Reading between the lines, and thinking outside the box . . .
At the open-air mass in St. Peter's on April 2, the 3rd anniversary of the death of John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI spoke movingly – he brought mist to the eyes of our little group of visiting Americans – of John Paul's life, and the meaning of his suffering. Benedict was doing something great leaders usually don't do, which is invite you to dwell on the virtues of his predecessor.
John Paul made you burst into tears. Benedict makes you think. It is more pleasurable to weep, but at the moment, perhaps it is more important to think.
A Vatican reporter last week said John Paul was the perfect pope for the television age, "a man of images." Think of the pictures of him storm-tossed, tempest-tossed, standing somewhere and leaning into a heavy wind, his robes whipping behind him, holding on to his crosier, the staff bearing the image of a crucified Christ, with both hands, for dear life, as if consciously giving Christians a picture of what it is to be alive.
Benedict, the reporter noted, is the perfect pope for the Internet age. He is a man of the word. You download the text of what he said, print it, ponder it.
Pope Benedict XVI is coming to the UN next week as "a pilgrim of peace" to promote dialogue between cultures and religions based on fundamental human rights, the Holy See's UN observer said.
"Surely, coming to the UN as a pilgrim of peace, he will say that we cannot base our relations on the false notion that might makes right, that we cannot build our future on a simple balance of power. One of the Holy See's priorities at the United Nations is precisely the encounter and dialogue between people of different cultures, civilizations, traditions and religions."
The New York City Police Department is pulling out all the stops to protect Pope Benedict XVI during his visit next week. From rooftop snipers to hovering helicopters, it will all resemble the security operations used to protect the president. It's an operation that will involve virtually the entire NYPD.
As the world's cities, for the first time in history, boast more inhabitants than the globe's rural areas, the Holy See's permanent observer to the UN says that the needs of urban migrants need to be met.
He concluded by affirming the Holy See's commitment to "addressing the concerns of all migrants and to finding ways to collaborate with all, in order to ensure a proper balance between the just concerns of state and those of individual human beings."
(And: Full text of address)
When a Catholic goes to vote, he should take into account that there are "non-negotiable principles," affirmed the director of the Verona-based Cardinal Van Thuân International Observatory for the Social Doctrine of the Church. He affirmed that among these non-negotiables are the values of life, family, and freedom of education and religion.
The Catholic Church has issued a list of 5,900 people who were forced by the Nazis to work as gardeners, grave-diggers and hospital orderlies at Catholic facilities in Germany during WW2.
During the Nazi era, huge numbers of Eastern Europeans were forced to do factory or farm work at low pay, replacing millions of men conscripted into Hitler's army. Only a limited number of Catholic facilities had used forced labor, and at the same time, the Nazis had been persecuting the church.
It became clear April 3 that the losses incurred by the Bavarian State Bank (BayernLB) resulting from its high-risk dealings on the US subprime mortgage market were much higher than government representatives had formerly stated. The BayernLB is half owned by the state of Bavaria.
Although the state government in Munich is doing everything it can to limit the damage and secure the survival of the BayernLB, Germany's 2nd biggest state bank is not out of trouble yet.
The CSU state government has made clear it is prepared to pump even more money from the state budget into the ailing BayernLB. In the current budget negotiations the state has drawn up contingency plans for further massive sums to bail out the bank.
This has has unleashed a crisis within the ruling CSU. Party chief Huber, who as finance minister also shares responsibility for the dealings of the Landesbank, is under increasing pressure.
The Social Democratic Party and the Greens in the Bavarian parliament have already called for Huber's resignation, and there are "rumours of a putsch" in the CSU against the leadership duo of Huber and Beckstein.
The recent annual conference of the CSU, which last year saw the departure of long-time CSU chairman Edmund Stoiber, was once again wracked by crisis.
The talk is still of government guarantees, but the huge losses at German banks -- stemming largely from the risky US market for subprime loans -- is already hitting taxpayers where it hurts: the pocketbook. Losses continue to mount and could reach €30 billion.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier travels to the US today for talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. DW-World talked with a trans-Atlantic relations expert about the visit.
[Europress] [Russopress]
This weekend's elections in Italy could mark billionaire Silvio Berlusconi's return to power in what would be his 3rd term in office. But rarely have Italian voters been so weary of their politicians -- and rarely has there been so little hope of any real change.
Russia has called on the international forces in Kosovo, EU and NATO to act sensibly, fairly, and strictly within the mandate entrusted to them by the UN.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry says that "according to information coming from certain Western media, the international forces in Kosovo are preparing operations against the Kosovo Serbs with the aim of provoking them. ... Such measures threaten to accelerate a partition of the province, and a large conflict in the region."
President Putin lays the ground to become an unmatched prime minister in the history of Russia by gaining control over the regional envoys. "Envoys will have a new role, they will become the government's envoys overseeing regional branches of ministries and they should answer to the government led by Putin."
The Israeli government and politicians sent mixed messages regarding plans by Jimmy Carter to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus next week.
On the one hand, senior Israeli diplomatic officials in Jerusalem said they were "outraged" at Carter's decision. Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Minister Livni have declined to meet with him when he visits Israel, while sources close to Binyamin Netanyahu said he was refusing to see Carter because of the Mashaal meeting.
Meanwhile in Washington, the US State Department said it had advised Carter against meeting any representative of Hamas.
Iran's ambassador to the IAEA has said that Israel's nuclear capabilities are a potential threat to both international and regional security. He said that over 100 countries in the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency have condemned Israel for not cooperating with the IAEA.
"Although the US has always vetoes the UN Security Council's resolutions against Israel, it could not do so in the IAEA's general conference."
A Middle East summit meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in May is under discussion, the Egyptian foreign ministry said today. The idea was to hold the summit on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting which is taking place in the town between May 18 and 20.
The World Bank has warned that overuse of water resources in the Middle East has put the region at the risk of serious water shortages.
In a brief televised speech delivered Thursday, President Bush announced that there would be no further reduction of US troop strength once the current drawdown of forces is completed in July.
As in dozens of previous speeches on Iraq, Bush portrayed the war as part of a global struggle against Al Qaeda terrorists—although there was no Al Qaeda presence in Iraq until the US invasion, and the Islamic fundamentalists were deeply hostile to the secular nationalist dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
American imperialism is caught in a trap of its own manufacture: unable to withdraw from Iraq without a shattering loss of political authority, not only internationally but also at home, unable to win a war which has no definable end point except the physical extermination of the bulk of the Iraqi people, who will never accept the establishment of a US-backed semi-colonial regime that opens up the country's oil resources to American corporations.
(Op-ed: The Decider's dictatorship)
A Senior Federal Minister said President Musharraf should quit otherwise no safe passage would be given to him and he would be impeached. "Musharraf should return home with honour now, otherwise he would not be given any safe passage and he would be impeached under Article 6 of the Constitution."
The UN Secretary General has warned that a new war could break out between Ethiopia and Eritrea if UN peacekeepers are withdrawn. He urged the UN Security Council to make a swift decision on the future of the forces, which have been monitoring a buffer zone in the region since 2000.
The UN has already withdrawn most of its peacekeepers after Eritrea cut off fuel and food to the UN mission. Eritrea accuses the UN of allowing Ethiopia to occupy Eritrean territory.
An indignant China said today the US "seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people" when Congress passed a resolution calling on Beijing to stop cracking down on Tibetan dissent and talk to the Dalai Lama.
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman labeled the resolution anti-Chinese, saying it misrepresented Tibet's "history and modern reality." "The Chinese side expresses its strong indignation and resolute opposition toward this."
Oil giant Total says the French company cannot afford to lose deals with Iran as it is one of the largest oil producers in the world.
President Ahmadinejad set Iran the target of wiping out the "corrupt world leadership," in his latest verbal attack on Western powers locked in a nuclear crisis with Tehran.
"The Iranian nation will not give up until the corrupt leadership in the world has been obliterated. Our foes should know that threats, sanctions, and political and economic pressures can not force our nation to back down. We have 2 missions, to build Islamic Iran and to exert an effort to change the leadership in the world. We have to carry out both (missions) as well as we can."
From a Western-centric point of view, the United States and its allies are pushing Iran into a corner. A broader perspective would indicate that we might simply be driving Iran into the arms of Asia.
Iran will apply for full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a would-be nascent EU-esque community headed by China and Russia and containing a fistful of continental Asian states.
The neocons may yet get their war on Iran. Ever since President al-Maliki ordered the attacks in Basra on the Mahdi Army, General Petraeus has been laying the predicate for US air strikes on Iran and a wider war in the Middle East.
Are Iranians then murdering Americans, asked Joe Lieberman: "Is it fair to say that the Iranian-backed special groups in Iraq are responsible for the murder of hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians?" Petraeus: "It certainly is. … That is correct."
The general's testimony is forcing Bush's hand, for consider the question it logically raises: If the Quds Force and Hezbollah, both designated as terrorist organizations, are arming, training and directing "special groups" to "murder" Americans, and rocket and mortar the Green Zone to kill our diplomats, and they now represent the #1 threat to a free Iraq, why has Bush failed to neutralize these base camps of terror and aggression?
Courtesy of Congress, Bush has a blank check for war on Iran. And the signs are growing that he intends to fill it in and cash it. No, it is not Iran that wants a war with the US. It is the US that has reasons to want a short, sharp war with Iran.
President Bush issued a stark warning to Iran to stop interfering in Iraq and characterized Iran and al Qaeda as "2 of the greatest threats to America." "If Iran makes the right choice, America will encourage a peaceful relationship between Iran and Iraq. If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests and our troops and our Iraqi partners."
The Pilgrims Society, founded in 1902, is a British-American society established, in the words of American past-president Joseph Choate, 'to promote good-will, good-fellowship, and everlasting peace between the United States and Great Britain'.
Over the years it has boasted an elite membership of politicians, diplomats, businessmen, and writers. It is notable for holding dinners to welcome into office each successive US Ambassador to the UK and each new UK Ambassador to the US. The patron of the society is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
When 2 people argue, it sometimes means that a 4th person wins out. The increasingly hostile duel between the Democratic presidential contenders could present a golden opportunity for one of the great talents in US politics: Condoleezza Rice. She could very well end up becoming McCain's running mate.
An official in the newly formed UN Human Rights Council has called for a fresh investigation into the events of 9/11 in order to examine the possible role that neoconservatives may have played in the attacks.
The law of unintended consequences is at work. Anti-immigrant groups claiming they are anti-illegal immigration, not anti-immigrants, but have succeeded in turning Congress against any thought of allowing (legal) temporary agricultural guest workers to enter the US for the seasonal planting and harvesting of US crops, is having its effects – not enough workers.
In Pennsylvania the largest grower of tomatoes and other crops this March has called it quits. Unable to get enough workers, the doors are closing on the business. So this summer, Pennsylvanians will have to import most of their vegetables from somewhere else – like Mexico.
The Mexican government has quietly dusted off a plan from the 1980s that called for promoting agri-maquilas, wherein US farmers would be invited to start growing operations in Mexico to eliminate the border crossing of so many of their citizens.
It is not in the best interest of the US to become dependent on foreign countries for basic food supplies.
President Chavez says that his country might some day host economic refugees if the US economy worsens and goes beyond control.
"Look at the crisis that the United States is regrettably going into. We don't wish a crisis upon anybody, a terrible economic crisis. Hundreds of thousands of families are being left in the street. I think if things continue on like this in the United States, we'll have to start preparing to receive the refugees here."
The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the world economy is trapped between "fire and ice" - the threat of slumping growth and of rising inflation.
Opening the IMF's spring meetings, Dominique Strauss-Kahn told ministers coming to Washington that there was only limited time to repair the financial system after the worst crisis since the Great Depression.
In a final blow to the so-called "Goldilocks theory" that developing nations' growth will help keep the world economy supported in the coming months, he debunked the idea that rich and poorer countries could "decouple".
"The world is caught between ice and fire - slower growth and inflation. Inflation is back. It is a key concern. I think there is no such thing as decoupling, but [instead] there is a delay."
The European Central Bank on Thursday left interest rates unchanged, despite the darkening economic clouds spreading across the Atlantic.
The bank's president stressed that the economic fundamentals of the eurozone are sound and that the most recent information showed evidence of "strong short-term upward pressure on inflation". "In fact, we are experiencing a rather protracted period of temporarily high annual rates of inflation, resulting mainly from increases in energy and food prices."
Nonetheless, despite his bullishness for the eurozone, he warned that uncertainty resulting from the turmoil in financial markets remained "unusually high" and that the ongoing financial crisis could last longer than initially expected.
The European Central Bank has again refused to join Anglo-Saxon peers in cutting interest rates, defying ever-louder calls for action as the economic storm clouds gather over Europe.
Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's president, dug in his Gallic heels yesterday, insisting that Europe remains insulated from the unfolding slump in the US and would stick to its sole duty of combating inflation.
The transatlantic gap in interest yields has drawn "hot money" funds into Euroland, pushing the euro to a new high of $1.59 against the dollar - up 27% in 2 years.
The ECB is now in open conflict with the International Monetary Fund, which has slashed its eurozone growth forecast to 1.4% this year and 1.2% in 2009. The IMF warned that Europe's banks are in as much trouble as their US counterparts, facing losses of at least $120 billion.
The currency chief at BNP Paribas said the ECB had its head in the sand. "They are not looking at the tidal wave that is about to roll straight over them. Balance-sheet stress in Europe is just as bad as it is in the US. The reporting periods are different, so the bad news has not yet come out."
The ECB faces a near impossible task squaring the needs of 2 camps pulling ever further apart. So far, it has bent to the will of its German governors, perhaps because its own credibility derives from the Bundesbank.
The euro was launched under an implicit contract with the German people that EMU would not lead to inflation, or to an easy-money bail-out for improvident Club Med debtors. Harsh realities of politics are likely to intrude before long.
Europe risks a replay of the ERM crisis in the early 1990s when Germany raised rates to fight inflation, causing mayhem in those parts of the ERM bloc that were already in a downturn. There is no escape valve this time.
When the history of the global banking crisis is finally written, the failure of the European Central Bank to prepare the ground for rate cuts in early 2008 will rank as a policy blunder of the first order.
As the IMF warns, foreign borrowing in eastern Europe from the Baltics to the Balkans is out of control. The fuse has been set on each of these time-bombs. Some are now detonating. If the ECB continues to set monetary policy for the tastes of the Bundesbank for much longer, it will endanger the very project of European unity it was supposed to cement.
Evolving financial meltdown and derivative disaster du jour
In December 2007, the Bank for International Settlements reported derivative trades tallying in at $681 trillion - 10 times the gross domestic product of all the countries in the world combined. Somebody is obviously bluffing about the money being brought to the game, and that realization has made for some very jittery markets.
The Ponzi scheme that has gone bad is not just another misguided investment strategy. It is at the very heart of the banking business, the thing that has propped it up over the course of 3 centuries.
The scramble to find new debtors has now gone on for over 300 years - ever since the founding of the Bank of England in 1694 - until the whole world has become mired in debt to the bankers' private money monopoly. The Ponzi scheme has finally reached its mathematical limits: we are "all borrowed up."
In the end, the Fed's action was not aimed at rescuing those who made bad decisions out of greed or stupidity, but at protecting the rest of the country - and indeed the world - from the possibly devastating consequences of a financial meltdown.
(Cartoon: Fed meeting)
George Soros has always been a controversial figure. But he is becoming more so with a new, dire forecast for the world economy. Last week he rushed out a book, his 10th, warning that the financial pain has only just begun.
"I consider this the biggest financial crisis of my lifetime." A "superbubble" that has been swelling for a quarter of a century is finally bursting, he said.
General Electric, the world's largest industrial group, has issued a profits warning after revealing a weak performance in the first quarter that fell short of analysts' expectations.
A historical bellwether for the US economy, GE said that a particularly bad March in the capital markets, as well as a slowing US economy, contributed to its problems. First quarter profits fell 12% to $4.36bn and it is now expecting full-year profits to be lower than current forecasts.
US consumer sentiment is now at its lowest level in 26 years, a closely-watched survey has found. It is just the latest study to show that US consumer confidence has fallen sharply in recent months.
Someone who's been asleep the past few months is in for a shock when catching up with the economic news. Not just because the value of his shares has taken a pummeling and the euro is close to $1.60, but also because there seems to have been a shift in economic power.
White knights from the Middle East and Asia have been riding to the rescue of Western financial icons such as UBS, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch.
Gunfire in Haiti. Riots in Cameroon. A government crisis in the Philippines. The effects of skyrocketing food prices have reached every corner of the globe. Now, the World Bank has called for world leaders to take action before it is too late.
[CFR Opinion Roundup][Newseum][Global Incident Map][Earthweek][Day-Night Map][Tonight's Sky][Moon phase]
Among the English-speaking settler societies — US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand — an irrational but powerful myth still prevails. It drove "manifest destiny" and is still alive and well, if usually unconscious.
Divinely inspired colonists wrested lands occupied by native peoples and bestowed the mixed blessings of civilization on them. The rationalization for dispossession then — and now — was that these "primitive" peoples were not making productive use of their lands.
What they did not know, and still do not, is that they took over lands that were largely shaped and maintained by indigenous peoples through extensive and intensive land care practices that enabled them to not only survive but also thrive.
Enter the 21st century. The work of indigenous dispossession is about to be completed. The last great global land grab and indigenous asset stripping is happening as I write.
Climate experts are forecasting a drop in global temperatures this year. But the world is also facing more dramatic rain storm events such as the flooding which hit Britain last summer, scientists warn.
The secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organisation said temperatures in 2008 are likely to be cooler because of the effects of the La Nina in the central and eastern Pacific. He said it was likely that the La Nina phenomenon would continue into the summer.
Temperatures are influenced by a variety of factors including solar changes, pollution and natural weather cycles.
A brilliant young physicist João Magueijo asks the heretical question: What if the speed of light—now accepted as one of the unchanging foundations of modern physics—were not constant?
He puts forth the heretical idea that in the very early days of the universe light traveled faster—an idea that if proven could dethrone Einstein and forever change our understanding of the universe.
He is a pioneer of the varying speed of light (VSL) theory of cosmology -- an alternative to the more mainstream theory of cosmic inflation -- which proposes that the speed of light in the early universe was of 60 orders of magnitude faster than its present value.
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