"Global warming" in the Baltic Sea: Tens of ships trapped in the ice

(image by sampotours)

The Sampo icebreaker is retired from active duty and nowadays takes tourists out into the icy waters of the Gulf of Bothnia. But right now it could probably be more useful assisting ships trapped in the ice...

The Baltic Sea has is covered by ice from the north down to the Swedish Öland island. On Thursday, 310,000 square kilometres of the sea were covered in ice, and the area is growing. This is the most extensive ice cover in 24 years, according to the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Scores of ships lie iced in and icebreaker assistance is not available until next week, the YLE Finnish TV news reports. The situation is most difficult south of Kvarken, the narrowest part of the Gulf of Bothnia, where about forty vessels have been iced in.

A couple of days ago Russian authorities reported that a nuclear icebreaker is on its way to free ships trapped in the ice in the Gulf of Finland.

(image by Wikipedia)

PS
Of course, the deep freeze is all a sign of global warming, if we are to believe Nobel Prize laureate Al Gore.

Russia plans to send new French built warships to Kuril islands

Russia has announced that it plans to send its soon to be delivered French Mistral helicopter carriers to  the Kuril Islands - the Japanese Northern Territories - which Russia occupies since the end of the Word War II:
Russia announced Friday that it may send one or even two of the high-tech warships it is buying from France to help protect a chain of islands that are being bitterly claimed by Japan.
The statement from Russia's top general is likely to infuriate the Japanese government and further escalate a simmering row that flared during an unprecedented November visit to the Kurils by President Dmitry Medvedev.

Read the entire AFP news article here.

Former Japanese ambassador to France, Kazuo Ogoura, now political science professor at Aoyama Gakuin University questions whether Russia can be a real partner for Japan and the West:

Russia is in danger of becoming an element of concern or a potential source of instability in East Asia.

Nationalism-oriented and authoritarianism-tilted Russian politics is likely to discourage movement in China toward democracy and may even encourage continuation of the dictatorial regime in North Korea. In any event, the latest political developments in Russia make people wonder once again whether Russia can be a real politico-economic partner to Japan, Europe, the United States and other like-minded countries in Asia and the Pacific.

The Russian stance and actions with regard to the Northern Territories is not, in essence, a bilateral issue between Japan and Russia; it is a litmus test of the Russian image and position as recognized by the international community.

Read the entire article in the Japan Times here.

PS
It would be very sad indeed if French arms technology would be used against the interests of a key NATO partner country.

The green agenda

“Today’s debate about global warming is essentially a debate about freedom. The environmentalists would like to mastermind each and every possible (and impossible) aspect of our lives.”
Vaclav Klaus
Blue Planet in Green Shackles

Sometimes - at least here in Europe - one feels that all people support "green values". Who would not want to protect the environment and and enjoy a healthy life style? There is an ever growing flood of "green" articles and programmes in the media. The greens are now an important political force in many European countries, with Germany as a prime example. And most of the traditional parties have adopted much of the green agenda at least in their rhetoric. The entire global warming/climate change movement is based on the green/environmentalist ideology - or religion - which seems to be filling the vacuum left by the weakening role of the church.

Kevin Andrews, Australian shadow minister for Families, Housing and Human Services is one of the few politicians who has thoroughly studied the green agenda. His scholarly article in the Quadrant magazine is recommended reading for all people who still value Western Civilisation.

What most people do not realise, is that the green movement has its roots in the Marxist  totalitarian tradition.

Here are some of the highlights in the Quadrant article:

Many descriptions could be applied to the Greens, but none seems more accurate than Jack Mundey’s own description of “ecological Marxism”, which sums up the two core beliefs of the Greens. First, the environment or the ecology is to be placed before all else. This is spelt out in the first principle in the Greens Global Charter, to which the Australian Greens are subscribers: “We acknowledge that human beings are part of the natural world and we respect the specific values of all forms of life, including non-human species.”[34]
Second, the Greens are Marxist in their philosophy, and display the same totalitarian tendencies of all previous forms of Marxism as a political movement. By totalitarian, I mean the subordination of the individual in the impulse to rid society of all elements that, in the eyes of the adherent, mar its perfection.
Let me expand. According to the Greens’ ideology, human dignity is neither inherent nor absolute, but relative.[35] Humans are only one species amongst others. As Brown and Singer write: “We hold that the dominant ethic is indefensible because it focuses only on human beings and on human beings who are living now, leaving out the interests of others who are not of our species, or not of our generation.”[36] Elsewhere, they equate humans with animals:

The revolutionary element in Green ethics is its challenge to us to see ourselves in universal terms ... I must take into account the interests of others, on the same footing as my own. This is true, whether these others are Victorians or Queenslanders, Australians or Rwandans, or even the nonhuman animals whose habitat is destroyed when a forest is destroyed.[37]

What is revolutionary about this statement is not that the interests of another should be considered in an ethical judgment. Judeo-Christian belief extols consideration of others, as does Kant’s Golden Rule. Burke wrote of society being a compact across generations. What is revolutionary is the equation of humans and animals.
---
For many Greens supporters, environmentalism is ultimately an article of faith and belief. This is no better illustrated that in the controversy surrounding the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It has become increasingly clear that the process of “establishing” human-caused global warming has been manipulated by a small group of people, using mutual peer-review processes, and claiming to speak for many more scientists who had little input and no real opportunity to review the final documents. The closed-shop nature of the process is counter the scientific empiricism of the enlightenment, and marks another significant break with traditional Western culture.
---
For the Greens, a pristine global environment represents earthly perfection. It underpins their “ecological wisdom”[41] and is at the core of the new ethic.[42] It is to be protected and promoted at all costs. Hence, all old growth forests are to be locked up;[43] logging is to be prohibited; wealth is to be scorned;[44] economic growth is opposed;[45] exclusive ownership of property is questioned;[46] there should be a moratorium of fossil fuels exploration;[47] dam construction should be discouraged;[48] genetic engineering and agricultural monoculture is rejected;[49] world trade should be reduced;[50] and a barter economy encouraged.[51]
It explains why the Greens believe the world’s population is excessive and should be reduced,[52] and why human consumption should be cut.[5
---
What is at stake in the Greens’ “revolution” is the heart and soul of Western civilisation, built on the Judeo-Christian/Enlightenment synthesis that upholds the individual—with obligations and responsibilities to others, but ultimately judged on his or her own conscience and actions—as the possessor of an inherent dignity and inalienable rights. What is also at stake is the economic system that has resulted in the creation of wealth and prosperity for the most people in human history.

Read the entire article here.

The EU finally agrees sanctions

No more visa for the "Guide of the Great Revolution of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya"

The public pressure on the EU to take some kind of action with regard to the slaughter of peaceful demonstrators in Libya seems to have resulted in this:

Berlin/Brussels - European Union nations agreed Friday to impose an arms embargo on Libya and slap a visa ban and asset freeze on members of the regime, the German Foreign Office said.
The embargo is to cover both military hardware and goods which could be used to crack down on pro-democracy demonstrators. The decision is to be formalized next week, officials in Berlin said.

Well, this is at least something. However, it is clear that the sanctions are in reality very soft. Much tougher measures would have been needed!

(image by EU audiovisual service)

Another lecture from baroness Ashton

The unelected EU "foreign minister", labour baroness Cathrine Ashton recently lectured the world about "deep democracy" in Egypt. Now, she is lecturing readers of the New York Times about how to deal with mad dictators, citing how "the West" dealt with the Soviet empire:

Were the European Union to isolate every government that fails to live up to the principles of liberal democracy, we would face accusations of political imperialism. It is better to proclaim the principles of democracy, but deal with the world as it is.
That is how the West behaved toward the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall. At the same time we engaged governments and supported groups that promoted democratic change from within. This meant that when the Wall fell, we had the connections as well as the ambition to help the countries of Eastern Europe move rapidly toward democracy, the rule of law and greater economic prosperity.

This is really over the top. It was, of course, the much scolded "warmonger", "Hollywood B-movie star" Ronald Reagan, together with Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, who brought down the evil empire and changed the world. If the "realpolitik" of the continental EU leaders had prevailed, we would probably still have to deal with an imperial Soviet union.

Read the entire article in the NYT here.

(image by EU audiovisual service)

Finally EU takes action: Gaddafi picture taken down in EU Council building

The European Union has finally been able proceed from words to conrete action on Libya (in spite of  protests from the Berlusconi goverment?):

Brussels - Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi's fall from grace resonated in the European Union corridors of power on Thursday, as a picture of him in the company of one the bloc's former top officials was removed on Thursday.
The interior walls of the Justus Lipsius, the building that houses the EU Council - the secretariat of the bloc's member states - are decorated with pictures showing EU politicians, sometimes in the company of foreign dignitaries.
One of them, hung between the Italian and the Spanish press conference rooms, showed Gaddafi meeting with the EU's former foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.
On Thursday, it was gone.

Read the entire story here.

PS
The EU Audiovisual Services, "Sharing the Sights and Sounds of Europe", has not yet removed this nice picture from their archives:

The offical caption to the photo is as follows:

"Handshake between José Manuel Barroso, President of the EC, and Muammar al-Gaddafi, Guide of the Great Revolution of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya"

And this "historic" picture is there, too:

EU caption: "Gaddafi (in the middle, in blue) in front of his tent with his delegation", "Location: Brussels - Chateau of Val-Duchesse"

Europeans busy peddling arms to North Africa and the Middle East

EU countries have been busy peddling arms to North Africa and the Middle East in recent years. According to Kaye Stearman of British arms control group Campaign Against Arms Trade EU arms sales between 2008 and 2009, in North Africa alone, went from just under one billion euros to two million euros.

A recently published EU document outlines the figures for 2009:

The EU document, which refers to annual figures in 2009, says the bloc's member states granted export licenses worth 343 million euros ($470 million) to Libya. Italy was shown to have approved exports worth 112 million euros, the most taken up by military aircraft. It was followed by Malta which authorized the sale of an 80-million-euro consignment of small arms.
Germany was third on the list, with 53 million euros of licenses, mostly for electronic jamming equipment used to disrupt mobile phone, Internet and GPS communication.

Russia has been the biggest arms supplier to Libya, but French, Italian and German defense companies have been steadily increasing their business ties with Libya. It is interesting to note that US companies have largely kept out:

"As opposed to Europe, the general perception in the US is to take a much harder line on Gadhafi," David Hartwell, Middle East analyst at UK-based IHS Jane's told Deutsche Welle. "There's a lot of political pressure within Congress not to do big business with Gadhafi after the Lockerbie bombing," he said.

It certainly looks like European arms technology has been used by at least the regimes in Bahrein and Libya to silence their own citizens:

Analysts say that's hard to prove but reports that governments both in Bahrain and Libya may have done just that have sparked angry debates and accusations of double standards in some European countries.

"Only if we stop selling arms to these countries, then their governments have much less chance of repressing their populations," Kaye Stearman said.
She added however that there's little sign of that happening.
British Premier David Cameron who was on a tour of the Middle East this week paid a visit to the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi with more than 1,000 companies showing their military equipment and services. Cameron was accompanied by eight leading British arms industry executives.
"That sends an absolutely disastrous signal to pro-democracy movements in the Arab world," Stearman said.

Read the entire Deutsche Welle article here.

It certainly does not look like Britain would be planning to cut its arms sales to undemocratic Gulf regimes any time soon.
This from the IDEX 2011 home page:

Gerald Howarth MP, UK Minister for International Security Strategy, delivered his vision for greater international cooperation and highlighted the enduring connection between Britain and the UAE during the second keynote address: "We in Britain want to build strong, reliable, and enduring strategic partnerships throughout the Gulf region – strengthening existing alliances, and promoting alliances with new, important allies...The United Kingdom has a long historical connection with the UAE, and with the Arabian Gulf more generally. Over many years, our bonds of friendship, understanding, and respect have grown and endured – through good times and bad."