Immigration Returns to UK Debate

David Cameron has launched an attack on Ed Miliband's plans to ensure that frontline staff in publicly funded jobs are able to speak English, in a new battle over the best way to integrate immigrants into British society.

The prime minister was responding to the Labour leader's announcement on Friday morning that workers in public sector jobs that deal with the public will have to show proficiency in the English language under a Labour government.

Outlining a new set of initiatives which Labour claims will improve social integration, Miliband also said he would tackle landlords who pack new immigrants into overcrowded houses, and ban recruitment agencies from seeking workers only from particular countries or ethnic groups.
His new policies appear to have riled Cameron. Speaking from Brussels, the prime minister challenged Miliband to explain why he had supported past Labour governments which Cameron claimed allowed unchecked immigration.(1)

This is, of course, at leastp artially cynical. Has there been any major changes in immigration over the last 2-year period? No.

So the 'system' he says is 'broken' is intentionally presided over by his government.

Footnote:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/14/david-cameron-ed-miliband-immigration

Olmert hypocricy on 'slap in the face'

Former Israeli PM Olmert says that the recent announcement of E1 illegal settlement construction plan is a 'slap in the face'.(1)

Well it's nothing compared to his 'slap in the face' of Mr. Abbas & history by presenting crumbs in 2008 in a so called 'offer' and only verbally, not on paper.(2)

Notes:
(1) http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/olmert-settlement-construction-in-area-e-1-is-slap-in-the-face-of-obama.premium-1.481853?localLinksEnabled=false
(2) http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/images/iht_daily/D171209/olmertmap.pdf

Egypt Const. Vote Rushed

Egypt's Pres. is going to rush a vote for its new constitution only a few days from now(1)

In my opinion that's unfair. People need time to read and debate it.

Note:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/02/egypt-mohamed-morsi-referendum-constitution

Special Advisor Lobbying Scandal Builds

Once again a former special advisor to the Coalition government of the UK gets
a cushy job in the same sector he worked as a state official. In health for a
private firm(1).

We all know how it works. The lunches, the hospitality, the quiet word in
your ear, the ex-ministers and ex-advisers for hire, helping big business
 find the right way to get its way."(1) I agree Mr. Cameron.

Note:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/nov/23/david-cameron-privatisation-adviser-health-lobbyist

WB settlers stealing tons of soil from Palestinian land

West Bank settlers stealing tons of soil from Palestinian land

Roughly a month ago, infrastructure work began in one of the house-trailer neighborhoods in the West Bank settlement of Ofra. Brown soil was needed to cover the foundations. In properly functioning places, such soil is bought and paid for, but not in Ofra. Tzvi, a local farmer, nicknamed “Kishu,” found an alternative: He sent a rented tractor and truck to the outskirts of the settlement, next to the Palestinian villages of Silwad and Deir Dibwan, where they simply stole dirt. Tzvi claims that the land belongs to him.

The theft was made possible – even easy – by the fact that wide expanses of land belonging to Deir Dibwan and Silwad are enclosed within Ofra’s security fence, and the villages’ residents do not have free access to their own fields. Entry into Ofra requires coordination with the Israel Defense Forces and a constant security escort. The fence, like many parts of Ofra, was built without any permits.

In 2009 and 2010, residents of Silwad and Deir Dibwan petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice, demanding that the illegal sections of the fence be dismantled. The IDF responded to the petition, confirming that the fence was in fact built without permits and unnecessarily closes off land owned by others. At the same time, the army asked for time to build a new, modern security fence, closer to the houses in Ofra. The IDF requested until the end of 2012 to finish the job, but no work has yet begun at the site.(1)

 

The theft of Pal. land continues by the illegal settlers in the OPT.
And of course barely a blip from Obama

Note:
(1) http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/west-bank-settlers-stealing-tons-of-soil-from-palestinian-land.premium-1.469522

News International wins court ruling

News International wins court ruling on searches related to phone hacking

Lawyers acting for more than 170 phone-hacking victims, including Cherie Blair and Hugh Grant, were dealt a blow on Friday after losing a high court application to force News International to do a general search of its databases for potential evidence of illegal voicemail interception.
However, the high court did order News International to hand over nine previously undisclosed emails between News International and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who is at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal.
The phone-hacking claimants were seeking further disclosure in relation to Mulcaire's activities before 2001 in an effort to establish whether voicemail interception had taken place earlier than admitted by News International during the course of the civil litigation proceedings.
They were also seeking access to 433 emails in a file on the computer in the room of a senior News International executive labelled "3 - Neville Thurlbeck.pst", along with other documentation submitted to the Metropolitan police and the Leveson inquiry. The .pst suffix would ordinarily refer to personal Microsoft Outlook email folders.
Mr Justice Vos said the decision not to allow more generic disclosure "does not come easily to me" in the light of previous evidence that News International, even during the course of litigation, had failed to disclose material it should have, and had also admitted to the destruction of emails.(1)

I don't personally agree with the decision. But ah well. I'm sure more will be found out even without full cooperation of News International.

Note:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/05/news-international-ruling-searches-phone-hacking

 

Desmond Tutu expresses outrage at failing politicians in South Africa

The Guardian, 4th Sept. 2012

It was a cry, raw and anguished, that pierced the convivial party atmosphere and laid bare the sense of anomie gnawing away at South Africa.
The archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu had an emotional outburst on Monday night as he castigated politicians for greed, failing schools and the "nightmare" of the Marikana mine massacre. His impromptu speech shocked guests at a book launch in Cape Town, according to local media reports, which said a "chatty audience" including senior government officials was immediately silenced.
Reports vary on his exact opening words, but a spokesman for Tutu indicated that he shouted: "What the heck are you doing?"
Beeld newspaper then quoted a highly emotional Tutu as saying: "I am 80 years old. Can't you allow us elders to go to our graves with a smile, knowing that this is a good country? Because truly – it is a good country."
Tutu, a Nobel peace laureate described as the moral conscience of South Africa, has not been afraid to criticise the governing African National Congress (ANC), for example over the refusal to grant the Dalai Lama an entrance visa.
On Monday he was at the District Six museum for the launch of the struggle veteran Michael Lapsley's book Redeeming the Past, along with guests including Marius Fransman, the deputy foreign minister, and other high-ranking figures.
Lapsley was an ANC chaplain who lost an eye and both hands to a parcel bomb sent by the apartheid regime. Later, speaking from the podium, Tutu expressed frustration at the betrayal of such sacrifices after the dawn of multiracial democracy in 1994.
"Is this the kind of freedom people were tortured and people were maimed for?" he was quoted as saying. "I ask myself, why were we in the struggle? The highest price was paid for freedom, but are we treating it as something precious?
"How can we have children 18 years later who go to school under trees and whose education is being crushed without textbooks and no one is held accountable? Have we so quickly forgotten the price of freedom?
"People are going to sleep hungry in this freedom for which people were tortured and harmed … It is difficult to believe people are getting such money and benefits, and are driving such flashy cars while the masses suffer in cramped shacks."(1)

Soo good when instinctive outbursts for justice like these are heard. Viva La Tutu!

Note:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/04/desmond-tutu-expresses-outrage-failing-politicians