Europe Culture

France’s second city will be European capital of culture in 2013. But for the moment, news from Marseille is dominated by feuds among Kalashnikov toting drug dealers who hold sway over entire neighbourhoods. (Article)

Filed under: Etc., Videos, Hatchback, Alfa Romeo, Humor

After the culture clash between the Americans at Chrysler and the Germans at Daimler during the bad old DCX days, there has been concern that the latest European occupation of Auburn Hills could lead to similar friction. Granted, Fiat is not Mercedes-Benz , but Italian sensibilities can be quite dissimilar from those of most Detroiters.

So count us doubly impressed to happen upon this video, featuring an Alfa Romeo Giulietta "playing hockey." Never mind that it was Alfa's U.K. group that put together this amusing video to highlight the Giulietta's All Weather traction mode. We'd like to think that somebody from Hockeytown weighed in with some encouragement for the idea.

In fact, now that we think about it, maybe this whole hockey-playing-car thing could be the next extension of Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" campaign . The new Dodge Dart is all Giulietta underneath, and the Chrysler 300 SRT8 would make one heck of a goon...

Click past the jump to see the Alfa on ice.

Continue reading Watch this Alfa Romeo Giulietta play ice hockey

Watch this Alfa Romeo Giulietta play ice hockey originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By Eric Walberg – Cairo

The Third Annual BDS Conference opened 17 December at Hebron's Children's Happiness Centre, 'to expand Palestinian civil society's active implementation of BDS that is deeply rooted in the Palestinian struggle.' European BNC coordinator Michael Deas affirmed, 'BDS is now the main framework for solidarity. We are very close to closing the European market to Israel.'

A boycott bombshell in January was dropped by an 11th-grade American Jewish teenager, Jesse Lieberfeld, who won Dietrich College’s 2012 Martin Luther King, Jr Writing Award for his essay about his moral awakening when he realised his American Jewish culture was unavoidably identified with supporting Israel.

“I once belonged to a wonderful religion,” says young Jesse. “I routinely heard about unexplained mass killings, attacks on medical bases, and other alarmingly violent actions for which I could see no possible reason. ‘Genocide’ almost seemed the more appropriate term... Whenever I brought up the subject, I was always given the answer that there were faults on both sides... I felt horrified at the realisation that I was by nature on the side of the oppressors. I was grouped with the racial supremacists.” Finally, at the synagogue, he asked, “I want to support Israel. But how can I when it lets its army commit so many killings?” and was told by the rabbi, “It is a terrible thing, isn’t it? But there’s nothing we can do. It’s just a fact of life.” “I thanked him and walked out shortly afterward. I never went back.” When American youth like Jesse are forced to give up being Jewish because of Israeli crimes, it cannot be long before Israel crumbles under the weight of its accumulated crimes.

2011 witnessed the rise of Internet attacks on Israeli government sites by public-spirited BDSers determined to enforce a kind of “cyber boycott”. While the Saudi government remains aloof from BDS support, an enterprising Saudi hacker disrupted several Israeli websites in January, prompting Israeli hacker Yoni (most likely a spin-off from the Israeli military's IDF-TEAM, which brought down Saudi and Abu Dhabi financial exchange websites last year) to threaten war, including “mass credit card exposures, and denial-of-service attacks”.

“Yoni” piously told Ynet, “We do not operate against any specific nationality, and any person who operates against the group’s principles will be harmed, regardless of religion, creed or gender. In addition, I wish to note that the group regrets harm done to innocents and tries to avoid it as much as it possible.” Imagine if Israel adhered to such high standards in its relations with its neighbours — it would not need to hack and steal credit card information from anyone.

Another such anti-BDS feint is by the pro-Israeli Internet NGO Monitor, DPWatchDog and Israel’s Reut Institute, which called on Israeli government agencies to “sabotage” and “attack” the Palestine solidarity movement, and has claimed credit for “price tag” attacks on The Electronic Intifada by Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal, the Palestine Return Centre, the persecution of the Olympia Food Co-op, the Berkeley Daily Planet and the “Irvine 11”. In “2011: The Year We Punched Back on the Assault on Israel’s legitimacy,” Reut lauds the emergence of “our network” and gives credit to the Israeli government and “the Jewish world’s mobilisation against the political assault on Israel".

This conflation of “Jewish” and “Israeli” is the Israel-firsters' trump card, perversely stoking anti-Jewish sentiment where none exists, the so-called “new anti-Semitism”, a directly result of Israeli crimes. “Price tagging” is usually associated with Israeli settler terrorism, vandalism, tree-felling, mosque burnings and murder. A particular zealous advocate, Andrew Adler, suggested in the Atlanta Jewish Times in January that US President Barack Obama could be on the hit list. That the Reut Institute associates itself with such criminal activity is yet another sign of Israel’s drift towards outright pariah status, and fuel for the anger of the Jesse Lieberfelds “regardless of religion, creed or gender”.

Boycott activities are not just confined to Israeli products abroad or visits by Westerners to Israel, but are now taking place regularly on land, at sea and in the air, as activists surround Israel and invent ever new ways to break its siege of the Occupied Territories.

The Global March to Jerusalem held a conference in Beirut in January confirming 30 March, the 36th anniversary of Palestinian Land Day, as the date for their land action: “From all continents we will converge and gather along the Palestinian borders with Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon in a peaceful march towards Palestine.”

Plans for “Sailing for Freedom” by French and other European activists are moving ahead, aiming for a September yachting regatta in the Mediterranean, starting in Marseilles and proceeding to Tunisia, Egypt and Gaza. Other flotilla organisers have been discussing a new strategy of sending isolated vessels from various ports instead of high-profile flotillas, with the intent of actually breaking the siege, as opposed to merely attracting world attention to Israel (and Greek and US) sabotaging of flotillas.

In April 2012 a Flytilla is scheduled to arrive at Ben Gurion Airport, to “again challenge the Israeli policy of isolating the West Bank”. “Welcome to Palestine” is a French-Belgian initiative, modeled on the Flytilla last July, when 500 people prepared to fly to Tel Aviv. Despite the nightmare that activists experienced both in European airports and in Ben Gurion Airport, 125 actually arrived, and this year, activists are determined to increase their numbers and continue to poke the Israeli watchdog.

“The Israelis have constructed enormous prisons for Palestinians. But prisoners have a right to visits,” says Adri Nieuwhof. The idea has spread to the UK, where towns are sponsoring people to risk Israeli wrath. European airlines are now more concerned with their image in the West than with Israeli authorities, and organisers predict that there will be less collusion to pre-screen flights arriving in Tel Aviv from Europe.

These particularly plucky activists continue the tradition begun in 2011 of a peaceful blitzkreig of Israel from all sides, risking life and limb, enforcing a kind of physical “citizens boycott” of Israel, complementing the spiritual one by the young Jesses. Their co-activists on the “homefront” are now combining the physical and spiritual by the now annual protest during the Israel lobby AIPAC’s annual conference in Washington DC. This year it is called OCCUPY AIPAC, scheduled for 2-6 March. Kalle Lasn, editor of Adbusters, declared: “The time has come for the Occupy Movement to demand an end to the Occupation of Palestine.” OCCUPY AIPAC will provide a sneak preview of “Roadmap to Apartheid” narrated by Alice Walker (roadmaptoapartheid.org).

Legal actions against BDSers continue to plague activists. But there are principled judges. Twelve French activists from Boycott 68 were acquitted 15 December on charges of “inciting discrimination and racial hatred” for calling on French shoppers at Carrefour supermarkets to boycott Israeli goods. The court judgment is expected to put the kibosh on further persecution of activists.

UK’s National Union of Students endorsed campaigns targeting divestment in Eden Springs and Veolia on 6 January. Veolia suffered considerably from a robust BDS campaign across Europe last year for its light-rail project in Jerusalem, but is defiant in expanding its activities in Israel without regard to their legality. Subsidiaries of Veolia own and operate Tovlan landfill which processes Israeli waste in the occupied Jordan Valley. To sweeten the tons of garbage it dumps illegally on Palestinian land, Veolia recently offered three containers for free waste collection to Palestinians in Jiftlik. Comments Omar Barghouti, “As Desmond Tutu said, we do not need anyone to polish our chains; we want to break them altogether. This is beyond humiliating; it is racist and criminal. Derail Veolia!”

Sanctions -- and their removal, in the case of the Palestinians -- require foreign governments to stare down the powerful world Zionist lobby. Few states dare to do this, but there are more and more cracks in the walls that Israel puts up. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniya launched a historic tour of Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Turkey, Qatar and Bahrain in January, welcomed throughout the region as a David to the Israeli Goliath.

Three Hamas politicians also left Gaza via Egypt to attend a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Switzerland in January, the first time since Hamas was democratically elected in 2006. Switzerland does not belong to the European Union, which put Hamas on its list of terrorist organisations to please Israel.

“We also met with the Red Cross in Geneva, the vice-mayor of Geneva and with Islamic organisations in different cantons,” Mushir Al-Masri said. A meeting at the University of Geneva to commemorate the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s attack on Gaza in December 2008, was attended by 500. “All persons who were complicit in the war crimes committed in Gaza should be taken to court,” Al-Masri told the packed hall. Socialist MP Carlo Sommaruga told the audience, “I was an activist against the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Every person has a responsibility. Everyone can participate in the BDS movement.”

- Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/ You can reach him at http://ericwalberg.com/ His Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games is available at http://claritypress.com/Walberg.html. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Seba Aghayeva, deputy head of Azerbaijan News Service As 2012 began and Europe faced economic problems crisis of democracy emerged in France considered center of the Old Continent's power, culture and freedom of thought. France, which presented the U.S. with monument embodying freedom and which is advocate of freedom of thought in the world, transformed into a state restricting human rights and freedom of speech with the help of a number of senators.

Paris, January 30th, 2012 – The EU Commission is engaging in an all-out offensive to portray ACTA as normal trade agreement harmless to fundamental rights or access to knowledge. In several published documents, the Commission's attempts to impose ACTA onto the EU Parliament while silencing legitimate criticism. But these misrepresentations don't resist scrutiny.

As EU executive branch (EU Commission plus 22 Member States governments) officially signed ACTA1, the way is now open for its consideration by the European Parliament. Its 754 elected members now have an opportunity, during a process that will last for several months, to either accept or reject ACTA.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are already under great pressure, not only from the copyright industry lobbyists, but also from the European Commission's “International Trade” directorate2, who negotiated the text in total opacity during 3 years. Citizens must contact the Members of the EU Parliament (MEPs) to denounce the Commission's infuriating lies, and urge them to ensure that the EU's democratic values will be preserved. MEPs must commit to working in their respective committees towards the rejection of ACTA.

“The EU Commission is plainly lying to the Members of the European Parliament by presenting ACTA as an acceptable agreement. By signing ACTA together with EU Member States, the EU Commission dismissed the legitimate concerns of thousands of citizens across Europe who have been protesting against ACTA in the past few days. Citizens must contact their elected representatives and remind them what ACTA is all about: circumventing democracy and hurting freedoms to protect the outdated business models of rent-seeking industries.”, said Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for La Quadrature du Net.

ACTA is worse than SOPA

On its website , the EU Commission pretends that ACTA “is not SOPA”. This is correct. In some important ways, ACTA is worse than SOPA. ACTA is the global blueprint for repressive laws such as SOPA:

• ACTA is the inspiration for SOPA/PIPA in the US. While SOPA may have been put aside for a moment, ACTA is a global agreement negotiated outside of democratic arenas and meant to be imposed globally. Moreover, if SOPA were to be adopted, the US Congress could amend or abrogate it. ACTA will prevent the EU and its Member States as well as other signatories to change their copyright and patent laws, and to fix their broken and brutal enforcement policies to adapt to the new economy of sharing.
• If ACTA is adopted, it will be possible for the entertainment industry to exert pressure on every Internet actor under threat of criminal sanctions (art.23). Intermediaries will thus be forced to deploy (art.27) automated blocking, filtering of communications and deletion of content online. Such measures will inevitably restrict users' freedoms online.
• ACTA's call for “cooperation” between rights-holders and Internet service providers is also advocated by the European Commission as “extra-judicial measures” and “alternative to courts”. This means that police (surveillance and collection of evidence) and justice missions (penalties) could be handed out to private actors, bypassing judicial authority and the right to a fair trial. By defending this SOPA-style policy in ACTA, the Commission is paving the way for the copyright industries' enforcement agenda, preventing any true debate on alternative to repression. This fits with the announced revision of the IPRED and eCommerce directives.

See also La Quadrature's analysis of the final text of ACTA's digital chapter.

Debunking the EU Commission's "fact-sheet" on ACTA

In a document published on its website and circulating in the EU Parliament, the Commission conveys more lies about ACTA.

You can download the following analysis in PDF3.

1. “ACTA is important for the EU's external competitiveness, growth and jobs as well as to the safety of citizens”

• ACTA is a direct by-product of the lobbying offensive launched in 2004 by the International Chamber of Commerce, presided by the then CEO of Vivendi-Universal Jean-René Fourtou, whose wife acted as EU Parliament rapporteur for the IPR Enforcement Directive (IPRED) adopted the same year. It is one of the worst examples of private interests taking over policy-making.
• ACTA may have been negotiated like other trade agreements, but it is not just a trade agreement on tariffs. Instead, ACTA generalizes extreme civil sanctions and broadens the scope of criminal sanctions.
• Binding the EU to such outdated models, and deploying schemes that can be used as anti-competitve weapons will only hamper innovation, competition and growth. Not only in the digital economy, but in many fields which rely on the free sharing of knowledge, from agriculture to healthcare.
• There was never any impact assessment on the need for such an plurilateral agreement. The Commission never proved that tougher enforcement standards worldwide would actually benefit the EU's public interest, much less the rest of the world's.
• Instead of imposing ACTA to developing countries, the EU should urgently look at the broader consequences of its current policies (EUCD, IPRED) on innovation, access to culture and fundamental rights, and reform these policies to lay the foundation of a true knowledge-based economy.
• Contrary to the Commission's claims, transparency on ACTA was only made possible after negotiation documents were leaked by insiders worried of ACTA's consequences. These leaks forced the negotiators to release negotiation texts in the Spring of 2010, more than 3 years after the beginning of the negotiations.
• The negotiation and implementation of ACTA bypasses legitimate international organizations (WTO, WIPO) where copyright, patent and trademarks policy are discussed. This is all the more unacceptable considering that a growing number of countries understand the importance of reforming these policies by breaking away from blind repression.

2. “ACTA is a balanced agreement, providing adequate protection to sectors in need, while safeguarding the rights of citizens and consumers”

• Safeguards in the text are purely generic and declarative, mostly in the general parts of the agreement, where enforcement provisions, generally vaguely worded, are binding to signatories. For instance, a study by legal professors Kroff and Brown stresses that ACTA “overall significantly strengthens enforcement measures (especially criminal law ones), without any of the safeguards and exceptions needed to ensure a balance of interests between right holders and parties”.
• The Commission says ACTA does not go further than the EU acquis, but leading EU legal scholars have made clear that on important points it does: in particular on criminal measures, for which there is no EU acquis, and on border measures and damages.
• The letter of ACTA may not be contrary to the eCommerce directive, EUCD or IPRED, but strengthens them and prevents EU lawmakers from amending them on crucial points.
• The overall logic of ACTA's digital chapter paves the way for extra-judicial measures, similar to those of SOPA and PIPA, whereby rights holders and ISPs or financial service providers would “cooperate” to take “measures” against alleged infringements that could only amount to censorship mechanisms, bypassing due process and the right to a fair trial.
• This reading is comforted by the criminal sanctions provided for “aiding and abetting” infringements (art. 23.4). Such concerns are also accentuated by the EU Commission's IPR strategy and the current overhaul of the IPRED and eCommerce directive.

3. “ACTA is about adequately enforcing existing intellectual property rights, but does not create new rights”

• ACTA modifies the scope of criminal sanctions in EU Member States, ensuring they will be applied for cases of infringement on a “commercial scale”, defined as “direct or indirect economic or commercial advantage” (art. 23.1). This term is vague, open to interpretation, and just plainly wrong when it comes to determining the scope of proportionate enforcement, as it does not make any distinction between commercial and non-profit infringement. Widespread social practices, like not-for-profit file-sharing between individuals, as well as editing a successful information website or distributing innovative technological tools, could be interpreted as “commercial scale”.
• By extending the scope of criminal sanctions for “aiding and abetting” to such “infringement on a commercial scale”, ACTA will create legal tools threatening any actor of the Internet. Access, service or hosting providers will therefore suffer from massive legal uncertainty, making them vulnerable to litigation by the entertainment industries.
• The Presidency of the Council of the EU (representing the 27 Member States governments) had to negotiate ACTA in conjunction with the Commission. The Presidency negotiated the “criminal sanction” chapter of ACTA, which could not be negotiated by the Commission as criminal law is part of Member States' competencies. This illustrates that there is no EU acquis on criminal sanctions and proves that ACTA does change EU law.
• Beyond broadening the scope of copyright, patent and trademarks enforcement, ACTA establishes new procedural rules favouring the entertainment industries. These procedures will have a dramatic chilling effect on potential innovators and creators, especially considering ACTA's insane damage provisions (during a trial, right holders will be able to submit their preferred form of damage computation, see art. 9.1).
• In the future, ACTA's scope could also be easily expanded through the “ACTA committee”. The latter will have authority to interpret and modify the agreement after it has been ratified, and propose amendments. Such a parallel legislative process, which amounts to signing a blank check to the ACTA negotiators, would create a precedent to durably bypassing parliaments in crucial policy-making, and is unacceptable in a democracy. This alone should justify that ACTA be rejected.

4. “ACTA has a broad coverage, so as to protect all European creators and innovators, through a broad range of means”

• China, Russia, India and Brazil, countries where most of counterfeiting is produced, are not part of ACTA, and have stated publicly that they will never be. Considering the widespread opposition to ACTA, the agreement has lost any legitimacy on the international stage.
• Again, the Commission has not even proved the need for new enforcement measures nor that existing TRIPS measures are not enough.
• The Commission keeps stepping up repression, when in many instances counterfeiting is at its core a market failure due to the inadequacy of IPR holders' business models and contracts. At the same time, no EU Commission initiative exists to take a positive approach on discussing new financing models for the culture economy fit for the digital environment.
• Geographical indications – a key point for Europe's small businesses and cultural heritage – are mostly excluded from ACTA. The few references to geographical indications in ACTA will have no or very little effect on third countries' national law.

FFII has also drafted a detailed response to another EU Commission document on ACTA called “10 myths about ACTA”.

• 1. http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta-signed-by-the-eu-lets-defeat-it-toge...
• 2. DG Trade and its commissioner Karel De Gucht are responsible for ACTA within the EU Commission.
• 3. http://www.laquadrature.net/files/Debunking_the_EU_Commissions_fact-shee...

The Art Institute of Chicago has won a major grant from the government of India in honor of a landmark 1893 speech there by a monk, Swami Vivekananda, who introduced Hinduism to the United States.

The $500,000 grant will be signed over Saturday at the opening of a major exhibit of the paintings and drawings of Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian poet, playwright, musician, and philosopher who was the first non-European recipient of a Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.

Marseille's extensive waterfront and harbor zones are teeming with construction sites for new museums, concert halls and galleries as the city prepares to become a European Capital of Culture.

Marseille's extensive waterfront and harbor zones are teeming with construction sites for new museums, concert halls and galleries as the city prepares to become a European Capital of Culture.

As one of Europe's 2012 Capitals of Culture, Guimarães, Portugal, is playing host to an invasion of the arts, including the latest ballet from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, concerts by Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet and a world-class jazz festival.

As one of Europe's 2012 Capitals of Culture, Guimarães, Portugal, is playing host to an invasion of the arts, including the latest ballet from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, concerts by Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet and a world-class jazz festival.

Photo by Alex Zhang Hungtai

-- Dirty Beaches' Alex Zhang Hungtai and minimalist William Cody Watson recently curated a free compilation, Expressway, for experimental label Bathetic, highlighting the scene fueled by Night-People Records. The compilation features new tracks from both Dirty Beaches and Watson as well as Wet Hair, Tonstartssbandht, Speculator, Ela Orleans, Cough Cool, and more.

-- Broken Social Scene's Justin Peroff and Liam O'Neill and Dave Hamelin of the now-disbanded group the Stills have formed a new band, Eight and a Half. Their self-titled debut album is due April 10 from Arts&Crafts, preceded by the "Scissors" b/w "Go Ego" 10" single, out March 10. Stream the B-side here.

-- The Mercury Prize-winning London rapper Speech Debelle will release a new album, Freedom of Speech, via Big Dada on February 13 in Europe and February 21 in the U.S. Download the track "Studio Backpack Rap" here, and watch the video here.

-- Berlin's CTM.12 Festival for Adventurous Music and Related Arts will take place from January 30 to February 5. The lineup includes Tim Hecker, Grouper & Jefre Cantu Ledesma, Oneohtrix Point Never, Holy Other, Balam Acab, Ital, Stellar OM Source, oOoOO, Ben Frost, Mouse on Mars, James Ferraro, Hudson Mohawke, Oval, and more.

-- The book series Best Music Writing, the annual collection of great writing about all kinds of music, has launched a Kickstarter to become published independently. The editorial board for the 2012 edition includes Pitchfork's own Mark Richardson, as well as NPR Music's Ann Powers, The New Yorker's Alex Ross, and more. Vote for your favorite pieces of music writing here.

Paris, January 26th 2011 – Today in Tokyo, the EU and 22 of its Member States officially signed ACTA1, the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement. The worldwide citizen movement initiated against SOPA and PIPA must now focus on defeating their global counterpart ACTA in the European Parliament.

A few days after the online protests against the anti-sharing bills SOPA and PIPA in the United States, today's signing ceremony of ACTA is the symbol of the circumvention of democracy to impose policies that hurt freedom of communication and innovation worldwide. However, this highly symbolic signature is not the end of the road.

Every citizen willing to act to defeat ACTA now has an opportunity to participate in having it rejected. They will be able to weigh in at each of the many steps of the procedure, which will lead to a final vote in the EU Parliament no sooner than June. (See below).

“In the last few days, we have seen encouraging protests2 by Polish and other EU citizens, who are rightly concerned with the effect of ACTA on freedom of expression, access to medicines, but also access to culture and knowledge. This important movement will further build up. European citizens must reclaim democracy, against the harmful influence of corporate interests over global policy-making3. For each of the coming debates and votes in the EU Parliament's committees before the final vote this summer, citizens must engage with their representatives.”, said Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net.

ACTA procedure in EU Parliament

• The International Trade (INTA) Committee of the European Parliament is the main committee working on ACTA.
• The Legal Affairs (JURI), Development (DEVE), Civil Liberties (LIBE) and the Industry (ITRE) committees will first vote on their opinions after holding “exchange of views” on draft reports in the coming weeks.
• Opinions will then be sent to INTA to influence its final report, which will recommend the EU Parliament as a whole to reject or accept ACTA.
• The final, plenary vote by the EU Parliament on ACTA should be held no sooner than June.

• 1. http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/i_property/acta1201.html
• 2. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501366_162-57364609/polish-websites-to-go-da...
• 3. For an analysis of this global movement, see Yochai Benkler's article: http://techpresident.com/news/21680/seven-lessons-sopapipamegauplaod-and...

The British rockers will be appearing at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California in April but don't think they'll be playing any other huge gigs this year.

Arctic Monkeys wont be playing any European festivals this summer The British rockers will be appearing at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio California in April but dont think theyll be playing any other huge gigs this year P...

A former textile industry boom town, Guimarães is using its 2012 European Capital of Culture status to resurface after over twenty years in the economic doldrums. (Article)

A cross-EU collaboration aims to correct the oversight of failing to make culture the foundation stone of the union Even three years later, the idea of 43 Germans - actors, technicians, etc - landing in Rennes for three weeks is not something the National Theatre of Britanny can forget.

The city celebrated its event with a sparkling lights and art display hosted by European Commission President Jose Barroso.

Today, La Quadrature du Net sent a letter to the Members of the Development committee of the European Parliament. All citizens should also call on the committee to carefully consider the many serious issues raised by ACTA, the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement aimed at establishing extremist standards in copyright, patent and trademarks worldwide.

The “Development” committee (DEVE) of the EU Parliament is starting its work on ACTA by debating its draft opinion report2 on ACTA, presented by its rapporteur Jan Zahradil3, a conservative, euro-skeptic representative from the Czech Republic. The DEVE committee will meet around 4:30 pm today to discuss ACTA4.

To underline the crucial issues raised by ACTA, La Quadrature du Net has sent a letter to the members of the DEVE committee. La Quadrature stresses in particular how ACTA was — from the beginning of the negotiations — meant as an agreement to be imposed on developing countries. The letter also points to the human rights concerns regarding the impact of ACTA on access to medecines and free speech online. Finally, the letter insists on ACTA's lack of democratic legitimacy.

Every citizen can contribute to defeat ACTA by contacting members of the EU Parliament (MEPs) and informing them of this illegtimate agreeement's dangers and the need to reject it.

La Quadrature's letter to DEVE committee

To: Members of the DEVE committee

Subject: Exchange of views on ACTA : Crucial issues need to be considered

Dear Member of the Development Committee,

Today, you will hold a first exchange of views on the draft opinion report presented by Mr. Jan Zahradil on ACTA. We write to you to express grave concerns regarding the substance of this draft report.

Many crucial issues raised by ACTA are completely overlooked. In particular, the fact that its negotiators purposefully chose to bypass international forums, such as WTO and WIPO. Last year, leaked US diplomatic cables showed that from the beginning, ACTA was designed to be imposed on developing countries, while excluding them of the negotiation process.[1] This all the more shocking that many NGOs such as Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and Health Action International have shown that ACTA would have negative consequences on the legitimate trade of generic medicines.[2]

Moreover, several advocacy groups also stress that ACTA's digital chapter will export to developing countries several civil and criminal measures to fight the sharing of online culture. ACTA would provide the legal justification for measures such as those proposed in the extremist copyright bills discussed by the US Congress (known as “PIPA” and “SOPA”). Though these US bills have been shelved after huge online protests, ACTA would pave the way for similar extra-judicial measures undermining freedom of speech online and innovation in the digital economy. It would have dramatic consequences, especially in countries that don't have the same fundamental rights protections as the EU. [3]

Finally, ACTA has absolutely no democratic legitimacy. Indeed, it was drafted by a small group of unelected officials in charge of promoting the interests of rights holders in their respective countries — not by legitimate democratic representatives. And now, Members of the European Parliament are asked to approve these new criminal sanctions without the possibility to amend them. If ACTA were to be ratified in Europe, it would undermine the very democratic values on which the Union was founded.

As protectors of the public interest, we trust that you will fully consider these important issues, and amend the draft report to that effect.

Sincerely,

La Quadrature du Net.

1. http://www.laquadrature.net/en/wikileaks-cables-offer-new-insight-on-the...
2. http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Against_ACTA
3. http://www.laquadrature.net/en/node/4104/

• 1. https://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/How_to_act_against_ACTA:_DEVE
• 2. When finalized, this “opinion” will complement the main report in the International trade (INTA) committee, which will be presented in plenary along with the yes/no vote, in the next months. See the draft opinion report: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2f%2fEP%2f%2fNONS...
• 3. https://memopol.lqdn.fr/Europe/parliament/deputy/JanZahradil/
• 4. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&reference=DEV...

The Portuguese city of Guimaraes has staged a huge festival to launch its tenure as European Capital of Culture in 2012.

By Uri Avnery

'Israel has no foreign policy, only a domestic policy,' Henry Kissinger once remarked.

This has probably been more or less true of every country since the advent of democracy. Yet in Israel, this seems even truer. (Ironically, it could almost be said that the US has no foreign policy, only an Israeli domestic policy.)

In order to understand our foreign policy, we have to look in the mirror. Who are we? What is our society like?

In a classical sketch, well known to every veteran Israeli, two Arabs stand on the sea shore, looking at a boat full of Russian Jewish pioneers rowing towards them. “May your house be destroyed!” they curse.

Next, the same two figures, this time Russian Jewish pioneers, stand on the same spot, launching Russian curses at a boat full of Yemenite immigrants.

Next, the two are Yemenites cursing German Jewish refugees fleeing from the Nazis. Then, two German Jews cursing Moroccan arrivals. When it first appeared, that was the last scene. But now, one can add two Moroccans cursing the immigrants from Soviet Russia, then two Russians cursing the latest arrivals: Ethiopian Jews.

That may also be true for every immigrant country, from the United States to Australia. Every new wave of immigrants is greeted by the scorn, contempt and even open hostility of those who came before them. When I was a child in the early 1930s, I frequently heard people shouting at my parents “Go back to Hitler!”

Still, the dominant myth was that of the “melting pot”. All immigrants would be thrown into the same pot and cleansed of their “foreign” traits, emerging as a uniform new nation without any traces of their origin.

This myth died some decades ago. Israel is now a kind of federation of several major demographic-cultural blocs which dominate our social and political life.

Who are they? There are (1) the old Ashkenazim (Jews of European origin); (2) the Oriental (or “Sephardi”) Jews; (3) the religious (partly Ashkenazi, partly Oriental); (4) the “Russians”, immigrants from all the countries of the former Soviet union; and (5) the Palestinian-Arab citizens, who did not come from anywhere.

This is, of course, a schematic presentation. None of the blocs is completely homogeneous. Each bloc has several sub blocs, some blocs overlap, there is some intermarriage, but on the whole, the picture is accurate. Gender plays no role in this division. 

The political scene almost exactly mirrors these divisions. The Labor party was, in its heyday, the main instrument of Ashkenazi power. Its remnants, together with Kadima and Meretz, are still Ashkenazi. Avigdor Lieberman’s Israel Beytenu consists mainly of Russians. There are three or four religious parties. Then there are two exclusively Arab parties, and the Communist party, which is mainly Arab, too. The Likud represents the bulk of the Orientals, though almost all its leaders are Ashkenazim.

The relationship between the blocs is often strained. Just now, the whole country is in an uproar because in Kiryat Malakhi, a southern town with mainly Oriental inhabitants, house owners have signed a commitment not to sell apartments to Ethiopians, while the Rabbi of Safed, a northern town of mainly Orthodox Jews, has forbidden his flock to rent apartments to Arabs.

But apart from the rift between the Jews and the Arabs, the main problem is the resentment of the Orientals, the Russians and the religious against what they call “the Ashkenazi elite”.

Since they were the first to arrive, long before the establishment of the state, Ashkenazim control most of the centers of power – social, political, economic, cultural et al. Generally, they belong to the more affluent part of society, while the Orientals, the Orthodox, the Russians and the Arabs generally belong to the lower socio-economic strata.

The Orientals have deep grudges against the Ashkenazim. They believe – not without justification - that they have been humiliated and discriminated against from their first day in the country, and still are, though quite a number of them have reached high economic and political positions. The other day, a top director of one of the foremost financial institutions caused a scandal when he accused the “Whites” (i.e. Ashkenazim) of dominating all the banks, the courts and the media. He was promptly fired, which caused another scandal.

The Likud came to power in 1977, dethroning Labor. With short interruptions, It has been in power ever since. Yet most Likud members still feel that the Ashkenazim rule Israel, leaving them far behind. Now, 34 years later, the dark wave of anti-democratic legislation pushed by Likud deputies is being justified by the slogan “We must start to rule!”  

The scene reminds me of a building site surrounded by a wooden fence. The canny contractor has left some holes in the fence, so that curious passers-by can look in. In our society, all the other blocs feel like outsiders looking through the holes, full of envy for the Ashkenazi “elite” inside, who have all the good things. They hate everything they connect with this “elite”: the Supreme Court, the media, the human rights organizations, and especially the peace camp. All these are called “leftist”, a word curiously enough identified with the “elite”.

How has “peace” become associated with the dominant and domineering Ashkenazim?

That is one of the great tragedies of our country.

Jews have lived for many centuries in the Muslim world. There they never experienced the terrible things committed in Europe by Christian anti-Semitism. Muslim-Jewish animosity started only a century ago, with the advent of Zionism, and for obvious reasons.

When the Jews from Muslim countries started to arrive en masse in Israel, they were steeped in Arab culture. But here they were received by a society that held everything Arab in total contempt. Their Arab culture was “primitive”, while real culture was European. Furthermore, they were identified with the murderous Muslims. So the immigrants were required to shed their own culture and traditions, their accent, their memories, their music. In order to show how thoroughly Israeli they had become, they also had to hate Arabs.

It is, of course, a world-wide phenomenon that in multi-national countries, the most downtrodden class of the dominant nation is also the most radical nationalist foe of the minority nations. Belonging to the superior nation is often the only source of pride left to them. The result is frequently virulent racism and xenophobia.

This is one of the reasons why the Orientals were attracted to the Likud, for whom the rejection of peace and the hatred of Arabs are supreme virtues. Also, having been in opposition for ages, the Likud was seen as representing those who were “outside”, fighting those who were “inside”. This is still the case.

The case of the “Russians” is different. They grew up in a society that despised democracy, admired strong leaders. The “whites”, Russians and Ukrainians, despised and hated the “dark” peoples of the south – Armenians, Georgians, Tatars, Uzbeks and such. (I once invented a formula: “Bolshevism minus Marxism equals Fascism”.)

When the Russian Jews came to join us, they brought with them a virulent nationalism, a complete disinterest in democracy and an automatic hatred of Arabs. They cannot understand why we allowed them to stay here at all. When, this week, a lady deputy (though “lady” may be euphemistic) from St. Petersburg poured a glass of water on the head of an Arab deputy from the Labor party, nobody was very surprised. (Somebody quipped: “a Good Arab is a wet Arab”). For Lieberman’s followers, Peace is a dirty word, and so is Democracy.

For religious people of all shades – from the ultra-Orthodox to the National-Religious settlers, there is no problem at all. From the crib on, they learn that Jews are the Chosen People; that the Almighty personally promised us this country; that the Goyim – including the Arabs – are just inferior human beings.

It may be said, quite rightly, that I generalize. I do, just to simplify matters. There are indeed a lot of Orientals, especially of the younger generation, who are repelled by the ultra-nationalism of the Likud, the more so as the neo-liberalism of Binyamin Netanyahu (which Shimon Peres once called “swinish capitalism”) is in direct contradiction to the basic interests of their community. There are also a lot of decent, liberal, peace-loving religious people. (Yeshayahu Leibovitz comes to mind.) Some Russians are gradually leaving their self-imposed ghetto. But these are small minorities in their communities.  The bulk of the three blocs – Oriental, Russian and religious – are united in their opposition to peace, and at best indifferent to democracy.    

All these together constitute the right-wing, anti-peace coalition that is governing Israel now. The problem is not just a question of politics. It is much more profound – and much more daunting.

Some people blame us, the democratic peace movement, for not recognizing the problem early enough, and not doing enough to attract the members of the various blocs to the ideals of peace and democracy. Also, it is said, we did not show that social justice is inseparably connected with democracy and peace.

I must accept my share of the blame for this failure, though I might point out that I tried to make the connection right from the beginning. I asked my friends to concentrate our efforts on the Oriental community, remind them of the glories of the Muslim-Jewish “golden Age” in Spain, of the huge mutual impact of Jewish and Muslim scientists, poets and religious thinkers throughout the ages.

A few days ago, I was invited to give a lecture to the faculty and students of Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva. I described the situation more or less  along the same lines. The first question from the large audience, which consisted of Jews – both Orientals and Ashkenazim, and Arabs – especially Bedouins was: “So what hope is there? Faced with this reality, how can the peace forces win?”

I told them that I put my trust in the new generation. Last summer’s huge social protest movement, which erupted quite suddenly and swept [“along”?] hundreds of thousands, showed that yes, it can happen here. The movement united Ashkenazim and Orientals. Tent cities sprang up in Tel Aviv and Beer Sheva, all over the place. 

Our first job is to break the barriers between the blocs, change reality, create a new Israeli society. We need blockbusters.

Yes, it is a daunting job. But I believe it can be done.

- Uri Avnery is an Israeli peace activist and a former Knesset member. He is the founder of Gush Shalom. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Anna Povard, author of The Tulip, describes how the flower spread across the world including Europe and America, from Central Asia.

A committee reporting to the U.N.'s culture organization struck Vienna's many balls from its list of Austria's noteworthy traditions on Thursday amid an uproar over one of the annual champagne-laced galas that critics say attracts neo-Nazis from across Europe.

At a time when the drive for austerity has led most countries to cut back on cultural budgets, the Danish film industry remains one of the most successful in Europe thanks to a pro-active policy of grants and support for young film makers. (Article)

Veteran US actor Robert Redford took a dig at Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney, his party's White House nomination battle and Congress as he opened the annual Sundance film festival.

Redford, touting his knowledge of European culture, lamented the "mushroom cloud of ego" hovering over the Republican party's presidential debates, the latest of which was being held in South Carolina Thursday evening.

Los Angeles – (19 JANUARY 2012) – Producer Alexander Rodnyansky’s AR Films and Geyer Kosinski’s Media Talent Group have announced their formation of a $120 million fund to develop and produce up to six motion pictures in the United States over the next two years. Rodnyansky and Kosinski have already produced two films. The first, JAYNE MANSFIELD’S CAR, is co-written by Academy Award-winner Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, directed by Thornton and stars an ensemble cast including Thornton, Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon, Ray Stevenson and Ron White. It will make its world premiere in competition at the Berlinale on February 13. The second film, THE GOATS (working title), is directed by DJ Caruso, who also adapted the classic young adult novel for the screen. THE GOATS stars Chandler Canterbury, Annalise Basso, Val Kilmer and Radha Mitchell. AR Films was founded by Rodnyansky in 2009. Through AR Films, Rodnyansky controls one of the biggest film licensing and distribution corporations in Central and Eastern Europe, A-Company; the Russian film production company Non-Stop Production; a major distributor of independent films in Russia, Cinema Without Frontiers; and the most important film festival in Russia, Kinotavr. Rodnyansky, a renowned documentary director, is also one of the most successful movie producers in Russia. His films have received critical acclaim from ... Read More »

A committee reporting to the UN's culture organization struck Vienna's many balls from its list of Austria's noteworthy traditions on Thursday amid an uproar over one of the annual champagne-laced galas that critics say attracts neo-Nazis from across Europe.

Valletta's (V18) bid for the title of European Capital of Culture (ECOC) has passed the pre-selection stage following the first meeting of the Evaluation Panel. A selection panel of 13 members ...

Valletta's (V18) bid for the title of European Capital of Culture (ECOC) has passed the pre-selection stage following the first meeting of an evaluation panel set up to assess the applications of cities bidding for the title. Now that it has passed pre-selection stage, Valletta together with the V18 Foundation responsible for the bid, will now need to further develop the bid and include the recommendations made by the panel, which is to meet again in mid-October for the final selection meeting. Culture Minister Mario de Marco thanked all local councils for their cooperation in producing the V18 bid. He said the government was committed to investing in the creative and cultural sector so as to effectively prepare for the European Capital of Culture project as well as for investing in the future of the sector beyond 2018. In difficult economic times, the minister said, countries normally reduce the budget allocated to the cultural sector but in recent years, the government managed to increase the financial allocation for this sector while further increasing the allocation and introducing a number of initiatives in this year's budget. Mario de Marco...

Norristown's Stefania Luciani is a multi-faceted, international artist whose works include everything from oil paintings to soft muted landscapes, to wall size oil canvasses and mosaics.

Global connect: The upcoming performances will give audiences a chance to learn more about different cultures, including the Argentinean tango, European opera, South African ballet, Japanese drumming, Egyptian cinema sound tracks, and Mediterranean music.

A Slovenian singer Maja Keuc performs during the opening ceremony of Maribor 2012 - European Capital of Culture in Maribor, Slovenia, Jan.

In this Oct. 10, 2006 file photo bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff receives the European Culture Award at the Church of Our Lady cathedral in Dresden, eastern Germany.

Maribor, Slovenia is one of two European Culture Capitals in 2012. One of the projects on offer - with a strong focus on European migration policies - is "Urban Furrows," which offers migrants in-depth computer know-how. Figurative furrows crisscross Europe's Culture Capital 2012, Maribor - mental grooves where new ideas are to be planted and ... (more)

Dalwood: 'Isn't it going to favour obvious visible targets like classical music, the performing arts and public art?' The 'Creative Europe' proposal, published in late November, would see €1.8 billion from the EU budget allocated for visual and performing arts, film, music, literature and architecture in the 2014-2020 cycle.

As part of its special feature dedicated to the fight against discrimination in sport, Sport and Citizenship publishes this quarter an interview of the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Youth and Sport, Androulla Vassiliou. ToutelEurope.eu invites you to discover it. Interview by Julian Lapper and Sylvain Landa

European fairs and auctions will provide collectors with plenty of action at the start of the 2012 season, starting with Brafa, Brussel's leading antiques and fine arts fair.

A new wave of Romanian cinema came to fame at the Cannes film festival a decade ago, but many prizes later, filmmakers still struggle to win the box office in their homeland.

Directors Cristi Puiu and Corneliu Porumboiu, who have won recognition in Europe and the United States, say they know what is lacking: not enough theatres and not much interest in local productions by Romanian moviegoers.

A devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East, riots in London and Manchester, and the imminent threat of financial Armageddon in Europe. That was ...

Literature, philosophy, science: today, our tools for understanding the world are developing separately, regrets the renowned intellectual and humanist. However, culture remains a saving grace, particularly in Europe. (Article)

In Guimaraes, visitors will find art in unexpected places. The Portuguese city refreshes its arts scene as it takes on the status of European Capital of Culture, together with Maribor in Slovenia.

David Hockney's iPad art goes on show in London while giant photos by two very different, both cutting-edge artists -- Germany's Andreas Gursky and France's JR -- will be displayed in Copenhagen and Paris, in highlights of January's European cultural line-up.

The Vienna Philharmonic holds its annual New Year concert, as the Austrian capital hosts a major show on winter in European art, and Scotland puts haggis on the menu to celebrate the birth of its national poet Robert Burns.

Following is some of the best of what's on in Europe in January.

AUSTRIA

-------

Maribor, Slovenia's second-largest city, hopes to activate locals and attract visitors as it celebrates its cultural heritage in 2012.

Besieged Gaza, Occupied Palestine

We, Palestinians of Gaza, 3 years on from the 22-day long massacre in Israel's operation 'Cast Lead', are calling on international civil society to make 2012 the year when solidarity with us in Palestine captures the spark of the revolutions around the Arab world and never looks back. On this anniversary we demand an international liberation movement that eventually leads to just that, liberation for us Palestinians from 63 years of brutal military occupation and ethnic cleansing that pours shame on any organisation or government claiming to endorse universal human rights.

We will never forget the hurt of 3 years ago, the criminal onslaught that we lived through, the blood of over 1400 murdered men, women and hundreds of children running through the streets of Gaza, between the rubble, soaking our beds and etched on our minds. We will never forget. For they are still dead, and thousands more are still maimed.

We will never forget the last 63 years during which our land, homes, olive groves, lemon trees and cherished way of life was taken away from us, while Israeli soldiers held our fathers’ faces in the sands, imprisoned them, or shot them in front of us. We will not forget the sickening cowardice of the international community that has allowed and enabled this ethnic cleansing of our people, subjecting us to Israel’s racist Zionist vision that defines us, the indigenous people of Palestine, as the undesired ‘ethnic group’ for the region.

The US continues to ‘reward’ Israel with 6 billion dollars of tax-payers money while the EU increases its trade and diplomatic relations. For the Israeli apartheid regime this translates as the green light to unleash the 4th most powerful military on us to ‘do its worst’ against our civilian population, of which over half in Gaza are children and over 2 thirds are UN registered refugees.

In recent years, civil society and solidarity movements throughout the world have grown in their support for us, especially in 2011. As the world wakes up, the prospect of life without Israeli occupation and its system of race-based subjugation becomes more than a dream. We demand simply, human rights that anyone else would expect. This year, the first taste of liberation in the Western controlled Arab world arrived in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Many of those who took to the streets moved beyond their fear of being killed or tortured, facing up to the despotic, Western-backed regimes in the name of freedom for their families, communities and compatriots.

We will never forget them too, as we have lived much of our lives beyond this fear, our resilience against Israeli apartheid growing as the solidarity movements around the world grow. No longer under the boot of Western governments we urge the Arab street to do what the Israeli Apartheid Regime fears the most, to unite and build against them, the state that has violated more United Nations resolutions than any other. The siege breaking attempts into Gaza must continue, the second Free Gaza Flotilla exposed again the brutal and merciless edge of Israel’s hermetic siege.

In Europe and America the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement is reaching the mainstream. Huge victories have included campaigns against waste and transport infrastructure firm Veolia who build transport routes on Israeli occupied lands.Inspired and supported by Nobel Prize winner and anti apartheid hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the University of Johannesburg ended its collaboration with Ben Gurion University in Israel.Other University campuses are pursuing boycott campaigns and major European Trade Unions have broken ties with Israeli Trade Unions. And a growing number of conscientious artists and singers are refusing to perform in Israel.

All over Israeli internet sites and in government policy are attempts to deter the growing BDS movement, an international strategy that succeeded against a similarly well-armed, Western affiliated apartheid regime in South Africa. 

The effect worldwide of the Gaza massacres 3 years ago was a catalyst for a huge rise in worldwide solidarity and action in support of Palestine, just as the South African Sharpeville massacre was for South African blacks in 1960.

Our call this year will accept no compromise. We call upon all Palestine solidarity groups and all international civil society organizations to demand:

• An end to the siege that has been imposed on the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a result of their exercise of democratic choice.

• The protection of civilian lives and property, as stipulated in International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law such as The Fourth Geneva Convention.

• The immediate release of all political prisoners.

• That Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip be immediately provided with financial and material support to cope with the immense hardship that they are experiencing

• An end to occupation, Apartheid and other war crimes with immediate reparations and compensation for all destruction carried out by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza.

For us, the sacrifices for resisting have often meant imprisonment, torture, collective punishment and death. Outside, the risks are lower, but with great possibility. We call on you to Boycott Divest and Sanction, join the many International Trade Unions, Universities, Supermarkets and artists and writers who refuse to entertain Apartheid Israel. Speak out for Palestine, for Gaza, and crucially ACT. There has never been a time when mobilizations are gaining such support. 1994 was the year of South Africa when Apartheid was thrown into the dustbin of history; with your support we can make 2012 the year of free Palestine!

THE TIME IS NOW!

List of signatories:
 
General Union for Public Services Workers
General Union for Health Services Workers
University Teachers' Association
Palestinian Congregation for Lawyers
General Union for Petrochemical and Gas Workers
General Union for Agricultural Workers
Union of Women’s Work Committees
Union of Synergies—Women Unit
The One Democratic State Group
Arab Cultural Forum
Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel
Association of Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Info
Palestine Sailing Federation
Palestinian Association for Fishing and Maritime
Palestinian Women Committees
Progressive Students’ Union
Medical Relief Society
The General Society for Rehabilitation
General Union of Palestinian Women
Afaq Jadeeda Cultural Centre for Women and Children
Deir Al-Balah Cultural Centre for Women and Children
Maghazi Cultural Centre for Children
Al-Sahel Centre for Women and Youth
Ghassan Kanfani Kindergartens
Rachel Corrie Centre, Rafah
Rafah Olympia City Sisters
Al Awda Centre, Rafah
Al Awda Hospital, Jabaliya Camp
Ajyal Association, Gaza
General Union of Palestinian Syndicates
Al Karmel Centre, Nuseirat
Local Initiative, Beit Hanoun
Union of Health Work Committees
Red Crescent Society Gaza Strip
Beit Lahiya Cultural Centre
Al Awda Centre, Rafah

By James Petras

The economic, political and social outlook for 2012 is profoundly negative. The almost universal consensus, even among mainstream orthodox economists is pessimistic regarding the world economy. Though even here their predictions understate the scope and depth of the crises.

There are powerful reasons to believe that beginning in 2012, we are heading toward a steeper decline than what was experienced during the Great Recession of 2008 – 2009. With fewer resources, greater debt and increasing popular resistance to shouldering the burden of saving the capitalist system, the governments cannot bail out the system.

Many of the major institutions and economic relations which were cause and consequence of world and regional capitalist expansion over the past three decades are in the process of disintegration and disarray. The previous economic engines of global expansion, the US and the European Union, have exhausted their potentialities and are in open decline. The new centers of growth, China, India, Brazil, Russia, which for a ‘short decade’ provided a new impetus for world growth have run their course and are de-accelerating rapidly and will continue to do so throughout the new year.

The Collapse of the European Union

Specifically, the crises wracked European Union will break up and the de facto multi-tiered structure will turn into a series of bilateral/multi-lateral trade and investment agreements. Germany,France , the Low and Nordic countries will attempt to weather the downturn. England, namely the City of London, in splendid isolation, will sink into negative growth, its financiers scrambling to find new speculative opportunities among the Gulf petrol-states and other ‘niches’. Eastern and Central Europe, particularly Poland and the Czech Republic, will deepen their ties to Germany but will suffer the consequences of the general decline of world markets. Southern Europe (Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy) will enter into a deep depression as the massive debt payments fueled by savage assaults on wages and social benefits will severely reduce consumer demand.

Depression level unemployment and under-employment running to one-third of the labor force will detonate year-long social conflicts, intensifying into popular uprisings. Eventually a break-up of the European Union is almost inevitable. The euro as a currency of choice will be replaced by or return to national issues accompanied by devaluations and protectionism. Nationalism will be the order of the day. Banks in Germany, France and Switzerland will suffer huge losses on their loans to the South. Major bailouts will become necessary, polarizing German and French societies,between taxpaying majorities and the bankers. Trade union militancy and rightwing pseudo ‘populism’ (neo-fascism) will intensify the class and national struggles

A depressed, fragmented and polarized Europe will be less likely to join in any Zionist inspired US-Israeli military adventure against Iran (or even Syria). Crises ridden Europe will oppose Washington’s confrontationalist approach to Russia and China.

The US: The Recession Returns with a Vengeance

The US economy will suffer the consequences of its ballooning fiscal deficit and will not be able to spend its way out of the world recession of 2012. Nor can it count on ‘exporting’ its way out of negative growth by turning to previously dynamic Asia, as China, India and the rest of Asia are losing economic steam. China will grow far below its 9% moving average. India will decline from 8% to 5% or lower. Moreover, the Obama regime’s military policy of ‘encirclement’, its economic policy of exclusion and protectionism will preclude any new stimulus from China.

Militarism Exacerbates the Economic Downturn

The US and England will be the biggest losers from the Iraqi post war economic reconstruction. Of $186 billion dollars in infrastructure projects, US and UK corporations will gain less than 5% (Financial Times, 12/16/11, p 1 and 3). A similar outcome is likely in Libya and elsewhere. US imperial militarism destroys an adversary, plunging into debt to do so, and non-belligerents reap the lucrative post-war economic reconstruction contracts.

The US economy will fall into recession in 2012 and the “jobless recovery of 2011” will be replaced by a steep increase of unemployment in 2012. In fact, the entire labor force will shrink as people losing their unemployment benefits will fail to register.

Labor exploitation (“productivity”) will intensify as capitalists force workers to produce more, for less pay, thus widening the income gap between wages and profits.

The economic downturn and growth of unemployment will be accompanied by savage cuts in social programs to subsidize financially troubled banks and industries. The debates among the parties will be over how large the cuts to workers and retirees will be to secure the ‘confidence’ of the bondholders. Faced with equally limited political choices, the electorate will react by voting out incumbents, abstaining and via spontaneous and organized mass movements, such as the “occupy Wall Street” protest. Disatisfaction, hostility and frustration will pervade the culture. Democratic demagogues will scapegoat China ,the Republican demagogues will blame the immigrants.Both will fulminate against “the islamo-fascists” and especially Iran..

New Wars in the Midst of Crises: Zionists Pull the Trigger

The 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations and their “Israel First” followers in Congress, State, Treasury and the Pentagon will push for war with Iran. If they are successful it will result in a regional conflagration and world depression. Given the extremist Israeli regimes’ success in securing blind obedience to its war policies from the US Congress and White House, any doubts about the real possibility of a major catastrophic outcome can be excluded.

China: Compensatory Mechanisms in 2012

China will face the global recession of 2012 with several possibilities of ameliorating its impact. Beijing can shift toward producing goods and services for the 700 million domestic consumers currently out of the economic loop. By increasing wages, social services and environmental safety, China can compensate for the loss of overseas markets. China’s economic growth which is largely dependent on real estate speculation will be adversely affected when the bubble is burst .A sharp downturn will result.. This will lead to job losses, municipal bankruptcies and increased social and class conflicts. This can result in either greater repression or gradual democratization. The outcome will profoundly affect China’s market - state relations. The economic crises will likely strengthen state control over the market.

Russia Faces the Crises

Russia’s election of President Putin will lead to less collaboration in backing US promoted uprisings and sanctions against Russian allies and trading partners. Putin will turn toward greater ties with China and will benefit from the break-up of the EU and the weakening of NATO.

The western media backed opposition will use its financial clout to erode Putin’s image and encourage investment boycotts though they will lose the Presidential elections by a big margin. The world recession will weaken the Russian economy and will force it to choose between greater public ownership or greater dependency on state funds to bail out prominent oligarchs.

The Transition 2011 – 2012: From Regional Stagnation and Recession to World Crises

The year 2011 laid the groundwork for the breakdown of the European Union. The crises began with the demise of the euro, stagnation in the US and the outbreak of mass protests against the obscene inequalities on a world scale. The events of 2011 were a dress rehearsal for a new year of full scale trade wars between major powers, sharpening inter-imperialist struggles and the likelihood of popular rebellions turning into revolutions. Moreover, the escalation of Zionist orchestrated war fever against Iran in 2011 promises the biggest regional war since the US-Indo-Chinese conflict. The electoral campaigns and outcomes of Presidential elections in the US, Russia and France will deepen the global conflicts and economic crises.

During 2011 the Obama regime announced a policy of military confrontation with Russia and China and policies designed to undermine and degrade China’s rise as a world economic power. In the face of a deepening economic recession and with the decline of overseas markets, especially in Europe, a major trade war will unfold. Washington will aggressively pursue policies limiting Chinese exports and investments. The White House will escalate its efforts to disrupt China’s trade and investments in Asia, Africa and elsewhere. We can expect greater US efforts to exploit China’s internal ethnic and popular conflicts and to increase its military presence off China’s coastline. A major provocation or fabricated incident in this context is not to be excluded. The result in 2012 could lead to rabid chauvinist calls for a new costly ‘Cold War’. Obama has provided the framework and justification for a large scale long-term confrontation with China. This will be seen as a desperate effort to prop up US influence and strategic positions in Asia. The US military “quadrangle of power” – US-Japan-Australia-South Korea – with satellite support from the Philippines, will pit China’s market ties against Washington’s military build-up.

Europe: Deeper Austerity and Intensified Class Struggle

The austerity programs imposed in Europe, from England to Latvia to southern Europe will really take hold in 2012. Massive public sector firings and reduced private sector salaries and hiring’s will lead to a year of permanent class warfare and regime challenges. The ‘austerity policies’ in the South, will be accompanied by debt defaults which will result in bank failures in France and Germany.. England’s financial ruling class, isolated in Europe but dominant in England, will insist that the Conservatives ‘repress’ labor and popular unrest. A new tough neo-Thatcherite style of autocratic rule will emerge ; the Labor-trade union opposition will issue empty protests and tighten the leash on the rebellious populace. In a word, the regressive socio-economic policies put in place in 2011 set the stage for new police-state regimes and more acute and possibly bloody confrontations with workers and unemployed youth with no future.

The Coming Wars that Ends America “As We Know It”

Within the US, Obama has laid the groundwork for a new and bigger war in the Middle East by relocating troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and concentrating them facing Iran. To undermine Iran, Washington is expanding clandestine military and civilian operations against Iranian allies in Syria, Pakistan, Venezuela and China. The key to the US and Israeli bellicose strategy toward Iran is a series of wars in neighboring states, world- wide economic sanctions , cyber-attacks aimed at disabling vital industries and clandestine terrorist assassinations of scientists and military officials.

The entire push, planning and execution of the US policies leading up to war with Iran can be empirically attributed to the Zionist power configuration occupying strategic positions in government, mass media and ‘civil society’. A systematic analysis of policymakers designing and implementing economic sanctions policy in Congress finds prominent roles for mega-Zionists like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Howard Berman; in the White House, Dennis Ross and Jeffrey Feltman in State; Stuart Levy and his replacement David Cohen in Treasury. The White House is totally beholden to Zionist fund raisers and takes its cue from the ‘52’ Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations. The Israeli-Zionist strategy is to encircle Iran, weaken it economically and attack its military.

The Iraq invasion was the US’s first war for Israel; the Libyan war the second; the current proxy war against Syria is the third. These wars have destroyed Israel’s adversaries or are in the process of doing so. During 2011, economic sanctions, which were designed to create domestic discontent in Iran were the principle weapon of choice. The global sanctions campaign engaged the entire energies of the major Jewish-Zionist lobbies. They also faced no opposition in the mass media, Congress or the White Office. The Zionist power configuration (ZPC) faced virtually no criticism from any of the progressive, leftist and socialist journals, movements or grouplets – with a few notable exceptions.

The past year’s relocation of troops from Iraq to the borders of Iran, the sanctions and the rising Big Push from Israel’s fifth column in the US means War in the Middle East. This likely means a “surprise” aerial and maritime missile attack by US forces. This will be based on a concocted pretext of an “imminent nuclear attack” cooked up by Mossad and transmitted by the ZPC to the Congress and White House for consumption and transmission to the world. It will be a destructive, bloody, prolonged war for Israel. The US will bear the direct military cost by itself but the rest of the world will pay a dear economic price. The Zionist promoted US war will convert the recession of early 2012 into a major depression by the end of the year and probably provoke mass upheavals.

Conclusion

All indications point to 2012 being a turning point year of unrelenting economic crises spreading outward from Europe and the US to Asia and its dependencies in Africa and Latin America. The crises will be truly global. Inter-imperial confrontations and colonial wars will undermine any efforts to ameliorate this crisis. In response mass movements will emerge which will move over time from protests and rebellions , hopefully to social revolutions and political power.

- James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York, owns a 50-year membership in the class struggle, is an adviser to the landless and jobless in Brazil and Argentina, and is co-author of Globalization Unmasked (Zed Books). Petras’ most recent book is The Arab Revolt and the Imperialist Counterattack. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at: jpetras@binghamton.edu.

A selection of Global Voices' recent and interesting stories including video from Middle East and North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa, Eastern and Central Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America, selected by Juliana RincA3n Parra.

Time was, artists and arts administrators in this country wished that Lebanon were more European.

By M. I. Bhat

Any one in his/her normal senses would laugh away at the very thought of it given the tragedy – in terms of millions upon millions dead, maimed, orphans, households and businesses destroyed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and (if you include indirectly) Pakistan over the past three decades – that recent wars inflicted upon Muslims. Add to this the stigma of terrorism that Muslims have been burdened with today individually and collectively in the eyes of non-Muslims world over. So there is actually everything for a Muslim to cry over than to look for even a faint streak of silver lining in such a large scale and down-to-earth destruction and loss of personality.

That in fact is what a significant proportion among Muslims point to and want their community to think about and change. Who are these within-community ‘well wishers’ who see and understand what the majority of their brethren don’t?

But first let a common notion be clarified that might as well help identify the “well wishers.” That notion is that the terms Islam and Muslims are interchangeable. That may be technically correct but in actuality the two are not even the same. To know what Islam or for that matter any religion is, one needs to go to, as one of the greatest contemporary Islam preacher Dr. Zakir Nayak would often say, the source, not look at what its followers say or do. In Islam’s case the source is Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) sayings and doings (hadith and sunna).
Keeping this in mind, let us try to understand the ‘well wishers.’

This class of Muslims goes by several names that West has bestowed upon them, like ‘moderate,’ ‘liberal’ and, the one they feel enchanted with, ‘progressive.’

Like David Cameroon  calling himself a “committed” Christian, this class of Muslims, at least by sentiments, may not be any less committed Muslims but like him are “vaguely practicing.” They derive their understanding of Muslims and Islam mostly from media, not from Qur’an or mosque. The most vocal among them are easily identified by, for instance, their outright condemnation of suicide bombing any time it happens in the West but would keep mum over ‘Operation Cast Lead;’ or, when called to condemn America-led genocide in Afghanistan and Iraq they turn moralist and philosophical. For them 9/11 is a “tragedy;” Iraq war is punishment for Saddam’s foolish ego or Muslim’s scientific backwardness.

For their Muslim brethren, these ‘progressive’ Muslims want the best of the both worlds -- the present and the hereafter. Logically sound and nothing apparently to beat it. Except when you consider what the best of the ‘present’ world has come to mean for this class of Muslims. It means nothing less and nothing more than what it means for every other person, be that of any other faith or no faith.

Because the highest standard of the ‘present’ world is what the Western societies have achieved and enjoy, the means prescribed by ‘progressives’ for achieving it also happen to be one unique, pro forma path, which is the Western, typically American.

In nutshell, they in fact belong to a homogenized population of one cross-culture, cross-faith community where each community member is in race to out pace the other in accruing material gains, irrespective of whether one believes or not in the hereafter and whatever that entails for the ‘present.’ these are the Muslims who provide grist to Paul Berman’s thesis of non-existence of Islamic civilization. Indeed the death and destruction that Muslims faced in recent wars, in particular the America-led wars, have happened with either active participation or passive indifference of this class of Muslims. On practical front, however, their advocacy and assimilation of Western values have failed to stop the West from implementing ‘The Clash of Civilization,’ howsoever hard one may try to color or camouflage it.

It is where the problem arises for majority of the Muslims who are known to be attached to their faith and are actively practicing it more than any other religious group and for whom ‘hereafter’ is something that keeps ringing continually, if not continuously, in the back of their mind. It is also what distances majority Muslims from their ‘progressives’ and, instead, easily flocks them in front of a mullah. On political front it is one of the contributing factors for the ever-widening gulf between Muslims and the West.

Equally importantly, if scientific and technological developments have underpinned the rise of the Western societies, it also has infused them with “I” and “me” the foremost in their lives, something that goes against Islamic concept of “we,” “us,” and Ummah; mercenaries versus mujahideen.

It is this very Ummah feeling that sizzles Muslims with pain and anger for the suffering Palestinians or what America manipulated for recruiting Muslims from far off lands for Afghan jihad. And it is what America is facing now in Afghanistan and crying vainly against Pakistani Taliban.

Having defined the two broad classes of Muslims, obviously the title has this ‘worldly unwise’ majority Muslims in the context.

The greatest and most unexpected result of the recent wars on this class of Muslims has been the resurgence in the fundamentals of their faith not just among the elderly but significantly among the youth. The beginning of resurgence dates back to two major events happening almost same time in 1979 that jolted the Muslims world and set the trend for revival of Islam.

The first of these was the Islamic revolution in Iran brought about by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni replacing US-backed Reza Shah Pahlavi’s kingdom with the establishment of Islamic republic. Firearm shots by Shah’s forces were returned by milling crowds with Allah-o-Akbar, emphasizing Islamic moorings behind the revolution. Some of the positive consequence of this revolution may have waned since but continued ebbs and flows in confrontation between America and Iran over the past 30 years have at least indirectly helped maintain a sort of natural empathy for the premise of Iran’s revolution among the majority Muslims.

The second was the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan initiating a 9-year long ‘jihad’ that with the American help and publicity drew Muslims from different countries to fight against the Soviets. It is more likely that Muslim might not have labeled it as jihad if America didn’t publicize it so. After all Egyptians didn’t invoke jihad when they fought against Anglo-French in 1957 over Suez Canal or against Israel in 1967 nor have Palestinians used this term during their 63-year struggle against Israeli occupation. Credit for reviving the term jihad in the Muslim lexicon goes exclusively to America. Anyway, jihad became the catch word reminding Muslims of the sprit of their early history and reviving enthusiasm for their faith. 

If these two events weren’t enough along came another set of two events that further added to the already raised religious fervor: the first was the Palestinian Intifada in 1987-93 and second was the defeat of the Soviet Union at the hands of Afghan Mujahideen in 1989 and the re-birth of many Muslim states in the Central Asia from the clutches of communism. For an ordinary Muslim if the Palestinian Intifada was live example of faith-based defiance of and steadfastness against oppression, the victory of Afghan mujahideen was a perfect testimony of God’s promise of helping such steadfast against any enemy, however mighty.

Then there were some regional influences like demolition of more than 450 year old Babri mosque in India in 1992 that left a deep scare on the psyche of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent and fuelled sentiments for their faith.

In such a resurgent atmosphere it was natural for the mosque preachers to achieve ascendency and for ordinary Muslims to draw closer to Islam. I remember reading in early 1980s a news item reporting Indonesian Government feeling concerned with increased mosque attendances that included large proportion of youth. It was not unique to Indonesia but had become a universal phenomenon. Audio and video cassettes began to spread preaching Islam, soon to be taken over by Islamic TV channels and internet blogs.

Having primed the Muslims thinking toward their faith, what followed 9/11-- the Afghan-Iraq wars – added fuel to already well lit religious fire. The result of elections in North Africa or the slogans heard in Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan are there for every one to see – it is reflection of the urge everywhere among Muslims to return to their faith and be ruled by people of strong faith.

That is as for the majority Muslims are concerned. What about the religion itself?

The affect has been mixed. Islamophobia is on ascendance, so is the vote share of political parties that openly or covertly propagate anti-Islam and anti-Muslim sentiments. Strong opposition to Islamic Center near Ground Zero, profiling Muslims and surveillance of mosques are perfect examples of the spread of Islamophobia in America. In Europe opposition to the construction of mosque minarets in Switzerland – a country that usually carried the impression of being rather free from religious and racial problems – and the French President Sarkozy himself advocating and then getting legislation passed against Muslim veil give a measure of how deep and pervasive Islamophobia has spread across the Atlantic into Europe post-9/11 and its importance for political parties to gain power.  Democratic Netanyahu’s banning Adhan is borrowing from his democratic peers in the West!

If this part of the story is depressing. That other part concerns the spread of Islam in the West among non-Muslims despite heightened Islamophobia and depressing condition of Muslims on international political front. 9/11 inconceivably prompted a spate for knowing about Islam among American Christians and in a short span thousands accepted Islam. The phenomenon has not slackened and the European scene is no different. It is this phenomenon that credits Islam among the fastest growing religions in the world. No ‘sword’ here!

The most astonishing part of the conversion (reversion) story, however, is that more than men it is women who embrace Islam – the same Islam whom “[m]any Westerners view … as a religion that restricts and subordinates women in both private and public life.” What on earth would make an educated Western woman go willingly for such an oppressive religion?

Trying to investigate this phenomenon some “leading historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and theologians” reach this conclusion (Women Embracing Islam, ed. Karin v. Nieuwkerk):  “The authors find that while no single set of factors can explain why Western women are embracing Islamic faith traditions, some common motivations emerge. These include an attraction to Islam's high regard for family and community, its strict moral and ethical standards, and the rationality and spirituality of its theology ..”

What a slap to those who see only evil in Islam without ever bothering as little as to touch Qur’an, let alone read and understand it or pondering how they have debased humans in general (OWS is a poignant reminder) and women in particular. However tight Sarkozy and his band may put blinkers on their eyes and plug cotton in their ears, there are people who continue to see and walk into the bright light.

The other equally encouraging development for Islam is the increasing acceptance for one of its most fundamental economic features that is directly related to its concept of justice and social equality, that is, interest-free banking. Again, an unintended consequence: this time of Western economic meltdown. Growing at the rate of nearly 20%, Islamic banking is now available in a large number of Western countries including America and Britain. Only this year HSBC and Goldman Sachs issued Islamic interest-free sukuk bonds worth a total of $2.5 billion and in Russia AK Bars bank secured loan on Islamic financial terms.

Banks may have their interests at heart to open up to the Islamic financial system in the existing breakdown of conventional banking but Vatican is supposed to have far wider religious responsibilities and gaze. Writing in Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore , economists Loretta Napoleoni and Claudia Segre suggest Islamic sukuk bonds may be alternative to revive international financial system!. Before Vatican it was Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams who advocated implementing Shar’ia in marital law, financial transactions and arbitration in disputes!

- M. I. Bhat is former Head, Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Rocket Internet , the Berlin-based incubator best known for German-language clones of US startups like Zappos and Groupon, now has big ambitions in the online furniture space according to information passed to TechCrunch Europe. In a confidential email sent by Oliver Samwer which we have confirmed is genuine, the head (with his brothers Marc and Alexander) of European Founders Fund and the driving force behind Rocket, says their strategy is to become "number one" in the ecommerce sector for furniture over the next year. But the language he uses - including the world "blitzkrieg" - indicates an aggressive and potentially insensitive management style which appears to be a 'modus operandi' of Rocket Internet culture. Samwer has since apologised for using the term.

Limassol was today eliminated from the competition for becoming Cyprus' European Cultural Capital in 2017.

RIYADH: About 4,500 kilometers away from Saudi Arabia, a small country tucked away in an isolated Arctic corner of Europe with fewer than 5 million people has focused on its cultural achievements and promoting cultural interaction with the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia.