12/08/2012
‘Knowing that India and China can meet alone the world’s demand for industrial goods at higher quality/price ratios, and that the South is able to fulfill a world demand for resources and agricultural products, one Western approach was to switch from real to finance economy. Building on the old City of London-Wall Street traditions in private banking and using debt bondage as power, cheap credit and speculation has been another approach, but it backfired.’
**Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland). Credit: S. Solberg J.
By Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND* – Let us start with the crisis. It is not a world but a Western crisis.
The root is simple: the Rest is catching up, and partly overtaking the West; China is catching up, and partly overtaking the USA–recovering from the blow received around 1500 from the Portuguese and the English destroying 1,000 years of buddhist-muslim trade from East China to Somalia via the rest of Asia; ending in Macao-Hong Kong (there are no Chinese enclaves in Portugal-England).
The West is outcompeted. The crisis is partly economic and partly a desperate Western effort, indeed Obama’s effort, to cling to hegemony.
read more »
Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
12/08/2012
Geneva – Cutting wages tends to increase competitiveness but can also hurt economic growth as it decreases domestic consumption, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned.
Image: ILO
The ILO has warned that slashing wages in a bid to boost competitiveness and cut unemployment may well have the opposite effect.
The warning was issued after the European Central Bank (ECB) called in its monthly report for August, for more flexibility in the wage determination process – such as lowering minimum wages – coupled with measures to strengthen competitiveness.
read more »
Posted in Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
Leave a Comment »
12/08/2012
By EurActiv* – In a commentary published on 8 August, the German magazine Spiegel identifies the ten most aggressive politicians, who are fanning the flames on the euro crisis.
**Alexis Tsipras. Credit: Alexis_Tsipras_Komotini.jpg: Joanna
From Silvio Berlusconi to Marine Le Pen, some EU politicians “resort to cheap populism in order to rack up domestic political point” and are “grossly oversimplifying the situation, and … intensifying the euro crisis.”
Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Greece’s Syriza party has been highlighted as the ‘most dangerous man in Europe’, for his efforts to pressure governments into abandoning austerity measures.
read more »
Posted in Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
Leave a Comment »
11/08/2012
By Roberto Savio*
Hardly any week goes by without disclosure of some scandal related to banks. Now it comes out that the British Standard Chartered is accused by an American regulator of having schemed with the Iranian government to launder billions of dollars for the potential support of terrorist activities. What gives an added value to this allegation is that Standard Chartered was until now considered one of the cleanest banks, and was not associated with any scandal.
**Image: Standard Chartered Bank Tower in Pudong, Shanghai, China Baycrest | Wikimedia Commons.
Not long ago, the American Senate had alleged that HSBC, another British giant, was supporting activities smacking of terrorism for which HSBC has apologized. It also has put aside 700 million dollars for potential fines and sanctions.
But we are entering into a new development in this ceaseless flow of financial scandals. It is now starting to affect some of the mightiest in the world of finance, much beyond the banks themselves.
read more »
Posted in Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
1 Comment »
10/08/2012
Ahead of the International Youth Day, and amidst an economic crisis which has affected young people the most, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for greater and more meaningful inclusion of youth into decision-making processes around the world, while also warning of a possible “lost generation” if urgent measures are not put in place.
.
UN Warns of a Possible ‘Lost Generation’. Photo: UN
“Today’s generation of youth – the largest the world has ever known, and the vast majority of whom live in developing countries – has unprecedented potential to advance the well-being of the entire human family,” Ban said in a message for the Day, which falls on 12 August, the UN reported.
.
“The global economic crisis has hit youth the hardest, and many are understandably discouraged by rising inequalities. A large number have no immediate prospects and are disenfranchised from the political, social and development processes in their countries,” he said on 10 August. “Without urgent measures, we risk creating a ‘lost generation’ of squandered talent and dreams.”
Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
1 Comment »
10/08/2012
By Cor Doeswijk (Screenshot: NOS) RNW* — More than 8000 Spanish journalists have lost their jobs over the past four years, mainly as a result of the economic crisis in Spain. But politics and the privitisation of public broadcasters are also playing a role.
**Image: Ughhhg
According to Aurelio Martin, the Vice President of the Federation of Associations of Spain’s Journalists, the crisis has led to a significant drop in advertising, causing many media organisations to see their revenues plummet.
read more »
Posted in Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
Leave a Comment »
08/08/2012
The high prevalence of physical abuse is causing long-term damage to the lives of far too many children in East Asia and the Pacific, warns a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
.
Credit: UNICEF
.
.
“Child maltreatment has harmful long-term consequences, not only for the children suffering the abuse, but also for the families and societies in which they live,” UNICEF’s Regional Child Protection Specialist, Amalee McCoy, said in a news release.
.
“Understanding the prevalence of child maltreatment is a first step towards identifying the right measures to make every child in the region safer.”
read more »
Posted in Asia, Market Lords, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
2 Comments »
07/08/2012
While 1.300 Syrian had to flee to Turkey overnight to escape violent combats, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) today [7 August] said that, according to reports it has received, Syria is experiencing “critical shortages in medicines and pharmaceutical products.”
Syrian refugees queue up for UNHCR relief items in Tripoli, northern Lebanon. Photo: UNHCR/F.Juez
.
“The recent escalation of clashes had resulted in substantial damages to the pharmaceutical plants located in rural Aleppo, Homs and Rural Damascus, where 90 per cent of the country’s plants were located,” a WHO spokesperson, Tarik Jasarevic, told reporters in Geneva today.
.
“Many of these plants had now closed down, thus resulting in a critical shortage of medicines.”
.
Prior to the violence which has wracked the Middle Eastern country, Syria produced 90 per cent of its medicines and drugs locally, the UN
reports.
read more »
Posted in Middle East, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
07/08/2012
Peter Schwarz, WSWS* — Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said Monday [6 August] that Europe would fall apart “if governments are completely bound by the decisions of their parliaments.” Every government has “a duty to educate the parliament,” he added in an interview with the news magazine Der Spiegel.
**Monti | Photo: danacreilly.
Monti’s statement amounts to an admission that the numerous bank bailouts organized to rescue the euro in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash, and the austerity programs launched to make the working class pay for them, have strained European bourgeois democracy to the breaking point.
The responsibility of the government to parliament, and parliament’s control over the government—which Monti is questioning—is a basic principle of parliamentary democracy.
Monti attacks parliament, but his real target is the working class. For the vast majority of the population, it has already become impossible to influence politics through the ballot box. Major political decisions are made by the financial markets and their henchmen in Brussels, Berlin and the other European capitals.
read more »
Posted in Market Lords, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples |
Leave a Comment »
07/08/2012
Marking the 67th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged countries to work together to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons and stressed the importance of honouring victims and survivors by sharing their stories with new generations.
The remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building, later preserved as a monument – known as the Genbaku Dome – at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. UN Photo
“The tragedy in Hiroshima decades ago continues to resonate today,” Ban said in a message to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, honouring those killed when an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city on 6 August 1945, during the closing stages of the Second World War.
“There must never be another nuclear attack – never. The elimination of such weapons is not just a visionary goal, but the most reliable way to prevent their future use,” the UN chief stressed in his message.
read more »
Posted in Market Lords, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords |
Leave a Comment »
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 