But what is the alternative? If neither the retreat into the cocoon of the nation state nor surrender to the disintegrating democracy-free zone known as the EU are good options, is there a third way?Yes, there is. It is the one that official “Europe”, and some local elites, resist with every sinew of their authoritarian mindset: a surge of democracy, orchestrated by Europeans seeking to regain control over their lives from unaccountable technocrats, complicit politicians and opaque institutions.On 9 February some of us, convinced of the above, are gathering in Berlin to found a new movement – DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025). We come from every part of the continent, including Britain, and are united by different cultures, languages, accents, political party affiliations, ideologies, skin colours, gender identities, faiths and conceptions of the good society.One simple, radical idea is our motivating force: to democratise the EU in the knowledge that it will otherwise disintegrate at a terrible cost to all. Our immediate priority is full transparency in decision-making (live-streaming of European councils, Ecofin and Eurogroup meetings; full disclosure of trade negotiations; ECB minutes, etc) and the urgent redeployment of existing EU institutions in the pursuit of policies that genuinely address the crises of debt, banking, inadequate investment, rising poverty and migration.
Category Archives: Global Politics
A.J. Muste Memorial Institute How do you hold on to hope? What motivates you to keep resisting?
Source: A.J. Muste Memorial Institute Muste Notes Winter 2016
We do not always hold on to hope. But, even if sometimes without hope, we can and will express that we don’t agree. As Palestinians cannot stop being occupied, we owe them at least this solidarity.
Gush Shalom team
We hold onto hope when Palestinians approach us and let us know that our presence in the military courts, or in the checkpoints, makes a difference. We also feel hope when we take Israelis of all ages to see the checkpoints and to meet Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and they tell us afterwards how we have challenged their views and perspectives. We say that we will not finish our work until the Occupation is over, and the military administration is dismantled.
—Ela Greenberg, MachsomWatch
My hope springs from the many people I meet who desire the same changes I do, people from both sides of the conflict. Despair is both the easiest and most impossible choice for us. I can speak for the people who work with me when I say that we feel personal responsibility to find a way forward. I wake up every morning with an understanding that there is no other choice than a shared society between Israeli Jews and Arabs.
Jamal Alkirnawi, A New Dawn in the Negev
When we think of those who are living the struggle every moment—the family whose home Rachel stood before in Gaza, our many friends there and throughout a very turbulent Middle East, our Palestinian friends in the U.S. and throughout the world steadfastly challenging displacement, and our colleagues inside Israel who work endlessly for change despite great threat and many obstacles—we know we must resist with them. It is energizing, because it is right.
Cindy and Craig Corrie, Rachel Corrie Foundation
The pros and cons of the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the world’s biggest multinational trade deals, has been signed by 12 Pacific Rim nations. Economist Gary Hufbauer spoke to DW about the risks and advantages of the trade pact.
Source: The pros and cons of the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact
TPP: Lessons from New Zealand | Inter Press Service
Asia-Pacific, Featured, Food & Agriculture, Globalisation, Headlines, Trade & InvestmentTPP: Lessons from New ZealandBy Jomo Kwame SundaramReprint | | Print | Send by email |En españolJomo Kwame Sundaram was an Assistant Secretary-General responsible for analysis of economic development in the United Nations system during 2005-2015, and received the 2007 Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 2 2016 (IPS) – A new paper* on the implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement for New Zealand examines key economic issues likely to be impacted by this trade agreement. It is remarkable how little TPP brings to the table. NZ’s gross domestic product will grow by 47 per cent by 2030 without the TPP, or by 47.9 per cent with the TPP. Even that small benefit is an exaggeration, as the modelling makes dubious assumptions, and the real benefits will be even smaller. If the full costs are included, net economic benefits to the NZ economy are doubtful. The gains from tariff reductions are less than a quarter of the projected benefits according to official NZ government modelling. Although most of the projected benefits result from reducing non-tariff barriers (NTBs), the projections rely on inadequate and dubious information that does not even identify the NTBs that would be reduced by the TPP!Jomo Kwame Sundaram. Credit: FAOAgricultureThe main beneficiaries in NZ will be agricultural exporters, but modest tariff reductions of 1.3 per cent on average by 2030 are small compared to ongoing commodity price and exchange rate volatility. Extensive trade barriers to agricultural exports in the Japanese, Canadian and US food markets remain, and will be locked in under TPP. TPP has also failed to tackle agricultural subsidies that are a major trade distortion. Significant tariff barriers remain in some sectors in Japan, Canada and the US likely to be ‘locked in’ under the TPP that are almost impossible to remove in the future. TPP’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures limits on labelling may also restrict opportunities for food exporters to build high quality, differentiated niche market positions.TPP has also been used to undermine negotiations in the World Trade Organization, the only forum for removing such trade distorting subsidies.ISDSTPP’s investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions and restrictions on state-owned enterprises will deter future NZ governments from regulations and policies in the public interest, for fear of litigation by corporate interests. The threat, if not actual repercussions, are good enough to ‘discipline’ governments by causing ‘regulatory chill’. TPP is very much a charter for incumbent businesses, especially US transnational corporations. Thus, it inadvertently holds back the economic transformation the world needs. The agreement’s TPP’s benefits are likely to be asymmetric as it is more favourable to big US business practices and will deepen the disadvantages of small size and remoteness. Potential ISDS compensation payments or settlements could far outweigh the limited economic benefits of TPP. Even when cases are successfully defended, the legal costs will be very high.Value-additionTPP can both help and hinder ambitions to add value to raw materials and commodities, and to progress up value chains. However, it is likely to reinforce NZ’s position as a commodity producer and thus hinder progress up the value chain where greater economic prosperity lies. More analysis based on the actual agreement is required to ascertain the conditions for and likelihood of such progress. TPP will limit government’s ability to innovate and address national challenges and is likely to worsen rapidly escalating problems such as environmental degradation and climate change.Furthermore, TPP is projected to reduce employment and increase income inequality in NZ. In its analysis, the government has not considered the likely costs, which are probably going to be very significant, and may well outweigh economic benefits.TPP thus falls well short of being “a trade agreement for the 21st century”, as its cheerleaders claim. A more comprehensive, balanced and objective cost-benefit analysis on the basis of the October 2015 deal should be completed before ratifying the TPP.
Donald Trump Is the Most Dangerous Man in the World – SPIEGEL ONLINE
Trump Wants A Ruthless America”Believe me, I’ll change things. And again, we’re going to be so respected. I don’t want to use the word ‘feared,'” he told the audience. But that is precisely what Trump wants: to be feared. His bid for the White House, long ridiculed, is a fight for a ruthless, brutal America. Behind his campaign slogan “Make America great again!” is the vision of a country that no longer cares about international treaties, ethnic minorities or established standards of decency.Trump wants to attack head-first again. The 69-year-old embodies a new harshness and brutality, and both a physical and emotional crudeness. Trump has launched an uprising of the indecent, one that is now much bigger than he himself, a popular movement of white, conservative America that after eight years under Democratic President Barack Obama, yearns for a leader who will usher in the counter-revolution.
Source: Donald Trump Is the Most Dangerous Man in the World – SPIEGEL ONLINE
Afghan refugees could get money to return home
Germany’s Interior Minister appeals to failed Afghan refugees to return home to safe areas. Thomas de Maiziere is in Kabul to work out a remedy with the Afghan government, which may include financial incentives.
Getting the Balance Right: Strengthening Asylum Reception Capacity at National and EU Levels | migrationpolicy.org The bureaucracies answers.
This report, written by the Operational Director for the Belgian reception agency, seeks to understand the reception capacity challenges faced by EU Member States and to stimulate reflection on possible answers. It first presents the three tenets of a successful reception system—flexibility, efficiency, and quality—and the difficulty balancing their often-conflicting demands. It then reflects on divergent national approaches to reception management, and seeks to understand why certain strategies are adopted, and with what consequences for Member States and the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) at large. The report concludes with reflections on the central importance of reception as a building block of the CEAS, and potential ways forward to strengthen its quality, flexibility, and cost efficiency through improved coordination and delivery of support.
www.german-foreign-policy.com refugees
Within the EU, the mounting pressure to ward off refugees, is intensifying the debate about a possible dismantling of the Schengen system. It is yet unclear, whether Berlin can reach its objective of stopping refugees at the external borders of Greece to be immediately deported to Turkey. Alternately, attempts are being made to turn Macedonia into a buffer state against refugees, while threatening Greece’s exclusion from the Schengen system. The establishment of a “Mini-Schengen” is being considered as an emergency solution. Even while officially continuing to reject such a “Mini-Schengen,” the German government is already involved in its planning, which the Netherlands is officially directing. Any option beyond effectively sealing off Greece’s external borders, i.e. abandoning part of the Schengen-system, would be a first retreat – with unforeseeable consequences. According to observers, this could seriously weaken the EU.
Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com
US Hawks Ignore Top Israeli Official on Iran
by Ali Gharib Last week, Israel’s top military official made some staggering comments during the course of a security conference in Tel Aviv.
Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, Israel’s chief of staff, which seem as of yet to be unavailable in a full English translation from the original Hebrew:
Eisenkot said there were two “existential threats” to Israel, and both are currently “declining.” One was the threat of nonconventional weaponry, including both Iran’s nuclear program and Syrian chemical weapons…
First, he said Israel faces no existential threats right now, because Obama’s Iran nuclear deal has removed the greatest threat to Israel’s existence…
As for the Iranian nuclear agreement, he said it is “a strategic turning point” that includes “many risks but also opportunities.”
Yanis Varoufakis, Edmund Burke and Mario Draghi stroll into a bar
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.” Edmund Burke’s brilliant line applies to today’s Europe perfectly.Here, on this site and across Europe, ‘something’ is brewing, ‘something’ is under construction…
Source: Yanis Varoufakis, Edmund Burke and Mario Draghi stroll into a bar





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