The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Britain to allow its prisoners in jail to vote. If the UK doesn’t comply with the ECHR directive for the next general election, the vote may be nullified as illegal.In other news, Mexico City has become the first political entity in Latin America to legalize gay marriage.
Thanks to Barry Rubin, C. Cantoni, CSP, Esther, Fjordman, Henrik, Insubria, JD, Lurker from Tulsa, Sean O’Brian, Steen, TV, Vlad Tepes, and all the other tipsters who sent these in. Headlines and articles are below the fold.
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Report: Oklahoma’s Revenue Shortfalls Worst in Nation
OKLAHOMA CITY — State Treasurer Scott Meacham will give an economic outlook for the rest of the fiscal year and preliminary projections for 2011 Monday, but already revenue shortfalls are forcing agencies to trim costs month after month.
A new report is even saying the state’s shortfalls are the worst in the nation. Oklahoma ranks No. 1 with Arizona falling close behind.
The National Conference of State Legislators said Oklahoma’s shortfall, so far, is 18.5 percent which amounts to a shortfall of $577.5 million.
State Lawmakers say this report is just further proof of Oklahoma’s finances and simply put, Oklahoma is in a lot of trouble.
“But the problem is they should’ve been cutting more from 17 to 18 percent if they wanted to sustain through the rest of the year and instead they choose the easy way out. I guess they thought something magic was going to happen to the economy, I’m not quite sure,” Rep. Mike Reynolds said.
With the continuing climb of the revenue shortfall and recent announcement of more agency funding cuts, some lawmakers said because the gas market is flat and there’s currently an over production of gas, the report is no surprise.
“This is the worst crisis since the Depression and 1982, back when we had that oil and gas problem. In that era it was just oil and gas. Now the entire economy has gone flat and we’re not going to be able to come out of this quickly. It’s going to be painful. That’s why I feel we all need to work together and solve these problems,” said Rep. Richard Morrissette.
Both state representatives do not expect state finances to recover any time soon, and they believe it will get much worse before they’ll be any sign of improvement.
| — Hat tip: Lurker from Tulsa | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: 47% Fewer Homes Build in Third Quarter
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 21 — The severe downsizing of the construction sector in Spain continues; the number construction projects for housing started in the third quarter of the year is 33,140, a drop of 47.2% compared to the same time period in 2008. The number of home built in the last 12 months is 444,544 or 35.1% less than last year, according to statistics published today by the housing ministry. About 50% of new properties are for social housing, which shows that the public housing sector drives the construction business currently in crisis. The number of uninhabited homes built in the third quarter was down 60.8% compared to the same period in 2008 and 19.3% compared to the second quarter. Public housing was down 20% from July to September and 18.3% compared to the same period last year. (ANSAmed)
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Priest Outrages Police by Telling Congregation: ‘My Advice to Poor is to Shoplift’
Father Tim Jones, 41, broke off from his traditional annual sermon yesterday to tell his flock that stealing from large chains is sometimes the best option for vulnerable people.
It is far better for people desperate during the recession to shoplift than turn to ‘prostitution, mugging or burglary’, he said.
The married father-of-two insisted his unusual advice did not break the Bible commandment ‘Thou shalt not steal’ — because God’s love for the poor outweighs his love for the rich.
But the minister’s controversial sermon at St Lawrence Church in York has been slammed by police, the British Retail Consortium and a local MP, who all say that no matter what the circumstances, shoplifting is an offence.
Delivering his festive lesson, Father Jones told the congregation: ‘My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift. I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.
‘I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.
‘I offer the advice with a heavy heart and wish society would recognise that bureaucratic ineptitude and systematic delay has created an invitation and incentive to crime for people struggling to cope.’
He added that he felt society had failed the needy, and said it was far better they shoplift than turn to more degrading or violent options such as prostitution, mugging or burglary.
He continued: ‘My advice does not contradict the Bible’s eighth commandment because God’s love for the poor and despised outweighs the property rights of the rich.
‘Let my words not be misrepresented as a simplistic call for people to shoplift. The observation that shoplifting is the best option that some people are left with is a grim indictment of who we are.
‘Rather, this is a call for our society no longer to treat its most vulnerable people with indifference and contempt. Providing inadequate or clumsy social support is monumental, catastrophic folly.’
[…]
This isn’t the first time Father Jones has courted controversy.
He hit the headlines in May 2008 when he protested against a shop stocking Playboy stationery aimed at youngsters. He tossed the items onto the floor complaining they were ‘cynical and wicked’. The shop bowed to his one-man protest and agreed to stop stocking Playboy-branded merchandise.
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Frank Gaffney: START Over
Amidst the late night machinations and parliamentary skullduggery that now passes for legislative process in what was once rightly known as “The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body,” a potentially decisive blow for freedom has been struck by forty-one Senators.
No, sadly I am not talking about a setback to the defective health care “reform” bill now trundling towards enactment. Rather, I am referring to an effort that suggests a critical block of Senators are determined to exercise quality control with respect to another of President Obama’s alarming agenda items: denuclearization of this country as a lubricant to his oft-stated goal of “ridding the world of nuclear weapons.”
As first reported by Bill Gertz, the Washington Times’ ace national security correspondent, every member of the Senate’s Republican caucus and Independent Joe Lieberman signed a strongly worded letter to Mr. Obama last week regarding the so-called “Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) follow-on agreement.” The latter is an agreement the administration has been frantically trying to negotiate with the Kremlin, not simply to extend the now-expired, original START accord, but to replace it with a treaty making further, dramatic and controversial cuts in U.S. and Russian strategic forces…
| — Hat tip: CSP | [Return to headlines] |
General Defends Court Martial for Pregnant Soldiers
A US Army general in northern Iraq has defended his decision to add pregnancy to the list of reasons a soldier under his command could face court martial.
It is current army policy to send pregnant soldiers home, but Maj Gen Anthony Cucolo told the BBC he was losing people with critical skills.
That was why the added deterrent of a possible court martial was needed, he said.
The new policy applies both to female and male soldiers, even if married.
The male sexual partners of female soldiers who get pregnant would also “face the consequences”, he said.
It is the first time the US Army has made pregnancy a punishable offence.
Gen Cucolo told the BBC it was a “black and white” issue for him.
He said married soldiers in combat zones should either put their love lives on hold — or take precautions.
“I’ve got a mission to do, I’m given a finite number of soldiers with which to do it and I need every one of them.”
“So I’m going to take every measure I can to keep them all strong, fit and with me for the twelve months we are in the combat zone,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Record-Breaking Storm Closes US Federal Government
The federal government was closed Monday after a record-breaking snowstorm swept across the northeastern United States and put a damper on one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year.
Just days before Christmas, the eastern seaboard from North Carolina to New England was digging out from the worst blizzard in years, which closed train and bus service, paralyzed air traffic, crippled motorists and left hundreds of thousands of residents without power in some areas.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
US Transfers 12 Gitmo Detainees to Home Countries
WASHINGTON — The U.S. has transferred a dozen Guantanamo detainees to Afghanistan, Yemen and the Somaliland region as the Obama administration continues to move captives out of the facility in Cuba in preparation for its closure.
The Justice Department said Sunday that a government task force had reviewed each case. Officials considered the potential threat and the government’s likelihood of success in court challenges to the detentions.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Yellowstone’s Plumbing Exposed
Newswise — The most detailed seismic images yet published of the plumbing that feeds the Yellowstone supervolcano shows a plume of hot and molten rock rising at an angle from the northwest at a depth of at least 410 miles, contradicting claims that there is no deep plume, only shallow hot rock moving like slowly boiling soup.
A related University of Utah study used gravity measurements to indicate the banana-shaped magma chamber of hot and molten rock a few miles beneath Yellowstone is 20 percent larger than previously believed, so a future cataclysmic eruption could be even larger than thought.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Bad Weather: Spain, Heavy Snowfall Alert
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 21 — The first official day of winter has heralded in a state of alert across Spain due to heavy snowfall and freezing cold temperatures, under which the peninsula is suffering. Traffic gridlock is seen especially in the capital, where snow resulted in the closing early this morning of two of the four landing strips of the Madrid airport Barajas, giving rise to lengthy delays for at least 50 flights leaving from Terminal 4, according to airport sources. Inconveniences have also been seen in railway transport due to the interruption early this morning of the high-speed connection between Madrid, Seville, Malaga and Barcelona, which resumed at 9.45am. Alternative tickets or a reimbursement have been offered to the about 2,500 train passengers whose trains were called off. As concerns roads, in many zones chains are compulsory and numerous mountain passes have been closed due to snow and ice, as well as several arteries of the national road network, especially in the provinces of Teruel (A-23), La Rioja (N-126) and Burgos (N-629). The most copious snowfall is expected in the Madrid Sierra, where it could reached 15 centimetres and the thermometer may drop to as low as -13 degrees Celsius. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bad Weather: Italy Still Suffering From Cold Snap
(ANSAmed) — ROME, DECEMBER 21 — The northern and central areas of Italy are still suffering from freezing temperatures, which over the night fell to well below zero. Udine dipped as low as -18, while Bologna, Turin, Treviso and L’Aquila all saw -13. Intense cold was also felt in Bolzano (-12), Forlì and Arezzo (-10). The forecast leaves much to be desired since early this afternoon more snowfall is expected for — progressively — the Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, upper Tuscany and Abruzzi regions. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Who’d Ha Thunk it? Italian Constitutional Court Tells ECHR to Take a Hike, Asserts National Sovereignty
The first blow has been struck against the encroaching tyranny of the European Union and it is a significant one. In fact, one member state has defiantly drawn a line in the sand and signalled that it will not tolerate erosion of its sovereignty. Although it attracted little attention when it was published last month, now that commentators have had an opportunity to analyse Sentenza N. 311 by the Italian Constitutional Court, its monumental significance in rolling back the Lisbon Treaty is now being appreciated. (Hat tip, as they say, to Dr Piero Tozzi.)
The Constitutional Court ruled baldly that, where rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) conflict with provisions of the Italian Constitution, such decrees “lack legitimacy”. In other words, they will not be enforced in Italy. Although this judgement related to issues concerning the civil service, the universal interpretation is that the ECHR’s aggressive ruling in Lautsi v Italy, seeking to ban crucifixes from Italian classrooms, shortly before, was what concentrated the minds of the judges in the Italian Supreme Court.
In fact, sources close to the Italian judiciary have informally briefed that the decision was a warning that activist rulings by the ECHR “will not be given deference”. The juridical principle at issue here is nothing less than national sovereignty. Where an alien court has the right to overrule a national constitution, sovereignty has de facto ceased to exist. Citizens may go to the polls at a general election to elect an administration, but the “government” they choose will be no more than a municipal council. This, of course, was always the intention of the Lisbon Treaty and its supporters.
Europhile politicians and commentators in Britain, after the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and the ratting by the Vichy Tories on their promise of a referendum, were masochistically resigned to the United Kingdom becoming a province of Brussels. Now the Italians have overthrown the fatalistic notion of the irresistible march of Eurofederalism. They have simply said: if it encroaches upon our national sovereignty, it won’t fly here. This is excellent.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
France: Carbon Tax Raises Prices by 0.3% in Q1 of 2010
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 21 — The ‘carbon tax’, the green tax on the consumption of polluting energy that will become enforceable in France on January 1, will raise inflation by 0.3% during the first quarter of 2010. The announcement was made today by the central statistics office, which expects for the first quarter of 2010 an increase in consumer prices equal to 0.7% before going back down to 0.3% during the second quarter.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
German Catholic Leader Criticizes Islamic Treatment of Christians
Cologne, Germany — One of Germany’s most senior Catholic leaders, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, criticized on Sunday what he described as restrictions on Christians in Islamic nations. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, Meisner, who is archbishop of Cologne, charged that this led to “an aversion against Muslims” among Germans.
The often outspoken cleric said he had been campaigning for the past two years for the Church of St Paul in Tarsus, Turkey to be permanently opened for worship by any Christian.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Palermo Drug Bust Nets 67
Mafia, Camorra and Spanish traffickers in joint venture
(ANSA) — Palermo, December 16 — Around 67 people were arrested in Palermo on Wednesday in a drug sweep targeting a consortium of Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Neapolitan Camorra and Spanish drug traffickers.
Hundreds of police were involved in the operation together with sniffer dogs, helicopters and army soldiers.
Investigators said the operation was made possible by the cooperation of a turncoat arrested last year in the nearby town of Bagheria with half a kilogram of pure cocaine.
The information he furnished helped police trace the cartel’s shipping lines from Spain to Naples, and from there to a network of processing and distribution centers in the Sicilian capital.
With an estimated turnover of 60,000 euros per day, the drug ring had deep roots in Palermo slums, where it recruited bagmen and pushers from neighborhood teens, police said. “This brilliant operation has exposed three powerful crime syndicates working together on a single joint venture,” said opposition Democratic Party Senator, Giuseppe Lumia, a member of the parliamentary anti-mafia commission.
The chairman of the Senate constitutional affairs committee, Carlo Vizzini, also lauded the operation as a “major blow” to the Sicilian drug trade.
He underlined that “the next step in fighting international organized crime is with more effective laws against money laundering,” a few of which are currently before parliament.
Palermo prosecutor Teresa Principato called attention to the city’s slums, which she said “were beginning to resemble Brazilian favelas”.
“Drug use is endemic in many parts of the city, particularly among children,” she said, adding that some of the drug peddlers and addicts singled out by police were as young as 13 years old.
Police captain Teo Luzi, a Palermo native, said “these are kids with little or no education and difficult families, who’ve spent most of their lives on the streets”.
“For them, drugs provide a temporary escape from an ugly reality”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Major Asbestos Trial Opens
Thousands arrive in Turin for trial of former Eternit heads
(ANSA) — Turin, December 10 — One of the world’s largest trials into asbestos-related crimes opened in Turin on Thursday, drawing thousands to the northern Italian city. Two former heads of Swiss cement giant Eternit have been charged with creating an environmental hazard and wilfully disregarding safety regulations at four asbestos-cement plants in Italy during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prosecutors say around 2,000 workers and local residents died as a consequence. Nearly 3,000 people have applied to join the criminal proceedings as plaintiffs in a linked civil suit, making this one of the largest ever asbestos trials in the world. The defendants, Eternit’s Swiss owner, Stephan Schmidheiny, 62, and former managing director, the Belgian baron Louis de Cartier de Marchienne, 88, both deny any wrongdoing and did not attend court.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the opening, Prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, said the trial would “ensure justice, both for the victims and the defendants”. Guariniello claims asbestos dust in the air caused tumours among Eternit staff, their families and people living near the factories, and has left around 800 more seriously ill.
The prosecutor, who has been investigating the deaths since 2002, says Eternit’s products were also used to pave streets and courtyards, and used as roof insulation in the nearby towns without warnings about the dangers, resulting in decades-long exposure for the local population.
Over a thousand workers and relatives were outside the courthouse on Thursday morning, shuttled in by coaches from across Italy, as well as from France.
Associations representing French asbestos victims say they hope the Italian trial will set an example to France, where they have struggled to get civil suits off the ground. Hundreds more crowded into a nearby auditorium, on temporary loan from the provincial government, to follow the proceedings via a live video link. Three courtrooms have been turned over to the opening of the trial.
TV cameras and defence lawyers squeezed into the central courtroom, where the criminal proceedings got under way. Another hall housed the lawyers and representatives of the 700-odd plaintiffs already joined to the civil suit, while applications by others seeking to join the proceedings were processed in a third courtroom. Eternit ran asbestos-producing plants in Casale Monferrato in Alessandria, Cavagnolo near Turin, Rubiera in Reggio Emilia and Bagnoli near Naples.
Employees and their families say that Eternit did little or nothing to protect its workers and residents living around its factories from the dangers of asbestos.
Many contend that the Swiss company, which pulled out of the asbestos business more than a decade ago, failed to warn its employees of any of the dangers of working with asbestos.
Inail, a state institute which handles compulsory insurance coverage for workers, is among those seeking damages from Eternit after paying out some 246 million euros to former workers.
The Piedmont regional government, the Turin provincial government, environmental organization Legambiente and consumer rights group Codacons are also suing for damages.
Lawyers for Italy’s largest labour union CGIL are seeking damages on behalf of 1,610 workers and local residents. Only 315 of these are still alive. Legal experts say the trial is likely to take several years. If convicted, the defendants could face between three and 12 years in prison.
In 1993, four of Eternit’s former Casale managers were convicted of wilfully neglecting safety regulations and given sentences of up to three and a half years on suits filed by 137 workers.
In 2006, Eternit set up a fund of 1.25 million Swiss francs to help former employees in Switzerland suffering from asbestos-related illnesses.
Last year, the multinational agreed to pay out almost nine million euros in compensation to workers at another asbestos-cement plant in the Sicilian town of Siracusa.
Schmidheiny has also said he is ready to make tens of millions of euros available in compensation for victims at the multinational’s asbestos-producing plants in Casale Monferrato, Cavagnolo, Rubiera and Bagnoli.
Italy outlawed the use of asbestos in 1992.
Prior to the ban, it was one of its largest producers and importers of asbestos in the world, using over 20 million tonnes annually. Today, Italy is one of the western countries worst hit by asbestos-related illnesses, with around 1,350 cases of mesothelioma — a tumour associated with exposure to asbestos dust — reported each year.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Millions Watch Berlusconi Discuss Marriage on TV Chat Show
Rome, 6 May (AKI) — Record numbers of viewers watched Italy’s prime minister talk about his beleaguered marriage on the country’s most popular television chat-show and repeat a demand that his estranged wife Veronica Lario apologise in public for accusing him of frequenting “under-age girls”.
A total 2,693,000 people — 34 percent of TV viewers — watched Berlusconi deny allegations of a relationship with 18-year-old underwear model and would-be showgirl Noemi Letizia whose birthday party he recently attended.
“It’s a lie,” 72-year-old Berlusconi told the Porta a Porta chat-show on RAI, the public television network late on Tuesday.
“Would the prime minister be so crazy as to get into a situation like that?” he asked.
Lario had expressed anger that Berlusconi attended Letizia’s birthday party, saying he had never attended the 18th birthday parties of any of their three children, despite having been invited.
She also implied that Letizia had a relationship with Berlusconi, and said: “I cannot stay with a man who consorts with minors.”
Berlusconi repeated on Porta Porta his assertion that he had been invited to Letizia’s birthday party by her father, Benedetto Letizia, who he said was an old friend.
The premier said he had nothing to hide and had voluntarily been photographed at the party with Letizia’s parents and friends. The photos feature in the latest issue of the popular Chi magazine owned by Berluconi.
Berlusconi also reiterated his claim that Lario had “fallen into a trap” set by “the newspapers of the left” especially left-leaning daily La Repubblica.
“It displeases me that a matter that is finished or about to finish is made so public by the newspapers when it should remain a private affair,” Berlusconi said.
“Frankly, I was not expecting this storm. This would never have happened if the media had reported things correctly,” he lamented.
At one point during the programme, 4,492,000 people tuned into the show — 44 percent of viewers.
The very public marital problems of Berlusconi — Italy’s richest man — has gripped the nation and has made international news.
Lario and Berlusconi have retained lawyers for the impending court battle over his 4.5 billion euros fortune. Their marriage is reported to have been in trouble for some years.
Besides his three children by Lario, he has two from a previous marriage.
In an interview with daily La Stampa on Wednesday, a top Vatican cleric echoed an earlier editorial in the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire, urging Berlusconi to be more “sober” in handling the collapse of his marriage.
“A divorce cannot be a spectacle to be thrust under the spotlight,” Cardinal Walter Kasper told La Stampa.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Berlusconi Photos Vanish From Google
Rome, 16 Dec. (AKI) — The shocking photos of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi that flashed around the world immediately after he was attacked on Sunday have mysteriously vanished from the top Internet search engine Google. Photos of Berlusconi’s bloodied face now only appear in the ‘news’ section of the website which links web users directly to news articles published by the media.
Searches for images of the attack in English and Italian language containing key words such as ‘Berlusconi attack’, or ‘Berlusconi Duomo’ and other combinations, showed only pictures of a smiling Berlusconi or the photos of the premier meeting world leaders on Wednesday.
However, pictures of the injured prime minister taken immediately after the attack in front of Milan’s cathedral on Sunday can still be found on other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo.
Google searches also fail to show the replica of Milan’s cathedral, the object which allegedly struck Berlusconi in the face.
The 73-year-old prime minister was expected to leave hospital on Wednesday with a broken nose, two broken teeth and other facial injuries but there was speculation he may spend another night in hospital.
Berlusconi lost more than half a litre of blood when he was struck in the face at a political rally with an alabaster replica of Milan’s Cathedral allegedly by Massimo Tartaglia, a man with a history of mental illness.
Meanwhile, Italy’s interior minister Roberto Maroni said on Wednesday that the government would introduce legislation to block or censor certain websites that according to the government induced the “climate of violence” that caused Sunday’s attack on Berlusconi.
The bill would also introduce new measures regarding street protests, he said.
The attack on Berlusconi occurred only a week after several hundred thousand people took to the streets of Rome for a protest entitled “No Berlusconi Day”, which was largely organised online via Internet social networks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Facebook Asks for Govt Meeting to Discuss Internet Row
Rome, 18 Dec. (AKI) — The popular Internet social networking site, Facebook, is seeking a meeting with Italian senate speaker Renato Schifani to discuss the controversy over the site that arose after the attack on the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Director of European public policy for Facebook, Richard Allan, has sent a letter to Schifani requesting a meeting after he accused Facebook of an “instigation to violence” after the attack.
“I would be glad to further discuss the measures we have taken, with you, or anyone else from your staff, and to understand your point of view on how we can act more effectively,” said Allan, quoted by Italian media.
He said that he would be willing to organised a telephone conference or organise a trip from London to Rome to discuss the issue.
Schifani on Friday welcomed Facebook’s initiative calling it an “extremely constructive step”.
On Thursday, Schifani which holds the country’s second highest office said that Facebook is more dangerous than the terrorist groups of the 1970s.
Regarding Facebook, Schifani said “you can read real and proper anthems to the instigation to violence”.
He also said that Facebook had the potential to “feed the hate that flourishes in some fringe groups”.
The Berlusconi attack created a fierce debate among thousands of supporters and opponents on the social networking site Facebook and the government has blamed it for being a factor in the attack against the premier.
After the attack on Berlusconi on Sunday, Italy’s interior minister Roberto Maroni signalled tighter legislative measures to control Internet sites in a bid to reduce what it says is a “climate of violence” that caused Sunday’s attack.
Critics have compared the move to those by totalitarian regimes.
“Schifani thinks like Ahmadinejad, Hu Jintao and Al-Bashir, the presidents of Iran, China and Sudan, where Facebook is banned,” said an opposition party chief whip in the lower house of parliament, Massimo Donadi, of the Italy of Values party.
Facebook has also responded to Italy’s threats to introduce legislative measures against the social networking site.
“Facebook is widely used to sustain noble causes and many people all over the world use it to improve society,” said Facebook’s spokeswoman Debbie Frost, quoted by Italian daily La Repubblica on Thursday.
“When opinions expressed on our site are turned into declarations of hate or threats against people, we remove the contents and we can also close the accounts of the people responsible. However, unfortunately, ignorance exists inside and outside of Facebook and this will not be defeated hiding it, but facing it,” she said.
The attack on Berlusconi occurred only a week after several hundred thousand people took to the streets of Rome for a protest entitled “No Berlusconi Day”.
It was largely organised mainly online through internet social networks.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Klaus: Global Warming No Science But “New Religion”
New York, Dec 19 (CTK) — Global warming is a “new religion,” not science, Czech President Vaclav Klaus has said in an interview with the news server FoxNews.com.
Simultaneously with the end of the Copenhagen U.N. climate conference Klaus said mankind should not be dictated how to live on the basis on “irrational ideology” that is a product of political correctness, the server writes.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Sarkozy Demands Eurostar Restart Tuesday
PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered the head of the French train authority to get Eurostar traffic moving again by Tuesday.
Eurostar has suspended traffic between Paris and London pending tests to determine what caused five trains to get stuck inside the Channel Tunnel late Friday, trapping more than 2,000 people for hours.
On Monday, Sarkozy called in SNCF President Guillaume Pepy and ordered him to get traffic moving again by Tuesday and present measures to assure such incidents don’t happen again.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
PARIS (AP) — President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered the president of the French train authority to get hobbled Eurostar traffic moving again by Tuesday.
Eurostar has suspended traffic between Paris and London pending tests to determine what caused five trains to get stuck inside the Channel Tunnel late Friday, trapping more than 2,000 people for hours.
On Monday, Sarkozy called in SNCF President Guillaume Pepy and ordered him to get traffic moving again by Tuesday and present measures to assure such incidents don’t happen again.
| — Hat tip: Henrik | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Telecinco and Cuatro Merger Forms Biggest TV Group
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 18 — The first radio television giant has been formed in Spain with the merger of the TV chain Telecinco, the Mediaset company, and Cuatro, of the Prisa group, publisher of Pais and owner of the digital platform Digital Plus. The announcement was done today in a joint statement from the two groups at the closing of the Madrid stock exchange after the Spanish SEC suspended trading in shares of the two companies in the run up to the agreement. The agreement includes for Mediaset the control of 22% of Digital Plus, the pay for view platform of Sogecable, a subsidiary of Prisa, in turn owner of 20% of the new holding made by the merger between Telecinco and Cuatro. The green light came yesterday from the respective boards with the signing of the three party agreement for the entry of Mediaset in Digital Plus shareholders, in which Telefonica purchased 21% at the end of November for 470 million euros. Mediaset will control 78% of the new holding and Prisa the remaining 22%. A successive capital increase for 500 million, completely underwritten by Mediaset will futher dilute Prisa participation to 18.3%. Prisa will receive new shares issued by Telecino valued at around 550 million euros and another 500 million in cash. The company born out of the merger will have a joint management even though the two television chains, Telecinco and Cuatro, will maintain their respective brands. According to sources cited by ABC, the company will be headed by Alejandro Echevarria, president of Telecinco, with two managing directors, Paolo Vasile, currently Telecinco managing director, and Giuseppe Tringali, head of publicity for the same chain. Prisa will get two advisors and the vice presidency. With the deal Telecinco becomes the first Spanish television company, going from one to two channel free to air, and with Digital Plus, the road to digital landline television opens up. But the big manoeuvres in the Spanish television market also include Antena 3, the network 44% controlled by a joint venture between Agostini and Madrid based Planeta, is one step from an agreement with the Mediapros La Sexta network.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Corridas on the Decline, Catalonia Votes Tomorrow
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 17 — On the eve of the vote on the people’s bill for the abolition of the corridas (bullfights) in Catalonia the for and against factions are closing ranks, while statistics point to a growing social indifference for a declining tradition that is not only due to the recession. Pro-abolition people, spurred on by the Prou! (Enough!) movement that sponsored the initiative with the support of 180,000 signatures, view the vote in Catalonia as the first step towards the elimination of bullfights. They surveyed 135 members of Catalonias parliament who tomorrow will have to express their views on the two full amendments to the proposal presented by the Socialist party (Psc) and by Convergencia i Union (CiU). Should they be approved, the people’s initiative will be forfeited, but in the opposite case the amendments will pass through the exam of parliament for a final decision (which at that point will be expected) that will be taken in May 2010. The vote will revolve around a handful of votes: in favour, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and IVCs eco-communists; against, the Peoples Party and Ciudadans; Psc and CiU instead will allow their members to vote freely. The anti-bull front adopted icons of the animal rights movement such as Brigitte Bardot and Pamela Anderson, while the pro-bull people who are sponsoring the defence of a tradition and a cultural asset chose José Tomas, the matador who returned to Barcelonas plaza de toros La Monumenal in 2004, and achieved a ticket sell-out in the same year that Barcelona turned anti-corrida. It also sponsored the Manifesto de la Mercé por la Libertad, undersigned by more than 280 celebrities of working in the world of culture, economy and education, including painter Miquel Barcelò, singers Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquim Sabina, and philosopher Felix de Azua. It also found unexpected support in 133 politicians from the south of France which includes senators, mayors and MPs who signed a letter submitted to Catalan MPs which invites them to reject the people’s bill in the name of freedom and tradition. However, abolition or no abolition, it seems that the decline of bullfights in Spain is unstoppable. According to a survey carried out in 2006 by the Gallup institute which was quoted today by El Pais, 81% of those under the age of 21 is not interested in bullfights, and the same goes for 2 out of 3 Spaniards under the age of 34 and 78% of those in the 35 to 40 age range. Only 41% of those older than 65 are still interested. The scarce social appreciation is also shown by the increasingly smaller number of bullfights that are being held: 891 in 2009, according to figures provided by the ministry of the Interior, including normal bullfights and ‘novilladas’, fights with young bulls and picadores’, in other words 354 bullfights less than in 2008. The actual bullfights are growing increasingly shorter also because of the recession, which has to deal with a 16% VAT tax on such forms of entertainment and prevents the payment in full of the high wages requested by the bullfighters. To the point that the people who breed the fighting bulls report an excess of at least 2,000 bulls that are practically out of the market, since the bullfighting rules provides that the bulls must fight between the ages of 4 to 6. Juan Sanchez Fabres, owner of one of the traditional breeding houses, complains that “In any case, we will be forced to send bulls to the slaughterhouse”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Mosques: State Aid to Stop Radicalism
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 21 — Islam in Spain will receive more aid from the state, initiatives that have been implemented in order to stop the more radical currents of Koranic teaching and to favour an integration that avoids social friction, like the protests in Catalonia against the construction of mosques. The primary mosques of Spain, the M-30 in Madrid, that of Marbella and that of Malaga, depend on the Saudi capital and are a breeding ground for Wahabism, the most fundamentalist Islamic teachings, according to research published by El Pais. In Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, there is important Moroccan influence and the presence of the Tablig movement, a sect of preachers considered to be very close to Salafism. It is the preaching of Malequi school Sunni Islam, which is practiced in the Maghreb country, influenced also by the Spanish Federation of Islamic Institutions (FEERI), one of the two associations that represents Spain’s Muslims before the state. The doctrinal inspiration of many places of worship and their financing mainly comes from abroad, in spite of the progressive metamorphosis taking place in Europe’s Muslim communities. According to the Andalusian Observatory in 2008 the Union of Islamic Communities in Spain, which with FEERI and Spain’s Federation of Muslims (FEME), formed recently, represent this group of people, 37% of Muslims living on the Iberian Peninsula are already Spanish, including those who have converted and nationalised immigrants, and second and third generations. Greater ideological and financial independence from the league of the Islamic world, of Saudi origin spreading Wahabi doctrine in the world, does not coincide with this transformation. Among the activities financed in 2009 is an edition of Islamic religious texts, but also training courses with imams at the Uned university in Madrid and Arabic and Spanish lessons for imams and Muslim women, as a part of the Civil Alliance, launched by the Zapatero government. The funds will come directly from the financial bill, which in 2008 allocated 5 million euros to this end. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Christmas More Lay, Only 10% of Youths at Church
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, DECEMBER 21 — Christmas is an increasingly lay holiday is Spain, where almost Spaniards (94.4%) will celebrate the holiday, but over 7 out of 10 (70.3%) will not attend a religious ceremony connected with the holiday. According to the survey published by the daily Publico, the phenomenon of secularisation in society is most evident among those aged 18-29, as 99% will celebrate the holiday, while 85% does not plan to participate in a religious ceremony. Even if Christmas continues to be the most celebrated holiday (86.7%), in the majority of cases within the boundaries of the home (58.2%), followed by the festival of San Silvestro (78.4%). Some 91% of youths will celebrate both the festivities of Christmas and New year’s Eve. More people will celebrate, but with fewer gifts due to the austerity imposed by the economic crisis, even if 8 Spaniards out of 10 (6%) will not give up on putting gifts under the tree. Only 13.9% will not be giving Christmas gifts and 15.5% does not plan on receiving any, above all those over the age of 60. For the exchange of gifts, Spaniards confirm preferring Epiphany, or Reyes Magos, (71.7%) to Santa Claus (36%) even if the tradition is slowly changing. Last year the percentage of the former was 73.6%. As always, children are the kings of the festivities, receiving 49.4% of the gifts, followed by (42.4%); while among youths a large portion of gift giving is reserved for sweethearts (44%). The crisis is most felt in the workplace, given that the old custom of colleagues exchanging gifts is on its way to extinction, having a residual presence in 1.3% of those interviewed. From the lay tradition to the religious one, rapidly in decline, given the data on faith revealed by the survey. If in 2007 80.2% of Spaniards declared themselves to be religious, today the percentage is reduced to 78.3%. In the same way, that the percentage of those who declare themselves to be practicing Catholics has decreased from 30 to 26.2%. Again in this case, the age group in which the church loses the largest number of believers is that of 18-29 years of age: practicing Catholics in this group passed from 15.2% in 2007 to 10.4% today. Along the same lines, those who define themselves as atheists or non-believers has increased, passing from 16.5% in 2007 to 18.9%, above all among the young (31.7% currently). Catalonia is the region with the highest number of atheists, against Andalusia which has the largest number of believers. Along with the decline in Catholics there is the increase in the number of sceptics on the fundamental beliefs of Christianity: in two years those who believe that Jesus is God or the Son of God has decreased from 47.1% to 44.4%; those that believe he was born of a virgin from 40.7 to 37.2%; and those that believe in his resurrection from 42.6% to 40.1%. The drop in Christian beliefs is directly proportional to the increase in pagan superstitions, with an increasing number of Spaniards believing in astrology (more than 5 points in 2 years), or the existence of witches or evil powers (+3 points). (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden Boasts Record High Population Growth
The Swedish population grew more in 2009 than it has in any year since 1946, according to new figures from Statistics Sweden (Statistiska centralbyrån — SCB). The increase is attributed to high birth and immigration rates, as well as sharply reduced emigration and fewer deaths.
At the beginning of 2010, Sweden’s population will be 9.34 million.
Emigration has decreased by 15 percent compared to 2008, with 38,000 residents moving abroad. The number of Swedish citizens relocating to Norway and Finland remained the same, but emigration to the US and UK decreased somewhat.
Immigration also contributed to the marked population growth. SCB estimates that 102,000 immigrants moved to Sweden in 2009. The largest group of immigrants are returning Swedish citizens, followed by Iraqis and Somalians. The number of Iraqi immigrants has dropped by about 30 percent compared to 2008, while the number of Somalian immigrants has increased by 50 percent.
Over the last decade, the number of births in Sweden has increased every year. In 2009, 54,000 girls and 57,000 boys were born, a total increase of 2 percent compared to 2008. At the same time, SCB estimates that the number of deaths has decreased by approximately 1 percent.
SCB also estimates that 14 percent of the Swedish population were born abroad. The largest group is made up of 173,000 people born in Finland, followed by 117,000 born in Iraq. Almost 400,000 individuals born in Sweden have two parents who were born abroad.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden’s Population Grows With Full Speed
The population of Sweden has increased with a record speed during 2009. Sweden has already passed 9.3 million and is expected to pass 9.340.000 by new year. This shows preliminary statistcs from Statistics Sweden.
During 2009, the population has grown with 84.000. This big increase in such a short time has occured only once before and this was in 1946. This year is still known for creating the new great generation who have come to dominate Swedish economic, political and cultural life the last twenty years.
The reason behind the strong increase is a continuing high birth rate and a strong flow of immigration. But also reduced emigration and a decrease in the number of deaceased.
Sweden continues to be by far the most populated country in the Nordic region. Iceland continue to be the smallest. See comparison below:
Table: Population of countries in the Nordic region 2009. Source Wikipedia.
Country Population
Sweden 9.3
Denmark 5.5
Finland 5.4
Norway 4.8
Lithuania 3.6
Latvia 2.2
Estonia 1.3
Iceland 0.3
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Swiss Minaret Vote Was a “Lesson in Civic Spirit”
Two weeks after voters approved a ban on minaret construction, the rightwing Swiss People’s Party deputy Oskar Freysinger gives his reading of events.
In French-speaking Switzerland Freysinger became the voice of the yes side. He recently defended the minaret ban, accepted by 57.5 per cent of voters on November 29, in a debate on the Arab television channel al-Jazeera.
Freysinger rejects outright the argument that the yes vote stemmed from fear and ignorance and he deplores the fact that people have used the result to attack direct democracy.
swissinfo.ch: The anti-minaret vote has provoked a huge amount of comment and criticism both in Switzerland and abroad. What struck you most from what has been said and written on this subject?
Oskar Freysinger: What stays with me, is that the focus slipped very quickly from minarets to direct democracy. Two camps emerged: the elite who said that direct democracy was anti-democratic and against human rights, which is a total paradox, and the defenders of popular rights, who, while recognising that it is not ideal, nonetheless think that the system is the best possible, because it allows people to feel involved and to have an outlet of expression.
In Europe, people envy us. I’ve received a huge number of emails from France and elsewhere. People regret that they do not have the instruments to allow them to express their will. In fact Switzerland, at the heart of Europe, has just given an incredible lesson in civic spirit, against the politically correct, against the elites, against the media and against the monumental pressure of uniform thought. That could give ideas to the people who surround us, and that is feared by the European intelligentsia.
swissinfo.ch: But are the people truly always right? Can they not also make mistakes?
O.F.: Let’s say it’s like the dogma of papal infallibility: the pope is always right in questions of faith, not in the absolute. The people are always right because the system makes them right. Determining who is right and wrong is always complex.
As a politician I have lost plenty of votes with the electorate. You have to accept it and deal with the situation, even if that is extremely difficult, as with the free movement of people [between the EU and Switzerland] today.
swissinfo.ch: A lot has been said about this being a vote based on fear. What is your take on that?
O.F.: Based on the thousands of messages and reactions I received, I can detect the tendencies. Throughout the campaign, it was not fear that dominated but a cool reflection, relatively specific and neutral in tone about what Islam is and its doctrinal incompatibility with our state based on law. On this subject I also received some information that was useful to me during the debate. It is not therefore a purely irrational and ill-informed vote, as has often been said.
As for the yes voters, some of them are proponents of self-determination who believe that our identity should be protected during this time of open borders which make it impossible to regulate migration flows. There was also the yes vote of the Catholics who did not follow their leaders, as well as a yes vote by women. Many of them told me that they never vote for the People’s Party, but that on this subject, they felt the threat of a particularly patriarchal religion.
swissinfo.ch: Several recommendations have been made, the creation of a constitutional court, a new article on tolerance, in a effort to “correct” this vote. What do you think of that?
O.F.: The decision of the people acts as law. If we want to change this article in a few years’ time because Islam no longer presents a problem, the people alone will be able to modify the situation. Replacing the vote by an article that covers everything, which would have the disadvantage of penalising all religions would be superfluous because tolerance is already enshrined in the Constitution and Swiss laws.
As for a constitutional court, it is a system imaginable in a country where the parliament alone determines the laws. But in Switzerland the people are sovereign. Introducing a system like that would go back to muzzling the people. In any case, what makes lawyers better able to distinguish what is for the best or worst for the citizens?
swissinfo.ch: What would you say to those who reproach you for having taken the risk, with this initiative, of destabilising the peaceful integration of Muslims in Switzerland, most of whom are non-practising, and making them turn inwards to their community?
O.F.: This complaint does not hold up. I distinguish three categories among Muslims. The non-practising, who, by definition, are free from religion and therefore indifferent to the presence or not of a minaret or even a mosque. Then there are those who live the religion as a personal choice and a private affair. These are the ones who pay today for the damage inflicted by the third category, that is those who do not accept that civil law should be placed above religious dogma. Financed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, this fringe, the most demanding, also bears a responsibility in this vote.
swissinfo.ch: The day after the yes vote, several extreme right parties in Europe welcomed your initiative. What are your ideological affinities and differences with these movements?
O.F.: I’ve heard this confusion with the extreme right and fascism for a long time. But the differences are substantial. The first is that the People’s Party defends democracy and the state of law absolutely without restriction. Another difference, we do not believe you should reject the other simply because he is different, that is racism and xenophobia.
On the contrary, the behaviour of a person who comes to Switzerland is not irrelevant. What gets us branded as racists is that we attack the dysfunctional behaviour imported through immigration. But it is the behaviour that we denounce, and not the colour of the skin or where the person comes from.
Carole Wälti, swissinfo.ch (translated by Clare O’Dea)
| — Hat tip: TV | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Brussels Rules Cost UK £18bn a Year
The cost of European Union regulations — ranging from restrictions on working hours to limits on the noise at which orchestras can play — is costing Britain more than £18 billion a year, a report has found.
The most expensive law is the working time regulation, passed in 1998. According to the research by the think tank Open Europe, this costs £3.5 billion annually. The regulation has also been blamed by an official inquiry for contributing to unnecessary hospital deaths.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: EU ‘Threat’ To Election
The EU could rule next year’s General Election ILLEGAL if prisoners are denied the right to vote.
Britain has dithered since the European Court of Human Rights said in 2005 that its 63,000 jailbirds must get postal votes.
Now the European Council of Ministers wants Britain to comply. “The whole election could be declared illegal,” warned ex-chief prisons inspector Lord Ramsbotham.
Legal challenges from prisoners could also see the poll declared void.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Thug Walid Salem Boasts He is Untouchable as the Householder He Tormented is Jailed
A career criminal who violated a man’s home with two other knife-wielding thugs boasted that the law could not touch him.
Walid Salem, 57, was set free by a judge while Munir Hussain, the householder, was jailed for two-and-a-half years.
In court Munir’s wife Shaheen, 49, who has recently suffered a stroke, described her ordeal.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Defence: Croatia Has Problems Controlling Air Space
(ANSAmed) — ZAGREB, DECEMBER 18 — Croatia may entrust the security of its air space to another country to resolve the technical problems it is experiencing as a consequence of its obsolete fighter planes and the impossibility of monitoring its own air space. The announcement was made by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic during the celebration of the Croatian Air Force. At present the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) office in Zagreb points at, Croatia doesn’t have sufficient resources to buy new fighter planes. The country’s priority is the development of its economy and the creation of jobs, to create the necessary income to modernise its army. Italy and Hungary are reportedly among the candidates to guard Croatia’s air space. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
EU: Serb Citizens in Brussels After Schengen Opening Tomorrow
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, DECEMBER 18 — As of tomorrow the people of Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia will no longer need a visa in the Schengen area (all EU Member States except for Great Britain, and Ireland, plus Switzerland, Norway and Iceland). For the occasion a delegation comprising 50 Serb citizens will catch a flight for Brussels immediately after midnight to mark the event. The group will be accompanied by Serbian deputy prime minister Bozidar Djelic. Today EC spokesperson Amadeu Altafaj Tardio explained that “The delegation of citizens, in the context of the ‘Europe for everyone’ initiative, will be received in the European Parliament”. The guests will be met by a video message made by Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament, and by vice-president Silvana Koch-Merin. The delegation of Serb citizens will then meet Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Enlargement.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia to Submit Bid to Join EU
Serbia will apply to join the European Union tomorrow, hoping that improving relations with the bloc will open a fast track for its candidacy by the end of 2010.
The Balkan country of around 8m people — still weighed down by the legacy of the 1990s wars — seeks EU candidate status despite lingering questions about its co-operation with the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
But a largely positive report from UN prosecutors earlier this month has brought greater flexibility, even from the most sceptical EU members.
“We see new momentum and would like this to continue,” said Bozidar Djelic, Serbia’s deputy prime minister. “By making our application now, we will unequivocally demonstrate the central strategic goal of Serbia is to join the EU and nothing else.”
Economic stabilisation and the successful busting of Balkan drug-trafficking networks have also boosted Belgrade’s credibility nearly a decade after the overthrow of wartime leader Slobodan Milosevic.
Boris Tadic, president and main pro-EU party leader, said: “No one can doubt the road that Serbia has taken. Serbia is going towards European integration.” *Low-cost airlines are lining up to add Belgrade and other Serbian airports to their routes after the EU relaxed visa rules for three ex-Yugoslav republics at the weekend.
Citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia will now be able to visit much of the EU without a visa.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Serbs Walk on Eggshells in Meeting With Dutch FM
Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen visited Belgrade and dampened hope he has completely opened the door for Serbia’s EU entry.
By Marloes de Koning Mark Kranenburg in Belgrade
He said it himself: there is probably no country in the world where Maxime Verhagen makes more headlines than Serbia. The Dutch minister of foreign affairs visited Belgrade on Wednesday, where he took the time to answer questions from young representatives of NGOs. “Some of you may think I am the guy keeping you out of the European Union, or that I have a personal feud with Ratko Mladic. Neither of those assumptions are true,” he told them.
Being the sole person barring Serbia from the EU is actually a reputation Verhagen long cherished, with the support of Dutch parliament. But last week he gave up resisting closer ties with the former Yugoslavian republic. He approved a trade agreement that had been put on ice for two years because the Dutch refused to ratify it. Verhagen acknowledged Serbia has stepped up its cooperation with the international tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. However, Verhagen still wants Serb authorities to find and arrest Ratko Mladi?, the chief of staff of the Bosnian Serb army in the 1990s, who is held responsible for the Srebrenica massacre. Dutch UN soldiers stood by while Mladic’s men killed more than 7,000 Muslim boys and men near what was supposed to be a UN-protected safe haven in Bosnia, in July 1995.
The main goal of Verhagen’s visit to Serbia appeared to be the managing of expectations, after the Serbian euphoria that followed last week’s news. While he has approved the trade agreement and lifted visa restrictions for Serbs, he still refuses to discuss the real gateway to EU membership, the so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement, for at least another six months. Only the extradition of fugitive Mladic can speed up this process, Verhagen repeated Wednesday.
His audience quietly listened to his speech before it cautiously asked questions. If Verhagen’s does not have it out for Mladic personally, why doesn’t he recognise economists and statistics say Serbia is much more developed than Romania and Bulgaria were during this phase of their accession to the EU, asked 23-year old Tanja Kuzman, who does economic research for an American government agency. Verhagen’s answer was longwinded and left room for interpretation. Entry into the EU is about European standards, he explained. “Not just about meeting criteria, but about the proven sustainability.”
Not so fast, was his underlying message. After the meeting he told Dutch reporters: “We won’t accept any short cuts.” Kuzman, nonetheless, was left thinking the Dutch resistance really is related to one man, she said afterwards.
Meanwhile, the Serbian government seems to have gotten the message. Ministers who had hinted to filing an application for EU membership before the end of this month are now saying they will do so “when the time is right.” Serbian media claimed last week they had laid their hands on a memo from president Boris Tadic in which he called on his cabinet not to present thefinal ratification of the trade agreement as a Serbian victory. They now realise they have to be careful not to get on the wrong side of the Dutch again.
The Dutch message that it is in Serbia’s best interest to confront its war record and cooperate with the tribunal, however, does not fly with the Serbian public. The large majority of the population is convinced the West sees them only as villains, while they too are victims of the wars that tore up Yugoslavia. They consider the The Hague tribunal a political instrument of victor’s justice.
But while Serbs think the location of the tribunal and the need for it to be successful play a part in shaping Dutch attitudes, many feel they have fallen victim to Dutch domestic politics. “Why should we pay the price for your guilt over Srebrenica,” said Bosko Jaksic, a commentator on foreign affairs for Politic daily. Everybody in Serbia “including myself” has had it with Mladic and the tribunal, said Jaksic. “It is a frustrating story. I honestly believe our current leaders would like nothing more than to find him and extradite him, just to get rid of the whole problem.” The analyst said he doesn’t believe the Netherlands is helping by constantly reminding them in public.
But Verhagen showed he has no intention to stop beating them up about it. “Our tough stance has helped,” he said. Last year, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was arrested after 13 years on the run and delivered to the tribunal.
Serbian president Tadic has promised his country will continue to fully cooperate with the tribunal. “But we can’t just take his word for it,” Verhagen said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood, Conservatives Win Party Vote
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 21 — The conservative faction of the Muslim Brotherhood, the executive commission that has to elect the new Supreme leader of the movement after the dismissal of Mohamed Mahdi Akef, has won the election of the Brotherhood’s political office, pan-Arab newspaper Al Ahyat reports. One of the reasons Akef was dismissed, is his support to the reformist and spokesman of the movement, Essam Al Eryan. Eryan has been elected as member of the political office (one of the 16) though, together with other members of his group. Meanwhile, the movement’s consultative council, banned in all Egypt, has appointed five candidates for the new elections of the Supreme leader, expected mid-January. One of them is the favourite, Mohamed Habib. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt Bans a Protest March Into Gaza
Egypt has rejected a request to allow activists to march across the border into the Gaza Strip to mark the anniversary of last year’s conflict.
The Egyptian foreign ministry said the march could not be allowed because of the “sensitive situation” in Gaza.
Over 1,000 activists from 42 countries had signed-up to join “the Gaza freedom march” planned for next week.
Egypt warned that anyone attempting the crossing from Egypt would be “dealt with by the law”.
Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 Gazans were killed in the violence between 27 December and 16 January, though Israel puts the figure at 1,166. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers were also killed.
The UN’s Goldstone report has said both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during fighting.
Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels.
When it is finished the wall will be 10-11km (6-7 miles) long and will extend 18 metres below the surface.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: First Day of Hegira, Also With Traditional Food
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, DECEMBER 18 — The first day of the new Hegira year (1431) which Muslims celebrate today December 18 will also celebrate food, with helpings of a number of traditional plates such as ‘mloukhia’, which comprises large pieces of meat or entrails flavoured with garlic and laurel leaves and is very green in colour because of the powdered leaves of the tree which lends its name to the dish. The colour green represents a good omen for happiness, prosperity and fertility. Then there are dishes which can be considered as regional. In the island of Djerba, for example, people serve “mhammess au kadid”, which is garnished with coloured eggs and especially dedicated to children. In Nabeul little girls are gifted with small multicoloured sugar dolls, while little boys are given small multicoloured sugar horses or eggs. The tradition states that eating the little statues defeats pagan beliefs. As for the adults, on the eve it is traditional to have a sugared and spicy plate of couscous.(ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
How the Auschwitz Sign Claiming That “Work Makes Free” Embodies Current Western Thinking and Policy
by Barry Rubin
We invite you to reprint this timely article with a link to the GLORIA Center website, where it originally appeared:
The theft and then recovery of the famous sign at the entrance of Auschwitz-Arbeit macht frei, work will make you free-has brought that artifact of the Holocaust to international attention once again. Merely dismissing the sign as “cynical,” few understand the meaning of the sign in context and its underlying implications for Jewish thought and Israel today.
At the time—and this was very clear in Eastern European towns like that of my grandparents in Poland— Jews were used by the Germans for forced labor. While many were involved in road repair (an extremely important task during the war when highways were heavily used by the Nazis for military purposes), tree cutting, or other manual labor, others labored in their usual professions.
The Germans, of course, wanted to win the war, which they were waging, despite their victories, against difficult odds. Even after the French were defeated and the British retreated across the Channel, the combat was ferocious against the Soviets and the United Kingdom fought on. In pragmatic terms, the Germans needed Jewish labor. After all, too, they could hardly be receiving it under better circumstances. The Jews were not paid for the work, they were denied consumer goods, and their food rations were minimal.
In short, the German strategy toward the Jews-focusing on forced labor-made sense in pragmatic terms. And Western civilization is governed by pragmatism. One does what is beneficial to one’s material self-interests. The German behavior made sense.
It was not hard to explain, for the overwhelming majority of the Jews under German occupation as well, the killings of Jews that they knew about. Here, it was a reprisal for Germans killed by partisans; there, it was a pure act of cruelty or the deeds of a sadistic officer. Or it could be perceived by the pragmatic German goal of keeping the Jews intimidated or to appeal to local anti-Semitic Christians themselves under occupation or actions against Jews who were known for anti-Nazi views.
Whatever it seems to those looking back from a time of much greater knowledge, this pragmatic understanding did make sense in terms of all past history (including Jewish history) and the events people knew about. True, Hitler had written about the extermination of the Jews but this was considered to be just ideology. In Western society, people had become cynical about ideology or at least of ideas that went against immediate self-interest. This was just rabble-rousing.
Thus, it could be expected that if Jews really did work hard and did not cause too much trouble, they would survive, at least the great majority, as had happened during so many previous persecutions. That was their life experience and their historical experience. Of course, it was richly supplemented by wishful thinking, sometimes a wishful thinking that promoted blindness to events that were clearly visible, but this line of reasoning gave an ample logical basis to that wishful thinking.
And so, work makes free. It was not just a sarcastic act of derision but an actual control measure. If the Jews believed they were in Auschwitz to work hard in exchange for their lives, they would be more docile and far easier to manage. The sentiment was meant to be taken seriously, and almost always, at least until late in the war, it was.
To understand all of this is of vital importance for historical reasons. The Jews who became victims were not just cowards or fools or sheep but people who often believed they were using their wits to survive once again a terrible but ultimately passing pogrom…
| — Hat tip: Barry Rubin | [Return to headlines] |
Israeli Military Admits to Organ Harvesting
Following diplomatic tensions over an August article published in Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet accusing the Israeli army of illegally harvesting the organs of Palestinians, Israel has admitted its forensic pathologists removed organs from dead bodies without consent from their families, reports the Associated Press.
Over the weekend, a 2000 interview carried out by an American anthropology professor with Dr. Jehuda Hiss, the then head of Israel’s Abu Kabir forensic institute, was broadcast on Israel’s Channel 2 TV.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Israel Harvested Organs in ‘90s Without Permission
JERUSALEM — Israel has admitted that in the 1990s, its forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies, including Palestinians, without permission of their families.
The issue emerged with publication of an interview with the then-head of Israel’s Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr. Jehuda Hiss. The interview was conducted in 2000 by an American academic, who released it because of a huge controversy last summer over an allegation by a Swedish newspaper that Israel was killing Palestinians in order to harvest their organs. Israel hotly denied the charge.
Parts of the interview were broadcast on Israel’s Channel 2 TV over the weekend. In it, Hiss said, “We started to harvest corneas … Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family.”
The Channel 2 report said that in the 1990s, forensic specialists at Abu Kabir harvested skin, corneas, heart valves and bones from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, Israeli citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers, often without permission from relatives.
In a response to the TV report, the Israeli military confirmed that the practice took place. “This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer,” the military said in a statement quoted by Channel 2.
In the interview, Hiss described how his doctors would mask the removal of corneas from bodies. “We’d glue the eyelid shut,” he said. “We wouldn’t take corneas from families we knew would open the eyelids.”
Many of the details in the interview first came to light in 2004, when Hiss was dismissed as head of the forensic institute because of irregularities over use of organs there. Israel’s attorney general dropped criminal charges against him, and Hiss still works as chief pathologist at the institute. He had no comment on the TV report.
Complaints against the institute, where autopsies of dead bodies are performed, at the time of Hiss’ dismissal came from relatives of Israeli soldiers and civilians as well as Palestinians. The bodies belonged to people who died from various causes, including diseases, accidents and Israeli-Palestinian violence, but there has been no evidence to back up the claim in the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians for their organs. Angry Israeli officials called the report “anti-Semitic.”
The academic, Nancy Sheppard-Hughes, a professor of anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley, said she decided to make the interview public in the wake of the Aftonbladet controversy, which raised diplomatic tensions between Israel and Sweden and prompted Sweden’s foreign minister to call off a visit to the Jewish state.
Sheppard-Hughes said that while Palestinians were “by a long shot” not the only ones affected by the practice in the 1990s, she felt the interview must be made public now because “the symbolism, you know, of taking skin of the population considered to be the enemy, (is) something, just in terms of its symbolic weight, that has to be reconsidered.”
While insisting that all organ harvesting was done with permission, Israel’s Health Ministry told Channel 2, “The guidelines at that time were not clear.” It added, “For the last 10 years, Abu Kabir has been working according to ethics and Jewish law.”
| — Hat tip: Vlad Tepes | [Return to headlines] |
Palestinians “Disgusted” And “Disappointed” By Bickering Between Hamas and Fatah
For journalist Samir Qumsieh, “no one knows where we are going” and “every day many things happen but nothing changes.” We seem to be “in a blind alley.” The Christian community suffers the most from this paralysis.
Bethlehem (AsiaNews) — “People are tired and disgusted by this ridiculous if not tragic situation,” said Samir Qumsieh, the Catholic editor and director of private broadcaster Al-Mahed Nativity TV, as he described to AsiaNews the state of mind of most Palestinians today. Qumsieh refers to the situation as one of “paralysis” that “will not end any time soon.”
On the one hand, there is the confrontation between Hamas and Fatah, postponed elections, the extension of Mahmud Abbas’ presidency. On the other, talks with Israel are at a standstill whilst Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank continue and talks over the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange of Palestinian prisoners are at a standstill.
“It is clear that Israel has an interest in seeing Palestinians tear at each other to justify its opposition to a two-state solution,” the director of Al-Mahed Nativity TV said, “but the same is true for Hamas for whom avoiding reconciliation with Fatah means doing whatever it wants in Gaza.”
For Qumsieh, extending Abbas’ presidency is the “only way possible to avoid a power vacuum, but it does not offer any prospects for the future. Every day many things happen but nothing changes,” he said. “There is too much bickering and the future looks bleak.”
Christmas is coming and New Year celebrations are just around the corner, but most people in the Territories feel “disgusted” and “resigned”.
“We have so many needs and the same problems continue, with more being added. The wall, joblessness, restricted movement are even heavier burdens to carry in a situation of uncertainty.” People are suffering “because no one knows where we are going. We are in a blind alley,” he lamented.
The Christian community is suffering the most from this “situation of paralysis.” Indeed, according to Qumsieh, recent anti-Christian graffiti in Jerusalem (see ““Death to Christians”: Hebrew graffiti next to Upper Room in Jerusalem,” in AsiaNews 12 December 2009) are but the latest example of something that is almost a daily occurrence.
“Let us not forget that for the Israelis we are Arabs, and that for the Arabs we are Christians,” the journalist explained. “We are always something else and are caught between the two main groups, exposed to their most extremist fringes.”
If obscene Hebrew graffiti are written in Jerusalem against Jesus and Christians, he said, in Gaza the community is getting smaller and smaller “and not only because of Israel’s embargo against the Strip.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Shalit: Netanyahu Resumes ‘Marathon’ Talks
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM, DECEMBER 21 — Today Israeli premier Benyamin Netanyahu has resumed the lengthy sessions of talks with six of his closest ministers to decide whether to agree to the proposal by a German mediator for a prisoner exchange with Hamas which would secure the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, prisoner in Gaza for over three years. Yesterday Netanyahu spoke to ministers in three different sessions, with three ministers in favour of the proposal (Ehud Barak, Ely Ishai and dan Meridor) and three against (Avigdor Lieberman, Benny Begin and Moshe Yaalon). In exchange for Shalit, Hamas has demanded the release of thousands of prisoners, including ones behind the most serious terrorist attacks during the first years of the intifada. Expecting today to be a critical one, Shalit’s parents have arrived in Jerusalem where they will be received by Netanyahu during the day. In front of the prime minister’s offices a demonstration in support of the Shalit family is in the process of being organised. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Trial Begins: Olmert Pleads Not Guilty
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM — Former Israeli premier Ehud Olmert (Kadima) pleaded not guilty at the beginning of the trial against him in the Jerusalem district court. The charges against Olmert include him having accepted envelopes filled with dollars (in cash) from the US businessman Morris Talansky when he was mayor in Jerusalem. He is also accused of having received multiple reimbursements from several institutions (including the Holocaust Museum Yad Va-Shem) for expenses incurred in trips he took abroad to raise funds, as well as having granted favours to friends while Industry Minister. Alongside Olmert also his personal secretary Shula Zaken is on trial, who according to charges managed slush funds for him. Olmert resigned from his position as prime minister in September 2008 after a number of police investigations began against him. He remained in the position until March 2009 (at the end of three years in the government) when his place was taken by Benyamin Netanyahu. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
140 Million Arabs Live in Poverty: UN
CAIRO — Nearly 140 million Arabs live below the poverty line, according to a report published on Sunday by the United Nations Development Programme and Arab League.
The joint report stressed “there has been no decrease in the rates of poverty in the Arab region over the past 20 years,” with some countries actually showing an increase.
“Overall poverty remains high, reaching up to 40 percent on average, which means that nearly 140 million Arabs continue to live under the upper poverty line.”
Outrage at Lockerbie bomber Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi’s £2m bank account
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/outrage-at-lockerbie-bomber-abdul-baset-ali-al-megrahis-2m-bank-account/story-e6frg6so-1225812358319
CAMPAIGNERS opposed to the release of the Lockerbie bomber have expressed outrage at the disclosure that Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi held almost £2million in a Swiss bank account during his trial.
Last night the Crown Office confirmed that a “substantial sum” had come to light in 2000, with one source estimating the figure at £1.8million. Evidence of al-Megrahi’s riches was passed to prosecutors by the Swiss authorities in 2000, but was deemed inadmissible because legal proceedings had already begun.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Defence: Turkey to Buy US Military Heavy Lift Copters
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, DECEMBER 18 — U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has agreed to sell 14 CH-47F heavy-lift transport helicopters worth up to $1.2 billion to the Turkish military, and has formally asked for Congress’ permission, Hurriyet daily newspaper reports. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, the Pentagon body coordinating weapons sales, last week notified Congress of the potential sale in a letter. “The government of Turkey has requested a possible sale of 14 CH-47F Chinook helicopters, 32 T55-GA-714A turbine engines, 28 AN/ARC-201E Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems, 14 AN/APR-39A(V)1 Radar Signal Detecting Sets, support equipment, special tools and test equipment, spare and repair parts, publications and technical documentation, site survey, personnel training and training equipment, ferry services, U.S. government and contractor technical and logistics support services and other related elements of logistics support,” the DSCA wrote. “The estimated cost is $1.2 billion.” Turkish procurement officials welcomed the move. The CH-47F Chinook is produced by the Boeing Company’s plant in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania. The DSCA said Congress was notified Dec. 7. Unless members of the Senate, Congress’ upper chamber, formally object to the sale within 15 days, permission will be automatically obtained. Such objections are extremely rare after a notification is given by the DSCA. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: Bus With Syrian Workers Under Fire
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, DECEMBER 21 — Damascus has asked Beirut to find and trial the people who are responsible for the armed attack on a bus in the north of Lebanon, in which early this morning a 17-year-old Syrian boy was killed, the Syrian press agency SANA reports. A man raked the bus with gun fire using a Kalashnikov, in the town of Deir Ammar, near Tripoli. The bus was transporting 25 Syrian labourers. Initial reports on people that have been injured have not been confirmed yet. According to SANA, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Muallim called his Lebanese counterpart, Ali Shami, this morning, to ask “to be informed with the results of the investigations carried out by the Lebanese authorities to identify those who are behind the attack”. The attack comes the day after the meeting in Damascus between Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri and the president of Syria, Bashar al Assad, to end a 4-year period of worsening relations between Lebanon and Syria. In this period anti-Syrian sentiments among many Lebanese increased, including Premier Saad Hariri who has repeatedly accused Syria of being behind the murder of his father, former premier Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a devastating attack in Beirut in 2005. Speaking on LBC television, a local network, the Lebanese Minister of State, Youssef Saadeh, accused “those who are not happy with the rapprochement between Lebanon and Syria” of this morning’s shooting, without supplying further details. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey-Syrian Military Manoeuvres Worry Barak
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, APRIL 27 — Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak described the imminent combined military manoeuvres to be carried out by Turkey and Syria as “a worrying development” for the Middle Eastern region. The two countries, both Muslim, represent a strategic ally and a historic enemy of Israel. The combined manoeuvres, completely unprecedented, were announced yesterday from Ankara and will take place, with units from both armies, in Turkey in a sensitive border area that has been the theatre for repeated clashes between Turkish forces and Kurdish separatists for the last 25 years. “We are witnessing a worrying development,” Barak commented, adding that he considers “the strategic alliance between Israel and Turkey will permit a solution” to this problem. Israel has noteworthy trade and close technical and military relations with Turkey, which is a NATO member and with whom Israel has recently conducted combined naval manoeuvres. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Ergenekon Party to be Founded
The Ergenekon Party, or ER Party, will be the next organization in Turkey’s political scene if the group’s application is accepted, an Ýzmir lawyer said Tuesday. The group aims to be an official political party by Oct. 29, which is the anniversary of the day Turkey was declared a republic.
When asked why they chose the name, lawyer Tarcan Tülük said, “To show that it is wrong to name a law case and terror organization after such a great heroic myth of the Turks.”
Tülük said the group was inspired by the structure of the Pirate Party in Sweden and that they will model their organization accordingly; instead of working in big buildings and huge offices, the party will operate primarily through the Internet and in small offices.
“The ER Party is the solider of Atatürk’s spiritual legacy,” Tülük said.
| [Return to headlines] |
Karzai: Better if Dutch Troops Remain in Afghanistan
Kabul — President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that his war-torn country would benefit if the Netherlands maintained its military and civilian presence in Afghanistan, rather than withdrawing as planned.
About 2,000 Dutch troops are deployed in the province of Uruzgan, one of the most insurgency-hit regions in southern Afghanistan.
The deployment is set to end next year.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Beijing Prepares New Law on Expropriation
Houses and land are stolen indiscriminately by local governments, which because of the construction boom and major international events increase in value. The central government seems to want to stop the phenomenon, which causes hundreds of violent clashes every month. The Shanghai Expo and Asian Games in Guangzhou mirror the case of the Beijing Olympics.
Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) — The Chinese central government is ready to change the highly controversial law on the forced demolition of homes and the displacement of citizens, which over time has become a source of violent (and sometimes fatal) conflict among homeowners and real estate speculators often aided by police. This was announced by the Office of Legal Affairs of the State Council, the Chinese Cabinet, who met on 16 December to discuss the matter.
The civil servants are studying a draft law providing for new rules for the purchase of homes and the fees that the state must pay in compensation to the displaced. The draft should abolish the current law, introduced in July of 2001, which besides having gaping voids in legislation, has been defined (even by the state press) as “unfair to the people.”
The Beijing news agency, Xinhua, has interviewed the deputy director of legal affairs Hao Fengtao who argues: “the draft regulation would usher in a profound shift in housing-demolition policy”. Hao declined to give a timetable for the approval of the text, but stressed that this provides “compensation first before demolition begins “.
The text currently in force stipulates that local governments can decide at their discretion how much and when to pay, and this has increasingly created social tensions. Among other things, the explosion of the housing market and the major international events hosted by China have multiplied the number of forced expropriations.
The case of the Olympic Games held in Beijing in the summer of 2008 was sadly notorious. In order to build new stadiums and the Olympic Village, the local government evicted more than 1.5 million people, forcing them to move to rural or suburban districts of the capital. There were hundreds of violent clashes to protest against these injustices, and several who defended their home were sentenced to years in prison.
The situation could be repeated at the 2010 Shanghai Expo and the Asian Games to be held the same year in Guangzhou. The capital of the rich southern province of Guangdong has already been the scene of violent clashes: in November, hundreds of police in riot gear destroyed homes, chased residents and cleared land. According to residents, “these things happen too often.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
North Korean Jeans Label Opens Pop-Up Shop in Stockholm
After PUB department store in Stockholm yanked NoKo Jeans from its shelves at the beginning of December, the North Korean jeans label opened its own pop-up shop on Saturday.
“There has been a constant flow of shoppers,” Tor Rauden Kaellstigen of company NoKo Jeans told AFP.
| — Hat tip: Esther | [Return to headlines] |
Mexico City Backs Gay Marriage in Latin American First
Lawmakers in Mexico City have become the first in Latin America to legalise gay marriage.
City legislators passed the bill 39-20, with five abstentions. The city’s mayor is now widely expected to sign the bill into law.
Gay marriage is only allowed in seven countries and some parts of the US. Certain parts of Latin America allow civil unions for same-sex couples.
The Catholic Church and conservative groups had opposed Mexico City’s move.
The bill calls for a change in the definition of marriage in the city’s civic code — from the union of a man and a woman to “the free uniting of two people”.
Regional differences
Lawmaker David Razu had proposed the change to give same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples regarding social security and other benefits.
Mexico City’s legislature is dominated by the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party, which has already legalised abortion and civil unions for same-sex couples.
Spokesman Oscar Oliver told AFP news agency that city legislators were now taking up a measure in the bill that would allow married same-sex couples to adopt children.
A handful of cities in Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia permit gay unions.
Uruguay alone has legalised civil unions nationwide and allowed same-sex couples to adopt children.
Last month, an Argentinean court narrowly blocked what would been the continent’s first gay marriage.
In a last-minute challenge, a court referred the case to the country’s Supreme Court, which is due to rule on the issue.
| — Hat tip: Sean O’Brian | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Promised Visas for Italy Not Obtained, Protests
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, DECEMBER 17 — Visas promised for legal immigration never arrived, and have reportedly been used to legalise illegal immigrants already present in Italy. These are the claims of some Egyptian workers, according to the independent newspapers Al Shourouk and Al Dostour, who participated in a training course in order to immigrate legally to Italy, and who have decided to report the event to the prosecutor’s office against the Minister of Labour and Immigration in Egypt, Aicha Abdel Hadi, the ambassador of Italy in Cairo, and the director of the Don Bosco Institute where the courses, a couple of years ago, were held. According to the charge, the Egyptian minister opened the possibility to immigrate to Italy and work in the construction and agriculture sectors, as a part of an agreement between the two countries entitled ‘International Action for Labour’, offering 8,000 permits. The same minister, again according to the accusations, accepted the candidacy of those who presented themselves and asked to follow the language and labour law courses. After having paid for the courses and following the 200 hours of lessons, the report claims, the participants never received a response on the issuing of the visas or a date for the trip. The ministry reportedly informed them that the visas that were to go to them were used to naturalise Egyptians who were already present on the Italian national territory. No notification reached the seat of the Salesian Institute in Cairo, stated director Don Renzo Leonarduzzi. “In any case”, he added, “we do not have any responsibility, we only hosted the courses, for some 220 people and supplied some teachers. There were Italian lessons, but also lessons on job safety and Italian law, as well s welding. Then I heard that there had been complaints because time passed with no indication of anything, while some others managed to depart. Some of the attendees left their old jobs to be able to attend the courses”. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
France: Immigration, 20,000 Registrations This Year
(ANSAmed) — PARIS, DECEMBER 21 — In 2009 France regularised more than 20,000 immigrants. The claim was included in a survey by Paris newspaper Le Monde, based on figures provided by the Ministry of Immigration. According to official statistics, in 2008 some 2,800 workers gained their papers and that number, according to Le Monde, should remain the same for 2009. But this form of regularisation covers only a small part of granted residence permits”. We have to add the so-called extraordinary residence admissions, in other words regularisations for humanitarian reasons, and family regroupings. Permits for humanitarian reasons are not officially accounted for, but again Le Monde calculated that they amount to approximately 3,000 every year. The numbers for family regroupings are instead much higher, and have been constantly increasing in the past decade: from 3,314 in 1999 to 15,858 in 2008, with a peak of more than 22,000 in 2006. The trend was also confirmed for 2009, which in September already registered 10,917 persons that had been regularised for personal and family ties”. The newspaper commented that the number of granted residence permits is thus equal, if not greater, than the number of expulsions, the pride of the unwavering policy followed by minister of Immigration Eric Besson, which in 2008 amounted to 19,724 and in 2009 should be just as many. Nonetheless, the number of irregular foreigners on French soil should range between 200,000 to 400,000. (ANSAmed).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Governments vs the People: Replacing the Population by Another One
Conspiracy theorists can easily explain the conduct of the Belgian government. They will say it is an attempt to replace the Belgians by another population. For those who do not believe in this theory, it is harder to explain why Mr. Van Rompuy declared an amnesty which he knew to be unpopular, which will drain the Belgian welfare budget and which is, moreover, unlawful because the government usurped the prerogatives of Parliament. For those who do not believe in the population replacement theory, it is hard to explain why the Belgian government, despite a court ruling, stubbornly sticks to its decision.
For those who do not believe in a conspiracy theory, it is equally hard to explain why on 15 December, George Papandreou, the Prime Minister of Greece, announced that one of the measures to reduce his country’s crushing budget deficit will be to “bring illegal immigrants into the social security system.” It is true that some illegal aliens work in the country illegally and do not pay taxes and contributions, but it is equally true that many others do not and will, if “brought into the system,” be net consumers rather than net contributors.
Those who do not believe that Europe’s ruling establishment has engaged in a conspiracy against it own people will also have a hard time explaining the recent decision of the appeals chamber of the Bar Association’s disciplinary council in the Netherlands. On 12 December, it acquitted a Muslim lawyer of contempt of court. The Muslim lawyer, who wears a Muslim head covering during court sessions, refuses to rise when the judge enters the courtroom. He says that his religion maintains that everyone is equal and that, hence, he cannot rise for the judge. Though everyone is equal, however, the same lawyer refuses to shake hands with women. Nevertheless, the Muslim lawyer is getting away with behavior which the ruling establishment would not tolerate from indigenous Dutch lawyers, and, more importantly, which the majority of the Dutch people does not wish to tolerate from newcomers.
Europe’s ruling establishment is currently engaged in policies which go so radically against what ordinary Europeans want that a dangerous rift is growing between the people and those who govern them. If this situation is not remedied, Europe’s governments risk losing their legitimacy in the eyes of the people. One does not need to be a conspiracy theorist to realize that this can only contribute to the potential for a revolutionary explosion of violence and anger somewhere down the road.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Philippines: International Migrants Day: For Filipino Church, Emigration Destroys Families
Separation from wives and husbands working abroad deprives children of education and work. More than 10,000,000 Filipinos live overseas. So far this year, they have sent home US$ 14.3 billion.
Manila (AsiaNews) — “Remittances by our migrants keep the economy afloat, but more emigration destroys society,” said Fr Joaquin F. Valdes, OP of the Catholic University of Santo Tomas, Manila. For him, the lack of values and separation of husbands and wives tend to break up marriages and have devastating effects on new generations, who without a family tend to emigrate on their own without a proper education and preparation for work.
The Philippines is the Asian country with the highest proportion of citizens living abroad, 10,000,000 in all, or about 9 per cent of the total, spread in about 190 countries, 70 per cent women.
Unemployment is the main cause for this exodus, a problem that is growing. In 2009 alone, about 2.72 million Filipinos lost their job at home.
Experts note that about 2,000 Filipinos leave the country every day, mostly young people with little education or working experience. In a few years, this will mean that overseas Filipino will constitute about 11.7 per cent of the population.
The main countries of destination are the United States, home to about 3,000,000 Filipinos, but many are also reaching Europe, Japan, Hong Kong and the Middle East.
Often migrants face human rights violations in their host country. This is especially true in Arab world where women are often segregated in the homes of their employers for the duration of their contract.
Despite such problems, little or nothing is being done to stem the flow. One reason is that foreign remittances by Filipinos are a key component of the national economy. Just in the first ten months of this year, Filipinos sent home a total of US$ 14.3 billion. In October, they sent home US$ 1.2 billion; that is 6.7 per cent more than in previous months.
The Church has been actively involved in helping Filipino migrants since 1955 through the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ECMI), which provides assistance to those in need.
The Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC) in Manila is an example of what the Church is doing. It offers programs to educate and train young people who emigrate and missionary priests who go abroad to minister to Filipinos. Another example is the Child and Migrant Parents in South East Asia Programme, which provides spiritual support to children and parents of migrants.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
There’ll be Nowhere to Run From the New World Government
The dangerous idea that the democratic accountability of national governments should simply be dispensed with in favour of “global agreements” reached after closed negotiations between world leaders never, so far as I recall, entered into the arena of public discussion. Except in the United States, where it became a very contentious talking point, the US still holding firmly to the 18th-century idea that power should lie with the will of the people.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
2 comments:
@ “Mexico City has become the first political entity in Latin America to legalize gay marriage.”
Latin America has played no substantial part in influential history. But after “The Crash” (cf. Takuan Seiyo and Fjordman) Europeans might start to emigrate here as refugees. There’s even a possibility that because of it the American South might start becoming an interesting place.
As to the lefty Ebrard, mayor of Mexico City who allowed homo marriage, if anyone of you is interested in learning a bit about the injuries that the Left has inflicted here down the South don’t miss this book: Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot.
The European Court of Human Rights has ordered Britain to allow its prisoners in jail to vote.
Aren't Muslims occupying an ever larger share of beds in UK prisons? This is ideal for the left: let Muslims destroy things, then when imprisoned let them vote for continued destruction.
In the US, the left wants this because prisoners uniformly vote left.
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