The obscure disease of the West

Yesterday I was leafing through some newspapers on the net when a China Daily's article caught my eye. I couldn't believe it was true.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) spokesman Yao Jian said Chinese companies invested $20.35 billion in non-financial sectors in 110 countries and regions during the first five months, up 42.3 percent year-on-year. Chinese companies investing overseas should abide by local laws and should not be discriminated against, he added.

Well, what can I say?

I guess we will have big big troubles with China in the next few years.

Chilean students get naked in the name of education

In Valparaiso, about 121 km (75 miles) northwest of Santiago, students marched through the streets to demand the government change the public state education system. The banners say: "Free Education now".

From Europe to Midlle East to America people are asking for the same things: Rights, Freedom, Future, Health.

Since the panic of 2008 Britain, US, European Union and Japan spent $5 trillion in quantitative easing to save those "self-styled masters of the universe" from Wall Street. 

Why do we never find money for what people really want?
In the meanwhile, China has allocated a total of 10.3 billion yuan ($ 1.58 billion) this year to reward outstanding college students and provide aid to those with financial difficulties.
Who is wrong?

Prominent Swiss Politician Calls For Arrest of Kissinger at Bilderberg

A prominent member of Switzerland’s largest political party has called upon federal authorities to arrest Henry Kissinger as a war criminal if he attends the 2011 Bilderberg conference of global power brokers at the Hotel Suvretta House in St. Moritz.

Swiss People’s Party representative Dominique Baettig wrote a letter to the General Prosecutor of the Swiss Federation in which he asked, “In the name of Cantonal Sovereignty and independence, but especially of the Justice’s independence from executive power – may it be Federal or Cantonal – I ask you to check abroad for Arrest Warrants delivered by various Courts, Judges and also for all valid criminal complaints against the persons who were, amongst others, cited as mere examples in my (enclosed) letters to Mrs. Simonetta Sommaruga, Federal Counselor and Mrs. Barbara Janom Steiner, Cantonal Counselor and of course, to arrest them before diligent extraditions.”

Baettig’s letter also calls for the apprehension of George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but neither are likely to be attending the conference. However, Kissinger is a regular Bilderberg attendee and is almost certain to be present in St. Moritz.
Kissinger, National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State for President Nixon and President Ford, has been accused of being complicit in a number of war crimes in Indochina, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus and East Timor. Numerous activists have attempted to arrest him over the years under the Geneva Conventions Act.

Prison Planet.com

Naples, Mafia bosses kissing each other on the lips before jail

As soon as he left the police headquarters in Via Medina (Naples) to be brought to jail, Daniele D'Agnese  was approached by four of his associates to be embraced and kissed on his lips. Only the intervention of a police officer stopped the embarrassing public scene.

He is supposed to be the boss of the "Scissionisti" (Secessionists) which is the antagonist group to Di Lauro's clan and one of the "leaders" in the illegal drugs trade in Naples and Europe.

The story of this boss was even told by Roberto Saviano, the author of the best selling book "Gomorrah".

Germany protects 17 nazi war criminals

After more than 15 years in hiding, onetime Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic was in a Belgrade jail Thursday night to face charges that he presided over Europe's worst massacre since World War II.
Unfortunately, in Europe there are still about seventeen former Nazi war criminals who live happily in their homes in Germany despite having been definitively convicted to life imprisonment as they are responsible for some of the worst massacres of World War II !. The story sounds incredible, about seventeen former Nazi war criminals are still among us!. European arrest warrants haven't brought them to jail yet.
The story was confirmed by an Italian military prosecutor in Rome, Marco De Paolis. In Italy the prosecutor is currently handling the larger number of these cases after the discovery of the "armoire of shame" (where hundreds of cases like them were found) when he was a military prosecutor in La Spezia. 

In particular, eight people had been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Italian Supreme Court for the massacre of Sant'Anna di Stazzema (560 victims), three for Marzabotto's (770 victims), one for the massacres of Civitella Val di Chiana, Cornia and San Pancrazio (244 victims), one for Branzolino and San Tome's (10 victims), one for the Certosa di Farneta's (more than 60 deaths) and one for Falze of Cortona's (16 civilians killed). Only Josef Scheungraber, 93 years old, is in prison serving the sentence just because he was sentenced in Germany too.

How Asia Copes with America’s Zombie Consumers

NEW HAVEN – Asia needs a new model consumer. A post-crisis generation of zombie consumers in the United States is likely to hobble growth in global consumption for years to come. And that means that export-led developing Asia now has no choice but to turn inward and rely on its own 3.5 billion consumers.

Of course, this is not the first time that Asia has had to cope with the walking economic dead. Japan’s corporate zombies were at the epicenter of its first lost decade in the 1990’s. Sclerotic companies were put on life-support credit lines by their zaibatsu – like banking partners – delaying their inevitable failure and perpetuating inefficiencies and disincentives that resulted in a post-bubble collapse in Japanese productivity growth.

Similarly, the crisis of 2008-2009 led to zombie-creating bailouts in the West. From Wall Street to AIG to Detroit, the US was quick to rescue corporate giants that would have failed otherwise. Britain and Europe did the same, throwing lifelines to RBS, HBOS-Lloyds, Fortis, Hypo Real Estate, and others. In the West, the excuse was too big to fail. How different is that from Japan’s mindset nearly 20 years ago?

French entrepreneur offers to pay veil fines

A businessman is offering to sell properties to help Muslim women pay any fines that they may receive for wearing the full veil in public if a law is voted through the French parliament. 

The man, Rachid Nekkaz who tried to run French presidential election in 2007 , has set up an association, ‘Hands off my Constitution’, which fights banning the veil in the street as unconstitutional. 

Critics see the bill as unconstitutional and difficult to enforce and say only a tiny minority of Muslim women wear the full veil, and that the legislation is a step towards tighter restraints on individual freedom. 

Supporters of the ban argue that wearing garments which hide women’s faces violates the republican ideals of secularism and gender equality.
In this story everyone has his reasons and the Truth is always somewhere in the middle. 

I myself do support individual freedom but at the same time I must also remember that France already bans any other religious symbols from schools and voters have indicated support for a ban of the full veil.

In brief, Law must be respected in the same way as people do in the rest of the world.

(From http://touchepasamaconstitution.wordpress.com/)

NO OIL-NO CARE: escaping from the Arab Spring (English subtitles)

In the name of Freedom!, Please, don't say it again

I am not surprised that the USA, the UK and France have just chosen to free Libya among many current conflicts in the world.

We must be honest, this is another war for oil. There is not Freedom in Sarkozy's dreams but oil  and a  new mandate which are why he is taking dangerous risks. “Sarkozy has a huge investment in seeing Qadhafi go,” said Justin Vaisse, the director of research for the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings in Washington. “He’s going to be a constant force in favor of hardening the stance and the action.” Once we’ve eliminated the air defense sites — then what next?.....

On Libya, "Free countries" should shut the fuck up

After Bush's preemptive war, in 2010 "free countries" made a joke of our laws again. In fact, Libya was voted to join U.N. Human Right Council. Despite appeals by numerous human rights advocacy groups for a clear rejection of Libya’s candidacy for the world body’s top human rights body, only 33 countries did so in a secret ballot election. Muammar Gaddafi’s regime garnered 155 votes out of 188 cast, far more than the minimum 97 required. Five countries abstained. 

Make it in America - Andrew Liveris

"America used to make things, Americans were the innovatores, the undisputed world economic leaders, and with our success, we built a thriving, high-achieving middle class. Now, with policies that are indifferent or hostile to domestic manufacturing, and with other nations on the rise, America’s long-term prosperity is at risk. Our only chance to turn things around is to remember, revive, and revolutionize what made us great for so long, the manufacturing sector" 

Liveris's book explains why production is of such central importance to revitalizing the economy of the United State. Manufacturing sector creates economic value at a scale unmatched by any other. It‘s central to creating jobs both inside and outside factories.  Other nations are building their manufacturing sectors to stay competitive in the global economy, the book describes how America has failed to keep up.

Andrew N. Liveris is President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Dow Chemical Company, a $45 billion global specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics company based in Midland, Michigan

also see:

• Andrew Liveris's audio interview on Re-invetinting America's Economy
• Book's preview