tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83204776513337023242024-03-05T22:09:27.067-05:00World Headlines ReviewExamining major international news; economics; politics; foreign policy; military; trade; commodities; etc.P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-55860711494070127722011-07-29T17:47:00.003-04:002011-08-02T13:09:31.112-04:00Debt Ceiling Debate is Moot: USG Owes More Dollars than in Existence<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRzvGQZ1Ete13WZwn_1mu2QnC6G3GfszQjqYAwtrUZCfvIwUPK96iRzmd5OxcWXzI6atSo_my1ClEnt07iwYy1PnGF_dIhgsK7KpMJlPPgIWXjUrHu4XyMOV5vMfad6y94vzSkqAlzrYk/s1600/cut+dollar+bill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRzvGQZ1Ete13WZwn_1mu2QnC6G3GfszQjqYAwtrUZCfvIwUPK96iRzmd5OxcWXzI6atSo_my1ClEnt07iwYy1PnGF_dIhgsK7KpMJlPPgIWXjUrHu4XyMOV5vMfad6y94vzSkqAlzrYk/s200/cut+dollar+bill.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/59937401@N07/">Images_of_Money</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">The current debate in Washington as to whether or not and under what conditions to raise the debt-ceiling has for the past week dominated global news coverage and the public mind. Absent from the debate and mainstream coverage is a discussion of the debt limit in the context of the American monetary system, which creates a structural monetary deficit in the American economy and makes inevitable ever-increasing debts and deficits in the public and private sectors. It is this system which has fostered the current situation, which is not so simply that the federal government has hit the debt limit imposed by congress, but that it <b>owes more US dollars than there are in existence.</b> The failure to recognise the structural causes of public and private debt in the US brings the debate and politicking surrounding the federal debt into focus as grand political theatre and media circus, calling into question the education and/or motives of those involved in the decision making. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">That the US debt is unsustainable at more than $14trillion, is obvious. At the current rate, the US is adding more than $1trillion to the debt each year through deficit spending. For each dollar that the USG earns, it spends $1.63. These facts are being thrown around as an argument for spending cuts by Republicans and tax hikes by Democrats. The issue has created a platform for ideologues and interest groups to point fingers at one another and attack government programs and policies which don’t fit their ideology. However, no plan yet put forward will in any remote way relieve the debt and deficit problem of the Federal Government, or problems of solvency in the wider economy. No plan yet discussed will prevent the need to raise the debt-ceiling now, which will be the 73<sup>rd</sup> time it has been raised since 1962, or even a 74<sup>th </sup>within a couple more years. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>US Structural Monetary Deficit</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Each week the Federal Reserve publishes statistics on the US money supply. Currently, by the Fed’s largest measure, “m2,” there is roughly $9trillion in circulation, fully $5trillion less than the USG currently owes. The situation appears even more fantastic and preposterous when one considers the total US debt, a number which includes the debts of households, private businesses, financial institutions, as well as state, local and federal government agencies. This stands at over $54.9trillion dollars. In other words, Total USD denominated <b>debt in America is 6 times greater than the amount of USD available to pay it off.</b> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This imbalance is a direct result of the American money creation system and its ill-conceived and poorly regulated practice of fractional reserve banking. It is a system which fundamentally and incontrovertibly REQUIRES and makes inevitable bankruptcies and asset foreclosures: a means of automatic self-correction which wipes out debts and re-balances the economy by narrowing the gap between the total amount of money in circulation and the total existing debt. This gap has a major impact on the volume of money that is effectively available to the economy at any given time, and this unstable availability of money is what drives the business cycle: A nauseating pattern of boom and bust typified by alternating periods of easy credit, leveraging and asset accumulation resulting in rising stock and commodity prices; followed by deleveraging, asset divestment, tight credit markets and cash hoarding–as soon as it becomes obvious that markets are overbought and the economy and existing money supply are too out of balance to make lending and investment profitable or desirable for those able to do so. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>US Money Creation Scheme Guarantees Structural Monetary Deficit, Insolvency</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For every US dollar created, an equal and interest bearing debt obligation is created, or more plainly, money in the US is created out of nothing by commercial banks and the Federal Reserve, and lent into the economy at interest. For instance, when a home buyer gets a mortgage from a bank, the bank simply creates the principal out of thin air, which the mortgagee will have to pay back, plus interest. Loans/debts are the genesis of all money in circulation. Conversely, when a debt is repaid to a commercial lending institution, the principal sum is erased from existence. If there was no USD denominated debt, there could be no USD in circulation. <b>Thus, for every dollar (principal) in circulation, there is a greater amount of debt (principal + interest) that is owed to banks.</b> It is, for most initially, an exercise in mental gymnastics to consider how such a system could be accepted and institutionalised. One is left to wonder where the money to pay the interest will come from, when only the principal was created. This is the source of America’s Structural Monetary Deficit. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The macro-economic consequence of this policy is simple: There is never enough money in the economy to allow all entities to meet all their obligations at once, thus bad loans, bankruptcy, and wealth transfer is inevitable. On any given day, a number of people and institutions will have financial obligations to fulfill, such as monthly or balloon payments on car-loans, student-loans, business-loans, mortgages, etc. Naturally, because more debt than money exists, not all entities that have loans coming due can possibly have the funds to pay it back at the same time. Some must therefore seek refinancing in order to maintain their business, car or home ownership etc. When lenders and commercial bank reserves become so leveraged that they can no longer lend safely or legally; or when lenders and banks lose confidence that borrowers as a group can pay debts back because–ironically–the economy is too indebted relative to the amount of money in circulation, they become less willing to renew or make new loans. The result is debt defaults, lost businesses, asset seizures and foreclosed homes. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Economic Losers</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Within this paradigm, individuals; small businesses; large companies; governments and even banks themselves–regardless of solvency, intrinsic value or profitability–are forced into asset foreclosures, bankruptcy and austerity, simply because they hold a share of the inevitable debt in the economy at the wrong time. Like a game of musical-chairs, the music stops when credit markets tighten in reaction to cyclical circumstances endemic to the American economic system. Everyone must compete to find a chair (lender) to park their debt with, and those that can’t, lose. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In the wake of the housing bubble–which is more aptly described as a credit bubble–many analysts, media figures and pundits railed against US home-owners who were foreclosed on: that they should accept the blame for their own compromised circumstances and accept that they are economic “losers” for taking bad mortgage terms and causing the US housing crisis. This is an extremely simplistic view. While it is true that some home-owners did accept terms which they should not have and which they could never fulfill, and while it is also true that many institutional lenders committed crimes of mortgage fraud, predatory lending and asset stripping; it must be understood that regardless of the general level of intelligence, propriety, honesty, business acumen or caution exercised by the population, the system of money creation in the US and the resulting monetary deficit will perpetually create “losers”–whose homes, assets, and even the fruits of their future labours can be legally appropriated or garnished by those who are prepared and able to take advantage of their misfortune. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The numbers describing the housing crisis are way out of whack with historical averages, and on their own point to a systemic problem, rather than just the imprudence of a few home owners. <b>Since the start of 2007, roughly 3.5 million homes have been repossessed in the US.</b> Many more are in default, and according to analyst Rick Sharga, 5 million more home-loans are seriously delinquent and likely to go into foreclosure. Mr. Sharga expects 3 million of these homes to be repossessed by 2013 (0.4 million have already been repossessed since he made his statements at the beginning of 2011, leaving roughly 2.6 million to go) According to the US census bureau, there are roughly 115 million households in the US, which translates to 1 out of every 30 homes in the US having been seized by banks since 2007. If Sharga’s prediction is correct, the ratio will change to 1 out of 20 existing US homes, 6 million in total, being seized by banks by 2013. Furthermore, these millions of families are not the only “losers” the US financial system has created. There are millions more who have struggled immensely through job and income loss, business failures, etc., but have managed to stay in home ownership by downsizing their homes, selling off other real assets, such as cars or collectibles, and cashing in retirement savings and investments–all at reduced prices in depressed markets, to the benefit of those sitting on their cash waiting for such a “buying opportunity.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>An Economic System Built to Fail?</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The mind is naturally boggled by a system seemingly built to fail. But while it fails some it works for others. It is a system designed to allow private banks to create money from nothing and charge interest on it for private profit, with the side effect that debts are created in the economy–a proportion of which mathematically cannot be repaid except by forfeiture of real-asset collateral. It creates a massive and consistent transfer of wealth, as commercial banks reap huge profits from the interest on loans of money they create out of thin air, and from the real assets they accumulate when debtors cannot repay. It is rather an astounding thing to think of families being made homeless because of an inability to pay “back” to the bank money which the bank never had in the first place–money which was literally created at the time the mortgage agreement was signed. The few benefactors of this system reap immensely thereof; while Americans at large are ever vulnerable to its whims. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In fact, one could look at borrowers as unwitting agents of this ongoing transfer of wealth. They are armed with money the bank conjured for them out of thin air, and sent out into the economy to harvest interest and collateral goods required in the loan contract. Either the loan + interest is paid back to the bank, or the debtor defaults and the bank seizes the collateral. In both cases, the principal is written out of existence, and in both cases, wealth and assets flow out of the broader economy and into the coffers of the bank, who took on very little risk by lending check-book money they created on a computer at the moment the loan was executed. Thus an “up-trickle” is created: a lawful redistribution of wealth in favour of banking corporations and their benefactors, driving the 40 year trend of widening income and wealth gaps in the US. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>The Tea-fault Party</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Many Americans, especially Tea-Partiers, seem aware on some level that monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Act, and the deregulation of the financial sector in the 1990’s were policies written for bankers, by bankers. They are rightly outraged, that in spite of these advantages that the banking industry has over all other individuals and industries, bankers still overstep themselves and compromise the viability (and deposits) of their own institutions, as well as the broader economy, only to be rewarded by those on the other side of the revolving door with multi-billion-dollar taxpayer-money bailouts. It is not surprising that anyone finds reason to mistrust this system and its overseers. However, in knee-jerk fashion, the Tea Party has reacted with mindless opposition to President Obama and his Wall-Street cabinet’s insistence that the debt ceiling must be raised. The Republican congressmen the Tea Party elected are holding the economy hostage by refusing to allow the debt ceiling to rise, posturing for their Tea Party constituents, mindful of their future political careers.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The reality, however, is that the Tea Party movement, made up mostly of middle and working-class Americans, could not have picked a position more antithetical to their aims. If they succeed in stopping the ceiling from being raised, either through default or cutting the budget by a third, they will have left the root cause–the system of US corporate welfare and monetary policy–intact, while the repercussions and write-downs resulting from the loss of value in US bonds after a default would seize credit markets, accelerating the process of private debt-defaults and appropriation of real-wealth from the greater economy by creditors. Many Tea-Partiers in their own right would find themselves homeless and out of jobs. Far better would be to <b>accept the short-term need to raise the debt ceiling, address the true causes of the debt–monetary policy, corporate welfare and ceaseless war–and campaign for broad reforms.</b> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">By August 2<sup>nd</sup>, so the story goes, the US government must pass a law to raise the debt ceiling, so that it can continue to borrow the money it needs to operate on a day-to-day basis. However, both congress and President Obama have the means to extend government resources and obligations beyond August 2<sup>nd</sup>, without raising the debt ceiling, which would forestall the potential default and allow more time for further (pointless?) debate. Thus, a default on August 2<sup>nd</sup> would seem unlikely, and any default at all is not anticipated by many serious analysts. However, as we have seen, not all is as it appears in the US financial system. The US dollar is not solely a means of exchange, it is a means of creating unsustainable debt-loads and a system of wealth transfer. It throws up the illusion of free-market-capitalism, while what exists is plutocratic-socialism. It presents the facade of equal-opportunity, while certain people have the special right to create money out of nothing, and the rest of the economy must pay to use it. There is a well known saying–that<b> in a depression, wealth is never destroyed, merely transferred.</b> There are inevitably entities which would profit immensely, financially and materially, from a US default driven depression–the same creditors and investors who profit from the monetary deficit. They, along with the Tea Party, have their representatives in Washington. The world can for now only hope that this assemblage of interests prefer to keep the status-quo-gravy-train rolling, rather than gamble on a big score. In a country where the government can be allowed to owe more of its money than exists, anything seems possible. A spectre looms large.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Check out the US debt clock:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html">http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html </a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Read Rick Sharga's analysis of the housing market at Bloomberg:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-13/u-s-foreclosure-filings-may-jump-20-this-year-as-crisis-peaks.html">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-13/u-s-foreclosure-filings-may-jump-20-this-year-as-crisis-peaks.html</a></div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-49589947937841263172011-07-04T17:18:00.001-04:002011-07-04T17:19:28.265-04:00Greek Sovereign Debt Crisis a Sovereignty Crisis<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3335/4624138568_190603bd29_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3335/4624138568_190603bd29_b.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Greek Parliament, Syntagma Athens - by<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kkoukopoulos/"> kouk</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>News outlets around the world have focused heavily on the so-called Greek Sovereign debt crisis this week. The proposed solution–an IMF loan package requiring “austerity measures” and a fire-sale of public assets–has sparked massive unrest in the capital, where people from all walks of life are decrying a loss of democracy, sovereignty, economic means, public services- the viability of their futures and of Greece itself. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Many have insisted that these “measures” are necessary. If one is speaking about maintaining the share value of many European banks and institutional investors, such is true. The IMF loan package to Greece, boiled down, is a global taxpayer bailout of European banks which have made poor investment decisions in purchasing Greek bonds. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Even while the US debt has reached its ceiling, the US Senate has recently rejected a Republican measure attempting to restrict the IMF’s ability to dip directly into the US treasury to the tune of $100billion. In the twisted game of hot potato that now typifies international finance, the IMF is making loans to Greece so that Greece can pay back its loans to the various private European banks and investors holding Greek bonds, while the member nations of the IMF, all of whom are similarly in debt to private banks, will have to seek more loans from private international banks (or China) in order to cover additional deficits that the IMF causes them as it takes their money and dumps it into the sieve that is the Greek economy. Almost every tax-payer in the world will see a portion of their taxes swept into this bailout scheme for these investment institutions, which over many years have irresponsibly funded the institutionally corrupt Greek government. More and more, the European Union–if not the globalised economy entirely–appears to be a supranational bank-controlled state-capitalism and less and less the free market as it is advertised.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Flush with this bailout of world taxpayer money channelled through the IMF–money which in a truly free market should have been lost as a consequence of the impropriety of lending to a state which everyone now seems ready to admit was rife with corruption–private European banks and investment firms will, like rapacious vultures, descend upon the carcass of the Greek economy. The transportation and social service infrastructure of Greece will be bought up at fire-sale prices, as will small and mid-size local businesses that are struggling in an increasingly volatile economy and facing an extremely uncertain future. As is their legal obligation to their shareholders, these foreign corporations will attempt to squeeze as much profit as possible from their Greek buyouts, through further rounds of asset-stripping and layoffs, the profits of which will be repatriated to investors outside Greece. As Greeks lose their jobs and their businesses, as those lucky enough to keep their jobs lose income to pay cuts and higher taxes, as retirees lose income to pension cuts, as credit becomes scarce and money circulation becomes restricted, many will be forced into personal asset liquidations and home foreclosures in a depressed market paying pennies on the Euro. This will come just as the people of Greece will desperately need reasonable access to the services being hawked by the Papandreou government and whatever remains of Greece’s gutted social security net. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The whole enterprise reaches a higher level of absurdity in light of the fact that a similarly massive loan package last year failed to do anything but forestall the problem for a year. Anyone who has juggled debt between two lines of credit knows that borrowing from one to pay the other leads to precisely nothing but a higher debt-load due to accumulating interest. The only step in the right direction, and likely in any case inevitable, is a default by Greece on their debt, orderly or not. Independent economists at the UN and elsewhere agree: Austerity measures increase unemployment and reduce wages, thus lowering economic activity and tax revenues needed to repay national debts. They do not work.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In this context, the governments and investment community of Europe–by their actions–seem keen to ensure that the Greek people are made destitute by having their collective assets stripped down and turned over to foreign interests before allowing a default. That is what this is about. Business and media have propagated the idea that the fault of the Greek debt crisis lies squarely with the Greek people, and this is the bitter pill they must now swallow. However, those who pay the costs will not be the benefactors of Greece’s famously corrupt “culture” of bribes and patronage that everyone wants to blame. Rather, it will be the middle and lower-classes who have all along suffered paying these bribes and corruption to have access to fundamental services. These are the people now protesting in majority across Greece and in Syntagma square of Athens. The police, who have lost all credibility as defenders of public security, have employed exemplary violence. There are several videos posted to YouTube of police attacking restaurants bars and cafes near the protests, as well as the corralling and kettling people into sidestreets and subway stations, pelting them with tear gas and rocks, and beating them with shields and batons as they try to escape through police lines. They have even been accused on Greek TV–with amateur video seeming to corroborate–of the deployment of agents-provocateurs among the protests: police posing as anarchists dressed in black, damaging property and threatening violence in order to give pretext for and initiate the police crackdowns. While it will likely be impossible to verify these charges through police admission–as the Quebec Provincial police admitted to doing in Montebello, Canada in 2007–one might weigh the evidence and draw a parallel line: if it is possible in Canada, it is possible in Greece. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The schizophrenia of fiscal policy, or the flock of interests it serves, is evident when the situation in Greece is juxtaposed with the global financial crisis of a few years ago. While it is demanded of Greece to sell off public assets and cut social spending, including gutting pensions and laying off civil servants–which is ostensibly supposed to restore the viability of and confidence in their economy- the US faced their crisis by going in the opposite direction: Employing a Keynesian program of public spending to increase employment and economic activity. Rather than allow critical industries to be gutted by private markets, companies such as GM were partly nationalised until they could recover, to prevent massive unemployment. The recovery plan in the US was funded by “money creation,” when the US federal reserve wrote into existence billions of dollars to buy a new issue of US T-bills to fund the government. While neither of these solutions is desirable, their “necessity” is rooted in the same problem.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Some time ago Greece, like most of the world, gave into the liberal economic idea that private banks should be allowed to create Greece’s money. Evidently, under the yoke of the European Economic Community, Greece has now completely lost its sovereign right to create any of its own money at all. They cannot repatriate their debt or use inflationary means to mitigate it. Thus, Greece has lost its freedom and nationhood. According to the words of Prime Minister of Canada William Lyon MacKenzie King, who in 1935 addressed the issue which is clearly at the root of the debt crises of not only Greece, but of Portugal, Spain, Ireland and the US, “Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation's laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The videos below attest to the different tactics Police have used to break-up demonstrations and impose their will on the local community in Athens.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Watch Police attack a restaurant:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/4SiA2vLn_Tw/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4SiA2vLn_Tw&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4SiA2vLn_Tw&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Watch club-wielding alleged Agents Provocateurs retreat behind Police lines:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/tN5lETiPjrg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Watch Police corner and herd demonstrators into subway tunnel before gassing them:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/X5vYgF7oa60?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Watch the above event from inside the subway tunnel:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/B0EIYGlpwDM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span id="goog_758373555"></span><span id="goog_758373556"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span id="goog_758373555"></span><span id="goog_758373556"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Watch a Police line attack a peaceful march:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/6-QAhMJtUI0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
Watch Police move in to clear a demonstrator camp after tear gassing it:</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/S20_JuaX8gg/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S20_JuaX8gg&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S20_JuaX8gg&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span id="goog_758373555"></span><span id="goog_758373556"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span id="goog_758373555"></span><span id="goog_758373556"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Read more about the efficacy of "austerity" measures:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span id="goog_758373555"></span><span id="goog_758373556"></span><a href="http://business.inquirer.net/4929/austerity-measures-threaten-global-recovery%E2%80%94un">http://business.inquirer.net/4929/austerity-measures-threaten-global-recovery%E2%80%94un</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/fiscal-austerity-is-not-the-answer-by-robin-hahnel">http://www.zcommunications.org/fiscal-austerity-is-not-the-answer-by-robin-hahnel</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-34915337099502528222011-06-29T17:39:00.002-04:002011-06-30T07:21:28.521-04:00Tahrir Square, June 28 Post-ScriptYesterday's clashes in Tahrir square were covered <a href="http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/tahrir-square-tantawi-picks-up-where.html">here</a> at WHR as breaking news. A more complete picture of the context and extent of the situation has emerged.<br />
<br />
As mentioned in the previous report, the protest began in Cairo as a peaceful demonstration and public mourning by the families of those who have died in the cause of liberating Egypt. An air of gravity was upon the demonstrators and the martyrs's families as they paid their respects to the coffin of a recent victim, Mahmoud Khaled, who died on Monday. He passed in hospital, where he has been for 5 months, since he was struck by a racing US Embassy vehicle during the height of unrest on January 28, remembered in Egypt as the "day of rage." The astonishing incident can be seen in the following video, taken from a rooftop directly above the scene:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/q7CNvWBGPEk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
The rage the families and friends feel about the fate of their loved ones is understandable. That they have not received any justice after a "successful" revolution and "policy reforms" by a "transitional phase" government only amplifies their anguish and personal feeling of victimization. In the above mentioned case, the US Embassy insists the vehicle was stolen, however; Egyptians more and more look upon the foreign and local elites who run their country for their own purposes as one and the same. Protesters understand well that the storm troopers attacking them in Tahrir square, while perhaps Egyptian by birth, do so with American made tear-gas and foreign weapons, employed through tactics taught by foreign security firms, paid for by foreign "aid" money. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMurFP6dL5fqLmzD9cPH7MsFmEywF-ewjWi682azq4BAYV3-bJicK6yEkBQ_u5RiakrFN70hsJ-pTXH93cyTyvsx7GvxBZNHmukBFxEZB2EDn8ZK-73TSWAQRRnRLGmL7Sru8dIp33Pgk/s1600/tear+gas+canister.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMurFP6dL5fqLmzD9cPH7MsFmEywF-ewjWi682azq4BAYV3-bJicK6yEkBQ_u5RiakrFN70hsJ-pTXH93cyTyvsx7GvxBZNHmukBFxEZB2EDn8ZK-73TSWAQRRnRLGmL7Sru8dIp33Pgk/s320/tear+gas+canister.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tear Gas Canister fired at demonstrators - by<a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/60329285@N04/"> lilianwagdy</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>While paying their respects to and demanding justice for the martyrs, demonstrators were met by insults and denied free movement by members of the Central Security Forces. They were tear gassed and tased. It likely did not escape many demonstrators that among the CSF members sneering at them could be some of those who are directly responsible for the deaths and maiming of their friends and family members. Nor did it likely escape the CSF that should demonstrators succeed in reforming Egypt, they will find themselves out of job and pay, and possibly on trial for their actions. <br />
<br />
As word of the indignity being paid the demonstrating families began to spread, more and more people began to arrive in front of the Ministry of the Interior and in Tahrir to vent their outrage. Running and pitched battles in the square and adjacent streets ensued as the CSF attacked the crowds; these battles lasting from before dusk until after dawn this morning. Many people on the scene have reported on twitter a vengeful attitude by the CSF. While protesters were pelted with stones and tear gas, they were also taunted and threatened with death over megaphones. Today it has been reported by Egyptian authorities that more than 1000 demonstrators were injured, and more than 100 hospitalised.<br />
<br />
Egyptian activists are calling for justice. There have been protests specifically against the military courts, which since the fall of Hosni Mubarak continue to condemn protesters, activists, journalists, bloggers, artists and even doctors who have aided or simply spoken in favour of the uprising. Activists say that without a proper functioning legal system and means of redress, no progress in any other aspect can be made or maintained. The nation will be transfixed tomorrow, Thursday June 30th, as a verdict is delivered in the trial of the 2 officers charged for the infamous beating death of Khaled Said.<br />
<br />
The murder of Khaled Said is said to be one of the catalysts of the revolution. The story and pictures of his body circulated and created outrage after he arrested in an Internet cafe and murdered by police in June of 2010. The lack of justice for Mr. Said helped compound an ever present anger at authorities, which finally broke loose after Egyptians took the example of the Tunisian revolution. A facebook group called "We are all Khaled Said" has galvanised and informed the public throughout the revolution. It is reasonable to expect massive demonstrations in light of last night's unrest if Egyptian courts do not return a verdict finding someone responsible for his murder while in police custody. This will likely continue into Friday, which is the day of Muslim prayer and the typical day for protests as many Egyptians do not work Fridays.<br />
<br />
Egypt is once again on the precipice.<br />
<br />
<br />
This post is a follow-up on yesterday's coverage, read here:<br />
<a href="http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/tahrir-square-tantawi-picks-up-where.html">http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/tahrir-square-tantawi-picks-up-where.html</a><br />
<br />
Wikipedia article about Khaled Said:<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Khaled_Mohamed_Saeed">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Khaled_Mohamed_Saeed</a><br />
<br />
<br />
We are all Khaled Said facebook group:<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/elshaheeed.co.uk">http://www.facebook.com/elshaheeed.co.uk</a><br />
<br />
June 28th, Tahrir Square in Pictures:<br />
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201162915192350772.html">http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201162915192350772.html</a><br />
<br />
Description of June 28th events by Egyptian activist:<br />
<a href="http://theangryegyptian.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/june28-the-second-coming-of-rage/">http://theangryegyptian.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/june28-the-second-coming-of-rage/</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-10507577128050528072011-06-28T22:34:00.004-04:002011-07-04T16:14:57.639-04:00Tahrir Square: Tantawi picks up where Mubarak left offCairo's Tahrir square is once again tonight the scene of ordinary people making extraordinary efforts to free themselves from the militarist rentier regime still in power since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February.<br />
<br />
Earlier today in Tahrir began a protest by families of "martyrs," which in this case refers to those who've died at the hands of Egyptian security forces during the ongoing uprising. Families are still waiting for justice as there have been no substantial prosecutions or trials of those responsible for the deaths and torture of hundreds if not thousands since the year began.<br />
<br />
Media reports are beginning to trickle in, however the twitter stream and blogosphere of the region are alight. While all credit for what has been achieved in Tunisia and Egypt belongs to the people who have bravely faced torture and death, many have credited social media as a major factor and primary tool in these events. Following are several Twitter postings by people who are in the streets of Cairo and Tahrir at this moment; fighting for ownership of their country against the CSF (Central Security Forces). While non of these can be verified, the volume of similar reports is substantiating and cannot be understated:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLXhmsSV8YoppZPIwAYmUtL81wgJni5PJvtX6LViHjZksfky5T6wC75agPhBSkZfAqvn1-z_Oi6EP9I9XwWy5i59LSoveflsBcCzvyHg-HE9SbxLp9NOYQRk0P_upVTSORdLrcEZxw_24/s1600/threats1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLXhmsSV8YoppZPIwAYmUtL81wgJni5PJvtX6LViHjZksfky5T6wC75agPhBSkZfAqvn1-z_Oi6EP9I9XwWy5i59LSoveflsBcCzvyHg-HE9SbxLp9NOYQRk0P_upVTSORdLrcEZxw_24/s400/threats1.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;">As the battle kicked off, descriptions and pictures of the violence poured in:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfZcsBN38JrUPWSOh5kdFHksWGYlfVsAOMV_NZywGkDJ_xiL-RljZ5MoNM98LoA5_lGPjVM-hmHmgJ6caopc7bmvGsiu71cp451wqGa2_g814pM7b4kSXMjsrX8gHGpKjkLU9Oee7h6Y/s1600/Violence.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfZcsBN38JrUPWSOh5kdFHksWGYlfVsAOMV_NZywGkDJ_xiL-RljZ5MoNM98LoA5_lGPjVM-hmHmgJ6caopc7bmvGsiu71cp451wqGa2_g814pM7b4kSXMjsrX8gHGpKjkLU9Oee7h6Y/s400/Violence.png" width="331" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Inevitably injuries begin to be reported:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxOj5S7gdLIjpvqpTwAnGdG-5qoAxCYUd0-Ijk1aIua-wLyNQD0Wryya64pB9eJtYGLxO4y3C1seCRkCMxEMsqmkm_AnyAaEMOOJyc5T7a32g6ows2sWlUFSlT_KRjLnSIAD8NFxKC8wM/s1600/injury.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxOj5S7gdLIjpvqpTwAnGdG-5qoAxCYUd0-Ijk1aIua-wLyNQD0Wryya64pB9eJtYGLxO4y3C1seCRkCMxEMsqmkm_AnyAaEMOOJyc5T7a32g6ows2sWlUFSlT_KRjLnSIAD8NFxKC8wM/s400/injury.png" width="395" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">During the chaos people communicated and discussed logistical issues:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsC-foq9xr1CKGIESTPLhGP-6UfksXPsZk0T3bG40vUrakHV5L8fPq1SfWL5m4xh7Iu2VDAmO9-O6hqR1hEcQl-xiW5FTbsswXxhxKYck_SYGh5Z9q_y0lK6LtRIMbDM4FE5mNqzOs2GQ/s1600/logistics1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsC-foq9xr1CKGIESTPLhGP-6UfksXPsZk0T3bG40vUrakHV5L8fPq1SfWL5m4xh7Iu2VDAmO9-O6hqR1hEcQl-xiW5FTbsswXxhxKYck_SYGh5Z9q_y0lK6LtRIMbDM4FE5mNqzOs2GQ/s400/logistics1.png" width="392" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
Commentary of various sorts was ongoing:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpafMbqQUtJj6KyPNe1IDBjx1f0sUTFKqHXAdsBLcvqc5jcQnHTyY91v_MY8ovlM8hPUKOnX4QcuXWrlD_QRCC7GoRvD86YPWWu7zM-h8nHJ4gxCwb0bFpa73xfZDxu5pc0CYwZYl1VzY/s1600/commentary.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpafMbqQUtJj6KyPNe1IDBjx1f0sUTFKqHXAdsBLcvqc5jcQnHTyY91v_MY8ovlM8hPUKOnX4QcuXWrlD_QRCC7GoRvD86YPWWu7zM-h8nHJ4gxCwb0bFpa73xfZDxu5pc0CYwZYl1VzY/s400/commentary.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Sometime well after midnight, it seemed that the protesters had won round one and a moment of reprieve:</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaKwLefhmrk2BL1G9RcyGq68aFBAKIyHbagVOzscz2Dpoz21jWSqos33hFU1kUSG919VPv3u-WCD9RCvayavch0AthUwvptiJMbyZPx-NaxSNr4F7aKnO8tEQT3WSqqGVGiCdaL9afi8/s1600/victory.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTaKwLefhmrk2BL1G9RcyGq68aFBAKIyHbagVOzscz2Dpoz21jWSqos33hFU1kUSG919VPv3u-WCD9RCvayavch0AthUwvptiJMbyZPx-NaxSNr4F7aKnO8tEQT3WSqqGVGiCdaL9afi8/s400/victory.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"></div><br />
The situation is ongoing, it is currently early morning in Cairo. Information continues to stream in on social media outlets and in the press. Many tweets reported on the crowd chanting "The people want the fall of Mosheer," referring to Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the leader of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the de facto head of state since Mubarak's ouster in February. It remains to be seen if the ongoing unrest, including tonight's clashes, can carry the momentum which ousted Hosni Mubarak and effect real change.<br />
<br />
<br />
Follow up to this article at WHR:<br />
<a href="http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/tahrir-square-june-28-post-script.html">http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/06/tahrir-square-june-28-post-script.html</a><br />
<br />
An early press report dealing with tonight's clashes in Tahrir:<br />
<a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/15239/Egypt/Politics-/Clashes-erupt-between-martyrs-families-and-police-.aspx">http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/15239/Egypt/Politics-/Clashes-erupt-between-martyrs-families-and-police-.aspx</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-86190611698359269982011-06-27T15:54:00.003-04:002011-06-27T16:09:04.706-04:00Egypt Rejects IMF, Revolution Lurches Forward<div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5428975119_35b09ce350_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5428975119_35b09ce350_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/drumzo/">Jonathan Rashad</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Egyptians have evaded a great pitfall in their quest for freedom, democracy and sovereignty in their rejection this week of loan proposals from the IMF. Nations across the world, especially in Africa, have time and again during periods of turmoil been tempted into bailouts and loan deals with the IMF and World Bank, always with strings attached: Steeled strings which pull the borrowing nation apart.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">While successful in the ouster and trial of Hosni Mubarak, as with any revolution, the true test for Egypt is now coming after the removal of the regime’s figurehead. A ratification of the revolution is yet to be completed, as the protest movement continues to fight against the faceless architecture of Egyptian power, which is still concentrated in the military, the oligarchy and foreign capitals. Continued dealings with institutions such as the IMF would leave intact a central pillar of that architecture. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Among other things which helped to destroy the Egyptian economy was the Mubarak regime’s system of patronage, as well as its borrowing from lenders such as the IMF; who always dictate how their loans are to be spent, as well as dictate economic and social policies generally as conditions for their lending. These two forces helped to gut social projects, create massive unemployment and exacerbate poverty- ironically laying the groundwork and providing impetus for popular revolt. Now the IMF and multinational corporations who did much business with Mubarak and who are the ultimate destination for IMF loans- loans which the taxpayers of the host nation must repay- want back in, but the Supreme Military Council has rejected the loans for now, amid popular distrust of the IMF in Egypt. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Indeed, regardless of whether or not one would argue as to the virtue of the IMF loan package, one cannot deny that democracy has been served: The people of Egypt do not want dealings with the IMF. In fact, a rejection of the dictates of foreign influence, international finance and corporate power, in which the IMF is at the center, was a critical theme of the revolution. While this fact mostly escaped the western media, Egypt’s current leadership is at least aware of it. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><u>Revolution: Still in progress...</u></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: right;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5189/5607307350_0612638b09_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5189/5607307350_0612638b09_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apr 8 - Tahrir Square protests continue - <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/drumzo/">Jonathan Rashad</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Protests have continued since General Mubarak was finally forced from office on February 11. There was much speculation afterwards as to how far Mubarak’s ouster would go in assuaging public outrage, which until earlier this year was for a long time a widespread but unexpressed reality. Would the Egyptian street be placated by a simple rotation of figureheads? This was the hope of the beneficiaries of the regime in Egypt, the US and in Israel. According to Reuters, the Mubarak regime had been receiving an average of $2billion per year since 1979, making it the second largest recipient of US “aid” money, neighbouring Israel being the first. It was always well known that the lion’s share of this money went to paying and equipping the coercive police/military apparatus which held the population in check through violence, subterfuge and torture. As such, it is not surprising that the US administration did not support the ouster of their ally until the very last, until it became clear that such was already inevitable and perhaps necessary to stifle a more complete revolution which would sweep away not just Mubarak, but in one fell swoop the political, economic and military assets the US has bought in that country. While Barack Obama spoke platitudes about freedom and democracy in Egypt, US and other foreign officials were working busily in the background to preserve the framework of Mubarak’s regime and find a successor who would be equally compliant to US interests, in spite of the aspirations to freedom of the populist, secular, anti-violent movement which demanded change at Tahrir Square and across Egypt. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5068/5607334572_62a1638014_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5068/5607334572_62a1638014_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">April 9 - Military crackdown continues - <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/drumzo/">Jonathan Rashad</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Since February 11, the Supreme Military Council of Egypt has been the official seat of power in that country. It is made up of close allies of General Mubarak, and has been “overseeing” the transition to democracy in Egypt. Under this “new” administration, Egyptians have continued to see crackdowns on protesters and torture of detainees. The hope in the latter case is simply that the wretched habits of police and torturers die hard; however, in the former case the Supreme Military council is responsible for using violence to quell continued protests and criminalising the protesters through trials in military courts without due process. Roughly 7000 sentences of groups of protesters have been meted out to up to 50,000, whom military officials continue to label as “thugs.” There is still an organised and determined enemy of the revolution wielding power in Egypt.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The land of the Pharaohs has also become a den of spies, with reports and arrests of foreign agents, most recently of one Mr. Ilan Grapel, a dual American Israeli citizen who has been in Egypt since February, and is reported as a former Israeli paratrooper wounded in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, a journalist, a law student and/or a spy, depending on what source one checks. The truth of Mr. Grapel’s intentions in Egypt may never be revealed, but what is on record is that countries with vested interests in Egypt, such as Israel and the US, have in their respective and massively funded intelligence agencies a secretive behemoth with a mandate for espionage, disinformation and interference in favour of the interests of their employers. This is while the aims of the Egyptian revolution are in vocal opposition to those interests. Parsing between reality and contrived fiction, between honest help and the Faustian kind, between empty rhetoric and veiled threats is one of the prime challenges to the revolution in Egypt. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">How successful they are at such parsing will be in evidence later this Fall. Former officials and collaborators of the Mubarak regime are busy rebranding themselves ahead of Presidential and Parliamentary elections set for later this year, with the hopes of maintaining their influence and access to the public treasury. Other forces whose intentions are less clear are also clamouring; some looking perhaps to exploit divisions which in the past characterised Egyptian society. The revolution is further threatened by the economic impact of the deconstruction of Mubarak's corrupt economic system and the loss of tourist dollars, which is to say that things always get worse before they get better. Officials with much to lose in Egypt, foreign and domestic, are beginning to blame the revolution for continued rising unemployment and inflation- people such as the cheerleaders for the rejected IMF loans- as if Egypt’s economic woes are not the culmination of 3 decades of Mubarak’s cannibalistic policies.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">However, if an honest parliament can be elected, who with the help of an engaged public can bring out of Tahrir and institutionalise the spirit of dignity, unity and humanity that struck Mubarak down and still grips most of the country, Egypt can begin to pull itself along the long road to reclaiming all that it has lost in more than a half-century: Having suffered military invasion by Britain, France and multiple times by Israel, trade sanctions and threats by the US and the World Bank, and the wholesale looting of the country’s wealth by Mubarak’s three decades of international cronyism, Egypt now finds itself in a deep hole. Printed everywhere on signs, painted on walls, sprayed on tanks and chanted on the streets is the continued call of the people of Egypt, as well as Arabs across Syria, Yemen, Tunisia, Bahrain and so on: </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“Aash’ab yureed issqaat in-nithahm!” </div><div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">“The people want the fall of the system/regime!” </div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"></span>(<span lang="ar">!الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام</span>)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">By rejecting the IMF, the people of Egypt have rejected the nonsensical idea of digging themselves out of their hole with the same tools that got them there. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/nz90gWLgjqM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"> “Aash’ab yureed issqaat in-nithahm!” </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Hear the people of Tahrir square and across the Arabic world</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Read more about Egypt and the IMF:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13914410">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13914410</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Egypt since Mubarak’s fall:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.cswatch.org/user/179/article/egypt-after-mubarak-the-military-fist">http://www.cswatch.org/user/179/article/egypt-after-mubarak-the-military-fist</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/111640/20110211/egypt-high-military-council-egypt-supreme-council-of-armed-forces.htm">http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/111640/20110211/egypt-high-military-council-egypt-supreme-council-of-armed-forces.htm</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Conflicting sources on the strange case of Ilan Grapel:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13761173">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13761173</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-suspected-israeli-spy-arrested-in-egypt-was-traveling-to-libya-1.367596?localLinksEnabled=false">http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-suspected-israeli-spy-arrested-in-egypt-was-traveling-to-libya-1.367596?localLinksEnabled=false</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184561.html">http://www.presstv.ir/detail/184561.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/19/egypt-s-dubious-spy-arrest.html">http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/06/19/egypt-s-dubious-spy-arrest.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-50224483383282511242011-06-24T05:26:00.008-04:002011-06-27T17:16:04.313-04:00Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Cameras and Cops from Rochester to South Beach<div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">This week the international media has reported on the development of a rather interesting confluence of incidents concerning police behaviour in the US. Each of these involve initial misconduct by law enforcement officers followed by intimidation and ultimately arrest of witnesses who recorded the police actions legally. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5179/5561598347_58f71eeaba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5179/5561598347_58f71eeaba.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Police Film London's Student Protests- <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/cleanercroydon/">Cleaner Croydon</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">The more serious incident, which has been widely reported internationally and is now known as the Miami Beach Memorial Day Shooting, involves the killing of 22 year old Raymond <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse</span></span> in Florida this past Memorial Day holiday. While Mr. <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse</span></span> sat in his vehicle, having parked at an intersection after being chased by police, several officers surrounded the vehicle and at a moment's notice rained a fatal barrage of gunfire. With an annual Memorial Day celebration in full swing, the streets were full, and the reckless and excessive use of firepower by police resulted in 4 innocent bystanders receiving gunshot wounds. Reports discussing the extent of gunfire count more than 100 shots fired by at least 12 police officers. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">Beyond the aforementioned, it is still difficult to parse the facts from fiction, as reports in some cases conflict. It was alleged by police that <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse</span></span> had refused earlier to stop his vehicle for police and had nearly struck several pedestrian officers. While Carlos Noriega of the Miami PD made a video statement to media regarding <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse's</span></span> attempt to strike officers with his vehicle, he did not mention any injuries to fellow officers, while some press outlets have reported that 1 and others up to 4 more officers were struck by <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse</span></span>. However, none of coverage reviewed by this author offers any detail concerning the name(s) of the injured officer(s), the seriousness of injury(<span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">ies</span></span>) or whether there was treatment at the scene or in hospital; details which corroborate any vague or conflicting information, and which are normally reported as standard journalistic practice. It was also alleged by at least one witness that <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse</span></span> had fired a gun while driving wildly through the streets, though when Police fatally shot the 22 year-old, they were apparently not aware of these reports, or even the identity of Mr. Herisse. The police have not explained why it took almost 3 days to report that a gun had been found "hidden" in <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse's</span></span> car, while having relatively immediately made public <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse's</span></span> criminal record.</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">The killing has caused an uproar in Miami. At least one of the wounded bystanders is taking legal action. But where the story becomes more bizarre is the police reaction to bystanders recording the events. A Local 10 TV camera man's camera was confiscated by police. Reports of other cameras being confiscated have emerged as well. Video from these sources has not been released to the public. However, thanks to citizen <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">videographer</span></span> <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Narces</span></span> Benoit, one useful video of the incident did evade police capture. Benoit's video shows the shooting from behind several firing officers. The video also shows that immediately after the shooting, Benoit is ordered to leave the area, and then pursued by officers as he returns to his nearby vehicle. He is then ordered to hand over his camera, while he and his partner were held at gunpoint by at least one officer. Benoit was able to pull the memory card from his camera-phone and hide it in his mouth sometime while being removed from his vehicle and put face-down by police on the pavement, having his camera smashed and returned to his pocket, being handcuffed, being arrested and being taken for questioning as a "suspect."<br />
<br />
The pretext of his possible involvement as a "suspect" in the <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse</span></span> shooting seems absurd, considering the context of the <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Herisse</span></span> incident being the culmination of a car chase which originated elsewhere, and especially in the light of Benoit's video. In the video, which Mr. Benoit sold to CNN and can still be viewed uncut on <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">youtube</span></span>, police can been seen and heard demanding Benoit's camera as they follow him and approach his truck. The intent of the officers is clearly to confiscate Benoit's video evidence of the shooting. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">The legality of such a seizure is certainly questionable, and puts the police in a quandary. If police have probable cause that there is evidence of a crime recorded on a camera, most courts will uphold their right to seize that evidence at the scene. Police could therefore only legally seize his camera if they suspected themselves of a crime. What is proper and (less and less?) commonplace when a crime is recorded by a 3rd party such as Mr. Benoit or for instance a gas pump security camera, is that the evidence is either offered to police voluntarily by its owner when police take their statement as a witness, or the evidence is taken into police custody through means of warrant or subpoena.<br />
<br />
The illegality of the attempt by police to destroy evidence and the personal property of a citizen is in no case questionable, nor is the attempt to intimidate him as a witness through his false arrest and questioning. It is quite clear in this case that the police have in several instances illegally seized private property, destroyed private property and obstructed justice by suppressing evidence of their actions: 12 officers fired 100 bullets at one man in a parked car on a crowded street, wounding 4 bystanders. In the light of high incidence of Miami Police shootings, some have called Herisse's killing as a "public execution." While some may call this a stretch<span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;"></span></span>, if "public safety" and "serve and protect" are the watchwords of the Police, they have failed the people of Miami abysmally. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">The confrontation begins with a rather banal effort at intimidation when an officer insinuates that Ms. Good does not have the right to record them from the sidewalk, regardless of her not being on the sidewalk, and such not being illegal. Ms. Good then stands her ground as the police officer accuses her of "seeming anti-police," and the officer tries to establish the ridiculous pretext that he doesn't feel safe with her standing behind him, even though she is in front of him, on her own property, while he is on the other side of a car on the street, and while there are 2 other unoccupied attending officers. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">The officer then approaches Ms. Good, and changing tack, attempts to use Ms. Good's recording against her by making reference to "what you've said to me before you started taping..." as being grounds for his ordering her indoors. The officer continues to demand that Ms. Good return inside her house for the reason that he doesn't feel safe with her standing behind himself and the other officers during a traffic stop, in continual disregard of what is obvious to everyone; that Ms. Good is at a safe distance, she is not threatening, she is not behind him, and the traffic stop is concluded. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the video, one can hear the anxiety and confusion rising in Ms. Good's voice as it becomes clearer that the police officer is intent on having the last word and bending her to his will. As Ms. Good attempts to reconcile the nonsense the officer has accused her of, he begins to threaten her with arrest. He continues to accuse her of "standing behind" him and "not listening to our orders." One must wonder how to correctly follow this officer's orders when he makes the Orwellian demand that she not stand behind him during the traffic stop when she is standing in front of him after the traffic stop. Ms. Good continues to stand her ground, remarking that she will not go inside because she "need(s) the fresh air right now," a quip perhaps at once sardonic and revealing of her bemusement and befuddlement. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">After another threat she is arrested. The camera is then passed to one of a few people standing beside Ms. Good; who then film the woman's arrest; and who evidently and in contrast to Ms. Good, have the right to stand behind, or in front of officers during or after a traffic stop. They can be heard muttering to themselves as Ms. Good is brought towards the police cruiser in obvious disbelief of her treatment. She cries out: "What in the world? I'm sorry! I was standing in my front yard, concerned about what was going on in my neighborhood! And you're arresting me?! What the hell is going on?!" The officer delivers her to a cruiser that has just arrived on scene. Apparently Rochester Police require backup in removing ladies with video cameras from their front-yards. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">Witnesses then recorded themselves with the camera after police left the scene. One witness states that she phoned 911 on the Police, the irony of which is pitiful. The witnesses also note the officer's doublespeak regarding the sidewalk, the traffic stop and being behind the officer. Statements to the media concerning the incident by the relevant Police Union President are nonsense, describing the officer's arrest of a woman well within her rights, on her own property, after his concluding a traffic stop as "using great restraint, maintaining composure, acting professional, clearly giving very clear and concise orders to an individual who just simply didn't comply." </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">These are demonstrably measures to intimidate those who would dare photograph or record police officers, some of whom are perhaps far too comfortable with their own lack of standards, ethics and understanding of the law to bother improving them for the sake of public relations. Such was in evidence after a 2010 court ruling in Maryland, where the judge concluded "Those of us who are public officials and are entrusted with the power of the state are ultimately accountable to the public... when we exercise that power in a public forum, we should not expect our activity to be shielded from public scrutiny." </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">The rather extraordinary case from Maryland involved a motorcyclist who was stopped in traffic on a busy off-ramp after recording himself speeding on the highway with a camera attached to his helmet. Anthony <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Graber's</span></span> video shows an unmarked car suddenly boxing him in, and a plain clothed man exiting the vehicle, pulling a gun, and demanding Mr. <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Graber</span></span> get off the motorbike. At first it appears to be a brazen day-light robbery, until the man verbally identifies himself as police. Mr. <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Graber</span></span> accepted the consequences of his actions on the bike, and posted the video of his ride and his rather unusual arrest a week later on <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">youtube</span></span> in April 2010. Soon after, the police raided his <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">parents's</span></span> home, confiscated his camera, computers and external hard-drives, and stunned Graber with charges of violating state wire-tapping laws which threatened the 25 year-old staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard with up to 16 years in prison. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">Judge Pitt, who dismissed the charges against <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">Graber</span></span>, as have many other judges in similar cases, clearly asserted that laws concerning the unwitting recording of private <span style="background-attachment: scroll;"><span style="-moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-size: auto auto; background-attachment: scroll; background-image: none; background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: repeat;">conversations</span></span> do not apply to police officers being recorded performing a public service in public, where they have no legal expectation of privacy. Yet, in spite of legal precedents being set across the US in this regard, police continue to arrest people at gun point on trumped-up charges for doing just that. Police are often fond of saying, "if you don't have anything to hide, you don't have anything to be afraid of." One might wonder, is that simply a turn of phrase they use to get one to give up one's rights? Or, do they have for themselves things they'd prefer be kept hidden? Perhaps it's both. </div><div style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read and watch video about Raymond Herisse / Narces Benoit affair in Miami</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/06/07/florida.shooting.witness/">http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/06/07/florida.shooting.witness/</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">Watch Benoit’s raw footage</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXpMzT5yGp8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXpMzT5yGp8</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">About Emily Good in Rochester NY</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/06/woman-in-her-front-yard-arrested-while-videotaping-police-at-a-traffic-stop-at-curb/1">http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/06/woman-in-her-front-yard-arrested-while-videotaping-police-at-a-traffic-stop-at-curb/1</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);">About Anthony Graber in Maryland</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/TheLaw/videotaping-cops-arrest/story?id=11179076">http://abcnews.go.com/US/TheLaw/videotaping-cops-arrest/story?id=11179076</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-09-27/news/bs-md-recorded-traffic-stop-20100927_1_police-officers-plitt-cell-phones">http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-09-27/news/bs-md-recorded-traffic-stop-20100927_1_police-officers-plitt-cell-phones</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK5bMSyJCsg">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK5bMSyJCsg</a></div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-23565922123665055612011-02-02T11:07:00.006-05:002011-03-13T20:02:58.802-04:00Egypt and the Press: Stories and Stories<div class="MsoNormal">Coverage of the uprising in Egypt in its second week has become characterised by a number of types of reports, most of which paint colorful pictures, but do little to inform on the situation. There are the political discussions as to the West’s reaction, and how the uprising will unbalance the Arab world and its relationship with Israel. There are also personal interest stories, about tourists and tycoons fleeing Cairo. There are business reports about stock markets. Then there are vignettes into the disorder itself: Jailbreaks have been given coverage, and Hosni Mubarak, through state TV, has publicised the looting and vandalism that is occurring, primarily in wealthy neighbourhoods, where there is actual wealth to loot. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif4rPZaHOFpoHfRvrpflxksT7skr5wFD5m1w7Wh0z6_v99MwSRtx4PMsNo3S8tB0S_hGjSlxqIRamtCFRJoHW26JuoxkAcX42LCHqyeIvORPuEp6GAp00DYeUuErmWkgEcm6linYDU7Y0/s1600/egypt+flags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif4rPZaHOFpoHfRvrpflxksT7skr5wFD5m1w7Wh0z6_v99MwSRtx4PMsNo3S8tB0S_hGjSlxqIRamtCFRJoHW26JuoxkAcX42LCHqyeIvORPuEp6GAp00DYeUuErmWkgEcm6linYDU7Y0/s1600/egypt+flags.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cairo - Flags, by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/70225554@N00/">Muhammad*#</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">The West has been gripped by reports of vandalism at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, with reports carrying headlines claiming “looting” and “ransacking.” In fact, reports go on to describe that there have been only 10 small artifacts damaged, 2 mummies damaged, and nothing stolen. Thus looting has <i>not</i> occurred, and only something of a rather polite “ransacking” when only 12 items out of a massive collection of Egyptian artifacts are affected. Stories presented in this manner seem to ask the question: Should the disorder be allowed to continue if it puts at risk the treasures of the Egyptian Museum? This is a type of sensationalism and yellow journalism which wants to paint the Egyptian uprising as mindlessly destructive. Currently, armed forces and vigilantes guard the museum.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Other reports discuss looting, vigilantes and Bedouin tribesmen breaking people out of jail. This type of press has been reaching the Egyptian people themselves. Again, it asks a negative question, as to whether the uprising is “worth it,” if it means crimes will go unpunished and criminals on the loose. However, the mass of people seem unafraid that while they are out protesting someone will ransack their house. Most Egyptians are more concerned with their government and police whose crimes have for 30 years gone unpunished, and whom remain as always “at large.” Many of the described vigilantes are also community members who are manning barricades and conducting neighbourhood watches in the vacuum of police coercion; working to stop the inevitable few people who are willing to take advantage of a lack of security to enrich themselves (or steal food and fuel). Furthermore, at this point it can’t be disproved that in many cases it is plain-clothes agents of the government who are committing these acts of vandalism, looting and robbery undercover, in order to discredit the public and the protests as criminal. Such reports have been confirmed, and this notion has great credibility on the street with Egyptians. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As for reports of jailbreaks by the Bedouin, the favourite gypsy-nomad scapegoat of popular culture and governments in the Middle East for everything from drug and gun running to indecency; it seems that "Bedouins on the loose" is a far bigger concern for Mubarak than for people on the ground, who do not seem too concerned with the familiar caricature image of camelback heathens amok on the fringes of society. While jailbreaks are a serious thing, especially to Western sensibilities, could it be that such does not concern Egyptians nearly as much at the moment, as a majority of people being broken out of prison are not in fact gang members and hardened criminals, but instead political prisoners and minorities (such as the Bedouin) who have been victims and captives of Mubarak’s suspicious and overbearing police state?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There are two sides to every story, at least. As night begins to fall on Wednesday in Egypt, reports will continue to flood out from there, and many of them will narrowly discuss the small tragedies and inconveniences that social unrest poses for Egyptians and outsiders alike. However, those stories that deserve the most attention will remind us that there are 300 people dead so far, and millions more risking their lives for their future; people who have already been subject to the organised looting, criminality and brutality of a 30+ year-old dictatorship.<br />
<br />
<br />
Read More:<br />
<a href="http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/un-300-killed-nationwide-protests">http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/un-300-killed-nationwide-protests </a><br />
<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/29/us-egypt-vigilante-trib-idUSTRE70S3AZ20110129">http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/29/us-egypt-vigilante-trib-idUSTRE70S3AZ20110129</a><br />
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8291661/Egypt-in-crisis-vigilantes-and-prisoners-on-the-streets.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8291661/Egypt-in-crisis-vigilantes-and-prisoners-on-the-streets.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/106646/20110130/egyptian-protesters-ransack-cairo-museum-smashes-mummies-egyptian-museum-egyptian-art-egyptian-antiq.htm">http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/106646/20110130/egyptian-protesters-ransack-cairo-museum-smashes-mummies-egyptian-museum-egyptian-art-egyptian-antiq.htm</a></div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-82325422498055210172011-02-01T15:07:00.002-05:002011-02-01T17:39:11.110-05:00Egypt, Tunisia, Thailand... Top 10 destinations for Social UpheavalA Tide of civil unrest has swept through at least 11 nations in just the past week. Media focus has been on the successes of the "Jasmine Revolution" and developments in Egypt, which is populous, geopolitically significant, and in total upheaval; but nations far and wide are experiencing mass-protests and anti-government demonstrations. <br />
<br />
<span id="goog_1092170199"></span><span id="goog_1092170200"></span><span id="goog_1092170201"></span><span id="goog_1092170202"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpyREEusYpjqIxmWBP875KNtCYmPIu7G8cCa-fg1RAZ07cPZjOnvOoyYIjPs2vKfRi6ifheZflT0jZc8K6odgRa1cGJDy85OM0qT0diKlPJsiHUZxe7lj-fJvcNGEZ1w3XQn8FTswQjn8/s1600/egyptjan25a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpyREEusYpjqIxmWBP875KNtCYmPIu7G8cCa-fg1RAZ07cPZjOnvOoyYIjPs2vKfRi6ifheZflT0jZc8K6odgRa1cGJDy85OM0qT0diKlPJsiHUZxe7lj-fJvcNGEZ1w3XQn8FTswQjn8/s320/egyptjan25a.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cairo, January 25 2011 by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/70225554@N00/">Muhammad*#</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The underlying cause connecting all of these movements is the political and economic disenfranchisement of large majorities and groups of people within their nations. It could be that what now is being witnessed will be seen broadly as a sociological reaction to generally poor ongoing conditions which became exacerbated by ongoing effects of a global economic crisis and major moves in global food and fuel inflation. This situation has threatened a future of abject poverty and destitution on large populations of working poor, unemployed, pensioners, students, small business operators, professionals; anyone with debts or low incomes. In these conditions, any political or economic event can become a symbol of repression which people begin to rally against, venting their anger and will to change in street demonstrations and violent confrontation with security forces. <br />
<br />
While the list is dominated by the Middle-East/African-Arab speaking nations of Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria and Lebanon, there is representation from the Sub-Sahara in Cote D'Ivoire and Ghana, as well as Europe and Asia with Albania, Bangladesh and Thailand. In no particular order:<br />
<br />
<br />
JORDAN <br />
Last Friday saw thousands of protestors marching in Jordan, and was the 3rd consecutive day-of-prayer protest. Jordan fits the same profile as the other Arab countries in upheaval: A large population mainly below the age of 30, under the strain of rising prices and unemployment, facing a lifetime of economic deprivation and political disenfranchisement. Today, February 1, King Abdullah has dismissed his cabinet and prime minister. His appointment of former general and PM Marouf Bakhit as the new Prime Minister will likely be seen as an empty gesture, as Bakhit is an entrenched member of the political class who was already PM from 2005-2007.<br />
<br />
<br />
EGYPT<br />
The Egyptian government, led for 30 years by Hosni Mubarak, on January 28 shut down all cell-phone and internet access as it faced popular calls for him and his government to step down during consecutive days of demonstrations. The entire Presidential cabinet has been purged and restaffed. Sources put today's crowds at million strong just in Cairo. Transportation has been severly restricted and night-time curfews are in place but ignored. Protestors have occupied buildings, and the army has refused to use violent coercion against the people whose demands it views as "legitimate." This represents a major break from President Mubarak, who is himself a former Air Force Commander and Chief of Staff. Clashes between demonstrators and security forces have cost more than 125 lives. The protests began in earnest on January 25, a date on which the government annually commemorates the police. Activists organised for that day a massive apolitical demonstration against police brutality, dubbed the "day of rage." The protests, unified by the rally-call "Kefaya!" (Enough!) have gathered momentum and are ongoing at the time of publication. <br />
<br />
<br />
LEBANON<br />
Angry demonstrations hit the streets of Beirut and elsewhere in Lebanon on January 25. Politics remain as a constant catalyst to demonstrations and unrest in Lebanon, a country which has felt the brunt of 2 wars in the past 3 decades. Lebanese society faces a lack of housing and vital state infrastructure, unemployment and rising prices, a factionalised society along religious, sectarian and political lines, and the constant threat of renewed war from its southern neighbor Israel. <br />
<br />
<br />
YEMEN<br />
Near daily protests since mid January in Yemen and the capital Sanaa have seen calls from tens of thousands for the ouster of 32-year President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemen is an extremely poor nation, located at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula and across the gulf of Aden from Somalia. America has called Yemen an Al-Qaeda haven and has been making drone attacks inside the country. The country has already been coping with open revolt from rebel and separatist movements. With war, corruption, high unemployment and rising prices plaguing the nation, thousands of people with nothing to lose have turned out to demand rights, justice and new government. One man, Fouad Sabri, lit-himself on fire in an attempted suicide protest, immitating the act which sparked the Tunisian uprising. <br />
<br />
<br />
ALGERIA<br />
Rioting and protests have continued to errupt for over a month as economic turmoil engulfs the country. Algeria has suffered for a long time with a housing shortage, and the young population is acting out against their impoverished living conditions, rising prices and lack of economic opportunity. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the 12-year president, has vowed to quash the unrest; along with employing security forces he has put in place a cooking fuel subsidy and has also ordered major purchases of wheat with the hopes of holding domestic food prices down. <br />
<br />
<br />
TUNISIA<br />
A month of protests which saw the ouster of Tunisia's 23-year president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, continue into their 6th week after being dubbed the "Jasmine Revolution." Sparked by the suicide protest of Mohammed Bouazizi on Dec 17th, general strikes and protests against indignity, police brutality, organised corruption and generally lacking rights and freedoms continue. Security forces, out of seeming habit or acculturation, continue to use deadly violence against the crowds, who are now specifically calling for the president's former cronies to resign their posts in various state ministries and the interim government. <br />
<br />
<br />
BANGLADESH<br />
Bangladesh is experiencing violent demonstrations as its stock market is rapidly collapsing. Since a previous report about it here at World Headlines Review, more street violence has been seen as markets hit new lows and stability has failed to return. Trading was again halted on the Dhaka exchange for a third time, on January 20, to stop rapid and massive declines which threatened a total collapse of stock values. In a seemingly unrelated story, the AFP reports that a police officer was killed and several police and civilians seriously injured in protests which saw 20,000 villagers fighting against the appropriation of their land by the government. For the masses of Bangladeshis, it seems there is no safe place to put your savings, be it stocks or real-estate. <br />
<br />
<br />
ALBANIA<br />
A country of some 3 million people on the Mediteranean coast of Europe, Albania's social unrest has expressed itself slightly differently from other nations. Factions within the country have fought with each other and the police over political scandals and corruption. On January 21, 3 civilians were killed when security forces fired on anti-government demonstrators. At its core, the unrest is the result of the same rising prices, unemployment and rampant corruption that is swelling the ranks of the uprisings in many other nations. <br />
<br />
<br />
THAILAND<br />
Anti-government protests by "red-shirts" and "yellow shirts" saw thousands of demonstrators occupying streets and neighborhoods in Bangkok this week. The Thai government has been beset by protests for years now, from groups who seem to recognise no democratic forum for redress except direct action. In December 2008 the Bangkok international airport was occupied by protestors, leaving many tourists stranded and creating international headlines. Since then, protests continue largely in the absence of international attention.<br />
<br />
<br />
GHANA <br />
Thousands of people demonstrated in the capital of Accra and Kumasi on January 26, calling for government action against poverty and rising food and fuel prices. The protests were peaceful.<br />
<br />
<br />
COTE D'IVOIRE<br />
In a poor country facing massive unemployment and inflation, a political crisis has sparked violence along social, political and ethnic lines. The UN this week reported estimates of 260 deaths in the rapidly evolving situation. Violence erupted when Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent President, was defeated in a recent election. Gbagbo has refused the election results and is pitting the ethnic and economic prejudices of his southern support base against the growing anger of the supporters of President-elect Alassane Ouattara. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12336960"></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipI0di3hIPGjhPF2xxy3cg5GLrTS-AMpofGyAEftlQq53SPQxN1Qf19PLfbc_3RItbEKTa2MmaTvZ5nhBh5gka84b5UqhMrPSq-bWcpg0_oQOw5CMk3n1J6uHWybZwpB0_AMrQXMUep8U/s1600/egyptjan25b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipI0di3hIPGjhPF2xxy3cg5GLrTS-AMpofGyAEftlQq53SPQxN1Qf19PLfbc_3RItbEKTa2MmaTvZ5nhBh5gka84b5UqhMrPSq-bWcpg0_oQOw5CMk3n1J6uHWybZwpB0_AMrQXMUep8U/s400/egyptjan25b.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cairo Police Line, January 25 by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/70225554@N00/">Muhammad*#</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The above list briefly illustrates a number of locales experiencing unrest right now or in the past week. Haiti and Belarus are two more countries which could be added to the list if the timeframe was widened to the past month. Both countries have been mired in violent protest against corruption and anti-democratic government. In all of these countries, where there are little to no rights or freedom to associate, to gather publicly, to speak one's opinion vocally, where there are no democratic venues for ordinary people to make themselves heard and to seek redress, the only option is to defy the law, defy curfews, and face tear-gas, batons and bullets in the streets. <br />
<br />
What seemed to happen first in Tunisia may yet inspire more people to take to the streets, but what is actually happening will continue as long as there is a reason: People facing a bleak future, with little to lose and everything to gain, finding common cause with each other and searching for hope and the power to shape their own destiny <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12336960"></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/3xWiBCIxjIk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;">Street-battles in Cairo</div><br />
<br />
Read Sources On: <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011215827193882.html">Egypt</a> - <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011125123043953760.html">Lebanon</a> - <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/thailand-red-shirts-protest-in-bangkok-81200">Thailand1</a> - <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-asia-pacific-12279280">Thailand2</a> - <a href="http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/detail/112085.html">Cote D'Ivoire1</a> - <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2011/feb/01/ivory-coast">Cote DI'voire2</a> - <a href="http://newtimes.com.gh/story/2843">Ghana1</a> - <a href="http://news.myjoyonline.com/news/201101/60028.asp">Ghana2</a> - <a href="http://www.euronews.net/2011/01/22/shocking-footage-of-albania-unrest/">Albania1</a> - <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2044859,00.html">Albania2</a> - <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/01/20/uk-bangladesh-stocks-idUKTRE70J2YN20110120">Bangladesh1</a> - <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jBaFOH2rDgsZByUrPyXo47vE7Cig?docId=CNG.ed67204e514fb0fa7b4894920164bc8d.51">Bangladesh2</a> - <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/01/27/yemen-tensions-mideast-protests.html">Yemen1</a> - <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011129112626339573.html">Yemen2</a> - <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12295864">Yemen3</a> - <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/algeria/2011/01/2011110201446284626.html">Algeria</a> - <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011128125157509196.html">Jordan 1</a> - <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12336960">Jordan 2</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-70083415336865610602011-01-25T09:57:00.003-05:002011-01-25T22:26:50.753-05:00Tunisia's Deposed Ben Ali Family: Canadian Immigration's political statementYesterday reports appeared in the Canadian press, TV and radio, about the arrival in Montreal of family members of the deposed Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his wife, Leila, nee Trabelsis. The expatriate Tunisian community in Montreal had already been watching the situation closely as unidentified Tunisian officials had arrived there as early as last week, having been whisked away from the airport by Tunisian consulate limousines. "The Family," also referred to as a "Quasi-mafia" by a US diplomat in a leaked cable, "gets what it wants," whether it's "cash, services, land, property, and yes, even your yacht."<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/5026002035_acb93a56eb_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/5026002035_acb93a56eb_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tunisia by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/keithroper/">Keith Roper</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>With stories of "The Family's" corruption and opulent tastes going mainstream in Canada; appropriation of state gold and private real estate and business, theft of a yacht from France, pet tigers and mansions; amid gross poverty and repression in Tunisia; the Canadian government and its immigration department headed by Jason Kenney have scrambled to distance itself from the former dictator's clique, saying the Ben Ali extended family is "not welcome." However, minister Kenney has pointed out that some family members already have permanent residence status and thus may legally stay in Canada. Canadian Immigration is "investigating" the matter.<br />
<br />
That the Conservative government in Canada is now back-pedalling speaks not to their values but to the concerns of their public-relations department. The fact that members of the Ben Ali/Trabelsis clan already have been furnished permanent-resident status by a Canadian government well aware of its excessive criminality and human rights abuses is a statement in of itself. That members of this family would consider Canada as a second home to where they can escape justice is another. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/91/405507753_00143acf42_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/91/405507753_00143acf42_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George Galloway by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidchief/">DavidMartynHunt</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Almost two years ago, Jason Kenney's immigration department blocked anti-war British Member of Parliament George Galloway from entering Canada for a planned speaking tour, on the pretense that he was a threat to national security. Mr Galloway has since been allowed to enter Canada after a federal court ruled that the decision to bar his entry was a matter of politics, not security. Canadian Immigration officials have also consistently denied status to and attempted to deport US Army "deserters," or war resisters, who face harsh sentences in the US after fleeing to Canada when Army officials in the US refused to recognise them as conscientious objectors. Reports of harassment by Canadian police and immigration agencies of legally landed US war-resisters also exist. <br />
<br />
Such immigration policies are a microcosm of the Canadian government's broader policy which is demonstrably cynical, anti-democratic, pro-war and elitist. That the government would allow Canada to be used as a base for a quasi-mafia to hide wealth pilfered from Tunisia in the form of Canadian real-estate and savings accounts by granting them permanent-residency, while tying up courts and spending public resources on persecuting US war-resisters and a democratically-elected British parliamentarian is a statement to all who are listening: That people of conscience, who speak out for peace and social justice and who have public support are to be viewed as threats; and that criminals and abusers of human rights are welcome, as long as their crimes are profitable and committed out of sight.<br />
<br />
<br />
Read about "The Family" coming to Canada:<br />
<a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Family+members+Ousted+Tunisian+president+reach+Montreal/4150470/story.html">http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Family+members+Ousted+Tunisian+president+reach+Montreal/4150470/story.html</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/a-tunisian-palace-in-the-heart-of-montreal/article1873921/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/a-tunisian-palace-in-the-heart-of-montreal/article1873921/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Dictator+family+investigated+immigration/4160387/story.html">http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/Dictator+family+investigated+immigration/4160387/story.html</a><br />
<br />
Read about George Galloway's recent visit to Canada:<br />
<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/george-galloway-takes-shots-at-jason-kenney-pm-from-alberta/article1811320/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/george-galloway-takes-shots-at-jason-kenney-pm-from-alberta/article1811320/</a><br />
<br />
Read about a US war resistor:<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4969">http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4969</a><br />
<br />
Read the World Headlines Review report on the Tunisian unrest which forced Ben Ali from office:<br />
<a href="http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/01/tunisia-and-algeria-north-african.html">http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/01/tunisia-and-algeria-north-african.html</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-18176284271852252172011-01-21T12:52:00.002-05:002011-01-26T07:50:43.862-05:00Basra and Iraq: Oil and ExpectationsA strange portrait of the Southern-Iraqi city of Basra is painted in a recent and brief Economist article. <i>Better than Baghdad</i> struggles to find real evidence of improvement of quality of life or opportunity in Basra, which is Iraq's international oil and shipping hub and home to a large disenfranchised Shia population.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP8rs1OZjf1unnuQ4_5kt67UhNZUXjQeKEdr7brUi_pBftYyfMyreqnMlPj_d4vlvDYxoMcPmspGSftF2zneOrl1VLk9L2lZCPupEXw4yYLO7q92r2NXJ0xf4S1bP6yMMr4y3vl-aXZrg/s1600/basra+streets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP8rs1OZjf1unnuQ4_5kt67UhNZUXjQeKEdr7brUi_pBftYyfMyreqnMlPj_d4vlvDYxoMcPmspGSftF2zneOrl1VLk9L2lZCPupEXw4yYLO7q92r2NXJ0xf4S1bP6yMMr4y3vl-aXZrg/s1600/basra+streets.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basrawi Street by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/17fib/">17th Fires Brigade</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The Economist compares the situation in Basra of three years ago, "when anti-Western Shia militia controlled the streets," with the "more business friendly" Basra of today. With the view confined to this time frame, that the city continues to exist at all could be an improvement, given that the city in 2008 was torn apart in the "Battle of Basra" or "Operation Charge of the Knights" which saw a week of coalition airstrikes and street battles before a ceasefire with Muqtada al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army was negociated. That "terrorist attacks are a monthly rather than daily horror" is also presented as an improvement, though "monthly" seems an exagerated infrequency.<br />
<br />
The article describes the area around Basra as a "geological El Dorado," duly noting that the Rumaila and West Qurna oil deposits, when discovered, combined as "the second-biggest oil field in the Middle East." Such wealth has gone largely untapped as wars and international sanctions prevented Saddam Hussein from bringing the surrounding oil fields into efficient production. The opportunity that this presents, it would seem to the Economist, is the obvious catalyst to prosperity in Basra, as its first evidence of an "improving" situation is that "BP signed a technical-services contract for Rumaila last year... it's operations, together with its partners from Chinese and Iraqi state-owned oil companies, are gaining momentum." <br />
<br />
The article conveys a number of interesting images: "People eat juicy prawns in restaurants... sometimes sitting out past midnight on the balmy banks of the Shatt al-Arab; it is still unthinkable in Baghdad to relax on the edge of the Tigris... A smart hotel with a conference centre has just opened... Emirates airline is set to begin daily flights next year... sales of flashy cars have been soaring... the price of taxis and meals in good restaurants have been shooting up." Certainly such scenes are confined to the centre of the city, where there are small enclaves of middle class wealth among a larger 'other-half'. It describes a recent oil-and-gas conference where managers from Halliburton and a Mercedes-Benz dealer "rubbed shoulders" with average Iraqi businessmen looking for opportunities to provide local logistical support. It would seem that Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Battle of Basra have indeed secured some type of opportunity for Iraqis; to tap a Reaganomic trickle from foreigners busily appropriating Iraq's natural wealth.<br />
<br />
Upon describing such dubious "improvements," The Economist does not fail to admit how bad the overall facts of life in Basra are, seven years after the fall of Saddam Hussein: "The dusty roads into the city pass miles of slums. The canal that goes through the centre is stinking and stagnant. The council was promised a dollar for every barrel of oil produced in the province but the cash has yet to be seen. Many development projects have stalled... the number of jobs on offer has only slightly increased... Most foreign businessmen from Europe and America still prefer to lodge on a military base several miles outside the city, where they are still occasionally subjected to mortar fire." The piece concludes with the ignominious statement: "Basrawis are being warned against having unrealistic expectations." One is left to wonder what type of expectations in such conditions are unrealistic? Any expectations of average Basrawis are in any case likely tempered by the daily news, such as the recent January 14th escape of twelve Al-Qaeda members who walked out of a fortified Basra jail wearing police uniforms; sprung from captivity by corrupt guards, Al-Qaeda infiltration of local authorities and higher authorities in Baghdad. The jail's entire staff has been under arrest pending the full investigation. Such corruption and displays of influence and power by terrorist groups are sure to remind the people of Basra that arrivals by Mercedes-Benz to riverside Shrimp-cocktail parties is not in the offing for all.<br />
<br />
<br />
Read the Economist article:<br />
<a href="http://www.economist.com/node/17633299">http://www.economist.com/node/17633299</a><br />
<br />
Read about the Basra Al-Qaeda jail-break:<br />
<a href="http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/escaped-iraqi-al-qaeda-prisoners-had-inside-help">http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/middle-east/escaped-iraqi-al-qaeda-prisoners-had-inside-help</a><br />
<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70D47P20110114">http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70D47P20110114</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-6652214489672952522011-01-14T18:09:00.006-05:002011-01-15T12:48:29.189-05:00Revolution in Tunisia?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE0s3ETB0L8QL_UvMmU-DhbnFMNUg0TOx7keWV5J_If8DIxqA4kXsfLVs31jSDm6dwNb2Qu_qiF-kYRrBjwKMOrs2f-FuMSC7f2LofNYcN2oHWJFGXkLkiYvVK32hheSLbUbl2JDQ1wn0/s1600/Zine_El_Abidine_Ben_Ali.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE0s3ETB0L8QL_UvMmU-DhbnFMNUg0TOx7keWV5J_If8DIxqA4kXsfLVs31jSDm6dwNb2Qu_qiF-kYRrBjwKMOrs2f-FuMSC7f2LofNYcN2oHWJFGXkLkiYvVK32hheSLbUbl2JDQ1wn0/s200/Zine_El_Abidine_Ben_Ali.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zine el Abidine Ben Ali</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The President of Tunisia, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, has been driven from office. Following up on a previous article here at World Headlines Review about civil unrest in Tunisia, demonstrations only intensified in the face of the lethal force applied by police and military in attempts to quell the protests. Security forces have killed 30 people amidst the protests according to confirmed official counts, with sources on the ground reporting the death toll as higher than 60, after several instances of security forces firing into crowds. The CBC is reporting (Jan. 14) that Zine el Abidine Ben Ali has fled the country, putting an end to his 23 year reign as President. Reports say Saudi Arabian authorities have confirmed that Ben Ali and his family have arrived there, after being denied entry to France.<br />
<br />
Earlier this week there were many last-minute promises by Ben Ali; to step down in 2014; to allow greater freedom of movement and freedom of internet access; that security forces would stop using lethal force against protestors after two dozen had been killed; that rising milk, bread and sugar prices be brought down and capped by law; that opposition parties may legally be formed; but protests continued. Demonstrators did not see Ben Ali's concessions as enough or genuine.<br />
<br />
The popular uprising, sparked on December 17 by the suicide protest of university graduate Mohammed Bouazizi continues, even after the president's abdication; with riots and looting occuring in spite of attempts by police and military to protect property and restore order. This could be expected as the uprising began as a protest against broader social and economic conditions in Tunisia, not specifically against the former President, who was a symbol of elitism and corruption. The speaker of Parliament, Fouad Mebazaa, has been sworn in as interim president, and an interim government is being formed with the intent of holding Presidential elections within 60 days, in accordance with the Tunisian constitution.<br />
<br />
It remains unclear whether the popular uprising which ousted the president will actually result in real and tangible political change in Tunisia. However, an entire young generation of Tunisians is now experiencing freedom unlike at any time in their lives under the Ben Ali era, they suddenly have freedom of speech and movement, freedom to form political organisations, freedom of press, and freedom from internet censorship and bans on internet websites.<br />
<br />
The following video is an ITN report posted to Youtube just after the President's whereabouts became unknown. Pictures and video that are now pouring out of Tunisia in the absence of censorship authorities can be seen on the internet especially at youtube and AJE:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ws84S4L1m1E?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<br />
Read and watch World Headlines Review's recent coverage of Tunisia here:<br />
<a href="http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/01/tunisia-and-algeria-north-african.html">http://worldheadlinesreview.blogspot.com/2011/01/tunisia-and-algeria-north-african.html</a> <br />
<br />
Watch More Videos:<br />
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/20111153616298850.html">Al-Jazeera video report</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/video/player.html?category=News&clipid=1743611281">Dec. 14th CBC video report</a><br />
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/20111153616298850.html"><br />
</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-23725865539984829332011-01-14T13:46:00.004-05:002011-01-14T16:18:54.128-05:00Bangladesh: Dabbling in Dhaka Stock MarketsA classic stock market boom-bust cycle is underway in Bangladesh, inciting riots after the closure of the country's main markets in Dhaka and Chittagong this week. The picture painted by the charts and reports from Bangladesh make for an abject lesson in how markets fluctuate and are driven by salesmanship and sentiment.<br />
<br />
The chart below demonstrates relatively stable conditions in the Dhaka Stock Index until a surge of buying in November of 2009 (Point "I") across all sectors in the market formed the catalyst for a year of bullish sentiment which drove markets ever upward. At the time Point "I" also represented an all-time high for the market:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcVsef_6JrxlnNVHyOPDmQCIFUy_blRsacrzewYnDIwQLb_nQOkfSr0JQoN37OKMN7sxl5Y321rgwzdiNOy593eZNESHY6IDqJDwsqFwz-bg_BRhlxPF1hdnxvIUqb2WK-V6xncuUAC4/s1600/DHAKA+INDX.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcVsef_6JrxlnNVHyOPDmQCIFUy_blRsacrzewYnDIwQLb_nQOkfSr0JQoN37OKMN7sxl5Y321rgwzdiNOy593eZNESHY6IDqJDwsqFwz-bg_BRhlxPF1hdnxvIUqb2WK-V6xncuUAC4/s400/DHAKA+INDX.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chart Analysis by Phil McGavin</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>The peak at Point "II" on the chart represents mid February, 2010, a point in time at which stockmarket prices were already double what they had been a year before that point in February 2009. At this time an article, <i>Stock Market: A Ticking Time Bomb</i>, appeared in the the Bangladeshi publication The Financial Express, discussing the phenomenon: "The surge in the price index and the associated increased market volatility, somehow reminds us about the boom and bust of 1996. A sudden influx of funds and a surge in retail investors are pushing the DSE index forward without regard to economic fundamentals...Currently the market is entirely being driven by mob frenzy, and how long this will continue is to be seen." The article discusses M2 inflation and an influx of new and uneducated investors and margin traders as the forces behind the accumulation and higher valuation of the market's stocks, resulting in the week-to-week setting of new highs. <br />
<br />
Point "III" on the chart represents the peak of the euphoria, which was reached in the first week of December 2010, roughly a month ago. From there prices have fallen at breakneck speed.<br />
<br />
During the period between Points "I" and "III", ordinary Bangladeshis became enamoured with the ongoing success of the stock markets, as they watched the value of their cash savings gaining only on marginal interest. Average Bangladeshis also understood that their savings were losing value as a cause of the severe boughts of inflation they were experiencing in food and fuel prices. Throughout this time, investment retailers and banks, similar to those we have in the West such as CIBC Wood Gundy, the Cooperators and Edward Jones to name a few, were able to paint the market as a secure vehicle for savings and earnings as they could present data and charts which showed values and returns on an uninterrupted upward trajectory. They made a great deal in fees and commissions by helping millions of ordinary Bangladeshis get into the market.<br />
<br />
However, exactly as happens everywhere else, most ordinary Bangladeshis as well as the low-level investment package salespeople working for the Retailers and Banks, did not know that the Banks and Investment firms themselves were already placing sell orders at the predicted tops in the same sectors and stocks they were still enticing people to buy and earning fees on. These large institutions correctly recognised that soon there would be no significant amount of investors or capital left to purchase further stock and continue to drive prices upwards. They also recognised that the mindless mass-purchasing of the stock market (that they helped to create) had driven prices well beyond their fundamental value.<br />
<br />
On Dec. 5th, a major process of unwinding began as large investors and banks began to "book profits," which is economic jargon for realising cash gains by liquidating an asset. Even during this time less prudent Bangladeshis were still offering to buy stock at prices which had the smart money hitting the sell button. One by one these large stock holders began to unload, and in the glut of selling prices have tumbled since early December to Monday's low. On that day, the entire Dhaka exchange index lost 9.25% percent inside an hour, before authorities halted trading to prevent a complete collapse of the market. The BBC reports that "police used tear gas and baton charged investors who had attacked government buildings in protest at collapsing share prices" on Monday. Such a sharp decline likely represents a sudden awareness by many more market participants that the markets are still overvalued, and they are thus either exiting the markets or unwilling to invest in it further. More unfortunately, it represents the self-fuelling effect of automatic execution stop/sell orders and margin calls which were triggered as prices fell, which added to the momentum of the selling frenzy. It was this automatic and self-perpetuating triggering of sell orders which caused authorities to suspend trading on the exchanges. The massive dip and its triggering of stop/sells and margin calls has forced book-losses on many ordinary investors, who are for the most part poorly advised and educated as to how to compete in financial markets. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoz3-WTBN-smbUSTnS0YTTwAfWOwmua8dYa4HdEYrLwNd_DtDP7pQkLBpTqJSKLjo6NCJQGoUUvu0zsgwKJWNKCU6h7sxMVojoYOElCCXdhnU0iXDe0-_9AZaDKSeuPrECcucGwZ7cHzg/s1600/DHAKA+6+month+indx.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoz3-WTBN-smbUSTnS0YTTwAfWOwmua8dYa4HdEYrLwNd_DtDP7pQkLBpTqJSKLjo6NCJQGoUUvu0zsgwKJWNKCU6h7sxMVojoYOElCCXdhnU0iXDe0-_9AZaDKSeuPrECcucGwZ7cHzg/s320/DHAKA+6+month+indx.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chart Analysis by Phil McGavin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The chart to the left shows the market from just this past August until now. "III" is the same December 5th point as that of the previous chart, the ultimate high of the market, which was 8918.5. Point "B" is the low of 6499.5 which was formed after trading was suspended this Monday, January 10th. While such is an astounding loss of 28.2%, this only reflects movements in the stock index, which is itself an average of the values of all stocks on the exchange. Many investors have realised losses far worse than this as their exposure to the market is in only a number of stocks thereof; many individual stocks performed far worse than the market average. Usually such stocks are held primarily by uninformed investors who purchase baskets of stock packages and mutual funds from retail investment firms. These are the people rioting in the streets and claiming that they have lost most of their savings. Though the index did recover to above 7500, it is clear that this is to a level which is still not above the upside of a forming downward channel. That levels in the index were restored to where they were a few days before Sunday and Monday's panic does not change the fact that sentiment has turned against the market and that prices are likely to continue downwards even faster than the extreme manner in which they rose, to levels which are below actual stock values. These fluctuations will see many middle class people in Bangladesh wiped out and starting from square one in a country where there is no social safety nets and whose lowest common denominator is homeless refugees of the past years' repeated monsoon floods. <br />
<br />
The ongoing Bangladeshi Stock Maket unravelling is a real-time view into the anatomy of a market bubble, and yet another of example of why people everywhere must be weary of investing in markets they do not understand. To invest in any market is primarily a speculative business decision, not a method for retirement savings. One should not undertake to do so without some education and limited experience of their own. Furthermore, one should be leary on handing over their hard earned money to brokers and investment retailers whose organisation's primary interest is fees and commissions; organisations who are not regulated from betting against their own advice; advisors who in large part have no experience or earnings in stock markets and whose education is limited to brief certificate programs at community colleges which merely familiarize them with basic economic terminology and theory. <br />
<br />
<br />
Read the Financial Exchange article from Point "I", December 1, 2009:<br />
<a href="http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=85612">http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=85612</a><br />
<br />
Read the "Ticking Timebomb" article from Point "II", February 19, 2010:<br />
<a href="http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=92946">http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=92946</a> <br />
<br />
Read about the Riots:<br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12149340">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12149340</a><br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12162039">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12162039</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-22908331005265656532011-01-12T14:43:00.002-05:002011-01-12T21:20:08.694-05:00China: Fear of its Rise is Fear of OurselvesA recent Economist article, <i>The dangers of a rising China</i>, leads a 14 page report loosely discussing the dangers posed to the world by China's eclipsing of the USA's international economic and military order. The article attempts to draw parallels in the power-balance shift between Britain and Germany which led to the first World War, and that between the US and Britain, which is seen to have been peaceful. Alternatively positive and negative outlooks are presented as The Economist offers its superficial analysis and weak solutions, but as to how to foster peace between the People's Republic of China and the West, the article does offer one shining and perhaps accidental insight. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2136/2401205303_14db0c73ca_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2136/2401205303_14db0c73ca_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">San Fran Olympic Torch Rally by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomnono/">tomnono</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The parallels drawn between the hegemonic shifts of the 20th century at first appear credible. Indeed, the competitive quest for empire and economic primacy on the European continent and elsewhere was the cause for the British-German arms race, ultimately which manifested in the orgiastic violence of the Great War which saw 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded, civilian and military. This pessimistic view is countered with the absurd assertion that "Unlike the 19th-century European powers, it (China) is not looking to amass new colonies." If colonialism was a method of expropriating the wealth of and creating markets in foreign lands, then China will surely remain at odds with the West on this basis, as both compete as Germany and Britain once did; in Asia, Africa and Latin America, employing trade agreements, capital and cooperation with corruption, as well as providing economic and military advisors to grease the wheels of neocolonialism; that which is the demonstrable policy of both the West and of China.<br />
<br />
The Economist also looks hopefully to the main hegemonic shift of the 20th century, that from British to American. This is ironic, since it was the devastating global conflagration of World War 2 which dismembered the British Empire and broke the British people's will to maintain it. The British homeland itself was left in ruins, and thereby a hegemonic shift was a defacto result. Thus it was war that ushered in the shift of global power, eventually in favor of the US. However, the American global order was not immediately secured, but only itself born out of a further 40 years of global militaristic/economic expansion; major US wars in Korea and Vietnam; the Soviet war in Afghanistan; the littany of military actions across the third world; and a Nuclear standoff with Soviet Russia. That this hegemonic shift "went well" as The Economist puts it, seems in the light of history preposterous.<br />
<br />
What The Economist's hopeful bias will not permit in its report is a recognition that economic, technological and social structures are infinitely different than at any time in history, thus such a shift as it would happen today or in the future is without any useful precedent. To start, the previous examples involve competing powers sharing in European heritage, culture and languages, and a similarity of social ethics, aspirations, and global outlook. In the case of China, these are much different. Not only are there vast differences in all these catergories between China and the West, but Chinese Nationalism is keenly aware of its recent history as a colonial subject of the West, and sees the economic and political elites in the US as the inheritors of that imperialist know-how and infrastructure. <br />
<br />
Chinese Nationalism looks upon its long-time enemy Japan, perhaps correctly, as simultaneously a base for the projection of American military and economic power, and an unapologetic beligerrent whose political class still absolves and honors as heroes the Imperial Army Generals and Soldiers who committed the occupation of China and the rape of Nanking. Offerings by Japanese Prime Ministers, most recently in 2009 by Taro Aso, at the Yasukuni Shrine and War Memorial where recognised war criminals are honored, have created tremendous popular backlashes in China. China sees itself surrounded by the American military and its proxies in the pacific, with the US Navy sitting in South Korean and Taiwanese waters within shooting distance of the Chinese coast. Such a situation could only be hypothetically balanced in size and proximity by China's occupying Cuba, the Bahamas and the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia with 70,000 troops and therein installing and equipping dozens of Naval, Air-Force, and Army bases to the tune of billions of dollars. This is to say nothing of the demonstrated willingness of the US to apply its military resources in China's neighborhood, such as in the Korean War and the holocaustal Vietnam War wherein millions died. These both took place within living Chinese memory. Taking place now: "The US Navy has begun to deploy more forces in the Pacific," The Economist reports.<br />
<br />
A brief study into the history of China's relations with its neighbors and the West reveals fact after fact lending support to the attitude of indignation in China towards the US and Europe. The Economist article asserts that a number of things will help to ease the transition. These range from the briefly insightful to the absurd. It suggests that "America and China need rules for disputes" and "America and China should try to work multilaterally (in Asia)" But in the absence of demonstrated trust and mutual respect, rules and agreements will be broken, and multilateral discussions and organisations will be but another battlefield for diplomatic and economic clout. The article comes close to the spirit of the answer to this terrifying question when it posits that "If America wants to bind China to the rules-based liberal order it promotes, it needs to stick to the rules itself." This is a remarkable admission by the Economist of the US's hypocrisy.<br />
<br />
Moreso, such is a tacit recognition that the current Empire must lead by example and act under the principles that it can only hope China will abide by once it overtakes the seat of global power. The US must do much more to value economic equality, education and democracy at home, and respect the sovereignty and human rights of those abroad. It must do more to promote freedom and peace for all nations; Not attempt to impose them as a pretext to military intervention in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The US must make difficult decisions as to how to unwind the relationship between its military and its economy; these are understood in China and other quarters as so entwined that the US must perpetuate conflict and imperialism in order to survive. China will never see in the US plutocracy a credible partner in any undertaking, but only a group of self-serving aristocrats guided by the ethics of capitalism, greed and consolidation. It may be possible to avoid a conventional military conflict between China and the US during this great hegemonic shift if the US recognises China's military and economic clout and begins to bargain away its stack of chips in Taiwan, the South China Sea, Japan, Korea etc. But such is likely to promote the further moulding of China into a militarist/imperialist economy whereby all of the fears of an opaque and unaccountable Chinese world leadership will be realised. Such will not lead to any type of greater peace.<br />
<br />
The only chance for a true and peaceful resolution of the conflicting interests of China and the US to come about is by a change in those very interests: Away from militaristic/economic dominion and global paternalism which sows discord, misery and disenfranchisement everywhere; toward finally abiding by the principles which the people of the West have always espoused: Peace, human rights and equality of opportunity for everyone everywhere. Continued posturing by the US as the world's indomitable military and economic power requires China to assert itself globally through economic control of resources and military capability. A graduation by the West to a higher moral ground; by a recognition of reality and a genuine redress of the ills of its own and society abroad, through education and democratic change; only these changes can compell lasting peace and inspire in China the changes it requires to be a more just and accountable world power. <br />
<br />
<br />
Read the Economist Article:<br />
<a href="http://www.economist.com/node/17629709">http://www.economist.com/node/17629709</a><br />
<br />
Read more about it:<br />
<a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/09/27/2003483897">http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2010/09/27/2003483897</a> <br />
<a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-china/nationalism_3456.jsp">http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-china/nationalism_3456.jsp</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-16078651289820272032011-01-10T12:57:00.003-05:002011-01-20T14:02:14.906-05:00Switzerland: Swiss Franc -ly Under AttackSeparate reports this week in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuericher Zeitung (NZZ) are highlighting the difficult choices Switzerland, and by extension other nations, are facing in the continued onslaught of effective currency devaluation by US and Eurozone officials. The Greenback and the Euro have fallen significantly against the Franc and other currencies in the past years as their governments and central banks have created a glut of supply; by loosening monetary policy, lowering interest rates and creating massive amounts of new debt to bail out ailing banks, businesses and governments. The choices for nations such as Switzerland are clear: Reduce living standards and income values through inflation, or see a massive outflow of jobs and industry from their borders. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2389/2517707985_07276a4931_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2389/2517707985_07276a4931_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Swiss Banknotes <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/kalleboo/">by kalleboo</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has announced losses of 8.5bil Swiss Francs in the first 3 quarters of 2010, resulting from their foreign exchange interventions intended to curb the effect of the inflating Euro and Greenback on their economy. These losses stem from the SNB's massive selling of Swiss Francs and purchasing of Euros in order to simultaneously increase market supply of Swiss Francs to lower it's exchange rate; and increase competition in the Euro-dollar market to help support/increase its value. Despite these efforts and the losses thereof, the Eur/Chf (Euro/Swiss Franc) exchange rate has fallen from late 2007 highs of 1.68 to current levels of 1.25. This has had a severe effect on Swiss industry, most of whom must repatriate sales made in the Eurozone in order to book profits. This peak to trough fall represents a loss to Swiss exporters of 0.43 Chf in every dollar they earn, or roughly 0.25 in aggregate terms.<br />
<br />
Such extreme cuts to profits have Swiss industry chiefs remarking that in current conditions they cannot consider new hiring or expanding production in Switzerland, and making controversial threats to move jobs out of Switzerland and into the Eurozone, where wages have dropped along with the Euro relative to the Swiss Franc. Retailers are also complaining that more and more Swiss shoppers are travelling the short distance to make their purchases accross the border, which is not far from any point in the small landlocked Alpine country. The tourism industry is also feeling the pinch, as it is more expensive for Europeans to buy Francs. Some doubt the long term viability of small and mid-sized businesses in Switzerland if the Franc's value to the Euro cannot be stabilised above 1.30. The NZZ this week specifically quoted Georges Hayek, chief of Swatch-Group and Hans Hess, president of Swissmem, an association representing the mechanical and electrical engineering industry, as calling for government intervention in this regard.<br />
<br />
However, such government intervention would in all cases amount to a rapid inflation of the Swiss currency. This would cause prices of goods to rise generally, affecting the value and purchasing power of all Swiss incomes, from wage-earners to business owners to pensioners. The Swiss authorities thus face a double-edged sword: To take action is to lower living standards for all Swiss residents and cut the value of savings; to hold firm is to risk a general flight of industry and jobs and support a loss of value in local stock market investments. In all cases jobs, savings and investments are threatened. This dilemma is at the root of the murmurrings of currency war surrounding the G20 meetings in Seoul, which saw the US and Europe insisting that China allow the yuan to rise, and China along with Brasil, Korea and a host of other nations from across the globe complaining of the ill-effects to their economies caused by the effective devaluatoin of the Euro and Dollar by Western central banking authorities. <br />
<br />
Just as the European central bank (ECB) was forced to bail out Greece and Ireland by helping to create new money, and is currently fighting to prop up the Portuguese national budget with bond purchases, so are Federal authorities in the US now facing calls to bail out hopelessly indebted states and municipalities. The Wall Street Journal reports that Federal Reserve chairman Bernanke has scuttled such talk by pointing out that new rules under the Dodd-Frank laws enacted by the federal government last year limit the fed`s ability to intervene should states or municipalities go into default/bankruptcy. Such issues in Europe and America will, regardless of how they are addressed, create more instability in foreign exchange markets, to the detriment of economies outside their borders; from first world economies such as Switzerland, Canada and Japan, down to China, Brasil, India and all others dependent on the global economic model. <br />
<br />
Read more:<br />
<br />
German Language Sources:<br />
<a href="http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/wirtschaft/aktuell/tiefer_euro_gefaehrdet_wohlstand_1.8958738.html">http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/wirtschaft/aktuell/tiefer_euro_gefaehrdet_wohlstand_1.8958738.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/politik/schweiz/schweiz_nationalbank_verlust_85_milliarden_franken_2010_1.8356119.html">http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/politik/schweiz/schweiz_nationalbank_verlust_85_milliarden_franken_2010_1.8356119.html</a><br />
<br />
Other English Language Reports on the Swiss Franc and US Debt:<br />
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704739504576067602380461160.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704739504576067602380461160.html</a><br />
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101112-701368.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101112-701368.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/specials/swiss_franc/Strong_franc_continues_to_haunt_Swiss_economy.html?cid=17955460">http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/specials/swiss_franc/Strong_franc_continues_to_haunt_Swiss_economy.html?cid=17955460</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-62201631342615295592011-01-07T16:26:00.004-05:002011-01-09T16:57:34.776-05:00British Ethics: A Dark Comedy<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/64846349_b0919e9b53_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/64846349_b0919e9b53_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">North Sea Oil Drilling by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/crawfish_head/">crawfish head</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Yesterday, January 6th 2011, the UK Parliamentary committee appointed to look into whether the government should enact a moratorium on deep-water drilling in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico-BP oil disaster, has ruled out the need for a halt to new projects before new regulations can be put in place. In an absurd and stunning turn of logic, the report discusses the myriad of reasons why such a moratorium<i> is necessary</i>, particularly in the UK, before concluding that it is not necessary. This freshman coalition government of the UK, by this report and an already long list of betrayals of the public interest, is demonstrating to statesmen and governments everywhere that constituents are not united in their willingness to defend their rights in the face of blatant misrepresentations and misallocations of public offices and resources.<br />
<br />
The report makes light that any clean up of a spill in the North Sea, whose conditions are much less calm than in the Gulf of Mexico, would be infinitely more difficult. The report suggests a number of regulations which should be enacted, both to safeguard against possible accidents as well as to prepare in the event of such accidents; also the report demonstrates how British law is murky as to who could be held legally accountable in the event of a spill. However, without imposing a moratorium, there is little impetus for government and business to work together to put such regulations in place. Companies such as BP and Chevron have been moving ahead with their projects in the North Sea with approvals and licences, furnished by Cameron's coalition government even while the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico was still hemorrhaging oil. <br />
<br />
Indeed, a veritably horrifying dark comedy is unfolding in the UK, which makes a mockery of ethics, representative government, and makes plain the arrogance of power. David Cameron's pledge to make the new coalition government the "greenest government ever" seems as conniving and opportunistic a statement as the installation on his home of a wind turbine, machines which he previously cynically referred to as "bird-blenders." <br />
<br />
<span id="goog_1338100794"></span><span id="goog_1338100795"></span><span id="goog_1338100799"></span><span id="goog_1338100800"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsiR48oVbedzZzPNGdrZbzQQ22bJCvPIJ7h_MnaP1gr3UZIKjmr0gsSUdU7nD0S2jqzR3imc8AEwYEoz2GepCEzuvHHZ8IUpdEsVZe46ksR45OTmvEfSBN9NsO8CEL4poRm5qw9i7axl4/s1600/800px-Deepwater_Horizon_offshore_drilling_unit_on_fire_2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsiR48oVbedzZzPNGdrZbzQQ22bJCvPIJ7h_MnaP1gr3UZIKjmr0gsSUdU7nD0S2jqzR3imc8AEwYEoz2GepCEzuvHHZ8IUpdEsVZe46ksR45OTmvEfSBN9NsO8CEL4poRm5qw9i7axl4/s320/800px-Deepwater_Horizon_offshore_drilling_unit_on_fire_2010.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Disaster, by US Coast Guard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>First, there are the appointments made by the incoming "austerity" Prime Minister Cameron who came to office after the Gulf Oil disaster began. Johann Hari reports that "The Prime Minister thought the best person to be his 'Cuts Tsar' was John Browne... he was the head of BP, until he was forced to resign in 2007 because he was shown to have lied in court testimony... Browne arrived at BP promising to do exactly what Cameron is promising to do to the British state... He said you could slice out great chunks of staff and provide the same standard of service. The workers he sacked included BP's specialist engineers... As the investigative reporter Tom Bower has written: 'Hundreds were fired and replaced by subcontractors... Browne ditched BP's in-house expertise'... The consequences were soon clear. BP's Texas City refinery blew up, killing 15 workers, and the official investigation found that BP 'tolerated serious deviations from safe operating practices, and apparent complacency toward serious safety process risks at each refinery.' Browne carried on cutting anyway, in a process Bower argues 'led directly to the current catastrophe' (Gulf spill)... the Prime Minister believes the best person to oversee his cuts agenda is an oilman whose last cuts destroyed the Gulf of Mexico... It's an inspiring model to apply to our schools, hospitals, and transport."<br />
<br />
There is the appointment of oilman Tim Eggar as a government liaison to oil companies. Eggar's recommendations helped shape budgetary and energy policy which, in spite of Cameron's public stance of fiscal restraint and green government, gave major tax breaks to oil companies and incentives to continued expansion of exploration and operations in the North Sea. <br />
<br />
Among other appointments, there is Conservative Cameron's appointment of Lib-Dem MP Vince Cable to 'Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills' as an ostensible gesture of unity in the formation of a coalition government between the Conservative and Lib-Dem parties. Cable is a former Shell executive from back in the day when Shell was working with the Nigerian military to dispossess landholders and murder dissident leaders such as Ken Saro-Wiwa. Recently he boldly stated to UK students that his Lib-Dems "didn't break a promise" in the wake of the trebling of their university fees, in spite of a Lib-Dem manifesto which plainly committed the Lib-Dems to explicitly opposing any changes to or increases of fees. Cable's portfolio and ministry was directly responsible for the new fee structure, and while feeling the public heat before the vote on the matter he insinuated he might abstain from voting in parliament on the new fees - which itself would still have been a denial of his party's platform to oppose changes to the fee structure - he went ahead and voted in favor of raising tuitions anyway. He is further chameleonic in his self re-branding as a left-wing politician, after years of supporting economic liberalisation in the form of proposals to privatise UK health insurance as well as Tony Blair's liberalisation of financial markets, which in turn helped to create bank failures and housing bubbles in the UK. <br />
<span id="goog_1338100809"></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/4837307544_022226e1b1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/4837307544_022226e1b1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sherwood Forest, by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/puptoes74/">Puptoes74</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Perhaps bolder than all these political maneuverings is the decision by Cameron's government to put all of Britain's forests up for sale, a move that has already seen private interests move in to purchase and fence in forests previously accessible to the public. Only a few regulatory changes stand in the way of these National treasures being razed to the ground for timber, development and a quick profit. Indeed, there seems little other purpose than that to purchasing the land, which in its current form can provide no income for the purchasers to recoup their investment. The irony of the famous Nottingham/Sherwood Forest being up for sale has not been lost on British journalists, who wonder aloud how Robin-Hood would react to having his hideout sold out from under him. <br />
<br />
Those following Cameron's government more closely would point out further betrayals, not just of single promises, but of the cornerstones of his party's and supporter's political ethics: Halting any increases to payments to the EU in a time of austerity; Protecting pensioners from increased costs of living; the list goes on. He has baldly favored his political and business allies at the expense of his honor and credibility among the votership. In spite of this, is it possible he believes he could win a second election?<br />
<br />
<span id="goog_1338100833"></span><span id="goog_1338100834"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2323/2288425352_139249f30c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2323/2288425352_139249f30c.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">English "Bird=blender" c. 1820, by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/mdpettitt/">Martin Pettitt</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The actions of the coalition government in the UK have been a bold rejection of the fear of being held accountable. They evidently know that they can say one thing plainly and just as plainly do the opposite. They apparently believe that the public will accept the Orwellian truth that 2 + 2 = 5. People of free will and democratic tendencies the world over have much to fear from David Cameron's government, who by example is, so far, demonstrating to the unscrupulous and unethical everywhere that people at large will mainly fail to defend themselves. Or perhaps it was he who inherited this knowledge from George Bush? Of course, lies and duplicity are nothing new to politics. But is it possible that it is such the norm, that the votership, still engaged at rates around 50% in English speaking nations, not only accepts this reality, but are more and more willing to cooperate with it? Those who are not can certainly tell it to the riot police in the streets.<br />
<br />
<br />
Read more about<br />
<br />
David Cameron's appointments and environmental policy:<br />
<a href="http://www.johannhari.com/2010/07/15/now-david-cameron-shafts-the-environment">http://www.johannhari.com/2010/07/15/now-david-cameron-shafts-the-environment</a><br />
<br />
UK parliament's report on deepwater drilling:<br />
<a href="http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/8376186">http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/8376186</a><br />
<br />
UK forests up for sale:<br />
<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-for-sale--camerons-green-credentials-2177929.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-for-sale--camerons-green-credentials-2177929.html</a><br />
<br />
Vince Cable:<br />
<a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/09/mehdi-hasan">http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/09/mehdi-hasan</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-39426845280975525862011-01-07T02:07:00.004-05:002011-01-26T07:48:53.642-05:00Tunisia and Algeria: North African States of UnrestReports of civil unrest and suicidal protests in Algeria and Tunisia these past two weeks are highlighting the precarious conditions under which many people across the world live: on the verge of starvation, hopelessly unemployed and frequently homeless. For decades these two neighboring nations have been considered relatively stable, if authoritarian African countries; with education and other economic indicators of prosperity on the rise. However, more recently circumstances for Algerians and Tunisians have taken a turn for the worse, and a generation of youth has taken to the streets, demanding the right to opportunity, employment and price stability.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8g08cwqG-Qh3dhh11kxo8Zp3mOHeaOnskvt_Jjs0M2meayuUXSieIxXoXMDdboIfQaOU_p1GxhknLYWdzDJ2wiEbtxsMVv6yfX214L_7XHEJju4c4BARAhFLR3dtJKkyWGcRzqMCJBRM/s1600/Zine_El_Abidine_Ben_Ali.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8g08cwqG-Qh3dhh11kxo8Zp3mOHeaOnskvt_Jjs0M2meayuUXSieIxXoXMDdboIfQaOU_p1GxhknLYWdzDJ2wiEbtxsMVv6yfX214L_7XHEJju4c4BARAhFLR3dtJKkyWGcRzqMCJBRM/s200/Zine_El_Abidine_Ben_Ali.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Perhaps the most shocking story emanating so far from North Africa is the story of a 26-year-old Tunisian graduate student, Mohammed Bouazizi, who died two days ago from his injuries after setting himself on fire on December 17th in an act of suicidal protest. Bouazizi, unable to find any meaningful work, had taken to selling fruits and vegetables out of a cart to earn money, until police confiscated his cart for lacking a vendor's permit. His hopeless decision to douse himself in gasoline and light himself on fire has been a call to arms for thousands of disenfranchised Tunisians, especially educated youths, who are facing the same circumstances as Bouazizi, and who are now protesting daily against a government which normally maintains strict social control through violent coercion. Bouazizi's funeral procession was attended by an estimated 5,000 people.<br />
<br />
There has been at least one other suicide-protest, two protesters were shot on Christmas-eve, and thousands of lawyers have gone on strike in solidarity with other lawyers who have been beaten, arrested and tortured by Tunisian police. Thousands of protesters are in the streets daily across the country. The Tunisian Federation of Labour Unions has seen their organised protests quashed by violent police. The Tunisian president Ben Ali, who has been president for 23 years and is usually 're-elected' with a 95%+ majority, has addressed the nation on television, saying protests are unacceptable and are bad for the economy, and that the law will be applied firmly.<br />
<br />
The situation in Algeria is roughly the same. Among the youth, hopes for a stable and prosperous future have fallen to a critical level, with food prices rising 20-30% in the past few days. Fuel and material prices are also rising sharply. Many Algerians cannot afford such increases in daily necessities as the cost of housing is so high: In 2003 an earthquake destroyed roughly one-million apartment units which have yet to be replaced, despite promises by the president and government. This lack of supply has caused the cost of available housing to rise significantly and has led to homelessness and crowded residences. According to the IMF, 75% of Algerians are under the age of 30, of whom 20% are unemployed. Actual unemployment rates are higher, and among the employed, under-employment and low wages are a major problem with so many Algerians competing for jobs. There has been looting of food outlets and stores closing in shopping districts.<br />
<br />
It remains to be seen how authorities will ultimately deal with the growing riots and civil unrest, in both Tunisia and Algeria. While the government of Tunisia has a large police force, and Algeria a well-armed and experienced anti-terrorism apparatus, neither government has faced such a spontaneous and popular uprising, according to many sources. Such is the fate of nations who fail to redress social inequality, poverty, and despair amongst their people.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>This short video by essiklibon taken from Youtube shows a typical protest in the tight streets of Tunisian cities.</i> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ml9fz-zZRfM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Please read more about the current situation in Algeria and Tunisia here:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/tunisia/2011/01/201114142223827361.html">http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/tunisia/2011/01/201114142223827361.html </a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20110106-tunisia-youth-north-africa-algeria-riots-protests-unemployment-food-prices">http://www.france24.com/en/20110106-tunisia-youth-north-africa-algeria-riots-protests-unemployment-food-prices </a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_447614153"><br />
</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=16982">http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=16982</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/riots-ensue-as-world-scrambles-to-contain-double-digit-food-inflation-1.335603">http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/riots-ensue-as-world-scrambles-to-contain-double-digit-food-inflation-1.335603</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011166020620356.html">http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011166020620356.html</a></div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-68020374651621895052011-01-04T01:03:00.001-05:002011-01-09T16:29:48.849-05:00Panem et Circenses South African Style<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1187/4729593375_19269211bf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1187/4729593375_19269211bf.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/wojo/">USA v Algeria, 2010 World Cup by jasonwhat</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>A recent Sports Illustrated article, <i>World Cup's Empty Legacy</i>, reports on the state of South Africa's sports infrastructure several months after this summer's final. While the 2010 World Cup was as much a success as any other in bringing together people from all corners of the globe, the piece helps to highlight a comedy of errors and lack of foresight which may in the end taint the image of FIFA and the other political bodies that organized the competition. Further study into the issue turns up questions as to deep corruption and even murder.<br />
<br />
In planning the construction of new stadiums, it is evident there was little consultation with local sports organisations who would in future be potential clients of the new facilities. Rugby teams have avoided moving out of their smaller venues to these larger stadiums for a variety of predictable economic reasons, while cricket teams cannot even begin to contemplate moving, as in a literally monumental demonstration of ineptitude, the new stadiums were designed and built so that the dimensions of a cricket field will not fit within the new stadium's playing areas. Cricket and Rugby are both more commercially successful in South Africa than soccer; a sport whose local teams count spectators in the hundreds, rather than the tens-of-thousands required to fill the new and refurbished venues. Many in South Africa are wondering how it is possible that these stadiums sit empty most nights, when $1.3 billion was spent alone on upgrading and building them. <br />
<br />
The Cape Town Stadium was built at Green Point on the site of an older much smaller stadium, after much controversy. Green Point is a middle-class suburb, whose cleanliness and relative modernity would make it more attractive to tourists attending the World Cup; however, many Green-Point residents opposed the building, and a wider group of locals wondered aloud why a soccer stadium would not be built much closer to the poorer neighborhoods which house Cape Town's actual soccer fans. The SI article, printed November 22, 2010, reveals that only 3 events have been held at the stadium since the close of the World Cup. Furthermore, it states that "the company due to take over the stadium's 30-year lease on Nov. 1 pulled out of the deal, forcing the city to cover maintenance costs of around $6 million a year."<br />
<br />
The reality of empty stadiums unable to cover the costs of their own maintenance is not exclusive to Cape Town. More than one stadium was built in rural areas whose populations will never support attendance of multiple thousands for regular domestic league sports events. South Africans, half of whom according to the UK paper The Independent survive on an average of 130 pounds per month, are today largely unaffected by their government's spending spree on the world's biggest party, in spite of how jubilant they may have been portrayed by international media during the event. The workers who built the stadiums, who were typically paid 19 pounds per week, must be wondering where the $1.3billion in stadium construction and refurbishment actually went. While the South African townships and taxpayers are left with the construction debts and maintenance costs of the stadiums, FIFA had bagged $1.6billion from advertising and other sources before the tournament even began, profits which the South African government treasury was excluded from sharing in. Local activists have accused FIFA, South African officials, and contractors of mafia style collusion in bullying opponents and municipal representatives toward their ends, with the murder of whistleblower Jimmy Mohlala being a prime example; a web search of this name reveals innumerable theories as to the sponsors of his assassination.<br />
<br />
Politicians and FIFA representatives promised an event which would help to unify Africa and the world, which would boost Africa's economy and help to modernize and make South Africa a destination of international interest. Instead the story of the logistics of the 2010 World Cup has, for many, reinforced the image of African leaders as corrupt and detached from their people, as well as the stereotype that rich white Europeans have no interest in Africa beyond economic exploitation. With Russia and Qatar, two nations badly lacking in infrastructure and sports facilities, recently named as hosts for upcoming World Cups amid allegations of bribery and corrupt vote trading, the question remains: Is the World Cup foremost a celebration of the world's most popular and transcending sport? Or does its existence depend on the ability of certain elites to enrich themselves cynically at the expense of fans who truly abide by the ideals of harmony, unity and fair-play? <br />
<br />
<br />
Google search for Jimmy Mohlala:<br />
<a href="http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&expIds=17259,27757&xhr=t&q=jimmy+mohlala&cp=9&pf=p&sclient=psy&aq=0&aqi=&aql=&oq=jimmy+moh&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=2c0b2ef780091f9e">http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&expIds=17259,27757&xhr=t&q=jimmy+mohlala&cp=9&pf=p&sclient=psy&aq=0&aqi=&aql=&oq=jimmy+moh&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=2c0b2ef780091f9e</a><br />
<br />
Sports Illustrated <i>World Cup's Empty Legacy</i> article:<br />
<a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1177591/index.htm">http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1177591/index.htm</a><br />
<br />
Video:<br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibAthe-_5fI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibAthe-_5fI</a><br />
<br />
More links:<br />
<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/south-africas-world-cup-venues-are-white-elephants-1840958.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/south-africas-world-cup-venues-are-white-elephants-1840958.html</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10650784">http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10650784</a> <br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://special.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/sports/25197365-41/rugby-south-cup-stadiums-africa.csp">http://special.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/sports/25197365-41/rugby-south-cup-stadiums-africa.csp</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/13/world-cup-stadiums-empty-seats">http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/13/world-cup-stadiums-empty-seats</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://fourfourtwo.com/news/worldcup2010/40888/default.aspx">http://fourfourtwo.com/news/worldcup2010/40888/default.aspx</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://2010.mg.co.za/article/2010-05-14-no-one-wants-to-air-2010-documentary">http://2010.mg.co.za/article/2010-05-14-no-one-wants-to-air-2010-documentary</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-36570435884227382772010-12-22T15:20:00.003-05:002011-01-02T16:13:58.587-05:00Afghanistan: War, Power and Illusion<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4065/4323940929_4e7d0ed323_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4065/4323940929_4e7d0ed323_b.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Canadian LAVs, Afghanistan, by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/isafmedia/">isafmedia</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>This week, Project Censored has released its annual list of top 25 censored news stories in a volume entitled <i>Censored 2011: The Top Censored Stories of 2009-2010.</i> An astounding article published by The Nation on November 11, 2009; <i>How the US funds the Taliban, </i>resurfaces as the main source for the 10<sup>th</sup> ranked censored story on the list. Perhaps Project Censored and The Nation, and as usual the general public, have misunderstood the implications of what this story uncovers; that the West’s war and nation-building effort in Afghanistan is an exercise of utter self-deception and a complete failure. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Recent coverage of the war in Afghanistan has surrounded revelations from the USG cables leaked by Wikileaks, which paint an endless landscape of deceptions, divided loyalties, corruption, depravity and laughable optimism in the face of virtual anarchy. The incremental release of these documents by Wikileaks provides an ongoing stream of tidbits and fodder for headlines and public debate, especially as they concern Afghanistan; however, they so far have failed to create the mass of public interest and scrutiny required in the West to bring an end to the war. That is a tragedy in light of the ongoing situation described a year ago in the Nation, which in spite of official representations, effectively demonstrates that NATO and the Karzai Government exert no authority anywhere in Afghanistan outside their fortified bases and government offices.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">The article is entitled <i>How the US funds the Taliban, </i>and examines two sides of the same coin: “The first is the insider dealing that determines who wins and who loses in Afghan business, and the second is the troubling mechanism by which "private security" ensures that the US supply convoys traveling these ancient trade routes aren't ambushed by insurgents.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">While the corruption that defines the first of these realities is worth examination and condemnation, it is the implications of the second which are inescapable and final in their depth. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></div><div class="MsoNormal">The piece begins with a short bio of Ahmad Rateb Popal who is cousin to Hamid Karzai, a former Taliban official, mujahedeen fighter and a convicted drug trafficker who was released from Prison in the US in 1997. He is now, along with his convicted drug-trafficking brother Rashid Popal, principally in control of the Watan Group, which is a consortium of communications, logistics and security companies in Afghanistan. The Popal brothers are just the article’s introduction to the characters which fill positions of official and effective power in Afghanistan: “Welcome to the wartime contracting bazaar in Afghanistan. It is a virtual carnival of improbable characters and shady connections, with former CIA officials and ex-military officers joining hands with former Taliban and mujahedeen to collect US government funds in the name of the war effort.”</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Private security firms in Afghanistan are most importantly charged in the defence of highway convoys which supply NATO’s network of bases with every last thing needed in the war effort; food to fuel to ammunition to toilet paper. “The epicenter is Bagram Air Base, just an hour north of Kabul, from which virtually everything in Afghanistan is trucked to the outer reaches of what the Army calls "the Battlespace"--that is, the entire country.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2759/4397394707_e4221aa8a2_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="194" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2759/4397394707_e4221aa8a2_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Private Afghan Security, by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/isafmedia/">isafmedia</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">The article states, “The real secret to trucking in Afghanistan is ensuring security on the perilous roads, controlled by warlords, tribal militias, insurgents and Taliban commanders.” It quotes an American executive: “The Army is basically paying the Taliban not to shoot at them. It is Department of Defense money;” Project Manager Mike Hanna, for trucking company Afghan American Army Services: “You are paying the people in the local areas--some are warlords, some are politicians in the police force--to move your trucks through... We're basically being extorted. Where you don't pay, you're going to get attacked. We just have our field guys go down there, and they pay off who they need to;” A veteran American manager who has worked as a soldier and a private security contractor in the field: “What we are doing is paying warlords associated with the Taliban, because none of our security elements is able to deal with the threat;” Transportation entrepreneur: “Two Taliban is enough... One in the front and one in the back. You cannot work otherwise. Otherwise it is not possible.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Apparently the term ‘private security company’ has in Afghanistan become something of a euphamism for Warlords and militia drawing from the deep well of Western taxpayer cash ‘intended’ to fund the stabilisation and reconstruction of the country. “Every warlord has his security company,” is the way one executive put it to the article’s author, Aram Roston. These ‘companies’ run by Afghan strongmen who find themselves in the favour of the corrupt Karzai administration, having divided loyalties and ulterior motives, must themselves hand over money to local powers to make the way secure along this or that highway. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">These private firms are so mistrusted by the US and Karzai, both because of their affiliations with the enemy and their own private interests which conflict with those of the Karzai family, are prohibited by law from arming themselves beyond AK-47 rifles. In the face of Rocket-Propelled-Grenade attacks from insurgents targeting massive caravans of trucks, this seems much like trying to use brass-knuckles to protect a pack of antelope from attacking lions.<br />
<br />
This problem is universal in Afghanistan, extending even to the most important highway there, aptly named highway 1. The previously mentioned Watan group, run by the Popal brothers, is charged with securing this highway, the virtual jugular of the West's war complex in Afghanistan, which runs between Kabul and Bagram Airforce Base in the east; south-west toward Kandahar and the southern half of the country. According to the article's author, "Watan's secret weapon to protect American supplies heading through Kandahar is a man named Commander Ruhullah. Said to be a handsome man in his 40s, Ruhullah has an oddly high-pitched voice. He wears traditional <i>salwar kameez</i> and a Rolex watch. He rarely, if ever, associates with Westerners. He commands a large group of irregular fighters with no known government affiliation, and his name, security officials tell me, inspires obedience or fear in villages along the road. It is a dangerous business, of course: until last spring Ruhullah had competition--a one-legged warlord named Commander Abdul Khaliq. He was killed in an ambush. So Ruhullah is the surviving road warrior for that stretch of highway. According to witnesses, he works like this: he waits until there are hundreds of trucks ready to convoy south down the highway. Then he gets his men together, setting them up in 4x4s and pickups. Witnesses say he does not limit his arsenal to AK-47s but uses any weapons he can get. His chief weapon is his reputation. And for that, Watan is paid royally, collecting a fee for each truck that passes through his corridor. The American trucking official told me that Ruhullah charges $1,500 per truck to go to Kandahar. Just 300 kilometers."<br />
<br />
This is clearly an extortion racket which reveals the true balance of power in Afghanistan, with the various and shadowy forces at large in the country playing the role of competing mafias and NATO that of the fearful barbershop owner, dutifully paying 'protection' money to the people who would otherwise pop his kneecaps and put him out of business. In this strange case the Barber contends publicly that he has the extortionists on the run. </div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">The overarching fact is that the West’s ostensible war and reconstruction effort is impossibly dependent on collusion with the forces it is pretending to fight. The need for local payoffs 8 years after the war began points to a reality that the US, NATO, and the Karzai government they support have established Zero effective control over the country outside of the fortified city-bases of Kabul, Kandahar, and a precious few others. This fact is so simple it is difficult to conceptualize. The issue is not that paying the enemy is against principle, nor that it bolsters the enemy’s resources and perception of itself, but that it is in fact direct proof of failure. To what purpose are any efforts in Afghanistan, when Western armies have not even secured the single-most important and fundamental logistical objective of warfare, which is to secure supply lines? NATO forces have no logistical control of Afghanistan. They cannot even eat without the approval of those they pay off. Is there in fact a war there? Or are NATO’s forces just part of a complex, factionalised Western/Afghan kleptocracy, wrestling with itself as its parties secure their interests and consolidate their power against each other? The military goals of the West seem quite unclear given that its forces cannot move anywhere without corrupting themselves by paying the enemy. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If the publicly-stated objective of the West’s mission is in fact peace, security and freedom, it would seem that this would <i>begin</i> by securing freedom of movement and safe passage throughout the country. Freedom of movement is paramount to building a free nation where goods, services and ideas can reach out and address the poverty of mind, means and opportunity that exists in Afghanistan’s isolated countryside. If this has not been achieved, than what has been done? Rather, there is a far-flung network of multi-billion-dollar bases providing security in provincial capitals for unpopular and fraudulently elected governments; completely dependent on payoffs to unscrupulous and opaque power structures for the maintenance of supply lines. One can only speculate as to the exact nature of the conflicting goals existing in the strange association of interests at work in Afghanistan; an association which ties together a dizzying myriad of Western government policy and taxpayer money, billion dollar contracts, executives, bureaucrats and politicians; Afghanistan’s proximity to Iran, Russia, Pakistan and its geopolitical importance as a bottleneck for Central Asian Trade routes; as well as its mujahedeen, the Taliban, Tribalism and the Karzai family. Western polls show a majority, even in militant America, that public opinion is against the war. To what depths must Afghanistan’s interminable corruption, murderous war, poverty and the (sometimes self-) deceptions of Western officials descend before the Western public not only oppose, but refuse to cooperate in it? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Read 'The Nation' article and more:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/how-us-funds-taliban?page=0,3">http://www.thenation.com/article/how-us-funds-taliban?page=0,3</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/story/2010/04/27/national-payingtheenemy.html">http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/story/2010/04/27/national-payingtheenemy.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://rotikapdamakaan.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/the-top-25-censored-news-stories-of-2009-2010/">http://rotikapdamakaan.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/the-top-25-censored-news-stories-of-2009-2010/</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/10-us-funds-and-supports-the-taliban/">http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/10-us-funds-and-supports-the-taliban/</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-16854332150310409722010-12-17T00:52:00.008-05:002010-12-18T11:02:11.073-05:00Russia, Violence and Protest: What it is and what it is not<div class="MsoNormal">Reports and video footage of violent demonstration and criminality by ultra-nationalist and racist organisations in Russia this week are forming an interesting juxtaposition to recent political protests in the West. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If one is interested in what ‘violent thuggery’ actually looks like, witness this week’s outburst of unrest in Moscow: Rampaging gangs seeking racist revenge against non-Slavic Russians after Moscow police failed to hold in custody four suspects in the murder of a Moscow Spartak football hooligan, who died in a post-match brawl with immigrants from the North Caucasus region. These ‘thugs’- in the true sense of the word- are affiliated with nationalist ‘football firms’ and are quite used to attacking police at football games as a matter of sport. The firms collectively have thousands of members across the country and are loosely organised and armed: mostly with edge weapons; sticks and truncheons; in some cases tazers. They have over the past many days readily engaged police en-masse in Moscow and attacked bystanders who were of Central Asian or similar ethnic extraction. An ethnic-Kyrgiz man has been stabbed to death in revenge, and dozens of innocent ethnic minorities were ruthlessly beaten by the crowds, videos showing police attempting to <i>protect</i> bystanders, not <i>incriminate</i> them by kettling them with demonstrators for hours until they are provoked into active resistance by hunger, exhaustion, confusion, claustrophobia and police taunts, as has been seen in Pittsburgh, Toronto, and very recently London. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The scenes in Moscow reveal what it looks like when police attempt to contain and quell throngs of actually violent citizens, not the notional ‘thugs’ of Western political description. Pale in comparison are the so-called ‘violent protests’ in the West; rather the recent demonstrations in London and Toronto set next to the type of violence in Moscow (as seen in the video embedded below- watch from 0:40) seemingly depict Western police as aggressive, well-trained and highly equipped paramilitary forces acting on marching orders to illegally suppress freedom of movement, expression and peaceful demonstration.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/X8wj_69OkHo/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/X8wj_69OkHo&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/X8wj_69OkHo&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
The ‘football firms’ of Russia that brought the fight to Moscow this week are largely populated by unemployed or otherwise economically marginalised ex-soldiers steeped in a culture of racism and violence; while the demonstrators jailed and humiliated in Toronto were a mish-mash of peace and anti-poverty activists, political agitators, trade unionists, students, professionals and public employees. There are virtually no women in the ranks of the Moscow rioters; perhaps the fairer sex in Russia refuses to take part in such sinister activities. In contrast, thousands of peaceful female demonstrators hit the streets of London and Toronto, scores of whom were illegally detained, strip searched and sexually humiliated; in some cases by female police indoctrinates. So much for feminism. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Western leaders have taken to characterizing political demonstrations in their countries as ‘violent thuggery’. In light of the actual ‘violent thuggery’ witnessed in Moscow this week, this terminology seems a crude semantic deception for media consumption, considering there is virtually never intent of <i>violence</i> on the part of Western demonstrators, only occasional acts of <i>vandalism</i> by ideologically motivated dissenters and the occasional dilettante or working class person feeling at odds with the system. There is a well established legal differentiation in the West between breaking heads and breaking windows, a distinction which should never be blurred. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The BBC reports: “Simon Hardy, of the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts, said police "kettled" and beat some protesters and then accused anyone who tried to resist of being violent,” while the police justified such tactics, saying that “officers acted with professionalism and selflessness and that, if they had not, the consequences would have been ‘unthinkable’.” (Watch kettling at the Toronto G20 Protests in the video embedded below) Apparently within the realm of ‘thinkability’ is the provocation of thousands of demonstrators by truncheon beatings, mounted police charges and overturning disabled protesters in their wheelchairs. In Russia, there is no organised statement of purpose or ethic among the perpetrators of the violence beyond confused bigotry, while interestingly Vladimir Putin is on record admonishing both the criminality in Moscow as well as the negligence of the police in letting the murder suspects go free; the event that sparked the violence. While the politics of relations between the government and the right-wing football firms-cum-street militias is fraught with allegations of corruption and social subterfuge, there is a clear distinction between the government’s recognition of racism and social problems in Russia and Western governments’ us vs them attitude; their blind support for and unwillingness to inquire into police abuses, and their complete denial of any validity in the concerns of its citizens who are willing to put their personal safety at risk to make their voices heard. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/280hrwKUqKg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
All arguments and justifications of belligerents aside, there is clear and immense contrast between the hemorrhaging violence in Russia and the demonstrations typical of Western protest movements, in spite of the similar language that media and government outlets use to characterize them; ie. 'criminal' 'violent' 'hard-core', etc. Furthermore, Russian police appear decidedly less confrontational set next to Western police forces, who appear increasingly prepared, trained, armed and willing to employ violence against non-violent demonstrators and witnesses, for no other obvious reason than to discourage corroborators and media onlookers, to silence public opposition to government policies and to quash expressions of democratic freedom which manifest at peaceful anti-war, anti-globalisation, anti-privatisation and anti-austerity demonstrations. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><i>The first embedded video above depicts at 0:40 Russian police corralling minorities at a van who have been beaten by the mobs, who eventually chase them down and continue to attack the bewildered and defenceless victims even while they are in protective custody. Also depicted is a pitched battle between the rioters and police. The video was obtained from youtube, and can be found at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8wj_69OkHo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8wj_69OkHo</a>, where links to other videos can be located. The second video depicts 'kettling' by Canadian Police of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators in a large square and the tightening of a kettle around a few dozen others. This video is also hosted on youtube, at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=280hrwKUqKg&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=280hrwKUqKg&feature=related</a></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<br />
<u>One story from inside the smaller Kettle depicted in the video above:</u><br />
<a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/a-look-inside-the-g20-kettle-at-queen-and-spadina/article1787949/page3/">http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/a-look-inside-the-g20-kettle-at-queen-and-spadina/article1787949/page3/</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Read recent reports about the violence:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">December 09, 2010</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/article/police-let-furious-fans-rally/425927.html">http://www.themoscowtimes.com/mobile/article/police-let-furious-fans-rally/425927.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">December 14, 2010</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/russia/101213/soccer-hooligans-far-right-violence">http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/russia/101213/soccer-hooligans-far-right-violence</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/12/14/36832719.html">http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/12/14/36832719.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">December 16, 2010</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4705957">http://news.in.msn.com/international/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4705957</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://en.rian.ru/russia/20101216/161804042.html">http://en.rian.ru/russia/20101216/161804042.html</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-78376048781093762272010-12-16T04:38:00.003-05:002011-06-28T10:06:56.654-04:00Riots and Disparity: Rome, London and TorontoInternational headlines in the last two weeks have reported a massive amount of social unrest and unsettling news across the developed world, including riots and economic data which on the surface may appear discordant and unrelated, but are united as part of larger political and economic trends. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCW2wMcq0bAFskf_w_2VpUu3aZT5ApKTZc1jZJphVlRuGacyPjTh3I3o58vU7d0j3v_dEac9c17S-_l4Ma8p3-lN4lqO0rKEQ4BRQZPMD0I1HlHVCh3YA1os1zxnSS_WY2IAstG5Km2eY/s1600/feesprotest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCW2wMcq0bAFskf_w_2VpUu3aZT5ApKTZc1jZJphVlRuGacyPjTh3I3o58vU7d0j3v_dEac9c17S-_l4Ma8p3-lN4lqO0rKEQ4BRQZPMD0I1HlHVCh3YA1os1zxnSS_WY2IAstG5Km2eY/s1600/feesprotest.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fees Protest, by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/68713086@N00/">Andrea_F</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Days of protests and rioting in London have seen the metropolitan police employing illegal crowd control tactics such as kettling, assault, and the use of horseback police charging at canter to provoke demonstrators who could not disperse to areas already cordoned off by police. The protesters themselves have attacked government buildings and corporate franchise outlets, as well as molesting Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, who demonstrated an incredible lack of forethought in their failure to associate themselves with the objects of the 50,000 protesters’ anger when they ventured into downtown London for an evening at the theatre, their car being attacked with billiard balls, sticks and paint amid shouts of “Shame... Your government fucked us,” and “Off with their heads!” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1255/5166751916_792b494bf0_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1255/5166751916_792b494bf0_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/andymoss461/">Andrew Moss Photography</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">The London ‘fees riots’ have been precipitated by public anger over the government’s decision to allow university tuitions to rise by as much as threefold, or more precisely, the betrayal of campaign pledges and promises made by the Liberal-Democratic Party to oppose any attempt by a government to increase tuition fees. This week the party made a fantastic U turn by abandoning this key point in their manifesto, and providing the swing vote the government needed to push the measure through; in so doing, perhaps a generation of middle-low income youth have been simultaneously denied an affordable post-secondary education and disabused of the notion that their government functions as a credible democracy. With the perception that they have lost any means of redress or democratic expression and that the government exists to serve financial and corporate institutions after tax-payer funded bailouts, the students have lashed out against government and corporate property, and responded with violence against police who have attempted to pacify demonstrators with violence of their own. While British papers polemicise as to whether the police and/or demonstrators have been criminally violent, it is not difficult to understand on a sociological level how such a reaction could occur when teens and twenty-somethings have had the image of their own futures swept out from under them by a duplicitous group of politicians. After all, revolution is for the young. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/82/218322066_c48984c1ab_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/82/218322066_c48984c1ab_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bandana Bianco by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/surfstyle/">surfstyle</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Similarly, riots in Rome erupted this week after Silvio Berlusconi managed somehow to maintain his control of the office of Prime Minister by defeating 2 no-confidence votes, in the Senate and lower-house. Berlusconi has long been something of a controversial playboy figure in Italian politics, he is a multi-billionaire, ranked by Forbes as the world’s 74<sup>th</sup> richest man, and has always been unabashed and opinionated, endearing himself to a wide base of the Italian population; his tenure as Prime Minister being the second-longest in Italian history. However, many Italians, have throughout his career decried his virtual monopoly of control over the state and private media, as well as his many moves to change Italian law in his favour; in one instance he changed a statute of limitation to quash conflict-of-interest charges levelled against him. He has employed his personal fortune to mire his opponents in law-suits, more recently to allegedly hire dozens of girls for a bunga-bunga-orgy-party. His office has lied to police in the attempt to get a 17 year-old belly dancer/prostitute released from custody, with the absurd story that she was a relative of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and his wife divorced him last year stating publicly that she “cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors” and “is not well.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3128/2401071702_7b52ed7e21_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3128/2401071702_7b52ed7e21_m.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Va fa'n... by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/spiritolibero85/">Alessio85</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Beyond the litany of credible allegations of corruption and solicitation of prostitution spanning his career, which one must wonder if he has throughout maintained his office only by his control of Italian media, there are the recent revelations in the leaked cables by Wikileaks that Berlusconi has moved in an attempt to curb freedom of expression on the Internet in Italy to silence his critics; that he has personally profited enormously through his nation’s rapprochement and energy deals with Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and that his long hours of partying have a narcoleptic effect on his meetings with US diplomats. That Italy’s elected government, in light of the very recent Wikileaks revelations and prostitution scandals, would still somehow find reason to vote in confidence of him as leader of their nation is too much for his most belligerent opponents who no longer believe they can find a voice in parliament, in the senate, or in the press. As such, they have chosen to cast their votes in the streets through violence and destruction, in rioting the likes of which has not been seen in Italy in “over 30 years.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/4737852252_12b5109209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/4737852252_12b5109209.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Toronto's Queen st. by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/gandalfcunningham/">C.G. Cunningham</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">While many media outlets would like to describe these violent protests in Rome and London as mindless apolitical thuggery, as was the mantra of major Canadian media outlets after G20 protests in Toronto this summer, it is much more likely that it is an expression of a deep feeling of political disenfranchisement. The protests in Canada saw major abuses of power and a total abridgement of people’s rights to free movement, peaceful assembly, security of the person and due process. Nearly all ‘charges’ against protesters in Toronto who were jailed have been thrown out, and there are now multiple investigations into police wrongdoings. The protests on the second day of the G20 meetings swelled as the residents of Toronto spilled out onto the streets as they sensed that their rights were being trampled on; not by the IMF; the World Bank or the Group of 20; but by the Toronto Police and the other anti-riot squads and intelligence squads running amok in their city, indiscriminately searching and arresting people wearing "suspicious" or dark clothing, kettling areas of the city without warning and trapping peaceful demonstrators and people going about normal business. Stories of beatings and sexual intimidation by police abound. Reporters, video journalists and accredited media personnel, even from the CBC, were attacked by police, having their equipment seized and destroyed in an ostensible effort to control information on what was happening. Many Canadians travelled to Toronto simply to protest the government’s eagerness to spend $1billion on security for the meetings while other social spending was being cut. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/4754346466_f33d23c4b9_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/4754346466_f33d23c4b9_z.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Protest for Inquest by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/toronto_democracy/">My Toronto Democracy</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">Though it may be too cold to protest in Canada now as winter approaches, there must be further consternation among all who have read a recent report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which discusses the continuing trend of rising income disparity in Canada since the 1970s. As the top earning Canadian households continue to earn a greater and greater share of dollars, the result can only be a growing perception amongst lower earners that they are not getting their fair shake. As long as a coalition government between Canada’s two major parties continues to support policies which encourage the trend of increasing disparity, which favours a numerical minority, so will there be a growing perception amongst the majority that the government is in service of that wealthy minority class, is unresponsive to the will of the majority, and that there is an erosion of democracy and social justice. The disparity trend is the same in the US. After the G20 summit in Toronto, it has also become public knowledge that to join a group which seeks redress against the government’s seeming anti-democratic leanings is to find oneself on a ‘security list’, and that should you present yourself at a public protest while being on such a list, you may be targeted for kidnapping and wrongful confinement in makeshift jails for the duration of the demonstrations, as happened to several activists who found themselves on government and police watch-lists. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The British government has attacked its own future by making it harder for its citizens to educate themselves; they have stunted social mobility, and entrenched class divisions through this recent measure which was enacted in a gross and anti-democratic breach of public trust. In Italy, a section of society would rather see Rome burn than accept the continued rule of their philandering and self-interested Prime-Minister. Canadians and Americans are waking up to the fact that regardless of which party has formed their governments, they are facing a fourth consecutive decade of erosion of social services and increases in wealth and income disparity. The populations of all these nations are watching their governments pay less and less attention to the will of their people, and more and more money to security and prison firms, policing and domestic surveillance initiatives. Many view this as evidence that the protests such as we have seen in the past weeks in London and Rome, and this summer and Toronto are fruitless. However, I’m afraid to imagine what shape the world would take in the total absence of such protests, should we proud inheritors of western democracies, whose freedoms and institutions were paid for in blood and revolution, become wholly subservient and meekly offer a carte-blanche to those who would take it.<br />
<br />
More reading:<br />
<br />
<br />
London's Fees Protests<br />
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/12/riots-fire-anger-defining-political-moment">http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/dec/12/riots-fire-anger-defining-political-moment</a><br />
<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/footage-shows-protester-dragged-from-wheelchair-2159570.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/footage-shows-protester-dragged-from-wheelchair-2159570.html</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Riots in Rome<br />
<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338461/Berlusconi-win-sparks-violence-Rome-survives-just-THREE-votes.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338461/Berlusconi-win-sparks-violence-Rome-survives-just-THREE-votes.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/silvio-berlusconis-confid_n_796566.html#s207347">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/silvio-berlusconis-confid_n_796566.html#s207347</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Toronto G20 protests<br />
<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/07/10/g20-rally-toronto-independent-review.html">http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/07/10/g20-rally-toronto-independent-review.html</a><br />
<a href="http://littlealexinwonderland.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/report-toronto-police-molested-female-g-20-captives-video/">http://littlealexinwonderland.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/report-toronto-police-molested-female-g-20-captives-video/ </a><br />
<a href="http://www.g20justice.com/">http://www.g20justice.com/</a><br />
<br />
Increasing Canadian Income Disparity<br />
<a href="http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/rise-canadas-richest-1">http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/rise-canadas-richest-1</a><br />
<a href="http://www.obj.ca/Canada---World/2010-12-01/article-2008311/Canadas-wealthiest-breaking-new-frontiers-in-income-disparity%3A-report/1">http://www.obj.ca/Canada---World/2010-12-01/article-2008311/Canadas-wealthiest-breaking-new-frontiers-in-income-disparity%3A-report/1</a><br />
<br />
</div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-25807793738477925822010-12-08T11:10:00.002-05:002010-12-18T11:18:19.269-05:00Drones, Torture, Rendition: Democratic Values?A Huffington Post column by Johann Hari summarizes certain revelations stemming from the leaked USG diplomatic cables by Wikileaks. The piece posits that Julian Assange's efforts have made the world safer and are a boon to US National Security, that a better educated public with proof of government wrongdoings can better bring its government to account.<br />
<br />
Hari's column touches on a cable which proves the US Armed Forces were operating in Yemen while denying it publicly, and references an article which discusses 'Reaper' or 'Predator' drone attacks in Pakistan. Drone attacks there are a very messy situation; Pakistani officials publicly deny their tacit approval of US drone attacks within their territory, rejecting them as a violation of their sovereignty and of dubious value and causing massive civilian casualties. According to Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit, drone attacks "are having long-term negative consequences.” Indeed, the Pakistani and American governments likely will suffer "long-term negative consequences" from the resulting radicalization of Muslims when they employ drone tactics such as attacking a funeral procession; waiting for a time until villagers come out from cover after the attack in search for survivors and to pray for the newly slain; then attacking again. Certainly they make bitter enemies of the villagers who lose their homes and family members in such wanton displays of imperial might; people who may have nothing left to do to support themselves except to take up arms, if it does not generally galvanize the entire population against them, to whom the notion that US forces are in the region to restore security and human rights must seem something of a Hitlerian joke.<br />
<br />
The article also highlights pressure the US Government exerted on Germany to quash an investigation into the rendition of an innocent man, Khaled El-Masri, who was mistaken for an insurgent with a similar name. El-Masri was kidnapped from Europe and brought to the CIA's infamous 'Salt Pit', a secret interrogation facility in Afghanistan. A Harper's Magazine article, <i>The El-Masri Cable,</i> describes the treatment he received: "Despite <i><u>El</u></i>-Masri’s protests that he was not <i><u>a</u>l</i>-Masri, he was beaten, stripped naked, shot full of drugs, given an enema and a diaper, and flown first to Baghdad and then to the notorious “salt pit,” the CIA’s secret interrogation facility in Afghanistan. At the salt pit, he was repeatedly beaten, drugged, and subjected to a strange food regime that he supposed was part of an experiment that his captors were performing on him. Throughout this time, El-Masri insisted that he had been falsely imprisoned, and the CIA slowly established that he was who he claimed to be. Over many further weeks of bickering over what to do, a number of CIA figures apparently argued that, though innocent, the best course was to continue to hold him incommunicado because he 'knew too much.'" While this kidnapping, torture, sexual violation and starvation of an innocent man had already been revealed, the leaked cables show the US Government's expectation of impunity for its agents who execute these illegal actions in sovereign foreign nations; in this case, Germany's unwillingness to cooperate by dropping charges in the matter against 13 USG agents is met with threats from US diplomats.<br />
<br />
Hari's article points to other abuses by Western governments and the lies they tell their people to cover it up. He expresses outrage in the poignant observation that "There is a squalid little irony when you see people who are literally bombing innocent civilians every day feverishly accuse a man (Julian Assange) who has never touched a weapon in his life of being 'covered in blood.'" He names Western governments as the prime threats to their own population's security, and suggests that the unmasking of this hypocrisy must lead to positive change, stability and security. What will the view of the Muslim and 3rd world be, if Western 'democracies' fail to address the abuse of power by their governments? Al Qaeda already names Western voters as sponsors of the military occupation of Palestine and the general misery of the third world, offering that ignorance is not an excuse for imperialism. Many amongst the populations of the world's Muslim nations already view Westerners, especially Americans, as ignorant, militarist and corrupt materialists. Now that Western tax-payers and voters cannot hide behind the veil of ignorance, how will the world view of Western 'democracies' change, should they fail to expel the ruling classes who have sown war, death, torture and poverty in their people's name? What is the risk that Westerners come to be seen as knowingly complicit in the heinous crimes of their governments by their 'democratically' expressed unwillingness to stop these crimes, let alone rectify and bring their authors to justice? Whatever blood Julian Assange and the American government have on them, it is more and more smeared onto each of us, here in Canada, in the US and in Europe.<br />
<br />
<br />
Read the Johann Hari- Huffington Post article here:<br />
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/julian-assange-has-made-u_b_793504.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/julian-assange-has-made-u_b_793504.html</a><br />
<br />
More on Drones by Johann Hari and others:<br />
<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann--hari-obamas-robot-wars-endanger-us-all-2106931.html">http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann--hari-obamas-robot-wars-endanger-us-all-2106931.html</a><br />
<a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/23/at-least-65-killed-as-us-drones-attack-south-waziristan-funeral-procession/">http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/23/at-least-65-killed-as-us-drones-attack-south-waziristan-funeral-procession/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.qatar-tribune.com/data/20101202/content.asp?section=pakistan1_3">http://www.qatar-tribune.com/data/20101202/content.asp?section=pakistan1_3</a><br />
<a href="http://geo.tv/6-24-2009/44711.htm">http://geo.tv/6-24-2009/44711.htm</a><br />
<br />
Harper's Magazine on El-Masri Rendition:<br />
<a href="http://harpers.org/archive/2010/11/hbc-90007831">http://harpers.org/archive/2010/11/hbc-90007831</a><br />
<br />
BBC on American intervention in Yemen:<br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11918037">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11918037</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-47100630556586835942010-12-01T22:32:00.004-05:002010-12-01T23:05:23.201-05:00Peas in a Water Pod: China, India and Bangladesh; Atlanta, Alabama and Florida<div class="MsoNormal">Two Economist articles of recent publication draw attention to the imminent threat that the availability of water, or the lack thereof, poses to social, political and economic stability. <i>A Himalayan rivalry, Aug 21; </i>and <i>Chattahoochee blues, Sept 18; </i>describe current and potential disputes on both domestic and international levels. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In discussing the extremely complex nature of relations between India and China, <i>A Himalayan rivalry</i> briefly describes the recent Sino-Indian war which saw China attacking India while the USSR and USA were preoccupied with the 1962 October Cuban missile crisis, with China occupying disputed areas in Arunachal and Kashmir for roughly a month before peace and withdrawal. The long border between the two countries was, in 1962, a demarcation with no real geographical, historical or even official basis after more than a century of gerrymandering by the British and Russian empires competing for control of central Asia. To a great extent it remains so today, and its obscurity mirrors the current relationship of the two giants, whose trade has increased from “$270m in 1990” to an expected “$60 billion this year,” yet whose militaries still manoeuvre along the borders; China making “huge improvements... in its border infrastructure, enabling a far swifter mobilisation of Chinese troops there,” and India announcing “last year that it would deploy another 60,000 troops to Arunachal,” a border province at the eastern end of India, most of which is claimed by China as “Chinese South Tibet.” </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4944474231_05fda6604c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="178" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4944474231_05fda6604c.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yarlung Tsangpo River, Tibet - by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/globaltrotters/">Fighting Irish 1977</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Arunachal is not only a new home to 60,000 Indian troops, but also a province through which the Brahmaputra River flows; from Tibet to Bangladesh and into the Indian ocean; sustaining millions of Indians and Bangladeshis. According to <i>The Economist</i>, “China appears to have reasserted its demand for most of India’s far north-eastern state,” (Arunachal) having made diplomatic mischief with citizenship and visas for Arunachalis and by objecting to Asian Development Bank loans to India “on the basis that some of the money was earmarked for irrigation schemes in Arunachal.” Whether or not China will have Arunachal remains to be seen; however, China will have its water. A possible motivation for the objection to the above mentioned financing of irrigation projects in India is that should China begin diverting water from the Brahmaputra, the impact would be much more measurable in its effects on agriculture and industry, thereby strengthening India’s claims of damages against China. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The Economist</i> reports that one dam is being built on the Brahmaputra, or the Yarlung Tsangpo River as it is known in Tibet, however the Zangmu dam is actually only one of a few that China has apparently already announced publicly. Considering China’s penchant for great works of engineering as in the Three-Gorges-Dam, its long term view in policy matters, its demonstrated willingness to divert waters as in the ‘South-North Water Transfer Project, and as China prefers in matters most sensitive to announce their intentions and projects near or at completion as a fait-accompli; many in India and Bangladesh surmise that with the infrastructure already being put into place, a gradual if not sudden diversion of the waters that feed the Brahmaputra River is an inevitability, in light of China’s already apparent problem of feeding and watering its 1.34 billion inhabitants. Many sources show a litany of dams currently under construction and in planning stages along the Yarlung, well beyond what is publicly admitted by Chinese officials and media. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Aspects of the Brahmaputra/Yarlung situation are paralleled in the south-eastern US as described in <i>Chattahoochee blues</i>, where local water utilities are illegally supplying the growing Greater Atlanta area with more and more water from Lake Lanier, itself created by the construction of the Buford dam on the Chattahoochee river in 1956; a dam originally intended primarily to supply power. Downstream farms, industry and communities in Georgia and Alabama want to ensure their own adequate supply of water; as do communities, environmentalists and oyster farms in Florida; where fresh water from the Chattahoochee empties into the Apalachicola river, sustaining the watershed and floodplain which feeds the complex ecosystem of forests and marshes and the special balance of fresh and salt water where the river meets the gulf of Mexico. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Federal courts have been forced through a process of lawsuits into a position where it <i>must</i> take sides in a dispute which it understands cannot be fairly resolved, as there is plainly not enough water to satisfy the overall demand, if not need. Their decision has been to defer to the judgement of Congress or to a negotiated solution between the parties, with the caveat that should neither process produce a decision by 2012, local water suppliers in greater Atlanta will (still) no longer be able to legally use Lake Lanier as a source of water. While the court recognises this outcome as a “Draconian result”, the status-quo being already one of illegal removal of water from Lake Lanier, watchers will await what Draconian <i>measures</i> the authorities will employ to stop Atlanta from supplying itself with water from the lake, if any. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There seems to be a precedent forming both on domestic as well as international levels that is one of first-come, first-served. Furthermore, if nations fail to properly resolve and manage their own internal water-resource problems and allow their populations to deprive each other and suffer thereof, there seems little hope that any agreement internationally as to the equitable and sustainable distribution of water is possible. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The Economist; A Himalayan rivalry</i>: </div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.economist.com/node/16843717">http://www.economist.com/node/16843717</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The Economist; Chattahoochee blues: </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.economist.com/node/17043462">http://www.economist.com/node/17043462</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">More on the Brahmaputra/Yarlung River: </div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://tibetanplateau.blogspot.com/2010/04/india-poorly-informed-about-chinese.html">http://tibetanplateau.blogspot.com/2010/04/india-poorly-informed-about-chinese.html</a></div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-80836627980830231072010-11-30T18:54:00.001-05:002010-11-30T18:58:12.191-05:00Wikileaks: Misanthropy and the Spectre of ScrutinyAmid the bluster surrounding the public release of 278 of 251,287 secret and confidential USG diplomatic cables by Wikileaks as of Monday November 29th<sup></sup>; more telling as to the behaviour and thinking of governments and vested interests is the current reaction in the world media and of public officials, than any information so far to be gleaned from these documents. This author has read the majority of the 278 published cables, and perused the remainder, the greater share originating from embassies in Europe, the middle-east and central Asia, where the US armed forces are most active, and a smattering of cables from east-Asia, Africa and the Americas rounding out the balance. Read in volume, they provide a fascinating glimpse as to the psychology and priorities of USG foreign policy.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The characterization by the Pentagon of Wikileaks being “reckless” in their release of the documents came in fact ahead of their release, as were Sunday’s headlines quoting the White House statement that their publication is “reckless and dangerous.” If the documents so far released are dangerous at all, it is mostly to the continued perception by the American public that their government stands above other nations on a moral high-ground, and that USG foreign policies are in any tangible way amenable to and affected by democratic processes at home. Wikileaks has in fact respected the danger that confidential informants and private citizens inside Iran, Afghanistan and Korea face by censoring their names, though the names of foreign diplomats, statesmen and US officials are rarely spared, as they are ostensibly publicly accountable. Such statements from sources protected by Wikileaks’s self censorship are in any case usually the least revealing as to actual policy, and are interesting only in their insight as to what foreign insiders and parties want the USG to do or think. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The statement by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs which has formed the leading paragraph in so many news outlet’s headlining stories: "To be clear -- such disclosures put at risk our diplomats, intelligence professionals, and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government," is a falsehood, as the cables themselves demonstrate that the USG, with abandon, continues to support on a quid pro quo basis innumerable corrupt dictatorial regimes such as in Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The notion that anyone anywhere is soliciting the USG in the aid of “promoting democracy and open government” is absurd in the light of these cables, which instead demonstrate foreign governments soliciting the USG for money, weapons and military action against their neighbours, or in the cases of Syria, Azerbaijan and Turkey, that the USG not continue to provoke the Iranian regime and desist from sponsoring terrorism, subterfuge and the foment of dissent within Iran’s borders, which they believe strengthens the Islamic leadership by providing it pretext for the further curtailing domestic freedoms of movement and expression, and which convinces the Iranian leadership that an attack by American forces is imminent and forestalled only by its current difficulties in neighbouring Afghanistan and Iraq. The cables reveal that many representatives of middle-eastern nations believe that Iran’s operations and attempts to destabilise Iraq and Afghanistan stem from the Iranian government’s conviction that allowing a military success in Iraq or Afghanistan would precipitate a rather immediate invasion of Iran itself by Western forces. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">French President Nicholas Sarkozy has called Wikileaks a “Threat to democracy,” which seems understandable only if one extrapolates that the release of the cables will motivate people such as him to dispense with it. For the moment, exactly how the exposure of secretive government workings to the public threatens that public’s right to rule itself (democracy), if it does not in fact do the opposite, remains unexplained. Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Lawrence Cannon, called the leaks “deplorable” and reportedly continued that ‘leaks like this one do not serve anybody's national interests and may threaten national security.’</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Hilary Clinton’s statement that the leaks are “An attack on the international community, the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity," seems ironic in light of the continual proliferation of weapons and conflict on every continent and the ongoing global economic crisis; and thereby causing one to wonder about exactly whose security and economic prosperity she speaks, and to whom she is referring when she invokes the name “international community,” a rather ambiguous and ubiquitous term of late. There are also the calls from News outlets such as Fox News and NY Rep. Congressman Peter King that Wikileaks be deemed a terrorist organisation, and that its assets be seized and donors be considered sponsors of terrorism, which is an obvious absurdity, inconsistent even with the USG’s loose definition of terrorism, and would define innumerable US citizens as terrorists.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One of the few reasonable reactions by any government to the scandal is from David Cameron’s Conservative UK government, who as very recent newcomers to power are perhaps not (yet?) a part of Secretary Clinton’s ‘international community’. A spokesman for the UK government discussed the matter with reporters, stopping short of branding Wikileaks as a criminal or terrorist organisation, and relating simply that the released cables and a lack of confidentiality on matters “is inhibiting the conduct of governments.” While an honest observation, the merit of the conduct of any government and which matters merit strict confidentiality is itself a matter which clearly requires debate. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Overall, the picture is one of public leaders worldwide closing ranks in face of what they view as a clear attack on their authority and mandate to continue the types of behaviours described in the cables, which it is. They deplore the leaks as a threat to “national” security, mistaking themselves as the nation and not merely its representatives, and are weary of the possibility that an informed public may better understand their government’s duplicity and actions against the public welfare in favour of privately profitable wars and support for autocratic/oligarchic regimes abroad, causes which almost no citizens of western nations find virtue in. A massive PR campaign is being mobilised in the mainstream media, beginning with a repetitious doublethink mantra which in its essence suggests to the public mind that to hold its leaders to task on matters most important is antithetical to their freedoms and democratic rule. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Only 278 of the 251,287 cables obtained by Wikileaks have thus far been released. The relative voracity of global leadership’s reaction to the publication of these cables, which have provided very little extra insight beyond information which is already publicly available, if not conveniently located in a single place from a single source, is perhaps indicative that the ruling echelon is convinced the most damning evidence of their self-interest and misappropriation of public trust is yet to come.</div>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-10159815193184673072010-11-23T18:45:00.003-05:002010-11-24T00:29:55.544-05:00East eats West?This week's <i>Economist </i>magazine's headlining articles and cover-page, 'Buying up the world- The coming wave of Chinese takeovers' highlight the process and nature of foreign takeovers by Chinese firms. The piece offers surprisingly little discussion or speculation as to China's deeper motivations and timing in its recent takeover bids for large multinational companies, or as to the reasoning of other governments and critics who would resist the emerging trend before concluding that rejecting China's advances would "be a disservice to future generations." <br />
<br />
There is something absurd about the reasoning in these articles, which do point out the "opaque and arbitrary" nature of authority within large Chinese companies, and which do briefly note that takeover bids are most often made on companies working in strategic resource sectors; but which base their conclusions on speculation that Chinese firms will "bring new energy and capital to flagging companies around the world," that "Chinese companies will have to adapt" and that its investments in the global economy will help to make China's interests "increasingly aligned with the rest of the world's." That <i>the Economist</i> can readily admit to not understanding the motivations and interests of "opaque" Chinese government and authority but then predict its evolution is a failure of logic and a cause for concern should policy makers around the world find agreement with this thesis.<br />
<br />
A steady accumulation of bonds and hard currency in all denominations, especially of its largest rivals in the US and Euro-zone, coupled with a well timed and targeted increase in the rate of takeover of global means of production and access to raw materials represents an obvious, well planned, forward looking and ongoing effort to supplant Western hegemony in favor of an ill-defined future global order over which a preeminent China presides.<br />
<br />
This<i> is</i> the Chinese mission according to Chinese leaders and state-owned news outlets, as discussed in a 2008 CSIS report which states among other things: "The PRC-owned Hong Kong daily Wen Wei Po opined that the elevation of the “harmonious world” theory in the congress work report indicates that Hu (Jintao) is “assuming an even more important role in international affairs that is, as ‘formulator, participant and defender of world order,’ in order push the entire world toward harmony.” Other such thinking among leading Chinese thinkers is evident in Zhao Tingyang’s <i>The Tianxia System: The Philosophy for the World Institution </i>(2005) and Liu Mingfu’s book <i>The China Dream: Great Power Thinking and Strategic Positioning of China in the Post-American Age</i> (2010). All of these sources are united in their assumption that a Chinese eclipse of Western economic power is inevitable, though they may differ on their view of that post-ecliptic world. Without knowing the truth about China's aims, the West should be wary of allowing a monolithic foreign government access to its strategic resources and internal economies. <br />
<br />
The <i>Economist</i> article gives further evidence that China's entry into global capitalism is not motivated by the usual basic greed and desires of Western investors when it reports that "Natural-resources firms can become captive suppliers to China, rather than selling on the open market... Westerners realised their new objective was to maximise production, not profits" and "Chinese firms... risk political fallout if they fail. Their sense of mission makes them 'transparent', says one European executive." That China's is a long term view is undeniable in the context that they would forgo immediate profit by selling to the highest bid on the market in favor of repatriating newly exploited resources. <br />
<br />
Western economic domination of the world reached its zenith in the 20th century, when according to this weeks <i>Economist</i> articles "Britain owned 45% of the world's FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in 1914; America's share peaked at 50% in 1967." It is undeniable that, in competition and in concert, Western powers used their public institutions and militaries to further their economic-imperial goals, making the 20th century the bloodiest and most warlike known to history. Entire continents were subjugated and looted in the pursuit of profit and 'civilisation',- including China, and large parts of Central and South America, Asia and Africa remain captive to the national and corporate institutions which have inherited that legacy. While the West so often points out China's human rights abuses and excesses of power, the Chinese are always quick to point out the hypocrisy of such criticisms, as it did in its recent report on the US's human rights record published in the China-daily; a startling and credible list of very recent abuses. If there are any worries among people in the West as to the waning of Western power in favor of Chinese influence, it should perhaps not be in lament of a lost golden age of economic and military triumph, but in fear that the emerging power in China, accountable to no one and secretive in their aims and motivations, will as it hijacks a global economic system which promotes greed and consolidation of power, look upon and treat the West in the same manner that the West has China and the rest of the world. <br />
<br />
<br />
Read the Economist reports and other related articles here:<br />
<br />
The Economist: <br />
<a href="http://www.economist.com/node/17463473">http://www.economist.com/node/17463473</a><br />
<a href="http://www.economist.com/node/17460954">http://www.economist.com/node/17460954</a><br />
<br />
Regarding Chinese policy and statements about US human rights abuses: <br />
<a href="http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/080129_murphydecoding.pdf">http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/080129_murphydecoding.pdf </a><br />
<a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/12/content_9582218.htm">http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-03/12/content_9582218.htm</a><br />
<br />
Regarding takeovers:<br />
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7967604.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7967604.stm</a><br />
<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/11/03/potash-ottawa-review.html">http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/11/03/potash-ottawa-review.html </a><br />
<a href="http://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=6336.4792.0.0">http://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=6336.4792.0.0</a>P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8320477651333702324.post-10403732413010486102010-11-18T19:59:00.000-05:002010-11-18T19:59:40.539-05:00Seoul G20: Perplexing Conclusion, Clear ResultThe conclusion of the most recent G20 summit in Seoul last Friday, hailed as a success for political reasons by attending politicians, was punctuated with the following agreed upon statement: "Uneven growth and widening imbalances are fueling the temptation to diverge from global solutions into uncoordinated action... uncoordinated policy actions will only lead to worse outcomes for all." In other words, 'while we agree in principal that it is best to agree, we disagree.' I can only imagine that, if only the leaders of nations in times past, who with the specter of wars and economic strife looming before them, had been privy to such wisdom, things would have turned out exactly the same...<br />
<br />
In spite of ambiguous political statements made in Seoul last week, markets have been remarkably unified in their response. Since markets closed on the Wednesday (Nov. 10) before the summit began in earnest, every single major US dollar denominated market has fallen. Several of these markets had been gaining steadily leading up to the G20 summit, but all have dipped in response to the G20's conclusion. Here is a quick statistical rundown of some of those losses up to the Wednesday Nov. 17 close:<br />
<br />
Dow Jones -350 points (-3.1%);<br />
S&P 500 -40 points (-3.2%);<br />
NYSE Comp. -259 points (-3.3%)<br />
Crude $/Brl -6.77 (-7.7%)<br />
Copper $/lb -0.24 (-6.0%)<br />
Gold $/oz -62 (-4.4%)<br />
Platinum $/oz -97 (-5.6%)<br />
<br />
<br />
Thus, money (or value) is coming out of stock and commodity markets across the board. Furthermore, Treasuries, both 30yr and 5yr notes, fell 1.5% and 0.9% respectively, during the same period; markets which often gain when stock markets are in turmoil. Taken in the context of a rise of 1.44 points (+1.9%) during the same period, in the US Dollar Index (USDX) which is a guage of the value of the dollar relative to other world currencies, we can reasonably assume that losses in the value of stocks and commodities are partly, if not mainly, a result of a strengthening US dollar. This represents <i>deflation</i>. What is the cause of this deflationary pressure? It could be that investors have responded to the G20's failure to resolve its differences over state manipulations in currency markets by pulling out of markets and deleveraging, or paying off debts. The US dollar being a debt-based currency, any net reduction in USD debts effectively reduces the amount of USD in the system, producing deflation. <br />
<br />
Perhaps the dirtiest word in modern economics, many analysts of late, even Fed chief Bernanke, have begun to broach the issue of deflation. That it is impossible in America has been the misplaced hope of so many bank and fund chiefs. The Japanese banking crisis of the 1990s has resulted in persistent deflation for over a decade. The more recent global recession, particularly the crash in the summer of 2008, was a deflationary crash, which saw all markets lose value at break-neck speed after being inflated by Bush's bank bailouts and stimulus spending. That extra money was un-created nearly as quickly as it was created when it was used by large institutions to pay off debts and deleverage. So what to expect? With interest rates already at historical lows and failing to stimulate more borrowing, look for the Federal Reserve to enact more quantitative easing, the modern equivalent of printing money. This will complete another round in the cycle, and further consternate the US's G20 partners, especially China, who will see it as another salvo in the much denied currency war. However, if they fail to do so, fear of another credit crunch may trigger another US dollar exodus from markets everywhere, and the global 'double dip' recession will be upon us. It seems that there is no positive alternative, and no way out of the rabbit hole the US has dug for itself and the rest of us.<br />
<br />
Perhaps the only thing keeping the floundering juggernaut of global finance afloat is the placebo effect of the actions of its masters who maintain a public image of confidence and certainty about their actions. If at any time any major player all at once goes bust or pulls their money off the table, everyone else may just decide to cash in. It seems since the summit, a few players at least, have decided to pocket at least a few of their chips, just in case.P McGavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09264801301890001052noreply@blogger.com0