Links December 2017

Feline news:
https://theconversation.com/big-cats-in-britain-urban-myth-or-scientific-fact-86656
https://theconversation.com/answering-the-question-that-won-me-the-ig-nobel-prize-are-cats-liquid-86589
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cat-owner-forced-give-up-11635643
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42223558
More cat news at the end of the post.

Environmental news:
https://orientalreview.org/2017/10/16/get-ready-for-a-new-chernobyl-in-ukraine/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/parkersburg-west-virginia-fire_us_59f25329e4b077d8dfc88cf6
https://heavy.com/news/2017/10/parkersburg-fire-ames-warehouse-dupont-west-virginia/
https://imgur.com/gallery/2TraE This is a catastrophe with enough industrial poison set free to cause a thousand additional cancer deaths. The warehouse was a ticking time bomb, and there are countless other time bombs in waiting.
https://grist.org/briefly/epa-says-the-water-at-a-puerto-rico-superfund-site-is-safe-this-congressman-isnt-convinced/
http://www.atimes.com/article/carbon-cloud-hangs-heavy-india-southeast-asia/ Coal addiction.
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2017/1108/Schools-in-Delhi-close-for-a-week-due-to-smog-conditions
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/11/11/new-delhis-gas-chamber-smog-is-so-bad-that-united-airlines-has-stopped-flying-there.html This is what an “emerging economy” looks (and smells) like.
https://www.treehugger.com/ocean-conservation/these-10-rivers-appear-be-source-millions-tons-ocean-plastic.html
https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/global-climate-change-increasing-risk-of-crop-yield-losses-and-food-insecurity-in-the-tropical-andes/ It will be the same everywhere. Warmer climate means more pests. More pesticides mean higher contamination of our food…
https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/paul-keenlyside/that-s-not-my-greenhouse-gas
https://grist.org/article/shipping-industry-destroying-climate-progress-were-all-to-blame/ If more products are produced locally, less ships are needed.
https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/4605229 15,000 scientists raise their voice and warn about rising greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, unsustainable agricultural production, and the sixth mass extinction. Will anybody listen? Will anything change?
http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/17/files/GCP_CarbonBudget_2017.pdf
Global carbon emissions in 2017 are soaring to an all-time high.
http://www.ehn.org/lawsuits-north-carolina-hog-farms-2504427622.html Glad to be a vegetarian.
http://e360.yale.edu/features/in-drive-to-cut-emissions-germany-confronts-its-car-culture
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/16/modern-air-is-too-clean-the-rise-of-air-pollution-denial Population control through air pollution.
https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/The-Hidden-Cost-Of-Electric-Cars.html
http://www.ehn.org/monsanto-glyphosate-cancer-smear-campaign-2509710888.html
http://www.ehn.org/monsanto-takes-on-world-health-organization-2509721283.html
https://dgrnewsservice.org/civilization/ecocide/habitat-loss/find-your-colorado/
https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/damming-or-damning-the-amazon-assessing-ecuador-china-cooperation/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/23/global-firms-accused-of-importing-timber-linked-to-amazon-massacre
https://www.treehugger.com/energy-efficiency/transportation-now-biggest-source-us-co2-emissions.html
https://www.ecowatch.com/mexican-gray-wolves-recovery-extinction-2513858305.html

Economic news:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41876942 Nobody likes to pay taxes. Whats wrong with avoiding taxes?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/what-are-the-paradise-papers-and-what-do-they-tell-us
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/paradise-papers-leak-reveals-secrets-of-world-elites-hidden-wealth
https://medium.com/basic-income/the-real-story-of-automation-beginning-with-one-simple-chart-8b95f9bad71b
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41889787 Apple tax dodging.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/08/deutsche-bank-ceo-suggests-robots-could-replace-half-its-employees.html Automatization in bank business, eased by the popularity of online banking, will cost half of the jobs. Frightening? Don’t worry, all speculations and predictions about a future where robots and AI replace humans will be irrelevant, when resource scarcity and environmental emergencies set the agenda.
http://commonstransition.org/the-catalan-integral-cooperative-an-organizational-study-of-a-post-capitalist-cooperative/
http://evonomics.com/the-deep-and-profound-changes-in-economics-thinking/
http://evonomics.com/unproductive-rent-housing-macfarlane/
http://triplecrisis.com/not-with-a-bang-but-with-a-prolonged-whimper/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/neweconomics/movement-replace-neoliberalism-ascendency-go-next/
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/30/chin-n30.html EU – China trade war?
http://voxeu.org/article/cash-comeback-evidence-and-possible-explanationsThey cannot take away cash. People would revolt.
https://evonomics.com/market-competition-really-works-murray/ About competition and cooperation.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/americas-monetary-imperialism-by-michael-hudson/

Media and technology news:
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/02/hear-n02.html Protecting the gullible web surfers from the lure of Russian propaganda.
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/11/06/learning-to-love-mccarthyism/
https://www.axios.com/axios-am-2508003126.html
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-09/wikileaks-publishes-cia-hacking-tool-designed-impersonate-russias-kaspersky-lab
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2017/859-survival-symptoms-of-breakdown.html An epic rant about the dishonesty and hypocrisy of British media, while simultaneously touching the most vital issues. Strongly recommended reading.
https://qz.com/1131515/google-collects-android-users-locations-even-when-location-services-are-disabled/ Just see it in a positive way: They care about you!
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/11/an-alarming-number-of-sites-employ-privacy-invading-session-replay-scripts/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/24/from-an-open-internet-back-to-the-dark-ages-2/
http://priceofoil.org/2017/11/27/climate-deniers-koch-brothers-help-buy-time-magazine/
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/a37m4g/the-motherboard-guide-to-avoiding-state-surveillance-privacy-guide
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/11/state-department-condemns-designation-of-media-as-foreign-agents-only-applies-to-russia.html
https://www.globalresearch.ca/towards-china-gate-chinese-state-media-to-register-in-america-as-foreign-agents-us-congressional-report/5620837
https://orientalreview.org/2017/09/13/state-sponsored-intimidation-fara-goes-too-far/
https://www.article19.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Expression-Agenda-Report-2017-_30.11.pdf

Imperial news:
http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.co.at/2017/12/millionaires-molesters-and-monsters-oh.html
This is from a comment John Chuckman wrote about an article on Investmentwatch:
America quite literally has become a strange country where many things are not what they seem.
Perhaps the watershed event leading to what we see routinely now was the Kennedy Assassination.
It has never been explained, and even the release of recent “documents” leads only to the question of why such unhelpful junk, which is what it mainly is, was ever made secret in the first place.
Government’s ability to successfully cover-up the facts in the public murder of a president bolstered its readiness and ability to use the same approach over and over, especially now that America has become a global imperial power engaged in many dark activities, at home and abroad, not intended to be explained to anyone.
The United States is embroiled in so many unwarranted foreign wars and plots now, suffering many failures and “blowback” events, it has a good deal to hide at any given time, and its permanent shadow government, the establishment and its military-security supporters, has a completely successful record now of hiding things.
You name it: the lies around Vietnam, the lies around Flight 800, the lies around 9/11, the lies around the Neocon Wars, the lies around Syria, the lies around Russia, it just goes on and on, and there is no authority from which to demand clarification.
A Donald Trump has proved that even a hard-driving outsider cannot crack the protective shell in Washington. Instead he has become part of the entire operation.
This is just what happens when you become an imperial power that feels it owes no explanations to anyone for its acts, and least of all to its own people, when the powerful and wealthy establishment of a country adjusts to playing God, as America’s very much has.http://www.ibtimes.com/what-fat-leonard-scandal-440-navy-officials-investigated-taking-bribes-2610809
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/07/shot-n07.html The monthly mass shooting, this time in Texas. The combination of a social climate where violence is the accepted norm both domestic (worlds highest prison population, killing of black men by police) and abroad (US-wars in the Middle East), of social stress (opioid epidemic, rising suicides, workplace pressure), and easy availability of assault weapons inevitably leads to this outcome. The next stage could be protracted firefights in US cities, violent video games already prepare US kids for this scenario.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/07/opio-n07.html Fentanyl replaces morphine, but W-18 is even more powerful. This is technological progress.
https://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BILLIONAIRE-BONANZA-2017-Embargoed.pdf
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/18/peep-n18.html Lil Peep.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/socialism-capitalism-and-health-care/5620412
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-american-dream-has-been-irreparably-broken/5620270
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/12/01/americas-military-industrial-addiction/
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/even-a-1-million-retirement-nest-egg-isnt-enough-anymore.html
Socialism never took root in America, because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. John Steinbeck

Imperial conquest news:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-u-s-saudi-marriage-gave-birth-to-jihad/
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-01/us-air-force-admits-harvesting-russian-tissue
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/there-are-now-895000-cases-of-cholera-in-yemen/
https://www.globalresearch.ca/wipe-the-ussr-off-the-map-204-atomic-bombs-against-major-cities-us-nuclear-attack-against-soviet-union-planned-prior-to-end-of-world-war-ii/5616601 With God on our side!
https://mideastshuffle.com/2017/11/07/hezbollah-doesnt-attack-america-its-the-other-way-around/
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2017/11/09/politics-makes-strange-bed-fellows/
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/11/18/yeme-n18.html Genozide in Yemen.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/11/yemen-war-saudi-arabia-united-kingdom-crisis-starvation.html
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/saudi-propaganda-and-the-starvation-of-yemen/
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/november/20/why-are-we-helping-saudi-arabia-destroy-yemen/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/11/20/national/crime-legal/fatal-okinawa-accident-u-s-service-members-restricted-base-banned-drinking-alcohol/#.WhK4qcaZMUQ In Okinawa a total of 576 crimes — including murders, robberies and rapes — were committed by US military-related personnel between May 1972 and last December.
Following the gang rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three US soldiers in 1995, a massive protest rally, attended by 85,000, was held to call for the removal of the US military base from Okinawa.
709 accidents in the same time period have further fueled negative sentiment toward the US base on the island.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/11/16/16666628/iraq-nyt-casualties-civilian
http://www.greanvillepost.com/2017/11/18/participants-in-2014-ukrainian-coup-confess/
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/11/pentagon-troop-surge-syria-middle-east.html
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/honduran-election-stolen-eight-years-u-s-backed-coup/
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42217132


Uncategorized news:
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/centenary-of-the-russian-revolution-and-the-repudiation-of-debt/ Long read but worth it.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/transformation/cat-mcshane-yiannis-panagiotopoulos-pere-rusinol-esperanza-escribano/how-to-fight-glo
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/α-letter-from-romania-democracy-and-totalitarianism-the-romanian-story/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7jcvfbLoIA I’m not a fan of YouTube, but Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame deserves to be watched.
We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Though I support the message of this famous rock song, the first line may be misinterpreted as a general rejection of education. It could be replaced with “we don’t need indoctrination,” or with “stop the vile misinformation,” or with some other phrase which fits into the rhythm of the lyrics.

News from cat land:

It may well be that the following text is perceived as overly emotional, weepy, and pathetic, but I stand to it. It is about the life and death of a small, unimportant, unknown, and in no way outstanding cat.

To me she was important. She was my mate, my close friend, my little cat lover.

I just buried my 19 year old cat lady Miss Marple. She had suffered from arthritis, common in her age, but otherwise was in good shape. She could have easily lived 20 years, maybe even more. Unfortunately, she had skin cancer (Squamous Cell Carcinoma), visible as two black spots on the ear and the nose.

The cancerous tumors remained unchanged for many years, which fueled the hope that it might stay that way. The veterinarian though once troubled me by stating that the spot on the nose could not be surgically removed because a 19-year-old cat would not survive such a serious surgery.

In early September the tumors suddenly grew and started to bleed. I drove immediately to the vet, who told me the sad news, that a cure was impossible and every therapy would only mean an additional, unnecessary strain for my cat companion. She proposed to use a mixture of cortisone and antibiotics in the form of a depot injection into the muscle mass. This was of course a palliative measure, not a cure.

For a few weeks, the injections worked wonders, with the in this content insignificant side effect of heavy weight gain. In November, the drugs became less and less effective, my old cat lady became weaker, she was waggly and staggering, and she often meowed mournfully. I do not think that she was in pain, but it seemed that she had intuitively realized that life, as she knew it before, was coming to an end and that the old times never would return.

During another visit to the veterinary practice, where Miss Marple received her weekly injection, I discussed the situation and, after careful consideration, we agreed that the vet would come to my home three days later, on Thursday, November 30, and Miss Marple would be euthanized.

And so it happened.

In recent years Miss Marple has spent a lot of time in her favorite place under a garden chair on the patio. I had put a soft blanket there where she could lay comfortably. From this point, protected from wind and rain, she was able to watch what was going on in the garden. Old ladies often sit by the window and look at the surrounding — in this way they have the feeling to be involved in social life and to be a part the community.

Thursday evening, just before the vet was announced, I went to Miss Marple in her patio lookout and talked to her calmly. No, I did not want to just take her and carry her into the house, she would not have liked that. It was not necessary either, because after some soft and tender words she came out of her sanctuary and we together went into the house.

The vet arrived a little later, her mother had come too. Both are very pleasant personalities. My girlfriend was also there to support and comfort me.

It was a perfectly choreographed event, everything happened as planned. Miss Marple had rested on the big carpet in the living room, visibly tired and exhausted. I knelt beside her and spoke softly to her, caressing her tenderly. She began to purr, and as she purred, the vet gave her the injection. Miss Marple noticed the injection, but she kept purring and I kept stroking her. After a few seconds, her purring became quieter and she fell asleep. Forever.

We four people stood together in the kitchen for a while and talked about all kind of things. The mood was somber, appropriate to the situation, but not depressed or sorrowful. My sense of sadness was mixed with relief and gratitude. I was deeply grateful for all the years I spent with Miss Marple. I am deeply in her debt and happy that we could bring her life to a quiet, painless, dignified end.

I would also like to die that way, caressed by the dearest and nearest person in my life, listening to her gentle voice.

Miss Marple spent the first 12 years of her life with a neighboring family, but they didn’t treat her well. She was often locked out, even in cold winter nights, with nobody missing her and looking for her. It’s not easy for a 12-year-old cat to give up her accustomed life and look for a new home, but Miss Marple took the decision nonetheless and she tried to join my cat family.

She was not welcome and my cat companions chased her away several times. Yet Miss Marple was not deterred and finally she got hold of a small area next to the large tool shed, where she was tolerated by the other cats. There were a few compartments in the tool shed where she could make herself comfortable. I furnished one of the compartments with blankets and pillows and for two months brought her food twice a day.

After two months of mutual acclimatization she was accepted by the cat community and from then on her life went smoothly. She did not stand out, she did not get in anyone’s way, she sometimes growled or was growled at, but there was never any violence. Violence is not allowed in Mato’s cat family.

Cats are stubborn, strong-willed, obstinate, persistent, they are born dissidents, objectors, rebels. Miss Marple embodied this trait more than any other cat I’ve ever dealt with, and for that reason alone she conquered a very special place in my heart. I’ve been rebelling myself against authorities of various kinds and have deepest sympathy for my fellow rebels.

There was also the vague feeling inside me that Miss Marple’s days were limited, and that I should use the remaining time wisely and economically.

The deep friendship that developed between us will accompany me throughout my life. Miss Marple is not dead, she lives on in my memory and in the memories of other people and animals. If I myself die, I will likewise continue to live in the memory of other people and animals and Miss Marple’s life will be perpetuated together with mine, as she has become a part of myself.

Everything we do, even the smallest and most insignificant move, has an impact. Nothing is in vain, nothing lost, we are a part of the infinite flow of energy and matter. We are a link of the causal chain, embedded in the never-ending series of cause and effect. In this way we are all immortal and Miss Marple is just as immortal.

I wrapped Mis Marple’s little body in two of my T-shirts and carried her into the guest room. As I noticed in the morning, my little cat angel Lucia had sneaked into the guest room unnoticed by me, and had spent the whole night next to Miss Marple.

In the morning I took Miss Marple, looked for a spade, and went into the forest across the garden door. Linda and Lucia came with me. I did not call the two, they came by themselves and I was glad they were with me.

We walked to the place where I had buried Mia, Gandhis mom, in August 2015. Hidden and far away from all paths, this is an area that is only entered by me, the cat family, and the animals of the forest. Everything is overgrown with moss, large and small branches are there, often in several layers on top of each other. Mia’s grave was no longer recognizable, but I chose a spot that was surely nearby, removed moss, branches, foliage, and began to dig. After 30 centimeters of humus came clay. The earth was loose, it took me no more than 10 minutes.

A little cat does not need a deep grave.

I put Miss Marple’s body into the grave, covered it with earth, laid moss and branches onto it. I also fetched moss and branches from nearby to cover the entire spot where I had worked. Nobody would realize that my little friend was buried here.

Linda and Lucia meanwhile explored the surrounding, but they stayed near. When they realized that I had finished, they came immediately and we went home together.

I was sad, but also relieved. And grateful — deeply grateful. Tears can be tears of sadness and tears of joy at the same time.

Thank you, Miss Marple!

Remembering the Maidan revolution

Oriental Review

Four years ago protesters gathered in Kiev’s Maidan Square and called for the ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. They succeeded when in February 2014 during an epic battle between 20,000 protesters and riot policemen, who tried to defend the parliament, 82 people, both protesters and policemen, were killed by hidden snipers. The identity of these snipers was unknown, with both sides accusing each other of having masterminded the murderous attack.

Numerous revelations since then have pointed to a Western led plot, though international mainstream media until now could keep the lid on the mounting evidence. A series of interviews with three Georgian snipers, conducted by Italian journalist Gian Micalessin and aired recently as a breathtaking documentary on the Milan-based Canale 5, also have not found a way to Western media outlets. This is hardly surprising taking into account the bombshell evidence against the real perpetrators and organizers of the 2014 murders in Kiev.

The documentary features Alexander Revazishvili, Koba Nergadze, and Zalogi Kvaratskhelia, Georgian military officers who were recruited to carry out a special mission in Kiev by Mamuka Mamulashvili, a close aid of Mikhail Saakashvili’s former defense minister Bacho Akhalaia.

The trio claims that on Jan 15, 2014 they landed in Kiev equipped with fake documents. Each one got 1,000 US$, with the promise to be paid another 5000 US$ after the job was done. They were ordered to prepare sniper positions inside the Hotel Ukraina and the Music Conservatory, two buildings dominant over the Maidan Square.

Along with other snipers (some of them Lithuanians) they were put under the command of US military operative Brian Christopher Boyenger. The coordinating team included Mamuka Mamulashvili and Segrey Pashinsky, who later headed the first post-Maidan interim president administration of Ukraine. The weapons arrived on February 18 and were distributed to the various Georgian and Lithuanian groups. “There were three or four weapons in each bag, there were Makarov guns, AKM guns, rifles, and a lot of cartridges,” tells Koba Nergadze.

The following day, Mamulashvili and Pashinsky explained to the snipers that they had to shoot at people on the square and sow chaos. “When Mamulashvili arrived, I asked him. ‘Things are getting complicated, we have to start shooting’ — he replied that we cannot go to presidential elections. ‘But whom to shoot?’ I asked. He replied that who and where it did not matter, you had to shoot just someone to sow chaos.”

“I listened to the screams,” recalls Alexander Revazishvili. “There were many dead and injured down on the square. My first and only thought was to leave in a hurry before they caught up with me. Otherwise, they would tear me apart.”

Four years later, Revazishvili and his two companions report that they have not yet received the promised 5000 US$ and therefore have decided to tell the truth about those who “used and abandoned” them.

After the Italian documentary was aired the Macedonian news agency Infomax organized a 52-minutes long night talk with Koba Nergadze and Zalogi Kvaratskhelia (in Macedonian) in which they provided more details about their backgrounds and mission to Kiev.

The three snipers are presenting themselves as repenting military officers who were simply “obeying orders” and did not anticipate that their mission was to murder people. A naive attempt from professional death squad operatives to gain sympathy.

The Georgian snipers explicitly claim that the operation was initiated by the former president of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili. Mamulashvili’s chief Bacho Akhalaia was a very close associate and trusted person of Saakashvili, who lost parliamentary elections in October 2012 following a prison abuse scandal (HRW dedicated a special report to the Gldani Prison).

On the early days of the Ukrainian crisis the vast Soros-financed network in Georgia started with preparations for a Ukrainian deployment. Bacho Alakhaia, an offspring of the notorious Mengrel criminal clan, depended on Soros money at the Georgia Liberty Institute since his studentship in the early 2000s.

At the time when the Georgian sniper trio was hired for their dirty job in Kiev, Bacho Akhalaia was under criminal investigation on charges of abusing power while heading the penitentiary branch of the Ministry of Justice, including illegal detention and torture of inmates. In October 2014 he was found guilty by the Tbilisi City Court and sentenced to 7,5 years.

In November 2013 Mikhail Saakashvili, facing multiple criminal charges in Georgia, left the country for the USA and officially settled at Tufts University. He and his stooges, just being defeated and humiliated in their homeland, would not have dared to initiate a risky and adventurous project in another European country without encouragement or maybe even coercion by their masters. The Maidan operation was giving them another chance to make up for the failing of their mission in Georgia.

Four years later the situation has dramatically changed. A showcase democratic alliance of Poroshenko and Saakashvili has broken down, after Saakashvili overplayed his hand and made too many enemies with bold moves against corruption. Since September 2017 Ukrainian authorities are considering the extradition of Saakashvili to the Georgian authorities.

On November 1 Megis Kardava, former chief of the military police at the Georgian defense ministry and a close aide of Bacho Alakhaia and Mikhail Saakashvili, was detained with false passport on the Ukrainian border. The Ukrainian security service has already announced that he will be extradited to Tbilisi within 40 days. Several other Georgians from Saakashvili’s personal protection team were arrested and expelled to their homeland in October.

All these developments could have pushed the Georgian sniper trio to preventively appear on Italian TV as voluntary whistle-blowers exposing the truth about the Euromaidan coup before being eventually captured and punished as scape-goats.

Prudently enough they named a number of iconic personalities of the incumbent regime in Kiev as organizers and coordinators of the Maidan square massacre on Feb 20, 2014:

Andriy Parybiy (currently Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada), Segrey Pashinsky (member of parliament representing the pro-government People’s Front), and Vladimir Parasyuk (another influential parliament member).

Their claims are confirmed by other evidence. The most comprehensive investigation and collection of facts so far was carried out by Professor Ivan Katchanovsky from the University of Ottawa (he also commented on the Italian documentary).

Whatever we feel towards the repenting snipers, their public confessions do not exonerate them from responsibility for deliberately killing people. They were not soldiers in the battlefield during a declared war. They had no commanders in a military hierarchical order. They were hired for money to do a dirty job and they were aware that what they were expected to do was a dirty job.

Their blathering in attempt to prove the opposite is ridiculous. This trio, Alexander Revazishvili, Koba Nergadze, and Zalogi Kvaratskhelia, as well as those who hired and ordered them — Mamuka Mamulashvili (currently commander of the Georgian Legion in Donbass), Brian Christopher Boyenger (Ukrainian combatant in Donbass during 2015, 2016) — and other snipers from Georgia, Lithuania, and Ukraine have to face trial for the murders.

Next should come the turn of the organizers and co-conspirators of that massacre — those named (Andriy Parybiy, Segrey Pashinsky, Vladimir Parasyuk) as well as those still unknown.

As a matter of fact, this in the mainstream media still ignored story totally undermines the legitimacy of Poroshenko’s regime. The crocodile tears by the incumbent rulers of that long-suffering nation Ukraine over the graves of the victims reveal their moral depravity, their criminal nature, their appalling monstrosity.

Only after they are removed and punished by the full force of the law the Ukrainian nation will have a chance to heal and see the light again.

The full documentary in two parts with English subtitles is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=wR1NFI6TBH0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0rR2Fh1zWI

Further reading:
https://mato48.com/2015/11/22/ukraine-vies-for-attention/
https://mato48.com/2015/08/16/ukraine-update-2/
https://mato48.com/2014/03/09/ukraine-update-1/
https://mato48.com/2015/10/14/mh-17-revisited/
https://mato48.com/2015/06/20/they-are-most-likely-dead/
https://mato48.com/2015/05/24/end-of-a-dream-birth-of-a-legend/
https://mato48.com/2015/02/18/ukrainian-unknowns-and-uncertainties-part-2/
https://mato48.com/2015/02/08/ukrainian-unknowns-and-uncertainties-part-1/
https://mato48.com/2015/01/25/there-is-no-meltdown/
https://mato48.com/2015/01/20/a-new-phase-in-the-ukrainian-war/
https://mato48.com/2014/12/28/a-testimony-to-be-considered/
https://mato48.com/2014/11/23/shattered-dreams-of-victory-and-prosperity/

Zimbabwe – an alternative view

Or: Zimbabwe, Western arrogance, ignorance, and dump propaganda.

Western media is jubilating. The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, with 100 billion US$ the worlds richest man, writes:

“For 37 years, it was the official newspaper of Robert Mugabe. Then, this month, the staff of the Zimbabwe Herald got an impossible assignment: They would have to cover the downfall of their benefactor.”

And: “Suddenly, a newsroom that had been the mouthpiece of the regime was without a censor.”

The Zimbabwe Herald, supposedly freed of dictatorial censorship, writes:

“The resignation marked the end of an era for an African political icon. Admired by many in Africa as a liberation icon, Mugabe offered a message of hope and unity to millions of his compatriots when he became the first black prime minister of newly independent Zimbabwe on April 18 1980.

He did not disappoint on his promise during the greater part of his 37 years in power, delivering a free education system that was the envy of many of Zimbabwe’s neighbors and far afield, as well as announcing a much vaunted policy of reconciliation with the white population of the country soon after independence.”

And:

“Under his rule, Zimbabwe remained one of the countries with high literacy rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, averaging above 90 percent of the population over the greater part of the past 30 years.

Since independence in 1980, the Zimbabwean government has always prioritized education by giving it one of the highest allocations in its national budgets. Figures from the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency show that the literacy rate has consistently risen over the past 25 years despite economic challenges faced by the country, rising from 80.38 percent in 1992 to 97,6 percent in 2014.

Mugabe is also credited with the program to give land to landless Zimbabweans that was pursued by the government since 2000. Over 300,000 families benefited from the land reform program, an exercise Mugabe said was meant to address the historical inequalities in the ownership of natural resources.

Under the economic indigenization program, introduced in 2010, Mugabe made sure that indigenous Zimbabweans benefited from the exploitation of natural resources of the country. Widely resisted by some foreign investors but greeted with enthusiasm from locals, the program required foreigners to surrender at least 49 percent of their shareholding to Zimbabweans.”

http://www.herald.co.zw

This is still not what Western commentators would like to hear and the Washington Post consequently headlined an article: “Zimbabwe’s New Leader Stirs Fears That He Resembles the Old One.”

Robert Mugabe was in the concluding months of his presidency, with elections scheduled in mid-2018.

He had joined the national liberation movement in his country at a young age while working as an educator and youth leader in that former settler colonial outpost that the British called Rhodesia. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he lived, worked, and studied in the West African state of Ghana, which was then the fountainhead of Pan-Africanism under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

After being imprisoned by the British for a decade in the 1960s and early 1970s, Mugabe relocated to Tanzania and Mozambique to work full time as a leader of ZANU. He led the negotiations for the Lancaster House agreement which paved the way towards nonracial, democratic elections in Southern Rhodesia in 1980, resulting in his installment as prime minister. By 1985, Zimbabwe had become a republic with ZANU-PF as the leading political party.

A land redistribution program enacted in 2000 was met with stringent Western sanctions and a merciless economic war against Zimbabwe. Mugabe was not deterred, and the program, popularly referred to as “the Third Chimurenga,” has been a cornerstone of domestic policy since then.

In 2009, Mugabe signed the IEEA (Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act ) into law, aiming to place 51 percent of companies into the hands of black Zimbabweans. This indigenization policy is a blue print for the post-colonial states in Africa, who all suffer from a dominance of foreign capital over the national and regional economies.

Cut off from Western trade, Zimbabwe relied on South Africa, the SADC (Southern African Development Community), the AU (African Union), Mozambique, China, Russia, Cuba, and other states who were not afraid of US/NATO scorn.

Mugabe served as chair of the AU in 2015, advancing the cause of economic integration and independence from Western states. This year, he presented a one million US$ fundraising check to the AU, setting an example for individual state commitment to the continental body.

Recent divisions within ZANU-PF came to a head after Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, nicknamed “the crocodile,” in early November was relieved of his duties. He represented the old guard, called Lacoste group, and was at odds with the Generation 40 group, led by Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere.

At least 100 other party officials were being examined for possible expulsion from both party and government, but the Lacoste group was not defenseless. Mnangagwa, who had close ties to military brass, plotted his comeback.

ZDF (Zimbabwe Defense Forces) head General Constantino Chiwenga held a press conference along with 90 other military officers at which he threatened intervention if the purges did not cease.

Immediately after the press conference tanks moved into Zimbabwe’s capital Harare and the ZDF seized the main television station. Maj. Gen. S.B. Moyo went on television saying that there had not been a military coup and the military was only targeting “criminals” surrounding the president.

The government before had attempted to snuff out the coup plotters and had dispatched a police paramilitary unit to arrest General Chiwenga upon his return from China. However, military intelligence caught wind of the plan and when Chiwenga’s plane arrived, a team of soldiers dressed in National Handling Services uniforms got inside the airport and chased the policemen away. The army then immediately attacked the police at the parliament building and seized the police paramilitary camp and armory.

The first casualty of the long planned coup was Mugabe’s head of security, Albert Ngulube. He was grabbed right at Mugabe’s gate and taken to a detention facility where he was brutally beaten. Secretary of Youth Affairs Kudzai Chipanga and his wife were forced to strip naked and sit on the floor at a police station. Kudzai Chipanga was severely beaten and forced to apologize on TV for criticising General Chiwenga. When an army unit attacked the home of finance minister Ignatius Chombo, it shot dead his three guards.

There were demonstrations in Harare, celebrating the coup, but they were not as massive as Western media portrayed them. The demonstrators were people with time at hand, unemployed for sure, but also rioters, hooligans, people who would take any chance to make a noise, to rampage, to let steam off.

In the absence of Robert Mugabe’s supporters, who had fled to neighboring countries or gone underground, ZANU-PF voted to expel the president and all known Generation 40 members from the party.

Mugabe was given the deadline November 20 to step down from office, which passed. The pressure on him was increased, with Senator Monica Mutsvangwa of Manicaland Province presenting an impeachment resolution to the parliament. After that Mugabe finally gave in and resigned.

Both the SADC and the AU expressed concerns over the coup in Zimbabwe, because under Mugabe the country had been an ideological and political base for Pan-Africanism and anti-imperialism on the continent. Alpha Conde, president of Guinea and African Union chief, said “it is a shame, Mugabe has to leave through the back door.” Conde called Mugabe an African hero. “Mugabe will never be forgotten, he was a great fighter.” There are reports that neighboring Zambian President Edgar Lungu was willing to militarily intervene in Zimbabwe and place his troops under Mugabe’s command.

Needless to say, that the Western press is delighted by the downfall of Mugabe.

The New York Times writes: “After nearly four decades in power, Zimbabwe’s ruler, Robert Mugabe, resigned in the wake of a military takeover. How did the notorious strongman manage to keep his opponents at bay for so long?”

The BBC writes: “So, will Emmerson Mnangagwa be able to take Zimbabwe’s economy off life support and at least start to put it on the road to recovery? Analysts are very skeptical that a quick solution is even feasible. The euphoria that has gripped the nation has certainly raised hopes that the future will be brighter, but if that improved sentiment is to deliver economic dividends, the government needs to make some drastic reforms.“

Britain, the former colonial power, was quick to advise the new government in Harare on how it should proceed:

Foreign Minister Boris Johnson called the resignation in a Twitter post “a moment of hope for the people of Zimbabwe.” This echoed the remarks of British Prime Minister Theresa May, who said that the sudden removal of Mugabe would “forge a new path free of the oppression that characterized his rule. In recent days we have seen the desire of the Zimbabwean people for free and fair elections and the opportunity to rebuild the country’s economy under a legitimate government.”

African countries in the second half of the 20th century tried to counterbalance political and economic pressure of the neocolonialist powers, wielded by trade wars, World Bank, IMF (International Monetary Fond), and bribes to the local “comprador class,” with increased ties to the USSR, but after the dissolution of the USSR they were again fully exposed to Western economic pressure and subversion.

Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi stepped in with his plans of a “Gold Dinar,” to replace the US Dollar, and an “African Development Bank.” China also stepped in, followed in distance by a resurgent Russia.

Of all African countries, Zimbabwe is the most logical target for Chinese and Russian investment. China and Russia vetoed all UN Security Council sanctions on Zimbabwe.

In 2015 and 2016, loan packages negotiated between China and Zimbabwe included 5 billion US$ for free aid and interest-free loans. China pledged to train 200,000 technical personnel and provide 40,000 training opportunities for African personnel in China. The aid intends to modernize agriculture with technological expertise, machinery, training, and teams of experts.

China is financing the expansion of the Hwange coal power plant and the Kariba South hydro power plant. China also pays the installation of fiber-optic cables for a high-speed Internet system and has built a pharmaceutical distribution center in Harare (Pharmaceuticals and Chemical Distributors Pvt Ltd.), in order to provide medicine to all hospitals and clinics at affordable prices. The country’s new parliament building in Harare was paid with Chinese money (46 million US$).

The Beijing Automotive Group produces with two local partners Grand Tiger pickup trucks assembled from kits. Chinese companies built a 150 million US$ expansion of Victoria Falls International Airport, upgraded Zimbabwe’s busiest highway, and supplied wildlife monitoring gear.

A Chinese company built the National Defense College in Harare, which opened in 2014 and was financed with an interest-free 98 million US$ loan. The college trains soldiers, intelligence operatives, and police from Zimbabwe and other Southern African countries.

Mugabe’s move to nationalize Zimbabwe’s diamond mines and revoke licenses from Chinese mining companies though caused tensions and maybe was a contributing factor to his downfall.

Russia’s biggest economic commitment to date is an agreement in 2014 to invest 3 billion US$ in Zimbabwe’s largest platinum mine. The project includes the installation of a refinery to add value, thereby creating more employment and secondary industries. The Darwendale operation near Harare is expected to produce 600,000 ounces of platinum a year when it reaches capacity.

China’s investments in Africa are a threat to Western dominance, especially because the investments focus on infrastructure and the development of indigenous industries, thereby making the countries less dependent on Western imports.

US Americans don’t offer infrastructure development to African nations, how could they, when they are not even able to keep their own infrastructure intact, with roads, bridges, dams, the electricity grid, water and sewage systems, Amtrak, the NYC Metro, and other vital installations in decay and urgently needing repair, updating, replacement.

Americans are not great in infrastructure, but what they can do easily is sending their special operation forces. US military involvement in Africa has grown substantially over the last decade, with troops in Somalia, Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, the building of a huge military base in Djibouti (Camp Lemonnier), and the formation of AFRICOM (US Africa Command). The Pentagon has confirmed that there are 6,000 US soldiers stationed throughout Africa.

China can’t yet make up for the former USSR’s power but it seems willing to protect its investments and partnerships with military force, for example by supplying weapons, equipment, and funds to the African Union’s military unit, or by deploying Chinese troops to South Sudan for protecting the oil pipelines, which have been sabotaged by US-supported rebel forces. China also has set up its first military base overseas in Djibouti, giving Chinese troops the opportunity to keep an eye on the main US AFRICOM base there.

To sum it up: China is a very welcome and highly needed counterweight to Western dominance and while some privately owned Chinese companies may exhibit chauvinism or even various forms of exploitation towards their African workers, usually Chinese engagements are not as damaging and adhere to higher moral standards then the ones of Western companies.

Will Zimbabwe continue on the path of economic independence or again become a colony of Western powers?

At the moment it can go either way. The factional struggle between the ZANU-PF old guard and the Generation 40 group has been decided by the army, which supported Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mnangagwa received military training in China in 1963, soon after he joined the fight against white minority rule in then-Rhodesia. He and his friend General Chiwenga always kept close ties to Beijing.

Mnangagwa has wowed to fight corruption and has issued a three-month ultimatum for the return of funds siphoned out of the country by individuals and corporations. Since 2009 Zimbabwe is using the US dollar as its main currency, which has led to massive smuggling of dollars to offshore accounts. It is estimated that 2 billion US$ are illegally held in foreign bank accounts.

One has to wonder if the new president is the right man to fight corruption. Mnangagwa certainly has amassed a fortune himself during his political carrier and is rumored to be a millionaire or even billionaire.

It is also doubtful wether he is right man to keep Zimbabwe free from foreign influence. He let know that he has communication channels opened with IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank, European Union, and other international financiers that until now have shunned Zimbabwe.

In a 2015 interview with Chinese TV, Mnangagwa stated: “You cannot say there are areas of our economy which we are happy with… We have to see how we can create an investment environment which will attract the flow of capital. We must know that investment can only go where it makes a return so we must make sure we create an environment where investors are happy to put their money because there is a return.”

While Mnangagwa’s key ally and former finance minister Patrick Chinamasa declared during international negotiations that he had “fallen in love with the IMF and World Bank.” 

Eddie Cross, economic secretary of Morgan Tsvangirai’s opposition party, praised Mnangagwa as “a business man who understands business.”

Cross deems it necessary to remove the Indigenization Act, give autonomy to the Reserve Bank, and pay compensation to the white farm owners who were expropriated during the land reform.

Western agencies are cautiously hopeful. IMF mission chief for Zimbabwe Gene Leon: “While growth in 2017 will be boosted by the bumper harvest due to the exceptional rainfall, the challenge is to sustain growth going forward in a context where macroeconomic stability is threatened by high government spending, the foreign exchange regime is untenable, and the pace of reform inadequate.” 

Reform according to the IMF means: “… to rebalance the economy towards one where growth is driven by the private sector.” (Which is of course only possible by cuts to the public sector and by privatizations.)

Former Minister of Finance Tendai Biti chimed in: “We have to make peace with London, Brussels and Washington. We have to find the boys and girls with money.”

There is certainly a comprador class who is just waiting to facilitate an international looting operation and the vultures of the global financial system are on high alert, waiting for risk free investment opportunities, hiked up debt repayments, new usury loans, and privatizations at fire-sale prices.

They will have a hard time to compete with Chinese money and gain a foothold in Zimbabwe, they will most likely be blocked and outmaneuvered. Which is a reassuring prospect but doesn’t mean that everything will be fine. 

Chinese investors may be not as wicket and vicious as their Western counterparts, after all, they have to stand up to their reputation of fairness and benevolence, but that is no guarantee they’ll act in the best interest of the targeted country.

Chinese tobacco company Tianze has given interest-free loans and training to farmers, many of whom work on land seized from white farmers, to help beef up production and help fill cigarette demand back home. This provides a livelihood for sure, but growing tobacco to make other people sick is not ecological, is a waste of resources.

When the Chinese government decides that something has to be done because cancer rates go through the roof, they will restrict smoking and African tobacco growers will have to learn something new. Maybe they will go back to subsistence farming, which would not be a bad move, as climate change in the coming years inevitably will cause droughts, crop failures, and severe famine. Food will become precious!

By the skewed benchmarks of mainstream economists, who measure only output and profit, ignoring ecological destruction and social injustice, large industrial farms are more productive than the small plots the Zimbabweans got in the land reform process.

Even that is debatable, as the Michael Lipton study has shown,
http://unctad.org/meetings/en/Presentation/SUC_GCF2013_18-03-2013_Michael-LIPTON_Study.pdf
(If the huge consumption of fuel for farm machines, synthetic fertilizers, and agrochemicals in industrial farming practices are taken into account, intensive subsistence farming is superior. It also causes less soul depletion and less chemical contaminate of soil, water, food.)

But this discussion is moot and the arguments are of no concern for the industrialists, the movers and shakers of our world. They exploit the lands riches at home and abroad, and if an area is exhausted, drained, used up, they move on to the next place.

They don’t have to worry. They will be fine on their remote islands and superyachts. Smartphones for the masses, pure, wholesome food and clean water for the rich elite.

Robert Mugabe knew that all, he was an intelligent and highly educated man. Does Emmerson Mnangagwa know it also? Or will he sell out the country for short term gains and his short term fame?

Related:

https://mato48.com/2013/12/18/the-saint-and-the-devil/
https://mato48.com/2014/02/04/china-key-to-africas-optimism/
https://mato48.com/2014/04/15/rwanda-and-the-media-brainwashing-of-western-minds-rtf/