July 2007 Archives

"Jobs in South Africa's footwear factories that were once considered permanent have turned casual since its government introduced free trade policies........."

By David Cronin

BRUSSELS (IPS) - When European campaigners suggest that a free trade deal could harm the poor, they typically encounter a frosty reaction from civil servants in Brussels. Still, no one tries to muzzle them.

Yet when a Namibian trade analyst insinuated that the European Union was trying to browbeat southern African governments into signing an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) before they had a chance to analyse its consequences, he found himself out of a job.

Wallie Roux, a market researcher for the Namibian meat firm Meatco, spoke out against EPAs in a speech to the Labour Resource and Research Institute in April when he claimed the EU is trying to enter the Guinness Book of Records for the most rapidly negotiated trade agreement in history.

His remarks were reported in Namibian newspaper New Era on April 18. Meatco responded to his claim by suspending him on May 11.

Full story: Africans Speak Out Against EPAs as Unwelcome

Though not the same as Prout since it relies on the capitalist mode of production, the once-vaunted Swedish model of socioeconomic development was closest to Prout, as stated by Prout founder Shrii P.R. Sarkar. The importation of large numbers of immigrants will most likely undermine the Swedish model, however, and signs of it cracking are already evident, especially as this system cannot sustain immigration along with 20+ percent unemployment. As long as it co-exists with capitalism, rather than importing immigrants Sweden should aggressively export its socioeconomic model - absent the dehumanizing program of Stalinist-style thought control [please see Jihad and the Collapse of the Swedish Model, recently linked to on our website, -eds.] - to nations that need it, solve its unemployment problem, and restore some pride to its people. Only small numbers of immigrants among the billions who need help can come to the country; imagining that mass immigration is a sane program is the fantasy of fools. If Swedes want to help Muslims, a large portion of their immigrants, a better place to start would be speaking out against American neocon aggression in the Middle East and helping fund refugee camps there.

Multiculturalism, of which promotion of mass immigration is a part, is a bogus philosophy, a Trojan horse, a viral infection on the intellectual level. It is intended to tear down, not build up. It is also based in part on the "American model," which has deep roots in the appropriation of formerly native American Indian lands and in the import of cheap immigrant labor, undermining the working class, antitheses of what Sweden has stood for. The Swedish people would be well advised to shake off this disease and believe in themselves once again. They also need to do the hard work of thinking for themselves rather than let the State think for them. After all, it was they who created what used to be the ideal for harnessing the brute forces of capitalism to suit human needs and nurture human development. Those internationalist politicians who are undermining Sweden in turn should be thrown in the garbage bag where they belong, the top closed shut, and tossed away, to be forgotten like rotten food. Only then can the politics of unrestrained economic internationalism, that other force undermining the Swedish people, be faced.

"Power for me means that the Swedes shall look at me, lie down on the ground and kiss my feet."

By Fjordman

I decided to write this essay following the riots in Malmo this weekend. Malmo is Sweden's third largest city and by far the worst city in Scandinavia when it comes to Muslim aggression. I read recently that an Arab girl interviewed in Malmo said that she liked it so much there, it felt almost like an Arab city. Native Swedes have been moving away from the city for years, turned into refugees in their own country by Jihad, not too different from the non-Muslims in some regions of the Philippines, southern Thailand or Kashmir in India, or for that matter Christian Serbs in Kosovo.

Sweden was presented during the Cold War as a middle way between capitalism and Communism. When this model of a society collapses - and it will collapse, under the combined forces of Islamic Jihad, the European Union, Multiculturalism and ideological overstretch - it is thus not just the Swedish state that will collapse but the symbol of Sweden, the showcase of an entire ideological world view. I wrote two years ago that if the trend isn't stopped, the Swedish nation will simply cease to exist in any meaningful way during the first half of this century. The country that gave us Bergman, ABBA and Volvo could become known as the Bosnia of northern Europe, and the "Swedish model" will be one of warning against ideological madness, not one of admiration. I still fear I was right in that assessment.

Jonathan Friedman, an American living outside Malmö, mentions that the so-called Integration Act of 1997 proclaimed that "Sweden is a Multicultural society." Notes to the Act also stated that "Since a large group of people have their origins in another country, the Swedish population lacks a common history. The relationship to Sweden and the support given to the fundamental values of society thus carry greater significance for integration than a common historical origin."

Native Swedes have thus been reduced to just another ethnic group in Sweden, with no more claim to the country than the Kurds or the Somalis who arrived there last Thursday. The political authorities of the country have erased their own people's history and culture.

Full story: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2065. Readers are encouraged to look at the anecdotal comments after the article.

Bloody Israeli military attack on U.S. naval ship recalled When Israel attacks, the Pentagon retreats

by Justin Raimondo

It was 40 years ago this June 8 that the USS Liberty - a large, armorless, refitted freighter that was gathering intelligence in the Mediterranean at the outset of the Six Day War - was attacked by Israeli fighter jets and torpedoes. Thirty-four U.S. sailors were killed, and 172 were wounded. The Liberty limped back to Malta. A U.S. Navy court of inquiry was on board investigating the damage, but - for some reason - the investigators were not allowed to proceed to Israel to find out what really went on. Orders from the top echelons of the Pentagon nixed the inquiry, and today, the families of the fallen still haven't gotten any answers as to why Israel was allowed to get away with it without even so much as a slap on the wrist - nor even any public acknowledgment that it was a deliberate attack.

Far from apologizing, the Israelis have to this day denied that they attacked the Liberty on purpose, and - incredibly - they stoutly maintain that the whole thing was an "accident." This in spite of the fact that the Liberty was proudly flying a U.S. flag and was easily identifiable as an American vessel. The Israel Lobby has even gone so far as to publish a book, The Liberty Incident, by Jay Cristol, that makes the case for the "accidental" scenario, but the survivors' families - and a number of credible commentators - aren't buying it. One of those commentators is a former captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps assigned to the Liberty investigation, Ward Boston, who has signed an affidavit stating unequivocally:

"The evidence was clear. Both Admiral [Isaac C.] Kidd and I believed with certainty that this attack … was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew. It was our shared belief, based on the documentary evidence and testimony we received firsthand, that the Israeli attack was planned and deliberate."

Full story: http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11042. For more information, please see, http://www.ussliberty.org.

by Patricia Grogg

HAVANA (IPS) - Like other Latin American countries, Cuba is focusing on the development of renewable energy sources. But unlike Brazil, a leader in biofuels, this Caribbean island nation has ruled out the production of ethanol fuel based on sugarcane, because of President Fidel Castro's opposition to using food crops to produce biofuel on a large scale.

Full story: Cuba: Sugarcane - Source of Renewable Energy, But Not Ethanol

by Jerome Bigirimana

BUJUMBURA (IPS) - Several months ago, residents of the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, were struggling with disposal of household waste. The Municipal Technical Services (Services techniques municipaux, SETEMU) weren't able to deal with all the refuse -- and health conditions in the city were deteriorating.

Fast forward to June 2007, and matters have taken a turn for the better -- thanks to a waste management process imported from neighbouring Rwanda, and put into effect by the recently-created Association for Development and the Fight Against Poverty (Association pour le développement et la lutte contre la pauvreté, ADLP).

This organisation stepped forward after authorities decided to open the collection and treatment of household refuse to outside contractors, becoming the first privately-owned organisation to get involved in waste management in the city.

Alidi Hakizimana, a resident of the Nyakabiga community in the centre of Bujumbura -- where the ADLP is most extensively involved -- notes that health conditions "have clearly improved since the organisation took responsibility for waste" in the area.

But, ADLP doesn't only collect waste -- it also transforms it into fuel.

Full story: Burundi: Urban Waste Becomes Urban Fuel

"Art is beyond religious and political boundaries. Art is all encompassing and universal..." by Meen Janardhan

DUBAI (IPS) - While Iran's leaders maintain a confrontationist attitude towards the international community, Iranian artists are playing a friendlier tune in the immediate neighbourhood.

In May, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) served as the setting for the enunciation of the dual policy by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit, the first by an Iranian leader in nearly four decades.

Full story: Iranian Art Bridges Regional Divide

Editor's note: Rather than religion by diktat or rmonopoly, Prout supports freedom of spiritual practice and firmly opposes the Malaysian Federal Court's decision to refuse Malay Muslims this freedom. This decision is a significant step backward for the country.

"The judgment does not end the Muslim, non-Muslim divide but has instead widened it by introducing Islamic principles into secular, constitutional matters," opposition leader Lim Kit Siang in an IPS interview.

by Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR (IPS) - The stunning decision by Malaysia's highest secular court this week that freedom of worship, a constitutional guarantee, does not apply to Malay Muslims is a major blow to freedom and constitutional democracy, lawyers and human rights activists say.

The Federal Court also reaffirmed that the civil court had no jurisdiction over any Islamic matters, even when non-Muslims are involved.

Wednesday's verdict does not end the Muslim, non-Muslim divide, but may cause it to worsen as the tussle for primacy between inherited secular guarantees and a resurgent Islam demanding pre-eminence for Shariah laws continues, said observers.

Non-Muslim leaders -- both political and religious -- reacted with shock and disbelief after the apex court ruled in a majority 2-1 decision that a Muslim cannot rely on Article 11 that guarantees freedom of worship to leave Islam but must go to a Shariah court to get a certificate to turn apostate.

Full story: Malaysia: No Freedom of Worship for Muslims Says Court

Is the American Left being misled about the dynamics behind U.S. warmongering in the Middle East?

"Not a single oil company has favored or benefited from the restrictive legislation on Iran authored by AIPAC"

by James Petras

Never in recent history has US Middle East policy been subject to such a barrage of conflicting pressures from erstwhile allies, clients as well as adversaries. The points of contention involve fundamental issues of war and peace, foremost of which are divergent responses to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the US-Iranian confrontation, the US occupation of Iraq as well as the US-Ethiopian proxy invasion and occupation of Somalia.

Full story: The Pro-Israel Lobby and US Middle East Policy: The Score Card for 2007

"Governments get huge amounts of money from a resource that belongs to the people. But in Africa there is little sign of profit sharing...''

By Stephanie Nieuwoudt

NAIROBI (IPS) - Africa's abundance in natural resources, especially oil, has been called a curse because of the fierce global thirst that exists for these assets.

Oil and other mineral resources have led to conflict and corruption in countries like Sierra Leone (diamonds), Nigeria (oil), Equatorial Guinea (oil), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (diamonds, timber, rare fauna), Gabon (oil) and Angola (oil).

According to the Energy Information Administration, which supplies official statistics to the US government, there is more trade in oil globally than in any other product as oil from producing countries is shipped to consumer countries.

Millions of dollars are annually poured into Africa by international oil companies. Millions more are being spent in exploratory enterprises. It is a resource that is indispensable to the world economy. Therefore it should generate money to address the health and social issues of the oil-producing countries on the continent.

Full story: Africa: How to Turn The Curse of Oil Into a Blessing

by Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI (IPS) - Kenya is in talks with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) about extending a period of preferential treatment given to the country's sugar sector four years ago. This is in response to fears that local producers will not be able to survive open competition from their counterparts in the trade bloc when the period ends in March 2008.

Preferential treatment was granted so that Kenya could carry out reforms in its sugar industry to make the locally produced commodity competitive -- notably with sugar from Malawi, Mauritius and Sudan.

Full story: Kenya: A Sugar Sector in Search of Muscle

Amra Bangali along with the members of some progressive groups are protesting against the massacre of Nandigram in front of the Indian High Comission in London on 3rd April 2007

With the goal to serve in the time of need, Amra Bengali has been active in the past and will continue to be so in the future. While communists oppress, capitalists exploit, and Hindis impose their cheap pseudo-culture on the great people of Bengal, there is a crying need today for new leadership, a new movement and a new socio-economic, political ideology to free all Bengali speaking people from their present state of oppression and exploitation and restore this rich and ancient culture to its former heights of glory. - Dinabandhu Maity

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