French President François Hollande denies that there is any link between yesterday’s attack in Paris, in which an armed soldier on patrol was stabbed in the neck, and the beheading of a British soldier in Woolwich last week. A spokesman for the French police, however, has pointed out the apparent “copycat” resemblance between the two assaults.
In other news, after almost a week of nightly stone-throwing and arson, the Stockholm riots seem to be subsiding. Reports from Sweden say that only 30 cars were torched last night.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Andy Bostom, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, JD, Nick, Sergei Bourachaga, Steen, Van Grungy, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Domestic Violence up in Greece, Sex Drive Down
Study on impact of the crisis on relations between the sexes
(ANSAmed) — ATHENS, MAY 23 — The repercussions of the country’s economic crisis appear to have had a negative impact on male sexuality, with a 47 percent increase in “violent behavior” by men toward their sexual partners over the past year and a 34 percent drop in the frequency of sex. The Greek daily Kathimerini reported these findings on Thursday, citing a new study entitled Greece of the Crisis and the Memorandum, the results of which were presented during the 5th Pan Arab Congress of Sexual Health 2013, or PASSM, in Dubai.
The study was carried out jointly by the Hellenic Society for the Study of Human Sexuality (EMAS) and the Andrology Institute of Athens on a sample of 600 men and 400 women interviewed over the phone. According to the study, 44% of the men who admitted to “behaving violently” towards their sexual partners were unemployed. Only men between the ages of 35 and 45 were included in the study. As concerns domestic violence, Greece has seen a 47% increase over the past few months of physical, sexual and verbal violence. Unemployed men with intense job stress, pressing financial obligations, as well as low sexual activity are chiefly those who exert violence against their wives or girlfriends, the study found.
Verbal abuse was seen in 72% of the cases, followed by economic blackmail in 59%, sexual humiliation in 55%, beatings in 23% and rapes in 18%. In eight out of every hundred cases the victim sustained serious physical injuries. Looking at the men who were violent towards their sexual partners from an economic standpoint, almost four out of every ten were unemployed, while 39% were in a “difficult” financial position. Wealthy men also abused their partners, however, and accounted for 17% of those interviewed.
Experts also say that sexual violence is closely connected with sexual impotence. Most of the interviewees said that over the past few months the frequency of their sexual relations had been reduced by as much as 34%, and seven out of every ten men said that the Memorandum signed by the Athens government had influenced their sexual life “in a very negative way”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Eurozone: The Troika Pulls Its Separate Ways
Le Monde Paris
Hitched together at the outset of the Greek crisis, the three-part team of the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission did the heavy pulling in the bailouts of European countries in crisis. Since then, though, strains among the three institutions have grown more severe.
Claire Gatinois | Marie de Vergès
Firstly, there’s the curious name of “troika”, tagged to the trio of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission, and the European Central Bank (ECB). It’s a Russian word that, according to eurosceptic essayist Emmanuel Todd, can stand for the European malaise all by itself.
After a rough start, the members of the “troika”, brought together at the start of 2010 to orchestrate the Greece bailout, still find it hard to pull in the same direction. Far from subsiding, tensions are rising to a peak, as are the criticisms pouring in from both leaders and citizens of European and emerging countries.
At a European forum in Berlin on Thursday, May 16, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, close to IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, had some harsh words for the work of the Commission. According to him, fragmented responsibilities in Brussels have been the cause of all the red tape and the bottlenecks in the Greek bailout.
It was a way perhaps for the politician to counter the rise in anti-German sentiment, but also to point a finger at a culprit in the failure of a rescue plan that, three years on, has left Athens worn out and still crippled with debts.
Whatever the intention, Schäuble’s remark echoed the IMF’s growing exasperation with Brussels. “The IMF is getting a little tired, and it’s discovering that with Europe it’s always too little, too late,” summed up a source close to the discussions held during the negotiations on the rescue of Cyprus in March.
The reality is that the Washington-based organisation, which is accustomed to flying to the rescue of countries headed for bankruptcy, and the Commission, which has to juggle economic and political interests, use different methods.
“The European mechanisms are very cumbersome: there has to be unanimity, national parliaments have to be involved — it’s a complex political game that slows down the Commission and complicates cooperation with the IMF,” explains André Sapir, economist at the Bruegel think tank based in Brussels and co-author of a report on the actions of the troika published in May.
On the ground, says Mr Sapir, the technical teams know how to smooth out differences and work in harmony. At the political level, though, the collaboration is less in evidence.
In Brussels, no one dares openly criticise the IMF, whose presence at the table is acknowledged as a guarantee of credibility. The participation of the fund, desired by the Germany and supported by the ECB, reassures the markets. Under cover of anonymity, though, the language is blunt. “The IMF has become increasingly dogmatic” over the plans to bail out Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus, according to a source in Brussels.
The handling of the Cyprus bailout, for which the IMF wanted to make all the decisions but “only” put on the table €1bn of the €10bn in total granted to the country, irritated many: “The IMF has assumed disproportionate power,” another source declares.
The Commission sometimes sees the IMF as a do-gooder snoop, too stubborn to go along with it when it comes to the temptation to dress up the deficit and growth figures of a country getting aid, the better to get the pill down more easily.
Once nicknamed “the cowboys”, the IMF experts are tagged “the Ayatollahs” these days. It’s a surprising qualifier, given the organisation often appears more worried than Brussels about suffocating countries with unsustainable austerity cures.
The IMF doesn’t take the criticisms well, especially with more of the same coming from some its members in emerging countries who find it hard to grasp exactly why, after having taken a merciless tack with countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, the fund is lavishing so much time and money on states in the eurozone.
“For these countries, it is also outrageous to think of the United States claiming IMF aid to bail out California,” points out Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform (CER), a London-based think tank.
The ECB’s chair on the troika also gives rise to reservations. Some are internal: the monetary authority, the more orthodox among the staff fear, will be forced to join in the political horse-trading at the risk of compromising the bank’s independence…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Magistrates Suspend Board Member at Troubled Monte Dei Paschi Bank
Siena, 23 May (AKI/Bloomberg) — An Italian magistrate has suspended a director of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, the world’s oldest bank, after prosecutors accused him of abusing privileged information.
Prosecutors allege Michele Briamonte leaked to the media Monte Paschi’s decision to sue Deutsche Bank AG and Nomura Holdings Inc. over two derivatives that soured before the bank released a public statement on March 1, said the official in Siena, who asked not be identified because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
The stock fell 2.3 percent that day and a further 3.3 percent the next trading day.
Briamonte will be barred from exercising his duties as a board member for at least two months pending the conclusion of the investigation into allegations he abused privileged information, Monte Paschi said in a statement to the stock exchange today.
Briamonte plans to challenge the judge’s decision because it lacks legal foundation, his lawyers, Franco Coppi and Luigi Chiappero, said in an e-mailed statement late Wednesday.
Monti Paschi filed separate suits in March seeking 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion) of damages from the two investment banks and an unspecified amount from former Paschi managers over two derivatives contracts from 2008 and 2009, dubbed Santorini and Alexandria, that the Italian lender used to hide losses.
Both Nomura and Deutsche Bank have said they will “vigorously” contest any suggestion of wrongdoing.
Prosecutors are probing the former MPS managers for alleged market manipulation, false accounting, obstruction of regulatory activity, criminal association, money laundering and fraud linked to derivatives.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
800 Scientists Demand Global GMO “Experiment” End
Did you hear about the 800 esteemed scientists who came together and demanded the production of genetically modified crops and products be stopped? Scientists who called on world powers to re-evaluate the future of agriculture and seek sustainability rather than corporate profits? Don’t be surprised if you haven’t, as the mainstream media won’t touch this one.
Eight-hundred scientists did make such a demand. They made it first over a decade ago and they have updated it over the years, adding signatures and release dates. Still global powers have all but ignored their calls.
The Institute of Science in Society is a non-profit group of scientists from around the world, dedicated to bringing an end to what they refer to as the “dangerous GMO “experiment. In their open letter to the world, they have highlighted why governments need to stop genetically modified crops now — before there are irreversible effects on the health of the people and the health of the earth at large.
In the beginning, after its first draft in 1999, the letter had just over 300 signatures. Since then, it’s grown significantly. At the writing of this article, the document has 828 signatures representing 84 different countries.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Andrew Bostom: Daniel Pipes and Islamic ‘Essentialism’
Has there been an unexpected “harmonic convergence” regarding Islam between Daniel Pipes, the historian, and unabashed Zionist, and Edward Said, anti-Israeli, Arab polemicist?
Daniel Pipes’ recent essay in The Jewish Press (originally published in the Washington Times) derides “those who focus on Islam itself as the problem”—identifying Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan, and Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders by name.
Most of his essay re-affirms (without hard doctrinal and historical facts) the arguments Pipes has discussed before: Islam’s prophet Muhammad was not an “Islamist,” and was not responsible for “Islamism,” which is a “modern extremist variant” of Islam; an “unbearable” discordance between “pre-modern accomplishment and modern failure” caused the “psychic trauma” which engendered “Islamism” in the 1920s; and a mere 10-15% of Muslims support “Islamism.”
Pipes concludes his latest iteration of “Islam Versus Islamism” by attacking those (such as Ali, Sultan, and Wilders) who reject its premises for their ostensibly uninformed “succumbing” to what he terms “a simplistic and essentialist illusion” (emphasis added) of the Muslim creed. Ironically, Pipes’ latter claim of “essentialism” re-packages the post-modern incoherence of Edward Said, as demonstrated brilliantly by Philosophy Professor Irfan Khawaja. As Khawaja observed in 2007:…
| — Hat tip: Andy Bostom | [Return to headlines] |
Are You Ready for a Govt. Chip Implant?
As a donor to the Ron Paul presidential primary campaign, I received a pre-recorded message from Ron Paul the other week. The message was a warning about a little-known provision of the immigration reform bill: a national ID card requirement.
According to Ron Paul, the national ID card will contain a biometric signature, sensitive personal information, and an RFID chip (radio frequency identification device) that will allow the government to track your whereabouts. You will be required to carry this card to enter a public building, board public transportation, get a job, receive Medicare and SS benefits, etc.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
More than 30 years ago at a Cabinet meeting on immigration reform, Ronald Reagan dismissed the idea of a national ID card with a broad smile and a wisecrack. “Maybe we should just brand all the babies,” he said. The Justice Department’s plan to put a national ID in the hand of every worker didn’t make it out of the Cabinet Room.
Today, conservatives and Republicans are the strongest backers of the national identification system in the Senate’s Gang of Eight immigration reform bill. If they get their way, they may just deliver the American people over to a national ID and tight, comprehensive control from Washington, D.C., through the program known as E-Verify. Politically, it appears that the price of enough conservative votes to pass a broader immigration reform package is giving the federal government the power to approve or decline every American business’s hiring decisions from now on.
E-Verify is intended to work as follows:
[…]
Worse than an identity card, E-Verify will ultimately be a cardless national ID system. Proof of who we are and our ability to access goods, services, and infrastructure throughout society may depend on whether the federal government has the most current data — and on whether they we are keeping current on our obligations to the federal government. E-Verify is a system for transferring control from businesses and individuals around the country to Washington, D.C.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Female Sexual Desire Pill Lybrido Available in 2016
(AGI) Washington — Nobody knows if it will be blue like its male counterpart or pink, but 2016 could bring to the market the female version of a drug similar to Viagra. It will be named Lybrido and will stimulate not the human physiology (i.e. the erection mechanism in males) but the psyche, reawakening sexual desire. The drug is being tested by ‘Emotional Brain’ and the company has requested the Food and Drug Administration’s approval.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Foods of Mass Destruction, Being Released Across U.S. Without Safety Testing
Monsanto now has federal immunity from prosecution from planting untested GM seeds all over the earth, and growing cancer causing foods without any repercussions, even if the tests come in to prove this atrocity. New legislation is passed, and your health is being threatened. This is a global food genocide we are in the midst of, and everyone needs to be making informed decisions about food and water every day, every meal, every purchase.
No matter what you have read, seen, heard or believe about GMO, it’s killing rats in long term studies, and they don’t have to overdose the rats to give them huge horrific tumors in a short period of time. French scientists who have no interest in corporate-led America and the Biotech frenzy ran long term studies and found that GMO is destructive to animal immune systems and ends life early! Shocking findings in new GMO studies reveal this hard truth. Rats fed a lifetime of GM corn grow horrifying tumors, and 70 percent of the females die early!
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A group of thugs figured it would be easy to overpower one Kansas City woman. After all, her husband had just left to run an errand, leaving her all alone in the home.
They couldn’t have been more wrong.
The woman, later identified as Shirley Roberts, 52, immediately retrieved her gun after she heard someone jiggle the knob of the front door. She also witnessed two additional men heading to the back door.
Looking through the blinds, Roberts saw the men putting on gloves and preparing to force their way into her home. So she trained her firearm on the men and opened fire.
shutterstock.com
The criminals, scared silly, reportedly took off running. However, they also fired shots toward the house they attempted to break into.
Robert’s husband, Oscar Roberts, later said he and his wife have been going to the gun range to prepare for just that type of situation. “You’ve got to protect yourself,” he told KMBC-TV.
“I told her she’d done the right thing. We practiced that. She’s shook up, though. That’s the only thing about it, she’s very shook up,” Oscar added.
The practice at the shooting range seemingly paid off as police later arrested three men who went to the Research Medical Center, one of which was treated for a gunshot wound to the chest.
Police said the shooting seems to be justifiable self-defense.
“If you’re in fear for your life, most definitely we want you to protect yourself. We don’t want any harm to come to anyone,” Sgt. Marisa Barnes of the Kansas City Police Department told KMBC-TV.
| — Hat tip: Nick | [Return to headlines] |
Inside the Orwellian World of Ad-Funded Face-Recognition Technology
If you thought that facial recognition software was just some obscure, futuristic technology that only has real-life applications in sci-fi flicks like “Minority Report” and “Gattaca,” think again.
Big business has refined facial identification. And it is everywhere.
As Lesley Stahl reported on “60 Minutes” last weekend, “the ability of computers to identify faces has gotten 100 times better, a million times faster, and exponentially cheaper.”
The “60 Minutes” segment gives an in-depth account of all the scary advancements in the field — highlighting the technology’s ability to track your whereabouts, mine your personal data, and even predict your social security number.
If you’re not too freaked out to learn more about the insidious ubiquity of facial ID-ing, we’ve summarized the 60 Minutes segment in the slideshow below.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
‘Monsanto is the Metaphor for Genetic Manipulation, Food Chain Control’
In order to take full control of the global food chain the world’s largest owner of patents on seeds Monsanto is lobbying, bribing, suing small farmers out of business and altering scientific research, geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl told RT.
Protesters all across the US joined the march calling for a boycott of Monsanto products, following the Senate’s decision to turn down a bill which requires the labeling of GM food.
RT: What’s wrong with GM food?
William Engdahl: The fundamental problem with GM food that it’s genetically and biologically unstable. There’s no genetic modification known to science and this I have from some of top scientists in the world on this question that’s stable — it’s always mutating. And No.2, all the GM products that are in the human and animal food chain over the last 20 years are modified primarily to do one thing — 80 per cent of all the GM is modified to accept chemicals, the pesticides. Monsanto Roundup being the most prominent of them, which are highly, highly toxic and they’re modified to be resistant to that deadly chemical so that it kills everything inside, except the Monsanto corn or the Monsanto soy beans or what will you. All those chemicals are equally as dangerous to the human food chain as the GMO seeds themselves.
RT: Why have so many people in different countries taken to the streets to demonstrate against this US company now?
WE: I think for one very simple reason Monsanto is the company. They are the world’s largest owner of seeds. They’ve bought up all those small seed companies to control those seed varieties of wheat, of rice, of corn and soy beans and so forth. No.2 Monsanto bought up a company that gives Monsanto a patent on what are called terminator seeds, which self-destruct, the seeds commit suicide after one harvest season. So, farmers are unable to take part of their seeds and replant them for the next harvest season — something that never in history has been possible before this Monsanto development. But Monsanto is the metaphor for genetic manipulation of the food chain and they are by far the largest — of course, you have other companies like Syngenta in Switzerland, you have BASF, which is a partner of Monsanto in Germany. You have Dow and DuPont Chemical. But Monsanto is really the giant of the four horsemen of the GMO Apocalypse.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Rep. Chaffetz: Administration Covering Up on Benghazi Terror Attack
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) charged Friday that the administration was covering up what happened during last year’s deadly terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Chaffetz, a senior member of the House Oversight Committee, said that the White House and the State Department were making it difficult for his committee to conduct interviews and obtain documents for their investigation.
“We still have major questions that haven’t been answered. We have terrorists that have not been captured or killed. We have four dead Americans,” Chaffetz said on Fox News.
“We have more questions than ever and we have an administration that will not live up to the president’s promise of openness and transparency. That is not happening and it leads me to the conclusion that this is indeed a cover-up.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Thousands Run Final Mile in Boston Marathon Memorial
About 3,000 people gathered in Boston on Saturday to run the final mile of the marathon they weren’t able to finish on April 15 when the two bombs exploded killing three people and wounding more than 260.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Unethical Scientists Are Making Human-Animal Hybrids, Again
How often we are told by “the scientists” that those outside the field have no business telling them what to — and more particularly, what not — to do. And yet, again and again and again, we learn that some scientists refuse to restrain themselves.
A new story in Slate about scientists making human/animal hybrids is a case in point. From, “Manimal Rights,” by Daniel Engber:
[…]
The real question is when are we going to enforce the regulations with sharp teeth? Do we need to criminalize these experiments to get scientists to stop? Because when we say, “ban “ certain kinds of experiments, we are pejoratively labeled as “anti science,” and that we should trust “the scientists” not to stray too far afield.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Warning Lands Batavia Teacher in Hot Water
Dryden, a social studies teacher, told some of his students April 18 that they had a 5th Amendment right to not incriminate themselves by answering questions on the survey, which had each student’s name printed on it.
The survey is part of measuring how students meet the social-emotional learning standards set by the state. It is the first year Batavia has administered such a survey.
School district officials declined to provide a copy of the survey to the Daily Herald, saying the district bought the survey from a private company, Multi-Health Systems Inc., and the contents are proprietary business information.
They did provide the script teachers were to read to students before the test.
It does not tell students whether participation is mandatory or optional.
An April email communication to parents said their children could choose not to take the survey, but they had to notify the district by April 17.
The survey asked about drug, alcohol and tobacco use, and emotions, according to Brad Newkirk, chief academic officer.
The results were to be reviewed by school officials, including social workers, counselors and psychologists.
The survey was not a diagnostic tool, but a “screener” to figure out which students might need specific help, Newkirk said.
| — Hat tip: Van Grungy | [Return to headlines] |
You Are Your Data: The Scary Future of the Quantified Self Movement
As we document and share more of where we go, what we do, who we spend time with, what we eat, what we buy, how hard we exert ourselves, and so on, we create more data that companies can and will use to evaluate our worthiness — or lack thereof — for their products, services, and opportunities. For those of us who don’t measure up compared to the rest of the population, the outcome won’t be pretty.
It will also be our own fault. Consumers are signing up to collect and share personal data at an alarming rate via sleep monitors, pedometers and activity trackers, dietary logs, brainwave monitors, grocery and restaurant loyalty cards, credit cards, Foursquare and Facebook check-ins, and photo geotagging, among other means. As insurers, lenders, and others attempt to manage risk, they will inevitably turn alternative data sources to round out the picture of each consumer applicant — in fact, they already are.
According to a sales rep for a midwest data co-location and analytics startup who asked to remain anonymous, regional hospitals, insurers, and grocery retailers are already investigating ways to work together to translate consumer purchase data into health risk profiling insights.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
A Third of Young Europeans Will Not be Voting in 2014
(AGI) — Brussels, May 24 — Close to a third of European under-30s will not be taking part in next year’s European Parliament elections, according to a European Commission survey published on Friday. Italy’s youngest voters, along with those of Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands are among Europe’s most vote-inclined. Close to 3 in 4 Italian under-30s claim they will take part in the process.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Britain to Target Radical Muslim Preachers After Soldier’s Killing
LONDON (Reuters) — The British government, facing criticism over the killing of a soldier by suspected Islamists in a London street, is to set up a new group to combat radical Muslim preachers and others whose words could encourage violence.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said on Sunday the group aimed to fight radicalism in schools and mosques, tighten checks on inflammatory internet material, and disrupt the “poisonous narrative” of hardline clerics.
“It will assess the range of strategies to disrupt individuals who may be influential in fostering extremism. It needs to confront those religious leaders who promote violence head on,” it said in a statement.
The killing of soldier Lee Rigby, hacked to death near his London barracks on Wednesday, fuelled public anger about radical Islam. It has also raised questions over whether more could have done more to prevent the attack and put pressure on Cameron to tackle suspected militants more forcefully.
Witnesses said the soldier’s killers shouted Islamist slogans during the attack. Bystanders filmed one of the suspects saying it was in revenge for Britain’s involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Michael Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under guard in hospital after being shot and arrested on suspicion of murder. Media reports said Adebolajo handed out extremist literature and made “rambling and intense” street lectures. Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May said thousands were at risk of being radicalized. “You have people who are at different points on what could be a path to violent extremism,” May told the BBC. “We need to look at the laws.”
Opposition Labour lawmaker Hazel Blears said people vulnerable to radicals were spotted too late and government cuts had weakened the fight against them. She told the Observer newspaper the government had “abandoned the territory”…
| — Hat tip: Sergei Bourachaga | [Return to headlines] |
Czech Republic: ‘Zeman Threatens University Freedom’
Lidové noviny , 18 May 2013
Czech President Miloš Zeman has provoked a storm of criticism from academics, politicians and journalists by refusing a request from Charles University in Prague to confer the title of professor on literary historian Martin C. Putna.
The head of state has said that he has doubts about promoting the popular author of Homosexuality and Catholicism, because of his liberal opinions and participation in the Prague Pride gay parade.
“The president’s role in university appointments is a purely ceremonial one. The ritual signing of decrees […] is a legacy of the Austro-Hungarian empire,” points out Lidové noviny, which believes that Zeman has exceeded his mandate.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
European Union: Bring on the Opposition
Süddeutsche Zeitung Munich
Many people criticise the EU for poor transparency and democratic deficit. However, the problem lies elsewhere, believes sociologist Armin Nassehi. What is lacking is a true transnational opposition, firmly at home within the European Union institutions.
Armin Nassehi
Enthusiasts for and critics of the European political scene and its transnational decision-making procedures share a consensus: the diagnosis of a democratic deficit. For the enthusiast, this is lacking mainly because there is no European awareness and no European public. But such an awareness, critics point out, cannot be expected to emerge from the differing national cultural, economic and political realities — primarily the economic realities, of the moment.
That there is a democratic deficit at the European political level also seems agreed. And yet, on the face of it, the European Parliament is democratically elected, the members of the European Commission are nominated by democratically elected national governments and confirmed by the European Parliament, while the European Court of Justice ensures appropriate legal supervision.
Where the European democratic deficit appears to lie is in the lack of an opposition — that is, in the political organisation of viewpoints that do not command the majority.
A basic principle of democracy is that public offices are legitimised by majorities and occupied through more or less direct elections. Such positions manifest themselves as democratic only if they are filled for a certain period. It is not the voting-in that is the ultimate act of democracy, therefore, but the explicit voting-out. And so, to allow the voting out of an official, there must be room for an opposition to be established inside the political system for those who do lose their seats in government and yet still represent a constituency. This opposition must be equipped with the corresponding means and competencies, an appropriate agenda, staff, and must have responsive constituencies.
Democracy needs opposition
It is the existence of an opposition, in short, that allows a sovereign or a government to be voted out. This opposition alone makes the political arena a democratic political arena….
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
European Council: Casting Shadows on Energy Policy
Le Figaro Paris
From a lack of investment to an underdeveloped renewable energy sector, plus competition from American coal: the domestic energy market faces a slew of obstacles. This is driving concerned European groups begin to put the EU under pressure.
Frédéric de Monicault | Patrick Saint-Paul | Fabrice Nodé-Langlois
Energy policy is high on the official agenda of the May 22 European Summit. All the more reason to make your voice heard. That is the strategy adopted by all the energy firms from the Old Continent who, for once, will make their demands to the Commission as a group.
Their message is clear: the stability of energy supplies to Europe is in danger. They are calling on Brussels to help. The causes of this crisis are many and include a dramatic fall in investments in major infrastructure projects, the absence of a precise legal framework and the quite relative weight of a common energy policy. “In short, a blatant lack of visibility at a time when industry giants, in order to manoeuvre efficiently, need a certain number of signals that they are not seeing today,” stresses a source who knows the sector well.
These firms face even greater stress due to a series of recurring problems. Their stock price falls to a low level and their debt ratio rises to levels unacceptable to investors which forces them to sell off massive amounts of assets and, as a result, their industrial assets are severely strained. Several production plants must be closed or are mothballed because they are insufficiently profitable.
The latter often concerns combined cycle natural gas plants, victims of the rise in shale gas in North America. Not only is gas four times cheaper on the other side of the Atlantic than in Europe, but, drawing on this new resource, the United States can now export massive quantities of coal. This is used to supply European electricity production plants at a more competitive price than the gas used in the combined gas plants, which have been obliged to stop operating.
Power paradox
“As a result, and this is a fine paradox, a country such as Germany has never powered as many coal-fired plants while financing, at a high level, its renewable energy sector,” says a manager in a European firm. This does not mean that the rapid development of “green” energy is generally supported. Thermal plants (gas or coal-fired) are indispensable to compensate for the intermittent nature of energy supplied by photovoltaic cells or wind power. Yet, in Germany, the production of renewables has reached such a level that investing in thermal plants, which are indispensable but expensive to build, is no longer profitable. This dilemma is troubling all electric and gas companies….
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France: Street Crime Hurts Paris Tourism: Fashion Brands
The streets of Paris are getting a reputation for being unsafe for tourists and this is a threat to business for the great brand names of French fashion, a top body representing the luxury industry warned on Friday.
A leading association that counts Chanel and Dior as members urged the authorities to take action on the climate of insecurity which it said could keep cash-flush tourists away.
Several recent incidents have tarnished the image of Paris — the world’s most visited city — including muggings and thefts targeting tourists and street violence.
“Paris is getting a reputation of total insecurity….Foreign tourism is a godsend for our city and this insecurity is a direct attack against employment,” said Elisabeth Ponsolle des Portes of the association, called Comité Colbert.
The committee, which promotes the French luxury industry at home and abroad, counts 75 of the country’s luxury brands as members.
“We have feedback from all the networks and clients of the luxury brands (of the Comité) on the fact that they perceive Paris as a city that is not at all safe,” she told journalists, adding the situation was “really serious.”
The French government has pledged to guarantee the security of foreign tourists, but Ponsolle des Portes said an “appropriate policy” had to be put in place.
“As Asian tourism in particular is developing, we wouldn’t want it to deviate towards Milan or London because it is too risky in Paris,” she said.
France’s luxury industry makes a large portion of its profits from tourism, particularly from the newly rich from emerging countries such as China, where a rising middle class likes to splash out when travelling abroad.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: A Chancellor Made in the GDR
Welt am Sonntag Berlin
Where does Angela Merkel come from? How has she formed her political ideas? The Germans, like other Europeans, often ask these questions. As the September elections approach, a biography sets out to find the key to her success in her childhood in the GDR.
Richard Herzinger
A book by journalists Ralf Georg Reuth and Günther Lachmann coming out this week under the title Das erste Leben der Angela M. [The first life of Angela M.] yields a few insights about Merkel’s relationship to the GDR regime. Despite Merkel’s own protestation that she had always inwardly opposed the SED (Socialist Unity Party) system, the authors believe they can prove that her role in the GDR, as well as in the years of political upheaval, were more complex and less flattering to the chancellor than the conventional legend has it.
Angela Merkel, untouched by ideological indoctrination, this legend goes, always longed for a West German-style democracy and got through the DDR years in a kind of internal exile. This legend is grounded not least in the idea that Merkel’s Protestant family background as a pastor’s daughter preserved her from the temptations and illusions of the Socialist state doctrine.
A closer look at this background, however, reveals a very different panorama — the enmeshment of Evangelical theologians, among them Merkel’s father, in the DDR system.
Merkel was born Angela Kasner in Hamburg on July 17, 1954. Her father Horst Kasner, a priest [who moved to East Germany with his family in 1954], belonged to that circle of theologians that the Soviet-controlled East German leadership wanted to use to implement their policy towards the Church. And so these theologians, who saw in Socialism a real alternative to Western capitalism, founded the Christliche Friedenskonferenz (CFK), [the Christian Peace Conference] in 1958 in Prague.
Kasner joined not only the CFR, but also the Weißensee working group, whose leader, CFK man Hanfried Müller, had top-level contacts in the SED Politburo.
Cooperation a Christian duty
When in 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the Eastern Conference of the Evangelical churches in East Germany laid down in accordance with the EKD (Evangelical Church in Germany) that Christians should not submit to the supremacy of an ideology, the Weißensee working group took up the opposing position. Its “Seven Propositions on the Freedom of the Church to Serve” elevated cooperation with the “anti-fascist State power” to the status of a Christian duty. The “Seven Propositions” can be viewed as the ideological core of the “Church within Socialism” concept. During these years, Angela Merkel’s father stood quite closely at the side of the Socialist Unity Party state….
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Hollande Says ‘No Link’ Between French Soldier Stabbing and London Attack
French President François Hollande said there are no links “at this stage” in between the stabbing of a French soldier on patrol in a business district outside Paris on Saturday, and the murder of a soldier in London on Wednesday.
A French soldier has been stabbed while on patrol in Paris but President Francois Hollande said the attack could not “at this stage” be linked to the murder of a military man in London.
The attacker fled the scene after stabbing 23-year-old Cedric Cordier on Saturday afternoon in La Defense business district, which at weekends is packed with shoppers.
The local prosecutor’s office said anti-terror investigators would handle the probe into the attack, which was captured by surveillance cameras.
The soldier, who was armed and in uniform, was patrolling as part of France’s Vigipirate anti-terrorist surveillance scheme that sees troops deployed at high-profile tourist, business and transport sites across the capital
The attacker, described by police as around 1.9 meters (six foot three inches) tall, bearded and wearing a jersey and black trousers, approached his victim, stabbed him and then melted into the crowd without saying a word.
The soldier was with two colleagues on patrol in a busy underground space that hosts shops and provides access to several underground train lines.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Judges Say Berlusconi Involved in ‘Enormous’ Fraud
Milan court explains upholding four-year term
(By Paul Virgo) (ANSA) — Milan, May 23 — Milan judges said Silvio Berlusconi was involved in “enormous” fraud at his media empire even during his time as premier in the explanation of their decision to uphold a four-year conviction, which was released Thursday.
Earlier this month Milan’s appeals court rejected Berlusconi’s request for the conviction for tax fraud in relation to deals for TV rights bought by his Mediaset network to be overturned.
The explanation said the 76-year-old three-time premier was involved in the fraudulent system “for many years” and “continued despite the public roles assumed. He conducted it in the highest possible positions”. It added that there was oral and written evidence that Berlusconi “directly managed” the first stages of an “enormous tax evasion” scam using offshore companies. Berlusconi is set to appeal against the ruling, which also bars him from holding public office for five years, to the supreme Court of Cassation.
In this and several other current and previous trials, Berlusconi has always denied wrongdoing, claiming he is the victim of a minority group of allegedly left-wing prosecutors and judges who he says are persecuting him for political reasons.
Giuseppe Marinello, a Senator for Berlusconi’s centre-right People of Freedom (PdL) party, said Thursday’s explanation was part of a “strategy of theorems” to defeat the “indisputed leader of Italy’s political moderates for 20 years”. Berlusconi maintained that he was not involved in any of the suspicious film-rights trades as he was busy working in politics.
But judges at the first trial ruled in October that he indeed “remained at the top of the management” and “there was no other person” capable of managing the fraudulent deals.
This was reiterated by the explanation released on Thursday.
“It was absolutely obvious that the question of (broadcasting) rights, the group’s main cost, was a strategic question and therefore was of interest to the owner, to an owner who remained interested and involved in management decisions, while abandoning the day-to-day operations,” read the explanation. In Italy sentences for non-violent crimes do not usually become effective until the two-tier appeals system has been exhausted.
Due to a 2006 amnesty law, the media magnate who came second in February’s general election and whose party occupies key positions in the current left-right government, will not have to serve three of the four years of his jail sentence if the ruling is upheld on appeal. The ex-premier is also on trial for allegedly paying for sex with an underage prostitute and allegedly abusing his power in a bid to cover up the affair. Prosecutors have requested he be sent to prison for six years in this case. He is also appealing a one-year term for involvement in the publishing an illegal wiretap and facing indictment for allegedly buying a Senator to help topple a centre-left government.
The supreme Court of Cassation, meanwhile, said Thursday that Berlusconi made “defamatory accusations” in his failed effort to have the Mediaset fraud appeal and the sex trial moved from Milan on alleged grounds of judicial prejudice. Berlusconi’s claims of “deliberate persecution or conspiratorial plots on the part of the entire Milan judicial authority” was a “defamatory accusation” because it attacks the duty of impartiality and independence of judgment, the court said in its explanation of its decision not to relocate the trials. The Cassation Court said “the prosecutors are only doing their job”.
Berlusconi’s and the PdL’s accusations directed at the judiciary have intensified friction within the seemingly unnatural left-right alliance supporting Premier Enrico Letta’s government.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Country Has Lowest Share of Graduates in Europe, Finds Study
Rome, 20 May (AKI) — Italy has the lowest graduation rates in Europe with just one-fifth of people aged 30-34 holding a university degree, according to a study released on Monday.
A total of 31 percent of Italian familes cannot afford to pay for their children’s university studies, and must take out loans or have their offspring seek jobs to help fund tuition and living costs, said the report by charity Save the Children.
Italy is jeopardising the future of its youth by spending just 1.1 percent of its economic output (GDP) on children and families, putting it in 18th place out of Europe’s 27 countries said the report.
Almost 29 percent of children during the crucial early years from 0-6 are living in poverty and 23.7 percent endure hardship in terms of nutrition, clothing, holidays, sport, books, equipment and school charges, according to the study.
Save the Children launched the report to coincide with its ‘Childhood Alert’ campaign running until 5 June, which aims to raise awareness of the problem and galvanise public support for urgent government measures to improve the outlook for Italy’s younsters.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
MI6 Kept Spain From Hitler With Bribes
British Intelligence service MI6 bribed senior Spanish officials to stop Spain from becoming Hitler’s ally during World War II, declassified military documents released on Thursday revealed. They spent the present day equivalent of €179 million ($232 million).
Eleven million euros of the day were paid to Spanish senior officials, ship owners and secret agents after Britain’s ambassador in Madrid, Samuel Hoare, warned Winston Churchill’s government that the risk of Spain abandoning its neutral position in 1940 was imminent.
“It may well be that Spain’s entry in the war will depend on our quick action,” telegraphed Hoare when pushingthe Foreign office in London for an initial $1 million.
“I personally urge authority be granted without delay, and that if you have doubts, the prime minister be consulted.”
“Yes indeed,” telegraphed Churchill in response.
More and more sums of money were paid through an account in New York of a Swiss bank to the British ambassador.
The declassified files, brought to light by UK newspapers The Guardian and The Times on Thursday, revealed Jose Jorro Andreo and Rasado Silva Torres as two of the beneficiaries.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sporadic Violence Reignites in Sweden
(AGI) Stockholm — Car burning and stone throwing continued in the immigrant suburbs, but only sporadically, police said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Stockholm Riots Spread West on Sixth Night
Stockholm experienced a sixth straight night of riots early Saturday, with cars torched in several immigrant-dominated suburbs, as Britain and the United States warned against travelling to the hotspots.
Nearly a week of unrest, which spread briefly Friday night to the medium-sized city of Örebro 160 kilometres west of Stockholm, have put Sweden’s reputation as an oasis of peace and harmony at risk.
The unrest has also sparked a debate among Swedes over the integration of immigrants, many of whom arrived under the country’s generous asylum policies,
and who now make up about 15 percent of the population.
An AFP photographer witnessed a car engulfed in flames before firefighters arrived in the Stockholm district of Tensta. Cars were incinerated in three other areas of the capital as well, according to the Swedish news agency TT.
“I’ve never before taken part in anything that lasted so long and was spread over such a wide area,” police spokesman Lars Byström told TT.
Another police official said earlier that Stockholm police were about to receive reinforcements from Gothenburg and Malmö, the country’s second- and third-largest cities, but declined to disclose how many would arrive.
In the city of Örebro, police reported a fire at a school as well as several cars ablaze, but quiet had returned around midnight. The unrest in Stockholm had “rubbed off”, police told TT.
About 200 right-wing extremists were reported to cruise around Stockholm suburbs in their cars late Friday, but intense police surveillance apparently prevented any kind of serious violence.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Stockholm Weeklong Clashes With Police Subside, 20 Cars Burned
Stockholm’s suburbs experienced the calmest night since rioting started a week ago as extra police and volunteers patrolled affected neighborhoods.
About 20 cars were set on fire and a school and store in a southern suburb were vandalized, Stockholm police spokesman Kjell Lindgren said today by phone. Rocks were thrown at police in Vaarberg, south of Stockholm. Police arrested 32 people last night for “social unrest,” of which 11 were detained as a preventive measure.
“We think that we’re seeing a trend that’s heading back to normal, though we’re not there yet” Lindgren said.
The shooting of a 69-year-old local resident of Portuguese origin has been cited as reason for the riots by Megafonen, a group that claims to speak for inhabitants in Husby. Mats Lofven, Chief Commissioner of the Stockholm police, said May 24 that three types of individuals were involved in the riots: local youth, known criminals, and a small group of violent extreme-leftist “professional activists,” Svenska Dagbladet reported.
In Husby, where rioting started seven days ago, residents held a barbeque in front of a vandalized subway station entrance and put up a large TV screen showing the Champions League soccer finale between Bayern Muenchen and Borussia Dortmund, Dagens Nyheter reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Stockholm Riots Starting to Ease: Police
Cars were torched and police faced stone-throwing youths in Stockholm’s immigrant-dominated suburbs early Sunday, but the nightly riots that have raged for a week appeared to be easing, police said.
A handful of cars were set ablaze in various suburbs.
“When it comes to car fires, there have been a few, spread out in various locations, but not as many as in recent days,” Stockholm police spokesman Lars Byström told Sveriges Radio.
A police patrol in Vårberg, a suburb south of the capital, was attacked by rock-throwing youths, but no one was injured and no arrests were made.
And in Jordbro, another southern district, police were attacked with stones by a couple of people as they tried to arrest someone for assault, and used teargas to defend themselves.
A day earlier, the unrest had spread to other middle-sized towns in the country, but early Sunday there were no reports of trouble outside the capital.
Police reinforcements arrived on Friday from Sweden’s second and third biggest cities, Gothenburg and Malmoe, which have both experienced riots in recent years.
A large number of parents and volunteers have also been patrolling the streets to help deter troublemakers and restore calm.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: Parent Patrols Help Quell Stockholm Riots
Parents and volunteers have been patrolling the streets of Stockholm’s immigrant-heavy suburbs to help quell riots that have raged for almost a week, serving as a successful deterrent to troublemakers and winning praise from police.
“They have helped a lot in reducing the unrest,” Stockholm police spokeswoman Karin Solberg told Swedish news agency TT.
Sweden has since the 1980s had a network of volunteers called “Nightwalkers”, usually made up of parents who walk the streets of their own suburbs in groups on weekend nights, talking to youngsters and simply making their presence known.
With their distinctive neon yellow windbreakers, their presence is aimed at deterring neighbourhood kids from getting into trouble.
They have no special authority to intervene if trouble arises, are armed only with flashlights and wear no uniform other than their colourful jackets.
In the six nights of riots that have left cars and buildings torched in Stockholm’s immigrant-dominated suburbs, the volunteers’ mission has been to protect schools, libraries and youth centres.
“We have changed our strategy. In the beginning, we would walk around in the neighbourhood. Now we stay put,” explained Aleks Sakala, a 44-year-old IT consultant from Kista who was on Nightwalker duty on Friday night.
Kista is a mixed suburb, known as Stockholm’s Silicon Valley for its high-tech industry, where telecoms giant Ericsson has its headquarters. But it is also home to a large low-income immigrant population.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Union Leaders Suspected of Gang Rape
Several union leaders are suspected of having raped a female colleague at a conference in Sandviken in central Sweden in April, according to a report in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily.
“I can confirm that there is an ongoing investigation where several people are suspected of rape,” prosecutor Krister Frykman told the newspaper.
The alleged incident occurred at a conference of Unionen delegates at the Högbo hotel in Sandviken on April 18-19th.
The union has confirmed that there is an ongoing investigation involving several of their elected representatives, saying that the suspects are from the delegation from Dalarna.
The union has not however initiated any disciplinary measures against the men and the prosecutor has stated that none of the men have been informed formally of the allegations against them.
“We take this matter seriously but it is the job of the police to investigate what has happened,” said Leif Nickelgård at Unionen to DN.
Nickelgård told the newspaper that the organisation is seeking to learn from the incident and review its routines.
The conference in Sandviken was attended by some 200 delegates from the counties of Dalarna, Gävleborg and Uppland. The Dalarna delegation numbered 70 people.
Unionen is a white-collar trade union, formed on January 1st 2008. It is the second biggest trade union in Sweden with around 500,000 members.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘I Watched a Man Stabbed in a London Street — And Felt Nothing’
Most people find it hard to imagine stabbing another human being, let alone almost decapitating someone with a meat cleaver. To do so in broad daylight and in the middle of the road, while asking passers-by to take pictures, simply beggars belief.
Few can understand how the British jihadists Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale could be filled with such hate. I’m ashamed to say I can. For I was similar to them once.
I spent 13 years inside Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), the global Islamist organisation that first spawned al-Muhajiroun, the banned Islamist terrorist organisation founded by Omar Bakri Mohammed and Anjem Choudary.
Bakri and Choudary both knew Adebolajo, a 28-year-old who was raised as a Christian. Like Adebolajo, I was raised in Essex in an educated, middle-class and well integrated family.
Again, like Adebolajo, I went on to further education, although he dropped out while I gained a law and Arabic degree from The School of African and Oriental Studies and a Masters in political theory from the London School of Economics.
(The belief that all radicalised young Muslims must lack jobs or are socially awkward loners is a dangerous misconception. I did not lack career opportunities, nor did I lack friends or girlfriends.)
[…]
However, it’s what happened next that sealed my fate. I needed someone who could guide a broken and confused 16-year-old. Instead, I came across a charismatic recruiter espousing HT’s cause who sold me the ideology of Islamism in the name of Islam.
But Islamism is not Islam. Islamism is the politicisation of Islam, the desire to impose a version of this ancient faith over society. To achieve this, Islamism uses political grievances, such as mine, to alienate and then provide an alternative sense of belonging to vulnerable young Muslims. Preying on the grievances of disaffected young men is the bedrock of Islamism.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Cage Him Now: Fury Over Why This Vile Cleric is Still Free to Incite Terror
THE hate-spewing preacher who inspired the barbaric killers of soldier Lee Rigby was STILL free last night — sparking uproar.
Cops swooped to arrest Brits nationwide for simply TWEETING outrage at last week’s horror but left vile Anjem Choudary to continue spouting his poison.
Last night leading politicians demanded he be caged — under the very same laws being used to clamp down on non-Muslims.
Top Tory Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who chairs the Intelligence and Security Committee, led the calls after Choudary boasted to The Sun at least one of the cleaver-wielding brutes who practically beheaded the soldier was his disciple.
Cops have previously claimed they are powerless to arrest the gloating firebrand. But ex-Foreign Secretary Mr Rifkind insisted: “People who incite others to break the law or act in a violent way can be charged with a criminal offence.”
He said it was high time Choudary was “dealt with” — especially since The Sun months ago exposed the fanatic’s monstrous views. We even handed police our damning dossier…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Friend Who Claimed Woolwich Suspect Was ‘Offered MI5 Job’ Is Linked to Banned Islamist Group
The childhood friend of one of the Woolwich suspects who was dramatically arrested at the BBC has disguised his identity and is linked to a banned extremist group, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
During an interview for Newsnight at New Broadcasting House in central London on Friday night Abu Nusaybah sensationally claimed that MI5 had tried to recruit suspect Michael Adebolajo.
But The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Abu Nusaybah’s real name is Ibrahim Hassan, 31, a former prominent member of Al-Muhajiroun, the group banned in 2005 after radicalising a wave of British Muslims including Adebolajo.
As BBC reporter Richard Watson interviewed Hassan, five detectives from the Metropolitan Police counter terrorism command arrived at the studio’s glass door.
After challenging the officers, a receptionist entered the studio and announced: ‘I’m sorry but they want to arrest someone.
Last night, an unnamed friend of Hassan, who was present during the Newsnight interview, claimed the police intervention was intended to stop Hassan making claims about MI5’s alleged involvement with Adebolajo.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Pictured in the Dock on Terror Charges: Woolwich Suspect Was Held in Kenya and Deported Here
Woolwich suspect Michael Adebolajo came to the attention of MI5 after he appeared in court in Kenya on suspicion of planning to fight for a terrorist group.
The Mail on Sunday has learned he was arrested with five others in November 2010. All were said to have been heading for neighbouring Somalia, where they had been recruited by Al-Shabaab, the Islamist insurgent organisation.
Adebolajo, who was filmed after the Woolwich slaughter with blood on his hands, was deported without being charged.
It was soon after his return to Britain, a close friend claims, that MI5 earmarked him as a potential informant and began assiduously courting him.
The Mail on Sunday has been told:
* Intelligence officers offered Adebolajo money and gave him a mobile phone; * Adebolajo was asked to spy on a group of Muslims with links to Al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen; * He resisted their attempts to ‘turn’ him and complained to lawyers he was being harassed.
An East London-based solicitor, who asked not to be named, said: ‘He came to see us last year. He raised serious concerns which are similar to ones we have heard before from others. He met a member of my team and discussed his case.
[Comment: Note how quickly Kenya deports undesirables.]
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Vatican: Spokesman Downplays Francis Exorcism Report
Vatican City, 21 May (AKI) — The Vatican on Tuesday played down a report by Italian Catholic media that Pope Francis had carried out an exorcism on a young disabled man on Sunday that made world news.
“The Holy Father did not intend to perform any exorcism. But, as he often does when he meets people who are sick or are suffering, he simply intended to pray for a sick person that had been introduced to him,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a statement.
TV2000, the Italian bishops’ broadcaster analysed footage from Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday, where the pontiff is seen placing his hands on the head of a man in a wheelchair shortly after celebrating Pentecost mass.
In the footage, Francis appears to pray intensely and the man’s body heaves deeply several times then goes limp while his mouth drops open.
“Exorcists who have seen the images do not have any doubt: it was a prayer of liberation from Evil, or a proper exorcism,” TV2000 was quoted as saying by Avvenire, the newspaper of Italian bishops.
TV2000’s editor Dino Boffo on Tuesday apologised to the pontiff and to all those concerned for “unwittingly” spreading “news that was partly true and partly not true.”
Satan has been a regular subject of Francis’ homilies. In his very first one as pope on 14 March, Francis warned cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel the day after he was elected that “he who doesn’t pray to the Lord prays to the devil.”
The pope’s frequent invocation of the devil owes to his Jesuit spirituality, Latin American roots, and growing secularisation that has weakened the Catholic Church, according to analysts.
There is also an apparent surge in demand for exorcisms among the faithful.
Italian newspapers noted that the late Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism in 1982 in St Peter’s Square, near where Francis prayed over the disabled man on Sunday. He is also said to have performed exorcisms in 2000.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Woolwich Attack: Soldier’s ‘Killer’ In Dock on Terror Link Three Years Ago
By: Zoe Flood in Nairobi, Tom Whitehead, David Barrett
The Sunday Telegraph can disclose that Michael Adebolajo was held by police close to the Somali border with a band of “radicalised” Muslim youths who wanted to join the notorious al-Shabaab group.
He was deported to Britain after he appeared in court in Mombasa in November 2010.
Two months previously the head of MI5 had warned that Britons were training in Somalia and it was “only a matter of time before we see terrorism on our streets inspired by those who are today fighting alongside al-Shabaab”. It also emerged that the other suspect in the soldier’s murder, Michael Adebowale, 22, was detained by police in London two months ago after shopkeepers complained about a group of Muslim activists.
The disclosures raise further questions about the monitoring by the security services of Adebowale and Adebolajo, 28, whom sources have said was known to MI5 but not assessed as a “threat to life”.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: First Fiat 500L Shipload Left the Port of Bar to Reach USA
A shipment per month. New employment in Kragujevac factory
(ANSA) — BELGRADE / PODGORICA — The first shipload of Fiat 500L produced in Kragujevac plant (central Serbia) and directed to the U.S. market left the Montenegrin port of Bar, in the Adriatic Sea. For the time being only a ship per month will leave towards the port of Baltimore. The first load of Fiat cars for the U.S. includes 3,100 500L manufactured in the Serbian modern plant, which were transported to Bar by rail. They will arrive in Baltimore after a two-week journey across Atlantic Ocean. About 1,500 cars will be allocated every week, on board of two vessels every seven days.
Due to the increased demand for this model, at the Kragujevac plant more 500 workers have been hired in the last two months, and the whole plant currently employs 3,000 people instead of the 2,500 planned, mostly young people.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Algeria: Visitors Return as Tibhirine, A New Life
Seven French monks kidnapped and killed in 1996
(by Elisa Pinna) (ANSAmed) — Algiers, 21 May — When visitors climb up to the Algerian village of Tibhirine the first question they are asked is always the same, “Have you seen the film?” Since the French film “Des Hommes et des Dieux” (Of Gods and Men) was released in 2011, every day someone arrives filled with emotion as the feature tells the story of the seven monks who were kidnapped and killed here during the civil war between the army and Islamists in 1996.
Several Algerian travel agencies have begun organising pilgrimages for foreigners.
The monastery, which has been abandoned for many years, is having a second life and becoming an important destination for new networks of Christianity in the north African country.
Father Jean-Marie Lassausse, who has been taking care of the place since 2000, welcomes visitors who have to bring their own food when they spend the night at the convent.
“I didn’t realise at the beginning how tiring this legacy would be,” Lassausse said.
The priest lives in Tibhirine from Monday to Friday and returns to Algiers, 100 kms away, at the end of the week.
With the aid of two local workers, he grows tomatoes, zucchinis, beans, apples, prunes and cherries that are sold in the nearby market of Medea, like the monks did in the 1990s.
Lassausse passes his time telling people the story of the French monks who decided to remain at the monastery despite the danger and were kidnapped by Islamists on the night between March 26 and March 27 1996.
Their bodies were found decapitated a few months later and they are now buried in the cemetery of the convent, which has been restored with donations from around the world. Tibhirine is not the only Christian location in Algeria: the country is full of examples like the Notre Dame Cathedral of Africa in Algiers to the ruins of Hippo, where St Augustine was born.
The national tourism ministry is looking to this sector to attract European visitors to a country hoping to maintain its tranquility and normality after 20 years of unrest.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Submerged Structure Stumps Israeli Archaeologists
TIBERIAS, Israel (AP) — The massive circular structure appears to be an archaeologists dream: a recently discovered antiquity that could reveal secrets of ancient life in the Middle East and is just waiting to be excavated.
It’s thousands of years old — a conical, manmade behemoth weighing hundreds of tons, practically begging to be explored.
The problem is — it’s at the bottom of the biblical Sea of Galilee. For now, at least, Israeli researchers are left stranded on dry land, wondering what finds lurk below.
The monumental structure, made of boulders and stones with a diameter of 70 meters (230 feet), emerged from a routine sonar scan in 2003. Now archaeologists are trying to raise money to allow them access to the submerged stones.
“It’s very enigmatic, it’s very interesting, but the bottom line is we don’t know when it’s from, we don’t know what it’s connected to, we don’t know its function,” said Dani Nadel, an archaeologist at the University of Haifa who is one of several researchers studying the discovery. “We only know it is there, it is huge and it is unusual.”
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Al Qaeda Rehab Includes Spa Treatments, Family Fun Time in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is reportedly experimenting with a unique approach to rehabilitating Al Qaeda prisoners, including offering spa treatments, loads of exercise and even conjugal visits to the suspected terrorists.
“In order to fight terrorism, we must give them an intellectual and psychological balance… through dialogue and persuasion,” said Said al-Bishi, the nation’s director of rehabilitation centers, according to the Agence France Presse.
Saudi officials told AFP a total of 2,336 Al-Qaeda prisoners have so far graduated from the various rehab programs offered by the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Counseling and Care — with a less than 10 percent recidivism rate to radical Islam.
The center was established some seven years ago to cope with the nation’s growing ranks of Al Qaeda prisoners, AFP reports.
But a new center in the capitol city of Riyadh pushes the envelope even farther with regard to the techniques enlisted to dissuade one-time jihadists from waging war against the West — and its allies.
The cushy and luxurious-sounding Riyadh center — which sounds suspiciously like a desert-centered Club Med — reportedly sprawls over an area equivalent to approximately 10 soccer fields. There, AFP reports, prisoners pass their days huddling with counselors and attending seminars on religious affairs aimed at convincing them of the evils of waging murderous jihad.
AFP writes that in between such sessions, prisoners may relax at the center’s Olympic-size, indoor swimming pool, go for a turn in one of its saunas, exercise in the gymnasium, or take in a leisurely showing of their favorite shows in the complex’s television hall.
Additionally, each one of the Riyadh facility’s 12 buildings is equipped to host 19 prisoners a piece with special suites in which ex-jihadists may spend time with visiting family members.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Germany Renews Support for Syrian Rebels
The German government will be renewing and stepping up its support for the Syrian rebels in the fight against President Bashar al-Assad, according to a report in Der Spiegel magazine due to be published on Monday.
Angela Merkel’s government is preparing to send medical supplies and several hundred bulletproof vests to the rebel fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said the magazine.
The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is set to resume deliveries of emergency supplies, so-called “Medipacks,” to the FSA, just months after a veto by the German Foreign Office forced them to stop, wrote the magazine.
Germany is now in final negotiations with the rebels to organise deliveries of the supplies, and hopes to get in exchange information on the military situation in Syria.
Germany will not, however, go as far as the UK and France which have recently indicated they wish to help arm the rebels with weapons.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Claims to Field ‘Massive’ Number of Missile Launchers
TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian semi-official news agency reports the country has fielded a “massive” number of new long-range missile launchers.
The Sunday report by Fars quotes Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi as saying the new weapons enable Iranian forces to “crush the enemy” with the mass simultaneous fire of long-range surface-to-surface missiles.
The report did not specify the type of missile that would be fired, nor more details on the number of launchers deployed.
Some of Iran’s surface-to-surface missiles are estimated to have ranges of over 1,200 miles, capable of hitting its arch-foe Israel and the U.S. bases in the region.
Vahidi did not specify who was the “enemy” and said Iran would never start a war.
From time to time Iran announces military achievements that cannot be independently verified.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey-Israel Trade Still on Rise This Year
Countries on track to normalize relations, after flotilla case
(ANSAmed) — ISTANBUL, MAY 21 — While Turkey and Israel are on track to renormalize their relations after the Mavi Marmara Flotilla case and Israel’s formal apology to Turkey, their trade relations do not appear to have suffered as daily Hurriyet reports. Turkey’s exports to Israel reached USD 612 million in the first quarter of 2013, from USD 555 million in the same period last year, according to the foreign trade data compiled by the Turkish newspaper from the statistical agencies of both countries. Israel’s exports to Turkey reached around USD 475 million in the first quarter of 2013, from around USD 448 million. Their trade amounted to over USD 4 billion last year.
While Turkey’s main exports to Israel are vehicles, construction materials, metals, electronic devices, textiles and accessories, Israel’s exports to Turkey are high-tech manufacturing machinery and parts, water irrigation systems, plastics and chemicals.
Turkey and Israel signed a free trade agreement in 2000 when Turkey’s annual exports to Israel were around USD 650 million.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
In Ukraine, No Way to Avoid a Bumpy Ride
KIEV — As the snow and ice began to melt in Ukraine this spring, exposing new cracks and potholes in the roads, hundreds of motorists gathered outside a government building carrying unusual burdens.
They laid them down like funeral wreaths — torn-off bumpers, crushed shock absorbers and ruptured tires, demanding that the people inside the building, the state roads agency, carry out urgent road repairs, and threatening to sue them for damages.
In many ways, the problems with Ukraine’s roads encapsulate the country’s political and economic dilemmas more than two decades after the Soviet collapse.
Many drivers blame the government for the fact that potholes and crumbling asphalt mean they either have to endure incessant jolts and regular damage by steering straight over them, or zig-zag around them, with perilous consequences.
In fact, the government does spend on the roads. Like the heavily subsidized energy and utilities sectors, Ukraine’s state-run road network drains billions of dollars a year.
But most is swallowed up by corruption, misspending and short-term repairs, leaving the authorities with the choice of raising taxes to cover the soaring costs or cracking down on the mismanagement.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Myanmar: Rakhine: Chinese-Style Family Planning to Contain Rohingya Muslims
The members of the minority cannot have “more than two children,” a rule designed to stop its “rapid population growth” in accordance with central government recommendations, state spokesman says. Activists complain that under the pretext of opposition to polygamy, a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” is underway.
Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Authorities in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, have introduced a local regulation setting a two-child limit on Rohingya families in a bid to restrict population growth among the Muslim minority group.
The state in the recent past was scene of ethnic and sectarian violence between the Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority, with hundreds of casualties and displaced persons. Rohingya families, who still do not have the rights to full citizenship unlike other minorities in the country, would be allowed only two children. Family planning was proposed in recent weeks with the aim of easing sectarian tensions and contain the presence of a minority whose members are seen as “illegal immigrants”.
The measure, which is part of a policy against Sunni polygamy, should come into effect in coming days in Maungdaw District, Rakhine State, which includes the towns of Maungdaw and Buthidaung.
Both are located along the border with the Bangladesh, an area inhabited largely by members of the Rohingya Muslim group, the only ethnic minority subject to the “two-children law.”
Rakhine State spokesman Win Myaing said that the measures should help stop the Rohingya’s “rapid population growth” and are in line with recommendations made by the central government.
Since June last year, the area has been the scene of violent clashes between Buddhists and Burmese Rohingya Muslims (about 800,000 throughout Myanmar) that killed at least 200 people and displaced another 140,000.
However, for US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), the authorities are engaged in virtual “ethnic cleansing” in the area.
Ostensibly, the crisis is rooted in ethnic differences between majority Buddhists and minority Rohingya. The latter are commonly referred to as “Bengalis” or by the pejorative ‘Kalar’. Not only are they Muslim, but they are also darker in complexion and culturally different from ethnic Rakhinese.
But there is more. Certain economic interests could be stirring up sectarian tensions in Rakhine state, one of the poorest and least developed of all of Myanmar, as it has untapped natural resources, including large oil and natural gas reserves.
Burmese authorities have already planned to build a pipeline from the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to Kunming, in the Chinese province of Yunnan. Two other SEZs exist, one in Thilawa and the other in Dawie.
The pipeline should be operational by 2015 and avoid the need to move Middle Eastern oil through the Strait of Malacca.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
‘I wish I could take you to see my home,’ he adds. ‘It is so beautiful.’ Instead, this man is stuck in the living hell of the world’s largest refugee camp, forced to abandon his family when he fled in fear over the border to Kenya after vicious beatings and torture.
Yet he was lucky to escape with his life. Friends and relatives from his village of Pinykew and others nearby have been butchered, the women subjected to mass rape by gun-toting soldiers and gangs armed with machetes.
Now he is fighting back on behalf of his Anuak people, instructing lawyers to confront the paymasters of the repressive regime that ripped apart his life. Those paymasters are the British Government.
In a landmark case, he aims to issue proceedings against the Department for International Development (DFID), arguing its money supports a Stalin-style programme of brutal forced relocations driving large numbers of families from their traditional lands.
The London law firm he has instructed to look at launching the case, Leigh Day, says the aid breaches the department’s own human rights policies. In effect, the case challenges the way Britain hands aid to some of the world’s most despotic regimes…
Britain is giving £1.3 billion to Ethiopia over the course of the Coalition, the annual handouts rising by nearly two-thirds between 2010 and 2015 as the DFID struggles to find places to spend its soaring, ring-fenced budget.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Asia: High Fees, Limited Rural Financial Service Erode $260bn Annual Remittances
Rome and Bangkok, 20 May 2013 — Asian migrants sent approximately 260 billion dollars home to their families in 2012, but high fees and limited financial services outside of urban areas are reducing the benefits of those remittances for millions of rural residents, according to a new report from the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank.
The report, ‘Sending Money Home to Asia’ examines how to improve the market for remittances to Asia, which benefit more than 70 million families.
Remittances also equal more than 10 per cent of gross domestic product in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Nepal, and more than 50 per cent in Tajikistan.
But migrants pay a swingeing 8.35 percent on average to send money home to Asia, which means that less money is going to reducing poverty and boosting prosperity for their families.
“Remittances are a lifeline for migrant workers and their families, and reducing the average remittance price in Asia to 5 per cent would put 8.7 billion dollars per year more in the pockets of migrants and their families,” said Janamitra Devan, vice president of financial and private sector development, for the World Bank Group.
The G20’s 5×5 Initiative aims to reduce the global average remittance price to 5 percent. But a better regulatory environment, more competition among remittance providers and a stronger payments system infrastructure are needed, Devan noted.
Reforms have driven down transfer costs in some countries such as Sri Lanka and Malaysia but they remain high in rural communities, where more than 100 billion euros in remittances are sent annually.
With two-thirds of remittance payment outlets in Asia located in urban areas, rural recipients must travel long distances to collect their remittances. With little access to basic banking services, they have few investment options beyond daily subsistence needs such as food, clothing and shelter.
“If rural families are given more financial options to use the funds they receive, up to 30 billion euros could potentially be saved, invested and put back into communities,” said Kevin Cleaver, IFAD associate vice-president,.
“If this happens, migration for future generations could become a matter of choice rather than a necessity.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Brain Gain: Immigrants Often Better Educated Than Germans
From Spanish engineers to Indian IT specialists, highly qualified foreigners are streaming into Germany in increasing numbers. According to a new study, their level of education has soared above the German average, contradicting still-prevalent stereotypes about immigrants.
A radical change is taking place in the German job market: Today’s immigrants to Germany are better trained and have a higher level of education than native Germans, according to a study carried out by labor market researcher Herbert Brücker on behalf of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, a private think tank based in Gütersloh. Today, 43 percent of newly arriving immigrants between the ages of 15 and 65 have graduated from a university, a technical school or a graduate program, compared to only 26 percent of Germans without an immigration background.
The German public still largely believes that immigrants come primarily from low-skilled segments of the population, according to research done by the Nuremberg-based Institute for Employment Research (IAB).
The phenomenal success of a 2010 book characterizing immigrants as socially and economically detrimental to the country and calling for tightened immigration policies attests to the hesitance of the German public to open its doors. But, in reality, the social composition and qualifications of immigrants has drastically changed over the last decade.
The economic crisis and high unemployment, especially among young people, in many euro-zone countries have made Germany more attractive for foreign workers. According to the Federal Statistical Office, more than a million people moved to Germany in 2012 — the largest influx since 1995. Many of these new arrivals are highly qualified.
The shift is potentially game-changing for the German labor market, which is facing major shortages. According to the Federal Employment Agency, demographic realities in aging Germany mean that the workforce will decline by 6.5 million people by 2025. The agency also cites studies indicating that there will be a lack of 2 million skilled workers by 2020 and a shortage of 5.2 million a decade later.
Time for New Policy?
Germans are historically reluctant when it comes to promoting the kind of large-scale immigration that could compensate for this fall-off. According to a study released in February by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Germany continues to lag behind other industrialized nations, such as Australia, Britain, Canada and Denmark, when it comes to actively recruiting skilled workers from overseas. Yet there are signs that this is changing: The small town of Wunsiedel in Upper Franconia is one of several German municipalities that is now actively courting well-trained professionals who cannot find jobs in their home countries owing to the recession.
In its recent study, the Bertelsmann Stiftung calls for a strategic reorientation of immigration policy, adding that the influx from Southern Europe cannot be expected to continue unaided at its current level. “Going forward, Germany needs more skilled immigrants than ever before — from non-EU countries, as well,” said foundation board member Jörg Dräger.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Brasilia: Immigrants From Bangladesh Forced to Work in Slave-Like Conditions
Police in the South American country denounce the presence of a gang specialized in human trafficking. They attract workers with the prospect of a high salary, then force them to work up to the payment of a ransom of 10 thousand dollars. They were found in “inhuman” conditions in a town near the capital.
Dhaka (AsiaNews / Agencies) — Brazilian police have discovered and denounced a gang specialized in the trafficking immigrants from Bangladesh, who on entering the South American country were deprived of passports and forced to work in slave-like conditions. At least eighty people, the vast majority simple unqualified workers, were drawn by fellow countrymen with the promise of work for a monthly salary of up to 1,500 dolars. But it ended with their enslavement and the obligation to pay — through their work — almost 10 thousand dollars to their captors, before being freed to return home.
Cases of illegal immigration to Brazil, the largest economy of the entire Latin American continent, has grown exponentially recently. The traffickers use the borders with Peru, Bolivia and Guyana as transit routes into the country. The vast majority of immigrants are then exploited in the building sector, with the 2014 World Cup at the gates and a delay in the overall construction of facilities, the demand for labor — forced into “slavery” — has soared.
The police discovered the Bangladeshi workers in eight different huts in the town of Samambaia, near Brasilia, in inhumane conditions. The traffickers have been identified and investigators have issued 14 arrest warrants against them. They include the four “coyotes”, the term which defines the people involved in illegal transit at the border.
The story of Bangladeshi workers in Brazil is just the latest in a series of scandals that involved the Asian workers at home and abroad. In recent days, AsiaNews published the story of 34 Indonesian workers reduced to a state of slavery, a complaint that has sown confusion and indignation in the country. In addition, also in Bangladesh, the collapse of the factory-lager, which has caused over a thousand deaths.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Not Enough MPs Back Collective Asylum for Afghan Interpreters
There is not enough support in parliament to ensure a collective asylum deal for Afghans who worked as interpreters for the Dutch military in Afghanistan, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday.
The ruling VVD and PvdA both say cases should be looked at on an individual level. ‘Asylum is an individual right and needs to be judged individually,’ VVD parliamentarian Han ten Broeke told the paper.
Not many interpreters actually apply for asylum in the Netherlands — perhaps fewer than 10, the paper said. Most of those currently working in Kunduz, where Dutch troops are stationed, were recruited in the Netherlands itself.
Those who worked in the southern province of Uruzgan are now mainly working with the Australian armed forces who took over from the Dutch in 2010.
Last week, a group of around 20 interpreters held a demonstration at the Kunduz camp. They are said to be worried about their future when the Netherlands and Germany pull out in July. The group are officially under contract to Germany, the paper said.
In Britain, up to 600 Afghan interpreters who worked alongside British troops are to be offered a five year visa, the BBC reports.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Giant Sphinx Discovered Among Bermuda Triangle Pyramids
Perhaps overshadowing the discoveries of the tomb of King Tut and Troy is the discovery of Atlantis. Now two bold scientists, Paul Weinzweig and Pauline Zalitzki, say they have found it. They discovered the ruins of the ancient city submerged off the coast of Cuba. In the distant past the region was dry land, but now only the island of Cuba remains above water. The ancient city is 600 feet below the ocean and the team of researchers led by Zalitzki Weinzweig is convinced that it is Atlantis, the city lost by more than 10,000 years. Two scientists, Paul Weinzweig and Pauline Zalitzki, working off the coast of Cuba in a submersible robot, have confirmed that there is a huge city on the ocean floor. The site of the ancient city — including several sphinxes and at least four giant pyramids and other structures — is surprisingly within the boundaries of the legendary Bermuda Triangle.
According to a report from Terra Forming Terra Arclein, Cuban Subsea Pyramid Complex, the evidence suggests that the city was flooded simultaneously with the rising waters and land subsidence in the sea. This corresponds exactly to the legend of Atlantis. The disaster could have occurred at the end of the last Ice Age. As the Arctic ice sheet melted catastrophically causing the sea level to rise rapidly around the world, especially affecting the Northern Hemisphere. The coastlines changed; land was lost, islands (including the island continent) disappeared completely. At end of the last ice age sea level were lower than today’s levels of nearly 122 meters. Theoretically, any technology then or now, could have saved Atlantis from its watery grave. The evidence that the earth, in what is now the Caribbean, also sank in the sea seems pretty certain.
The evidence that the island of Cuba is the remnant of a once mighty culture is supported by the discovery of the island Zalitzki containing symbols and pictograms extremely old identical to those observed in the structures submarines. Utilizing submersibles, they discovered structures, including pyramids, similar (even higher than) the pyramids in Giza, Egypt.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
What I intend to do is analyse the social structure of the transnational ruling class, the international elite, who together run the world. This is not a conspiratorial opinion piece, but is an examination of the socially constructed elite class of people; what is the nature of power, how does it get used, and who holds it?
[…]
It was largely Paul M. Warburg, a Wall Street investment banker, who “had come up with a design for a single central bank [in 1910]. He called it the United Reserve Bank. From this and his later service on the first Federal Reserve Board, Warburg has, with some justice, been called the father of the System.”13President Woodrow Wilson followed the plan almost exactly as outlined by the Wall Street financiers, and added to it the creation of a Federal Reserve Board in Washington, which the President would appoint.14
Thus, true power in the world order was held by international banking houses, which privately owned the global central banking system, allowing them to control the credit of nations, and finance and control governments and industry.
However, though the economic system was firmly in their control, allowing them to establish influence over finance, they needed to shape elite ideology accordingly. In effect, what was required was to socially construct a ruling class, internationally, which would serve their interests. To do this, these bankers set out to undertake a project of establishing think tanks to organise elites from politics, economics, academia, media, and the military into a generally cohesive and controllable ideology.
[…]
These think tanks have effectively socially constructed an ideologically cohesive ruling class in each nation and fostered the expansion of international ideological alignment among national elites, allowing for the development of a transnational ruling class sharing a dominant ideology.
These same interests, controlled by the international banking houses, had to socially construct society itself. To do this, they created a massive network of tax-exempt foundations and non-profit organisations, which shaped civil society according to their designs. Among the most prominent of these are the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden. “Only” 30 cars last night – is that supposed to be “normal”?
You guys are pikers compared to New Years Eve in Paris! Hey, get it together!
s/off
Seriously, when do you think they will stop burning cars? When all of their neighbors no longer have private transportation? Is that a “green thing” ala Al Gore?
War memorials
defaced with “Islam” written on them.
Apparently things are so peaceful there now, the meter maids are out ticketing burned-out cars for being parked too long!