tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16762936009217238192024-02-08T04:25:32.960+01:00Durruti's flamesthe world is a fun and ironic place to live!M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-2540035908467572992016-07-17T15:24:00.003+02:002016-07-17T15:24:57.474+02:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One BREXIT after-note: the UK has for long championed the entrance of Turkey in the EU.</div>
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Now that the UK is leaving, will the middle eastern nation of Turkey be invited to join the UK instead?</div>
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M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-86825924532822026242013-05-29T20:50:00.001+02:002013-05-29T20:51:08.022+02:00the real Al-Nakba: May 29th 1453, Constantinople falls to the Turks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A sad anniversary today: 560 years since the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. A lesson to be remembered when again Western Civilization and Islam collide.<br />
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This catastrophe led the armies of the Sultan to the gates of Vienna and endangered the whole of Europe. We fought for centuries to reverse this tragedy, but the consequences are still with us: Thrace, Bosnia, Albania...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">May 1453 - Ottoman soldiers storm the ramparts of Constantinople</td></tr>
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M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-17918620377908002142013-05-22T21:32:00.002+02:002013-05-23T01:24:06.221+02:00Europe: approaching Zero Lower Bound<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interest Rates of Major Central Banks compared (compiled by Reuters)</td></tr>
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With the rates in the Eurozone approaching Zero Lower Bound the room to maneuver is almost nil.<br />
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Is it still to early to mobilize the fiscal weapons?<br />
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We need something better designed than the clumsy and rather inefficient American 'stimulus'. Maybe Abenomics will teach the EU a thing or two.<br />
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M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-86618328330987719542013-03-29T14:41:00.000+01:002013-07-31T19:08:47.205+02:00Is bombing mosques ´Halal'?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today four Shia mosques in Baghdad and one in Kirkuk were struck by car bombs. Such sectarian bombs are common in Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and other corners of the Ummah.<br />
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So while tearing a page of the Koran, or publishing a caricature of Muhammad (pbuh!) will make the entire Muslim world freak-out in anger, exploding entire mosques containing God knows how many Korans (as well as the 'occasional' person...) doesn't even raise an eyebrow.<br />
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Should we then assume that bombing mosques is Halal?<br />
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Clearly a Fatwa is required on the issue. Would a learned cleric kindly help?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Talha Bin Obeidallah mosque near Basra - ruins after bomb (photo by A.Hassan)</td></tr>
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M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-7200994770349701642013-03-16T17:50:00.000+01:002013-03-16T17:50:38.895+01:00Islam: maybe you don´t have a right to live<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.5px;">Islamic law, depending on how strictly it's interpreted, distinguishes among three types of non-Muslims: Dhimmis, people who are permitted to live in an Islamic territory, but with limited rights; Mustamins, people who are granted similar rights as the Dhimmis, through a temporary protection agreement; and Harbis, people who live outside an Islamic territory, without rights, <u>including the right to life</u>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 19.5px;">Der Spiegel, </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif; line-height: 15.010416984558105px;">March 15, 2013</span></span></div>
M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-47116170925121426142013-03-15T13:58:00.001+01:002013-03-15T13:58:24.327+01:00Democracy and Economic Growth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;">"<span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: 'PT Serif', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 48px;">What is clear is that democracy is not the prerequisite for economic growth that aid proponents maintain. On the contrary, it is economic growth that is a prerequisite for democracy; and the one thing economic growth does not need is aid. "</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #333333; font-family: 'PT Serif', Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 48px;">- </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: PT Serif, Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 48px;">Dambisa Moyo in "Dead Aid: Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa"</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Economist Dambisa Moyo</td></tr>
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M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-39925168218892786342013-02-02T00:20:00.000+01:002013-02-05T01:19:54.744+01:00Shale Gas revolution for Europe?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12nA4bY2LQbrQ5qW39JkIwHG8mnAyFNfjwmlBMSebXiohMJQv2H0NLG9aTR5yhwuPDbotWMn7Vu5smd5DeOscj8rJLCQ0htBBdDah2fh9ByQO761txLzY6PwFRkciEIvWshayiqCaystU/s1600/Shale+gas+basins+in+Europe.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi12nA4bY2LQbrQ5qW39JkIwHG8mnAyFNfjwmlBMSebXiohMJQv2H0NLG9aTR5yhwuPDbotWMn7Vu5smd5DeOscj8rJLCQ0htBBdDah2fh9ByQO761txLzY6PwFRkciEIvWshayiqCaystU/s400/Shale+gas+basins+in+Europe.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of shale gas basins in Europe - The Economist</td></tr>
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A deep change in the Economics of energy in Europe may be around the corner. Even if shale gas does not become as important as in North America, we expect it will at lease have one good effect in the medium term: force Russia to lower prices. <br />
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Natural gas costs now in the US 25% of its price 5 years ago. Europe has a lot of work to do, outside the United States, shale extraction is still in its infancy.<br />
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Nevertheless it is enough for LNG (liquefied natural gas) from the North America to start arriving in European ports in reasonable quantities to create a price revolution.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcbnLw-LkHlZVr1h8S6U3N_wfvY4NOkn9jLEiFlWinudhl3ynm04HnOIJdCh6E6cfi3UunA9eslcaw7-8rmK6EzAZdJM3lzvB9EBSsUy-d_K5sKTVIDNliIsPdbEbotR8EHEJjCCb5wjt/s1600/Map+of+shale+gas+basins+in+the+US.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcbnLw-LkHlZVr1h8S6U3N_wfvY4NOkn9jLEiFlWinudhl3ynm04HnOIJdCh6E6cfi3UunA9eslcaw7-8rmK6EzAZdJM3lzvB9EBSsUy-d_K5sKTVIDNliIsPdbEbotR8EHEJjCCb5wjt/s400/Map+of+shale+gas+basins+in+the+US.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of shale gas basins in the US - Der Spiegel</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg957FFRayC6wLBIhtYMJSs3RSEWFOMYdQ4AySiYV67Z1BpXXu3VXjntMVPc6Tjf5JXq0YKQ5vWFix6ak5f1gdkAFAY92Yh1Ckc-d2OaA6haBefMBas-AA7rnjqAL8-vDVZFCexuUqfB86u/s1600/shale+gas+is+placing+the+US+on+the+road+to+energy+independence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg957FFRayC6wLBIhtYMJSs3RSEWFOMYdQ4AySiYV67Z1BpXXu3VXjntMVPc6Tjf5JXq0YKQ5vWFix6ak5f1gdkAFAY92Yh1Ckc-d2OaA6haBefMBas-AA7rnjqAL8-vDVZFCexuUqfB86u/s400/shale+gas+is+placing+the+US+on+the+road+to+energy+independence.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Shale gas is placing the US on the road to energy independence - Der Spiegel / EIA</td></tr>
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<br />M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-26710682753451186522013-01-08T00:00:00.001+01:002013-01-08T00:00:28.993+01:00Chuck Hagel - another of Obama's gifts to the world...<br />
After a US president that has been promoting the Islamist agenda of the so called "Arab Spring" we now have an anti-Semitic Defense Secretary, Chuck Hagel!<br />
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What other great things will Barak Hussein Obama give to the world?<br />
M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-70785755109504233562012-12-19T23:05:00.000+01:002012-12-20T00:23:05.880+01:00Second Amendment - Quranic verses?The debate on gun control (or gun rights for many) highlights the strange, para-religious way in which many in America view their constitution.<br />
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In most countries the constitution is seen as a mere piece of legislation, subject to constant evolution and adapting to the needs, morals and values of the present.<br />
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Many Americans seem to look at this 18th century document like orthodox Muslims look at the Quran: the direct word of God, authoritative, frozen in time and untouched by modernity.<br />
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Laws evolve! Often people talking about the holy 2nd Amendment fail to notice what their are talking about, an AMENDMENT! Any doubts about the meaning of this noun?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQItZqtmiMwwOiRHxMuwsZaj722USw4h48PxR2oo7odnylSKutDJ4pL1yg4T7kHVqJ17HUzoHpVzCwx4hWgPAUQFRQtq6xn6mjaO7pUrA6G3zBZhM9Obc1tGBBYlekmp1VnmDRY0rP7O5/s1600/US+Constitution+and+the+Quran.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQItZqtmiMwwOiRHxMuwsZaj722USw4h48PxR2oo7odnylSKutDJ4pL1yg4T7kHVqJ17HUzoHpVzCwx4hWgPAUQFRQtq6xn6mjaO7pUrA6G3zBZhM9Obc1tGBBYlekmp1VnmDRY0rP7O5/s400/US+Constitution+and+the+Quran.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">US Constitution and the Quran - many seem to have trouble telling them apart</td></tr>
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<br />M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-5540053765531597292012-11-28T16:06:00.000+01:002012-11-28T16:06:54.312+01:00Islamic SeasonsSecular minded people who were naïve enough to have believed in the "Arab Spring" should now buy some thick overcoats and get prepared for "<b>Salafist Winter</b>"...<br />
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The works on the new Egyptian constitution clearly show the way: Christians are on the way to second class citizenship and women won't even qualify as that.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNz7jfCH3_Spnb_oAdT1Q0yXSqZkyMv7X5sIxQ49WWaYmTvxIIRsVP5Ymalkz-8w5nNwcErUHuH1XAbqofHZKaY1sbgwYakIqkUCkSpJUvMPzsfBoZRC2WQMJfqTVByvEJBWnonBTaxNi9/s1600/New+Egyptian+Constitution+-+Cartoon+by+Doaa+El+Adl.+A+constitution+for+all+Egyptians.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNz7jfCH3_Spnb_oAdT1Q0yXSqZkyMv7X5sIxQ49WWaYmTvxIIRsVP5Ymalkz-8w5nNwcErUHuH1XAbqofHZKaY1sbgwYakIqkUCkSpJUvMPzsfBoZRC2WQMJfqTVByvEJBWnonBTaxNi9/s400/New+Egyptian+Constitution+-+Cartoon+by+Doaa+El+Adl.+A+constitution+for+all+Egyptians.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.199999809265137px; line-height: 11.199999809265137px; text-align: left;">Cartoon by Doaa El Adl - "A constitution for all Egyptians" - Christians and Women will miss the top place in the podium...</span></td></tr>
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Egypt's new despot, US educated "brother" Mohamed Morsi is issuing decrees like a pharaoh in a way that is bound to lead to further violence and economic collapse. The prospect of a civil war looms on the horizon. The Muslim Brotherhood cannot even build an Islamic Democracy as the Persian Mullahs managed.<br />
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In Libya and Tunisia the Muslim Brotherhood is also consolidating power, and "God Allowing" they expect to take Syria too. If eventually Bashar falls, a second civil war is bound to ensue, as Salafists fight the secular. Bashar should cut his losses: create a strong Alawite state in the West and let the Sunnis fight it out in the rest of Syria.<br />
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Ironically the West keeps supporting these new theocratic regimes. Hamas people must be feeling very frustrated: they were the first branch of the Muslim Brotherhood to reach power and yet they are (rightfully) considered as terrorists, and yet they see their brothers elsewhere regarded as 'democrats'. The Brotherhood's true colours have been lost in Western daltonism.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4zL7OxpcGUCHYDgEyS8boGj9m7qAXyB8Zx_G5b-wJBRqFBxzTffcwwilbYDFVVq5P27CTZ2Z3y9FjGbGTTXDdD8k5pxeZCq1hU0CdzuSfQiuJJxEGBpoR7-qRTZYuYpr4Wp0BrW4N1iN8/s1600/Muslim+brotherhood+and+Barack+Hussein+Obama+-+sheep+and+wolf+-+cartoon+by+A.F.+Branco.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4zL7OxpcGUCHYDgEyS8boGj9m7qAXyB8Zx_G5b-wJBRqFBxzTffcwwilbYDFVVq5P27CTZ2Z3y9FjGbGTTXDdD8k5pxeZCq1hU0CdzuSfQiuJJxEGBpoR7-qRTZYuYpr4Wp0BrW4N1iN8/s400/Muslim+brotherhood+and+Barack+Hussein+Obama+-+sheep+and+wolf+-+cartoon+by+A.F.+Branco.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Muslim brotherhood and Barack Hussein Obama - sheep and wolf - cartoon by A.F. Branco</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-27559297911668746432012-09-26T23:32:00.000+02:002012-09-28T00:23:07.395+02:00Catalonia: the time is now<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7fwalIA60nZ9TyGCYm-KnBZo_BA_HrRATNL7ids-vWf-0SNuwPM3eyq4uExStbCiKzhJjK8PJd7nari7LRs4DUYCWyukzS0a1U5rAXwtNp5niANjQtKeSk2OH5Kx1rnXLIDokvIL3ks7/s1600/467712_10150805686887238_768791016_p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH7fwalIA60nZ9TyGCYm-KnBZo_BA_HrRATNL7ids-vWf-0SNuwPM3eyq4uExStbCiKzhJjK8PJd7nari7LRs4DUYCWyukzS0a1U5rAXwtNp5niANjQtKeSk2OH5Kx1rnXLIDokvIL3ks7/s400/467712_10150805686887238_768791016_p.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">time for an independent Catalonia within the EU has arrived<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; max-width: 620px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;">
Catalan Prime Minister Artur Mas said that if CiU wins the Nov. 25 election in the region, Catalans will then vote on "self-determination" during the coming legislature.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; max-width: 620px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;">
"If the (Spanish) government turns its back and does not authorize any kind of a referendum or vote, it has to be done anyway,".</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; max-width: 620px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;">
Catalonia needed to increasingly take "sovereign decisions, independently of whether it is possible to reach agreements with Spain," the premier said.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; max-width: 620px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;">
"It is the natural evolution of a nation to have a state," Mas said. "This dependence on the Spanish state is cutting the wings of our economic and social progress," he explained.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; max-width: 620px !important; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;">
However, Mas said he did not want to speak of a "breakup" with Spain, given that European Union member states "can share a lot of things."<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="border: 0px; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; height: 1px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px;">
<br />
Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/09/26/2706708/catalan-leader-to-seek-referendum.html#storylink=cpy</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7a7yZmf3poOrUl8R3Aea4PYiFV_3pzKhYiRPbOMqkwxoDg_NOZ9QFbJvBBi6yzJqR9ut7o2eWfWlM7DpPpcRW1TM61JqLun9Yn0WlGIvcaHH1yH4f24PnifYhJySHvxiNIB9Vfh0aNzUU/s1600/Catalonia+leaves+Spain+by+popular+demand+-+cartoon+by+KAP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7a7yZmf3poOrUl8R3Aea4PYiFV_3pzKhYiRPbOMqkwxoDg_NOZ9QFbJvBBi6yzJqR9ut7o2eWfWlM7DpPpcRW1TM61JqLun9Yn0WlGIvcaHH1yH4f24PnifYhJySHvxiNIB9Vfh0aNzUU/s400/Catalonia+leaves+Spain+by+popular+demand+-+cartoon+by+KAP.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">Catalonia leaves Spain by popular demand - cartoon by KAP<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-64303502173232355972012-07-17T01:25:00.000+02:002013-05-23T01:56:52.092+02:00Chancellor Schröder's Legacy: Germany's Leading Role in Weakening the Euro<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13.600000381469727px; line-height: 18.475000381469727px;">In the early 2000s, Germany was struggling to adhere to euro-zone criteria aimed at ensuring common currency stability. Instead of introducing austerity, however, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder simply launched an effort to change the rules. New documents show just how key his role was in weakening the Stability Pact.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Check the article at:</span></div>
<a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/chancellor-gerhard-schroeder-key-in-weakening-the-euro-stability-pact-a-844458.html" style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;" target="_blank">http://www.spiegel.de/<wbr></wbr>international/germany/<wbr></wbr>chancellor-gerhard-schroeder-<wbr></wbr>key-in-weakening-the-euro-<wbr></wbr>stability-pact-a-844458.html</a><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8GKisDte16lDhmkJqk9gOd_bT45XaSsEj5AmbqnwtpSFT8x1BAFMyuIEOpnSCGoZihj9kU8gZpNkcnNLomQ4kDJfu8huY5vgQ8dtdFApA5e6JEmIzslwbuJ7cuj-_nQX0xYwKSYCQyeA/s1600/Gerhard+Schroeder+coin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="367" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY8GKisDte16lDhmkJqk9gOd_bT45XaSsEj5AmbqnwtpSFT8x1BAFMyuIEOpnSCGoZihj9kU8gZpNkcnNLomQ4kDJfu8huY5vgQ8dtdFApA5e6JEmIzslwbuJ7cuj-_nQX0xYwKSYCQyeA/s400/Gerhard+Schroeder+coin.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chancellor Gerhard Schröder - profile on a coin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-1990188198425637472012-04-25T16:46:00.001+02:002013-05-18T19:53:38.022+02:00Yom Hazikarom - Remembering the Fallen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIsvA85Nc7IXQhyphenhyphenqOmgluzmQeCU6-Qoa6oWoO8Ovev9guCRd6EJxPjLgzhu2ViKLOFRivyXWYFk2kEr-8Ss2Fv8PjYd_yll-Sc4kx3_Ni3XRBttbXPebQuLaCTNJb4EpOUMGJE6jwJqw5/s1600/Memorial-Day.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIsvA85Nc7IXQhyphenhyphenqOmgluzmQeCU6-Qoa6oWoO8Ovev9guCRd6EJxPjLgzhu2ViKLOFRivyXWYFk2kEr-8Ss2Fv8PjYd_yll-Sc4kx3_Ni3XRBttbXPebQuLaCTNJb4EpOUMGJE6jwJqw5/s1600/Memorial-Day.gif" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Israel marked Memorial Day on Wednesday morning as a two-minute
nationwide siren sounded at 11 A.M. to commemorate the 22,993 IDF
soldiers who have fallen while serving the nation.<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20.796875px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 13px;"><a href="http://durrutilog.blogspot.com/p/on-war-by-carl-von-clausewitz_7106.html" target="_blank">Durch Nacht und Blut zur licht!</a></span></div>
M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-62851489883633994892012-04-14T01:21:00.001+02:002012-04-14T01:21:31.727+02:00American bumper stickersBumper stickers reveal some interesting insights of America about herself:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyipBiAAfP6ijwV2iC-Q7hjLXiP3qOe2l-EtoSyUQWgHYDbLQVkQ8aNWKBuaneMWDnZU52xo-USScd-HSjSB8taHPXjebarMo14FtwEydxWDX_9seEXPR3HY8RhpqgvhNSb2ZvnRciyjSy/s1600/I+love+you+america+but.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyipBiAAfP6ijwV2iC-Q7hjLXiP3qOe2l-EtoSyUQWgHYDbLQVkQ8aNWKBuaneMWDnZU52xo-USScd-HSjSB8taHPXjebarMo14FtwEydxWDX_9seEXPR3HY8RhpqgvhNSb2ZvnRciyjSy/s400/I+love+you+america+but.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love you America. But I think we should see other people.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSh-p2cPuUJLfCLiW0J1BDL1PWOCS2c9I_JtNmJNy0Kzx0q_kdI_1_7ZLmQMi3DjzuqoJTG1sHgvKGGZIYeu-Hdi2r_h_DRxBHnnszVihZ5psjRfLQ_rM3DKrCX0r7-nBOGWVIuIGpIJPq/s1600/be+nice+to+America.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSh-p2cPuUJLfCLiW0J1BDL1PWOCS2c9I_JtNmJNy0Kzx0q_kdI_1_7ZLmQMi3DjzuqoJTG1sHgvKGGZIYeu-Hdi2r_h_DRxBHnnszVihZ5psjRfLQ_rM3DKrCX0r7-nBOGWVIuIGpIJPq/s400/be+nice+to+America.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Be nice to America, or we'll bring democracy to your country (seen o a car with Marine corps license plates)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-75569206688251014542012-03-06T02:02:00.000+01:002012-10-01T01:47:55.581+02:00US Attorney general on assassinations: due process is not necessarily judicial process<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCtd76T0hzbE6KND7VvhuZrV1lCIT1ZPrqeLKDAQwMA2tRjqevxBkGzZHYXZv-5bBPG1drfef-Q7bxyF05HfH32ukjaV83mj1OeDHruYTNIl8y3PYr7MJhJaU8_9xadGnhU8dwAccXTsCn/s1600/Eric+Holder+and+the+Drone+-+Imminent+Threat+-+cartoon+by+John+Cole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="323" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCtd76T0hzbE6KND7VvhuZrV1lCIT1ZPrqeLKDAQwMA2tRjqevxBkGzZHYXZv-5bBPG1drfef-Q7bxyF05HfH32ukjaV83mj1OeDHruYTNIl8y3PYr7MJhJaU8_9xadGnhU8dwAccXTsCn/s400/Eric+Holder+and+the+Drone+-+Imminent+Threat+-+cartoon+by+John+Cole.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">US Attorney General Eric Holder and the Drone - Imminent Threat - cartoon by John Cole</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The U.S. boldly claims and "explains" that extrajudicial assassinations are legal!<br />
<br />
Words of Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the U.S., selected by president Barak Hussein Obama:<br />
<blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Some have argued that the President is required to get
permission from a federal court before taking action against a United
States citizen who is a senior operational leader of al Qaeda or
associated forces. This is simply not accurate. “Due process” and
“judicial process” are not one and the same, particularly when it comes
to national security. <b>The Constitution guarantees due process, not
judicial process</b>."</blockquote>
</blockquote>
In his speech at at Northwestern University, Chicago, Mr Holder elaborated on the question of when the US could exert its "inherent right of national
self-defense" by assassinating individuals.<br />
<br />
Under
international law, an "<b>imminent threat</b>" represents the earliest point at
which a country has the right to use such force.<br />
<br />
Again in Holder's words:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The evaluation of whether an individual presents an '<b>imminent threat</b>'
incorporates considerations of the relevant window of opportunity to
act, the possible harm that missing the window would cause to civilians,
and the likelihood of heading off future disastrous attacks against the
United States." </blockquote>
</blockquote>
So let America not complain like a spoiled child if Russia kills a Chechen in Denmark, Russia terminates an Uighur in Pakistan...<br />
<br />
... or if their own people are at the receiving end of such "justice"!<br />
<br />
What about an Iranian drone popping a few people preparing an "imminent threat" in Arlington, VA, still kosher?<br />
<br />
Arguably Mr Holder is building a case to make himself, his boss and his buddies legitimate targets!<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCHeu6LtuhzUcJempUO7XB8VF9fN99weJgAgAUNedH1FU3UGGKsBaT7g_OLvo8niUb_wA1XNfQNJ22HIOR7WofbsKXdXWY5WqkdNSrBVSfELjymrZNqgcslNPyo3Hq2jbnUXlbTIWzZZAA/s1600/pentagon-drone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCHeu6LtuhzUcJempUO7XB8VF9fN99weJgAgAUNedH1FU3UGGKsBaT7g_OLvo8niUb_wA1XNfQNJ22HIOR7WofbsKXdXWY5WqkdNSrBVSfELjymrZNqgcslNPyo3Hq2jbnUXlbTIWzZZAA/s400/pentagon-drone.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drone over the Pentagon: a simple vice-versa on the Attorney General's logic and the entire US administration are legit targets!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-11803032025535970882012-03-01T22:28:00.000+01:002012-03-02T01:08:28.285+01:00Economics researchers find a miracle cure for Southern Europe's Sovereign Debt CrisisWithout the option of a currency devaluation, there are simple fiscal alternatives to exchange-rate devaluation that can address southern Europe’s short-term competitiveness problems - this is the argument put forward by <a href="http://beta.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a-devaluation-option-for-southern-europe">Gita Gopinath, Emmanuel Farhi and Oleg Itskhoki</a>.<br />
<br />
These economists, although from traditionally 'saltwater schools' stay clear of the routine arguments for stimulus or for austerity, instead they defend that:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"There is a remarkably simple alternative that does not require southern Europe’s troubled economies to abandon the euro and devalue their exchange rates. It involves increasing the value-added tax while cutting payroll taxes. Our recent <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~itskhoki/FiscalDevaluations.pdf">research</a> demonstrates that such a “fiscal devaluation” has very similar effects on the economy in terms of its impact on GDP, consumption, employment, and inflation.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>A currency devaluation works by making imports more costly and exports cheaper. A VAT/payroll-tax swap would do exactly the same thing. An increase in VAT raises the price of imported goods, as foreign firms face a higher tax. To ensure that domestic firms do not have an incentive to raise prices, an increase in VAT needs to be accompanied by a cut in payroll taxes.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Moreover, since exports are exempt from VAT, the price of domestic exports will fall. The desired competitiveness effects of exchange-rate devaluation can thus be had while staying in the euro."</i></blockquote>
Should Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain hire the Harvard / Princeton academics and dump the "Troika"?<br />
<br />
It sounds that this way you can actually cook <i>Huevos rotos</i> without breaking the eggs. At first glance this theory seems to hold water only partly, as it would require massive cuts in payroll taxes to make export costs before VAT fall. A sector analysis will easily identify the possible areas of benefit. Nevertheless it looks obvious that service companies are the ones with the highest potential cost reductions... and errrr.... these in general sell to the domestic market, so any benefits here would be indirect, being eventually harvested downstream in the production chain.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ7mO1kilbyUD8DpnxaZLvor1bHCeOK_SvHugDSDmY0qFDWsTVk3A-_YyCgpb9cv_JwmXXK25gMgEmugdCBZBZTSi0HzxaMq8yvbRfcppU6F1SqHKBFfo5b0TAQO92qu_0nkMmEnBr3KOQ/s1600/German+Euro+vs+South+European+Euros.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ7mO1kilbyUD8DpnxaZLvor1bHCeOK_SvHugDSDmY0qFDWsTVk3A-_YyCgpb9cv_JwmXXK25gMgEmugdCBZBZTSi0HzxaMq8yvbRfcppU6F1SqHKBFfo5b0TAQO92qu_0nkMmEnBr3KOQ/s400/German+Euro+vs+South+European+Euros.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">German Euro vs South European Euros - some Euros are more equal than others... can a fiscal devaluation bring competitiveness to Southern Europe while keeping the Euro-zone intact?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-6824976272914806562012-01-26T07:45:00.000+01:002012-02-10T06:16:59.624+01:00More European!<i><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">Do we dare to be more European?"</span></span></b></i><br />
<br />
Chancellor Angela Merkel, World Economic Forum, Davos, Jan 25th 2011<br />
<br />
<div>
Sounds a bit like Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what can you do for your country.", only classier!<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXAUrg3nHguLubLTFSNGjbXBi9FtUe7XMI6-gL2hNOTuG2Jy8jzVn5m59HRjD6SMLvkVKBSq7IGuZ9X3zw-MMym6HNy82X4Ivlw8FH8VQljmwhkclXQOFwhrQVMlfhOMUX8jJBqV-xRQsl/s1600/Angela+Merkel+-+German+Chanceller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXAUrg3nHguLubLTFSNGjbXBi9FtUe7XMI6-gL2hNOTuG2Jy8jzVn5m59HRjD6SMLvkVKBSq7IGuZ9X3zw-MMym6HNy82X4Ivlw8FH8VQljmwhkclXQOFwhrQVMlfhOMUX8jJBqV-xRQsl/s400/Angela+Merkel+-+German+Chanceller.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angela Merkel - German Chancellor</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSLSjcJwf1Dq26jPlWO3ueQEKDa3WsTnS8cMZEuX9DwBvTKDeiiRqmI15-TcrYjudwLEcCgN8dii1_UkEhQdvMwqlWkEY6ZcTWgpfzmpIDg1ILv71EKcVntwQWJNTGlYlm-hQDXDqrJYlR/s1600/Davos+lake+from+the+air.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSLSjcJwf1Dq26jPlWO3ueQEKDa3WsTnS8cMZEuX9DwBvTKDeiiRqmI15-TcrYjudwLEcCgN8dii1_UkEhQdvMwqlWkEY6ZcTWgpfzmpIDg1ILv71EKcVntwQWJNTGlYlm-hQDXDqrJYlR/s400/Davos+lake+from+the+air.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Davos lake from the air</td></tr>
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<br /></div>M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-40230068004008043822012-01-25T22:03:00.000+01:002012-02-15T16:54:32.278+01:00Portuguese Public TV licks the boots of corrupt and blood stained Angolan kleptocrats<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyzhOVxvIFJaYaqqM9YX_Igw4lETOKd_qUC4il-qmQvS0rDQiQvsg8XdXYHcqisZdvtt9r-vJOhmHcnYA5q1Id13ED_9785yr8i722bz9gisTLTzIEWT9ZYpl-QvzFxy1MoeNhPTMpbYl/s1600/the+Angolan+clowns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIyzhOVxvIFJaYaqqM9YX_Igw4lETOKd_qUC4il-qmQvS0rDQiQvsg8XdXYHcqisZdvtt9r-vJOhmHcnYA5q1Id13ED_9785yr8i722bz9gisTLTzIEWT9ZYpl-QvzFxy1MoeNhPTMpbYl/s400/the+Angolan+clowns.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fatima Campos Ferreira and some Angolan "rich clowns" in leopard chairs - Portuguese Public TV (RTP 1) live from Luanda - Sana Hotel</td></tr>
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Pedro Rosa Mendes' chronicle about about a Portuguese public TV (RTP 1) show licking the boots of the corrupt and blood stained Angolan kleptocrats cost him his job with the same company.<br />
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The show illustrates how Angolan low-lives are willing to do anything to buy respectability, and worst, how the current Portuguese business pack and politicians are willing to abdicate dignity.<br />
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Shame on them all, the dignity of a proud European Colonial nation cannot be given up by such worms!<br />
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The full text is included below (first in Portuguese, the Google translation is included after the original).<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">Transcription of the </span>chronicle <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">"Este Tempo" (This Time), broadcast on RDP Antena 1 on January 18th: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Em directo de Luanda, a RTP serviu nesta segunda-feira aos portugueses e ao mundo – eu vi aqui em Paris – uma emissão a que chamou ‘Reencontro’ e na qual desfilaram, durante duas horas, responsáveis políticos, empresários e comentadores de Portugal e de Angola, entre alguns palhaços ricos e figuras grotescas do folclore local.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">O serviço público de televisão tem estômago para muito, alguns dirão para tudo, mas o Reencontro a que assistimos desta vez foi um dos mais nauseantes e grosseiros exercícios de propaganda e mistificação a que alguma vez assisti. Há até propaganda comestível, quando feita com inteligência, mas nem sequer essa bitola foi conseguida, foi permitida, à emissão. A nossa televisão, a televisão paga por todos e que, de certo modo, é um pouco de cada um de nós, afectiva mas também politicamente, foi a Luanda socializar com os apparatchik do regime, nos quais deveríamos reencontrar uma Angola irmã, uma Angola feliz, uma Angola nova.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aconteceu o contrário. Reencontrei nesta emissão a falta de vergonha de uma elite que sabe o poder que tem e o exibe em cada palavra que diz. Não no conteúdo, mas no tom, seguro, simpático, veladamente sobranceiro. Aquela gente – as divas, os engravatados, os socialites – são. ao mesmo tempo, a couraça e as lantejoulas de uma clique produzida pela história recente de um país que combinou uma guerra de 30 anos e uma riqueza concentrada, basicamente, no petróleo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oleocracia, chamou-lhe a socióloga francesa Christine Messiant, falecida faz agora anos, e que identificou como ninguém a natureza do poder de José Eduardo dos Santos, do MPLA, da Grande Família e das suas clientelas. Em poucas linhas, a clique angolana, em torno do Presidente, privatizou o Estado, numa teia de clientes da ‘economia política’ angolana e num aparelho que controla, por um lado, a segurança e o uso da força, e, por outro, as contas vitais da República, como a do petróleo, dos diamantes, do Banco Nacional e do Tesouro.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Os generais e barões da economia política fizeram ganhos astronómicos nas comissões dos contratos de armamento, do petróleo, da manutenção militar, por aí fora, e depois usaram esses recursos em todos os negócios sensíveis, estratrégicos – as empresas de segurança, as companhias de aviação, os sectores das empresas públicas colocados em leasing, as companhias ligadas às forças armadas e à polícia. Um lucro incalculável e, o melhor, legal!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Como bem explicou Christine Messiant, o controlo da economia pelo topo do poder político (juntando as altas patentes e o politburo informal do Partido) usou e geriu a concorrência internacional, beneficiando a conivência, a colaboração ou a assistência de grupos estrangeiros na banca, no sector energético.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">É esta, resumindo, a face verdadeira da nova Angola: o novo poder económico é apenas a nova máscara do velho poder político. Uma maquilhagem sofisticada mas óbvia, o <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">bâton</em> da ditadura, parafraseando o grande jornalista Rafael Marques.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Num reencontro digno para ambos os povos e ambas as audiências, teria havido por exemplo Rafael Marques, ou alguém que chamasse à corrupção, corrupção, e não, quase a medo, numa única pergunta, ‘um certo tipo de corrupção’, como fez Fátima Campos Ferreira.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Quem se encontra com a realidade de Angola, encontra a violência brutal nas Lundas diamantíferas, os despojos da guerra civil no tecido social e produtivo, a conflitualidade social latente entre quem tem o mundo e quem não é sequer dono da sua vida, ou a pobreza dos musseques de Luanda, que não desaparecem com o cair do cetim vermelho de um banco como na publicidade que embrulhou a emissão da RTP. Já agora, gostaria de ter reencontrado outros portugueses: os milhares que vão para Angola em fuga de um país sem esperança, o nosso, como se ia nos anos 50, e, como então, enfiados como semi-escravos e semi-reféns à mercê dos seus patrões – agora angolanos – num estaleiro, numa pedreira ou numa fazenda algures fora do alcance das visitas oficiais que chegam a Luanda.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nesta emissão, enfim, Portugal confirmou que, como antes os nossos colonos, apenas temos a subserviência quando a situação não nos permite o abuso. É no que estamos. ‘Qual o objectivo do investimento angolano no estrangeiro?’, perguntava a jornalista. A resposta foi dada pela própria emissão: respeitabilidade. Luanda apenas compra aquilo que sabe que não tem.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small; line-height: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Pedro Rosa Mendes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>English version, using Google translation (may be a bit crude!):</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Live from Luanda, RTP served Monday to the Portuguese and the world - I've seen here in Paris - an show it called 'Reunion', in which for two hours paraded politicians, businessmen and commentators in Portugal and Angola, among some rich clowns and grotesque figures of the local folklore.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Public service television has the stomach for a lot, some will say to all, but the Reunion we saw this time was one of the most gross and nauseating propaganda exercises and mystification that has ever seen. There's even edible advertising, when done with intelligence, but even that gauge was achieved, was allowed to issue. Our television, pay television and for all that, somehow, is a bit of each one of us, emotional but also politically, was socializing with the Luanda regime apparatchik, in which we rediscover a sister Angola, Angola a happy, a new Angola.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The opposite happened. I rediscovered in this show the shamelessness of an elite that knows the power it has and displays it in every word it says. Not in content but in tone, safe, friendly, overlooking covertly. Those people - the divas, the suits, socialites - are. at the same time, the breastplate and spangles click produced by a recent history of a country that has combined a 30-year war and a wealth concentrated primarily in the oil.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oilcracy, called it the French sociologist Christine Messiant, who died years ago now, and that anyone identified as the nature of the power of Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the MPLA, the Great Family and their clienteles. In a few lines, click the Angolan around the President, privatized the state, in a web of clients 'political economy' in Angola and an apparatus that controls the one hand, security and use of force, and secondly, the critical accounts of the Republic, such as oil, diamonds, the National Bank and the Treasury.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The generals and barons of political economy made astronomical gains in commissions from arms deals, oil, maintenance of military out there, and then used these resources in all business sensitive estratrégicos - security companies, the airlines the sectors of public enterprises placed in leasing, companies linked to the armed forces and police. An untold amount of profit and, above all, legal!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As well explained Christine Messiant, control of the economy at the top of political power (and joining the upper echelons and the Party's <span style="background-color: white;">informal</span><span style="background-color: white;"> Politburo ) used and managed the international competition, benefiting collusion, collaboration or assistance from foreign banking groups in the sector energy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This, in short, the true face of the new Angola: the new economic power is just another mask of the old political power. A sophisticated but obvious makeup, the lipstick of the dictatorship, to paraphrase the great journalist Rafael Marques.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A reunion worthy of both peoples and both audiences, there would have been for example Rafael Marques, or someone to call corruption, corruption, and not, almost fear, a single question, 'a certain kind of corruption', as did Fatima Campos Ferreira.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who meets the reality of Angola, meets the brutal violence in the Lunda diamond, the spoils of the civil war in the social and productive fabric, the latent social conflict between those who have the world and who is not even master of his life, or poverty the slums of Luanda, which do not disappear with the fall of a bank of red satin and wrapped in advertising that the issuance of the RTP. By the way, I have rediscovered other Portuguese: the thousands who go to Angola on the run from a country without hope, ours, as people would go in the 1950s, and since then, stuck as semi-slaves and semi-hostages at the mercy of their employers - now Angola - a construction site, a quarry or on a farm somewhere out of reach of official visitors arriving in Luanda.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In this show, finally, Portugal has confirmed that, as our colonists <span style="background-color: white;">before</span><span style="background-color: white;">, we have only subservience when the situation does not allow the abuse. It's what we are. 'What is the purpose of the Angolan investment abroad?', Asked the journalist. The answer was given by the very issue: respectability. Luanda just buys what it knows it does not have. "</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small; line-height: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Pedro Rosa Mendes</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small; line-height: normal; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><b>About Pedro Rosa Mendes:</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRS0evSOSEuEwzoszukm3OxzUdXnn8MCdaVxPiBAl1A7rL0BwA6kJ_pf7FglcdiGHXHnJHOeJwgaajz14bGFvHa5i_oyqlbQBMIJkmb-bnw6iqtK5OdtHrx8iks36rjrjmsiCWZ6C4UDW8/s1600/Pedro+Rosa+Mendes+-+portuguese+journalist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRS0evSOSEuEwzoszukm3OxzUdXnn8MCdaVxPiBAl1A7rL0BwA6kJ_pf7FglcdiGHXHnJHOeJwgaajz14bGFvHa5i_oyqlbQBMIJkmb-bnw6iqtK5OdtHrx8iks36rjrjmsiCWZ6C4UDW8/s320/Pedro+Rosa+Mendes+-+portuguese+journalist.jpg" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pedro Rosa Mendes - Portuguese journalist</td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Pedro Rosa Mendes is a journalist and fiction writer. He began his journalistic career in Coimbra, Portugal, in 1988 and joined the founders of Público the following year, going on to become the newspaper’s Luanda, Angola, correspondent. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">As a reporter he covered conflicts in Angola, Rwanda, Zaire/DRC, Western Sahara, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia, winning Portugal’s Bordalo Prize for Print Journalism in 2000. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Between 2007 and 2009 he was posted in East Timor as Dili correspondent for the Agência Lusa de Notícias (the official news agency of Portugal), before becoming the agency’s correspondent in Paris, where he currently lives. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: small; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Mendes’s works of fiction include Baía dos Tigres (Bay of Tigers: A Journey Through War-torn Angola), which won the PEN Club Fiction prize; Atlântico (Atlantic); and Lenin Oil, which was a collaboration with illustrator Alain Corbel. His books of reportage include Ilhas de Fogo (Islands of Fire), Madre Cacau–Timor (Mother Cacau–Timor), and Schwarz Licht, Passagen durch Westafrika (Black Light–Journey through Western Africa) with photographs by Wolf Böwig.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA32IJZStW7j0nHsPq1sNlZ_VJe66yT7VoWaBIXLUO2XyVpJSRw5q8C4ecvmmSPfW5hKcyor-1koOmYACvJzln9MtEQJBet_wOjeohRjYz3oNeHkC2zc5IgyhTmGhU0Yc9KCuc1_3JES-6/s1600/RTP+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA32IJZStW7j0nHsPq1sNlZ_VJe66yT7VoWaBIXLUO2XyVpJSRw5q8C4ecvmmSPfW5hKcyor-1koOmYACvJzln9MtEQJBet_wOjeohRjYz3oNeHkC2zc5IgyhTmGhU0Yc9KCuc1_3JES-6/s400/RTP+logo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">RTP logo - Rádio e Televisão de Portugal - Portuguese Public TV and Radio</td></tr>
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</div>M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-70117956914827193022012-01-23T00:11:00.000+01:002012-01-28T22:04:16.492+01:00Debt: Portugal's Minsky Moment?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0m93azGpzNoiVqHTHh2QS6aYf9GFdpSied-JDFoqya7-3RBAzqHTrEmIA0iPGynEbc6hYf1Qdr0l8eSi_ta-Ewen6_DY8CxEbdLNpVa4UE3vU2CvE18soB0znAr3og32AGWWosTcx9qm7/s1600/PORTUGUESE+GOVERNMENT+BONDS+10YR+NOTE+PORTUGAL+PL+%2528GSPT10YR+IND%2529+-+Bloomberg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0m93azGpzNoiVqHTHh2QS6aYf9GFdpSied-JDFoqya7-3RBAzqHTrEmIA0iPGynEbc6hYf1Qdr0l8eSi_ta-Ewen6_DY8CxEbdLNpVa4UE3vU2CvE18soB0znAr3og32AGWWosTcx9qm7/s400/PORTUGUESE+GOVERNMENT+BONDS+10YR+NOTE+PORTUGAL+PL+%2528GSPT10YR+IND%2529+-+Bloomberg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PORTUGUESE GOVERNMENT BONDS 10YR NOTE PORTUGAL PL (GSPT10YR:IND) - graph source: Bloomberg</td></tr>
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Same may think that ECB's 3-year longer term refinancing operation (LTRO) has taken the Euro a step back from the cliff's edge. However in a scenario where sovereign debt borrowing costs have fallen across Europe, Portugal's 10 year bond yields rose steady, to all-time highs, despite the issuance of 2.5 billion euros of short-term treasury bills on January 18th at lower yields.<br />
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The country's 10-year yields are now close to 15%. Reuters notes that Five-year credit default swap prices implied the market was pricing in a 66.8% chance of default.<br />
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In the Euro crisis time frame, Austerity and Growth seem to be at odds with each-other and the 'confidence fairy' is nowhere to be seen! As <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/opinion/02krugman.html" target="_blank">Paul Krugman</a> said in 2010, "somehow it has become conventional wisdom that now is the time to slash spending, despite the fact that the world’s major economies remain deeply depressed". For a small, open economy of the periphery, expansionary austerity cannot be expected to work in a period when the few countries with current account surplus and a trade surplus are reducing consumption. By the time the country is globally competitive, it may be too late. In the worst scenario we could be heading for a Heinrich Brüning style deflation.<br />
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Has Portugal's Minsky Moment arrived at last?M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-37592952976107817802012-01-13T23:50:00.000+01:002012-02-11T09:32:27.945+01:00Inequality in America (and Britain)<br />
Dr. Alan Krueger, chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, spoke yesterday at the Center for American Progress about how inequality threatens both the middle class and the economy at large.<br />
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The chart below, from his Powerpoint presentation, illustrates how America became the Western World champion of Income Inequality and more surprisingly of lack of intergenerational mobility. The children of the poor stay poor. The American Dream is dead. </div>
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Furthermore, it is not a shock to see that the former colonial power, Britain, now the most American part of Europe, comes a close second to the US.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtA3osQaBjL4YKSiggraqfb53aDz-5PwJeulqSBQ0eBX9D36Na5kMPC0mtrNcUEXDOIdj00COJiG41tCSRi1otCkNw14WrM2rFNIwqi-v7Ha3L2wvZLul0iV-7x-UtKwCm72_mnaOtAalZ/s1600/The+Great+Gatsby+Curve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtA3osQaBjL4YKSiggraqfb53aDz-5PwJeulqSBQ0eBX9D36Na5kMPC0mtrNcUEXDOIdj00COJiG41tCSRi1otCkNw14WrM2rFNIwqi-v7Ha3L2wvZLul0iV-7x-UtKwCm72_mnaOtAalZ/s400/The+Great+Gatsby+Curve.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">“The Great Gatsby Curve” - Higher income inequality associated with lower intergenerational mobility</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzhNdbot-YNPbbCEDNLoHXNgeEgSuETXBVcI40FtdT264LPAzgnB2hDsoa6Mt5JbELxcNQdsN_6xlvxB9_UvR-7R1lfXZ6w316KcHkXTYc1Wh9lHIHfUDq06gu4Pecsgj-PW9_MEOV1z1V/s1600/Alan+Krueger+and+Hussein+Obama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzhNdbot-YNPbbCEDNLoHXNgeEgSuETXBVcI40FtdT264LPAzgnB2hDsoa6Mt5JbELxcNQdsN_6xlvxB9_UvR-7R1lfXZ6w316KcHkXTYc1Wh9lHIHfUDq06gu4Pecsgj-PW9_MEOV1z1V/s400/Alan+Krueger+and+Hussein+Obama.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Economist Alan Krueger, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers and his boss, a certain Hussein Obama</td></tr>
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Note on the graph:</div>
Originally from a paper by Miles Corak, professor of economics with the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa’s, it shows a negative relationship between the Gini coefficient and intergenerational earnings elasticity. <br />
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The Gini coefficient is a standard way of measuring inequality. It is an index between 0 and 1, based on the Lorenz curve, which is the proportion of the total income earned by each percent of the population. The larger the number, the less equal the society.</div>
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Intergenerational earnings elasticity is the relationship between parents’ earnings and those of their children. In a way, it shows if children can escape their parents’ poverty. According to the 1921 song by Van & Schenck, immortalized in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby", they can’t: “The rich get richer and the poor get children.” </div>
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Therefore the title of the graph!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEa1pEFZlRCVxGE1r5PZMacUeHXCq0wIQbYxkrMlwhweNaHzZEc6FkZhKN061FKWoq85E7cwN7p-5i0zELsvobZAuaXzYtbIWiLB9vgGk9y5I7775ng86F4rQbENH71YCjozWY5ychJ3M/s1600/The+Great+Gatsby+-+F.+Scott+Fitzgerlad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZEa1pEFZlRCVxGE1r5PZMacUeHXCq0wIQbYxkrMlwhweNaHzZEc6FkZhKN061FKWoq85E7cwN7p-5i0zELsvobZAuaXzYtbIWiLB9vgGk9y5I7775ng86F4rQbENH71YCjozWY5ychJ3M/s400/The+Great+Gatsby+-+F.+Scott+Fitzgerlad.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby"<br />
Inequality in America</td></tr>
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</div>M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-58902060173357894012012-01-11T19:04:00.001+01:002012-01-11T22:57:49.756+01:00European and American Elites united<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The interesting Republican primary continues to produce pearls of speech:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">"American elites are guided by their desire to emulate the European elites," says presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich. "As a result, anti-religious values and principles are coming to dominate the academic, news media and judicial class in America."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Praise the GOP's troglodytes, for acknowledging the continental elites some merit!</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJAo3UJRt-UkajjZQrpN_j-MwVmzzeKMr2noZIP0qjtrafB9Lk7SmR7r2dRPQc46LLtzGYHjqxZHjVIsN220uTs_5qvZeX87H5EFfET7qTH2H2RF1pThB1JrJbnR9FwAPsgHmN-GSFPIFn/s1600/I+hate+Europe+-+Newt+Gingrich+cartoon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJAo3UJRt-UkajjZQrpN_j-MwVmzzeKMr2noZIP0qjtrafB9Lk7SmR7r2dRPQc46LLtzGYHjqxZHjVIsN220uTs_5qvZeX87H5EFfET7qTH2H2RF1pThB1JrJbnR9FwAPsgHmN-GSFPIFn/s400/I+hate+Europe+-+Newt+Gingrich+cartoon.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I hate Europe - Newt Gingrich cartoon</td></tr>
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<br />Der Spiegel summarizes de GOP posture well: "Europe is socialist, bloated and a threat to the global economy. That appears to be the message from the ongoing presidential campaign in the US. Republicans in particular have discovered Europe as a convenient punching bag -- and have even begun accusing each other of being too 'European.'"<br /><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-73248006054176421382011-12-18T03:21:00.000+01:002012-02-29T02:10:55.904+01:00Invasion of Goa - 50 yearsDecember 18th 1961, the armed forces of the self described "pacifist" Nehru, attack Portuguese India, the first and last bastion of European civilization in the subcontinent.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsavUsHy-hn1_AeJLI9KOIXRopI22LYE6X75YsIbv_2ooFpXHOGqCKpWDfBKwrwXI4Ig0T3Gd7Jc_WZplsP8xxEjaRqh69a_bKj5jkW_JwP5jtuL9MFW-KnU_dRxeQb_GbtjH5WRkO0rZO/s1600/Coat+of+arms+of+Portuguese+India+-+Brazao+-+India+Portuguesa.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsavUsHy-hn1_AeJLI9KOIXRopI22LYE6X75YsIbv_2ooFpXHOGqCKpWDfBKwrwXI4Ig0T3Gd7Jc_WZplsP8xxEjaRqh69a_bKj5jkW_JwP5jtuL9MFW-KnU_dRxeQb_GbtjH5WRkO0rZO/s320/Coat+of+arms+of+Portuguese+India+-+Brazao+-+India+Portuguesa.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Portuguese India - Coat of Arms</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieX_iIWUNvhzgfI3qrYooHkpL1H1TfUOS_JxpRRaQmt3lRMjGsNZUJ_xeWVaCBsN9r0lScfu992UlnLE5uJ5bCJ_cVf8wDR-4l20uOE77xlscVq91yT4RqvtkROg0V0T1adZCwCSDUlfi4/s1600/Map+of+Portuguese+India.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieX_iIWUNvhzgfI3qrYooHkpL1H1TfUOS_JxpRRaQmt3lRMjGsNZUJ_xeWVaCBsN9r0lScfu992UlnLE5uJ5bCJ_cVf8wDR-4l20uOE77xlscVq91yT4RqvtkROg0V0T1adZCwCSDUlfi4/s320/Map+of+Portuguese+India.png" width="263" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of Portuguese territories in India</td></tr>
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A few lines by the poet <a href="http://www.mdaedalus.com/">M.Daedalus</a> (<a href="http://www.mdaedalus.com/">www.mdaedalus.com</a>), to honour the day:<br />
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<b style="text-align: -webkit-left;"><i>Goa 1961</i></b><span style="text-align: -webkit-left;"></span><br />
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<i>A taciturn rain envelops the morning,</i><br />
<i>Tears drop from the cross of a white basilica,</i><br />
<i>India wears a Mediterranean nostalgia.</i></div>
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<i>Man-made thunders agitate the palm-trees</i><br />
<i>The birds ebb in the ungrateful firmament</i><br />
<i>Afonso de Albuquerque is invoked in Konkani</i><br />
<i>"Nehru is coming" a soldier shouts</i><br />
<i>"Bandit, not pundit!" somebody retorts.</i></div>
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<i>Pathetically the radio plays patriotic songs</i><br />
<i>Gagged by jet aircraft gutting the clouds</i><br />
<i>Shiva avenges the kingdom of Cambay</i><br />
<i>Kalashnikovs echo the screams of Bijapur</i><br />
<i>Salazar flies away in yesterday's newspaper</i><br />
<i>The Queen of the Orient drowns in the Mandovi.</i></div>
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<i>Elephants loose their composure</i><br />
<i>Austins and Peugeots lie abandoned on the harbour road</i><br />
<i>Oranges and panic are spread over the pier</i><br />
<i>A man in white suit wraps a fist full of earth</i><br />
<i>Panjim dies for the sake of a life to be invented.</i></div>
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<i>The empire sheds European and Asian blood</i><br />
<i>Dadra and Nagar Aveli, were the first perfidious blows</i><br />
<i>Goa, Daman and Diu completed the five wounds.</i></div>
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M.Daedalus</div>M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-90599797651490482702011-12-09T23:52:00.000+01:002011-12-15T00:02:40.939+01:00Dec 9, 2011: the first day of Europe's new life<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Merkel and Sarkozy point the way... or poking fun at Cameron?</td></tr>
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Today, 20 years after the Maastricht Treaty, the temptation may be to start a long rant on Britain's often successful attempts to block European integration, in general acting on behalf of its former colonies across the Atlantic. Thirty eight years of British Euro-skepticism and hostility have now been repaid with simple indifference. Britain was always the spanner in the European works, or as Der Spiegel puts it "the fly in the European soup"!<br />
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Anyway, let bygones be bygones and let us celebrate the first day of a new era: a two-speed Europe.<br />
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We are done with the hypocrisy, no more lowest common denominator agreements. The continent will march on forwards, and the island north of La Manche can continue swimming towards America... except that maybe Scotland may decide to join us later on.<br />
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History proved the Charles de Gaulle was right all the time: Britain should never have entered, having instead some kind of association agreement at the same level of Turkey. The unprepared US-led enlargement towards the East was also an error: although these nations are an absolutely essential part of Europe, the calendar was all wrong, i.e. deepening of the Union should have came before a formal enlargement. This has led us to a moment when only creative destruction will solve the problem, and Merkel and Sarkozy have earned their place in history. The debt crisis is Europe's blessing in disguise.<br />
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So we have a draft intergovernmental treaty, but that is only a first step. Europe now needs the <b>instruments of representative democracy</b>. Of course integrated economic policies, foriegn policy and defense are essential, but none are totally legitimate without the creation of <b>European-wide political parties</b>. Without truly European parties setting the agenda, we will always face the risk of crippling balkanization.<br />
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Having solved the problem of a Union eternaly blocked by the British, of course the intergovernmental agreement (the "compact") itself still has to run the gauntlet of approval in each signatory country. Furthermore, a 'fiscal union' may come in many forms, and the devil is in the detail. 'Fiscal union' at most will be an euphemism for common rules for budgetary discipline across the Eurozone, there will be no merger of tax structures and authorities.<br />
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Naturally the less naïve among us are also raising fundamental doubts on the sufficiency of the intergovernmental agreement as a tool to return public debt markets to normality, strong tools such as <b>Eurobonds </b>or the ability of the ECB to make large scale bond purchases or increase money supply remain off the agenda. Even simple budgetary discipline rules imposed from outside will only be effective if non-compliance will lead to powerful sanctions. Writing budget prudence into the constitution of each member country per se is not enough, if politicians have a talent is is fudging the rules. In case it was forgotten: rules for budgetary discipline across the EU are already in place. The Euro convergence criteria (aka Maastricht criteria) require that member states keep deficits below 3 per cent of GDP and ratio of gross government debt to GDP must not exceed 60% at the end of the preceding fiscal year.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles de Gaulle vindicated at last - Gallic revenge on the Brits</td></tr>
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<br />M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-85740260589770240952011-10-20T16:47:00.001+02:002011-10-23T23:02:04.341+02:00Muammar Gaddafi: he died fighting, as per his promise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10px; text-align: center;">Muammar Gaddafi killed - rebels drag the body</td></tr>
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May he rest in peace, Muammar Gaddafi 1942-2011.<br />
The man fought against all the odds and died fighting after air and ground attacks.<br />
Gaddafi stayed true to his words, that he would stay in Libya till the bitter end.<br />
Rarely does a politician keeps his promises in such a dramatic way.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;"><em>"There is a conspiracy to control Libyan oil and to control Libyan land, to colonise Libya once again. This is impossible, impossible. We will fight until the last man and last woman to defend Libya from east to west, north to south."</em> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial;">and in his last will:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>"Let the free people of the world know that we could have bargained over and sold out our cause in return for a personal secure and stable life. We received many offers to this effect but we chose to be at the vanguard of the confrontation as a badge of duty and honour.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Even if we do not win immediately, we will give a lesson to future generations that choosing to protect the nation is an honour and selling it out is the greatest betrayal that history will remember forever despite the attempts of the others to tell you otherwise."</i></span></div>
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Ha-Makom yenahem etkhem b'tokh sha ar aveilei Tzion vYerushalayim<br />
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After Iraq, Egypt and Tunisia, another Arab nation is ready for "Democracy".<br />
We already have seen what "democracy" has brought to Iraq, and Egypt, and it seems that less blood flowed and more tolerance existed under Saddam and Mubarak. The only positive secondary effects will be some degree of freedom for Kurds and Berbers, but even those will be lost in a return to medieval Islamic intolerance.<br />
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Intelligence and real-politik are gone from our Washington lead foreign policy. As if the self defeating wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not enough, the West will live to regret supporting these revolutions.<br />
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For how long will beautiful Damascus keep a Christian quarter?<br />
Good luck Bashar!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Colonel Gadhafi in his glory days (1969)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTPLzlJPVC-xAvePFRpUgJ32L0D4Adb6HdDcl3w4D0upn6fKwM6CA_4rprZ3VQe9uES8ElAVczBUlUSFr4zST8J7F1JaD5b1X7adaHKE9UlewfyTcSKohh8sulkJEicFQCDsLmt6J6gTEH/s1600/Gaddafi%252C+the+Jewish+leader+of+Libya+meets%252C+President+Hussein+Obama%252C+the+Muslim+rais+of+America.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTPLzlJPVC-xAvePFRpUgJ32L0D4Adb6HdDcl3w4D0upn6fKwM6CA_4rprZ3VQe9uES8ElAVczBUlUSFr4zST8J7F1JaD5b1X7adaHKE9UlewfyTcSKohh8sulkJEicFQCDsLmt6J6gTEH/s400/Gaddafi%252C+the+Jewish+leader+of+Libya+meets%252C+President+Hussein+Obama%252C+the+Muslim+rais+of+America.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Col. Muammar Gaddafi, the Jewish-descendent leader of Libya is greeted by President Hussein Obama, the Muslim Raïs of America - Hypocrisy in motion, an operetta like prelude to a backstabbing</td></tr>
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<br />M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1676293600921723819.post-7800830316631279482011-08-10T22:59:00.005+02:002012-09-28T00:18:47.864+02:00Evolving World Power Balance: China's first aircraft carrier starts sea trials<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chinese aircraft carrier Shi-Lang - artist's impression - pennant number 83</td></tr>
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She was known as Riga when her keel was laid down in Nikolayev (Ukraine SSR) in 1985, to be the second ship in the Admiral Kuznetsov class. She was launched in 1988, and renamed Varyag in 1990, as Riga was in the process of becoming a foreign city. Construction stopped by 1992, with the ship structurally complete but without equipment or weapons.<br />
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With the dissolution of the USSR, the Ukraine became the owner, but lacked the money and expertise to proceed. The Varyag rusted for several years and then was stripped. In early 1998, she lacked engines, a rudder, and much of her operating systems.<br />
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It was purchased from the Ukraine at auction for US$20 million by Chong Lot Travel Agency, believed to be acting as a proxy for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). At the time Chong Lot stated that the ship would become a floating entertainment center and casino in Macau.<br />
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As expected, Macau wasn't to be the final destination, though it would be interesting if the old Portuguese naval center would become an important base for the PLAN. In 2005, the Varyag ended up at a dry dock in Dalian, home to the PLA Dalian Naval Academy. There, China's first batch of carrier aviators began training in 2008, undergoing a four-year course.<br />
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The Chinese have been in touch with Russian naval construction firms, and may have purchased plans and technology for equipment installed in the Kuznetsov. Until last year, progress was slow. On June 8, 2011 the chief of China's General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) confirmed that China's first aircraft carrier was under construction. On the morning of August 10 the ship began her first sea trials.<br />
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Under the PLAN the carrier will bear the highly symbolic name of Shi Lang (施琅). Shī Láng; 1621-1696) was a Ming-Qing admiral. He was commander-in-chief of the Manchu fleets which destroyed the power of the Zheng family and conquered Formosa (Taiwan) in 1681.</div>
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Observers predict that she will call Sanya Naval Base on China's southern Hainan Island her mother port. If that proves true, the carrier will be assigned to the PLA Navy's South China Sea Fleet, likely sailing back and forth from the Persian Gulf to help secure Beijing's crude oil shipping line.</div>
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But besides a defensive role in protecting the vital routes for raw materials, a new offensive capability is created, projecting Chinese power. Taiwanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Thai and Australians will have to re-think their regional positions.<br />
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But of course it is the US that face the main challenge. In the short term the Chinese carrier is more a symbol for the Chinese than a menace to the US. This does not mean that real menaces do no come in other forms: the Americas should worry about their own carriers vulnerability as more of the Chinese Dong Feng 21D carrier killer missiles (anti-ship ballistic missile / ASBM) are deployed and as rumors of a tactical naval nuclear missile start to be whispered.<br />
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Anyway, it's been some time now since history did not end: the Pacific is no longer an American lake and more is in the pipeline, e.g. in the form of a Chinese designed nuclear powered aircraft carrier. Furthermore Beijing's naval ambitions are now global, no ocean should be considered off-limits and the prospect of Chinese naval bases abroad should be faced seriously.<br />
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The years of a single super power are going away fast!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNtqE4PmLXKvKBaPMneHiGVYajk4gL5ioGm18kb_m3D1NoJYSWRev6EaaeZ-4IuFofTWjB4Ss1cfjbkGtUxPeYXnwnYi9QbyGKvYhO9ox0z0RBPSxmvQ4QHxAv5Bkc08UmyOPZzLjtg_hn/s1600/Naval+Ensign+of+the+People%2527s+Republic+of+China+-+PLAN+flag.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNtqE4PmLXKvKBaPMneHiGVYajk4gL5ioGm18kb_m3D1NoJYSWRev6EaaeZ-4IuFofTWjB4Ss1cfjbkGtUxPeYXnwnYi9QbyGKvYhO9ox0z0RBPSxmvQ4QHxAv5Bkc08UmyOPZzLjtg_hn/s400/Naval+Ensign+of+the+People%2527s+Republic+of+China+-+PLAN+flag.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Naval Ensign of the People's Republic of China - the PLAN flag will become an ever more common sight in the world's oceans and ports - 中国人民解放军海军军旗</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_ocoZZpLiblguj38hPZUE4DSQovpC8EPDj1SHTts8CH6ZJ2zrIaE-xOL0LFGvkMReWfSoiD4wGkGgmeOh_oYIHgISHUjPdXmT-I1WALNZg1ZtQW2u7M-fegx75nvoaPghGSCzEQpXzpA/s1600/Dong+Feng+DF-21+anti-ship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5_ocoZZpLiblguj38hPZUE4DSQovpC8EPDj1SHTts8CH6ZJ2zrIaE-xOL0LFGvkMReWfSoiD4wGkGgmeOh_oYIHgISHUjPdXmT-I1WALNZg1ZtQW2u7M-fegx75nvoaPghGSCzEQpXzpA/s400/Dong+Feng+DF-21+anti-ship.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dong Feng DF-21 anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) on parade in Peking - 东风-21中程弹道导弹</td></tr>
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UPDATE:</div>
<div>
She has been seen at sea: DigitalGlobe, a commercial US satellite company, says the Shi-Lang has been photographed on December 8th off the Chinese coast by one of the company's satellites, image below:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzJ4ghOgIaF3WVPDOvsL6Rf9vV8i82fDj1ZAsFzFOJpjh6tsvzEmkr_0Bhwgl6jRqfYvfTPMkCVTe9NykQwvVpcpI-4IJ-s5ypNx-WHmXS-PflUo-Q_giEyEPa0cQjzwLrZmbgN-XfVF4/s1600/chinese+aircraft+carrier+at+sea+-++Shi-Lang+-+Riga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglzJ4ghOgIaF3WVPDOvsL6Rf9vV8i82fDj1ZAsFzFOJpjh6tsvzEmkr_0Bhwgl6jRqfYvfTPMkCVTe9NykQwvVpcpI-4IJ-s5ypNx-WHmXS-PflUo-Q_giEyEPa0cQjzwLrZmbgN-XfVF4/s400/chinese+aircraft+carrier+at+sea+-++Shi-Lang+-+Riga.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Satellite image of the Chinese aircraft carrier Shi-Lang off the PRC's coast (c) DigitalGlobe</td></tr>
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Update, Sept 25, 2012: it's official, the Riga is now in service as the Liaoning (辽宁号航空母舰 - hull number: 16), after the province of the same name. Only the Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark fighters are missing now. The J-15 carrier-based combat plane was adapted from the Sukhoi Su-33.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGWa6ZzYx6pUi7z9o6x83O4REzaPilfOJlgZirkoccBahmTbmWQoO3SqOQkQdmKBh7bazFgn8ebBqfzoWZqonz8Gylu-_edIRDTpxzTer4EbcyT7VhliW-0bu14W3dsMRsZAcEqn0gqsva/s1600/Shenyang+J-15+Flying+Shark+fighter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGWa6ZzYx6pUi7z9o6x83O4REzaPilfOJlgZirkoccBahmTbmWQoO3SqOQkQdmKBh7bazFgn8ebBqfzoWZqonz8Gylu-_edIRDTpxzTer4EbcyT7VhliW-0bu14W3dsMRsZAcEqn0gqsva/s400/Shenyang+J-15+Flying+Shark+fighter.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark fighter (<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.571428298950195px; line-height: 19.190475463867188px; text-align: start;">歼-15) </span>- prototype in flight - notice the hook for carrier landings</td></tr>
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M.Durrutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16919656744984866424noreply@blogger.com0