Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
The so-called Ravenna Document is a real breakthrough in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
"Now, we are discussing the canonical and theological consequences; for the first time, we approach the questions: What is the Church? Where is the Church? What are the structures of the Church?
"We came to the concept that the Church is realized on 3 levels: the local level, that is, the diocese with the bishop; the regional level, that is, the metropolitan or patriarchate; and the universal level. And on every level we have a tension between authority -- bishop, patriarch, and the 'protos,' Greek for primate, that is, 'the first of the bishops' -- and the principle of synodality, synodal structures."
It was always clear that German corporatism would not survive the first half of the 21st century. What was less clear was how long this process would last and which form its destruction would take. Two important events last week greatly accelerated that process.
The reason why the ugly face of German corporatism is being exposed now is not a sudden outbreak of criminal activity, but a change in public attitudes. The inevitable demise of German corporatism came a big step closer last week and that this is now a lot more evident to a lot more people.
Liechtenstein's hereditary prince, next in line to head the tiny Alpine country, has said that Germany broke the law and violated the state's sovereignty by paying an informant for data on alleged German tax evaders. Prince Alois said that the probe encroached upon the sovereignty of his country and that Liechtenstein would fight back.
But it's not just Liechtenstein's monarchy who is hopping mad at how the German government came by the incriminating data (information purchased by Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, from an as-yet unnamed source). "I find it strange, to say the least, that German officials handed over money to a criminal in order to obtain stolen goods in his possession," Liechtenstein's state prosecutor said.
Chancellor Merkel has defied Germany's NATO allies by refusing to commit troops to combat zones in Afghanistan. Despite intense pressure from the US and warnings that the dispute could lead to an irreparable split in the trans-Atlantic alliance, Merkel said that her government would not reconsider the terms of the mandate under which German soldiers are stationed in the country.
Chancellor Merkel said Monday that she has been invited to address the Knesset next month in what will be the first such speech by a German head of government. She already was due to travel to Israel on March 17 with members of her Cabinet for a summit meant to underline the strength of the countries' relations.
These are words that have been brewing just below the surface in Germany for quite a while, and now they were uttered aloud, right here in Israel.
In a conference held Monday at Netanya's Academic College, German professors asserted that their country "should stop giving the Sate of Israel preferential treatment".
Furthermore, noted the professors, Germany has paid its "debt to the Jewish nation" in full through its reparations agreement with Israel.
This statement comes at the heels of a manifesto, recently published by 25 German scholars, which maintained that Germany must be more 'balanced' in its political relations with Israel and its Arab neighbors.
[Europress] [Russopress]
German paper interviews German Jew...
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has thrown his support behind John McCain. Der Spiegel spoke with him about Germany's Afghanistan mission, tepid European commitment to combatting Islamist extremism and whether direct talks with Iran should go ahead.
EU foreign ministers meeting adopted a common text in reaction to Kosovo's proclamation of independence, leaving it up to the bloc's member states whether to recognise the newly proclaimed state. "The council [the EU's foreign ministers] notes that member states will decide, in accordance with national practice and international law, on their relations with Kosovo."
Deep divisions emerged at the EU meeting in Brussels on Monday, with the assembled Foreign Ministers unable to arrive at a unified position. At least 9 EU nations -- one third of the membership of the EU -- have made clear they intend to refuse recognition to Kosovo.
At the same time, a number of commentators have pointed out that the setting up of a new mini-state in the heart of Europe is fraught with enormous risks. Violent clashes have already begun.
Nearly a century after the outbreak of WW1, the major European imperialist powers and America are once again lighting matches to the "Balkan powder keg" with their support for Kosovan independence, threatening a conflagration with consequences for the entire region and beyond.
German press
The tiny territory of Kosovo finally declared independence from Serbia. But while the newborn country spent the weekend celebrating, the move presents Europeans with just as many problems as it solves.
The West is faced with a difficult problem. Europe is often quick to base foreign policy decisions on rulings made by the United Nations Security Council. Should the EU recognize Kosovo, however, it will be directly countermanding UN Security Council Resolution 1244, adopted in 1999. The resolution explicitly reaffirms "the commitment of all member states to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the other states of the region."
These and other questions are on the minds of German commentators as they take a look at the independence of Kosovo.
The map of Europe must be redrawn once again after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia. But while European recognition is likely, not everyone is pleased about the new Balkan country.
(And: World split; lines drawn)
(And: Superpower divide widens)
(And: Asian reaction)
Serbia has ordered its ambassadors to Washington, London, Paris and Ankara to return to Belgrade for consultations in retaliation for recognition extended to Kosovo as an independent country.
Speaking to the Serbian assembly, which convened to "annul" Kosovo's declaration of independence, Prime Minister Kostunica accused the US of showing the world a "bullying policy of force" by supporting the secession of Serbia's province.
(And: NATO's Kosovo colony)
(Maps: How Yugoslavia vanished)
A day after Kosovo declared unilateral independence from Serbia, the consequences of Sunday's historic events looked set to resound in Europe and beyond for many years to come.
It gives Russia the right to forge new relationships with self-proclaimed states, the Russian parliament said in a statement issued on Monday. "Now that the situation in Kosovo has become an international precedent, Russia should take into account the Kosovo scenario and the actions of other states with respect to Kosovo when considering ongoing territorial conflicts," read the statement, adopted by both houses of parliament.
Kosovo could eventually become a part of Albania, Serbia's ambassador to Russia said on Monday. "It is very difficult to imagine the existence of 2 [separate] Albanian states with a common border," he said, adding that this would eventually lead to the creation of "a Greater Albania."
Dominoes falling...
Georgia's breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are to ask Russia and the UN to recognise their own independence in the wake of the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo. "In the near future, Abkhazia will appeal to the Russian parliament and the UN security council with a request to recognise its independence," said Abkhazia's president.
Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili warned against stirring up tensions in the region. "I do not advise anyone to even put a nose into this issue and to escalate tensions. We want to resolve all the issues peacefully – we do not need any unrests now – but Georgia will not step back."
(And: South Ossetian's president, on a visit to Moscow, told reporters that the 2 republics would hold talks with other unrecognized entities on efforts to seek independence. He said his republic would like to seek independence through Russia's Constitutional Court. "Two years ago we declared our intention to apply to the Russian Constitutional Court. We have a document on a united Ossetia voluntarily joining the Russian Empire in 1774," he said, adding that there were no documents in existence that confirmed the withdrawal of Ossetia from Russia.)
When the Great War comes, said old Bismarck, it will come out of "some damn fool thing in the Balkans."
In the spring 1999, the US bombed Serbia for 78 days to force its army out of that nation's cradle province of Kosovo. We bombed Serbia, we were told, to stop the genocide in Kosovo. But there was no genocide. This was propaganda.
Muslim and Albanian extremists are already talking of a Greater Albania, consisting of Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian-Muslim sectors of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia.
If these Albanian minorities should demand the right to secede and join their kinsmen in Kosovo, on what grounds would we oppose them? The inviolability of borders?
What if the Serb majority in the Mitrovica region of northern Kosovo, who reject Albanian rule, secede and call on their kinsmen in Serbia to protect them?
Of all the nations of Europe, Russia is high among those most threatened by the serial Balkanization we may have just reignited in the Balkans.
The Muslim world will enthusiastically endorse the creation of a new Muslim state in Europe at the expense of Orthodox Christian Serbs.
[WAR: If the powers that be were able to fool us in 1999 with propaganda about a genocide that didn't happen, how much easier it would have been in the 1940's to lie about a so-called "Holocaust"!]
An earthquake shook Israel on Friday. The only damage reported in Israel was on the Temple Mount and near Shechem (Nablus). A large hole opened up on the Temple Mount, which was soon covered by officials from the Wakf Islamic Authority that administers the mosques.
Wakf officials tried to blame Israel for the 6-foot by 5-foot hole, which is about 3 feet deep, claiming it was caused by Israel, which it accuses of tunneling beneath the Temple Mount. They demanded an end to all Israeli excavations in the area.
Palestinian officials angrily denied a claim by Prime Minister Olmert that they had agreed to delay talks on the fate of Jerusalem until the last phase of peace negotiations. "Core issues are inseparable. They are all one package, and there is no such agreement to exclude or delay any of them."
Understanding the Middle East and its complexities has never been easy. To try and better understand the Middle East, it helps to take in a broader perspective of the situation -- to step back and examine the problem with some distance.
Conflict-resolution theorists call this the "helicopter perspective." This is when a certain distance is required to better understand a conflict; this process, in theory, allows conflict interveners to "hover" above a specific area, taking in an overall view of the problem at hand, and then "zoom in" and focus on particular details as needed.
Applying the same theory to time, rather than space, would offer a clearer view of just how much more complicated the Middle East keeps getting with each passing year.
Damage to several undersea telecom cables that caused outages across the Middle East and Asia could have been an act of sabotage, the International Telecommunication Union said on Monday. "We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables."
President Pervez Musharraf's party today conceded defeat after opposition parties routed his government in the Pakistani elections. The Pakistan Peoples Party, the party of the late Benazir Bhutto, and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N inflicted a heavy defeat.
Sharif has called for Musharraf to resign in the wake of his party's defeat. Almost all leading figures in Musharraf's party lost their seats in the election, including the leader of the party, the former speaker of Parliament and 6 ministers.
One year after the announcement that the US government was going to accelerate the militarization of Africa, President Bush is embarking on a journey to Africa to coerce African societies to align themselves with the neo-conservative agenda of the present US administration.
Exactly 1 year ago, President Bush announced that the Defense Department would create a new Africa Command to coordinate US government interests on the continent. Under this plan all governmental agencies of the US would fall under the military.
The major question that is being posed by African peace activists and by concerned citizens is, why now? Why is a lame duck President seeking to gain more support in Africa?
The hypocrisy of the US government in this region is manifest in the fact that while there is a major campaign against genocide and against genocidal violence in Darfur, the government of the US cooperates with the government of the Sudan on the grounds of "intelligence sharing to fight terrorism." It is in the Sudan where the neo-conservatives are stoking the fires of war in order to get access to the oil resources of the Sudan.
Israel and the US see nearly eye-to-eye on the threat of a nuclear Iran, differing only on when Teheran will be able to build an atomic bomb, a key American senator told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
In an editorial Sunday, the Washington Post criticized Barack Obama, for stirring up "class warfare" in his recent campaign appearances. The Post editorial followed an article in the Wall Street Journal's weekend edition, entitled, "Democrats' Attacks on Business Heat Up," which singled out the same speech for attack.
Up until now Obama has been given wide latitude by the media to pursue the Democratic nomination. The Washington Post editorial and Wall Street Journal article are signs that the political and media establishment may well rein him in. If he fails to heed their advice to tone down the populist rhetoric, the media could turn on Obama like a dime.
Bullets of sweat run down the forehead of every lender; Jaw-dropping losses in the trillions, but media is not focusing on numbers; Gold at the outermost bounds of the visible universe; a rate cut band-aid is in the works to stop the impending doom...
Wall Street banks are bracing for another wave of multibillion-dollar losses as the crisis that began with subprime mortgages spreads through the credit markets.
In recent weeks one part of the debt market after another has buckled. High-risk loans used to finance corporate buyouts have plummeted in value. Securities backed by commercial real estate mortgages and student loans have fallen sharply. Even auction-rate securities, arcane investments usually considered as safe as cash, have stumbled.
The breadth and scale of the declines mean more pain for major banks. The losses keep piling up. Leading brokerage firms are likely to write down the value of $200 billion of loans they have made to corporate clients by $10-$14 billion during the 1st quarter of this year.
Analysts at UBS go further, predicting the world's largest banks could ultimately take $123-$203 billion of additional write-downs. Such dire predictions underscore how the turmoil in the credit markets is hurting Wall Street even as the Federal Reserve reduces interest rates.
"The 4th quarter was terrible, but you had strong investment banking revenues. Now you've had a bad December, a worse January and an even worse February."
A new report from the Federal Reserve has confirmed the non-borrowed reserves of US banks plummeted to -$18 billion at a recent accounting, reflecting an apparently worsening situation from the -$8.8 billion reported at the end of January.
The numbers appeared particularly alarming in that the Fed, going back to1959, never before had reported that the non-borrowed reserves of depository institutions had been in the red.
Even veteran Fed-watchers were caught off-guard by Chairman Bernanke's performance before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. Bernanke was expected to make routine comments on the state of the economy but, instead, delivered a 45 minute sermon detailing the afflictions of the foundering financial system.
The Senate chamber was stone-silent throughout. The gravity of the sitution is finally beginning to sink in.
The banks are ailing from their subprime investments while Europe is sinking fast from $500 billion in unsellable asset-backed garbage. The whole system is clogged with crappy paper and deteriorating collateral.
Now there are problems popping up in auction rate sales and the normally-safe municipal bonds. The whole financial Tower of Babel is cracking at the foundation.
So, let's summarize. The banks are battered by their massive subprime liabilities. Housing is in the tank. Manufacturing is down. Food and energy are up. Unemployment is rising. And consumer spending has shriveled to the size of an acorn. All that's missing is a trumpet blast and the arrival of the Four Horseman.
Russian Orthodox bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, the Moscow Patriarchate's delegate for international relationships, said that liberal Christianity is on its way to extinction. "Liberal Christianity will not survive long and political correctness within the Christian environment is destined to die. Today we can't talk about Christian morality because the standards of 'traditional' and 'liberal' Christians are dramatically different and the abyss between these two branches of Christianity is growing."
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