Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Friday, January 22, 2021
Brexit POLL: Do you think the UK will Rejoin the EU? VOTE HERE
REMAINERS are turning their attention to rejoining the European Union after the UK finally cut ties with Brussels on December 31 - but do you think Britain will end up returning to the bloc?
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Norway terrorist & Europe growing right wing hate
The clean streets of Oslo are covered in glass and debris. The glorious little island of Utoya is now forever branded with the horror of the mass slaughter. And for me, a personal shock. I have worked closely with the Norwegian Labour Party and the Prime Minister's staff since Jens Stoltenberg formed a government in 2005.
Norway will survive this. A crisis always reveals and this one has shown just how strong and eloquent a leader Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg actually is. Just as New York's former mayor Rudy Giuliani became the leader he always had the potential to be in his response to 9/11, so Stoltenberg has found a public voice and tone to match the gravity of events. His lines are pitch perfect: "We are a small country, but a very proud one. Nobody can bomb us to be quiet. Nobody can shoot us to be quiet. Nobody can ever scare us from being Norway."
Migration is a fact of human existence that has spread culture and civilisation, access to resources, knowledge and wealth, as human beings have moved from hostile region and environment to more habitable environment, where they have access to resources, security and comfort.
This was a key process that led to the evolution of nations and people. Migration therefore promotes development and advancement of civilisation, knowledge and socio-cultural interaction if properly managed. But since the emergence of the concept of defined national frontiers, there have been several measures and approaches taken by countries to secure their borders, protect themselves and their resources from outsiders, yet migration remains a potent force for the spread of civilisation, socio-cultural and economic development.
Equally worthy of mention is the fact that migration is an essential part of humanity as the phenomenon of people moving outside their national borders to other countries have provided a strong push for promotion of trade and development. With the end of the cold war, scholars and researchers believe that migration will be one of the hottest political issues of the next 15 years in Europe and America given the dwindling state of global economy.
Experience has shown that politicians and racial bigots often use migration as their most potent weapon to gain popularity by heaping the blame on their failures on migrants. The Tea Party in the US has become a rallying point for Americans promoting hate ideology and supremacist tendencies. The attacks on Nigerians and other Africans in South Africa is a case to mention here.
In Europe, there is a rising wave of ultra right political philosophy. The anti-migration sentiment, originally started as a fringe ideology of the right wing parties being relegated to the back ground.
Even though there is a general sense that globalisation has come to stay and that Europe, at least among the governing elites, share economic interests with the rest of the world, views from the likes of Jean Marie Le Pen, which were repugnant in the 1990s, have gradually become mainstream ideas in France, and other European countries.
The resurgence of nationalist feeling has been against migrant, notably Arab/Muslims as well as blacks. Multiculturalism is seen as an accommodationist ideology which should not have a footing in fortress Europe.
Akinyemi, who spent over 25 years in Austria, said the idea of fortress Europe as an exclusive European continent for white people is under threat from globalisation. “Today, they see globalisation as a concept that could lead to Europe being swapped by immigrants and especially Arab Muslims who have been seen as irrational and potential terrorists”, the university don said.
Apart from the economic crisis ravaging Europe, political and religious violence has become the identity of the political face of Islam. The proposed European jihad is to counter what is coming from the Muslim world. The end of the cold war has narrowed down ideological differences, but we now have what Samuel Huntington identified as the clash of civilization. Faith inspired terrorists espouse opposition to the Western culture and value system.
The Boko Haram sect, the Taliban in Afghanistan/Pakistan, the Al-Qaeda and many other fundamentalist religious groups view Judeo-Christian faith as a legitimate target for Islamic jihad. They have seen the superpowers as responsible for all the world’s wrongs and suggested that it was the obligation of all Muslims to mobilize to remove the superpowers from the global arena. All these redefined concept of martyrdom provided the basic justification of suicide on religious grounds. In conclusion, Breivik may be pointing to a clash of civilization.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Immigration, Integration Draw Attention In Norway
Kofi, who had a friend in intensive care with three bullet wounds and had learned that at least one other friend of Iraqi origin had been killed in Friday's massacre by an anti-Islamic extremist, obliged, and the man walked back into the crowd without another word.
Kofi, 19, and other Muslim immigrants say they would have been treated very differently had the perpetrator of one of the country's most heinous crimes been a fellow Muslim, and not far-right Norwegian zealot Anders Behring Breivik.
"If it was a Muslim, they would blame all foreigners and hate us all," she said, adding that she had come to Oslo to grieve with the tens of thousands of others who converged on the Norwegian capital on Monday to pay their respects to the dead.
Muslims in Norway said they shared the pain of their Christian compatriots after the massacre, in which Breivik gunned down young people, mainly teenagers, on a holiday island and bombed an Oslo government building, killing a total of 76 people.
Norwegians of all backgrounds united to condemn his actions and views, and Muslim leaders said they hoped the atrocities would lead to a better future for race relations.
Many immigrants live in the Oslo neighborhood of Greenland. There are a few indigenous Norwegians, but they rush by. Many women shopping at grocery stores wear the hijab.
At a cafe run by a Lebanese, the only customers are men — several Arabs and many Somalis. They don't like to talk into a tape-recorder, but they will say they were shocked by the July 22 attacks. They're also relieved that the confessed perpetrator was a Norwegian, not a Muslim. They say their main concern is to keep a low profile.
The atmosphere changes sharply in a nearby square lined with trendy shops, sushi bars and outdoor restaurants. Among those in the square is Eric Lundesgard, a member of the Conservative Party, which is currently in opposition. He says integration is the key to immigration.
"Integration to some extent means being more Norwegian. Norway is quite a homogeneous country," Lundesgard says.
But that thought would seem to echo the ideas propagated by Breivik in his 1,500-page screed against Muslims and multiculturalism.
"I believe that many of his thoughts ... about the multicultural society and political correctness [are] quite common," Lundesgard says.
Tunisian Yassim Mansour says it's hard for an immigrant to live in this society.
"When they show their apartments, you go there with 16 other Norwegians, they take the Norwegian one, and this is a fact," he says. "Here, when I am at work, if I have to pray — I am Muslim — I have to hide myself and don't tell anyone. If they ask me, I say I have been in toilet."
Mansour says integration should not mean that he has to lose everything about his cultural identity.
Large-scale immigration began in Norway in the '70s. At first, many Norwegians worried foreigners could take away their jobs. But because Norway became very rich — thanks to oil — and there are virtually no jobless, the debate shifted to the more insidious terrain of cultural differences.
The number of immigrants has more than doubled since 1995, and growing tensions have led to more division. Indigenous Norwegians have increasingly fled neighborhoods inhabited by immigrants, citing worsening educational standards in public schools. Also, says Iranian-born human rights activist Ali Esbati, the notion began to circulate that Muslims in particular — because of their religion — could not become good Norwegians.
"This new kind of right-wing milieu, the Eurabia literature, this idea that the West is being taken over, these ideas were quite marginal until recently," Esbati says, "but they have moved more and more toward the center of things, main public discourse, that is the real problem for long-term social development."
Sociologist Thomas Eriksen hopes something positive will emerge from last week's tragedy: that people here will treat each other with more respect and more recognition.
"So that it becomes more difficult for people on the right wing to generalize in pejorative terms about Muslims, and be concerned that we do have an emerging multicultural society here," he says, "and that everybody needs to have a place in it, that we have to create that sense of solidarity among the whole population and loyalty among the immigrants."
As the country emerges from shock and an intense period of mourning, Norwegians — indigenous and not — will have to engage together in dialogue, not in confrontation.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Glenn Beck compares Norway shooting victims to Hitler Youth
Beck then goes on to say that he had warned about such a scenario happening before, and attempts to separate himself from the shooter, a devout anti-Muslim who feared large government. Beck then goes on to warn that Europe is about to be taken over by radical Islam, a fear shared by the Breivik.
The summer camp in Norway did have a political purpose, but that hardly makes it comparable to something from the days of the Hitler Youth. There are multiple political camps in the United States for both liberals and conservatives, including at least one camp for Tea Party youth. For some reason Beck never dared to compare the Tea Party youth camp to the Hitler Youth. In addition, the summer camp in Norway was for the Labor Party in that country, which generally trends toward the left side of the political spectrum. Hitler’s regime was seen as an extreme right-wing government.
When discussing the tragedy in Norway on Monday, the radio host compared the Labor Party youth camp to the Hitler Youth.
"As the thing started to unfold and there was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth," he said. "Who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing."
Ironically, Britain's Daily Telegraph points out, there are also such camps in the United States - hosted by the Tea Party, a political movement that makes up a large part of Beck's fan base.
A former press secretary to Norway's prime minister, Torbjørn Eriksen, told the newspaper that Beck's comments were "a new low."
"Young political activists have gathered at Utoya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about," he told the Telegraph. "Glenn Beck's comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful."
Beck's remarks came after he praised himself for not jumping to conclusions about who was shooting at the youth camp.
After making the comments, Beck took credit for warning that something like this would happen.
"I warned that this would happen last fall," he insisted.
The Washington-based Coalition to Stop Gun Violence described his remarks to the Telegraph as "absolutely disgusting.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Jens Stoltenberg
Jens Stoltenberg born 16 March 1959 is a Norwegian politician, leader of the Norwegian Labour Party and the current Prime Minister of Norway. Having assumed office on 17 October 2005, Stoltenberg previously served as Prime Minister from 2000 to 2001.
Having first been elected to Parliament in 1993 for the Oslo constituency, Stoltenberg served as State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment from 1990 to 1991 and as Minister of Industry from 1993 to 1996 in the Third Cabinet Brundtland, respectively. Following the resignation of Brundtland in 1996, Thorbjørn Jagland was elected leader of the Labour Party and became Prime Minister, while Stoltenberg was appointed Minister of Finance, an office he held until 17 October 1997 when Jagland and the entire government resigned. While in parliamentary opposition, Stoltenberg served in the standing committees on energy affairs. Following a motion of confidence against the First Cabinet Bondevik, Stoltenberg was appointed Prime Minister on 3 March 2000, despite being deputy leader of the Labour Party, and not the party leader.
After poor results in the 2001 parliamentary election, and the subsequent fall of his government on 19 October of that same year, Stoltenberg successfully challenged Thorbjørn Jagland for the Labour Party leadership in 2002, and led the party to victory in the 2005 election by forming a Red-Green coalition government with the Centre Party (Sp) and the Socialist Left Party (SV). He was re-elected in 2009 for another term as Prime Minister of Norway.
Stoltenberg grew up in a political family. His father, Thorvald Stoltenberg, is one of the most prominent politicians in Norway and a former Foreign Minister; his mother Karin Stoltenberg was a junior minister. The late Marianne Heiberg, married to former Foreign Minister Johan Jørgen Holst, was his aunt on his mother's side. Stoltenberg is married to the diplomat Ingrid Schulerud and has two children, Axel Stoltenberg and Catharina Stoltenberg. He was raised in the Waldorf Education system as formulated by Rudolf Steiner, and educated at the Oslo katedralskole and the University of Oslo. He likes to spend his summer vacations on the Hvaler Islands in the Oslo fjord. In the winter he is an active cross-country skiier. He has two sisters: Camilla, a medical researcher and administrator who is one year older than he; and Nini who is four years younger. Nini is a recovering heroin addict, and the Norwegian media have covered the family's efforts to cope with this challenge. Jens Stoltenberg has admitted to using cannabis in his youth.He has recently asked the department of Justice to evaluate his impartiality in the upcoming government treatment of the Stoltenberg Commission's (headed by his father, Thorvald Stoltenberg) report on drugs.
Politics of Norway
According to the Constitution of Norway, which was adopted on 16 May 1814 and inspired by the United States Declaration of Independence and French Revolution of 1776 and 1798, respectively, Norway is a unitary constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government, wherein the King of Norway is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. Power is separated between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, as defined by the Constitution, which serves as the country's supreme legal document.
The Monarch officially retains executive power, however, following the introduction of a parliamentary system of government, the duties of the Monarch have since become strictly representative and ceremonial, such as the formal appointment and dismissal of the Prime Minister and other ministers in the executive government. Accordingly, the Monarch is commander-in-chief of the Norwegian armed forces, supreme authority in the Church of Norway, and serves as chief diplomatic official abroad and a symbol of unity.
In practice, it is the Prime Minister who is responsible for the exercise of executive powers. Since his accession in 1991, Harald V of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg has been King of Norway, the first since the 14th century who has actually been born in the country. Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway is the legal and rightful heir to the throne and the Kingdom.
Constitutionally, legislative power is vested with both the government and the Parliament of Norway, but the latter is the supreme legislature and a unicameral body.[51] A proposition can become a law or an act by simple majority amongst the 150 representatives, who are elected on the basis of proportional representation from 19 constituencies for four-year terms. An additional 19 seats ("levelling seats") are allocated on a nationwide basis to make the representation in parliament correspond better with the popular vote.
As a result, there are currently 169 Members of Parliament altogether. There is also a 4% election threshold to gain levelling seats in Parliament. As such, Norway is fundamentally structured as a representative democracy. Effectively called the Storting, meaning Grand Assembly, members of Parliament ratify treaties and can impeach members of the government if their acts are declared unconstitutional, and as such have the power to remove them from office in case of an impeachment trial.
The position of Prime Minister, Norway's head of government, is allocated to the Member of Parliament who can obtain the confidence of a majority in Parliament, usually the current leader of the largest political party or more effectively through a coalition of parties, as a single party normally does not have the support to form a government on its own. However, Norway has often been ruled by minority governments.
The Prime Minister nominates the Cabinet, traditionally drawn from members of the same political party in the Storting, to which they are responsible, and as such forms the executive government and exercises power vested to them by the Constitution.[52] In order to form a government, however, more than half the membership of the Cabinet is required to belong to the Church of Norway. Currently, this means at least ten out of the 19 ministries. This has sparked controversy regarding an ongoing debate of separation of church and state in Norway. The current Prime Minister is Jens Stoltenberg, the leader of the Norwegian Labour Party (AP).
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
313 songs in the race to represent Spain in Oslo
Several known faces have applied this year: Anabel Conde (runner-up at the 1995 Eurovision Song Contest), Edu del Prado, Rebeca, Toñi Salazar (1990 Spanish representative as part of Azúcar Moreno), as well as former Operación Triunfo contestants -José Galisteo, Ainhoa Cantalapiedra, Lorena, Samuel y Patricia...- and participants at Spanish selections for Eurovision -Coral, Bizarre, Isi, Yanira Figueroa...-. Interestingly, the joke entry Yo soy un tsunami, by Karmele Marchante aka Popstar Queen, promoted by the commercial channel Tele5, has been allowed to make it to the public selection.
The online stage of Tu país te necesita will span nearly 3 weeks. The voting will remain open until Friday, February 5th at 23:59 CET. Every user will be able to vote up to 5 times per day and valid e-mail account. Like last year, there will be a section on the RTVE website where the most voted acts will appear. The ranking will be updated several times per day, but not in real time. The votes will be shown once thay are validated.
The 10 acts with the highest scores as of the end of the voting will qualify for the televised national final, where the Spanish entrant for Eurovision 2010 will be chosen by a combination of jury vote and televote at a 50/50 split.
You can see the list of Spanish candidates and vote for your favourites here.
Stay tuned to esctoday.com as we will be bringing you extensive coverage on the Spanish selection for Eurovision 2010.
Source:esctoday.com/
The Other Side Of Oslo Peace Process
“Today, we bear witness to an extraordinary act in one of history's defining dramas,” said the then US president Bill Clinton as a prelude to Oslo Peace Process, “a drama that began in the time of our ancestors when the word went forth from a sliver of land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. That hallowed piece of earth, that land of light and revelation is the home to the memories and dreams of Jews, Muslims and Christians throughout the world.
The world looked forward to Oslo with great hope that it would bring peace and stability to the consecrate piece of land that has been drenched in warfare, hatred and conflicting claims of history etched so deeply in the souls of the people in the Middle East. Though Clinton had apprehensions about the Oslo process evident when he mentioned Oslo accords as a ‘brave gamble,’ he did express the confidence that the future can be better than the past must endure. But the post-Oslo Palestine has been a deep scar running deep in to the map of humanity. The tenacity and vision of world leaders behind Oslo and Camp David did promise a new beginning, but for ordinary Palestinians, it was the beginning of a new form of Israeli domination over the Palestinians.
The Oslo Process begins officially with the handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat at the White House loan. After the first Intifada that saw more than 1100 Palestinian civilians and 114 Israelis killed, Palestinians entered in to a seven year peace process with Israel–known as the Oslo Peace Process. The main misconception about Oslo Process is the false use of the word Peace. In fact the daily lives of Palestinians throughout the occupied territories turned from bad to worse in a period when there was supposed to be a peace process on the way. All the economic indicators hit the rock bottom under Oslo, during the peace process. Right to education, work and health care, which are among the most basic economic and social rights, were the areas that declined the worst for the majority of Palestinians. Moreover Israeli settlements had continued to expand throughout this period. According to the Foundation for Middle East Peace, the Israeli settlements doubled in size and population during Oslo, from 200,000 to 400,000. At the same time that Israeli control was expanding, the Palestinian Authority was given the trappings of power over the shrinking and non contiguous Palestinian land, being held out as the future Palestinian state. The challenges of governing the Palestinian Authority are extraordinarily complex. This is an authority that has very little authority, virtually no power. Its power is derivative, it has the power that is given to it by Israel and at any moment any of those powers can be taken away.
Yet it is only with deep frustration that anyone could hear the Palestinian Authority including Yasser Arafat and later Mahmoud Abbas speaking very warmly about the situation. But in reality they were hiding the fact that for the great majority of the population these years were a disaster. Those abuses and violations of the public trust were happening regularly for the Palestinians since the Oslo Process began. The Palestinians who protested against the Oslo Process were labeled as terrorists and would not allow them in the PA. There were many Palestinian intellectuals like Mahmoud Darwish who severed ties with the PLO for its flawed stand in Oslo Process.
While the world public was being told by the media that a peace process was moving forward, Israel continued its policy of home demolitions. According to Israeli Committee against Home Demolitions, since 1967 about 24,145 Palestinian homes have been demolished, and more than 740 of those homes were demolished during the Oslo Peace Process. The extend of home demolitions under Oslo Process was so very obvious to the extent that the then US Ambassador to Israel, Edward Walker was quoted saying-“What you got to have, and I think it is a fair demand on the part of Palestinians that during the process of negotiation, you are not supposed to turning out more and more territory to Israeli settlement and changing the character of the land which is supposed to be negotiated about.” The notion of this is going to be a negotiable question does not mean true to any Palestinian who lives up against one of these settlements that are continuingly being expanded. And to expand means to steal more land. These settlers live and prosper at the expense of the Palestinians well being
It is really disheartening to see that the victims of Palestinian catastrophe being led by a herd of wolfs disguised as sheeps who has their vested interests kept in forefront than helping out the Palestinian people’s interest. As in post war Iraq, there has been a new breed of contractors who have their business interests kept high above the suffering of the Palestinian people. They are highly influential businessmen who have deep rooted connections with the Fatah party or the Palestinian Authority and sometimes, even hold high ranking posts in the PA. You need not think a twice to ascertain on where does the billions of dollars of international aids fits in to the scheme of things. There is no wonder why Israel showed a cold shoulder to the poison within Palestine.
Today Palestinian Authority and Fatah Party have been hijacked by a group of high-ranking officials and politicians with business interests that extend beyond the Middle East and across the globe to the United States and Europe. Their main aim is to translate as much of the billions of dollars that come as international aid since Oslo Process to their private accounts. They control Palestinian Authority and Fatah Party in all fronts. Undeterred by this public looting and guaranteed moral impunity by Fatah's bad conscience, and backed by the unshakable buoy up by the United States, and riding on the might of nuclear arsenal and F16 fighter planes, Israel can literally do anything it wants, or is prompted to do by its leaders' fantasies of domination. And the bottom line here is to make life worse for Palestinians, force them to move out of Palestine and thereby steal more land. It might be a hard term to use, but in a sense, it s a sort of ethnic cleansing.
Palestinian Authority and the Fatah Party has now been tainted and denigrated with the honour of being a corrupt national institute whose main task as far as Israel is concerned is to police the Palestinians and prevent them from the struggle against the continuing Israeli military and settler occupation. It has wasted and misappropriated lot of money the international community has given it. The sight of posh villas of leading Palestinian Authority officials sprung up like poison ivy amidst the poor dwelling of refugees throughout the occupied territories and the poverty with which the Palestinian masses are still living in says it all. The performance of PLO in running the Palestinian Authority and its failures in negotiating a credible peace process with Israel has very well diminished support for PLO leadership. And all these factors led to the Palestinians voting out the PLO in favour of Hamas, giving them the required seats to form a majority government in 2006 elections.
If it was an empty handshake at the Whitehouse loan in 1993 and a 'peace talks that lead to more violence' that made Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres qualified for Nobel Peace Prize, the Swedish Academy went a step forward this time and awarded Nobel Peace Prize for a man who has done virtually nothing rather than a customary American public relation exercise, that’s how volatile Middle East situation has become.
It would be worthwhile to recollect the letter that Rachel Corrie, the young American peace activist wrote to her mother back in US days before getting crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer at Rafah in 2003 “No amount of reading, attending conferences, documentary viewing, and word of mouth, could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here,” she wrote. “You just can’t imagine it unless you see it. This is not all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not the world you and dad wanted to come into when you decided to have me. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our life for making this stop.”
Ershad Abubacker is a Research Analyst based in Chennai. He can be reached at ershadna@gmail.com.
Source:countercurrents.org/
The world looked forward to Oslo with great hope that it would bring peace and stability to the consecrate piece of land that has been drenched in warfare, hatred and conflicting claims of history etched so deeply in the souls of the people in the Middle East. Though Clinton had apprehensions about the Oslo process evident when he mentioned Oslo accords as a ‘brave gamble,’ he did express the confidence that the future can be better than the past must endure. But the post-Oslo Palestine has been a deep scar running deep in to the map of humanity. The tenacity and vision of world leaders behind Oslo and Camp David did promise a new beginning, but for ordinary Palestinians, it was the beginning of a new form of Israeli domination over the Palestinians.
The Oslo Process begins officially with the handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat at the White House loan. After the first Intifada that saw more than 1100 Palestinian civilians and 114 Israelis killed, Palestinians entered in to a seven year peace process with Israel–known as the Oslo Peace Process. The main misconception about Oslo Process is the false use of the word Peace. In fact the daily lives of Palestinians throughout the occupied territories turned from bad to worse in a period when there was supposed to be a peace process on the way. All the economic indicators hit the rock bottom under Oslo, during the peace process. Right to education, work and health care, which are among the most basic economic and social rights, were the areas that declined the worst for the majority of Palestinians. Moreover Israeli settlements had continued to expand throughout this period. According to the Foundation for Middle East Peace, the Israeli settlements doubled in size and population during Oslo, from 200,000 to 400,000. At the same time that Israeli control was expanding, the Palestinian Authority was given the trappings of power over the shrinking and non contiguous Palestinian land, being held out as the future Palestinian state. The challenges of governing the Palestinian Authority are extraordinarily complex. This is an authority that has very little authority, virtually no power. Its power is derivative, it has the power that is given to it by Israel and at any moment any of those powers can be taken away.
Yet it is only with deep frustration that anyone could hear the Palestinian Authority including Yasser Arafat and later Mahmoud Abbas speaking very warmly about the situation. But in reality they were hiding the fact that for the great majority of the population these years were a disaster. Those abuses and violations of the public trust were happening regularly for the Palestinians since the Oslo Process began. The Palestinians who protested against the Oslo Process were labeled as terrorists and would not allow them in the PA. There were many Palestinian intellectuals like Mahmoud Darwish who severed ties with the PLO for its flawed stand in Oslo Process.
While the world public was being told by the media that a peace process was moving forward, Israel continued its policy of home demolitions. According to Israeli Committee against Home Demolitions, since 1967 about 24,145 Palestinian homes have been demolished, and more than 740 of those homes were demolished during the Oslo Peace Process. The extend of home demolitions under Oslo Process was so very obvious to the extent that the then US Ambassador to Israel, Edward Walker was quoted saying-“What you got to have, and I think it is a fair demand on the part of Palestinians that during the process of negotiation, you are not supposed to turning out more and more territory to Israeli settlement and changing the character of the land which is supposed to be negotiated about.” The notion of this is going to be a negotiable question does not mean true to any Palestinian who lives up against one of these settlements that are continuingly being expanded. And to expand means to steal more land. These settlers live and prosper at the expense of the Palestinians well being
It is really disheartening to see that the victims of Palestinian catastrophe being led by a herd of wolfs disguised as sheeps who has their vested interests kept in forefront than helping out the Palestinian people’s interest. As in post war Iraq, there has been a new breed of contractors who have their business interests kept high above the suffering of the Palestinian people. They are highly influential businessmen who have deep rooted connections with the Fatah party or the Palestinian Authority and sometimes, even hold high ranking posts in the PA. You need not think a twice to ascertain on where does the billions of dollars of international aids fits in to the scheme of things. There is no wonder why Israel showed a cold shoulder to the poison within Palestine.
Today Palestinian Authority and Fatah Party have been hijacked by a group of high-ranking officials and politicians with business interests that extend beyond the Middle East and across the globe to the United States and Europe. Their main aim is to translate as much of the billions of dollars that come as international aid since Oslo Process to their private accounts. They control Palestinian Authority and Fatah Party in all fronts. Undeterred by this public looting and guaranteed moral impunity by Fatah's bad conscience, and backed by the unshakable buoy up by the United States, and riding on the might of nuclear arsenal and F16 fighter planes, Israel can literally do anything it wants, or is prompted to do by its leaders' fantasies of domination. And the bottom line here is to make life worse for Palestinians, force them to move out of Palestine and thereby steal more land. It might be a hard term to use, but in a sense, it s a sort of ethnic cleansing.
Palestinian Authority and the Fatah Party has now been tainted and denigrated with the honour of being a corrupt national institute whose main task as far as Israel is concerned is to police the Palestinians and prevent them from the struggle against the continuing Israeli military and settler occupation. It has wasted and misappropriated lot of money the international community has given it. The sight of posh villas of leading Palestinian Authority officials sprung up like poison ivy amidst the poor dwelling of refugees throughout the occupied territories and the poverty with which the Palestinian masses are still living in says it all. The performance of PLO in running the Palestinian Authority and its failures in negotiating a credible peace process with Israel has very well diminished support for PLO leadership. And all these factors led to the Palestinians voting out the PLO in favour of Hamas, giving them the required seats to form a majority government in 2006 elections.
If it was an empty handshake at the Whitehouse loan in 1993 and a 'peace talks that lead to more violence' that made Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres qualified for Nobel Peace Prize, the Swedish Academy went a step forward this time and awarded Nobel Peace Prize for a man who has done virtually nothing rather than a customary American public relation exercise, that’s how volatile Middle East situation has become.
It would be worthwhile to recollect the letter that Rachel Corrie, the young American peace activist wrote to her mother back in US days before getting crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer at Rafah in 2003 “No amount of reading, attending conferences, documentary viewing, and word of mouth, could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here,” she wrote. “You just can’t imagine it unless you see it. This is not all what I asked for when I came into this world. This is not all what the people here asked for when they came into this world. This is not the world you and dad wanted to come into when you decided to have me. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our life for making this stop.”
Ershad Abubacker is a Research Analyst based in Chennai. He can be reached at ershadna@gmail.com.
Source:countercurrents.org/
Abdullah Bin Zayed meets Foreign Minister of Norway
WAM Abu Dhabi, Jan 19th, 2010 (WAM) -- Foreign Minister HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan met here today Norway's Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Store who is on a visit to the UAE.
Welcoming the guest at a meeting held at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Abdullah expressed hope that the visit would strengthen relations between the two countries in various fields.
During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations between UAE and Norway and the development of cooperation in various avenues, with particular emphasis on the ways to enhance them.
They also exchanged views on the current developments at the regional and international levels as well as a number of issues of common concern.
The Norwegian minister hailed the efforts of UAE for successfully organising the World Future Energy Summit 2010 and alluded to the remarkable development in the field of renewable energy in Abu Dhabi.
WAM/AB
Source:wam.ae/
Welcoming the guest at a meeting held at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Abdullah expressed hope that the visit would strengthen relations between the two countries in various fields.
During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations between UAE and Norway and the development of cooperation in various avenues, with particular emphasis on the ways to enhance them.
They also exchanged views on the current developments at the regional and international levels as well as a number of issues of common concern.
The Norwegian minister hailed the efforts of UAE for successfully organising the World Future Energy Summit 2010 and alluded to the remarkable development in the field of renewable energy in Abu Dhabi.
WAM/AB
Source:wam.ae/
Norway FM to Haaretz: We are not anti-Semitic or anti-Israel
There are "forces" in Israel that unfairly portray Norway as anti-Semitic, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store charged on Monday. He was responding to various reports critical of Norway in the local press.
"There are references to anti-Israel sentiments in the Israeli press, and I see part of that as a campaign, which is being organized and orchestrated from circles who point out enemies of Israel [in Norway]," Store told Haaretz during a visit to Jerusalem on Monday. He refused to speculate who he thinks is behind the campaign.
Last summer, Israeli papers reported that a Norwegian diplomat who had compared Operation Cast Lead in Gaza with the Holocaust had been promoted, and that Norway had honored novelist and Hitler admirer Knut Hamsun with celebrations and a commemorative coin for his 150th birthday. Several Israeli papers also quoted Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman scolding Norway for not walking out during last April's Durban II conference - which was widely criticized as biased against Israel - the way most other Western nations did.
Advertisement
Ahead of Store's visit this week, a Jerusalem Post columnist described the current Norwegian government as "rabidly hostile" toward Israel. And Haaretz quoted a Norwegian opposition leader saying Israeli concerns about Norway are "understandable."
But Store, who himself recently made headlines for endorsing a book that accused Israel of premeditated mass murder during Cast Lead, said these incidents are not representative.
"When I read these allegations in the Israeli press - and some of them I find almost a smear against Norway - my response is: Go and check with the leaders of [the] Norwegian Jewish community," he said. "You will get a [different] story. Yes, there is this gruesome phenomenon of anti-Semitism, also in our society. But I don't buy it at all that Norway is one of the worst cases."
While it is true that a major Norwegian pension fund divested from Elbit Systems because of the company's involvement in building the West Bank separation fence, this did not imply an anti-Israel bias, Store said. The fund divests whenever a company "breaches ethical standards," he explained, adding that it had also divested from certain French, American and Russian firms.
Furthermore, the fund is currently invested in 40 different Israeli companies that are not involved in building the fence, he noted. "That's the big picture."
Store also commented on the November 2009 appointment of deputy minister of the environment Ingrid Fiskaa, who in April 2008 said she sometimes wished the United Nations would send "precision-guided missiles against selected Israeli targets."
"I will be the first to say that these are senseless statements," Store said. "And she's not responsible [for] our Middle East policy at all. But there are things in every person's past in terms of political views and statements."
Rejecting criticism over his contribution to the back cover of the controversial book, Store said he merely applauded the authors for speaking up about what they saw, without judging the validity of their conclusions. In the book, which contains eyewitness testimony by two Norwegian physicians in Gaza during Cast Lead, the physicians, Mads Gilbert and Erik Fosse, accused Israel of perpetrating a "systematically implemented and comprehensive massacre."
"What I said was that during the Gaza war, all independent press was closed out and that when there is no coverage, the first victim is the truth," Store said. "I believe that these doctors ... reported what they saw. I believe that was important."
Writing a blurb for the back cover does not mean he endorses the book's content, Store insisted.
Source:haaretz.com/
Concern over situation in East Jerusalem
Monday the Foreign Minister had talks with Palestinian leaders and with Lutheran Bishop Monib Younan about the situation of the Palestinian population of Jerusalem.
- Evictions, demolitions, the separation barrier and the ongoing establishment of new settlements are changing the demographics and geography of East Jerusalem, and thus also the basis for a negotiated solution, the Norwegian Foreign Minister said. -I am concerned that these changes, which have accelerated in recent months, will make it more difficult to get new, genuine negotiations off the ground.
Norway considers the Israeli presence in East Jerusalem to be in violation of international law, as does the entire international community.
“We do not recognise Israel’s annexation of Palestinian East Jerusalem,” said Mr Støre.
The Foreign Minister also visited the Augusta Victoria Hospital, which receives Norwegian support. It provides specialist medical services to the Palestinian population, but due to the Israeli closure regime, the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza no longer have free access to the hospital.
- Jerusalem is a holy city for billions of people who adhere to the three monotheistic world religions. Respect for each other’s faith and holy sites is a prerequisite for peaceful co-existence. Jews, Muslims and others must all have the right to live here, said the Norwegian Foreign Minister.
(NRK/Press release)
Source:norwaypost.no/
U.S., Norway deny funding allegations
Less than two weeks ahead of the much awaited January 26 Sri Lanka Presidential election, the United States (U.S.) and Norway — the latter acted as the official facilitator of talks between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam till the early 2009 — have become the centre of a controversy.
On Saturday the missions representing Washington and Oslo here issued two separate statements vehemently denying charges that they were funding the bid of the opposition consensus candidate retired General Sarath Fonseka to oust the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is seeking a second term two years ahead of his term.
The reference was to charges levelled by Mohamed Muzammil, a legislator of the ruling combine United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) that opposition attempted to bribe him with Sri Lanka 30 million rupees ($2,65,000) to back the retired General and the money was supplied by the U.S. and Norwegian embassies.
The charges against the two countries have not come as a surprise to Sri Lanka watchers as both them were perceived to be at loggerheads with the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government on some of the contentious issues like the conduct of the Eelam War IV and the subsequent policies on re-settlement of nearly 3 lakh war displaced and the approach towards a political solution to the ethnic conflict.
Washington had tried unsuccessfully several times to pressure Colombo to halt the military operations against the LTTE on the ground that it could involve fate of large number of civilians caught in the cross-fire between the security forces and the Tigers. Norway was the official facilitator of talks between the Government and the LTTE and brokered the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA). Rajapaksa Government de-recognised Norway as the facilitator early 2009 after the Sri Lankan Embassy in Oslo was attacked by suspected LTTE members.
The admission that the policy makers in Washington have been over-zealous in their dealings with their interlocutors in Colombo came in a candid bi-partisan Senate Foreign Relations Committee headed by John Kerry in the second week of December. The crux of the 14-page report is that those dealing with Sri Lanka have tended to be confrontational and thus missed the wood for the trees.
Calling for a policy shift to safeguard and further the strategic American in the regional the paper argues that it was time for Washington to keep a fine balance over track record of Colombo on human rights record and humanitarian issues triggered by the 34-month war.
It goes on to say that while the Sri Lankan government has been widely criticised for its handling of the war against the Tamil Tigers fighting for a separate State for the ethnic Tamil minority in northern Sri Lanka, the government has also achieved a measure of progress in resettling the conflict’s displaced and rebuilding the war-shattered east of the country. “With the end of the war, the United States needs to re-evaluate its relationship with Sri Lanka to reflect new political and economic realities. While humanitarian concerns remain important, U.S. policy toward Sri Lanka cannot be dominated by a single agenda. It is not effective at delivering real reform, and it shortchanges U.S. geostrategic interests in the region.”
“But Sri Lanka is too important a country to be isolated from the West. Sri Lanka is located at the nexus of crucial maritime trading routes in the Indian Ocean connecting Europe and the Middle East to China and the rest of Asia. The United States, India, and China all share an interest in deterring terrorist activity and curbing piracy that could disrupt maritime trade,” the report had said.
The supposed policy shift of Washington was watched with interest as political and diplomatic observers here were intrigued over the obsessive pursuit of Sri Lanka-related issues by Washington at a juncture when Mr. Obama is grappling with crucial issues such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, North Korea and Iran.
Two significant events marked 2009 in the U.S. vis-à-vis Sri Lanka. On October 21, the State Department gave the Congressional Appropriations Committee a document titled ‘Report to Congress on Incidents During the Recent Conflict in Sri Lanka’. The 68-page State Department report lists 170 alleged incidents and acknowledges that it does not provide, nor is it intended to be, a comprehensive portrayal of the conflict.
On October 28, on the basis of the State Department report, the U.S. authorities summoned Sri Lanka’s then Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka and now, the main opposition Presidential candidate against President Mahinda Rajapaksa, for questioning on November 4. General Fonseka, who led the war against the LTTE as the Army chief, is a U.S. Green Card holder and was on a private visit, using his diplomatic passport, to see his daughters in the State of Oklahoma.
The general was told by the Attorney that his statement during the scheduled November 8 interview could be used as possible evidence against Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa over charges of excesses by the security forces and the LTTE during the 34-month war. Washington dropped the idea after Colombo took serious exception and let the General return to the island without being questioned. In what was seen as an exercise to minimise any adverse impact of the State Department report on Eelam War IV, President Rajapaksa on November 6 appointed a five-member “independent committee” to study the issue comprehensively and formulate by December 31 recommendations for his consideration on the charges of human rights violations as recounted in the report to the U.S. Congress on October 22. The group was constituted a day after the U.S. House of Representatives, in an uncommon move, approved a non-binding resolution urging Colombo to guarantee the safety and quick release of nearly 3,00,000 Tamils and other war-displaced people.
It is against this backdrop that the pro-active role of U.S. mission in Colombo in the last few weeks is being watched interest by observers. The mission in its latest statement said, “We will work with whoever wins the election to strengthen our longstanding partnership and we will maintain our support for a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Sri Lanka,” it said.
The pro-active attitude of the U.S. mission on the crucial Presidential election, mainly a contest between Mr. Rajapaksa and the former Army Chief, was evident on January 12 when the mission chose to issue a press statement expressing concerns over ‘escalating violence’ in the run up to the election after the first death since the campaign was launched nearly two months ago was reported.
The mission statement read, “The United States is deeply concerned by the escalating violence surrounding the upcoming presidential elections, particularly reports of today’s fatal shooting. We urge the appropriate authorities to conduct a full investigation of this and other acts of violence and to protect those exercising their democratic right to support the candidate of their choice. “This is the first nation-wide election in a peaceful, united Sri Lanka in several decades. We hope that the election is conducted freely, fairly and without violence.”
Keywords: Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sarath Fonseka, campaign, Cease Fire Agreement, LTTE, Eelam War IV, United People’s Freedom Alliance, UPFA
Source:beta.thehindu.com/
On Saturday the missions representing Washington and Oslo here issued two separate statements vehemently denying charges that they were funding the bid of the opposition consensus candidate retired General Sarath Fonseka to oust the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa who is seeking a second term two years ahead of his term.
The reference was to charges levelled by Mohamed Muzammil, a legislator of the ruling combine United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) that opposition attempted to bribe him with Sri Lanka 30 million rupees ($2,65,000) to back the retired General and the money was supplied by the U.S. and Norwegian embassies.
The charges against the two countries have not come as a surprise to Sri Lanka watchers as both them were perceived to be at loggerheads with the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government on some of the contentious issues like the conduct of the Eelam War IV and the subsequent policies on re-settlement of nearly 3 lakh war displaced and the approach towards a political solution to the ethnic conflict.
Washington had tried unsuccessfully several times to pressure Colombo to halt the military operations against the LTTE on the ground that it could involve fate of large number of civilians caught in the cross-fire between the security forces and the Tigers. Norway was the official facilitator of talks between the Government and the LTTE and brokered the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA). Rajapaksa Government de-recognised Norway as the facilitator early 2009 after the Sri Lankan Embassy in Oslo was attacked by suspected LTTE members.
The admission that the policy makers in Washington have been over-zealous in their dealings with their interlocutors in Colombo came in a candid bi-partisan Senate Foreign Relations Committee headed by John Kerry in the second week of December. The crux of the 14-page report is that those dealing with Sri Lanka have tended to be confrontational and thus missed the wood for the trees.
Calling for a policy shift to safeguard and further the strategic American in the regional the paper argues that it was time for Washington to keep a fine balance over track record of Colombo on human rights record and humanitarian issues triggered by the 34-month war.
It goes on to say that while the Sri Lankan government has been widely criticised for its handling of the war against the Tamil Tigers fighting for a separate State for the ethnic Tamil minority in northern Sri Lanka, the government has also achieved a measure of progress in resettling the conflict’s displaced and rebuilding the war-shattered east of the country. “With the end of the war, the United States needs to re-evaluate its relationship with Sri Lanka to reflect new political and economic realities. While humanitarian concerns remain important, U.S. policy toward Sri Lanka cannot be dominated by a single agenda. It is not effective at delivering real reform, and it shortchanges U.S. geostrategic interests in the region.”
“But Sri Lanka is too important a country to be isolated from the West. Sri Lanka is located at the nexus of crucial maritime trading routes in the Indian Ocean connecting Europe and the Middle East to China and the rest of Asia. The United States, India, and China all share an interest in deterring terrorist activity and curbing piracy that could disrupt maritime trade,” the report had said.
The supposed policy shift of Washington was watched with interest as political and diplomatic observers here were intrigued over the obsessive pursuit of Sri Lanka-related issues by Washington at a juncture when Mr. Obama is grappling with crucial issues such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, North Korea and Iran.
Two significant events marked 2009 in the U.S. vis-à-vis Sri Lanka. On October 21, the State Department gave the Congressional Appropriations Committee a document titled ‘Report to Congress on Incidents During the Recent Conflict in Sri Lanka’. The 68-page State Department report lists 170 alleged incidents and acknowledges that it does not provide, nor is it intended to be, a comprehensive portrayal of the conflict.
On October 28, on the basis of the State Department report, the U.S. authorities summoned Sri Lanka’s then Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka and now, the main opposition Presidential candidate against President Mahinda Rajapaksa, for questioning on November 4. General Fonseka, who led the war against the LTTE as the Army chief, is a U.S. Green Card holder and was on a private visit, using his diplomatic passport, to see his daughters in the State of Oklahoma.
The general was told by the Attorney that his statement during the scheduled November 8 interview could be used as possible evidence against Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa over charges of excesses by the security forces and the LTTE during the 34-month war. Washington dropped the idea after Colombo took serious exception and let the General return to the island without being questioned. In what was seen as an exercise to minimise any adverse impact of the State Department report on Eelam War IV, President Rajapaksa on November 6 appointed a five-member “independent committee” to study the issue comprehensively and formulate by December 31 recommendations for his consideration on the charges of human rights violations as recounted in the report to the U.S. Congress on October 22. The group was constituted a day after the U.S. House of Representatives, in an uncommon move, approved a non-binding resolution urging Colombo to guarantee the safety and quick release of nearly 3,00,000 Tamils and other war-displaced people.
It is against this backdrop that the pro-active role of U.S. mission in Colombo in the last few weeks is being watched interest by observers. The mission in its latest statement said, “We will work with whoever wins the election to strengthen our longstanding partnership and we will maintain our support for a peaceful, prosperous and democratic Sri Lanka,” it said.
The pro-active attitude of the U.S. mission on the crucial Presidential election, mainly a contest between Mr. Rajapaksa and the former Army Chief, was evident on January 12 when the mission chose to issue a press statement expressing concerns over ‘escalating violence’ in the run up to the election after the first death since the campaign was launched nearly two months ago was reported.
The mission statement read, “The United States is deeply concerned by the escalating violence surrounding the upcoming presidential elections, particularly reports of today’s fatal shooting. We urge the appropriate authorities to conduct a full investigation of this and other acts of violence and to protect those exercising their democratic right to support the candidate of their choice. “This is the first nation-wide election in a peaceful, united Sri Lanka in several decades. We hope that the election is conducted freely, fairly and without violence.”
Keywords: Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sarath Fonseka, campaign, Cease Fire Agreement, LTTE, Eelam War IV, United People’s Freedom Alliance, UPFA
Source:beta.thehindu.com/
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Norway’s Prime Minister initiates climate group on forests
Obama leaves Norway, but bands play on
OSLO (AP) — The guest of honor was an ocean away, but the show went on.
The royal purple box seat reserved for US President Barack Obama — the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner — remained empty on Friday, as artists worldwide took the stage at the annual concert in honor of the year's laureate.
Breaking Nobel protocol, the American president left the Norwegian capital early Friday, blaming a busy schedule for cutting the planned three-day visit to just over 24 hours.
Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean stole the show shortly, with "Gunpowder," an anti-war anthem performed with Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang, who earlier played George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" at the Nobel awards ceremony.
Jean also managed to achieve the seemingly impossible — getting Norway's Crown Prince and Princess to throw their hands in the air for his final song.
Disco sensation Donna Summer, the show closer, also brought the crowd to its feet with a medley of hits from the 70s and 80s.
Other artists included Malian blues duo Amadou & Mariam and American country music star Toby Keith.
Keith spoke to journalists Friday alongside Nobel Concert hosts — movie star and rapper Will Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith.
Smith, whose Thursday interview with Obama during the president's stay in Oslo was to be shown at the concert Friday night, said he had no reservations about Obama's peace prize despite his status as an early first-term wartime president. Keith also defended Obama's decision when meeting journalists in Oslo.
Speaking to his feelings about his laureateship, Obama said during his interview with the Smiths that "this is one of those events that happens in your life that I suspect you appreciate more in retrospect."
The president's quick visit communicated a similar sentiment, reflecting a White House that saw little value in trumpeting an honor for peace just days after Obama announced he was sending more troops off to war in Afghanistan.
Source:philstar.com/
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Norway positive to new US strategy for Afghanistan
Norway is positive to the new US strategy for Afghanistan, which will mean sending a further 30,000 US troops, as outlined in President Barack Obama's speech, says Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
“A stronger and broader US involvement in order to ensure development and stability in Afghanistan is important, and this gives direction to the international efforts that Norway is supporting, the Norwegian Foreign Minister commented.
The strategy means that the US will send a further 30 000 troops to Afghanistan, in addition to significantly increasing its civilian efforts.
In his speech, President Obama underlined that the Afghan authorities must gradually take over responsibility for development and security in the country, and that the US involvement is not open-ended.
“The overall objective of the US strategy is to enable the Afghan people to govern and further develop their country. This requires the continued presence and active involvement of the international community, both in civilian and military terms. The intensified US efforts will be important for implementing the mandate the UN Security Council has been given for Afghanistan” Mr Støre commented.
“The course that President Obama is now staking out is the result of a thorough process. Norway values the close consultations between the US and its allies and other ISAF partners. The strategy highlights the need to implement measures that can help strengthen the ability and capacity of the Afghan authorities to fulfil their own responsibilities, both with regard to security and development,” Mr Støre said. “We are pleased that the US intends to place greater emphasis on protecting the civilian population and on civilian capacity-building. It is capacity-building of this kind that can pave the way for a gradual scaling down of the international military presence in the country.
This is an approach that we have also prioritised in Norway’s efforts in Afghanistan,” The Norwegian Foreign Minister said.
"Close cooperation and coordination between the international community and the Afghan authorities will be required. In supporting an Afghan government, it is important to keep in mind that the effect of international efforts, both civilian and military, depends on the quality of this government. We must therefore expect the Afghan Government to initiate resolute reforms and demonstrate an ability to implement these.
This includes delivering measurable results in combating corruption and countering drug production. I note that President Obama is expressing clear expectations of this kind of the Afghan Government, and that he opens the way for reconsidering assistance to the country in the light of Afghan performance,” the Foreign Minister said.
“For its part, the international community must become far better at coordinating its civilian efforts, and at aligning aid and assistance with Afghan priorities. We agree with President Obama on the significance of close cooperation between the UN, other international partners and the Afghan people in order to pursue a more effective civilian strategy.
A high-priority task in the weeks ahead will be to strengthen coordination mechanisms and ensure that international expertise is made available in the appropriate manner,” Mr Støre commented.
Norway’s considerable civilian and military involvement in Afghanistan will be continued. In the period 2008–2012, Norway will annually provide NOK 750 million in assistance. Norway has 515 troops in Afghanistan and is prepared to maintain its current level of participation in ISAF.(NRK/Press release)Rolleiv Solholm
Source: norwaypost.no/
Letter: Elves might visit Sons of Norway Julefest
Christmas will soon be here again and along with this season is the annual Sons of Norway Julefest. This year's Julefest dinner and program will be held on Saturday, Dec. 12, at the Hotel Mead.
Our program this year is Ginger Martin with her Lincoln High School Chamber Orchestra. This will be followed by the beautiful and solemn Santa Lucia processional. Dressed in a gown of white with a crown of candles, Santa Lucia is followed by her attendants who sing about light and hope returning.
We may also have a visit from a Norwegian NISSE. "Nisser" are elves (or gnomes).
There are several types of "nisser" in Norway. The most known is the "Fjøsnisse" which is a "nisse" who takes care of the animals on the farms. The "Fjøsnisse" is very short and often bearded and lives in a barn or a stable. He wears clothes of wool and often has a red, knitted hat. The "Fjøsnisse" often plays tricks on people. Sometimes he will scare people by blowing out the lights in the barn or he will scare the farm dog at night. He can become very friendly with the people who live on the farm, but one should never forget to give him a large portion of porridge on Christmas Eve -- or else he will play tricks on your family.
Off course there is also a Christmas nisse (julenissen), which, in most homes, is more or less identical to Santa Claus. The "Julenisse" hand delivers presents to all the nice children on Christmas Eve, unlike our Santa who secretly comes down the chimney!
Reservations must be made by Dec. 7. Call Carol Bender at 715-424-5074.
Source: wisconsinrapidstribune.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)