Charles Krauthammer reminds us of some facts:
Voices around the world, from Europe to America to Libya, are calling for U.S. intervention to help bring down Moammar Gaddafi. Yet for bringing down Saddam Hussein, the United States has been denounced variously for aggression, deception, arrogance and imperialism.
A strange moral inversion, considering that Hussein's evil was an order of magnitude beyond Gaddafi's. Gaddafi is a capricious killer; Hussein was systematic. Gaddafi was too unstable and crazy to begin to match the Baathist apparatus: a comprehensive national system of terror, torture and mass murder, gassing entire villages to create what author Kanan Makiya called a "Republic of Fear."
Moreover, that systemized brutality made Hussein immovable in a way that Gaddafi is not. Barely armed Libyans have already seized half the country on their own. Yet in Iraq, there was no chance of putting an end to the regime without the terrible swift sword (it took all of three weeks) of the United States.
No matter the hypocritical double standard. Now that revolutions are sweeping the Middle East and everyone is a convert to George W. Bush's freedom agenda, it's not just Iraq that has slid into the memory hole. Also forgotten is the once proudly proclaimed "realism" of Years One and Two of President Obama's foreign policy - the "smart power" antidote to Bush's alleged misty-eyed idealism.
Read the entire column here.
PS
Krauthammer is, of course, right about Iraq and the Bush freedom agenda. Bush was not perfect - who is? - but history will be much kinder to him than people relying on the picture given by the MSM have been lead to believe.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Medvedev on freedom
"Freedom from fear, humiliation, poverty, disease, freedom for everyone, in my opinion, is our current goal of development,"
Dmitry Medvedev 4.3.2011
Read Robert Amsterdam´s comment here.
No human rights in communist China - Blind activist beaten senseless
A video featuring One Child Policy activist Chen Guangcheng was leaked to the China Aid Association on February 9. The next day Chen and his wife, Yuan Weijing, were “beaten senseless” in retaliation for the release of the video. This is how the rotten and corrupt communist regime in China treats people who dare to speak up.
Watch the Chen video (with subtitles in English) here:
Womens´ Rights Without Frontiers has some background information:
Blind activist Chen exposed the systematic use of forced abortion in implementing China’s One Child Policy. His work has not gone unnoticed by the world. Time Magazine named him in its list of “2006’s Top 100 People Who Shape Our World,” in the category of “Heroes and Pioneers.” In 2007 he was awarded the Magsaysay award, known as Asia’s Nobel Prize.
The Chinese Communist Party, however, took a different view. For standing up for the rights of Chinese women, Chen was handed a four year, three month jail sentence, was tortured and denied medical treatment, and is now languishing under house arrest. No one had heard from him since September until yesterday, when he released this video.
We are alarmed about the brutal beating of Chen and his wife, who are reportedly unable to move from their beds. We are also indignant about the conditions of Chen’s house arrest. A total of 66 security police surround their home day and night. Chen has been denied medical treatment. Nor can they communicate with the outside world, as their phone and computer access have been cut off.
At least that was the plan of the Chinese Communist Party. That plan was shattered by “a reliable government source who is sympathetic to Chen’s cause and outraged by the treatment of Chen,” according to CAA. In other words, Chen’s video was leaked to the West by a Chinese government insider.
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Why is the CCP so determined to crush Chen, as though he were a dangerous criminal? The CCP wants the world to believe that its One Child Policy is voluntary. Chinese President Hu Jintao, during his visit to Washington last month, told Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that China has no policy of forced abortion. In contrast, Chen single-handedly exposed the fact that there were 130,000 forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations in Linyi County, Shandong Province in just one year, 2005. If China truly has no forced abortion policy, then why didn’t the regime jail those who were performing these forced abortions? Why instead has it jailed and beaten Chen Guangcheng? (This is not the first time Hu Jintao has been caught lying! /NNoN)
The fact that Chen remains under house arrest proves that President Hu’s statement is false. The fact that Chen remains unyielding – continuing to urge his fellow citizens to stand up for their rights in China – must rankle party bosses.
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Chen Guangcheng is the “Tank Man” against China’s One Child Policy. Impoverished, beaten and blind, Chen nevertheless possesses the surpassing backbone to stand alone against the grinding juggernaut of this totalitarian regime. The CCP apparently perceives in Chen a real threat to its crumbling legitimacy.
In pressing for justice for Chen and his family, let us not forget those for whom he has sacrificed his freedom: the women and families of China who are being shattered daily by forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide. The coercive enforcement of China’s One Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth. It is the greatest women’s rights issue in the world today. It does not matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice on this issue. No one supports forced abortion, because it is not a choice.
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers calls for the immediate, unconditional release from house arrest of Chen Guangcheng and his family, and for urgent medical treatment. To sign a petition to Free Chen Guangcheng, click here: http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Putin´s dream of controlling Europe´s energy future is over
Australia and Argentina are countries with massive potential new reserves ....
If you don´t believe it, read the article by Jack Barnes in Oilprice.com:
The natural gas cartel, a dream of Russia’s just a few years ago, is dead. It died when a natural gas revolution broke out and Gazprom lost. Energy importing nations around the world are evaluating their own geology, currently, to see if they have shale reserves that can be tapped. Nations like Argentina, Germany, Poland, France, and Sweden are looking into their national shale reserves.
The shale gas revolution is changing the world we live in, and the power structures of the past. It is also quickly changing the politics of future energy relationships. Nations that had to be nice to an exporter, due to energy supplies, will be freed of their need for discretion.
Shale gas is quite simply changing the whole energy paradigm in real time. The unlocking of source rock, has altered the future history of mankind. The world has discovered and unlocked its newest true world changing source of stored energy.
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The world has shale fields spread around the globe in locations famous for oil production, and some not so famous. The new technology will change the basic political power structures that exist today. The era of Russia controlling Europe’s natural gas future is drawing to a close.
“The size of reserves is mind boggling,” he said. “It makes a huge argument for a gas economy going forward.”Annop Poddar, Partner, Energy Ventures.
If the shale fields in Poland and Germany can be brought online at the same level of production seen in the US, Europe on shore will be energy independent via their own production. France has shale oil and shale gas locations.
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The US is now growing its overall hydrocarbon production profile again. This is after many years of “experts” pontificating that the US was always going to be an importer of energy. The US was supposed to be trapped importing larger levels of energy from abroad forever. No one expected the US to quickly become the largest producer of natural gas in the world.
Currently, companies like LNG are looking to spend billions of dollars converting LNG import plants into export plants. The US could, once again, become a major exporter of hydrocarbons. This is not a joke. The era of the US being dependent on Middle East oil, is also ending.
Exxon is quietly buying up shale rights in Germany, as is Shell in Poland. Australia and Argentina both have massive potential new reserves. In short, there appears to be the equivalent of new Saudi Arabia’s in BTU totals now popping up in western nations. The US natural gas reserves are thought to be equal to 2x new Saudi Arabia’s. It will take decades to unlock this gas, and make it commercially viable in the market place.
Read the entire article here.
PS
There is a huge added bonus connected to the shale gas revolution; it will hasten the demise of the present corrupted leadership in Russia. Sooner, rather than later, Putin will join Mubarak and other criminal and corrupted leaders forced out of office.
There will then be billions to freeze on bank accounts in Switzerland ...
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Obama administration shows lack of support for Taiwan
Gate to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Taipei
The US-Taiwan Business Council is rightly worried about the Obama administration´s lack of support for the only truly democratic Chinese state:
US policy on Taiwan under US President Barack Obama has taken a “hazardous” turn that appears to be moving toward support for Beijing’s interpretation of its core interests, the US-Taiwan Business Council said in a special commentary released on Monday.
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Although the Obama administration has been right to encourage cross-strait economic liberalization and support President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in signing the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), China’s military posture has failed to dovetail with those developments, the report said.
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“China is playing relentless offense on Taiwan, and at some point the US has to step up and make it pay for its actions,” the commentary said, adding that Washington “must be as outspoken in [its] opposition to China’s strategy of military coercion as [it is] in [its] support of the ECFA and other positive trends.”
However, such a response has yet to materialize, it said.
“Two years into Mr Obama’s term in office, we have yet to see a single material action that suggests US willingness to make China pay a real cost for its aggressive cross-strait posture,” the chamber report said.
In addition to giving Taiwan and China the impression that it doesn’t care enough to act, US inaction will likely have an impact on the calculations of South Koreans and Japanese, who risk seeing this as “a drawn-out withdrawal of US interests in North Asia.”
Read the entire Taipei Times article here.
Putin has reason to be worried
The message in this article by the global editor of Reuters, Chrystia Freeland, is very much to the point:
Something else that can propel a society with a latent potential for rebellion into action is the demonstration effect, or what Acemoglu calls “contagion,” a phenomenon also familiar to anyone who was caught in the wildfire global spread of the financial crisis in 2008.
In both cases, the sudden belief that a previously stable status quo could change had the power to alter reality. This interplay between perception and fact is what U.S. financier George Soros, an expert in paradigm shifts in both markets and countries, has called reflexivity.
Even some of the world’s most powerful authoritarian regimes seem to be getting concerned about the danger of contagion and the power of perception — hence China’s efforts to block electronic information and discussion of the uprisings in the Middle East.
The Kremlin may have even more reason to worry. A Russian opinion poll found that one-third of respondents thought the “Egyptian scenario” of mass protests was possible in Russia. Moreover, a recent Public Opinion Foundation poll revealed that 49 percent of respondents were ready to take part in mass protests. That is the kind of thinking that can tip a latent potential for rebellion into a revolution.
Read the entire article in the Moscow Times here.
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
A day in the life of an EU commissioner
Being an EU commissioner must be one of the better job opportunities for retired European politicians. The salary is decent (In 2009 the basic salary for a commissioner was €230,000 + a lavish entertainment allowance + a residency allowance and a lot of other perks that come with the job. Of course, after 2009 there must have been a considerable adjustment upwards. Just as a comparison, in 2009 the British PM earned only a scant £187,000 - 20.000 less than a commissioner), and you do not have to worry about facing the voters, because you are an unelected bureaucrat. And when you finally quit the job, your ever generous employer makes sure, that you are in a position to enjoy the good life also during the years of retirement or whatever other later occupation. What more could one ask for?
The duties of the members of this exlusive, taxpayer financed elite group are of course varied. Just as an example, let´s have a look at what one of them, the Commissioner for development, Latvian Andris Pielbags is doing today, March 2, 2011:
Unless there has been a last minute change of schedule, the Commissioner will wake up in the capital of the tiny Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, where he, according to his website is on an "official" visit (commissioners like to think that they are on the same level as ministers of independent nations on official visits).
The "official" visit to Vanuatu is just one leg of the Commissioner´s grand tour also including the French Pacific paradise islands of New Caledonia in the South Pacific and East Timor in Southeast Asia. (The Commissioner should be congratulated for the excellent timing of the tour - who would not like to spend a couple of weeks on exotic Pacific islands this time of the year, when cold winter winds are blowing in Europe?)
While in Vanuatu, our Commissioner is ably assisted by his entourage from Brussels and the new EU "embassy" (or delegation) in Vanuatu headed by EU diplomat Robert De Raeve, Chargé d'Affaires. (Yes, the Europan Union´s External Action Service now has an embassy in this nation of 243.000 people. It sure must be one of the most challenging jobs to be an EU diplomat over there. No wonder there are no vacancies at the embassy right now, according to its website).
And what is the Commissioner´s schedule in Vanuatu today ? The background notes from the Commission´s Spokespersons’ service for journalists give us some useful information:
Wednesday 2
– Friday 4 March: EU’s help to Pacific Islands to fight climate change effects: Commissioner Piebalgs in Vanuatu to launch €50.4 million worth projectsThe news:
Between 3 and 4 March, 2011, European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, will participate in Conference on Climate Change in Vanuatu and sign an Action Plan to enhance Pacific-EU cooperation on climate change.
Some of the small Pacific islands are under the threat to disappear. They dramatically need increased aid.which, Commissioner Piebalgs will call EU member states and other international partners and donors to engage politically and financially in addressing climate change challenges faced by Pacific Countries and Territories.
The Commissioner will also sign four programmes which show EU determination to combat climate change and poverty in the Pacific for €50.4 million in total. Two of them cover specifically Vanuatu and Solomon Islands climate resilience specific needs. One will support strategic actions on adaptation in 9 Pacific Small Island states and prepare those countries to absorb efficiently the expected international climate fast start funds. The second regional project, to be implemented by the University of South Pacific, seeks to strengthen capacity building, community engagement and adaptive actions along with applied research.
The background:
Pacific islands are very isolated developing countries which have already suffered from regular natural disasters. In the worse case scenario, some islands could disappear due to rising sea levels and increasing erosion occurring from intense storms. All these changes infringe on hunting, fishing and the quality water resources therefore contribute to increased poverty in the region. In order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals on time the poverty must be also addressed in the Pacific region.
The European Commission provides development aid to the Pacific, which amounts €600 million for 2008-2013. It has reached a 60% increase between the 9th European Development Fund (2002-2007) and the 10th EDF (2007-2013).. A specific support needed to be devoted to address the negative impact of climate change in the Pacific. The Commission is politically and financially leading this EU effort. Together with Pacific partners, the Commission is actively engaged in financial terms, with €90 million in ongoing and already planned development cooperation projects and programmes at country and regional level for the period 2008-2013.
The event:
Building on the Cancun Climate Change Conference, the High Level conference on Climate Change in the Pacific will be hosted by Vanuatu on 4 March and is organised by the European Commission. Commissioner Piebalgs will make the introductory speech and Prime Minister of Vanuatu will do the closing remarks. An action plan will be presented for endorsement by the Conference.
A press conference will be organised on site.
Commissioner Piebalgs will visit a first wind farm implemented in the Vanuatu archipelago, designed to help meet the country’s growing energy needs. He will also visit the National Disaster Centre and Meteorological Services to assess local capacities deployed at the forefront of disaster risk management.
A long-term vision to combat climate change is worth nothing if it does not involve future generations. That is why the Commission has provided € 8 million of financial support to the University of South Pacific, part of which will be used to train students in the science of climate change (since when is climate change a science? -NNoN) and also to provide 300 certified trainers to work with communities on climate change adaptation (The EU is financing the "education" of 300 climate change progaganda officers for these tiny islands!)
In other words, what the Commissioner is busy doing is showering millions of EU taxpayers´ money on a small group of Pacific islands, which according to official EU propaganda "are under the threat to disappear".
But is there really such a threat? Not according to the latest study by the University of Auckland, featured in the magazine New Scientist:
In recent times, the inhabitants of many low-lying Pacific islands have come to fear their homelands being wiped off the map because of rising sea levels. But this study of 27 islands over the last 60 years suggests that most have remained stable, while some have actually grown
Associate Professor Paul Kench of Auckland University, who took part in the study, published in the journal Global and Planetary Change says the islands are not in immediate danger of extinction.
"That rather gloomy prognosis for these nations is incorrect, " he told the BBC.
We have now got the evidence to suggest that the physical foundation of these countries will stillbe theere in 100 years, so they perhaps do not need to flee their country."
Other experts, like Swedish professor Nils-Axel Mörner have already long ago come to the same conclusion. Vanuatu is not going to "disappear" anywhere - although it may experience all other kinds of problems, like most places.
PS
One can only wonder, why the European Union is spending millions of EU taxpayers´ money on non-existent "climate change"/global warming problems in a number of Pacific island states. Why is nobody protesting when commissioner Pielbags and his entourage are travelling around the globe (at the expense of us, the taxpayers) in order to spread unsubstantiated climate change propaganda? And, by the way, why should the European Union have an "embassy" in the tiny island state Vanuatu at a time when ordinary European citizens are facing deep financial austerity measures?
Bon voyage, Mr. Commissioner!
(image by wikipedia)
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