Category Archives: Global Politics

More Europeans Migrate to Latin America Than Vice Versa, Study Finds · Global Voices

Contrary to popular belief, more Europeans are currently migrating from Europe to Latin America and the Caribbean than in the opposite direction. This is the conclusion reached in a study published recently by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), titled ‘Migratory Dynamics in Latin American and the Caribbean and between Latin America and the European Union’.

The document shows that more than 181,000 Europeans left their countries in 2012, in comparison with the 119,000 Latin Americans moving in the opposite direction. The data show a reduction of 68% in the latter flow compared to 2007, when the number of migrants moving from Latin America and the Caribbean to Europe stood at over 350,000 people, its highest level ever.

via More Europeans Migrate to Latin America Than Vice Versa, Study Finds · Global Voices.

Smoke Goes Around the World : Image of the Day

{Ten extra points if you can guess what happens to a variety of air pollutants – grin} “Summertime wildfires in Alaska and Canada occur every year, with some inter-annual variations,” said Hiren Jethva, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. But the distance traveled by the smoke varies greatly. Aerosol concentration and height, as well as wind patterns and speed, are just some of the factors that determine the course of a plume’s atmospheric journey.

Jethva and colleagues first used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura satellite to observe the long-range transport of the July 2015 plumes. Jethva noted that the plumes were often located over lower-level clouds for much of the period shown above. Researchers have found that when aerosols are located over clouds, or any other bright surface, they can impart a net warming effect on the climate. That, in turn, can affect the stability of the atmosphere and the lifetime of clouds.

via Smoke Goes Around the World : Image of the Day.

Merkel ‘gambling away’ Germany’s reputation over Greece, says Habermas | Business | The Guardian

“I fear that the German government, including its social democratic faction, have gambled away in one night all the political capital that a better Germany had accumulated in half a century,” he told the Guardian. Previous German governments, he said, had displayed “greater political sensitivity and a post-national mentality”.

Habermas, widely considered one of the most influential contemporary European intellectuals, said that by threatening Greece with an exit from the eurozone over the course of the negotiations, Germany had “unashamedly revealed itself as Europe’s chief disciplinarian and for the first time openly made a claim for German hegemony in Europe.”

via Merkel ‘gambling away’ Germany’s reputation over Greece, says Habermas | Business | The Guardian.

Slavoj Žižek on Greece: This is a chance for Europe to awaken

I was informed that a new version of this joke is now circulating in Athens. A young Greek man visits the Australian consulate in Athens and asks for a work visa. “Why do you want to leave Greece?” asks the official.

“For two reasons,” replies the Greek. “First, I am worried that Greece will leave the EU, which will lead to new poverty and chaos in the country . . .”

“But,” interrupts the official, “this is pure nonsense: Greece will remain in the EU and submit to financial discipline!”

“Well,” responds the Greek calmly, “this is my second reason.”

Are then both choices worse, to paraphrase Stalin?

The moment has come to move beyond the irrelevant debates about the possible mistakes and misjudgements of the Greek government. The stakes are now much too high.

That a compromise formula always eludes at the last moment in the ongoing negotiations between Greece and the EU administrators is in itself deeply symptomatic, since it doesn’t really concern actual financial issues – at this level, the difference is minimal. The EU usually accuses Greeks of talking only in general terms, making vague promises without specific details, while Greeks accuse the EU of trying to control even the tiniest details and imposing on Greece conditions that are harsher than those imposed on the previous government. But what lurks behind these reproaches is another, much deeper conflict. The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, recently remarked that if he were to meet alone with Angela Merkel for dinner, they would find a formula in two hours. His point was that he and Merkel, the two politicians, would treat the disagreement as a political one, in contrast to technocratic administrators such as the Eurogroup president, Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

via Slavoj Žižek on Greece: This is a chance for Europe to awaken.

Japan’s Lower House Passes Bills to Give Military Limited Combat Powers – The New York Times

“The Fourth Reich grabbing Greece and now Japan embracing militarism again!”

The vote was the culmination of months of contentious debate in a society that has long embraced pacifism to atone for wartime aggression. It was a significant victory for Mr. Abe, a conservative politician who has devoted his career to moving Japan beyond guilt over its militarist past and toward his vision of a “normal country” with a larger role in global affairs.

via Japan’s Lower House Passes Bills to Give Military Limited Combat Powers – The New York Times.