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- Apr 2, 2009
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In the tug-o-war between the US and Europe to resolve the crisis of financial capitalism, Obama is going to ask the European delegation meeting with him at the White House to not fret over the calls to austerity and to have the ECB pump unlimited cash into the system, as much as is necessary, to prevent a crack, which would amount to a Lehman Brothers failure to the enth degree. For Europe's part, especially Germany, Holland and Finland, it would rather like the IMF to do this instead, an IMF which is largely governed by American oligarchs, on the basis that the ECB isn't capable of emiting such large sums alone, stretched as it is by the already massive quantities of capital it has put out so far in its bid to save the euro.
Obama, who is in the midst of an a formitable economic crisis at home and well on the road to facing the impending election, has to convince the Americans why it is necessary for the wellbeing of the nation's own economy to contribute to saving the euro, while the US itself faces spending cuts.
Obama, who is in the midst of an a formitable economic crisis at home and well on the road to facing the impending election, has to convince the Americans why it is necessary for the wellbeing of the nation's own economy to contribute to saving the euro, while the US itself faces spending cuts.
Counting underway in Congo after elections. In other parts of the country voting continues.
Extremely under-reported and crucial elections, first in a decade, in a country ravaged by a weak government and external influences. Violence has been reported in parts of the country.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201111290092.html
Extremely under-reported and crucial elections, first in a decade, in a country ravaged by a weak government and external influences. Violence has been reported in parts of the country.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201111290092.html
- Jul 16, 2010
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The Hitch said:
From what I've heard, so far Etienne Tshisekedi is having the upper hand in the votes in some towns, villages and cities.
But Kabila will most likely get re-elected because he doesn't even need a majority of the votes... The opposition is splintered(11 president candidates, of which only 2 stand a chance), so he only needs more votes than the biggest opposition party.
I just expect trouble, no matter what.
Katia Zatuliveter, the alleged Russian spy who had an affair with Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock, has won her appeal against deportation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15935411
Missed this earlier, Peru reopens investigations on forced sterilisation
http://www.amnesty.org.au/news/comments/27143/
Katia Zatuliveter, the alleged Russian spy who had an affair with Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock, has won her appeal against deportation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15935411
Missed this earlier, Peru reopens investigations on forced sterilisation
http://www.amnesty.org.au/news/comments/27143/
The Hitch said:
Weak government mixed with external destructive forces and domestic issues all combined have destroyed the extremely rich country. It's been the case right from Patrice Lubumba's assassination to Mobutu Sese's dictatorship to Rwanda's genocide spilling over to the eastern borders to the current situations with coltan.
The Hitch said:
Weak government mixed with external destructive forces and domestic issues all combined have destroyed the extremely rich country. It's been the case right from Patrice Lubumba's assassination to Mobutu Sese's dictatorship to Rwanda's genocide spilling over to the eastern borders to the current situations with coltan. I could give a detailed explanation but that would take a few pages.
- Jul 16, 2010
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ramjambunath said:
And all that blood spilled, so we can fit our cellphones in our pocket
Congo is also a victim of the Cold war. It's for that reason why the Belgian government and the CIA decided to "eliminate" Patrice Lumumba.
And this speech was what set everything in motion:
Patrice Lumumba
The First Prime Minister of the Congo (Zaire)
On June 30, 1960, Independence Day
Men and women of the Congo,
Victorious fighters for independence, today victorious, I greet you in the name of the Congolese Government. All of you, my friends, who have fought tirelessly at our sides, I ask you to make this June 30, 1960, an illustrious date that you will keep indelibly engraved in your hearts, a date of significance of which you will teach to your children, so that they will make known to their sons and to their grandchildren the glorious history of our fight for liberty.
For this independence of the Congo, even as it is celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that is was by fighting that it has been won [applause], a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood.
We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.
This was our fate for eighty years of a colonial regime; our wounds are too fresh and too painful still for us to drive them from our memory. We have known harassing work, exacted in exchange for salaries which did not permit us to eat enough to drive away hunger, or to clothe ourselves, or to house ourselves decently, or to raise our children as creatures dear to us.
We have known ironies, insults, blows that we endured morning, noon, and evening, because we are Negroes. Who will forget that to a black one said "tu", certainly not as to a friend, but because the more honorable "vous" was reserved for whites alone?
We have seen our lands seized in the name of allegedly legal laws which in fact recognized only that might is right.
We have seen that the law was not the same for a white and for a black, accommodating for the first, cruel and inhuman for the other.
We have witnessed atrocious sufferings of those condemned for their political opinions or religious beliefs; exiled in their own country, their fate truly worse than death itself.
We have seen that in the towns there were magnificent houses for the whites and crumbling shanties for the blacks, that a black was not admitted in the motion-picture houses, in the restaurants, in the stores of the Europeans; that a black traveled in the holds, at the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins.
Who will ever forget the massacres where so many of our brothers perished, the cells into which those who refused to submit to a regime of oppression and exploitation were thrown [applause]?
All that, my brothers, we have endured.
But we, whom the vote of your elected representatives have given the right to direct our dear country, we who have suffered in our body and in our heart from colonial oppression, we tell you very loud, all that is henceforth ended.
The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed, and our country is now in the hands of its own children.
Together, my brothers, my sisters, we are going to begin a new struggle, a sublime struggle, which will lead our country to peace, prosperity, and greatness.
Together, we are going to establish social justice and make sure everyone has just remuneration for his labor [applause].
We are going to show the world what the black man can do when he works in freedom, and we are going to make of the Congo the center of the sun's radiance for all of Africa.
We are going to keep watch over the lands of our country so that they truly profit her children. We are going to restore ancient laws and make new ones which will be just and noble.
We are going to put an end to suppression of free thought and see to it that all our citizens enjoy to the full the fundamental liberties foreseen in the Declaration of the Rights of Man [applause].
We are going to do away with all discrimination of every variety and assure for each and all the position to which human dignity, work, and dedication entitles him.
We are going to rule not by the peace of guns and bayonets but by a peace of the heart and the will [applause].
And for all that, dear fellow countrymen, be sure that we will count not only on our enormous strength and immense riches but on the assistance of numerous foreign countries whose collaboration we will accept if it is offered freely and with no attempt to impose on us an alien culture of no matter what nature [applause].
In this domain, Belgium, at last accepting the flow of history, has not tried to oppose our independence and is ready to give us their aid and their friendship, and a treaty has just been signed between our two countries, equal and independent. On our side, while we stay vigilant, we shall respect our obligations, given freely.
Thus, in the interior and the exterior, the new Congo, our dear Republic that my government will create, will be a rich, free, and prosperous country. But so that we will reach this aim without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens, to help me with all your strength.
I ask all of you to forget your tribal quarrels. They exhaust us. They risk making us despised abroad.
I ask the parliamentary minority to help my Government through a constructive opposition and to limit themselves strictly to legal and democratic channels.
I ask all of you not to shrink before any sacrifice in order to achieve the success of our huge undertaking.
In conclusion, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and the property of your fellow citizens and of foreigners living in our country. If the conduct of these foreigners leaves something to be desired, our justice will be prompt in expelling them from the territory of the Republic; if, on the contrary, their conduct is good, they must be left in peace, for they also are working for our country's prosperity.
The Congo's independence marks a decisive step towards the liberation of the entire African continent [applause].
Sire, Excellencies, Mesdames, Messieurs, my dear fellow countrymen, my brothers of race, my brothers of struggle-- this is what I wanted to tell you in the name of the Government on this magnificent day of our complete independence.
Our government, strong, national, popular, will be the health of our country.
I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a prosperous national economy which will assure our economic independence.
Glory to the fighters for national liberation!
Long live independence and African unity!
Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!
[applause, long and loud]
Brilliant speech. A bit of anti west rhetoric? That is to be expected from a country that was a colony against imperialist forces and hence his leaning towards the Soviet side, which as we know, had grave consequences.
Not saying that it is directly the fault of anyone who uses electronics but just that it is the current situation, although given the current situation it would be better to avoid being extravagant. If not coltan, something else will spring up.El Pistolero said:And all that blood spilled, so we can fit our cellphones in our pocket
- Jul 16, 2010
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ramjambunath said:
I wouldn't be so sure about that. I'm also not blaming people who use electronics(99% of them don't know what coltan is anyway), but merely pointing out that basically millions of people have died for that reason.
His speech was a big surprise, so it wasn't really expected at all. It would have been smarter if he gave a more Western speech, but that's captain Hindsight speaking. Of course what he said had some truth in it, but diplomatically he killed him self right there.
El Pistolero said:
I thought you were being sarcastic. If I have to be dead serious, I agree with you completely. The bolded part of the quote though, I do stand by. The rebels in the east (mainly Hutu and Tutsi) would need funding and Congo is a very rich country in terms of mineral wealth and it would surely be replaced by some other precious mineral (maybe even gold).
He could have given a pro western speech but domestically it wouldn't have helped his popularity, sadly the outcomes were tragic.
- Jun 22, 2009
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Meanwhile, in other parts of the world.....Iranian "students" have stormed and sacked the British Embassy in Tehran, Breivik has been declared legally insane, the Italian interest rate has risen to a record 7.9%, and all sorts of European economic experts have been expressing gloom and foreboding about the continued future of the Euro-zone.
Certainly, what has happened to the Congo is a tragedy when one considers the region's potential and the hopeful euphoria of the early post-colonial period.
Certainly, what has happened to the Congo is a tragedy when one considers the region's potential and the hopeful euphoria of the early post-colonial period.
- Jul 16, 2010
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ramjambunath said:
Oh, you mean like that. I thought you meant replacing coltan with something different in electronic devices. As far as I know there's no good substitute for it right now. I agree with you though, it would merely be replaced by something else. Congo is an incredibly rich country in resources. Leopold II couldn't have been more luckier(main income, as you probably know, were rubber tree's back then).
El Pistolero said:
My mistake, I wasn't clear enough.
Russia activates missile early warning radar system
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15938494
El Pistolero said:
My mistake, I wasn't clear enough. Let's not forget that it's also rich in diamonds and that's never led to anything good in history.
Russia activates missile early warning radar system
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15938494
- Apr 2, 2009
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Amsterhammer said:Meanwhile, in other parts of the world.....Iranian "students" have stormed and sacked the British Embassy in Tehran, Breivik has been declared legally insane, the Italian interest rate has risen to a record 7.9%, and all sorts of European economic experts have been expressing gloom and foreboding about the continued future of the Euro-zone.
Certainly, what has happened to the Congo is a tragedy when one considers the region's potential and the hopeful euphoria of the early post-colonial period.
Yep with all the good economic news out there, all the other happy things get overlooked and neglected.
You know what's really funny? I was with my class the other week at the Villa Farnesina going over the frescoes inside with my students and there was this guy who happened to listen in on what I was saying. He even asked what were a couple of intelligent extemporaneous questions.
In the end he even thanked me for the points I had made, which led me to ask him where he was from. When he told me Iran, though judging from his accent and appearance I had already guessed, and that he was a medic in Rome for a conference, I asked him how things were going back home.
His face irradiated a look of almost wild contentment, which itself seemed very odd in an uncanny sense, and he said: "Fantastic! Everything is just going great!" No sarcasm.
Needless to say I thought that the regime must really be working ceaselessly and effectively for someone as educated as himself to sincerely make such what otherwise would seem like outrageous claims, or else we have simply been given a wrong impression in the press.
However, having read Persepolis, I'm inclined to believe the former hypothesis.
- Jun 22, 2009
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rhubroma said:
Maybe he was an undercover Revolutionary Guard spook?
If you cast your mind back to the Islamic revolution that overthrew the Shah, the single thing that astonished me and many other westerners the most, was the apparent ease with which the Iranian intelligentsia threw their critical faculties straight out of the nearest window and (apparently, at least,) wholeheartedly embraced islamic feudalism.
- Nov 30, 2010
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If any Spanish speakers can translate this properly, I'd be grateful...
7.La financiación del ‘banco malo’. El Frob, además de continuar su función capitalizadora, pasaría a jugar el papel clave que jugó en el pasado el Banco de España. Ello exigiría reconfigurar el Frob y el recién creado Fondo de Garantía con los siguientes cambios: 1) las aportaciones anuales de las entidades deberían elevarse hasta el 2‰ o el 3‰, frente a su promedio actual, que no llega al 1‰. En los años 80 se situó en el 2,5‰. 2) El Frob debería también hacer aportaciones anuales, contra su cuenta de resultados, equivalentes al total aportado por el conjunto de las entidades. 3) El Frob, tal como prevé su ley fundacional, prestaría al Fondo de Garantía toda la financiación necesaria para hacer posible su función de compra de activos tóxicos.
Esta nueva masa financiera haría posible abordar un saneamiento profundo, complementario a la capitalización ya efectuada por el Frob, el cual podría seguir protagonizando el saneamiento vía capital y convertir en acciones sin demora las onerosas participaciones preferentes ya suscritas a determinadas entidades.
Bllomberg summarises it as...
"using deposit guarantee funds as a bad bank that would absorb real-estate losses with the costs shared by the Bank of Spain and lenders."
Which means using the money that is supposed to be used to pay out the public in the event of a banking collapse, to instead guarantee the banks' (worthless) investments. Which can't be right, can it?
7.La financiación del ‘banco malo’. El Frob, además de continuar su función capitalizadora, pasaría a jugar el papel clave que jugó en el pasado el Banco de España. Ello exigiría reconfigurar el Frob y el recién creado Fondo de Garantía con los siguientes cambios: 1) las aportaciones anuales de las entidades deberían elevarse hasta el 2‰ o el 3‰, frente a su promedio actual, que no llega al 1‰. En los años 80 se situó en el 2,5‰. 2) El Frob debería también hacer aportaciones anuales, contra su cuenta de resultados, equivalentes al total aportado por el conjunto de las entidades. 3) El Frob, tal como prevé su ley fundacional, prestaría al Fondo de Garantía toda la financiación necesaria para hacer posible su función de compra de activos tóxicos.
Esta nueva masa financiera haría posible abordar un saneamiento profundo, complementario a la capitalización ya efectuada por el Frob, el cual podría seguir protagonizando el saneamiento vía capital y convertir en acciones sin demora las onerosas participaciones preferentes ya suscritas a determinadas entidades.
Bllomberg summarises it as...
"using deposit guarantee funds as a bad bank that would absorb real-estate losses with the costs shared by the Bank of Spain and lenders."
Which means using the money that is supposed to be used to pay out the public in the event of a banking collapse, to instead guarantee the banks' (worthless) investments. Which can't be right, can it?
- May 13, 2009
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Amsterhammer said:Maybe he was an undercover Revolutionary Guard spook?
If you cast your mind back to the Islamic revolution that overthrew the Shah, the single thing that astonished me and many other westerners the most, was the apparent ease with which the Iranian intelligentsia threw their critical faculties straight out of the nearest window and (apparently, at least,) wholeheartedly embraced islamic feudalism.
That is a bit of a simplistic reading of the events. In practice, everybody wanted to get rid of the Shah, and the reasons for that are obvious. On the other hand, there was no common goal for what should replace it.
Yes, Bakhtiar (a member of the Iranian intelligentsia) allowed Khomeini to return, but it was the military which stayed neutral on Feb. 11 (I'm sure they regretted their decision).
- Dec 7, 2010
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rhubroma said:
Dow Chemical's (Dow Center) is across the street from where I work. From where I sit it appears that not all of India's Indians are boycotting Dow Chemical.
- Apr 2, 2009
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Cobblestones said:
The US and Britain supported their guy the Shah to keep the socialists and the fumndamentalists from gaining control of the state. They succeeded in their first misson, though obviouly not in the second.
One wonders, what would Iran be like today had the socialists gotten into power?
- Jul 16, 2010
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rhubroma said:
In America, you find where is Waldo. In Soviet Iran, Waldo finds where is YOU
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