Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
November 10, 2011
The last few days have been full of headlines about a UN report that showed that Iran was getting help from foreign scientists to develop nuclear weapons. Speculation has been rife about pre-emptive strikes by Israel or the US against Iran’s “weapons facilities” and the consequences of such a strike. Discussions about sanctions have been wide-spread from nations to US Presidential candidates. But now it seems that the so-called UN evidence is actually nothing more than information manufactured by an intelligence agency (probably Mossad) and speculation from a Washington “think tank” which is just another lobby group. The so-called foreign nuclear scientist does not exist and is actually a prominent Ukrainian nanotechnology and nanodiamond expert, Vyacheslav Danilenko who has been in the same field all his career.
Moon of Alabama first revealed the background of Danilenko.
November 7th: The Washington Posts alleges that the IAEA says foreign expertise has brought Iran to threshold of nuclear capability. This is of course, well, a lie. The IAEA has said nothing like that. It is simply an assertion made by the reporter and some “nuclear Iran” scare propagandists based on misinterpreting some factual points in the IAEA “evidence”. What that “evidence” says is: Iran is working on nanodiamond production.
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Tags:Danilenko, David Albright, Gareth Porter, IAEA, intelligence disinformation, Inter Press, Iran, Nanotechnology, nuclear weapons, United States
Posted in Alarmism, Iran, Politics, Technology | 1 Comment »
November 7, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
Il Cavaliere , Sylvio “bunga-bunga” Berlusconi is 75 years old, has a personal fortune of some $9billion, and has been Italy’s Prime Minister for longer than anyone else. He is clinging desperately to power as Italy slides towards a Greece-like crevice and it is not apparent as to why he bothers. Whereas the Greek debt is only about 4% of Eurozone debt, Italy’s debt is closer to 20%. Italy’s public debt in 2010 was 118.4% of GDP. The annual budget deficit was 4.6% of GDP. Italy’s public debt-to-GDP ratio is the second highest in the euro zone after Greece’s, while its debt in absolute terms, which stood at 1.84 trillion euros at the end of 2010, is second to Germany’s.
It might seem to be just a powerful politician in denial of the approaching flames when Berlusconi declares that “Life in Italy is good. The restaurants are full. It’s difficult to get a seat on a plane they’re so busy; holidays are all booked up”.
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Tags:Bunga bunga Berlusconi, European Union, Eurozone, Greece, International Monetary Fund, Italy, Silvio Berlusconi
Posted in Economy, Ethics, European Union, Italy, Politics | Comments Off on Berlusconi bungas while Italy burns
November 4, 2011
The status conferred by academic titles in the Czech Republic is almost as strong as in Germany. Whereas in Germany it is the title of “Doctor” which is most sought after by politicians – as a stamp of public acknowledgement that one is a “deep thinker” – even a Masters degree in the Czech Republic can lead to the title “Pani magistra” or literally “Mrs Master’s degree holder.”
Petty politicians appending academic titles to enhance their electoral chances is not of course so uncommon. What is surprising for me is that Prague and its citizens, who I think are extremely sophisticated and discerning in matters academic and who have a strong sense of the long academic traditions of the city, would be taken in by such nonsense.
And the mass-production of fake doctorates by the law faculty of the University of West Bohemia (ZČU) in Plzeň led to over 300,000 degree awards being audited in 2009! This even led to a Wikileaks cable from the US Embassy in Prague ( Wikileaks id #233660) in November 2009 about the scandal and reporting:
A joke is making the rounds: “What are you doing this weekend?” Answer: “Getting a law degree.”
Czech position now reports that yet another politician is accused of plagiarism – this time for a Master’s thesis.
Prague district mayor ‘plagiarized’ his master’s thesis
… Two prominent academics who separately examined the master’s thesis of Prague 11 mayor Dalibor Mlejnský (Civic Democrats, ODS), due to suspicions of plagiarism, say the majority of the paper was indeed copied verbatim — and almost completely lacked citation. Mlejnský’s thesis titled “The History of Charles University” was lifted from two books (Jacques LeGoff’s “Intellectuals in the Middle Ages” and, more obviously, volumes of “The History of Charles University” by various scholars over the centuries, according to the two academics, who had been asked by the state broadcaster to make the expert assessments.
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Tags:Czech Republic, degree-mill, fake degrees, Jan Kalvoda, Milan Jančík, Plagiarism, Plzeň, Prague, University of West Bohemia
Posted in Academic misconduct, Corruption, Czech Republic, Education, Politics | Comments Off on Plagiarising politicians and weekend Doctorates in the Czech Republic
November 1, 2011
David Held, who is currently Graham Wallas professor of political science at the LSE, has announced that he is leaving in January to take up a post at Durham University.
But he is leaving one step ahead of the reports on Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s funding of research at the LSE. and one on charges of plagiarism in his PhD thesis.
According to the Guardian, Held said in a statement “I will be taking up the positions of master of University College and chair of politics and international relations at the University of Durham from January. This move is being made for academic reasons and I look forward to the new avenues of research that this role will bring. I have many links to LSE which will be maintained in the years ahead.”
But Held who had very close links to
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Tags:David Held, Durham University, Graham Towl, Howard Davies, Libya, London School of Economics, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi
Posted in Academic misconduct, Business, Education, Libya, Politics | 1 Comment »
October 24, 2011
While European leaders are struggling to put together a rescue package for Greece which will not have a domino effect for Italy and Spain or drown too many European banks, David Cameron is facing renewed opposition to membership in the EU from within his own party. But it is not only in the UK that opposition to the growing exercise of powers by Brussels is increasing. Almost every EU member which has not adopted the Euro (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the UK along with some of the newer members) has rising voices calling for the limitation of European power and a return of powers to the country parliaments. Voices against the Euro can even be heard in Germany where there is a widespread feeling ( not entirely wrong) that German taxpayers are paying twice for the spendthrift ways of Southern Europe; first directly by subsiding these countries and secondly by the devaluation of their savings in Euro. The Swiss are just thankful that they were never a part of this experiment.
In hindsight, what has become obvious is that the Euro-zone has few built in sanctions to prevent the profligacy of some countries which has to be paid for by others. What is also becoming clear is that without a fiscal uniformity – which would seem like being taxed from Brussels – the possibility of “bad” members being spendthrift will always remain.
France has always seen the Euro as part of a long-term move towards a European political and fiscal uniformity in which France would be the centre of political power. A return to the glory days of the Holy Roman Empire which lasted over 800 years, except of course that the centre would be in France rather than in what today is Germany. Sarkozy could certainly see himself as the first Emperor.
Yesterday, as the Telegraph reports:
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Tags:Brussels, David Cameron, Euro, European Union, Eurozone, Nicolas Sarkozy
Posted in European Union, France, Global economy, Greece, Politics | Comments Off on Sarkozy attacks Cameron – much to Cameron’s delight
October 18, 2011
This is a very strange tale of a prestigious Italian bio-medical Research Institute, a strange priest, tons of money, huge debts, corruption, a suicide, the Vatican and – of course – links to Berlusconi.
It reads like a film script and a subject worthy of a Dan Brown blockbuster.
Alison Abbott writes in Nature:
One of Italy’s most prestigious biomedical research centres now faces bankruptcy, against a backdrop of rumours fed by intrigue among power-brokers, allegations of fraud and corruption, and a violent death. Next week, a court will decide whether to leave the Milan-based San Raffaele Scientific Institute to its fate, or allow a consortium led by the Vatican Bank to rescue it. (more…)
Tags:Da Vinci Code, Giuseppe Profiti, Italy, Luigi Maria Verzé, Mario Cal, San Raffaele, San Raffaele del Monte Tabor Foundation, San Raffaele Research Institute, Silvio Berlusconi, Vatican
Posted in Academic misconduct, Behaviour, Corruption, Italy, Politics, Science | Comments Off on The strange story of the San Raffaele Research Institute, Don Verzé, the Vatican, corruption and a suicide!
October 16, 2011
Image via Wikipedia
The Fox-Werrity scandal keeps growing. Liam Fox may have resigned but as the spotlight falls on his “best man” Adam Werrity, it becomes clear that the brain behind the subterfuge was that of Liam Fox. Adam Werrity was just a pretty boy with a pretty bad degree when he was selected and built up by Fox. (A 2.2 degree is pretty close to a “fail”). He took advantage of the position he was put into to effectively operate a slush fund to pay for his luxury jaunts – all ostensibly for facilitating the contacts between Fox and influential – and risch – backers. But what is clear is that he was nothing more than a front for Fox. If at any time Fox had withdrawn his backing for his “best friend man”, Werrity would have been a zero and he can not point to any real accomplishments of his own.
Werrity only shone in the light provided by his master.
To what extent Fox was running a shadow foreign and defence policy from behind the scenes to satisfy the interests of his backers is the real question that remains. How many defence contracts were placed as a result of the shadow Fox policy is also unknown. How far UK foreign policy was influenced by Fox and his backers is a mystery. I just listened to the UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, on BBC Radio and his stonewalling of the question of Fox’s influence on UK foreign policy (in Sri Lanka particularly) only raised my suspicions that he too feels he has been duped by his friend. His only real defence (and hope perhaps) was that that government was so large that Fox’s influence could not have penetrated very far.
The Telegraph today is pretty scathing. Liam Fox: How his best man Adam Werritty brought him down. But it cannot be forgotten that Liam Fox was the one who built Werrity up in the first place.
Liam Fox has only himself to blame. Fiercely intellectual, politically astute and genuinely capable, Dr Fox has in the end come unstuck over a misguided but long-held friendship with a man 17 years his junior.
He met Adam Werritty when his future best man was still a teenager and nurtured him for close to 15 years. He installed Mr Werritty as the head of businesses and charities which had his backing, enabling them to travel the world often at the expense of others.
They may have worked hard but the pair played hard too. They dined together in the finest restaurants, enjoyed marathon drinking sessions and even indulged in occasional bouts of karaoke.
It might have been acceptable behaviour — a giddy mixture of business and pleasure — out of power. But for a Defence Secretary, presiding over multi-million pound contracts and cuts, it proved to be fatal. …..
Werrity is described brutally by The Telegraph as a handsome teenager who the years have not been kind to. And considering that Werrity was only about 18 when as an undergraduate he was singled out by the 35 year old Fox, it begins to seem like the case of a gullible – but not very bright teenager – being seduced and corrupted by a much older and cleverer and unscrupulous man.
Tags:Adam Werritty, Fox Werrity scandal, Liam Fox, William Hague
Posted in Behaviour, Corruption, Ethics, Politics, UK | Comments Off on Sleaze and potential level of corruption rises in the Liam Fox / Adam Werrity affair
October 14, 2011
Berlusconi clings to power in Italy, while Håkan Juholt continues wallowing through his mire in Sweden and Liam Fox resigns in the UK.
Strange are the ways of politics and ethics. And even when ethics seems to win – as in the Liam Fox affair – there is a sense that the victory is superficial.
Berlusconi will probably hang on by his finger nails as Italy goes the way of Greece. Juholt has probably ensured that his party – the Social Democrats – will lose members and the next election. In the UK the full extent of the dubious antics of Liam Fox’s “best man” have yet to be revealed and David Cameron is struggling with the lack of competence in his Cabinet.
It is tempting to conclude that the common thread is that ethics and competence cannot survive together. But I refuse to believe that it is impossible to be competent or a politician without sacrificing your ethics – even if such examples are difficult to find.
Tags:Håkan Juholt, Italy, Liam Fox, Silvio Berlusconi, Sweden, Swedish Social Democratic Party, UK
Posted in Behaviour, Ethics, Politics | Comments Off on Europe this week: ethics loses as Berlusconi and Juholt continue while Fox resigns
October 14, 2011
I was not much impressed by the “back-room” election of Håkan Juholt as the leader of the Swedish Social Democrats and nor have I been very impressed by his performance to date. But the current media storm over his “failings” (excessive housing and travel expense claims, vacillation on immigration and citizenship and embellishing his credentials as a young politician) is I think entirely fuelled by forces within his own party which have decided to take revenge for the manner in which they were ignored and overridden in the battle for the party leadership. The timing and the drip feeding of all the revelations over the last week screams of an “inside job”. There are some who are now blaming the media feeding frenzy – which no doubt exists – but it was surely initiated – and perhaps orchestrated – by a few of his party “colleagues”.
But this internecine feuding will surely keep the Social Democrats out of government for a long time to come.
Irrespective of whether he will actually be found to have broken any laws or parliamentary rules, his position and that of his party has been destroyed for the next election in 2014. The prevailing perception – that will surely dominate the next election – is of a party which is supposed to represent workers, weaker members of society and the downtrodden but where the representatives are a grubby, greedy, hypocritical lot looking for every possibility of lining their own pockets. They have opened themselves up for unending attacks regarding their ethics. All social democratic politicians can now be accused of embodying a “do as I say and not a do as I do” mentality.
Needless to say, the left-wing of the party which organised the coup which made Juholt the party leader 6 months ago are now whining and busy blaming the “neo-liberal” wing for leaking and initiating the whole affair. As one of them- Daniel Suhonen – puts it:
Maybe Juholt needs to go, maybe he deserves it. But the story of how this has happened for probably all the wrong reasons, and how the trap was sprung by the
neo-liberal, right-oriented social democrats in the county of Stockholm has yet to be revealed.
Tags:Daniel Suhonen, Håkan Juholt, Infighting within the social democrats, Politics, Social Democrats, Sweden, Swedish Social Democratic Party
Posted in Behaviour, Media, Politics, Sweden | Comments Off on Swedish Social Democrats commit suicide as they destroy their own leader
October 13, 2011
Christine Keeler in 1963: Image via Wikipedia
The UK press and blogs are full of the Liam Fox / Adam Werrity affair. The main stream media only write in euphemisms about the relationship between Fox and Werrity. The blogs of course are much more forthright in their suggestion that Fox is gay and Werrity his long time boy-friend. The constant reference to Werrity being Fox’s best man at his wedding is – I suppose – meant to imply that his marriage was a subterfuge to mask his being gay. Some examples of the articles in the media and the blogosphere: The Telegraph, The StudentRoom blog, Order-order.com blog, The Spectator, PressTV, Daily Mail
From Wikipedia:
The Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of Profumo and damaged the reputation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s government. Macmillan himself resigned a few months later due to ill health.
For the historical comparison to hold:
- Adam Werrity would need to be the Minister’s lover (and the UK press always carefully refers to him as “his friend of 18 years and his best man”),
- Werrity would need to be in the pay of a “foreign power”. It seems apparent that Werrity has been financed by a number of conservative US lobby groups and some suggestion of Israeli and even Iranian lobby groups.
- Werrity’s objectives would have to have been to influence Fox or to extract sensitive information (with or without Fox’s knowledge) for his paymasters.
By all accounts this could well be a case of history repeating itself.
Tags:Adam Werrity, Christine Keeler, Fox Werrity Affair, John Profumo, Liam Fox, Profumo affair
Posted in Ethics, Media, Politics, UK | 1 Comment »
The k2p blog 