In These New Times

A new paradigm for a post-imperial world

Archive for March, 2011

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »

Futility

Posted by seumasach on March 13, 2011

Move him into the sun –
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds –
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, – still warm, – too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
– O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all

Wilfred Owen(1893-1918)

 

 

Posted in Drive to Global War | Leave a Comment »

History’s lesson is that investment and retail banking must be separate

Posted by seumasach on March 13, 2011

Given that the banks are again running into bad debt problems and are essentially bankrupt the issues here  would apply to a post-bankruptcy environment. In the meantime “too big to fail” is the governing principle. That means , one way or another, bailout.

Liam Halligan

Telegraph

13th March, 2011

The mighty PIMCO slashed its holdings of US Treasuries to zero – causing an awful lot of soul-searching among global investors that still insist American sovereign IOUs are a “safe haven”.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in UK economy | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Libyan govt. troops defect in Misratah

Posted by seumasach on March 13, 2011

The West has forced Gaddafi to stand and  fight, giving him no way out with their legal moves against him. Their posturing in support of the uprising has only served to help him with his claim that foreign forces are behind it all. Despite that Gaddafi will lose the struggle for hearts and minds through the brutality of his attacks on Libyan cities.
13th March, 2011
A group of government troops formerly loyal to embattled Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi has defected to the revolutionary side in the northwestern city of Misratah.

Posted in Libya | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Nerve gas used, doctors claim

Posted by seumasach on March 12, 2011

SMH

11th March, 2011

SANAA: Doctors from the scene of violent anti-government protests in Yemen’s capital said that what was thought to be tear-gas fired by government forces on demonstrators might have been a form of nerve gas, which is forbidden under international law.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Paris Symposium on Children’s Health and the Environment

Posted by seumasach on March 12, 2011

M.Michaels

MerisM59@hotmail.com

The “Paris Symposium” on Children’s Health and the Environment”, UNESCO, Paris, 12-13 April 2011, is being organized by ARTAC (Association for Research and Treatments against Cancer – http://www.artac.info) in partnership with the International Society of Doctors for the Environment (www.isde.org) and the Health and Environment Alliance (www.env-health.org). Topics to be discussed include cancer and the environment with moderators Ana Soto and Luc Montagnier, childhood at risk (health risks of electromagnetic fields, chemical exposures, endocrine disruption), the environmental origin of today’s public plague (pesticides, obesity and type 2 diabetes, asthma, allergies, mercury toxicity, GMOs). The symposium will be followed by a 3-day intesive course in environmental medicine which will include investigation, practice and ethics and law. This is a fairly new discipline and there are many medical faculties who have not heard of it. In the forefront of establishing departments and delivering courses in this discipline are Professor Belpomme, President of ARTAC and Dr. Philip Landigran, Director, Children’s Environmental Health Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. One would hope that such associations and schools would share their research and expertise, but this is not always the case.

Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Subverting the Arab revolution

Posted by seumasach on March 11, 2011

Cailean Bochanan

11th, March, 2011

The Arab revolution poses a mortal threat to the Anglo-American-Zionist world system. This system has been based over several decades on the petrodollar which replaced the gold backed dollar of the Bretton Woods system. It is not that the new democratic Arab nations will withdraw oil from global markets creating a supply crisis. They would have no cause to do that, but, from a strictly commercial point of view, they would not wish to sell their oil for dollars, or pounds, of course. More likely, they would prefer to receive Yuan or Euros. Hence, the reign of the dollar as the global reserve currency would come to an end, its current slow demise giving way to sudden death.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Libya | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Generational rage in the House of Saud

Posted by seumasach on March 11, 2011

Brian M.Downing

Asia Times

11th March, 2011

World attention is rightly fixed on the fighting in Libya, but events in Saudi Arabia slated for Friday, March 11, might well take precedent. Young Saudis are mobilizing for “day of rage” demonstrations calling for political reforms but the regime has warned against any such gatherings. A confrontation with immense geopolitical and economic import is nearing. Capitals and bourses are watching anxiously. The outcome is of course unclear, but a look at the dramatis personae and possible developments might be attempted.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

UAE activists demand direct elections

Posted by seumasach on March 11, 2011

Manorama

9th March, 2011

Dubai: Emirati intellectuals and activists, inspired by uprisings across the Arab world, petitioned the president today to introduce direct elections and vest parliament with legislative power. In an online petition they cite “rapid regional and international developments that necessitate improving national participation,” a reference to anti-government protests that have redrawn Arab politics in recent weeks. They call for the direct election of all members of the Federal National Council (FNC) and constitutional amendments to invest the toothless advisory body with full legislative and regulatory powers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

‘Friday of National Unity’ march planned after sectarian clashes

Posted by seumasach on March 10, 2011

Al-Ahram

9th March, 2011

Following the flare-up of sectarian tension between Copts and Muslims in the last week, several political parties and activists are calling on protesters to hold a “Friday of National Unity” march from Tahrir Square to Atfeeh in Helwan, where a church was burned last Friday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Activists see state security’s hidden hands behind attacks on Egypt’s Copts

Posted by seumasach on March 9, 2011

Al-Ahram

9th March, 2011

The clashes that erupted between hundreds of Copts and Salafists yesterday evening in Muqattam, Cairo left thirteen dead, according to official reports, and 110 injured.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Arab revolt reworks the world order

Posted by seumasach on March 9, 2011

M.K. Bhadrakumar

Asia Times

10th March, 2011
India, Brazil and South Africa have put a spoke in the American wheel, which seemed up until Tuesday inexorably moving, turning and turning in the direction of imposing a “no-fly” zone over Libya.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Multipolar world | 1 Comment »

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »