Tag Archives: economy

International, U.S.

World War 3: New phase of Afghan War; Genocide in the Name of Fighting Terrorism. Hundreds of families displaced everyday, hundreds of children frozen to death! National ID cards new weapon for Ethnic Cleansing!

“We saw letters issued by the provincial government of Herat that said, effectively, don’t direct any assistance specifically to displaced people. The theory is that since they don’t want to either encourage them to stay or even acknowledge that displacement is a problem they’re going to pretend that it doesn’t exist.”-Michael Bochenek, Amnesty International

Not being reported by most of the main stream U.S. media is what looks like a new phase in the so called U.S. war on terror in Afghanistan: Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing, specifically by targeting children.

The New York Times has published a report, concerning the growing number of cases of children freezing to death, and being targeted by U.S. led forces.

The Washington Post has also written about the increased forced displacement, and articles about the increased killing of children by U.S. led forces.

For years the Brookings Institution has been reporting on the increasing number of people being forcibly displaced in Afghanistan.

Also, Amnesty International has recently reported that as many as 400 people, per day, are being forced from their homes into refugee (concentration?) camps.  As of the middle of February, 2012, there were an estimated 500,000 people in these camps.

It’s in those camps that children are freezing to death. The camps do not have any basic necessities.  The U.S. backed Afghan government says it’s necessary because of the continued U.S. led war with “Taliban”, and natural disasters.

Amnesty says many of the Afghans being affected include those who returned to Afghanistan after the U.S. “liberated” the country from the Taliban.  Ten years later, those who returned say they were better off in Pakistani refugee camps!

The U.S. supported Afghan government officials deny there is a problem. They label returning refugees as “economic migrants”.

The camps for economic migrants are where hundreds of children have frozen to death this winter.  According to the British Telegraph, at least 40 people, mostly children, froze to death just in the past four weeks!

“They may be refused enrollment or threatened with expulsion if they can not produce a national identification card, a document that most Afghans do not have…”-Amnesty International

One program started by the U.S. supported Afghan government, is a national identification (ID) card (similar to what some lawmakers in the U.S. want for Americans).  If you don’t have the ID card you don’t get any help, your children are not even allowed to attend school (wasn’t that one of the reasons for getting rid of the Taliban, so that kids could go to school?).

“Economic migrants” are not issued ID cards, unless they have other forms of documentation.  Now realize that most Afghans who live outside major cites, as well as those people who fled the civil wars in the 1990s, have no “documentation”.

“In the typical scenario, a group of men arrives, claiming to own the land and telling the families they must leave.”-Amnesty International

If you don’t have this Afghan national ID, you can be kicked out of your home (similar to what Israelis have been doing to Palestinians) and placed in the so called refugee camps. In these camps people are even being denied food because they can not “prove” they are Afghans!

A New York Times article said that U.S. supported Afghan government officials refuse to recognize the increasing number of deaths because those who died did not have proper ID!!!

Where’s all the international aid? Most of the supplies coming into the camps are coming from locals! But, they are not enough.  Nader Nafey, a local businessman, brought food for 200 people at the Charahi Qambar camp.  The problem is that there is more than 900 people in the camp!

“Private Afghan businessmen, as well as companies like Roshan, a mobile telephone carrier, and Ariana Television, through their charitable arms, have visited both of the worst-hit camps in recent days, handing out aid, including food, firewood and cash payments.”-New York Times

Amnesty International says the billions of dollars in international aid, is deliberately being blocked from the camps, by the U.S. supported Afghan government. 

New York Times investigators have interviewed U.S. supported Afghan officials, who blame it all on the refugees.  They make the outrageous claim that the undocumented economic migrants sold off all their food, and even rented out their government supplied apartments, to risk death living in the unheated tents of the refugee camps!!!

This is taking place while killings of Afghan children, by U.S. led forces, is also increasing.

“Seven boys under 14 and an 18-year-old were killed in the attack….They were herding sheep less than half a mile from their homes when the bombing happened.”-New York Times

U.S./NATO/ISAF officials consider herding sheep suspicious: “We were engaging a group of armed men that we observed engaging in unusual behavior.”-Lieutenant Colonial Jimmie E. Cummings

“Suddenly some airplanes came and dropped bombs on the children and killed my son, my two nephews and some other children from our village. When we went there we saw the children in pieces, some missing legs, some missing arms, only the heads and face could be recognized, nothing else.”-Abdul Zahid, local police officer

Recently French NATO/ISAF forces admitted killing the seven boys, and the 18 year old. The French say they had information that the boys were Taliban gun smugglers! (an excuse used thousands of times by U.S. led forces)

Here’s another typical explanation given by U.S. led forces: “These were young Afghans. They were adult-sized, athletic, strong, walking perfectly in the valley. I have no doubt that they were carrying weapons.”

Locals basically say ‘no shit sherlock, we all carry guns, this is Afghanistan where we all have the right bear arms!’  That’s right all you right wingers in the U.S., the right to have weapons is more respected in Afghanistan (even if the U.S. supported government is against it) than in the hypocritical United States!  The problem is that U.S. led forces in Afghanistan target anyone seen carrying a weapon, no mater how young.

“Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed in this war in ever-increasing numbers. For much too long Afghan civilians have paid the highest price of war.”-Ján Kubiš, United Nations Special Representative for the Secretary-General

On February 4, 2012, the United Nations published a report, which said there was a 192% increase in the number of civilians killed, in the last six months of 2011!  The report also said civilian deaths have been increasing every year!

The report blames the yearly increases not only on freedom fighters, but on U.S. supported pro-government forces: “Among the tactics of Pro-Government Forces, aerial attacks caused the greatest number of Afghan civilian deaths in 2011…”

The fact that year after year civilians are increasingly killed or driven into death camps, implies only one thing; an official policy of Genocide.

While many ethnic groups are targeted, the majority are Pashtuns.  The Pashtuns just happen to be the majority of Afghans, and make up the majority of “Taliban”.

This looks more and more like an official U.S. policy to eradicate the dominant Pashtuns, through genocidal ethnic cleansing.  Don’t forget, not one Afghan has ever been directly linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States!!!

 

 

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Riots continue in Afghanistan, Taliban take advantage and go on Offensive, 20 Afghans killed, 2 U.S. troops killed, Obama makes empty apology

U.S. media reporting that an Afghan soldier has killed two U.S. troops, vengeance for the burning of dozens of Qur’ans.  It’s not the first, second or third time U.S. led forces have committed acts of desecration (in violation of the UCMJ) in Afghanistan.

At least 20 Afghans have been killed, as a direct result of the riots.  One of those killed was an Afghan government solider. It’s not clear if the soldier was taking part in suppressing the riots, or take part in the riots.

A militia/freedom fighter group (U.S. media calls all Afghan freedom fighters “Taliban”) issued a statement calling for all out attacks on all foreign troops and bases.  At one base U.S. forces were shot at, resulting in two U.S. troops injured.

U.S. President Barack Obama sent a written apology to Afghan President Karzai.  When you realize how many times the U.S. has apologized to Afghanistan, for killing civilians and acts of desecration, it becomes clear those apologies are hollow.

 

International, U.S.

Lessons for the Occupy Movement from the Egyptian January 2011 Revolution: #1; Peaceful Protest does not Work!!!

“We will not be silenced! Whether you’re a Christian, Muslim or Atheist you will get back your goddamn rights!  We will have our rights, one way or another! We will never be silent!”-Egyptian revolutionary

Peaceful protest does not work.  If you take certain U.S. university Political Science courses on revolutionary countries, or history of terrorism courses, you’ll learn of studies that show that peaceful protests always fail.  Most of these U.S. university courses are aimed at students who want to be public administrators, or law enforcers.  Why?  Because the courses teach them how to keep “the people” down!

“I am six months pregnant! I’m ready to die with my child so Egypt would live!”-Egyptian Revolutionary

Was the Egyptian January 2011 Revolution peaceful?  Hell no!  Not only were the police, and pro-Mubarak thugs, violent, but protestors finally fought back. Egyptian protestors used rocks, sticks, trash can lids and even their own bodies, to fight against guns and bombs.

If you want proof just watch videos of the Battle for Qasr al-Nil Bridge, in which police hit protestors with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons, even when they were praying, and then repeatedly rammed their armored vans into the crowds.  Watch the violent reaction of the protestors, attacking the armored vans with their bare hands, lifeless bodies being carried away, finally taking the Bridge!

If that’s not enough, watch the many videos from Tahrir Square, in which protestors and police (backed up by pro-Mubarak thugs), spent days in a back and forth of violence!

I watched the January Revolution from day one, many days not getting any sleep because I did not want to miss anything (and I was in communication with some revolutionaries via the internet).  Despite the myth that it was peaceful, it was not.  The protestors definitely started out peaceful, and that’s just what those in power want.

Studies have shown that those in power will violently suppress even the most peaceful protests, because it works!  If they get resistance, they will increase the violence they use on the protestors.  However, the same studies show that the power elite have a short window of time to successfully put down a revolution.  If protestors can withstand the violent crackdown, and even fight back, it will weaken the power elite.  The longer the people can resist attempts by elites to put them down, the weaker the elites get!

As the elites grow weak that is not the time to back off and make concessions. Again, that’s what the elites want. The Egyptians pushed and pushed, and the elites (well, Mubarak anyway) finally fell.

The peaceful U.S. Civil Rights protests of the early 1960s is not what got the Civil Rights laws passed.  It was the violent revolutions of black Americans before and after Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, that forced the white Americans to give in!

Research the insurgencies (race riots) in Watts 1965, Jersey City 1964, Elizabeth 1964, New York/Harlem/Rochester 1964, Dixmoor/Chicago 1964, Philadelphia 1964, Cleveland 1966, Benton Harbor 1966 (put down by Mitt Romney’s father George Romney), Tampa 1967, Buffalo 1967, Newark 1967, Detroit 1967, Plainfield 1967, Cairo 1967, Washington DC 1968, Baltimore 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Chicago 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Kansas City 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination), Louisville 1968 (caused by King Jr’s assassination).  It was those violent uprisings, and others into the early 1970s, which scared the crap out of the white power elite, and they caved and passed Civil Rights laws.  Also, research the creation of the Black Panthers and MOVE.

And don’t get me started on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, he was no peace lover!  He just knew how to manipulate.  The Hindus presented themselves to the British as obedient sheep, to the point of doing nothing while the Red Coats beat, shot and stabbed them.  Yet the Hindus were attacking Muslims, provoking Muslims to fight, and then the Hindus would tell the British ‘you see you can’t trust those violent Muslims, give us control of India’.

By the way look what happened to Gandhi’s peace loving wife; assassinated by her own body guards after she ordered the killing of Muslims and the destruction of a Sikh temple!

When I was taking video/film production classes at Allan Hancock College, in Santa Maria, California (back in the early 1990s), I attended a journalism seminar.  At the seminar I listened to a lecture by a retired lobbyist.  The guy spent a couple of decades lobbying elected officials at the state capitol in Sacramento.  He said: “The only way you get action out of elected officials is with money or violence.”

He went on to explain that in his years at the state capitol the only time the politicians truly listened to “the people” was when they had money to offer, or were rioting in the street!  He stressed that those people who peacefully demonstrated were essentially blown off by the elected officials.

Most elitist politicians rationalize that if an issue isn’t bad enough to get people causing violence in the street, then it must not be an issue at all!

“I would rather die with pride than live without it!”-slogan used by Egyptian Revolutionaries

The point is, peaceful protest is a myth created by the power elite to fool the masses.  The only time real change is ever made in societies is through violence.  By the way, that’s how the United States of America came into being!

More to follow…..

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

More suicides at Chinese Slave Wage Factory Cities

Chinese media reporting that a man jumped to his death on February 18, and a woman did the same on February 15.  The local government officials claim they are investigating.

The two slave wage employees worked at Nanshan International Stationery.  The man had been trapped their for eight years!  Many people in the United States don’t realize these Chinese factory cities are literally walled in cities.  When you sign a contract to work there you’re stuck inside.

Nanshan International Stationery has Western investors, through Hong Kong.  Officials at the factory said “personal problems” were the cause of the suicides. Yeah, I agree that eight years trapped in a factory city would cause personal problems!

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Black Horse & What Economic Recovery? Greeks right about sinister plots against them, yet again the latest Bail Out is put on hold!

How many times is this gonna happen: World finance leaders announce a done deal for a Greek bail out loan, only to retract it not even 24 hours later.

Yet again European Union leaders, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are using excuses to hold back the latest 130 billion Euro loan.

“Greece has obviously made significant efforts, and now we need to continue the work and that the entirety of the elements, particularly furnished by the other parties, are also put into place.”–Christine Lagarde, IMF

The IMF’s Christine Lagarde said, February 21, 2012, that the new loan deal is now going to be scrutinized by the IMF, and a decision to approve, or not, will be made by the second week of March!

Many Greeks believe their country is deliberately being destroyed economically.

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

Business/Economics, International

World War 3: Iran makes Oil offer to European countries. But still; France, Britain No Oil For You!

Iran has made a new oil deal offer to European countries, except the countries of Britain and France: “They must know that our country is in a position which must be talked to and treated on equal standing and through mutual respect, and they must forget about their past empires and exploiting other countries.”-Ramin Mehmanparast, Foreign Ministry of Iran

For all other European countries Iran is willing to continue shipping oil to them if: “They…must sign medium, or long term contracts covering periods of three to five years….and ban….oil customers from unilaterally canceling their contracts.”-Ramin Mehmanparast, Foreign Ministry of Iran

Iranian officials say that by signing the long term contracts European countries could get a fixed price for Iranian oil.  If they don’t sign contracts, then no more oil for you: “We make decisions in our own country and we have sanctioned hostile states; if other countries do not specify their decision about long term oil contracts, Tehran will make a decision about them as well.”-Rostam Qassemi, Oil Minister of Iran

Iranian officials claim they don’t really need the European market, saying only 18% of all of Iran’s oil production goes to Europe.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Mazda in trouble, needs $2.87 billion cash!

After announcing some very fuel efficient vehicles (which will not be sold in the U.S. for some reason), Mazda has announced that it needs at least $2.87 billion cash! (early reports from Japan said $1 billion)

For the year 2011, Mazda’s said it expected an annual net loss of about $1 billion (to be officially reported at the end of March).  It would make four years in a row that Mazda has lost big money!

To raise the billions of dollars Mazda needs, they’re issuing more stocks. Officials want to get $2.87 billion for the new stocks, but hope stock prices stay high enough that they would get at least $1.25 billion.  Also, Mazda plans to borrow more than $870 million, on top of the cash raised by stock issues!

Mazda needs the money to increase production, and build a new factory in Mexico.  The majority of Mazda’s new cars will be sold in South America, Australia and Asia, not in the United States.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Black Horse & What Economic Recovery? EU approves yet another bail out loan for Greece! Yet again it’s too little to do any good

Early morning February 21, 2012, European Union finance ministers approved a 130 billion Euro bail out loan for Greece.

However, on February 20, EU finance minister Johan van Overtveldt, said it would take at least 200 billion Euros!  Obviously this latest loan is not going to be enough, yet again!

Many Greeks are convinced they are being hit by a sinister plot to turn their country into a Third World nation.

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Japan’s own government experts blame the government for lack of response to nuclear disaster at Fukushima! Only 2 reactors now operating in Japan

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is being questioned by their own experts regarding the safety of nuclear reactors.  The Agency responded by censoring their own experts!

A publicized debate held by Agency experts was cut short, when it became clear that the consensus was that the government was accountable for the lack of response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and that the current “stress tests” were also lacking.

The censorship happened specifically because of criticisms of the Agency’s approval of stress testing done at the Ohi nuclear plant.

Experts were pissed: “I feel deceived!”-Ino Hiromitsu, Professor Emeritus University of Tokyo

“The panel started to fully review plant safety to prevent another Fukushima!  Why are you rushing for a conclusion?”-Goto Masashi, Shibaura Institute of Technology

An official with the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency basically said they’re getting impatient, when he pointed out that the experts have already met eight times about nuclear safety.

Japan is now down to just two operating nuclear reactors, out of 54 total.  Most reactors have been shut down for routine maintenance and inspections, but, local governments are the only ones who can OK restart, and so far they all say ‘no way’.

Japan’s major industries rely on electricity from nuclear power plants.  Japan’s crashing economy is being caused in large part to its major industries struggling to operate with so little power plants on line.  The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is probably being pushed to convince local governments to get those power plants back on line.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Who Owns the Moon? United States declares no fly zone over the Moon, The New Space Race is On! Space War next?

There’s a new space race, thanks in part to Google’s Lunar X Prize, but also because the Moon is indeed full of mineral wealth.

But the new race is not for exploration, it’s for exploitation. The Moon has titanium, trace amounts of water, and rare minerals used in high tech electronics: “In our case it’d be people prospecting for the best places to mine the water, or mine the metals…”-David Gump, Astrobotic Technology

China has a lunar satellite in orbit, and hopes to put an unmanned explorer on the Moon by 2013.  India also has a satellite orbiting the Moon.

You might think Republican Newt Gingrich is crazy with his plans for U.S. domination of the Moon, but he’s not too far off from official policy!

NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration) issued a report (dated July 20, 2011) titled How to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of U.S. Government Lunar Artifacts.

It’s not just about artifacts brought back from the Moon, but it recommends that the Apollo sites on the Moon should be declared “no fly zones”, and that the U.S. must make every effort to get back to the Moon: “…we’re coming into an age of exploitation…because of the changing environment, and much more use of space by other groups…we’re beginning to think about it.”– Robert Kelso, author of NASA report

The U.S. government has also declared that the United States is the only country that should have exclusive access to the Moon, simply because it was the first to put people on the Moon!