EUropean news Mr
Barroso, Tony Blairs good friend, has had the audacity to
take his power beyond the principle:Large deregulation
campaign , Barroso says
14.09.2005 - 09:44 CET| By Marit Ruuda
In a significant move towards
deregulation, commission president Jose Manuel Barroso
has said he intends to scrap more than 60 of the
Commission's draft laws.
Some of the legislation produced by the Commission's
officials is "absurd", Mr Barroso told the
Financial Times. He added that the EU's tendency to
over-regulate had damaged the reputation of the EU among
citizens. The commission president along with enterprise
commissioner Gunter Verheugen have identified 69 draft
laws that should be withdrawn. For example, the draft law
that was designed to protect workers against sunlight is
one such piece of regulation. Other proposals on food
labelling, rules on sales promotions and weekend
lorry-bans will also be scrapped, writes the FT.
Next month Mr Barroso is planning to push his idea
further, by asking commission officials to start
simplifying and scrapping already existing regulations.
"The important thing is to change the culture of the
organisation", he told the newspaper. But FT
Deutschland notes that the Barroso plan is likely to
encounter strong resistance from individual commissioners
keen to preserve legislation in their policy areas. Mr
Barroso said the commission has not stopped legislating
where necessary. New regulations on environment, for
example, will be one of the priorities for the commission
this season.
(And thus were the excellent Irish Country Markets
closed down years ago, because, as we see above,
deregulation must only be for large corporate
business.As....The landmark EU chemicals safety
regulation, REACH, will be based on tonnage produced
rather than potential exposure, if the UK presidency gets
its way. But the bill is set for a turbulent debate
before potentially becoming law next year. Article
>> http://euobserver.com/?aid=19862&rk=1
JB.editor)
Professor Anthony Coughlan's open letter to the
Archbishop of Dublin, Dr.Diarmuid Martin
Ref.Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin's lecture
Monday,26th Sept. on "The Future of Europe" at
All Hallows College,Grace Park Road, Drumcondra, Dublin.
Below for your information is the text of an "open
letter" that has been sent to Archbishop Martin in
connection with his lecture by Anthony Coughlan of the
National Platform EU Research and Information Centre. The
Archbishop's lecture was a prelude to a major all-day
conference on the EU in Dublin's Croke Park Stadium
addressed by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Peter Sutherland,
Alan Dukes, David Begg, Dr Brigid Laffan and others.
This ludicrously one-sided event is being financed by the
EU Commission, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs
and the Jesuit Order. Its purpose is to generate support
in Ireland for the moribund EU Constitution that was
rejected by the voters of France and the Netherlands this
summer.
The EU Commission has been allocated some 200 million
euros to encourage ratification of the "Treaty
Establishing a Constitution for Europe", in which it
is a hugely self-interested party; for this
Treaty-cum-Constitution would greatly increase the
Commission's own power and perquisites if it were
ratified. The political intent of Tuesday's conference is
indicated in its invitation brochure, which states that
it is to consider, inter alia, "Why were the
governments forced to DELAY the ratification of the
proposed EU Constitution?" (Emphasis added)
Not "suspend", not "terminate", but
"delay! This illustrates the mind-set of
the Brussels Commission and the Irish Foreign Affairs
Department that are jointly financing Tuesday's
conference.
The "open letter" to Archbishop Martin
criticises the manner in which the Roman Catholic
Hierarchy in Ireland has allowed itself to be
manipulated by a coterie of Europhiles who succeeded in
inducing the Irish Bishops to endorse the Treaty of Nice
in Ireland's two referendums on that, and who were
preparing a similar endorsement of the EU Constitution in
the Irish referendum that was planned for this October,
on the assumption that the French and Dutch would vote
Yes to the Constitution this summer. These EU-related
events were almost certainly planned before the French
and Dutch referendums, on the assumption that Ireland
would now be moving into the final vital period of an
early October referendum campaign here. It seems probable
that they were originally geared to influencing Catholic
voters in that putative referendum.
Relevant questions that occur are the following:
(1) Is it right that Irish taxpayers' money should be
used either by the Department of Foreign Affairs or the
EU Commission to fund such a one-sided conference panel
as Tuesday's, from which all opponents of the EU
Constitution have been excluded?;
(2) How has the money to finance Tuesday's conference
been divided between the Commission, Iveagh House and the
Jesuit Order?;
(3) Are the speakers at Tuesday's confeence being
paid a fee for their efforts, and if so how much?
Below also for your information is one of the
documents that has been sent to Archbishop Martin along
with the "open letter" referred
to. This a list of quotations by senior EU
politicians giving their views on European integration
over the years. It is hoped that you may find some of
these statements illuminating, in particular perhaps the
first and last ones. Please pass this material to others
you know whom you think may be interested in it.
AN OPEN LETTER TO ARCHBISHOP DIARMUID MARTIN RE HIS
LECTURE ON THE EU AT ALL HALLOWS COLLEGE (.emphasis mine,
JB,editor)
From:
Anthony Couglan,
THE NATIONAL PLATFORM EU RESEARCH AND INFORMATION CENTRE
24 Crawford Avenue, Dublin 9
Tel.: (01) 8305792
To:
His Grace Most Rev.Dr Diarmuid Martin,
Archbishop of Dublin, Archbishop's House,
Drumcondra Dublin 9
19 September 2005
Dear Archbishop Martin,
I read recently in the "Irish Catholic"
that you will be giving a lecture at All Hallows College
on "The Future of Europe: Challenges for Faith and
Values" on Monday evening next, 26 September, as the
first of two events on "The Future of Europe"
being sponsored by the Jesuit Centre for Faith and
Justice and jointly funded by the European Commission,
the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish
Jesuit Province. The second of these events, on
Tuesday of next week, is a conference in Croke Park
Stadium to be addressed by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern,
Messrs Peter Sutherland, Alan Dukes, David Begg, Dan
O'Brien, David McWilliams, and Dr Brigid Laffan and Mrs
Doris Peschke, all of whom are, so far as I know, strong
supporters of the proposed EU Constitution
I was also recently informed - with what truth I do
not know - that your colleagues in the Hierarchy
decided some months ago that in the event of this State
having a referendum on the "Treaty Establishing a
Constitution for Europe", you alone would
speak publicly on their behalf on the matter.
Now that the people of France and the Netherlands have
rejected this mistitled Treaty-cum-Constitution - which
was of course a Constitution for the EU rather than for
Europe - we shall not be having a referendum on it here,
but there is still likely to be much interest in your
lecture next Monday among those who follow these matters.
As you are doubtless aware, the European Commission,
which is helping to finance next week's Croke Park
conference, is a highly self-interested party in the
debate on the future of the EU and its Constitution. As
the non-elected executive of the EU and sole possessor of
the right to propose EU legislation, the Commission stood
to gain huge additional power and perquisities if the EU
Constitution had been agreed. The recent allocation
by the Commission of many millions of euros to advance
the cause of ratification of the Constitution, or some
further treaty based upon it, is disturbing to democrats
across Europe who regard this body as being, in the words
of the late French President Charles de Gaulle, "an
areopagus of technocrats without a country, responsible
to nobody." Next Tuesday's well-financed propaganda
initiative by the Brussels Commission should
therefore alarm everyone who believes that the democratic
verdicts of the French and Dutch peoples on the EU
Constitution should be respected - which means they
should be abided by.
Over the years the European Commission has succeded in
co-opting European Transnational Big Business, many
senior Trade Unionists, significant sections of the
feminist movement, the anti-poverty lobby and many social
science academics into supporting the EU integration
project through the establishment of various slush funds,
the network of EU-financed Jean Monnet professorships and
the like. As you will also be aware, the Commission
and the European Movement have in recent years turned
their attention to the Christian Churches, in particular
the Roman Catholic Church and the Scandinavian Lutheran
Churches, and have systematically set out to woo them
into supporting the EU integration project, with its
erosion of national democracy and national independence
and its concentration of power in the hands of powerful
supranational political, economic and bureaucratic
elites, at the heart of which is the EU Commission
itself.
Many people in Ireland, among them many Catholics, were
very disturbed that the European Committee of the Irish
Hierarchy should have been responsible for a statement
supporting the Yes side in the Nice Treaty referendums of
2001 and 2002. They found it highly
regrettable that the Hierarchy should have
endorsed a statement on such a secular matter which
implicitly urged people to vote Yes, especially as the
Irish Bishops had never intervened before in any of
our constitutional referendums on European Treaties, not
even in our original 1972 EEC Accession referendum.
This
development points to the success of the co-option
exercise referred to - as indeed does the
Commission-funded conference to be held on Tuesday next,
with its ludicrously unbalanced panel of pro-EU
Constitution speakers.
With all due respect to your episcopal colleagues and
yourself, one must wonder how it is possible for the
Irish Catholic Bishops to obtain responsible and
impartial advice on EU-related matters, when its relevant
European Advisory Committee consists overwhelmingly of
ardent proponents of EU integration, with all critics of
that highly contested process being excluded from it?
As you prepare your own public lecture for Monday next,
may I enclose for your information some critical
documents on the EU that my colleagues and I in the
National Platform EU Research and Information Centre have
produced. The most important political aspect of the
proposed EU Constitution is that it would for the first
time have made us real citizens of a new European Union
organised in the constitutional form of a supranational
Federation - and not just notional or honorary EU
"citizens" as at present. If the EU
Constitution were to be ratified, we would consequently
owe this new Union - which would be constitutionally,
legally and politically quite different from the present
EU - the prime duties of citizenship, namely loyalty and
obedience to its laws. These duties would override
our obligations to the Republic of Ireland, in as much as
the EU Constitution and law would be superior to our
national Constitution and law. The first document
discusses this.
The second document is a critical analysis of the
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which constituted Part
2 of the proposed Constitution. This would give the new
Union and its supreme court, the European Court of
Justice(ECJ), the final say in deciding our human and
civil rights in all areas covered by EU law, which is now
vast and whose limits and boundaries would be decided by
the ECJ itself in the event of any dispute as to where
those limits might lie. This proposal raises some of the
most important issues of law, morality and
politics. You will surely agree that it is
hard to imagine anyone who is genuinely concerned with
people's rights and who knows how the EU and its
Court of Justice work, welcoming the EU being
given the power to decide the human and citizens' rights
of some 450 million people, over and above their national
Constitutions and Supreme
Courts and the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg?
You will be aware that on Tuesday of last week the
ECJ, that "court with a mission", to use the
words of one of its judges, made a hugely important
judgement which opens the legal door to conferring a
criminal juridiction on the EU, including harmonised
penalties for breaches of EU law and harmonised
supranational court procedures that could in time
threaten such fundamental rights of our system as trial
by jury and the presumption of innocence until proven
guilty. The Irish and other EU Governments were
thrown out in their attempt to stop the Court of Justice
greatly increasing the power of the Commission by this
judgement.
The third document is a list of quotations from various
EU leaders over the years, indicating how they saw
the EU integration project as a way to build an EU
World Power with most of the features of a supranational
Federal State. My colleagues and I hope that you may find
these documents of use or interest as you prepare your
lecture. If you would like to discuss these
issues with us at any time, we are at your disposal.
Because of the public interest nature of this matter, I
am sending a copy of this letter to your colleagues in
the Hierarchy, to His Excellency the Papal Nuncio, and to
the media and various opinion formers who may be
interested in it.
Yours sincerely
Anthony Coughlan
Secretary
Sarkozy urges EU six to lead integration
26.09.2005 - 09:57 CET | By Lucia Kubosova
Nicolas Sarkozy, a hot candidate to
become the next French president, has suggested a way out
of the current EU's institutional crisis would be through
closer integration of the bloc's six biggest states, with
others to decide whether to follow suit or not.
Speaking at a UMP party conference on Europe on Saturday
(24 September), its leader said the Franco-German
alliance should be opened to the other four big EU
states, as it could no longer direct the union on its
own. Britain, Italy, Spain and Poland should join Berlin
and Paris, as a unit representing 75 percent of the EU's
population and together "become the motor of the new
Europe", said Mr Sarkozy, according to the Financial
Times.
The group could then decide to proceed with integration
in some areas that the other states could accept or not,
without their refusal changing or delaying the decision.
"If we are able to develop this method we would
answer - without institutional reform - two major defects
of Europe as it exists today: Europe would act, and she
would act under the impulse of responsible politicians,
not anonymous bureaucrats", he said.
The EU is in stalemate over future integration after a
rejection of the EU Constitution by France and the
Netherlands earlier this year. The document was supposed
to help the bloc work more efficiently following last
year's enlargement from 15 to 25 countries.
Stronger Europe to face globalisation
Mr Sarkozy, the interior minister in the current French
government, indicated that a stronger Europe - led by the
big six - would also be more effective in dealing with
problems brought up by globalisation. He pointed out
Europe should "at the same time support
globalisation, master it and protect itself from
it", adding there is a need for creating
"European champions" to compete with US,
Chinese and Indian firms among others.
He criticised Brussels' performance in trade, suggesting
the EU is not defending its interests sufficiently and
far less strongly than Washington.Mr Sarkozy also
repeated his position concerning Turkey, suggesting it
should become an EU partner, and not a member.
Nicolas Sarkozy is considered as the main contender along
with current French prime minister Dominique de Villepin
in the 2007 presidential elections.
Could This Happen with Irish Ferries?
French troops storm seized vessel
French special forces have
recaptured a cargo/passenger vessel that was hijacked to
the Corsican port of Bastia by striking union workers.
Commandos abseiled to the deck of the
Pascal Paoli from five helicopters as it came into port
after being taken over in Marseille late on Tuesday.
The unions are protesting against
the privatisation of the debt-ridden state-owned ferry
company, the SNCM.
The latest violence follows two days of
clashes in Marseille.
SPAIN:At their summit in
Seville, Mr Zapatero and the Moroccan Prime Minister
Driss Jettou announced they were both sending extra
troops in an effort to secure the borders at Ceuta and
another enclave, Melilla, where hundreds crossed the
border earlier this week.
The BBC's Katya Adler says the summit was always going
to focus on the issue of immigration.
Spain has praised Morocco for cracking down on flimsy
boats and rafts manned by people traffickers, but it
complains that illegal immigration in the enclaves of
Ceuta and Melilla has dramatically increased.
It suspects that Morocco has not done its best to
secure those borders since it disputes Spain's
sovereignty over the enclaves, our correspondent adds.
More than 40 people, including policemen, have been
injured in recent mass attempts to break through.
ITALY:
Anyone visiting Italy and wanting to use an internet
point, or cafe, will need to take along their passport
and be prepared for a major invasion of their
privacy, writes John Hooper.(THE GUARDIAN)
Anti-terrorist legislation prompted by the London
bombings in July imposes a string of new obligations
on the managers of businesses offering the public access
to communications. As of this week, they must obtain
and, according to some interpretations, photocopy
the identity documents of anyone wishing to access
the internet, send a fax or make a telephone call.Not
only that. They must also supply the police with records
of the times at which customers enter and leave the
premises and which computers or telephones they
use.Owners now need a licence to run an internet point or
call shop, and to get one they have to provide detailed
information about their business, including a floor plan
of the premises.
Commercial communications centres have repeatedly
cropped up in investigations into international
terrorism. The first arrests in connection with the 2004 Madrid
train bombings were made at a call shop in the
Lavapies district of the Spanish capital, which has a
large immigrant community. France is reportedly planning
to introduce similar legislation.
Andrew Pitt from Liverpool, who runs a combined call
shop and internet cafe in Venice said his business had
already been hit by the Italian law.The problem is
that tourists come along without their passports. Today,
we have lost at least 15 customers because they
didnt have any identification, Mr Pitt
said.About 70% of our customers are American or
British and theyre just not used to this sort of
thing. Italians dont usually complain because
its normal to be asked to provide identification
here.
AID FOR NEW ORLEANS FROM BRITAIN DUMPEDHUNDREDS
of tons of British food aid shipped to America for
starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned,
Britain's Daily Mirror reported
Monday. The food, which cost British taxpayers
millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the
Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left
to be distributed. Scores of trucks headed back to a
warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA
incineration plant.The Ministry of Defence in London said
last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been
shipped to the US.
Sweden To Try To End
Fossil Fuels Dependency By 2020 - PM
STOCKHOLM (AP)--Prime Minister
Goran Persson said Tuesday that Sweden will try to end
its dependency on fossil fuels in 15 years by boosting
research devoted to alternative energy sources.
Persson, addressing lawmakers
returning to Parliament after the summer recess, said
global warming was a growing concern.
"We are frightened by climate
change today," Persson said as he laid out
government policy for the next 12 months. "The mean
temperature of the earth is rising, and it is rising most
nearest to the poles.... A new goal will be set: creation
of the conditions necessary to end Sweden's dependence on
fossil fuels by 2020."
Persson said the government will
increase spending on energy research and will start
subsidizing exports of environmental technology. Wind
power will be extended and a tax regime promoting
renewable energy sources would continue, he said. For
example, taxes would be reduced for cars running on
natural gas instead of gasoline.
Persson also said 35% of the cars
driven by government employees would either run
completely on electricity or renewable fuels, or be
hybrid cars.
Re. Foreign
Affairs:
Persson, who will co-chair the U.N's high-level summit
that starts Wednesday in New York, also called for
changes in the composition of the Security Council. He
didn't give details in his speech, but has earlier
suggested giving seats to countries including India,
Japan and Brazil.
The prime minister called for a
peace-building commission and council for human rights to
be established within the organization.
Calling for increased peace efforts
in the Middle East, Persson said the recent Israeli
withdrawal from Gaza "must be a first step toward
two states within secure and recognized borders as
envisaged in the road map" for peace.
Persson also called for a continued
expansion of the European Union, singling out the Balkan
countries and Turkey as candidates for membership.
"All European countries that
meet the requirements must in time be able to become
members, not least the countries in the Balkans,"
Persson said. "Turkey should be allowed to initiate
membership talks as planned."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires©
September 13, 2005 11:40 ET (15:40 GMT)
Labour: Fixing to say "Iran? No Debate."
By Hannah K. Strange
UPI U.K. Correspondent
Published September 29, 2005
BRIGHTON, England -- The Labour Party's annual
conference in Brighton will reside in the public and
political memory less for what was discussed than was
not. Iraq, and subsequent decline in the party's support,
was, as one party activist told United Press
International, the elephant in the conference hall; the
marked avoidance of such critical issues a sign of a
party in deep denial.
The
leadership's Fawlty-esque bid to avoid mentioning the
war received a boost Sunday when a motion to table a
debate on Iraq was defeated, effectively stifling the
concerns of activists over the apparent lack of strategy
for dealing with the crisis. It
was a puzzling result, given the strength of feeling on
the issue among delegates. One member of Parliament told
UPI it had lost purely because all the motions
originating from the anti-war camp were ruled out of
order because they did not relate to sufficiently current
events, a decision she called "bizarre."
Despondence at the leadership's
evasiveness over-spilled following Prime Minister Tony
Blair's address, a speech many had hoped would proffer a
convincing argument why Britain's continued presence in
Iraq was necessary. Given that
calls for an exit strategy have dominated the headlines
for the past two weeks, following the apparent breakdown
in relations between British troops and Iraqi authorities
in Basra, devoting less than one page out of some 20 to
the subject seemed, to many, a trifle sparing.
The closest Blair came to
addressing Britain's future strategy in the beleaguered
nation was his claim that the way to stop innocent deaths
was "not to retreat."
While high-profile Blairites
lauded his efforts, among backbench MPs and the party's
grassroots the feeling was that simply "sticking
with it" was no longer a sufficient plan.
"Let's hope the
model is not the one suffered by India for three
centuries," said Barry Camfield, assistant
general secretary of the Transport and General Worker's
Union -- one of the most powerful unions in the Labour
movement. He was referring to Britain's colonial rule of
India that began in the 18th century and ended in 1947.
(Let us remember Edmund Burke who took 5 years to indict
Warren
Hastings who had virtually destroyed India he was so
corrupt,JB editor)
Are the citizens of Europe content with the perpetual
sadism of the Arms Trade?
Countries identified as having poor
human rights records were invited by the English
Government to the arms exhibition/sale which opened in
London on Sept.13th. A list of 60 countries recieved
invitations after a so called "careful process
involving MoD and other Gov.dept.s..... taking account of
current marketting campaigns and long term prospects for
business".
Leg
irons, stun guns, and stun batons - banned for
export under British law - are being advertised
in catalogues at the international arms fair in
London's Docklands. The instruments feature in
the catalogues of an Israeli company, TAR Ideal,
which describes itself as world leader in
supplying riot control gear. The
company advertises batons which it describes as a
"powerful defensive weapon for stunning and
hitting". When used as a baton it delivers a
debilitating 300,000 volt shock. A stun gun on
offer is said to deliver a high voltage shock,
immobilising a potential attacker for several
minutes. The company describes its "leg
cuffs" as of "all-steel
construction", with a "rust-resistant
nickel finish" and "sturdy, loadable,
foot chain".
One of the first acts of the Labour government
in 1997 was to ban the export of equipment which
could be used for torture, including
"portable devices designed or modified for
riot control purposes, or self-protection to
administer an electric shock, including
electric-shock batons ... stun guns [and] leg
irons". The government last year extended
controls over the export of banned products by
saying they applied to any Briton anywhere in the
world. The catalogues on display at the London
docklands defence exhibition were discovered by
the activist and comedian Mark Thomas.
|
There are supposed to be
"consolidated European and British arms export
criteria" Why is it that Europe is designated thus:
"Europe and...."? Britain is supposedly a
member of European Union and yet it gets away with
constant money speculation on the £ and was permitted
without any demur to assist occupying Iraq, where their
troops have recently been demonstrated as being just as
vile and undisciplined as their American
counterparts.England should be hoofed out.
theguardian newspaper changes
format: only one letter of
complaint the next day? Who is now reading the Guardian
and who noted this: Comment and Debate...Gloria Steinem
writing as an American on America "I hope that
racism is finally seen as a fiction to justify the taking
over of land and power; this remains true whether its
objects are Africans or Arabs, Jews or the Kwe/San
people."
There follows this priceless remark from the same source,
a feminist organiser, "After all, unless we make a
place in our imaginations for what could be, there's not
much point in believing in anything"Gloria Steinem.
Below this they have a scientist hoping that God
"tweaked" the knobs on biological definitions
that enabled a fish evolve into you and I dear reader.
Does this appalling page represent the motivation of the
Guardian from now on?
Major General Doron
Almog wanted by the Law for War Crimes.
Scotland
Yard was thwarted yesterday by the Israeli Ambassador to
England who was alerted through Tony Blair's officials of
the attempt to seize a former senior Israeli army officer
at Heathrow airport for alleged war crimes in occupied
Palestinian lands after a British judge had issued a
warrant for his arrest.
British
detectives were waiting for retired Major General Doron
Almog who was aboard an El Al flight which arrived from
Israel onthe 11th Sept..But so was the Israeli military
attache, who walked on to the airplane after the crew had
advised the "victim" to wait in the plane, he
was then warned of the warrant and Almog flew back to
Israel thanking his luck in travelling on an Israeli Air
Line whose crew had ofcourse been loyal to the Israel
State. Almog in a statement declared that no war crime
was attributable to himself - "it is the British
legal system versus the Israel State." On that day
the Israeli foreign ministry, said: "In the past
extremist Palestinian organisations have tried to
manipulate legal processes in Europe for their own
cynical ends. We have no faith in these groups but we
have a lot of faith in the British legal system."The
British lawyer, Daniel Machover,called for a police
investigation, and said of the Israeli embassy staff
" They are not located here to assist Israelis to
evade British justice,
On the
12th The Guardian had given the following
rundown :The arrest warrant was issued on Saturday at Bow
Street magistrates court, central London. It is believed
to be the first warrant for war crimes of its kind issued
in Britain against an Israeli national over conduct in
the conflict with Palestinians. Despite the alleged
offences occurring in the Gaza Strip, war crimes law
means Britain has a duty to arrest and prosecute alleged
suspects if they arrive in Britain. The warrant alleges
Mr Almog committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip in 2002
when he ordered the destruction of 59 homes near Rafah,
which Palestinians say was in revenge for the death of
Israeli soldiers. The warrant was issued by senior
district judge Timothy Workman after an application by
lawyers acting for Mr Almog's alleged Palestinian
victims. According to legal sources, before granting the
warrant Mr Workman decided his court had jurisdiction for
the offences; that diplomatic immunity did not apply; and
there was evidence to support a prima facie case for war
crimes. r Almog was commanding officer of the Israeli
defence forces' southern command from December 2000 to
July 2003. British lawyers representing Palestinians who
say they suffered as a result of Mr Almog's orders had
presented their evidence to Scotland Yard detectives last
month and they began investigating him.
Attorney. Machover is a spokesman and
founder-member of Lawyers for Palestinian Human
Rights, a group of British lawyers that has
written reports against the Jewish communities in
Judea, Samaria and Gaza. The organization also
that provides assistance to PA lawyers and
organizations in legal matters against
Israel.
Atty. Machover says he plans to sue Ambassador
Hefetz for warning Gen. Almog in advance, and for
boarding the plane to discuss the matter with
Almog. The lawyer also intends to file additional
charges against other senior IDF generals,
including Chief of Staff Halutz and former Chief
of Staff Yaalon, and have them categorized as war
criminals.
|
Sol Gradman was invited
to lecture in Ireland about Israel's high-tech success.
(Eyal Toueg)
"An Irish software company invited me six months ago
to give a lecture at an annual conference about the
reasons for Israeli high-tech success," relates Sol
Gradman, chairman of the High-Tech CEO Forum, who has a
different, less enthusiastic take on Ireland's success.
"I was surprised," he continues. "Bibi
[Netanyahu] always brings up Ireland as a model, and here
they want me to tell them about Israel's success."
Attracted by Ireland's membership in the
European Union, low wages, an English-speaking workforce,
government grants, and low corporate taxes, international
companies such as Dell, Intel and Microsoft have
established offices and plants there.
Gradman describes the surprising discoveries he made
while researching the Irish market in preparation for his
visit. "Ireland annually exports $14 billion in
software," Gradman says. "Israel's annual
software exports amount to less than $4 billion. But what
did I find? The overwhelming majority [of the Irish
exports] come from American companies that develop
software in the United States. The products are
distributed from Ireland, which serves as a bridge to the
rest of Europe, and that's why they're considered Irish
exports. All the Dell computers sold in Europe are
marketed via Ireland, which in effect is a logistics
center with no added value or technological
innovation," he says.
Gradman brings up another surprising fact. "In all
of Ireland, only five local software companies sell more
than $20 million. The numbers are surprising. The Irish
want to know how we in Israel managed to create a local
industry based on development and innovation. Their
success is based on a low corporate tax rate, of 12.5
percent, and cheap labor, but that could change, since
Eastern Europe now is becoming attractive," Gradman
warns.
"For that reason, it's not necessarily correct to
look at Ireland and say `let's do the same thing.' At the
end of the day, Ireland isn't necessarily the right
model. They have attracted investment and the country is
thriving, and I'll tip my hat to them for that. But
it's not based on local entrepreneurship,( on which small
business companies could give him some interesting
information, JB,editor)and the advantages can melt
away fairly easily," Gradman says, adding that Israeli high-tech is based on elements that are
hard to take away from us. "There's a greater
readiness to take risks, an entrepreneurial character,
the army is a fertile ground for invention, and the
proportion of engineers in the population is among the
highest in the world," he says.
Gradman has more than 20 years' experience in high-tech,
including at Optrotech (which later merged with Orbot
into Orbotech), Netexpress and Monterey Design Systems
Israel.
The forum's board includes the CEOs of international
firms such as HP, Intel and Microsoft, as well as of
local high-tech companies, venture capital managers and
other industry insiders. Gradman notes that every event
held by the group draws between 70 and 150 participants,
with more than 100 companies registered with the forum.
Monthly meetings deal with issues such as whether
companies are better off being bought out or going
public, or how to complete a merger successfully. At one
meeting, participants discussed how to compete against
cheap labor in the East. "The CEO of Matrix,
Mordechai Gutman, spoke about hiring ultra-Orthodox women
as a cheap, local labor force. A representative of a
Matrix competitor, Ness, described the advantages and
disadvantages of his company's activities in India,"
Gradman says. Gradman believes that Israeli companies
still have a lot to learn about marketing and management,
pointing to Comverse, Amdocs and Teva as success stories,
but noting that local firms have been much more
successful at selling themselves to foreign companies
than at raising money on the stock market.
Ha'aretz Sept.6th
LETTER IN REFERENCE TO USE OF ASPARTAME
Date:
Thu, 15 Sep 2005 05:30:58 EDT
Hi,A short while
ago I bought some Selenium tabs where it just said
'sweetener' added. I got home but before I took
any, I emailed the firm that made the
product, CEFAK KG in Kempten [Ed.
Germany] and enquired 'What 'sweetener' do they put
in the Selenium....the answer came back, ASPARTAME.
Really pissed
off I wrote back and asked if they KNEW about how
dangerous that RAT-POISON is, and WHY do they
put it in a health product ? The answer I got back was
scary 'YES we know how dangerous
Aspartame is, BUT its the DOSAGE that counts!
I wrote back saying
that at the end of a day eating foods with SMALL
amounts of aspartame sweetener in it...a person could
reach dangerous levels of the stuff.......no answer.
ANYWAY, having
avoided all the products with Aspartame in them, the
word must be getting out into the world because
we NOW notice that most firms we have been
observing, have now dropped the word ASPARTAME
and are now just using the innocuous 'sweetener'
instead....If you dont enquire, you are not going to
know. BE
CAREFUL ! Paul
|