Four years ago, Europe was ecstatic about the end of the era of George W. Bush, whom they blamed for the financial crisis and two highly unpopular wars, and the election of a young president who represented change and hope and possibly a more productive transatlantic relationship.
On Wednesday morning, Europe was decidedly less enthusiastic about Mr. Obama’s re-election, but certainly happier than the alternative. Mitt Romney failed to make a good impression on his European visit in August.
They considered Mr. Romney more trigger-happy than his rival and his apparently wholesale support for Israel did not go over well in a continent that puts the Middle East in its own neighbourhood. Some countries, like Spain, that are suffering from recessions made worse by grinding austerity measures were also philosophically opposed to a candidate who pushed hard for government spending cuts.
The Guardian newspaper, in Britain, did not consider Mr. Obama’s victory in a long, nasty campaign a reward for achievement. “In the end Mr Obama owes his second term more to his vast campaign war chest and the ruthless professionalism of his get-out-the-vote machine than he did the first time around, when hope and idealism did more to carry him to the White House.”
In France, Le Monde was tempered its support and praise for Mr. Obama. It called him “not always brilliant, but solid.”
In Italy, Rome’s Il Messaggero newspaper professed some surprise that Mr. Obama was re-elected, given the tepid economic revival and the still-high (though declining) jobless rate. In a comment piece, Riccardo de Palo said that “Only Franklin Delano Roosevelt succeeded in the feat of getting re-election against a backdrop of such a unfavourable economy,” adding that Mr. Obama’s second term will be no picnic for man who is “less charismatic, but more mature, less naive.”
Read more: Europe welcomes Obama win, but with less enthusiasm than in 2008 - The Globe and Mail
11/7/12
OBAMERICA: 4 more years - its all about inclusiveness and solving problems together
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| Michelle and Barack Obama |
The US President had won his second term in the White House.
Obama waited for the crowd to finish chanting “four more years,” before promising them that “the best is yet to come.”
The President said the election result reflects “the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family and we rise and fall together as one nation and as one people.”
“I believe we can build on the progress we've made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunities and new security for the middle class,” Obama said. “I believe we can keep the promise of our founding, the idea that if you're willing to work hard, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn't matter whether you're black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight. You can make it here in America if you're willing to try.”
Obama also touched on the divisiveness of the campaign, saying Americans “are not as divided as our politics suggests. "We are not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and forever will be, the United States of America."
The president thanked his wife, Michelle, his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, and also congratulated his opponent Romney on “a hard-fought campaign.”
But it's no easy task. Obama will once again face the challenge of leading the country with a divided Congress, as Democrats retained control of the Senate and Republicans maintained their hold over the House of Representatives.
The President will be tasked with turning around a sluggish economy and reining in a national debt that tops $16 trillion and a budget deficit that has reached $1 trillion.
Tuesday’s exit poll of more than 19,000 voters conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and the major U.S. networks found that: Just under four in 10 voters said unemployment was the biggest economic problem they are facing. Four in 10 voters said the economy is improving, while 3 in 10 said it is getting worse.
Even though Americans gave President Barack Obama a second term in office, it still wasn't clear early on Wednesday morning whether the president won the key battleground state of Florida. There Obama was still edging out Romney by about 45,000 votes, or 0.53 percentage points, out of a total of 8.27 million votes cast in Florida, with about 99 percent of the votes counted.
Maybe the major reason for the outcome of this US Presidential election is that Obama, regardless of the dire economic situation the US is facing, was awarded another 4 years for at least trying to create a more inclusive, fairer and progressive America.
An America which can focus with more urgency on the future and the challenges this represents in the area of the economy, education, health care, the environment, and alternative resources of energy.
EU-Digest
11/6/12
Greece to vote on euro 18 Billion in New Cuts - by L. Alderman and R . Donaldo
Destabilized by scandals yet held together by a lack of alternatives, the Greek government prepared to push a raft of politically toxic new austerity measures through Parliament on Wednesday, a move aimed at securing international financing and ensuring that the debt-wracked nation will remain in the euro zone.
Read more: Greece to Vote on $23 Billion in New Cuts - NYTimes.com
But some members of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s fragile three-party coalition government were expected to break ranks and vote against the measures, reviving questions about how long the coalition can hold together.
On the streets, austerity-weary Greeks kicked off two days of nationwide strikes on Tuesday to protest the new measures, which will total euro 18 billion (US $23 billion) over the next four years.
Read more: Greece to Vote on $23 Billion in New Cuts - NYTimes.com
The Entire US Has Infrastructure Lessons to Learn From Hurricane Sandy - by Henry Henderson: Shelter
Disasters like we saw this week laid bare the hidden systems that we take for granted. On a daily basis New York and our other cities depend on pumps to keep water from filling subways, tunnels and basements; sewers to evacuate waste and storm water from our streets; complex systems to deliver electricity, and allow us to communicate around the globe. It’s a wondrous system that regularly proves itself to be vulnerable to wear and tear, error and misuse. And on a regular basis, we take for granted that the vulnerability of our infrastructure is an irritation, rather than a growing threat to our health, safety and well being. But as Sandy plunged much of the east coast into a sustained wet darkness, the extent of the vulnerability of critical, fallible infrastructure seems like a new revelation.
It is not a new revelation, of course. However, this furious storm has clearly demonstrated (1) our deep dependence on fallible infrastructure, (2) the fundamental inadequacy of the infrastructure we assume will serve our needs, and (3) that we are in the midst of seriously changing weather and climate conditions that our infrastructure must address to protect our safety and well being. New York Governor Cuomo had it right when he said that ignoring "dramatic change in weather patterns is denying reality. We have a new reality, and old infrastructures and old systems.”
The news media is finally catching up to the changes in our climate and how this reality is connected to the devastating storms, fires, droughts and floods we are seeing across the country (and world). But the implications of these changes for public policy have not been grasped.
The impact of Hurricane Sandy is a sharp rebuke of willful ignorance, cynicism and political malfeasance. The storm has wreaked billions in damage on our economy and the systems we rely upon in daily American life. And billions will be spent to rebuild. The question before us, not just on the East coast, is should we simply be rebuilding the patchwork that exists, or finally pushing towards something newer and stronger?
We need to get serious about the real nature of the challenges that we face as a people and nation. We need to make decisions, and invest in critical infrastructure and policies that are grounded in reality, science and the moral values that respect citizens as irreplaceable members of a vital, just society. We need to rethink, redesign and reinvest in effective infrastructure that makes modern life possible has not yet made it into the national discussion and decision-making mix.
Read more: Henry Henderson: Shelter From the Storm? The Entire US Has Infrastructure Lessons to Learn From Hurricane Sandy
It is not a new revelation, of course. However, this furious storm has clearly demonstrated (1) our deep dependence on fallible infrastructure, (2) the fundamental inadequacy of the infrastructure we assume will serve our needs, and (3) that we are in the midst of seriously changing weather and climate conditions that our infrastructure must address to protect our safety and well being. New York Governor Cuomo had it right when he said that ignoring "dramatic change in weather patterns is denying reality. We have a new reality, and old infrastructures and old systems.”
The news media is finally catching up to the changes in our climate and how this reality is connected to the devastating storms, fires, droughts and floods we are seeing across the country (and world). But the implications of these changes for public policy have not been grasped.
The impact of Hurricane Sandy is a sharp rebuke of willful ignorance, cynicism and political malfeasance. The storm has wreaked billions in damage on our economy and the systems we rely upon in daily American life. And billions will be spent to rebuild. The question before us, not just on the East coast, is should we simply be rebuilding the patchwork that exists, or finally pushing towards something newer and stronger?
We need to get serious about the real nature of the challenges that we face as a people and nation. We need to make decisions, and invest in critical infrastructure and policies that are grounded in reality, science and the moral values that respect citizens as irreplaceable members of a vital, just society. We need to rethink, redesign and reinvest in effective infrastructure that makes modern life possible has not yet made it into the national discussion and decision-making mix.
Read more: Henry Henderson: Shelter From the Storm? The Entire US Has Infrastructure Lessons to Learn From Hurricane Sandy
The Netherlands: Dutch Muslims are becoming more religious
An ever increasing number of second generation Dutch Muslims are visiting the mosque at least once a week, according to research published by the government's socio-cultural policy unit SCP.
The new survey among Dutch Muslims is an update on one carried out in 2004 which concluded Muslims were becoming less religious. That is no longer the case, particularly among people of Moroccan origin, says the SCP.
Between 1998 and 2011, the number of mosque-attending Moroccans rose from 9% to 33% while the number of Turks increased from 23% to 35%. Of the Turkish Netherlanders between the ages of 15 and 24 10% pray five times a day. For young Moroccan Netherlanders the percentage is 61%.
The Moroccan-Dutch are more likely to fast during ramadan and eat halal every day. The women are also more likely to wear a headscarf, says the SCP.
Second generation Muslims who worship regularly feel a stronger bond with their family home land than with the Netherlands. They are more likely to stay in their own ethnic circle and are more conservative about the position of women and homosexuals, says the SCP.
The Netherlands has an estimated 825,000 Muslims, mostly of Turkish and Moroccan origin. Smaller groups come from Afghanistan, Irak, Somalia and Irak. Asylum seekers from Iran are the least religious.
Read more: DutchNews.nl - Dutch Muslims are becoming more religious
The new survey among Dutch Muslims is an update on one carried out in 2004 which concluded Muslims were becoming less religious. That is no longer the case, particularly among people of Moroccan origin, says the SCP.
Between 1998 and 2011, the number of mosque-attending Moroccans rose from 9% to 33% while the number of Turks increased from 23% to 35%. Of the Turkish Netherlanders between the ages of 15 and 24 10% pray five times a day. For young Moroccan Netherlanders the percentage is 61%.
The Moroccan-Dutch are more likely to fast during ramadan and eat halal every day. The women are also more likely to wear a headscarf, says the SCP.
Second generation Muslims who worship regularly feel a stronger bond with their family home land than with the Netherlands. They are more likely to stay in their own ethnic circle and are more conservative about the position of women and homosexuals, says the SCP.
The Netherlands has an estimated 825,000 Muslims, mostly of Turkish and Moroccan origin. Smaller groups come from Afghanistan, Irak, Somalia and Irak. Asylum seekers from Iran are the least religious.
Read more: DutchNews.nl - Dutch Muslims are becoming more religious
Europe: Tips on how you can Watch Tonight's Election Results Online - by John Paul Titlow
On November 6, 2012, the first post-PC U.S. presidential election will come to a close. Just like the primaries, conventions and debates, tonight's election returns will be obsessively and extensively live streamed and covered live online. For those relying on the Internet for their nail-biting date with democracy, there are more choices than anyone could possibly list.
Pretty much every modern news site in the United States (and many abroad) will be covering the results as they happen. That coverage will consist of a dizzying array of interactive maps, data visualizations, live video feeds, tweets, Instagram photos and good, old fashioned news articles. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are even pulling down their paywalls for the occasion.
YouTube's Election Hub will be live streaming results, just as it has done with pretty much every other major election-related event this year. The politics-focused channel has become a robust repository for videos related to the presidential campaign, from debate clips and convention speeches to attack ads and professional punditry. While waiting for the electoral results to start rolling in, you can ease your impatience with one last burst of election-related video before the campaign fatigue comes to a merciful end.
CNN will offer live video feeds of the election results, along with the usual assortment of maps, interactive tools and social media updates. The live video stream will be available on CNN's mobile apps, but only to cable subscribers. Users of any tablet can check CNN's live results map in the browser and play around with the Facebook Election Insights tool, which is fueled by real-time data from the enormous social network.
The Wall Street Journal is planning a similarly cross-platform night of political coverage. Alongside standard news stories, it will have a dynamically updated map powered by CartoDB, a New York-based mapping startup. In addition to state-by-state election returns, that map allows users to overlay state-based data points like unemployment, per-capita income and previous election results. The Wall Street Journal will also stream video coverage live on its website and via its WSJ Live app for mobile devices and Internet TV streaming boxes.
Other sites offering live-streamed video coverage include Politico, Washington Post, CBS News, HuffPost Live and the Chicago Tribune, to name but a few. If you're at a loss, head over to UStream, where there will be a selection of more than a dozen video streams to chose from.
Video isn't the only option. If you'd rather listen to the returns and focus your eyes elsewhere, NPR will be broadcasting live on its website and via its mobile apps. Meanwhile, Slacker Radio has partnered with ABC News to provide its own live audio coverage.
Also check your own local European stations and if all else fails head over to UStream and take your pick.
Read more: How To Watch Tonight's Election Results Online
Pretty much every modern news site in the United States (and many abroad) will be covering the results as they happen. That coverage will consist of a dizzying array of interactive maps, data visualizations, live video feeds, tweets, Instagram photos and good, old fashioned news articles. The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are even pulling down their paywalls for the occasion.
YouTube's Election Hub will be live streaming results, just as it has done with pretty much every other major election-related event this year. The politics-focused channel has become a robust repository for videos related to the presidential campaign, from debate clips and convention speeches to attack ads and professional punditry. While waiting for the electoral results to start rolling in, you can ease your impatience with one last burst of election-related video before the campaign fatigue comes to a merciful end.
CNN will offer live video feeds of the election results, along with the usual assortment of maps, interactive tools and social media updates. The live video stream will be available on CNN's mobile apps, but only to cable subscribers. Users of any tablet can check CNN's live results map in the browser and play around with the Facebook Election Insights tool, which is fueled by real-time data from the enormous social network.
The Wall Street Journal is planning a similarly cross-platform night of political coverage. Alongside standard news stories, it will have a dynamically updated map powered by CartoDB, a New York-based mapping startup. In addition to state-by-state election returns, that map allows users to overlay state-based data points like unemployment, per-capita income and previous election results. The Wall Street Journal will also stream video coverage live on its website and via its WSJ Live app for mobile devices and Internet TV streaming boxes.
Other sites offering live-streamed video coverage include Politico, Washington Post, CBS News, HuffPost Live and the Chicago Tribune, to name but a few. If you're at a loss, head over to UStream, where there will be a selection of more than a dozen video streams to chose from.
Video isn't the only option. If you'd rather listen to the returns and focus your eyes elsewhere, NPR will be broadcasting live on its website and via its mobile apps. Meanwhile, Slacker Radio has partnered with ABC News to provide its own live audio coverage.
Also check your own local European stations and if all else fails head over to UStream and take your pick.
Read more: How To Watch Tonight's Election Results Online
Top China reformer calls to rein in communist power
A top Communist Party reformer said reining in the unchecked power of China's ruling party was the only way to modernise the nation, urging reforms on the eve of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition.
His comments, carried in the current issue of the respected Economic Observer weekly newspaper, come as the party opens its 18th congress Thursday, ushering in a 10-yearly leadership transition that will see President Hu Jintao step down as party chief before he retires as president in March.
"There are too many times when power becomes bigger than the law, when the power of the party and government interferes with the judicial process," wrote Hu, who is unrelated to Hu Jintao. "The basic task of the Chinese Communist Party is to make continuous efforts to advance the establishment and implementation of socialist constitutional government ... this is also the demand of the times."
In his comments Hu, a leading reformist voice on China's top political advisory body, expressed the hopes for political reform of many party insiders, while also echoing the demands of dissidents and rights activists, many of whom have been jailed.
Hu said that 100 years after the Qing Dynasty, China's last imperial ruling house, the Communist Party continued to refuse real constitutional restraints with disastrous results to society and civil rights.
Read more: Top China reformer calls to rein in communist power | Radio Netherlands Worldwide
Some 'riddles' of US presidential elections solved
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| The Democratic Donkey |
If you have been baffled why the presidential elections in the US are always held in November, and always on Tuesdays, the answer might lie in the weather, harvests and worship.
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| The Republican Elephant |
Experts have also answered why donkey is the mascot for the Democratic party.
In 1828, Democrat Andrew Jackson's critics called him a "jackass" because of his populist views and his slogan, "Let the people rule". Jackson decided to run with it - even using images of a donkey in his campaign ads. Later, cartoonist Thomas Nast also used a donkey to depict the Democratic party.
Nast invented another famous symbol—the Republican elephant. In a cartoon that appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1874, Nast drew a donkey clothed in lion's skin, scaring away all the animals at the zoo. One of those animals, the elephant, was labeled “The Republican Vote.” That's all it took for the elephant to become associated with the Republican Party.
Democrats today say the donkey is smart and brave, while Republicans say the elephant is strong and dignified.
Read more: Top 'riddles' of US presidential elections solved | Business Standard
Russia's President Putin fires defence minister over corruption scandal
Russia's President Vladimir Putin sacked the country's defence minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, on Tuesday after he was implicated in a criminal probe into the sell-off of military assets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday fired defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov over a corruption scandal, the most dramatic change to the government since he returned to the Kremlin for a third term.
Putin replaced Serdyukov, who had been implementing an unpopular but Kremlin-backed military reform, with Moscow region governor and long-standing ally Sergei Shoigu.
Serdyukov was relieved of his duties so that a thorough investigation can proceed into a suspected $100 million property scam at a defence ministry holding company, Putin said at a meeting with Shoigu.
"Taking into consideration the situation around the defence ministry I have made a decision to relieve defence minister Serdyukov of his post in order to create conditions for an objective investigation of all the issues," Putin said in televised remarks.
Read more: Russia's Putin fires defence minister over corruption scandal - RUSSIA - FRANCE 24
Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday fired defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov over a corruption scandal, the most dramatic change to the government since he returned to the Kremlin for a third term.
Putin replaced Serdyukov, who had been implementing an unpopular but Kremlin-backed military reform, with Moscow region governor and long-standing ally Sergei Shoigu.
Serdyukov was relieved of his duties so that a thorough investigation can proceed into a suspected $100 million property scam at a defence ministry holding company, Putin said at a meeting with Shoigu.
"Taking into consideration the situation around the defence ministry I have made a decision to relieve defence minister Serdyukov of his post in order to create conditions for an objective investigation of all the issues," Putin said in televised remarks.
Read more: Russia's Putin fires defence minister over corruption scandal - RUSSIA - FRANCE 24
Uzbekistan: Googoosha Now Facing Legal Troubles in Russia, Too?
International pressure is mounting on Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov: Already associated with two corruption investigations in Europe, now Russian media are reporting that an apartment she owns in Moscow has been seized by court order.
The Lenta.ru website on November 2 quoted Interfax news agency as reporting that Karimova’s luxury apartment in downtown Moscow -- said to be worth $10 million -- had been seized as part of an antitrust case launched by Russian telecommunications company MTS after its business in Uzbekistan was appropriated this summer.
Observers interpreted the unconfirmed report -- which cites an anonymous law-enforcement source and has not been officially confirmed -- as bad news for Karimova. “Leaks to the media about Karimova’s apartment are a sign to her that a war has started against her [in Russia],” Daniil Kislov, editor-in-chief of Fergananews.com, was quoted as saying by the Bfm.ru website.
He pointed to the MTS conflict as the cause. This summer, Tashkent first suspended the operations of MTS’s Uzbekistan subsidiary O’zdunrobita (accusing it of legal violations that the company denied) and later ordered its assets seized, forcing MTS to write off over $1 billion in losses.
Karimova has been linked to two corruption cases under way in Europe: A money-laundering investigation in Switzerland involving Uzbek nationals who (according to leaked documents) are her associates, and a Swedish investigation into allegations of suspicious payments by Swedish-Finnish telecoms firm TeliaSonera (which denies any wrongdoing) to businesswoman Gayane Avakyan, a Karimova associate also involved in the money-laundering probe.
Read more: Uzbekistan: Googoosha Now Facing Legal Troubles in Russia, Too? | EurasiaNet.org
The Future: 23 incredible new technologies you’ll see by 2021 - by Jason Wire
When looking at the future the present as an indication of where we’ll stand a year from now–much less a decade–feeling optimistic may not come easy. We look out to the universe and see an infinite, lifeless abyss enfolding upon our own small pocket of civilization, while the people we look to for guidance and information seem to be little more than straight-faced bearers of bad news.
Yet while we can’t predict what the future holds for our unending political discourses, we can look at how far we’ve come with technology in merely the last decade and realize the present we know now will, very soon, find itself memorialized in nostalgia. Here’s some technology emerging down the road that’s poised to change your life on a much greater scale than any outcome of a political debate.
So, what should we expect in 2021? Well, 10 years ago, what did you expect to see now? Did you expect the word “Friend” to become a verb? Did you expect your twelve-year-old brother to stay up texting until 2am? Did you expect 140-character messaging systems enabling widespread revolutions against decades-old dictatorial regimes?
The next 10 years will be an era of unprecedented connectivity; this much we know. It will build upon the social networks, both real and virtual, that we’ve all played a role in constructing, bringing ideas together that would have otherwise remained distant, unknown strangers. Without twitter and a steady drip of mainstream media, would we have ever so strongly felt the presence of the Arab Spring? What laughs, gasps, or loves, however fleeting, would have been lost if not for Chatroulette? Keeping in mind that as our connections grow wider and more intimate, so too will the frequency of our connectedness, and as such, your own understanding of just what kinds of relationships are possible will be stretched and revolutionized as much as any piece of hardware.
Truly, the biggest changes we’ll face will not come in the form of any visible technology; the changes that matter most, as they always have, will occur in those places we know best but can never quite see: our own hearts and minds.
Read more: 23 incredible new technologies you’ll see by 2021 | Matador Network
Yet while we can’t predict what the future holds for our unending political discourses, we can look at how far we’ve come with technology in merely the last decade and realize the present we know now will, very soon, find itself memorialized in nostalgia. Here’s some technology emerging down the road that’s poised to change your life on a much greater scale than any outcome of a political debate.
So, what should we expect in 2021? Well, 10 years ago, what did you expect to see now? Did you expect the word “Friend” to become a verb? Did you expect your twelve-year-old brother to stay up texting until 2am? Did you expect 140-character messaging systems enabling widespread revolutions against decades-old dictatorial regimes?
The next 10 years will be an era of unprecedented connectivity; this much we know. It will build upon the social networks, both real and virtual, that we’ve all played a role in constructing, bringing ideas together that would have otherwise remained distant, unknown strangers. Without twitter and a steady drip of mainstream media, would we have ever so strongly felt the presence of the Arab Spring? What laughs, gasps, or loves, however fleeting, would have been lost if not for Chatroulette? Keeping in mind that as our connections grow wider and more intimate, so too will the frequency of our connectedness, and as such, your own understanding of just what kinds of relationships are possible will be stretched and revolutionized as much as any piece of hardware.
Truly, the biggest changes we’ll face will not come in the form of any visible technology; the changes that matter most, as they always have, will occur in those places we know best but can never quite see: our own hearts and minds.
Read more: 23 incredible new technologies you’ll see by 2021 | Matador Network
11/5/12
Airline Industry: Air France-KLM Posts Higher Quarterly Profit
Air France-KLM posted quarterly profit up almost six percent, helped by a weak euro and strong passenger traffic over the summer.
Operating income was EUR€506 million (USD$657 million) in the quarter to September 30 on sales of EUR€7.18 billion, up 5.8 percent from a year ago.
"The group realised a satisfactory third quarter across all its businesses with the exception of cargo," Air France-KLM said in a statement last Wednesday.
Air France-KLM said it had a "good summer season" at its passenger business, with passenger revenue up 7.9 percent. Its cargo business, however, was "further impacted by the economic slowdown and the situation of overcapacity in the industry."
The airline is shedding more than 5,000 jobs as it seeks to cut costs and return to growth. The group is wrestling with tough competition from low-cost carriers in Europe, while Gulf carriers are eating into its long-haul premium business.
Read more: Air France-KLM Posts Higher Quarterly Profit
Operating income was EUR€506 million (USD$657 million) in the quarter to September 30 on sales of EUR€7.18 billion, up 5.8 percent from a year ago.
"The group realised a satisfactory third quarter across all its businesses with the exception of cargo," Air France-KLM said in a statement last Wednesday.
Air France-KLM said it had a "good summer season" at its passenger business, with passenger revenue up 7.9 percent. Its cargo business, however, was "further impacted by the economic slowdown and the situation of overcapacity in the industry."
The airline is shedding more than 5,000 jobs as it seeks to cut costs and return to growth. The group is wrestling with tough competition from low-cost carriers in Europe, while Gulf carriers are eating into its long-haul premium business.
Read more: Air France-KLM Posts Higher Quarterly Profit
Montenegro: 3.1% Economic Growth Predicted in Montenegro
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is forecasting that the Montenegrin economy will grow at the rate of 3.1% in 2011. This is an improvement from an earlier 2.5% forecast made in October.
3.1% is the second strongest economic growth expected in the region, exceeded only by Macedonia’s forecasted growth of 3.2%. The Serbian economy is predicted to grow by 3.0%, followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina at 2.2%, Croatia at 2%, and Slovenia at 1.7%.
The report, Regional Economic Prospects in EBRD Countries of Operations: January 2011, states that Montenegro has managed to weather the worst of the recent crisis and that Montenegro’s recent elevation to EU candidate status may boost investor confidence.
Read more: Daily News Montenegro: Daily News from Montenegro
3.1% is the second strongest economic growth expected in the region, exceeded only by Macedonia’s forecasted growth of 3.2%. The Serbian economy is predicted to grow by 3.0%, followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina at 2.2%, Croatia at 2%, and Slovenia at 1.7%.
The report, Regional Economic Prospects in EBRD Countries of Operations: January 2011, states that Montenegro has managed to weather the worst of the recent crisis and that Montenegro’s recent elevation to EU candidate status may boost investor confidence.
Read more: Daily News Montenegro: Daily News from Montenegro
Azerbaijan: EBRD updates projections for economic growth in Azerbaijan
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has updated forecasts for economic growth in Azerbaijan, according to which the real GDP growth at the end of 2012 is expected to be two percent and forecast is three percent for 2013, the bank said on Monday.
"Diversification of the economy is important, as the risks associated with dependence on the oil sector became apparent when oil prices in the world markets decreased. However, unexpected macroeconomic risks continue to mitigate a very strong financial position of Azerbaijan," the bank says.
According to experts of the Bank, the decline in oil production in Azerbaijan was partially offset by strong growth in the non-oil sector, which was mainly stimulated by the budgetary expenditure.
According to the report, the volume of foreign direct investment is projected at 1.4 percent of GDP in 2012.
Current account surplus of the balance of payments is expected for the year in the amount of 26.5 percent of GDP.
EBRD forecasts consumer inflation at 1.5 percent in 2012.
Read more:EBRD updates projections for economic growth in Azerbaijan - Trend.Az
"Diversification of the economy is important, as the risks associated with dependence on the oil sector became apparent when oil prices in the world markets decreased. However, unexpected macroeconomic risks continue to mitigate a very strong financial position of Azerbaijan," the bank says.
According to experts of the Bank, the decline in oil production in Azerbaijan was partially offset by strong growth in the non-oil sector, which was mainly stimulated by the budgetary expenditure.
According to the report, the volume of foreign direct investment is projected at 1.4 percent of GDP in 2012.
Current account surplus of the balance of payments is expected for the year in the amount of 26.5 percent of GDP.
EBRD forecasts consumer inflation at 1.5 percent in 2012.
Read more:EBRD updates projections for economic growth in Azerbaijan - Trend.Az
Greece to Present New Austerity Package to Parliament today
Greece's government presents a new austerity package to parliament on Monday, facing a week of strikes and protests over proposals which must win lawmakers' approval if the country is to secure more aid and stave off bankruptcy.
Parliament is expected to vote on Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's package of 13.5 billion euros ($17 billion) in cost cuts and tax hikes on Wednesday along with measures making it easier for firms to hire and fire workers.
Despite public exasperation at four years of belt-tightening that has helped wipe out a fifth of the economy and leave a quarter of Greeks jobless, the package and a tough budget slated for a vote on Sunday are expected to scrape through parliament. In case it doesn't the Greek Government coalition will probably collapse with reactions being felt throughout the global financial community.
EU-Digest
Parliament is expected to vote on Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's package of 13.5 billion euros ($17 billion) in cost cuts and tax hikes on Wednesday along with measures making it easier for firms to hire and fire workers.
Despite public exasperation at four years of belt-tightening that has helped wipe out a fifth of the economy and leave a quarter of Greeks jobless, the package and a tough budget slated for a vote on Sunday are expected to scrape through parliament. In case it doesn't the Greek Government coalition will probably collapse with reactions being felt throughout the global financial community.
EU-Digest
US Presidential Elections:U.S. voters have two stark options for one great problem - by Adam Radwinsky
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| Barack Obama |
We Take Care of Our Own is one of those Bruce Springsteen songs that only sounds jingoistic if you’re not paying attention. Listen closely to the verses, about searching in vain for spirit and hope and honest work, and you realize that the chorus is a bitterly sarcastic lament for a nation failing to live up to its promise.
If that made it a strange choice for a President seeking re-election, it also made it a fitting theme song for a campaign in which Americans have been forced to confront the prospect that they’re living in an empire in decline.
Emerging economies such as China and India are rapidly overtaking the United States as economic superpowers. Recovery from the Great Recession is so slow that it’s debatable whether parts of the country will be the same again. The U.S. federal government is perpetually on the brink of a debt crisis, with Democrats and Republicans so busy fighting each other that they can barely figure out how to pay the bills.
As they seek some light at the end of the tunnel, Americans find themselves with two basic choices – one about policy, and one about character.
Mr. Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney have significantly different ideas of how, exactly, they should take care of their own. Consider it interventionism versus getting out of Americans’ way, with an asterisk.
Mr. Obama believes, albeit to a mild extent by Canadian standards, in the power of government – to ensure Americans have health-care coverage, to bail out core industries when they’re failing, to preserve as much program spending as possible while the country wrestles with its massive deficit.
He has significantly increased financial and other forms of regulation, and is prepared to raise taxes on high-income earners.
Mr. Romney has effectively argued that Americans would better help themselves and each other if the federal government gave them more room. He would roll back Mr. Obama’s attempts at more expansive health coverage, trim back regulations, and shift responsibilities (including for emergency response) to states or the private sector. He wants to cap federal spending at 20 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), which would mean big cuts to most everything other than social security and (arguably) medicare, while keeping taxes low.
The asterisk is that Mr. Romney wants to protect military spending, warning that Mr. Obama’s willingness to cut it would devastate the economies of states reliant on it. That only adds, though, to their wildly different strategies of trying to navigate their way off the fiscal cliff that awaits whoever takes office.
But not everything is as tangible as differences of opinion on how the budget should be structured. There’s the ability to strong-arm or finesse those policies through a divided Washington, and to adapt to whatever is tossed at the United States by the fast-changing world around it. And perhaps above all else, there’s the need to provide moral leadership – to offer hope, or at least reassurance, and to refuse to take the United States’s retreat lying down.
There is, in short, that matter of character. And while both men have a lot to admire on that front, they’ve also each given Americans reason for pause.
Americans have faced flawed choices before, and they’ve been grappling with some of the same policy questions since the Reagan era. But to spend any time in the United States, in this election year, has been to detect a palpable anxiety – a sense that U.S. exceptionalism is at stake like never before.
On Tuesday, Americans will give a mandate to take better care of their own. That Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney are still running neck and neck in the campaign’s final days suggests neither has quite convinced his country just yet that he’s capable of it.
Read more: U.S. voters have two stark options for one great problem - The Globe and Mail
Merkel government: voter 'gifts' approved before 2013 poll
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's fractious coalition struck a hard-fought deal Monday on disputed government benefits, trying to present a united front with less than a year until elections.
After more than seven hours of negotiations between Merkel's conservatives and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) stretching into the early morning hours, the parties agreed to axe an unpopular doctor's office fee from January.
In exchange for winning that concession, the FDP agreed to back a benefit from August for parents who care for their children at home.
The online service of news weekly Der Spiegel called it a "Summit of Gifts" ahead of the general election next September or October, intended to shore up support for the governing parties whose majority is under threat.
Read more: Merkel government: voter 'gifts' approved before 2013 poll - The Economic Times
After more than seven hours of negotiations between Merkel's conservatives and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) stretching into the early morning hours, the parties agreed to axe an unpopular doctor's office fee from January.
In exchange for winning that concession, the FDP agreed to back a benefit from August for parents who care for their children at home.
The online service of news weekly Der Spiegel called it a "Summit of Gifts" ahead of the general election next September or October, intended to shore up support for the governing parties whose majority is under threat.
Read more: Merkel government: voter 'gifts' approved before 2013 poll - The Economic Times
11/4/12
EU-Digest Poll: 62% Polled Prefer A Democratic And Secular Government - 33% Say All Governments Are Fake
Results of the EU-Digest poll for October on the following questions:
A) Do you prefer a democratic and secular government: 62%
B) Do you prefer a religious and theocratic government: 4%
C) Don't care they are all fake: 33%
Disqualified votes: 1%
The EU-Digest November Poll is a yes or no poll.
Should Health Insurance Premiums Be Linked To Income?
EU-Digest
A) Do you prefer a democratic and secular government: 62%
B) Do you prefer a religious and theocratic government: 4%
C) Don't care they are all fake: 33%
Disqualified votes: 1%
The EU-Digest November Poll is a yes or no poll.
Should Health Insurance Premiums Be Linked To Income?
EU-Digest
Buying health insurance online could be dangerous for your wallet
Insurance agencies report an increasing proportion of sales online and insurers like it because it saves back-office time. For customers, there’s the attraction of instant and easy cover. Insurance kicks in right away. Job done.
Governments also tend to demand insurance from a local provider, or at least an international insurer with local connections – effectively a brokerage with a local businessman on the board.
Germany, for instance, is particularly reluctant to recognise some top-rated insurance plans from UK providers who are dominant in the international market. Some claim that the German position breaks EU competition rules. But it’s not quite that simple, because under German law insurers have to provide all-embracing cover, such as aspects of elderly and long-term care cover and that is beyond the scope of most international companies.
EU-Digest
However, you might have to be more careful. Buying insurance of any type is trickier than buying, say, a washing machine. And international medical insurance is more complex than domestic insurance. You can fall into the trap of buying cover from a respectable company only to find, as you arrive at immigration in Abu Dhabi, that your plan is not recognized. You could have to be on the next flight home.
As countries across the globe find their health budgets rocketing, so compulsory insurance for expats becomes a legal necessity.
Governments also tend to demand insurance from a local provider, or at least an international insurer with local connections – effectively a brokerage with a local businessman on the board.
Germany, for instance, is particularly reluctant to recognise some top-rated insurance plans from UK providers who are dominant in the international market. Some claim that the German position breaks EU competition rules. But it’s not quite that simple, because under German law insurers have to provide all-embracing cover, such as aspects of elderly and long-term care cover and that is beyond the scope of most international companies.
EU-Digest
Romanian prosecutors detain 33 bankers and officials in €22 million suspected banking fraud
Prosecutors on Friday detained 33 government officials and bankers on suspicion of money laundering and fraud that cost Romania €22 million (US $28.5 million).
The detainees included three Economy Ministry officials, the deputy chairman of the French-owned Romanian Development Bank, and the chairman of a state fund that offers banks guarantees in exchange for business loans.
Anti-organized crime prosecutors say that from 2010 to 2012, two people organized a scam that involved bank employees. They allegedly managed to fraudulently obtain 40 bank loans for fictitious businesses from 16 branches of the Romanian Development Bank and Romania’s state-owned CEC savings bank that were underwritten by the state fund for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Hungarian bank OTP; the Turkish banks Eximbank and Garanti Bank; Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank; Greece’s Piraeus Bank, and Millennium Bank from Portugal also were targeted by the scam, but it was not clear whether they gave out loans.
Corruption is widespread in Romania, one of the poorest countries in the European Union. In recent days, authorities began to prosecute state railway employees who routinely pocketed money from fare dodgers without issuing tickets.
Read more: Romanian prosecutors detain 33 bankers and officials in $28.5 million suspected banking fraud - The Washington Post
The detainees included three Economy Ministry officials, the deputy chairman of the French-owned Romanian Development Bank, and the chairman of a state fund that offers banks guarantees in exchange for business loans.
Anti-organized crime prosecutors say that from 2010 to 2012, two people organized a scam that involved bank employees. They allegedly managed to fraudulently obtain 40 bank loans for fictitious businesses from 16 branches of the Romanian Development Bank and Romania’s state-owned CEC savings bank that were underwritten by the state fund for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Hungarian bank OTP; the Turkish banks Eximbank and Garanti Bank; Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank; Greece’s Piraeus Bank, and Millennium Bank from Portugal also were targeted by the scam, but it was not clear whether they gave out loans.
Corruption is widespread in Romania, one of the poorest countries in the European Union. In recent days, authorities began to prosecute state railway employees who routinely pocketed money from fare dodgers without issuing tickets.
Read more: Romanian prosecutors detain 33 bankers and officials in $28.5 million suspected banking fraud - The Washington Post
British Prime Minister David Cameron is out of the loop on Europe’s growth-versus-austerity debate
When the leaders of the G8 get together around the dinner table at Camp David this weekend, I hope the protocol chiefs will be seating British Prime Minister David Cameron well away from German Chancellor Angela Merkel. War is brewing between the two nations over the euro-zone crisis, if the British press is to be believed.
"George Osborne: Angela Merkel damaging UK economic interests," read one headline in The Daily Telegraph this week.
"Germans must abolish themselves," said a photo caption accompanying Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's Daily Telegraph blog post detailing the trillions it will cost Germany and France to pay for a Greek euro-zone exit and how that event will ruin the British economy.
This week at Prime Minister's Question Time, Sir Peter Tapsell, the Tory of Tories, asked Cameron, "Does my right hon. Friend suppose that Chancellor Merkel now regrets that she did not take the advice he gave her last October about the big bazooka? If she had fired it then, that would have spared the European Union from its present crisis."
The British government faces a genuine problem. It has cut itself off from any influence over Germany and France. And what good is Cameron's government to the Obama administration if it doesn't have the ability to have a quiet word with Merkel and co. about changing course, throttling down on austerity, stimulating the euro zone's weakest economies and accepting a little more inflation in Germany — for the good of the world economy?
Right now, Britain's main role in the world economy is to be the place where Wall Street traders can do the stuff they can't do in New York because the City of London has fewer rules. It is no surprise that JP Morgan's recent multi-billion dollar losses were made by a trader called the "London Whale." Even less surprise that informed speculation says the problems began with bets against the euro.
Read more: British Prime Minister David Cameron is out of the loop on Europe’s growth-versus-austerity debate. | GlobalPost
"George Osborne: Angela Merkel damaging UK economic interests," read one headline in The Daily Telegraph this week.
"Germans must abolish themselves," said a photo caption accompanying Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's Daily Telegraph blog post detailing the trillions it will cost Germany and France to pay for a Greek euro-zone exit and how that event will ruin the British economy.
This week at Prime Minister's Question Time, Sir Peter Tapsell, the Tory of Tories, asked Cameron, "Does my right hon. Friend suppose that Chancellor Merkel now regrets that she did not take the advice he gave her last October about the big bazooka? If she had fired it then, that would have spared the European Union from its present crisis."
The British government faces a genuine problem. It has cut itself off from any influence over Germany and France. And what good is Cameron's government to the Obama administration if it doesn't have the ability to have a quiet word with Merkel and co. about changing course, throttling down on austerity, stimulating the euro zone's weakest economies and accepting a little more inflation in Germany — for the good of the world economy?
Right now, Britain's main role in the world economy is to be the place where Wall Street traders can do the stuff they can't do in New York because the City of London has fewer rules. It is no surprise that JP Morgan's recent multi-billion dollar losses were made by a trader called the "London Whale." Even less surprise that informed speculation says the problems began with bets against the euro.
Read more: British Prime Minister David Cameron is out of the loop on Europe’s growth-versus-austerity debate. | GlobalPost
Germans stage nation-wide vigils for victims of far-right terror group
Activists staged vigils in dozens of German cities Sunday to commemorate the victims of a far-right terror group, one year after its existence came to light.
The revelation that a small band of neo-Nazis had likely been responsible for a seven-year murder spree sent shock waves through Germany's security establishment last year.
The group, which called itself National Socialist Underground, is suspected of killing at least nine men and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007. The male victims all belonged to ethnic minorities and for years German authorities attributed the murders to immigrant gangs.
The investigation took a dramatic turn when two fugitive neo-Nazis, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boenhardt, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide on Nov. 4, 2011. The third alleged core member of the group, Beate Zschaepe, is in custody pending trial.
Read more: Germans stage nation-wide vigils for victims of far-right terror group | CTV News
The revelation that a small band of neo-Nazis had likely been responsible for a seven-year murder spree sent shock waves through Germany's security establishment last year.
The group, which called itself National Socialist Underground, is suspected of killing at least nine men and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007. The male victims all belonged to ethnic minorities and for years German authorities attributed the murders to immigrant gangs.
The investigation took a dramatic turn when two fugitive neo-Nazis, Uwe Mundlos and Uwe Boenhardt, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide on Nov. 4, 2011. The third alleged core member of the group, Beate Zschaepe, is in custody pending trial.
Read more: Germans stage nation-wide vigils for victims of far-right terror group | CTV News
Bahrain detains human rights activist
Bahraini officials have ordered the arrest of a prominent human rights activist on charges of participations in a demonstration against the ruling Al Khalifa regime.
Read more: Bahrain detains human rights activist - Tehran Times
Yousef al-Mahafdha, a member of the board of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was detained late on Friday in the village of Darraz, where a protest took place, AFP reported.
Mahafdha said on social network Twitter that he had gone into Darraz "at the end of the protest" and saw people carrying away an injured person.
Dozens of protesters took to the streets of villages around Manama on November 2, chanting anti-regime slogans in defiance of an official ban on protests.
On October 30, Bahraini authorities banned all demonstrations and public gatherings amid rising protests against the Al Khalifa regime across the Persian Gulf kingdom.
Read more: Bahrain detains human rights activist - Tehran Times
High time for Europe to abandon provincialism - by Joschka Fischer
Multi-tasking is not exactly the strong point of Europe's current generation of leaders. They have rightly given the eurozone crisis the central question bearing on the EU's future top priority. But all other important issues above all, a common foreign and security policy have been almost completely ignored. And it is here Europe's external relations, an issue absolutely vital to the future of all EU citizens that renationalisation is rearing its ugly head again.
Today, we can recognize the outlines of a post-American international (dis)order not only its emerging structures, but also its risks, threats, and conflicts, all of which are intensifying. For Europe and for the rest of the world the financial crisis has proven to be an accelerant of far-reaching changes.
High time for Europe to abandon provincialism | The Australian
Today, we can recognize the outlines of a post-American international (dis)order not only its emerging structures, but also its risks, threats, and conflicts, all of which are intensifying. For Europe and for the rest of the world the financial crisis has proven to be an accelerant of far-reaching changes.
High time for Europe to abandon provincialism | The Australian
11/3/12
Greek Editor Not Guilty in Publishing Names Greeks With Swiss Bank Accounts - by Liz Alderman
The owner and editor of a respected investigative magazine was acquitted Thursday on charges of breaching privacy laws in publishing the names of more than 2,000 Greeks believed to be holding accounts at a bank in Switzerland. The case tested news media freedom in Greece and fueled a scandal over whether officials here failed to aggressively pursue people suspected of evading taxes.
Read more: Greek Editor Not Guilty in Publishing Names With Swiss Accounts - NYTimes.com
The verdict came four days after a phalanx of police officers arrested the editor, Kostas Vaxevanis, as his magazine, Hot Doc, hit newsstands with the list. Before a packed court, Mr. Vaxevanis and his lawyers portrayed him as the target of a politically motivated campaign aimed at damping the public anger at Greek officials.
The list that Mr. Vaxevanis obtained and published was handed to the Greek authorities two years ago by Christine Lagarde, then the French finance minister and now the head of the International Monetary Fund, to help Greece crack down on tax evasion as it was trying to mend its economy. The list held names of 2,059 Greeks who held accounts at a Geneva branch of the British bank HSBC, which includes a former culture minister, several employees of the Finance Ministry and a number of business leaders. “The court finds the defendant innocent,” Judge Malia Volika said in handing down the decision.
Read more: Greek Editor Not Guilty in Publishing Names With Swiss Accounts - NYTimes.com
Falling out of love with America - by Simon Kuper FT
"When I went to study in the US in 1993, I did what we members of the “transatlantic generation” were supposed to do: I fell in love with America. I liked how you could talk to someone at a bus stop without their thinking you were a serial killer. I liked living in a rich, optimistic country. I liked brunch. Yet the US also seemed reassuringly familiar. I felt I’d known it for ever, and not just thanks to Archie comics. In politics, both candidates in the 1992 election, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, could have slotted seamlessly into the European political scene. Indeed, in Britain the right instinctively backed Bush and the left Clinton.
After I left the US, it took me a year to get over it. But now, viewing the elections from Europe, the US feels like an alien land. “The Atlantic seems to have got a bit wider,” says Daniel Keohane, head of strategic affairs at the European think-tank Fride. It’s become hard to say “our shared western values” without smirking.
Before about 2000, the US as a polity didn’t look very unlike a European country writ large. Of course, Americans and Europeans each had their own peculiarities. However, for decades we were both oases of democracy in a mostly unfree world. We shared formative memories of the second world war. We worried together about the Soviets. We largely traded with each other. Many European politicians talked about God at least as often as Americans did. Nor were Americans much more conservative than us. In the Churchill-Roosevelt relationship, and probably Major-Clinton, the Briton was on the right. Our alliance really was built on shared values. In 1990, 2001 and 2003 the US assembled western coalitions to fight big wars.
Beyond the minor Libyan exercise, it’s hard to imagine that happening again, says Keohane. Since just 2000, we’ve grown far apart. Several factors coincided. The Soviet threat collapsed. Shared memories of beating Hitler waned. Less visibly, students’ migratory patterns changed: ever more Europeans study in other European countries rather than the US. Germany and Britain now send fewer students to America than do Nepal or Vietnam.
In politics and economics, we diverged spectacularly. George W. Bush introduced a peculiarly non-European evangelical Christianity into presidential politics. He landed Europeans in two wars that we ended up regretting. He shattered the belief that western countries stood together for human rights. Our mutual trade waned: in the decade to 2007, even before the economic crisis, the share of the European Union’s imports coming from the US halved to just 12 per cent.
Meanwhile, as money flooded American politics like never before, US elections came to provide Europeans with an alien spectacle of plutocrats fighting aristocrats. Here’s a typical line from The Economist, about Pennsylvania’s senate race: “Though Mr Casey is the son of a popular former governor, Mr Smith has vowed to spend millions of dollars of his own fortune on the campaign, lashing Mr Casey …”About $5.8bn will be spent nationwide in these elections, says the Center for Responsive Politics. By contrast, as David Cameron noted recently on the Late Show with David Letterman, British political parties cannot even advertise on TV.
In France, where I live, the media have been cataloguing the American election with fascination, as if documenting the outlandish mating habits of some newly discovered Amazonian tribe. Even the welcome fact that it pits a Mormon against a black man – two products of a non-European US – only makes the spectacle more alien to Europeans.
At least we’re still interested in Americans. The reverse decreasingly applies. In 2003, the British historian Tony Judt told me that the prevailing American intellectual view of Europe was “a cemetery with great art”, but things have worsened since. In the presidential debate on foreign policy, Israel got almost seven times more mentions than all western European nations combined, calculates foreignpolicy.com. Provided our rotten currency doesn’t blow up and disturb serious countries, Europe can safely be forgotten.
The Atlantic will probably widen further if Mitt Romney wins. Since 2000, Europeans have become fervent Democrats. In 2008, Barack Obama would have been elected leader of any European country where he’d run. Even now, according to polling by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 75 per cent of Europeans back him. Just 8 per cent support Romney. Though Obama ignores us, Europeans still consider him one of us.
By contrast, at a recent Parisian dinner I heard a senior European politician describe Romney – inaccurately – as “a foolish guy, a stupid man”. “Romney: L’Extraterrestre”, screamed a magazine cover here, encapsulating the view of Republicans as aliens.
I’m not saying Europeans are right about Republicans. Perhaps the Tea Party is correct, and Europeans are crazed, bankrupt, jihad-supporting socialists. My point is that a Republican-led US would share few values with Europeans. Sure, Republicans believe in democracy, but so now do Indonesians and Ghanaians. “We are all Americans”, Le Monde famously headlined on September 13 2001. That’s over."
Read more: Falling out of love with America - FT.com
After I left the US, it took me a year to get over it. But now, viewing the elections from Europe, the US feels like an alien land. “The Atlantic seems to have got a bit wider,” says Daniel Keohane, head of strategic affairs at the European think-tank Fride. It’s become hard to say “our shared western values” without smirking.
Before about 2000, the US as a polity didn’t look very unlike a European country writ large. Of course, Americans and Europeans each had their own peculiarities. However, for decades we were both oases of democracy in a mostly unfree world. We shared formative memories of the second world war. We worried together about the Soviets. We largely traded with each other. Many European politicians talked about God at least as often as Americans did. Nor were Americans much more conservative than us. In the Churchill-Roosevelt relationship, and probably Major-Clinton, the Briton was on the right. Our alliance really was built on shared values. In 1990, 2001 and 2003 the US assembled western coalitions to fight big wars.
Beyond the minor Libyan exercise, it’s hard to imagine that happening again, says Keohane. Since just 2000, we’ve grown far apart. Several factors coincided. The Soviet threat collapsed. Shared memories of beating Hitler waned. Less visibly, students’ migratory patterns changed: ever more Europeans study in other European countries rather than the US. Germany and Britain now send fewer students to America than do Nepal or Vietnam.
In politics and economics, we diverged spectacularly. George W. Bush introduced a peculiarly non-European evangelical Christianity into presidential politics. He landed Europeans in two wars that we ended up regretting. He shattered the belief that western countries stood together for human rights. Our mutual trade waned: in the decade to 2007, even before the economic crisis, the share of the European Union’s imports coming from the US halved to just 12 per cent.
Meanwhile, as money flooded American politics like never before, US elections came to provide Europeans with an alien spectacle of plutocrats fighting aristocrats. Here’s a typical line from The Economist, about Pennsylvania’s senate race: “Though Mr Casey is the son of a popular former governor, Mr Smith has vowed to spend millions of dollars of his own fortune on the campaign, lashing Mr Casey …”About $5.8bn will be spent nationwide in these elections, says the Center for Responsive Politics. By contrast, as David Cameron noted recently on the Late Show with David Letterman, British political parties cannot even advertise on TV.
In France, where I live, the media have been cataloguing the American election with fascination, as if documenting the outlandish mating habits of some newly discovered Amazonian tribe. Even the welcome fact that it pits a Mormon against a black man – two products of a non-European US – only makes the spectacle more alien to Europeans.
At least we’re still interested in Americans. The reverse decreasingly applies. In 2003, the British historian Tony Judt told me that the prevailing American intellectual view of Europe was “a cemetery with great art”, but things have worsened since. In the presidential debate on foreign policy, Israel got almost seven times more mentions than all western European nations combined, calculates foreignpolicy.com. Provided our rotten currency doesn’t blow up and disturb serious countries, Europe can safely be forgotten.
The Atlantic will probably widen further if Mitt Romney wins. Since 2000, Europeans have become fervent Democrats. In 2008, Barack Obama would have been elected leader of any European country where he’d run. Even now, according to polling by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 75 per cent of Europeans back him. Just 8 per cent support Romney. Though Obama ignores us, Europeans still consider him one of us.
By contrast, at a recent Parisian dinner I heard a senior European politician describe Romney – inaccurately – as “a foolish guy, a stupid man”. “Romney: L’Extraterrestre”, screamed a magazine cover here, encapsulating the view of Republicans as aliens.
I’m not saying Europeans are right about Republicans. Perhaps the Tea Party is correct, and Europeans are crazed, bankrupt, jihad-supporting socialists. My point is that a Republican-led US would share few values with Europeans. Sure, Republicans believe in democracy, but so now do Indonesians and Ghanaians. “We are all Americans”, Le Monde famously headlined on September 13 2001. That’s over."
Read more: Falling out of love with America - FT.com
Europe is making Obama look good, but it could break him in his second term
If it hadn't been in the pocket yet, Sandy cast Obama’s victory in stone (unless he really screws up Staten Island, perhaps, or Diebold goes nuts). Not that he really needed it anymore, the economic numbers are simply not bad enough. Or perhaps we should say the public perception of the numbers isn't bad enough.
Not for America to go against a long running historical trend that says incumbents with relatively good numbers get re-elected, no matter how much further the country has been plunging down the absurd theater scale from bi-partisan to bi-polar in the past four years. Or eight, 12, 20, take your pick.
All those close neck-and-neck polls you read and hear about only seem to serve the purpose of the political establishment and the media, both of which stand to profit greatly in credibility and in monetary terms. They create the illusion that the system functions, and get people to spend billions in ads. The last thing anybody wants you to think is that it's decided way before election day.
Europe should focus on a painless as can be transition to a situation in which the hardest hit countries can leave the eurozone and still remain friends. But it's still double or nothing all the way for the leadership, an increasingly dangerous kind of blindness. The longer they delay accepting this, the more devastating the explosion will become. And not just in Europe. It will expose the facade, the mirage that the world economy has become, where keeping up appearances has become possible only through mobster accounting standards and grand theft auto from coming generations.
When the euro zone explodes, so will the rest of the world economy. Including the US. Obama doesn't have to worry about NOT getting a second term; he should instead worry about getting it, and about what's going to happen on his watch in the next four years. If he lasts in office that long.
Read more: European decline boosts Obama's image
Not for America to go against a long running historical trend that says incumbents with relatively good numbers get re-elected, no matter how much further the country has been plunging down the absurd theater scale from bi-partisan to bi-polar in the past four years. Or eight, 12, 20, take your pick.
All those close neck-and-neck polls you read and hear about only seem to serve the purpose of the political establishment and the media, both of which stand to profit greatly in credibility and in monetary terms. They create the illusion that the system functions, and get people to spend billions in ads. The last thing anybody wants you to think is that it's decided way before election day.
Europe should focus on a painless as can be transition to a situation in which the hardest hit countries can leave the eurozone and still remain friends. But it's still double or nothing all the way for the leadership, an increasingly dangerous kind of blindness. The longer they delay accepting this, the more devastating the explosion will become. And not just in Europe. It will expose the facade, the mirage that the world economy has become, where keeping up appearances has become possible only through mobster accounting standards and grand theft auto from coming generations.
When the euro zone explodes, so will the rest of the world economy. Including the US. Obama doesn't have to worry about NOT getting a second term; he should instead worry about getting it, and about what's going to happen on his watch in the next four years. If he lasts in office that long.
Read more: European decline boosts Obama's image
Europe ‘less important’ for US presidents
What will the outcome of the US presidential race mean for Europe? During Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House the economic crisis ensured that he remained engaged with the EU.
Mitt Romney has worried some European observers with hostile comments towards Russia and China, a hardline stance over Iran, and a pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian approach.
Europe is not listed among the Republican candidate’s foreign policy priorities on his website.
Dr Ted R Bromund of the conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation told euronews that Europe’s importance had declined.
‘‘I think Mitt Romney would focus a little bit more on Europe than President Obama has done, but I think the era of the US focusing on Europe as the most important part of the world has gone, regardless of whether Mitt Romney or Barack Obama is in the White House next year. That was a different era in US policy; Europe is at peace; it is losing economic importance vis-a-vis Asia. And naturally the United States is going to look at where there are foreign policy crises and where the economy is growing, instead of places where this is not true,’‘ he said.
Mitt Romney’s foreign trips have been noted for their gaffes: criticizing London’s Olympic preparations, and describing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Read more: Europe ‘less important’ for US presidents | euronews, world news
Mitt Romney has worried some European observers with hostile comments towards Russia and China, a hardline stance over Iran, and a pro-Israeli, anti-Palestinian approach.
Europe is not listed among the Republican candidate’s foreign policy priorities on his website.
Dr Ted R Bromund of the conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation told euronews that Europe’s importance had declined.
‘‘I think Mitt Romney would focus a little bit more on Europe than President Obama has done, but I think the era of the US focusing on Europe as the most important part of the world has gone, regardless of whether Mitt Romney or Barack Obama is in the White House next year. That was a different era in US policy; Europe is at peace; it is losing economic importance vis-a-vis Asia. And naturally the United States is going to look at where there are foreign policy crises and where the economy is growing, instead of places where this is not true,’‘ he said.
Mitt Romney’s foreign trips have been noted for their gaffes: criticizing London’s Olympic preparations, and describing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Read more: Europe ‘less important’ for US presidents | euronews, world news
Reflections on the upcoming US Presidential Elections and Democracy - by RM
The question is, are they getting any answers?
Unfortunately, it seems they are coming back pretty empty-handed as the candidates have continued to push their own party agendas, speaking in "talking points" rather than "addressing real problems".
All this while the aggressive and thieving corporate crime wave continues to sweep the US and the rest of the world, draining hard-earned savings, health and safety of millions of people, with little or no law enforcement to stop it.
Charles Ferguson, director of the Academy Award winning documentary Inside Job, who took the stage to accept his Oscar in 2011 said: "Three years after a horrific financial crisis caused by massive fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong." Rampant corporate crime is going to continue unless we start punishing crime in the suites with at least as much fervor and budgets as we do the crime in the streets.
Not much has changed since that remark by Mr. Ferguson last year. Corporations and their interest groups indirectly still influence and control every aspect of the US political establishment and sadly this continues to encourage widespread corruptive practices.
The US Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United on January 21, 2010 opened the floodgates even further for special interest money and corporate influence in politics. At the same time, a rash of new voter suppression laws in more than 30 states has threatened to make voting difficult, if not impossible, for millions of Americans.
In 1977, in the wake of Watergate, the US Congress enacted the FCPA , after revelations that more than 400 American companies had paid bribes totaling more than $300 million to foreign government officials and politicians. Over the last 35 years, the US Department of Justice has established several enforcement mechanisms, leading to increased but still not sufficient compliance efforts by corporations.
However, the narrowing global governance deficit requires closer cooperation, and a willingness to invest in civil-society organizations that also hold governments accountable. So far not much is happening in that direction. Much more needs to be done.
Another recommendation would be that anyone holding an elected or government position has to give complete public disclosure of all private and corporate donated funding received and that this can be enforced by law.
To avoid corruption elected officials should only be allowed two terms in office and not be allowed to give themselves or each other benefits unless the rest of the country they serve is given similar benefits as well. No health insurance, no life insurance, no big pensions or fancy perks unless they see fit to provide these benefits to all citizens.
It is essential that elected Government officials become a part of the rules before they are given the moral authority to govern. The motto must be “Money Out, Voters In”.
When it comes to democracy and liberty in the US it seems that politicians on both sides of the aisle have forgotten the famous words of one of America's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin , "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Today in 2012, the people of the United States find themselves living under the mantra "whatever it takes to protect the American people". Rampant claims of "executive privilege" and "state secrets" and violations of due process have led to "Big Brother" -- The Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, the continued imprisonment-without-trial of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, and in the U.S., the invasive TSA agents who harass travelers.
Throughout the history of the US, powerful politicians and interest groups have tried to block eligible voters from casting a ballot. For much of the twentieth century, they used literacy tests or demanded poll taxes. Today they ask for photo voter ID, or create restrictive voter registration schemes. These laws, combined with the challenge posed by limitless corporate influence, strike at the very core of US democracy.
This coming Tuesday, November 6, American voters going to the polls can either vote for more corporate involvement on life in America, negatively affecting its hardworking middle class, or vote for winning the battle against that stranglehold. A battle which started 4 years ago on November 6, 2008. .
EU-Digest
Copyright © 2012, EU-Digest
Oil Industry: China buys extra leverage in (ARA) the heart of northwest Europe
Sinopec’s purchase in October of half of oil tank firm Vesta Terminals takes China one step closer towards creating its own super majors as the state uses its $3.3tn cash pile to increase its influence over the world market.
The deal with Swiss trading house Mercuria helps state-owned Sinopec increase the profitability of its oil products and gives it extra leverage in the vital Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) trading hub at the heart of northwest Europe. Sinopec and its powerful trading unit, Unipec, will use the tanks to optimise trade in gasoil (heating oil and diesel) and gasoline and position itself for future oil flows.
The Vesta purchase is one small piece of a giant jigsaw slowly being fitted together to allow Sinopec and fellow Chinese state oil company CNOOC to compete against Western traders and majors such as ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell. “Chinese companies (are) seeking to build access to European trade as part of their attempt to replicate the global reach of IOCs (international oil companies),” said Robert Turner, a director specializing in refining at consultancy PwC.
Read more: Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper - Finance & Business
The deal with Swiss trading house Mercuria helps state-owned Sinopec increase the profitability of its oil products and gives it extra leverage in the vital Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) trading hub at the heart of northwest Europe. Sinopec and its powerful trading unit, Unipec, will use the tanks to optimise trade in gasoil (heating oil and diesel) and gasoline and position itself for future oil flows.
The Vesta purchase is one small piece of a giant jigsaw slowly being fitted together to allow Sinopec and fellow Chinese state oil company CNOOC to compete against Western traders and majors such as ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell. “Chinese companies (are) seeking to build access to European trade as part of their attempt to replicate the global reach of IOCs (international oil companies),” said Robert Turner, a director specializing in refining at consultancy PwC.
Read more: Gulf Times – Qatar’s top-selling English daily newspaper - Finance & Business
Canada: Ottawa extends review of Chinese bid for Nexen - by Greg Weston
The Harper government is once again postponing its decision on whether to allow a $15.1-billion takeover of Calgary-based Nexen, Canada’s sixth-largest oil company, by China’s state-owned energy giant CNOOC.
Three weeks ago, the government gave itself a 30-day extension of its review of CNOOC’s bid, moving the deadline to Nov. 10.
On Friday the government asked CNOOC for a further 30-day postponement, and the company agreed.
The new deadline is now Dec. 10.
Read more: Ottawa extends review of Chinese bid for Nexen - Business - CBC News
Three weeks ago, the government gave itself a 30-day extension of its review of CNOOC’s bid, moving the deadline to Nov. 10.
On Friday the government asked CNOOC for a further 30-day postponement, and the company agreed.
The new deadline is now Dec. 10.
Read more: Ottawa extends review of Chinese bid for Nexen - Business - CBC News
11/2/12
US Presidential Elections: Obama is either ahead or the state polls are wrong
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| President Obama in New Jersey |
“Election officials were ordering generators, moving voting locations and figuring out how to transport poll workers displaced from coastal areas as Tuesday’s presidential election became the latest challenge for states whacked by Superstorm Sandy,” the AP writes. “The storm, which devastated East Coast communities with power outages, flooding and snow, had already disrupted early voting in parts of Maryland, West Virginia, New Jersey and North Carolina. With less than a week to go before the general election, officials in the hardest-hit states were scrambling to ensure orderly and fair balloting in places still dark or under water.”
And: Michael McDonald, a professor of public affairs at George Mason University in Virginia who studies turnout, said a calamitous weather event right before a presidential election was unprecedented. McDonald said that in such a tight presidential race any turnout diminished by Sandy could make a difference in the overall popular vote. ‘It’s unlikely disruptions from Sandy would affect the outcome of the election within those states,’ McDonald said. ‘But if those voters, who are mostly Democrats, end up being subtracted from the national popular vote, you'll get a lower vote share for Obama than he would have received if those people had voted.’”
A First Read analysis finds that in the coastal counties most affected by the storm in the four states affected by Sandy and assuming 2008 totals and a 15 percent reduction in turnout, President Obama would stand to lose a net of about 340,000 votes. He could lose 247,000 out of New York, 60,000 out of New Jersey, 29,000 out of Connecticut, and 3,600 out of Rhode Island.
Read more: 2012: Obama is either ahead or the state polls are wrong - First Read
For France’s Socialists, a Breakdown in Fraternité - by Steven Erlanger
The symbol of the victorious French Socialist Party is the rose, but the bloom is off five months after François Hollande won the presidency, and the petals are blowing around.
Read more: For France’s Socialists, a Breakdown in Fraternité - NYTimes.com
Buffeted by a bad economy and rising unemployment, a decent but uninspiring prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, has been left by Mr. Hollande to ride the waves as best he can. But bosses are angry, workers are angry and mistakes are mounting, leaving the always disputatious Socialists sniping at their own leaders.
At the Socialist Party’s recent annual congress in Toulouse, there were complaints that economic rigor had gone too far, and that the government should renege on its promises to European allies and the markets to get the budget deficit this year to 3 percent of gross domestic product.
Others complained that Mr. Hollande’s decision to meet the target by raising taxes and freezing spending, rather than cutting it, would throw France into recession, even as growth, so far elusive, would by itself provide more tax receipts and jobs.
Read more: For France’s Socialists, a Breakdown in Fraternité - NYTimes.com
China prepares for power handover but reverberations will be felt worldwide - byTania Branigan
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| Xi-Jinping China's new leader |
It was, he said solemnly, an honour and a responsibility. "In our country, the Communist party leads everything. We will elect the important national leaders at this meeting. It is very significant: many people's hopes and expectations are attached to it," said Wu, party secretary of Huaxi – "China's richest village" – and one of 2,270 delegates who will gather in Beijing for the 18th party congress on 8 November.
"I think people in other countries will care about the congress, just as we care about the presidential election in the United States," he added.
That may be optimistic, but China's rise means that the handover's reverberations will eventually be felt around the globe. "Whether you are in the US or Europe, what China does matters now," said Dali Yang, a political scientist at the University of Chicago.
The gathering in Beijing next week is merely the manifestation of the backstage process that began years ago, when the jockeying for power started, and will run through to next spring - when Xi becomes president - and even further; his authority will in part depend on when Hu Jintao steps down as chairman of the Central Military Commission, for example.
"It is not a smooth transition. It is full of contradictions and struggles and compromises too," said Li Weidong, a Beijing-based political commentator and former magazine editor. Some believe that even now there is disagreement over who will join the standing committee, though others insist a deal has been reached.
Read more: China prepares for power handover but reverberations will be felt worldwide | World news | The Guardian
The EU budget needs to be increased, not cut or frozen - by John Palmer
The debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday night saw a united front of Eurosceptic Tory MPs and the Labour opposition demand a cut in the European Union budget. It has – understandably – been greeted by whoops of delight from the Tory right and Ukip. Labour has been left with little more than a schoolboy smirk at the discomfort imposed on David Cameron and an uneasy feeling that it all may rebound against them.
The EU budget debate took place with little or no reference to the real world outside: either to the dire state of the European Union economies (including Britain) or to the political realities of Brussels budget negotiations. One reality is – given the fact that Cameron is not the only EU leader with a veto – the most (actually the worst) that can be achieved is an annual budget freeze but subject to inflation adjustment.
In the British domestic economic debate there is usually at least some reference to the vital role of the public budget in offsetting the crisis of growth and unemployment and also in spearheading investment in infrastructure and research vital in securing growth and jobs. Not so when it comes to the EU budget – even though it could be a very important means of reversing the deepening recession throughout Europe.
When it comes to the EU budget, political discourse quickly reverts to the most basic and ill-informed populism. This was reflected in some of the arguments deployed by so-called "pro-European" Labour MPs who justified their demand for a reduction in the already far too small EU budget that the common agricultural policy pays excessive handouts to the richest landowners in Britain.
The hypocrisy of Tory MPs – urging fiscal federalism on others but refusing it for the UK – is well documented. But last night's foray into the wilder shores of anti-European populism by the Labour frontbench has made even some Labour MPs such as Margaret Hodge "sick". Ed Miliband and his colleagues may think they can pour petrol onto the Eurosceptic flames without being burned. They are wrong. The only winners last night will by Ukip and the far right. The day of Britain's final exit from the European Union has drawn a little closer.
Read more: The EU budget needs to be increased, not cut or frozen | John Palmer | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
The EU budget debate took place with little or no reference to the real world outside: either to the dire state of the European Union economies (including Britain) or to the political realities of Brussels budget negotiations. One reality is – given the fact that Cameron is not the only EU leader with a veto – the most (actually the worst) that can be achieved is an annual budget freeze but subject to inflation adjustment.
In the British domestic economic debate there is usually at least some reference to the vital role of the public budget in offsetting the crisis of growth and unemployment and also in spearheading investment in infrastructure and research vital in securing growth and jobs. Not so when it comes to the EU budget – even though it could be a very important means of reversing the deepening recession throughout Europe.
When it comes to the EU budget, political discourse quickly reverts to the most basic and ill-informed populism. This was reflected in some of the arguments deployed by so-called "pro-European" Labour MPs who justified their demand for a reduction in the already far too small EU budget that the common agricultural policy pays excessive handouts to the richest landowners in Britain.
The hypocrisy of Tory MPs – urging fiscal federalism on others but refusing it for the UK – is well documented. But last night's foray into the wilder shores of anti-European populism by the Labour frontbench has made even some Labour MPs such as Margaret Hodge "sick". Ed Miliband and his colleagues may think they can pour petrol onto the Eurosceptic flames without being burned. They are wrong. The only winners last night will by Ukip and the far right. The day of Britain's final exit from the European Union has drawn a little closer.
Read more: The EU budget needs to be increased, not cut or frozen | John Palmer | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
EU Budget Commissioner Challenges UK Loyalty to Europe
Does Britain belong in the European Union? There are plenty both in the United Kingdom and on the Continent who have their doubts. Now, with the debate over the EU's next budget raging, a European Commissioner has challenged London to decide. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is also losing her patience over the squabble.
Many in the European Union have long rolled their eyes when conversation turns to the United Kingdom. Britain is often seen on the Continent as one of the most problematic members of the 27-member club, wary of any moves that might lead toward further European integration.
Now, as the EU begins earnest negotiations aimed at passing a budget to cover the years 2014 to 2020, it appears Brussels is beginning to lose its patience. Britain this week has been adamant in its refusal to accept the budget proposal of €1 trillion made by the European Commission and has demanded that it be slashed by up to 20 percent. Other member states would also like to see the budget proposal adjusted downward, but so far, the rhetoric from London has been uncompromising.
On Friday, European Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget Janusz Lewandowski, Poland's representative in the EU's executive, said it was time for Britain to make a fundamental decision regarding its future in the European Union. "Of course there are limits," he said in an interview with the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. "We can't finance more Europe with substantially less money."
Read more: EU Budget Commissioner Challenges UK Loyalty to Europe - SPIEGEL ONLINE
Many in the European Union have long rolled their eyes when conversation turns to the United Kingdom. Britain is often seen on the Continent as one of the most problematic members of the 27-member club, wary of any moves that might lead toward further European integration.
Now, as the EU begins earnest negotiations aimed at passing a budget to cover the years 2014 to 2020, it appears Brussels is beginning to lose its patience. Britain this week has been adamant in its refusal to accept the budget proposal of €1 trillion made by the European Commission and has demanded that it be slashed by up to 20 percent. Other member states would also like to see the budget proposal adjusted downward, but so far, the rhetoric from London has been uncompromising.
On Friday, European Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget Janusz Lewandowski, Poland's representative in the EU's executive, said it was time for Britain to make a fundamental decision regarding its future in the European Union. "Of course there are limits," he said in an interview with the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung. "We can't finance more Europe with substantially less money."
Read more: EU Budget Commissioner Challenges UK Loyalty to Europe - SPIEGEL ONLINE
Netherlands: Opposition has risen from wealthy conservatives over new Dutch coalition’s health insurance premium plans - by Thomas Whittle
Opposition has risen in the Netherlands over the new VVD-PvdA coalition’s plans on the income-dependent health care premium, especially among the VVD voters and members.
By linking health premiums to income, the new plans mean people with an annual income of over 70,000 euros (90,615 U.S. dollars) will have to pay 482 euros per month in health insurance fees while people on welfare benefits will pay just 20 euros, Nos television reported.
The new plans have provoked strong reactions from voters and members of the VVD, traditionally a party of people with higher incomes. They blame the VVD leader Mark Rutte for being trapped by PvdA leader Diederik Samsom.
However, Rutte and Samsom said the media calculations were wrong, because the compensating measures were not taken into full account.
Read more: Opposition rises over new Dutch coalition’s health insurance premium plans - NZweek
By linking health premiums to income, the new plans mean people with an annual income of over 70,000 euros (90,615 U.S. dollars) will have to pay 482 euros per month in health insurance fees while people on welfare benefits will pay just 20 euros, Nos television reported.
The new plans have provoked strong reactions from voters and members of the VVD, traditionally a party of people with higher incomes. They blame the VVD leader Mark Rutte for being trapped by PvdA leader Diederik Samsom.
However, Rutte and Samsom said the media calculations were wrong, because the compensating measures were not taken into full account.
Read more: Opposition rises over new Dutch coalition’s health insurance premium plans - NZweek
'Wheel' you marry me? Europe has crush on cycling
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| Bicycle only path in Almere, Holland |
Thankfully for bicycle enthusiasts, a movement is afoot to create more room for cycling in the urban infrastructure.
From London's "cycle superhighways" to popular bike-sharing programs in Paris and Barcelona, growing numbers of European cities are embracing cycling as a safe, clean, healthy, inexpensive and even trendy way to get around town.
Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and the Danish capital, Copenhagen, are the pioneers of this movement, and serve as role models for other cities considering cycling's potential to reduce congestion and pollution, while contributing to public health.
The trend is catching on also outside Europe, says John Pucher, a professor of urban planning at Rutgers University in New Jersey and co-author of a new book titled "City Cycling." Pucher says urban cycling is on the rise across the industrialized world, though Europe is still ahead of the pack.
"Americans make only 1 percent of their trips by bike compared to 26 percent in the Netherlands, 18 percent in Denmark, and 8-10 percent in Belgium, Germany, Sweden, and Finland," Pucher told The Associated Press, citing official statistics.
Read more: Wheel you marry me? Europe has crush on cycling
11/1/12
US Presidential Elections: Bloomberg Endorses Obama, Citing Climate Change - by Raymond Hernandez
In a surprise announcement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday that Hurricane Sandy had reshaped his thinking about the presidential campaign and that as a result, he was endorsing President Obama.
Read more: Bloomberg Endorses Obama, Citing Climate Change - NYTimes.com
Mr. Bloomberg, a political independent in his third term leading New York City, has been sharply critical of Mr. Obama, a Democrat, and Mitt Romney, the president’s Republican rival, saying that both men had failed to candidly confront the problems afflicting the nation. But he said he had decided over the past several days that Mr. Obama was the better candidate to tackle the global climate change that he believes contributed to the violent storm, which took the lives of at least 38 New Yorkers and caused billions of dollars in damage.
“The devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to New York City and much of the Northeast — in lost lives, lost homes and lost business — brought the stakes of next Tuesday’s presidential election into sharp relief,” Mr. Bloomberg wrote in an editorial for Bloomberg View.
Read more: Bloomberg Endorses Obama, Citing Climate Change - NYTimes.com
What Does Sex Have to Do with World Peace? - by Soraya Chemaly
Last year, a quiet but powerful book, Sex and World Peace, was published by an interdisciplinary group of researchers and scholars. The authors, Valerie M. Hudson, Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill, Mary Caprioli and Chad F. Emmett, set out to demonstrate and document the complex but evident relationship between how girls and women are treated and the security of the states in which they live.
The authors took the question, “How does a nation’s security affect the status of its women?” and asked instead, “Does the status of women affect a nation’s security?” The answer was a resounding, “Yes!” And their results and recommendations are startling in their power and clarity.
The book’s conclusions are compellingly derived from the authors’ construction and use of the WomanSTATS project and database, which contains more than 148,000 data points and includes more than 375 variables for 175 countries. It is the most comprehensive bank of data on the status of women in the world today, including information about everything from domestic violence, maternal mortality and rape to education and women’s political participation.
The very clear thesis of the book is that the very best indicator and predictor of a state’s peacefulness is not wealth, military expenditures, or religion; the best predictor is how well its girls and women are treated.
Read more: What Does Sex Have to Do with World Peace? : Ms. Magazine Blog
The authors took the question, “How does a nation’s security affect the status of its women?” and asked instead, “Does the status of women affect a nation’s security?” The answer was a resounding, “Yes!” And their results and recommendations are startling in their power and clarity.
The book’s conclusions are compellingly derived from the authors’ construction and use of the WomanSTATS project and database, which contains more than 148,000 data points and includes more than 375 variables for 175 countries. It is the most comprehensive bank of data on the status of women in the world today, including information about everything from domestic violence, maternal mortality and rape to education and women’s political participation.
The very clear thesis of the book is that the very best indicator and predictor of a state’s peacefulness is not wealth, military expenditures, or religion; the best predictor is how well its girls and women are treated.
Read more: What Does Sex Have to Do with World Peace? : Ms. Magazine Blog
U.S. Presidential election: Polls show a tightening race between Obama and Romney in swing states
President Barack Obama is leading the polls in several battleground states but Republican challenger Mitt Romney is catching up in a tight U.S. election race.
With four days left until Americans head to the voting booths, pollsters and pundits are closely watching the match between Obama and Romney in states that have a history of swinging between Democrats and Republicans.
The latest poll showed that in Iowa, which has emerged as an important swing state this year, Obama is at 50 per cent, six points ahead of Romney, who has 44 per cent among those who have already voted or are likely to do so, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist College poll. In New Hampshire, the president leads 49 per cent to 47 per cent.
And the difference is going to be razor-thin overall: the nationwide tracking poll gave each candidate 49 per cent.
Read more: U.S. election: Polls show a tightening race between Obama and Romney in swing states - thestar.com
With four days left until Americans head to the voting booths, pollsters and pundits are closely watching the match between Obama and Romney in states that have a history of swinging between Democrats and Republicans.
The latest poll showed that in Iowa, which has emerged as an important swing state this year, Obama is at 50 per cent, six points ahead of Romney, who has 44 per cent among those who have already voted or are likely to do so, according to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist College poll. In New Hampshire, the president leads 49 per cent to 47 per cent.
And the difference is going to be razor-thin overall: the nationwide tracking poll gave each candidate 49 per cent.
Read more: U.S. election: Polls show a tightening race between Obama and Romney in swing states - thestar.com
Portugal: If you want to know the soul of Portugal, listen to fado - by Fred Contrada
When Portuguese girls lie in bed at night dreaming of the spotlight, they don’t yearn to become Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga. They want to be Amalia Rodrigues.
Traveling, in great part, is the process of learning about the places through which you pass and being astounded by all the things you don’t know about them. Of all the many and wonderful things we didn’t know about Portugal, the music called fado was the most exciting surprise. And, Amalia Rodrigues was fado.
We had read a little about fado before our trip across the ocean, but the reality surpassed our expectations. “Fado” comes from the Latin word for “fate,” and in fado music this often means tragedy.
In fado there is longing for people and places that are far away or inaccessible. There is mourning and resignation, melancholy, love, and recognition of the world’s cruelty. It’s like the American blues without the beating and shooting of women.
Fado is believed to have emerged in the early 1800s, though some trace it roots back to the Middle Ages or even Moorish times. It was originally associated with sailors, prostitutes and those on the fringes of society. The Alfama neighborhood, where we stayed in Lisbon, is considered the hotbed of fado.
Read more: Commentary: If you want to know the soul of Portugal, listen to fado | masslive.com
Traveling, in great part, is the process of learning about the places through which you pass and being astounded by all the things you don’t know about them. Of all the many and wonderful things we didn’t know about Portugal, the music called fado was the most exciting surprise. And, Amalia Rodrigues was fado.
We had read a little about fado before our trip across the ocean, but the reality surpassed our expectations. “Fado” comes from the Latin word for “fate,” and in fado music this often means tragedy.
In fado there is longing for people and places that are far away or inaccessible. There is mourning and resignation, melancholy, love, and recognition of the world’s cruelty. It’s like the American blues without the beating and shooting of women.
Fado is believed to have emerged in the early 1800s, though some trace it roots back to the Middle Ages or even Moorish times. It was originally associated with sailors, prostitutes and those on the fringes of society. The Alfama neighborhood, where we stayed in Lisbon, is considered the hotbed of fado.
Read more: Commentary: If you want to know the soul of Portugal, listen to fado | masslive.com
The Netherlands: A Dutch Solution for New York's Storm Surge Woes? - by John McQuaid
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| The Netherlands Delta Works |
That’s not surprising, really, because there is little political incentive to prep for something that hasn’t happened, even if you know it’s coming at some point. Now it has. Moreover, the risks are rising inexorably: sea level rise is happening at an accelerated rate along the East Coast. Every extra inch of sea level increases the annual risk of flooding. So what was once a vanishingly rare event becomes a rare one, then a common one. Existing systems just won’t cut it.
Matthew Yglesias suggests that New York (and by extension, other East Coast cities) think big and start looking at the Dutch flood protection model, which employs large-scale flood gates to repel storm surges off from the North Sea:
The idea of essentially damning up New York Harbor sounds extreme, but that’s equivalent to what the Dutch did with the Zuiderzee Works and especially the Delta Works projects undertaken after the 1953 flood. Some of the Dutch works are permanent dijks, but others are open sluices that merely shut when storms are coming to block surges. You could imagine something similar at the Arthur Kill and across the Verazano Narrows or even between Sandy Hook and Rockaway. Projects like that wouldn’t immunize Staten Island or the beachfront parts of Brooklyn and Queens from storm surges but they would defend Lower Manhattan, the badly flooded Red Hook part of Brooklyn, Long Island City, LaGuardia Airport, and a big swathe of New Jersey.Ultimately, I think something like this is exactly what we’ll see in New York and other coastal cities. It sounds fanciful, but New York is simply too big and important not to protect, and a system of surge barriers and other structures is probably the only way to protect it long-term. Which is exactly the thinking behind the Dutch system.
As it happens, I visited the Netherlands after Hurricane Katrina to look at how Dutch flood control worked, and how its success might apply to New Orleans. (It was part of a mega-series – worth rereading now – that looked for lessons in how other places, from Kobe, Japan to Galveston, had recovered from disasters.) After crawling over New Orleans’ crappy levees and floodwalls, it was like stepping from “Deadwood” into “Star Trek.”
Note EU-Digest: The most powerful nation on the globe which has invested billions on the most modern weaponry and has more shopping malls and different flavors of ice-cream and cola than any other country in the world has unfortunately for many years completely neglected to upgrade its antiquated infra-structure. The proof of the pudding is the terrible damage and loss of lives that results every time a natural disaster strikes the US. New Orleans and more recent the US East Coast, New York, New Jersey, are two prime examples where a modern water surge levee protection system like the Delta works in the Netherlands would have made a major difference.
Read more: A Dutch Solution for New York's Storm Surge Woes? - Forbes
Agriculture - Nigeria: Netherlands to invest euro 26 Million in Agric Sector
The Netherlands is to provide investment worth over 26 million Euros in Nigeria's agric sector, the Dutch ambassador to Nigeria, Bert Ronhaar has said.
Mr Ronhaar, who made this known when the special advocate on financial inclusion for development to the UN Secretary General, Princess Maxima of Netherlands paid a visit to the federal ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Tuesday, said 6 million Euro is being spent on value-added chain for cassava to create employment for 100,000 farmers.
"We are supporting the cassava industry and the small holder cassava growers in Nigeria with a contribution of 6 million Euros developing the value-added chain of cassava which results in creating employment and income for approximately 100,000 Nigerian farmers," he said.
"At the same time the Dutch government is supporting the coco growers in this country, the coco processing industry; it is also supporting the value-added chain in the coco industry. And the total amount invested in that program which will last for over five years is approximately 20 million euro.
Read more: allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Netherlands Spends Euro 26 Million On Agric Sector
Mr Ronhaar, who made this known when the special advocate on financial inclusion for development to the UN Secretary General, Princess Maxima of Netherlands paid a visit to the federal ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Tuesday, said 6 million Euro is being spent on value-added chain for cassava to create employment for 100,000 farmers.
"We are supporting the cassava industry and the small holder cassava growers in Nigeria with a contribution of 6 million Euros developing the value-added chain of cassava which results in creating employment and income for approximately 100,000 Nigerian farmers," he said.
"At the same time the Dutch government is supporting the coco growers in this country, the coco processing industry; it is also supporting the value-added chain in the coco industry. And the total amount invested in that program which will last for over five years is approximately 20 million euro.
Read more: allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Netherlands Spends Euro 26 Million On Agric Sector
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