World’s newest nation, South Sudan, says it can survive angry north’s oil blockade

So, first, there was a military war. Now there is an economic war:

Image via Wikipedia

South Sudanese citizens, international dignitaries and the world’s newest president celebrated as their war-wracked nation became the world’s newest country Saturday.

Raucous street celebrations broke out at midnight. Dignitaries included U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and even former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

The predominantly Christian south and the mostly Muslim north battled over more than five decades.

Should the angry north — now deprived of its oil revenues — follow through on its threats to blockade the new nation, South Sudan can survive on credit, using its oil as collateral. The north says it will block pipelines.

via World’s newest nation, South Sudan, says it can survive angry north’s oil blockade – Beliefnet News.

Related articles

• South Sudan joy as new flag raised (mirror.co.uk)
• South Sudan becomes world’s newest nation (cbc.ca)
• South Sudan: World’s newest nation celebrates (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Budget deficit on the West bank? No problem: just ask for more money

Absolutely disgusting and shameful: the West in a quite important economic crisis, and yet these guys are asking for more money.

Image via Wikipedia

The Palestinian Authority is facing a budget crisis. It has reached its borrowing limit and has a 585 million dollar deficit. So naturally its leaders are asking the West for another handout.

Back in 2007, 7.4 billion dollars was pledged to keep the terrorist edifice of the Authority running. The PA claimed that it needed 3.9 billion for budgetary shortfalls alone. And after pissing away far more than that, the men who give the suicide bombers their marching orders are back passing around the plate.

Even as the Palestinian Authority pushes forward on a statehood bid at the UN, not only is it unable to pay its own bills, but its only real revenue stream is foreign aid. Few states can claim to have failed, before they are even declared– but the PA is on its way there.

But do “Palestinian People” really need billions more in aid? The World Bank report for 2011 found that only 16 percent of the West Bank under PA control was living below the poverty line.

How serious is a 16 percent poverty rate? It’s better than the poverty rate in Washington D.C. which hit 18.9 percent. That means that politicians in Washington D.C. are diverting money that could have been used to help needy Americans a few miles from their offices, to help the comparatively better off terrorist populations in the West Bank.

Contrary to the barrage of news stories on the suffering of the Palestinians, the poverty rate for America and the West Bank aren’t that far apart. The California poverty rate is at 15.3 percent. And the national average at 14.3 percent is hardly that much better.

via The Palestinian Muslim Money Hole | FrontPage Magazine.

Portugal: “A great leap forward”

Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, Portuguese Finance Minister

“We take a great leap forward in strengthening our relations at all levels, trade and investment, and also in terms of funding“.

Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, Portuguese Minister of Finance, when asked about Chinese Govt buying Portuguese bonds. Does he know about Mao?

Thanks he didn’t add: “and in Human Rights“.

Found here.

US: Madoff’s son found dead

Mark Madoff

By his father-in-law this morning. He had apparently committed suicide.

Spanish debt problems

Two very interesting articles about the problems which Spain is facing now, after our Dear Leader the Allianzator of Civilizations has been leading us into disaster for 6 years now 🙄 . The first in English:

Spain’s debt to GDP ratio is expected to climb from 53.2 percent last year to 64.9 percent this year and 72.5 percent next year. But investors are particularly concerned about Spain’s gaping budget deficit, which at 11.3 percent of GDP is the third-largest in the euro zone, and which may exceed that of Greece this year, according to the European Commission.

In late May, the Spanish Parliament narrowly approved a €15 billion austerity plan to rein in the public deficit and ease fears of a Greek-style debt crisis. The measure, which is intended to reduce the deficit to 6 percent by 2011, includes cutting the pay of public sector employees by 5 percent and freezing that pay next year. The plan also calls for suspending automatic inflation-adjusted pensions and scrapping a payout parents get for the birth of new children.

Although these measures won Zapatero some respite from the markets, they also left his political future hanging in the balance. In the face of public strikes organized by Spain’s largest labor unions, as well as a more than 10-point decline in support for his Socialist Party, Zapatero put off other reforms. Now, with the crises in Ireland and Portugal, nervous investors are once again focusing on Spain’s public finances.

via Pajamas Media » Europe’s Future Lies, Ominously, with Spain.

The second one is in Spanish (though translated partially):

The rescue and even “reestructuration” of the Spanish public debt will be inevitable if the Government continues not doing anything about it. According to the U.S. entity in its “forecast about euro zone growth” report  issued on Tuesday, “Spain can still get by without external assistance” provided that no major negative surprises in the banking sector and whether it makes fiscal adjustment additional. And, at the end of 2011 the deficit will be 7.5% of GDP, well above the 6% target set by the Government, a target that, according to Citi, will be difficult to meet in 2012.

Saudi Arabia: Spanish train will transport Muslims in their yearly peregrination

The mediation of King Juan Carlos I in his travel throughout Arab Emirates some days ago has been fruitful, because the Spanish Consortium, formed by RENFE, Adif and Talgo and most of the more important Spanish building firms, will have an active role in the construction of the so-called Mecca train. This train will transport Muslim believers from Mina’s Valley, in Western Saudi Arabia, to Mecca in the yearly peregrination, called Hajj. Mina is situated near Mecca (10 kilometers), the place, where, according to Islam, prophet Abraham got to fulfill God’s commandment to kill his own son before He sent him a ram.

The macro project of high-speed train linking Medina, Jeddah and Mecca is scheduled for commissioning by 2013. For now, these cities will be joined this year by a kind of light rail, which will be capable of moving only 175,000 people. It is estimated that when the construction of the Spanish Consortium’s train is finished, it will be able to carry up to half a million faithful every six hours. It is expected that this year about 3 million people comply with the so-called “hajj”, one of the five pillars of Islam which every Muslim must perform at least once in their life. With this influx of travelers, the economic success of the project seems almost assured.

via La mediación del Rey Juan Carlos logra que el tren de La Meca vaya a manos españolas – Extraconfidencial.com.

(Translated by T&P).

Who are in better conditions than four years ago?

Leire Pajín

The new Spanish Minister for Health,Social Policies and Equality, Leire Pajín, has said that “families are in much better conditions now than 6 years ago, because of Socialist policies“.

Opposition MPs have reminded her that “2,5% can’t afford to eat meat nor fish, 7.7% can’t afford to pay the house rent or its mortgage and 37% can’t afford to cope with a unexpected payment“.

But numbers from charity NGO Cáritas are really bad: “In the last two years, the number of users cared for by Cáritas’ hosting net has doubled. In 2007 there were 370,251, in 2008, 633,315 and in 2009 786,273“.

I don’t know what the hell this woman is thinking about. That we are all idiots? Or in the “Socialists” (and other politicians) whose lifes have improved during these past six years?

Well, I guess this guy does not agree with Miss Pajín…

Vote Zapatero and come with me to the fucking street

Middle East: Hamas planning to impose new trade rules, companies say

Companies in the Palestinian West Bank say the Hamas group that controls the Gaza Strip are planning to impose new trade rules that will deepen economic and political abyss between the territories.

In recent months, firms based in the West Bank have begun to rediscover the market in the Gaza Strip, home to a third of the Palestinian people, because Israel has eased restrictions on entry of goods into the enclave.

But the companies say they are finding new clauses to Hamas, including an application to register their business, a move that could indicate that the Islamist group reportedly planning to collect new taxes on their operations.

A source close to the Hamas government, who declined to be identified, said he had asked a few companies who have registered. But he said “no steps have been taken to force them to do it.”

Complications faced by companies seeking market share in Gaza highlights the deep divide between the territories where Palestinians seek to establish their state.

Source.

But the Jooz will still be blamed for this division…

France: middle-class Muslims fueling halal boom market

Image by Omar Omar via Flickr

A boom in sales of halal products, including alcohol-free bubbly and goose liver paté approved by Islamic law, is being driven by the emergence of an affluent middle class of young Muslims in France. Known as the beurgeois – a play on bourgeois and the word beur, slang for a French person of North African descent – these new consumers are behind a rapidly expanding and highly profitable market in halal food and drinks.
With spending power worth an estimated €5.5bn a year these under-40s are forcing international food suppliers to cater for their demands. Younger members of France’s estimated 5 million-strong Muslim community – with whom relations have been strained by the recent debate on national identity and threats by Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-of-center government to ban the burqa – are asserting their economic muscle. As one French website put it, halal is “very good business” for French companies.

The problem is not that they buy and consume halal products (besides the suffering animals get when they are slaughtered with halal methods). The problem would be when they would like everyone else to eat the same (pork restrictions or alcohol ban in quarters mostly inhabited by Muslims for example).

Anyway, seeing Shariah Law introducing itself on France because “it is a good business”, doesn’t make me feel comfortable. It gives me the creeps… really.

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• Middle-class Muslims fuel French halal boom (guardian.co.uk)

UK: Labour more trusted on economy than Conservatives, a poll says

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Labour received a post-Budget boost yesterday as a poll suggested that voters trust Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling over David Cameron and George Osborne to steer Britain through the economic downturn.

via More voters trust Labour than Tories on economy – UK Politics, UK – The Independent.

Are they mad? Labour is not cutting expenditure and creating a new tax for 1st-time home buyers and they are trusted??? 😯

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• Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling regain economic lead over Conservatives (telegraph.co.uk)
• Brown, Darling More Trusted on Economy Than Tories in U.K. Poll (businessweek.com): The poll indicates Labour may be winning the battle to persuade voters its record on taking Britain out of recession means it deserves a fourth term in office in the general election due by June 3. Darling resisted calls from the Conservatives in his budget to cut spending more quickly and scrapped a house-purchase tax for most first-time buyers.

Remembering the Communism's victims

(official page).

Gaza: gold market flourishes despite Israel's "blockage"

In fact, gold transactions have flourished:

Abdel Aziz, another jeweler, explains that the “gold is entering Gaza via the smuggling tunnels and the travelers coming through the Erez road”

Hundreds of smuggling tunnels have been built by the Gazans throughout the Egyptian frontier to avoid the blockage and import goods, oil and weapons.

“There are some who have bought gold as an inversion, as they can’t build a bank nor use the ones which exist here, because of their liquidity problems (…) Something that has saved the gold market”.

Mohammed Younes, another 36-year-old jeweler, agrees with them: “The bank crisis has helped us, the citizens are investing today their money in buying gold as they prefer that to putting their money on the banks”.

(via)

But aren’t we told Palestinians don’t have anything, that they are nearly dying of hunger? And yet, we see here they have a growing gold market going on. 😯

Terrorism: Al-Qaeda openly supports economic Jihad

Weimann observes that an al Qaeda online magazine from March 2004 argued jihadists should attack international corporations, international economic experts, economic operations that steal Muslim resources, and assassinate economically powerful Jews.

The title of a posting on a jihadist online forum in 2005 declares, "Al Qaeda’s Battle is an Economic [Battle] – Not a Military One." The author goes on to argue that "the primary goal of [al Qaeda’s] war against America…is to defeat it economically."

The recent financial meltdown and resulting global recession has only made Western economic targets more appealing, says Weimann. In 2008, al Qaeda’s spokesman Azzam the American, otherwise known as California-native Adam Gadahn, posted a video message heralding the U.S. financial crisis and explaining it signals America’s decline. Another jihadist on an al Qaeda forum forecasts an attack so large and destructive that the U.S. dollar will collapse and international financial markets will tremble

Having monitored jihadist Web sites for many years, Weimann concludes a significant amount of  "jihadists have come to view their struggle against the U.S. and the West as an economic war." He notes that jihadist discourse increasingly "presents the crippling of Western economy as the primary goal, while other goals (such as military defeat) are perceived as secondary, in the sense that they, too, are regarded as indirect means of undermining Western economy."

One has to wonder how they are planning to do it.

UN: considering “Global Tax on the Internet”

As we are in a global economic crisis, the UN wants to… tax us all more:

The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering a plan to ask governments to impose a global consumer tax on such things as Internet activity or everyday financial transactions like paying bills online.Such a scheme could raise “tens of billions of dollars” on behalf of the United Nations’ public health arm from a broad base of consumers, which would then be used to transfer drug-making research, development and manufacturing capabilities, among other things, to the developing world.

The multibillion-dollar “indirect consumer tax” is only one of a “suite of proposals” for financing the rapid transformation of the global medical industry that will go before WHO’s 34-member supervisory Executive Board at its biannual meeting in Geneva.

via U.N.’s World Health Organization Eyeing Global Tax on Banking, Internet Activity – International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News – FOXNews.com.

(via)

I’m sure that multimillonaires and govt busibodies are not going to pay this tax… 🙄

Venezuela: Hugo Chávez drafted banker in fraud case to fix Cuba’s economy, insiders say

A multimillionaire Venezuelan businessman, currently jailed in Caracas on bank fraud charges, had been sent to Cuba by President Hugo Chávez to help the country recover from its economic slump and also to spur economic growth on the island after Fidel Castro dies, according to former employees.

In an initial show of his new responsibility, looking for a personal benefit from future business in Cuba, Ricardo Fernández Barruecos gave the Cuban government a gift of 28 BMW automobiles, his former security consultant Luis Castro said in a sworn statement.

Castro told El Nuevo Herald that Fernández, envisioning brilliant prospects for his business in Cuba, also earned the support of Raúl Castro to open up the island’s economy after the death of his brother Fidel.

…But for some leaders of the opposition in Venezuela, Chávez’s admiration went beyond his gratitude for Fernández’s support of his socialist program.

They claim that Adan Chávez, the president’s brother, received a cut of the businessman’s success.

“[Fernández] is a frontman for Adan Chávez,” said dissident Ismael García, of the pro-democracy group PODEMOS, on Nov. 24 during a session of the Venezuela National Assembly.

via Hugo Chávez drafted banker in fraud case to fix Cuba’s economy, insiders say – Venezuela – MiamiHerald.com.

And this guy then accusses the West for the Iranian riots. Is there any country in South America where this guy hasn’t tried to meddle?

Of course, US is complaining he doesn’t “cooperate fully” in antiterrorism efforts. He has been harboring terrorists of several nationalities over the years (not only Colombian ones but also ETA’s):

The extensive paper entitled “Country Reports on Terrorism 2008”, published last April, warned of the situation in Venezuela due to “President Chávez’s ideological sympathy for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN)” which has “limited Venezuelan cooperation with Colombia in combating terrorism.”

For the Unites States, Venezuela’s relationship with Iran is also troubling. The report stated that “Iran and Venezuelan continued weekly flights connecting Tehran and Damascus with Caracas. Passengers on these flights were reportedly subject to only cursory immigration and customs controls at Venezuelan airports.”

He has not shown any sings of repentance, so it’s not probable he is going to hand over all the terrorists and be a good boy.

Dubai: crisis caused by Islamic bonds

The Dubai World default on sukuk, also known as “Islamic bonds,” was centered on financial products which were approved by Shariah scholars. Making investments Shariah-Compliant was supposed to protect investors from crisis and calamity. We heard and read such claims from financial jihadists over and over again after the Subprime collapse.

But Shariah-Compliance not only did NOT protect investors, the Dubai sukuk default was just the latest in a disturbing pattern of sukuk defaults. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that the default rate on the Shariah-Compliant sukuk is greater than that on conventional bonds, despite claims from the financial jihadists to the contrary.

Moreover, Shariah-Compliance turned out to be the chief obstacle to settling the crisis after the fact because the arcane rules of Shariah didn’t cover such a scenario (despite the line of sukuk defaults over the past two years).

Nevertheless, the financial jihadists are fast at work to defend Shariah. It was “excess” and “greed” which caused Dubai World to break its promises. Never mind that Shariah-Compliance was supposed to eliminate those factors to begin with.

via Shariah Finance Watch » Blog Archive » Dubai in retrospect: Don’t Blame Shariah!.

You know, outside Western world there is no greed…

Related: Vatican support for Islamic banking @ Shariah Fortune. 🙄

Venezuela: Chávez ushers restrictive energy measures

Oil-rich Venezuela ushered in 2010 with new measures rationing electricity use in malls, businesses and billboards, as Hugo Chavez’s government aimed to save power amid a crippling drought.

The new regulations came into effect January 1, with businesses required to comply with reduced consumption limits and authorities warning of forced power cuts and rate hikes if the measures are not followed.

via Socialist Hugo Chavez Rations Electricity | The Lonely Conservative.

Amazing what this gal is doing to Venezuela.

Spain: Now Zapatero wants a “demanding” austerity plan

From AFP. After he has made deficit 5 times bigger. I would like to know who is going to be demanded more austerity: politicians or citizens?

Wonders of Socialism: Spanish Deficit Worsens

Till it becomes 5 times what it was last January 2009. But “Allianzator” leader Zapatero has spent €3M in “design furniture” for the Spanish Presidency of Europe’s meetings. Kumbayá, Kumbayá…. who’s going to pay this??? Because surely he is not going to… 😡

Venezuela: Chávez Warns on Toyota Plant

And “South African Communists’ Peace Price” goes on:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has threatened to expropriate Toyota Motor Corp.’s local assembly plant if it doesn’t produce more vehicles designed for rural areas and increase technology transfer.Mr. Chavez said Wednesday that Toyota needs to transfer more new technologies and manufacturing methods from headquarters to its local unit in Venezuela, adding that other foreign auto-assembly plants are also not doing enough of this.

Mr. Chavez said his socialist government is going to apply strict quotas regarding the number and types of vehicles auto makers can produce. He ordered an immediate inspection of Toyota’s facilities to see how many “rustic vehicles” they are currently producing.

“They’ll have to fulfill [the quotas], and if not, they can get out,” Mr. Chavez said during a televised address. “We’ll bring in another company.”

via Venezuela Warns on Toyota Plant | NewsBag.

Freedom… that word sooo unknown in Venezuela’s Chávez.