China changing, hope for Tibet: Dalai Lama
There has been a lot of change in China over the last 30 years despite the same one party system and the totalitarian regime that was in place, the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama said here on Friday during an interaction with Mumbai University students.
“In China, it is the same one party system, the same totalitarian regime but compare it to 30 years ago, there has been a lot of change. These are signs of change, the world is changing,” the Tibetan leader said. He also said that he was hoping for a solution to the Tibetan problem as he had seen a change in the attitude of Chinese people over the years.
Citing the example of Europe, he said that while Germany and France had been enemies during the world wars, they were working in unity in the European Union. Speaking to students on ancient wisdom, modern thought, he said modern universities should provide students with a holistic approach to education. The Dalai Lama said that violence was never a constructive way to any problem and exhorted the principles of Ahimsa.
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Friday, February 18, 2011
Bihar growth projected at 10.49% by CSO, more dn national average dis year-"Our pleas 4 special category status 4 Bihar still remain big issue-19/2/11
18 Feb, 2011, 10.33AM IST, Ashok K Mishra,ET Bureau
Bihar growth projected at 10.49% by CSO, more than national average this year
PATNA: Bihar is back again to double digit growth. Preliminary estimates based on the data available till December last year and projections for the remaining three month period from January to March, 2011, project the state growth rate for 2010-11 at 10.49%, which is likely to be more than the national average of 8.6%.
"The Central Statistical Organisation ( CSO )), after having worked on its calculations, has made these growth projections. The last few years have seen Bihar clocking growth rates more than national growth rates, which are largely an outcome of development initiatives taken by the state government," Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said.
The state's growth was in double digit in 2008-09, when it had touched 13.06%. In 2009-10, the growth was down to 8.56%. The comeback expected in the current financial year is confidence boosting, although the state is yet to touch the mark it had achieved two years back.
"This certainly augurs well for Bihar, which for decades was classified as being among the Bimaru states. But our good work has started yielding results. The Centre should now back our policy initiatives to help force the pace of development in the state," Modi said.
"Our pleas for special category status for Bihar still remain a big issue and these needs to be addressed by the Centre.
"The kind of growth we are now witnessing is mostly driven by public investment. But private investment was also necessary to give a further push to the state economy . Bihar will readily become an investment friendly destination for private players if the centre accorded special category status to the state" Modi told ET.
Bihar Chamber of Commerce president O P Sah said that the double digit growth projections lend credence to the turnaround story of Bihar . "The Nitish Kumar-led NDA government deserves all praise for extricating the state from the morass it was in even a few years back. At least I can talk of the business community which now does not have to fear anything about law and order issues" Sah said.
Bihar growth projected at 10.49% by CSO, more than national average this year
PATNA: Bihar is back again to double digit growth. Preliminary estimates based on the data available till December last year and projections for the remaining three month period from January to March, 2011, project the state growth rate for 2010-11 at 10.49%, which is likely to be more than the national average of 8.6%.
"The Central Statistical Organisation ( CSO )), after having worked on its calculations, has made these growth projections. The last few years have seen Bihar clocking growth rates more than national growth rates, which are largely an outcome of development initiatives taken by the state government," Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said.
The state's growth was in double digit in 2008-09, when it had touched 13.06%. In 2009-10, the growth was down to 8.56%. The comeback expected in the current financial year is confidence boosting, although the state is yet to touch the mark it had achieved two years back.
"This certainly augurs well for Bihar, which for decades was classified as being among the Bimaru states. But our good work has started yielding results. The Centre should now back our policy initiatives to help force the pace of development in the state," Modi said.
"Our pleas for special category status for Bihar still remain a big issue and these needs to be addressed by the Centre.
"The kind of growth we are now witnessing is mostly driven by public investment. But private investment was also necessary to give a further push to the state economy . Bihar will readily become an investment friendly destination for private players if the centre accorded special category status to the state" Modi told ET.
Bihar Chamber of Commerce president O P Sah said that the double digit growth projections lend credence to the turnaround story of Bihar . "The Nitish Kumar-led NDA government deserves all praise for extricating the state from the morass it was in even a few years back. At least I can talk of the business community which now does not have to fear anything about law and order issues" Sah said.
Victory March' in Egypt; top cleric for sacking cabinet-"The world has changed, the world has progressed, and the Arab world has changed within19/2/11
Victory March' in Egypt; top cleric for sacking cabinet
PTI, Feb 18, 2011, 09.04pm IST
RANIA CAIRO: Tens of thousands of Egyptians today packed the Tahrir Square here, the flash point of the pro-democracy protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, for a " victory march", even as an influential cleric asked military to sack the cabinet dominated by old-regime figures.
In a Friday sermon held in the Egyptian capital's Tahrir Square, Qatar-based Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, close to Muslim Brotherhood, asked Arab leaders to listen to their people and acknowledge their region has changed.
"The world has changed, the world has progressed, and the Arab world has changed within," al-Qaradawi said.
"We want a new government that doesn't include the old faces ... When people see the old faces, it reminds them of hunger, poverty, misery," said Qaradawi, who is widely considered one of Islam's top scholars.
"Don't obstruct the people," Qaradawi said, addressing his message to the Arab world's leaders. "Don't try to lead them on with empty talk. Conduct a real dialogue with them."
Qaradawi, who has close ties with Muslim Brotherhood, asked the military to sack the cabinet dominated by old regime figures, a key demand of pro-democracy activists.
Keeping up pressure on the new military rulers to carry out democratic reforms, the groups, which had organised the uprising, called it the "Friday of Victory and Continuation," reflecting both their achievement in forcing 82-year-old Mubarak out and their concerns about the future.
On the day of prayers and celebrations, many flag-draped protesters played musical instruments at the Square, which wore a festive look and where a large number of children were also present.
The Coalition of the Revolution Youth, an alliance of pro-democracy groups that helped launch the revolt, called on the gathering to "remember the martyrs of freedom and dignity and justice," Al-Jazeera reported.
Before stepping down, Mubarak sacked his government and ordered former air force commander Ahmed Shafiq to form a new cabinet. The move that was aimed at placating the protesters. But Shafiq kept on most of the members of the old cabinet dominated by Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
At least 365 people were killed and 5,500 injured during the protests against Mubarak's 30-year regime, according to Egypt's Health Ministry.
Pro-democracy activists also sought an investigation into the killings during the uprising, lifting of the decades-old emergency law and support for the pay strikes by workers across the country.
"We are going today to commemorate the martyrs and in doing so we are awaiting justice," Mohammed Waked, a protest organiser, was quoted as saying by the pan-Arabic satellite channel.
PTI, Feb 18, 2011, 09.04pm IST
RANIA CAIRO: Tens of thousands of Egyptians today packed the Tahrir Square here, the flash point of the pro-democracy protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, for a " victory march", even as an influential cleric asked military to sack the cabinet dominated by old-regime figures.
In a Friday sermon held in the Egyptian capital's Tahrir Square, Qatar-based Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, close to Muslim Brotherhood, asked Arab leaders to listen to their people and acknowledge their region has changed.
"The world has changed, the world has progressed, and the Arab world has changed within," al-Qaradawi said.
"We want a new government that doesn't include the old faces ... When people see the old faces, it reminds them of hunger, poverty, misery," said Qaradawi, who is widely considered one of Islam's top scholars.
"Don't obstruct the people," Qaradawi said, addressing his message to the Arab world's leaders. "Don't try to lead them on with empty talk. Conduct a real dialogue with them."
Qaradawi, who has close ties with Muslim Brotherhood, asked the military to sack the cabinet dominated by old regime figures, a key demand of pro-democracy activists.
Keeping up pressure on the new military rulers to carry out democratic reforms, the groups, which had organised the uprising, called it the "Friday of Victory and Continuation," reflecting both their achievement in forcing 82-year-old Mubarak out and their concerns about the future.
On the day of prayers and celebrations, many flag-draped protesters played musical instruments at the Square, which wore a festive look and where a large number of children were also present.
The Coalition of the Revolution Youth, an alliance of pro-democracy groups that helped launch the revolt, called on the gathering to "remember the martyrs of freedom and dignity and justice," Al-Jazeera reported.
Before stepping down, Mubarak sacked his government and ordered former air force commander Ahmed Shafiq to form a new cabinet. The move that was aimed at placating the protesters. But Shafiq kept on most of the members of the old cabinet dominated by Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
At least 365 people were killed and 5,500 injured during the protests against Mubarak's 30-year regime, according to Egypt's Health Ministry.
Pro-democracy activists also sought an investigation into the killings during the uprising, lifting of the decades-old emergency law and support for the pay strikes by workers across the country.
"We are going today to commemorate the martyrs and in doing so we are awaiting justice," Mohammed Waked, a protest organiser, was quoted as saying by the pan-Arabic satellite channel.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
मिश्र के बाद बहरीन, यमन, लीबिया में क्रांति.-बुधवार को हजारों लोगों ने देश में 'असली संवैधानिक शासन' की मांग की.- १७ फरवरी २०११
बृहस्पतिवार, १७ फरवरी २०११
मिश्र के बाद बहरीन, यमन, लीबिया में क्रांति.
Posted by रजनीश के झा (Rajneesh K Jha) Thursday, February 17, 2011
गुरुवार को बहरीन में पुलिस ने राजधानी मनामा के एक चौक पर विरोधी प्रदर्शन कर रहे लोगों पर फाइरिंग की, जिसमें चार लोग मारे गए. आसपास के देशों लीबिया और यमन में भी सरकारें विरोध प्रदर्शनों को दबाने में लगी हैं.
मनामा के पर्ल चौक पर पुलिस ने गुरुवार तड़के तीन बजे प्रदर्शनकारियों पर आंसू गैस और रबड़ की गोलियां चलाईं. पुलिस के साथ झड़पों में चार प्रदर्शनकारियों के मारे जाने की खबर है. 95 लोग घायल भी हुए हैं. चश्मदीदों का कहना है कि पुलिस ने बिना चेतावनी भीड़ पर गोलियां चलाईं जिससे भगदड़ मच गई. बहरीन में सरकार विरोधी प्रदर्शनों में अब तक कुल छह लोग मारे गए हैं. झड़पों के बाद पूरे शहर में पुलिस को तैनात कर दिया गया है. सड़कों पर चेकपोस्ट लगाए गए हैं.
गृह मंत्रालय के प्रवक्ता जनरल तारिक एल हसन ने कहा कि लोगों से बातचीत के सारे विकल्प खत्म होने के बाद ही पुलिस ने पर्ल चौक से प्रदर्शनकारियों को बाहर निकालने की कोशिश की. अल हसन ने कहा कि कुछ लोग अपने आप इलाका छोड़ कर चले गए और कुछ लोगों को जबरदस्ती वहां से निकालना पड़ा.
देश में विपक्ष के मुख्य शिया नेता ने पुलिस कार्रवाई के बारे में कहा कि यह "एक जगह शांतिपूर्वक जमा हुए लोगों पर बेबुनियाद और जाहिल हमला था." बुधवार को हजारों लोगों ने देश में 'असली संवैधानिक शासन' की मांग की. बहरीन में सरकार के रवैये की अमेरिका ने आलोचना की है. बहरीन अमेरिकी नौसेना के फिफ्त फ्लीट का मुख्यालय है जो ईरान से खतरों को टालने के अलावा खाड़ी में तेल के रास्तों को सुरक्षित करता है.
लीबिया में भी विरोध प्रदर्शनों पर रोक लगाने के लिए पुलिस और प्रदर्शनकारियों के बीच झड़पें हुईँ जिनमें चार लोग मारे गए. देश में इंटरनेट पर पाबंदी का विरोध कर रहे लोगों ने आक्रोश दिवस का एलान किया है. लंदन से चलाई जा रही एक वेबसाइट के मुताबिक लीबिया के नेता मुआम्मर गद्दाफी के शासन के खिलाफ प्रदर्शन कर रहे लोगों पर सुरक्षा बलों ने गोलियां चलाईं.
हिंसा में कम से कम चार लोग मारे गए हैं और कई लोग घायल हैं. मानवाधिकार संगठन ह्यूमन राइट्स सॉलिडैरिटी के मुताबिक प्रदर्शनों में 13 लोग मारे गए हैं. यूरोपीय संघ और अमेरिका ने लीबिया के अधिकारियों से हिंसा से बचने की अपील की है और अभिव्यक्ति की संवतंत्रता की मांग की है.
अरब जगत के एक और देश यमन में भी विरोध प्रदर्शन आम बात हो गए हैं. प्रदर्शनों के सातवें दिन बुधवार को अधिकारियों ने लोगों पर लाठियां बरसाईं. प्रदर्शनकारी राष्ट्रपति अली अब्दुल्लाह सालेह के इस्तीफे की मांग कर रहे हैं जो तीस साल से भी ज्यादा समय से सत्ता में बने हुए हैं.
वैसे विश्लेषकों का कहना है कि अमेरिका के करीबी दोस्त सालेह को पद से हटाना मिस्र में मुबारक को पद से हटाने से कहीं ज्यादा मुश्किल साबित हो सकता है. लेकिन लगातार प्रदर्शनों से सरकार अपनी नीतियों में सुधार ला सकती है.
मिश्र के बाद बहरीन, यमन, लीबिया में क्रांति.
Posted by रजनीश के झा (Rajneesh K Jha) Thursday, February 17, 2011
गुरुवार को बहरीन में पुलिस ने राजधानी मनामा के एक चौक पर विरोधी प्रदर्शन कर रहे लोगों पर फाइरिंग की, जिसमें चार लोग मारे गए. आसपास के देशों लीबिया और यमन में भी सरकारें विरोध प्रदर्शनों को दबाने में लगी हैं.
मनामा के पर्ल चौक पर पुलिस ने गुरुवार तड़के तीन बजे प्रदर्शनकारियों पर आंसू गैस और रबड़ की गोलियां चलाईं. पुलिस के साथ झड़पों में चार प्रदर्शनकारियों के मारे जाने की खबर है. 95 लोग घायल भी हुए हैं. चश्मदीदों का कहना है कि पुलिस ने बिना चेतावनी भीड़ पर गोलियां चलाईं जिससे भगदड़ मच गई. बहरीन में सरकार विरोधी प्रदर्शनों में अब तक कुल छह लोग मारे गए हैं. झड़पों के बाद पूरे शहर में पुलिस को तैनात कर दिया गया है. सड़कों पर चेकपोस्ट लगाए गए हैं.
गृह मंत्रालय के प्रवक्ता जनरल तारिक एल हसन ने कहा कि लोगों से बातचीत के सारे विकल्प खत्म होने के बाद ही पुलिस ने पर्ल चौक से प्रदर्शनकारियों को बाहर निकालने की कोशिश की. अल हसन ने कहा कि कुछ लोग अपने आप इलाका छोड़ कर चले गए और कुछ लोगों को जबरदस्ती वहां से निकालना पड़ा.
देश में विपक्ष के मुख्य शिया नेता ने पुलिस कार्रवाई के बारे में कहा कि यह "एक जगह शांतिपूर्वक जमा हुए लोगों पर बेबुनियाद और जाहिल हमला था." बुधवार को हजारों लोगों ने देश में 'असली संवैधानिक शासन' की मांग की. बहरीन में सरकार के रवैये की अमेरिका ने आलोचना की है. बहरीन अमेरिकी नौसेना के फिफ्त फ्लीट का मुख्यालय है जो ईरान से खतरों को टालने के अलावा खाड़ी में तेल के रास्तों को सुरक्षित करता है.
लीबिया में भी विरोध प्रदर्शनों पर रोक लगाने के लिए पुलिस और प्रदर्शनकारियों के बीच झड़पें हुईँ जिनमें चार लोग मारे गए. देश में इंटरनेट पर पाबंदी का विरोध कर रहे लोगों ने आक्रोश दिवस का एलान किया है. लंदन से चलाई जा रही एक वेबसाइट के मुताबिक लीबिया के नेता मुआम्मर गद्दाफी के शासन के खिलाफ प्रदर्शन कर रहे लोगों पर सुरक्षा बलों ने गोलियां चलाईं.
हिंसा में कम से कम चार लोग मारे गए हैं और कई लोग घायल हैं. मानवाधिकार संगठन ह्यूमन राइट्स सॉलिडैरिटी के मुताबिक प्रदर्शनों में 13 लोग मारे गए हैं. यूरोपीय संघ और अमेरिका ने लीबिया के अधिकारियों से हिंसा से बचने की अपील की है और अभिव्यक्ति की संवतंत्रता की मांग की है.
अरब जगत के एक और देश यमन में भी विरोध प्रदर्शन आम बात हो गए हैं. प्रदर्शनों के सातवें दिन बुधवार को अधिकारियों ने लोगों पर लाठियां बरसाईं. प्रदर्शनकारी राष्ट्रपति अली अब्दुल्लाह सालेह के इस्तीफे की मांग कर रहे हैं जो तीस साल से भी ज्यादा समय से सत्ता में बने हुए हैं.
वैसे विश्लेषकों का कहना है कि अमेरिका के करीबी दोस्त सालेह को पद से हटाना मिस्र में मुबारक को पद से हटाने से कहीं ज्यादा मुश्किल साबित हो सकता है. लेकिन लगातार प्रदर्शनों से सरकार अपनी नीतियों में सुधार ला सकती है.
Egypt cannot be replicated in India, including Jammu & Kashmir,as India is a functional democracy where people have d right 2 change govt-17/2/11
Egypt cannot be replicated in India, a democracy
Hindustan Times
New Delhi, February 17, 2011
First Published: 01:08 IST(17/2/2011)
Last Updated: 01:10 IST(17/2/2011)
The political developments in Egypt and its ripple effects in parts of the Arab world cannot be replicated in parts of the country, including Jammu & Kashmir, as India is a functional democracy where people have the right to change governments, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said. The Prime Minis ter also talked about the growing stature of the country internationally. Citing the visit of all P-5 leaders last year as something that has “never happened before”, Singh stressed on how the world marvels at India.
When asked whether the incidents in Egypt can influence areas such as the North-East, J&K and Maoist-hit areas, Singh said, being a functional democracy means the protests leading to political upheavals cannot be replicated in parts of India.
“Whatever happens in the Gulf or in West Asia including is a matter of concern to us...No (replication of such events is not possible in India) because India is a functioning democracy,” Prime Minister said. Singh pointed out that in India people have the right to change the government and country has a free press.
“We are a functioning democracy. Though we do not believe it is our business to advise other countries, we welcome the dawn of democracy everywhere.”
On Sri Lanka
On the politically-sensitive issue of fishermen being apprehended in Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister said India takes a “very serious view” of the matter and would take it up with the neighbour. Singh said the Sri Lankan government had already been told in strong terms that such behaviour was not acceptable.
“I have been told that 118 fishermen have been taken into custody. We are taking up this matter with the Sri Lankan Government. We take a very serious view,” he said.
The arrest comes close on the heels of the killing of two Indian fishermen allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy — that has also become a huge political issue in poll-bound Tamil Nadu.
In his opening remarks, Singh spoke about India’s strengths that make the world take note of it — a functional democracy committed to the rule of law, seeking social salvation of its masses and yet managing a 8-9% growth.
Hindustan Times
New Delhi, February 17, 2011
First Published: 01:08 IST(17/2/2011)
Last Updated: 01:10 IST(17/2/2011)
The political developments in Egypt and its ripple effects in parts of the Arab world cannot be replicated in parts of the country, including Jammu & Kashmir, as India is a functional democracy where people have the right to change governments, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said. The Prime Minis ter also talked about the growing stature of the country internationally. Citing the visit of all P-5 leaders last year as something that has “never happened before”, Singh stressed on how the world marvels at India.
When asked whether the incidents in Egypt can influence areas such as the North-East, J&K and Maoist-hit areas, Singh said, being a functional democracy means the protests leading to political upheavals cannot be replicated in parts of India.
“Whatever happens in the Gulf or in West Asia including is a matter of concern to us...No (replication of such events is not possible in India) because India is a functioning democracy,” Prime Minister said. Singh pointed out that in India people have the right to change the government and country has a free press.
“We are a functioning democracy. Though we do not believe it is our business to advise other countries, we welcome the dawn of democracy everywhere.”
On Sri Lanka
On the politically-sensitive issue of fishermen being apprehended in Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister said India takes a “very serious view” of the matter and would take it up with the neighbour. Singh said the Sri Lankan government had already been told in strong terms that such behaviour was not acceptable.
“I have been told that 118 fishermen have been taken into custody. We are taking up this matter with the Sri Lankan Government. We take a very serious view,” he said.
The arrest comes close on the heels of the killing of two Indian fishermen allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy — that has also become a huge political issue in poll-bound Tamil Nadu.
In his opening remarks, Singh spoke about India’s strengths that make the world take note of it — a functional democracy committed to the rule of law, seeking social salvation of its masses and yet managing a 8-9% growth.
Govt serious about dealing with corruption:and the wrong doers will be brought to book, regardless of their positions. PM-Feb 17, 11
National News Back
Govt serious about dealing with corruption: PM
Feb 17, 1:42 PM
The Prime Minister says that the government is very serious about dealing with corruption and the wrong doers will be brought to book, regardless of their positions. Speaking to senior editors of electronic media in New Delhi yesterday, Dr. Manmohan Singh said it is important that self confidence of the nation is not shaken. Dr. Singh asserted that he is ready to appear before any committee including a JPC to probe any corruption case. He said, India is not a scam driven country and this projection by a section of media has tarnished the image of the country.
On 2G scam involving former Telecom Minister A. Raja, Dr. Singh said the decision to allocate licences on first cum first serve basis was exclusively dealt with by the Telecom ministry and the matter was never referred to him or the cabinet.
Admitting that some compromises had to be made in managing a coalition, the Prime Minister said he had never thought of resigning halfway, and that his government will run full course to complete the tasks it has been assigned. In reply to a question he said that he would reshuffle the cabinet after the budget session of Parliament.
Dr. Singh was confident that inflation rate will come down to seven percent by the end of this financial year. He said, government is trying to tackle the situation without hurting growth.
On reforms, the Prime Minister said that a host of initiatives will be unveiled in the budget to be presented in Parliament on 28th. He charged the opposition with delaying the introduction of crucial bills in Parliament, including amendment of goods and services tax.
Govt serious about dealing with corruption: PM
Feb 17, 1:42 PM
The Prime Minister says that the government is very serious about dealing with corruption and the wrong doers will be brought to book, regardless of their positions. Speaking to senior editors of electronic media in New Delhi yesterday, Dr. Manmohan Singh said it is important that self confidence of the nation is not shaken. Dr. Singh asserted that he is ready to appear before any committee including a JPC to probe any corruption case. He said, India is not a scam driven country and this projection by a section of media has tarnished the image of the country.
On 2G scam involving former Telecom Minister A. Raja, Dr. Singh said the decision to allocate licences on first cum first serve basis was exclusively dealt with by the Telecom ministry and the matter was never referred to him or the cabinet.
Admitting that some compromises had to be made in managing a coalition, the Prime Minister said he had never thought of resigning halfway, and that his government will run full course to complete the tasks it has been assigned. In reply to a question he said that he would reshuffle the cabinet after the budget session of Parliament.
Dr. Singh was confident that inflation rate will come down to seven percent by the end of this financial year. He said, government is trying to tackle the situation without hurting growth.
On reforms, the Prime Minister said that a host of initiatives will be unveiled in the budget to be presented in Parliament on 28th. He charged the opposition with delaying the introduction of crucial bills in Parliament, including amendment of goods and services tax.
Deep Green: Debt, Human Rights and Nature-Good economics will be good for everyone, not just enrich the wealthiest people on Earth.February 16, 2011
Deep Green: Debt, Human Rights and Nature
Blogpost by Rex Weyler - February 16, 2011 at 16:12 Add comment
Deep Green is Rex Weyler's monthly column, reflecting on the roots of activism, environmentalism, and Greenpeace's past, present, and future. The opinions here are his own.
“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.” -Martin Luther
February 2011
In January, the bankers and corporate executives at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, presented a plan to create $100 trillion US dollars (about €700 billion or ¥7 trillion) in new international debt.
During the last decade, world debt nearly doubled from $57 trillion to $109 trillion. Banks created ‘toxic assets’, ‘mortgage derivatives’ and ‘default swaps’ without substantial collateral to back them up. These schemes made bankers very rich, but helped collapse the world financial system 18 months ago. Public taxpayers have since bailed these bankers out with about $11 trillion in new debt. Now the financiers want more.
As some economies slightly recovered, energy prices rose to trigger inflation, slowing real recovery. Thus, the WEF bankers published ‘More Credit, Fewer Crises’, proposing that the world double its debt once again to $210 trillion by 2020. This debt would be over three times the entire world annual economy.
This debt, the printing of new money based on nothing substantial, has profound impacts on society and nature through resource inflation, the rising costs of food and energy, conflict, fraud and ecological destruction.
Out of thin air
These bankers are not proposing to loan their money to the world. Rather, they propose creating new money out of thin air, likely through International Monetary Fund (IMF) ‘Special Drawing Rights’, a synthetic currency beyond the control of any sovereign nation. By loaning currency rights to national treasuries, the bankers create $100 trillion with a few computer keyboard strokes. Then, they loan the fabricated money, collect interest payments and demand the principal back in real money from the debtors. It’s a lucrative scheme if you’re on the inside.
What bankers call ‘Credit’ the rest of world experiences as ‘Debt’ owed to the bankers. Interest payments alone on $100 trillion debt (at a modest 5% annual rate) comes to $400 billion a month. However, as the ‘Drawing Rights’ pass down the chain of international, national and local banks to become money in the hands of enterprising citizens, the total interest and fees to banks will be higher, perhaps 9 or 10%.
Furthermore, banks expect the principal back. To retire these debts over the next 20 years, the world’s borrowing enterprises would have to pay the bankers about $1 trillion a month. At the end of 20 years, bankers would have received about $140 trillion in interest payments and fees, plus the $100 trillion principal that they originally created out of thin air: $240 trillion profit (€175 trillion Euro, ¥1.5 quadrillion) for creating money out of nothing.
The authors of the WEF debt proposal are executives from JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Rothschild & Cie, Deutsche Bank, Morocco’s Attijariwafa Bank, Russia’s Sberbank, China’s International Capital Corp., Shell Oil, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, BNP Paribas and other international bankers, corporate capital funds and national sovereign funds. These firms naturally stand to profit from the plan.
Even if some loans pass through the gauntlet of fraud and corruption to reach enterprising citizens, who create useful products and services for their communities, a harsh social and biophysical impact remains for communities and environments around the world. The quarter-quadrillion dollars that would be paid back to the banks becomes an endless debt burden for every project and every nation.
In the end, this debt-creation represents a massive transfer of wealth from global citizens to the world’s richest people. However, there is more.
The cost of debt
Forty years ago, Greenpeace was founded to campaign for peace and ecology. Today, Greenpeace continues those campaigns while working with communities around the world to retain civil rights and local autonomy. Massive debt undermines each of these social values:
1. Inflation
Since this money is illusory, created from nothing, it dilutes all world currency and makes all citizens poorer through inflation. We have seen this in the last few months, as food and energy inflation has soared, caused by the last $11 trillion of debt imposed on the world to save the banks from economic collapse. The proposed $100 trillion of new money would have ten times the inflation impact.
Debt causes inflation, inflation acts as a tax on the poor and this leads to civil unrest. The Commodity Research Bureau food price index rose 44% this year and 22% in the last two months. In December, food prices in India rose 16% in three days. In Indonesia, rice prices rose 30% last year. In relatively rich Western Europe and North America families spend 12 to 15% of their income on food. In Egypt last year, families spent 40% of their income on food. The civil uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt began as food inflation crises. Eastern Europe, China, Jordan and Sudan face similar food-inflation unrest.
Inflation, linked to the creation of un-backed money and debt, taxes the poor most severely. We will discover that debt also leads to the depletion of resources, soil erosion, water shortages and other environmental impacts that further advance inflation and the debt cycle.
2. Ecological destruction
Nations must account for both private and public debt because during economic crisis, companies often default and private debt becomes public. Many countries now possess public and private debt three to four times their annual gross economy. The UK debt is six times its gross economy and Iceland 12 times. Massive debts put pressure on countries to expand their economies, but they are caught in a vicious cycle. Debt depresses growth, so nations relax environmental laws to increase industrial projects, corporate profits and tax revenues to pay off the debt.
Debt pressure drives nations deeper into the ocean for oil and gas and deeper into wilderness for minerals. Desperate nations bulldoze forests for cash crops, dam rivers and burn coal for energy, open parks to mining and logging and obliterate national treasures to create cash to pay interest on debts.
In Canada, where I live, our public and private debt stands at about two-and-a-half times our annual economic production. To grow our economy at all costs, our government opened the boreal plains to tar sands production, reduced environmental standards and created one of the world’s most ecologically destructive industries. The tar sands project devastates local indigenous communities, drains aquifers, pollutes groundwater, destroys rare habitats, fills lakes with black sludge and heats the atmosphere with low-net-energy hydrocarbons.
Environmental destruction makes the debt cycle ever more vicious, as depleted environments provide less economic potential and rob indigenous and rural communities of self sufficiency. Governments may then find it expedient to suppress angry citizens who have lost their local economic base.
3. Human rights
A large portion of international debt goes to corrupt dictators, who restrain public resistance by suppressing human rights. In Odius Debt, Patricia Adams documents the human rights impact of debt. One third of World Bank loans over 65 years ended up in the private hands of dictators and corrupt officials through bid-rigging, bribes, kickbacks and outright theft.
Over the last 50 years, 20 to 30% of all developing nation debt has gone to dictators such as Zaire’s Mobutu Seko, the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos, Indonesia’s Suharto, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and Turkmenistan’s Saparmurat Niyazov. The banks often justify loans to tyrants because they are ‘allies’ of rich western nations. Mobutu stole billions of dollars loaned to Zaire; he jailed, tortured and killed political opposition and enslaved his own citizens. When International Monetary Fund (IMF) agent Edwin Blumenthal reported the loan theft and ‘sordid and pernicious corruption’, the IMF ignored him and awarded Zaire the largest African loan in history. Patricia Adams estimates that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos pocketed one third of all loans to the Philippines during their regime. Once these dictators fall, the banks expect their victims to repay the loans.
Loans to corrupt dictators will likely get worse with the new SDR credits, set to be awarded by the IMF without even basic safeguards. The Wall Street Journal warns that ‘all governments qualify, including those that lock political dissidents in dungeons and steal from their own people’.
Cephas Lumina with the UN Human Rights Council, reports that private ‘vulture funds’ buy the defaulted debts of poor nations ‘at deeply discounted prices’ and then seek ‘repayment of the full value through litigation, seizure of assets and political pressure’. In the last 10 years, 12 nations designated as Heavily Indebted Poor Countries have been served with 54 lawsuits by such debt profiteers.
Some African nations spend 40% of government budgets on debt service, draining money from much needed health and education, which average about 14% of budgets. Debt breeds poverty.
4. War
We can see that the current structure of international debt creates inflation, poverty, fraud, oppression and environmental destruction. Finally, through currency and resource crises, debt fuels war. The world, while increasing debt, spends over $2 trillion each year on military and warfare, exacerbating the vicious debt cycle.
Sudan dictator Omar Al-Bashir, for example, received loans from the World Bank, China and others, helping finance Sudan’s 20-year civil war, causing 2 million deaths and creating 4 million refugees. Meanwhile, Al-Bashir’s army bombed innocent villages, tortured and massacred opposition and kidnapped citizens, particularly in the rich oil-producing regions of Sudan.
The US meanwhile spends about $12 billion each month to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan, to secure oil fields and pipeline routes. European nations, Russia, China and others have waged war to ‘protect national interests’, particularly dwindling resources. These large countries also arm the dictators that hold their debt, enabling more war and bloodshed.
Alternatives exist
Into this powder keg of corruption, violence, war, oppression, fraud and ecological devastation, a few wealthy bankers want to inject another $100 trillion of debt burden on the world. Their scheme would not create ‘less crisis’ as they claim, but more crisis, more financial bubbles, more corruption, more dictators, more war, more ecological destruction, inflation and poverty.
Alternatives exist. The poor nations of the world indeed need and deserve support to help develop their economies that have been wracked by colonialism, war and resource plunder. The UN should manage international debt, base all money on real assets and return profits to the human community. Loans can be designed to support local enterprise, solutions that benefit local communities, sustainable farming that protects soil and localised self-sufficiency. The current international banking schemes undermine these community values.
Good economics will be good for everyone, not just enrich the wealthiest people on Earth.
-Rex Weyler
You can respond to "Deep Green" columns at my Ecology, where I post portions of this column and dialogue with readers.
Blogpost by Rex Weyler - February 16, 2011 at 16:12 Add comment
Deep Green is Rex Weyler's monthly column, reflecting on the roots of activism, environmentalism, and Greenpeace's past, present, and future. The opinions here are his own.
“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.” -Martin Luther
February 2011
In January, the bankers and corporate executives at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, presented a plan to create $100 trillion US dollars (about €700 billion or ¥7 trillion) in new international debt.
During the last decade, world debt nearly doubled from $57 trillion to $109 trillion. Banks created ‘toxic assets’, ‘mortgage derivatives’ and ‘default swaps’ without substantial collateral to back them up. These schemes made bankers very rich, but helped collapse the world financial system 18 months ago. Public taxpayers have since bailed these bankers out with about $11 trillion in new debt. Now the financiers want more.
As some economies slightly recovered, energy prices rose to trigger inflation, slowing real recovery. Thus, the WEF bankers published ‘More Credit, Fewer Crises’, proposing that the world double its debt once again to $210 trillion by 2020. This debt would be over three times the entire world annual economy.
This debt, the printing of new money based on nothing substantial, has profound impacts on society and nature through resource inflation, the rising costs of food and energy, conflict, fraud and ecological destruction.
Out of thin air
These bankers are not proposing to loan their money to the world. Rather, they propose creating new money out of thin air, likely through International Monetary Fund (IMF) ‘Special Drawing Rights’, a synthetic currency beyond the control of any sovereign nation. By loaning currency rights to national treasuries, the bankers create $100 trillion with a few computer keyboard strokes. Then, they loan the fabricated money, collect interest payments and demand the principal back in real money from the debtors. It’s a lucrative scheme if you’re on the inside.
What bankers call ‘Credit’ the rest of world experiences as ‘Debt’ owed to the bankers. Interest payments alone on $100 trillion debt (at a modest 5% annual rate) comes to $400 billion a month. However, as the ‘Drawing Rights’ pass down the chain of international, national and local banks to become money in the hands of enterprising citizens, the total interest and fees to banks will be higher, perhaps 9 or 10%.
Furthermore, banks expect the principal back. To retire these debts over the next 20 years, the world’s borrowing enterprises would have to pay the bankers about $1 trillion a month. At the end of 20 years, bankers would have received about $140 trillion in interest payments and fees, plus the $100 trillion principal that they originally created out of thin air: $240 trillion profit (€175 trillion Euro, ¥1.5 quadrillion) for creating money out of nothing.
The authors of the WEF debt proposal are executives from JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Rothschild & Cie, Deutsche Bank, Morocco’s Attijariwafa Bank, Russia’s Sberbank, China’s International Capital Corp., Shell Oil, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, BNP Paribas and other international bankers, corporate capital funds and national sovereign funds. These firms naturally stand to profit from the plan.
Even if some loans pass through the gauntlet of fraud and corruption to reach enterprising citizens, who create useful products and services for their communities, a harsh social and biophysical impact remains for communities and environments around the world. The quarter-quadrillion dollars that would be paid back to the banks becomes an endless debt burden for every project and every nation.
In the end, this debt-creation represents a massive transfer of wealth from global citizens to the world’s richest people. However, there is more.
The cost of debt
Forty years ago, Greenpeace was founded to campaign for peace and ecology. Today, Greenpeace continues those campaigns while working with communities around the world to retain civil rights and local autonomy. Massive debt undermines each of these social values:
1. Inflation
Since this money is illusory, created from nothing, it dilutes all world currency and makes all citizens poorer through inflation. We have seen this in the last few months, as food and energy inflation has soared, caused by the last $11 trillion of debt imposed on the world to save the banks from economic collapse. The proposed $100 trillion of new money would have ten times the inflation impact.
Debt causes inflation, inflation acts as a tax on the poor and this leads to civil unrest. The Commodity Research Bureau food price index rose 44% this year and 22% in the last two months. In December, food prices in India rose 16% in three days. In Indonesia, rice prices rose 30% last year. In relatively rich Western Europe and North America families spend 12 to 15% of their income on food. In Egypt last year, families spent 40% of their income on food. The civil uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt began as food inflation crises. Eastern Europe, China, Jordan and Sudan face similar food-inflation unrest.
Inflation, linked to the creation of un-backed money and debt, taxes the poor most severely. We will discover that debt also leads to the depletion of resources, soil erosion, water shortages and other environmental impacts that further advance inflation and the debt cycle.
2. Ecological destruction
Nations must account for both private and public debt because during economic crisis, companies often default and private debt becomes public. Many countries now possess public and private debt three to four times their annual gross economy. The UK debt is six times its gross economy and Iceland 12 times. Massive debts put pressure on countries to expand their economies, but they are caught in a vicious cycle. Debt depresses growth, so nations relax environmental laws to increase industrial projects, corporate profits and tax revenues to pay off the debt.
Debt pressure drives nations deeper into the ocean for oil and gas and deeper into wilderness for minerals. Desperate nations bulldoze forests for cash crops, dam rivers and burn coal for energy, open parks to mining and logging and obliterate national treasures to create cash to pay interest on debts.
In Canada, where I live, our public and private debt stands at about two-and-a-half times our annual economic production. To grow our economy at all costs, our government opened the boreal plains to tar sands production, reduced environmental standards and created one of the world’s most ecologically destructive industries. The tar sands project devastates local indigenous communities, drains aquifers, pollutes groundwater, destroys rare habitats, fills lakes with black sludge and heats the atmosphere with low-net-energy hydrocarbons.
Environmental destruction makes the debt cycle ever more vicious, as depleted environments provide less economic potential and rob indigenous and rural communities of self sufficiency. Governments may then find it expedient to suppress angry citizens who have lost their local economic base.
3. Human rights
A large portion of international debt goes to corrupt dictators, who restrain public resistance by suppressing human rights. In Odius Debt, Patricia Adams documents the human rights impact of debt. One third of World Bank loans over 65 years ended up in the private hands of dictators and corrupt officials through bid-rigging, bribes, kickbacks and outright theft.
Over the last 50 years, 20 to 30% of all developing nation debt has gone to dictators such as Zaire’s Mobutu Seko, the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos, Indonesia’s Suharto, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and Turkmenistan’s Saparmurat Niyazov. The banks often justify loans to tyrants because they are ‘allies’ of rich western nations. Mobutu stole billions of dollars loaned to Zaire; he jailed, tortured and killed political opposition and enslaved his own citizens. When International Monetary Fund (IMF) agent Edwin Blumenthal reported the loan theft and ‘sordid and pernicious corruption’, the IMF ignored him and awarded Zaire the largest African loan in history. Patricia Adams estimates that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos pocketed one third of all loans to the Philippines during their regime. Once these dictators fall, the banks expect their victims to repay the loans.
Loans to corrupt dictators will likely get worse with the new SDR credits, set to be awarded by the IMF without even basic safeguards. The Wall Street Journal warns that ‘all governments qualify, including those that lock political dissidents in dungeons and steal from their own people’.
Cephas Lumina with the UN Human Rights Council, reports that private ‘vulture funds’ buy the defaulted debts of poor nations ‘at deeply discounted prices’ and then seek ‘repayment of the full value through litigation, seizure of assets and political pressure’. In the last 10 years, 12 nations designated as Heavily Indebted Poor Countries have been served with 54 lawsuits by such debt profiteers.
Some African nations spend 40% of government budgets on debt service, draining money from much needed health and education, which average about 14% of budgets. Debt breeds poverty.
4. War
We can see that the current structure of international debt creates inflation, poverty, fraud, oppression and environmental destruction. Finally, through currency and resource crises, debt fuels war. The world, while increasing debt, spends over $2 trillion each year on military and warfare, exacerbating the vicious debt cycle.
Sudan dictator Omar Al-Bashir, for example, received loans from the World Bank, China and others, helping finance Sudan’s 20-year civil war, causing 2 million deaths and creating 4 million refugees. Meanwhile, Al-Bashir’s army bombed innocent villages, tortured and massacred opposition and kidnapped citizens, particularly in the rich oil-producing regions of Sudan.
The US meanwhile spends about $12 billion each month to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan, to secure oil fields and pipeline routes. European nations, Russia, China and others have waged war to ‘protect national interests’, particularly dwindling resources. These large countries also arm the dictators that hold their debt, enabling more war and bloodshed.
Alternatives exist
Into this powder keg of corruption, violence, war, oppression, fraud and ecological devastation, a few wealthy bankers want to inject another $100 trillion of debt burden on the world. Their scheme would not create ‘less crisis’ as they claim, but more crisis, more financial bubbles, more corruption, more dictators, more war, more ecological destruction, inflation and poverty.
Alternatives exist. The poor nations of the world indeed need and deserve support to help develop their economies that have been wracked by colonialism, war and resource plunder. The UN should manage international debt, base all money on real assets and return profits to the human community. Loans can be designed to support local enterprise, solutions that benefit local communities, sustainable farming that protects soil and localised self-sufficiency. The current international banking schemes undermine these community values.
Good economics will be good for everyone, not just enrich the wealthiest people on Earth.
-Rex Weyler
You can respond to "Deep Green" columns at my Ecology, where I post portions of this column and dialogue with readers.
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