2020 World News

Lost Jews of Popping Up in Africa

2013-10-30T04:50:00.001-07:00

Lost Jews of Africa

From Ghana to Zimbabwe, Tribes Claim Jewish Heritage

getty images

Lost Jews: The Lemba people of southern Zimbabwe are one of several scattered African tribes that claim Jewish ancestry.

By JTA

Published August 14, 2012.

Filmmaker Laurence Gavron is on a journey to document lost Jewish tribes in Africa.

The French-born Gavron, who has made Senegal her home since 1989, says she was immediately taken by the project, which she says combines her passion for Africa with the mystery of rediscovering Judaism.

jta

Laurence Gavron

The film, titled "Black Jews, Juifs noir en Afrique," focuses on a dozen African tribes – in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and other countries – each with a Jewish story. Some claim to be descendants of the Bible's 10 Lost Tribes. Others believe that their ancestors were Jews who emigrated from Judea to Yemen looking for gold.
Rabbinical authorities have not accepted any of the groups as Jewish under halachah, Jewish law, although all the tribes strive to be recognized as such at some level or another.
Edith Bruder, who has been studying these Jewish groups for more than a decade and wrote the book "The black Jews of Africa, history, identity, religion," turned to Gavron for the film, which is expected to be released in the coming months.

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"In sub-Saharan Africa, you can find 'Judaic' tribes in Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Uganda, Cameroon, South Africa, Zimbabwe and even in Sao Tome and other countries. There are many of them," Bruder said. "It is really a vast subject."

The two women are documenting Sabbath celebrations in remote African villages, Ghanaian Jews practicing circumcision and Jewish-African traditional marriage ceremonies. They have even been deep into the forests filming black Jews preparing their "kosher" meals – in their own tradition, the way the Torah explains it simply – not mixing the meat of the veal with its mother's cow milk.

Filming a Shabbat service in Ghana was a moving experience, Gavron says.
"At the end, [I was] really very touched and almost started crying," she said.
The French connection between Bruder and Gavron seems almost predestined: Gavron with her fascination for Africa and for her Jewish roots, and Bruder's researching of "Jewish-related subjects" for most of her academic career. Their producer, too, is French: Anne Schushman of Scuch Productions.

"I am very interested in Jewish people, being one, and in blacks, living in Africa and having become Senegalese," Gavron said. "So black Jews is something that was more than perfect for me."

In the introduction to her documentary project, Gavron writes, "Who has the right to proclaim himself a Jew? Who can assert his connection to Judaism? Are these black Jews really a part of the Jewish people? And if not, why do they wish to be included?"
Her own connection to Judaism – a sense of peoplehood and culture – has mostly been background music, she says, and making the film has "rekindled" those feelings.

Gavron, who keeps busy making films, writing detective stories, organizing cultural evenings, making video clips and curating photo expositions, among other pursuits, recently made history in her adopted homeland. In July, she became the first woman toubab – Senegalese naturalized white person – to be on an electoral list for parliament. With a victory, she would have become the first Jewish member of Senegal's parliament.
Gavron, 57, hadn't given much thought to political involvement in the Muslim-dominated country until just a few months ago. At a cocktail party in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, she began speaking to Mamadou Lamine Diallo, who heads Tekki, a left-wing party.

"I told him how much I share with him the values defended by his party: transparency, citizenship activism and ethics," she said. "He immediately asked me if I cared to join as a candidate for the upcoming elections."

The offer "enchanted me," Gavron said. "I felt it was a wonderful way to repay this country, which has embraced me without any restraint or hesitation. It is my way to pay my gratitude back to the Senegalese people.

Gavron was able to run only because the Senegalese parliament adopting an equal gender representation act two years ago, obliging political parties to present an equal number of male and female candidates. And although she did not win the election, the experience convinced her to remain politically active – and she believes the results would be different the next time around.

Senegal has undergone significant changes in the past three years, most recently choosing Macky Sall as president over incumbent Abdoulaye Wade, who was criticized for his grandiose living style. That, along with the new laws designed to promote gender equality, may well play in Gavron's favor in the next elections.

As to her "home party," Gavron is the perfect match for what Tekki is striving to achieve, says El Hadrji Sarr, a Tekki leader who supported Gavron's candidacy.
"Laurence is a Senegalese in every means and ways, even though she is white," he said. "She has a natural place within our electoral list."

Gavron has long split her time among France, Africa and Israel. Although a Senegal citizen who makes her permanent home in Dakar, she says that when she visits Paris, she suddenly feels that is home again, as if she never left the place. Israel, meanwhile, remains her spiritual homeland, she says.

Her first visit to Senegal, a former French colony in western Africa, came in 1987 for an international film festival. She continued to go back and forth before making it her permanent home in 2000. Widowed for several years by then, Gavron says she decided it was time for a real change. She became a Senegalese citizen in 2007.

The night before she left Paris for the permanent move to Dakar, Gavron says she was inexplicably drawn to visit the Jewish quarter of Paris.

"I curiously found myself walking towards the Marais," she recalls, where she bought a mezuzah.

"Being Jewish is important for me, even though I do not practice Judaism every day," she said. "I am attached to my Jewish identity and to the cultural elements which differentiate me from others."

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Japan unveils largest warship since World War II

2013-08-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Japan unveils new carrier-like warship, the largest in its navy since World War II

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) -- Japan on Tuesday unveiled its biggest warship since World War II, a huge flat-top destroyer that has raised eyebrows in China and elsewhere because it bears a strong resemblance to a conventional aircraft carrier.

The ship, which has a flight deck that is nearly 250 meters (820 feet) long, is designed to carry up to 14 helicopters. Japanese officials say it will be used in national defense — particularly in anti-submarine warfare and border-area surveillance missions — and to bolster the nation's ability to transport personnel and supplies in response to large-scale natural disasters, like the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

Though the ship — dubbed "Izumo" — has been in the works since 2009, its unveiling comes as Japan and China are locked in a dispute over several small islands located between southern Japan and Taiwan. For months, ships from both countries have been conducting patrols around the isles, called the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyutai in China.

The tensions over the islands, along with China's heavy spending on defense and military modernization, have heightened calls in Japan for beefed-up naval and air forces. China recently began operating an aircraft carrier that it refurbished after purchasing from Russia, and is reportedly moving forward with the construction of another that is domestically built.

Japan, China and Taiwan all claim the islands.

Though technically a destroyer, some experts believe the new Japanese ship could potentially be used in the future to launch fighter jets or other aircraft that have the ability to take off vertically. That would be a departure for Japan, which has one of the best equipped and best trained naval forces in the Pacific but which has not sought to build aircraft carriers of its own because of constitutional restrictions that limit its military forces to a defensive role.

Japan says it has no plans to use the ship in that manner.

The Izumo does not have catapults for launching fighters, nor does it have a "ski-jump" ramp on its flight deck for fixed-wing aircraft launches.

Original Article

Last Week's Oklahoma Tornado Was The Widest Tornado Ever Recorded

2013-06-05T09:34:00.001-07:00

Last Week's Oklahoma Tornado Was The Widest Tornado Ever Recorded

The record-breaking twister in the city of El Reno was 2.6 miles across.

El Reno Tornado rbohac

On Friday, not even two weeks after a destructive tornado ran through Moore, Oklahoma, another twister hit the city of El Reno. At last count, 18 people were confirmed dead, with six still missing, and the National Weather Service has not only categorized the storm as an EF-5--the highest on a scale of damage--but also as the widest tornado ever measured.

The El Reno Tornado's Path: National Weather Service

A mobile radar unit measured the storm at 2.6 miles across, according to the National Weather Service, making it wider than the previous record holder, a 2.5-mile twister that swept across Nebraska in 2004. That means it was considerably wider than the Moore tornado, too, which at most was two miles wide.

[NBC News]
Original Article

African Hebrew Israelites ReEnact Exodus in Passover Tradition

2013-03-31T04:27:00.001-07:00

Members of the African Hebrew Israelite community pray during a Passover ceremony on a mountaintop in Dimona early Tuesday. Photo by Andrew Esensten

African Hebrew Israelites reenact Exodus in Passover tradition

In a scene from 'The Ten Commandments' on a hill in modern-day Israel, the Black Hebrews, a Bible-based community in Dimona with African American roots, celebrates Pesach in its own unique way. Twice, in fact.

At dawn on Tuesday morning, a large group gathered on a mountain in the Negev desert to reenact the moments leading up to the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.

Dressed in robes and flowing dresses, these pilgrims prayed, sang spirituals and discarded the leftovers from their seder meals into the flames of a massive bonfire, in a scene that evoked comparisons to the film "The Ten Commandments."

"It's one thing to see Charlton Heston in a movie," said Ahbir Ben Israel, who stoked the fire with kerosene. "But we know that the Exodus is not just a story, it's our history."

The burning of excess food from the seder meal is just one of the ways that the African Hebrew Israelites, also known as the Black Hebrews, try to "take that ancient reality and make it contemporary," Ben Israel said. They also remain in their houses from midnight until daybreak – when the Angel of Death is believed to have passed over the Israelites' houses – and, according to God's instructions, sleep in their clothing in order to be able to flee at any moment.

"It reflects how serious we are about getting closer and closer to the Creator," he said.

For a time, the Hebrews even slaughtered a lamb and smeared its blood on their doorposts, just as the Israelites did so that their first-born sons would be spared from death. They discontinued the practice after arriving in Israel in 1969 and adopting a vegan diet.

As African Americans who identify with the tribe of Judah and whose ancestors, they believe, endured two periods of enslavement – one in Egypt and in the United States – the Passover tale has special resonance for the Hebrews.

"Historically, we're always inspired by the story of the people being led out of Egypt, and the many trials and tribulations that were experienced on that journey," said Prince Immanuel Ben Yehuda, a community spokesman. "We always felt like we were living it."

He said he personally looks forward to the burning ceremony on the mountain because it allows him "to get rid of some of those characteristics, like doubt and fear, that you don't want to carry into the next year."

During this week of Passover, which they call the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Hebrews eat tortilla-like homemade matza and "fast" from Western music and movies. The Hebrews actually celebrate two Passovers; They commemorate their exodus from the United States, which they view as a modern-day Babylon, every May during a two-day festival known as New World Passover.

Their literal interpretation of the Torah extends beyond their observance of Passover to nearly every facet of their culture.

For example, they cite Genesis 1:29 as the reason for adopting a vegan diet: "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." They point to Methuselah, who according to the same book of the Bible lived to the ripe old age of 969, as inspiration in their quest to achieve immortality.

Earlier this month, they celebrated Rosh Hashanah based on their interpretation of a verse in Exodus that identifies the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan (called Aviv in the Torah) as the "beginning of months," not Tishrei, which is when most Jews mark the new year. (Like Karaite Jews, the Hebrews reject the Oral Law – the Mishna and the Talmud.)

Karaliah Eshet Prince Gavriel Ha'Gadol left Chicago in 1967 with the founding members of the community, which now numbers about 2,500. She spent two and a half years in the jungles of Liberia before moving to Israel and said her favorite part of celebrating Passover is being with her family in a land where she feels "free to worship Yah" – the preferred Hebrew term for God in the community – "with nobody dictating to you how and when to do so."

For Elkannon Ben Shaleakh, who was also part of the vanguard group, the significance of Passover is the opportunity it provides "to start over again."
The walls of the bungalow he shares with his wife and several other families in the community's compound in Dimona, called the Village of Peace, are decorated with photos of civil rights leaders, including Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as several portraits of Ben Ammi Ben Israel, the spiritual leader of the community, whom he called "a Moses-type figure."
At his seder on Monday evening, there was no gefilte fish, brisket or matza ball soup. Instead, Ben Shaleahk and his family feasted on eggplant parmesan (with soy cheese), stuffing with gravy, kale greens, salad and soy ice cream for dessert.

He explained that the bitter herb that is traditionally eaten during the Passover seder represents "the 400 years of slavery and poverty in America." The sweet charoset, meanwhile, represents the Hebrews' joy of living as a free people in their homeland.

While his journey has not been easy – one of his children died in Liberia after falling into a well, and another son, Aharon, was killed by a Palestinian gunman while performing at a Bat Mitzvah in Hadera in 2002 – he said he and the rest of the Hebrews have sustained themselves through their adherence to the Bible.

"We were caught up in the Book, and we were trying to live it out," Ben Yehuda said. "We're still doing that."

Original Article

"Positive Education Activates
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Arab League Approves $1B Plan

2013-03-28T08:44:00.001-07:00

Arab League approves $1b plan to protect 'Islamic and Arab character' of East Jerusalem

The Arab League summit in Doha, Qatar, March 26, 2013. Photo by AP

The Arab League on Tuesday approved a Qatari proposal to set up a $1 billion fund for Arab East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of an independent state under any peace deal with Israel.

Arabs say that Israeli settlement-building on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war, including Arab East Jerusalem, has made a two-state solution backed by the United States unfeasible.

Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, said his country will contribute $250 million to the fund, which he called for in an opening speech to an Arab summit in Doha that focused on the crisis in Syria and stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

"The summit... calls for setting up a fund to support Jerusalem to the value of $1 billion to finance projects and programs that would maintain the Arab and Islamic character of the city and reinforce the steadfastness of its people," the draft resolution said.

The Islamic Development Bank, based in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah, will manage the fund, it said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the fund to help protect the Arab character of the city and urged Arab states to contribute to it.
"The Israeli occupation is working in a systematic and hurried way to Judaise East Jerusalem, change its features and uproot its Palestinian inhabitants, attacking the al-Aqsa Mosque and its Muslim and Christian holy sites," Abbas said in a speech at the summit.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the initiative was "a badge of shame" for Qatar.

"Objecting to 'Judaisation of Jerusalem,' so to speak, is absurd and is equitable to an objection to the Catholic nature of the Vatican or the Islamization of Mecca, it is naturally unthinkable," Palmor said.
The fate of Jerusalem has proved one of the thorniest sticking points in past Middle East peace negotiations.

Citing Jewish biblical ties to the holy city, Israel annexed the Arab eastern half and its surroundings in 1980 in a move rejected by the United Nations Security Council.

The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is in deep financial crisis.

On Friday the United States promised $500 million in aid to the PA, and Israel pledged to resume transferring $100 million in monthly tax revenue it collects on the Palestinians' behalf.

Qatar's emir did not say if the proposed Arab fund would be channeled to the PA, whose writ does not run in East Jerusalem.

About 200,000 Israelis live in the annexed Arab part of Jerusalem, including more than 1,000 in and around the mostly Arab Old City.

Palestinian officials are skeptical of Arab aid pledges, as few Arab countries carried through on promises last year to cover a Palestinian funding gap aggravated by Israeli sanctions.

Last year Arab donations, including $200 million from Saudi Arabia, constituted almost half the PA's foreign aid, with the United States and European Union providing around $330 million.

"As we've have seen many times before, unfortunately decisions in Arab summits often do not materialize on the ground," said Ghassan Shaka, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

"Financing is just a means, political help is the important thing," he said. "The Arab world must convince and apply pressure so the world knows what's required for peace."

Original Article

Israel FM in response: 'Objecting to 'Judaisation of Jerusalem,' so to speak, is absurd and is equitable to an objection to the Catholic nature of the Vatican or the Islamisation of Mecca.'

"Positive Education Activates
Constant Elevation"

Ahmadinejad's claim that Chávez will be resurrected with Jesus

2013-03-08T12:57:00.001-08:00

Awesome! so Called Christians don't know about the resurrection!

Ahmadinejad's claim that Chávez will be resurrected with Jesus 'went too far'

Iranian president's tribute to late Venezuelan president criticised by some of his country's influential clerics as against Shia Islam

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with Hugo Chávez in 2012. The Venezuelan president was one of the Iranian leader's closest allies. Photograph: Ariana Cubillos/AP

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been criticised for saying that Hugo Chávez will be resurrected along with Jesus Christ in his tribute to the Venezuelan president who died on Tuesday.

Ahmad Khatami, an influential cleric in the country's assembly of experts, said on Wednesday that Ahmadinejad went "too far" with his claim that Chávez would "return on resurrection day".

"I say directly that he went too far with what he mentioned in his tribute," said Khatami, who is a Tehran Friday prayer leader and a close ally of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "The president is well aware that such a tribute will provoke reactions in our religious institutes … He could have sent a diplomatic message with no religious connotations."

On Wednesday, the Iranian cabinet declared a day of national mourning, and Ahmadinejad wrote a letter of condolence addressed to Venezuela's interim president, Nicolás Maduro.

"Chávez is alive, as long as justice, love and freedom are living. He is alive, as long as piety, brightness, and humanity are living," he wrote, according to the English translation of the letter published by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

"He is alive, as long as nations are alive and struggle for consolidating independence, justice and kindness. I have no doubt that he will come back, and along with Christ the Saviour, the heir to all saintly and perfect men, and will bring peace, justice and perfection for all."

The president did not name Imam Mahdi, the revered saviour of Shia Islam, in his tribute, but by naming Christ he made clear that Chávez would also be among the Imam's allies. The reappearance of Mahdi is anticipated by believers in a manner comparable to that with which Christians anticipate the second coming of Jesus. Shia Muslims believe both will come on the resurrection day.

"Hugo Chávez was a name known to all nations. His name is reminiscent of pure innocence, kindness, fortitude and love for the people, to serve the people, especially the poor and the victims of colonialism and imperialism by arrogant powers," he wrote. "He is indeed a martyr of the road to service to Venezuelan people, and preserving human and revolutionary values."
Other religious figures in Iran have also echoed Khatami's criticism of Ahmadinejad's remarks about Chávez, one of his closest allies. Hossein Rouhaninejad of Iran's Islamic development organisation said the president's remarks were against Shia Islam beliefs. Another senior cleric, Seyed Mahdi Tabatabaei, chastised Ahmadinejad for "wrong moves", saying his comments were "legally and religiously wrong.

Guardian.co.uk

The Black Wife of Moses

2013-02-14T03:00:00.001-08:00

The Black Wife of Moses

Image of the Week: The 1650 depiction of the biblical figure's spouse is among the first of its kind.

Jacob Jordaens, Moses and his Ethiopian wife, circa 1650. Oil on canvas, 46 1/16 x 41 3/4 inches. Antwerp, Rubenshuis.

Moses' Black Wife: An Early Depiction

Image of the Week: The 1650 depiction of the biblical figure's spouse is among the first of its kind.

imageoftheblack

Image of the Week: The 1650 depiction of the biblical figure's spouse is among the first of its kind.

Image of the Week: The 1650 depiction of the biblical figure's spouse is among the first of its kind.

This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

In an artistic period known for its overpowering assertion of religious orthodoxy, certain works stand out for their simplicity and frankness of presentation. Jacob Jordaens, an associate of the greatest Flemish master of the 17th century, Peter Paul Rubens, certainly created his share of complex dogmatic statements.

Occasionally, however, he felt compelled to make a more personal rendering of these public assertions of divine authority. His modestly scaled painting of Moses and his Ethiopian Wife is a prime example of this other side of his work.

The stone tablet held by the patriarchal figure in the painting makes his identification as Moses clear enough, but the relationship between him and the black woman standing some distance behind has not been so easy to interpret.

Modern scholarship has now convincingly identified her as the Ethiopian wife of Moses. Because the wife of Moses rarely appears in art, the long process of recovery of her identity is understandable. Jordaens had no clear iconographical tradition to draw from when he depicted the wife of Moses as black.

The conflation of remarkable qualities possessed by the Ethiopian wife: Her royal status, race and distant origins led to her association with other great women associated with blackness in the Bible -- notably the queen of Sheba and the bride in the Song of Songs. In Christian interpretation (particularly Origen), these women symbolized the establishment of Ecclesia, the Church of the Gentiles, fulfilling the prophecy in Psalm 67 (Latin Vulgate version): "Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands to God."

In Christian typology, Moses becomes Christ, his wife the church. Implicit in this representation as well is the notion of racial and social equality.

The noble race of Moses' wife was also being stressed by others when Jordaens was painting her image. Alonso de Sandoval, a Jesuit priest who sought not only the spiritual conversion of blacks to Christianity but also their freedom from slavery, included her in a compendium of pious Ethiopian Christians published in 1627.

The modest format and recondite theme of Moses and His Ethiopian Wife are ideally suited for private meditation. Jordaens most likely painted this picture as a personal spiritual exercise, either for himself or for someone with whose inner life he was well-acquainted. Race, religion and art thus come together in a way informed by the intimacy of individual contemplation. In this most personal of means, the image of the Ethiopian wife entered the European consciousness.

For further reading: Elizabeth McGrath, "Jacob Jordaens and Moses's Ethiopian Wife," in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 70 (2007): 247-85.

The Image of the Black in Western Art Archive resides at Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. The director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute is Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is also The Root's editor-in-chief.

The archive and Harvard University Press collaborated to create The Image of the Black in Western Art book series, eight volumes of which were edited by Gates and David Bindman and published by Harvard University Press. Text for each Image of the Week is written by Sheldon Cheek.

Original Article

Pope Benedict XVI Intends to Resign

2013-02-11T03:29:00.001-08:00

ROME—Pope Benedict XVI intends to resign at the end of this month as he feels he lacks the energy to continue in the job, his spokesman said Monday.

The pontiff announced his plans in the Vatican in Latin at a consistory meeting on Monday, the spokesman said.

It is customary for a Pope to die out of office. We remember the distasteful visual of the late Pope, Pope John Paul. Benedict is choosing not to go down that path.

Instead, Benedict will resign. In Biblical history, High Priest did not resign; they died out of office and were replaced by a successor. This is very interesting news and perhaps something is wrong with the 'Pontiffs' health or the Catholic Church wants to put in newer dynamic leadership to help it drowning numbers of members.

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Pope Benedict XVI waves during a mass conducted by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, for the 900th anniversary of the Order of the Knights of Malta at the St. Peter Basilica in Vatican Feb. 9.

Vladimir Putin Hires Boyz II Men Instead of Jodeci

2013-02-01T03:45:00.001-08:00

Vladimir Putin hires Boyz II Men to boost the Russian birth rate. Authoritarians know how to have fun...

By Tim StanleyWorldLast up Putin has decreed that each Russian family should include at least 3 children

Read About this Move Here

One thing you can't take away from authoritarian regimes is their sense of pizzazz. Every policy problem is approached with a mix of seriousness and show business, elevating even the most mundane issue in to high art. Therefore it's no great surprise to read that Vladimir Putin's solution to Russia's demographic challenge is to hire 1990s vocal group Boyz II Men to promote increased fertility. Why Boyz II Men? I can only guess that East 17 are busy promoting fallout shelters in North Korea.

The story comes from the Moscow Times, which writes: "The stylish trio of Boyz II Men, the most successful R&B group of all time, is coming to Moscow on Feb 6. The group will perform a selection of their classic and new romantic ballads, hopefully giving Russian men some inspiration ahead of St. Valentine's Day." The Times insists that the band will be lending their "powerful voices" to Putin's fertility campaign. Whether or not the Russian kingpin personally got on the phone, tracked down their agent and demanded that they "do the show right here" is pure speculation on the newspaper's part. It's a little hard to believe … but it's also not impossible to imagine.

For Putin has declared war on empty cots with classic Putin bravado. He's often insisted that having lots of babies is key to Russia's internal security, to Russia becoming more "influential" on the world state. Why have a great democracy or a flourishing economy when you can simply outnumber everyone else? Putin puts the desirable figure at three babies per household and, in 2007, one province helped things along by declaring a Day of Conception. The idea was that if Russians got the day off work then they might stay at home, put on some Boyz II Men, close the curtains and help bring back the good old days of Soviet hegemony. Women who gave birth 9 months later could win a refrigerator. And they say that romance is dead?

There actually are signs that the campaign is working and that Russia's birth rate is back up. Given Europe's own desperate demographic troubles, perhaps the rest of the world should follow Putin's lead – albeit in a slightly more reserved manner? After all, there are things that Russian politicians can do that just wouldn't be acceptable here in stuffy old England.

Consider Vladimir Putin's wet'n'wild weekends, for which he has become a poster boy for babooshkas everywhere. He's been diving, shot a tiger, posed with a bush hat and, most infamously, shown off his pecs at every given opportunity. Phwoar! What if David Cameron was to ape this marketing strategy? Can you imagine him riding through the wilderness of the Cotswolds on his trusted pony, Dobbin? If so, let us pray that the Prime Minister at least keeps his top on.

2020 World News Blog

How the Vatican Built Secret Property Empire using Mussolini

2013-01-22T10:23:00.001-08:00

How the Vatican built a secret property empire using Mussolini's millions

Behind Pope Benedict XVI is a porfolio of property that includes commercial premises on London's New Bond Street. Photograph: Alessandra Benedetti/Corbis

Few passing London tourists would ever guess that the premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street, had anything to do with the pope. Nor indeed the nearby headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James's Square and Pall Mall.

But these office blocks in one of London's most expensive districts are part of a surprising secret commercial property empire owned by the Vatican.
Behind a disguised offshore company structure, the church's international portfolio has been built up over the years, using cash originally handed over by Mussolini in return for papal recognition of the Italian fascist regime in 1929.

Since then the international value of Mussolini's nest-egg has mounted until it now exceeds £500m. In 2006, at the height of the recent property bubble, the Vatican spent £15m of those funds to buy 30 St James's Square. Other UK properties are at 168 New Bond Street and in the city of Coventry. It also owns blocks of flats in Paris and Switzerland.

The surprising aspect for some will be the lengths to which the Vatican has gone to preserve secrecy about the Mussolini millions. The St James's Square office block was bought by a company called British Grolux Investments Ltd, which also holds the other UK properties. Published registers at Companies House do not disclose the company's true ownership, nor make any mention of the Vatican.

Instead, they list two nominee shareholders, both prominent Catholic bankers: John Varley, recently chief executive of Barclays Bank, and Robin Herbert, formerly of the Leopold Joseph merchant bank. Letters were sent from the Guardian to each of them asking whom they act for. They went unanswered. British company law allows the true beneficial ownership of companies to be concealed behind nominees in this way.

The company secretary, John Jenkins, a Reading accountant, was equally uninformative. He told us the firm was owned by a trust but refused to identify it on grounds of confidentiality. He told us after taking instructions: "I confirm that I am not authorised by my client to provide any information."
Research in old archives, however, reveals more of the truth. Companies House files disclose that British Grolux Investments inherited its entire property portfolio after a reorganisation in 1999 from two predecessor companies called British Grolux Ltd and Cheylesmore Estates. The shares of those firms were in turn held by a company based at the address of the JP Morgan bank in New York. Ultimate control is recorded as being exercised by a Swiss company, Profima SA.

British wartime records from the National Archives in Kew complete the picture. They confirm Profima SA as the Vatican's own holding company, accused at the time of "engaging in activities contrary to Allied interests". Files from officials at Britain's Ministry of Economic Warfare at the end of the war criticised the pope's financier, Bernardino Nogara, who controlled the investment of more than £50m cash from the Mussolini windfall.

Nogara's "shady activities" were detailed in intercepted 1945 cable traffic from the Vatican to a contact in Geneva, according to the British, who discussed whether to blacklist Profima as a result. "Nogara, a Roman lawyer, is the Vatican financial agent and Profima SA in Lausanne is the Swiss holding company for certain Vatican interests." They believed Nogara was trying to transfer shares of two Vatican-owned French property firms to the Swiss company, to prevent the French government blacklisting them as enemy assets.

Earlier in the war, in 1943, the British accused Nogara of similar "dirty work", by shifting Italian bank shares into Profima's hands in order to "whitewash" them and present the bank as being controlled by Swiss neutrals. This was described as "manipulation" of Vatican finances to serve "extraneous political ends".

The Mussolini money was dramatically important to the Vatican's finances. John Pollard, a Cambridge historian, says in Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: "The papacy was now financially secure. It would never be poor again."

From the outset, Nogara was innovative in investing the cash. In 1931 records show he founded an offshore company in Luxembourg to hold the continental European property assets he was buying. It was called Groupement Financier Luxembourgeois, hence Grolux. Luxembourg was one of the first countries to set up tax-haven company structures in 1929. The UK end, called British Grolux, was incorporated the following year.

When war broke out, with the prospect of a German invasion, the Luxembourg operation and ostensible control of the British Grolux operation were moved to the US and to neutral Switzerland.

The Mussolini investments in Britain are currently controlled, along with its other European holdings and a currency trading arm, by a papal official in Rome, Paolo Mennini, who is in effect the pope's merchant banker. Mennini heads a special unit inside the Vatican called the extraordinary division of APSA – Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica – which handles the so-called "patrimony of the Holy See".

According to a report last year from the Council of Europe, which surveyed the Vatican's financial controls, the assets of Mennini's special unit now exceed €680m (£570m).

While secrecy about the Fascist origins of the papacy's wealth might have been understandable in wartime, what is less clear is why the Vatican subsequently continued to maintain secrecy about its holdings in Britain, even after its financial structure was reorganised in 1999.

The Guardian asked the Vatican's representative in London, the papal nuncio, archbishop Antonio Mennini, why the papacy continued with such secrecy over the identity of its property investments in London. We also asked what the pope spent the income on. True to its tradition of silence on the subject, the Roman Catholic church's spokesman said that the nuncio had no comment.

Reposted from Here

Jordanian Blames Jews Erect the Third Temple

2013-01-03T05:26:00.001-08:00

Jordanian minister accuses Israel of planning to erect the third Temple

Islamic endowments minister says Israel wants to partition the Temple Mount

By Elhanan MillerJanuary 3, 2013, 10:08 am

Muslim worshipers on the Temple Mount during the festival of Eid Al-Adha, October 26, 2012 (photo credit: Sleiman Khader/Flash90)

A Jordanian minister accused Israel on Wednesday of planning to partition the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount plaza surrounding it in order to erect the third Temple.

Islamic Endowments Minister Abdul Salam Abadi told a visiting clerical delegation from Australia that he received instructions from the "Hashemite leadership" to safeguard the Arab and Islamic identity of Jerusalem, Jordanian media reported.

Abadi said Israel was planning to divide the mosque from its courtyards with a 144-dunam structure.

Jordan, which extended its sovereignty to East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1950, continues to administer the Islamic holy sites on the Temple Mount. Abadi told the Australian delegation that his ministry employs 600 civil servants in Jerusalem and oversees 40 Jerusalem schools.

According to the independent Jordanian daily Al-Ghad, Abadi stressed the need to support the residents of Jerusalem "in their steadfastness in the face of the repeated Israeli attacks on the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem."

He did not expand on what he meant.

Jordan and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1994.

Jews are banned from praying on the Temple Mount by the Jordanian department of endowments, known as the Waqf, which administers the plaza surrounding the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

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Five EU Nations Call for New Military 'Structure'

2012-11-16T10:02:00.001-08:00

EU co-operation on drones featured on the list of future projects (Photo: US Air Force

Five EU countries call for new military 'structure'

BRUSSELS - Five leading EU countries, but not the UK, have said the Union needs a new military "structure" to manage overseas operations.

The foreign and defence ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain issued the call in a joint communique after a meeting in Paris on Thursday (15 November).

The paper says: "We are convinced that the EU must set up, within a framework yet to-be-defined, true civilian-military structures to plan and conduct missions and operations."

It adds: "We should show preparedness to hold available, train, deploy and sustain in theatre the necessary civilian and military means."

It lists a number of EU military priorities for the coming years: helping Somalia to fight Islamists and pirates; "a possible training mission to support the Malian armed forces" in reconquering north Mali; "assistance to support the new Libyan authorities" against Islamist militias; "normalisation" of the Western Balkans; "conflict resolution" in Georgia; and police training in Afghanistan.

The communique also calls for more "pooling and sharing" of EU defence hardware in the context of crisis-related budget cuts.
It identifies "space, ballistic-missile defence, drones, air-to-air refuelling, airlift capacities, medical support to operations [and] software defined radio" as pooling areas.

The reference to new "civilian-military structures" comes after the UK last year blocked the creation of a new operational headquarters (OHQ) in Brussels for EU military missions.

Britain's Telegraph newspaper earlier this week cited a "senior French source" as saying that EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton supports the idea of an OHQ, which will become a "ripe fruit" in the "long-term" as EU military operations multiply.

Ashton officials denied the report.

Meanwhile, the UK's role in future EU defence co-operation was a big topic at the Paris meeting.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said the UK can join the group-of-five at any time: "The text which we have developed is open to all of our colleagues, especially Great Britain."

French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the communique is designed to "create a movement" ahead of an EU summit on defence in 2013.

For his part, Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said: "If the EU wants to become a superpower, and Poland supports this, then we must have the capability to exert influence in our neighbourhood ... Sometimes we must use force to back our diplomacy."

He called for an "ambitious" EU budget for 2014 to 2020 to help with defence co-ordination.

Speaking in a separate interview in UK newspaper The Times also on Thursday, Sikorski blamed British "nostalgia" for past greatness as a reason why it is pulling back from EU integration and why it wants to cut the EU budget.

He touched on historic sensitivities by describing EU spending as a kind of "Marshall plan."

He said Poland and other former-Soviet-controlled EU countries missed out on the plan - a massive injection of US money to rebuild Europe after World War II - because UK and US leaders at a summit in Yalta in 1945 gave the Soviet Union control of eastern Europe.

"We fought Hitler alone, giving you [the UK] valuable time to prepare for fighting. But we did not enjoy freedom after World War II ...

Because of Yalta, we could not benefit [from the Marshall plan]. European cohesion funds are our Marshall plan for catching up with Europe," he noted.

EuObserver.com

Levin: Bill to Annex Judea and Samaria is Ready

2012-11-16T09:56:00.001-08:00

Levin: Bill to Annex Judea and Samaria is Ready

MK Levin: If the PA goes ahead with its statehood bid, I will submit a bill to annex Judea and Samaria immediately after the election.

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By Elad Benari

First Publish: 11/15/2012, 2:41 AM

MK Yariv Levin

Flash 90

MK Yariv Levin (Likud), chairman of the Knesset's House Committee, told Arutz Sheva on Wednesday that he has a bill that calls to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria that is ready to be submitted for Knesset approval.

Levin said that if the Palestinian Authority goes ahead with its statehood bid at the United Nations, he will submit his bill for approval immediately after January's election.

"Regardless of the Palestinian move we should have applied sovereignty long ago," said Levin, "but the unilateral move by the Palestinians is a good time to do so."

He said Israel should announce right away about all the measures it intends to take the day after PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas submits his bid to the General Assembly.

"Our response should not come retroactively. It should come right now," said Levin. "We should prepare a draft decision that adopts Justice Edmund Levy's report in full, and complete the submission of the bills which call for Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. The bills are ready and can be submitted immediately after the election."

The Foreign Ministry has told its ambassadors to explain that the PA's plan to ask for UN recognition is a violation of the Oslo Accords and may cause Israel to officially announce that it is "canceling them partially or completely."
The agreement commits the PA to negotiate with Israel for the establishment of an independent PA entity.

Levin said he believes that the decision to cancel the Oslo Accords will eventually force Israel to re-enter Area A.

"Israel cannot continue to sit back. We need to make clear to the world that we believe in the rightness of our ways," he said. "We need to stop the transfer of money to the PA and we need to renew the IDF's operations in Area A."

"The reality that has been created now is dramatic," stressed Levin. "The other side made a unilateral move and our response should be adjusted accordingly. If we do not respond it may lead us to a slippery slope."
Environment Minister Gilad Erdan of the Likud also said, earlier on Wednesday, that Israel should annex Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as a response to Abbas' appeal to the United Nations.

Canceling the Oslo Accords, as the government has suggested, is not enough, he said. "Finally, Jews in Judea and Samaria can live like normal citizens," declared Erdan.

Like Levin, Erdan said he believed that Israel should stop transferring to the Palestinian Authority monthly tax revenues it collects on its behalf.
Abbas announced on Monday that the PA will present its bid for non-state UN membership, despite U.S. and Israeli opposition.

He said that the request will be presented on November 29, the anniversary of the day in 1947 in which the United Nations voted in favor of the partition plan. The resolution recommended the creation of two states, one Arab, one Jewish and granted a small portion of the area, under the British Mandate, to the new Jewish state.

The announcement was made a day after Abbas responded to U.S. President Barack Obama with a direct "no" when told the U.S. administration is opposed to the PA's unilateral move at the United Nations.

Israel Nation News

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African-American Consumers: Still Growing 2012

2012-11-13T13:02:00.001-08:00

Black Buying Power To Reach $1.1 Trillion, Report Finds

First Posted: 11/10/11 12:50 PM ET Updated: 11/10/11 05:48 PM ET

Blacks will have more money to spend on goods and services, according to a recent report.

The State of the African-American Consumer Report found that black buying power is projected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, The Louisiana Weekly reports.

The study, which focuses on black spending, media habits and consumer trends, reported an increase in the amount of blacks attending college or earning a degree to 44 percent for men and 53 percent for women. It also found an increase in the number of African American households earning $75,000 or higher by almost 64 percent.

"By sharing, for example, that African Americans over-index in several key areas, including television viewing and mobile phone usage," said Susan Whiting, vice chair of information and analytics company Nielsen. "We've provided a better picture of where the African American community can leverage that buying power to help their communities."

Nielsen partnered with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, also known as the Black Press of America, to release the report. The companies announced the results on Sept. 22 at the 41st Annual Legislative Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Conference.

"Too often, companies don't realize the inherent differences of our community, are not aware of the market size impact and have not optimized efforts to develop messages beyond those that coincide with Black History Month," said NNPA chairman, Cloves Campbell.

"It is our hope that by collaborating with Nielsen, we'll be able to tell the African American consumer story in a manner in which businesses will understand, and, that this understanding will propel those in the C-Suite to develop stronger, more inclusive strategies that optimize their market growth in Black communities, which would be a win-win for all of us."

Other notable findings in the report include:

With a buying power of nearly 1 trillion annually, if Blacks were a country, they'd be the 16th largest country in the world

Blacks make more shopping trips than all other groups, but spend less money per trip. Blacks in higher income brackets, also spend 300 percent more in higher end retail grocers more than any other high-income household.

There were 23.9 million active Black Internet users in July 2011--76 percent of whom visited a social networking/blog site.

Thirty-three percent of all Blacks own a smart phone.

Black Americans use more than double the amount of mobile phone voice minutes compared to whites--1,298 minutes a month vs. 606.

This is not the first report to find a growth in black spending. In 2010 the African-Americans Revealed study reported that black buying power was at about $913 billion with a projected increase to $1.2 trillion by 2013. Boyce Watkins, a professor of business at Syracuse, said he was not surprised by studies with these kinds of results.

"Unfortunately, when African-Americans make money, we spend it. We don't use it to invest or produce," he told BlackAmericanweb.com. "When we get our tax refund, we go straight to the store."

Huffingpost Black Buying Power Article

AfricAn-AmericAn consumers: still vital, still growing

2012 report

Original Report

Minorities In Poor Neighborhoods Less Likely To Receive CPR, Survive

2012-11-04T11:12:00.001-08:00

Study: Minorities In Poor Neighborhoods Less Likely To Receive CPR, Survive

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – Minorities who suffer heart attacks in poor neighborhoods are not nearly as likely to receive proper CPR compared to if they were to suffer from cardiac arrest in affluent white neighborhoods.

A recent study from a group of medical researchers found that blacks and Hispanics are about 30 percent less likely to be aided by CPR than white people, with the odds being the worst when it involves a black victim in a low-income black neighborhood. Comilla Sasson, the study's lead author from the University of Colorado in Denver, found that socio-economic status actually makes more of a difference in a person surviving than a neighborhood's racial makeup.

Of the 14,000 cardiac-arrest cases that were examined, the data discovered that those people in poor minority neighborhoods who did receive bystander CPR were twice as likely to survive.

The study, which was published on Oct. 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that little has changed in regard to the rate of people surviving heart attacks in non-hospital settings during the last 30 years. According to The Associated Press, more than 300,000 people suffer heart attacks in non-hospital settings each year, and most of those cases don't survive.

"We can't accept that anymore," Sasson told the AP. "It shouldn't matter where I drop to have someone help me."

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More Believe In Space Aliens Than In God According To U.K. Survey

2012-10-23T18:45:00.001-07:00

More Believe In Space Aliens Than In God According To U.K. Survey

Posted: 10/18/2012 8:50 am Updated: 10/18/2012 11:44 am

A new survey suggests that many people in the U.K. believe more in ETs than God, and according to the 2001 census in that country, 390,000 believe in the religion of the fictional Jedi knights -- like Obi-Wan Kenobi -- from the "Star Wars" movies.

-- More than 33 million U.K. citizens believe in extraterrestrial life, compared to just over 27 million -- less than half the country -- who believe in God.
That's the result of an online survey of 1,359 adults who were asked a variety of questions ranging from belief in alien visits to Earth, suspicions of UFO cover-ups, belief in extraterrestrials vs. belief in God, and whether or not men actually landed on the moon.

The survey, conducted by Opinion Matters, revealed the following statistics among those surveyed:

52 percent believe UFO evidence has been covered up because widespread knowledge of their existence would threaten government stability.
44 percent believe in God.
One in 10 people has reported seeing a UFO.
A quarter more men than women claim to have seen UFOs.
20 percent of respondents believe UFOs have landed on Earth.
More than five million British citizens believe the Apollo moon landings were faked.

While the survey was conducted as part of a tie-in with a new video game, "XCOM: Enemy Unknown," it was a legitimate sampling of opinions that can be taken to represent the population of the U.K., according to the agency that conducted the survey.

"Yes, it has been done with an independent panel through a bonafide research company," said Karen Brooks, managing director of Opinion Matters, a well-known market research agency that created the survey.

"Surveys can be done face-to-face, over the telephone and online. This one was a U.K. adult sample, which is quite broad, and doing it online is a quick, effective way of getting to that audience," she continued. "We make sure that all of the questions are compliant from a research perspective."

But some are skeptical of the results, including Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff, an Anglican priest and director general of the World Dialogue Council, a group that promotes better relations between the West and Islamic cultures.

"Having done a certain amount of work with statistics on religion, I am inherently skeptical about what these statistics tell you, and particularly if there's a narrow, selective base. Something with about 1,000 people does set off alarm bells," Macdonald-Radcliff told HuffPost.

"I really do think the failure to define what they're asking people to believe here is a fairly critical failure for the survey," Macdonald-Radcliff said. "Because you've already set out quite a variety of possibilities as to what they might or might not suppose UFOs to be. I certainly think sliding extraterrestrial and UFO together is a particularly messy thing to do."

Macdonald-Radcliff suggested that people are "less inclined to be participants in traditional churches," which might represent a shift of general beliefs that they have about God and extraterrestrials.

"There may be some correlation there," he noted. "But I have to say the actual hard data has yet to be found. There may be a relationship between people becoming more credulous in UFOs and less credulous in traditional religion."

The results of the survey are not surprising to Nick Pope, a former U.K. Ministry of Defense UFO investigator. "It's important to bear in mind that people who believe in alien life don't necessarily think it's visiting us," Pope said in an email to HuffPost.

"The recent upsurge in the discovery of extra-solar planets may be a factor here; as we close in on 'shadow Earths,' people are more likely to think that if Earth isn't unique, neither is life," he added.

Pope also noted that many of the doubts people might have about religion or about extraterrestrial life are rooted in a similar problem: lack of hard evidence.

"In the case of religion, we have only faith -- faith based on some ancient texts where, despite the claims, no divine origin can be proven," Pope said. "Even where people claim to have had a first-hand experience, why should we believe accounts of miracles and visions any more or less than UFO sightings or claims of alien abduction?"

Huffington Post Article

American New Factory Owners: Federal Prisoners Stealing our Business

2012-08-16T07:20:00.001-07:00

Factory owners: Federal prisoners stealing our business

American Apparel Inc., which manufactures Army uniforms in Alabama, has laid off 150 workers as a result of going head-to-head with Unicor for government contracts.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Just hearing the word Unicor is enough to make Kurt Wilson see red.

Unicor is a government-run enterprise that employs over 13,000 inmates -- at wages as low as 23 cents an hour -- to make goods for the Pentagon and other federal agencies.

With some exceptions, Unicor gets first dibs on federal contracts over private companies as long as its bid is comparable in price, quantity and delivery. In other words: If Unicor wants a contract, it gets it.

And that makes Wilson and other small business owners angry.

Wilson has been competing with Unicor for 20 years. He's an executive at American Apparel Inc., an Alabama company that makes military uniforms. (It is not affiliated with the international retailer of the same name.) He has gone head-to-head with Unicor on just about every product his company makes -- and said he has laid off 150 people over the years as a result.
"We pay employees $9 on average," Wilson said. "They get full medical insurance, 401(k) plans and paid vacation. Yet we're competing against a federal program that doesn't pay any of that."

Unicor, also known as Federal Prison Industries, is part of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. It has been preparing inmates for jobs after they get out since 1934.
The program has 83 factories and makes goods in seven industries -- apparel being the biggest ticket. Unicor made over $900 million in revenue last year and faces more heat from businesses and lawmakers as the economy takes a toll on small manufacturers.

Related: Can the U.S. handle a manufacturing comeback?

In Olive Hill, Ky., apparel factory Ashland Sales and Service, Co. has been making windbreakers for the Air Force for 14 years, says Michael Mansh, who runs the factory. Last February, when he learned that Unicor was eyeing the contract, he reached out to Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell.

McConnell, one of the top Republicans on Capitol Hill, issued a public statement urging Unicor to back off. The next day, it did.

With 100 employees, Mansh said Ashland is Olive Hill's largest employer. And he said losing the Air Force contract would have shut the factory down.

"That's 100 people buying groceries. We use trucking companies in the town, buy parts and light bulbs there every day," he said. "That's all lost when prisons take away contracts."

Unicor is not required to pay its workers minimum wage and instead pays inmates 23 cents to $1.15 an hour. It doesn't have health insurance costs. It also doesn't shell out federal, state or local taxes.

Related: Fiscal cliff threatens small businesses

Advocates for private sector companies are loudly campaigning for reform of Unicor's preferential status.

Unemployment has been over 8% for nearly four years "and there's a federal program tanking our industry," said Kurt Courtney, director of government relations at the American Apparel and Footwear Association. "The only way for workers to get jobs back is to go to prison. There's got to be a better way to do this."

In 2008, Congress amended the law to limit Unicor's advantage for certain kinds of Pentagon contracts. Now a bill in the House supported by 28 lawmakers from both parties would go further and require Unicor to compete across the board. The bill also provides alternative ways for training inmates, who would instead work for charities, religious organizations, local governments or school districts.

"We know that in the recovery, many new jobs are coming out of small businesses," said Rep. Bill Huizenga, a Michigan Republican who introduced the bill. "It makes no sense to strangle them in the cradle."

Huizenga expects a similar bill to be introduced in the Senate in the coming months.

Unicor doesn't agree with the criticism. According to spokeswoman Julie Rozier, inmates working for Unicor are 24% less likely to reoffend and 14% more likely to be employed long-term upon release. She also noted that over 40% of Unicor's supplies were purchased from small businesses in 2011.

She cited the unique costs associated with operating within a prison. For example, Unicor employs more supervisors than a private sector firm would, and security lockdowns disrupt production.

Businesses aren't buying it. John Palatiello, president of the Business Coalition for Fair Competition, said his organization of businesses and taxpayer groups is sympathetic to Unicor's goals. But they shouldn't be accomplished at the expense of small businesses.

"Who is being punished here?" he said. "The inmates who have committed a crime against society, or the employees of private companies who play by the rules?"

To write a note to the editor about this article, click here.

First Published: August 14, 2012: 8:33 AM ET

11 International Agreements That Are Nails In The Coffin Of The Petrodollar

2012-07-18T06:11:00.001-07:00

11 International Agreements That Are Nails In The Coffin Of The Petrodollar

The U.S. dollar to buy oil and to trade with each other. In essence, the U.S. dollar has been acting as a true global currency. Virtually every country on the face of the earth has needed big piles of U.S. dollars for international trade. This has ensured a huge demand for U.S. dollars and U.S. government debt. This demand for dollars has kept prices and interest rates low, and it has given the U.S. government an incredible amount of power and leverage around the globe. Right now, U.S. dollars make up more than 60 percent of all foreign currency reserves in the world.

But times are changing.

Over the past couple of years there has been a whole bunch of international agreements that have made the U.S. dollar less important in international trade. The mainstream media in the United States has been strangely quiet about all of these agreements, but the truth is that they are setting the stage for a fundamental shift in the way that trade is conducted around the globe. When the petrodollar dies, it is going to have an absolutely devastating impact on the U.S. economy. Sadly, most Americans are totally clueless regarding what is about to happen to the dollar.

One of the reasons the Federal Reserve has been able to get away with flooding the financial system with U.S. dollars is because the rest of the world has been soaking a lot of those dollars up. The rest of the world has needed giant piles of dollars to trade with, but what is going to happen when they don't need dollars anymore?

Could we see a tsunami of inflation as demand for the dollar plummets like a rock?

The power of the U.S. dollar has been one of the few things holding up our economy. Once that leg gets kicked out from under us we are going to be in a whole lot of trouble.

The following are 11 international agreements that are nails in the coffin of the petrodollar....

#1 China And Russia

China and Russia have decided to start using their own currencies when trading with each other. The following is from a China Daily article about this important agreement....

China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.

Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.

"About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.

The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.

#2 China And Brazil

Did you know that Brazil conducts more trade with China than with anyone else?

The largest economy in South America has just agreed to a huge currency swap deal with the largest economy in Asia. The following is from a recent BBC article....

China and Brazil have agreed a currency swap deal in a bid to safeguard against any global financial crisis and strengthen their trade ties.

It will allow their respective central banks to exchange local currencies worth up to 60bn reais or 190bn yuan ($30bn; £19bn).

The amount can be used to shore up reserves in times of crisis or put towards boosting bilateral trade.

#3 China And Australia

Did you know that Australia conducts more trade with China than with anyone else?

Australia also recently agreed to a huge currency swap deal with China. The following is from a recent Financial Express article....

The central banks of China and Australia signed a A$30 billion ($31.2 billion) currency-swap agreement to ensure the availability of capital between the trading partners, the Reserve Bank of Australia said.

"The main purposes of the swap agreement are to support trade and investment between Australia and China, particularly in local-currency terms, and to strengthen bilateral financial cooperation," the RBA said in a statement on its website. "The agreement reflects the increasing opportunities available to settle trade between the two countries in Chinese renminbi and to make RMB-denominated investments."

China has been expanding currency-swap accords as it promotes the international use of the yuan, and the accord with Australia follows similar deals with nations including South Korea, Turkey and Kazakhstan. China is Australia's biggest trading partner and accounts for about a quarter of the nation's merchandise sales abroad.

#4 China And Japan

The second and third largest economies on the entire planet have decided that they should start moving toward using their own currencies when trading with each other. This agreement was incredibly important but it was almost totally ignored by the U.S. media.

According to Bloomberg, it is anticipated that this agreement will strengthen ties between these two Asian giants....

Japan and China will promote direct trading of the yen and yuan without using dollars and will encourage the development of a market for companies involved in the exchanges, the Japanese government said.

Japan will also apply to buy Chinese bonds next year, allowing the investment of renminbi that leaves China during the transactions, the Japanese government said in a statement after a meeting between Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing yesterday. Encouraging direct yen- yuan settlement should reduce currency risks and trading costs, the Japanese and Chinese governments said.

China is Japan's biggest trading partner with 26.5 trillion yen ($340 billion) in two-way transactions last year, from 9.2 trillion yen a decade earlier.

#5 India And Japan

It is not just China making these kinds of currency agreements. According to Reuters, India and Japan have also agreed to a very large currency swap deal....

India and Japan have agreed to a $15 billion currency swap line, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Wednesday, in a positive move for the troubled Indian rupee, Asia's worst-performing currency this year.

#6 "Junk For Oil": How India And China Are Buying Oil From Iran

Iran is still selling lots of oil. They just aren't exchanging that oil for U.S. dollars as much these days.

So how is Iran selling their oil without using dollars?

A Bloomberg article recently detailed what countries such as China and India are exchanging for Iranian oil....

Iran and its leading oil buyers, China and India, are finding ways to skirt U.S. and European Union financial sanctions on the Islamic republic by agreeing to trade oil for local currencies and goods including wheat, soybean meal and consumer products.

India, the second-biggest importer of Iran's oil, has set up a rupee account at a state-owned bank to settle as much as much as 45 percent of its bill, according to Indian officials. China, Iran's largest oil customer, already settles some of its oil debts through barter, Mahmoud Bahmani, Iran's central bank governor, said Feb. 28. Iran also has sought to trade oil for wheat from Pakistan and Russia, according to media reports from the two countries.

#7 Iran And Russia

According to Bloomberg, Iran and Russia have decided to discard the U.S. dollar and use their own currencies when trading with each other....

Iran and Russia replaced the U.S. dollar with their national currencies in bilateral trade, Iran's state-run Fars news agency reported, citing Seyed Reza Sajjadi, the Iranian ambassador in Moscow.

The proposal to switch to the ruble and the rial was raised by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Astana, Kazakhstan, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the ambassador said.

#8 China And Chile

China and Chile recently signed a new agreement that will dramatically expand trade between the two nations and that is also likely to lead to significant currency swaps between the two countries....

The following is from a recent report that described this new agreement between China and Chile....

Wen called on the two nations to expand trade in goods, promote trade in services and mutual investment, and double bilateral trade in three years.

The Chinese leader also said the two countries should enhance cooperation in mining, expand farm product trade, and promote cooperation in farm product production and processing and agricultural technology.

China would like to be actively engaged in Chile's infrastructure construction and work with Chile to promote the development of transportation networks in Latin America, said Wen.

Meanwhile, Wen suggested that the two sides launch currency swaps and expand settlement in China's renminbi.

#9 China And The United Arab Emirates

According to CNN, China and the United Arab Emirates recently agreed to a very large currency swap deal....

In January, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the United Arab Emirates and signed a $5.5 billion currency swap deal to boost trade and investments between the two countries.

#10 China And Africa

Did you know that China is now Africa's biggest trading partner?

For many years the U.S. dollar was dominant in Africa, but now that is changing. A report from Africa's largest bank, Standard Bank, says the following....

"We expect at least $100 billion (about R768 billion) in Sino-African trade – more than the total bilateral trade between China and Africa in 2010 – to be settled in the renminbi by 2015."

#11 Brazil, Russia, India, China And South Africa

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) continue to become a larger factor in the global economy.

A recent agreement between those nations sets the stage for them to increasingly use their own national currencies when trading with each other rather than the U.S. dollar. The following is from a news source in India....

The five major emerging economies of BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are set to inject greater economic momentum into their grouping by signing two pacts for promoting intra-BRICS trade at the fourth summit of their leaders here Thursday.

The two agreements that will enable credit facility in local currency for businesses of BRICS countries will be signed in the presence of the leaders of the five countries, Sudhir Vyas, secretary (economic relations) in the external affairs ministry, told reporters here.

The pacts are expected to scale up intra-BRICS trade which has been growing at the rate of 28 percent over the last few years, but at $230 billion, remains much below the potential of the five economic powerhouses.

So what does all of this mean?

It means that the days of the U.S. dollar being the de facto reserve currency of the world are numbered.

So why is this important?

In a previous article, I quoted an outstanding article by Marin Katusa that detailed many of the important benefits that the petrodollar system has had for the U.S. economy....

The "petrodollar" system was a brilliant political and economic move. It forced the world's oil money to flow through the US Federal Reserve, creating ever-growing international demand for both US dollars and US debt, while essentially letting the US pretty much own the world's oil for free, since oil's value is denominated in a currency that America controls and prints. The petrodollar system spread beyond oil: the majority of international trade is done in US dollars. That means that from Russia to China, Brazil to South Korea, every country aims to maximize the US-dollar surplus garnered from its export trade to buy oil.

The US has reaped many rewards. As oil usage increased in the 1980s, demand for the US dollar rose with it, lifting the US economy to new heights. But even without economic success at home the US dollar would have soared, because the petrodollar system created consistent international demand for US dollars, which in turn gained in value. A strong US dollar allowed Americans to buy imported goods at a massive discount – the petrodollar system essentially creating a subsidy for US consumers at the expense of the rest of the world. Here, finally, the US hit on a downside: The availability of cheap imports hit the US manufacturing industry hard, and the disappearance of manufacturing jobs remains one of the biggest challenges in resurrecting the US economy today.

So what happens when the petrodollar dies?

The following are some of the things we are likely to see....

-Oil will cost a lot more.

-Everything will cost a lot more.

-There will be a lot less foreign demand for U.S. government debt.

-Interest rates on U.S. government debt will rise.

-Interest rates on just about everything in the U.S. economy will rise.

And that is just for starters.

As I wrote about earlier today, the Federal Reserve is not going to save us. Ben Bernanke is not somehow going to pull a rabbit out of a hat that will magically make everything okay. Fundamental changes to the global financial system are happening right now that are impossible for Bernanke to stop.

We should have never gone into so much debt. Up until now we have gotten away with it, but when demand for U.S. dollars and U.S. debt dries up we are going to experience a massive amount of pain.

Keep your eyes and ears open for more news stories like the ones referenced above. The end of the petrodollar is going to be a very significant landmark on the road toward the total collapse of the U.S. economy.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/11-international-agreements-that-are-nails-in-the-coffin-of-the-petrodollar

Plan to Raze Detroit Empty Homes in Final Stages

2012-07-18T05:40:00.001-07:00

Plan to Raze Detroit Empty Homes in Final Stages

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48214569

As the next step in an April deal between financially strapped Detroit and the state of Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder is finalizing a plan to tear down thousands of abandoned houses in a bid to make the city safer.

Ian Spanier | The Image Bank | Getty Images

Abandoned house in Detroit

Detroit has been hard-hit over the past four decades by a steep drop in population, a steadily eroding tax base and crippling budget deficits, resulting in countless barren streets punctuated by vacant lots and burned-out buildings.

The state plan, likely to be announced early next month, is part of a financial stability agreement reached in April that headed off the appointment of an emergency city manager, which Detroit had opposed.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's administration already has demolished 4,500 "dangerous and abandoned buildings," according to press secretary Naomi Patton, and plans to tear down another 1,500 vacant structures by the end of September — part of Bing's pledge three years ago to demolish 10,000 derelict buildings by the end of his term in late 2013.

In a statement, the mayor said, "We welcome the governor's efforts...Tangible assistance from the state is critical to our efforts to transform Detroit."

As Detroit struggles with a $197 million budget deficit, Snyder has looked at a variety of state actions to support the city. The financial stability agreement outlined a plan to improve the quality of life and safety for Detroiters, including demolition as a way to address blight.

"We're working with a variety of state departments and agencies to coordinate in an unprecedented way the work that gets done," said Sara Wurfel, Snyder's press secretary.

In addition to razing houses, she said, the governor is considering better public lighting and coordination between the state and city police departments on an ongoing "safe routes to schools" program.

"This is more than tearing down structures. We're trying to develop a community approach to making sure there are safe, stable neighborhoods" in Detroit, Wurfel said of the plan, which she called a "work in progress."

The governor is in the process of identifying pilot neighborhoods for the effort, Wurfel said, with the initial focus on the city's east, southwest and northwest sides.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is compiling a geo-mapping and coding effort to detail information on the structures to help guide decisions on which buildings will be demolished and provide a better estimate of the costs involved, Wurfel said. She said the governor is exploring multiple funding options.

Snyder appointee Roy Roberts, emergency manager of Detroit's public schools, said the governor's plan coincides with his work to make schools the "hub of the community."

Sandy Baruah, CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, said the actions will help give Detroit a more vibrant urban core.

"The effort really aligns with what the mayor is doing to accelerate the clearing of dilapidated buildings," Baruah said. But he added that tearing down buildings is not enough. The newly cleared land must be usable for community gardens or other public projects.

Among the state agencies involved are the Department of Treasury, the Michigan Land Bank, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, the Department of Human Services and the Michigan State Police. Also involved are the Detroit mayor's office, Detroit Public Schools and a variety of private sector, nonprofit and neighborhood organizations.

No to Working on Sundays from thirteen European Countries

2012-07-08T11:48:00.001-07:00

No to working on Sundays from thirteen European countries

2012-03-05 L'Osservatore Romano

Rome, 5. Everyone in the square says "no" to working on Sunday. On Sunday, 4 March, thirteen European countries joined with the European Sunday Alliance, made up of various types of unions, associations of civil society, together with Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox communities, all together to confirm the special and fundamental characteristic of Sunday.

It was a passive demonstration which included the participation of thousands of people in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Spain. On the occasion the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Croatian Bishops' Conference put out a document to raise awareness among Christians against working on Sundays.

Sunday must remain a day dedicated to family and to the Lord. "It is necessary respect Sunday as a day of rest for everyone", the document of the Commission for Justice and Peace reads, "a day for families to be together, a day for volunteer and charitable works, for cultural and social activities and a day for Christians to celebrate and glorify the Lord".

http://www.news.va/en/news/no-to-working-on-sundays-from-thirteen-european-co

Planet shaken by shocking number of tremors since April 2012

2012-04-26T04:51:00.001-07:00

Did N. Sumatra earthquakes set off a chain-reaction? Planet shaken by shocking number of tremors since April 11, 2012

Posted on April 17, 2012by The Extinction Protocol

April 17, 2012 - WORLD - The shocking number of earthquakes that have rattled the globe, especially along tectonic plate boundaries, since the double 8.0+ magnitude earthquakes struck off the coast of Northern Sumatra on April 11 could be early indication the planet may be shifting towards a new catastrophic model.

Romania' s top seismologist, Gheorghe Marmureanu, told the Bucharest Herald: "There is no doubt something is seriously wrong. There have been too many strong earthquakes." I said in my book: "If you keep seismically shaking the Earth, like a bottle of soda, its structural integrity eventually will become compromised and it will start to fracture like an egg.

In this case, the fracturing will be thermal dissipation by hyper-volcanism, mega-thrust earthquakes, and greater tectonic boundary plate agitation around volcanic arcs and subduction zones…if this is what's indeed happening, the pressure will continue to build in the interior of the planet until it eventually destabilizes all tectonic plates in a spectral pattern of continous seismic oscillation.

Every earthquake generates and emits enough kinetic energy through the earth to potentially trigger more seismic disturbances." -The Extinction Protocol, page 495

Original Article

Inside China: China, Russia to hold drill near Korea

2012-04-19T06:11:00.001-07:00

Inside China: China, Russia to hold drill near Korea

Chinese and Russian military forces are set to hold a large-scale, weeklong joint naval drill beginning Sunday, and the maneuvers will be held in sensitive waters of the Yellow Sea just west of the Korean Peninsula.

Code-named Maritime Cooperation-2012, the drills were announced several weeks ago during the height of the satellite launch crisis in North Korea.

Analysts say the exercises are an aggressive gesture by the two navies to counter the naval bravado and resolve expressed by the navies of Japan, South Korea and the United States during the recent crisis

A total of 16 Chinese warships and two submarines will join seven surface ships from Russia's recently revamped Pacific Fleet in conducting a wide range of war games on the high sea.

The agenda for the drills calls for test firing of various weapons to destroy targets, practice for naval replenishment while ships are under way, joint navigation through difficult waterways, and joint search-and-rescue operations, according to an announcement by Russia's Pacific Fleet headquarters in Vladivostok. The drills will conclude with a naval parade.

The objectives of this exercise are expected to be to show Sino-Russian unity in challenging the U.S.-led regional alliance surrounding the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese island chain; to form a united front to rebuff Japanese territorial demands in Russian-held "Northern Islands" and the hotly disputed Senkaku - called Diaoyu by the Chinese - islands, and to enhance the two navies' interoperability.

The Russian navy's flagship for the exercises will be the guided-missile destroyer Varyag. The use of the Varyag destroyer serves as a not-so-subtle political message to the Japanese, who in 1904 forced the Russians to scuttle an original Czarist navy heavy cruiser also named the Varyag at nearby Chemulpo [Inchon] Bay during the Russo-Japanese War. Another Varyag is now China's first operational aircraft carrier. It began sea trials earlier this year, triggering concern from regional states that the power projection platform will become a vehicle of Chinese coercion in the future.

Perhaps the most provocative event of the upcoming drills will be the planned joint cruising voyage of a large mixed naval contingent of Chinese and Russian ships that will pass through the narrow Strait of Japan.

However, the public expressions of mutual trust and friendship by Beijing and Moscow may hide some unspoken difficulties the two countries are facing with each other. China's much more insistent attitude on supporting Pyongyang and much more stringent stance on territorial disputes with Japan and South Korea make Beijing a more eager partner in the joint exercise. Russia, by contrast, has shown signs indicating Moscow is somewhat wary of its Chinese ally and hopes to avoid being exploited in the exercises.

In fact, one of the two Russian naval task forces slated to participate in the joint drills is on its way from the Gulf of Aden. While passing through the tense South China Sea two weeks ago, Moscow made a special point of ordering the task force, led by the anti-submarine destroyer Admiral Tributs, to pay a port call on Vietnam, the most formidable challenger to China's expansive South China Sea claims.

The Russian warships arrived in the port of Ho Chi Minh City April 6 and were met with a hero's welcome from the Vietnamese, who are buying six Kilo-class diesel electric submarines from Moscow as part of a military buildup aimed at countering China's naval threat.

The Chinese were not happy about this Russian slight on the eve of the drills. "Russia should not be sending a wrong and ambiguous signal to the South [China] Sea at this particular time," the official Chinese communist newspaper the Global Times stated bluntly in an editorial on April 11.

Then there is the problem of choosing a language for communications during the joint drills. The Chinese want to use both Chinese and Russian. But Moscow rejected the idea, insisting on using only Russian as the language for the exercises. The Chinese were irritated by the demand but had no choice but to accept what can only be viewed as an insulting condition.

On Monday, Russia's official Itar-Tass news agency quoted a spokesman at the Russian Defense Ministry saying, "Russian and Chinese navies will use the Russian language to exchange information during an active phase of their joint naval exercise.

"Such a decision was taken at the final consultations between the Russian and Chinese navies last week," the spokesman said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/18/inside-china-china-russia-to-hold-drill-near-korea/print/

Nearly 70 percent of Americans See Easter as Religious

2012-04-08T18:48:00.001-07:00

Survey: Nearly 70 percent of Americans See Easter as Religious

Tue, Apr. 03, 2012 Posted: 05:11 PM EDT

A soon to be published survey on the spiritual habits of American adults found that nearly 70 percent of respondents consider Easter to be a religious observance.

The survey, which was part of several conducted by the American Bible Society and the Barna Group, found that 69 percent of U.S. adults celebrate Easter as a religious holiday, in contrast to the popular cultural practice of egg hunts and candy.

Lamar Vest, president of American Bible Society, told The Christian Post that he hopes the survey sends important messages to church leaders.

"I hope church leaders see the results of this survey and be reminded just how important their everyday work is. Easter is a shout of hope and encouragement – two things often in short supply in our culture," said Vest.

"We hope churches will recognize the opportunity Easter offers for reaching people who aren't connected. We hope that those who aren't currently celebrating Easter as a religious holiday will open the pages of Scripture to find out what the holiday is really all about."

The survey is part of an overall collection of studies titled The State of the Bible 2012, set to be released on Tuesday, April 17. The nationwide sample space for the research included feedback from telephone interviews and online surveys.

Among the responses regarding the significance of Easter, there was a generation gap difference. While 78 percent of Americans age 66 and older celebrate Easter

as a religious holiday, only 56 percent of Americans age 18 to 27 did likewise.

Regarding this statistic, Vest said that it would always be speculation as to the difference, but that one thing it did tell was the need for the church to reach out to the youth of the country.

"But whatever the reason, it underscores to me the need to make sure we connect with each new generation in ways that make a difference," said Vest.

"That's why American Bible Society offers a range of ways people can engage with the Bible from the traditional – such as printed materials – to the high-tech, such as through social media sites, text messages, and video story-sharing."

The survey was comprised of two sets of interviews, one online and another by telephone. A total of 1,016 respondents answered via telephone interview and 1,005 respondents used the online survey. Telephone interviews were conducted between February 24 through March 5 and included U.S. adults 18 years of age or older.

Online surveys were conducted between March 14 and March 21.

Michael Gryboski

No Justice-Justice

2012-03-25T13:11:00.002-07:00

Interesting News Comparison...Does Justice exist in the good old USA?

All we have is our GOD and he is ALL we NEED!

Trayvon Martin: The myth of US Post-Racialism

2012-03-25T13:07:00.001-07:00

Trayvon Martin was just beginning his life. Trayvon Martin was a son. He was a high school junior, with college to look forward to, a career and perhaps a family of his own.

Trayvon Martin was many things, but for George Zimmerman, he was just Black.

The teenager's race was enough to raise "suspicion" and trigger the neighbourhood watchman - who possessed no training or authority, except for his racist prerogatives - to murder an unarmed and frightened teenager running for his life.

On November 28, 2011, no other colour but his Blackness mattered - and his rush for safe haven was intercepted by Zimmerman, and the structurally entrenched demonisation of Black men codified in our laws, perpetuated by our police forces and subscribed to by our friends and colleagues, classmates and family members.

Trayvon Martin is not, as many writers and pundits commented following his death, "a reminder of American racism". For Africans Americans and most people of colour, racism, xenophobia and religious animus are common, if not expected, parts of their daily lives.

In the case of Trayvon Martin, a twin set of correlated racisms prematurely ended his life: Zimmerman's view that a young Black male must be engaged in criminal or thuggish activity by virtue of his race alone; and the neighbourhood watchmen and police alike who execute the structural racism embedded in police departments and penal systems nationwide in the name of the law.

The myth of the Obama era

The election of President Barack Obama, for white America, signalled the shift away from America's racially charged past. After 2008, white Americans have contended that the United States is experiencing the embryonic stages of a post-racial moment;

Martin's murder is a reminder of the fatal consequences of racism that makes the headlines. Yet, the intermediary steps - the institutional racism and empowering of people like Zimmerman - to police our communities either formally or informally are not deemed newsworthy.

Racism, generally understood as a conscious perspective, action or decision, is a salient core of the US' history and present. American racism is interwoven into the country's narrative, codified in its law and entrenched in its institutions. Its authors and gatekeepers were, and are, still largely white.

Whites seldom experience racism, either in its fatal, frequent, or latent form. This constructs the political ideology that the rest of the US has entered this racism-free utopia. Citizenship to this colour-blind state, however, is denied to African Americans, Muslim Americans and Latinos by virtue of a triumvirate of suspicions: crime, terrorism and illegal immigration.

However, whites are not the only culprits of racism. On March 10, an Arab American gas station clerk on the Westside of Detroit gunned down and killed a 24-year-old African American customer after a dispute over the high-price of condoms. Racially charged crimes and murders between Latinos and Blacks are all too frequent, and the sometimes-explosive tension between Asian American and Arab American storeowners is well documented.

Institutional and structural racism is still robust in the US. This is evidenced by the disparate incarceration rates of brown and Black Americans, the decimation of affirmative action and race-conscious legislation in the US, the crumbling public education systems in minority-populated communities and the all too common cold blooded murders of people of colour - both in the US and beyond its boundaries, whether by policemen, neighbourhood patrolmen or soldiers.

The 'worst of a national psychosis'

Kumar Rao, a defence lawyer for the Bronx Defenders in New York City, stated that: "Martin's killing reflects the absolute worst of a national psychosis: The view that Black males - young and old alike - are inherently threatening and unworthy of personal security; and that the state's commitment to enduring that belief is perpetuated and institutionalised."

Trayvon Martin's murder was avoidable, but yet perversely justified through the cold silence of the state.

Zimmerman was a neighbourhood patrolman - not a police officer - but the distinction is thin in this instance. Some police officers, from Miami to Oakland, exhibit the same reckless and cavalier behaviour as Zimmerman. What is more troubling is that police officers and entire departments routinely cover up racially charged arrests, the roughing up of individuals under custody and operate with impunity under the cover of the law.

Yet, for Zimmerman, he had no such cover. This makes this case more absurd and baffling, particularly because he was given police orders to "discontinue his chase of Martin", as revealed by 9/11 tapes released on March 19. If Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watchman - a volunteer with no training - had obeyed the policeman's order, Martin would still be alive today.

Zimmerman ignored those order, and took the law into his own hands; he has still not been arrested.

The importance of Trayvon Martin's is also based on the urgency of the current socio-political moment. The New York Police Department makes every Muslim in the City, whether Black or Arab, South Asian or Latino, targets of illegal spying or worse - unjust convictions of terrorism based solely on their religion and ethnicity. The fact that the NYPD so far as to label Black American Muslims as an "ancestry of interest" shows how far law enforcement would go to justify religious and ethnic profiling.

Connecting the dots

Arab and Muslim Americans in New York are connecting the dots - whether it is the stopping and frisking of young Black and Latino men or the illegal spying on the everyday aspects of Muslims, people of colour are being targeted by the largest police force in the country. In order to defeat the institutionalised racism of the NYPD and set a precedent for the rest of the country, we must build coalitions, connect our struggles and in unison demand accountability for our communities. None of us will win alone.

In June 2009, a Miami policeman shot and killed Husein Shehada, a 29-year-old Arab American, after an evening club-hopping with his brother and girlfriend. Shehada, like Martin, was unarmed and posed no threat. Yet, the white policeman, Adam Tavss, believed that Shehada's ethnicity substantiated the suspicion to shoot and kill.

The value of Arab life - whether nameless Palestinian children bombed by American-funded fighter jets or American youth profiled, questioned and incarcerated for frequenting a particular mosque - is spiralling downwards rapidly in the US and at a more accelerated rate in the Arab World.

Trayvon Martin is not a martyr or a symbol of racial injustice. Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Malice Green or Ramaley Graham, are all other young African American men shot down and killed because of the colour of their skin and countless others that remain unnamed. Most recently, Troy Davis shook the nation as another victim of a broken justice system that continues to fail people of colour not one person at a time but through mass incarceration and mass conviction rates.

Trayvon Martin was his own person and an archetype of our brothers, our sons, our nephews, grandsons. Trayvon is Mohammed walking down Atlantic Avenue, vulnerable to patrolmen wary of his beard. Trayvon is Carlos, donning Dodger Blue in Pico Rivera, mistaken by the LAPD Gang Squad as a gangbanger because of the colour of his skin

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/2012321910466650.html