An example of excellent police work:
Police on Saturday arrested 18 Greenpeace activists who climbed aboard an oil rig off Greenland's coast to protest deepwater drilling in the Arctic.
The rig is operated by the Scottish oil group Cairn Energy and drilling has temporarily been suspended due to the protest. Cairn last month won permission to drill up to seven oil exploration wells off the Arctic island's west coast.
Police spokesman Morten Nielsen said activists from Britain, Finland, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands, among other countries, are being taken to Nuuk, the semiautonomous Danish territory's capital, where they will be questioned.
---
Greenland's government has called the Greenpeace action a publicity stunt that comes at the expense of Greenland's "legitimate right" to develop its economy.
Earlier this week, two Greenpeace activists were arrested under the rig, hanging just a few meters from the drill-bit. The protest prevented Cairn from starting drilling for four days.
Greenpeace says it has received a legal summons from Cairn's lawyers for having cost the company up to $4 million for every day it could not drill and could face substantial fines for the security breaches. The lawsuit will be heard Monday in a Dutch court.
Read the entire piece here
PS
Let´s hope that the Dutch court will be as effective as the police in Greenland!
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Earth Day: Bollywood fights climate change
Bollywood is intent on beating Hollywood when it comes to fighting climate change. "In lieu of the impending climate crisis, IIFA (the International Indian Film Academy) has been a firm supporter of the environment" and has "taken several initiatives over the years to curb the ever-expanding issues that threaten it", Bollyspice.com reports. Already in 2007 IIFA "launched the concept of a `Green carpet`, replacing the traditional red carpet rolled out at all award shows".
(Hard to beat! NNoN)
Now IIFA is joining the United National Environment Programme in celebrating the "World Environment Day". Indian super star, former Miss World Priyanka Chopra is the top name in the UNEP/Bollywood campaign this year.
Could it be that Ms. Chopra is discussing climate change and global warming with an UNEP representative on this video?:
Compared with Hollywood, the Bollywood approach to fighting climate change seems to be somewhat more down-to-earth, as you can see from this educational video (it is only partially in English, but I think you will get the point):
"Savita bhabhi tells us why she loves Copehagen and why she has recently won an award for contributing to the solution for Climate Change."
Friday, 3 June 2011
Is an Egyptian style popular uprising likely in China?
It is possible that we are going to see more of this in China
An Egyptian style popular uprising in China has so far failed to materialize. However, things could easily change. Max Fisher has written an interesting article about China´s dilemma in the latest issue of the Atlantic:
Despite their failures, democratic activists are still pressing, subtly subverting the state and spreading their message, and the Chinese government is taking them very seriously. International NGOs and journalists now say that the government crackdown is frighteningly reminiscent of 1989, which culminated with troops killing either hundreds or thousands of civilians at Tiananmen Square. As China increases its repressive measures, it may well quell the activists, but also risks upsetting, by its brutality, many of the urban Chinese who are otherwise indifferent.
China's dilemma is the same one experienced by autocratic regimes across the globe: a too-successful crackdown risks creating only more dissent, which will require even stronger crackdowns, initiating a violent cycle in which both the state and the population are neither willing nor able to back down. Such a cycle, if it continues unabated, has only two foreseeable endpoints: the collapse of the regime, which would be disastrous in a country as large, diverse, and militarized as China; or, more likely, the reversion of the state back to the violently repressive dictatorship of the 1970s. In other words, if the conflict between the state and its people continues to escalate, then the state is forced either to pursue the harshest possible campaign against it people, as it has in the past, or to abdicate.
This dark scenario may sound unlikely -- it's possible that the activists will simply give up, and the country's growing middle class will accept repression -- but, outside of the large coastal cities where Westerners travel, it is already underway. In the large, Northwestern province of Xinjiang, where reporters of any nationality are rarely allowed, the Chinese government has spent the last two years strangling basic civil rights and tightening markets. This process began after a spate of 2009 protests there, and has only increased since. A similar process has begun in Inner Mongolia, a province to the east, where security forces have waged a steady campaign of violence against dissenters.Read the entire article here
PS
I do not fully agree with Fisher, when he says that there are only two "foreseeable endpoints": the collapse of the regime, which would be disastrous in a country as large, diverse, and militarized as China; or, more likely, the reversion of the state back to the violently repressive dictatorship of the 1970s.
There is - at least in theory - a third option: A development in a more democratic direction could be introduced by a more enligthened communist leadership.
What Trichet wants: An EU finance ministry leading to a federal European state
The outgoing president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet has, in a speech he gave in Germany, suggested that the eurozone could in the future have its own finance ministry:
"Would it be too bold, in the economic field , with a single market, a single currency and a single central bank, to envisage a ministry of finance of the union?"
Of course, Trichet knows that the creation of an EU "finance ministry" is not going to be possible. Harvard and LSE professor Niall Ferguson here explains why.
PS
In the same speech, Trichet also stated his ultimate goal for Europe (which he shares with many of the present political leaders, who do not dare to say it publicly, because they know that the vast majority of Europeans do not want it):
I think that [eventually] a confederation of sovereign states of a new type, with new institutions to manage the interdependence of today and tomorrow, would be fully in line with such a heroism of reason.
Of course, Trichet´s concept,"a confederation of sovereign states" does not make any sense. A confederation can not consist of sovereign states. Gobachev tried to transform the Soviet Union to a Union of Sovereign States, but we know where that led. So, what Trichet actually wants, is to transform the present somewhat diffuse EUSSR to a more formal federal EUSSR.
(image by EU photo service)
German chancellor Merkel is not telling the truth about the euro
On March 18 the chairman of the Eurogroup, Luxembourg´s PM Jean-Claude Juncker made the following statement:
The euro is stable and not in crisis, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday.
There are debt problems in some member states, Luxembourg's prime minister said at a conference here organized by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.
"The crisis is not a euro crisis," Juncker insisted.
Now, German chancellor Angela Merkel has repeated what Juncker said in March:
The euro isn't in crisis, although markets are uncertain whether struggling euro-zone economies can become competitive, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.
"We don't have a problem with the euro as such," Merkel said in a speech during a two-day visit to Singapore.
"It is a stable currency particularly vis-a-vis the dollar. It is quite strong--sometimes too strong for us as an exporting nation," she said through an interpreter. "We have problems with certain member states and their debts."
The root of the euro-zone "debt problem" is "a competitiveness problem because the competitiveness of the member states in the euro area is too disparate and some of them too weak," she said. To "overcome this crisis," she said. "we need to boost competitiveness and we need to put fiscal responsibility right at the heart of our efforts."
Read the entire article here
Looking at the euro from a very narrow angle you may - as Merkel and Juncker do - be able to pretend that there is no euro crisis. But, of course, both Merkel and Juncker know that the reality of the euro co-operation is quite another matter. Without the euro, the problems of Greece, Ireland and Portugal would not be Eurogroup problems. When you, as a result of a political decision, squeeze countries, which are economically, culturally and politically in a totally different situation, into a common currency area - without having a common finance and economic policy (which would mean a federal European state that voters do not want), you end up having a crisis.
Therefore, Merkel, Juncker, and all the other leaders, who maintain that there is no euro crisis, are dishonest and deserve to be punished for it at future elections.
The euro is stable and not in crisis, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday.
There are debt problems in some member states, Luxembourg's prime minister said at a conference here organized by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.
"The crisis is not a euro crisis," Juncker insisted.
Now, German chancellor Angela Merkel has repeated what Juncker said in March:
The euro isn't in crisis, although markets are uncertain whether struggling euro-zone economies can become competitive, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday.
"We don't have a problem with the euro as such," Merkel said in a speech during a two-day visit to Singapore.
"It is a stable currency particularly vis-a-vis the dollar. It is quite strong--sometimes too strong for us as an exporting nation," she said through an interpreter. "We have problems with certain member states and their debts."
The root of the euro-zone "debt problem" is "a competitiveness problem because the competitiveness of the member states in the euro area is too disparate and some of them too weak," she said. To "overcome this crisis," she said. "we need to boost competitiveness and we need to put fiscal responsibility right at the heart of our efforts."
Read the entire article here
Looking at the euro from a very narrow angle you may - as Merkel and Juncker do - be able to pretend that there is no euro crisis. But, of course, both Merkel and Juncker know that the reality of the euro co-operation is quite another matter. Without the euro, the problems of Greece, Ireland and Portugal would not be Eurogroup problems. When you, as a result of a political decision, squeeze countries, which are economically, culturally and politically in a totally different situation, into a common currency area - without having a common finance and economic policy (which would mean a federal European state that voters do not want), you end up having a crisis.
Therefore, Merkel, Juncker, and all the other leaders, who maintain that there is no euro crisis, are dishonest and deserve to be punished for it at future elections.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
"Rich" nations still ready to pay billions for fighting non-existent climate change
Flashback, Copenhagen 2009
The world´s "rich" nations continue to pledge billions of dollars to help "poor" nations "fight" imaginary human caused "climate change":
Earthquake-hit Japan and many other rich nations are reaffirming pledges to give $US30 billion from 2010-12 to help poor nations fight climate change despite budget cuts.
Climate aid has totalled $US16.2 billion since January 2010, according to submissions to the United Nations by a May deadline. Poor nations have said much of the cash is from existing programmes and is not new as promised.
Donors were led by Japan, the European Union and the United States.
"Aid is definitely coming through the pipeline," said Liz Gallagher, an expert at the E3G environmental think-tank in London
Read the entire article here
PS
You may remember that the mega size money transfer deal (100 billion USD a year by 2020) was brokered by president Obama and other leaders at the Copenhagen climate conference in 2009 as a "compensation" for not being able to agree on anything else. It was one of the most weird - and expensive - pledges in recent years, particularly when one knows that many of the "rich" donors are living on borrowed money. In spite of all this, these same leaders now continue pledging the money they do not have for fighting something that does not exist. Fortunately, much of the money seems to be coming from "existing programmes". Still, the whole thing is an enormous waste of taxpayers´ money.
EU Commission - private jet travel, luxury five-star resorts, parties and expensive presents
This is the preferred way of transportation for the EU elite
Finally, the truth about the lifestyle of the EU(SSR) elite is beginning to come out.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports:
The Bureau’s latest investigation reveals that the European Commission has spent millions of taxpayers’ money on private jet travel, luxury five-star resorts, parties and expensive presents.
Our investigation shows that Commissioners were travelling by private jet and handing out gifts of Tiffany jewellery to guests as Europeans faced budget cuts and IMF bailouts.
Here are some of the bureau´s findings:
Over €7.5m was spent on private jet travel for Commissioners between 2006-2010.
President Barroso and eight assistants ran up a bill of €28,000 for a four night stay at the New York Peninsula Hotel, where the delegation stayed in suites costing on average €780 per night.
Over €300,000 was spent on events the EU described as “cocktail parties” in 2009. One bill totalled €75,000 for an event subsidised by the EU’s Research Executive Agency in Amsterdam, boasting a “night filled with wonder like no other…state-of-the-art technology, challenging art, combined with trendy cocktails, surprising performances and top DJs”.
Luxury spending
In 2009 the Commission also held away-days for officials and their families at resorts in Papua New Guinea and Ghana. On one occasion a Vietnamese delegation flew 44 staff to the five-star Palm Garden Resort for an event to “facilitate internal co-operation”.
Read the entire piece here
PS
One can only wonder, why the numerous Brussels MSM correspondents have not reported about these things already long ago. Well, the reason is pretty obvious: Their own opulent lifestyle is in danger, if they would start to dig a little deeper in the Brussels manure.
Putin´s puppet gets tough
Every time there is some good news for Russia on the energy front - e.g. political upheavals somewhere that lead to price hikes in the world markets, or now the German government´s "road map" to dependency on Russian gas - the country´s thugocratic leadership brings out the old Soviet type of tough talk from the Kremlin closet.
Now the president, Dmitry Medvedev, has apparently been told by his master, czar Vladimir that its time to reset Obama´s reset:
After talks with Obama on Thursday, it could take Russia and the United States until 2020 to reach agreement on a European missile shield. On Friday, he said 2020 was the deadline.
"After 2020, if we fail to agree, the real arms race will begin. If we do agree, then the situation will differ dramatically. I would like my partners to keep this in mind," he said.
Read the entire article here
Now the president, Dmitry Medvedev, has apparently been told by his master, czar Vladimir that its time to reset Obama´s reset:
After talks with Obama on Thursday, it could take Russia and the United States until 2020 to reach agreement on a European missile shield. On Friday, he said 2020 was the deadline.
"After 2020, if we fail to agree, the real arms race will begin. If we do agree, then the situation will differ dramatically. I would like my partners to keep this in mind," he said.
Read the entire article here
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
South Korea and Qatar compete for hosting the UN climate change carnival 2012
A nostalgic video flashback from the Cancun climate meeting.
There will be less Tequila in Qatar - under Qatar's Sharia,
it is illegal to show alcohol or be drunk in public.
This should strengthen the Korean bid.
While South Africa is preparing to hold the holiest annual celebration of the climate change religion, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, later this year, there is a ferocious behind-the-scenes battle going between South Korea and Qatar about hosting the conference in 2012, reports the New York Times.
If South Korea is serious about getting this crazy carbon carnival, they should immediately consult the only person in the world who knows how to beat the qataris; Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA.
Without Blatter´s support, the 2022 World Cup would not have been awarded to Qatar. He knows in detail what South Korea must do in order to "facilitate" a succesful bid. However, South Korea should realize that it is not going to be easy - or cheap - to beat the qataris, who already have set out their plan:
"asked at a recent meeting in Hamburg, Germany, about the bid to host the UNFCCC meeting, the Qatar energy institute's executive director, Rabi Mohtar, said, "I believe the push is to get that going as a precursor to the football games."
The fact that Qatar sees the climate jamboree only as a "precursor" to the football games, says a lot about the significance of the event. What reasons Korea might have for wanting to host the conference is more difficult to understand. Maybe their own man at the top of the UN hieararchy, one of the high priests of the climate change religion, Bank-ki Moon, has brainwashed the Korean government on this issue?
Renewable energy is a thing of the past
Michael Lind (Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program at the New America Foundation)
has written an article about the U.S. and world energy future that everyone - particularly our political decisions makers - should read. He makes a convincing case for the assumption that conventional wisdom about our energy future is completely wrong.
The arguments for converting the U.S. economy to wind, solar and biomass energy have collapsed. The date of depletion of fossil fuels has been pushed back into the future by centuries -- or millennia. The abundance and geographic diversity of fossil fuels made possible by technology in time will reduce the dependence of the U.S. on particular foreign energy exporters, eliminating the national security argument for renewable energy. And if the worst-case scenarios for climate change were plausible (which they are not), then the most effective way to avert catastrophic global warming would be the rapid expansion of nuclear power, not over-complicated schemes worthy of Rube Goldberg or Wile E. Coyote to carpet the world’s deserts and prairies with solar panels and wind farms that would provide only intermittent energy from weak and diffuse sources.
The mainstream environmental lobby has yet to acknowledge the challenge that the new energy realities pose to their assumptions about the future. Some environmentalists have welcomed natural gas because it is cleaner than coal and can supplement intermittent solar power and wind power, at times when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. But if natural gas is permanently cheaper than solar and wind, then there is no reason, other than ideology, to combine it with renewables, instead of simply using natural gas to replace coal in electricity generation.
Without massive, permanent government subsidies or equally massive penalty taxes imposed on inexpensive fossil fuels like shale gas, wind power and solar power may never be able to compete. For that reason, some Greens hope to shut down shale gas and gas hydrate production in advance. In their haste, however, many Greens have hyped studies that turned out to be erroneous.
In 2010 a Cornell University ecology professor and anti-fracking activist named Robert Howarth published a paper making the sensational claim that natural gas is a greater threat to the climate than coal. Howarth admitted, "A lot of the data we use are really low quality..."
Howarth’s error-ridden study was debunked by Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations and criticized even by the Worldwatch Institute, a leading environmentalist organization, which wrote: "While we share Dr. Howarth’s urgency about the need to transition to a renewable-based economy, we believe based on our research that natural gas, not coal, affords the cleanest pathway to such a future."
All energy sources have potentially harmful side effects. The genuine problems caused by fracking and possible large-scale future drilling of methane hydrates should be carefully monitored and dealt with by government regulation. But the Green lobby’s alarm about the environmental side-effects of energy sources is highly selective. The environmental movement since the 1970s has been fixated religiously on a few "soft energy" panaceas -- wind, solar, and biofuels -- and can be counted on to exaggerate or invent problems caused by alternatives. Many of the same Greens who oppose fracking because it might contaminate some underground aquifers favor wind turbines and high-voltage power lines that slaughter eagles and other birds and support blanketing huge desert areas with solar panels, at the cost of exterminating much of the local wildlife and vegetation. Wilderness preservation, the original goal of environmentalism, has been sacrificed to the giant metallic idols of the sun and the wind
Read the entire Slate article here
PS
Someone should give this article to the German chancellor Angela Merkel and her colleagues in the government, who recently have agreed a "Road Map for the Energy Future" which in reality is a roadmap to energy failure.
PS
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
The True Finns again show the way in Europe
The leader of the True Finns party, Timo Soini has decided not to join the planned Finnish coalition government, which would be ready to accept the Portuguese bail-out arrangement. Gregory White, writing in Business Insider, gets it right: Mr. Soini´s refusal to betray his principles, prevents his party from joining the government, but it will bring great rewards later on.
While in the short-term, this will stop the True Finns from achieving any of their policy goals on EU reform and immigration, it will offer them a political opportunity. As the independent voice for reform of Finland's relationship with the EU, the party will now be able to speak openly against all government action on bailouts.
While in the short-term, this will stop the True Finns from achieving any of their policy goals on EU reform and immigration, it will offer them a political opportunity. As the independent voice for reform of Finland's relationship with the EU, the party will now be able to speak openly against all government action on bailouts.
The stupidity of the ruling class in France
Vladimir Putin and Russia´s Gazprom are smiling: France has decided to stop the exploration of shale gas:
France's National Assembly voted Wednesday to rescind licenses granted for unconventional gas exploration in a move that is likely to put smiles on faces in Gazprom headquarters.
The vote was a culmination of months of Gallic protests over the environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing — or "fracking" — dramatically highlighted by the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Gasland" that examined the United States' shale gas industry.
French Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said Tuesday that fracking involved "risks we don't want to take," Bloomberg reported.
The French developments are unlikely to alter increasing European preoccupation with the potential of unconventional gas, however.
According to a study released in April by the European Center for Energy and Resource Security, or EUCERS, the continent's unconventional gas reserves are between 33 trillion and 38 trillion cubic meters. Total conventional reserves are a mere 2.42 tcm.
Comparisons are often drawn with the United States, where sharp growth has meant unconventional gas makes up 50 percent of total production. The United States overtook Russia as the planet's biggest gas producer in 2009.
Some would like to think Europe is on the cusp of a similar revolution, which would stem falling internal production and have significant consequences for Russia, which supplies 40 percent of Europe's gas imports.
"Even if only a fraction of the potential unconventional gas resources becomes available," the EUCERS report said, it would undercut the high price of Russian gas fields, put into doubt the development of Arctic reserves — like the enormous Shtokman gas field — and improve the European Union's energy security situation.
Read the entire article here
PS
Yet another sign of the utter stupidity of the degenerated French ruling class. The fact that these are also the people who have a strong say in the policies of the European Union is another good reason to oppose the EU in its present form.
No wonder, that an executive of Polish state-controlled natural gas firm PGNiG SA had this to say about the French decision:
“We believe countries who have had experience with fracking should share their experiences, but we don’t understand why countries who haven’t had fracking [on their territories] are banning it,” Mr. Karabula said. “Ecological concerns aren’t always the real driver.”
PS
This post was published already some time ago, but due to a technical error in the system, it was republished today. I apologize for the mistake. However, the message is still the same!
France's National Assembly voted Wednesday to rescind licenses granted for unconventional gas exploration in a move that is likely to put smiles on faces in Gazprom headquarters.
The vote was a culmination of months of Gallic protests over the environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing — or "fracking" — dramatically highlighted by the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Gasland" that examined the United States' shale gas industry.
French Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said Tuesday that fracking involved "risks we don't want to take," Bloomberg reported.
The French developments are unlikely to alter increasing European preoccupation with the potential of unconventional gas, however.
According to a study released in April by the European Center for Energy and Resource Security, or EUCERS, the continent's unconventional gas reserves are between 33 trillion and 38 trillion cubic meters. Total conventional reserves are a mere 2.42 tcm.
Comparisons are often drawn with the United States, where sharp growth has meant unconventional gas makes up 50 percent of total production. The United States overtook Russia as the planet's biggest gas producer in 2009.
Some would like to think Europe is on the cusp of a similar revolution, which would stem falling internal production and have significant consequences for Russia, which supplies 40 percent of Europe's gas imports.
"Even if only a fraction of the potential unconventional gas resources becomes available," the EUCERS report said, it would undercut the high price of Russian gas fields, put into doubt the development of Arctic reserves — like the enormous Shtokman gas field — and improve the European Union's energy security situation.
Read the entire article here
PS
Yet another sign of the utter stupidity of the degenerated French ruling class. The fact that these are also the people who have a strong say in the policies of the European Union is another good reason to oppose the EU in its present form.
No wonder, that an executive of Polish state-controlled natural gas firm PGNiG SA had this to say about the French decision:
“We believe countries who have had experience with fracking should share their experiences, but we don’t understand why countries who haven’t had fracking [on their territories] are banning it,” Mr. Karabula said. “Ecological concerns aren’t always the real driver.”
PS
This post was published already some time ago, but due to a technical error in the system, it was republished today. I apologize for the mistake. However, the message is still the same!
Obama´s Russia "reset" - "Giving the thugocracy whatever it wants"
Michael A. McFaul is Barack Obama´s pick for the next U.S. ambassador to Moscow. McFaul is "a trusted adviser who helped engineer the "reset" in the U.S.-Russia relations three years ago, reports the Washington Post.
Jennifer Rubin, in her WP column reminds us that new ambassador frequently spoke contemptously about the Russian policy of the Bush administration:
He reeled off the problems with Russia (authoritarianism, economic failure) and blamed the Bush team.
In 2007 he testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee: “For many years, President Bush and some members of his foreign policy team downplayed the significance of these anti-democratic trends in Russia. Three major assumptions shaped the Bush’s Russian policy: (1) Putin’s antidemocratic moves were a logical and temporary response to the anarchy of the 1990s, but the long-term trend in governance was still positive; (2) even if Putin did not share our values, he was a rational pragmatist with whom we could do business; and (3) Bush’s close personal relationship with Putin could be leveraged when needed to persuade the Russian president to do the right thing. To varying degrees, all of these assumptions have now proven to be erroneous.”
The same McFaul is now Obama´s point man on Russia. How is he doing?, Rubin asks:
Let’s recap. Russian democracy is moribund. Putin and Medvedev are scooping up the goodies while Obama gets only photo-ops in return. Russia is arming to the teeth. And as Congress is using its leverage to put pressure on the regime, Obama is throwing open the doors to Russians. And McFaul? Well, ABC News reports, he cheerfully told the media that he is “playing sherpa” for Russia to gain entry to WTO. Apparently the post of valet was taken.
And the Bush administration’s Russian policy was too weak?
Read the entire article here
PS
Flashback August 2008:
McFaul (then employed by the Carnegie Endowment) had this to say about the Russian invasion of Georgia:
We cant just stand by ideally (sic!) when one country invade another. Where does it stop? I know the Ukrainian government is extremely worried about their security right now.
Although at the same time criticizing the Bush administration´s "constrained" reaction to the events in Georgia, McFaul must have been elated by the arrival of his namesake at the Georgian port of Batumi:
Vladimir Putin - "the reincarnation of the apostle Paul"
The reincarnated apostle accepting the "Icon of Vladmir"
Forget all those pictures portraiting Vladimir Putin as a bare-chested macho man. God has now revealed the true identity of Russia´s ruler to Svetlana Frolova, a former convict turned nun, and now the leader of a Russian orthodox sect based in Nizhny Novgorod. The former KGB spy is actually the reincarnation of the apostle Paul and the founder of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Frolova, who now calls herself "Mother Fotinya", told Moscow Times that "I say what the Lord has revealed to me,":
"I love Putin as our No. 1, our commander, the captain of our great ship, and he is worthy of our love," said Frolova, who says she was "reborn" as Mother Fotinya after serving a 21-month sentence for fraud in 1996.
She says God spoke to her and revealed that Putin's past lives included that of Grand Prince Vladimir of Rus, credited with founding the Russian Orthodox Church more than a millennia ago.
"Every one of us has many incarnations. St. Paul was indeed one of Putin's," she said in an interview, her high-pitched voice bouncing off the icon-hung walls of her sanctuary in Bolshaya Yelnya, a village near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, some 410 kilometers east of Moscow.
In addition to her knowledge about the past, "Mother Fotinya" seems to have an excellent grasp of the political situation in Russia:
"He has the soul of a tsar. It's not by chance that he is now president," she said, sighing.
When reminded that Putin is prime minister while Medvedev is president, she said Putin remained Russia's boss.
"You can be prime minister and still remain president. Medvedev is merely Putin's student," she said.
Read the entire article here
PS
Putin´s advisers disclaim any link to "Mother Fotinya", but they apparently have refrained from refuting the substance of her story.
The International Energy Agency - an organization for spreading climate propaganda
"Meet the IEA : Richard Baron, head of the IEA Climate Change Unit"
The International Energy Agency is nowadays an organization totally in the hands of the climate alarmists. The latest example of the IEA:s eco-fundamentalist propaganda is the press release, widely quoted in the alarmist MSM:
Prospect of limiting the global increase in temperature to 2ºC is getting bleaker
30 May 2011CO2 emissions reach a record high in 2010; 80% of projected 2020 emissions from the power sector are already locked in
Energy-related carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2010 were the highest in history, according to the latest estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
After a dip in 2009 caused by the global financial crisis, emissions are estimated to have climbed to a record 30.6 Gigatonnes (Gt), a 5% jump from the previous record year in 2008, when levels reached 29.3 Gt.
In addition, the IEA has estimated that 80% of projected emissions from the power sector in 2020 are already locked in, as they will come from power plants that are currently in place or under construction today.
“This significant increase in CO2 emissions and the locking in of future emissions due to infrastructure investments represent a serious setback to our hopes of limiting the global rise in temperature to no more than 2ºC,” said Dr Fatih Birol, Chief Economist at the IEA who oversees the annual World Energy Outlook, the Agency’s flagship publication.
---
“Our latest estimates are another wake-up call,” said Dr Birol. “The world has edged incredibly close to the level of emissions that should not be reached until 2020 if the 2ºC target is to be attained. Given the shrinking room for manœuvre in 2020, unless bold and decisive decisions are made very soon, it will be extremely challenging to succeed in achieving this global goal agreed in Cancun.”
The IEA was founded in response to the 1973/4 oil crisis. Its initial role was "to help countries co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in oil supply through the release of emergency oil stocks to the markets". Today, the IEA lists climate change as one of its "main areas of focus":
Environmental awareness: Enhancing international knowledge of options for tackling climate change
Another, closely related focus area is this:
Engagement worldwide: Working closely with non-member countries, especially major producers and consumers, to find solutions to shared energy and environmental concerns
The US alone pays 25% of Dr. Birol´s and Mr. Baron´s salaries - and of the entire IEA budget. Maybe it is time for the US Congress to consider, whether there anymore are any reasons to continue financing this alarmist propaganda organization. A decision to decrease - or cut - funding would be the only proper "wake-up call" for Dr. Birol and his fellow alarmists in the IEA.
Monday, 30 May 2011
The über euro-Commissioner has spoken: "we would not accept a Greek withdrawal"
The arrogance of the unelected, overpaid eurocrats is mindboggling. Here is the über euro-Commissioner, the Finn Olli Rehn speaking:
SPIEGEL: Mr. Rehn, your Greek colleague on the European Commission, Maria Damanaki, said last week that either Athens and its lenders agree to tough sacrifices, "or we return to the drachma." Did she merely say what everyone is thinking?
SPIEGEL: So you are no longer ruling out a return to the drachma?
Rehn: I do not see a withdrawal from the monetary union as a serious option. It would harm the Greek economy and be a setback for European integration. The euro is more than a currency; it's the central political project of our community. For this reason, too, we would not accept a Greek withdrawal.
SPIEGEL: But the Greeks themselves have played out the scenario of reintroducing the drachma.
Rehn: All I can say is this: I am not aware of it. We in the Commission and in the euro group are not working with such a scenario.
Read the entire interview here
Greece is fighting for its economic and political survival, and the euro-Commissioner Rehn has the nerve to tell the Greeks, that "we would not accept a Greek withdrawal" (from the euro co-operation)!
The government and the people of Greece (and also Ireland and Portugal) are not anymore free decide about their own future. Mr. Rehn and his cronies in the Commission will not accept that, because the euro is "the central political project of our community" (leading to a federal European state).
SPIEGEL: Mr. Rehn, your Greek colleague on the European Commission, Maria Damanaki, said last week that either Athens and its lenders agree to tough sacrifices, "or we return to the drachma." Did she merely say what everyone is thinking?
Rehn: The public misunderstood my colleague's statement. She was trying to encourage her countrymen to implement the austerity program so that Greece can remain a member of the euro zone.
SPIEGEL: So you are no longer ruling out a return to the drachma?
Rehn: I do not see a withdrawal from the monetary union as a serious option. It would harm the Greek economy and be a setback for European integration. The euro is more than a currency; it's the central political project of our community. For this reason, too, we would not accept a Greek withdrawal.
SPIEGEL: But the Greeks themselves have played out the scenario of reintroducing the drachma.
Rehn: All I can say is this: I am not aware of it. We in the Commission and in the euro group are not working with such a scenario.
Read the entire interview here
Greece is fighting for its economic and political survival, and the euro-Commissioner Rehn has the nerve to tell the Greeks, that "we would not accept a Greek withdrawal" (from the euro co-operation)!
The government and the people of Greece (and also Ireland and Portugal) are not anymore free decide about their own future. Mr. Rehn and his cronies in the Commission will not accept that, because the euro is "the central political project of our community" (leading to a federal European state).
German "Roadmap for the Energy Future" - a roadmap to total energy failure
Angela Merkel´s government has reached an agreement on a "Roadmap for the Energy Revolution", reports Der Spiegel:
The new plan foresees all of Germany's nuclear plants going offline by 2021 -- with one possible exception: If the transition to renewable energy does not go as quickly as planned, three of the plants will be allowed to continue operating until 2022, as a kind of safety buffer against electricity shortfalls.
The proposals effectively reverse the government's own decision, taken last year, to extend the operating lives of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants -- which was itself a reversal of the decision made by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democratic-Green administration to phase out nuclear power by around 2020.
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The leader of the Social Democrats, Sigmar Gabriel, called the plans "dubious." He said he did not know of any nuclear plant that could be operated in a standby mode. "These are ideas that have little to do with the technological reality," he said.
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Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche also criticized the plans, telling the mass-circulation newspaper Bild that phasing out nuclear power presented "a number of risks" to Germany as a manufacturing location. German industry has on the whole been skeptical about plans to phase out nuclear power and switch to renewable energy. Executives from major energy companies have also expressed their opposition to a nuclear shutdown.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people took part in anti-nuclear demonstrations in 20 German cities, demanding a speedy phaseout of atomic energy.
Read the entire article here
PS
Quite a few international observers have already for some time been wondering, what on the earth is happening in Germany. After this decision by the Merkel government it is time to stop wondering, and instead ask the question: Are the German decision makers of sound mind these days, or have they all been totally brainwashed and incapacitated by the crazy "green" enviro-fundamentalist movement in their country.
The "Roadmap for the Energy Revolution" is nothing else but a roadmap to energy catastrophy and to total dependence on Russian gas deliveries. The German industrialists know this, but they are too afraid of getting the "anti-green" label in order to speak out loud and clear against this madness. One can only sympathise with people like Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche, who at least dares to point out what kind of problems the "roadmap" will create for Germany.
On the European level, the next step is most likely, that Frau Merkel and and the other leading German politicians - in good partnership with Gazprom and the enviro-fundamentalists - will redouble their lobbying against the only real energy revolution in sight in Europe - the shale gas revolution. On can only hope that the Poles and other sane people in Europe will use all their available resources (e.g. co-operation with the US) to prevent the destruction of this only realistic European energy future.
The new plan foresees all of Germany's nuclear plants going offline by 2021 -- with one possible exception: If the transition to renewable energy does not go as quickly as planned, three of the plants will be allowed to continue operating until 2022, as a kind of safety buffer against electricity shortfalls.
The proposals effectively reverse the government's own decision, taken last year, to extend the operating lives of Germany's 17 nuclear power plants -- which was itself a reversal of the decision made by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democratic-Green administration to phase out nuclear power by around 2020.
---
The leader of the Social Democrats, Sigmar Gabriel, called the plans "dubious." He said he did not know of any nuclear plant that could be operated in a standby mode. "These are ideas that have little to do with the technological reality," he said.
Renate Künast, the co-floor leader of the Green Party, also expressed skepticism, saying it was questionable whether the government was really prepared to make the switch to renewables.
---
Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche also criticized the plans, telling the mass-circulation newspaper Bild that phasing out nuclear power presented "a number of risks" to Germany as a manufacturing location. German industry has on the whole been skeptical about plans to phase out nuclear power and switch to renewable energy. Executives from major energy companies have also expressed their opposition to a nuclear shutdown.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people took part in anti-nuclear demonstrations in 20 German cities, demanding a speedy phaseout of atomic energy.
Read the entire article here
PS
Quite a few international observers have already for some time been wondering, what on the earth is happening in Germany. After this decision by the Merkel government it is time to stop wondering, and instead ask the question: Are the German decision makers of sound mind these days, or have they all been totally brainwashed and incapacitated by the crazy "green" enviro-fundamentalist movement in their country.
The "Roadmap for the Energy Revolution" is nothing else but a roadmap to energy catastrophy and to total dependence on Russian gas deliveries. The German industrialists know this, but they are too afraid of getting the "anti-green" label in order to speak out loud and clear against this madness. One can only sympathise with people like Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche, who at least dares to point out what kind of problems the "roadmap" will create for Germany.
On the European level, the next step is most likely, that Frau Merkel and and the other leading German politicians - in good partnership with Gazprom and the enviro-fundamentalists - will redouble their lobbying against the only real energy revolution in sight in Europe - the shale gas revolution. On can only hope that the Poles and other sane people in Europe will use all their available resources (e.g. co-operation with the US) to prevent the destruction of this only realistic European energy future.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Places for the EU elite
As this blog has noted earlier, the parliament of Kyrgyzstan recently decided to name one of the peaks of the Tien Shan mountain range, Mount Putin.
It is only natural, that the high representatives of the European Union, aka EUSSR, also have places bearing their names:
Herman Van Rompuy, the "president" of the European Union, has his own road and lake: Lake Herman
Lake Herman is an artificial lake - a fitting symbol for an artificial "president".
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, has his own river: Barroso river.
The river is said to be "a perfect place to swim without any danger" - a trait it shares with the Commission with its unelected commissioners.
Connie Hedegaard, the Climate Action Commissioner has her own glacier: the Connie Glacier
The Connie Glacier is said to have retreated 160 meters since 1966, something which most certainly will please the warmist Commissioner. She can now use her "own" glacier as definitive "proof" of global warming. Ice from the Connie glacier is an important ingredient in the famous Brussels cocktail Connie´s Glacier Special.
Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, easily beats the trio above. Her place, the village of Upholland, has one other claim to fame: Georg Lyon, one of the last English highwaymen is buried in the churchyard of St. Thomas the Martyr in Upholland. (A highwayman was a thief who preyed on travelers. This type of outlaw, usually, travelled and robbed by horse).
PS
Of course, there are many other dignitaries, who also have their own places. Here are just a few examples:
Mount Obama
Lake Merkel
Mount Cameron
Silvio Berlusconi does not yet seem have a place named after him, but here is a pizza Pizza Berlusconi. And Mr. Berslusconi will also be commemorated by a pizzeria and bar - The Bunga Bunga - which will soon open in Battersea, London.
And while waiting for news about a brand new Place de Sarkozy somewhere in La France, you can enjoy a glass of Cuvée Nicolas Sarkozy Champagne Brut.