Let's not forget the miners in DR Congo

RNW, Mélanie Gouby, Goma, 24 August 2012

(Photo: AFP)

Last week's tragedy at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in South Africa has drawn international attention on the deplorable working conditions of miners in that country. But was there any media coverage of the sixty people who died two weeks ago in a gold mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)? Barely. 

Stretching into the depths of the mountain, a tunnel, carved by hand, is supported by a wooden structure like that on a set of an old Western movie. It gets dark very quickly as we move heads down into the tunnel. It’s hard to tell if our shortness of breath comes from the slight but unavoidable claustrophobic anxiety or the actual lack of oxygen down the well.

“With time, we actually forget about the dangers, even though they are real,” says Bisima, a 33-year-old miner working at the Nyabibwe pit in eastern DRC. “Mine collapse remains the greatest danger,” he says.

While Lonmin's Marikana mine carnage in South Africa got an incredible amount of coverage last week, only two weeks ago, 60 people died following a mine collapse in Pangoyi, in Ituri Province. However, there were barely any reports about the incident.

No safety measures

In the DRC, no one protests for better living conditions. Between the constant conflicts and extreme poverty, a human life does not hold much value.

“People risk their lives. This is our daily reality here in the DRC. In Nyabibwe, no miner wears a protective helmet or gloves,” says Fidel Bafilemba, a researcher for the American NGO Enough Project in the DRC.

Conditions are no better in the Ituri gold mine. “When we descend into the wells, there are no safety measures. The mine can collapse at any moment. And we work very hard, even at night. Those are not conditions for human beings to work in,” complains Patrick, a 20-year-old miner from Mubi in the Walikale region.

Abundant resources

Although the DRC has mineral resources that would make any Western country pale with envy, it remains one of the world's least developed countries. The nation is Africa's leading tin exporter and the fifth one in the world. Congo's subsoil holds 80% of the world’s coltan reserves. The metal is used in the manufacture of almost all electronic devices. Gold and diamonds are also present in abundance.

But miners often dig using only pickaxes and shovels, without any motorised tools. A number of mines have virtually no infrastructure whatsoever because they are informal and don't belong to any large industrial corporation. The miners sell the minerals to traders who take them to the cities of Goma or Bukavu, where they are purchased in bulk by foreign companies.

Blood minerals

Although few human rights organisations tackle the issue of working conditions in Congolese mines, many nevertheless campaign against the use of the infamous “blood diamonds” which are believed to finance armed rebel groups in the eastern part of the country.

In 2010, a coalition of non-governmental organisations, including Enough Project and Global Witness, successfully lobbied the US Congress to pass a law on blood diamonds. However, with the enforcement of the law, the mineral trade in the DRC has almost come to a standstill. Instead of investing in a system of traceability that would guarantee the “cleanness” of the minerals they purchased, American companies simply withdrew from the DRC.

As a result, the sales of minerals like coltan and cassiterite has dropped by 90%, and the living and working conditions of the miners have deteriorated further.

“We feel forsaken. People say that this law will help our country and stop the war, but we don’t see any difference. In fact, things are even worse today: there is still insecurity and we have no income,” says Safari, a 50-year-old miner in Nyabibwe.

"Cleaning"

In the last two years, numerous projects to “clean” the Congolese mining sector and guarantee the origin of the minerals have been launched by the United Nations, the United States of America and the International Conference for the Great Lakes Region. But these efforts were stumped by the M23 rebellion.

The rebellion takes its name from a 2009 peace accord which the rebels say was violated by Kinshasa. They were joined by hundreds of defectors from the Congolese army who walked out into the bush in support of fugitive Congolese General Bosco Ntaganda, wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges.

In Katanga, a province spared by the conflicts in southern DRC, a system of traceability has been put in place, allowing the trade of minerals to continue uninterrupted. However, working conditions in the Katanga mines have not improved.

Related Articles:

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Elisabeth Murdoch turns on her father and brother in MacTaggart lecture

Rupert Murdoch's second daughter attacks News Corp values in keynote address at Edinburgh television festival

guardian.co.uk, Dan Sabbagh, Thursday 23 August 2012

Elisabeth Murdoch gives the MacTaggart lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh
 International Television Festival. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Tensions within the world's most powerful media family were dramatically laid bare on Thursday when Elisabeth Murdoch set out her own vision of media leadership, emphasising humanity over profit and criticising her father's News Corporation for operating with an absence of values.

Giving the keynote MacTaggart address at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, Rupert Murdoch's second daughter also explicitly contradicted her brother James, chose to praise the BBC, and argued that the Olympics experience demonstrates that television is a force for storytelling rather than a route to political power.

Speaking in public for the first time about the phone-hacking affair, which prompted her to fall out with her brother a year ago, Elisabeth Murdoch said that News Corp had to ask "significant and difficult questions about how some behaviours fell so far short of its values" in the wake of what happened.

She said the lesson from the affair was that any organisation needed to "discuss, affirm and institutionalise a rigorous set of values based on an explicit statement of purpose" – in contrast to News Corp's traditional mode of governance based on executives second-guessing what Rupert would do.

The cri de coeur from the 44-year-old, who runs Shine Television, the News Corp-owned maker of programmes such as Masterchef and Merlin, will be interpreted as a bid for power at her father's company – although her friends insisted she had no desire to lead the company her father built, which spans from Fox News in the US to the Sun in Britain.

Elisabeth Murdoch took aim at her younger brother James in an extended passage that referred to his own controversial MacTaggart lecture given three years ago.

That speech ended with James – weeks before the Sun switched to the Conservatives – observing that "the only reliable, durable and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit".

Elisabeth said that while loss-making media organisations had their independence "massively challenged", her brother's statement nevertheless "left something out".

Making little effort to soften the rift with her younger brother, she added: "Profit without purpose is a recipe for disaster."

In marked contrast to the dry economic rhetoric preferred by both her father and brother, she said that people needed to "reject the idea that money is the only effective measure of all things or that the free market is the only sorting mechanism" and said that "the absence of purpose" could be "one of the most dangerous own goals for capitalism and for freedom".

Her speech contained few references to her father's newspapers, but in a paragraph that referred to the Leveson inquiry, she said that "an unsettling dearth of integrity across so many of our institutions" meant that it was "very difficult to argue for the right outcome, which must be the fierce protection of a free press and light touch media regulation".

The 14-page speech was largely written by Murdoch herself – with much of the drafting work taking place during the wet jubilee bank holiday weekend – and with no input from other family members. Instead her husband, Matthew Freud, and a small team of advisers largely from within Shine helped check facts and polish the speech – the first time a woman has given the television industry's signature address since Janet Street-Porter in 1996.

Elisabeth is the second oldest of Rupert Murdoch's six children, and the eldest by his second marriage to Anna. While brothers Lachlan and James have at various times worked directly for News Corp in the past decade, Elisabeth only rejoined her father's company last year after it bought Shine in a £290m deal just before the phone-hacking affair broke.

She had set up Shine in 2001 and banked about £150m from her father's company once the takeover was completed. But she turned down a seat on the News Corp board in the wake of the Milly Dowler hacking scandal.

There was conspicuous praise for the BBC, which frequently airs Shine programmes, in marked contrast to her father and brother. "Let me put it on the record that I am a current supporter of the BBC's universal licence fee," she said. She also praised outgoing director general Mark Thompson for working collaboratively across the television industry. Three years ago, James Murdoch accused the BBC of expansionist plans that had "a chilling effect" on the rest of the British media, but his sister's only critical observation about the national broadcaster was that the incoming director general had "to demonstrate how efficiently that funding is being spent on actual content on behalf of the licence fee payers".

There was little overt politicising in Elisabeth Murdoch's speech – another contrast with her brother's effort, which was widely seen as setting the template for Conservative media policy before the most recent general election.

But she repeatedly gestured towards liberal values with references to progressive political figures, including "one of my heroes" Vaclav Havel and Nelson Mandela whom she watched walk from prison "through my tears".

There was even praise for another former MacTaggart lecturer, the late Dennis Potter, who famously named the cancer that killed him "Rupert". She said she was "firmly with" the television playwright who said "the job of television is to make hearts pound" – a vision of the medium whose core purpose is "to form human connections" as opposed to a vehicle for the exercise of raw political power.

But she did defend her decision to sell Shine to her father's company – even if, as she acknowledged, it appeared to be a "no shit, Sherlock" decision – because News Corp was first and foremost a content company which had backed The Simpsons, Glee and the blockbuster films Titantic and Avatar directed by James Cameron.

While there was no shortage of criticism for her brother, there was praise for one Murdoch, her father.

"My dad had the vision, the will and the sense of purpose to challenge the old world order on behalf of the people," she said, before adding: "But back even then, I understood we were in pursuit of a greater good, a belief in better."

Related Article:

Elisabeth Murdoch: James should have stepped back in phone-hacking crisis

German cabinet passes new house rules for banks

Deutsche Welle, 22 August 2012

Bankers take risks and cash-in while the general public covers the cost. A new law should stop that from happening, the German government has promised. It could make doing business more expensive for banks.

G20 states all agree, the losses from risk-taking banks should no longer be a burden for taxpayers. In order to make that possible, the German cabinet decided on a new "basic order" Wednesday (22.08.2012). The guidelines came from Brussels and run to around 1,000 pages. While the contents continue to be haggled over in minute detail in capital cities throughout Europe, the German cabinet is already taking steps to implement the regulations. It wanted to send a clear signal, according to the Finance Ministry in Berlin. The new law will come into effect at the beginning of 2013.

German credit institutes will now have to raise their core capital quotas – that's capital not tied to risks such as credit or financial investments – to seven percent by the end of 2018. Up until now, it was just two percent. One lesson from the global banking crisis was that a large security buffer for possible losses should be created. If a bank fails to meet the minimum quota, bonus payments and dividend payouts must be approved by German financial market regulator BaFin. For 29 globally operating, so-called "system relevant" banks, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has already stipulated a net equity of at least nine percent. Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank belong to that group.

Stiff penalties

The law drawn up by the German government also states that banks must not break the upper limit for debt and must guarantee their liquidity. The goal is for them to remain solvent even if crisis hits. New security standards, more stringent monitoring, increased transparency and harsher sanctions through the banking regulators should rein in excessive risk-taking on the part of credit institutes, the costs of which are carried by taxpayers. As such, a bank that breaks the rules could face fines twice as high as the possible returns on a risky deal. In addition, banking executives can lose their accreditation and, in extreme cases, banks can even be shut down. 

Feeling the pressure: Finance
Minister Wolfgang Schäuble

The new regulations stem from a resolution that the governors of the central bank and leaders of the regulatory authorities from 27 of the most important industrial and developing countries agreed to in the Swiss city of Basel in September 2010. The agreement is known as Basel III. The European Union created a detailed package of rules and regulations in May 2012, the details of which are still being negotiated between the European Council, the European Parliament and the EU Commission. Above all, the issue is how far individual countries can stray from the regulations.

Feeling the pressure

Germany hopes to have the new law ready to be implemented by the end of the year. It is just one of about 40 proposed laws that Berlin hopes will better regulate the financial sector.

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has warned time is running out, since Europeans committed to implement the new house rules for banks before January 1, 2013. He hoped "that the partners in Brussels also feel the sense of urgency."

In-N-Out dumps California slaughterhouse accused of abusing cows

LA Times, by Tiffany Hsu, August 21, 2012

In-N-Out said it severed ties with a Central California slaughterhouse accused
of abusing its cows. (Susan Goldman / Bloomberg News. / August 21, 2012)

Irvine-based fast-food chain In-N-Out severed ties with a Central California slaughterhouse after learning that the facility is being investigated for potentially inhumane treatment of cows.

In-N-Out executives said they cut off their supplier agreement with Central Valley Meat Co. on Sunday night, immediately after hearing accusations that animals at the plant were being shocked, shot and pulled to slaughter stations despite often being unable to stand or walk.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture  shut the Hanford site Monday after viewing a video from animal rights advocacy group Compassion Over Killing.

According to the Associated Press, the undercover footage shows pre-slaughter cows bleeding and thrashing after failed attempts to render them unconscious using a pneumatic gun.

In-N-Out, a popular West Coast chain, said Central Valley was one of five beef suppliers on its roster. Each week, the slaughterhouse supplied roughly 20% of the meat used to make the company’s hamburger patties, according to Carl Van Fleet, the chain’s executive vice president of planning and development.

“For the time being, our existing suppliers are making up the shortfall,” Van Fleet said.

Central Valley also supplies a number of other food-service customers.

Federal regulators are investigating whether some of the cows slaughtered for human consumption were lame or sick. The latter is illegal.

In-N-Out said it requires suppliers to meet USDA requirements and occasionally conducts unannounced spot inspections of supplier facilities to ensure compliance. Partners sign agreements promising not to sell meat from so-called downer cattle that are unable to move.

“In-N-Out Burger would never condone the inhumane treatment of animals and all of our suppliers must agree to abide by our strict standards for the humane treatment of cattle,”  In-N-Out Chief Operating Officer Mark Taylor said in a statement.

This still image made from video provided by Compassion Over Killing, appears

 to show workers at a Central California slaughterhouse bungling the slaughter of 

cows. Federal regulators shut down the slaughterhouse Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2012,

 after receiving the animal welfare video, and are investigating whether beef from sick

cows reached the human food supply. (AP Photo/Compassion Over Killing)

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Service dog can be a veteran's best friend

RNW, 20 August 2012, by Marnix Quee     

(RNW)

         

Guide dogs are well-established as invaluable assistants for those who are blind, and increasingly service dogs are being used by people with other sorts of physical disability. But they can also be a boon for people suffering from psychological difficulties. The Dutch Service Dog Foundation (Hulphond Nederland) has, for the first time, placed a dog with a veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Soldiers often see and experience terrible things when deployed in conflict zones. But the nature of their work means they tend not to complain or talk about these experiences when they get back home. And that can lead to serious problems as service men and women struggle to re-adjust to ‘normal’ life with memories of death and violence still haunting them.

American organisations are experienced in placing dogs with traumatised veterans according to Eric Bouwer, director of Hulphond Nederland. "A Dutch veteran told us about the use of service dogs for soldiers, and that got us interested. We looked very carefully at the Americans to see what dogs needed to learn to be helpful to people with PTSD and then got started. It’s a logical extension of the work we already do with service dogs”.

Sensory warnings

PTSD manifests itself in various symptoms. Sufferers sleep badly, are irritable, depressed, can become instantly aggressive or display violent shock reactions. Often they are tormented by vivid nightmares and flashbacks during which they re-live traumatic experiences. An estimated 7,000 Dutch veterans suffer from some form of PTSD.

The usefulness of service dogs for veterans is comparable to the way they can help those who suffer from a severe form of epilepsy, experiencing more than ten attacks per day. “We humans have no idea of the sensory abilities of dogs”, explains Bouwer. “Dogs are so good at sensing the very early signals of an attack. They can take preventive action as much as half an hour in advance. It’s the same with PTSD veterans. For instance, dogs can react to tiny changes in sleep patterns which indicate a nightmare”.

Teddy goes everywhere

John Kunstman served in the UN force in Lebanon and is the first Dutch veteran to be paired up with a specially trained dog. He lost a leg during the mission and developed a severe stress disorder. He was too scared to go outdoors alone and suffered anxiety dreams every night. But now he has Teddy. “He goes everywhere with me. I even went to the National Veteran’s Day in The Hague recently. Me, in a crowd of 85,000 people! I’d never have dared without Teddy.”

More than a pet

Hulphond Nederland is also in contact with soldiers who’ve served in Afghanistan. “There are such distressing cases. People who don’t dare go out because they see an enemy behind every tree. In the army, soldiers are always in pairs or groups for protection. A dog can fill that role. Of course, a pet dog can also help if veterans are simply lonely and want companionship, but a well-trained service dog has extra value. For instance, it will intervene if it senses aggression. It can lead the veteran away before a situation gets out of hand.

It’s difficult to say just how many cases there are where a service dog would be of benefit. “We’re training seven dogs at the moment, but I think there are at least 500 veterans we could be helping”. It costs around 10,000 euros to properly train and place a service dog, and to provide follow-up assistance. Hulphond Nederland is dependent on private sponsors and donations. A veterans’ support group is financing the costs of the first seven ‘soldier dogs’ and the foundation is hoping that if the project is a success, the Defence Ministry may also contribute.

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"Animals Consciousness: The Divine of Cats & Dogs" - JUL 31, 2011 (Metraton channelled by Tyberonn)

"Do Animals Reincarnate?" - NOV 22, 2010 (Kuthumi channelled by Lynette Leckie-Clark)


Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, June 3, 2012)

20. Because it offers an excellent forum for an explanation of great importance, we address a writer’s suggestion, offered some time ago: on Memorial Day in the United States, the truth be told to the world about who starts wars and why so that “never again will people have to fight and die ‘for freedom.’” We honor the writer’s intense desire for peace in your world, but especially on that emotionally-charged day of commemoration to fallen soldiers, the truth about war could not have been told.

21. Grieving families and friends of troops who have died don’t want to hear that their beloved persons did not die to protect their own nation from oppressors or to help another nation achieve freedom from tyranny. Veterans whose severe wounds have caused physical pain and perhaps loss of limbs don’t want to hear who actually benefited from their service, and neither do those who are living with nightmares about their wartime experience want to hear that truth. Troops still in combat zones or stationed in foreign countries in an occupation capacity don’t want to hear the real reason they are far away from home and families.

22. Beyond those myriad personal situations, beyond the civilian casualties in war zones, and beyond the financial burdens to the peoples whose nations are at war is the global emotional impact. It can be said that the condition coined post traumatic stress disorder is endemic to Earth. No one is immune to this battle energy that permeates your world, no one can escape the ravages that centuries of bloodshed have inured generation after generation to accept as humankind’s nature and lot in life. Yet, the fear of dying is just as pervasive, and that sets up a paradox that minds have to come to terms with.

23. There is another vital factor — the soul’s composition is love energy. The soul knows that it is not human nature to fight one another to the death because each is part of the Oneness of All. The soul knows that life is eternal, that physical death is only a transition to the next lifetime in spirit, where it prepares for the next embodiment.

24. The psyche’s continual subconscious juggling act with soul knowingness keeps the psyche in fragile condition. That is exactly the intention of the dark forces, whose ultimate goal is to capture souls. They are manipulating their Earth puppets to be tenacious in perpetuating the war mentality and fear of death because the negativity produced can fracture psyches and prevent absorption of the light that connects the consciousness and the soul. The collective juggling has paralyzed the civilization into accepting what is force-fed as “patriotism” and all who fight and die are “heroes.” The collective psyche would suffer a severe trauma if this truth about war came forth in one fell swoop.

25. When veterans join with others in peace rallies, worldwide meditations for peace, and internationally respected leaders negotiate peacefully with enough frequency, forcefulness and publicity, minds are stirred. People who formerly accepted official reasons for going to war start questioning, pondering, and then “see the light” that enables psyches to more easily assimilate shocking information — day by day, this is occurring to persons around the world.

26. However, there isn’t much time left for the masses to reach that level of consciousness about what is behind wars or religious dogmas or any other facet of life that is of dark origin and intent. The light that would let individuals avoid severe psychic trauma is the same light that would enable them to physically ascend with Earth. Many will not be ready to accept that for millennia Earth’s population has been controlled by darkness through fear, deception and various forms of mind control.

27. Please understand that these people are doing what is right for them. Every soul becomes enlightened at its own pace, and divine grace offers each as many opportunities as needed to accept the light within truth and spiritually evolve. Be heartened by knowing that even though paces of evolvement differ, reunions of beloved souls take place in compatible energy planes.

The new robber barons: how taxpayers subsidise CEOs' multimillion salaries

A new report finds many top executives are taking home more than their corporations pay in taxes – at our expense

guardian.co.uk, Pratap Chatterjee, Sunday 19 August 2012

In 1980, CEO pay was 42 times an average worker's wage; today,
that multiplier is 380. Photograph: Charlie Skelton

Lanai, a tiny resort island in Hawaii, has 18 miles of secluded beaches, no traffic lights and a population of just over 3,000. This summer, Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, a California-based software company, bought 98% of the island for a sum reported to exceed $500m.

The Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington DC thinktank, says that a chunk of the money Ellison spent buying Lanai should have paid for elementary school teachers and clean energy jobs, instead of fulfilling the billionaire CEO's vacation fantasies. That's one conclusion of their new report, "The CEO Hands in Uncle Sam's Pocket: How Our Tax Dollars Subsidize Exorbitant Executive Pay", which points out that Oracle took advantage of a 1993 loophole in tax law to designate $76m of Ellison's income as "performance-related pay", which allowed him to avoid paying any taxes on the money.

Dozens of US CEOs have cashed in on this major tax incentive at an estimated cost to US taxpayers of $9.7bn last year. Statistics provided by National Priorities Project suggest that the same amount of money could have paid for 142,625 elementary school teachers, or healthcare for 4.96 million low-income children.

"At a time of austerity, it's beyond absurd that billions of our tax dollars are pouring into executive pockets," says Sarah Anderson, a report co-author.

In 1980, the average US CEO was paid 42 times as much as the average worker when tax rates for the richest stood at 70%. Today, that ratio has widened to 380 times – exacerbated in part, no doubt, by the fact that CEOs are able to dramatically reduce their tax burdens by a reduction in top tax rates, as well as several new loopholes introduced in recent years.

In fact, some companies paid their CEOs more money than they paid in taxes. Take Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy, who was paid $17.9m in 2011, while his company gave Uncle Sam just $13m on sales of $11.64bn.

Chesapeake achieved this startlingly low tax liability by claiming a "drilling-costs tax benefit" that allows generous income tax deferrals in case an oil well comes up dry. Yet, this decades-old tax incentive to encourage oil companies to prospect far and wide is now largely irrelevant since sophisticated technologies allow them to accurately gauge where to drill.

"McClendon's primary goal is not to solve America's energy problems, but to build a pipeline directly from your wallet into his," writes Jeff Goodell of Rolling Stone this past March, describing the CEO as "a rightwing billionaire who profits more from flipping land than drilling for gas".

McClendon is not alone. The Institute for Policy Studies found that 26 of the 100 highest-paid US CEOs took home more in pay than their companies paid in federal income taxes. On average, each of these company bosses was paid $20.4m last year.

Another scam that CEOs pull on the taxpayer is called "deferred compensation". The way that works is simple – most taxpayers are expected to pay 35% of their income in taxes the year they earn it. But a CEO does not have to pay the tax until they claim the cash which can be earning interest in the mean time. Depending on how the money is invested, CEOs can engineer a substantial profit.

This allowed Michael Duke, CEO of Walmart, to sock away $17,028,615 tax free in 2011, roughly 774 times more than one of his employees would have been allowed to do under normal tax rules.

Yet the money these CEOs makes shrinks into insignificance compared to the money that hedge fund managers make. Take Raymond Dalio, who was paid an astronomical $3bn in 2011. This titan of Wall Street had to pay just 15% in taxes because the money was considered "capital gains", as opposed to the average citizen who would be required to pay 25% (in income tax). Cost to the taxpayer in 2011: $450m.

"Some tax breaks do have a redeeming social value. Most don't," write report authors Sarah Anderson, Chuck Collins, Scott Klinger and Sam Pizzigati.

"In fact, most create incentives for things companies would have done anyway or reward corporate behaviors that deserve no encouragement from taxpayers, especially at a time of fiscal crisis."

The report proves the case made by thousands of protesters who took to the streets last September as part of the Occupy movement, and that of investors who stormedannual meetings this year as part of the "Shareholder Spring" to reclaim enterprises from many overpaid CEOs.

The authors of the new report have an even better solution: make these executives pay their fair share of taxes, just like the rest of us.

Related Article:

Study: Companies paid more to CEOs than in US tax

US war on whistleblowers must end - Assange

RT.com, 19 August, 2012

Assange makes first public statement since entering

 Ecuador’s London embassy

Julian Assange made his first public appearance in two months, ever since he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Addressing the hundreds of people gathered outside the embassy, Assange thanked them for their support, claiming it was their resolve and presence that stopped British police storming the building.

"On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy and police desceneded on this building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it, and you brought the worlds eyes with you. Inside this embassy after dark I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through the internal fire escape," Assange said.

"But I knew thered be witnesses. And that was because of you."

The WikiLieaks founder thanked President Correa "for the courage he has shown" in granting him asylum, and to all the nations and individuals who have shown him support.

Assange also addressed the US government and President Obama, calling for the persecution of WikiLeaks supporters to end.

"The United States must pledge before the world will not pursue journalists for shining light on the secret crimes of the powerful. The US administration’s war against whistleblowers must end."

The WikiLeaks founder was granted political asylum on Thursday – a decision that ignited a wave of international responses, with the UK and Sweden opposing the verdict and Latin American countries strongly supporting Ecuador’s move.

Image from Twitter/@RTLondonBureau

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Iran, Saudi Arabia fight proxy conflict in Syria

Deutsche Welle, 18 August 2012

While there is much talk of shared values and Islamic unity between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the two countries are engaged in a bitter rivalry to expand their influence in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia and Iran, the two rivals over the leadership role in the Islamic world, were eager to project harmony - at least when it came to outside appearances - at this week's summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Mecca, the holy city of Islam.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got a seat right next to the host, King Abdulla of Saudi Arabia. In his speech, Ahmadinejad stressed that the shared belief in one religion, a shared prophet and one holy text outweighed the countries' differences with each other.

Diplomatic defeat for Tehran 

At the OIC summit, the leaders
 tried to stress their cooperation

But neither the seating arrangement nor the amicable speeches nor the heated debates behind closed doors could influence the outcome of the summit: the suspension of Syria from the organization - and the diplomatic defeat it represented for Iran, which is Damascus' closest ally in the region.

Ahead of the summit, Hermidas Bawand, professor for international relations at Tehran University, warned on a reformer website that "we will be made to look like a fool."

Ahmadinejad himself had in fact not expected to be able to prevent the anti-Syrian resolution.

"My voice was the only vote against it, and it had to be raised at the conference," he said after returning to Iran. His failure to push Tehran's point at the Mecca summit was also because the Saudis are well aware that he's a politician on his way out.

Ahmadinejad's term up next spring, and he has very little to say on crucial matters of the Islamic republic - like the country's nuclear ambitions or Tehran's ties with Damascus. Saudi Arabia knows that religious leader Ali Khamenei is setting the agenda in Iran. And that he's putting his country on a path of confrontation.

Islamic rivals 

Saudi Arabia doesn't see
Ahmadinejad as the one in charge

The old rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia as to who is leading the Islamic world is also fought on Syrian soil. The Saudi king described himself as "the servant of the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina" while Khamenei claims to be "the leader of the Islamic revolution."

The two countries also stand for the schism of the Islamic world: Saudi Arabia sees itself at the helm of the Sunnis, while Iran is leading the Shias. The conflict in Syria is increasingly fought along that sectarian divide with the Assad clan being Alawi, a denomination close to the Shias and therefore a natural ally to Tehran.

The unofficial proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia moved center stage early in August when 48 Iranians were kidnapped in Damascus. Quickly, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the men were religious pilgrims. Hours later, a pro-Saudi Sunni rebel group in Damascus claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. A video of the Iranians was then shown on the Saudi-financed television station Al-Arabiya. In the video, the rebel spokesman says the kidnapped were in fact not pilgrims but members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

US worries about role of Iran 

Iran wants to prevent the
 Assad regime from collapsing

The Revolutionary Guards do not dispute their activities in Syria. The country was, they said, a bastion of resistance against Israel, that's why Iran was supporting Syria, General Ismail Ghaani, vice president of the guards' Quds brigades, explained on an Iranian website. "If it wasn't for us, there'd be even more people dying." That quote though was later taken off the website.

Military and intelligence officials in the United States said they believe Iran is trying to train militias to support the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. At least some of the kidnapped pilgrims were members of the Republican Guards, an elite division specializing in exactly such tasks, says Washington. US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the White House was very concerned about the development and that Iran should stay out of the conflict. At the same time, Panetta suggested that the US would step up its support for the Syrian opposition.

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Rewriting History: Family of Secrets by Russ Baker

President George H.W. Bush and King Fahd share a laugh
during meetings in Saudi Arabia, Nov. 21, 1990. George
Bush Presidential Library and Museum

"Healing the Military Energies in our family Tree" – Jun 13, 2011 (Kryon channelled by David Brown)

“ … There’s much violence and anger throughout the world; when we look at the Middle East, we can see that changes are coming there. The West has a lot of power over the Middle East, but that power will begin to dissolve. The Muslim people of this world will begin to have their own power, and their own prosperity, and they will begin to disconnect from the Western World. This disconnection doesn’t have to be violent as violence only happens when somebody hangs onto what doesn’t belong to them....

... What Military Energy means if we use an analogy: it would be like putting grinding paste into the oil of your motor car. Once you release these energies you will begin to feel lighter as you disconnect from this reality, and, you will find it easier and easier to release any other negative emotions. Military Energies are the core of all your problems...."

(Religions – Zionism - March 1, 2012 - Matthew Channelled by Suzanne Ward)

9. It can be no other way—simply, this is the physics that governs life in this universe. As Earth continues apace into successively higher planes, nothing with low vibrations in any form—physical bodies, subversive plans, theft, dishonesty, unjust laws and imprisonment, bigotry, cruel customs and deeds—can survive.

10. Moving on, no, it will not be quite like religions being “totally discarded and replaced by universal laws in the Golden Age.” When the truths come forth that science and spirit are one and the same and that religious dogmas were originated by early leaders of church and state to control the masses, people whose consciousness has risen beyond the constraints of third density will adhere to the spiritual aspects of their respective religions and the devised, controlling aspects will fall by the wayside.

11. One of the truths to come forth is that Zionism, which by dark intent has been made synonymous with Judaism, actually is a bellicose political movement within the Illuminati, and its aim for more than six decades has been to create conflict and instability in the entire Middle East. Zionists, who have wielded powerful influence within and behind major governments and their military forces, do NOT represent the Jewish peoples in Israel or anywhere else. And, like all other Illuminati factions, they have been committed to that cabal’s goal of global domination.

12. Although Semites are of diverse national origins and religions, the Zionists have been successful in convincing many that “anti-Semitic” is exclusively prejudice against the Jewish peoples and opposition to Israel’s right to defend itself from its “enemies.” By means of that blatant distortion, they obtained not only world sympathy, but also massive defense funding from Israel’s allies, most especially the United States, all of which served to increase the Illuminati’s vast profits from their industrial-military machine.

13. In addition to controlling the masses through dogmatic teachings, religions have served the dark purpose of divisiveness to such an extent that it resulted in centuries of trauma and bloodshed. Witness the Crusades, wars between Catholics and Protestants, pogroms against Jews, executions of “blasphemous” individuals who refused to “recant.”  (Read More …)

Struggling borrowers in Ireland could claim debt forgiveness

Mortgage Finance Gazette, Joanne Atkin, August 7, 2012

From next year borrowers in the Republic of Ireland who have unsustainable mortgage debt may be able to ask for debt forgiveness.

This is due to the Personal Insolvency Bill which was published on June 29 and is due to come into force in Ireland in 2013.

However, Moody’s have said this will increase banks’ losses on existing mortgage books.

Currently Irish mortgage borrowers who default on their loan can lose their home and be liable for the total outstanding debt for at least 12 years.

From 2013 mortgage borrowers who qualify as insolvent will be able to enter a Personal Insolvent Arrangement (PIA) with their creditors, if at least 65% of total creditors agree, which for most people will effectively mean their mortgage provider.

This arrangement would see the mortgage reduced to the current market value of the property, while the borrower would continue to live in it.

Although this may resolve the mortgage arrears and negative equity situation for the banks and eventually aid the recovery and strengthen the bank’s balance sheets, mortgage audit company Rockstead says this legislation will not benefit holders of Irish residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS).

In February 2012, Moody’s said that originators of Irish RMBS would not be required to buy back loans subject to PIA. As the majority of the servicing is undertaken by the originator in Ireland, the power to veto a PIA will therefore rest with the originator.

Rockstead says it is generally acknowledged that the Irish market has significant issues to address and the lack of qualified staff in collections, recoveries and quality assurance oversight has not helped asset holders to address these issues with urgency.

Related Articles:

What We Can Learn From Iceland

Channel:  Wanderer of the Skies - April 14, 2012

“… Your nation of Iceland is being used as a testing ground for the rolling out of financial strategies for the betterment of your planet. It would be wise to follow their progress in this respect, as it will be the fate of all nations in a very brief period of time. We have always advised you that such an action would never come from the larger powers and nations of the world, but they will follow in lockstep once the actions begin their domino effect…..”