Bibi, Bhatti, Taseer, Younus

Asia Noreen (  (Urdu: آسیہ نو رین  better known as Asia (also spelled Aasiya) Bibi, Urdu: آسیہ بی بی, born c. 1971)  is a Pakistani Christian woman who was convicted of blasphemy by a Pakistani court, receiving a sentence of death by hanging. The verdict, which would need to be upheld by a superior court, has received worldwide attention. If executed, Noreen would be the first woman in Pakistan to be lawfully killed for blasphemy. 


Christian minister Shahbaz Bhatti and Pakistani government politician Salmaan Taseer were both killed for opposing the blasphemy laws. wikipedia



Pakistani acid attack victim Fakhra Younus had endured more than three dozen surgeries over more than a decade to repair her severely damaged face and body when she finally decided life was no longer worth living.  AP/yahoo



Afghan girl's 'horrifying abuse'

A video given to the BBC shows the extent of the injuries suffered by a 15 year-old Afghan child bride who was locked up and tortured by her husband.

The girl was left starving after being detained by him and his family for several months.

The case came to light this week when police rescued the teenager, Sahar Gul, who had been locked up in the basement of her in-laws' house.

Police say that she had had her nails and clumps of hair pulled out.

In addition they say she had chunks of flesh cut out with pliers. bbc


Indian girl sacrificed

The body of Lalita Tati was found in October one week after her family reported her missing.

“A seven-year-old girl was sacrificed by two persons superstitiously believing that the act would give a better harvest,” Narayan Das, the police chief of Bijapur district, told AFP by telephone.

The two men was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of killing the girl and offering her liver to the gods in a grisly tribal ceremony. Police said the men had confessed to the crime. dawn

Money, avarice and greed

"I used to think that the world was shaped by love. I'm sorry, but that's nonsense. It's shaped by money. Money, avarice and greed -- these are the three main constants."

"There was a promise of better international regulation. But this promise hasn't been kept, at least not until now. I certainly find fault with that."

"And, above all, this regulation must also apply to an area that has been completely unregulated until now: hedge funds."

"We didn't want to touch certain deals, because they were too precarious, in terms of structure and image, even if we stood to make a lot of money with them." (Hilmar Kopper)

Kopper: The United States isn't my role model. If that was ever the case, it was after World War II, when we were slowly emerging from the Stone Age we had fought ourselves into. But I would neither want to live in America nor be a banker there.

SPIEGEL: Fifteen-trillion dollars in debts, a crumbling infrastructure, high unemployment, food stamps for one in five children ...

Kopper: ... and the Americans still want to spend even more money. I'm horrified when I look at the politics there, with all the backstabbing and squabbling in Washington.

SPIEGEL: Europe isn't any better off.

Kopper: I see a dollar crisis, but not a euro crisis. Europe has a debt problem, whereas the United States also has a problem with its balance of payments.

SPIEGEL: Can the euro still be saved?

Kopper: Of course. spiegel


Compare with the pensions of the portuguese bankers *

"I still receive a very small pension from the British government. I was a member of various boards of directors there, which meant I was automatically included in the social security system. It comes to about seven pounds a week." (Hilmar Kopper)

* politicians, public administrators, former members of the BdP (Bank of Portugal) and so on...


Portugal - the case study

How a small country whom got billions of the EU would fall on the bankruptcy? Surelly not because the pensions of the portuguese "oligarchy"... Of course they would be unbearable on the long run, but Portugal went to the bankruptcy right now. We should analyse the portuguese public investments since the 90's (§) and must realise that the official pedagogy is completely unfased with the real needs of the country. The Eurozone should look very carefully to Portugal before give the billions to the countries like Romenia ¤, Bulgary, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Czek Republic, Slovakia and Poland. (and look at Greece before to accept new members in the Eurozone)

(§) Firstly we going to realise that governments' members went to the board of private companies that got "very nice deals" wich ruined the financial wealth and the economy of the country. Secondly we going to see the same people first at "local power" or at bord of the public companies then as members of the governments and later as CEO's in the big private companies. This people are profissional politiciens whom got pensions called "gold pensions" (as former politiciens, as local governors, as public companies administrators or as public universities top teachers) and then they'd get huge salaries, bonuses and other little known rewards, at private firms. Also one of the main cancers of the portuguese economy are the big lawyers companies that intermediate all big public busineses. Those lawers big firms have always former, present or futur employees as elected members of the parliament (ironically called "the house of the democracy"...) where they elaborate the laws accordingly to the interests of their clients.

Thirdly: the profissional portuguese politicians transformed simple departments and sections of the ministeries and universities in Public Instituts. The Public Institut has a president, a board of directors, lots of secretaries and "specialists", and they are "independents" from the State! (as the Fondations and some private companies - whom get millions of the public money through special contracts and "concessions"). It was the way to get thousands of "nice jobs" for the "boys" and "girls" of the main portuguese political parties.

Also the portuguese universities professors' system is an aberration: the top professor teach six (sometimes less, sometimes nothing) hours weekly for more than 5000 euros/month salary (very "low" if you compare with the salary of a public portuguese administrator, but the university' teacher has loots of time and can also get a job as an administrator... if start to gets in the politics... or write very well payed "cientific" statements - this later depending on wich area him play). No one control them, there's no evaluation at all, and if there is any, its just a farse. No one ask them how many books wrote and how many articles did publish every year in specialized and recognised editions. It's like the farwest... They own an absolute power because they are considered the top of the knowledge. They may give for their "protegès" jobs like assistant teacher without any public announcement to envite others potential candidats to apply for the position. In Portugal are the tutors of the PhD's candidates whom do invite all the panel of PhD's jurors... And when they did (public announcement to envite others potential candidats - sometimes holding well reconised PhD's and post-PhD's - to apply), they composed the requirements to size the academic and profissional profile of their "boy" or "girl". It happned in almost all public portuguese instituitions. Some of the superior courses in Portugal do exist no because the needs of the country but because they are the safe net of some politicians whom are on/off in the universities and off/on in the political jobs. It's knowed that some important (in Portugal) faculties are dominated by secret societies, like the "franc-maçons" and the "Opus Dei" (right now the "portuguisches" war is between two different branches of the "maçons" each branch in each of the two main political parties...), because jobs in the public universities are in Portugal an excellent position and they want to keep it for their "brothers" and "sisters". The "Opus Dei" prefered to create their own private universities and banks (so, the BCP - the former "Opus Dei"s bank - has had to be bailled by the public money but the fomer two CEOs did get 30 and 10 million euros, respectively, more few hundred thousand euros a year, all their lives long...). Also the justice system is dominated by those "secret societies", so don't be surprised if almost all cases with top politiciens and bankers ended up in nothing  (BPP - Portuguese Private Bank - the president of this bank was so weel protected by the "socialist party" that it never went to the court; Cova da Beira; Freeport; Submarins - with the present minister of the foreign affairs, Paulo Portas, embroiled; Portucale - where a former minister of Paulo Portas' party was embroiled - namely - and w'll see whats happend with "Face Oculta", where former prime-minister, José Sócrates, is embroiled, as he's in "Cova da Beira" and "Freeport" cases as well;  BPN's case - a bank created by a member of the 90's government of today's Republic President, then prime-minister: the total "deal" w'd be about 9 thousand million euros - nine thousand million euros - of the public money "discharged into the air" to save the "rotten thing" -  it's hard to understand why Mr. José Sócrates decided to save it when everybody knowed that BPN is a case for the Police not to the government, as the BPP's - at least... So, another bank, wich CEO is also a former minister of the 90's from the present government's party got the BPN - just to shutdown the brand and to get all the facilities - per 40 million euros, a bit more if it generate a pre-determined amount of profits during the next 5 years...  To understanding the aberration of the "portuguese something system" you must to compare for exemple the average of  the price for housing in Portugal with the so-called "minimum wage" - 480 euros/month - and you'll realise that Portugal is neither an European nor an "eurozone" country - despite it is! -  but a country where the "boys & girls" of the "system" managing the place and the public money as if it was their farm and their own money.  Now, with the "crisis", it's getting worst, I mind -> as usual in Portugal it still going very nice for the "boys and girls" of the "system" but a bloody hell for the "normal" people and regular tax payers.

Basically we can tell that Portugal has an "something system", but we cannot tell that Portugal has a democratic system. And now - thanks to all that people in the portuguese "top jobs" - the "something portuguese system" (or The Paradise of the Corrupts) went bankrupt (but the "boys and girls" of the "system" still getting the public money as usual they do).

¤ my question on Romenia is: why it should remain in EU as we know very well the level of the endemic corruption and violence on women? (Balkan countries are "a problem" and Greece is just one of them)

Of course if we look at violence on the women, in Portugal (Spain is that better? Perhaps... In Catalunia... In the Basque Country...), we are going to realise that the portuguese are the taliban of the Eurozone. So, the portuguese needs a foreign military occupation -- of course not from Spain -- to stops those portuguese murders and torturers, because the portuguese "justice system" and policial action - shortened by the portuguese criminal laws and its portuguese magistrates' interpretation - simply does not work.

Of course this matter is not that simple... What's' happend with the portuguese? Why they do prefer kill their women instead of their corrupt politicians, magistrates and all the others whom ruined the country? There's some very intrincated staff to be analysed by lacanian thinkers and I wouldn't do it. Anyway, what's happend in Portugal - not only at this level - is something terrible and  unacceptable, and definitely does not going to be fixed from inside. It should be fixed by the EU, the Eurozone, or both, or the Eurozone in tandem with the OCDE or other "neutral" international organization.

Here we can see that Chile, for example, is substantially less corrupt than Portugal. The consistently responsibles of the absolutely rotten portuguese situation are the portuguese magistrates, who cleaned up in the court - or before the court - lots of corrupt big businesses, many of them in a "normal" country would configure huge crimes against the State and the "people". (Bulgaria is corrupt as Panama's, Romenia as China's, Greece as Colombia's, Serbia as Jamaica's...)

Here, no suprise, we can realise that portuguese are the unhappiest in the world after the chinese and the hungarian. Casa Pia' scandal was probably the tip of the iceberg of the portuguese regular aberrations.

In this "developed" and "warm" country people dead by cold! You just need to compare the minumum wage (485 euros/month) with the price of the electricity (and everything) in Portugal to realise for this country the important are politicians, "great" lawers and "great" administrators' salaries. "Normal" people can just get cold. Portugal is a Mafia State where the killings are made in a subtle way...

Since EU gave billions to Portugal during more than 30 years without any effective control, the EU (and the germans)  are co-responsible for the portuguese present situation. We tend to forget that Portugal is a territory of the European Union.*  Payed by the Eurozone to transform itself in a "civilized" place to be... Eurozone should care the portuguese (the spanish and the italians - I don't talk on Greece because Greece is the "edge case") as their magistrates (italian magistrates excluded, I should point out), their "great" administrators" and their "great" lawyers are just corrupt & craps.

* if we like to talk about "something" we should talk on Eurozone, not on the EU with some hypocrites whom just want to destroy the Euro.

A Dictator's Dream

Azerbaijan will play host to this year's Eurovision Song Contest. In the run-up to Europe's largest television event, the authoritarian regime has launched a campaign to improve its image. German PR experts, lobbyists and politicians across the spectrum are playing a role in those efforts. spiegel.de/international


 Unrest is being crushed 

 Bullets, beatings and Blair's brutal friend in Kazakhstan "This is the Kazakh oil town of Zhanaozen, where clashes between security forces and protesters this month have left 15 people dead." independent.co.uk


 Blair Inc's 'baffling' increase in earnings

 The accounts reveal that the company received "remuneration of £9,837,000 in connection with management services" from a limited liability partnership ultimately controlled by Blair. In the previous year Windrush Ventures Limited received £5.2m in remuneration for providing management services. Exactly what sort of management services are provided, and how the company derives its income, are impossible to determine as the accounts do not go into detail. Blair is legitimately taking advantage of laws allowing him to limit what his companies and partnerships must disclose. "It is baffling; these accounts make remarkably little sense," said accountancy expert Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK, a firm that scrutinises company finances. "This limited disclosure is not within the spirit of the law. " guardian.co.uk

Sakineh could be hanged

According to Sharifi, an investigation has been launched to determine whether it is legally and religiously possible to go ahead with the hanging instead of stoning. "As soon as the result of the investigation is obtained, we will carry out the sentence," he said in quotes carried by the semi-official Isna news agency. guardian

Note: "Seven people have been stoned to death in Iran since 2006 and at least 14 are currently facing death by stoning, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights."

Corruption in the arms trade

The arms trade accounts for almost 40 per cent of corruption in all world trade. newint.org

Chinese dissident jailed for 10 years

A Chinese court jailed a veteran dissident who organised a pro-democracy activist network for 10 years today for inciting subversion, his wife said.

The stiff sentence come near the end of a year in which the Chinese government has used various means to silence dissent, from lengthy imprisonment to months of disappearances, in a crackdown aimed at preventing Arab Spring-style uprisings. independent


Whose miracle?

It is impossible to say just how many rural peasants have made this move in the past decade but estimates run from between 200 and 300 million people. This latter would be a population greater than that of the entire US. Even by official acknowledgement 20 million a year are leaving the land. It is commonplace to see these young migrants, with their worldly goods about them, crowded into train stations trying to catch a night’s sleep between bus and train connections that will carry them to the ‘promised land’ of Shanghai or the Special Economic Zone of Guangdong (adjacent to Hong Kong).
...
The payment of bribes is chronic. Some of the incidents are gradually seeping into the Chinese press as journalists push the limits of the permissible. They include stories of outright slave labour, such as the case of people kidnapped from the countryside to work in the Shanxi brick kilns. The stories provoked an official investigation that found 53,035 people illegally employed. According to Li Datong, who used to write for the China Youth Daily; ‘The investigation uncovered cases of people being kidnapped, of restriction of personal freedom, of forced labour, of child labour, and abuse and even murder of workers.’ newint.org


Tibet's cry for help

Days ago, Palden Choetso walked out of her nunnery, covered herself in petrol and set herself on fire while pleading for a 'free Tibet'. Minutes later she died. In the past month, nine monks and nuns have self-immolated to protest a growing Chinese crackdown on the peaceful Tibetan people.

These tragic acts are a desperate cry for help. Machine gun-toting Chinese security forces are beating and disappearing monks, laying siege to monasteries, and even killing elderly people defending them -- all in an effort to suppress Tibetan rights. China severely restricts access to the region. But if we can get key governments to send diplomats in and expose this growing brutality, we could save lives.

We have to act fast -- this horrific situation is spiraling out of control behind a censorship curtain. Over and over we have seen that when diplomats themselves bear witness to atrocities, they are motivated to act, and increase political pressure. avaaz.org

My pro-Tibet's blog

Vaclav Havel dies age 75

Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who turned to politics to help peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia, has died at the age of 75. independent

Ours british allies *

IMF-EU loan in doubt after Britain refuses to lend £25bn

* (surely?!)


One trillion euros baby

Klaas Knot, head of the Dutch Central Bank and an ECB board member, suggested that it was European leaders who need to make the next move. He said that the debt crisis could be solved if the euro zone would boost its financial rescue fund to €1 trillion.
...
There were, however, at least a couple of bright spots this week. For one, a Spanish bond offering came off much better than expected, with interest rates down over recent weeks. And Russia has indicated a willingness to pay €10 billion into an International Monetary Fund plan to prop up the euro. Weidmann had threatened not to participate if there was no help from outside of the euro zone. spiegel


Divisions in eurozone over ECB bond-buying

In the interview he said: “It is the fundamental arrangement of this currency union that it does not allow the monetary funding of sovereign debt by the ECB. Without these rules, there would be no economic and currency union.”

So far the ECB has bought €210bn (£176bn) of state debt. The controversial move has been supported by the UK, France and the USA, but opposed by Germany. The reasons behind Mr Stark’s resignation go some way to revealing how deep the opposition to monetary intervention runs.
...
However, he added: “It’s the immediate crisis that must be addressed. That means a credible plan for the bond markets on the risks of sovereign insolvency.

“Institutional reform may or may not help for the longer term, but it won’t alleviate the immediate crisis. If not addressed, it has the potential to provoke a crisis of Western capitalism.” telegraph

Note: The End of the History?

Rogues and thieves have become billionaires

This handful of attendants and Media continue to convince us that the falsification of the vote in favor of the party of crooks and thieves is a necessary condition for the existence of hot tap water and cheap mortgages. navalny.livejournal.com


Censorship Tendencies

The murders of journalists in Russia, the jailing of bloggers in China, and the crackdown on the media in Iran regularly remind us that freedom of expression is under duress, even in an era of expanding global communications. rferl.org

Go to Twentyvoices

Wave of self-immolation

Chinese oppression leads Buddhist monks to resort to desperate protest. independent

My pro-Tibet's blog

Saudi Woman Beheaded for 'Witchcraft'

A Saudi woman was beheaded after being convicted of practicing "witchcraft and sorcery," according to the Saudi Interior Ministry, at least the second such execution for sorcery this year.

The woman, Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar, was executed in the northern Saudi province of al-Jawf on Monday.


In the meantime...

The £2million heist ($3,099,000) was the royal family's "holiday spending money" set aside for its visit to London on June 24.

Basically pocket money...

Britain & EU

The Failure of a Forced Marriage


What would really happen?

Interestingly enough, German bank Deutsche Bank is the single largest employer in the financial services sector in London. If we are no longer part of the EU – with no influence over future financial regulation in the currency bloc – will big banks want to be based in London? uk.finance.yahoo


To defend one of the prime culprits

It is known that Vince Cable, the business secretary, and Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, were less eager to see the UK sacrifice its role in Europe to defend a deregulated City of London, one of the prime culprits for the credit crunch. guardian


The European Union dropped the hypocrisy

The European Union on Thursday night dropped the hypocrisy. No longer is harmony the overriding goal. That, though, means that Great Britain may no longer have a place at the table. spiegel


For your own sake and for ours

Prophecies of doom are mounting as the euro zone hurtles deeper into crisis, and the world pins its hopes on Germany to solve it. The country has been thrust into a leadership role it has avoided for decades, isolating Berlin from its partners, say commentators. Poland's foreign minister has implored the country to save the euro "for your own sake and for ours." spiegel

Note: mainly for ours...


Economic and political union

A monetary union, a currency, needs an economic and political union to walk properly. The markets were targeting that weakness in the euro's construction. But Barroso also delivered a message that went to the emotional core of the European project. Born in the aftermath of war, ruin and destitution, surely the European project could cope with an army of bond traders, however powerful. guardian

Note 1: '"What's the alternative?" asks one senior EU official. "We have seen democracies outstripped by the markets, which have forced decisions on elected governments. So that democratic freedom has been curtailed. How do you respond? Do you let that continue, or do you move towards stronger economic governance? And which is more legitimate, the rule of the markets or economic governance by representative institutions in which governments have a say?"'

Note 2: "People are ready to change when they understand there is no alternative."


Believe it or not *

Believe it or not, but Greece, with a population of 11 million and economy a sixth the size of the United Kingdom, is one of the most important factors for the global economy right now.

It was the source of Europe's sovereign debt crisis after it was revealed more than two years ago that the southern European nation had borrowed more than double what it could afford to pay back.

Combine that with a problematic tax system - reports suggest there are more Porsche Cayennes in Greece than people who declare to the tax authorities earnings over €50,000 - and you can see how its fragile debt dynamics came crashing down. yahoo/forex

* Greece is a failed state because the corruption. And Italy? *

* (and Portugal? Where its despotic and corrupt "elite" - public or private, usually "mix" - take anything and everything from the public domain and from the public treasury!)