In These New Times

A new paradigm for a post-imperial world

Archive for November, 2010

Minister stresses study on cell phone towers

Posted by seumasach on November 4, 2010

Daily Times

3rd November, 2010

ISLAMABAD: There is dire need to conduct a national study to assess cumulative environmental and health impacts of 26,000 cell phone towers installed in the country, Federal Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi stated this while summing up debate on a motion moved by some members of the National Assembly on Tuesday.

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Paul O Grady on the cuts

Posted by smeddum on November 3, 2010

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Malaysia – gateway to Islamic finance

Posted by seumasach on November 3, 2010

Hossein Askari and Noureddine Krichene

Asia Times

4th November, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR – Over the past decade or so, Malaysia has quietly become the leading international player in Islamic finance and its gateway. The government of Malaysia, through its two principal agencies, Bank Negara (the central bank) and the Security Commission, has actively promoted Islamic finance. More specifically, Islamic finance has been given formal prominence in the Financial Sector Master Plan (FSMP) and the Capital Market Master Plan (CMP), which were initiated in Malaysia in 2001.

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Money printing in developed economies worries China

Posted by smeddum on November 3, 2010

November 03, 2010

People’s Daily
 

The prospect of more liquidity flooding into the emerging markets due to the further relaxation of monetary policy in developed economies is causing concern in China, which is already under pressure of expectation of long term inflation. 

The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, warned in its report on Nov. 2 that enormous capital may flood into fast-growing emerging economies from developed economies, which are apparently poised to launch more stimulus actions to battle stagnation. As a result, emerging economies are facing mounting pressure of inflation and capital influx. Read the rest of this entry »

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U.S. “quantitative easing” is fracturing the global economy

Posted by seumasach on November 2, 2010

Michael Hudson

Global Research

2nd November, 2010

Moreover, it may well be asked whether we can take it for granted that a return to freedom of exchanges is really a question of time. Even if the reply were in the affirmative, it is safe to assume that after a period of freedom the regime of control will be restored as a result of the next economic crisis. (Paul Einzig, Exchange Control (1934)).[1]

Great structural changes in world trade and finance occur quickly – by quantum leaps, not by slow marginal accretions. The 1945-2010 era of relatively open trade, capital movements and foreign exchange markets is being destroyed by a predatory financial opportunism that is breaking the world economy into two spheres: a dollar sphere in which central banks in Europe, Japan and many OPEC and Third World countries hold their reserves the form of U.S. Treasury debt of declining foreign-exchange value; and a BRIC-centered sphere, led by China, India, Brazil and Russia, reaching out to include Turkey and Iran, most of Asia, and major raw materials exporters that are running trade surpluses.

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Who has the crystal ball?

Posted by seumasach on November 2, 2010

Paul Craig Roberts
2nd November, 2010
My conservative and Republican acquaintances believe that the “liberal media” is destroying America.  When I ask them to identify the liberal media, the usual reply is,  “all of it!”  I ask them about Fox “News,” CNN, and point out that the TV networks are no longer independent but parts of large corporate conglomerates and that all of the “liberal” news anchors have been fired or died off.

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Did Obama order British authorities to find non-existent ink bomb?

Posted by seumasach on November 2, 2010

Paul Joseph Watson

Propaganda Matrix

1st November, 2010

After having examined the suspicious ink toner device for six hours and found it to be a dud, bomb experts at East Midlands Airport only reversed their decision after being ordered to re-inspect the package by US authorities following President Obama’s Friday afternoon speech in which he claimed that the devices did in fact contain explosives.

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Russia’s Afghan foray a subtle stroke

Posted by seumasach on November 2, 2010

“The US and Russia are cooperating more closely in Central Asia and elsewhere on security matters. This cooperation indicates that renewed tensions between the two powers of a few years back – Cold War Two, it was being called – are being eased.

Neither Russia nor the US can afford increased defense budgets and the world can do without a rivalry exacerbating smaller conflicts around the globe.”

Brian M.Downing

Asia Times

3rd November, 2010

Russia’s use of its military and security forces has historically not been known for economy of force or strategic subtlety. Injudicious invaders and troublesome satellites have been met with overwhelming force. However, in the decades after Joseph Stalin and his successors belatedly departed the scene, Russia has used its might more judiciously and subtly.

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The day Obama dreamed of being Lula

Posted by seumasach on November 2, 2010

Pepe Escobar

Asia Times

3rd November, 2010

SAO PAULO – In his wildest White House dreams, United States President Barack Obama swoops like an angel over the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert “Rally to Restore Sanity” that brought at least 200,000 people to the Mall in Washington, DC, this Saturday; he makes sure that “sanity” wins over “fear” – as it did, with a lot of swing and swagger; and then he soundly falls asleep, knowing in his heart that his Democratic party will overcome all shades of fear in mid-term polls and keep his presidency on track.
Ooops. Wrong script. In fact “sanity” was what Brazilian, not American voters chose on Sunday as they elected Dilma Roussef, of the governing Workers’ Party (PT), as the country’s first female president, with 12 million votes over her competitor, the social-democrat turned tropical version of the Tea Party Jose Serra – or “Serra Palin“. Globally, Dilma’s 56 million votes is the biggest victory of any left-leaning coalition (11 parties) anywhere in the world.

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Indian protestors take it to the streets in defiance of GM crop

Posted by seumasach on November 2, 2010

Natural News

2nd November, 2010

Many Indian farmers and concerned citizens are taking the offensive against the attempted takeover of their agriculture system by multinational biotechnology giants like Monsanto. A group known as Kisan Swaraj Yatra (KSY) has been mobilizing and gathering support from farmers, and touring the country in protest of genetically-modified (GM) crops that are destroying the nation’s agriculture.

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The tea party disconnect

Posted by seumasach on November 2, 2010

Philip Giraldi

Antiwar.com

28th October, 2010

Some have expressed hopes that the tea partiers, many of whom grew out of the Ron Paul movement, will bring about a shift away from American imperialism through their demands for smaller, cheaper, less intrusive, and more accountable government. But it ain’t necessarily so. The tea partiers generally fail to understand that the indispensable element in the explosive growth of big government over the past ten years has been Washington’s failure to craft a foreign and security policy that is commensurate with the nation’s resources and proportional to the actual level of threat that exists in the world. This results in the tea partiers overwhelmingly supporting an aggressive security policy even though they must know that leaving the Pentagon budget untouched and untouchable guarantees deficit spending and continued growth of the parts of government that are allegedly committed to “keeping us free.”

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