Your Search Results
Written on May 31st, 2012 in Monthly Index by Heidi
Written on May 31st, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Intrepid Report, by Peter Chamberlin, May 29, 2012.
… When it comes to Afghanistan and energy corridors, there are no new ideas under the sun—even Hillary Clinton’s favorite project, the “Silk Road,” is just another attempt to revive one of her husband’s policy failures. The following testimony was given to Congress on 12 February 1998, by John Maresca, International head of Unocal—“There are few, if any, other areas of the world where there can be such a dramatic increase in the supply of oil and gas to the world market. The solution seems simple: build a ‘new’ Silk Road.” Continue Reading…
Written on May 30th, 2012 in Economy, Health, Food Security, Ecology, Climate by Heidi
Why the world needs an agricultural revolution in Africa – Published on The Economist, May 28, 2012.
THIS chart is the nearest thing to a snapshot of everything you need to know about feeding the world. It comes from Cargill, a grain trading company, and shows which regions of the world have a food surplus or deficit, and how imports or exports have changed since 1965. The big changes in food production during that time came in South America (Brazil, mainly) and in Eastern Europe (Russia, mainly). Continue Reading…
Written on May 29th, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
If leaders of the U.S. government realize that greenhouse gases are causing world temperatures to rise, why don’t they do something about stopping it? – Published on Socialist Worker, by Paul D’Amato, May 25, 2012.
ONE OF the notable features of capitalism is that the system really does seem to promote the “hard” sciences. In the social sciences, on the other hand, academics invent superficial theories that obscure reality more than explain it. Continue Reading…
Written on May 28th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Publié dans Voltairenet.org, par Suha Mustafa (journaliste syrienne qui est partie à la rencontre des survivants des affrontements. Pas de ceux qui sont employés et mis en scène par les agences de communication occidentales en Turquie et en Jordanie, mais des gens simples qui fuient les combats), le 27 MAI 2012.
… La révolte a détruit des siècles de bonne entente entre musulmans et chrétiens dans la ville. Au début, les manifestations se déroulaient sans violence, jusqu’au moment où des intrus, barbus, armés et violents, sont apparus dans les rues. C’était en mai 2011. Continue Reading…
Written on May 28th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics, Society by Heidi
or: How to dissolve national borders by stealth – Published on Current Concerns, by thk, May 1, 2012 (Translation Current Concerns).
… As early as in 1996 the association “Metrex” was created at the Conference of Metropolitan Regions in Glasgow with active support of the EU-Commission in order to press ahead with the dissolution of national borders. The whole purpose was veiled as the euphemistic pretext to ensure closer cooperation of the metropolitan areas across the borders. Continue Reading…
Written on May 27th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Watch these videos on YouTube:
Written on May 26th, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
Published on Global Research.ca (first on WebofDebt.com), by Ellen Brown, May 24, 2012.
… Move “Our” Money: The Public Bank Movement:
- The Move Your Money campaign has been wildly successful in mobilizing people and raising awareness of the issues, but it has not made much of a dent in the reserves of Wall Street banks, which already had $1.6 trillion sitting in reserve accounts as a result of the Fed’s second round of quantitative easing in 2010. Continue Reading…
Written on May 25th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics, Society by Heidi
Counting under way after two days of voting in country’s first free presidential election – Published on Al Jazeera, by Evan Hill and Matthew Cassel, May 25, 2012. See also the video, 2.08 min.
- Ballot counting has begun in Egypt after two days of historic voting to choose the country’s first democratically elected president, with the Muslim Brotherhood claiming lead.
- Early on Friday morning, the Brotherhood, the country’s most powerful political force, announced that its candidate was in the lead, followed by a divisive former civil aviation minister more closely tied to Mubarak than anyone else in the race.
- Mohamed Morsi, from the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, is one of thirteen people vying for the position. Continue Reading…
Written on May 25th, 2012 in Society by Heidi
Le Peuple de l’Herbe is a French band playing electronic music, afrobeat and dub. The band was founded in 1997, in Lyon. See their Website (fr/en):
Written on May 24th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Spiegel Online International, by Carsten Volkery in London, May 23, 2012.
… What exactly does François Hollande want? It is a question that many in capitals across Europe have been asking since the Socialist was elected to replace Nicolas Sarkozy as French president earlier this month.
Hollande has spoken often of the need to adjust Europe’s current focus away from austerity and toward economic growth, a sentiment shared by many, including US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and even the Social Democrats in Germany … // Continue Reading…
Written on May 23rd, 2012 in Society by Heidi
Bankers and Forgiveness – Published on Global Research.ca, by Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer, May 21, 2012.
When homeowners have fallen behind in their mortgage payments, whether because of a job loss or because the interest rates just shot up, the bankers have responded coldly. Led by their economic interests, they set their robo-signers working overtime on foreclosures, forcing millions of people out of their homes. Back during the height of this current economic crisis, when Congress considered passing legislation that would have allowed judges to lower home loans in order to prevent these foreclosures, the banks lobbied furiously and killed the legislation. Continue Reading…
Written on May 22nd, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
lessons from J.P. Morgan Chase – Published on Pambazuka News, by Horace Campbell, May 17, 2012.
As central bankers from China to Venezuela and from Argentina to Japan are seeking ways to exit from the contagion of the speculative trading of US bankers, progressive forces must renew the call for the nationalization of the big banks, which are supposed to be too big to fail … // Continue Reading…
Written on May 21st, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
Published on naked capitalism (first on MacroBusiness), by Sell on News, a macro equities analyst, MAY 19, 2012.
Imagine two ways of framing a financial trading choice. The first way is in the pseudo scientific language of finance. “An optimal trading strategy will be to go short on Greek and Spanish government bonds to exploit a high likelihood of sell off and debt restructuring which will keep portfolio returns well above inflation going forward.” Or consider the same thing expressed this way: Continue Reading…
Written on May 20th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Current Concerns, by Brian M. Downing, MAy 15, 2012.
The war in Afghanistan has been stalemated for several years now and eyes are turning to a negotiated settlement. In recent weeks, talks between the United States and the Taliban have come and gone, but they will almost assuredly return … //
… Generals and mullahs: Continue Reading…
Written on May 19th, 2012 in Society by Heidi
G8 summit at Camp David and Nato protests in Chicago – live coverage: Hollande and Obama meet for the first time on Friday …
Barack Obama tells EU: boost growth now or face a global crisis: The G8 talks will be an opportunity for Barack Obama to vent US frustration at Europe’s failure to find a solution to the debt crisis … // … Barack Obama is to put pressure on Germany to ease the pain of austerity with policies to boost growth, as he uses two days of talks with the G8 industrial nations to warn Europe that it needs to act swiftly to spare the world economy from a second deep recession in four years … Continue Reading…
Written on May 19th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Global Research.ca (first on WSWS), by Chris Marsden, May 18, 2012.
The political, economic and social breakdown in Greece is an acute expression of a broader crisis of European and world capitalism.
The fate of this small nation is being decided solely according to the predatory interests of the global financiers and their political representatives at the head of national governments as well as the “troika”—the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Continue Reading…
Written on May 18th, 2012 in Economy by Heidi
Published on BATR, by James Hall, May 16, 2012.
Once again, the practices of the “Too Big to Fail” banksters bring the financial money machine to the brink. The J.P. Morgan derivative losses and trading gambles by their “London Whale” demonstrates business as usual in the murky world of risk distortion. Even the vexing progressive Robert Reich makes an accurate assessment for breaking up the big banks and the resurrecting of Glass-Steagall … // Continue Reading…
Written on May 17th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on RWER Blog, by Peter Radford, May 15, 2012.
Nothing that has emerged about the JP Morgan losses announced last week has altered my original conclusion. This was a basic failure of governance, of regulatory oversight, and of control. Oh, and of orthodox economics. Again.
Yes there were rules in place to prevent such losses. They were ignored. Vanity, hubris, call it what you will, stopped the bank from exercising self-restraint. What appeared to be highly risky, complex, and very large transactions were allowed to take place despite the fact that they were risky, complex, and very large. Continue Reading…
Written on May 16th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Spiegel Online International, May 14, 2012.
After Greek voters rejected austerity in last week’s election, plunging the country into a political crisis, Europe has been searching for a Plan B for Greece. It’s time to admit that the EU/IMF rescue plan has failed. Greece’s best hopes now lie in a return to the drachma … //
… Turning Point: Continue Reading…
Written on May 15th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics, Society by Heidi
Published on ROARmag.org, by Jérôme E. Roos, May 11, 2012 … (This is the transcript of a presentation given at the
OVNI 2012 festival in the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona on May 11, 2012).
It’s amazing to be here in Barcelona – home to one of the most inspiring revolutionary episodes in European history and today once again a hotbed of popular resistance against market fundamentalism and a false democracy. Before I start, I would like to thank the OVNI organization and Carlos Delclós — a lecturer at Pompeu Fabra, an active member of the movement here in Barcelona, and a contributor to ROARMAG.org — for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today, on the eve of the global day of action of May 12. Continue Reading…
Written on May 14th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Living in America is becoming very difficult for anyone with a moral conscience, a sense of justice, or a lick of intelligence – Published on Global Research.ca (first on Paul Craig Roberts), by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, May 10, 2012 (see him also on Paul Craig Roberts, USA).
We have had a second fake underwear bomb plot, a much more fantastic one than the first hoax. The second underwear bomber was a CIA operative or informant allegedly recruited by al-Qaeda, an organization that US authorities have recently claimed to be defeated, in disarray, and no longer significant. Continue Reading…
Written on May 13th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
(Don’t Believe the NATO Hype) – Published on Global Research.ca (first on Huffington Post and Stop NATO), by Dr. Joseph Gerson, May 12, 2012.
… The U.S./NATO war in Afghanistan must end. Plans to use the summit to ratify fighting in Central Asia until 2024 spells death, suffering and disaster for all involved.
- There is an alternative to creating stability in one of the world’s poorest nations: All-party Afghan negotiations — including civil society — and a regional peacemaking process. Continue Reading…
Written on May 12th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
The European Freetrade Association EFTA would be the necessary and reasonable alternative – Published on Current Concerns, by Dr phil. René Roca, May 8, 2012.
The European Freetrade Association EFTA was founded by 7 Western European countries including Switzerland in 1960. Today the EFTA is left with only 4 remaining members, namely Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In the aftermath of the second World War, the European states had initially aimed for a solid and sustainable foundation of their economic development with a big freetrade zone built around the Organization for European Economic Co-operation OEEC. Continue Reading…
Written on May 11th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on ZNet (first on TomDispatch.com), by Noam Chomsky, May 09, 2012;
… Plutonomy and the Precariat:
For the general population, the 99% in the imagery of the Occupy movement, it’s been pretty harsh – and it could get worse. This could be a period of irreversible decline. For the 1% and even less – the .1% – it’s just fine. They are richer than ever, more powerful than ever, controlling the political system, disregarding the public. And if it can continue, as far as they’re concerned, sure, why not? Continue Reading…
Written on May 10th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Global Research.ca, by Arun Shrivastava, May 8, 2012.
Former World Bank and UN official Manmohan Singh was never projected as India’s Prime Minister; he was imposed on 1.2 billion hapless Indians. Former World Bank [WB] major domo Montek Singh was never elected yet lives a lavish life in Delhi. As one insider says he is very happy in Delhi because he doesn’t have to fetch a glass of water himself. Chauffeurs, servants, cooks, and officially employed attendants make life easy for this economaniac who thought that Rs. 32 [60 cents] per day of spending power is sufficient for urban Indians to be called ‘Above Poverty Line.’ These two minions of the neo-liberal gangsters in Washington and London will do India in unless booted out soon. Continue Reading…
Written on May 9th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Because Arab Spring opposition groups enjoy popular legitimacy but lack power, they can’t afford to be unintelligent – Published on Al JAzeera, by , May 8, 2012.
Beirut, Lebanon – As the Arab uprisings unfold it is increasingly clear that they are taking different forms in different countries. In three cases – Tunisia, Egypt and Libya – dictators were deposed definitively and relatively quickly. But in three others – Bahrain, Syria, and Yemen – the struggle continues between an incumbent regime and popular opposition. (In Yemen President Ali Abdallah Saleh has resigned the presidency but his apparatus has not disappeared). Continue Reading…
Written on May 8th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Current Concerns, by Karl Müller, April 30, 2012.
While social problems are becoming apparent ever more openly and blatantly in European countries like Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Italy, or France and humaneness in business and politics would be the order of the day, the German political class as well as big business focus on accelerated growth and market conquest, instead. The social ethos of a social market economy, as it was put into words, for example, by Wilhelm Röpke during the Second World War in exile in Switzerland, the ethos of humanity, respect and moderation in economic life has got lost in many economic and political leaders in Germany. The wind of megalomania, social Darwinism, neo-liberalism is blowing. Their spokesmen on the political front are Angela Merkel and Joachim Gauck, the party leaders of the Greens, and Winfried Kretschmann. Continue Reading…
Written on May 7th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Watch this video: Socialist Hollande wins French presidency, 3.05 min, published on The Real News Network TRNN, May 7, 2012 (first on Al-Jazeera (with an article) – see it also on YouTube): Swept along by groundswell of anger against incumbent Sarkozy, Hollande becomes first Socialist president in 17 years … Continue Reading…
Written on May 7th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on RiaNovosti.ru, by Konstantin Bogdanov, May 4, 2012.
An international conference on missile defense in Europe opened in Moscow on May 3. Washington and Moscow – the event’s major players – are still unable to find common ground: Russia insists that the missile defense system in Europe poses a threat, and the West deliberately shrugs off these concerns. The Russian General Staff is prepared to take strong measures to make its voice heard.
Old words, new font: Continue Reading…
Written on May 6th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Spiegel Online International, by SPIEGEL Staff, May 4, 2012.
Countries around the world envy Germany’s economic success and look up to it as a role model. But a closer look reveals a much bleaker picture. Only a few are benefiting from the boom, while stagnant wages and precarious employment conditions are making it difficult for millions to make ends meet.
What a year it’s been for carmaker Audi and its employees, a year marked by the biggest profits in company history, a bonus in the millions for its chairman and handsome bonuses for many employees — though little to nothing for those at the very bottom of the pay scale … // Continue Reading…
Written on May 5th, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics, Society by Heidi
Published on National Security Archive, Electronic Briefing Book No. 378, by Kate Doyle – 646/670-8841, May 3, 2012. (also in espanol).
National Security Archive Expert Testifies before International Court – Fundación Myrna Mack Calls Hearing “Unprecedented”:
On April 25, 2012, Kate Doyle, senior analyst and director of the Guatemala Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, provided expert witness testimony before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of the Diario Militar (Case 12.590, Gudiel Álvarez et al. (Diario Militar) vs. Guatemala) during the Court’s 45th Extraordinary Session held in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Continue Reading…
Written on May 4th, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
… first watch the full interview on the bottom of their website, 24.30 min – published on raw story, by David Ferguson, May 2, 2012.
… According to Chomsky, we are currently living in a period of “pretty close to global stagnation” but that the world’s great powers are reacting to the lack of growth in exactly the wrong manner. “The United States and Europe are committing suicide in different ways, but both doing it.” Continue Reading…
Written on May 3rd, 2012 in Economy, Society by Heidi
Written on May 2nd, 2012 in Economy, Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Pambazuka News, by Horace Campbell, April 26, 2012.
The unification of the water resources of Africa is one of the primary bases for African unity, with a system of canals linking rivers and lakes in the kind of infrastructure planning that ensures that all will have water … //
… Today we are now being told the truth about the abundance of water resources in Africa. In reality, the publication last week by the British on the large underground supplies of water is only news to those in the West who had built an industry out of consultancies on water shortages in Africa. Continue Reading…
Written on May 1st, 2012 in Politics - Geopolitics by Heidi
Published on Asia Times Online, by Peter Lee, Apr 21, 2012.
With a high-profile visit to China, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued his campaign to increase the geopolitical clout of his country.
Turkey has great hopes of emerging (or re-emerging, if one recalls the heyday of the Ottoman Empire) as more than the geographic and economic linchpin of Eurasia. Erdogan hopes to leverage that central position by establishing Turkey as a regional power, a country that can set the agenda for events across the continents. Continue Reading…