Eurokrisis

The cause of the euro crisis is not to be found in the irrationality of the financial markets. Rather, it lies in the fact that certain countries lived beyond their means. A Greek train driver earns a monthly net salary of €5,000 ($6,600), and Spanish air traffic controllers make up to €300,000 a year.
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In 2007, the Irish government had a balanced budget, and the Spanish government even had a surplus. The financial sector, on the other hand, issued loans that made no sense at all for years. The damage is considerable, but it could be contained if Europe would introduce euro bonds.
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Since total new borrowing for the euro zone is substantially lower than that of the United States, the euro bond would be an attractive instrument at the international level. And that's particularly the case since the market for euro bonds would be much bigger than the market for German government bonds.
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The European Central Bank (ECB) has already asked (euro-zone) member states for a capital infusion because, since the crisis began, it has bought up close to €75 billion in troubled government bonds. And who is paying the lion's share? Germany. For the time being, the shell game being played by politicians and the ECB is still working. But things will get worse when Greece and others can no longer service their debts. Then we'll have to guarantee amounts that no one could even imagine today.
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Without the euro, Germany would have come to resemble Japan, suffering from weak growth and always teetering on the edge of deflation. Like Japan, in order to re-establish competitiveness, we would have had to respond to every devaluation of the dollar with wage freezes. Thanks to the euro, we avoided that. And that's why it's worth doing everything we can to preserve it. Spiegel


Bloomberg to Force Disclosure of Greece Swaps

Bloomberg News filed a lawsuit against the European Central Bank, seeking the disclosure of documents showing how Greece used derivatives to hide its fiscal deficit and helped trigger the region’s sovereign debt crisis.

The lawsuit asks the European Union’s General Court in Luxembourg to overturn a decision by the ECB not to disclose two internal documents drafted for the central bank’s six-member executive board in Frankfurt this year. The notes show how Greece used swaps to hide its borrowings, according to a March 3 cover page attached to the papers obtained by Bloomberg News.
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“Decisions made behind closed doors helped contribute to the global economic havoc of the last few years. Money flees secrecy and unanswered questions undermine the financial system and give some participants an unfair advantage. Confidence in markets grows with information,” he said. “Bloomberg wants the ECB, as well as the Federal Reserve and other financial institutions around the world, to end this damaging opacity.” Bloomberg


Jafar Panahi arrested (II)

Jafar Panahi (Persian: جعفر پناهی ; born July 11, 1960) is an Iranian filmmaker and is one of the most influential filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave movement. He has gained recognition from film theorists and critics worldwide and received numerous awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

On 20th December 2010 Jafar Panahi was handed a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media as well as leaving the country. wikipedia

Note: Panahi is not the only filmmaker jailed in Iran.


Post-election brutality

Alexander Lukashenko and his black-shirted riot police reverted to type at the weekend, cracking heads and arresting opponents while fabricating a landslide election victory. This violent regression victimised the people of Belarus.

But it was also a striking setback for half-hearted European Union attempts to break Moscow's icy embrace and bring Belarus in from the cold. Guardian

Afghan women still suffer

Bibi Aisha, the Afghan girl whose nose and ears were cut off by her husband, was a "lucky victim" because she survived her attack and got help, a top human rights official in the country said yesterday.

While Aisha escaped her abusive family, the deputy chairman of the country’s Independent Human Rights Commission said many women in similar circumstances were less lucky.

“For sure, we have hundreds of Bibi Aishas in Afghanistan,” Ahmad Fahim Hakim said. taipeitimes


Rwanda to unveil Genocide Archive

An ambitious hi-tech project to make the Rwandan genocide one of the most thoroughly documented mass killings ever will be unveiled in Kigali today.

The Genocide Archive of Rwanda will serve as a "unified repository" for all information related to the 1994 massacres, which saw about 800,000 people killed in 100 days, mostly from the minority Tutsi population. Guardian


WikiLeaks cables: Pfizer 'used dirty tricks

Cables say drug giant hired investigators to find evidence of corruption on Nigerian attorney general to persuade him to drop legal action. Guardian


Vatican refused to engage with child sex abuse inquiry

Leaked cable lays bare how Irish government was forced to grant Vatican officials immunity from testifying to Murphy commission. Guardian


CABLEGATE

Gorecki dies at 76

WARSAW, Poland – Polish composer Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki, famous for his "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs," including one about a woman who was held prisoner by the Gestapo, died Friday (November 12 - 2010) following a serious illness. He was 76.

Gorecki died in the cardiology ward of a hospital in his home city of Katowice in southern Poland, Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa, the director of Polish Radio orchestra in Katowice, told The Associated Press.

The composer was suffering from a number of ailments, chiefly a lung infection, she said.

Wnuk-Nazarowa said she and another Polish composer, Krzysztof Penderecki, had visited Gorecki in the hospital on Wednesday.

"Penderecki insisted on seeing him," Wnuk-Nazarowa said. "We tried to joke, make plans for the future. Penderecki promised he would direct (Gorecki's) 'Beatus vir' for the 80th birthday" that both would celebrate in 2013.

The work was commissioned by Archbishop Karol Wojtyla before he became Pope John Paul II to mark 900 years since the death of Roman Catholic martyr, Stanislaw, bishop of Krakow — whom Pope John Paul II later made a saint. The composition, completed in 1979, is a psalm for baritone, choir and orchestra. Yahoo/AP

Jorge Peixinho

Jorge Peixinho (20 January 1940 in Montijo – 30 June 1995 in Lisbon) was a Portuguese composer, pianist, and conductor.

Peixinho studied composition and piano initially at the Conservatory of Lisbon (where he himself later taught), then studied composition with Boris Porena and Goffredo Petrassi at the Accademia de Santa Cecilia in Rome, graduating in 1961. After working with Luigi Nono in Venice, he studied with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen in Darmstadt and at the Academy of Music in Basel on various occasions between 1960 and 1970.

In 1970 he created the Lisbon Contemporary Music Group, and worked at the IPEM studio in Ghent from 1972 to 1973. wikipedia


Fine sound transformations

The aim of my music is the construction and organisation of a new and personal sound world. I have sought to explore deeply and intensively all the relationships between harmony and timbre in order to build a kind of very dense network of fine sound transformations. The main characteristic of my music is a kind of “oneiric sound atmosphere” in which small transformations are made via counterpunctual devices, harmonic and timbric filtering, etc. I also give great importance to the ambiguity between continuity and discontinuity. Jorge Peixinho

Note: I studied with him. So bad to Portugal that portuguese instituitions did not respect and treat Jorge Peixinho as a great composer, a great teacher and an involved citizen.


Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi (born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese opposition politician and a former General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 80% (392 of 492) of the seats in Parliament, leading some to claim that this implies Suu Kyi was elected Prime Minister. She had, however, already been detained under house arrest before the elections. She has remained under house arrest in Myanmar for almost 14 out of the past 20 years.

Aung San Suu Kyi was the recipient of the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992 she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding by the Government of India. Aung San Suu Kyi is the third child and only daughter of Aung San, considered to be father of modern-day Burma. wikipedia


Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel prize

NEW YORK – Mario Vargas Llosa, the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, has never found much honor in boundaries.

"Literature shouldn't be secluded, provincial or regional," the Peruvian author said in New York after Thursday's announcement in Sweden. "It should be universal, even if it has deep roots in one place."

The 74-year-old author and political activist, a charter member of the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s, has for decades been regarded as one of the world's greatest and most adventurous writers, an unpredictable and provocative mixer of literature and social consciousness in both his work and his life.

Artists are born dissenters — often, but not always, of the left. Like such recent Nobelists as Herta Mueller and Doris Lessing, Vargas Llosa is a dissenter from communism, a former party member who ran for president of Peru in 1990 as an advocate of privatization and remains a critic of leftist leaders such as Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

The author of more than 30 novels, plays and works of nonfiction, he is known for his expansive language, his alertness to the profound and the profane, and his fierce and dark disdain for tyranny. His books are not without magical touches, but he is more grounded, more a "realist" than fellow Nobel laureate and South American Gabriel Garcia Marquez. AP/Yahoo


Al-Qaeda in Iraq vows more Christian attacks

Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq has threatened more attacks on Christians following a bloody siege at a Baghdad church that left 58 people dead, saying the "killing sword will not be lifted" from their necks.

The Islamic State of Iraq's warning of further violence against Christians comes two days after the group's assault on a Catholic church in downtown Baghdad — the deadliest attack ever recorded against Iraq's Christians, whose numbers have plummeted since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion as the community has fled to other countries.

"We will open upon them the doors of destruction and rivers of blood," the insurgent group said in a statement posted late Tuesday on militant websites.

The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq and other allied Sunni insurgent factions, also said its deadline for the Coptic Christian Church in Egypt to release Muslim women that the militant group claims are being held captive has expired. cbc.ca


Radical Muslims target Christians

The Barnabas Fund also reports that "in another attack on 20 October, a British couple in their sixties, Richard and Enid Eyeington, working for SOS Children’s villages in Somaliland were shot dead by several gunmen in their home inside the school compound while watching television. Also, in November a Kenyan Christian working for the Seventh Day Adventist mission in Gedo, South West Somalia, was murdered by Islamist radicals. The attacks appear to be deliberately anti-Christian and anti-Western. jihadwatch.org

Note: we should realise that it is not an cristian/muslim war. Different sects of islam, women that do not fully folow the islamic rules, and so on, are also a target to the radical killers.


Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway – Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights" — a prize likely to enrage the Chinese government, which had warned the Nobel committee not to honor him.

Thorbjoern Jagland, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu Xiaobo (LEE-o SHAo-boh) was a symbol for the fight for human rights in China and the government should expect its policies to face scrutiny.
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In a year with a record 237 nominations for the peace prize, Liu had been considered a favorite, with open support from winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and others. AP/Yahoo


My trip to Tibet

Heitor Villa-Lobos - Dança do Índio Branco - Nelson Freire

The Black Tulip

Kabul: Afghans proved a tough audience for the world premiere of “The Black Tulip” at the Ariana Cinema on Thursday afternoon (an evening showing was deemed too dangerous). It was meant to be a serious film about Afghanistan, by an Afghan-born director, set in present-day Kabul and even filmed on location here, but many of the Afghans who saw it said they did not recognize the society they knew.

The movie tells the story of an Afghan woman who starts a family-run Bohemian cafe in Kabul, where they serve wine in teapots and have poetry readings, which angers the Taliban. They soon begin kidnapping and assassinating the woman’s family members.
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Ms. Cole has drawn some criticism in artistic and political circles here for her assertion that she took over the lead in the movie only at the last minute, when the Taliban cut the feet off her pick for that role, whom she named as Zarifa Jahon.
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Just before production began on “The Black Tulip” in August 2009, the actress disappeared, Ms. Cole said. “Finally, she called me and she said, ‘You’ll never guess what happened. The Taliban chopped my feet off.’ ” Ms. Cole said the Taliban were angry about a Pakistani film the actress had appeared in. ndtv.com


Capital punishment in Iran

The founder of the Islamic Republic, Islamic cleric Ruhollah Khomeini, who was a grand Ayatollah, ruled "that the penalty for conversion from Islam, or apostasy, is death."

The sentence of death for the crime of apostasy has been applied in Iran to alleged offenders who have not claimed to have converted to another religion, and whose crime may appear to outsiders to be political rather than religious. Hashem Aghajari, for example was condemned to death for apostasy for a speech urging Iranians to "not blindly follow" Islamic clerics. wikipedia (28/09/10)


Terror plot targeting Europe uncovered

LONDON (AFP) – Western intelligence agencies have uncovered an Al-Qaeda plot to launch attacks in Britain, France and Germany by extremists based in Pakistan, security sources and media reports said Wednesday.

"The threat is very real," a European-based security official told AFP, after British and US media reported that militants were planning simultaneous strikes in London and major cities in France and Germany.

Pierre Boulez celebrated at musikfest berlin 10

The annual international “summit” of top-flight orchestras which launches Berlin 's concert season is coming to a close. musikfest berlin 10, organized by the Berliner Festspielen in collaboration with the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, took place this year from September 2nd to 21st. In addition to the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the RIAS Kammerchor, and Berlin 's five principal orchestras, altogether 20 guest orchestras, ensembles, and choirs – joined by 37 soloists – contributed to the ambitious festival program. The center of attention at this year's festival was shared by the compositional achievements of Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio, complemented in provocative and illuminating ways by works by Igor Stravinsky and many other 20th and 21st century composers. This wide-ranging homage to two central figures of postwar music history was greeted with pronounced enthusiasm and followed with intense interest by members of the public and specialists alike. More than 35,000 people attended the 24 concerts which took place in the framework of musikfest berlin 10 in the Main Auditorium and Chamber Music Hall of Berlin Philharmonie, in the Parochialkirche, the Gethsemanekirche, and the Konzerthaus.

This ambitious tribute to Pierre Boulez, encompassing 11 concerts in all, began on opening weekend with striking performances of his large-scale vocal compositions Le Soleil des eaux and Le Visage nuptial by the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden under the direction of Susanna Mälkki. At the concerts given by the Berliner Philharmoniker, Pierre Boulez received standing ovations as composer and conductor. Other contributors to our Boulez portrait were the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin , the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Bamberger Symphoniker, and the Ensemble intercontemporain. This tribute to Boulez was concluded by a lecture-concert presented by Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin – a thrilling finale for musikfest berlin 10 at which the composer, also in attendance, was greeted by repeated shouts of “bravo.”

Other highpoints of musikfest berlin 10 included appearances by the London Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam with Mariss Jansons, and the Bayerisches Staatsorchester with Kent Nagano, each of which presented key orchestral works by Luciano Berio in conjunction with compositions by Hector Berlioz, Béla Bartók, Richard Strauss, and Igor Stravinsky – each receiving tumultuous storms of applause. Other highlights of the Berio tribute presented in the framework of musikfest berlin 10 included a concert by musikFabrik with Peter Eötvös devoted to Berio, and a performance of Berio’s immense composition Coro by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

musikfest berlin 2011 will take place between September 1st and 19th. Detailed information on the program and on advanced ticket sales will be announced in spring of 2011.

Press Office,

September 21, 2010

Deutschland schafft sich ab

Rarely has a man influenced the German public discourse as much as Sarrazin has done with his book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" ("Germany Does Itself In"). In just two weeks, Germany has been hit by three waves of debate stemming from the tome.

Criticism bordering on revulsion dominated the first wave of the reaction. Politicians and opinion leaders condemned Sarrazin almost unanimously.

But then it slowly became apparent that many citizens agreed with Sarrazin. The publisher announced that, due to high demand, it was going to increase the book's initial printing to 250,000 copies. Furthermore, Internet forums and political events made it clear that Sarrazin -- a member of the center-left Social Democrats, which has initiated proceedings to throw him out of the party -- had broad public support. Many are saying he is right; or, even if he does make a mistake here and there, he isn't being treated fairly.

The following e-mail, for example, was received at Social Democratic Party (SPD) headquarters: "Sometimes I'm frustrated and even furious about the fact that, in today's Germany, it's no longer possible to speak your mind and call a spade a spade! This is the sort of thing I'm used to seeing in totalitarian countries." Spiegel

Barbarous crimes against humanity

Six Portuguese men have been jailed after they were found guilty of sexual abuse at a state-run children's home.

Carlos Silvino was given an 18-year sentence after confessing to 639 charges relating to the abuse of children or procuring them for others.

His co-defendants, including the former TV presenter Carlos Cruz, were jailed for between five and seven years.

The boys, now aged between 16 and 22, were all residents at the Casa Pia children's home in the capital, Lisbon.

The panel of three judges in the case spent most of the day reading the full verdict in each of the hundreds of sexual abuse accusations.

After ruling that the vast majority of the charges had been proven, they handed down guilty verdicts to six of the seven people on trial.
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One of the victims, Bernardo Teixeira, hailed the sentences.

"It was very good to hear our names as a proven fact, and to know that really somebody believes us, principally the panel of judges," he told RTP Internacional TV.

"People said we were lying, that it was all made up, and so it is very healthy and positive for us finally to have proof that we were not lying."

Another victim, Bernardo Tavares, said: "It is difficult, but... when we hear our name linked to proven facts this gives us more strength."

"There is anxiety, tensions are running high in there, our seats are probably the hottest because we have waited many years for this day. It is one of the days we have most looked forward to, the day when finally justice will be done and when finally those who have committed crimes will be sentenced for them."

Pedro Namora, a lawyer and former pupil who helped expose the scandal in 2002, earlier said: "I hope this day will allow us to show the country that the boys have told the truth from the start."

"These men have to be condemned, they committed barbarous crimes against humanity." BBC News


Six jailed in Portuguese sex abuse case

Six years after a trial began over claims of sex abuse at Lisbon’s Casa Pia children’s home, heavy jail terms have been handed out.

Well-known figures have been found guilty of hundreds of charges related to abuse that goes back to the 1990s.
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A former Casa Pia student and victims’ lawyer, Pedro Namora, said: “For so many years we have been persecuted, threatened. They used everything, and now it comes out that we spoke the truth." Euronews

Note: only six jailed (or maybe not...)


Sex abuse trial in Portugal set to end *

In Portugal a six year trial – one of the largest in the country’s legal history and known as the Casa Pia trial - is set to reach a conclusion.

Carlos Silvinho has admitted to participating in a network that systematically abused children and implicated six other defendants including Carlos Cruz a popular television presenter who is alleged to have been part of the sex ring at the Casa Pia orphanage. He is joined in the dock by former Unesco ambassador Jorge Ritto.

It is claimed a woman provided her house for meetings with the children and the alleged pedophiles

The court is set to rule on 800 alleged crimes at Casa Pia a 230 year old institution. Not only has the protracted trial produced chilling testimonies it has also resulted in changes in Portugals legal system.

One victim voiced concern that the accused were getting more support than the victims.

“Tomorrow on Friday, I hope justice is delivered, because I think the court has played enough with us, the victims. The accused are getting more support and protection than the we are,” said Pedro Custódio, a former student at Casa Pia. Euronews


All knew of the abuse

The former secretary of state for families told parliament last December that Antonio Ramalho Eanes, the former president, Jaime Gama, the former foreign secretary, and the police all knew of the abuse. Teresa Costa Macedo said state television had filmed six boys who told Mr Eanes about the abuse, but had not broadcast the footage. The Independent

Note: it happened with Lisbon's people... and the European Union did nothing (what's about Human Rights?)!

Opening concert Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs and Sinfonia

Just one week from now, the concert season will be launched by musikfest berlin 10, Berlin ’s international orchestra festival. Presented from September 2nd to 21st by the Berliner Festspiele in collaboration with the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker will be 24 concerts featuring more than 60 works by around 25 different composers, among them the German premieres of Quatre dédicaces and Stanze, a pair of orchestral compositions by Luciano Berio. At the centre of this year’s festival program alongside works by Luciano Berio is the creative achievement of Pierre Boulez. Appearing as conductor for two concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker will be Boulez himself. The program of musikfest berlin 10 illuminates in particular the orchestral output of these two major composers. The first part of the festival will concentrate on the music of Berio, with the focus shifting increasingly to Boulez, culminating in a grandiose homage to his music at the festival's conclusion.

musikfest berlin 10 commences with two evenings, each consisting of an orchestral portrait concert devoted to one of our featured composers. Following a concert showcasing Bach’s Art of the Fugue on the eve of the festival opening, musikfest berlin will commence on September 3rd with a performance of Berio’s celebrated Folk Songs and Sinfonia by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Daniel Harding. On September 4th, Boulez’s Le Soleil des eaux and Le Visage nuptial will receive a performance by the SWR Sinfonieorchester, the RIAS Kammerchor, and the radio choirs of the SWR and the NDR under the direction of Susanna Mälkki. Appearing as soloists will be singers Laura Aikin and Lani Poulson, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and violinist Thomas Zehetmair. Featured at 10 of the 24 festival concerts will be additional works by Boulez, including his extraordinary cycle Pli selon pli for voice and orchestra, interpreted by the Bamberger Symphoniker with Jonathan Nott and soprano Yeree Suh on September 19th at the Philharmonie.

Altogether eleven works by Luciano Berio are found on the programmes of seven musikfest berlin 10 concerts. The German premiere of Berio’s Quatre dédicaces will be performed on September 5th by the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest of Amsterdam with Mariss Jansons. Receiving its German premiere on the following day is Berio's vocal composition Stanze in a performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Jurowski. Berio’s Coro will be presented at musikfest berlin 10 by the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle with the Rundfunkchor Berlin and soloists Stella Doufexis, Burkhard Ulrich, and Ildebrando d’Arcangelo. Additional highlights in this series of Berio performances will be a concert performed by musikFabrik with Peter Eötvös as conductor, and an appearance by Kent Nagano with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, guests in Berlin once again after a protracted absence.

Presented in exceptional abundance at musikfest berlin 10 are the flagships of European ensemble culture: the Ensemble intercontemporain with two Boulez programs, the Ensemble Modern with Beat Furrer, and the musikFabrik with Peter Eötvös as conductor. Arriving from Belgium will be the ensemble graindelavoix, which performs late-14th century music, and the Duke Quartet from England , which performs string quartets by Kevin Volans. Also on the program are works by Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Witold Lutosławski, Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Henri Pousseur, Peter Eötvös, Beat Furrer, and others.

musikfest berlin 10 comes to a close with two very special concert evenings on September 20th and 21st: the Boulez programme presented by the Staatskapelle Berlin will be accompanied by commentary delivered in person by Daniel Barenboim.

Information and tickets are available at www.berlinerfestspiele.de


Lack of skilled workers threatens recovery

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Workers with specialized skills like electricians, carpenters and welders are in critically short supply in many large economies, a shortfall that marks another obstacle to the global economic recovery, a research paper by Manpower Inc (NYSE:MAN - News) concludes.

Note: even the working people want to be a doctor (to many "doctors"...)


Russian police detain opposition leaders

MOSCOW (AP) -- Police prevented about 100 opposition activists from marching through Moscow on Sunday with a giant Russian flag and detained three of their leaders, including prominent politician Boris Nemtsov.

The opposition activists were celebrating Flag Day, a holiday honoring the tricolor flag adopted by a newly democratic Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Nemtsov said the decision to stop a march honoring the Russian flag showed the mentality of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government.

"The flag is a symbol of freedom and democracy, only not for Putin," Nemtsov said, speaking to The Associated Press from a city police precinct.


Afghan couple stoned to death

A 25-year-old man and 19-year-old woman who eloped together have been stoned to death in a shocking display of Taliban power.

The Afghan couple were brutally killed when their own families requested that the Taliban arrest the pair after the couple, who were engaged to other people, ran away together.

Note: "their own families requested that the Taliban arrest the pair" (how horrible and disgusting people!)

It was not a spare case:

"... arrest of relatives on suspicion of killing a teenager for having friendships with boys. More than 200 such killings take place each year, said the piece, "accounting for around half of all murders in Turkey". According to Eurostat, Turkey's yearly murder rate averaged 6.1 per 100,000 population between 2005 and 2007 (the ­latest figures), meaning that the 200 are actually set against an annual total of about 4,400."

"Mahmod Mahmod murdered daughter Banaz

The victim of an "honour killing" had been dismissed by police as a fantasist

Mr Sulemani (Banaz's boyfriend) was deemed unsuitable because he did not come from the villages in Iraqi Kurdistan where the Mahmods originated." And thousands others that we didn't know.


Somalia: the taliban way

"Men are forced to grow beards. Women can't leave home without a male relative. Music, movies and watching sports on TV are banned.

... executions by stoning have become a public spectacle." from AP in The Kathmandu Post, August 23, 2010, page 5

José Saramago

José de Sousa Saramago (November 16, 1922 - June 18, 2010) was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor.

Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998. His books have been translated into 25 languages. He founded the National Front for the Defence of Culture (Lisbon, 1992) with Freitas-Magalhães and others.

In 1992, following a public spat with the Portuguese government, he moved to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain, where he resided until his death.

Saramago was born into a family of landless peasants in Azinhaga, Portugal, a small village in the province of Ribatejo some hundred kilometers northeast of Lisbon. His parents were José de Sousa and Maria de Piedade. "Saramago", a wild herbaceous plant known in English as the wild radish, was his father's family's nickname, and was accidentally incorporated into his name upon registration of his birth. In 1924, Saramago's family moved to Lisbon, where his father started working as a policeman. A few months after the family moved to the capital, his brother Francisco, older by two years, died. He spent vacations with his grandparents in a village called Azinhaga. When his grandfather suffered a stroke and was to be taken to Lisbon for treatment, Saramago recalled, "He went into the yard of his house, where there were a few trees, fig trees, olive trees. And he went one by one, embracing the trees and crying, saying good-bye to them because he knew he would not return. To see this, to live this, if that doesn’t mark you for the rest of your life," Saramago said, "you have no feeling." Although Saramago was a good pupil, his parents were unable to afford to keep him in grammar school, and instead moved him to a technical school at age 12. After graduating, he worked as a car mechanic for two years. Later he worked as a translator, then as a journalist. He was assistant editor of the newspaper Diário de Notícias, a position he had to leave after the political events in 1975. After a period of working as a translator he was able to support himself as a writer. Saramago married Ilda Reis in 1944. Their only child, Violante, was born in 1947. Since 1988, Saramago has been married to the Spanish journalist Pilar del Río, who is the official translator of his books into Spanish.

José Saramago was in his mid-fifties before he won international acclaim, when his publication of Baltasar and Blimunda brought him to the attention of an international readership. This novel won the Portuguese PEN Club Award. Saramago has been a member of the Portuguese Communist Party since 1969, as well as an atheist and self-described pessimist. His views have aroused considerable controversy in Portugal, especially after the publication of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. Members of the country's Catholic community were outraged by Saramago's representation of Jesus as a fallible human being. Portugal's conservative government would not allow Saramago's work to compete for the European Literary Prize, arguing that it offended the Catholic community. As a result, Saramago and his wife moved to Lanzarote, an island in the Canaries.
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Saramago's novels often deal with fantastic scenarios, such as that in his 1986 novel The Stone Raft, in which the Iberian Peninsula breaks off from the rest of Europe and sails around the Atlantic Ocean. In his 1995 novel Blindness, an entire unnamed country is stricken with a mysterious plague of "white blindness". In his 1984 novel The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (which won the PEN Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Award), Fernando Pessoa's heteronym survives for a year after the poet himself dies. Additionally, his novel Death with Interruptions (also translated as Death at Intervals) revolves around a country in which nobody dies over the course of seven months beginning on New Year's Day, and how the country reacts to the spiritual and political implications of the event.

Using such imaginative themes, Saramago addresses the most serious of subject matters with empathy for the human condition and for the isolation of contemporary urban life. His characters struggle with their need to connect with one another, form relations and bond as a community; and also with their need for individuality, and to find meaning and dignity outside of political and economic structures.

Saramago's experimental style often features long sentences, at times more than a page long. He uses periods sparingly, choosing instead a loose flow of clauses joined by commas. Many of his paragraphs extend for pages without pausing for dialog, which Saramago chooses not to delimit by quotation marks; when the speaker changes, Saramago capitalizes the first letter of the new speaker's clause. In his novel Blindness, Saramago completely abandons the use of proper nouns instead choosing to refer to characters simply by some unique characteristic, an example of his use of style to enhance the recurring themes of identity and meaning found throughout his work. wikipedia (19/06/2010)


Kyrgyzstan killings are attempted genocide

It was early afternoon when the mob surged down an alley of neat rose bushes and halted outside Zarifa's house.

The Kyrgyz men broke into her courtyard and sat Zarifa down next to a cherry tree. They asked her a couple of questions.

After confirming she was an ethnic Uzbek, they stripped her, raped her and cut off her fingers. After that they killed her and her small son, throwing their bodies into the street. They then moved on to the next house. Guardian


Mr Barroso: the end of the democracy

Democracy could ‘collapse’ in Greece, Spain and Portugal unless urgent action is taken to tackle the debt crisis, the head of the European Commission has warned.

In an extraordinary briefing to trade union chiefs last week, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso set out an ‘apocalyptic’ vision in which crisis-hit countries in southern Europe could fall victim to military coups or popular uprisings as interest rates soar and public services collapse because their governments run out of money. dailymail.co.uk

Note: Mr Barroso was the portuguese First Minister and Mr Barroso left Portugal in a political and economic mess to get his European Job...


The rise and fall of British Petroleum

BP has come close to collapse before, and is a repeat offender in the US after earlier major accidents in Texas and Alaska. Internal company documents published last week by news website ProPublica revealed high-level concern that safety and environmental policies were being ignored. A BP report into the 2005 Texas City disaster, when a massive explosion at a refinery killed 15 workers, concluded there had been "apparent complacency toward serious safety risk". Guardian


Question:

how many of you complained to management about the policies and practices from which you benefited all these years? Or do you just complain when these policies and practices inflict profound economic and other costs on others, for which your company may be held responsible? Harry Shearer/huffingtonpost


Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, referred to in much of the world as the Tiananmen Square massacre and in the People's Republic of China (PRC) as the June Fourth Incident (officially to avoid confusion with two prior Tiananmen Square protests), were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the PRC beginning on 14 April 1989.

Led mainly by students and intellectuals, the protests occurred in a year that saw the collapse of a number of communist governments around the world.

An intelligence report received by the Soviet politburo estimated that 3,000 protesters were killed, according to a document found in the Soviet archive.


British killing

Saville's conclusion that none of the 14 dead was carrying a gun, no warnings were given, no soldiers were under threat and the troops were the first to open fire, marked a final declaration of innocence for the victims of the biggest British military killing of civilians on UK soil since the Peterloo massacre in 1819. Guardian

Note: "The report appeared to exonerate the army's then commander of land forces, in Northern Ireland General Robert Ford, of any blame. He had agreed to deploy the Parachute Regiment in the city against the advice of a senior police officer in Derry."

Note 2: Ford expressed this commitment directly to the soldiers on the ground as they surged forward into the Bogside, shouting: "Go on the Paras, go and get them." (Niall Ó Dochartaigh / guardian.co.uk)


The collapse of the capitalist system

Capitalism has struck the deadly reef of corruption and is now sinking fast. But passengers of the American ship of state--already drowning in the murderous waters of loss of homes and jobs--are still believing politicians' reassurances that everything's being taken care of.

The lifeboats, courtesy of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. treasury, are "saving" big financial institutions: Bear Stearns, IndyMac, and a host of others to the tune of over 24 trillion dollars so far.

Rachmaninov - Etude-Tableaux opus 39 n.5 - Nelson Freire

Prokofiev - Piano Concerto no. 1 (Martha Argerich - Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky and Orchestre Symphonique de Flandres - Roque d'Anthéron - July 29 - 2005)

Suntanned women to be arrested

Iran has warned suntanned women and girls who looked like "walking mannequins" will be arrested as part of a new drive to enforce the Islamic dress code. Telegraph

Fraud charges on the killing makers

A US Senate investigative panel has released several emails that could prove embarrassing to Goldman Sachs as they suggest the Wall Street investment giant used the US sub-prime mortgage crisis to make tens of millions of dollars in profit.

The documents, made public Saturday, do not provide proof that the investment bank broke the law, but they do show that its executives sought to make a killing on the crisis that erupted in 2007.

The revelations come at a bad time for Goldmans Sachs, which seeks to improve its image in the wake of fraud charges leveled against it by the federal government. AFP/yahoo


Goldman Sachs at Senate

According to pre-released testimony, the head of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, will admit that his bank failed to raise the alarm about excesses in the mortgage industry and got involved in "overly complex" derivatives deals that fuelled perceptions of Wall Street running out of control.

Blankfein will tell the committee that the Securities and Exchange Commission's $1bn (£647m) fraud case against his firm marks a low point in his career. Guardian


Ex-dictator Noriega jailed in France

PARIS - A French judge ordered former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega jailed Tuesday pending a trial for money laundering, a decision made only hours after Noriega was extradited from the United States following two decades in a Miami prison. Seattlepi

Note: another murder, Pinochet, was freed thanks to England.

Democracia española en riesgo

María Dolores de Cospedal ha denunciado que "algunas actitudes de personas muy destacadas del Gobierno de España "están poniendo en riesgo a la democracia", en relación con los actos y declaraciones de apoyo al juez Baltasar Garzón en su causa abierta en el Tribunal Supremo. La secretaria general del PP ha señalado que están "alentando otra vez la división" con "ataques constantes a la democracia". El Mondo

Nota: cuando un pueblo, o una parte de ello (la imbecil derecha española), no acepta la realidad de su pasado, el futuro no será exactamente espectacular...


Um portugês bem pago *

João Rendeiro recebeu €3 milhões no ano em que o BPP colapsou. No total, o banco pagou-lhe €12 milhões desde 1999.

* pelos bons serviços que prestou ao BPP, seguramente...

Women to blame for earthquakes

Women behaving promiscuously are causing the earth to shake, according to cleric, as Ahmadinejad predicts Tehran quake.

A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes. Guardian

Nervosos não! *

Na abertura do fórum económico que juntou empresários checos e portugueses, Václav Klaus manifestou a sua admiração por Portugal não estar “nervoso” perante um défice público tão alto. publico.pt, 16 Abril

* simplesmente sem vergonha */**

Nota: já agora, será que o facto do Ryder Cup 2018 se ir realizar na Herdade da Comporta, que possui zero (ou a tender para zero) de infra-estruturas para um evento desta natureza, tem a haver com o facto de ser propriedade do BES (entretanto a região que possui as infra-estruturas e o know how foi eliminada)? Esperemos que na Comporta não hajam sobreiros por perto...


* Por cada reunião receberam 7427 euros

Por cada reunião do conselho de administração das cotadas do PSI-20, os administradores não executivos - ou seja, sem funções de gestão - receberam 7427 euros. Segundo contas feitas pelo DN, tendo em conta os responsáveis que ocupam mais cargos deste tipo, esta foi a média de salário obtido em 2009. Daniel Proença de Carvalho, António Nogueira Leite, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco, António Lobo Xavier e João Vieira Castro são os "campeões" deste tipo de funções nas cotadas, sendo que o salário varia conforme as empresas em que trabalham.

Proença de Carvalho é o responsável com mais cargos entre os administradores não executivos das companhias do PSI-20, e também o mais bem pago. O advogado é presidente do conselho de administração da Zon, é membro da comissão de remunerações do BES, vice-presidente da mesa da assembleia geral da CGD e presidente da mesa na Galp Energia. E estes são apenas os cargos em empresas cotadas, já que Proença de Carvalho desempenha funções semelhantes em mais de 30 empresas. Considerando apenas estas quatro empresas (já que só é possível saber a remuneração em empresas cotadas em bolsa), o advogado recebeu 252 mil euros. Tendo em conta que esteve presente em 16 reuniões, Proença de Carvalho recebeu, em média e em 2009, 15,8 mil euros por reunião.

O segundo mais bem pago por reunião é João Vieira Castro (na infografia, a ordem é pelo total de salário). O advogado recebeu, em 2009, 45 mil euros por apenas quatro reuniões, já que é presidente da mesa da assembleia geral do BPI, da Jerónimo Martins, da Sonaecom e da Sonae Indústria. Segue- -se António Nogueira Leite, que é administrador não executivo na Brisa, EDP Renováveis e Reditus, entre outros cargos. O economista recebeu 193 mil euros, estando presente em 36 encontros destas companhias. O que corresponde a mais de 5300 euros por reunião.

O ex-vice presidente do PSD José Pedro Aguiar-Branco é outro dos "campeões" dos cargos nas cotadas nacionais. O advogado é presidente da mesa da Semapa (que não divulga o salário do advogado), da Portucel e da Impresa, entre vários outros cargos. Por duas AG em 2009, Aguiar--Branco recebeu 8080 euros, ou seja, 4040 por reunião.

Administrador não executivo da Sonaecom, da Mota-Engil e do BPI, António Lobo Xavier auferiu 83 mil euros no ano passado (não está contemplado o salário na operadora de telecomunicações, já que não consta do relatório da empresa). Tendo estado presente em 22 encontros dos conselhos de administração destas empresas, o advogado ganhou, por reunião, mais de 3700 euros.

Apesar de desempenhar apenas dois cargos como administrador não executivo, o vice-reitor da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Vítor Gonçalves, recebeu mais de 200 mil euros no ano passado. Membro do conselho geral de supervisão da EDP e presidente da comissão para as matérias financeiras da mesma empresa, o responsável é ainda administrador não executivo da Zon, tendo um rácio de quase 5700 euros por reunião. dn.pt, 16 Abril

Nota: não haverá por acaso qualquer ligação entre isto, o "défice", e a situação de total descalabro do país? Se estes senhores são tão bons para ganharem tanto dinheiro só para assistirem a reuniões e manifestarem as suas opiniões *, como pode o país destes senhores encontrar-se no estado em que se encontra? Qual é o real valor, a credibilidade e o reconhecimento internacional destes senhores tão bem pagos e que andam há tantos anos "por aí" na vida política e empresarial portuguesa? (estas "dúvidas" estendem-se aos administradores executivos que sempre farão um pouco mais que assistir a reuniões e mandar "palpites"... e por isso sempre ganharão um pouco mais...)

* na verdade as empresas que pagam estas generosas quantias a certos senhores para estarem quietos e irem a algumas reuniões, preferem que eles estejam calados e se limitem a utilizar os seus contactos no interesse das mesmas nas alturas devidas. Igualmente esperam que estes senhores sejam capazes de fazer aprovar discretas leis na AR que sirvam os interesses das ditas empresas. Nada que deia muito nas vistas, portanto.

** Depois há aquela coisa portuguesa concerteza chamada "bloco central" (BC), que é basicamente um cancro que tem corroído o país. Quando ganha o partido x do BC, os seus boys vão para administradores executivos e os dos partidos y e p (que diz não ser do BC mas não somente foi para o governo com o partido y como demonstrou ser especialmente corrupto) para não executivos; quando ganha o partido y (eventualmente coligado com o p) os senhores do partido x passam a não executivos (exceptuando uns poucos que se dão bem com todos e ficam sempre como executivos...). Assim todos comem continuamente e o BC adquire um prolongado seguro de vida.


Mais um que mata "ex-companheira"

Não aceitou a separação e disparou com caçadeira sobre a ex-companheira. Criança de oito anos assistiu a tudo e foi a correr chamar a GNR. correiodamanha.pt, 16 Abril

Nota: esta vergonha portuguesa não parará enquanto não forem feitas leis especiais que penalizem a triplicar ou a quadriplicar estes criminosos.


Supermercado de histórias manhosas

A vida de José Sócrates está cada vez mais parecida com aqueles anúncios antigos do Pingo Doce que diziam: "Frango congelado com ervilhas a 2 euros e 35 cêntimos. Esta semana, só no Pingo Doce." Com o nosso primeiro-ministro dá para fazer a mesma coisa. Por exemplo: "Apoio de Luís Figo ao primeiro-ministro por 750 mil euros. Esta semana, só em Portugal."

E da mesma forma que na semana seguinte o frango dava lugar à pescada e as ervilhas à batata cozida, o apoio de Luís Figo pode ser substituído pelo mais recente detalhe do processo Face Oculta que tenha saído do forno, ou qualquer um dos 937 casos duvidosos em que o nome do primeiro-ministro esteja envolvido.

Sócrates é hoje um supermercado de histórias manhosas, onde cada um de nós pode pegar na sua favorita, levar para casa e consumir ao jantar. João Miguel Tavares, correiodamanha.pt, 16 Abril

Europe struggles with Muslim dress code

ANTWERP, Belgium – Chances of seeing a burqa in Belgium are only a little better than spotting a liquor shop in Saudi Arabia. Yet Belgium soon may be the first European nation to outlaw the burqa and other Islamic garb that completely hides a woman's body and face.

Neighboring France and the Netherlands may also outlaw attire that is viewed by many in western European societies as demeaning to women. It also is considered a gateway to radical Islam, a fear that is stoking rightwing sentiment across the continent.

"There is all-party public support for this," says Leen Dierick, a conservative member of the Belgian parliament's Interior Affairs committee that unanimously backed the proposed ban March 31. The initiative is expected become law in July and would apply to all public places, including streets.

Anxieties that visible signs of Islam erode national identity are combining with complaints that immigrants are stealing jobs amid the worst economic slump in decades to deepen a sense of unease in many European countries, small and large alike, over the role of Muslims in society.

Threats against cartoonists and artists over depictions of the prophet Muhammad have also raised fears that Islam is not compatible with Western values of freedom of speech.

Swiss voters recently voted to ban the construction of new minarets. In recent years, both mosque and minaret construction projects in many European countries, including Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany and Slovenia have generated protests, some of them violent.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy favors a burqa ban, saying the veils compromise women's dignity. Unlike the Belgians or the Dutch — who see a clear and straightforward public security issue — the French are struggling with the constitutionality of outlawing a religious dress code.

Until now, it has been up to city governments in Belgium to crack down on burqa-style outfits. "Enforcement by local governments has been patchy," says Dierick. "The point is public security, the need to show one's face in public. Not religious freedom."

The proposed Belgian ban partly underscores how populist politicians across Europe are making a big imprint on attitudes and policies toward immigrants and minorities, especially Muslims.

Belgian lawmaker Filip Dewinter says mainstream politicians back a ban on burqa-type attire for fear of losing more ground to his far-right Flemish Interest party — a fringe factor 15 years but who today hold 17 of the 150 parliamentary seats.

"We were the first to propose a burqa ban," says Dewinter. "Now the parliament votes for a ban (drafted by a) traditional government party. Whatever! It's the outcome that counts."

Umar Mirza, a 22-year-old student and editor of the Dutch Muslim Web site "We're Staying Here" says sentiment toward Muslims and immigrants began to harden in the Netherlands 10 years ago.

"People my age have not known anything else," he says, adding the prevailing view of Muslims "has gotten much harder and sharper and less targeted at solutions."

In the Netherlands, polls indicate that Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party could nearly triple its presence in parliament and win 25 or so seats in June elections, up from nine today.

Wilders and like-minded supporters of the far-right hold that Muslims threaten European values by wearing head scarves and more conservative dress that fully covers body and head, such as the burqa, the chador and the niqab.

They say that liberal Europe can no longer afford to tolerate the illiberalism of newcomers.

"Islam is more of an ideology than a religion," Wilders is fond of saying. "I do not believe in a European Islam. The Islamization of the Netherlands and Western Europe will make us lose the freedoms we have today." AP/yahoo

O próximo alvo

Portugal é o próximo alvo dos mercados financeiros, está, como a Grécia, à beira da bancarrota, e ambos parecem muito mais perigosos do que a Argentina em 2001, diz o antigo economista chefe do FMI, Simon Johnson, que critica fortemente a forma como Portugal se tem financiado, comparando-a ao esquema em pirâmide usado por Bernard Maddof.

A conclusão é apresentada pelo antigo economista chefe do Fundo Monetário Internacional (FMI), Simon Johnson, numa análise realizada para o jornal norte-americano 'New York Times', intitulada "O próximo problema global: Portugal".

"O próximo no radar será Portugal. Este país escapou em grande medida às atenções, muito porque a espiral da Grécia desvaneceu. Mas ambos estão economicamente à beira da bancarrota, e ambos parecem muito mais perigosos do que Argentina parecia em 2001, quando entrou em incumprimento", diz a análise do economista, que é Professor no Massachusstts Institute of Technology.

Simon Johnson equiparou ainda o financiamento de Portugal a um esquema em pirâmide (como o utilizado pelo gestor norte-americano Bernard Maddof que lhe valeu a prisão perpétua).

O economista diz que Portugal, tal como a Grécia, em vez de abater os juros da sua dívida, tem refinanciado os pagamentos de juros todos os anos através de emissão de nova dívida, chegando mesmo ao ponto de dizer que "vai chegar a altura em que os mercados financeiros se vão recusar pura e simplesmente a financiar este esquema ponzi".

Quanto à correcção dos desequilíbrios, o economista critica fortemente a falta de medidas mais duras.

"Os portugueses nem sequer estão a discutir cortes sérios. (...) Estão à espera e com a esperança de que possam crescer suficientemente para sair desta confusão, mas esse crescimento só pode chegar através de um espantoso crescimento económico a nível global", disse.

Simon Johnson considera ainda que "nem os líderes políticos gregos, nem os portugueses, estão preparados para realizar os cortes necessários", que o Governo português "pode apenas aguardar por vários anos de alto desemprego e políticas duras", e ainda que os políticos portugueses podem apenas "esperar que a situação piore, e então exigir também bailout (plano de apoio)".

Simon Johnson é Professor na Universidade norte-americana MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, faz parte do Instituto de Economia Internacional (em Washington), é conselheiro económico do Departamento Orçamental do Congresso dos EUA (Congressional Budget Office) e foi economista chefe e director do departamento de investigação do FMI. dn.pt, 15 Abril

Nota: pena que quando fala em "portugueses" não faça a distinção entre os corruptos e "boys" (muitas vezes coincidem), que se têm enchido com milhões, os "pedagogos" e os "cientistas da educação" (e outros "cientistas sociais"), que são os responsáveis da "improdutividade" e da "falta de competitividade" dos portugueses, e os "outros": os que sem culpa nenhuma ou culpa menor vão "levar por tabela".


Porreiro pá (enésimo porreio pá)

O escritório de advogados de José Miguel Júdice terá cobrado 460 mil euros (mais 110 mil euros que o contrato com Luís Figo) ao Taguspark para a realização de uma auditoria que levantou dúvidas a Vítor Castro, um dos administradores executivos do parque tecnológico. "Desta auditoria apenas tive conhecimento do relatório que foi disponibilizado quando o senhor presidente da Câmara fez uma reunião com o conselho de administração. Se foi feito mais trabalho, não tenho informação sobre os objectivos e resultados obtidos", escreveu aquele administrado, em Junho de 2009, num memorando "pessoal e confidencial" dirigido a Isaltino Morais.

Neste documento - que consta do processo sobre suspeitas de corrupção passiva relativamente a um contrato entre o Taguspark e Luís Figo e a participação deste na campanha eleitoral do PS - outras situações foram elencadas pelo administrador do Taguspark: um contrato de aquisição de sinalética para o parque no valor no 650 mil euros, sendo que 300 mil já teriam sido pagos sem que o fornecimento do material tivesse acontecido; o patrocínio de 225 mil euros ao piloto de automóveis Tiago Monteiro (mais 75 mil previstos para 2010) sem que, até Junho de 2009, tenha sido "realizada qualquer contrapartida do patrocínio concedido".

Mais: a aquisição de um novo "Sistema de Informação e Gestão", no valor de 130 mil euros, "que passado mais de um ano ainda não está a funcionar", refere Vítor Castro, acrescentando o pagamento de 73 mil euros em Abril de 2008 "para a realização de uma festa de lançamento da nova imagem do Taguspark". "Decorreu mais de um ano e o evento ainda não se realizou".

Contactado pelo DN, José Miguel Júdice declarou não poder "comentar questões que apenas os clientes podem falar". "Este escritório tem 200 advogados, por ano trabalha milhares de horas, só os clientes é que podem dizer se o trabalho foi feito, se estão ou não satisfeitos e qual o preço". Também Isaltino Morais, presidente do Conselho de Administração do Taguspark, não quis adiantar nada em relação ao memorando do administrador Vítor Castro. idem


A vingança de Pinochet *

O juiz Baltasar Garzón presta hoje declarações perante o Tribunal Supremo (TS) espanhol como arguido num processo relacionado com dinheiro que alegadamente recebeu do Banco Santander quanto esteve na Universidade de Nova Iorque entre 2005 e 2006.

É a segunda vez que Garzón presta declarações no TS depois de ter sido ouvido em Setembro de 2009, pela sua actuação no caso da investigações do franquismo, processo pelo qual será julgado pelo mesmo tribunal e pelo qual poderá ser suspenso temporariamente pelo Conselho Geral do Poder Judicial (CGPJ).

Garzón será ouvido hoje pelo magistrado instrutor do caso, Manuel Marchena.

O processo baseia-se numa queixa de dois advogados, José Luiz Mazón e Antonio Panea, que consideram que Garzón incorreu em prevaricação e suborno por ter recebido 302 mil euros do Santander para posteriormente, quando regressou a Madrid, arquivar um processo contra responsáveis do banco espanhol, incluindo o seu presidente Emílio Botin.

Garzón considera que não esteve envolvido na gestão ou administração dos fundos com que o Santander patrocinou as suas conferências no Centro Rey Juan Carlos I da Universidade de Nova Iorque, insistindo que as suas receitas não procederam desse patrocínio.

Além deste processo, Garzón está envolvido em mais dois junto do Tribunal Supremo, um apresentado por duas organizações de extrema direita que o acusam de prevaricação por decidir investigar os crimes do franquismo.

O terceiro processo refere-se a ordens que deu para serem escutadas conversações entre alguns dos arguidos no caso Gurtel - que investiga corrupção e envolve dezenas de dirigentes e militantes do PP - e os seus advogados. Estas escutas foram posteriormente anuladas pelo Tribunal Superior de Justiça de Madrid que as considerou "ilícitas". ibidem

* e seus admiradores em espanha

Boulez and Berio featured at musikfest

musikfest berlin 10, organized by the Berliner Festspiele in collaboration with the Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, will take place from September 2 to 21. This large-scale international orchestra festival opens the annual Berlin concert season. This year’s festival program features 24 concerts with more than 60 works by circa 25 different composers. Appearing will be 37 soloists of world rank, and 27 choirs, ensembles, and orchestras from the international music scene.

“The virginal, lively, beautiful today …” (Le vierge, le vivace, et bel aujourd’ hui …): this year’s musikfest berlin draws inspiration from these celebrated lines from the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé. Pierre Boulez set this sonnet in his extraordinary vocal composition Pli selon Pli.

In addition to Pli selon Pli, 16 other works by Pierre Boulez will be featured at musikfest berlin 10. Altogether 11 events make up a rich portrait of Boulez, with the participation of all the former and present directors of the Ensemble intercontemporain, founded in 1976 by Boulez, a roster consisting of Peter Eötvös, David Robertson, Jonathan Nott, and current director Susanna Mälkki.

Born in the same year (1925) as Pierre Boulez and joined to him in a long-term artistic friendship was composer Luciano Berio. His works form the second focus of this festival program. Performed in the framework of musikfest berlin 10 will be altogether 11 compositions by Luciano Berio, including key orchestral works such as Chemins I, Kol od – Chemins VI, Concerto, Sinfonia, Coro, Folk Songs, and Voci (Folksongs II), as well as Quatre dédicaces and Stanze in a German premiere performance.

Featured compositions by Pierre Boulez and Luciano Berio will be set into a stimulating dialogue with the works of Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Witold Lutoslawski, Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Hector Berlioz, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Henri Pousseur, Peter Eötvös, and Beat Furrer. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Art of the Fugue will be performed by the Keller Quartett on September 2, the eve of the opening concert of musikfest berlin 10. Music from the 14th century will resound in a concert by the vocal ensemble graindelavoix from Belgium.

Appearing as guests in Berlin besides the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the RIAS Kammerchor, and the four prominent Berlin orchestras directed by their principal conductors will be the London Symphony Orchestra with Daniel Harding, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Jurowski, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam with Mariss Jansons, the Bayerische Staatsorchester with Kent Nagano, and the Bamberger Symphoniker – Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie with Jonathan Nott.

Also performing will be Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, and the ensemble musikFabrik, as well as the choirs Synergy Vocals, Schola Heidelberg, Cantus Domus, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, and the NDR Chor. Among the featured soloists will be Kelley O’Connor, Stella Doufexis, Ian Bostridge, Roman Trekel, and Dietrich Henschel. Also invited are pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the piano duo Andreas Grau and Götz Schumacher, trumpet player Marco Blaauw, and violists Tabea Zimmermann, Megumi Kasakawa, Axel Porath, and Antoine Tamestit.

The main event location for musikfest berlin 10 is the Philharmonie Berlin. Additional venues are the Chamber Music Hall of the Philharmonie Berlin, the Parochialkirche, the Gethsemanekirche, and the Konzerthaus Berlin. Press office, April 15, 2010

Se há sistema que implodiu foi o inglês

Os reguladores e os legisladores ainda não fizeram uma coisa fundamental que é criar um sistema de supervisão das entidades que operavam antes da crise, e continuam a operar, sem regulação, como os hedge funds, os auditores e as agências de rating. Quem manda neles? Ninguém.

Acha que a ausência de regulação reflecte a força do poder anglo-saxónico?

Talvez. E talvez pelo facto de as agências de rating falarem inglês é que a Grã-Bretanha continua a ter rating AAA [país com baixo risco de insolvência]. Se há sistema financeiro que implodiu foi o inglês. E a gestão da crise inglesa foi das mais incompetentes. (da entrevista a Carlos Rodrigues, fundador e presidente do BIG) - publico.pt, 13 Abril


88,6%

Por esta amostra de um portal de contratação pública electrónica, que inclui entidades adjudicantes do governo central, empresas públicas, empresas municipais e autarquias locais, não restam dúvidas sobre a procedimento preferido para a celebração de contratos públicos. Nos 2263 procedimentos listados, 1228 (quase 55%) são “ajustes directos” e apenas 249 (11%) são concursos públicos sem limitações. Destes 249, 114 devem-se apenas às Câmaras de Sintra (71) e de Oeiras (43), verdadeiras campeãs da transparência. Os restantes 135 concursos públicos representam, por isso, cerca de 6% do total de procedimentos de contratação.

Se aos 1228 ajustes directos se somarem as 680 “consultas prévias”, os 47 “concursos limitados sem apresentação de candidaturas”, os 29 “procedimentos por negociação sem publicação de anúncio” e os 21 “concursos limitados sem publicação de anúncio”, temos 88,6% (em número de contratos) da contratação pública com transparência nula ou muito reduzida.


Governo não deve abrir mão da CGD

O presidente da Comissão Parlamentar de Assuntos Económicos, António José Seguro, manifesta-se contra a "imoralidade" dos altos salários e prémios dos gestores públicos, encontrando-se" à espera" de uma resposta a um requerimento que dirigiu ao Governo, a solicitar informação sobre o estatuto remuneratório e as "orientações" dadas a esses quadros dessas empresas.

O deputado socialista, ontem, na Universidade do Algarve, defendeu que "os reguladores devem ser eleitos, fiscalizados e depender do Parlamento, e não de qualquer Governo".

Recusando-se a invocar, em concreto, o caso do presidente da EDP, o deputado entende que "não está em causa o mérito, mas a moralidade, particularmente no momento em que se pedem sacrifícios aos portugueses".

Seguro defende que o Estado "pode ser árbitro e jogador, corrigindo algumas distorções do próprio mercado" e por isso defende que o "Governo não deve abrir mão da CGD". idem


É a homossexualidade e não o celibato

É a homossexualidade e não o celibato dos padres que o secretário de Estado do Vaticano, cardeal Tarcisio Bertone, relaciona com a pedofilia e com os casos de abusos no seio da Igreja Católica.

“Muitos psicólogos e psiquiatras demonstraram que não há relação entre o celibato dos padres e a pedofilia, mas muitos outros demonstraram, e disseram-me recentemente, que há uma relação entre homossexualidade e pedofilia”, afirmou Bertone.

“É a verdade, é esse o problema”, garantiu o cardeal numa conferência de imprensa em Santiago do Chile. “Esta patologia toca todos os tipos de pessoas e os padres num grau menor, em termos percentuais”, afirmou ainda o cardeal, “número dois” do Vaticano. “O comportamento dos padres neste caso, o comportamento negativo, é muito sério, é escandaloso.”

No Chile, houve de imediato reacções indignadas: “Esta é a uma estratégia do Vaticano para fugir às suas próprias responsabilidades éticas e legais, fazendo esta ligação falsa e repugnante”, afirmou Rolando Jimenez, presidente do Movimento para a Integração e Libertação Homossexual, recusando a existência de quaisquer estudos sérios que sustentem o que diz Bertone. ibidem


Bento XVI atrasou afastamento de pedófilo

O Papa Bento XVI atrasou, nos anos 80, o afastamento de um padre californiano acusado de pedofilia, justificando a sua decisão com o “bem da Igreja universal”, segundo cartas trocadas entre o Vaticano e a diocese californiana de Oakland.

Uma série de cartas tornadas públicas sexta-feira pelo advogado das vítimas, Jeff Anderson, descreve “as liberdades sexuais” do padre Stephen Kiesle, em 1978, com “seis adolescentes entre os 11 e os 13 anos”, factos reconhecidos pelo próprio pároco.

Ao seu pedido, o padre Kiesle pediu para ser afastado, um pedido transmitido ao Vaticano pelo bispo de Oakland, John Cummins, em 1981. O Vaticano respondeu ao bispo indicando que desejava obter informações suplementares sobre a questão. As informações foram enviadas por John Cummins em Fevereiro de 1982 ao cardeal Joseph Ratzinger, futuro Bento XVI, então líder da Congregação para a doutrina da fé.

Na sua carta Cummins referiu estar convencido de que afastar o padre Kiesle “não provocaria um escândalo”, acrescentando: “seria um escândalo maior para a comunidade se o padre Kiesle regressasse ao seu ministério”.

Apesar dos pedidos repetidos da diocese de Oakland, foi necessário esperar até 6 de Novembro de 1985 para que Joseph Ratzinger respondesse a John Cummings. Na resposta, redigida em latim, o cardeal reconheceu “a gravidade” da situação, mas mostrou-se reticente em tomar uma decisão imediata, preocupado com o efeito que poderia ter sobre “o bem da Igreja Universal”.

Para o futuro Papa, o assunto devia ser alvo de “uma atenção específica, que necessita de muito tempo”. publico.pt, 10.04.2010, 11:34 Por Lusa


Dois momentos Figo/Sousa

O apoio de Figo a José Sócrates e ao PS concretizou-se em dois momentos. A 7 de Agosto, o ex-futebolista deu uma entrevista ao Diário Económico, realizada pelo director deste jornal, António Costa, em que teceu rasgados elogios à governação socialista. Um mês depois, no último dia da campanha eleitoral para as legislativas, Figo tomou um pequeno-almoço com o primeiro-ministro na esplanada do Hotel Altis-Belém, em Lisboa. No final, fez declarações à comunicação social presente no evento e repetiu os elogios ao PS.

«Por decisão dos arguidos, a celebração do referido contrato constituiu um expediente para, através de uma remuneração anual, pelo período convencionado de três anos, alcançarem, da parte de Luís Figo, um apoio político-partidário determinado», considerou a procuradora Teresa Almeida. sol.pt, 14 Abril


DCIAP investiga branqueamento

Ministério Público suspeita que a compra dos submersíveis envolveu corrupção e dinheiro sujo. Já foi pedida a quebra do sigilo bancário. correiodamanha.pt, 14 Abril 2010

Anna Walentynowicz

Anna Walentynowicz, the Polish free trade union activist whose firing sparked a series of strikes at the Gdansk Shipyard and eventually led to the formation of the Solidarity trade union, was killed today in the Smolensk air disaster. She was 80.


Polish president killed

(Guardian) - The Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, and his wife were among 132 people killed when their plane crashed in thick fog on its approach to a regional airport in Russia early this morning.
...
Kaczynski was visiting Smolensk to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, which took place in forests outside the town. The massacre of Polish officers by Russian secret police was one of the most notorious incidents of the second world war, and has long been a source of tension between Warsaw and Moscow.

On Wednesday, Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk attended a joint ceremony at Katyn with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Kaczynski, who had poor relations with the Kremlin, was making a separate trip to the spot. Guardian


President and top officials killed

(Reuters) - Poland's President Lech Kaczynski, its central bank head and the country's military chief were among 96 people killed when their plane crashed in thick fog on its approach to a Russian airport on Saturday.
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Russian television showed the smouldering fuselage and fragments of the plane scattered in a forest. A Reuters reporter saw a broken wing some distance from the rest of the aircraft.

The plane was one of two Tupolev TU-154M's in the Polish government fleet, both about 20 years old. Government officials had complained about the age of Poland's official fleet.

Russia's Emergencies Ministry said 96 people were aboard the government plane, including 88 members of a Polish delegation en route to commemorate Poles killed in mass murders in the town of Katyn under orders from Soviet leader Josef Stalin in 1940.

Earlier reports had said 132 people were aboard. Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufyev and Polish state news agency PAP said there were no survivors.

A Russian mission control official who had been present during conversations with the pilot told Reuters the pilot had ignored advice.

"The pilot was advised to fly to Moscow or Minsk because of heavy fog, but he still decided to land. No one should have been landing in that fog," he said, on condition his name was not published. Reuters

We do suport Baltasar Garzón

Kyrgyz opposition seizes power

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's opposition said on Thursday it had taken power and dissolved parliament in the poor and strategically important Central Asian state after protests forced President Kurmanbek Bakiyev to flee the capital.

Roza Otunbayeva, leader of the interim government, demanded the resignation of the president, whom she helped bring to power five years ago. She said Bakiyev was trying to rally supporters in his power base in southern Kyrgyzstan.

"People in Kyrgyzstan want to build democracy. What we did yesterday was our answer to the repression and tyranny against the people by the Bakiyev regime," Otunbayeva, who once served as foreign minister under Bakiyev, told reporters.

"You can call this revolution. You can call this a people's revolt. Either way, it is our way of saying that we want justice and democracy."
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The uprising, which began on Tuesday in a provincial town, was sparked by discontent over corruption, nepotism and rising prices in a nation where a third of the 5.3 million population live below the poverty line. Reuters


17 people killed in Kyrgyzstan protests

(Guardian) - At least 180 people in Kyrgyzstan have been wounded and 17 killed in clashes between riot police and anti-government demonstrators.

Police opened fire when thousands of protesters tried to storm the main government building in the capital Bishkek and overthrow the regime.

Reporters saw bodies lying in the main square outside the office of Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the central Asian republic's president, and opposition leaders said that at least 17 people were killed in the violence.

Bakiyev declared a state of emergency, as riot police firing tear gas and flash grenades beat back the crowds. There were also unconfirmed reports that the country's interior minister had been beaten by an angry mob. Guardian

Collateral Murder

5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad - including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. collateralmurder

An illusion that everyone has

Paulo said...

Everyone argues that "okay, you have a bigger salary but the cost of living is MUCH HIGHER". This as we say in Portuguese is "atirar areia para os olhos" (throwing sand at someones eyes) and it's an illusion that everyone has. I agree the cost is higher, but not that higher unless you compare Lisbon with London. However, compare Lisbon with Stockholm, Berlin or Paris - maybe we'll have different conclusions.
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Personally, I don't think about going back. I might leave Sweden, but there's more of the world to experience. 31 March 2010 10:48

Pedro M said...

After graduation I had my first industry experience working in Portugal. Then I worked for a german company and since then I continued my career in the north of Europe.

Even if the wages were the same I would still prefer to work abroad because, in my opinion, the ethics and work culture in Portugal are an obstacle to achieving results and producing quality work.

There are too many people in the wrong positions and too many decisions based on friendships and self-interests. In this environment a lot of effort is needed to lobby our work, at the end it is more politics than engineering, it results in frustration and low quality results. A shift in work culture is needed, before it becomes a good option to work in Portugal. 3 April 2010 20:01

Note: housing in portugal is expensive as German but minimum wage (in Portugal) is less than 400 euros/month! Meanwhile the Ceo of the portuguese EDP got more than 3 million euros (annual wage plus extras)... So, we pay for electricity (as for telecommunications, etc *) more than germans do. Welcome to the portuguese "free" market!

* if I going to list staff that is more expensive in portugal than abroad it will be endless.