11 August 2012
10 August 2012
Greece: illegal immigrants face deportation
6 August, 2012
The Greek government have been looking to the Gods for inspiration as they carry out plans to deport thousands of illegal immigrants.
Bestowing a touch of irony to the proceedings, officials have named the operation ‘Xenius Zeus’, the same name given to the ancient Greek God of hospitality.
Six thousand people, suspected of having entered the country illegally, were detained in Athens, nearly a third now face deportation.
[ed. Only a third??]
Thousands of police took part in the operation, rounding up suspected illegal immigrants in Athens and at the Turkish border. Fulfilling its election promises, the Greek government, currently facing its worst recession for decades, is taking back “control of the streets.”
“I honestly ask you all for your support in order to erase from Athens, the scenes that offend our civilisation and progressively erase them from all the regions across the country,” said Nikos Dendias, Public Order Minister.
A fifth straight year of recession and unemployment at a record high has helped to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment in Greece. Among their litany of perceived offences, migrants have been blamed for the rise in crime levels and for “stealing” jobs.
Anti-fascist groups said the government however, is trying to exploit anti-immigrant feeling. Tassos Anastasiades from the anti-fascist movement KEERFA said: “They (the government) are trying now to play the racist card. So that people will be distracted from what is really happening in their pockets and in their everyday life and try to blame immigrants for all the things that are going wrong in Greece.”
[ed. "anti-fascist" groups, themselves the jackboot of the left fascists, are pro multiculturalism that is destroying western civilisation, they too should be deported...]
This would explain how neo-Nazi political party ‘Golden Dawn’ (with their slogan ‘Greece for the Greeks’) became the first far-right group to enter parliament in the country’s history. Last week it was reported the party gave out free food, but only to people who could prove they were Greek citizens.
Attacks on immigrants have become more frequent since 2011, a fact which has worried the UN’s refugee agency. The UNHCR’s denounced the rise of racist violence in the country but so far, critics say little has been done by the government to tackle the issue.
[ed. They always claim there is an increase in attacks, it is likely the attacks are being dished out to local people by immigrants like in Norway, France, Sweden and the UK etc...]
All this, in a country where some 100,000 illegal immigrants are estimated to enter every year. Most of them arrive via the Turkish border around the Evros river, the main gate for illegals entering the EU. The Athens government said it has dispatched 2,500 extra police to protect the area as part of the ‘Xenius Zeus’ operation.
[ed. All the more reason to get control of the borders, now...]
France declares war on illegal migrants: Riot police smash camps and hundreds rounded up for deportation as Socialists take on gipsies
By Peter Allen
9 August 2012
French police were yesterday breaking up gipsy camps and deporting illegal immigrants found in them.
Dozens of officers in riot gear descended on a settlement near Lille shortly after dawn to oversee the evacuation of some 200 Roma living in mobile homes.
One hundred people were evicted from a site in Lyon, with similar round-ups happening in other major cities including Marseille. Caravans and huts were destroyed in the Belleville area of central Paris on Wednesday, making another 100 people homeless.
‘Many of those evicted will be flown home to Romania,’ said an interior ministry source, who insisted the deportations were aimed at ridding France of ‘illegal’ communities.
Greece has also begun a crackdown on immigrants, with Athens claiming the country faced an ‘invasion’.
The policy being pursued by France’s socialist government was formulated by former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was frequently accused of pandering to the far right.
[ed. So you label someone "far right" and the idea is automatically bad?]
His government linked Roma camps with crime, suggesting that many of the thieves and muggers operating in big cities were homeless Romanians.
Many expected the more liberal socialists to show a more relaxed attitude toward immigrants, especially those from European Union member states. But Manuel Valls, the new interior minister, said the camps were a ‘challenge’ to ‘people living together’.
He insisted the police would uphold all court orders aimed at dismantling them.
Neighbours of the camps often complained about noise and anti-social behaviour, as well as serious crimes, said Mr Valls.
Humanitarian organisations have also linked the camps to ill health, including serious diseases such as tuberculosis.
Mr Valls said everything would be done to ensure that vulnerable people, and particularly ‘children and pregnant women’, were rehoused as quickly as possible.
Mr Sarkozy started a purge on Romas in the summer of 2010, pointing to the fact that up to 15,000 were living in camps across France. Mr Sarkozy even proposed that police travel to Romania to fight trafficking and other crimes committed there by Roma.
In turn, Roma groups accused Mr Sarkozy of ‘ethnic cleansing’, pointing to the fact that gipsies had been targeted by the Nazis during the Second World War.
They said that the purge was all part of a generally racist strategy adopted by Mr Sarkozy against all foreign groups, including some six million Muslims living in France.
Romania has been a full member of the European Union since 2007, and its citizens can enter France without a visa.
But they must get residency permits if they want to settle long term and work.
Britain, like France, has transitional controls on Romanians seeking to settle in the UK.
Until next year only those Romanian migrants who have a job or can support themselves are allowed to stay in Britain.
[ed. It is only a start. Deporting 200 Romanians cannot and should not be considered the end of the fight, around the world, by any means...]
9 August 2012
‘Europe Will Collapse as the Soviet Union Did’
Aug 9th, 2012
“It’s inevitable that the European project should reach a crisis – as it was inevitable that Lenin’s project in 1917 should do the same.”
Roger Scruton has no doubt: the European Union will collapse as it happened with the Soviet Union. Hailed as “Britain’s foremost conservative philosopher” by the The Wall Street Journal, Professor at Oxford and St. Andrews, Scruton is author of twenty books, including, “The Meaning of Conservatism” and the latest “The Face of God.” He is one of the very few intellectuals who predicted the implosion of the European project.
“The European crisis has come about, in my view, for two reasons,” Scruton tells me. “First, there was the original project, to create a united states of Europe. This project was conceived without any Plan B. It seemed imperative to achieve it, and no provisions were made for failure, or for a change of direction. The machine lumbers forward without feedback, and can make no adjustments to a changing reality. Second, the project was entrusted to a bureaucracy, with extraordinary legislative and administrative powers. Those responsible for pushing things forward are neither elected by the people nor answerable to the people in any election. They proceed at uniform speed in a straight line until reaching the inevitable immovable obstacle. When that happens, it will all be over. But the damage will be enormous.”
Given those two features of the European project it is inevitable that it should reach a big crisis. “The failure also has two important causes. First, as everybody knows, there is a growing deficit of legitimacy in the European institutions. Once or twice the institutions have appealed through their political spokesmen to the people. But whenever given the chance to vote the people of Europe say ‘no’ to the project. The project continues as before, unaffected by this ‘no’. But the people draw their conclusions, and gradually withdraw their trust.”
The other cause has been the complete failure of the European political elite to consider the culture of Europe. “The culture of Europe is founded in the Judeo-Christian revelation, and our laws, institutions and educational traditions are unintelligible without reference to the lessons taught in the Bible. But the culture of Europe is also a secular culture, as I explain in my book ‘The West and the Rest’, based in territorial loyalty of a national kind. Both the religious and the national sources of our culture are repudiated by the European elites, who believe that culture is of no significance, and will change in obedience to the political and economic imperatives. Hence those who invented the Euro and imposed it unthinkingly on the people of Europe failed to see that the attitude of people to debt is profoundly affected by culture, and that the culture of Greece (for example) is totally different, in this respect, from the culture of Germany, and that of Italy of course different to both of them.”
Scruton gives me an image of the European collapse: the end of Brussels. “Brussels is the capital of Flanders, but thanks largely to the European Union the Flemish have been forbidden to have a nation of their own. The Allies spared the city from bombardment in the War, since it was to be the site of a Victory Parade, and a symbol of the rebirth of Europe. However, the European institutions have colonized the place, destroyed much that was beautiful and dignified, and defaced the remainder with their sterile blocks of concrete and glass – symbols of the moral emptiness within. When the European project collapses they will hand back to the people of Flanders a city without a soul. To rebuild it as a dignified capital will be expensive, and will require a great labour of demolition. But it could be done, provided the Flemings are allowed to exist as a nation state, and allowed to build as they wish.”
In twenty years or so, Brussels will have a Muslim majority. Sharia courts are already operating in the city. I asked Scrunton, will Islam fill the European desert?
“The vacuum that is growing in the heart of Europe is of course a spiritual phenomenon,” Scruton says. “There is no doubt that, demographically, Islam has the chance to fill this vacuum. However, we should remember that, despite the weakness of the Christian faith, the European peoples remain committed to secular government and the rule of law, and will not accept government by the kind of ‘holy law’ that is the foundation of the Muslim faith. I suspect, therefore, that Islam will not be able to impose itself in any clear and officially sanctioned way on Europe. And, at a certain point, the people of Europe will wake up to what is happening to them, and, in casting off the European Union and its shackles, will repossess themselves of their national identities and the cultural inheritance that goes with the national idea. That is my hope, at least.”
Man Sentenced to 30 Days for Catching Rain Water on Own Property Enters Jail
By Kendra Alleyne
August 8, 2012
(CNSNews.com) – Gary Harrington, the Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his rural property surrendered Wednesday morning to begin serving his 30-day, jail sentence in Medford, Ore.
“I’m sacrificing my liberty so we can stand up as a country and stand for our liberty,” Harrington told a small crowd of people gathered outside of the Jackson County (Ore.) Jail.
Several people held signs that showed support for Harrington as he was taken inside the jail.
Harrington was found guilty two weeks ago of breaking a 1925 law for having, what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property. He was convicted of nine misdemeanors, sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined over $1500 for collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his property.
Crowd of supporters outside Jackson County Jail, Wednesday August 8, 2012. (Photo: Gary Harrington)
The Oregon Water Resources Department, claims that Harrington has been violating the state’s water use law by diverting water from streams running into the Big Butte River.
But Harrington says he is not diverting the state's water -- merely collecting rainwater and snow melt that falls or flows on his own property.
Harrington has vowed to continue to fight the penalty, stating that the government has become “big bullies” and that “from here on in, I’m going to fight it.”
“They’ve just gotten to be big bullies and if you just lay over and die and give up, that just makes them bigger bullies, Harrington said in an interview two weeks ago with CNSNews.com.
"We as Americans, we need to stand on our constitutional rights, on our rights as citizens and hang tough. This is a good country, we’ll prevail,” he said.
His release is expected in early September.
8 August 2012
Cancer sufferer refused treatment by the NHS attacks David Cameron, forcing him to defend his £12billion foreign aid bill
By Martin Robinson
8 August 2012
David Cameron was today forced to defend sending £12 billion abroad in foreign aid when confronted by a woman who may die because the NHS will not fund the cancer treatment she desperately needs.
The Prime Minister was taken to task during a live radio interview this morning where he denied Britain was wrong to have increased funding to other states by 37 per cent despite huge cuts to home budgets.
A non-Hodgkin lymphoma sufferer, who used the name Anna because some of her family do not know she is ill, asked him why taxpayers' money was going to other countries - such as India, even though it can afford its own space programme - and not to people like her.
India also has almost three times as many billionaires as the UK.
The 68-year-old from north London has stopped cancer treatment because of a dangerous allergic reaction, and the drug she needs is available in Germany but not in her area.
Tragically she is also a full-time carer for her husband, but is so ill he has been forced to go into a care home and she is living alone at home on only £68 per week.
The Prime Minister told LBC listeners he would look at her case but the UK has a 'moral obligation to help people in other countries even when times are tough,' he said.
'Breaking promises to the poorest people in the world would not be the right thing to do,' he added, saying without the aid more foreigners would seek asylum in Britain.
Speaking to MailOnline Anna said Mr Cameron should be making sure people in Britain are well looked after first.
'I understand what he is saying, but I would say to him if your family is starving you wouldn't go and feed your neighbours. He should be looking after people here.
'I have offered to pay my own airfare to Germany to get this treatment, but every day I wake up waiting for news of whether a charity can raise the £250,000 I need to pay for it. I know I may be one of many people in this situation and I don't think that is right.
'We put all this money into Europe but we are unable to go there and get something for it.
'All I want is to get my husband back,' she said tearfully, 'My life has stopped completely and I haven't even told my whole family that I am ill. My grandchildren are frightened of my wig and I just want them back here too.'
The Prime Minister said that the Coalition had increased spending on the NHS.
'It is very important that people get treatment,' he told LBC, 'We have not cut spending to the NHS we have increased it.
'We have the cancer drugs fund and we are looking to extend that.
'We are having a tough time at the moment but we must keep promises to the poorest countries in the world.'
Mr Cameron is under huge pressure to freeze or even cut Britain's foreign aid spending.
India is still receiving nearly £300million from British taxpayers in aid, for example, despite the country being rich enough to launch its own space programme.
Their own ministers even described the sum they received as 'peanuts'.
A powerful committee of peers attacked the Prime Minister’s pledge to increase aid spending by 37 per cent to more than £12billion a year in order to meet an ‘arbitrary’ United Nations target.
They said they fully supported humanitarian aid for disaster zones. But they pointed out that it accounts for less than 10 per cent of the vast budget of the Department for International Development (DfID).
In a devastating verdict they warned that the rush to increase spending ‘risks reducing the quality, value for money and accountability’ of the aid programme.
The finding is a major embarrassment for Mr Cameron who is said, while in opposition, to have adopted the target of spending 0.7 per cent of Britain’s income on aid, partly to help ‘detoxify’ the Conservatives’ image as ‘the Nasty Party’.
The cross-party economic affairs committee said ministers seemed more interested in the amount of money they were spending on aid than the results they were achieving.
The committee’s chairman, former Tory Cabinet minister Lord MacGregor, said: 'We were unanimous in our view that legislation for a 0.7 per cent target is inappropriate, and that the Government should reconsider.
'We believe aid should be judged by the criteria of effectiveness and value for money, not by whether a specific arbitrary target is reached.'
HOW WE GIVE AID TO A COUNTRY WITH MORE BILLIONAIRES THAN US
Last year it was announced Britain would give more than £1billion in aid to India over the next four years, even though it has almost three times as many billionaires as we do.
Ministers claimed the decision to hand around £280million a year in taxpayers’ cash to one of the world’s biggest economies would re-energise the relationship with the former colony.
However, India is a nuclear power, has its own space programme and is rich enough to donate money to poor African nations each year. India also:
- has 69 dollar billionaires, compared to Britain's 29;
- spends £23billion on its military;
- plans a first manned space mission by 2016 - at a cost of £1.7billion; and
- in terms of GDP, has the 11th largest global economy.
While the Coalition axed aid to economic powerhouse economies such as Russia and China, Department for International Development sources claim India is ‘different’.
Despite its immense poverty, India is home to some of the richest people on earth. The wealthiest Indian is Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries and the fourth richest man in the world.
But perhaps the best known billionaire in India is Vijay Mallya, the eccentric 55-year-old owner of the United Breweries Group that produces Kingfisher beer and is behind Kingfisher Airlines.
He also owns a Formula One team, and one of the world’s biggest private yachts - the 312ft Indian Empress.
Sceptics believe much of Britain’s aid is as much about strengthening British trade ties as helping the poor.
In a visit last year, David Cameron lobbied hard on behalf of British business. The trip led to a £686million aircraft deal for defence contractor BAE Systems and engine makers Rolls-Royce.
Olympics spectator with Parkinson's wants 'exoneration' after arrest
8 August, 2012
A man with Parkinson's disease who was arrested during the Olympic men's cycling road race while sitting beside the route has said he wants a "letter of exoneration" from Surrey police, claiming their treatment of him was disproportionate.
Mark Worsfold, 54, a former soldier and martial arts instructor, was arrested on 28 July for a breach of the peace shortly before the cyclists arrived in Redhouse Park, Leatherhead, where he had sat down on a wall to watch the race. Officers from Surrey police restrained and handcuffed him and took him to Reigate police station, saying his behaviour had "caused concern".
"The man was positioned close to a small group of protesters and based on his manner, his state of dress and his proximity to the course, officers made an arrest to prevent a possible breach of the peace," Surrey police said in a statement.
Worsfold, whose experience was first reported by Private Eye, claims police questioned him about his demeanour and why he had not been seen to be visibly enjoying the event. Worsfold, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2010, suffers from muscle rigidity that affects his face. He was released after two hours without charge or caution.
"It could have been done better. I was arrested for not smiling. I have Parkinson's," he said, adding that he realised the officers were working long hours and trying to control the event properly, but they had not, in his case, acted correctly. He said he did not want to make further comment until he received a response from Surrey police.
Worsfold, who teaches martial arts in Leatherhead, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last February for the Save the Rhino charity.
Surrey police said: "There were a number of factors which led officers to make this arrest, including the fact that the race was rapidly approaching, the heightened level of security due to the high-profile nature of the event and the sheer number of spectators in attendance. These were fully explained to the individual concerned. He was given words of advice and released with no further action."
They added that Worsfold had had "a number of knives" in his possession, but that these turned out to be made of rubber and for use only as display items.
The statement said: "Surrey police has received a letter from the man in which he has said that he 'fully understands and appreciates the action taken by officers'. He has also said that he 'appreciated and thanked both the arresting officers for their apologies and explanations' following his release."
Chief Superintendent Gavin Stephens said: "Officers were policing huge numbers of people during the Olympic events and in the interests of public safety they acted quickly and decisively based on the information available to them."
Campaigners, however, said the incident was illustrative of the kind of "chronic misunderstandings" people with Parkinson's have to deal with regularly. "Sadly Mark's experience highlights the lack of understanding and compassion that many people currently living with Parkinson's have to deal with every day," said Laura Bowey, head of information and support at Parkinson's UK.
"Despite affecting over 127,000 people in the UK, people with Parkinson's are subject to chronic misunderstandings and misconceptions about the condition. All too frequently people with Parkinson's tell us how are they are accused of being drunk, or acting suspiciously as they go about their daily lives.
"Parkinson's is a complex condition, and those living with it can experience a range of different symptoms that can vary almost on an hourly basis. We hope that Mark's experience will help to raise awareness of this distressing problem and will be a reminder to be careful about making the wrong assumptions about people who have Parkinson's."
[ed. So if someone doesn't have Parkinson's they should be harrassed by police for "not enjoying the event"?...]
7 August 2012
Is not joining Facebook a sign you're a psychopath? Some employers and psychologists say staying away from social media is 'suspicious'
By Daily Mail Reporter
7 August 2012
Facebook has become such a pervasive force in modern society that increasing numbers of employers, and even some psychologists, believe people who aren't on social networking sites are 'suspicious.'
The German magazine Der Taggspiegel went so far as to point out that accused theater shooter James Holmes and Norwegian mass murder Anders Behring Breivik have common ground in their lack of Facebook profiles.
The common concern among bosses is that a lack of Facebook could mean the applicant's account could be so full of red flags that it had to be deleted.
Slate.com tech reporter Farhad Manjoo wrote in an advice column that young people shouldn't date anyone who isn't on Facebook.
'If you’re of a certain age and you meet someone who you are about to go to bed with, and that person doesn’t have a Facebook page, you may be getting a false name. It could be some kind of red flag,' he says.
Manjoo points out that these judgements don't apply to older people who were already productive adults before social media became widespread.
The tech news site Slashdot summed up Der Taggspiegel's story about social networking as 'not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.'
It points out that Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 people and an unborn child and wounding 58 others at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and Breivik, who murdered 77 people with a car bomb and mass shooting, did not use Facebook and had small online footprints.
Breivik used MySpace and Holmes was reportedly on the hookup site Adult Friend Finder.
Psychologist Christopher Moeller told the magazine that using Facebook has become a sign of having a healthy social network.
Psychologists have noted that Holmes, along with several noted mass murderers, have lacked any real friends.
And this is what the argument boils down to: It's the suspicion that not being on Facebook, which has become so normal among young adults, is a sign that you're abnormal and dysfunctional, or even dangerous, ways.
