BEST and WORST - TIME TO CHOOSE

Final Warning!

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:44:00 +0000

Tsunami hits Japan after massive quake

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:48:00 +0000

A 8.9-magnitude earthquake has triggered a tsunami along Japan's north-eastern coastline, and scores are feared killed. Cars, boats, homes and people were swept away as fires burned out of control.

PS - Imi este scarba de toata media din Rromania care vede, ca intodeauna, ceva mistic (apocalipsa, sfarsitul lumii, pedeapsa lu doamne-doamne, coborarea lu isus din ceruri si alte mizerii infantile) in orice eveniment natural independent de vointa omului.

Spui Romania si tragi apa...din nou

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:38:00 +0000

Aproximativ 600 de standuri au fost sigilate luni de comisarii Gărzii Financiare în timpul descinderii în depozitele complexului comercial "Dragonul Roşu" din Capitală, pentru că marfa nu avea documente de provenienţă, şi 40 de tone de marfă au fost confiscate în "Europa", potrivit ANAF.

Comisarii Gărzii Financiare şi inspectorii fiscali au confiscat, până în prezent, din depozitele complexului "Dragonul Roşu" 280.000 de farfurii, 150.000 de căni, 75.000 de sacoşe de rafie şi 30.000 de articole de bucătărie, se arată într-un comunicat de luni al Agenţiei Naţionale de Administrare Fiscală (ANAF).

La sosirea inspectorilor ANAF şi ai Gărzii Financiare, însoţiţi de aproximativ 60 de luptători ai Brigăzii Speciale de Intervenţie a Jandarmeriei, standurile erau închise.
În timpul controalelor, un elicopter de la Inspectoratul General de Aviaţie al Ministerului Administraţiei şi Internelor a survolat zona complexului "Europa", pentru a sprijini acţiunea comisarilor Gărzii Financiare.

Inspectorii financiari aveau informaţii că în complexul comercial "Europa" se comercializează şi sunt deţinute produse fără documente legale. Marfa ar proveni atât din ţări ale Uniunii Europene, precum şi din state din afara spaţiului UE.

În urma verificărilor, inspectorii financiari au constatat că evaziunea fiscală în zonă este de 100% şi că forma de deţinere a spaţiilor este în afara legii. (cotidianul.ro)

Sex slavery: A family business in Romania

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 11:35:00 +0000

When Marius Nejloveanu was sent to jail in January for 21 years, it was the longest sentence anyone had faced in Britain for human trafficking.

The judge said the 23-year-old Romanian, together with his 51-year-old father, Bogdan, had run a sex trafficking ring like a family business. They lured several women, then aged between 15 and 23 years old, from Romania to the brothels of Madrid and Manchester, where they forced them to work as prostitutes.

One of the girls, who wished to remain anonymous described her experiences in captivity. "I saw one of them removing the eye of a girl because she wasn't making enough money," the girl said. "Another time I saw them cut another girl's leg. They were all afraid to run away or tell the police. When they weren't happy with us, they took us away into a house and tortured us."

The UN estimates up to 800,000 people a year are sold into slavery – these slaves have no rights, they are used and abused and exist only to make money for their owners." - Read more (CNN - Jonathan Wald )

Din ciclu: Gura prostului adevăr grăieşte

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 08:22:00 +0000

Ioan Botis - Ministrul Muncii: Sistemul de pensii de stat din România este unul de tip piramidal, e o schemă Ponzi*!

*O Schemă Ponzi este o operațiune investițională frauduloasă ce implică plata unor profituri deosebit de mari unor investitori de pe urma unor fonduri investite de alte persoane și nu de pe urma veniturilor pe care afacerea le-a generat în realitate. Ex din Romania: Caritas, Gerald, Philadelphia... etc.

‘The state pension system is a Ponzi scheme’ - the statement belongs to Labor Minister in Romania, Ioan Botis.

Oil & hypocrisy “just beyond belief”

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:16:00 +0000

Is history repeating itself? This time, Libya – in 2003, it was Iraq.
Trends forecaster Gerald Celente says it is not support for the Libyan people, but interest in the country's vast oil fields that is driving US rhetoric.

“The only reason they are interested in Libya is for their oil. Do you hear anybody screaming and yelling here about all those people that were killed last week on the Ivory Coast or in Sudan?” Celente questions. “We already heard Hillary Clinton say that they are willing to do anything for anybody in Libya that needs aid.”

Gerald Celente says the hypocrisy is “just beyond belief” and the western world is calling for the head of Gaddafi but not for the head of any other leader from rioting countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia or Yemen.
“Why? Because it is oil. You think we’d be in Iraq if the major export there was broccoli?” exclaimed Celente.

Libya may face civil war - Washington and UK Pushing for Civil War to Justify a US-NATO Military Intervention

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:47:00 +0000

The Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has once again appeared on state TV, vowing to fight on. A series of blasts have reportedly rocked the Libyan capital as Colonel Gaddafi continues to hold on. Several towns near Tripoli are now in the hands of the opposition. But witnesses say one of them has come under air attack, and forces loyal to Gaddafi have retaken a nearby oil facility. Meanwhile, the US is flexing its military muscle, moving its naval forces closer to Libya, and triggering speculation of possible strikes. The UK's also not ruling out the use of force. The international storm's gathering over the Libyan leader, with the UN suspending the country from its Human Rights Council. It also calls for a mass humanitarian evacuation for people caught up in the crisis. As world pressure mounts, RT's Laura Emmett reports on whether NATO's ready for a new war.

The Threats of NATO Intervention and U.S. and E.U. Control over Libya

Libya has been in the cross-hairs of the Pentagon for years. According to Wesley Clark, the retired general who was the supreme military commander of NATO, Libya was on a Pentagon list of nations to be invaded after Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The list included Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, and lastly Iran. In Clark’s own words:

So I came back to see him [a high ranking military officer in the Pentagon] a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defence’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” [18]

In one way or another all the nations on the list have been attacked directly or indirectly and all of them, but Syria and Iran, have succumbed to the U.S. and its allies. Again, the only exceptions are Iran and its ally Syria. In Lebanon, the U.S. has made partial gains, but it is now receding with the decline of the Hariri-led March 14 Alliance.

Libya started secret negotiations with Washington in 2001 that materialized into formal rapprochement after the fall of Baghdad to British and American troops in 2003. Yet, the U.S. and its allies have always wanted to expand their influence over the Libyan energy sector and to appropriate Libya’s vast wealth. A civil war provides the best cover for this.(www.globalresearch.ca)

Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa, at more than 3 per cent of the global total – and there could be a lot more undiscovered. Libya is not the only African nation in turmoil. Somalia’s drawn-out conflict has been called ‘a slow genocide’. But there’s little sign of US or European military input. And it is a similar story on the other side of the continent.

“There are events unfolding in the Ivory Coast where there is also an armed conflict between rebels and the government, but nobody seems to be thinking of that,” said John Laughland from the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation. “It’s only because fashionable attention is focused on Libya – oil but also for the political implications of the Middle East as a whole. We all know that the West including Britain has got its hands very dirty with the Libyan leadership over the recent years.”

The Global Battle for Crude Oil - Libya in the Great Game

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:17:00 +0000

Fleeing Libya are not only families who fear for their lives and poor immigrants from other North African countries. There are tens of thousands of "refugees" who are being repatriated by their governments with ships and aircraft: they are mainly engineers and executives of major oil companies. Not only Eni, which realizes about 15 percent of its sales from Libya, but also other European multinationals -- in particular: BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, BASF, Statoil, Rapsol. Hundreds of Gazprom employees were also forced to leave Libya and over 30 thousand Chinese oil company and construction workers. A symbolic image of how the Libyan economy is interconnected with global economy, dominated by multinationals.

Libya's oil industry is in chaos — and there's no telling when that will end. Armed men loot equipment from oil field installations. British and German commandos execute secret raids in the Libyan desert to rescue stranded oil workers as security disintegrates rapidly in remote camps.
Libyan port workers, frightened of being caught up in Moammar Gadhafi's violent crackdown on protesters, fail to show up for work, leaving empty tankers floating around the Mediterranean Sea waiting to load crude.
And the European oil companies extracting Libya's black gold are operating in crisis mode, trying to get stranded expatriate workers out and safe amid conflicting information on how much oil is still being pumped and just where it all is. That was just this week. The situation is not expected to get better in the near future.(Associeted Press)

Thanks to its rich reserves of oil and natural gas, Libya has a positive trade balance of $27 billion a year and a medium-high per capita income of $12,000, six times greater than that of Egypt. Despite strong differences in low and high incomes, the average standard of living of the population of Libya (just 6.5 million inhabitants in comparison to the nearly 85 million in Egypt) is therefore higher than that of Egypt and other North African countries. Witness the fact that nearly one million and a half immigrants, mostly from North Africa, work in Libya. Some 85 percent of Libyan energy exports go to Europe: Italy takes first place with 37 percent, followed by Germany, France and China. Italy is also in first place in imports to Libya, followed by China, Turkey and Germany.

This framework is now blown into the air as a result of what can be characterized not as a revolt of the impoverished masses, such as the rebellions in Egypt and Tunisia, but as a real civil war, due to a split in the ruling group. Whoever made the first move has exploited the discontent against Gadhafi's clan, especially prevalent among the populations of Cyrenaica and young people in the cities, in a moment when entire North Africa has taken the road of rebellion. Unlike in Egypt and Tunisia, however, the Libyan uprising was preplanned and organized.

The reactions in the international arena are also symbolic. Beijing has said it is extremely concerned about developments in Libya and called for "a quick return to stability and normality." The reason is clear: the Sino-Libyan trade has undergone strong growth (around 30 percent in 2010 alone), but now China can see that the whole structure of economic relations with Libya, from which it imports increasing quantities of oil, has been put in play. Moscow is in a similar position.

Diametrically opposite is the signal from Washington: President Barack Obama, who when confronted with the Egyptian crisis minimized the repression unleashed by Mubarak and called for a “orderly and peaceful transition,” has condemned in no uncertain terms the Libyan government and announced that the U.S. is preparing "the full range of options that we have available to respond to this crisis, including "actions that we can undertake on our own and those that we can coordinate with our allies through multilateral institutions." The message is clear: there is the possibility of a U.S./NATO military intervention in Libya, formally to stop the bloodshed. The real reasons are also clear: if Gadhafi is overthrown, the U.S. would be able to topple the entire framework of economic relations with Libya, opening the way to U.S.-based multinationals, so far almost entirely excluded from exploitation of energy reserves in Libya. The United States could thus control the tap for energy sources upon which Europe largely depends and which also supplies China.

These are the events in the great game of the division of African resources, for which a growing confrontation, especially between China and the United States, is taking place. The rising Asian power - with a presence in Africa of about 5 million managers, technicians and workers - building industries and infrastructure, in exchange for oil and other raw materials. The United States, which can not compete on this level, can use its leverage over the armed forces of the major African countries, who they train through the Africa Command (AFRICOM), their main instrument for penetration of the continent. NATO is now also entering in the game, as it is about to conclude a partnership military treaty with the African Union, which includes 53 countries.

The headquarters of the African Union-NATO partnership is already under construction in Addis Ababa: a modern structure, funded with 27 million Euros from Germany, baptized, "Building peace and security."

Il Manifesto, by Manlio Dinucci February 25, 2011

Forget Libya, The Smart Money is Eyeing Developments in Saudi Arabia

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:06:00 +0000

The smart money has their eyes on Saudi Arabia. Will the protests there turn ugly?

All the drama seen on the streets, from the unnecessary deaths to Muammar Gadhafi’s rhetoric – its only importance is to gauge how the Saudi citizenry react.

Reuters called a Saudi oil disruption “unthinkable,” and the WSJ claimed “Saudi Arabia is well-shielded from a full-blown uprising of the kind seen in Libya.”

Think again. This is the world’s second largest oil producer and has promised to fill the gap if Libya totally shuts down. It can’t very well keep such promises if Saudis are involved in their own civil revolt. Remember, even if Libya is totally shut down, there is no supply issue.(read more)

'Spike and crash scenario'

Libyan supply could be knocked out for months, according to a report by US investment bank Merrill Lynch.

The Wall Street firm said that as much as 1.2 million barrels-per-day of production may have been shut down already, and that production facilities in the west of the country were prone to attach by government or opposition forces, which would lead to a prolonged output loss.

There remained a substantial risk that oil prices could move sharply higher, undermining the global economic recovery, the research piece warned, and the market only had limited ability to withstand further unrest in the Middle East.

Defiant Gaddafi vows to die as martyr - 1,000 killed in Libya unrest

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 10:40:00 +0000

(Reuters) - A defiant Muammar Gaddafi said on Tuesday he was ready to die "a martyr" in Libya, vowing to crush a growing revolt which has seen eastern regions break free of his 41-year rule and brought deadly unrest to the capital.
Swathed in brown robes, Gaddafi seethed with anger and banged the podium outside one of his residences that was damaged in a 1986 U.S. bombing raid that attempted to kill him. Next to him stood a monument of a fist crushing a U.S. fighter jet.

The Real Manchurian Candidate: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:27:00 +0000

The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.

"My job in psy-ops is to play with people's heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave," the officer, Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, told Rolling Stone.

The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as "information operations" at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation. ( read more on www.rollingstone.com )

Greece strike turning violent in Athens

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:44:00 +0000

Young demonstrators hurled rocks and fire bombs at riot police as clashes broke out on Wednesday in Athens during a mass rally against austerity measures, part of a general strike that crippled services and public ransportation around the country. Police fired tear gas and flash grenades at protesters, blanketing parts of the city centre in choking smoke.

The future of the Arab world

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:56:00 +0000

Revolution is in the air and dictators and leaders throughout the Middle East had better be on guard because the people have had enough. They are tired of being repressed. They are tired of the way their country's wealth is siphoned off so that a few at the top are insanely rich and the masses of citizenry suffer in ghettos. They demand freedom of information as it is harder to restrain free speech with the power of the internet and the rise of the social network. The power to keep the people ignorant is diminishing; yet of course don't think that will stop some leaders from trying.

Today when common people are on the streets wanting dictators like Hosni Mubarak to go, these regimes are shaking in their boots. Now Israeli authorities want to prevent democracy in Egypt as democracy, according to them, would mean Brotherhood coming to power. Earlier in Palestine when Hamas came to power through democratic elections, America and Israel refused to recognize elected Hamas Government. So much for democracy Israel and US talk about.(www.twocircles.net)

And whenever there are good prospects for democracy in any Islamic country the US rushes in to support dictatorships from Indonesia to the Arab world and then blames Islam for being anti-democratic. Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship was supported by USA and Israel in their own interest and what is worse Israel’s interest is US interest. Today when Obama realized that Hosni Mubarak has totally lost support he is advising him to go to keep its credibility with the people of Egypt. But it will also see that someone is installed who acts in US-Israel interests.

America's Most Embarrassing Allies

SAUDI ARABIA - Leader: King Abdullah
The king has ruled Saudi Arabia since 2005. As ruler of a country with no elections, parliament, or political parties, Abdullah and his family exercise unchecked power within the kingdom, and -- thanks to their control of one-fifth of the world's oil reserves and Islam's two holiest sites -- quite a bit of influence beyond their borders as well. Abdullah surprised many by undertaking some minor reforms of the country's clerical establishment in 2009, though this may have had more to do with a desire to consolidate his power than any enlightened pluralistic impulses.

YEMEN - Leader: Ali Abdullah Saleh
Saleh first took power in Northern Yemen in a military coup in 1978 and has ruled the entire country since unification in 1991. Opposition parties are marginalized, parliamentary elections have been indefinitely postponed, and civilians are frequently caught up in military strikes in the country's lawless south.

JORDAN - Leader: King Abdullah II
When the Western-educated Abdullah took the throne in 1999, hopes were high that political reforms would follow. The government lifted 20 years of martial law in 1989, restoring the country's parliament. But open democracy did not follow: The country's election system remains deeply flawed, gerrymandered to support tribal candidates and government loyalists.

ETHIOPIA - Leader: Meles Zenawi
The 2010 election, in which Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's party won a remarkable 99.6 percent of the vote, was the culmination of what Human Rights Watch called "the government's five-year strategy of systematically closing down space for political dissent and independent criticism." This included attacks and arrests of prominent opposition figures, the shutting down of newspapers and assaults on journalists critical of the government, and doling out international food aid as an incentive to get poor Ethiopians to join the ruling party.

UGANDA - Leader: Yoweri Museveni
Record: Museveni talks a big game on democracy, economic development, and anti-corruption efforts, and to be fair he did institute a number of promising reforms early in his presidency, encouraging the development of free press and elections following decades of strongman rule. But the president has lately started to resemble his predecessors, abolishing term limits after nearly three decades in office, launching legal attacks on independent journalists, harassing opposition parties and flying a $50 million private jet while more than a third of his people live on less than $1 a day, having previously criticized other African leaders for indulging in similar perks. NGOs have also documented numerous cases of unlawful detention and torture by the country's Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force.

UZBEKISTAN - Leader: Islam Karimov
Karimov, Uzbekistan's first and only post-independence president, has routinely stifled political dissent in Uzbekistan, banning opposition groups -- particularly Islamic ones -- stifling the press and jailing thousands. His country is routinely cited as one of the world's worst torturers, with punishments including beatings, rape, and even boiling meted out in its overcrowded jails. Uzbekistan faced international condemnation in 2005 after hundreds of unarmed protesters demonstrating in support of a group of arrested local businessmen were shot by security forces in the city of Andijan. Karimov has repeatedly extended his own tenure beyond the constitutionally mandated two-term limit and international observers have dismissed the country's elections as shams.

KAZAKHSTAN - Leader: Nursultan Nazarbayev
Nazarbayev, former leader of the Kazakh Communist Party, has ruled the country without any serious political challenge since independence in 1991. Restrictive election laws make it nearly impossible to opposition parties to run, anti-government newspapers are routinely harassed and shut down, and corruption -- particularly related to the country's energy sector -- is reportedly pervasive throughout the state.

VIETNAM - Leader: Nguyen Tan Dung
The Communist Party of Vietnam is the only party allowed by law and appoints the country's leaders from within its own ranks -- Nguyen Tan Dung was reappointed for a second term in Jan. 26. According to Human Rights Watch, Vietnam has intensified its repression of human rights over the past year, imprisoning human rights defenders, bloggers, and anti-corruption campaigners. Religious groups, both Christian and Buddhist, have faced repeated harassment. Police brutality and deaths under police custody are commonplace.

Read full article on www.foreignpolicy.com

AGRICULTURA SI CRIZA ALIMENTELOR - CINE PROFITA ?

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 12:18:00 +0000

Harta lumii se redesenează, în ultima perioadă, ţări precum China, Coreea de Sud, Japonia, Arabia Saudită sau Kuwait sunt tot mai interesate să cumpere sau să arendeze pe termen lung întinderi importante de teren agricol în încercarea de a satisface cererea internă tot mai mare pentru produse alimentare, scrie presa internaţională.

Banca Mondială (BM) a susţinut până acum arendarea terenurilor agricole către investitori, însă recent a încurajat ţările-gazdă să impună reglementări mai stricte pentru a nu îşi pune în pericol producţia agricolă şi securitatea alimentară.

Investiţiile la scară largă duc la degradarea terenurilor agricole

Impactul ecologic al acestor investiţii este de asemenea semnificativ datorită faptului că investitorii cer productivităţi sporite, acestea putând fi obţinute doar prin tranziţia către agro-producţia la scară industrială, ce necesită monoculturi, suprautilizarea de pesticide, fertilizatori, irigaţii intense, proces care duce în final la degradarea calităţii terenurilor.

"Daca ar fi facute corect, investiţiile de mari dimensiuni în agricultură ar putea genera oportunităţi pentru economiile sărace ce au mult teren şi sectoare agricole importante, dar acest lucru nu se intampla. Totuşi, magnitudinea şi natura speculativă a celor mai multe dintre aceste tranzacţii i-a luat prin surprindere pe unii dintre actorii de pe scena internaţională", se arată într-un raport al BM. CONTINUARE ARTICOL (www.zf.ro)

WikiLeaks: Saudi Oil May Have Peaked Already

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:13:00 +0000

The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show.

Jeremy Leggett, convenor of the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security, said: "We are asleep at the wheel here: choosing to ignore a threat to the global economy that is quite as bad as the credit crunch, quite possibly worse."

The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

The revelation comes as the oil price has soared in recent weeks to more than $100 a barrel on global demand and tensions in the Middle East. Many analysts expect that the Saudis and their Opec cartel partners would pump more oil if rising prices threatened to choke off demand.

However, Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, met the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 and told the US diplomat that Aramco's 12.5m barrel-a-day capacity needed to keep a lid on prices could not be reached.

According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then – possibly as early as 2012 – global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as "peak oil".

Husseini said that at that point Aramco would not be able to stop the rise of global oil prices because the Saudi energy industry had overstated its recoverable reserves to spur foreign investment. He argued that Aramco had badly underestimated the time needed to bring new oil on tap.

One cable said: "According to al-Husseini, the crux of the issue is twofold. First, it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described, and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco and energy optimists would like to portray."

It went on: "In a presentation, Abdallah al-Saif, current Aramco senior vice-president for exploration, reported that Aramco has 716bn barrels of total reserves, of which 51% are recoverable, and that in 20 years Aramco will have 900bn barrels of reserves.

"Al-Husseini disagrees with this analysis, believing Aramco's reserves are overstated by as much as 300bn barrels. In his view once 50% of original proven reserves has been reached … a steady output in decline will ensue and no amount of effort will be able to stop it. He believes that what will result is a plateau in total output that will last approximately 15 years followed by decreasing output."

The US consul then told Washington: "While al-Husseini fundamentally contradicts the Aramco company line, he is no doomsday theorist. His pedigree, experience and outlook demand that his predictions be thoughtfully considered."

Seven months later, the US embassy in Riyadh went further in two more cables. "Our mission now questions how much the Saudis can now substantively influence the crude markets over the long term. Clearly they can drive prices up, but we question whether they any longer have the power to drive prices down for a prolonged period."

A fourth cable, in October 2009, claimed that escalating electricity demand by Saudi Arabia may further constrain Saudi oil exports. "Demand [for electricity] is expected to grow 10% a year over the next decade as a result of population and economic growth. As a result it will need to double its generation capacity to 68,000MW in 2018," it said.

It also reported major project delays and accidents as "evidence that the Saudi Aramco is having to run harder to stay in place – to replace the decline in existing production." While fears of premature "peak oil" and Saudi production problems had been expressed before, no US official has come close to saying this in public.

In the last two years, other senior energy analysts have backed Husseini. Fatih Birol, chief economist to the International Energy Agency, told the Guardian last year that conventional crude output could plateau in 2020, a development that was "not good news" for a world still heavily dependent on petroleum.(guardian.co.uk)

Uprising in Egypt: Al-Jazeera's Live Coverage from the Egyptian Streets

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:13:00 +0000

Click HERE for LIVE VIDEO Coverage

The US And The UK Lie About Inflation

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:51:00 +0000

"Most governments acknowledge it - India, China, Norway, Australian, Taiwan - it is only the UK and the US who say there is no inflation, but they lie about it." Jim Rogers - in CNBC

Eu îti doresc sa.....

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:34:00 +0000

US tells Twitter to hand over WikiLeaks supporter's messages

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 11:33:00 +0000

A member of parliament in Iceland who is also a former WikiLeaks volunteer says the US justice department has ordered Twitter to hand over her private messages.

Birgitta Jonsdottir, an MP for the Movement in Iceland, said last night on Twitter that the "USA government wants to know about all my tweets and more since november 1st 2009. Do they realize I am a member of parliament in Iceland?"

She said she was starting a legal fight to stop the US getting hold of her messages, after being told by Twitter that a subpoena had been issued. She wrote: "department of justice are requesting twitter to provide the info – I got 10 days to stop it via legal process before twitter hands it over."Read more

Will optimism save the euro? NO!

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:18:00 +0000

2011 will be a “fateful year for the euro”, headlines the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, predicting that the survival of the single currency will be assured if the year ends on the same note of optimism on which it began – at least in Estonia, which has just transitioned to the euro. The secret to the euro’s success lies in trust, deems the German daily: trust between the strong and weak nations of the eurozone, but also between the EU and Hungary, which took over the rotating EU presidency on New Year’s day. "With its – often partisan – criticism of Budapest, the EU might in the long run come to resemble the snake that bites its own tail,” comments the FAZ, adding that “the six months to come will be decisive for the euro and will have need of an EU presidency that is not constantly on the defensive".Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Ilie Șerbănescu: băncile sunt într-un cartel!

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:34:00 +0000

Analistul economic Ilie Șerbănescu acuză băncile din România că au format un adevărat cartel.

”Ele sunt atâtea pentru că în România băncile sunt într-un cartel. Nu sunt într-o concurenţă. O piaţă mică în fond, de oameni săraci şi care mai e şi în cădere ar trebui să fi dispărut bănci universale sau neuniversale. Dar nu au dispărut pentru că sunt într-un cartel. Pentru că sunt toate bănci străine. Dacă ar fi româneşti ar fi dat unele faliment. La noi nu e piaţă, nu e concurenţă, nu e piaţă concurenţială”, a explicat, pentru Agerpres, Ilie Șerbănescu.

Analistul economic Ilie Serbanescu spune ca Romania nu va mai fi primita in zona euro si ca economia va continua si in 2011 sa resimta efectele politicilor nefaste din anii anteriori.

"Nu vedeti ca s-au lecuit de Romania? Nu mai vor sa ne primeasca nici in Schengen. Le-a venit mintea la cap. Astea sunt povesti politice (n.r. - ca tara noastra va adopta euro), de interese, gen Banca Nationala. Oamenii s-au prajit cu Grecia. Nu vor mai primi altii si mai si".

Asadar, povestile cu daca faceam, masuri anticriza daca etc. sunt povesti. Adica ce e anticriza? Masuri de stimulare a consumului. Cine sa plateasca? Statul e in faliment, iar bancile nu-ti mai dau bani pentru chestiile de consum. Asadar, nu avea de unde sa provina cresterea economica", a conchis Ilie Serbanescu.

Când europenii servesc drept cobai

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:53:00 +0000

"Este viitoarea etapă a mondializării, şi sunt motive bune de a dori ca acesta să nu fie cazul", constată Vanity Fair. Din ce în ce mai mult, laboratoarele farmaceutice americane îşi testează medicamentele în străinătate, pe persoane care nu beneficiază de toate garanţiile de siguranţă. Această tendinţă priveşte ţările din lumea a treia dar şi Europa, precizează mensualul din New York. Din 2004 în 2007, partea de eseuri clinice efectuate în Statele Unite a scăzut cu 5.2%, în timp ce ea creştea cu 16% în Europa de Est, cu 12% în Asia şi cu 10% în America latină.
Avantajul pentru laboratoare, explică Vanity Fair, este faptul că ele fac testele în condiţii mai puţin stricte şi mai puţin costisitoare, de a obţine rezultate pozitive şi "de a convinge astfel Food and Drug Administration că medicamentele sunt sigure şi eficace pentru americani". În 2008, 80% din produsele supuse FDA au fost testate în afara Statelor Unite, ceea ce reprezintă 58 788 de teste. 876 dintre ele au avut loc în România, 589 în Ucraina, 716 în Turcia. Estonia, Polonia, Rusia, Lituania, Slovacia sau Croaţia sunt şi ele ţări apreciate de laboratoare.
În afara oricărui control serios, aceste teste sunt adeseori mortale. Revista citează exemplul unui test pentru un vaccin contra gripei efectuat într-un refugiu pentru cei fără domiciliu fix, la Grudziadz, în Polonia. Plătiţi cu 2 dolari, "cobaii credeau că vor primi un vaccin normal. Nu a fost cazul. Cel puţin 20 dintre ei au murit".Vanity Fair New York

Putin: Western Model of Democracy Doesn't Exist

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 17:20:00 +0000

Vladimir Putin: if there is democracy, it must be a full one. Why did they jail Mr. Assange? Is that democracy?”

About democracy

“Can you tell me what it is – the Western model of democracy? France has one model of democracy, the USA has another one. A French politician told me once: one can not do anything at the elections in the USA without money – whether they are elections to the Senate or Congress, not to mention the presidential election. There is nothing to do there without a sack of money. So what is that democracy about? Is it democracy of those who have a lot of money? The USA is a presidential republic, Great Britain is a monarchy. All of that are elements of democracy, but what kind of democracy? There is no single model of “ Western democracy ”. It doesn’t exist.

Julian Assange supporters plan protests worldwide

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:11:00 +0000

Detention of WikiLeaks founder is focus of demonstrations today as speculation grows over legal move by US authorities

Protests will be held around the world today against the detention of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Demonstrations are planned in the capitals of Spain, the Netherlands, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Peru to demand Assange's release, the re-establishment of the WikiLeaks domain name and the restoration of Visa and Mastercard credit services to allow supporters to donate money to the whistleblowing site.
A statement on the Spanish-language website Free WikiLeaks said: "We seek the liberation of Julian Assange in United Kingdom territory." The website called on protesters to gather at 6pm (17.00 GMT) in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville and three other Spanish cities.(www.guardian.co.uk)

Support Wikileaks and Freedom of Speech

noreply@blogger.com (Mad Mike) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 16:19:00 +0000