In These New Times

A new paradigm for a post-imperial world

Archive for March, 2009

Report presents doomsday scenario for shipping

Posted by smeddum on March 13, 2009

 

By Tony Gray

Friday 13 March 2009     

LLoyd’s List

AN apocalyptic vision of a future in which dysfunctional shipping markets trigger an outbreak of protectionism in trade and the creation of national fleets is outlined in a review of the current crisis by Consultants on Maritime Transport, an independent partnership. Read the rest of this entry »

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British climate scholar: ‘Climate Crisis Worse Than Recession’

Posted by seumasach on March 12, 2009

Is this the beginning of the end of the end of world history?

“He says we musn’t lose sight of the need to tackle global warming just because our economies are suffering.”

We mustn’t lose sight of the need to tackle global warming just because it’s freezing.

‘Climate Crisis Worse Than Recession’

Capital Radio

12th March, 2009

“We are, I fear, at a defining moment in the world’s history,” the royal told a meeting of Brazilian business leaders ahead of a planned visit to the Amazon rainforest.

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Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis, Financial crisis | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Spain will never recognise Kosovo – Zapatero

Posted by alfied on March 12, 2009

Spain will never recognise Kosovo - ZapateroUNITED: Serbian president Boris Tadic, left, and Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero  March 9 2009

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This climate crunch heralds the end of the end of history

Posted by seumasach on March 12, 2009

Here, former Blair adviser Anthony Giddens shows what a flexible tool global warming…, sorry, “climate change” theory is for the elite. As we have seen elsewhere it provides a handy cover to explain away the disappearance of bees and pollinators and to divert our attention from this ecological catastrophe. Is it coincidental that Brown’s global new deal, an attempt to recreate our financier oligarchy globally, is now directly linked to a new “post-industrial era” resulting from the “climate crunch”, with all its possible neo-Malthusian or neo-feudal possibilities?

We are on the brink of a revolution: the demise of the fossil-fuel economy. A new deal must jolt us out of orthodox thinking

Anthony Giddens

Guardian

11th March, 2009

Every crisis, Sigmund Freud said, is potentially a stimulus to the positive side of the personality and an opportunity to start afresh. Today we are facing two global crises in tandem – the economic recession and climate change. Both are deeply worrying, but what is their relationship likely to be?

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Nicolas Sarkozy ignores enemy fire as he marches France back into Nato

Posted by seumasach on March 12, 2009

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Times

11th March, 2009

Forty-three years after General de Gaulle threw American forces out of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, his political descendant, is expected to explain to a sceptical nation today why he is taking the country back into the core of the US-led Nato alliance.

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Detroit’s Beautiful, Horrible Decline

Posted by seumasach on March 12, 2009

Time.com

Click on above link to view photo gallery.

Remains of a City
On their website, the photographers write, “Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes…the volatile result of the change of eras and the fall of empires. This fragility leads us to watch them one very last time: to be dismayed, or to admire, it makes us wonder about the permanence of things.”

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Cell phone health concerns continue to spread

Posted by seumasach on March 12, 2009

10th March, 2009
Humans are not the only ones affected by cell towers. This tree in front of Kaslo's tower is not taking it very well. (Photo: Mi Kai Lee)

Humans are not the only ones affected by cell towers. This tree in front of Kaslo’s downtown tower is not taking it very well. (Photo: Mi Kai Lee)

A court in France has ordered the dismantling of a cell phone mast based on the ‘precautionary principle’ because there is insufficient proof that cell phones are harmless. The suit was initiated by residents in the vicinity of the tower against cell phone company Bouygues Telecom. Following the judgements of the Nanterre TGI (District Court) and the Versailles Appeal Court  Bouygues Telecom began dismantling its phone mast  in the early morning of March 6, 2009.

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Ahmadinejad: World economic system ‘unfair’

Posted by seumasach on March 11, 2009

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the world monetary system serves the interests of global economic powers in an “unfair” way.

“The international economic order is unfair, inefficient and harmful to many countries,” Ahmadinejad said as he delivered a speech at the 10th Economic Cooperation Organization Summit in Tehran on Wednesday.
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Barroso defends EU’s handling of economic crisis

Posted by seumasach on March 11, 2009

Brown’s agenda is obviously floundering and its defeat should be clear at the G20

David Gow

Guardian

11th March. 2009

The European commission president has hit back at US criticism that the EU is providing an inadequate economic stimulus for global recovery and accused the Obama administration of being averse to greater regulation of the financial sector.

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Was the Omagh bomb bugged by security services?

Posted by alfied on March 11, 2009

Was Omagh bomb car bugged by security services?

Belfast Telegraph – March 10, 2009

A listening bug could have been placed inside the Vauxhall car that carried the Omagh bomb, according to a High Court document. Read the rest of this entry »

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The trade-off season begins on Afghanistan

Posted by seumasach on March 10, 2009

It looks like the New Cold War is already over as, not only have US/UK efforts to put a wedge between Iran and Russia have clearly failed, but NATO dependence on Russia with regard to Afghan supllies  is confirmed. We can now expect Russian diplomacy to become more forceful with their brokering of a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East back on the agenda:

Also, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week, “[The] American side should join the position of the ‘[Iran] Six’ [the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany] not only on paper, but also the talks with Iran as proposed by the six … At issue is also involving Iran on an equal, worthy basis in efforts to resolve the Iraqi and Afghan conflicts, as well as in all aspects of the Middle East settlement.”

By M K Bhadrakumar
Asia Times

11th March, 2009
With the likelihood of the United States engaging Iran in the near future and with Washington “resetting the button” in relations with Moscow, the air is thick with rumors of trade-offs. This is almost inevitable, given the interlocking cross-currents swirling around the three-way US-Iran-Russia equations.
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