All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

India this week in picture

Artists making clay idols of Lord Ganesha ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi, at a studio in Kolkata. (Photo: PTI) source: thequintcom

Source: India this week in picture

IMF changing tack on Greece | Europe | DW.COM | 30.08.2015

The IMF now has access to approximately 300 billion dollars. “Even if crises erupt elsewhere, the IMF’s involvement in Greece would not prevent the IMF from awarding emergency loans elsewhere,” he says. “There is no competition for funds.” What are sustainable debts? Kaiser thinks a haircut for Greece is still possible, even though the IMF will be involved in the third bailout package. “They have bought themselves a little bit of time. Until the next deadline,” he reckons. The programs that Athens must now implement are based on the same “illusory figures that have been forced on the country the past five years.” The IMF and the ESM, the European Stability Mechanism, came closer when the controversy over the definition of debt sustainability broke out this week. Now, the debt amount itself is not decisive, but the servicing of debt, instead. Europe’s lenders claim to have given Athens the best conditions possible to service its debt to the IMF, argues the ESM. Langhammer considers the changed approach long overdue. “The sky may fall in on Greece, but Greece will continue to exist as a state. A country is an infinite investment object,” he says and adds, “Economically, it is complete nonsense to think that a country will pay back its debts. It is more important that a country is able to meet its interest payment obligations on a regular basis.”

Source: IMF changing tack on Greece | Europe | DW.COM | 30.08.2015

Trump’s mass deportation idea was tried in the 1930s

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for mass deportation of millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, as well as their American-born children, bears similarities to a large-scale removal that many Mexican-American families faced 85 years ago….

Source: Trump’s mass deportation idea was tried in the 1930s

Despite six years of peace, life is still hard in areas where Sri Lanka’s war was at its worst, especially for internally displaced people (IDPs). Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

IPS Inter Press Service posted a photo:

Despite six years of peace, life is still hard in areas where Sri Lanka's war was at its worst, especially for internally displaced people (IDPs). Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

Will New Sri Lankan Government Prioritize Resettlement of the War-Displaced?

By Amantha Perera

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, August 27, 2015 (IPS)—

The new Sri Lankan government that was voted in on Aug. 17 certainly didn’t inherit as much baggage as its predecessors did during the nearly 30 years of conflict that gripped this South Asian island nation.