World Economic Crisis: Latvia’s Neoliberal Madness http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17627Moreover, the Latvian government is rapidly accumulating debt. From just 7.9 percent of GDP in 2007, Latvia’s debt is projected to be 74 percent of GDP for this year, supposedly stabilizing at 89 percent in 2014 in the best-case IMF scenario. This would place it far outside the debt Maastricht debt limits for adopting the euro. Yet achieving entry into the eurozone has been the chief pretext of the Latvia’s Central Bank for the painful austerity measures necessary to keep its currency peg. Maintaining that peg has burned through mountains of currency reserves that otherwise could have been invested in its domestic economy. Yet nobody in the West is asking why Latvia has suffered this fate, so typical of the Baltics and other post-Soviet economies but only slightly more extreme. Nearly twenty years since these countries achieved freedom from the old USSR in 1991, the Soviet system hardly can be blamed as the sole cause of their problems. Not even corruption alone can be blamed – a legacy of the late Soviet period’s dissolution, to be sure, but magnified, intensified and even encouraged in the kleptocratic form that has provided such rich pickings for Western bankers and investors. It was Western neoliberals who financialized these economies with the “business friendly reforms” so loudly applauded by the World Bank, Washington and Brussels.
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Israel, US and Iran: an environmental perspective http://www.paltelegraph.com/columnists/peter-eyre/4138-israel-and-the-us-preparing-for-iran-part-2-the-environmental-perspective
The world must never allow this insanity by the US and Israel and must fully understand the implications if this attack goes ahead. The spreading of the radioactive nanoparticles will cause a massive rise in many forms of cancers; a big hike in diabetes, the contamination will directly attack the human DNA resulting in a total breakdown in our genetic code. This contamination also as the ability to enter the brain barrier with a multitude of mental health problems as well as tumors. There will be a sharp rise in still born babies and grossly disfigured babies. In Iraq the women in such places as Faluja and Basra are now frightened to have babies. Finally we will have a huge increase in infertility amongst both men and women.
One final point that should be mentioned is the fact that Iran may well already have a nuclear bomb with the compliments of the US, UK and Israeli governments....but that's another story. Keep watching this space for Part 3 which will be the devastating economic impact on the US, UK, EU, Israel and further afield. Obviously the same small group of international bankers and the larger multi national oil companies and arms manufacturers will benefit from such a conflict but the ordinary people in this world will have to pay a very high price that will only effect them.....isn't that always the case.
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CANADA: Resistance Casts Pall over 2010 Olympic Festivities http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50325
Approximately 3,000 protesters of diverse backgrounds converged on Vancouver Friday afternoon, assembling for a peaceful yet boisterous rally and march through the downtown streets to the steps of BC Place, the site of the Games' opening ceremonies. As throngs of activists filled the Vancouver Art Gallery - indigenous, anti-capitalist, anti-corporate, environmentalist, anarchist, anti-war, pro-civil liberty, and anti-poverty alike - speakers laid out a laundry list of grievances against the Games.
One Native spokeswoman from the Downtown Eastside, home of the country's "poorest postal code," told the audience to "send a prayer to people who think it's all right to spend this kind of money while people are dying and living in poverty."Harassment, surveillance, and attempted infiltration of the anti-Olympics movement has been part of the nearly one-billion-dollar security budget that has seen more than 15,000 police, military, and private security put the Olympic venues and surrounding areas on virtual lockdown for the duration of the Games.
"The people who've spoken out against the Games have been visited at their homes, at their work, by the police, as if there is something illegal about saying they do not support the spending of public money on this enterprise," said Eby."Thirty years later, it is the United States, Canada, and the other NATO countries that are occupying Afghanistan. Instead of a boycott, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics are being used to promote militarism in general and Canada’s role in the occupation of Afghanistan in particular."
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Tens of Thousands of Students Rally in Support of Print This ShareThis
Tens of thousands of students rallied in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas in a show of support for President Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution and to celebrate the “Day of Youth” on Friday.Dani Vallés a student councilor from the University of the East said “we are on the side of the people and we’re not going to let the oligarchy destabilise Venezuela.”
From the early hours of the morning thousands of students and young workers gathered at the National Experimental University of the Armed Forces (UNEFA) and marched through the opposition controlled wealthy eastern suburbs of Caracas to the Bolivarian University, where they were met by thousands more students and activists.
To the sounds of music and chants of “Chavez is here to stay” and “Expropriation, confiscation, the means of production for the people”, students danced and marched along the 10 km route arriving around 5pm at the Miraflores Presidential Palace, where Chavez addressed the crowd.
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Haiti: A Victim of Naked Imperialism http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_58508.shtml
Natural disasters have become one of the major pretexts for U.S. military invasions and for U.S. capitalist corporations to move in to profit from the disasters in what is described as “Disaster Capitalism”. In other words, disasters provide the opportunity to impose Western neoliberal policies and spread poverty. It is important to remember that in 2008, Myanmar (Burma) – devastated by Cyclone Nargis – refused to allow the Western military to infringe on its sovereignty disguised as “humanitarian aid”.
The Myanmar regime rightly accused Washington and its Western allies of using the disaster as a pretext to seize the geostratigicaly important and resources-rich nation. The “humanitarianism” pretext failed because Myanmar was not a defenceless nation and therefore did not qualify for Western “humanitarian” invasion. In 2003, Iraq did qualify, and was deliberately destroyed in the most barbaric fashion by the Anglo-American fascist forces.
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Former East-European military elements sent to Bolivia by the CIA to assassinate Evo Morales http://www.voltairenet.org/article164058.html
police stormed into the hotel "Las Americas" in Santa Cruz, capturing a group of paramilitary operatives. Three mercenaries were killed during the attack: Croatian commando leader Eduardo Rózsa Flores (in the photo), Irish national Michael Dwyer, and Árpád Magyarosi of dual rumanian-hungarian nationality. Two other mercenaries were captured and incarcerated at the central prison of La Paz: Bolivian national Mario Francisco Tadic Astorga holder of a Croatian passport, and Hungarian national Elod Tóásó.
After a nine-month investigation, prosecutor Marcelo Soza declared that the e-mails on Rózsa Flores’ computer provided evidence that the commando was preparing an operation dubbed "Tree House" with the goal of assassinating Bolivian President Evo Morales.
In 1984, Belovai - who was instrumental in NATO’s arrest of Clyde Lee Conrad, a Soviet mole in the Alliance’s office in Germany - was sent back to Hungary by NATO. He was discovered in turn and sentenced to life imprisonment for espionage in his home country. He was released after the downfall of the USSR and bragged about being the "first NATO soldier from Hungary" when his country joined the Organisation.In his country, Rózsa Flores was an activist in a neo-nazi party called Jobbik. He established ties with Scorpion-B during the war in former Yugoslavia.
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Must Listen Interview - Dr Michael Hudson Guns and Butter - The New Junk Economics: From Democracy to Neoliberal Oligarchy http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/2010/02/must-listen-interview-dr-michael-hudson.html
Article relevant to this interview: Deepening Debt Crisis: The Bernanke Reappointment: Be Afraid, Very Afraid http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17346
The Earth v the Neo-Liberal Paradigm – Prosper Australia speech http://www.prosper.org.au/wp-content/uploads/MH_Classical_Economy.mp3
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USA's Global Miliitary Dominance: Real Reason for Sanctions Against Iran http://newsfromrussia.com/opinion/columnists/15-02-2010/112215-dominance_iran-0
The U.S.-sponsored drive to impose new economic sanctions on Iran has nothing to do with the noble cause of limiting proliferation of nuclear weapons on the planet. It is directly linked to the U.S. military doctrine of establishing 'full spectrum dominance' - i.e., military dominance on land, sea, air, and outer space over all other countries in the world
Israel , for example, is widely-believed to hold secret Nuclear weapons. Yet there is no call for sanctions or investigations of them. The reason is simple: They are a U.S. ally. India and Pakistan have declined to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and have developed nuclear weapons. Yet there is no call for sanctions or investigations of them. The reason is simple: They are U.S. allies.
In a typical example of this deceptive rhetoric, U.S. President Obama said a few days ago: "Despite the posturing that its nuclear power is only for civilian use ... they in fact continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization, and that is not acceptable to the international community."
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Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/71579
"Last summer, I saw hundreds of children and other civilians at the Helmand Refugee Camp District 5, a miserable makeshift encampment in Kabul. The U.S. government had ample resources for bombing their neighborhoods in the Helmand Valley -- but was doing nothing to help the desperate refugees to survive after they fled to Afghanistan’s capital city."
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Interview: Tortured, Exiled Honduran Journalist Recalls His Experiences http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2362--interview-tortured-exiled-honduran-journalist-recalls-his-experiences
On the morning of December 30, one of the officers told me that my life might be saved but that he wasn’t sure. Then I heard the torturers begin to plan my death. One of them suggested a shot in the head but then decided I would not suffer enough that way. Another one said they would let me hang myself from a tree or that they drag me attached to the car along the street. Then one of them said they could open my stomach and slowly pull out my intestines so I could talk as I died.
UDW: You are currently living in exile. How much time do you imagine you will need to live outside your country in order to protect yourself?
CS: Yes I am in exile now. Human rights organizations supported me to leave Honduras and my few remaining friends recommended me to do the same in order to save my life since Renan Fajardo who edited my documentary was murdered in his apartment and Walter Trochez who helped distributed the material was also killed. Without a doubt the next one was me.
comment-also see...COFADEH denounces threats against its members http://hondurassolidarity.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/en-cofadeh-denounces-threats-against-its-members/
Washington behind the Honduras coup http://links.org.au/node/1147
Honduran Coup: The U.S. Connection http://www.fpif.org/articles/honduran_coup_the_us_connection
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THIS IS A MUST READ....
Latin America after the neoliberal debacle: another region is possible By Ximena de la Barra, Richard Alan Dello Buono(page 189-191)http://tiny.cc/rIme9
De la Barra and Dello Buono provide the most up-to-date, exhaustively documented critique that we have of U.S.-promoted neoliberal policies, including privatization of state industries and free trade agreements. The failure of those policies to provide relief to the region's extreme poverty, inequality, and foreign domination stimulated the growth of new left-wing social movements and governments, which the authors in turn describe and analyze.
This, in short, is a comprehensive, well researched and well written critique of U.S.-promoted neoliberal policy and exploration of the reinvigoration of left wing social movements in Latin America and the challenges facing them.
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Colombian paramilitaries assassinate indigenous leader in the name of Canadian multinationals (call out for global solidarity climate justice action)http://go2.wordpress.com/?id=725X1342&site=climatecaravan.wordpress.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fradio.indymedia.org%2Fuploads%2Fclimate_caravan_radio_-_canada_business_kills_colombian_farmers.mp3
Canadian multinationals, and in particular a corporation called Cosigo Resources (Vancouver), are embarking on a programme of mass displacement of indigenous populations in south east Colombia. The Colombian government is supporting these multinationals; in the name of the Colombian government paramilitaries are persecuting and killing local indigenous people who oppose the forceful seizure of their land.
Many of the indigenous leaders, including José Goyes, have been threatened because they oppose the exploration of Cosigo Resources. On Sunday, we received the news that one of the indigenous leaders in the struggle had been killed. This brings the death toll of indigenous leaders in the region to five. These deaths are happening purely because the local populations are refusing to cooperate with the multinationals and government paramilitaries who are expelling them from their land.
José himself recently received a fax from the paramilitaries, stating that he and his organisation are considered a “military objective”. Jose has already had paramilitaries torture him in his own home. Now he knows his life is even more seriously in danger.
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