kerkko.fi

One of the many signs of the rightward creep of Western European politics is the recent unison of voices denouncing multiculturalism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel led off last October by claiming that multiculturalism “has failed and failed utterly.” She was echoed in February by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron. All three were late to the game, though: for years, the Dutch far right has been bashing supposedly multicultural policies.

The European Central Bank is strongly hinting that it will raise interest rates at its next meeting, in response to rising headline inflation -- even though this rise is the result of rising food and oil prices, which are not the results of ECB policy. Suppose that we focus on wage rates, which are often seen as the stickiest, most inertia-driven prices. The eurozone, like the US, has seen wage growth slump in the face of high unemployment.

So what the ECB is saying, in effect, is that Europe should drive down nominal wages -- which can only be done by raising the unemployment rate -- in order to offset the effect of oil and food on headline inflation. (Real wages will fall in any case.) Is this really a policy that the ECB would defend in so many words? I doubt it. But however sober and dignified talk of price stability may sound, that is what the proposed policy amounts to.

For decades, the Arab world has settled for corrupt, ignorant, treacherous despots as their leaders. For a generation, and in some cases two, Arabs lived in constant fear of expressing dissent, a fear so crippling it deemed them useless, incompetent and ultimately irrelevant . But the region has now been revived by its youth who have shown in Tunisia, Egypt, and now Libya that they know no fear, that they would rather die standing than live on their knees.

Still, the West fails to understand that they can not continue to do business with dictators and still say it is "friends of the people." The EU buys 79% of Libya's oil. US companies have practically taken over parts of Libya in recent years as the "free world" began to flirt with Gaddafi in the most scandalous of relationships. How can Europe put pressure on the Libyan government to immediately stop the butchering of innocent civilians when 10% of Europe's oil originates in Libya?

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2011/02/21/what-next-mad-dog-libya

Swiftavtalet, som slöts mellan EU och USA i juni förra året, ger USA tillgång till uppgifter om banktransaktioner via det europeiska företaget SWIFT. Avtalet, som enligt EU och USA syftar till att spåra terrorister, var föremål för en hård politisk debatt i EU.

Avtalet kritiserades för att USA fick tillgång till känsliga personuppgifter för europeiska medborgare. Ett av argumenten för avtalet var dock att det inte skulle omfatta transaktioner som skedde inom Europa, utan enbart gränsöverskridande bankbetalningar.

Men enligt tidningen Financial Times Deutschland, som har bett att få ut uppgifter från EU-kommissionen, kan USA få ut information om transaktioner som sker inom Europa. Det bekräftas även av en talesperson för SWIFT till Europaportalen.

Europaportalen via Henrik Alexandersson

Novaja Gazeta: "Käännymme Euroopan unionin hallitusten ja kansalaisten puoleen. Nuuhkaiskaapa: kaasu ja öljy, jotka kulkevat Valko-Venäjän kautta Eurooppaan, tuoksuvat vereltä."

http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2010/144/00.html

Istuvan presidentin Aljaksandr Lukašenkan odotetaan voittavan ensi sunnuntaina pidettävät presidentinvaalit. Vaikka Valko-Venäjä on vielä kaukana eurooppalaisen demokratian normeista, maassa on kuitenkin nähtävissä merkittävää vapautumista. Euroopan unionin kannattaa toimia aktiivisesti edistääkseen Valko-Venäjän demokratisoitumista.

Ulkopoliittinen instituutti, 14.12.2010

Useita presidenttiehdokkaita loukkaantui Minskin mellakoissa

Valko-Venäjällä useita opposition presidenttiehdokkaita on loukkaantunut mellakoissa maan pääkaupungissa Minskissä. Opposition mukaan sairaalahoitoon on toimitettu presidenttiehdokkaista ainakin Vladimir Neklajev ja Vitali Rymashevski. Neljä presidenttiehdokasta on pidätetty. Kymmeniä mielenosoittajia on loukkaantunut ja satoja on pidätetty.

Yleisradio, 20.12.2010

Speak softly and carry a big carrot. We have to adapt to a situation where European norms and values face genuine opposition and cannot be universally dictated to others. Rule of law and promotion of democracy and human rights form the essence of the European Union. I am not saying we should abandon this.

Yes you are. Quoting Iivi Anna Masso: "When exactly, since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 by the UN General Assembly, did human rights become "European norms and values" that "cannot be universally dictated to others"?

http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2010/11/finland_berates_world

Recently-discovered documents reveal that Colombia's Department of Administrative Security (DAS) has conducted spying operations on European soil, largely in Belgium, and even in the halls of the European Parliament. One victim of the intelligence agency's "Operation Europe" believes there is a Washington connection.

According to documents used in Colombian proceedings, Operation Europe's objective was to "neutralize the influence" of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, the Office of the UNHCR, European NGO workers, and other activists critical of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's human rights record.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/colombia/100630/spy-espionage-eu-colombia-farc

EU Internet Commissioner Neelie Kroes warns that governments can accidentally lock themselves into one company's software for decades by setting it as a standard for their technology systems.

Ms Kroes, in her previous post as EU antitrust chief, fined Microsoft hundreds of millions of euros in a lengthy row over the tying of a Microsoft's Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system.

She now wants to draw up guidelines for European governments to require other software, especially programmes based on open source code that is freely shared between developers.

http://www.latimes.com/technology/sns-ap-eu-eu-open-software,0,5937710.story

I have long studied the rise of "respectable" fascism across Europe. From my youth, I have opposed totalitarianism, and especially the religious persecution that is often a part of it.

In July 2009, I stood and won against a Polish MEP, Michal Kaminski, for the post of vice-president of the European Parliament, because he symbolised the rise of disguised extremism in Europe.

It was not my principle, it was a higher one: to oppose a menacing political movement at a key moment in Europe's politics. Ambivalence about totalitarianism has no place in today's Europe.

It has now been disclosed that Kaminski has had fascist links: he was a member of Poland's notorious fascist National Revival Party (NOP) and tried, as its MP, to cover up anti-Jewish atrocities.

The rise of "respectable fascism" must be stopped.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/31/conservative-fascism-kaminski-europe/