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MAY 24, 2010 -- MAY 30, 2010

U.S. TELLS NORTH KOREA TO HALT PROVOCATIONS AND THREATS

CLINTON-YU JOINT MEETING TEXT

Kim Jong Ill is doing what he has always been doing and that is threatening war and committing provocative acts so as to get China and other nations to give him the two things he desires most.

The first is recognition to assuage his megalomania. Not unlike a two-year- old demanding attention. The second is money and lots of it. The N. Korean economy is only propped up by other nation’s money.

In the past these tactics have always worked and he has gotten recognition and money. The west and others always seem to cave and give him what he wants, so that reinforcement is positive.

He wants a smooth transfer of power to his son, so he will do whatever it takes to create enough momentum and confusion to cover up whatever is going on inside his regime. I suspect a Stalinist type purge is ongoing or is coming so his son can have no threats to his succession.

Read the article REUTERS/North Korea to cut all ties with South Korea

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I’m a Korean, and the two Koreas do not want war. Kim Jong-il definitely doesn’t want it, because he knows it’s the end of his precious kingdom if he goes against Asia’s second mightiest military power, who has the world’s biggest military power as his best friend. South Korea doesn’t want war, either. It is the 10th largest economy in the world–they also have too much to lose.

Read the article REUTERS/North Korea to cut all ties with South Korea

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I've been asking for days now why we (the US) are in the middle of this. It appears to me our engagement is actually escalating the problem, not solving it. Without Hillary running around saying the US is prepared to back S Korea in any way (including militarily), responses would have been far more measured. Without 20 years of giving N Korea humanitarian aid and technology every time they acted out, their response would have been more measured (and maybe they wouldn't have torpedoed the ship in the first place).

N Korea is roughly 30 million starving people. China doesn't want them, and neither does Russia (in fact, I believe both those countries have added resources to their borders with N Korea to keep refugees from coming across). But we act like we are still in the Cold War that sent us to war there 60 years ago. Old mindsets are hard to break -- particularly at the State Department.

The US has finite resources and finite credibility (unfortunately shrinking fast) to deal with foreign policy issues. It's time we prioritized. N and S Korea will solve their problems only when they are left to their own devices.

Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/ North Korea to sever ties with the south

 

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To those who will undoubtedly complain that the US shouldn't be dragged into another conflict, let me ask you this: if one of our staunchest allies in Europe had been attacked by a dictatorial power who has provoked and killed before, would you support US action? The fact is, South Korea has been one of the US's strongest allies in the Far East, sending troops not only to Vietnam but also to the Middle East to help support the US's (admittedly misguided) war in Iraq, etc.

And for those of you who think that Obama, et al. are diplomatic wimps and should take out North Korea with nuclear weapons, etc., please realize that any attack on the North will mean possibly millions of dead in Seoul and the rest of South Korea, not to mention possibly millions more in Japan. And don't forget, China will not sit back and watch a war start on their doorstep. They stepped in to fight for the North during the Korean War - what makes you think they won't do it again? (Their current waffling on their support of North Korea doesn't inspire confidence).

That said, I think the US and South Korea are doing the right thing. All they can do is show the North and China that the international community disapproves, and that the two countries will fight if necessary. But anything more than that will only cause the deaths of millions.

Lastly, for those of you who think Bush would've handled this differently - I highly doubt it. Bush never expressed any desire to start a war here, knowing full well that the stakes are different than in the Middle East.

Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/U.S. pledges to help South Korea in bid for U.N. action

NORTH KOREA REACTS TO TORPEDO REPORT ON CHEONAN SINKING

The last thing that North Korea wants is another war. If your country is starving to death, charging into the countryside doesn’t really top the list. Your next meal is a little more important. But it will take removal of Kim “I like chocolate pudding” Jong Il and his ilk to install any actual reforms, or to reunify the north and south. He’s narrowly escaped a number of attempts to take him out. His trip to China was to get their assurance that Daddy Mao would be there for them when the youknowwhat hits the fan over the attack. Read the article REUTERS/Reaction to South Korea boat sinking report

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Can't go to war with them but we can tighten sanctions to hurt their weapons trade. Now the UN can put patrols around their borders to stop their navy from selling weapons across seas. They can still go through Chinas borders but that might further hurt their relations with them.

But as for all out war on N. Korea? I don't see that happening because lets face it.. it would be the bloodiest war the world would see since the first Korean war. Even though the war really never ended and its been the longest stand off in history that spans over 50 years.. it's more like a grudge than a continuing war.

Read the article REUTERS/Reaction to South Korea boat sinking report

SEEING THE RED SHIRTS IN BLACK AND WHITE

The image of peaceful protesters crushed by tyranny is a compelling one.

The red shirts, however, are not peaceful protesters. Look at Bangkok, Udon, Khongaen and other cities today and see the true nature of this movement. Look at the violent, forceful occupation of Bangkok for the last two months.

How long would a violent mob have been allowed to occupy downtown London or Washington ? Yet the Thai government negotiated for 7 weeks out of respect for life and repeatedly offered these criminals the early elections they demanded. All offers were spurned.

All sides in this conflict have grievances. Nothing in this history, however, justifies launching the nation into chaos and civil conflict as the red shirts have done.

Read the article REUTERS/Bangkok burns as protest leaders surrender

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I'm an American and live and work in Bangkok for an international company. I have lived here for 6 years and have been in and out of Thailand since the early 90s.

The press has not understood the situation here nor reported on it with any kind of comprehension. The real situation is that the Red Shirts are a very small group of uneducated bumpkins with an obsequious desire to return the ousted PM Thaksin to power.

Thaksin's money is paying each of them 2000 THB a day to keep the protests up.

What's so ridiculous is that most Thais are against this because bringing Thaksinocracy (as it's called) back is to bring back gross corruption to the politics here. Thaksin was a self-serving megalomaniac who bought his two previous elections and later stole an estimated 85 billion THB from Thailand before being ousted. The Red Shirts screAm for democracy - but they don't even know what it means. It's absurd and everyone here knows it.

Read the article DAILY BEAST/Thailand on the brink

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If the protesters are "nonviolent" as they claim then what they are asking for is really not a cease-fire. They are just asking the government to stop shooting. As always the red shirts want to have their demands met but they offer nothing in return. That is not a negotiation. If they were serious they would offer to end their protest and let Bangkok get back to normal. The government offered them early elections. They had their chance to take them and declare victory. But they chose not to.

Read the article WASHINGTON POST/Thai red shirt offers cease fire as deadline passes

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True democracy can only be established by the people’s will not the government chosen representative. Abhisit was elected by the government body (parliament); therefore, he is illegitimate and should be remove from his position.

This is civil war caused by the Bangkok elitE who do not believe in equality for all fellow Thais. Abhisit should be ashamed and be held accountable for any killing taking place.

Read the article REUTERS/Thai troops close in on protest encampment

The red shirts weren't "recruited" from the rural areas, the movement is comprised primarily of people from rural areas, especially the north. In the last election the People Power Party was elected by this rural/northern base. The Bangkok elite cried foul, claiming that democracy wasn't working because the people kept electing "corrupt" politicians. They had mass protests, occupied the city, took over the airport, etc.

The court found the leader of the People Power Party had violated some law (receiving a salary from another job, I think), and overturned the election results. The current party was then appointed by parliament. The grievance is not related to the current administrations policies, it has to do with their efforts to marginalize the rural poor from the political process.

Abhisit and his people, the yellow-shirts, wanted to rewrite the constitution so 70% of parliament was appointed, not elected.

The red-shirts have made strategic mistakes with their protest, but they have a real, legitimate, grievance. They are not extremists, and comparing them to Maoists is irresponsible, when they are the ones calling for electoral democracy, and the party in power was calling for rule more akin to fascism.

Read the article BOINGBOING/Thailand: "The protest has turned into a rebellion of insurrection."

 

MAY 10, 2010 -- MAY 23, 2010

A GRIM MILESTONE: 1,000 AMERICANS DEAD IN AFGHANISTAN

 

I am the mother of one of those Marines over there, and you bet your boots he knew the risk when he signed the contract to defend his country. He volunteered he was not forced, and when he was deployed he understood that he might not make it home. Our family understands that it can not always be someone else's son, that sometimes it has to be your son. I worry about my son having enough to eat and will he have a safe place to sleep at night so you can have a safe place to lay your head tonight.

Read the article CNN/Five Americans among 19 killed in Afghan suicide attack

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I'm serving in afghanistan right now. I'm a "troop" and i'm proud to be here. These people that you speak of are the terrorists. And you're right, they just want to rule and bring terror to whoever and where ever they want.

But think back to 9/11 when and what they did. Did you still sit there and say "Oh that horrible they did that." or did you say "i can't believe they did this we should do something about it!" like every other American did.

The people of Afghanistan are hard working people and go out of their way for us NATO troops. And they are thankful that we are here to try and stop these incidents from happening. Everyday, an elderly Afghan man or young boy stops to shake my hand and tells me thank you for serving as if I were back home on U.S. soil.

They want peace here. It's the terrorists who do not want to be domesticated. But the true people just want to live a safe and happy life and they see NATO forces as trying our hardest to make that happen.

Read the article CNN/Five Americans among 19 killed in Afghan suicide attack

 

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People get killed in wars. It is unfortunate that our "leaders" of whatever political party, seem to think that it is O.K. to have wars forever, no matter how stupid the wars are, no matter than we cannot "win" them, no matter that they make us more enemies than they do friends.

A major reason why this continues is because the American people, aside from their pocketbook which so many don't seem to understand, do not feel the experience or the ramifications of wars. We have a relatively few people actually involved and the grieving over deaths and maiming of our troops is primarily restricted to military posts and the immediate relatives of the dead and maimed. Most of us don't feel the wars at all. Main Street doesn't; Wall Street certainly doesn't.

A main virtue of a draft is that if it is done equitably everyone would feel the losses when they happened. That just might make the public really aware of what wars do.

Read the article DAILY BEAST/1,000 Americans dead in Afghanistan

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We are living in an inverse universe where everything we seem to do is the opposite of what we should be doing. In this case, Afghanistan is an unwinnable conflict for any foreign force, as the UK and Russians can attest to.

Instead of fighting there, we should be guarding our borders to keep terrorists out...but we don't really seem to want secure borders, do we.

Even the line from Kipling's poem, East is East and West is West and Never the Twain shall meet, is not true anymore and that's the root of the problem...western values and goals are in close contact and conflict with the Muslim world, a world which rejects these values and relies on the inevitable victory of Islam.

Read the article DAILY BEAST/1,000 Americans dead in Afghanistan

BRITISH COALITION OFF TO A CHEERY START

 

Their press conference was a real triumph and I am genuinely optimistic about what this Government can achieve. There appears to be real chemistry between the 2 men and I believe they will work well together.

There has been too much nonsense spoken by Labour over the past few days - no one won the election ... yes they did, the Conservatives got a higher % of the vote than Labour did in 2005 but just not enough seats; the country voted for no party to get a clear majority ... no we didn't, we all voted as individuals and that's how things ended up; it's hypocritical for these men to work together having competed so fiercely for months ... nonsense.

Having played sport professionally, I have been involved in some real ding dongs on the pitch but when the final whistle goes, the disagreements are left on the pitch and you shake hands. These guys were competing, of course, but now they recognise that cooperation is the way in which we can fix a country that is on its' knees after 13 years of Labour mis-management.

Read the article BBC/Have Your Say -- Will the new coalition work?

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The Spider and the Fly, a parody

"Will you walk into my Cabinet?"
Said a Tory to a Whig;
'Tis the prettiest little office
and a very powerful gig.
The way into my cabinet
is through a coalition;
And I have many pretty things
To show for your ambition."

Read the article BBC/Have Your Say -- Will the new coalition work?

This is probably the best outcome Britain could have hoped for. A conservative shift is needed to get public finances under control. But a conservative shift with the Tories having to form a coalition government is better. With the Liberal Democrats at least to some extent checking the conservatives, Britain is less likely to go into social dumping mode and try another round of hopeful but ineffective "New Public Management" reforms as they did during the nineties.

And if they are lucky, the British might even get an electoral reform that finally brings about real representative democracy. Auspicious indeed.

Read the article ECONOMIST/David Cameron and friends

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No mention of taking us out of the EU, revamping the benefits system and getting rid of all the unnecessary quangos.

However, they should be wished the best of luck. They are going to need it with the country being in such a mess particularly as they haven`t seen the books yet. This will be the making or breaking of both men

Not everyone will agree with this coalition but they should be given the chance to prove themselves. Maybe this is the turning point for making our country GREAT again instead of third world that we have become.

Read the article DAIILY MAIL/David Cameron becomes prime minister

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When, in time to come, Nick Clegg realises the enormity of his culpability in putting into Downing Street a Conservative Prime Minister who, in his arrogant naivety, will undo all the good Gordon Brown has done for the ordinary people of Britain, I hope he will feel a deep shame for having compromised his party and supporters. The lure of power has clearly taken precedence over principles.

More importantly, I hope he will be able to reconcile with his own conscience his role, along with that of the media, in manoeuvering to oust from Downing Street a man of far more integrity than himself.

Read the article TELEGRAPH/General election latest- Queen confirms Conservative leader as PM

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Unlike the GOP the Tories have not treated government like an enemy, invoked laughable straw man misrepresentations of their opposition, or called for the end of the NHS. Their much more moderate approach has been to focus on debt reduction and the usual claim that they can run the NHS better than Labour.

The Labour Party's electoral defeat stems from its involvement in Iraq and its inability to deal with the economy. Although I once worked for a Labor Party sometimes a government has spent itself and a change is due. It's too bad the change didn't happen within the Labour Party itself years ago by replacing the fatuous Blair who squandered much of the opportunities he had and chose to be Bush's poodle. Read the article NPR/Cameron becomes Prime Minister

POPE BENEDICT XVI DECRIES "THE SINS WITHIN"

 

Why has it taken so long for Church leadership (the Pope) to speak so sharply? Because the church is both an institution and a bureaucracy By their nature, institutions and bureaucracy move at glacial speed.

Still, unless it is our only intention to discredit the Church (as an institution) then what really matters is that the Church leadership (the Pope) is now speaking so sharply. We can criticize how institutions acted in the context of history from now until the cows come home, but that doesn't change anything.

Sure, we need to learn from history. But criticizing the Church leadership now that a strong stand has been taken, seems pointless... unless the point is to discredit the Church.

Read the article USA TODAY/Pope calls for justice, repentance on sex abuse cases

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The Pope still doesn't get it. He talks about the "persecution of the church", and "the suffering of the church." But he still doesn't understand that no one really cares about the church; they care about all of those innocent children who were, and are being, horribly abused by priests. Until the pope begins to put the interests of children and those adults who are living with the wounds of priest abuse before the interests of the institution, this scandal will only worsen.

Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/Pope issues most direct words to date on abuse

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Pope Benedict is correct about the threat to Catholicism coming from inside the church. In fact, it is an understatement. But that is the language of Vatican diplomacy playing itself out. The perpetrators of the crimes against the children must be weeded out of the church. The sheer arrogance of those who mishandled it must be laid bare. This is one atrocity that will not be forgotten any time soon.

Read the article NEW YORK TIMES/Pope issues most direct words to date on abuse

THE BIG BAILOUT -- BRINGING THE EURO BACK FROM THE BRINK

 

The markets have jumped because the EU has underwritten national debts for the Euroland, taking a bunch of risk off banks and others. It wouldn't surprise me if some people have made a lot of money gambling that a bailout would occur.

But fundamentals haven't changed. Greece shouldn't have been eligible for the Euro according to the rules, so the rules and statistics were flexed. Then Greece and others shouldn't have deficits this high according to the rules, but the EU didn't enforce the rules. Now we have a finance package with another set of rules... Who's going to enforce them? More brinkmanship down the line?

The package sounds great but I have a sense it's just massaging the numbers. The debts haven't disappeared, all that has happened is some Northern EU countries will foot the bill for a while. The impact will be to reduce potential growth in the EU (more taxes, less expenditure to fund the bonds) and should be seen as weakening the Euro as the Euro takes on more South EU riskiness.

The debts will still need to be paid, there will still be austerity measures needed - it just takes the pressure off. And when the pressure returns, as it will, who will be the enforcer of these new rules? Read the article GUARDIAN/EU debt crisis -- live blog

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Europe is the biggest consumer market on the planet: 450 million consumers.

Last week’s rapid fall of the Euro against Asian currencies is not in the interest of the major Asian powers.

The Yen appreciated around 8% on a single day against the Euro last week- just imagine what 8% means on say a 30,000 Euro Toyota Corolla import for Japanese manufacturers. They are priced out of the market against their European competitors.

Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore all have massive exports to Europe ; they cannot afford to be priced out of Europe by wild falls in the European currencies.

In all likelihood the Asian powers will also ensure stability in the Eurozone as they need the European consumer market – Europe is the largest consumer market on the planet – for most Asian companies it represents some 50% of their business.

To think that Europe will just collapse because of Greece is idiotic; there are too many interests involved and there is plenty of cash around the world to stabilize debt markets.

Read the article TELEGRAPH/Shock and awe may not be enough to save Europe

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What we are seeing here is the beginnings of a new growth and stability pact. Instead of the 'fine weather' version we have had since the Euro's inception we will now move towards a 'severe weather' model. One that makes it very much harder for speculators to attack.

Central to this will be new regulations against the kind of dodgy financial instruments loved of banks, basically forbidding public bodies to buy them as a way out of their own debt problems. Also greater integration of the Euroland economies through stricter oversight. In other words bringing the PIIGS to heel.

And the driving force behind it is Germany together with France.

That this crisis should lead to a closer knit community should be obvious - though an anti EU press is only fixated on signs of disintegration - as without tough measures the new Euro members would rebel at favouritism shown to PIIGS. (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.)

Read the article GUARDIAN/EU debt crisis -- live blog

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The transfer of money from core to periphery is no long term answer to what ails the European collective. For many, the answer of an economy mired in heavy social costs and a slow growth cannot be answered by fiscal smoke and mirrors but with political union.

National governments need to sacrifice sovereignty for the currency to stand an iota of a chance of surviving without a war or internal anarchy. The Germans are quite simply horrified as they see their future taxation rise whilst the demanded austerity measures being demanded of the net debtor nations will consign those economies to a period of internal anger and sub trend growth.

Any politician who believes shock and awe is an answer to what truly ails the currency is very very short sighted.

For those who believe that what we are witnessing is simply a speculative attack by the hedge funds are wrong as well. This is a real money switch from an overvalued Euro to a undervalued USD -until the Euro looses its dogma ridden Central Bank and follows a growth and jobs strategy under a single sovereign state then no one will trust these nations not to default or reschedule their debt.

Read the article INDEPENDENT/EU sets up crisis fund to protect Euro from the 'wolves'

 

MAY 3, 2010 -- MAY 9, 2010

JACK CAFFERTY: "ANY REASON TO TAKE IRAN SERIOUSLY ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS?"

 

Unfortunately, yes, we have to take them seriously. The Iranian people see themselves as the descendants of a great civilization. Ridiculing them by cherry-picking quotes from fanatical fundamentalists only makes things worse. The current government of Iran, the military and paramilitary forces, and the political opposition, all support the nuclear program as a matter of national pride and national security.

Not that I want to defend Ahmadinejad, but from their point of view, there is already a country whose name starts with 'I' in the Middle East that possesses the bomb (and we proved it is not Iraq). They are going to get the bomb. The important question is what will they do when they have it?

Read the article CNN/Any reason to take Iran seriously on nuclear weapons?

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In four years, from 1941 to 1945, the United States went from a non-nuclear nation to the first and only nuclear nation. This was at a time when large areas of the country still had no, or rudimentary, electrical services, little or no plumbing in many places, and no computers or experts in the field of nuclear reactor manufacturing. Everything was vacuum tubes and chalkboards. Plus which, the budget of the United States was occupied with building tanks, airplanes and guns to fight a little thing called World War 2.

Now Iran has access to computers for complicated math, access to experts in nuclear fission graduating from every corner of the world, their own nuclear power plants capable of producing weapons grade material, and oh yes, a near unlimited budget from the sales of oil.

Four years for the US at a time when no one knew how to build the damn things. What makes us think Iran isn't there already or soon well be?

Read the article CNN/Any reason to take Iran seriously on nuclear weapons?

CHINA EXPECTS 70 MILLION VISITORS TO WORLD EXPO 2010

EXPO 2010 OFFICIAL SITE

Something to keep in mind here is that, of the 70-120 million visitors, 97% of them will be from China. The audience for this is China. The messages they'll see? From other countries.

Unlike an Olympics where the host city's country is the host and the foreigners are guests, at a world's fair, the host city's country supplies the guests and foreign countries are the hosts.

What an opportunity it is for other countries to present their ideas and cultures to the Chinese people!

To many Americans, they imagine this medium is obsolete. That's been said of it since the 19th Century when they saw the "temporary" Eiffel Tower, when TV was introduced (at Paris 1937 and New York 1939-'40) and now in the age of the Internet. It's a medium, just like the Olympics, museums, theme parks, and live entertainment. Those mediums have changed and are just as popular now.

I've attended seven world's fairs so far and host a web site ExpoMuseum.com) and podcast (The World's Fair Podcast) about them.

Read the article HUFFINGTON POST/Shanghai World Expo 2010

From many comments here we see lots of people sour-graping. They looked at what's happening in China with envy and frustration, as if they still live in their cold war mentality of the 1960's. Anyway, living deeply in ideology can make you free from any inferior feelings, right? Even when you buy something in Walmart... :)

China's ideology, if there are any nowadays, is perhaps only Pragmatism, a 21th century version of Confucius. They invited US, UK, Canada, as well as Taiwan, Saudi Arab, Iran, Myanmar and N. Korea, to the Expo, so long as they can find business opportunities and co-operate on anything in a win-win mode.

Many die-hard China-bashers still see China, N. Korea, Cuba and Vietnam as birds with the same feather. They are not. Chinese now are "crossing the river by feeling the stones", while many Americans and Canadians are standing still by the river bank and crying aloud. They just can't escape their cold war era thinking.

Read the article GLOBE AND MAIL/Expo 2010 confirms how China has moved to worlds' centre stage

 

GREECE STRUGGLES TO RISE FROM THE RUINS

 

This is outrageous: "Artemis Batzak Panayou, a cleaning lady working for a local government, saw her €1,200 monthly salary, on which she supports three children, cut by €250 at the beginning of the year. She believes it will fall further. 'There is no way to survive on the daily wages in the public sector,' she said [...]"

I live currently in Cracow, Poland. Our cleaning lady gets 150 PLN a month for cleaning our office once a week. She gets to clean 5 offices - one each week day. This makes 750 PLN a month. Less than 200 Euro! No retirement, no entitlements. She considers herself lucky because she has work every day a week.

I am not getting this: what is good for Poland is way too little in Greece? Aren't they both in the European Union?

P.S. Ms. Artemis Batzak Panayou earns more than my girlfriend who is an experienced software programmer getting an above the Polish average salary. Shame, Greece, shame.

Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Europe crisis deepens as chaos grips Greece

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I would like to point out that after WWII Greek high life included civil war, exile and oppression of the working class by conservative governments in the 50’s, as well as a military junta in the 60’s, with more exiles, imprisonments and torture. One of the unfortunate effects of ultra conservative policies in the 50’s was the neglect of heavy industry in fear that it would empower the communist workers.

Absorbing a high number of the devastated population into civil service was a reaction of the times that later became standard practice. I am ashamed of the extended corruption in my country and hoped that the crisis might actually make us realize that this cannot go on.

I am also ashamed of the facile comments I have been reading, most of you seem to be reading only news headlines and some of you seem to be enjoying our distress.

Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Europe crisis deepens as chaos grips Greece

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There are many serious problems with my country; tax avoidance is only one of them. It costs the state billions every year, but it's far too simplistic to say that this is what caused this crisis.

What caused this crisis was the total derailment of our state budget over the last few years - courtesy of the previous conservative government, which in its 5 years of rule increased public spending by 30%.

Thankfully, the IMF will now enforce some long-awaited measures that no Greek politician has dared to implement - such as reducing the size of the bloated public sector and dealing with corruption.

And Europe will be making a neat profit out of this.

Call me an optimist, but I think both Greece and Europe will eventually get out of this crisis much stronger than before.

Read the article GUARDIAN/Greece activates £40bn EU/IMF loans

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This Greek farce just demonstrates once again the most socio-economically dysfunctional sector in any country is not citizens or commerce, but Government.

This public sector clown show has been going on for years not just months and as Jim Rogers said today, “You cannot solve debt with more debt. No adult would think such a thing but we are talking about politicians!”

The Greek PM today from some small island in what looked an impromptu ad-hoc display of toys-out-of-the-pram behaviour blamed “the greedy profiteering money men” for damaging his poor little squandering largesse living in LaLa Land for a decade country.

Your Govt borrowed the money Boyo, you pay it back.

Read the article U.K. TELEGRAPH/It's all Greek to me

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This whole thing is like Harry Belafonte's song from about 50 years ago, "There's a hole in my bucket" except this one is "There's a hole in my budget".

It's circular. Give the Greeks, or any other government, the fix for their bucket (the money) and they'll be back two years later for more. The real problem, excessive overspending, will never be addressed. The only reason that they are getting any "support" is because the other political leaders know it's just a matter of time before they are in the same boat.

Their populaces won't take the necessary tax increases and they won't take the spending cuts: there would be riots in the streets, everywhere. Much easier to default on the debt and start over with a much more sensible (for a while) budget. It really is the only true outcome, now or in 3 years time.

Read the article WALL STREET JOURNAL/Greece requests emergency financial aid

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All of us, if we were greek would be feeling the same as the greeks do. What have we done to deserve such a fate? Why can't we just live our lives and raise our families in peace?

Reading comments from greeks is very informative. They resent foreign commentators lumping all "greeks" together and saying that "they" will now have to pay for their past sins. And yet, if they had been born in Frankfurt instead of in Athens, they could live the same lives and not be staring into this abyss.

The key to this conundrum is that every member of a society depends upon everyone else, and that, unless there is sufficient feelings of solidarity between citizens, any society could fall apart. A government can only be as good as the people it governs.

Warning signs, which we can discern in our own societies, are a refusal to take collective responsibility for problems, and the selfish egotistical "me" culture.

Politicians in all parties will make fine speeches, but unless they start asking people to make sacrifices for the good of all, then the next government will simply continue the dishonest and incompetent stumble from crisis to crisis that has typified british history since the war. 

Read the article GUARDIAN/EU debt crisis live blog

 

 

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