In two weeks there will be general elections in the Netherlands. We are then supposed to vote for who will (nominally) represent us in the Second Chamber of parliament. This will have no effect on the way we are governed, of course, since our betters have shackled us to the enormity we call The Turnip on this blog.
The way we vote will only in a very abstract, far-removed way influence a tiny fraction within our real government: The EUnion. How we vote will determine a coalition, which will determine who will be minister, which will determine who will look out for our interests as one of 27 'colleagues' in the European Council. And then only if the Lisbon Treaty allows it, since per the Turnip member state ministers have a first duty to the EUnion, and specifically NOT the country they represent.
Given the turmoil of the moment it isn't really a surprise that the overriding issue in the campaign is the economy. However, so much power and sovereignty has been handed over to Brussels, that the right-honourable gentlemen and ladies can only frame the issues in the narrowest terms. Hence, the contest does not involve our billions worth of contributions to Greek pensions. No, the issues debated are those that are linked to budget cuts over which our local government (still) has any influence: Whether the tax deductibility of mortgage rent is or is not subject to more stringent conditions, or whether the subsidies on child day care should or should not be raised. It is virtuosity on a millimetre squared.
There is, however, something to chose. As the contest rages on, a clear dividing line is appearing between those that still think the welfare state sustainable and those that are beginning to turn away from that idee-fixe. Of the former are the parties of the left. Although all parties realize that cuts are needed, none of of the left are willing to entertain the idea that the overriding problem is not government income, but government spending. Hence the proposals coming from the PvdA, GroenLinks, Christian Union, the Socialist Party and to a certain extent D66, involve higher taxes, especially on the more productive side of the economy.
So ingrained is their thinking in terms of government income, that they immediately equate budget cuts to tax burden increase. Which is the point where projection makes itself felt: Unable to fathom any other line of thinking they accuse the opposing side of increasing the burden of tax even more then the left would, if voted into government.
On the other side we have the CDA, VVD and notably the PVV. And while both CDA and VVD still partly defer costs of government overspending to taxpayers, the PVV has made it a point of making cuts by reducing government spending: Reducing subsidies on 'social' projects (like equipping rowdy 'youth' with football courts and activity homes), charity (Oxfam-Novib alone is good for half a billion of government subsidies, with Christian charity ICCO, for instance, not far behind) and cultural subsidies.
Be that as it may, as an (arguably) objective observer, it is a source of endless frustration that the wider issues (such as the PIIGS mismanaging their economies and the rest of the 27 footing the bill, or a EUnion set of bosses that turned a blind eye to this abuse, or the looming economic catastrophe that awaits us all as a result of these) are not even mentioned. One would be forgiven to think, after watching the election debated, that Holland considered itself an island-nation, with no ties to speak of to the outside world. As the campaign lingers on, the impression is that the overriding conviction among Dutch politicians is one where there is a planet called The Netherlands, which is in proximity of, but completely divorced from, the planet we call Earth. Or in proximity of, but completely divorced from reality, for that matter.
And that is the slim choice we are given...
Me too!
Commentary by Zombie here, and by the indefatigable Mark Steyn here. The Baron has been invited for a blog debate on Public Square. His submission is here (as well as on Public Square). Counter pieces will be posted later. Esther has more on EDM-day in Holland here.
Mass-immigration costs 7.2 billion euros yearly
GN = Average Netherlands, NWA = non-western immigrant. From: Nyfer (2010), 'Budgettaire effecten van immigratie van niet-westerse allochtonen', p48.
Last year Geert Wilders caused a bit of a stir when he announced his initiative to assess the cost of mass-immigration to Dutch society from non-western countries. He commissioned a report with research bureau Nyfer, and today the results came in. According to Elsevier (NL):
Mass immigration of non-western immigrants to the Netherlands costs 7.2 billion euro per year. This was shown in research done by research bureau Nyfer.The website of Nyfer is here. The report can be found here (NL; pdf). The conclusions of the research by Nyfer can be found here (NL; pdf). Interestingly (and not in the Elsevier coverage), second-generation immigrants also show a negative contribution. On average, second-generation non-western immigrants recover around 38% of the negative contribution by their parents.
Nyfer did the research at the request of the PVV fraction in the Second Chamber. The party of Geert Wilders went to the economic research bureau because last year the cabinet refused 'on principal grounds' to make such calculations.
The 7.2 billion euro is based on a yearly net influx of 25,000 immigrants with a same number of offspring.
The research shows that non-western immigramts use more government services and pay less in taxes and premiums than the average Dutch.
Also, they more often are on welfare or receive unemployment benefits. Lastly, non-western immigrants are overrepresented in criminality, which leads to extra costs.
Alexander Pechtold, leader of the flamingly multicultural D66, came back rather forcefully (hah!) when he intoned that non-western immigrants cannot be viewed exclusively as 'a cost item', maintaining that people should not be viewed as 'economic goods in a cost/benefit analysis'. However, given that for years we were told we need immigration to pay for and care for our ageing population, that about-face is a bit on the lame side, isn't it?
This explains a lot
Claire Berlinski: A Hidden History of Evil:
There are other ways in which the story that Stroilov’s and Bukovsky’s papers tell isn’t over. They suggest, for example, that the architects of the European integration project, as well as many of today’s senior leaders in the European Union, were far too close to the USSR for comfort. This raises important questions about the nature of contemporary Europe—questions that might be asked when Americans consider Europe as a model for social policy, or when they seek European diplomatic cooperation on key issues of national security.
According to Zagladin’s reports, for example, Kenneth Coates, who from 1989 to 1998 was a British member of the European Parliament, approached Zagladin on January 9, 1990, to discuss what amounted to a gradual merger of the European Parliament and the Supreme Soviet. Coates, says Zagladin, explained that “creating an infrastructure of cooperation between the two parliament[s] would help . . . to isolate the rightists in the European Parliament (and in Europe), those who are interested in the USSR’s collapse.” Coates served as chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights from 1992 to 1994. How did it come to pass that Europe was taking advice about human rights from a man who had apparently wished to “isolate” those interested in the USSR’s collapse and sought to extend Soviet influence in Europe?
Or consider a report on Francisco Fernández Ordóñez, who led Spain’s integration into the European Community as its foreign minister. On March 3, 1989, according to these documents, he explained to Gorbachev that “the success of perestroika means only one thing—the success of the socialist revolution in contemporary conditions. And that is exactly what the reactionaries don’t accept.” Eighteen months later, Ordóñez told Gorbachev: “I feel intellectual disgust when I have to read, for example, passages in the documents of ‘G7’ where the problems of democracy, freedom of human personality and ideology of market economy are set on the same level. As a socialist, I cannot accept such an equation.” Perhaps most shockingly, the Eastern European press has reported that Stroilov’s documents suggest that François Mitterrand was maneuvering with Gorbachev to ensure that Germany would unite as a neutral, socialist entity under a Franco-Soviet condominium.
Zagladin’s records also note that the former leader of the British Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, approached Gorbachev—unauthorized, while Kinnock was leader of the opposition—through a secret envoy to discuss the possibility of halting the United Kingdom’s Trident nuclear-missile program. The minutes of the meeting between Gorbachev and the envoy, MP Stuart Holland, read as follows:
In [Holland’s] opinion, Soviet Union should be very interested in liquidation of “Tridents” because, apart from other things, the West—meaning the US, Britain and France—would have a serious advantage over the Soviet Union after the completion of START treaty. That advantage will need to be eliminated. . . . At the same time Holland noted that, of course, we can seriously think about realisation of that idea only if the Labour comes to power. He said Thatcher . . . would never agree to any reduction of nuclear armaments.
Kinnock was vice president of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004, and his wife, Glenys, is now Britain’s minister for Europe. Gerard Batten, a member of the UK Independence Party, has noted the significance of the episode. “If the report given to Mr. Gorbachev is true, it means that Lord Kinnock approached one of Britain’s enemies in order to seek approval regarding his party’s defense policy and, had he been elected, Britain’s defense policy,” Batten said to the European Parliament in 2009. “If this report is true, then Lord Kinnock would be guilty of treason.”
Similarly, Baroness Catherine Ashton, who is now the European Union’s foreign minister, was treasurer of Britain’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from 1980 to 1982. The papers offer evidence that this organization received “unidentified income” from the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Stroilov’s papers suggest as well that the government of the current Spanish EU commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Joaquín Almunia, enthusiastically supported the Soviet project of gradually unifying Germany and Europe into a socialist “common European home” and strongly opposed the independence of the Baltic states and then of Ukraine.
Perhaps it doesn’t surprise you to read that prominent European politicians held these views. But why doesn’t it? It is impossible to imagine that figures who had enjoyed such close ties to the Nazi Party—or, for that matter, to the Ku Klux Klan or to South Africa’s apartheid regime—would enjoy top positions in Europe today. The rules are different, apparently, for Communist fellow travelers. “We now have the EU unelected socialist party running Europe,” Stroilov said to me.
Something you may not have heard of
In the home town of US president Obama a conference is taking place: The 4th International Conference on Climate Change.Now, you may wonder: An international conference on climate change? Why isn't this all over the news, like the ones in Copenhagen and Bali? The answer, as these things go, is rather easy: This one isn't about making you feel guilty about being alive, earning a living and enjoying the fruits of your labour.
New scientific discoveries are casting doubt on how much of the warming of the twentieth century was natural and how much was man-made, and governments around the world are beginning to confront the astronomical cost of reducing emissions. Economists, meanwhile, are calculating that the cost of slowing or stopping global warming exceeds the social benefits.In short: This is about trying to avoid the unmitigated disaster that the greenies (those in the EUnion and our respective local functionaries included) are poised to inflict on all of us, if we let them. Which is why you won't find any mention of ICC4 in the Dutch MSM (or any other, for that matter).
The purpose of ICCC-4 is the same as it was for the first three events: to build momentum and public awareness of the global warming “realism” movement, a network of scientists, economists, policymakers, and concerned citizens who believe sound science and economics, rather than exaggeration and hype, ought to determine what actions, if any, are taken to address the problem of climate change.
But never fear: WUWT is live blogging from the conference. Additionally Anthony has many guest posters telling you about the most recent *real* scientific findings, that put the climate change hype into a proper perspective.
'Effectively the UK is under a form of Sharia'
Trevor Kelway, part of EDL senior leadership, writes on Atlas Shrugs:
Apparently the reason provided for this blatant act of censorship was that the article ‘contravenes UK racism laws’. If this is the case then it means one of two things, that the Quran itself contravenes UK racism laws or Islam has an exemption from UK racism laws, and is treated as a special case. Since the Quran is still available for sale on the shelves of UK bookshops it must mean that the latter is true. That being so effectively means that the UK is already under a form of Sharia law which demands that Islam is above criticism and completely outside the realm of rational debate.Pamela Geller adds:
Slander in Islam does not mean what it means in the West. Slander in Islam is anything that a Muslim decides is an "insult" to Islam. And they are relentless and violent in their imposition of this seventh century tenet of Islam. (...)Another sad day in the history of multiculturalism...
The jihad is free to activate, mobilise, preach overthrow of the West, run jihad porn of beheadings and the blowing up of coalition soldiers on the net, but the EDL is shut up and shut down for revealing the truth about quranic verses. Truth begets hatred.
The most dreadful currency in history
Flagged up by De Dagelijkse Standaard (NL) a story on Elsevier entitled EU-minsters desperate: How do we get out of the "euro-hell" (NL). The story is itself a summary of an article in the French Le Monde telling us that amid a growing sense of panic EUnion financial ministers will meet again on Monday to try to rescue the euro from a further slide in value.Chief among the causes of the slide of last Friday, according to Le Monde, are Paul Volcker, economic adviser to US president Obama, and the story that president Sarkozy threatened to pull France out of the euro-zone if Germany would not go along with the rescue plan as proposed last weekend. Paul Volcker last Friday openly speculated about a 'disintegration' of the euro-zone. This speculation was given a firm boost after the story broke about Sarkozy blackmailing Germany's Angela Merkel, a story Le Monde says has been officially denied.
DDS reminds us of those Europhiles that were so entirely sure they knew everything better and rammed the euro through the throats of a Dutch population that didn't want any of it, sidelining fundamental democratic procedure and accountability in the process. And notes the conspicuous silence with which this self-styled 'elite' is cloaking itself now that 'the most dreadful currency in history' (according to DDS, but I can only agree) is failing so spectacularly.
Meanwhile, in Belgium former PM Yves Leterme told the Belgian Sunday current events program 'De Zevende Dag' that European leaders should shut up about the euro's miseries (NL).
European leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel should stop casting doubt on the European rescue plan for ailing euro countries. This was said by outgoing prime-minister Yves Leterme in the vrt-program De Zevende Dag. "Agreements have been made to defend the euro. That was a historic turning point. The debate should now be ended. We must not raise any more doubt about the plan, as Mrs Merkel did," said Leterme.According to Spitsnieuws (NL) he even went so far as to remind viewers of the program that in earlier days members of parliament could be lawfully prosecuted for discrediting the Belgian franc. Something he evidently wants reinstated for those euro-nonbelievers: Shut up and do not doubt our manifest wisdom. And of you don't we will prosecute you and throw you in jail, or something to that effect.
Merkel said Friday that the success of the European rescue plan is not guaranteed. This had an immediate deleterious impact on the stock and the rate of the euro. Leterme also referred to statements by chief executive Josef Ackermann of Deutsche Bank and "indiscretions from Paris.
Now you tell me, dear reader: Does this sound like a leadership firmly in control of a beneficial crisis?
[UPDATE001] Is has has already begun: Protesters attempt to storm Irish parliament
Protesters angry at Ireland's multi-billion efforts to bail out its banks have tried to storm the entrance of the Irish parliament and several have been injured in scuffles with police. (...)Note the date on that piece: Last Tuesday! Evidently the Dutch MSM would rather you didn't know about it.
Richard Boyd Barrett, of the People Before Profit Alliance, said there had to be a movement of opposition to the Government. "They (the Government) are bailing out the banks and the institutions and the elite that caused the crisis and they are asking ordinary people, senior citizens, young people to pay the price with brutal cutbacks and it's just not acceptable and people are here to say we're going to stop this and we want an alternative," he said.
[UPDATE002] Related reading: Why the Euro Is Doomed.
So long then...
Islamic preachers in the conservative Arab states present little sympathy for the planned burka bans in France and Belgium. For most of them, the ban of total body covering is an expression of intolerance against Muslims. A preacher from Saudi Arabia even called for the Muslims in Belgium to exit the country.For once I find myself in total agreement with fanatically orthodox islamic scholars. By all means, if you can't find in yourself the strength and will to fit in here, if you demand we give up pleasures that affront your overdeveloped sensibilities, if you insist we must turn our society into a version of the primitive, inhuman and backward community that seems to be the unique spawn of your faith, if you use and threaten violence whenever your unreasonable demands are not met: Leave... go elsewhere, and let us be. You are not welcome here.
Sheikh Abdurrahman, who preaches at the Al-Diraa mosque in the downtown of the Saudi capital Riyad, said: “If a Muslim cannot protect his religion, then he is to emigrate. For the country of God is great.” The Saudi preacher declared later: “If the Muslims living there are not allowed to spread the message of their faith, then they should leave the country of the infidel.”
(Thanks to reader DP111 for the tip)
A beneficial crisis. Or is it?
The package to rescue the euro zone cobbled together last weekend did not have the lasting effect many had hoped for. After a brief spike of the markets on Monday the rest of the week saw the European stock market and the euro continue their slide downward. Dr. North of EURef is illustrating his thoughts on the euro (in a post aptly titled 'Crash and Burn?') with a picture of a plane in a rather dire state.
A report in the Financial Times(via Euro Intelligence) has it that at first 'the growth implications of the austerity packages ha[d] not yet filtered through to the financial markets'. The FT reports that investors are getting scared by two factors – the prospect for economic growth in view of the austerity programmes, and the now prevailing assumption that the ECB is likely to keep lose monetary policies irrespective of inflationary developments.
This state of affairs does not prevent the EUrocrats from trying to get the maximal benefit from what they evidently view as yet another of those 'beneficial crises', that provide an opportunity to further centralize political powers in Brussels, while the citizenry is preoccupied with the drama of the moment.
Bruno Waterfield warns us that Herman Van Rompuy, the EU President, has set up a task force to build a new "gouvernement économique" to cover all 27 member states of the Union. This new body, with strong support from France and Germany, holds its first meeting on May 20.
First among the more infuriating aspects of the plan is the stipulation for EU powers to vet budgets of the 27 member states before the draft laws have been presented in the parliaments of respective member states.Says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: "Fonctionnaires and EU finance ministers will pass judgement on the British (or Dutch, or Danish, or French) budgets before the elected bodies of these ancient and sovereign nations have seen the proposals. Did we not we not fight the English Civil War and kill a king over such a prerogative?"
Rather surprisingly, given the Germans opposition to handing over money to delinquent governments like the Greeks, Angela Merkel seems to be in full support.
"If the euro fails, not only the currency fails. Europe fails too, and the idea of European unification. We have a common currency, but no common political and economic union. And this is exactly what we must change. To achieve this - therein lies the opportunity of this crisis."Or, in other words: Never waste a good crisis.
But the acquiescence of Mrs. Merkel is all the more puzzling in light of the (apparently successful) attempt at naked extortion by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who, according to the Australian, threatened to pull France out of the euro zone last weekend, if Germany would not agree with the monstrosity delivered late last Sunday.
Back to the question that started this post. It would seem to me that a beneficial crisis is one that is in essence contained, but is allowed to rage within such parameters as our leaders deem necessary to meet their objectives. But what if the crisis grows beyond the control of even the leaders?
Even in the Netherlands the call to bring back the guilder (NL) is growing stronger every day. And slowly it is dawning on the financial markets that, despite the rescue-package, Greece will probably not be able to repay her debts (it really is a measure of the total and utter irresponsibility of the entire Greek apparat to have let it get this far). Thus leaving the 'colleagues' between a rock (increasingly unwilling citizens) and a hard place (increasingly skeptical markets).
I find myself strangely optimistic these days. Yes, there is a financial storm heading our way. And it will be a bad one, leaving many (possibly including yours truly) without a meaningful job. We probably have to prepare ourselves for some hard times ahead. But if we have to suffer that to be rid of the anti-democratic and rather tyrannical cabal roaming around Brussels, it will be worth it.
The EUnion was built on the foundation of strong economies in Western Europe, and the promise to adhere to the 'stability pact'. Or rather, it latched on like the parasitical bloodsucker it really is. While I am aware the cost in human misery my deepest wish entail, I do hope that the economic crisis deepens to the extent that the EUnion collapses under its own weight. Only then will we be able to rebuild our nation and our continent in a manner the EUnion so utterly falsely claimed it would: Prosperous, free and sovereign.
And as to Napoleons retarded nephew threatening to leave the euro: F..k you! I dare you, you miserable schmuck. Ever since the even when we were a 'Community', rather then the EUnion that is holding us in a death grip right now, we have been handing you money to prop up your agricultural sector. You think you can do it by yourself? By all means, go and piss off and leave us to spend our money on our own stuff, you bug-eyed midget!
(With my apologies to my regular reader for this sudden outburst of rather blue language).
Related reading:
Financial Times: Europe’s missing foundations
Business Week: Euro Breakup Talk Increases as Germany Loses Proxy
Sometimes it is very simple...
David Horowitz is confronted by a female member of the UCSD Muslim Student Association. It all sounds reasonable and friendly enough, even if it is a lot of wide-ranging waffle. But then Mr Horowitz reverses the confrontation and elicits a rather shocking admission from the MSA student.
Partial transcript (from 2:50 onwards):
It doesn't get any clearer then that, does it? These people, the Muslim Brotherhood and all those that are involved and linked to it think this and are the enemy of civilization. Sometimes life *is* that simple...
Partial transcript (from 2:50 onwards):
DH: "The head of Hizbollah has said that he hopes that we [Jews] will gather in Israel so he doesn't have to hunt us down globally. FOR IT OR AGAINST IT?"(full transcript at NewsRealBlog)
MSA student: "For it..."
DH "Thank you"
It doesn't get any clearer then that, does it? These people, the Muslim Brotherhood and all those that are involved and linked to it think this and are the enemy of civilization. Sometimes life *is* that simple...
Building a perfect storm
European Union finance ministers agreed an emergency loan package on Monday that with IMF support could reach 750 billion euros ($1,000 billion) to prevent a sovereign debt crisis spreading through the euro zone.This morning Dutch finance minster Jan-Kees de Jager made a point of insisting the 440 billion are guarantees and will not be used, thus costing us taxpayers nothing. What a pity he ended his soothing reassurances with an added '..., als het goed is...'. That bit is the Dutch equivalent of "If everything goes according to plan", which pretty much negated all of the soothing noises he was producing only moments before.
The European Central Bank also announced steps to contain Greece's debt crisis, saying it would buy euro zone government and private debt and abandoning resistance to full-scale bond purchases. (...)
The EU finance ministers announced a package consisting of a special-purpose vehicle via which euro area states would guarantee on a pro rata basis up to 440 billion euros, plus a European instrument worth 60 billion euros.
Of the 440 billion, 24 billion is the Dutch part. This sum easily equals in size the amount of budget cuts envisioned by economists to balance the government budget to within a 3% deficit even before the Euro crisis hit the EUnion. It is quite unfathomable why de Jager (and any other North-European finance minister) agreed with this insanity. Mind you, Herr Schäuble, Germany's FM, was apparently so stressed out he collapsed and was taken to a Brussels hospital late last night. And who can blame him? He knows how the German public reacted to the Greek loans. These new plans dwarf the German commitment to Greece.
Deceit all over again
All of minister de Jagers insistence that these are mere guarantees and will cost nothing do sound a bit hollow after this same de Jager insisted the loans offered to Greece would never be taken and hence would cost us, tax-payers, nothing. One is tempted to say (as I did yelling at the TV screen this morning): "You LIE, sir".
The EUnion process has become so tediously predictable. We are started off with "This government will never... !". Then, as time goes by this morphs into "Only in the most extreme of circumstances will we...". One stage later this becomes: "We may have to...", until finally, when the 'colleagues' deem the timing right (after much scare-mongering MSM coverage) they come out and say what they had been planning all along: "This government will of course..!". One is very much under the impression that the end-game has already been decided, but is being withheld from the public in fear of its reaction to the full plans. So it was with the Greek bail-out and so it will be with the multi-billion 'guarantees'.
Questionable legality
This deceit is vexing enough. But it gets even more gob-smacking when one realizes that this new package is a flagrant violation of the rules set out in the
What is totally unsurprising is that the "colleagues" should try to pull such a stunt. We've been saying consistently that they will do whatever it takes to protect their single currency, and this is just another example of their determination. But it is rather amusing that, on what is supposed to be Europe Day, they are having to shore up their construct, running rough-shod through their own treaty structures.In short: When in a pinch, the EUrocrats can't even show the decency to adhere to the monstrosity that is the Turnip they forced down our throats. If the Turnip is of questionable legitimacy, then the new measures taken by the 'colleagues' are devoid of any whatsoever. Yet they forge ahead. This is how little the 'colleagues' respect the citizenry. And this is how little we should trust the 'colleagues'.
Crisis as opportunity... leading to more crisis
A glimpse of the end-game can be gleaned from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who writes in the Telegraph:
[I]f the early reports are near true, the accord profoundly alters the character of the European Union. The walls of fiscal and economic sovereignty are being breached. The creation of an EU rescue mechanism with powers to issue bonds with Europe's AAA rating to help eurozone states in trouble -- apparently €60bn, with a separate facility that may be able to lever up to €600bn -- is to go far beyond the Lisbon Treaty. This new agency is an EU Treasury in all but name, managing an EU fiscal union where liabilities become shared. A European state is being created before our eyes.So, the EUnion is once again using a crisis to greatly expand its power, at the cost of another big slice of sovereignty of member states.
No EMU country will be allowed to default, whatever the moral hazard.
But at the same time it is sowing the seeds of the total economic ruin of the euro zone by removing moral hazard. In the name of European solidarity countries that are financially prudent will be made to pick up the tab of the countries that are not. The good shall pay for the bad. In all likelihood, this will have the effect that the good will stop being good, because that will only incur costs.
But it will likely not even have to wait for that to happen. According to Zero-Hedge the measures are doomed to failure. A failure that will become apparent in the next month or two:
The initial result will, no doubt, be a backup in many markets. The Euro will be higher, European sovereign bonds will trade higher; maybe even equities could catch a bid. But the critical question will be, “For how long?” Depending on the resolve of those in charge this could last for a bit. At least a week and more likely a month. But it is doomed to failure. Should we get to June and the benefits of these emergency steps wane there will be yet another crisis. The bonds will fall again as will the Euro. When that happens there will be no second bailout. Sometime in the next two months we will hear that great sucking noise again. And when it is heard there will be no stopping it.And when finally the house of cards is coming down, it will be you and I, ordinary citizens, taxed to the hilt and our savings depleted, who will have to bear the consequences. So much for the Euro and the EUnion bringing us prosperity...
Still alive and kicking
For those of this blogs readers that had the impression political correctness in the Netherlands was on the wane, I have some jolly news: Call immigrants 'bicultural', not allochtoon, says CU.
In years (and elections) gone by I have gone out and cast my vote for the CU. I certainly won't make that mistake again...
The word allochtoon, used in the Netherlands to describe people of non-western origin, is negative and should be replaced by 'bi-cultural citizen', according to a new policy document drawn up by the orthodox Christian party ChristenUnie.There is absolutely nothing I can say in the way of meaningful comment, that hasn't been said elsewhere to discredit the preposterous idea that giving a problem another label will make it go away. But evidently that realization has still to dawn on the good people of the Christian Union.
'The word allochtoon is associated with negativity by many people. The world bicultural is softer and should be used instead,' ChristenUnie MP Cynthia Ortega-Martijn, who drew up the document, is quoted as saying by the Volkskrant.
According to the Van Dale dictionary, allochtoon means migrant, foreigner or alien. However, the word is mainly used to describe non-western immigrants and their children. The third generation of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants are still known as allochtoon despite being born and brought up in Holland.
There have been several efforts to eradicate the word, which has a negative ring for many. Last year, the Labour party attempted to introduce the term 'new Netherlander' to describe immigrants.
In years (and elections) gone by I have gone out and cast my vote for the CU. I certainly won't make that mistake again...
On the failure to integrate
There's an interesting item on FrontPage Mag. It is an interview by Jamie Glazov with Nicolai Sennels, a Danish psychologist who worked for several years with young criminal Muslims in a Copenhagen prison. The interesting bit is that this one does not just bemoan the unwillingness or lack of integration by large portions of Muslim immigrant populations around the west. Rather, it tries to delve into the root cause. And guess what: It isn't discrimination or poverty or social neglect.
[UPDATE001] Serendipity strikes again. Via Esther we get the below table of best and worst unemployment figures of immigrant groups in Finland. Spot the main difference between the left and the right column...
FP: Did you find any real differences between Muslims coming from different parts of the Muslim world?Among the cultural differences that most determine the failure to integrate are the different views on anger, self-confidence and honor. Views that are at times completely at odds with one another.
Sennels: My experience from working with Muslims is that the culture developed under Islamic influence supports the development of certain psychological characteristics. I had Muslim clients from most of the Muslim world: most of the Middle East, Muslim countries in Africa, Pakistan and ex-Yugoslavia. I did not register any major differences between the mentalities between these countries. (...)
Seen from the therapy room, the mentality stemming from Islamic influence on the societies where it is the dominating value system is so strongly rooted in the culture that Muslims are influenced by its dogmas and values no matter if they pray five times a day and can recite the Quran or not.
According to our view, the base of being authentic and honorable is to know one’s strengths and weakness – and accepting them. The ability to think “your opinion about me, not mine – and mine counts to me” when provoked and being mature enough to handle criticism constructively is a source of social status in the Western world.Which pretty much explains the Danish cartoons, Kurt Westergaard and Theo van Gogh. And it may get worse. If left unchecked Dr. Sennels is not optimistic about the future:
Unfortunately, the Muslim concept of honor transforms especially their men into fragile glass-like personalities that need to protect themselves by scaring their surroundings with their aggressive attitude. The show of so-called narcissistic rage is very common among Muslims. The fear of criticism is in many cases not far from paranoia. It is not without reason that self-irony and self-criticism is completely absent in the Muslim societies.
As Muslim immigrants push for Islamization and the original Europeans increasingly feel being exploited and threatened by growing and still more violent Muslim communities, a continent wide civil war might become unavoidable. We are already on our way to get our own European Islamic Gaza Stripes where non-Islamic authorities are met with flying stones and angry crowds while Islamic authorities such as imams, groups of elderly men and home made Sharia courts, are free to exercise their power. Such developments are very alarming and should be confronted with large amounts of police, strict laws, and cuts on economic support for families having more children than the country’s average and demands that Muslim organizations and leaders reform their version of Islam.Read it all, as they say.
[UPDATE001] Serendipity strikes again. Via Esther we get the below table of best and worst unemployment figures of immigrant groups in Finland. Spot the main difference between the left and the right column...
Yet another stitch-up (+ update)
According to them the 110 billion euro loan granted to Greece by the EUnion and the IMF has been made 'junior' to existing loans from (pre-dominantly) commercial banks.
That means that, over the next couple of years, the idiot banks that loaned bankrupt Greece money will get their money back. And then, when Greece runs out of cash again, we'll be left holding the bag (along with Germany and the rest of the folks who bailed Greece out).Having had some experience in witnessing the EUnion process I totally believe this was intentional. This is a bail-out of Greece PLUS the banks holding too much Greek paper. This is the EUnion redistributing national incomes.
In any normal financing, the lender of last resort would be SENIOR to all existing debt. It would get its money back first, before the other idiots got a penny.
In the Greece bailout, however, the new money we're putting in will be going right out the door to pay off existing lenders who would have lost their shirts. And if the Greece austerity measures don't work and there's nothing left for us? Tough.
As soon as Greece gets its money, the banks will be paid off. And then, all of a sudden, the 'colleagues' will decide a restructuring of Greek debt is in order. Restructuring debts is a euphemism for not paying the debt (partly or in whole). Which would mean the money handed over by Merkel and our own Finance minster Jan-Kees de Jager (p), your money, will disappear into the black hole that is de Greek government budget. The markets won't give a damn because no party, other then the IMF and EUnion member states are affected. The only thing that will have gone missing is tax money. But hey, tax money is free money, isn't it?
Angela Merkel bleating that the Greek crisis could spell the end of the EUnion (NL; Oh, how I wish...) is all sound and fury. The EUnion has decided it will use tax money to keep the Euro-zone together. And we all will have the (questionable) privilege of paying through the nose so the colleagues may have their shiny single currency.
And how much do we pay, you may ask. Well, from a nice overview linked to in the same piece we learn the cost per household for each country participating in the Greek bail-out. Through this link we learn that the Germans get off rather cheaply at 'only' 565 euros per household. Our little damp corner of the world did not get such a great deal. Every Dutch household will be made to cough up 657 euros. And in the immediate future we still have Spain and Portugal to look forward to.
Could somebody please ask out Finance minister Jan-Kees de Jager what the hell he was thinking agreeing to this gross injustice? Will any of our parliamentarians make life even just a little uncomfortable for de Jager in the upcoming session of Second Chamber?
(picture courtesy of Coontje's Fotoneuq)
RELATED READING
Brussels Journal: The Euro Crisis: The Insolvent Are Expected to Bail Out the Bankrupt
The Belmont Club: That’s the Way You Do It
[UPDATE001] And hop, there it is: MPs back Greece bail-out plan. Finance minister Jan-Kees de Jager maintains there is a virtual certainty the 'loan' of 4.8 billion euros will be repaid in full. Moreover, he denied the IMF and EUnion loans are junior to other loans. Which leaves us with a question: Is Business Insider wrong, or is de Jager *gasp* lying? For the moment I'm going with the working hypothesis that this afternoon we threw away 4.8 billion of OUR money down a bottomless well. Money, that I think would've been better spent had the government bought out positions in Greek paper of Dutch banks.
Do over? [Updated]
From England Expects:
[UPDATE001] According to Bruno Waterfield, re-ratification may open up the prospect of a UK referendum on theLisbon Treaty Turnip.
[On May 6] the European Parliament will vote to confirm an IGC (Intergovernmental Conference) which will take place on June the 17th and 18th in Brussels.Probably too much to hope for, but: Can we have our referendum now?
18 extra MEPs. Parliament will decide whether to allow treaty changes increasing the size of the European Parliament to take place without a full Convention (debate Wednesday, vote Thursday).In this they are supported by the European Commission,
the Commission recommends opening an Intergovernmental Conference as soon asThat IGC will amend the Lisbon Treaty (Protocol 36). This will require that the Lisbon Treaty be re-ratified by all 27 nations of the European Union.
possible, remaining strictly limited to discussion of the Spanish proposal for a protocol amending Protocol No 36 on Transitional Provisions
Once the IGC is over, the new version of the protocol as adopted will have to be ratified by the 27 national parliaments.
[UPDATE001] According to Bruno Waterfield, re-ratification may open up the prospect of a UK referendum on the
Cameron has promised a popular vote on any new EU text, a high profile manifesto pledge that will be tested to the limits by the return of an amended Lisbon Treaty.Hence, this new ratification procedure will spell all kinds of trouble for Dave "cast iron guarantee" Cameron. Says Mr Waterfield:
Cameron’s European policy, set out last November, is designed to retain some traditionalist eurosceptic cover while making sure, in reality, that the EU does not become an issue in the next term of the British parliament. Conservative policy on Europe has always been dishonest.So, the UK will be the one to watch. If Camerons hand is forced, and a UK referendum becomes a reality, things will start to get REALLY interesting.
I silently shed a tear...
Panic during Remembrance Day ceremony in Amsterdam
Video here (NL).
One of the most sacred (in a secular sense) days of this nations calendar. And somebody just has to go and taint it, disrespect it in this callous, unthinking manner... This is how a nation loses its heart and soul.
[UPDATE001] Apparently, the trouble maker was a notorious petty criminal/junk (NL). Video of the arrest is here (from 1:33). For once I have to concede everyone involved reactedadequately admirably, from the officers making the arrest to the royal family, who (after quickly being ushered off-scene by security) returned within minutes quite defiantly, and later visited the injured at the aid station. Did I just witness a glimmer of national character?
At least 10 people were injured after panic broke out during the Remembrance Day commemorations on Amsterdam's Dam square on Tuesday evening when a man began shouting during the two minutes silence.
The man has been arrested but the motive for his actions is still unclear, a police spokesman told Nos tv.
Most of the injured had either broken bones or scrapes and bruises received when parts of the crowd began moving following the shouts. At least one safety barrier fell during the crush.
Eyewitness
According to eyewitnesses quoted on the Telegraaf website the man on the telephone during the two minutes silence and called to order by other people in the crowd.
'Then he began to shout. Another person hit him, probably to shut him up, and then he was taken off by the police. That is when the panic started,' one eyewitness told the paper.
Telegraaf columnist Selale Dogan said witnessed another person in the crowd jump on the man. 'People began to scream and push. They tried to get away. It was chaos but no-one knew what was going on,' Dogan said.
Queen
Queen Beatrix was ushered away from the ceremony during the incident but returned a few minutes later after order had been restored. The ceremony was then resumed.
The tens of thousands of people present on the Dam were told someone had been taken ill.
Before the two minutes silence, wreaths had been laid by the queen, crown prince Willem-Alexander, political leaders and Amsterdam's acting mayor Lodewijk Asscher.
Prime minister
In a speech, prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende spoke about Miep Gies, the women who helped Anne Frank hide from the Nazis during World War II and who died a few months ago.
Gies did not consider herself a hero, but said her history was the 'story of ordinary people in terrible times,' he said.
'We are those ordinary people,' the prime minister said. 'We keep the memories of all Dutch victims alive.'
Video here (NL).
One of the most sacred (in a secular sense) days of this nations calendar. And somebody just has to go and taint it, disrespect it in this callous, unthinking manner... This is how a nation loses its heart and soul.
[UPDATE001] Apparently, the trouble maker was a notorious petty criminal/junk (NL). Video of the arrest is here (from 1:33). For once I have to concede everyone involved reacted
Thought of the day
Tim Cavanaugh: Greek Bailout Already Making Situation Worse
Isn't it about time to start to seriously think about teaming up with Germany and bring back the guilder and the deutschmark? Before the PIGS drag us into the mud with them?
Pajamas' Stephen Green seems to think so:
Isn't it about time to start to seriously think about teaming up with Germany and bring back the guilder and the deutschmark? Before the PIGS drag us into the mud with them?
Pajamas' Stephen Green seems to think so:
So it’s probably necessary that the EU bail out Greece, before the contagion spreads any farther. But the only way to stop the rot once and for all requires something more drastic: amputation. And that means abandoning the euro, in as orderly a fashion as is possible.Phase two of this operation would then of course entail hunting down every single politician complicit in surrendering us to this mess. Phase three will be: Executions at dawn.
It’s last call. The party’s over. And it’s long past time for the rowdier guests do the walk of shame back home.
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