Political parties will have to amend their constitutions to de-link professional bodies and student organisations to get registered with the Election Commission (EC) as part of electoral reforms the EC is now working on. They will also have to complete elections to their central and grassroots level committees in accordance with their constitutions before applying for registration, and sources of their funds will have to be disclosed.
Intra-party democracy and financial transparency in the parties will be ensured greatly when the electoral reforms are implemented, the EC said explaining the objectives of the reforms. Talking to reporters at his office yesterday, Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain said as per the EC's plan the proposed electoral reforms will be made laws through an ordinance promulgated by the president by July. "Through laws, we will ask political parties intending to get registered to cut links with professional bodies and student fronts," Sakhawat said. "We are formulating proposals requiring the political parties to complete elections at all tiers and submit (to EC) lists of elected representatives to their central committees for getting registration."
No political party will be allowed to contest parliamentary election unless it is registered with the EC, and registration may be cancelled if a party violates provisions of the relevant law, says the EC's proposal for reforms. Once the law is enacted, all political parties including Awami League (AL), BNP and Jatiya Party will have to hold intra-party elections duly, and they will also lose control over their affiliated organisations which help implement party programmes. Amending the party constitution, the AL will have to cut links with at least six organisations affiliated to it -- Krishak League, Jatiya Sramik League, Chhattra League, Awami Ainjibi Parishad, Tanti (weavers) League and Swadhinata Chikitshok Parishad.
As per the party constitution, the AL working commiittee determines the policies of affiliated organisations. The party secretaries concerned supervise and coordinate the programmes of these bodies, and they are accountable to the working committee through the secretaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
BRUSSELS JOURNAL > THE RESULT OF EUROPEAN REUNIFICATION WILL BE WAR. Gist - The greatest reason agz the EU is itself + penchant for bypassing State-specific electoral = popular intent. That Gubmint is best which works in the minds of particpating electorates.; + TOWARDS A TOTALITARIAN EUROPE. The steady but oh-so-PC rise of pan-Euro EUCCP? Surprise, surprise, the [Euro]Lefts are the cause of "troubles".
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed was greeted by tens of thousands of supporters as she returned to Bangladesh on Monday after the military-backed government abandoned plans to force her into exile. Huge crowds of activists and well-wishers defied a ban on political gatherings to line the road from Dhakas airport, welcoming the Awami League leader home after almost two months abroad. There are at least 20,000 supporters on both sides of the airport road, said a police official on condition of anonymity.
The activists, holding portraits of Sheikh Hasina, chanted There will be fires in every home if Hasina is arrested and Long live Bangladesh, long live Hasina, as her car passed.
Another police official said there had been no arrests because of the sheer number of supporters who turned out. Sheikh Hasina was greeted at the airport by senior party leaders and about 500 supporters. The government made a mistake by not allowing me to return home and it will repeat the same mistake if they arrest me, she told reporters, referring to murder and extortion charges filed against her in her absence. I am happy to be able to come back, after a period of uncertainties, Hasina told reporters. This is my country, they cannot keep me from coming back, no one can stop me. I have just returned ... will talk to my party leaders and then take decisions about politics and other things. Let me rest a bit. To me it sounds like she thinks l'etat c'est her.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Queen Elizabeth II, once known in the British military as Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, was to honor American soldiers with a visit Tuesday to the National World War II Memorial.
After a day of pomp Monday, capped by a white-tie state dinner hosted by President Bush, the British monarch and her husband, Prince Philip, were to join first lady Laura Bush in a tour of Children's National Medical Center. The visitors also were to visit NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
It will be the queen's first visit to the war memorial, which was dedicated in 2004. The queen, a teenage princess during World War II, won permission in 1945 from her father, King George VI, to join the war effort as a driver in the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women's branch of the British Army. She became No. 230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor.
Following the daytime tours, in the final event of the six-day visit, the royal couple will host the Bushes at the British Embassy for dinner before departing for a flight back to England.
On Monday morning, the Bushes waited on a near-perfect spring day as the queen and Prince Philip arrived by limousine for their official welcome at the White House. The two couples briefly shook hands in spite of the New York Time prohibition of same before moving on to the formal welcome, which included trumpet fanfares and a 21-gun salute.
The day ended with a second visit to the White House for the administration's first white-tie state dinner. It was designed to showcase American culture and cuisine. But the hosts didn't forget to include special touches designed to honor its British ally and make the queen feel welcome.
The centuries-old vermeil flatware and candelabras came from a London silversmith. A made-of-sugar replica of the queen's 1953 coronation rose graced the cake.
English farmhouse cheeses accompanied the salad course. And the traditional "special guest" invited only at the last minute was sure to be of interest to a horse enthusiast such as the queen: Calvin Borel, the jockey who rode Street Sense to victory in the Kentucky Derby on Saturday with the royals in attendance.
For the sixth state dinner of Bush's presidency, the State Dining Room was decked out in white and gold. Among the 134 guests were scores of diplomats, business men and women and members of Congress. Other than American football star Peyton Manning and golfer Arnold Palmer, the celebrity quotient was low.
In the leaders' toasts at dinner, they took opposite tacks. Bush praised the queen for a reign that has "deepened our friendship and strengthened our alliance," while the British monarch talked of the threat of terror, problems like climate change and the likelihood of occasional disagreement between allies.
"Ours is a partnership always to be reckoned with in the defense of freedom and the spread of prosperity," she said.
Virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman performed what he called "musical bonbons" as an after-dinner treat. The evening was capped with songs from the U.S. Army Chorus.
It was a day of high pomp and pageantry from a president known for his informality. It also was an uplifting event for a White House at a time when Bush's approval rating has dropped near all-time lows and he battles a Democratic Congress over funding for the unpopular Iraq war. Almost the whole article without the obligatory gratuitous slap... But the author was DESMOND BUTLER - sounds English - so it could've been the AP's New York editor that added the slap.
The queen's visit is her fifth to the United States in 50 years and her first since 1991.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2007 06:08 ||
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Bush Fails to Embarrass the Queen!
Dang, I was hoping he'd barf in her lap or something like that.
#2
Not so fast. This story suggests that Bush almost suggested that the Queen was around in 1776, and worse, that that was the Bicentennial.
To the right of the story, under the picture of the queen, is a link to a slideshow of pics. "A royal dinner."
George looks goofy in number 3. Laura has a glassy stare in all of them. Lynne Cheney is wearing something godawful in number 6. Colin Powell looks handsome in number 8. Nancy Kissinger came dressed as Ambassador Kosh from Babylon 5 (no. 9). And poor Kathleen Palmer (Arnold's wife) turns up dressed down, in something I would wear (10).
#4
What is with all this huge banquet crap? The President and First Lady needed to invite a few guests and have the Queen and Prince Phillip over. Having this huge fancy feast is not the way of Americans. That would be appropriate. We left Europe years ago because of all this consumptive excess at the expense of the public and class stuff. That is not who we are.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2007 14:21 Comments ||
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#6
The 1776 thing was hilarious.
President Bush caught the error but not before the queen gave him a withering "we are not amused" stare. He said that "that was a look that only a mother could give to a child".
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/08/2007 16:46 Comments ||
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Britain is in danger of creating "an army of the unemployable" as disillusioned teenagers quit school with no qualifications, the leader of the biggest headteacher's union warned today. Mick Brookes, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said advances in technology are set to slash the number of jobs available for unskilled workers, with potentially disastrous consequences for society. He called for radical changes to primary education to allow young children to develop "fledgling" specialisms.
Speaking at the union's annual conference in Bournemouth, Mr Brookes said: "These young people, who have been denied the taste of success in their school careers, vote with their feet at the earliest opportunity. "We cannot allow a whole army of the nation's youth to leave school with nothing to show for those 11 years except disaffections and resentment. "The current number of unskilled jobs in this country is estimated at about three million today. The effects of technology may well mean a huge shrinkage of this employment market. "When this happens, we will not simply have an army of the unemployed, we will have an army of the unemployable - a huge threat to social cohesion."
Mr Brookes said the government's plan for a new range of diplomas for teenagers must combine work-related and academic study and they must be a success. If they are seen as qualifications for pupils who are not clever enough to do traditional academic GCSEs and A levels, secondary education would be split in to a system reminiscent of grammar schools and secondary moderns.
He continued: "Our primary children should be freed up from the narrow curriculum forced on them and able to develop fledgling specialised skills. A problem even at that age, eh?
"We have a huge job to do in order to change a centuries old culture that adulates academic success and sneers at skills of the artisan. Desperate, eh?
"Young people who develop expertise in building, hospitality, catering or the travel trade deserve the same "applause" as those who go on from school to university," he said. Yayyy! You stand a chance of getting a job! Good for you! [Father sits back down and picks up beer in disgust]
Nope, sorry, disagree. I tell my kid: if everyone was a doctor, we'd ... all starve to death. Whether it's the trades, or catering, or digging ditches, any paid job has merit.
"We must introduce a new culture of respect for those who literally create the infrastructure on which our lives revolve," he said. If they get a job because of it, why not.
OK, some folks are going to have a hard time getting jobs, and should be applauded for managing to fit into society if they find one. But to have to rejigger the whole system because of some kind of what I'll bet is an epidemic of entitlement and ignorance of how things work? It sounds to me like it's time to introduce a 90% estate tax or a hard limit on how much wealth can be handed down and how much social security you're allowed to receive in your lifetime unless you have a verifiable problem like being quadriplegic. And the kids ought to be made aware of it. AT AN EARLY AGE. Show them what's on the other side of the tracks if they don't. Teach them why civilizations rise and fall. Show them what happens to people in failed civilizations.
You just know people are going to head straight for the mental problem excuse, which is like using human shields and will be a problem, but maybe that would go away if they were allowed no cash at all until they felt "better". Just a place to live and food to eat. And nothing overly stimulating to do. And lots of "interesting" roommates.
#1
Graduating High School is something everyone has to do, like it or not. If you have no rules you will have a bunch of shiftless layabouts like the bunch they are catering to now. Just because the lazy little turnip-heads don't want to do the work doesn't mean you revamp the entire system, you kick them in the ass! We had a different system when I went to High School, they never let us start to screw up. We did what they said or our ass was grass.
#2
Ahem, we have the same problem over here in the U.S. Many have a High School Diploma but NO employable skills. There are TONS of (vacant)skilled labor jobs in the U.S. but we have no skilled workers to fill them.
#3
Ahem, is this the same problem in Britain as in France, Belgium, etc. Muslims who refuse to follow the norms and just go on the dole so they can lounge around in tearooms and plot the native government overthrow ?
#4
This is what socialism and parent coddling (aren't they the same thing) gets society. Bunch of spoiled brats that expect the world owes them a living.
#6
Britain threatened by 'an army of the unemployable'
Isn't that why you had colonies in the 18-19th century? Gee, too bad you don't have a virtually unguarded border with the US. You could dump 8 million or so on your neighbor like Mexico. Guess you're stuck like the Chinese to effect real reform or go down like the Ruskies.
#7
Nope, sorry, disagree. I tell my kid: if everyone was a doctor, we'd ... all starve to death. Whether it's the trades, or catering, or digging ditches, any paid job has merit.
I agree. Didn't mean to leave that thought in your head! I was referring to those who were able behaving and even believing that they weren't.
#8
"We cannot allow a whole army of the nation's youth to leave school with nothing to show for those 11 years except disaffections and resentment."
Well, you could, y'know, try actually teaching them instead of indoctrinating them with your socialist crap.
But, you won't. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2007 14:56 Comments ||
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#9
Britain threatened by 'an army of the unemployable'
We call them "Muslims".
On topic: Schools barely prepare children for the working world. There should be required courses in basic vocational skills for entry level jobs. Even those who enter college would benefit from training if they must also hold a job while at university.
Things like basic technical assembly, soldering, changing money, customer service, telephone answering etiquette, handling a 5-line phone or writing simple business corrspondence. All of these would give kids a huge leg up when applying for starter jobs. It would also benefit employers who could shorten training cycles and have new employees become productive more quickly.
Another vital thing that is almost totally overlooked is job interviewing skills. I've had people show up for hiring interviews in shorts and sandals, flourishing gnarly tattoos with barely functional resumes and monosyllable answers to questions about in-depth experience.
#10
This is the same issue in the US. It is the sole focus of the education establishment that everyone should be on a white collar job track and, in lock-step, that everyone should go to college. Well, that is just crap. There are lots of different types of people out there who are going to be motivated by lots of different opportunities. Unfortunately our education system does not expose nor does it encourage our kids to these alternate paths.
You can make a damn fine living as a carpenter, plumber, electrician, chef, etc. As Judge Smaels so artfully said it, "The world needs ditchdiggers too."
#11
I've been saying the same thing for years. My in-laws always gave me a hugh load of crap about it until they finally figured out their son was NOT going to college and that high school had not prepared him for any kind of vocation. High school in America is a huge waste of time and money. By the time kids are in the ninth grade it should be apparent whether they are college material or not. If they are send them to college. If not teach them a vocation. I think this might be an area where the Europeans are actually ahead of us. But there should be no welfare for dropouts on either side of the Atlantic.
#12
It's not the public school system's task to teach job skills. Go to a trade or vocational school if you want that. Primary and secondary schools teach reading, writing , and arithmetic. As an American you are expected to complete high school before pursuing much in the way of vocational training. Even if you intend to dig ditches, you still need to be able to read a bus schedule or balance your checkbook.
#13
First of all, our secondary schools don't teach ANYTHING. There is no pressure to learn, no demand for the best a student can do, and no consequences for poor performance. The number of dropouts is staggering to me (my high school class [1964, 133 students] had one drop-out; my daughter's class [2004, 391] had 88). Three of my daughter's friends dropped out of school to have children. None of them were married. Again, no consequences for bad behavior - all three of them got by on minimum-wage jobs, Social Security, Medicare and WIC, or their parents, or both.
Our problem and Britain's have a common factor - strong Teacher's Unions that kill all hope of reform. Until these unions are reformed or banned, there won't be any change.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/08/2007 19:37 Comments ||
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#14
#12: "Primary and secondary schools teach reading, writing, and arithmetic."
Not so's you'd notice, bj. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2007 19:58 Comments ||
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#15
It's not the public school system's task to teach job skills.
At this point in America's current economic downhill slide, I'm going to have to disagree. While I was fortunate enough to attend one of the top ten high schools in America, it still barely prepared me for the working world. A high school graduate should be at least marginally employable. Being qualified for entry level employment requires skills like the ones I suggested in post # 9.
Yes, critical analysis, a sense of history, some creative writing ability, semi-fluency in a foreign language and some artistic exposure all go a long way towards molding a well-rounded student. Confronted with how the above liberal arts subjects are barely being taught in any sort of functional form, it would behoove our schools to adopt a more vocational approach so that graduating students could at least support themselves.
When you push a barely literate and almost totally innumerate kid out of 12th grade who is also incapable of critical thought or historical perspective, their choices are incredibly bleak. "Drug dealer", "petty criminal" or "welfare parasite" are some of the most likely channels available. We need to change that. America's youth deserve better.
#16
Years ago I saw a photograph of 2 Japanese students frantically doing their homework on the way to school. If they did not have the homework done by the beginning of school, they were sent back home.
Perhaps we could begin to send those who refuse to do homework back home, or to a no-nonsense class with an old-style-mean-as-hell English teacher for the day. If the students did not do better, at least their English would be good enough to tell us why.
#17
Try to remember that Japan's over-emphasis upon final grades causes numerous teenage suicides. There is little we should find desirable in the Japanese schooling system, save the high salary that teachers receive.
helloooooo? future pandemic? ht to Instapundit
A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals.
The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications. or any information?
The Chinese government and particularly the government of Guangdong Province, which is adjacent to Hong Kong was criticized in 2003 for concealing information about the SARS virus for the first four months after it emerged in Foshan, 95 miles northwest of Hong Kong. After SARS spread to Hong Kong and around the world, top Chinese officials promised to improve disclosure.
But officials in Hong Kong as well as at the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, both agencies of the United Nations, said today that they been told almost nothing about the latest pig deaths, and been given limited details about wheat gluten contamination.
Because pigs can catch many of the same diseases as people, including bird flu, the two U.N. agencies maintain global networks to track and investigate unexplained patterns of pig deaths.
Hong Kong television broadcasts and newspapers were full of lurid accounts today of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies in Gaoyao and neighboring Yunfu, both in Guangdong Province. The Apple Daily newspaper said that as many as 80 percent of the pigs in the area had died, that panicky farmers were selling ailing animals at deep discounts and that pig carcasses were floating in a river.
The reports in Hong Kong said the disease began killing pigs after the Chinese New Year celebrations in February, and is now spreading. But state-controlled news outlets in China have reported almost nothing about the pig deaths, and very little about the wheat gluten problem. go figure?
A man answering the phone at the city government offices in Gaoyao, 140 miles northwest of Hong Kong, confirmed late this afternoon that pigs were dying there. He declined to give his name.
Dr. Kwok Ka-ki, a surgeon who represents the medical profession in Hong Kongs legislature, said that the Chinese government should share all pig-death information with the Chinese public and with the city of Hong Kong, which Britain returned to Chinese control in 1997.
They definitely need to tell the public, but also people in the city, as to the extent of the outbreak, how is the disease being controlled and the impact on public health, he said. It would help a lot to relieve the worry, and it would help the rest of China to fight the disease.
There have been no reports of people becoming ill from the disease. But the SARS experience has left Hong Kong with lasting jitters about mysterious diseases in mainland China.
Medical experts said that the extent of the bleeding from the pigs, including reports of bloody skin lesions, did not sound like the usual symptoms of bird flu, but added that the pig deaths nonetheless needed to be investigated.
Two spokeswomen for the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said that the Guangdong authorities had told the department only that no live pigs were being shipped from the Yunfu and Gaoyao area to Hong Kong.
A spokesman for the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said that there were no signs of suspicious deaths among Hong Kongs pigs, and referred questions about pigs in Guangdong to the food department.
Both departments said last week, in written responses to questions, that they were not testing wheat gluten imported from the mainland for the presence of melamine scrap, a residue from the manufacture of a chemical used in plastics production. The presence of melamine scrap in pet food has been linked to the deaths of as many as 4,000 cats and dogs in the United States, and prompted the culling of chickens that ate contaminated feed.
Hong Kong officials expressed surprise today when they were told that the official Xinhua news agency mentioned a month ago that the mainland had begun nationwide testing of wheat gluten for melamine. Animal-feed dealers in northeastern China said late last month that the two main destinations for feed mixed with melamine had been the Yangtze delta region near Shanghai and the Pearl River delta region near Hong Kong.
China has allowed American regulators to visit the country and begin investigating the wheat gluten problem, after initially declining to issue them visas.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
SPACEWAR and other NET News sites had previous articles on China's massive pollution problems, including how farm animals were wallowing in the stuff, and how neither farmers nor local Party oficials had viable plans to resolve the situation.
#4
Surprise, surprise...government denies there's a problem, refuses to investigate. Remember SARS? It took the threat of a lethal global epidemic (the blame for which would be placed squarely on China) to get the government to move last time. You really think they're going to move for anything less?
#5
Sounds like a variant of hemmorrhagic fever. If so, the Chinese better hope that it does not jump between species : Ebola and Crimean-Congo are two that did.
#6
Maybe I'm just old and cynical but somehow I can't see the powers that be in Beijing caring much about the deaths of some backwoods farmers in the hinterlands. I suspect the mandarins see them as "useless mouths" and would not be bothered in the slightest about their demise--no matter how big the numbers--unless it somehow ends up redounding to China's international discredit. Absent such an motivating effect, Beijing's power elite has other, and far more pressing, concerns to deal with.
Posted by: Mac ||
05/08/2007 3:16 Comments ||
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#7
Well, it's more like Beijing has no power in the provinces. It's all rapacious local officials. It's the local officials that treat their own people like animals. What would Alec Baldwin think if he met a gimme-cap wearing truck driver?
#9
Pork is huge in China : the major meat ingredient for many Chinese dishes. The loss of a couple of provinces' pig herds can cause general unrest, the kind that leads to rural revolts.
Also, China has to worry if this jumps to people : tourists tend to avoid hemorrhagic fever zones and the Beijing Olympics could be endangered by something like that. If Southern China does become a Hot Zone, it is likely that most countries will boycott the Beijing Olympics simply from a public health and safety point of view.
#15
Some human hemorrhagic fevers do included skin lesions among symptoms - Marburg especially, 2-7 days post onset. Bruising (purpura) and hemorrhagic lesions also common in CCHF. Rash/petechiae common in some variants of hemorrhagic dengue.
Posted by: sofia ||
05/08/2007 12:39 Comments ||
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#16
Also, China has to worry if this jumps to people : tourists tend to avoid hemorrhagic fever zones and the Beijing Olympics could be endangered by something like that. If Southern China does become a Hot Zone, it is likely that most countries will boycott the Beijing Olympics simply from a public health and safety point of view.
This is yet one more potential epidemic coming from China. While such a large coutry represents an ideal incubator for new viral strains, China does little to avoid exacerbating the problem with poisoning the environment, inadequate sewage processing, chemical contamination that weakens animal resistance and a host of other poor hygeinic practices that breed up all sorts of nastiness.
The hidden cost is that to the global community. The SARS virus cost Canada alone billions in lost tourist revenue. Medical expenses from the endless stream of infectious diseases pouring out of China cost this world untold other billions. China is a pariah nation that is one of the absolute worst neighbors, especially for its size and economy. They might as well be some festering African shithole for the trouble they cause.
We seriously need to withhold all foreign medical aid in the face of these self-induced crises. China needs to experience a catastrophic financial drain upon its own resources as a penalty for malign neglect general incompetence. This is one of the few ways that China's gross pollution, unfair trade practices and currency manipulation can be adequately penalized.
Finland will take part in a NATO Response Force (NRF) exercise in Poland next week. The Finnish troops will consist of some 80 to 90 national servicemen, reservists, and their instructors, plus three armoured personnel carriers and a dozen or so other vehicles.
The so-called Noble Mariner exercise is one of three exceptionally large-scale military exercises taking place from 14 to 24 May 2007 in the Southern Baltic region, including adjacent Danish, Swedish, German and Polish territorial waters, airspace and land. Dozens of ships and airplanes, and thousands of personnel from 17 coastal NATO states including the United States will take part in the NRF drill. Finland and Sweden will train with them as partners in peace.
The role of the Finnish and Swedish units is to act as a training opponent to the NRF disembarkation troops. In other words, the Finns and the Swedes will defend Poland against the invasion force. From the military strategy point of view this drill does not have much to offer to us. Instead, we will gain experience as to how such exercises are planned and implemented, and how the service, logistics, and paper-work are taken care of, says the Finnish troop commander, Commodore Henrik Nysten.
Before embarking for Poland, Finland and Sweden will organise another exercise in Sweden, where a significantly larger number of Finnish personnel and more equipment were involved. The Sweden-phase is much more important. We are able gain information on how a Finnish-Swedish landing force operates, Nysten explains. NATO will carry out the evaluation.
In Poland, Finland and Sweden will not act as actual NRF members, but as a separate partners-in-peace unit. The Defence Commands view is that Finland is not taking part in an NRF drill, as, so far, Finland is not looking to participate in any NRF operations. One high-ranking officer stated, however: If one chooses to see this as only an NRF exercise, then, yes, we are taking part in it.
Presumably the Defence Commands caution arises from the fact that the NATO Response Force issue has been a political hot potato for a long time. The official policy is to emphasise commitment to the EU rapid deployment forces.
Nicolas Sarkozy won the women's vote and fared well among blue-collar workers, even though his rival for the French presidency was a woman and a Socialist. Experts said Sarkozy took working-class votes from the left by playing up his tough cop image and by pounding away at the theme that he believes in rewarding hard work. "The main attraction among workers were the security-immigration duo, which works, and the values of hard work: He put the emphasis on increasing purchasing power," said Frederic Dabi, a pollster with Ifop.
According to the Ipsos poll, Sarkozy cruised in his traditional electoral base: 82 percent of small business owners, and 67 percent of farmers voted for him. Befitting a conservative, he won 61 percent of votes by those over age 61, and 68 percent among voters 70 or older.
Royal's best showing was among 18- to 24-year-olds, but Sarkozy tallied 57 percent among the 25- to 34-year-old tranche.
The Ipsos poll of 3,609 adults was conducted by telephone Sunday. The agency did not provide a margin of error, but it should be about plus or minus 1.6 percentage point for a survey of that size.
Official figures showed Sarkozy won France's one-time industrial heartland in the north, which had not voted for a rightist presidential candidate since Charles de Gaulle in 1965. Sarkozy even tallied nearly 44 percent of the vote in the Seine-Saint-Denis region north of Paris, where a wave of rioting erupted in late 2005 while he was interior minister and infuriated many there by calling troublemakers "scum."
Strikingly, he captured 52 percent of the women's vote against 48 percent for Royal, indicating the campaign transcended gender issues and became a choice between ideas. In the campaign, Sarkozy dared to attack the status quo with calls to do away with inheritance tax on small and medium estates and cut the number of public sector workers. He also evoked issues of national identity and immigration that were once the stomping ground of extreme-right nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen.
Sarkozy plans to put big reforms before parliament in July. One would make overtime pay tax-free to encourage people to work more. Another would put in place tougher sentencing for repeat offenders, and a third would toughen the criteria for immigrants trying to bring their families to France. Sarkozy is as critical of Iran's nuclear program as is the U.S., and he has chided the French press for its anti-American tone. But he has called the Iraq invasion a mistake and says the Bush administration should do more on global warming.
Merely hundreds of rioters Monday night, Socialist leader finally appeals for calm
The leader of France's defeated Socialists appealed for calm Tuesday after a second night of post-election violence left cars burned and store windows smashed. "To all those who can hear me, I ask them to immediately stop all this behavior," Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande said Tuesday on RTL radio. "We are in a republic, where universal suffrage is the only law we know. There can be disappointment, there can be anger, there can be frustration. But the only way to react is to take up your ballots, not other weapons," he said.
Late Monday night, several hundred people massed again at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, breaking shop windows, starting street fires and igniting a handful of cars. Riot police dispersed them, arresting about 100 people.
In Nantes in western France, hundreds gathered again Monday night, with a few dozen hurling beer bottles and other projectiles at police cordons. Police responded with tear gas, arresting several people. Public buildings were also damaged. Minor incidents were also reported in Toulouse in southern France.
#3
Yes, liberalhawk, but it was Segolene Royal who made such a fuss about violence following the election of Sarkozy -- and she has said nothing to stop it either before or after. Nor, until today, have any political leaders on the Left, nor even lame-duck President Jacques Chiraq, which presumes they don't disapprove. On the other hand, the police that Sarkozy is ultimately responsible for have been arresting rioters and breaking up riots.
#4
I am really looking forward to a new era of Franco-American relations with Sarkozy in office--at least, as long as we don't get a Dem president in '08. I truly believe there are a lot of good and right-thinking Frenchmen (like JFM!) who are looking to reclaim their country and restore sanity to their economy, labor and immigration laws, and foreign relations.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/08/2007 12:49 Comments ||
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#5
Sarkozy takes office May 16th. Hope that his transition team is working overtime!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2007 15:33 Comments ||
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#7
where a wave of rioting erupted in late 2005 while he was interior minister and infuriated many there by calling troublemakers "scum."
In fact it was a mainpulation from the MSM. The complete scene was a woman from the rioting zones, I even think she was an Arab/Berber pleading to him:
-Plese rid us of that scum.
-Yes Madam I promise you we will rid y of this scum.
#8
Has anyone noticed? Royal won the 18/24 years old, ie those who live on Daddy's money and pay no taxes.
I often joke but do I joke? that you should only allowed to vote if you can exhibit a facture (from the excellent Arab blog, mahmood.tv. "You are not an adult until you pay your first facture).
#10
Sorry, don't agree with the conclusion. He won by 6%. A 3+% swing would have put Missy Royale in power. That isn't a mandate. That being said, hrer's hpoing he can act like it was.
#11
I wish to personally thank the French Leftists for showing the world what rioting antidemocratic thugs they are and to wish Mr. Sarkozy the best of luck in reforming that country.
The European Union is moving towards taking over a planned satellite navigation project, EU officials signalled Monday, blaming industry for failing to fulfil agreed conditions. "The alternative solution (to the project) that we will present foresees a stronger participation of the public sector," German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, whose country currently runs the rotating EU presidency, told reporters in Brussels. A spokesman for the European Commission said current scenarios to get Europe's planned satellite navigation system Galileo started "cannot work ... the way we scheduled and the way we wanted." The private sector was expected to provide two-thirds of the funding for Galileo and EU governments the rest. But the commission spokesman said that up to now, the eight European companies tasked with running the system had failed to fulfil the conditions agreed.
He said there was a "need to reshape" the prestigious project, which is aimed at ensuring European economies' independence from other states' technology, in particular the United States-run global positioning system GPS. "We want to have the best value for money," the spokesman said.
The commission earlier this year gave industry until May 10 to arrange how to divide work on building and running the satellite system, amid concerns that Europe could lose out against competitors such as the US, Russia and China.
EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot on May 16 is expected to present alternative solutions for solving the standstill with Galileo, which is the 27-member bloc's biggest ever joint technological project. Galileo, which is supposed to be launched and operational in orbit by 2011, would be used for civilian purposes only, monitoring natural disasters, air and sea rescue services and for commercial uses. There were originally to be 30 satellites in place by 2010, but the timeline for Galileo to be fully operational was moved to 2011- 2012 due to little progress made by industry.
EU officials have warned that the bloc could lose out in the international competition in global space technology as the US, Russia, China and Japan are busy building and improving their satellite navigation technology. The GPS system - run by the US Defence Department - is offered free to businesses worldwide, while Galileo plans to charge users. Galileo's consortium includes European aerospace company EADS, France's Thales and Alcatel-Lucent, British company Inmarsat, Italy's Finmeccanica, AENA and Hispasat of Spain and a German group that includes Deutsche Telekom and the German Aerospace Centre.
The EU hopes that Galileo will generate at least 150,000 jobs and bring a return of investments of up to 9 billion euros (11.9 billion dollars), making it the continent's most lucrative infrastructure project.
Is it a navigation system or a employment agency? It's Europe; never mind.
They're going to charge for something the U.S. gives away free. I think I've found a new use for the 'flying turkey' pic.
China, Israel, the US, Ukraine, India, Morocco and South Korea have also agreed to invest in Galileo through gritted teeth.
#3
We CANNOT allow Washington to invest one dime in this farce. Put the money in missile defense instead. Let the winding-down European wind-up toy wind down a bit faster.
#4
Airbus flying at 16,000 km altitude. I'm sure that the EU govt will make it a profitable enterprise. The US gives GPS for free, and the EU hates the US so much that it would rather throw good money after bad rather than use it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2007 0:21 Comments ||
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#5
We want to have the best value for money
Free is not good enough!
Let's take a step back and think now. Suppose I am a European trying to decide between a system that provides reliable navigational data within a few meters for free vs. something I have to pay even one euro a month for plus the overhead of having to deal with payments, new proprietary technology, license transfers/registrations when a piece of equipment breaks, etc. vs. something that is so portable you probably never thought about it. Hmm. Boy, that's a tough one.
This hazy logic brought to you by the people who thought an ill-conceived pig of an airplane was a good idea.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2007 10:52 Comments ||
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#10
Easy solution for the EU: simply REQUIRE all Europeans to use Galileo. Forbid sales of GPS receivers. Force all Airbus planes to be fitted with Galileo equipment. It's easy when all that is needed is a few regulations.
#14
Galileo is a military system masquerading as a system for "the people". The scam is get the commuters of Europe to pay for a system that primarily benefits the French military and weapons industries (and the Chinese who will make the receivers). GPS is the "smarts" in a huge range of rockets, artillery, bombs, missiles, and UAVs. The catch is that, the US can make it useless by withholding the encryption codes or even degrading the nonencrypted signals. Therefore the only users of GPS weapons are US allies. The French do not qualify and therefore prevents GPS weapons sales to those we find unsavory.
The cover of the hugely inefficient (vs gas tax) road tax and "find your favorite restaurant with Galileo" schemes forces EU consumers to pay for and maintain a system that the French military itself cannot afford. As a bonus, Galileo will allow the authorities to download everywhere a EU peasant has driven.
Last but not least, by including China as a tier 1 partner, the Galileo folks have given the Chinese all the systems data for a pittance. Now the Chinese will build a Galileo clone that, funny enough, interferes with the Galileo signal.
Posted by: ed ||
05/08/2007 18:26 Comments ||
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#15
Hey, name the next one after Copernicus, okay?
Thanks a lot...
Turkish lawmakers on Monday debated sweeping constitutional reforms that would see the president elected by popular vote, as they sought a way out of a damaging crisis concerning Turkey's secular fabric. The session got off to a heated debate between members of the ruling party and the main opposition over the timing of the proposal, which calls for a two-round popular vote to elect the head of state, who is currently chosen by parliament. The opposition argued that with early general elections already scheduled for July 22, the time was not ripe for parliament to make radical changes to the presidential selection system.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is confident it can push the reforms through parliament thanks to the backing of a small centre-right party, which will provide enough votes to secure the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution. The reform package would also modify the presidency to run for a once-renewable, five-year mandate instead of the current single, seven-year term, and calls for holding general elections every four years instead of the current five. Monday's debate came a day after parliament failed, for a second time, to elect a president, with an opposition boycott preventing parliament reaching the required quorum for a vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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As India and China move to resolve their differences over borders, there is one aspect both countries have carefully refrained from talking about: that China has moved up to 20 km into India and grabbed a portion of the 90,000 sq km area of the Northeast that it claims as its own.
Though India has consistently denied that China has occupied its territory, the MP from West Arunachal, Kiren Rijiju of the BJP, said he has received written replies from the ministries of external affairs and defence, indicating that they were aware of the inroads made by the Chinese.
I have their replies, admitting that there are problems and the government is trying to sort them out, Rijiju told DNA.
Earlier, the Centre had sought a report from the state on the matter, which resulted in a detailed note being sent to the Union home ministry in 2005 by the state police. The document said the Chinese had started their foray into Tawang district in 2004, covering an unspecified huge area that includes several villages.
According to Rijiju, the areas under foreign occupation include the Sumdorong Chu valley, the Asapila and Lungar camps, large portions of grazing lands used by villagers, and some strategic points. A helipad in Sumdorong Chu has also been under Chinese control for two years, he said.
Repeated attempts by DNA to obtain comments from the Chinese embassy were turned down by its officials.
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/08/2007 16:53 ||
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#4
This shit has gotta end. China needs a smackdown so bad that they should have an aftertaste of canvas in their mouth already. Like I mentioned over in the swine epidemic thread, all foreign aid flowing into China needs to be withdrawn. They need to pay the piper for all of their constant aggression, environmental destruction, patent theft, intellectual property violations and propagation of some of the most virulent disease strains in recent history. Remember, China is singlehandedly responsible for the world's worst medically caused AIDS crisis.
How much monetary aid should we send them to fight these self-imposed epidemics so that they can free up internal funds for more nuclear weapons and land grabs? China's monumental hubris makes Islam look like the spastic underachiever it is. Too bad our politicians are so easily bought off as to avoid all consideration of what will be needed to thwart this looming threat.
#5
CHINDIA > iff India wants to do something militarily about it, their army has to climb UP the geographic upslope to reach the PLA on the Tibetan [continental]plateau.
Pakistan's Supreme Court yesterday suspended a judicial inquiry into misconduct charges against the country's top judge that triggered weeks of nationwide protests. The court ordered the move, a decision likely to embarrass President Pervez Musharraf's government, as it took up a petition from Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry challenging his suspension from office.
Musharraf suspended Chaudhry on March 9 on allegations of misconduct and abuse of authority, sparking a wave of massive protests by opposition parties and lawyers who branded it an attack on the independence of the judiciary. The misconduct allegations were being investigated by the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), a panel of five senior judges, but Chaudhry argued that it was not competent to try him. "The SJC proceedings have been stayed," Tariq Mehmud, a lawyer for Chaudhry, told AFP after the hearing.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Human Rights Council has failed to criticize egregious human rights violations since it replaced a discredited U.N. rights body last year, two watchdog groups said Monday. The two groups, U.N. Watch and Freedom House, released reports charging that rights violators such as Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China have shielded themselves - and countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe - from criticism as members of the new group.
And it was so-o-o-o unexpected.
The groups said the U.N. General Assembly is also expected to select several other countries with poor rights records to become new members of the body this month. The groups named Angola, Belarus, Egypt and Qatar as candidate nations that were unqualified for membership because of their poor rights records. There are only 15 candidates for the 14 open seats in the 47-member council.
U.N. Watch, based in Geneva, described the council's first year as ``profoundly disappointing.'' ``Members are supposed to be elected based on their human rights records, yet the council includes persistent violators, and after the upcoming elections is expected to include several more,'' the U.N. Watch report said. ``The council's record so far is profoundly disappointing.''
U.N. Watch, which monitors the U.N.'s compliance with its charter, is associated with the American Jewish Committee. Freedom House is a New-York based democracy watchdog.
The Human Rights Council, which began its work last June and has no power beyond drawing international attention to rights issues, was meant to replace the highly politicized Human Rights Commission with a new body that could keep some of the worst offenders out of its membership. Instead, critics say, it has been dominated by African and Muslim countries that have sided with China, Cuba and other countries in preventing criticism of any government but Israel. The United States has also not sought a seat on the council, accusing it of anti-Israel bias.
Good. Keep us off and make sure the whole world knows how useless the Council is.
According to U.N. Watch, the council has issued 12 country-specific resolutions: nine censures of Israel and three ``non-condemnatory'' resolutions on Sudan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
D *** ng it, twasn't it the UNO that set up and sponsored this CONFERENCE ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE-SOCIETIES, ala BBC.com/
WORLDNEWS.
An Israeli archaeologist on Tuesday said he has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud Netzer said the tomb was found at Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert where Herod built a palace compound. Netzer has been working at the site since the 1970s.
Netzer said the tomb was discovered when a team of researchers found pieces of a limestone sarcophagus believed to belong to the ancient king. Although there were no bones in the container, he said the sarcophagus' location and ornate appearance indicated it is Herod's. "It's a sarcophagus we don't just see anywhere," Netzer said at a news conference. "It is something very special."
Hebrew University had hoped to keep the find a secret until Netzer's news conference on Tuesday. But the university announced the find in a brief statement late Monday after the Haaretz daily found out about the discovery and published an article on its Web site.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2007 06:17 ||
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Commentary and video at link. Excerpt:
[The operator] dialed the LRAD down to one of its lowest settings and swept it past me. It was like having a hundred nagging girlfriends in my brain screaming at me. Very unpleasant. We must have the same taste in ex-girlfriends.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/08/2007 15:13 ||
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DAMASCUS, Syria - Syrias newly elected legislature convened on Monday and re-elected the groups speaker unopposed in a live broadcast on state television. Mahmoud Al Abrash, a longtime member of the ruling Baath Party, was elected for a second four-year term. The 66-year-old architect won 235 votes in the 250-seat house. After his election, al-Abrash promised to make the assembly play its legislative role as a toady.
During the broadcast, the lawmakers were also sworn in using the Quran, Islams holy book. The ruling National Progressive Front, which comprises the Baath Party and smaller political allies, gained 172 seats out of a total of 250 in last months elections, more than the 167 seats guaranteed to them under the constitution.
The rubber-stamp legislature of lackies, toadies, and suck-ups is likely to consolidate the rule of President Bashar Assad, who is expected to seek its nomination to run for a second seven-year term in July.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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A prominent Iranian professor has been sacked for offending a fully veiled woman during class amid mounting protests at a prestigious Iranian university over insults to Islam, the press reported on Monday. The reports said Nureddin Zarrinkelk, a professor of fine art known as the father of Iranian animation, insulted the female student at the Tehran University by questioning why she wore the full Islamic chador covering.
The incident then sparked more protests at another Tehran university, Amir Kabir, that has already been the scene of demonstrations related to the publication of caricatures deemed offensive to Islam. The father of Iranian animation was expelled from university and cannot teach in any university because of his insult towards the hijab of a university student, the Etemad daily reported.
It quoted Science Minister Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi as saying that Zarrinkelk was expelled from Tehran University for insulting the Islamic hijab and has been banned from teaching in any university. According to the Etemad reports, the incident was sparked during a classroom discussion over an image of a bald angel drawn by a student when the professor asked the woman if she wore the full veil because she herself was bald.
The daily Hezbollah published a picture of a demonstration at Amir Kabir on Sunday over the incident, fuming against the shameless professor who has insulted the dignity of a covered woman. The Aftab Yazd said students from several universities assembled for the protests, bearing banners that urged Zahedi to act against such actions or resign.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"Hey you ! Yes. I'm talking to the bitch in the bag."
The head of Irans state-run television has said all homegrown drama programmes should feature scenes showing characters praying or they will be denied airtime, the ILNA news agency reported on Monday. In the current year, television productions that do not have prayer scenes will not be allowed to air, said Ezatollah Zarghami. The new directive appears to apply to drama series and television films but it is not clear whether it also includes programmes such as game shows and sitcoms. Citing a scene in a popular Iranian series where a murder suspect is shown praying, Zarghami said: Prayer scenes should not be confined to positive and leading characters, the elderly and the clean-living types. He said childrens programmes should also seek to teach the young about praying. Zarghami took over two years ago, showing recent Hollywood films and controversial talk shows putting politicians and celebrities in the hot seat. Religion also plays a conspicuous role. Programming is interrupted for the broadcast of the daily prayers, newsreaders invoke God before each bulletin and there are frequent readings from the Quran. Officials have sought to make domestic television programmes more appealing in the past years to compete with satellite television channels which are banned in Iran but watched by many Iranians.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Will Jewish and Christian characters be shown praying?
Posted by: James ||
05/08/2007 10:04 Comments ||
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Tehran, 8 May (AKI) - A North Korean delegation travelled to Tehran on Monday night to discuss with Iranian authorities
political and military cooperation. The North Korean delegation is headed by foreign minister Kim Young Il and includes top military officials.
North Korea and the Islamic Republic have been cooperating on the technological development of long and medium-range missile systems and North Korean technicians are suspected of involvement in Iran's nuclear programme, which has sparked an international crisis over fears that Tehran is trying to build atomic weapons.
North Korea's resumption of its nuclear weapons programme has also alarmed its neighbors and much of the rest of the world.
Mark Ellingham, founder of the Rough Guides and the man who encouraged a generation of travellers to pack a rucksack and explore the world, has compared the damage done by tourism to the impact of the tobacco industry. What's next, "second-hand flights"?
Ellingham now says travelling is so environmentally destructive that there is no such thing as a genuinely ethical holiday. He wants the industry to educate travellers about the damage their holidays do to the environment. The development he regrets most is the public's appetite for what he calls 'binge-flying'. 'The tobacco industry fouled up the world while denying [it] as much as possible for as long as they could,' said Ellingham. 'If the travel industry rosily goes ahead as it is doing, ignoring the effect that carbon emissions from flying are having on climate change, we are putting ourselves in a very similar position to the tobacco industry.' I never knew travel causes cancer! Thanks for the info!
Although the aviation industry now accounts for just 5.5 per cent of the CO2 generated in the UK, it is one of the fastest-growing generators of the pollution. Some experts estimate that flying could treble in the next 20 years. I guess too many of the wrong people are out and about, right, Mr Ellingham?
'Climate change is an issue that dwarfs all others and the impact of flying is key to this,' said Ellingham. 'All of us involved have a responsibility to inform travellers as clearly and honestly as possible about the environmental cost of their journeys. We must encourage travellers to travel less and neutralise their carbon footprint through offsetting. It is hard to say the positive impact travelling has can ever outweigh the damage done by simply travelling to the destination,' he said. 'Balancing all the positives and negatives, I'm not convinced there is such a thing as a "responsible" or "ethical" holiday.' True. Imagine how many trees have been cut down to produce worthless, pretentious, inaccurate travel guides. Why, if we cut down just 5% on them, we could save a rainforest or two...
Ellingham is calling for a £100 green tax on all flights to Europe and Africa, and £250 on flights to the rest of the world. He also wants investment to create a low-carbon economy, as well as a moratorium on airport expansion. I'd like a $10 tax on your precious tourbooks, myself. Y'know, to encourage people to get them at the library, to cut down on the amount of them clogging my local landfill. Think of it as literary carpooling. Surely you agree with that, Mr Ellingham? Won't you please think of the Children? (TM)
It was 25 years ago this week when Ellingham sat down at his kitchen table and wrote his first guidebook, using his mother's typewriter. Alongside Lonely Planet, Ellingham's publications revolutionised the travel industry, particularly by encouraging young people to explore the world. 'At that time travelling, as distinct from a two-week holiday, was a niche interest. Students went InterRailing, while the more daring would go island-hopping in Greece,' he said. In the past 25 years, he said, there has been 'a huge growth in expectation of what people think they can do on holiday. People have more money. Flights cost a fraction of what they did then.' "Ah, the good ol' days....when people who are NOKD stayed home....and national airlines were subsidized by taxpayers who couldn't afford to fly on them...."
Last week Easyjet came under criticism from environmentalists for delaying the launch of its carbon emission offsetting scheme, blaming a market riddled with 'snake-oil salesmen'. Talk about an inconvenient truth...now here comes some intellectual turbulence caused by a huge emission of hot air. Fasten your seatbelts, kiddies.
Alongside guides enticing travellers to fly, Ellingham also publishes environmental titles, including the Rough Guide to Climate Change which is nominated for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books award, to be announced next week. Even so, he is keenly aware of the incongruity of making pronouncements about how people should moderate their behaviour. 'I acknowledge that I'm speaking about all of this from an apparently contradictory position but it's a question of working with what's realistic: if Rough Guides was to disappear overnight, I don't think anybody would fly any less. I think it's an entirely ethical position of mine to work with what's realistic by encouraging people to moderate the amount they fly, rather than stop altogether,' he said. 'It's up to people to make up their own minds about how they live their lives.'
While determined to encourage people to reduce the number of flights they take, Ellingham admits he has no intention of stopping himself, and he does not expect others to do so either. 'As a "recovering travel writer", I fly less than I would like to, but more than I know that ethically I should. The deal I have made with myself is to limit the number of flights I take to one long-haul and two or three shorter flights each year,' he said. 'I very much respect the purist attitudes of those who say they will never fly again, but it's totally unrealistic to expect the majority to do the same.' The best way to cure yourself of an addiction is to go cold turkey, Mr Ellingham. Stay home and set a real example for the great unwashed.
Ellingham is aware of another contradiction in his position. While being hugely destructive, tourism also has so many positive effects that it would be disastrous to the economies of many nations if it were to stop or even be curbed. It has been instrumental in encouraging developing nations to, gasp, protect their environments, especially ones blessed with extraordinary rainforests or coral reefs. After all, no comparatively rich tourist is going to come thousands of miles to see dead animals. But that kind of contradicts everything the "concerned environmentalists" like to spout from the comfort of their Gulfstreams and Learjets.
Encouraging people to reduce the number of flights they take, however, is no easy task. Ellingham said he has been horrified by a new travelling trend. 'If there was just one thing I could change, it would be this new British obsession for binge flying,' he said. 'We now live in a society where, if people have nothing to do on a Saturday night, they go to Budapest for 48 hours. We fly anywhere at the slightest opportunity, 10 times and upwards a year. This needs to be addressed with the greatest urgency.' When it's beautiful people and celebrities doing it when surrounded by paparazzi, that's wonderful. Joe Sixpack and his digital camera shots of the kids? Then it's a calamity. Anyone else see the snobbery in that?
Slightly OT: If you really feel guilty about your destructive flying habits, you can now purchase "carbon credits" when you book your flight on Expedia, and I'm sure other travel sites are offering something similar. They're kind of like indulgences for the modern age to expiate your environmental sins.
#1
So what the hell is this idiot saying?
Fly, don't fly? Tour....don't tour???
I wish he'd make up his mind. Still flies much more than I do, I guess rules are for the little people anyway.
#2
Hey, Ellingham, try walking on your next tour. Sort of limits you to England (unless you can swim the Channel), but you can go to pretty much everywhere in Europe, Asia and Africa. That should keep you busy for a while. And the only CO2 you produce will be from your own breath. Unless you can figure out a way to stop that too.
#3
If Ellingham feels that guilty about his former travel advocacy, he can take vows of poverty, chastity, stability [staying in one place for life] & silence. What a poseur.
#4
While determined to encourage people to reduce the number of flights they take, Ellingham admits he has no intention of stopping himself, and he does not expect others to do so either.
I have qualms about posting this, since it technically is an "advertisement," but it's so funny. If it's inappropriate, please delete it, and it won't happen again.
We are on a mission to take away every one of Al Gore's meaningless carbon credits by simply providing carbon debits. Help us make this dream a reality by purchasing one of the packages below. Don't let Al Gore assuage his guilt with meaningless penance, heap it back on with carbon debits every one of which we will let him know about.
#4
I was hoping there would be a package where the actual, shredded tree was sent to Al, but I didn't see it, althought there are several interesting options available.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/08/2007 5:57 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed was greeted by tens of thousands of supporters as she returned to Bangladesh on Monday after the military-backed government abandoned plans to force her into exile. Huge crowds of activists and well-wishers defied a ban on political gatherings to line the road from Dhakas airport, welcoming the Awami League leader home after almost two months abroad. There are at least 20,000 supporters on both sides of the airport road, said a police official on condition of anonymity.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Queen Elizabeth II, once known in the British military as Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, was to honor American soldiers with a visit Tuesday to the National World War II Memorial.
On Monday morning, the Bushes waited on a near-perfect spring day as the queen and Prince Philip arrived by limousine for their official welcome at the White House. The two couples briefly shook hands 
For the sixth state dinner of Bush's presidency, the State Dining Room was decked out in white and gold. Among the 134 guests were scores of diplomats, business men and women and members of Congress. Other than American football star Peyton Manning and golfer Arnold Palmer, the celebrity quotient was low.
Virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman performed what he called "musical bonbons" as an after-dinner treat. The evening was capped with songs from the U.S. Army Chorus.
Finland will take part in a NATO Response Force (NRF) exercise in Poland next week. The Finnish troops will consist of some 80 to 90 national servicemen, reservists, and their instructors, plus three armoured personnel carriers and a dozen or so other vehicles.
The European Union is moving towards taking over a planned satellite navigation project, EU officials signalled Monday, blaming industry for failing to fulfil agreed conditions. "The alternative solution (to the project) that we will present foresees a stronger participation of the public sector," German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, whose country currently runs the rotating EU presidency, told reporters in Brussels. A spokesman for the European Commission said current scenarios to get Europe's planned satellite navigation system Galileo started "cannot work ... the way we scheduled and the way we wanted." The private sector was expected to provide two-thirds of the funding for Galileo and EU governments the rest. But the commission spokesman said that up to now, the eight European companies tasked with running the system had failed to fulfil the conditions agreed. 
Turkish lawmakers on Monday debated sweeping constitutional reforms that would see the president elected by popular vote, as they sought a way out of a damaging crisis concerning Turkey's secular fabric. The session got off to a heated debate between members of the ruling party and the main opposition over the timing of the proposal, which calls for a two-round popular vote to elect the head of state, who is currently chosen by parliament. The opposition argued that with early general elections already scheduled for July 22, the time was not ripe for parliament to make radical changes to the presidential selection system.
Pakistan's Supreme Court yesterday suspended a judicial inquiry into misconduct charges against the country's top judge that triggered weeks of nationwide protests. The court ordered the move, a decision likely to embarrass President Pervez Musharraf's government, as it took up a petition from Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry challenging his suspension from office. 
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Human Rights Council has failed to criticize egregious human rights violations since it replaced a discredited U.N. rights body last year, two watchdog groups said Monday. The two groups, U.N. Watch and Freedom House, released reports charging that rights violators such as Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China have shielded themselves - and countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe - from criticism as members of the new group.
DAMASCUS, Syria - Syrias newly elected legislature convened on Monday and re-elected the groups speaker unopposed in a live broadcast on state television. Mahmoud Al Abrash, a longtime member of the ruling Baath Party, was elected for a second four-year term. The 66-year-old architect won 235 votes in the 250-seat house. After his election, al-Abrash promised to make the assembly play its legislative role 
The head of Irans state-run television has said all homegrown drama programmes should feature scenes showing characters praying or they will be denied airtime, the ILNA news agency reported on Monday. In the current year, television productions that do not have prayer scenes will not be allowed to air, said Ezatollah Zarghami. The new directive appears to apply to drama series and television films but it is not clear whether it also includes programmes such as game shows and sitcoms. Citing a scene in a popular Iranian series where a murder suspect is shown praying, Zarghami said: Prayer scenes should not be confined to positive and leading characters, the elderly and the clean-living types. He said childrens programmes should also seek to teach the young about praying. Zarghami took over two years ago, showing recent Hollywood films and controversial talk shows putting politicians and celebrities in the hot seat. Religion also plays a conspicuous role. Programming is interrupted for the broadcast of the daily prayers, newsreaders invoke God before each bulletin and there are frequent readings from the Quran. Officials have sought to make domestic television programmes more appealing in the past years to compete with satellite television channels which are banned in Iran but watched by many Iranians.
