ARTICLE 1
Threat to use chemical weapons in Syria is ‘completely unacceptable’, say Cameron and Obama – by Daily Mail Reporter – PUBLISHED: 21:41 GMT, 22 August 2012 | UPDATED: 06:50 GMT, 23 August 2012
Two leaders say there is ‘much more to do’ to stop brutal killing of civilians
Cameron and French President Francois Hollande will work to identify how they could bolster the opposition
UN claims Iran appears to be supplying Assad’s regime with funds, weapons and intelligence support
Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama have said the use of chemical weapons in Syria or even a threat to deploy them would be ‘completely unacceptable’.
In a phone call the two leaders said if President Bashar Assad made such a move it ‘would force them to revisit their approach so far’, a government spokesman in the UK said.
The two leaders said there was ‘much more to do’ to stop the brutal killing of civilians in the Middle East state.
President Barack Obama has said the use of chemical weapons in Syria or even a threat to deploy them would be ‘completely unacceptable’.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said the use of chemical weapons in Syria or even a threat to deploy them would be ‘completely unacceptable’
Agreement: Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama have said the use of chemical weapons in Syria or even a threat to deploy them would be ‘completely unacceptable’
Earlier this week President Obama warned that any movement of Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons would be a ‘red line’ which would have ‘enormous consequences’.
Mr Cameron also discussed the situation with French President Francois Hollande and the two European nations agreed to ‘work more closely to identify how they could bolster the opposition and help a potential transitional Syrian government after the inevitable fall of Assad’.
Threat: Syrian President Bashar Assad is said to be in control of a sizeable stockpile of chemical weapons
Threat: Syrian President Bashar Assad is said to be in control of a sizeable stockpile of chemical weapons
Downing Street said Mr Cameron and President Obama ‘both agreed that the use – or threat – of chemical weapons was completely unacceptable and would force them to revisit their approach so far’.
A spokeswoman added: ‘The Prime Minister restated the risk to the wider region posed by the fighting and the fact that regional and international cooperation was vital.
‘He reinforced the need to work in close cooperation with Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and others on the issue.’
They also ‘firmly agreed that there was much more to do in order to stop the brutal killing of civilians and help put Syria on a path towards peace and stability’.
They discussed how to build on the support both nations had offered to the opposition in Syria ‘to end the appalling violence and bring about stability’.
The leaders said they hoped a meeting of opposition groups in Cairo would show ‘real unity of purpose and coherence in working towards transition’.
Mr Cameron and Mr Obama agreed that more should be done by the international community to channel humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees through the UN appeal.
Mr Cameron and Mr Hollande discussed the need to maintain international pressure on the Assad regime.
They agreed that the refugee situation was ‘deeply troubling’ and Mr Hollande said that the humanitarian crisis would be the focus of France’s United Nations Security Council ministerial meeting at the end of the month.
Free Syrian Army fighters exchange fire with regime forces in the city of Aleppo. Mr Cameron has agreed with French President Francois Hollande to work to identify how they could bolster the opposition
The pair welcomed the appointment of Lakhdar Brahimi as the new UN envoy and hoped that he would carry on the work of Kofi Annan in ‘seeking a credible political solution – as well as holding the regime to account for any further atrocities’.
Yesterday the United Nations claimed Iran appears to be supplying Assad’s regime with funds, weapons and intelligence support.
Obama and Cameron have welcomed the appointment of Lakhdar Brahimi as the new UN envoy to Syria
Syrian rebels also say Tehran has sent Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah fighters to assist government forces.
‘The Secretary-General has repeatedly expressed his concern about the arms flows to the two parties in Syria, which in some cases appear to violate resolution 1747 passed by this council banning arms exports under Chapter 7 authority,’ U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman told the U.N. Security Council.
Next week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend a summit meeting of leaders of non-aligned developing nations in Iran.
He will also meet with senior Iranian officials to discuss ‘Iran’s nuclear program, terrorism, human rights and the crisis in Syria,’ his spokesman said.
A U.N. Security Council panel of independent experts that monitors sanctions against Iran has uncovered several examples of Iran transferring arms to Syria’s government.
Damascus has accused Qatar and Saudi Arabia of arming rebels determined to topple Assad’s government.
The United Nations has said more than 18,000 people have died and some 170,000 people have fled the country as a result of the fighting in Syria.
U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos has said that up to 2.5 million people in Syria needed aid.
‘This conflict has taken on a particularly brutal and violent character,’ Amos told a news conference in New York on Wednesday after visiting Syria and Lebanon last week.
‘We face problems with access to people in need, particularly where there is intense and ongoing fighting, but funding is also holding us back. If we had more resources, we could reach more people,’ she said.
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Out of context. Assad said the chemical weapons were to be used against INVADERS not civilians. Leaders and media need to lead by example . . . accuracy please. But conventional killings, or the nature of the strife-wise, only the local Syrians would know best, this looks like a 3 way proxy war if anything. Communist Bloc vs. West vs. Sunnites with any or either, playing all sides potentially.
ARTICLE 2
‘Burglary is not bravery, it’s cowardice’: Twice-burgled PM slams judge who freed serial intruder who he said showed ‘courage’ to raid three homes – By Martin Robinson – PUBLISHED: 08:08 GMT, 6 September 2012 | UPDATED: 09:30 GMT, 6 September 2012
Richard Rochford was facing a two-and-a-half-year jail term
Judge Peter Bowers admitted he could be ‘pilloried’ for his controversial decision to free him
‘It takes a huge amount of courage as far as I can see for someone to burgle somebody’s home,’ he said
PM admits he has been a victim of ‘despicable and hateful’ crime
‘I’m very clear, burglary is not bravery, it’s cowardice. People who repeatedly burgle should be sent to prison,’ he said
David Cameron today turned on a judge who praised burglars for their ‘courage’ and allowed a serial intruder to walk free from court.
Judge Peter Bowers said Richard Rochford could go home instead of being jailed for two-and-a-half years because prison ‘very rarely does anybody any good’.
Responding this morning the furious Prime Minister admitted that he has been burgled twice himself, adding: ‘I’m very clear, burglary is not bravery, it’s cowardice.
‘I’ve been burgled twice, you feel completely violated when someone has smashed their way into your house,’ he told ITV’s Daybreak, adding: ‘Burglary is a despicable and hateful crime.’
Ruckas: David Cameron used an interview on ITV this morning to attack a judge who freed a burglar, admitting that he has been burgled twice and the crime showed ‘cowardice’
Ruckas: David Cameron used an interview on ITV this morning to attack a judge who freed a burglar, admitting that he has been burgled twice and the crime showed ‘cowardice’
Rochford, 26, burgled three homes in East Cleveland and tried to burgle another in the space of five days. He committed the crimes to feed a drug addiction that started when he was in prison for another offence, Teesside Crown Court was told.
By not jailing him Judge Bowers appeared to recognise the controversy he may cause, saying his decision could mean ‘I might get pilloried for it.’
And Mr Cameron is one of many who have.
‘People sometimes say it is not a violent crime, but actually if you have been burgled, you do feel it was violence,’ he said.
‘I am very clear that people who repeatedly burgle should be sent to prison.’
Teesside Crown Court Judge Peter Bowers
‘I might get pilloried for it’: Judge Peter Bowers made the extraordinary judgment and freed a serial burglar who he said had ‘courage’
He also backed the decision by the CPS not to charge a couple arrested in Leicestershire after two burglars were shot at their home.
Let go: Serial burglar Richard Rochford walked free after Judge Peter Bowers told him: ‘It takes a huge amount of courage as far as I can see for somebody to burgle somebodyís house.’
Let go: Serial burglar Richard Rochford walked free after Judge Peter Bowers told him: ‘It takes a huge amount of courage as far as I can see for somebody to burgle somebodyís house.’
‘That is why this Government is actually changing the law to toughen the rules on self-defence against burglars, saying householders have the right to defend themselves,’ the Prime Minister said.
The judge’s astonishing comments were condemned by victims of the burglar and follow a series of controversial remarks by the same judge in previous cases.
Passing sentence, Judge Bowers told him: ‘It takes a huge amount of courage as far as I can see for someone to burgle somebody’s house. I wouldn’t have the nerve.
‘Yet somehow, bolstered by drugs and desperation, you were prepared to do that.’ The judge added: ‘I think prison very rarely does anybody any good. It mostly leaves people the chance to change their own mind if they want to. I don’t think anybody would benefit from sending you to prison today. We’d all just feel a bit easier that a burglar had been taken off the streets.’
Rochford could have been jailed for two-and-a-half years but instead he was given a suspended 12-month jail sentence, a two-year supervision order with drug rehabilitation, 200 hours’ unpaid work and a one-year driving ban. The offence was Rochford’s first burglary conviction, although he was cautioned for burgling a home at the age of ten. He has previously been jailed for three years for arson.
Rochford went on a burglary spree in February. He took a laptop, satnav and money from the first home he raided and drove away the family’s Ford Focus car, which he damaged and abandoned.
PM: MINISTERS DIDN’T CRY WHEN I SACKED THEM
David Cameron has denied reducing ministers to tears as he took the reshuffle hatchet to his Government.
The Prime Minister also revealed that he juggled it with trying to write a poem about a ‘furry bear’ for one of his children.
The comments came amid reports that three Tories – including former Cabinet members Caroline Spelman and Cheryl Gillan – wept when told they no longer had frontbench jobs.
Mr Cameron told ITV’s Daybreak programme that conducting the shake-up earlier this week was ‘difficult’, and some of the ousted ministers had done ‘absolutely nothing wrong’.
‘It obviously is incredibly difficult because there are ministers who had worked incredibly hard, who had done absolutely nothing wrong in their jobs, who were very dedicated,’ he said.
‘But when you have got a huge team of 300 MPs, huge challenges, it is important to bring new people on and bring new people in.’
Asked whether he had made anyone cry, Mr Cameron replied: ‘That is not true, actually.’
The following night he took jewellery, a handbag and electrical items from another home. His girlfriend Amy Kyme, 22, who acted as lookout and helped dispose of the stolen goods, was given a suspended prison sentence. Rochford walked into both unlocked homes while the owners slept.
He admitted two burglaries and asked for another burglary and an attempted burglary to be taken into consideration. He also admitted aggravated vehicle taking.
Graham Brown, defending, told the court the drug habit Rochford developed ‘scarred his life’ and ‘the system failed him’. He claimed the petty crook had changed his ways.
Mr Brown said Rochford had had a ‘major wake-up call,’ and had ‘seen the light’. He confessed, co-operated with police and stopped using drugs, the court heard.
Rochford ransacked the home of Mark Clayton, 47, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan and Bosnia. Mr Clayton said the judge made a ‘grave misjudgment’.
He added: ‘Picking dead bodies up after they’ve been blown up, to go into that takes courage. Walking into someone’s house on an opportunistic whim and basically devastating someone’s life by taking things that man has worked so hard for all his life, and taking it away without a thought, isn’t courage.’
Mr Clayton said his son Mark, 16, was at first wrongly arrested on suspicion of the burglary, causing further upset for his family. Rochford stole a wallet containing £500 of life savings when he raided the home of retired shipyard worker John Hopper, 73, and wife Vera, 71.
Daughter Sharon Hopper, 40, said: ‘I can’t believe what the judge said. What really took courage was my parents having to continue living in their house after he had invaded their privacy.
‘Until the judge has had his own home burgled while he is lying asleep inside it, he cannot possibly know the fear and distress suffered by decent people like my parents.’
Judge Bowers, 67, is a married father of three who has been a judge for more than 20 years.
He has made contradictory comments about burglary sentencing in recent months. In May, he criticised sentencing guidelines that let first-time burglars escape with a ‘slap across the wrist’.
But weeks later, he allowed a man with almost 80 crimes on his record to walk free for a burglary committed four days after his release from prison, telling the court: ‘I must be getting soft in my old age.’
Sentencing: Rochford was given a suspended 12-month jail sentence at Teesside Crown Court
Judge Bowers then told David Wray, 39: ‘I am quite sure you are capable of a lot better. If you are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, you’ll be all right.’
The judge’s comments drew a furious response from David Hines, chairman of the National Victims’ Association.
He said: ‘What message does this send out to society? Quite frankly it is outrageous.
‘The criminal justice system has let the victims down.
‘Burglars are going to believe that judges think they are courageous. I think this judge is on a different wavelength to everyone else.’
Mr Hines, from Jarrow, South Tyneside, set up the association after his daughter Marie was murdered aged 23 in 1992.
‘I have been doing this for 20 years now and the criminal justice system has been getting diluted and diluted, getting weaker,’ he said.
‘I am sick of hearing how victims are at the heart of the criminal justice system – doesn’t this prove that they are not?
‘Burglars are not courageous, they are probably doped up on drugs.
‘People who are courageous, to me, are soldiers, nurses and policemen.’
One barrister who works at Teesside Crown Court expressed surprise at Judge Bowers’ remarks.
He tweeted: ‘I am amazed by this, if true, as he is one of the toughest sentencing judges in Teesside.’
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The burglar could spend sometime cleaning up the damage and then paying for damages. Jail at 40K per year and even court (perhaps at 4K per session?), costs too much for something in the line of 400, that could be corrected out of court. This in fact is sufficiently deterrant. Burglars know that if they get caught, they’ll have to correct the damages. Judges have more important criminals to deal with, like crony capitalists colluding with the local bureaucracy and corruption and bribery. Jail does not teach anything and wastes the tax payer’s monies and wastes the criminal’s life. Inequitable wealth distribution and lack of opportunity or lack of distribution of land causes criminality, this is society’s fault to the ‘criminal’s. This judge has a grasp of empathy if not the root causes of criminality as well. And courage is needed to make an attempt to change one’s life. Actually so-called criminals would make better soldiers than the conformists in the army. That is why mercenary contractors are used in so many US invasions, more effective and has the proper mindset. Marionettes are not brave, just mindless. Mindless is not brave.
One barrister who works at Teesside Crown Court expressed surprise at Judge Bowers’ remarks. He tweeted: ‘I am amazed by this, if true, as he is one of the toughest sentencing judges in Teesside.’
Not just about being tough. A judge is not a Drill Sergeant or a sports trainer, a Judge has to consider the well being of the offender in context to society and make common sense judgments as well. Cameron perhaps needs to consider that some of the bad policies written, or neglected for amendment have caused DEATHS or much suffering among the English. Robberies don’t seem to happen unless the target is somehow deemed a failure or the cause of some wrongs, don’t they?
ARTICLE 3
Fears of home extension ‘free-for-all’ as owners told they can extend houses by up to 30ft without planning permission – By James Chapman PUBLISHED: 23:11 GMT, 5 September 2012 | UPDATED: 11:01 GMT, 6 September 2012
The move is designed to encourage conservatories, loft extensions or garage conversions
Will also mean residents no longer have a right to challenge thousands of construction schemes
Homeowners are to be allowed to build extensions or conservatories of up to almost 30 feet without needing planning permission, David Cameron and Nick Clegg announced today.
Under the first stage of proposals to sweep away planning rules and bureaucracy, shops, offices and industrial units will also be allowed to expand with no need to ask their local authority.
The move is designed to encourage conservatories, loft extensions or garage conversions, and support businesses which want to grow or diversify.
Joint effort: David Cameron and Nick Clegg are watched by Josh Wood, 9, as they launched their planning changes in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire today
However, it will also mean residents no longer have a right to challenge thousands of construction schemes on neighbouring properties, even if they believe it will have an adverse impact on them.
Announcement: Homeowners are to be allowed to build extensions or conservatories of up to almost 30 feet without needing planning permission
In other plans, the Government is to offer up to £10billion in state-backed guarantees to encourage housing developments, a move which ministers believe could mean 100,000 homes being built over three years.
Rules on how many affordable homes must be included in a development may also be relaxed.
There will be help for 16,500 first-time buyers, who will be offered equity loans of up to 20 per cent of the property value that can be used as a deposit.
New ‘permitted development rights’ will be introduced to allow a change of use from commercial to residential purposes – although local authorities will be able to seek exemptions where they believe there will be a negative economic impact
It means disused offices or light industrial premises will be able to switch to residential developments with no need for planning permission.
Plans: David Cameron and Nick Clegg will make the announcement today
Currently, homeowners need planning permission to make any change that extends more than a few feet from their property’s rear wall, requiring them to fill in complicated application forms that typically take eight weeks or more to be considered.
Ministers say this adds unnecessary cost and delays to people’s improvement plans.
Under the new system, the size of extensions allowed without permission, therefore, will be doubled to about 20 feet for terraced properties and 26 feet for detatched.
Changes: The move will mean residents no longer have a right to challenge thousands of construction schemes
The change will not apply in protected areas, including conservation areas, World Heritage Sites, the Broads and areas of outstanding natural beauty, where development rights are already more limited.
Under changes, businesses will be able to expand premises by 100 square metres and industrial units by 200 square metres, and shops and offices will be permitted to develop up to the boundary of the premises.
Every year there are more than 400,000 planning applications processed, with almost 200,000 for residential improvements, many of which are for changes such as conservatories or extensions.
Ministers say the changes will provide a crucial and immediate stimulus to the construction sector.
There will be a month-long consultation on the measures before they are implemented later in the year.
The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister will say: ‘This government means business in delivering plans to help people build new homes and kick-start the economy.
‘We’re determined to cut through the bureaucracy that holds us back.
‘That starts with getting the planners off our backs, getting behind the businesses that have the ambition to expand, and meeting the aspirations of families that want to buy or improve a home.’
A Government source added: ‘We want to make it easier for families to undertake home improvements: not just to cut red tape and strengthen individual homeowners’ rights, but also to help generate economic activity which will support small traders in particular.’
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. . . requiring them to fill in complicated application forms that typically take eight weeks or more to be considered . . . AND . . . residents no longer have a right to challenge thousands of construction schemes . . . SERIOUSLY? Good thing this sort of red tape profiteering bureaucracy is going to end if not just mere talk. . . Hear that ‘Gambier Threat’ DAP? Don’t even dare tell anyone that they are going to get their extensions torn down!
No such thing as ‘. . . home extension ‘free-for-all’ . . . ‘ anyone can build anything. Sovereign territory. A man’s home is their castle. Bring back those allodial titles as well. Or do the 99% need to have a French Revolution against the Bastille of term limited nepotists, plutocrats, and MPs who refuse to amend laws to allow allodial titles for property and some aspect of Eminent Domain? For deeper reading on expositions of absolutist aspects of some laws regarding property and person please read link below :
ARTICLE 4
Hillary Clinton’s China visit: To make or solve troubles? (People’s Daily Online) – 15:23, September 05, 2012
Chinese President Hu Jintao met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday morning.(Xinhua/ Zhang Duo)
On Sept. 4, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a visit to China and it is said that U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will also pay a visit to China. The United States should bear a big responsibility in the sustained tense situation in East Asia on the territorial dispute and is the key country to constantly carry out military exercises in the Pacific region. Then, what is the purpose of Clinton and other officials’ China visit at this time?
U.S. action damaged the mutual trust
One of the reasons for Clinton’s visit to China is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting about to be held in Russia this weekend. There is a convention between China and the United States, namely the senior officials of both sides will communicate and understand each other before an important multilateral meeting, said Wu Chunsi, executive director with the Institute for International Strategic Studies under Shanghai Institute of International Studies. At present, the development of APEC is at a critical point, which makes the China-U.S. communication more necessary.
In addition, Clinton came to China not all for APEC. According to Wu Xinbo, with Fudan University, first, the United States has a decline in its interests in APEC; second, Russia is the host country of the meeting and so it will gain praise if the meeting makes substantive results, which the United States is not willing to see. Therefore, the main intention of Clinton is to put pressure on China about the international and regional issues, which mainly include the disputes over the Diaoyu Islands and South China Sea, as well as Iranian and Syrian issues.
China-U.S. relations maintain an overall stability
A series of tense situation in East Asia in 2012 were caused by the “eastward of the strategic center” of the United States. Executive director of the Strategic Research Center of China Institute of International Research Foundation Wang Yusheng pointed out that the United States claimed to realize “rebalance” in the Asia-Pacific region due to the rise of China’s “anti-intervention strength.”
The “rebalance” refers to the one under the domination of the United States. All the Asian countries including China must submit to the United States to maintain a flourishing “order.” Otherwise, the United States will use various methods to punish the “order challengers.”
Clinton’s visit to China this time just goes through the motions. 2012 is the election year in the United States and so it is unlikely that both sides will reach substantive and constructive results.
In Wu’s opinion, there will be a new U.S. government after the election. Therefore, the realistic diplomacy against China will be the main direction, no matter which party holds power. Both China and the United States benefited from the currently close relationship, which is the fundamental driving force to push a smooth bilateral relationship forward.
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China doesn’t even need to care. Once USA commits to an Iran war, USA will not have the time nor energy to handle China. Actually USA even without an Iran War and going back to Iraq to consolidate Iraq will already be enough to keep USA busy for decades. China need not worry at all. Barring extreme technology unknown to China, this trip is is just icing with no cake, and Hillary perhaps gets to enjoy a free holiday on the USA taxpayers’ funds merely for making the Chinese ‘nervous’ or impressing the foolish among Chinese leaders with that Clinton former-prez ethos (nominally tainted with and based on nepotism . . . ) even as Russia MUST be cooperated with by China even when China is an ally of Russia which is not exactly pleased with USA over the missile shield. USA needs BOTH China and Russia on USA’s side before taking on Iran.
ARTICLE 5
Victory is mine: S. African miners rejoice after murder charges dropped – Published: 04 September, 2012, 19:43
Miners and their supporters dance after being released outside the court in Ga Rankuwa, near Pretoria.(REUTERS / Mike Hutchings)
The first of 270 miners arrived home jubilant amid cheers from their families and friends. The men were accused of murdering their colleagues during a protest, despite all evidence showing the kill shots were fired by police.
Women cried as they were reunited with their husbands, relieved to have them home again.
Some, like miner Victor Molefane, got an even bigger “welcome home” present – as Victor walked out of jail, a free man, his wife gave birth to their son.
“I am very happy,” the new father told South Africa’s Mail and Guardian daily, as he wiped tears of joy from his face.
Supporters of the detained men gathered outside the Marikana platinum mine to celebrate their release, and soon all those gathered were dancing and singing.
State prosecutor Nigel Carpenter confirmed the murder and attempted murder charges against all 270 miners arrested were dropped.
But the miners’ lawyer said he will file a motion to drop all other charges against his clients as well.
“All the charges are incompetent and should be withdrawn,” Dali Mpofu said. He told reporters this issue will be addressed when the trial resumes in February next year.
The Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana, in the country’s North West province, made headlines on August 16 when protesters clashed with police while demanding their wages be raised to over $1,000 a month. The crackdown claimed the lives of 36 people – 34 miners and two policemen – and left 78 injured.
Police originally claimed they fired their weapons in self-defense, as the angry mob was getting aggressive.
But leaked findings of victims’ autopsies, published by the South African Star newspaper, showed that the miners were shot in the back while running away.
The post-mortem results suggested that the strikers posed no danger to law enforcement at the time of the shooting.
An official spokesman refused to confirm or deny the accusations on what is already being dubbed the Marikana Massacre – the most violent episode in South Africa’s history since the 1994 end of apartheid.
Miners and their supporters dance after being released outside the court in Ga Rankuwa, near Pretoria.(REUTERS / Mike Hutchings)
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Diamond or precious mineral miners should directly be allowed to share in the profits to 401K worth of profit (if South Africa is every African citizen’s country, hence ALL wealth should be shared equally), before being laid off and allowing other citizens to work and get 401K rich as well. This way wealth and work are distributed. AFTER several generations when everyone has 401K, THEN will be the top level people be allowed to get more wealth, but even then only at a reasonable limit which as proposed by ‘Capitalism with Socialist Limits” 5,000 times 401K (thats 20 million btw).
At a population of 48 million, I am certain that ALL Africans are millionaires in their own right if every person had an equal share in that diamond wealth alone much less the mineral wealth. Are there at least 10 carats of diamonds for each African? Are there at least 100 ounces of gold per African? IF Africa belongs to all Africans, then all Africans are entitled to an equal share of the wealth. WEALTH DISTRIBUTION should raise every African to a position of wealth, that diamond, gold or mineral wealth is EVERY AFRICAN’s after all. Land distribution should ensure every African has a home. This is WEALTH apartheid, even after racial apartheid has ended, those miners could free poor Africans from rich Africans, heck even import ‘foreign’ (white perhaps?) indentured labour to mine for them later on since African might well have far more than 10 carats of diamonds for every African!
Think clearly 99% Africans, and show countries like USA or even Russia that plutocrats and extreme wealth sequesterers already have enough wealth to change every African’s life forever by voting for 99% types who will write laws that distribute wealth equitably and disallow extreme sequestration. Perhaps 20 million limits? Russia would concur being the fatherland of Communism, equality for all not 1% holding everything. Vote for 99% types unaffiliated to extreme wealth plutocrats and unrelated to GLC interests only!
Then see below article for a reason to redistribute the wealth of several unwarranted and unjustified billionaires in Malaysia, a quasi apartheid and quasi fundo state . . .
ARTICLE 6
Najib to lead delegation to Apec meeting in Russia – Published: Tuesday September 4, 2012 MYT 8:09:00 PM
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will lead the Malaysian delegation to the 20th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Economic Leaders Meeting in Russia on Sept 8 and 9.
The foreign ministry said in a statement here that Najib would be accompanied by wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, several Cabinet ministers and senior government officials.
The annual summit, themed ‘Integrate to Grow, Innovate to Prosper’, to be attended by heads of state and government from the 21-member economies, will be preceded by the 24th Apec Ministerial Meeting (AMM) on Sept 5 and 6, and Apec Senior Officials Meeting on Sept 2 and 3.
Najib, who is Finance Minister, would speak on wide-ranging issues, covering the liberalising trade and investment and expanding regional economic integration, strenghtening food security, establishing reliable supply chains and fostering innovative growth, the statement said.
The prime minister will also explore new and innovative ideas to further enhance cooperation among the 21 Apec member economies in these areas.
Najib is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with several Apec leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The outcome of the leaders’ meeting will be documented in a Joint Leaders’ Declaration while the 20th AMM outcome will be documented in the Joint Ministerial Statement.
Apec, a forum set up in 1989, for 21 Pacific Rim member economies to discuss issues on regional economic cooperation, trade and investment, accounts for 55 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product and 49 per cent of global trade.
Apec’s 21-member economies comprise Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States and Vietnam. – Bernama
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Najib is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with several Apec leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Note that if a Russian migrated to Malaysia, the APARTHEID currently affecting all non-Muslims and non-Malays would also be applied upon the migrant Russian. This means that all members of the BRICS and effectively 40% of the world’s population, if migrating to Malaysia would face 2nd class citizenships while if Malaysians migrate to the same countries Malaysians will not face 2nd class citizenships in turn! I hope that President Putin will raise this issue with Malaysia’s PM Najib and remind APEC that UN Human Rights are to be respected by all and that APARTHEID in Malaysia via the Bumiputra Special Privileges are against the spirit of the UN premise of equality among all mankind, and illegal because Malaysia is a signatory of the UNHCR as well the fact that Islam disallows something like Bumiputra APARTHEID.
ARTICLE 7
Nurses are being forced to clean toilets and mop hospital floors on top of their patient care duties, finds survey – – by Rob Preece PUBLISHED: 00:38 GMT, 4 September 2012 | UPDATED: 00:47 GMT, 4 September 2012
More than half of NHS nurses say cleaning services for their ward are inadequate
One in five say their trust has cut back on cleaning in the last year
Nurses looking after patients in hospitals have also been forced to disinfect toilets and mop floors as hard-up NHS trusts cut spending on cleaning.
More than half of NHS nurses told researchers that they believed cleaning services for their ward were inadequate, with about a fifth saying their hospital trust had made cuts in the last year.
The survey of 1,000 nurses and health assistants revealed a third had cleaned toilets or mopped floors in the last 12 months.
Burden: A ward is deep-cleaned at the Royal Free Hospital in London. A survey suggests that NHS nurses across the country are having to carry out more and more cleaning tasks themselves
Some also reported having to clean corridors, computers, nursing stations and offices.
Two in five respondents said they had cleaned a bed area or single room vacated by a patient who was infectious.
Four in five said they had performed the same task following the discharge of a non-infectious patient.
Worryingly, almost three quarters of respondents said they had not been trained for such cleaning practices.
And 37 per cent of nurses admitted that their trust would make a bed available to patients even if it had not been cleaned properly.
The survey was conducted by the Nursing Times.
‘This is not about saying nurses are too posh to wash,’ the Royal College of Nursing’s adviser on infection prevention and control, Rose Gallagher, told the magazine.
‘Cleaning in hospitals is not the same as cleaning your own home.’
A new specification on cleaning in hospitals was published last year by the Department of Health, National Patient Safety Agency and the British Standards Institution.
Scaled back: About a fifth of nurses said their hospital trust had made cuts to cleaning services in the last year
However, the new guidelines did not specify the appropriate cleaning duties for nurses, the magazine reported.
Tracey Cooper, president of the Infection Prevention Society, said: ‘Nurses are the guardians of the standards of their wards.
‘Cleaning has always been an integral part of what nurses do.
‘The risk comes when there is a lack of clarity about process and who is responsible because then you get things that nobody cleans.’
Andrew Jones, president of the Association of Healthcare Cleaning Professionals, said it was ‘inevitable’ that nurses would end up doing some cleaning of patient areas during out-of-hour periods.
But he said that the best practice for hospital wards was to have a dedicated cleaner.
‘When that happens we get better cleanliness standards and a better motivated workforce,’ Mr Jones said. ‘Some of the responses would suggest that’s not the case as often as we would want.’
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
Suggest that 5% of salary be docked from every 10 nurses monthly to hire a menial worker so that nurses don’t get surly for having to do menial work then take out their irritation on the patients and doctors. In smaller clinics of at least 5 nurses, 10% could be deducted for the same purpose. Nurses are mid level technicians, are NOT menials and would prefer to lose 5% to 10% of salary for never ever having to do menial work again. Did I get this solution right nurses?
ARTICLE 8
Self-driving ‘robot’ cars to take on California asphalt – Published: 03 September, 2012, 04:20
The California state legislature has passed a bill approving Google’s self-driving cars this week, allowing autonomous vehicles to be operated on state roads – including highways.
The bill, known as SB 1298, allows these “robot” cars to be tested on California’s roads and outlines rules and standards for the driverless vehicles. The bill passed the State Assembly, with a vote of 74-2, and the Senate unanimously.
The bill allows the self-driving cars onto the state’s roads for testing purposes only. Drivers must have the option to manually take control of the vehicle.
The new legislation will also require the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to form and adopt new standards for the innovative vehicles by 2015. If signed into law by the governor, California will be the second state to allow the driverless cars on its roads. Nevada set up its own standards in February, and requires that the cars keep red license plates and actual humans sitting in them.
Google has been testing its autonomous cars for years. The corporation has already logged over 300,000 miles without an accident while the car was controlled solely by its computer. Google recently announced that its self-driving cars could be ready for public use in less than 10 years. Ford recently argued consumers can expect to see such cars on the market by 2017.
“It sounds space age, but it’s almost here,” California State Senator Alex Padilla, who authored the bill, said, as quoted by the San Jose Mercury News. “If we can reduce the number of accidents, that alone is worth doing this bill.”
Google has only had one accident involving its autonomous vehicles – but it had been controlled by a human at the time of the accident.
“Through the use of computers, sensors and other systems, an autonomous vehicle is capable of analyzing the driving environment more quickly and operating the vehicle more safely,” Padilla said when he introduced SB 1298. “Autonomous vehicles have the potential to significantly reduce traffic fatalities and improve safety on our roads and highways.”
Two years ago, Google successfully tested its driverless cars on the famous Lombard Street hill, which is one of America’s steepest and curviest streets.
But Google is not the only company working on the new technology. BMW and Audi are also developing self-driving car prototypes, and Cadillac said it hopes to include a “Super Cruise” function that allows its vehicles to automatically steer, break and center themselves in a lane.
While the cars may in many cases increase driving safety, there are also long-standing worries that the vehicle computer systems could crash and cause accidents. Some people have expressed concern over who would be responsible for autonomous car crashes – the manufacturer or the owner?
These issues are likely to be at the center of the debate as Google continues to test its vehicles in California and Nevada.
“It’s not far away that many of us will be driving autonomous vehicles,” said Dan Gage of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. “We’re moving in that direction. That fully autonomous car of the future is not that far away.”
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
Armour those cars with steel plates, mount with weapons like grenade launchers and machine guns, and send 75 million of the modified clunkers to Iran. Park one outside each Iranian home or a thousand outside any military base. USA might yet win via technology. But the window to act might be closing once Iran has the electronic counter measures . . . would make history in the mode of conquest or combat meanwhile. The first remote controlled war . . . Self drive cars remote controlled via satellite from your teen kid’s home (USA doesnt have 75 million soldiers now do they? Use those online gamers to control the cars then!).
If Israel has enough conventional missiles (no pollutive nukes, irradiation will destroy Israel as well if nukes are used) to carpet bomb every single military base or facility in Iran at once, winning might also be possible.
But the civilian population retaliating might be the factor that still puts Israel’s lights out. Barely 3? million Israeli soldiers out of 10 million or less population, cannot handle a wave of 15+ (if not 30% of Iran’s population – able bodied persons not counting women and children) million angry Iranian ‘terrorists’. What about Iraq? USA can’t even control Iraq. So what attacking Iran going to do to the US economy?
ARTICLE 9
US scales down military exercise with Israel: Report – AFP | Sep 2, 2012, 02.00AM IST
WASHINGTON: The United States has significantly scaled down a planned joint military exercise with Israel most likely because of disagreements on how to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Time magazine has reported on its website.
Citing “well-placed sources in both countries”, the magazine said Washington was slashing by more than two-thirds the number of US troops going to Israel, and reducing the number and potency of missile interception systems that will be used in the exercise dubbed Austere Challenge 12, which is scheduled for October.
Instead of approximately 5,000 US troops, the Pentagon will send between 1,200 and 1,500. Patriot anti-missile systems will arrive in Israel as planned, but the crews to operate them will not, according to the report.
Instead of two Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense warships, the new plan calls for sending just one, and even the remaining vessel is listed as a “maybe”, the report said.
Basically what the Americans are saying is, “We don’t trust you,” a senior Israeli military official is quoted by Time as saying.
Time said the official explanation was budget restrictions.
But the reductions coincided with growing tensions between the administrations of President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel’s threats to launch an airstrike on Iran over its nuclear programme.
Israeli officials quoted in the country’s media later today insisted the Pentagon’s decision had nothing to do with any differences between Obama and Netanyahu over Iran.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
USA has a strategic overview and inside knowledge on US finances. This is not a trust issue but making a strong message. This is not the time to fight Iran. How about consolidating Iraq first?
If the people of USA would even want to . . . put weapons into the hands of the young and old then send everyone in USA on a one way ticket (and 1 month of rations?) to butcher (forget about occupation, impossible when 75 million suicide bombers could be ready to destroy any occupation – think Green Zone Iraq, impossible . . . ) everyone in the Middle East. 300 million ‘citizen troops’ should put paid to every ‘terrorist country’ with lots of spares for a MadMax style occupation afterwards, and is also a good way to handle the over-population problem. Alternatively send just 30 million armed US citizens to Iraq and consolidate THE WHOLE OF Iraq into a Green Zone . . . AGAIN. Remember though for the 1st option, that Russia and China will be in a position to twist the USA’s arms for the next few decades if not outright invade the USA . . . so does the USA dare to want to abolish the 2nd Amendment? An armed populace is impossible to control and invade.
ARTICLE 10
China’s strategic missiles realize mobile launch (People’s Daily Online) 08:17, August 31, 2012
As the high-tech unit of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the Second Artillery Corps (SAC) has fully completed the transition from “troops in the mountains” to “troops on the wheel” over the past 10 years. The wide use of solid fuel and vehicle-mounted missile launchers for both conventional and nuclear ballistic missiles has greatly improved the SAC’s mobility, and thus increased its ability to deal with satellite reconnaissance.
Established on July 1, 1966, the SAC comprises the ground-to-ground strategic nuclear missile forces, conventional operational-tactical missile forces, and support units. Its mobility and strike range has increased steadily.
China’s strategic missiles have grown from a single model to a big family of various short-range, medium-range, long-range, and intercontinental missiles. In addition, the wide use of solid fuel has made its conventional and nuclear ballistic missiles smaller and lighter.
At smaller sizes, China’s missiles have become more powerful, more accurate, and faster. Missile forces are always a focus of other countries’ satellite reconnaissance, and mobile launch is an effective way to deal with such reconnaissance and escape possible attacks.
The SAC, China’s strategic missile forces, has greatly improved its precision strike capacity over the past decade. At present, all of its missiles can be launched by vehicle-mounted launchers, making it possible to conduct strikes in all terrains, all directions, and all weathers. The SAC’s First Conventional Missile Brigade, which was established 19 years ago, has launched missiles more than 100 times, and never missed its targets. According to the PLA Pictorial, the First Conventional Missile Brigade using China’s independently developed new-generation missiles comprehensively beat another brigade using one of the world’s most advanced air-defense missiles in a recent military drill simulating the interception of ballistic missiles by air-defense missiles. Last year, the SAC’s first all-female unit made its debut on a plateau, where 35 female artillerists launched missiles that all hit their targets.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
Not a single nuke used? Possible. So if China fills those missiles with ‘knockout gas’, fires those missiles at ALL military bases and major cities in targeted countries, THEN scram-jets tanks and troops (perhaps robotic?) abroad to occupy those countries en masse, all countries targeted would awaken in a few hours to a Chinese jack boot (armed with tranquiliser darts?) standing over them. Hear this Japan? So please stop harrassing China over sovereign territory. Barring bunkers or other fortified positions that must be hit with missiles or artillery, China could take out the whole of Japan without killing a single soul. Any other nations on the offense or involved in offensive actions against Chinese, please correct yourselves.
Orbital bombardment could replace nukes anytime, so civvies won’t need to worry about fallout issues from the more advanced nations. Hear that nuke armed nations? Either use conventionals or use orbital bombardment paradigms. Nukes are radioactive and everyone loses, nothing to occupy or win afterwards, radioactive fallout destroys everything by making everything irradiated . . .
ARTICLE 11
Capital chomps $16m in shark fins every day – By Deng Jingyin (Global Times) – 09:19, September 06, 2012
Shark fins in a display case at the entrance to a restaurant in Sanyuanqiao, Chaoyang district in March. (Global Times/Guo Yingguang)
Beijing has been revealed as the biggest market for shark fin in China, where at least 100 million yuan ($16 million) is spent on the consumption of this traditional Chinese delicacy daily, according to the China Economic Weekly.
It reported that daily consumption in Beijing is about 7,500 kilograms and the price for a bowl of shark fin soup can reach 1,800 yuan in some luxury hotels.
“I don’t think shark fin dishes are too delicious to give up, but you know, it’s like a symbol standing for sincerity and identity. My guests will know they are important to me if I order shark fin or Maotai, the best-known alcohol in China, for them,” said a businessman surnamed Chen from Shanxi Province, who runs a real estate company.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, about 73 million sharks are killed each year for their fins and half of them are sold to Hong Kong.
Although the campaign to reject shark fin consumption is gaining traction in China, it has not put a chill into the shark fin market in Beijing, the China Economic Weekly report said.
Liufu Shark Fin Restaurant in Beijing Financial Street in Xicheng district told the Global Times shark fin is the specialty of their restaurant, which attracts many customers every day.
“The price for a bowl of shark fin soup in our restaurant ranges from 128 to 1,200 yuan,” said an employee working at the restaurant.
Wang Xue, from Beijing-based environmental NGO Green Beagle who is responsible for its “China Zero Shark Fin,” project said that a survey it conducted at the end of 2011 shows that over 99 percent of the 131 four and five-star hotels in Beijing still sold shark fin, and only one refused to provide the dish.
“Although the situation seems better now, after some enterprises and hotels banned shark fins, these dishes are still popular in China, which is the biggest global market for the fins. I think the figure of 100 million yuan daily is not an exaggeration,” Wang said.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
A quota and price rise based on required limits to fishing must be applied for a decade or few for fish and shark numbers to repopulate. Eventually they could apply ‘natural death’ fishing paradigm when numbers are so great that enough sharks die naturally (probably will need GPS locators so that the fishermen can pick up the carcasses and those massive 200+ year old fins!). Meanwhile all sharks for now could have protected zones (ASEAN territorial trouble-makers, this is not about freedom of navigation but protection of wildlife . . . ) for repopulating after which quota can be raised accordingly so that populations increase rather than decrease.
ARTICLE 12
Opinion: Anti-slavery law needs saving – August 31st, 2012 709:54 AM ET
Editor’s note: Jesse Eaves works as the senior policy adviser for child protection with World Vision, an international Christian humanitarian organization working in nearly 100 countries around the world. Mary C. Ellison currently serves as the director of policy for Polaris Project, a leading organization in the United States combating all forms of human trafficking and serving both U.S. citizens and foreign national victims, including men, women, and children. Together they are calling on U.S voters to make sure their senators pass a key anti-slavery bill.
With the upcoming elections, you can’t turn on the television without seeing a negative campaign ad or heated news segment giving Americans a glimpse of the political divisions that currently exist in our country.
While politicians argue over our future government, we lose sight of how the actions of our current government are impacting the lives of real people right now, like the millions of enslaved men, women and children in the U.S. and around the world at risk if Congress fails to pass the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act by the end of the year.
Track the bill’s progress
Human trafficking is “the recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, or fraud or deception for the purpose of exploitation.” But it also has another name: modern day slavery. There are now more slaves in the world today than any other time in human history.
Sadly, this is not an issue that’s unique to developing countries. It also happens right herein our own backyards.
Organizations like World Vision and Polaris Project work with trafficking survivors in the U.S. and abroad every day to help them regain what they have lost as a result of being trafficked.
Survivors come to us from across the globe, having been trafficked by spouses, by strangers, by employers and others all promising hope and a future to those in need.
Instead, these survivors have been beaten, insulted, demeaned and degraded, been forced into commercial sex or labor, worked in horrendous conditions for little or no pay, and with the constant fear that they themselves or others would be harmed or even killed.
Despite their brokenness, we daily see the resilience of the human spirit shine in the eyes of our survivors.
We have seen them graduate from English as a Second Language courses, get married, have children, find jobs, move into and make their own homes and have what we all want and need: the freedom to live their lives independently.
We are able to identify, assist, and humbly walk alongside these courageous survivors because the United States has created a framework to combat human trafficking that seeks to protect trafficking victims, prevent human trafficking and prosecute human traffickers – and it is called the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Because of this law and those who work to use it each day, these survivors have found their way back to freedom and dignity.
Twelve years ago in 2000, a divided Congress came together to pass the landmark piece of legislation that is the cornerstone of all U.S. efforts to combat modern-day slavery in our country and around the world.
In 2003, 2005, and 2008 Congress unanimously passed the reauthorization. But on October 1, 2011, this important piece of legislation, the largest piece of human rights legislation in U.S. history, expired and – for the first time since its historic passage – Congress is at risk of failing to reauthorize the legislation by the end of its session.
If the bill isn’t reauthorized in September, we risk losing funding for 2013.
This failure threatens United States’ global leadership in the fight against modern-day slavery and jeopardizes the progress made over the last decade.
If Congress fails to reauthorize the TVPA by the end of the year, no one is certain of the impact on the 20 million people currently enslaved around the world.
This legislation benefits both survivors who participate in the programs created and funded by the TVPA and advocates who work daily to fight trafficking.
In the United States, TVPA-funded programs strengthen prevention of trafficking, fund taskforces across the country to protect victims and prosecute traffickers, and fund important tools such as the National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline.
Internationally, anti-trafficking programs set-up awareness programs, strengthen community level protection networks, pass stronger laws, and provide better victims services.
Congress is setting a dangerous precedent for future reauthorizations and ending a signal to other countries that fighting modern-day slavery is not a priority for the United States.
This is dangerous, not because it fails to recognize modern-day slavery as an issue, but because it will affect the men, women, and children around the world and here at home that suffer from slavery and those committed to fighting it.
For the last 12 years we have been a leader in the fight against modern-day slavery. Countries abroad will watch the U.S. elections closely to determine our priorities.
Congress needs to send a clear message, that no matter the outcome of the election, ending modern-day slavery is still a priority for the United States.
As Americans, we have a role to play. According to the senators themselves, it is up to the people to use the power of their voices to put a stop to this.
This is your chance to make a difference in this fight, so if you believe it is wrong to enslave another human being, we urge you to join thousands of Americans across the country on September 4, 2012 for the National TVPRA Call-In Day. On that day, we will flood Senate offices with calls urging passage of the Senate bill.
This is not the time for political games and bickering, but a time to put aside what divides us and unite on an injustice we all know is wrong. We hope you’ll join us. Learn more and help spread the word at http://www.passTVPRAnow.org
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Limit the wealth of the plutocracy to 20 million and then use that collected ‘fat of the 1% people’ fund to free everyone including these supposed 10-30 million slaves. USA has not even cleaned up or finished Iraq either, so what about the debt slaves in USA? If the country belongs to everyone, then distribute all unused state land to the homeless and starving. Capitalism needs socialist limits on sequestration. And focusing on the issue of ending INTERNAL debt is as important as ending slavery. When 200 million debt slaves exist in the USA, talking about 20 million slaves elsewhere worldwide is just plain mockery.
You’d think an outfit like CNN or FB would want to do some good instead of drown voices of those who bother. End Apartheid in Malaysia!
Socialist Wealth Sequestration Limits on Capitalism (Controlled Capitalism instead of uncontrolled Capitalism)
a) Lack of free education? All persons holding above 2 billion needs their excess wealth to be ‘requisitioned’. State MUST limit fee charges to no more than 10-20% of salaries. (None allowed to hold more than 2 billion). From reports, people in USA cannot afford education . . .
b) Homelessness? All persons holding above 200 million needs their excess wealth to be ‘requisitioned’. State MUST re-distribute unused state land and stop all foreclosures on single home owners in debt. (Suggest that none allowed to hold more than 200 million) From reports, people in USA are homeless . . .
c) At civilisational war in a foreign land and losing the battle while running out of funds? All persons above 20 million needs their excess wealth to be ‘requisitioned’. State MUST retain 2nd Amendment laws to deal with terrorists etc.. (Suggest that none allowed to hold more than 2 million) From reports, USA is losing . . .
d) Starvation? All persons holding above 2 million needs their excess wealth to be ‘requisitioned’. State MUST create state owned staple food farms (brand name snacks, biscuits with cream filling or sprinkle and chocolate covered biscuits does doesn’t count) and distribution centres etc.. (Suggest that none allowed to hold more than 20 million) From reports, people in USA are actually going hungry . . .
ARTICLE 13
Iraq religious leaders send out the ‘fashion police’ to stop people dressing too Western – by Anna Edwards – PUBLISHED: 13:57 GMT, 3 September 2012 | UPDATED: 13:59 GMT, 3 September 2012
Young women are replacing shapeless cover-ups for tight-fitting skirts
Religious leaders say fashionable youngsters need to be reined in
Government say it’s a woman’s right to choose what she wears
A culture rift is threatening to split the young and old of Iraq as Western trends grow increasingly fashionable amongst the country’s youth.
Young women are replacing shapeless cover-ups that protect their modesty with ankle-baring skirts and tight blouses, while men strut around in tight clothes and fashionable haircuts.
But although the styles are the de rigueur to many Western countries, they appear shockingly brazen in conservative Iraq – and now religious leaders are trying to strip people of their fashionable dress.
The trends have prompted Islamic clerics in at least two Iraqi cities to mobilize the ‘fashion police’ in the name of protecting religious values.
Fashion forward: Iraqi women are starting to sport new trends as they shop at a women’s fashion store in Diwaniyah, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq
Mayada Hamid, 32, wearing a pink leopard-print headscarf with jeans, a blue blouse and lots of sparkly eyeliner says she has encountered hostility from the police for her bold look: ‘I see the way they (police) look at me – they don’t like it.
‘It’s just suppression.’
The violations of old Iraqi norms have grown especially egregious, religious officials say, since the August 20 end of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month.
In the last two weeks, posters and banners have been hanging along the streets of Kazimiyah, sternly reminding women to wear an abaya – a long, loose black cloak that covers the body from shoulders to feet.
A similar warning came from Diwaniyah, a Shiite city about 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of the capital, where some posters have daubed a bright red X over pictures of women wearing pants.
Other banners praise women who keep their hair fully covered beneath a headscarf.
New look: Iraqi women, seen here shopping in Diwaniyah, are beginning to experiment with bold fashions – which have angered some clerks
Religious officials suspect young Iraqis have got carried away in celebrating the end of Ramadan and now need to be reined in.
‘We support personal freedoms, but there are places that have a special status,’ said Sheik Mazin Saadi, a Shiite cleric from Kazimiyah, home to the double gold-domed shrine that is one of Shiite Islam’s holiest sites.
He said the area’s residents lobbied Baghdad’s local government to ban unveiled women from walking around the neighborhood, including its sprawling open-air market that attracts people from across Iraq.
‘The women started to follow to this order,’ Saadi said.
But government leaders in Baghdad say they’ve issued no such ban and ordered some of the warning posters removed.
They have also championed a woman’s freedom to decide if she should cover her hair.
The rule ‘is only for the female visitors who go inside the shrine itself,’ said Sabar al-Saadi, chairman of the Baghdad provincial council’s legal committee. ‘We think that wearing a veil for women in Iraq is a personal decision.’
Muslim women generally wear headscarves or veils in public out of modesty, and female worshippers are required to wear an abaya or other loose robes in shrines and mosques.
New fashion front: Iraqi women, seen here at a market in Kazimiyah neighborhood, Bagdad,are beginning to defy religious leaders in their quest for a new look
But following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, Western styles have crept into Iraq’s fashion palate.
Tight-fitting clothing, stylish shoes and men’s edgy hairstyles have begun to be a familiar uniform for the young and some younger women have even begun to completely forgo the hijab, or headscarf.
Their parents and grandparents fear Western influence will smother Iraq’s centuries of culture and respect for religion.
Fadhil Jawad, 65, a gold seller near the Kazimiyah shrine, complained that foreign influences have infiltrated the country’s customs:
‘We as Iraqis do not respect our traditions.
‘Legs can be seen, there are low-cut shirts.
‘And all, very, very tight. I think these Iraqis who are wearing these things have come back from Syria, Dubai and Egypt.
‘They probably spent too much time in nightclubs. The families in Kazimiyah are conservative.
‘These young people – nobody can control them. They should be given freedoms, but they should know their limits.’
Several young adults strolling the Kazimiyah gold market on Sunday accused the religious class of trying to pull Iraq back to the dark ages, a sentiment that human rights activist Hana Adwar echoed.
‘It is an aggression on the rights of not only religious minorities, but also on secular Muslim women who do not want to wear veils,’ said Adwar, head of the Baghdad-based Iraqi Hope Association.
Men, too, have been targeted in the fashion flap: Edgy haircuts, tattoos and body piercings have angered religious authorities. But Hassan Mahdi, 22, said he does not care.
‘No, hell no, nobody can tell me what to do,’ said Mahdi, sporting a tight turquoise Adidas tracksuit and a fashionably untidy haricut at the Kazimiyah market.
So far, it appears, the fashion police have stopped short of taking any real steps.
Guards at two security checkpoints in Kazimiyah said they have not been ordered to stop daring dressers from entering the market, and 17-year-old Ali Sayeed Abdullah said his slicked-up ghairstyle didn’t prevent him from going into the shrine. ‘Nobody objected,’ he said. ‘But if there is a ban on this, I will change it,’ referring to his hairstyle.
But some women have been handed tissues at Kazimiyah checkpoints and told to wipe off their makeup before entering the market, said resident Hakima Mahdi, 59.
She said: ‘This is very good, it’s respect to the imam, respect to this holy place.’
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
Target the upper classes not the lower classes. Upper classes should be disallowed. Lower classes can wear what they want because they are the outer society of sorts, much like airport/seaport cities as opposed to suburbs. And when the upper classes affirm culturally correct clothes are ‘upper class’, all those middle and lower classes who hope to someday be upper class will also follow suit. Muslims lack any understanding of reverse psychology don’t they? Finally upper classes are fewer in number and will be easier to control. The lower classes however have nothing to lose and this just provokes popular revolt and favouring of the West instead which can lead to angry mobs that topple oppressive fashion police.
ARTICLE 14
House of Lords staff banned from bantering with colleagues in case it is deemed offensive – by Chris Hastings and Peter Henn – PUBLISHED: 21:00 GMT, 1 September 2012 | UPDATED: 21:00 GMT, 1 September 2012
New rules have been branded ‘Orwellian’
Staff told banter can ‘alienate’ and upset other staff
It prides itself on being the home of independent thought and robust free speech.
But now the House of Lords has been branded ‘Orwellian’ after it advised its staff to avoid office banter on the grounds that it can be offensive.
Employees of the second chamber have been advised that even seemingly harmless chat can lead to other colleagues feeling left out and alienated.
Hundreds of staff have been told their banter could offend and alienate colleagues
Hundreds of staff have been told their banter could offend and alienate colleagues
The advice has been issued to hundreds of staff as part of a series of taxpayer-funded equality and diversity sessions on ‘cultural awareness’.
During the two-hour sessions, staff are told that the ‘golden rule’ of treat others as you would like to be treated has been replaced by the ‘platinum rule’ of treat others as they would like to be treated.
Participants are advised that individuals can be defined by their body size, place of birth and even their hobbies and interests just as much as by their race, gender or ethnicity.
It is therefore important to ‘see beyond’ a person’s membership of a particular group and to treat them all as individuals.
A subsequent section on ‘effective communication’ advises participants to ‘avoid banter’, ‘to allow people to self-identify’ and ‘to make minority groups visible using inclusive terms’.
The new advice will see an end to banter between staff members in the second chamber of the House of Lords
Details of the House’s training programmes have been obtained by this newspaper under Freedom of Information laws. During the past 12 months, almost 300 House of Lords employees have been on equality and diversity courses at a cost to taxpayers of just over £18,000.
The House’s clampdown on banter has infuriated campaigners and writers, who insist it is part and parcel of office life. Chrissie Maher, founder of the Plain English Campaign, said: ‘I thought the House of Lords is supposed to be a place where people can speak their minds.
‘I think it’s healthy to have banter and I don’t think it isolates people. People can always join in, and if they don’t want to take part they can always listen and learn.’
Australian novelist and avowed feminist Kathy Lette said: ‘The greatest thing about the English is your wit, and banter is your lifeblood.
‘British self-deprecation and love of wordplay is what sustained you through the Blitz. And now they want to ban banter in the workplace. Where are we suddenly? A Russian gulag? A sci-fi Orwellian nightmare of robotic people? Remove office banter and it will be a case of the bland leading the bland.’
No more of that: 89-year-old Baroness Trumpington reacts accordingly to a comment about her age from Lord King of Bridgewater last year
A ban on banter would be unsustainable on the floor of the House of Lords, where members delight in trading insults.
Last year, veteran Tory peer Baroness Trumpington, 89, was caught on camera giving a two-finger salute to Lord King after he made an unflattering reference to her age during a debate on war veterans.
Her gesture became an instant internet hit. In 2004, Lord Higgins accused former Pensions Minister Malcolm Wicks of being ‘generally confused’ during a discussion.
A spokesman for the House of Lords last night insisted that banter could be ‘misunderstood’ and ‘cause offence even where none was intended’.
She said: ‘The House of Lords values diversity and provides training to enable its staff to explore and understand issues, such as behaviour and language sensitivities, that may arise from working with a broad range of people.
‘It is important all staff are treated with dignity and respect, and we offer training to ensure this is the case.’
Diversity Dynamics, the company that provides the training sessions for the House of Lords, last night declined to comment.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
No such thing as ‘bantering with colleagues’. All communication especially at workplace is intended to create hierarchy by. This is not a bad move and increases professionalism IF not pointed or in a consciously inoffensive manner. Good work. Want to ‘banter’? Not with workmates, and that is also why ethics issues arise in relationships at the workplace which the more aware companies much less government disallows. Want to find a mate? Don’t look at the office, especially the ‘people answerable to’ government offices. If there is a genuine liking between staff, they will definitely get together outside of work in spite of professionalism issues.
ARTICLE 15
Teaching assistant ‘gave homeless men beer for babysitting her six-year-old daughter so she could satisfy manic sexual rage’ – by Laura Cox – PUBLISHED: 18:29 GMT, 31 August 2012 | UPDATED: 20:02 GMT, 31 August 2012
A teaching assistant was arrested on Tuesday after leaving her six-year-old daughter with a group of homeless people so that she could allegedly go and satisfy her ‘manic sexual rage’, by prostituting herself.
Laura Lee Kelly left the young girl with the strangers, in Evergreen Park, Mesa, Arizona. She asked them to babysit and handed them beers in return for their trouble, Fox News reported.
Kelly then went and had sex with two men, allegedly in exchange for cash.
Shocking: 43-year-old Laura Lee Kelly was charged with child abuse after leaving her daughter with strangers while she went to have sex
Abandoned by her mother with no water or cover from the heat the toddler was rescued four hours later after a concerned passerby called police.
Shocking: 43-year-old Laura Lee Kelly was charged with child abuse after leaving her daughter with strangers while she went to have sex
Abandoned by her mother with no water or cover from the heat the toddler was rescued four hours later after a concerned passerby called police.
She was removed from the care of her ‘babysitters’ and is now being looked after by other family members.
Police officers found Kelly sitting in a grassy area with a man who told them the 43-year-old had been ‘coming and going all afternoon and even asked him if he “wanted to (expletive)”‘.
Kelly was arrested, admitting that it was a ‘bad idea’ to leave her child with the strangers, especially having provided them with alcohol.
She said she ‘she felt a manic sexual rage inside of her which she cannot control and needed to have sex,’ according to court documents.
Cruel: Evergreen Park in Mesa, Arizona, where Kelly abandoned her child for four hours
One of the group given charge of the child, Maureen Wilson, told Abc15.com they bought gummy sweets for the child at a nearby store and were told by the clerk that Kelly ‘was prostituting in front of my store’.
A classroom teaching assistant she has been suspended from her role at Whitman Elementary School where she had worked since the spring.
She was charged with child abuse and has since been released from jail.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
Nice way to put that. Manic sexual rage . . . whoa thats the spirit! Do you know how rare that is in some places? Sickly and stricken lot compared . . . meanwhile release Laura with a warning. This is not a worthy case to imprison a woman who went hobby whoring to relax. Some sick people relax by abusing others. Some quite healthful, relax by f—king. Others relax by returning abuse that others pile on them and their friends. A rare few harbour grievances until the abusers are all in hell, or meet them in hell. But who’s going to look after Laura’s baby when Laura is not having sex and now in prison ON the taxpayer’s funds?
Laura should get those same family members to look after the kid instead of the general homeless, though the homeless could well do with the drinks. Laura’s spreading the wealth. Maybe the homeless, and women like Laura could be briefed on how to organise their time or what to do when needing to drop off their kids. Also RLDs are needed for every district area, as so long as there are adults, people will want to have sex. Laura while being rather disorganized and ad hoc about expensive babysitters, is having her human rights trampled on by not having a RLD zone to work from in her spare time and also potentially by not having some form of community creche (perhaps hospital creches or police stations could double up as a drop off, with time limit offenses being applied for children left too long or even overnight? (Careful mothers, vaccinations can and do occur illegally . . . ) where the children can be dropped off in a safe community area. Never looked at England as a place that lacked consideration for legislation or venue for the above even as women keep clamouring for breast feeding booths but entirely neglect the above . . . Laura, say hi to Chinchilla even though some of us may never visit Costa Rica . . . tick tick tick . . . teak teak teak . . . was someone talking to Benedict? Refusal to exspose pedo-priest sins results in ‘forked luck’ . . .
ARTICLE 16
Denunciation of ‘Cult Of Man’ Religions – posted by Father H., on 7th September 2012
Subsuming the 4 earlier astral forms . . . ‘since beginning of civilisation’ elder gods 20,000+ years back (Polytheism : Egyptian/Taoist/Hindu – think Agni and how Buddhism attempts to subsume the Fire God, makes an attack on Taoism which clearly states that hair is the gift of the Gods to Mankind by SHAVING monastic skinheads . . . ) DO NOT fight upstart Monotheists and Buddhists who are mere Anthropological gods unable to ensconce the ENTIRE Universe (about 4300+ and 2500 years for both, then the post 1500 AD wannabe Malays in Asia trying to NLP their way into Humanity’s Akhasic without understanding the spirit of the 3rd form of Monotheism or even ensuring the UN Charter is respected by ending APARTHEID of Bumiputra Special Privileges via Islam, daring even to manipulate the Avatars of the day . . . ) . . . we were here first, says the ones who know and took the elder path, cutting of hair is like CIRCUMCISION, and the LGBT movement looks quite like the reunity of Binary-Androgynous Spirit of Man where the Monotheists and Buddhists illegally bind the same into technology (cars, phones etc.) which will FAIL when the spirit is recalled in times of need . . . these above types are indulging in Spiritual Crimes and overstepping the authority ‘God’ has given them or that they have ‘earned’ to a point.
Cultists, Buddhist or Christian have a right to choose to be Cultists but do not have a right to force others to obey or follow their lifestyles via governmental laws, the psychiatric establishment, or spiritual techniques which are SPIRITUALLY ILLEGAL. Obey or suffer . . . the conglomeration of lost souls (aborted ‘Foetids’ or ‘Fetii’ alog with all those executed or harmed for being LGBT, driven underground in the male female legalistically dominant dichotomy world of social interaction is now intent on tearing the fabric of reality like the unnatural and miserable construct binary gender (which does not exist in any and all realities), is as much as a cult of Manform-Worship as a selfish failure compared to the multi-cognitive and universal faiths which had crocodiles (of which many are intersexed), insects, elements, of which man is a part and NOT dominant – until the rightful place of ALL creation is given proper place, every species or even ‘Gender-Type’ (M then F, the LGBTQ) lost is an indictment t6o the unsuitability of binary gender minded faiths to govern or administer (even as they do have a right to exist and retain their limiting proclivities) . . . GMO meanwhile is a war criminal action if anything which for certain offends Nature itself – we do not know what happens in the ether and astral when a GMO species is not properly labelled for consensual choice, even as Natural species could well be what keeps ‘Relity’ stable via ‘Spiritual Lineages’ unknowable to mere humans who can barely touch telekinesis and telepathy . . .
People are all linked so if you have some people PRAYING obsessively or compulsively from sheer lack of intelligence, you end up with as many people on the other side of the world or fence, becoming OCD or Autistic from the psychic ‘noise’. Prayers even in auditory silence are hence psychically OFFENSIVE to all free peoples of the world, much less the same blared from loudspeakers. If those clerics will not consider this and keep forcing their will on all and sundry via prayer, then when some people start targeting these groups, who is to call them crazy?
This is the reason why China bans psychically manipulative groups like Falungong . . . this is PSYCHIC ABUSE. And the rule should be SILENCE IS GOLDEN, not pray all the time loudly internally, or extrenally enhanced with loudspeakers. Not learning the language that the prayer is conducted in helps, BUT subconsciously the psychically sensitive get insanity causing GIBBERISH instead. So religionists, you claim to be so transcendant while ignoring the above? Stop abusing secular society with prayers that are non-consensually imposed. SHHHHHHH! Inside and outside you abusers of ‘Sacred Silence’ . . . psychic violence/noise is offensive! All that religious ‘sliding/planking’ and prostrating around on the floor does cause HARM to the seculars, causes traffic accidents, spontaneous combustions, murderous weather systems. So don’t! Now time to get back to wine women and song . . .
Difference btn Overeaching Theravada and Limiting Mahayana
Theravada says enlightenment can be achieved in 1 life, encourages diligence. Mahayana says enlightenment can ONLY be achieved over many lives – in fact being 3-5 generations later ‘established’ and ‘recorded’, Mahayana is a bowlderised version of Theravada – that makes Mahayana in fact a religious FRANCHISE. Temple building par contractor enriching excellence, sales of paraphernalia, and con jobs BECAUSE the premise is am apathetic ‘since one cannot transcend in 1 life, might as well enjoy etc. . . . ‘ and indeed we see many well fed, and poorly read ‘monks’ in large SUVs and massive temples conning the public of donations in a materialist mindset of ‘since the monk is successful and so many people support them, they must be truly spiritual . . . ‘ in fact the MORE MATERIAL the ‘personality’ is, the LESS SPIRITUAL.
True spirituality seeks at very least longevity aand at most immortality, but to presume to sequester funds which should be circulating in society in luxurious buildings and fat bank accounts from lay people who need to work for a living (those who do not need to work are acceptable donors), is a sign of worship of the materialm, worship of money, an attempt at ‘stylized plurocracy’ (rich with ‘Monastic’ characteristics), as a priority instead of promoting better social values, righting wrongs in society by CHANGING BAD LAWS etc..
And some groups of monks in an establishment even parasite off not just the wealth of lay people, but the minds of others, especially the spiritually unwary or spiritually innocent with tantric (some sexual) methods, or psychiatric poisons that cause minds to be ‘open’ and ‘readable’. These are Evil aligned establishments and Evil aligned ‘monks’ (i.e. evil monks who encourage dramatic self immolations etc. rather than hard work which has no guarantee of allowing even a hermit’s life . . . overpopulated and too dense to be spiritual . . . one cannot be spiritual with the presence of the uncultivated masses around one . . . ).
Lay persons ‘joining’ a temple find that due to the ‘limited’ spaces, makes being part of tht particular group impossible. But they will certainly accept your money! Then there is the wealthy group that sets up their own monasteries and become their own abbots or abbesses ina spiritual free for all while being QUITE uncultivated and VERY MATERIAL. In fact the decision to be a Buddist does not require a single cent, does not expect a cent, the tonsure being FREE for those who cannot afford to spend money and has no need (by Theravada) to be part of an order. What does happen in such cases though is groups of beggars huddled along the streets in monk robes instead of WORKING to create their own temples to house and feed more ‘lazy and apathetic persons’ (well a discerning would be ‘Abbot’ could see who is real or not if the Aboot is even real to begin with) or off society via the ‘pity’ factor.
A real monk in context and in sync with the realites of today, would work and pay for their own living, monastic life is a LUXURY in these overpopulated conditions and the only real monk is a . . . monk who will be self funded. Religion is a luxury for the insular, there are no more forests to support hermits calling themselves monks. Would-be monks COULD work to own a patch of forest to experience what Buddha did but nothing else more. Anything else more is MATERIAL WORSHIP and worship of plutocracy. The most monastic thing to do would be to :
(i) redistribute state land and extreme levls of wealth holders’ wealth equally and
(ii) run for politics to abolish taxes (then leave after 2 terms) and
(iii) abolish all toll fees and ALL taxes to the poor (perhaps 2000 and below earners? . . . the middle class ENDS at 100K a year Romney, not begins at 200K a year . . . ) for freedom of movement (why punish simply because one owns a car? but for the wealthy that becomes wealth distribution instead)
;so that no more dependency or daylight robbery could be imposed on anyone, but like so many religious governments posing as religious, the state land remains fallow and sequestered instead of providing home and food to the homeless causing immense suffering, the taxes remain for those who cannot afford taxes, the toll booths remain preventing freedom of travel etc., technology that makes life easy to enrich Capitalists via Consumerism (to the benefit of the plutocracy) is withheld etc..
Who is a real spiritualist? The one who has logic to understand the above posted FACTS and tries to act and expose the flaws of society even at risk to life and spiritual health? Or the one who runs around talking nonsense in platitudinous ‘sermons’, driving in oversized fuel guzzler 4WDs and going to the tastiest foodie vegetarian cuisine restaurants (instead of eating as bland as possible to ‘not indulge the sense of taste and smell’ to train discipline) while looking wise, while watching others who could make a difference suffer and collecting money from people who cannot even retire?
As for the 99%ters, remember that religion is a luxury, if you cannot even retire, forget about spending money on paraphernalia or ‘donations’ and study the free texts on your faith of choice and live that religious life instead, consumerism of paraphernalia is MATERIALITY not spirituality . . .
Finally, a single temple fund could support 100-1000 poor for a lifetime or develop a meat growing lab so that the spiritual sin of killing will not fall on those seculars with no access. 100 monks being FED in a temple could support as many poor who could pledge to feed another poor person so instead of becoming a burden or drain on society, all monks could be contributors instead by WORKING to feed the poorest with basic staples for example (nothing fancy, just plain stuff) blue ocean style, not red ocean style. And most monasteries and monks are RED OCEAN humanity with too many part of the unaccountable wealth sequestration system, except they hide behind a wall of human flesh and robes, and the ethos of spiritual hierarchy . . . the odd greenie movement type picking up rubbish does more than a monk lounging around in marble clad halls does. Religion is indulgence that burdens society if not self funded, being dependent on the funds and ‘spiritual neediness’ of others.
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
Theocracy is always harmful whatever religion, and the way some of these ‘monks’ are behaving is quite authoritarian, being so uneducated and stagnated and such know-alls, refusing to accept the world in all the experiences and colour to be narrow and even fundamentalistic enough to self immolate . . . one needs no evidence to affirm the poor psychological state of monks or any extreme immersion faith types. They may be good at denying themselves and others, but are no joy to be around and suck the life out of the societies they live in and manipulate people negatively, with stagnating fundamentalism etc., while never doing a day of honest work, never laying a brick, never tilling the land, just whiling away precious time and life mumbling tonal-tantric-occult-scriptures uninvited against the unsuspecting, and polluting the general environment with psychic noise, extremism, apathy, sloth and manipulating reality around them in a manner most disrespectful to those of any divinity innate.
They fail to see that others live and love differently and want to manipulate all and sundry into their dull, shaven, vegetarian conformity which vicious governments find easy to control (one other reason why monks are well loved and supported by the state, the apathy and self centered/self continuing nature which only proselytizes to no end is ideal for absolutist governments of any form) . . .
The world and the wealth and bounty (that means all mineral and oil wealth which should not be sequestered by a handful of individuals) of the world, belongs EQUALLY to all mankind who should not overpopulate and ensure spaces to all fellow men via ALL ENCOMPASSING LEGISLATION with sufficient opt out clauses (not dis-enfranchisment, not theocracy, and/or narrow communalism or apartheid) for any and all diverse expressions of self and individuality. Perhaps these ‘fundo’ types can act as a core preserve of native racial natures, a living museum of a nation’s past to fall back on in times of war to learn how to be fundo from, but nothing else.
This is the post millenial generation, live and let live, share the wealth and unused land not sequester via idiotic state land laws or uncontrolled Capitalist paradigms which Marx carried to the lowest denominator form (I propose a 20 million limit instead, rich enough but not sequestering so much that the number is mind boggling), and leave everyone not of one’s favourite group alone. Religion is about PEACE and self seeking NOT disrespectful or sneakiy proselytizing, converting others or use as a weapon of manipulation for political or personal power.
Whats owed must be returned, whats bet and lost must be given up accordingly. That is civilisation. Response with spiritual violence after losing and refusing to pay up is barbarism, think Bamiyan Buddhas and Muslims, what would Buddha do in this case? Kill Muslims? Destroy back their statues? Islam has none. But spiritual violence that kills autonomy is against all principles of civilisation after all, move to civilised lands and places and let other barbarians handle the barbaric because that is the only thing they need to live off – love of strife and love of retaliation . . .
ARTICLE 17
Fiat : How fiat being replaced by PMs could work :
As the mines dig more for issuance of currency or the state acquires gold from jewellery for conversion into coin, the value of Precious Metals will fall, the grammage of the coins will increase.
Once enough has been mined, Precious Metals will fall in value to perhaps an ounce = 100 levels BUT much safer! Meanwhile to prevent abuse of the system, manufacturers and miners will need to be monitored by governments with watchdog citizen bodies, as fiat has been abused no end causing inflation. Unlike fiat paper, Precious Metals cannot be issued at leisure to cronies etc. and be unaccounted for.
To ensure further safety, Cowries or sea shells of sufficiently rare type could be used as well to further prevent uncontrolled replication of currency like fiat printed without accountability as of now. The breeding grounds for seashells or cowries can be considered a natural a form of mint which can be guarded as a mint. Criminals would hence have no way to replicate currency (much like fiat is printed) unless they have access to breeding areas of cowries, access to mines and PMs (already protected), and manufacturing facilities which are the easiest to obtain. Local insignia could adorn local PM currency, which could incorporate sea shells. Conversely, the PMs could be done away with entirely and only seashells used.
All Precious Metals will increase in value for a while due to insufficient amounts but fiat can be exchanged by the gram instead.
Smaller weightage for coinage should be applied. Standards or charts will need to be drawn up as in example below :
1 Gram Coin of Osmium (Purple Gold Plated?) = 100 1 Gram Coins of Gold
1 Gram Coin of Gold = 100 1 Gram Coins of Silver
1 Gram Coin of Silver = 100 1 Gram Coins of Copper
3 Gram of Silver = 1 low end room daily
1 Gram of Silver = 1 single low end meal
x 3 per category up (low end, middle quality, upper quality)
Osmium is proposed as the most valuable coin because of density and rarity, nothing else. ‘Purple Gold’ coating is to make for easier distinction. what is so great about PMs as opposed to paper fiat? Governments cannot print whatever they want and cause inflation and wealth gaps, with electronic currency like ‘BitCoin’ being even worse, having no physical form like fiat at least does though fiat is a piece of paper wit lots of zeros, meaning $1 costs the same to ‘print’ as $1000 . . . PM’s however cannot be printed. We all know that the mint is off limits to the 99% and that cronies can get a stack of fiat if they really need to, leading to control by a false plutocracy based on fiat printing.
malaysiandemocracy 