xer-files
Friday, April 28, 2006
Iran attracted by Dutch reputation?
Last year Iran has tried (in secrecy) to gather knowledge on weapons of mass-destruction in The Netherlands. Our secret service AIVD now says it has seen 'some activity' regarding this matter.
Are the Iranians attracted by a certain Dutch reputation and of people like A.Q.Khan (nuclear aspirations with Pakistan), van Anraat (chemicals poisongas/Saddam), and there's this fresher name of a certain Guus K. who trafficked weapons to Liberia. K. stood trial in The Hague this week.
¶ Friday, April 28, 2006 0 Comments
Are the Iranians attracted by a certain Dutch reputation and of people like A.Q.Khan (nuclear aspirations with Pakistan), van Anraat (chemicals poisongas/Saddam), and there's this fresher name of a certain Guus K. who trafficked weapons to Liberia. K. stood trial in The Hague this week.
¶ Friday, April 28, 2006 0 Comments
Thursday, April 27, 2006
small exercise
/snap/
Americans are either not told about these things or are told we attacked them because . . . well . . . XX is the center of all world XX and we have to get rid of him. So we kill some XX in the process. Actually we killed quite a few. And we brought in our Air Force. XX didn't have XX. But it looked good to have our Air Force there, busy, blowing up buildings. Then we kidnap their leader, XX, a former CIA man who worked loyally for the United States. We arrest him. Try him in an American court that has no jurisdiction over him and lock him up -- nobody knows why. And that was supposed to end the XX because he had been demonized by The New York Times and the rest of the imperial press. /snap/
[original text]
[more]
¶ Thursday, April 27, 2006 0 Comments
Americans are either not told about these things or are told we attacked them because . . . well . . . XX is the center of all world XX and we have to get rid of him. So we kill some XX in the process. Actually we killed quite a few. And we brought in our Air Force. XX didn't have XX. But it looked good to have our Air Force there, busy, blowing up buildings. Then we kidnap their leader, XX, a former CIA man who worked loyally for the United States. We arrest him. Try him in an American court that has no jurisdiction over him and lock him up -- nobody knows why. And that was supposed to end the XX because he had been demonized by The New York Times and the rest of the imperial press. /snap/
[original text]
[more]
¶ Thursday, April 27, 2006 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
There you go, a Nobel Laureate writing to a comic!
The Nobel laureate for the Economy Joseph E. Stiglitz has sent me this analysis of the job market in Italy.
“Dear Beppe,
I get alarming news from Italy: the law about the first job in France is withdrawn after a few weeks of student protests and yet with you in Italy the Law 30 is still is still being used after all these years and it is without opponents. Allow me then a brief reflection. No opportunity is more important than the opportunity to have a job. Policies aimed at increasing the flexibility of work have often seen the lowering of salary levels and a decrease in job security. But flexibility of work has been dominating the debate about the economy in recent years. However, these policies have not kept the promise to guarantee higher growth and lower unemployment rates. In fact, these policies often have perverse consequences for economic performance. For example they cause a lower demand for goods, because of lower levels of income and greater uncertainty and also because of an increase in family indebtedness. /../ ¶ Wednesday, April 26, 2006 0 Comments
The Nobel laureate for the Economy Joseph E. Stiglitz has sent me this analysis of the job market in Italy.“Dear Beppe,
I get alarming news from Italy: the law about the first job in France is withdrawn after a few weeks of student protests and yet with you in Italy the Law 30 is still is still being used after all these years and it is without opponents. Allow me then a brief reflection. No opportunity is more important than the opportunity to have a job. Policies aimed at increasing the flexibility of work have often seen the lowering of salary levels and a decrease in job security. But flexibility of work has been dominating the debate about the economy in recent years. However, these policies have not kept the promise to guarantee higher growth and lower unemployment rates. In fact, these policies often have perverse consequences for economic performance. For example they cause a lower demand for goods, because of lower levels of income and greater uncertainty and also because of an increase in family indebtedness. /../ ¶ Wednesday, April 26, 2006 0 Comments
Monday, April 24, 2006
Sicily: You loose when you are alone
at Beppe Grillo's blog, a letter from Palermo about the forthcoming Regional elections:
“With bare hands the magistrates were killed. With bare hands the Police and the Carabinieri searched among the craters left by the explosions for the bodies of their colleagues. With bare hands the courageous priests were abandoned in their suburbs and then killed or transferred. With bare hands young people cultivate the land that has been confiscated from the Mafia only to see their crops destroyed. With bare hands other young people move away. With bare hands journalists, entrepreneurs and free thinkers have died.
With bare hands we women and men of Sicily turn out onto the streets to talk to people, to help the women and their children in the suburbs, those who are homeless, and the migrants. With bare hands we fight the mafia to the best of our ability, as we have always done.”
¶ Monday, April 24, 2006 1 Comments
at Beppe Grillo's blog, a letter from Palermo about the forthcoming Regional elections: “With bare hands the magistrates were killed. With bare hands the Police and the Carabinieri searched among the craters left by the explosions for the bodies of their colleagues. With bare hands the courageous priests were abandoned in their suburbs and then killed or transferred. With bare hands young people cultivate the land that has been confiscated from the Mafia only to see their crops destroyed. With bare hands other young people move away. With bare hands journalists, entrepreneurs and free thinkers have died.
With bare hands we women and men of Sicily turn out onto the streets to talk to people, to help the women and their children in the suburbs, those who are homeless, and the migrants. With bare hands we fight the mafia to the best of our ability, as we have always done.”
¶ Monday, April 24, 2006 1 Comments
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Telecolpodistato
It can seem ingenuous and like losing to do some moralism when confronting oneself in the political camp, which is the reign of pragmatism. But i want to equally launch a challenge to the pragmatists by asking them to verify what they have gained regarding to what could have been reached by the simple, strict respect of the rules, which is just one of the many aspects of ethics.
A Prime-minister, lover of the paradoxes, has asked for a verification of the legality of the elections. This is something that everyone but him has the right to do. Because we all know that according to a State Law (n. 361 of the year 1957) Berlusconi can't be elected.
[Berlusconi in Naples, April 7. 06 - "Duce! Duce!"]
-- Italian original on the blog di Beppe Grillo:
“ Può sembrare ingenuo e perdente fare del moralismo quando ci si confronta nel campo della politica, che è il regno del pragmatismo. Ma voglio lanciare ugualmente una sfida ai pragmatici chiedendo di verificare che cosa hanno ottenuto rispetto a quello che si sarebbe potuto ottenere con il semplice, rigoroso rispetto delle regole, che è soltanto uno dei tanti aspetti dell’etica.
Un Presidente del Consiglio amante dei paradossi ha chiesto una verifica della legalità delle elezioni. Una cosa che tutti hanno diritto di fare, tranne lui.
Perché sappiamo tutti che Berlusconi non può essere eletto. Lo dice una legge dello Stato (n. 361 del 1957) che prevede la ineleggibilità in Parlamento dei titolari di concessioni pubbliche di rilevante interesse economico. Sappiamo anche che quasi nessuno ha mosso un dito per impedirlo, anzi non se ne parla proprio più.
-- The whole 'Coup d’état by TV' in English
¶ Tuesday, April 18, 2006 0 Comments
A Prime-minister, lover of the paradoxes, has asked for a verification of the legality of the elections. This is something that everyone but him has the right to do. Because we all know that according to a State Law (n. 361 of the year 1957) Berlusconi can't be elected.
[Berlusconi in Naples, April 7. 06 - "Duce! Duce!"]
-- Italian original on the blog di Beppe Grillo:
“ Può sembrare ingenuo e perdente fare del moralismo quando ci si confronta nel campo della politica, che è il regno del pragmatismo. Ma voglio lanciare ugualmente una sfida ai pragmatici chiedendo di verificare che cosa hanno ottenuto rispetto a quello che si sarebbe potuto ottenere con il semplice, rigoroso rispetto delle regole, che è soltanto uno dei tanti aspetti dell’etica.
Un Presidente del Consiglio amante dei paradossi ha chiesto una verifica della legalità delle elezioni. Una cosa che tutti hanno diritto di fare, tranne lui.
Perché sappiamo tutti che Berlusconi non può essere eletto. Lo dice una legge dello Stato (n. 361 del 1957) che prevede la ineleggibilità in Parlamento dei titolari di concessioni pubbliche di rilevante interesse economico. Sappiamo anche che quasi nessuno ha mosso un dito per impedirlo, anzi non se ne parla proprio più.
-- The whole 'Coup d’état by TV' in English
¶ Tuesday, April 18, 2006 0 Comments
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Friday, April 14, 2006
Politics are their pretence
John Berger has written some nice books, for example his 'Ways of seeing' ('72).
Living in France he wrote an article about the recent protests and the 'political' reactions of 'the leaders'.
-- Return now to the typical address of political leaders in the times we're living. Whenever they face contestation, they have to hide what is happening by swiftly erecting a wall of opaque words. The conclusion of Jacques Chirac's address was a perfect example: instead of challenging the false concept of modernisation, its brutal dismantling is referred to as if it were some chapter in natural science. "The world of work", as the president announced, "in perpetual evolution....."
Such speeches reveal how the political leaders making them have in fact abdicated from politics. Politics are their pretence. And although they are addressing multitudes (20 million in Chirac's case) we should also note how solitary and therefore absurd their public arguments have become. -- ¶ Friday, April 14, 2006 0 Comments
Living in France he wrote an article about the recent protests and the 'political' reactions of 'the leaders'.
-- Return now to the typical address of political leaders in the times we're living. Whenever they face contestation, they have to hide what is happening by swiftly erecting a wall of opaque words. The conclusion of Jacques Chirac's address was a perfect example: instead of challenging the false concept of modernisation, its brutal dismantling is referred to as if it were some chapter in natural science. "The world of work", as the president announced, "in perpetual evolution....."
Such speeches reveal how the political leaders making them have in fact abdicated from politics. Politics are their pretence. And although they are addressing multitudes (20 million in Chirac's case) we should also note how solitary and therefore absurd their public arguments have become. -- ¶ Friday, April 14, 2006 0 Comments
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Open Letter to Bush
Beppe Grillo:
Maybe it's getting to my head, but i want to write a letter to Bush.
" Open letter to George Bush.
I am only a comic and you are a great president, at the head of a great and mighty nation. Besides that, you're also a great friend of our ex prime-minister with whom you share many common points, the atlantic vision instead of the pacific one, great profits, the export of democracy with or without arms, the personalisation of politics.
I permit myself, very humile, to ask account of your attitude regarding italy and italians.
Prodi has won the elections, many state leaders have congratulated him, also the president of the european community.
You're, nearly, the only one missing.
And, in this situation our ex prime-minister doesn't recognise the electoral results, ass well because of your support. [..]
If you don't recognise the italians, why should we recognise you?"
:: And by mouth of Italian political fossil Francesco Cossiga:
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi must immediately nominate Romano Prodi prime-minister and send Silvio Berlusconi home. [..] I would have called Berlusconi to tell him: 'Now you're off immediately, if not i'll relieve you.'"
¶ Thursday, April 13, 2006 0 Comments
Maybe it's getting to my head, but i want to write a letter to Bush.
" Open letter to George Bush.
I am only a comic and you are a great president, at the head of a great and mighty nation. Besides that, you're also a great friend of our ex prime-minister with whom you share many common points, the atlantic vision instead of the pacific one, great profits, the export of democracy with or without arms, the personalisation of politics.
I permit myself, very humile, to ask account of your attitude regarding italy and italians.
Prodi has won the elections, many state leaders have congratulated him, also the president of the european community.
You're, nearly, the only one missing.
And, in this situation our ex prime-minister doesn't recognise the electoral results, ass well because of your support. [..]
If you don't recognise the italians, why should we recognise you?"
:: And by mouth of Italian political fossil Francesco Cossiga:
"Carlo Azeglio Ciampi must immediately nominate Romano Prodi prime-minister and send Silvio Berlusconi home. [..] I would have called Berlusconi to tell him: 'Now you're off immediately, if not i'll relieve you.'"
¶ Thursday, April 13, 2006 0 Comments
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Ora Basta!
Updatino 12-4-06
uffaa!! ora 'nnamo a vede come prosegue, dopo 'sto precanto napoletano:
"Il giorno prima delle elezioni una macchina di allegre e truccatissime “ragazze del popolo” si è fermata davanti a me e a un gruppo di amici chiedendoci al ritmo dell’House che usciva dallo stereo: “Guagliù ma a chi avimma vutà, a Berlusconi o…. a chill’ato?”
Some disturbing rumors around the Italian elections: Italian comedian Beppe Grillo (banned from TV since he mentioned the Parma fraud, years before it ever came to the Parmacrack) talks about the stink of a coup (d'état). And in fact, if Berlusconi loses the elections, this would mean he'd have to get to terms with Justice. Does he have an 'exit-strategy'?
I already have heard more rumors that tens of journalists in Sicily have been replaced by others over the last months. It must be that same old shuffle-a-bit-with-people and reinforce the make-them-write-what-you-want tactics.
And i just read this:
"Salve,
i would want to denounce what is happening in the poorest neighborhoods of the whole centre-south of Italy.
Local representors of Forza Italia are buying votes en-masse.
They contact the junkies and the poorest people (but also normal people who are part of certain circles) and promise 50 € per vote. The payment will take place during the elections. A responsible waiting outside the voting-office gives 50 € to all who made a cell-phone photo inside the cabin which proves they voted Forza Italia.
I myself have been contacted yesterday: i found myself with some friends when an acquaintance of us (who was part of our circle of friends some years ago) presented himself in suit with tie saying: "Guys, you want to earn some easy money?" In fact he even offered us a forfait of about 200 € if we managed to buy the votes of at least 50 people. I refused, but there are many persons who accepted, and are accepting.
Denounce these things by inviting the presidents of the voting-offices to deny the voters to take a cell-phone, or other photocameras inside the cabin."
Update:
Cellphones. The president of the voting office understood what happened when he heard a click: a young voter in a voting-office in the centre of Livorno was taking a photograph of his vote, after he had voted. When the boy came out of the cabin the president of the office made him cancel the photo.
Source: Il Manifesto, April 11. '06
Another thing that's going on since months now are fascist hit-squads going around to beat people up. Friday night, just before the elections, this happened at The Qube, a dance-bar in Rome, where an evening was organised by Vladimir Luxuria, a candidate for 'Rifondazione Comunista'.
¶ Sunday, April 09, 2006 0 Comments
uffaa!! ora 'nnamo a vede come prosegue, dopo 'sto precanto napoletano:
"Il giorno prima delle elezioni una macchina di allegre e truccatissime “ragazze del popolo” si è fermata davanti a me e a un gruppo di amici chiedendoci al ritmo dell’House che usciva dallo stereo: “Guagliù ma a chi avimma vutà, a Berlusconi o…. a chill’ato?”
Some disturbing rumors around the Italian elections: Italian comedian Beppe Grillo (banned from TV since he mentioned the Parma fraud, years before it ever came to the Parmacrack) talks about the stink of a coup (d'état). And in fact, if Berlusconi loses the elections, this would mean he'd have to get to terms with Justice. Does he have an 'exit-strategy'?I already have heard more rumors that tens of journalists in Sicily have been replaced by others over the last months. It must be that same old shuffle-a-bit-with-people and reinforce the make-them-write-what-you-want tactics.
And i just read this:
"Salve,
i would want to denounce what is happening in the poorest neighborhoods of the whole centre-south of Italy.
Local representors of Forza Italia are buying votes en-masse.
They contact the junkies and the poorest people (but also normal people who are part of certain circles) and promise 50 € per vote. The payment will take place during the elections. A responsible waiting outside the voting-office gives 50 € to all who made a cell-phone photo inside the cabin which proves they voted Forza Italia.
I myself have been contacted yesterday: i found myself with some friends when an acquaintance of us (who was part of our circle of friends some years ago) presented himself in suit with tie saying: "Guys, you want to earn some easy money?" In fact he even offered us a forfait of about 200 € if we managed to buy the votes of at least 50 people. I refused, but there are many persons who accepted, and are accepting.
Denounce these things by inviting the presidents of the voting-offices to deny the voters to take a cell-phone, or other photocameras inside the cabin."
Update:
Cellphones. The president of the voting office understood what happened when he heard a click: a young voter in a voting-office in the centre of Livorno was taking a photograph of his vote, after he had voted. When the boy came out of the cabin the president of the office made him cancel the photo.
Source: Il Manifesto, April 11. '06
Another thing that's going on since months now are fascist hit-squads going around to beat people up. Friday night, just before the elections, this happened at The Qube, a dance-bar in Rome, where an evening was organised by Vladimir Luxuria, a candidate for 'Rifondazione Comunista'.
¶ Sunday, April 09, 2006 0 Comments
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Chewing rice
ehm...
rice'n straw
-fence-
+ Condi: the Christocrat ¶ Saturday, April 08, 2006 0 Comments
ehm...
rice'n straw
-fence-
+ Condi: the Christocrat ¶ Saturday, April 08, 2006 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Italian election survey mathematics
From a flying reporter in Naples:
"Mannheimer ha assegnato la vittoria matematica all Unione, osservando: "I coglioni sono necessariamente il doppio delle teste di cazzo!"
[Mannheimer has assigned the mathematical victory to the 'Unione', observing that "The bollocks are without doubt the double of the dickheads."]
¶ Wednesday, April 05, 2006 0 Comments
"Mannheimer ha assegnato la vittoria matematica all Unione, osservando: "I coglioni sono necessariamente il doppio delle teste di cazzo!"
[Mannheimer has assigned the mathematical victory to the 'Unione', observing that "The bollocks are without doubt the double of the dickheads."]
¶ Wednesday, April 05, 2006 0 Comments
Welcome to the World Stupid Forum in Karachi
As Yasin Malik joked, was the Karachi World Social Forum (March 24-29, 2006) too populated by 'intellectuals'? Or did it at least give a genuine taste of debate, dissent and democratic mobilization to military-ruled Pakistan?
By Ananya Vajpeyi
As soon as I enter the precincts of the World Social Forum in Karachi, on the morning of 25th March, a figure in orange overalls, his head in a black cloth, his hands tied behind his back, kneels at the base of a lamp-post, as though about to be executed. I take a couple of photographs. He is there for a day or two; then he is removed. None of the countless posters, banners, signs, leaflets, photographs, pin-boards, or hoardings that fill the City Sports Complex on Kashmir Road, none of the riot of texts in Urdu, Roman, Bengali and Nagari scripts provides any explanation for this macabre installation. [..]
¶ Wednesday, April 05, 2006 0 Comments
By Ananya Vajpeyi
As soon as I enter the precincts of the World Social Forum in Karachi, on the morning of 25th March, a figure in orange overalls, his head in a black cloth, his hands tied behind his back, kneels at the base of a lamp-post, as though about to be executed. I take a couple of photographs. He is there for a day or two; then he is removed. None of the countless posters, banners, signs, leaflets, photographs, pin-boards, or hoardings that fill the City Sports Complex on Kashmir Road, none of the riot of texts in Urdu, Roman, Bengali and Nagari scripts provides any explanation for this macabre installation. [..]
¶ Wednesday, April 05, 2006 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
An American Beirut
Aqeela Sherrills did something extraordinary. In the late ‘80s, war-torn Watts, in South-Central Los Angeles, was an epicenter of gang violence. It was here, one of the most hopeless places on the planet, that Aqeela brokered peace.
-- Watts is a microcosm of what’s taking place in the country and in the world: it’s an urban war zone. Over the past 20 years, in LA county alone, there’ve been over 10,000 gang-related deaths. That’s roughly the number of lives lost in the Northern Ireland and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts combined. But because they’re poor black and brown youths, they have been totally criminalized and marginalized. “Gang member” is a scapegoat term society created that makes them inhuman, and when they get killed, people say, “Oh well, they were gang members.” But these were somebody’s daughter, somebody’s son, crying out for help in their own way. There’s this perception that people in urban communities are hardened killers and it’s not true. They’re bright and intelligent individuals, but they’re wounded deeply and carrying that around, which is basically a trigger. They’re only emulating what they see taking place in the world. --
Most of the kids as well as the adults are also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. People have become desensitized to the violence in this neighborhood, and our approach has been to address this situation, because it truly threatens a whole generation of young people. I mean, it already has taken a generation of folks, and we don’t want it to spread. ¶ Tuesday, April 04, 2006 0 Comments
-- Watts is a microcosm of what’s taking place in the country and in the world: it’s an urban war zone. Over the past 20 years, in LA county alone, there’ve been over 10,000 gang-related deaths. That’s roughly the number of lives lost in the Northern Ireland and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts combined. But because they’re poor black and brown youths, they have been totally criminalized and marginalized. “Gang member” is a scapegoat term society created that makes them inhuman, and when they get killed, people say, “Oh well, they were gang members.” But these were somebody’s daughter, somebody’s son, crying out for help in their own way. There’s this perception that people in urban communities are hardened killers and it’s not true. They’re bright and intelligent individuals, but they’re wounded deeply and carrying that around, which is basically a trigger. They’re only emulating what they see taking place in the world. --
Most of the kids as well as the adults are also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. People have become desensitized to the violence in this neighborhood, and our approach has been to address this situation, because it truly threatens a whole generation of young people. I mean, it already has taken a generation of folks, and we don’t want it to spread. ¶ Tuesday, April 04, 2006 0 Comments
Monday, April 03, 2006
No other details were comforting.
China buys Google
Mu Shu Porked
Published Saturday 1st April 2006 04:24 GMT
Get breaking Reg news straight to your desktop - click here to find out how. April Fool The People's Republic of China has acquired a controlling stake in the United States' fastest growing technology company, Google.
Google announced the transfer of 140m shares of Class B stock to a new entity owned by the Chinese Ministry of Information in typically forthright style. The news was disclosed in a Captcha graphic on its Google Canteen Menu weblog; investors had to click a hidden link to see the announcement, and then decode a stenographically-hidden message watermarked into the JPG file. Once decrypted, the message read: [click!]
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Reports from the Nangla Maanchi eviction (Dehli settlement)
Disturbing reports came in last night from Delhi, thanks to Ravi Sundaram from Sarai, who sent the personal accounts, written over the past days about the eviction of the Nangla Maanchi settlement where one of Sarai’s media labs (called cybermohalla) was based. A few days ago I posted a letter about this on my blog. You can follow their activities in their own blog: http://nangla.freeflux.net/. How the elites imagine Delhi you can see here: http://chalodilli.indiatimes.com/.
-- reposted from NetCritique -- ¶ Saturday, April 01, 2006 0 Comments
-- reposted from NetCritique -- ¶ Saturday, April 01, 2006 0 Comments
