Korean trade show model Lee Ji Min promoting Sony cameras at Seoul International Photo & Imaging Industry Exhibition in April 2015.
Source : koreangirlshd[dot]com
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Saturday, June 20, 2015
IMF and EU to blame for Greek crisis
The idiotic European Union
What a wonderful, pie-in-the-sky ideal, Europe coming together speaking with one voice. One Land, One People, One Leader. Hang on, we've heard that before...where did that come from? Ah Germany! Right...über Alles, eh what? And what did it bring? Well, the same as previous failed attempts. Ask Hitler, ask Napoleon, ask Charlemagne, ask the Romans. The same attempt to stitch together economies which took thousands of years to develop, based on the foundations of their own peculiarities, impose on them ludicrous constraints which may make sense in Germany (as indeed does eating pickled cabbage) and the same disaster when things that work in Germany do not work in Greece. And why should they?
Add to this the idiotic venture to stitch together twenty-eight nations in a few decades, when the project should have taken well over a century to implement, if not more, and add to this the creation of a Eurozone within the European Union with clear opt-in rules but no idea of how to conduct an opt-out and we have a clear idea of what the EU project is.
It is a project based upon Deutschland über Alles, a Jerry version of "Germany Rules the Waves", creating markets for German goods, catering for German jobs and wealth in Germany at the expense of fishing fleets, farms, factories and employment elsewhere.
Nobody has any clear idea of how a country can disentangle itself from the spider's web of the Eurozone, nobody has any clear idea of how a country can change its currency from Euro back to a New Drachma or whatever, or conduct a dollarization, or allow different currencies to circulate. How stupid and shortsighted is that?
Common sense says that if you implement a plan, you write in the conditions for the plan's dissolution. Common sense also says that if usury has been slammed as unethical and immoral since Biblical times, then you do not practice it and impose it on a people.
For those who claim that Greece's payback on its loan is not that high, I have one word: Bullshit! The interest payment on the loan is currently costing Greece 2.6 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product. So how is the country supposed to grow with this stone around its neck?
Let us not blame the Greek people
So if we are going to blame anyone, let us not blame the Greek people for the mountain of 317 billion Euros of debt they are landed with. The Greek people? Yes, you know, the ones among whom only some 15 per cent of the unemployed receive any subsidy. The Greek people, whose youth unemployment rate stands at over fifty per cent, whose general unemployment rate is a staggering 26 per cent of the workforce.
And what was the wonderful and enlightened answer from the wonderful and enlightened European Union that caused this situation in the first place? Why more austerity, of course. As if poisoning the roots, pruning back the stem to one millimeter above the ground and stamping on it, then depriving it of water and refusing to feed it, is going to help the plant to grow. Only in the wonderful and enlightened European Union.
So let us not blame the Greek people, let us blame the system which led Greece into the European Union, the politicians from the PASOK and New Democracy Parties which have ruled Greece since the Dictatorship of the Colonels was overthrown in 1974, let us blame the European Union, whose constraints have left Greece with no room to maneuver, and let us blame those who lent Greece money with horrific tails attached (financial and political usury).
It was German bank loans over time (using Germany's huge trade surplus), credit default swaps sold to Greece by Goldman Sachs allowing the Government to hide its deficit, and NATO's nonchalance in selling military equipment at inflated prices which created the imbalance and poisoned the foundations. It was the global capitalist crisis from 2007 which constituted the tsunami and the Eurozone straightjacket depriving Greece of a lifejacket that put the people of Greece in the hole they are in today. It was not the Greek people.
Conclusion
The best way out for Greece would be for its creditors to allow Greece to sort out its problems on its own terms - Greek solutions for Greek people - allowing the country and its people space and not prying into its internal affairs inflicting misery on the people, who as we have seen are not to blame any more than today's Germans can be held responsible for what the Nazis did seventy-odd years ago.
Is that going to happen? Hell no. Everyone seems to have forgiven the Germans. As for the Greeks...
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
(timothy.hinchey@gmail.com)
*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. He is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights.
Source : english[dot]pravda[dot]ru
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Planet Earth 2015: The role of the Media and responsible reporting
Not everyone has equal rights to education. Guess which gender is the victim of unequal access to education? The same that is over two times more likely to be sexually abused or burnt as a senior citizen, one third of whose members will experience some form of abuse or violence in their lifetime, the same one that has to fight every day just for equal rights.
Sex is coming
Sex is coming. I apologize for boring everyone with yet another serious news piece, this time about the empowerment of women and the right of girls to an equal education. By now I would have lost the attention of over 98 per cent of readers, who would have zapped onto an advertisement for a bikini-clad maiden, clicked on a pic of a fast car or scrolled down to the lower sections hoping to find a snap of a topless model.
I mean let's have a quick look through the dailies, shall we? Sky News is talking about a dog's poo glowing orange, in the printed press there are multiple stories about a new phenomenon, the "competitive eater", namely someone who consumes vast amounts of food within a few minutes, racing against a clock gobbling down a five-food-long sandwich before puking publicly in a bucket, while 700 million people are starving to death. One or two serious publications highlight issues such as child abuse (commendably) and true, there are stories about climate change, the water crisis in California but then the most read are the ones about a new (revolting-looking) pizza, some girl called Esther Dolezal and the hit counters don't lie.
That's why I started the first paragraph with the words "sex is coming". What a caddish, unorthodox way of getting the readers to stay on course and read about something serious: equal rights to education and responsible reporting and now that you've started you may as well finish.
While we congratulate ourselves
So as we pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves on having overcome many of the world's main diseases (for the time being), on having very few children down coal mines, on getting the vote for the woman, even though many still say "I will ask my husband to see who we are voting for", let us ask ourselves whether everything is really so rosy.
How can it be when girls, in the year 2015, continue to have unequal access to education, the fundamental building blocks of the future career, the foundations which define to a great extent who a person is to become and where a person is to go? So let us congratulate ourselves on the statistic that in one third of countries access for girls to elementary education is unequal when compared with access for boys, let us congratulate ourselves on the fact that the statistic is worse (nearly half the countries) when we speak about lower secondary education.
In recent years, there have been attacks against schools for advocating girls' education. Where? Why in Afghanistan, of course. Probably Pakistan as well. Maybe Yemen? According to the UNO, these attacks have been perpetrated in at least seventy countries, seven zero. The violence was not the result of the girls being instructed, it was the result of fear of social change once the girls become educated women.
And what does that mean? The latest report drawn up by experts in the UNO and working with the organization, Statistics on Women, states clearly that the well-being and education of a country's female population is the best indicator of its prospects for peace and development. I repeat, the well-being and education of a country's female population is the best indicator of its prospects for peace and development.
In conclusion, we have nothing to congratulate ourselves on. Any progress we make is ephemeral because the lobbies have decided that the money has to be controlled by mega-corporations which are engaged in the area of banking, weaponry, pharmaceutical products catering for public health calamities, once they have taken hold of course (watch MERS-CoV), and claiming the world's energy resources as their own before selling them to us at inflated prices. They may as well start selling air.
And who is to blame for this? The guy whose first act of the day on leaving home is to walk to the newspaper kiosk, grab a tabloid, open it at page three and say "Cor! Look at those!" on seeing a half-clad student who bore her breasts to help pay for her studies, or the "newspaper" that carries such nonsense? Forgive me, dear reader, for speaking about serious issues.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
(timothy.hinchey@gmail.com)
*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. He is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights.
Source : english[dot]pravda[dot]ru
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Song Ju Ah Studio Photoshoot
Model Song Ju Ah (송주아) looks beautiful, sexy and fit in a studio photoshoot.
Source : koreangirlshd[dot]com
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Ebola is not beaten, it is coming back
After the massive international response last year kicked in against Ebola, bringing a tide of new cases down to a trickle, a year and a half since the outbreak was reported, the last two successive weeks have sharp shown rises in new cases, with unknown causes. The conclusion is that Ebola Virus Disease is not beaten. It is coming back.
Rule number one is that when a story breaks in the media, it has a two-week climax between the wow! and ah! Factors. The wow! factor is accompanied by drum beats at peak viewing time with "Breaking News" flashing all over the screen, the newscasters looking stern and serious, their eyes wide open, staring in panic at camera number three, speaking breathlessly, raising the heartbeat of the viewers who will be less inclined to zap over to a crime show or the latest episode of The Simpsons. The ah! factor is when "our boys go in" risking their lives to help, when the camera picks up a child, when the visiting politician spots the camera and child and makes a dash to raise it up just as the transmission goes live, asking "Let's go and find Mommy, shall we?"
On-camera and off-camera
What the camera does not pick up is the two-second period later when the same do-gooder asks why the light has gone off the camera, whether the audience saw that shot with the child and when the child is unceremoniously dumped, off-camera, and not looked at again.
With high impact stories like Ebola Virus Disease with its links to bats, the coolest of creatures in societies suddenly obsessed with Dracula and Zombies, and the much-vaunted horrific symptoms of sudden hemorrhage, bleeding from the eyes or skin or vomiting of copious quantities of blood (in a few cases only), the likelihood of the media circus hanging around for a while after the two-week climax is higher, with sporadic snippets of information coming out as the world moves on to soccer, air crashes, soccer, train crashes, soccer, people being beheaded by Islamic State, soccer, soccer and soccer, just before the silly season when stories of funny animals in forests proliferate, before and after post-mortems of last soccer season and forecasts of next.
The question is, when used properly, the media do have an important role to play. I am not speaking about misquoting an interviewee so that when s/he reads the newspaper the morning after the interview, s/he swears never to speak to a journalist again because the opposite of what s/he said is what is printed. Few journalists these days (apart from myself and a handful of others) send the piece back to the interviewee to check and make any additions before publishing. I am also not speaking about prying into the private lives of others and splashing their sexual desires and preferences all over the front pages of the tabloids. Few journalists these days, unfortunately, refuse to use "material" sent to them about what famous singers get up to in hotels before or after concerts. Neither am I speaking about fabrications and lies, half-truths and misinformation, manipulation of photographs, purposefully placed to shape public opinion and this goes deeper than page three of your newspaper. For instance, watch British detective series these days and the villain will always and without exception be a Russian.
Proper use of the media
When properly used, the media will inform the audience about what is happening, be it a Fascist Putsch in Ukraine ousting the democratically elected President and replacing him with a motley bunch of misfits on the fringes of society who boast about links to terrorist groups and who start to perform massacres and curtail the rights of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, be it who and what is really behind Islamic State and why the West sat back and used this group against President Assad, be it what was really behind the attacks against Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and so on.
And when properly used, the media will bring public attention to places such as West Africa fighting a serious public health calamity such as Ebola Virus Disease, focusing attention on the plight of the victims so that hopefully, public awareness and fund-raising campaigns can get under way for the agencies, NGOs and volunteer organizations to help - and this was indeed the case after the circus came to town last year.
But now it has moved on, the rainy season has started, hampering field activities and the reports of new cases of Ebola Virus Disease have started to increase - the last two weeks showing rises in cases. Worse, the new cases are from previously unaffected areas and the causes of transmission are unknown.
The World Health Organization has stated that the new situation highlights the challenges involved, since the latest report of new cases was the highest in several weeks, because "the outbreak is not over and the response efforts must be sustained until we get to zero cases throughout the region and are able to stay at zero for several months". The reality is different. The latest update indicates 31 new cases in the week ending June 7 (16 in Guinea, 15 in Sierra Leone).
Ebola Virus Disease to date has caused 11,173 deaths among 27,273 cases (Sierra Leone 12,901 cases 3,915 deaths; Liberia 10,666 cases 4,806 deaths; Republic of Guinea 3,670 cases 2,437 deaths; Nigeria 20-8; Mali 8-6; USA 4-1; UK, Spain, Senegal, Italy 1-0 each).
Let us not forget, zero cases for several months. Until then, the battle is far from over. I am sorry to say it but the notion arises that only if such a disease took hold in a European or North American capital would there be a serious and sustained response, otherwise the politicians would not get elected and the lobbies they represent would lose power. And money. A fitting epitaph to Humankind 2015.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. He is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights.
Source : english[dot]pravda[dot]ru
(Future) App of the Week: Infant SOS
This amazing app aims to save the lives of babies across the world.
It’s hard to imagine, but accidentally leaving your child in a car seat is incredibly common. In fact, according to Kidsafe, during the period from August 2013 to September 2014, paramedics rescued 1165 children that had been left unattended in cars in the state of Victoria alone.
And in a country like Australia, that regularly sees very high temperatures; the consequences of doing so can often be fatal.
While in some cases, parents aren’t aware of the dangers of popping to the shops while leaving their kids in the car, in many of the cases; parents have simply forgotten that their child is still in the car. This phenomenon has been dubbed ‘fatal distraction’.
So what can we do to prevent such horrible mistakes?
A group of mechanical engineering students from Rice University in the US may just have the answer.
They’ve come up with a technology driven solution called Infant SOS that combines a mobile app with sensors that has the potential to save many lives.
The Infant SOS system been designed to that can be retrofitted to any child car seat. The device sounds an alarm after 30 seconds if the sensors in the child’s car seat detect that the child has been left unattended. Plus, the Infant SOS system is linked to a mobile app that sends up to 10 text messages to parents or carers alerting them to the fact that their child has been left alone in the car.
And if that’s not enough, the students have gone one step further, by incorporating a cooling pad that is automatically triggered to switch on in the case of such an emergency.
So far the Infant S.O.S. system is still in the development and prototyping phase, but hopefully the system gets onto the market soon.
Is this possibly the most helpful and useful app ever invented?
Source : nickjrparents[dot]com[dot]au
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Obama: Hypocrite of the Year!
By Xavier Lerma
The US continues to be a joke to the world as Obama threatens President Putin and Russia with sanctions. The USA channel is better than any comedy channel I've ever seen. The Clown from out of town and his minions are threatening Russia, a country Hitler and Napoleon couldn't destroy. As I've said before, the US eagle can poop everywhere but the Bear can still do whatever it wants. This reality show would be even funnier were it not for the dead Obama is guilty of.
Obama, at the G7 Summit Monday said about Putin, "continues to wreck his country's economy and continues Russia's isolation in pursuit of a wrong-headed desire to recreate glories of the Soviet empire, or he recognizes that Russia's greatness does not depend on violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other countries." Obama knows he's at fault. He even knows about the thousands who rallied for Poroshenko's government to resign. He knows about the many protests at the US embassy in Kiev. Look cool in front of everyone and kill millions. That's his game.
Obama has blamed Russia for the invasion of Ukraine which the US has overthrown and invaded. Obama admitted the US "Brokered" a coup in Ukraine. The "uh" video was not enough even with US troops in Yavoriv, Ukraine. Kiev's General Viktor Muzhenko's statement that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine was not made public in the west. Regarding the fighting in Ukraine, Americans are not aware of the fact that Russian troops have never been and do not exist there. The OSCE confirms it but the sanctions continue against Russia even though they are trying to bring peace in the Ukraine crisis. In the tradition of Cato, the war rhetoric continues, "Russia must be destroyed!" The US government beats their war drums louder than before.
Everyone knows the US has the reputation of overthrowing governments for business reasons. Their media shrouds their people in dark ignorance. Past wars are burnt ashes but new ones exhibit flames burning higher and brighter so the evil is obvious to almost everyone in the world except most Americans. Obama's confession still does not change the course of US policy. Like throwing wood onto a bonfire, Obama throws billions into the US war machine. Burning bodies like a sacrificial satanic rite. Obama destroys his own country and the world.
Novorossiya is still fighting a terrible war with Kiev,USA. Obama recently signed a bill to give $350 million to Kiev to kill civilians in SE Ukraine. Fortunately, Crimea is safe from the war Kiev,USA wanted to bring her. The Four Horsemen will not visit Crimea like it has Donetsk or Lughansk. Crimea recognized the evil from the West and will not kowtow to the puppet government in Kiev which has caused chaos and ruin. Crimea's parliament voted in favor of joining Russia and lives in peace.
Oleg Tsarov, who was the People's Deputy of Ukraine, talked about US preparations for civil war in Ukraine, November 2013 in Kiev parliament. "American instructors presented examples of successful use of social networks used to organize protests in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Recent conference took place Nov 14-15, 2013, in the heart of Kiev in the Embassy of the United States of America!" Thousands of deaths could have been avoided if people had listened to Oleg. He could not fight the tide of billions of dollars from Obama and the US Congress. Oleg was beaten by a mob when he was running for president but fortunately survived. His face was badly beaten as shown here. The Nazis in Kiev had their way while Poroshenko sent men to their deaths. What a waste into a whirlpool of misery.
Why has America changed from being a wholesome and decent society to Sodom and Gomorrah? America is covered in blood to the top of their heads. Do you see the blood? Look again America. It cries to Heaven for vengeance! "Cry 'Havoc!,' and let slip the dogs of war". The Bush's, Clintons and Obama. They push for their masters New World Order and they do it well. Each successor to the presidency creates more havoc than the previous. They establish an enemy in public view then attack civilians like Hitler did. They even use Muslims like the British used Native Americans to attack colonists. Americans may have not killed them directly but they voted for those who perpetuate wars and there is a responsibility upon them.
A brave Texan, Russell Bonner Bentley, fights in Ukraine with Novorossiya. "What if a foreign government took over your government, put a puppet in power and said that the people in one part of the country that didn't want to be under the control of a foreign government and they unleashed the entire power of a national military against the CIVILIANS. Every one of these houses, every one of these houses that have been destroyed - the bombs came straight from the United States. The orders came straight from the United States. The guys who pulled the trigger on these bombs get paid by American tax dollars. US government doesn't have money to fix their own roads, their own schools but they got money to destroy the roads and schools and homes and churches and families here in Ukraine. It's just random attacks. Just random. They just shoot where the people are. They shoot at the people here. We're here, we're defending them. We're defending this land for these people. But the Ukrainians, the fascists, they would be here if not for the defense forces of Donbass. I am proud to have fought here. It's just random acts of terrorism. Random acts of terrorism against the civilians, against the people here. I came here to fight these Nazis that do this to end this war. You don't have to join the army, but you need to help. Because this is the responsibility. This is the work of the American government. And the people of a country bear the responsibility for the crimes of their government. So, we need to do something about this. I'm doing my part you need to do yours." Have you seen his video?
Xavier Lerma
Contact Xavier Lerma at xlermanov@swissmail.org
Hyperlink to Pravda.Ru is mandatory if you republish this article
Source : english[dot]pravda[dot]ru
App of the Week: Talk Different
They say a picture speaks a thousand words – this app proves it!
Imagine a world where anyone could communicate with anyone – no language barriers, no barriers for disability, and no barriers for kids. This ‘world’ has just been created in an innovative and incredibly simple new app! Originally designed by an inspired Mum for her autistic daughter, this app is opening up communication across the world
What’s it About: Talk Different is one of the most simple and yet one of the most innovative apps we’ve ever seen. The app transforms the idea of communication, by using images instead of words to allow communication between all people at any time – from young kids, to those with communication disabilities to people who don’t speak the same language, to even those who struggle to express themselves in words.
The app allows the user to select individual images to create “picture phrases” – the equivalent of sentences.
The Good Bits: By using pictures instead of words, this app allows communication to flow freely no matter the circumstances. We can imagine this app being amazing for use for kids with autism, for people travelling or living in a country where they don’t speak the language, as a fun ‘game’ to play with young kids (you could make up silly ‘sentences’), to an excellent tool to use to communicate to your hard-to-reach teenager.
The Not So Good Bits: Just beware when downloading this app on different devices – on the iPad the only version available is the ‘Talk Different Pro’, which has more features but is also waaaaay more expensive at $6.99. The iPhone version however is not the ‘pro’ version but is also only $1.99. On Google Play the regular version sets you back $1.46 and the Pro version costs $7.38.
What It Teaches: This app teaches anyone to communicate with anyone, and also provides a really fascinating insight into the world of communication.
Most Suitable Age Range: This app is genuinely universal – from young kids to adults of any age and ability.
How Much: Google Play - $1.46 - $7.38. Apple Store: $1.99 - $6.99
Source : nickjrparents[dot]com[dot]au
Shin Se Ha Sports & Leisure Show 2015
Korean promotional model Shin Se Ha at Seoul International Sports & Leisure Industry Show (SPOEX) at COEX in February 2015.
Source : koreangirlshd[dot]com
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Another Africa Day
Another May 25, another Africa Day, another round of back-slapping, gala dinners, empty promises made in verborrea-filled speeches, collections of meaningless clichés and words of the occasion and over fifty years on, here we go again with a "day" to celebrate the entire continent's woes and to insult its inhabitants to the core.
Another May 25, another Africa Day, commemorating the day when the Organization of African Unity was established back in 1963 and instituted by the African Union in July 2002. And what difference has this "day" made over the last year in the continent where tens of millions of people were transported against their will to be illegally detained as slaves just a few centuries ago, in Africa's holocaust?
In a word, none. As usual, Africa Day 2015 commemorates a continent which last year saw shocking degrees of incompetence and nonchalance reverberate through the international community as Ebola Virus Disease swept through West Africa until it became a public health emergency and ultimately claimed 11,140 deaths. "Yes, we were a bit slow off the mark" was the conclusion.
It commemorates a continent whose mentor for the great African project, Libya's Muammar al-Qathafi, was unceremoniously and illegally removed from his position by the FUKUS Axis (France-UK-US) using terrorists as their foot-soldiers in 2011, as the country with the highest human development index in the continent was reduced to utter chaos, which continues today. Speaking of which, it commemorates the continent whose leaders demonstrated a sickening degree of cowardice as they looked the other way and saw al-Qathafi lynched. And did nothing.
As the FUKUS Axis destroyed the Libya water supply and electricity grid "to break their backs" (those of the civilians, of course), it also bombed away al-Qathafi's pan-African healthcare and e-learning programs rendering the entire continent weaker and presenting the sorry scenario we see today. This is a scenario of weak capacities in pan-African organizations to draw up meaningful statistics, it is a scenario of inadequate administrative capacities, insufficient professional independence, lack of sustainable funding and lack of training programs.
So no wonder thousands of young Africans flock to the shores of the Mediterranean desperately trying to buy a passage across the sea to Europe, the continent which once colonized their forefathers and took them on a similar journey chained together lying in a sea of excrement on the slave ships to be whipped and caned and raped and abused on sugar plantations on the other side of the Atlantic. Many of these slaves were literate and could read and write in Arabic and other languages, which were banned on the plantations by the owners and foremen, who in almost all cases were semi-literate or illiterate, even in their own languages.
And what has Africa Day done for these migrants whose only option in life is to risk life and limb to get to a continent where they are disrespected and unwanted? Ask that to the thousands pulled dead from the sea. Ask that to the flotilla of European Union boats on their way to "intercept" the traffickers. Ask that to the terrorists used by the West operating in Libya who after slaughtering boys and girls, raping women and slicing their breasts off, have now turned their activities to torturing and using and abusing African migrants from the south.
Africa Day commemorates a continent where Boko Haram perpetrates the most shocking human rights violations, as Islamic State does in the Middle East but since Boko Haram has not defaced any ancient statues and instead just kidnapped and raped a few hundred schoolgirls, the entire story has been dropped.
It commemorates a continent rife with violence, wars and human rights atrocities which if anything, get worse by the year.
In economic terms, Africa Day commemorates a year in which again there was visible growth in the sale of commodities (as usual on a one-way street out of Africa on terms and conditions favoring the buyer). Yet does the sale of commodities do anything to stimulate the economy by investing in economic diversification, in creating jobs or fostering social development, creating added value? The answer in all cases is no.
Africa Day commemorates a continent where a slave can be bought for 11 Euros in Mauretania and 64 Euros in Sudan, it commemorates a continent where today millions of people are held in conditions of slavery or quasi-slavery.
It commemorates international reports drawn up by consulting houses which make broad statements such as "manuals should be drawn up and printed which use established international standards". They have been saying that for decades. They speak about "creating a technological environment". Al-Qathafi was trying that and look what happened to him.
Africa Day commemorates statistics which sees the illiteracy rate rise from 65 to 71% in the decade since 2005 in Benin and which remains at way over a third of the adult population in a large number of countries.
Forgive me for not celebrating yet another Africa Day and for wondering why I feel depressed to the core every time I write about this continent.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
(timothy.hinchey@gmail.com)
*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. He is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights.
Source : english[dot]pravda[dot]ru
Is Wi-Fi Making Our Kids Sick?
The French government has just banned Wifi in nursery schools: should we be worried for our kids?
In February this year, the French government banned Wi-Fi in nursery schools.
In Germany, the government has recommended that the use of Wi-Fi in the workplace or home should be avoided where possible.
However, here in Australia, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has declared that it’s totally fine for Aussie schools to have Wi-Fi networks as there is, “no established scientific evidence showing that the low exposure to radio waves from Wi-Fi adversely affects the health of children”.
So, the question is, who is right?
Digging a little deeper into the ‘is Wifi safe’ debate, there are multiple opinions across the world and the debate seems to be changing with new information coming to light all the time.
In fact here in Australia, the government has just put 5 million dollars behind the recently established health initiative - The Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research — in order to study the effects of electromagnetic energy on brain function. So far, they centre has found no clear evidence that low-level electromagnetic radiation has an impact on health.
So we can all breathe a sigh of relief, right?
Wrong.
The Centre’s director, Professor Rodney Croft, told News that while this is the current case, “there is not enough information, particularly relating to children, to be sure that it doesn’t’’.
So where do we all stand now?
According to ARPANSA, “On the basis of current scientific information, ARPANSA sees no reason why Wi-Fi should not continue to be used in schools and in other places. However, ARPANSA recognises that exposure to RF EME from Wi-Fi and other wireless devices can be of concern to some parents. ARPANSA will continue to review the research into potential health effects of RF EME emissions from Wi-Fi and other devices in order to provide accurate and up to date advice.”
But on their website it states that if parents are concerned about the effects of Wifi on kids they should, consider increasing the distance to Wi-Fi equipment and reduce the amount of time you use Wi-Fi equipment.
Is anyone else confused about whether or not Wifi is safe for their kids?
Is Wifi something you worry about, especially in schools?
Source : nickjrparents[dot]com[dot]au
Monday, May 25, 2015
Arab leaders and insanity of sectarian warfare
Source: Pravda.Ru photo archive
By Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
Wars kill human beings and destroy human habitats. But the Western warmongers flag it as a positive development for change and economic necessity. Its net result is the militarization of the societal thinking and geopolitics. Peace is not the outcome of wars and human cruelty. The ongoing Arab sectarian warfare spells out dark images of human paradoxes. The global community is watchful of all the developments shaping the sectarian bloodbaths in the Arab Middle East. What surprises most across the Arab bewildered human consciousness that continuing deaths and destructions are the agenda-making items, whereas, reconciliation and peace-making leading to conflict management are not the top strategic priorities. America and Britain control and manage the Arab leadership mindset.
Terrorism myth and the ISIL war advances warrant rethinking and nobody is ready to face the reality check. Facts speak the language of reality loud and clear. Time and history are not on the side of American-led war adventures and humanitarian disasters happening daily throughout the Arabian Peninsula. All war monsters are on the losing end. None can explain logically why and for what purpose are they engaged in humanitarian catastrophes. Logic seeks truth. Simply put, America, Britain and its Arab coalition do not have the moral and intellectual capacity to face the truth. The fake war paradigm is expanding to create favorable opportunities for the warmongers to trade-in oil supplies for weapons of mass destruction to the affluent oil exporting Arab countries. Arab leaders do not enjoin moral and intellectual capacity to think of their own national interests and priorities. There is no critical thinking and no public institutions amongst the Arab elite to determine what is right and what is wrong. They are faithful followers of foreign military dictum.
Conflicts can be Managed by Reconciliation and Peacemaking
In an interview to AlJezeera TV news (05/22/2015), Hillary Leverett, a former official of the US State Department and a current Professor at Georgetown University clarified that American and British invasion of 2003 had created the political disasters in Iraq. She outlined how both of them had incapacitated the Iraqi political governance and ushered the era of sectarian warfare. When asked, what is needed to change the strategic balance against ISIL advances, she made it known that reconciliation and peacemaking should have been the strategic agenda and now it is a lost game. America and Britain are fighting proxy wars and the ten years of illegal occupation of Iraq and deliberate dismantling of its institutions are the real factors for Iraq's political defeat. Do the US leaders have any strategy for a navigational change? The Arab coalition and America are not winning the war but creating Arab cultural annihilation and destruction of the human habitats.
Ironically, America and Britain both have enriched capacity in military planning and strategic development. Yet, none seems to offer any possibility for change and successful strategy to encounter the ISIL fighting strategy. Is it a deliberate policy to imagine the enriched Arab nations to be bogged down in foreign dictates of bloodbath and human destruction on such large scale unknown in modern history? If so, who will gain most out of the religious divides and political defeats across the Arab world? Even most intelligent strategic planners lack understanding of the immediate and long terms consequences of their own military actions. Most would draw comfort that wars are the continuing phenomenon across the Arab world, not in any parts of Western Europe or American sphere of ethnic and cultural influence.
The rise of sectarian bloodbath, the ISIL-Alqaeda and the emergence of Arab military coalition are planned distractions from the real issues of the Arab Middle East. The issue of Palestine and the prospective establishment of an independent State of Palestine and formation of normal ties with Israel are the pertinent issues to be addressed. The Western proponent of animosity view it blessing in disguise for opportunities to distract and to carve-up a war theatre by collapsed Arab leadership lacking courage and intellectual vision for change and political development. There is no righteous cause and harmony between the rulers and the ruled. They live in conflicting time zones manned and infested by foreigners to support the secretive police apparatus and continuity of authoritarian governance denying Islam a place for change and human manifestation as was the case in the Arabian history.
Arab Leaders Lack Rational Understanding of Global Affairs
What went wrong to the Arab leadership mindset? They are so divided and enjoin moral and intellectual discord that one cannot foresee any signs of modest recovery in the near future. Often leadership's individuality is a factor to propel belligerency and feuds. There is no creative thought or coherent search for a navigational change and more so, to look for reconciliation and innovative approaches toward conflict management and peacemaking. Professor Fouad Ajami (Arab Predicament) noted it all: "the problems of Arab world are the result of self-inflicted wounds." Why can't the Arab leaders initiate a dialogue for reconciliation and problem-solving to deal with ISIL? Until the 2003 US-led attack on Iraq, there was no al-Qaeda, no ISIL and no terrorism in the Arab heartland. The US and Britain created the havoc societal conditions to divide the Arabs into Sunnis-Shias animosities to occupy Iraq. How can the sectarian bloodbath resolve the multifaceted inherent problems when there is no viable institutionalized mechanism to address the political issues? Strangely enough, all oil exporting Arab rulers appear to rely on America and Britain for military support and conflict resolution. John Scales Avery ("Is the Threat of Terrorism Real?" Information Clearing House: 01/06/2014), is a member of the TRANSCEND Network and Associate Professor Emeritus at the H.C. Ørsted Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Professor Avery outlines the true motives propagated for the threat of terrorism:
Is the threat of terrorism real? Or is it like the barking of a dog driving a herd?..... Millions starve. Millions die yearly from preventable diseases. Millions die as a consequence of wars....Terrorism is an invented threat. Our military industrial complex invented it to take the place of the threat of communism after the end of the Cold War. They invented it so that they would be able to continue spending 1,700,000,000,000 dollars each year on armaments, an amount almost too large to be imagined....So the people, the driven cattle, have been made to fear terrorism. How wants this done? It was easy after 9/11. Could it be that the purpose of the 9/11 disaster was to make people fear terrorism, so that they could be more easily manipulated, more easily deprived of their civil rights, more easily driven into a war against Iraq?
Towards Unity of Purpose and New Thinking for Political Change
Islam taught and practiced unity in cultural diversity. Yet, the message of Islam has been ignored and denied a rightful place in the contemporary Arabian political governance. There is a rational criterion for moral and political accountability to God if they believe- in and the people they claim to serve. None of the Arab leaders have capacity to face the reality check. They are wrong people, embedded with wrong thinking and continued to do the wrong things in global political affairs. All Arab states appear to be on the path self-engineered destruction because of the authoritarianism. The wars in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and entrapment of Saudi Arabia will continue until the Western masters are sure of ultimate cultural, economic and political destruction to make the Arabs captive for future-making. It is already happening, why to wait for the coming future.
To change the course of time and history, Arab people deserve new thinking and new- age proactive and intelligent leaders from the young and educated generations to imagine a new world of hope and optimism for political change and future-making. Wars and man-made conflicts will not disappear on their own but will continue to have ripple effects on the future generations. The cancerous egoism of the few has dislodged the world of new thinking and political change through peaceful means. Why are there more than four millions Iraqi refugees in their own homeland? Why the Government of PM Al-Abaidi not allow several thousands displaced Sunni people from Ramadi to enter Baghdad's protective sanctuary? Why do Shias and Sunni daily commit crimes against each other? Do they long for paradise by cold-blooded massacres of fellow Muslims? Are the Arabs and Muslims so mean and inhuman that they cannot distinguish between right and wrong? Arguably, wickedness and piety cannot be combined in one human character.
Arab leaders and the masses live in conflicting time zones often unable to connect with one another. The US orchestrated militarization has dehumanized the Arab moral, spiritual and intellectual culture in which all positive and creative thinking for political change are viewed as anti-state acts of terrorism. Its imagery is fast becoming a culture of political nuisance and absurdity draining out the primary values and principles of Islam as a way of life. The Arab masses urgently need transformational leaders who can think rationally out of the box and act intelligently to protect the people, the culture and future from deaths and destruction. This does not sound like a day dream but an attainable goal only if the Arab people take action to change the course of history or else wars and perpetuated sectarian belligerency will consume all that is morally and intellectually valuable and credible assets for a sustainable future. There is no military triumph in seeking a peaceful transformation for political change and future-building.
Mahboob Khawaja
(Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in global security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including the latest: Global Peace and Conflict Management: Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking. Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, May 2012).
Source : english[dot]pravda[dot]ru
Choi Byul-I Photo & Imaging 2015
Model Choi Byul I at Seoul International Photo & Imaging Industry Show (P&I) in April 2015 with Nikon cameras and a lucky teddy bear.
Source : koreangirlshd[dot]com
Friday, May 22, 2015
Another Decapitator-in-Chief of America's Working Class
By Ben Tanosborn
It is not Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders who don't get it. It is our near-sighted Globalist-in-Chief who really doesn't get it, following in the footsteps of that other Republican-lite president, William Jefferson Clinton. But what can one expect, given the advice he's getting from a cadre of Wall-Streeters working with, or influencing, the White House? Or, from a president who has confessed to being a "great admirer" of celebrated JP Morgan Chase chief, Jamie Dimon?
A few days ago President Obama honored our Portland (Oregon) area with a visit to promote the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership (TPP) agreement; which for all intents and purposes is but another addition to the gallery of NAFTA, CAFTA, and PNTR ugly siblings. Perhaps an even uglier sibling in this period of expanding economic inequality!
It seems comical, yet ill-omened, how Barack Obama is herding the already decimated middle class along a path sure to reach economic oblivion, while maintaining support from much of the old guard of school-government-trade unionists which has kept the Democratic Party afloat during the last five decades in a conservative sea dominated by currents of old-time religion and misguided patriotism.
Common sense and humanity, and not just blind acceptance of global economics, tell us that eventually most barriers to competition should be coming down; and that there will be a significant trend towards greater homogenization in both productivity and personal income throughout much of world. But we might still be two or three generations away from such happening, assuming changes take place in an orderly and least painful fashion... without allowing our politicians, Democrats or Republicans alike, to follow the will of the elite that place them in power... and, correspondingly, expect a payback.
And that's where we are today in Congress, ominously on the eve of passing this terrible TPP legislation sure to reach a smiling Obama, pen in hand ready to sign, instead of rejecting it with a forceful and merited veto.Could it be that Obama is suffering from the same illusionary political disease as Bill Clinton, after the latter's receipt of unmerited kudos for all the low-paying jobs created during his two terms in office? Is it so difficult to understand that job numbers can have a profoundly different significance in economic, social and political terms than labor income?
Regardless of the POTUS' misleading sermonizing on "what's good for the United States," the reality is acrimoniously different. The anticipated net outsource of labor income sure to come from the TPP agreement is likely to be similar in results as past global renditions initiated with NAFTA. The economic capillary effect of this agreement (TPP) will affect labor significantly, not just in the manufacturing sector (possibly losing half as many jobs as the number lost to China and the American hemisphere in the past two decades), but also in the service sector - and here, we are not referring to jobs in low remuneration call centers, but jobs with high technical skills in both medicine and engineering, which could result in the loss of half of the now existing - and anticipated increases - programmer jobs; and a reduction in overall pay of the remaining half by a third or more.
Other areas in Americans' lives will also be affected or threatened, from food safety standards, to the environment, to increases in the already stratospheric cost of drugs, to the protection of rights and sovereignty that we've inherited from the sacrifice of past generations.
So who's to gain from this TPP agreement that Barack Obama is pushing with greater fervor than that exhibited in critical domestic issues such as immigration reform and the (dirty secret) racial divide? As it's always the case in our predatory society, Corporate America and its circle of influential friends are the culprit... and it's beginning to look as if the villains will get their way: Wall Street, Big Pharma, and a long list of multinationals displaying their corporate flags at the top of the pole, knowing that their safety is in the good hands of the Pentagon; all international policing costs defrayed by the American taxpayer... in its incredible masochistic docility.
ISIS' literal style of decapitation is repugnant and shocking. US' self-imposed economic decapitation may not appear at first as shocking, but the end result will be as gruesome to America's working class: not the proletariat of old, but most everyone holding both blue and white collar jobs.
Ben Tanosborn
Source : english[dot]pravda[dot]ru
Thursday, May 21, 2015
America and Russia clash in Macedonia
By Ylli Përmeti
As Moscow was celebrating Victory Day over Nazism on May 9, we witnessed a fight in the city of Kumanovo in which the Macedonian police were protagonist. At first it was a fight without an opponent. A few hours later, news agencies reported that the "opponent" was "the National Liberation Army" of the Albanians. As a result, 22 innocent people were killed (14 members of the army, eight police officers, a lot of wounded and ruined residencies). Although the event will be reported by the final report of the Macedonian police, on how it begun, which, unsurprisingly, is being delayed, judging from the final result - we may conclude that it has fired without warning.
First, because the police had preliminary information of it. For the same reason they could manage it differently: for example, by encircling and pressuring it to hand over into the police. Second, there was an unequal confrontation of powers: a powerful army (state's forces with heavy army), with a very inferior power. The police, therefore, violated the mandate: because the police before attacking s/o seek preliminary negotiations. For the role of the police is to prevent injuries, pains and bloodshed. And if we judge from the communiqué and of the action of the Albanian "army" - it bears three main contradictions:
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it claims to be a "liberation" army for all national Albanians. This is a contradiction because to represent a whole people it must be approved by it;
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it was there 'as a result of the terror exercised upon the Albanian people from the police state of Macedonia'. This is a contradiction because it ignores the emergence of revolt "from within", namely, from the same people; and
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it does not mention the right of Kumanovian people, for Self-determination and for the creation of another institutional framework through it the Albanian and Macedonian people will live together in harmony. On the contrary, it tells us that it 'is loyal of the ideal and the last will of martyrs, [and it] will fight until the end, for an Albanian national state, free and pure'!
The realization of the objective 'for an Albanian national state, free and pure' implies a lot of dynamics. But I will emphasise the last two conceptions: "free" and "pure" - by raising a question: 'free' and 'pure' from whom? Presumably from Macedonians! The approach for a 'pure' nation has been adopted historically by the Nazi. But let us hope that with 'purity' they mean "something" else.
Who triggered the fighting in Kumanovo?
Thus, this "army" misrepresent every struggle for "social and national liberation": because the struggle for liberation begins "from the oppressed people" and must not be pushed "from without", whoever may be. So here we are talking about for "social and national liberation". Not only for "national liberation". The later has been embraced historically by the "National Front" in Albania which collaborated with the Nazi! In short, this "army", if we can call it an 'army', cannot represent the whole people of Albania, since it violates every principle of 'representing' and 'liberation'. And there is another contradiction: they showed a lack of military organization since they courted disaster. Because if they were truly military officers - they wouldn't undertake such an action - particularly in actual conditions in which both Albania and Kosovo are in a deep multi-dimensional crisis.
Also read: Russia must build strong Orthodox coalition in Europe to defeat the West
The state of Macedonia, on the other hand, suffers from everything that other neighbouring countries suffer too - if not every country integrated into the New World Order (NWO) of Neoliberal Globalization (N/G) fully or/and partly. So, first, in Macedonia, there is no political organization that would fight for Self-determination and national unification. Albanian political parties have adopted the approach similar to all political parties in Albania: to integrate the country into the NWO of N/G. Second, Macedonia has installed the modern institutional framework of representative "democracy" and market economy as all other countries in the region and beyond - where the heteronomy and the exploitation of humans by humans is the main characteristic of the state. The concentration of power therefore becomes unavoidable. The ecofascism, in the double sense -economic and ecological- becomes also unavoidable. The accusations that the state of Macedonia is fascistic and the solution is the eradication of Macedonia, which are coming from "patriotic" circles, are without scientific foundation. Even if we accept this approach, the issue of organised ecofascism, as it was mentioned above, cannot be solved.
The use of Scanderbeg, the national hero of Albania, on the other hand, as an inspiration for the liberation of the Albanian territories from these circles is contradictory: because Scanderbeg, just because he was a 'strategist' (this word implies good knowledge of the military strategies, the advantages and disadvantages of the parties involved in the war and, of international politics) - triumphed in his battles against the biggest Empire of the time: the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, he had the approval of the Albanian people for leading it in war battles; had created the conditions and had a visible enemy. Unlike that time, the Albanians who fight for 'freedom', not only failed to create the conditions in the 'bosom' of the oppressed Albanians (Macedonia etc.) but they, unlike Scanderbeg, cooperate with the biggest Empire of our time: America! Namely, they cooperate with the hub of global power in order to replace a smaller regional power: the Macedonian state power. In addition, they cooperate with a power that lives thousands of miles away from them. This orientation in itself will estrange the people of the region with which they lived and will live in the same area for thousands of years. So, these circles, instead of revealing the real enemy of the people -the modern institutional framework and neoliberal globalization- and to self-criticise for their spontaneous actions from different organizations, they conform with the general approach that the enemy is Gruevsky who, moreover, may use the military doctrine of state terror for political reasons under the flag of the opposition (false flag)!
Who wants to set up Macedonian Prime Minister Gruevsky?
Thirdly, the crisis in Macedonia was caused by the opposition leader, Zoran Zaev, when he revealed in public that the government of Gruevsky wiretapped his citizens. According to him, wiretapping was made possible with the help of a foreign agency! Albanian political parties have stood far from this battle. So the appearance of the Albanian armed forces in Kumanovo cannot have any relation with the battle of the political parties in power. On the other hand, the actual government consolidated its relations with the Russian government with the appointment of the new ambassador to Moscow, Goce Karajanov, an ex-member of the Russian Institute for International Relations. Meanwhile, Russia supported Macedonia for the arrests in Kumanovo in April of this year and condemned the efforts of Zaev for the "colour revolution" he has warned. Unlike other countries in the region, Macedonia sent its president for the Victory Day in Moscow and does not support Washington's sanctions against Russia.
Russian and Serbian newspapers, meanwhile, propagate the creation of "Greater Albania". The main problem with this propaganda is that it does not mention the right of the Albanian people for Self-determination! Nor do they mention the main characteristic of modern state: the concentration of power. It would not be a surprise that the government of Russia related the events in Kumanovo with the opposing stance of the Macedonian government against anti-Russian Western sanctions and the Balkan Stream gas pipeline. This confrontation raged with the revealing conversation of the interior minister, Jankulofska, in which she's being fascisticised against the Albanians of Macedonia. Clearly, it aimed at angering and including the Albanians of Macedonia for the 17th May protest against the government.
The Americans, on the other hand, understood that Russia, with the agreement with Turkey - and later on with Greece (the government of "SYRIZA")- that the new stream, which could pass through Macedonia and beyond, along the line of the "TAP", which is being controlled directly by Washington and Brussels' bureaucrats, may challenge its monopoly. In other words, it will threaten its profits from the "TAP". For the same reason the annulment of the gas-project of Russia in the Balkans for Washington is a priority. It is not accidental that Washington uses the argument of 'dependence' from Russia and ignores the fact that it 'monopolises' the sector of energy in the region and beyond! And it is not accidental that after the agreement between the Greek and the Russian governments about the Balkan Stream, Washington "castrated" Greek Foreign Minister Nikolaos Kotzias by visiting him in all Zionist's "nests" (AIPAC, B'nai B'rith etc.) and other centres of international relations (CSIS etc.). Immediately after the meeting Washington sent its envoy of the State Department of Energy, Amos Hochstein, to Athens.
If we judge from recent reports, Washington is putting pressure both on Athens and Brussels for the annulment of the Russian project. And, it is not accidental that Greece operates unilaterally in some disputed regions for oil, and Washington keeps silent: because Greece signed an agreement in 2013 for the creation of a US army base in southern Greece to patrol the entire region with the use of UAVs! To implement the project, it would be normal that the government of Greece would seek Washington's diplomatic assistance in puting pressure on Albania. The latter, moreover, is being occupied economically mainly by three countries: Italy, Greece and Turkey, and has no political power for negotiations.
Thus, instead of fighting for the Russian gas, both countries, Greece and Albania, in order to put pressure on the price of the western gas industry and to lower the cost of production...they are playing the game of Washington and are in the process of destroying not only relations between the two countries, but the ecosystem of our seas and beyond. It should be emphasised here that both the Greek and Albanian governments are being dominated by western oil corporations. In other words, the exploitation of oil resources will be realised mainly by American corporations. And if the project of Russia is going to be impeded - it passes from the destabilization of Macedonia too. Because if Macedonia gets politically destabilised - Brussels will suspend any gas-line that could pass through Macedonia and Serbia towards Europe.
In other words, Washington is playing the same time with two (if not more) project "cornerstones": the Greek elite and Macedonia. If the Greek elite moves forward the Russian project, which under actual conditions is impossible - Washington will play with Macedonia. If not, Macedonia will be used. And if the objective of suspending it is being realised - Washington monopolises the sector of energy for the next hundred years. The monopolization of gas sector has been put forward recently by global oil and gas companies, such as Shell. This is a war, as administrators of global companies argue, of who is going to dominate the sector of energy in Europe for the next hundred years.
Ylli Permeti
Source : english[dot]pravda[dot]ru
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