going to change our education system which is based on the best religion of the world. We are proud of being Muslims and having an Islamic education system.”
Both the Al Saudi clan which has ruled over Saudi Arabia since its foundation in the 1940s and the religious establishment dominated by Wahabbism (a kind of radical, fanatic, simplistic interpretation of Islam) have used dogmatic Islam to enforce their regime and run the country.
At Saudi schools and universities, words like “alcohol, pigs, and prostitutes” are non existent in English language books. The “evolution theory” is not mentioned or taught at all. “Jewish people” in all books and levels are condemned as “enemies of Allah”. The Western world is presented as “decadent”, “corrupt”, and “atheist”.
In addition to an archaic education system which lacks critical thinking and research, more than 60 million Arab adults remain illiterate, including 55% of all Arab women.
In almost all Arab schools and universities, students are not allowed to question what they are taught. They are expected to accept everything they read and hear from their teachers and memorize to a great extent what they are taught. Critical thinking is penalized and students are patronized. In fact, the Arab regimes have rejected Western methods of education such as critical thinking and liberal thought. They fear that these methods could spawn critics who would question the existence of the ruling regimes.
Students face other constraints. There are little, if any, extra-curricular activities, nothing to exercise their fine motor skills or hand and eye coordination. Classrooms are poorly-equipped and dull.
Private schools and universities are by and large not much better off. Graham Collins who used to work as course coordinator at the Gulf University for Science and Education (GUST) in Kuwait told me, “GUST is supposed to follow the curriculum of Missouri University. But it does not. The owners of this university replicate the same curricula and teaching methods used by traditional Arab universities. The whole thing is a farce. The façade is American but the content is very Arab. GUST and other local universities are degraded to diploma mills.”
A despotic education system coupled with dogmatic religious teaching in all Arab countries have produced passive learners, simply parrots. The majority of university graduates are appointed as teachers who follow in the steps of their former teachers. The Arab education system is moving in a vicious circle.
Vocational schools are rare in the Arab world. Every parent wants their children to have an office job. It is more comfortable and more respectable by society. Manual jobs are learned in workshops under very harsh conditions. People who cannot afford school or whose children drop school are sent to learn a manual craft without theoretical background.
Where do all the graduates from schools and universities go? The Egyptian Al Ahram Weekly estimates that the majority stay jobless. “In Egypt alone 700,000 job opportunities are yearly needed. Over 50% of the Arab labor force are jobless.” Al Ahram said in an editorial on 19 November, 2007. In the Arab oil countries, which awash in petrodollars, over 90% of the local work force are government employees who do simple routine jobs. Sophisticated and technical jobs are done by imported expatriate employees from all over the world. Mohammed’s job, for example, at Kuwait airport consists of stamping the date on cargo receipts.
Arab universities are also burdened with cronyism that stifles innovation and quality graduates. The lack of significant private industry throughout the Arab countries also means that universities are essentially dependent on governments to pay staff salaries and provide jobs for graduates. The appeal of Muslim fundamentalism has thrived among jobless graduates.
Mahmoud Auda, a retired Egyptian professor who used to teach sociology at Ain Shams University in Cairo recently told me, “Most of my colleagues’ publications are geared towards promotion. And most of these publications are translations from a foreign language into Arabic. Very few staff read after they get promoted. They spend most of their time teaching overtime at various institutions to make money. They also force their students to buy their publications to make an extra buck.”…
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: 3 Kids Per Family Will Not Solve Aging Issue,Experts
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, NOVEMBER 17 — Experts disagree with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s statements that each family in Turkey should at least have three children to overcome the adverse effect of the gradual decrease that will occur in the country’s growth rate over the next 30 years, daily Hurriyet writes. “Encouraging people to have three children is a not the right solution to deal with the aging (population) problem”, Cem Baslevent, an academic from Istanbul Bilgi University’s Economics Department, said. “Turkey’s population will not reach 100 million as it was supposed to be, not even in 40 years”, the report wrote, adding that “the growth rate will be close to zero and Turkey will be populated by around 89 million people in 2046. That means first the number of young people will be equal to, and then lower than, the number of aged people”. “As the number of children increases, then the possibility for each child to have a better education and care, not to mention better standards of living, decreases”, Mine Kara, a lecturer from Bilkent University Economics Faculty, said. The lack of appropriate education is not the only problem. The employment rate is very low in Turkey. Experts argue that the employment rate will not increase unless certain policies targeting this problem are implemented. Local analysts agreed that Turkey would face the problem of supporting an aging population in the next 30 years. They also agreed, however, that encouraging people to have more children cannot compensate for this. They suggested other solutions instead, such as giving impetus to the policies to create more employment and providing a higher quality of education around Turkey. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Now a World Power, Minister Claims
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 12 — Over the past six years, Turkey’s exports have risen from 2002’s 36 billion dollars to the more than 125 billion dollars forecast for the end of this year (up 247%). The figures have been released by Italy’s Foreign Trade Institute in Istanbul, which cites statements made during a meeting with local entrepreneurs in Mersin, in the south of the country, by Turkey’s Minister for Foreign Trade, Kursad Tuzmen. This shows how Turkey has emerged as a true economic power, among the top 15 in the world. This year, Tuzmen added, Turkey’s trade balance should show exports to the value of 125 billion dollars and imports that could reach the 210 billion dollar mark, giving a negative balance of 85 billion dollars. The minister also pointed out how the steep devaluation of the Turkish lire over the past few months has allowed this deficit to be contained and aided Turkey’s exports considerably, especially in the new “strategic areas” around Turkey (neighbouring countries such as Russia and Ukraine), the Caucasus and Central Asia (Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan), the Middle East (Syria, Egypt, Israel, the Gulf states and Iran). The minister also stressed that the EU, while still receiving the largest share of Turkey’s exports as well as providing most of its imports (43% of all of Turkey’s trade is with the EU) — is losing ground to the new strategic countries and to China, where the Turkish export machine is making inroads. According to the Italian trade commission, it is also important to bear in mind that 2009 will be dedicated to Ankara largely to developing its economic and trade relations with all the countries of the Gulf, (especially Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar) with the aim to increase its trading base with those states that should suffer least from the deep economic crisis next year. But also to increase the number of local contractors working on the vastly infrastructure projects in these countries, and, above all, to attract more and more direct investment into Turkey (analysts are signalling between 10 and 15 billion dollars a year on average over the coming 5-10 years). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: US ‘Monster’ Online Career Enters the Market
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 8 — Monster, the world’s largest online career firm operating in 52 countries with 5,000 employees, opened in Turkey, Hurriyet daily reports. The U.S.-based firm renewed its Turkey Web site, www.monster.com.tr, within the framework of its “Developing Markets Strategy”. “We are looking forward to developing the recruitment processes in Turkey as well as aiming a rapid growth in this market”, John Hyland, managing director of Monster’s Developing Markets division, said. “Turkey’s unique location that connects Europe and the Middle East, the increasing usage of the latest mobile and Internet technologies in the country and its growing economy have attracted us to enter the market”, he added. While there are currently 250 companies in the portfolio of Monster Turkey, the firm targets to reach 1,000 companies by the end of this year. “Our target for 2009 is to have at least one million job seekers joined in the Monster Turkey network”, Guray Mert, regional director of Monster Europe Developing Markets, said . Monster’s 2007 turnover stood at 1,3 billion dollars. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Three Germans Kidnapped
Three Germans, among them a UN expert, have been kidnapped in Yemen and are being held in a mountainous area of the impoverished Arab country, a security official said on Monday.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen: Three Germans ‘Abducted Outside the Capital’
Sanaa, 15 Dec. (AKI) — Yemeni tribesmen have kidnapped three German citizens 60 kilometres from the capital, Sanaa, news reports said on Monday citing unnamed security officials. One of the three Germans works for a United Nations agency in Yemen, Arabic satellite TV station Al-Arabiya reported.
Armed Yemeni tribesmen from the Kumaim clan seized a German man and two German women near the town of Radaa in Baidha Province, Al-Arabiya said.
The German man is the father of the two German women and was accompanying them on a trip, according to Al-Arabiya.
Foreigners are often seized in Yemen as tribes try to resolve differences with the central government. Most have been released unharmed.
Sometimes the kidnappers demand a ransom and on other occasions they seek the release of jailed relatives in exchange for freeing the hostages. This was the case when tribesmen held two Japanese women in May for less than a day.
A German diplomat and his family was abducted at gunpoint by Yemeni tribesmen and held for five days in December, 2005. The family was freed unharmed after Yemen’s government and tribal mediators reportedly agreed to arrest five men from a rival tribe involved in a vendetta against the kidnappers.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Congress Wins in Three States Out of Five. Bjp Defeated in Elections
The party of prime minister Manmohan Singh keeps control of the state of Delhi, and wins Rajasthan and Mizoram. The BJP keeps Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, but falls to 142 seats, down from 173 in 2003.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — The Congress Party (CP) has held its ground, and even made some progress. The results of the elections in the state of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram mark a victory for the governing party over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The CP (in the photo, a demonstration by its supporters) has won control over three out of five states called to the ballot box. It keeps Delhi, takes Rajasthan from the BJP, and Mizoram from the Mizo National Front (MNF).
The attacks in Mumbai, which came before the voting, raised the stakes of an election in which defeat for the Congress Party would have been interpreted as a further sign of distrust toward the government of New Delhi. The BJP had positioned its campaign as a testing ground for the government led by the CP, and was hoping for more than one defeat for the party of prime minister Manmohan Singh. The stated aim was an historic victory in Delhi, but the parliament there has remained in the hands of the Congress Party. After the tallying of the votes, the BJP called an extraordinary meeting to analyze its defeat.
In the state of Delhi, the party of the prime minister retains power, taking 42 out of 70 seats in parliament: five fewer than in 2003. The BJP remains in the opposition, even though it increased its number of seats: from 25 years ago to 23 today.
But there has been a reversal of the situation in Rajasthan: there, the BJP has ceded power to the CP. The Congress Party, in fact, went from 56 seats in 2003 to 96 today; the Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a setback, going from 120 to 78 seats.
The Hindu nationalist party won only in the state of Chhattisgarh, taking 50 out of the 90 seats in parliament, maintaining the same results as in 2003. Commentators are interpreting this as a personal success for the local leader of the BJP, Raman Singh, and confirmation of the sluggishness of the CP, although it obtained one seat more at the expense of the smaller parties.
In Madhya Pradesh, the Hindu party lost ground, but remains in control: it goes from 173 to 142 seats, while the Congress Part grows from 38 to 71. It’s a different story for Mizoram, where the CP defeated the ruling government of the Mizo National Front, which retained only 3 of its seats after the voting on December 2, down from 21 in 2003.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: PKS No Comment on Its Candidate’s Status
INDONESIA: The Maluku chapter of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) was reluctant to comment on its candidate who was named as a suspect in the Tuesday Masohi clash as this was not a party problem but a private matter.
Suhfi Madjid, chairman of the General Election Board (Bapilu) and also a Maluku legislator from the PKS, said that he had no right to comment on the dispute and told journalists to ask the PKS chairman for his comments.
Meanwhile, Maluku PKS Chairman Said Mudzakir as well as PKS secretary Thalib Soumena did not pick up the phone when called by journalists.
As reported before, the Central Maluku police had named Asmara Wasahua a suspect in the Masohi clash as he was caught on film allegedly provoking the demonstrators involved in a rally, which then escalated into a riot, injuring at least five people, and resulting in the burning of 67 houses and a church, as well as a village community hall.
Asmara, who is currently in police custody, was the top listed PKS candidate for Central Maluku legislative council members. —JP
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Maluku Police Name New Suspect, Take Over Case
The Central Maluku Police have named Muhammad Patty a third suspect in Tuesday’s riot in Masohi, Central Maluku, which resulted in the destruction of dozens of buildings and houses.
Police claim Patty’s involvement in the riots included burning residents’ houses in Letwaru when a clash between two neighborhoods broke out.
Welhelmina Holle and Asmara Wasahua were previously named suspects in the incident that resulted in more than five people being injured, 67 houses damaged and a church and a village community hall set on fire.
The case is now being handled by Maluku Police, which took over the case Friday.
“The investigation into the suspects will be conducted by Maluku Police, and all of them (suspects) are now in Ambon,” Maluku Police chief Brig. Gen. Mudji Waluyo said in Ambon on Friday.
Mudji said that to restore order in the Masohi region, the provincial police redeployed two platoons to the area Tuesday.
He said he was confident the measures were sufficient given that the two platoons had backup from the 731st Kabaressy infantry battalion and police personnel from the Central Maluku Police.
[b]Asmara, the leader of the Tuesday rally that turned into a riot, was taken to Ambon on Wednesday, he said.
Asmara, chairman of the Central Maluku Muslim Communication Forum and a legislative candidate from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in the 2009 election, has been accused of provoking protesters during the demonstration….[/b]
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Orissa, Tally Following 3 Months of Violence Against Christians
118 deaths have been certified, but it is feared that there have been at least 500, with many bodies being hidden or cremated. More than 54,000 have been displaced. The violence continues, although with less frequency, in part because of the impunity enjoyed by the attackers.
New Delhi (AsiaNews) — At least 118 Christians have been assassinated, and more than 10,000 (especially Dalits and tribals) have been forced to live in refugee camps without being able to return to their homes — in many cases destroyed — out of fear of the Hindu extremists, although sources say that at least 500 people have been killed, with many bodies being hidden or cremated. The All India Christian Council (AICC) is presenting the data from three months of martyrdom of Christians in Orissa.
The Hindu extremists are “justifying” the massacre of Christians by accusing them of the killing of their leader, Swami Lakshamanananda Saraswati, on August 23, although responsibility for this has been claimed by the Maoists. Two days afterward, the worst anti-Christian violence in recent Indian history broke out, in 14 of the 30 districts in the state.
The AICC says that there has been serious violence and destruction in 315 villages, 4,640 homes belonging to Christians have been burned, 54,000 people have been displaced, 6 pastors and one Catholic priest have been killed, another 10 have been seriously injured, 18,000 Christians have been injured, 2 women have been raped, including a sister, 149 churches have been destroyed, and 13 schools and institutes have been damaged. The police have frequently failed to intervene, and stemmed the violence only in the middle of October, although it has never stopped completely. On November 12, a crowd of 200 people attacked a Catholic church in G. Udayagiri.
Fr. P.R. Parichha, president of the AICC for Orissa, says that there were still 24,000 people in the refugee camps when the state closed many of them, telling the people to return to their villages: for many, this is impossible, “because of the fear of violence or forced conversion. Many will never be able to return home.”
Everything is in short supply in the refugee camps, the refugees are unable to find work, and the children are missing school.
The national president of the AICC, Joseph D’Souza, denounces the lack of swift and effective justice in Orissa and Karnataka. According to the Christian Legal Association of India, in three months more than 1,800 lawsuits have been filed for murder, aggression, damage, and arson. There have been hundreds of arrests, but almost all of the suspects have been released immediately on bond. The government of Orissa has promised speedy justice, but investigations are proceeding slowly, even in clear-cut cases. Above all — insists D’Sousa — the organizers and instigators of the violence have so far enjoyed a sort of impunity.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Asia: Financial Crisis Expected to ‘Hit Hard’
Jakarta, 10 Dec. (AKI) — The World Bank has warned Asia to brace for a serious financial downturn, while the United Nations has predicted the crisis could increase unemployment and hunger in the region.
In its latest ‘East Asia & Pacific Update,’ released in Tokyo on Wednesday, the World Bank said that weakening export growth and reduced investment and consumption was likely to slow real GDP growth in developing East Asia to 6.7 percent in 2009 from 8.5 percent in 2008.
Developing East Asia includes China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea and the island economies of the Pacific.
The forecast for East Asia as a whole—including Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia— is expected to be fall to 5.3 percent in 2009 from 7.0 percent this year.
However, World Bank Vice President for the East Asian and Pacific region, Jim Adams, applauded East Asian governments for their swift and effective policy intervention to avert the worst impact of the global crisis.
“Thanks to the quick action of policy makers from virtually every East Asian country, banking systems have been able to deal with the crisis so far and in a number of countries, economic stimulus packages are being put in place,” he said.
“These actions are helping East Asia continue to play a key stabilising role and act as a growth pole for the global economy.”
Adams said despite the global downturn, the World Bank predicted that East Asia would contribute about a third of total global growth in 2008.
Meanwhile, Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), said that challenges in food, financial, energy and climate threatened to roll back progress in the Asia-Pacific region in many areas, such as reducing unemployment and hunger.
But she said the crisis also provided positive challenges.
“The convergence of these crises has also brought an opportunity to take a fresh look at our policies and reshape our development agenda — for that, we must act together and act now,” she told participants of the two-day High Level Regional Policy Dialogue on the Food-Fuel Crisis and Clime Change held on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Twenty-four countries from the Asian Pacific region are attending the meeting, which began on Tuesday.
Earlier, UNESCAP reported that the Asia-Pacific region had made progress on reducing poverty. From 1990 to 2004 the number of poor in the region fell from one billion people to 641 million.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Chinese Leaders Admit Serious Economic Crisis for First Time
The conference on economic and labor questions highlighted the lack of immediate solutions. Subsidies and tax breaks have been promised in order to increase incomes and consumption, but without concrete details. Experts: long-term strategy and structural reforms are needed.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Chinese leaders intend to implement “active fiscal policies plus moderate monetary policies.” This is what emerges from the central economic and labor conference of Chinese leaders, who reaffirmed their firm intention to combat the crisis, but also highlighted the lack of reliable immediate solutions.
The members of the permanent committee of the communist party, together with high-ranking politicians, military officers, and experts, met from December 8-10 in Beijing to examine an unprecedented situation: in November, exports fell by 2.2% compared to November of 2007, for the first time since June of 2001, and experts expect them to diminish even further. Imports also fell by 17.9% compared to the previous year, with a strong reduction in domestic demand and in many prices: food prices fell by 5.9% in November, pork by 9.3%, and textiles by 2%. The producer price index fell by 2.4% in November, after years of rapid growth, and now the risk of deflation is on the horizon. The danger is that, in addition to reducing products and raw materials, it will make some forms of production unprofitable, with a loss of jobs.
The leaders promised to increase incomes, expand domestic consumption, and redistribute wealth among the different regions and between urban and rural residents, partly through a policy of differentiated taxation and subsidies. The priority — according to the final document — is “maintaining a stable and relatively fast economic growth,” and, with this, safeguarding employment: analysts believe that growth of 8% is sufficient to create 20 million new jobs each year.
There are no specific details, but experts believe that there will be no adjustment to the recent depreciation of the yuan (the largest decline in three years), intended to boost exports, and to attract foreign investment, which in November fell by 36.52% compared to a year before.
Expecting precise details, the market reacted negatively: the Shanghai market lost 2.2% today.
Economic expert Ha Jiming comments that for the first time, “the state leaders apparently are trying to tell the nation of a truly grim economic picture.” “It appears difficult to reach these objectives within a year or two.”
Tao Dong, chief economist for Credit Suisse in Hong Kong, also maintains that confronting the crisis requires “a long-run strategy” and “ structural reform.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: ‘I Was Mistaken for a Disoriented Old Man,’ Says Aso
Prime Minister Taro Aso said Monday that he had been “mistaken for a disoriented old man while out for a morning walk,” in another remark that could be taken as suggesting a lack of compassion for senior citizens and those with Alzheimer’s disease. Aso made the remarks during a meeting of the House of Councillors’ Committee on Budget in response to a question concerning the management of health care for elderly people by Kenji Ogiwara, a member of Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party.
“I walk fast now and no one mistakes me any longer,” Aso also said.
Aso has recently apologized for remarks in which he appeared to be criticizing people suffering from illnesses and the use of taxpayers’ money to cover their medical costs.
Asked by a reporter if he did not think that his remark on Monday was insensitive, he replied, “What was wrong with it? I was the one who was told, ‘You look like a disoriented old man.’ I don’t know what your point is.”
While he was foreign minister in 2007, Aso also made an insensitive remark about Alzheimer’s disease, saying that even Alzheimer’s sufferers could tell that Japanese rice is more expensive in China than in Japan. He later apologized and retracted the comment.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Piracy: NATO Steps Down in Favour of EU,Thinks of New Mission
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 12 — The Nato anti-piracy mission finished today “with success” off the coast of Somalia and will make room for the EU Atalanta operation, but the Nato military committee is considering staying in the area with “a long term strategy”. In the meantime, the mission of the Italian battleship Durand de la Penne, which led the Nato operation will not join the new European mission for now. “Durand de la Penne will not take part for the moment in the UE Atalanta mission”, said Commander Giovanni Gumiero today, the head of the mission which from last October until today has monitored the waters off the coast of Somalia, escorting UN humanitarian aid ships for the Somali population and protecting merchant vessels passing through the zone. The Italian battleship deployed in the Nato mission and Nato “have not yet decided in what way it will be involved in the Atalanta mission”, specified the commander. But one thing is for sure for Nato: “A constant presence in the area is necessary — stated Nato sources- and for this reason, the political committee over the next days will state how to organise Nato presence in the future, if it will be beside the EU mission or if it will intervene at the end of Atalanta”. For the moment, over the next days, the commanders of the two missions will meet to discuss the challenges of the anti-piracy operations and handing over duties: “The Nato mission worked because it was excellently coordinated, which is necessary to oppose threats in a very vast area like the Gulf of Aden”, said Gumiero. And to oppose “a growing and highly sophisticated threat”, Atalanta will have to be aware of the total scenario where “it is complicated distinguishing pirates from fishermen”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Somali Piracy Backed by International Network
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Ahmed Dahir Suleyman is cagey as he talks about the global network that funds and supports piracy off the coast of Somalia.
“We have negotiators, translators and agents in many areas … let me say across the world,” said Suleyman, a pirate in the harbor town of Eyl, where scores of hijacked ships are docked.
“These people help us during exchanges of ransom and finding out the exact person to negotiate with,” he told The Associated Press. Before cutting off the cell phone call, Suleyman snapped: “It is not possible to ask anymore about our secrets.”
The dramatic spike in piracy in African waters this year is backed by an international network mostly of Somali expatriates from the Horn of Africa to as far as North America, who offer funds, equipment and information in exchange for a cut of the ransoms, according to researchers, officials and members of the racket. With help from the network, Somali pirates have brought in at least $30 million in ransom so far this year.
“The Somali diaspora all around the world now have taken to this business enterprise,” said Michael Weinstein, a Somalia expert at Purdue University in Indiana. He likened the racket to “syndicates where you buy shares, so to speak, and you get a cut of the ransom.”
Weinstein said his interviews with ransom negotiators and Somalis indicate the piracy phenomenon has reached Canada, which is home to 200,000 Somalis.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Astrid Thors Watch: Minister of Immigration and Europe Wants Repeat of Sweden’s Mistakes in Finland
What is the woman thinking? Minster of Immigration and Europe, Astrid Thors has submitted a bill to the Finnish parliament for review and approval, that would greatly relax the tough restrictions in place concerning how the state deals with immigrants who are denied permission to settle in Finland.
Funny, Thors would never suggest such a bill to the autonomous parliament of the flag seen in the picture behind the Swedish Finnish minister. The good people of Åland, (Ahvenamaa in Finnish) would plant a boot on her backside and out the door she would fly.
According to Helsinki Councilman, Jussi Halla-aho, “The bill will possibly be voted on before the Christmas holidays, and most Finns have not even heard anything about the matter, (including the TT until yesterday) because the media, except for the Aamulehti paper, had not seen the benefit in reporting about it.” According to Halla-aho, “despite Astrid Thors’ claims that the bill focuses specifically on ‘occupational migration promotion’, this is not the case, the proposed changes in the law will be exclusively affecting humanitarian immigration.”
If the bill passes in the Finnish parliament, what’s in store for the future of immigration policies in Finland can be seen by simply reviewing Sweden’s own immigration policies. It will be even that much more difficult for Finnish officials to repatriate individuals back to where they came from, once they fail to meet all the strict requirements for seeking asylum….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Migration Outstrips Birth Rate in the EU
[…]
The EU population grew by 4.4 per 1000 inhabitants in 2008, due to natural population growth of +1.1‰ and net migration of +3.3‰, according to Eurostat figures issued today. In total, the EU27 population is estimated to have increased by 2.2 million in 2008 to 499.7 million.
The highest birth rates were in Ireland, the United Kingdom, France and Estonia…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Study: Illegal Immigrants’ Care Costs State $677 Million
AUSTIN — The state of Texas and local hospital districts spent an estimated $677 million to provide health care to illegal immigrants in a year, a new study says.
The survey, issued by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said that most of the money ? $597 million ? was spent by local hospital districts for the immigrants’ care during the state’s fiscal year that ended on Aug. 31, 2006.
Lawmakers from both parties said they were not surprised by the millions spent and expressed hope that the report, required by the 2007 Legislature, will help prompt Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said the study only tells half of the story.
He noted that the immigrants contribute to government coffers by paying sales and property taxes.
The report said that in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2007, the state spent $80 million under the Texas Emergency Medicaid program, which pays hospitals to provide life-saving care, including labor and delivery services, to patients living here illegally. The state also paid $1.2 million to provide services to undocumented immigrants in family violence shelters.
Federal law requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emer
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Extra Judges Drafted in to Hear Immigration Appeals
Extra judges are being drafted in to deal with more than 8,000 asylum and immigration appeals a year that threaten to overload the courts.
The move is one of a series of steps to tackle the rise in appeals that have delayed other cases for a year or more.
Lord Justice May, the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, told The Times that as well as drafting in extra High Court judges, senior barristers and circuit judges had been appointed to sit as deputy High Court judges, doubling the normal number of judges on this work to 15.
The extra judicial manpower, which has already reduced delays, is an interim measure pending more drastic action by the Government. Ministers are expected to announce plans to move the bulk of immigration work out of the High Court altogether and into the new Tribunals Service, probably by next June.
That will lead to High Court judges being relieved of thousands of cases a year, which will instead be heard by senior immigration judges and only occasionally, where absolutely necessary, by a High Court judge.
The rise in immigration work is partly because of the increased volume of immigration decisions made by the UK Border Agency, which is dealing with record numbers of applications. In 2006 it removed 16,330 failed asylum seekers, excluding dependants, and in 2007 deported more than 4,000 foreign prisoners.
Another factor is the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004, which replaced a two-tier system of appeals with a single-tier system. The High Court therefore became the only place of appeal from a tribunal.
The volume of cases reflects that people do not accept the decision of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and seek to have the decision reconsidered or apply for judicial review.
A previous attempt by the Government to end the right of judicial review in immigration cases prompted widespread criticism and was thrown out of Parliament….
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Atheists Can’t Preside Over Vegas Weddings
Non-believer might sue to change law in town known for nuptials
Reporting from Las Vegas — In a city launched by shotgun weddings and quickie divorces, and which offers the chance to be wed by faux Liberaces, King Tuts and Grim Reapers, there remains at least one nuptial taboo: You can’t be married by an atheist.
Michael Jacobson, a 64-year-old retiree who calls himself a lifelong atheist, tried this year to get a license to perform weddings. Clark County rejected his application because he had no ties to a congregation, as state law requires.
So Jacobson and attorneys from two national secular groups — the American Humanist Assn. and the Center for Inquiry — are trying to change things. If they can’t persuade the state Legislature to rework the law, they plan to sue.
Jacobson, who spends most afternoons reading online or dining at a nearby buffet, is an admittedly reluctant plaintiff. But he’s willing to fight on principle, recalling one time he couldn’t: In the 1960s, the Army demanded that his dog tags note his religion. He reluctantly chose Judaism, which reflected his ancestry if not his beliefs.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Chuck Norris: Atheists’ National Holiday?
Atheists from England to the state of Washington are stepping up their efforts this year to make a bigger antagonistic splash on the Christmas scene.
A London campaign put signs on city buses saying, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
Secularists in Washington, D.C.. followed suit with a similar campaign on buses, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness sake.”
Atheists in Colorado are posting signage on billboards that echo the ‘60s John Lennon music mantra, “Imagine no religion.”
And, all over the news, an atheist group was given permission to display its sign alongside a nativity scene in the capitol of Washington (and now in Wisconsin and Illinois). The message reads, “At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell.” It then obliterates political correctness by ending with the following hate language, “There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am a patriot, and I believe that atheists are free to believe, speak and post whatever they want. This is America ? and that’s their First Amendment right. But, to do so with harassment and hatred under the guise of free speech is despicable. An anti-religious poster filled with spite is in no way equated with a religious symbol like a nativity. Where are the politically correct police when Christians are the victims?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Religion in Schools to Go God-Free
Humanist Society education director Harry Gardner said he had designed a course to be taught from prep to year 6 called Applied Ethical Education — Humanism for Schools. It covers subjects such as the art of living, the environment, philosophy, science and world citizenship. The curriculum is likely to be submitted for approval next year.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Climate Change Summits Like Poznan and Brussels Will Cost Us the Earth
Short of a breakthrough in non-carbon energy, the only affordable response to fears of global warming is to adapt to the consequences, argues a former chancellor.
And so the great climate change circus moves on. Over the past few days we have had the European Union climate summit in Brussels and the United Nations climate summit in Poznan.
The EU summit was intended to confirm Europe’s much-proclaimed “world leadership” on the issue by reaffirming its earlier “20-20-20” commitment: that by 2020 it would have reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent and raised to 20 per cent the proportion of its energy generated by non-nuclear renewable sources.
This commitment, which had been made in 2007, had latterly been called into question as the seven accession states and Italy declined to accept their share in it.
The outcome was a compromise, hailed as “quite historic” by President Sarkozy, under which the targets would be nominally retained but the means of achieving them — sharp rises in the cost of carbon-based energy — abandoned….
….Following the passage of the absurd Climate Change Act, under which this country has unilaterally bound itself, by law, to near-total decarbonisation of the economy by 2050, in an effort to demonstrate (once again) “global leadership”, the report claims that this “can be achieved at a cost of 1-2 per cent of GDP in 2050. This order of magnitude is consistent with cost estimates from the Stern Review”.
Since the committee uses the same methodology and indeed the same model as the Stern Review (which was not peer-reviewed), it is hardly surprising that it comes to the same conclusion. It reminds me of the man who, concerned about the authenticity of a report in his newspaper, bought a second copy of the paper to confirm it.
But as Britain’s most eminent energy economist, Professor Dieter Helm, writes in the current issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, “the Stern Report’s 1 per cent on which politicians are relying is an assumed number… the cost numbers… [are] all but useless for the purposes of public policy design and implementation”.
Professor Helm, incidentally, accepts a view of the climate science at the alarmist end of the spectrum. But that does not attract him to shoddy economics.
It is quite clear that, short of a breakthrough in the technology of non-carbon energy — which may happen, but may not — the only cost-effective response to any feared global warming is to adapt to the consequences.
[b]The dirty little secret is that, so far this century, there has been no recorded global warming; as the Met Office the other day pointed out, sotto voce, 2008 has been, globally, the coldest year of all. That has not stopped the flood of claims of increasing evidence of “climate change” all around us.[/b]
Of course, there may well be, as most climate scientists predict, global warming in the future. Meanwhile, welcome to the new science paradigm, in which effects precede cause. I have to confess my own limitations. Unlike Mr Al Gore, Lord Stern, and Lord Turner, I do not know what is going to happen to the planet in the next 100-200 years. But I do know nonsense when I see it.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Energy: DB, Enel Interested in Acquiring 25% of Endesa
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 10 — Enel could resort to a capital increase of 5 billion euro to refinance it’s debt and possibly acquire 25pct of Endesa, controlled by Acciona, if Acciona we to decide to exercise a “put” option for an anticipated sale in 2009 of it’s participating share. This was the scenario hypothesised in a Deutsche Bank (DB) report cited today in the Spanish media. According to the German bank, it is probable that Acciona will free itself of it’s participating share in Endesa, due to “pressure from the banks” on the Iberian construction group, in 2009 before the March 2010 deadline set by a shareholders agreement signed with Enel in March of 2007, which provides the option to sell. The value of the “put” is currently more than 11 billion euro. The acquisition operation by Enel, for 92% of Endesàs shares carried out last year, cost 42.5 billion euro. As a result of the acquisition, debt for the Italian electric company increased to 51.4 billion euro. Sources from Acciona, cited by the media referred to a “relevant fact” communicated to the National Stock Exchange Commission last week, in which the company stated to not have received an offer from Enel. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
‘Financial Psychopaths’ Wreak Havoc
Two of the most remarkable frauds in the history of finance were exposed this week. They are just beginning to unravel and as such we don’t fully understand the magnitude of the crimes. But already I can tell you they are of epic, even cinematic, proportions. This is really from the “can’t make this stuff up” school of news. These two miscreants aren’t just every day corner-cutters, they are world-class whack.
First, let’s take on Marc Dreier, head of his eponymous law firm who was busted in Toronto and then charged in New York cheating investors out of $380 million. Let’s see, where do we start with this Yale-Harvard educated, power-lawyer bloodsucker? That he was allegedly impersonating another lawyer? That he allegedly would use innocent companies’ offices and suggest that he was representing these firms as he swindled clients out of millions?
[…]
Next up is one Bernard Madoff, founder of Madoff Investment Securities and former NASDAQ chairman, who just took investors for a multi-billion-dollar bath. Madoff reportedly once ran $50 billion, and the whole enchilada may now be gone.
Some investors may have been lucky enough to get some cash out, but it seems likely that John Q. Investor could have lost $17 billion. $17 billion! Now this isn’t some notional value of derivatives a la AIG or Lehman. This is real cash!
Bernie Boy has reportedly ‘fessed up and admitted to prosecutors that he was running an old-fashioned Ponzi scheme. Pay investors outsized returns with cash from investments of new investors.
Gee. How creative.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Microsoft Wants to Get Under Your Skin
HealthVault links up with VeriMed RFID chips
Microsoft’s HealthVault, the medical records database, is to be integrated with VeriMed’s human-embedded RFID tags, allowing doctors to access the medical records of unconscious patients with a quick scan of the arm.
VeriMed consists of an RFID tag that is embedded in the arm of a hopefully willing participant, and responds with a 16-digital identity code when queried at 134KHz. This code can then be used to identify the person through VeriChip’s website, and will soon be able to link to their medical records as stored on Microsoft’s HealthVault system.
“VeriMed adds an exciting RFID-based option for HealthVault users trying to keep themselves and their families safe,” says Sean Nolan, the chief architect for HealthVault, quoted in RFID Journal. If you’re excited about the idea of being electronically indexed then this is probably the technology for you.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Mumbai and the ‘Peace Camp’
by Rachel Neuwirth
They are ignoring the Jewish victims.
The Mumbai massacre offers yet another reminder that many Israeli and American Jewish “peaceniks,” despite all their moralistic and idealistic blather, have hearts of stone. All too many self-described ‘progressive’ Jews seem to have a fanatical
The so-called ‘peace camp’ are really wolves in sheep’s clothing.
hatred for their fellow Jews in the Land of Israel, simply because they happen to reside on the wrong side of an arbitrary political dividing line. In practice, these people give propaganda aid and comfort to the extreme-right-wing, fascist-Islamist terrorists, who are violently opposed to all genuinely progressive and humane values. Even now they are ignoring the Jewish victims of radical Islamist mass murderers in Mumbai.
Friends of Israel should learn that the so-called ‘peace camp’ are really wolves in sheep’s clothing. They work constantly to undermine the security of Israel, America’s only true ally in the Middle East.
Peace Now is a vociferous voice among those advocating the forcible expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Jews from their homes inside the historic Jewish heartland. Their response is emblematic of the Jewish ‘peace camp.’ They manufacture counterfeit moral credentials and exploit their origins in order to influence US foreign policy against Israel.
Peacenow.org was notably slow to even mention the Mumbai massacre. Even its meager acknowledgment of it was placed in the seventh position from the top, well below their primary news items, which were mainly focused on attacking Jews whom they denigrate with their hostile term “settlers”.
Their web site showed one lit candle with an associated article that began with the following two quotes:
1) “APN (i.e., Americans for Peace Now) sends condolences to the people of India, and to the families of Israeli, American and other nationals who were murdered by terrorists in Mumbai.”
This single sentence was the entire response of peacenow.org to the atrocity.
2) “Former senior Mossad analyst Yossie Alper offers a commentary on the lessons that Israel can learn from the Mumbai attacks.”
In this article, Alper talks mostly logistics, population comparisons, coast lines, politics, history, security, etc., without naming a single victim.
The single sentence response of peacenow.org appeared well after other outlets had provided in-depth coverage of the facts, the implications and the human face of the story. Peacenow.org offered only the single word “condolences” for all the victims, as if their reservoir of compassion had been totally depleted and they were slow to even offer that crumb of sympathy. It seems as if something inside these people gags at any genuine show of compassion for Jewish victims.
Peacenow.org found plenty of words to attack and dehumanize Jews, though. In extensive articles, which preceded their scant mention of Mumbai, they denigrated Jewish men, women and children with terms like “illegal settlers”, “Hebron squatters” and “settler violence”. This is the same political tactic long used by Nazi, Communist and Islamist propagandists to first deny the humanity of their intended victims in preparation for their persecution. The Israeli Left also employed this tactic in first dehumanizing the Jewish residents of Gaza leading up to their brutal expulsion.
Peacenow.org decided that the following information, which was carried by both Jewish and non-Jewish media throughout the world, was not worth mentioning on their site.
None of the readily available names or photos of the Jewish victims was posted or even mentioned by peacenow.org. This organization’s board of directors includes many with Jewish surnames and even a few rabbis. But authentic Jews always recognize the humanity of the dead by at least remembering their names. It is typical of the ‘peaceniks,’ however, to erase from memory and from history those whom they target or just don’t care about. This amounts to a sort of execution by silence. Peacenow.org chose the anti-Judaic path of erasing even the memory of the dead victims.
There was no mention that Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were horribly tortured prior to being executed. No mention of the extreme heroism of the Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel, who risked her life to save two-year-old Moshe, who, according to reports, also showed signs of being beaten. No mention of any others who were slaughtered because they were Jewish.
There was no mention of the name Chabad and their humanitarian outreach to all Jews, and to Gentiles as well, lest Chabad receive any recognition for their good deeds. The Israeli and diaspora Jewish ‘peace camp’ also evinces an irrational hostility to Jews of strong religious faith as well as to religious Christians, whom they often unfairly accuse of being “racists” and “opposed to peace.” It makes no sense at all from a “progressive” point of view to denigrate peaceful Jews and Christians engaged in humanitarian and charitable work, while winking at the cruelty of the radical Islamist militants.
No mention that the terrorists were Muslims who had specifically targeted Chabad House to kill Jews who were not “settlers” living in the so-called “occupied territories”. They prefer to ignore the reality that Muslim terrorists regard all Jews as targets, no matter where they live or what they believe.
Other web sites responded with appeals for funds to assist the orphans from at least two families and to rebuild the damaged Chabad House in Mumbai. Peace Now is always collecting funds for their political activities, but they offered no charity for Jews in need. The Jewish term for charity is tzedaka, but that word is missing from the vocabulary of the ‘peace camp.’
There was not one word of personal sadness or remorse for the loss of the Jewish kedoshim (saintly people) of Mumbai from a single member of the leadership of peacenow.org. Israel treats captured terrorists far better than peacenow.org has treated the memory of these Jewish victims.
| — Hat tip: Rachel Neuwirth | [Return to headlines] |
Mumbai Suspect ‘Trained Bosnia Fighters’
A LEADER of Lashkar-e-Taiba, suspected in the Mumbai attacks, took part in the training of Islamic fighters and police in Bosnia in the 1990s, a terrorist expert said today.
“Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi participated in Bosnia’s war,” Dzevad Galijasevic, an independent expert, said, referring to the leader who has been detained by Pakistan.
“He was a commander of the Pakistani section of the (Bosnian army) El-Mujahed unit” notorious for criminal activities, Mr Galijasevic said, adding he had obtained the information from “various official sources”.
“Lakhvi was in Bosnia in 1994 and immediately after the war in 1996 and 1997 when he took part in the training of police forces in central Bosnia.
“It was official training so evidence about it can be found in police archives,” he said.
Police declined to immediately comment on Mr Galijasevic’s allegations.
Pakistan confirmed yesterday it had arrested Lakhvi and another suspected leader of the group, Zarar Shah.
The two men have both been named by Indian media as key planners of the devastating attacks in Mumbai in which 172 people died.
Hundreds of fighters from Islamic countries joined the mainly Bosnian Muslim army during the 1992-1995 war.
Under a peace deal, they were ordered to leave, but some stayed on after obtaining Bosnian citizenship, mainly by marrying local women.
Mr Galijasevic could not say whether Lakhvi also obtained a Bosnian passport.
Bosnia came under the spotlight after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States due to the presence of ex-Islamic fighters, locally known as mujahedeens.
| — Hat tip: Tuan Jim | [Return to headlines] |
Wikipedia Lies, Slander Continue
“Joseph Francis Farah is an Evangelical Christian American journalist and noted homosexual of Lebanese and Syrian heritage.”
- the first line of my current bio in Wikipedia
(Note: Within an hour of the posting of this column, Wikipedia pulled the defamatory accusation that Farah is “a noted homosexual” from its bio.)
The Internet has brought the world some wonderful sources of information.
And it has brought us some perfectly dreadful sources of misinformation.
Wikipedia falls into the latter category. And this column is my latest effort to demonstrate just how abusive this so-called “online collaborative encyclopedia” really is.
It is not only a provider of inaccuracy and bias. It is wholesale purveyor of lies and slander unlike any other the world has ever known.
Think about it.
Wikipedia boasts 684 million annual visitors. I can’t think of too many sources of information that attract that much attention.
And that’s really the problem — that too many people looking for easy and cheap sources of information turn to this wholly unreliable website run by political and social activists promoting their own agenda.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
1 comment:
About the imaginary money - is it that surprising really? We were already running a deficit for the fiscal year long before this thing broke and it's not as though the budget for 2009 hadn't been fully approved and spoken for in full - we don't keep wads of cash in reserve - which is why DoD has to keep begging for extra funding to keep our troops fed and paid for months at a time while congress hashes crap out.
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