When You Gonna Learn

While Egypt is tentatively progressing on the road leading to a well-functioning democratic system  as it is holding its first ever free presidential elections, Europe is holding its breath; Greece is to go to the polls for the second time in two months, putting considerable pressure on the European Dream. Democracy might be that fabulous concept, ideally to be exported across the world, but when it comes to an efficient execution of the European Project it has proved to be a darn nuisance. The Obamas and the Camerons of this world are behaving like third rate football coaches spurring on the Germans as is if it were not German money, and German money only that is being sacrificed to save the European project. Markets and world leaders alike are pretty freaked out about the current (non-)activity in the Eurozone as economies are likely to suffer (even) more and leaders feel the increasing wrath of the electorate as economic prosperity fails to materialise . Closer to home the behaviour of Hulture Secretary Jeremy C*nt’ has proved to be rather fishy as an email at a session at the Leveson enquiry revealed that JC was my no means as impartial in his dealings  during the BSkyB bid pocess as he wants us to believe. Sniff, sniff. What’s that’s smell? Is that the stench of an inevitable resignation? The PM, staunchly defending is Hulture Secretarty is doing no wonders for his own credibility. Not only is his economic plan not working, with his serious lack of judgement he is taking the people he is supposed to be serving for utter fools. Dark Fairy remains very unimpressed. Yet, on a different note, after weeks, if not months of meteorological, economic and mental gloom, my spirits have been raised considerably due to the arrival of summary weather, akheeran, finally. As this is England only my fairy godmother knows how long this is going to last and since I’ve almost fully anglified I am milking it to the max. It has been almost two years since I left life at the Med- in Alexandria, Egypt- and I still very much appreciate that I am free to show some skin when temperatures are rising – and even when they’re not- without getting verbally harassed by sexually suppressed men. While I am cruising the city on my two-wheeled monster, my just-above-the-knee skirts creeps up the thighs while engaging in some serious pedal action probably flashing my knickers in the process. The Brits might be prudes, but the City of Cities is my cyclable oyster. It’s my commuter’s party and I flash when I want too.

Greece: Can The Patient Please Take Their Medicine

The eurozone tragedy called Greece continues to grip the markets and those desperate to keep the EU family together. Greece is heading back to the polls after talks attempting to form a government after recently held elections, have failed. Greece rode a wave of prosperity after the introduction of the euro in 2002 only to come crashing down into an economic wasteland crippled by austerity as the previously enjoyed boom was a bubble full of b*llocks fuelled by borrowed money. Now the country is technically bankrupt. Twenty percent of the workforce is unemployed rising to fifty percent among young people. Those considered lucky enough to have work suffer pay freezes or considerable pay cuts and many have been thrown below the poverty line. The Greek electorate has made it clear it is fed up with the current situation as previously considered marginalised parties opposing austerity measures received a considerable amount of votes. As no workable parliamentary majority could be agreed upon the country is heading back to the polls to vote, as many view it, on whether Greece wants to stay in or get out of the euro club.

Greece has been kept afloat and into the eurozone by substantial amounts of EU and IMF dosh with strict conditions attached. A vast majority of the Greek people has indicated that it wants to remain part of the eurozone. Yet, a large amount of the very same people has made it clear that it rejects the strict bailout conditions that are to ensure just that. The Greeks are not the only Europeans objecting against current austerity measures. Across the Continent people have expressed their dissatisfaction with the discomfort and pain austerity measures have caused and the economic growth it has failed to generate. Some, in and outside of Greece, have spoken of a more growth-orientated agenda. The issue is, to stimulate growth one needs money, which most EU countries don’t have. In Greece the far left, anti-austerity coalition of parties Syriza has argued in favour of such growth-stimulating measures. However, the one who would be paying, Frau Merkel’s Germany is not that keen.

Greece is considered to be in such dire straits due to serious mismanaged by the ruling classes and a culture of clientelism and corporatism hasn’t helped. Greece needs more than bail out money alone, whether this is accompanied by austerity measures or not. Both Greece and the EU should ask themselves whether the country’s economic structured is in the right condition to successfully operate within the eurozone framework and if it’s not, is Greece willing to make the sacrifices to make its system fit for purpose. Greece’s anti-austerity parties are expected to do even better in new elections to be held next month. These parties should seriously consider whether they prefer to exercise petty party politics with strong rhetoric as music to many people’s ears or if they truly want to bring their ailing country back to economic health. The latter involving painful and highly unpopular measures. The anti-austerity parties are sticking to their anti-austerity guns, betting on the idea that Europe/ Germany is going to give them the money anyway as they are too keen on holding on the European dream and too scared of what will happen if Greece would indeed be leaving the family. The Greek anti-austerity movement tends to forget, however, that the rest of the family is getting rather fed up with bailing out a member who refuses to grow up and keep their house in order.

Whether Greece stays in or gets out, it will be painful either way. Which route the country wants to take is entirely up to its people. However, the Greek people have to understand they need to face the consequences of whichever route they choose to take.

top image: article.businessinsider.com

(Anti-)Austerity: The Markets Vs The People

The events in the eurozone remain to be an engaging soap giving us cliffhanger after cliffhanger. Bailout packages have been agreed upon and bond auctions in ailing economies have gone better than expected. Then the fall of the Dutch cabinet gave the markets something to fret about. Yet, the caretaker government and a majority of opposition parties agreed on the Budget and proposed austerity measures to save yet another trading day. Then May 6 came and France elected a president critical of current austerity measures and Greece went to the polls to express their objection against ongoing cuts. And the markets are having a proper fright. The results of last week’s local elections this side of the North Sea also expressed a dissatisfaction with the ruling parties’ economic policies as both political entities making up the coalition government lost a considerable amount of councils across the country.

Strict sovereign bookkeeping does not seem to go without human cost. Most actors in the soap called the Eurozone Mess agree that austerity is necessary and not entirely free of pain. However, the different parties seem to disagree on how much it’s going to hurt and who exactly is to carry (the majority) of the burden.

Germany’s Chancellor Merkel is greatly in favour of fiscal discipline across the eurozone. Who can blame her. As head of a thrifty nation with a healthy economy she is willing to pay for the budgetary misfortunes/ stupidity of other countries as long as the European dream is kept alive. She had a solid partner in outgoing president Sarkozy. Yet, the incoming French president has some different ideas.

Great efforts are continued to be made across the eurozone to save the currency and participating economies. Ordinary people who might have lost their jobs, their spending power, who are expected to work longer for a smaller pension might be asking: is saving the euro really worth all that discomfort and pain? What is the European Union worth if, besides the economic distress, the increasing political integration leaves the citizens of the Union with less democratic power? What is the pain of austerity worth as it has become evident that ‘we’ are not all in this together? What is austerity worth if the financial sector, that dragged us down in the first place remains a considerable part of the (UK) economy and is still ‘too big too fail’? What is the gloom and doom worth if after three years of austerity there is still no economic growth and we’re stuck with a chancellor who refuses to change course?

As investors want stability the latest anti-austerity votes are creating volatility as the future has become less certain yet again. If it’s not possible to enforce strict budgeting to please both the markets and the people then something’s got to give. But whatever it is that’s giving in, the consequences don’t seem particularly pretty. An Avengers’ Assemble to come to the economic and fiscal rescue would be nice. And if that’s not an option, some morphine will do.

top image: business week

image right: telegraph.co.uk

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

As the sun has moved across the equator into the Northern hemisphere to announce the start of a new season, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the nation’s Budget for the year to come. As austerity measures have failed to generate economic growth, the aim of this year’s Budget is to kick start the economy. Although accountancy is not considered the sexiest profession in the land all eyes are on the nation’s bookkeeping to see what’s in it for them. This year’s biggest bombshells are the cut of the 50p tax rate and the tax increase for pensioners, the so-called granny tax. To make it not look like Osborne is giving the rich a tax break subsidised by pensioners, the tax-free personal allowance is to be increased by £1100 to £9205. Happy days for workers and especially those on lower incomes. Yet, like in life, not all is what it seems. More welfare cuts have been announced likely to throw more people below the poverty line. Also many tax credits are to be cut outweighing the benefits gained by the increase of the tax-free personal allowance resulting in some household not gaining anything substantial or even being worse off. The Treasury argues that the 50p tax rate for the wealthiest segment of society, introduced by the previous government, is not bringing in any substantial revenue as the wealthy have been creative with their numbers by finding themselves all sorts of lucrative tax loopholes. Some of these loopholes have been closed and with a lower top tax rate the rich are more likely to pay their taxes the argument is. If this will indeed be the case remains very much to be seen.

A rather odd feature of this year’s Budget is the so called granny tax. I wonder how clever this move is. As pensioners tend to exercise their right to vote and when they do, vote Conservative, the Tories are not really looking after their electorate very well. If you have worked hard all your life to enjoy the small fruit of your labour, do you really deserve an even (slightly) smaller fruit in the autumn of your existence? With a cut in corporation tax and the cut in the top tax rate the Chancellor aims to attract more business and investment into the country to generate that growth we have been deprived of for a few quarters. However, since the majority of Tory front benchers and their mates are millionaires, it also very much looks like looking after one’s own. An increase in stamp duty on residential dwellings of £2 million or more, the so-called mansion tax, is suppose to compensate this tax break for the rich. The tax breaks for top earners is to result in economic growth of….drum roll….0.1, yes, nought point one percent! As one expects little change on the short term in the employment figures, the Budget is doing shockingly little to actually create more jobs.

The Conservative Party has often been accused of being a bunch of rich folks out of touch with ordinary people exercising political power for the wealthy. Now, it is easy to bash the rich, especially in times of austerity. People are not their income. Many rich people work very hard for their wealth and many wealthy folk do their bit for society in whichever form they see fit. Being rich does not automatically mean you don’t have compassion for people who have an awful lot less than you. However, presenting a Budget which is supposed to be a coalition effort, in which the government put even more pressure on the poorest in society, give with one hand to and take even more with the other from the squeezed middle, while giving the rich generous tax breaks to create minuscule economic growth and even less jobs, smells indeed of a bunch of out-of-touch millionaires, who are running a show merely for their own and their mates’ benefit and entertainment.

image: siptunorth.blogspot.com

A Pied Piper of the 21st Century

After around 50 million hits within a week as seemingly every 21^st century kid on the planet had seen and shared a 30-minute film titled Kony 2012 via social network platforms, the mainstream media and the over-25s where forced to catch up. At work the youngest member of our team asked if had seen Kony. I was assuming she was talking about a show on television. When I googled the name it became evident that Kony is a Ugandan rebel leader and war criminal who commits atrocities like kidnapping kids to be child soldiers and sex slaves. Youngest Colleague then came with a link to the video she told me I should see. As I caught up with this phenomenon people were already queuing up to air their criticism of the film and the campaign as they consider the film inaccurate and the campaign simplistic. I wouldn’t say the film is inaccurate per se. You could argue though that the message has been simplified and some of the portrayed facts are outdated.

The 30 minute film is made by Jason Russell who co-founded the not-for-profit organisation Invisible Children.This organisation is campaigning for the capture of the leader of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army Joseph Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The material is quite powerful and even more empowering. In a time when information is instantly available and the average person has a short attention span when it comes to consuming information, especially on the internet, it is an achievement in itself that a 30 minuted video, considerably longer than the average you tube clip, has been able to capture such a mass audience. Jason Russell has demonstrated the incredible power of the masses brought together for one cause via social media. Due to the involvement of celebrities, who all have a mass following on different platforms, the campaign widens it reach. Invisible Children has been very clever using the idea of celebrity culture on a bad guy; No one knows who Kony is. If he is made famous then that will change.

With technology developing faster than ever before it’s the kids, who’ve never known a life without internet, mobile phones and instant access to pretty much anything, who are educating the older generations.

Russell is by no means the first film maker reporting on Kony and the civil conflict in Uganda. He sure is the first to get the message across on such a large scale. You could argue that in order to deliver a strong message one can’t be too nuanced in one’s report and some issues need to be simplified. After the message is out it’s up to people to do their own research and make up their own mind.

The world will always be full of dreamers, people who take action to fulfil their dreams and people who are critical of whatever people do or don’t do. Jason Russell and his organisation have accomplished something on such a mass scale any corporation or public entity can only dream of. It also teaches younger and older kids that they can make a difference. Feel empowered, go after the bad guys and do make up your own mind. The message might me simplistic, it’s valid nevertheless.

Kony 2012

top image: hypebeast.com

Extra! Extra! Don’t Read All About It!

What is it with us and the news? We feel the need to be on top of things as one can’t be a woman of the world if one doesn’t know what goes on in the world. News does not only inform, it also entertains. News gives us a hardcore soap opera from the real world we wouldn’t believe if it were just fiction. I choose my daily news diet just as much as the news is chosen for me. What I don’t hear or read about doesn’t happen.

As a true consumer I savoured the news bombshell that was dropped at the Levenson enquiry by the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police. She informed Lord Leveson and the rest of the world that the Sun newspaper has been making use of an extensive network of informers, including public officials, across all sectors of public life. These informers were paid thousands and tens of thousands of pounds in exchange for confidential information. O yeah, and Charlotte Church settled with News International for a record amount of £600,000 on the same day. It’s big, it’s scandalous, it’s horrendous, it’s delicious. How deep does this go? How far does it reach? Who knows what? Doesn’t it prove that corruption is everywhere? How can UK journalism have sunk this low?

And as dirty as some factions within the industry seem to be, where the end of selling the story seem to justify all means, the schizophrenic state of the profession is displayed in the main course that follows. On the other side of planet journalism one puts oneself at risk to report on the world’s injustice and inconvenient truths. After my starter of the News International bombshell, came a heavy main course in the form of a report about Syria’s civil conflict. A report about the ugly features of human existence, about dirty politics, state violence, anger and above all people’s determination. I aim to digest, but it doesn’t go down that well. There is no room left for pudding.

For the people in Homs and across Syria, I’ve been made witness of your horrendous ordeal. And I wonder: Is your pain lessened because I have knowledge of it? What would be worse: Not knowing the pain that is inflicted upon you or knowing and not acting? The world condemns, looks on and does little. Despite being abandoned by the world your spirit remains strong and that is all that seems left to you. If only we, the world, had your courage and strength to get you out of that tragic mess. In the mean time we keep consuming your and other people’s misery.

top image: ynaija.com

image right: mideastposts.com

The Culture and Policy of Symptom Control

While a second bailout package to whip the liability called Greece into shape to prevent a further deterioration of the eurozone crisis is being finalised, Prime Minister Cameron has conjured up a plan to address another pressing matter that lies on a more national level. As the second bail-out package is to save the euro in its current state, Cameron’s plan is to save the nation’s liver by tackling Britain’s binge drinking culture. However, more money and austerity for Greece and less cheap booze for the Brits seem more like symptom control rather than a solution to the actual problem.

Many a foreigner is intrigued, amused and/or disgusted by the Brits’ attitude towards the consumption of alcohol. Even if you have never set foot on the British Isles, a visit to one of those sunny, inexpensive holiday destinations that are scattered along the the Mediterranean coast popular with the 16-to-25-year-old of all nationalities forces one to concluded that: A) the Brits drink too much B) the Brits can’t hold their drink C) the Brits don’t care about holding themselves when they have a drink or 10 D) all of the above. Although I have adapted considerably to my second home land, do allow me to give you a Continental insight into British drinking culture.

In a murky past when I was waiting tables, while still not able to pay my rent, I once waited on a large table of people in their mid-twenties celebrating someone’s birthday. All had dressed up and were in the mood for some food and drinks and a general good time. To voice this general mood someone shouted; ‘what are we gonna do?’ To which the crowd replied: ‘We’re gonna get shit-faced!’ ‘What are we gonna do?’ ‘We’re gonna get shit-faced! ‘What! Are! We! Gonna! Do!’ ‘We’re gonna get shit-faaaaaced!’ They might as well have shouted they were going to grab any dog they could find in the street and throw it through a neighbour’s window, such was my bemusement. Alcohol being a mind-altering substance that removes inhibitions seems to be the ideal social lubricant. Consuming alcohol may attribute to general jolliness and/or engaging conversation. By making drunkenness the objective rather than the by-product of a social engagement one tends to miss out on the process. Drunkenness as an objective makes a comatose-like state of inebriation less of an embarrassment and even something of an achievement.

Those, Cameron included, who believe that binge drinking is an issue of class or maturity should think again. The middle classes and the more mature might neither voice the purpose of their overindulgence nor be sick in public. They are, however not drinking any less, yet still step into their cars to drive themselves god-knows-where-but-you-assume-it’s-home.

Cameron’s suggestions of mobile casualty units and so-called ‘drunk tanks’, small cells for those who had too much to sober up, will by no means influence the Brits’ attitude towards booze. More bailout money is not addressing the challenges related to a common currency without a common fiscal policy. Both British drinking culture as well as the fiscal policies of the eurozone can be changed. However, it requires an awful lot more balls and innovation than is currently displayed by those we did and didn’t vote into power to lead us to the promised land.

top image left: ehealthlines.com, top image right: ipolitics360.com

Don’t Do Us the Honours

What a week for banking it was. After a period of speculations and public anger building up -would he-should he- RBS CEO Stephen Hester bowed to public pressure and waived his annual bonus. The deep fall from grace for Hester’s predecessor Fred Goodwin came to some sort of conclusion in the form of stripping the former Sir of his knighthood. Cameron and Osborne have disproved yet again that we are not ‘all in it together’. Both the Prime Minister as well as the Chancellor were more or less in favour of Hester receiving his bonus. As in their opinion he did a good job by making thousands of people redundant as part of a restructuring programme to bring the ailing almost-state bank back to financial health and private ownership.Then the Prime Minister was in favour of dishonouring Goodwin. I believe the man is a true disgrace. Not only to banking, but as well to the legal system with his super injunction to cover up his philandering activities. Yet, stripping the man of his knighthood is an empty token. It is supposed to give us the idea that something is being done about bankers excess, while Goodwin is still enjoying a very generous pension and has not been sent to jail. I’m sure people have been locked up for far lesser felonies.

After Lloyds’ CEO waived his annual bonus and mounting public pressure while RBS is still in dire straits, it would have been rather arrogant and very much out of touch for Hester to have excepted his. I fail to understand the argument of ‘in order to attract and retain the best we have to offer highly attractive pay package’. This was the policy prior 2008 yet these ‘very best’ still failed miserably. People using this argument fail the understand that ‘the market’ is not a device that has appeared out of thin air. The market was created by people, is- or at least should be- regulated by people and can therefore be changed by people. Also, a bonus should be a reward for success. Hester might be doing a good job cleaning up the mess Goodwin and company left behind, yet the patient has by no means recovered. Doesn’t the surgeon get paid after she conducted the operation successfully?

 No bonus for Hester and Goodwin has to return his piece of royal bling and guess what; the general public is by no means less angry about bankers’ excess because of it. The damage has been done. Whatever a banker does they’re damned if they do, they’re damned if they don’t. So the bashing continues.

top image: the Guardian

Jolly Yet Not Gay

As a self-respecting fag hag I can’t help being a tat condescending when people in the Western world maintain their 1950s stance that gay folk should not be allowed to marry. I know several people, who I consider as kind and good human beings, who consider the ‘gay way’ as the path astray. Yet, I don’t believe these people would be discriminating against an individual based on their gayness, because, they believe, as the good people I think they are, that being worthy of human respect has nothing to do with one’s sexual orientation.

The Archbishop of York, the second most senior bishop of the Church of England, expressed his opposition against gay marriage in the Daily Telegraph in light of the governments plans to start consultations on gay marriage. He doesn’t think the state has a right to change traditions and an ancient institution like marriage. On the other hand the Archbishop argues that the Church of England should be a better reflection of society and incorporate more black and working class people in its institution. I am aware that the bible states in several verses that gayness is a sin. I don’t, however, fully understand that a tradition like marriage should not be subjected to reform yet an ancient institution like the Church of England, for a very long time ruled exclusively by white, learned men, should. Christians, like members of other religions, come in many different shapes and forms. Some believe that the word of the Holy Bible should be taken literally. So the world was indeed created in six days, woman was born out of man and all sorts of other events that have been disproved by science quite some time ago have all taken place. Yet, others believe Christian teachings should be adapted to the time and place one lives in. So although the Bible says being gay is a sin, this is 21^st century Britain and gayness is no longer seen by the vast majority of people as a mental illness for which one is to find a cure. The Archbishop of York seems to have forgotten that in a democracy the state is representing the people. If the people wish to, what he calls, redefine an institution like marriage, then the state is obliged to follow the will of the people. The issue of a marriage is not the gender of the people who wish to bind themselves to each other in holy matrimony. Marriage is the issue of two human beings wishing to express their love as such that it is recognised by the law. Those who believe that the aim of the institution of marriage is creating offspring should ask themselves if couples who don’t want or are not able to have children should be excluded from this tradition as well. Then there are gay people who do want to have a family and with 21^st century technology – and even without- this is all possible. The Church of England should be asking itself in what way opposing gay marriage goes against its own teachings of loving thy neighbour and blessing meek folk. I guess the Church doesn’t see gays as part of the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet gay people are voters, tax payers and human beings with a wish and a will that should be considered by a government they did – or didn’t – vote into power to do just that: execute the will of the people.

top image left: ithicalibrary.com

top image right: egnorance.blogspot.com

Blair’s Turd

As some of you might know I’m a recovering news junkie, but I’m probably in denial. I evaluate news articles for a living so it’s a bit like a recovering alcoholic working in a pub.

In the office I can read the news for leisure – yeah, it’s still that bad- pretending I’m working. You would think considering the nature of my job, that news doesn’t wind me up any more, especially taking into to account that I mainly evaluate coverage for financial institutions. Yet, I couldn’t help myself when I read an article in my leftist newspaper that Tony Blair, who is the special envoy for the Quartet on the Middle East mind you, argues in favour of supporting western-orientated liberals in the Arab world to prevent the Islamists from taking over, as they (Islamists) don’t want what we (the West) want. It’s not the call for support for the poor, marginalised, unorganised Arab liberals itself, it’s the reason behind the support that makes me wonder whether the man is just naïve, a big fat hypocrite or perhaps both. Blair states that he does regret the lack of support for democratic tendencies in the Arab world in the past, but I’m afraid it’s too little too late.

Chances are indeed great that a political area dominated by Islamists will leave little room for pluralism and other so-called western values and attitudes. Yet,firstly, Mr. Blair forgets that these Islamists are or have been elected in free and fair elections in Egypt and Tunisia respectively. Secondly, Mr. Blair and other Western leaders before and after him, have condoned authoritarian regimes in the region evoking anti-western sentiment amongst the population. Western-inspired and backed regime have brought the people nothing but oppression and economic misery. If liberals are not able to sell the message, the people have good reason to choose those who can and have offered support and comfort in the form of religion and practical assistance when Western- backed, non-democratically elected leaders failed to do so.

There might have been a revolution that no one had seen coming, yet the ‘special envoy’ is by no means abandoning his neo-imperialistic attitudes. He talks about what we the West want and that Islamist governments are not good for us. What about the people of the Arab World? Surely it’s up to them to decide what is good for the region?

The liberal democrats of the Arab world are the western orientated elite and are a minority. Economically and intellectually influential perhaps, yet by no means are they representative for the whole country. In a true democracy the majority rules acknowledging the wishes of the minority. However, it seems rather undemocratic to support a minority in order to suppress the wishes of a majority, whether this majority is Islamist or not.

Blair and the West have all reasons to be scared and all are free to express this fear. That he calls for assisting a liberal-democratic minority in their organisation and articulation of their vision in a new political landscape might seem like a noble endeavour. However, if he is doing it for the West’s sake rather than for the people of the Arab world, he has truly learnt nothing from the past. With his argument he leaves a big fat turd on a newly constructed democratic process and tells us what we already knew. Democracy is only that fabulous ideal when it suits that tiny minority called the Western political elite.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/dec/29/tony-blair-liberals-islamist-regimes

images left: guardian centre: subbacultcha-blog.blogspot.com