Sweden - Diakonia - Bo Forsberg

SWEDEN GOOGLE TRANSLATION Diakonia Bo Forsberg has most publications With 32 published opinion articles in the years 2001-2011 has Diakonia's Secretary General Bo Forsberg most successful of all religious företrädare.- I'm not so surprised, he says to Date. by John Ottestig October 23, 2013 Marta Axners thesis shows that relatively few religious leaders (30 people) produced just over 42 percent of the published debate articles from 2001 to 2011. The list is topped by Bo Forsberg, with 32 publications, followed by Sten-Gunnar Hedin and Peter Weiderud with 24 published articles each. According to Bo Forsberg is long-term work that has borne fruit: - We are working with international aid, and we know that political decisions on issues relating, for example, trade, aid and debt relief have huge importance if we want to change the world. 5-6 years ago we took a strategic decision. It meant that we have built a broad expertise and today we have a whole team of press officers and senior people who have relationships with politicians and others in power. Marta Axner mean that it has become easier for religious leaders to gain space on the discussion pages. But Bo Forsberg says it does not recognize the problem: - Generally, I would say that it is easier today. It probably depends primarily on Diakonia, the organization has built up a trust for a long time. I find it hard to make the connection to the new thesis, but I also think the radio and television, I would say that we have much greater impact today. Marta Axner argue that religious actors adapts to debate the sides. What do you say about that? - I can admit that we formulate ourselves in a certain way in the media. But I argue very firmly that we will not compromise on the message, it's only about a linguistic processing of the text to be comprehensible even to those who are not daily basis dealing with development issues. Are you surprised that you have, for example, the Swedish Church Archbishop for you on the list of the persons who have received the most debated articles published? - No, I actually do not, as I said, this is part of our work. We have developed a set of values ??and based on it we have decided that we should be in the public debate. http://www.dagen.se/diakonias-bo-forsberg-har-flest-publiceringar-1.104277 OTHER Zambia Memo of Understanding signed w Sweden mining + corporate social responsibility (CSR) church participation encouraged / Hallelujah! FAITH-BASED Swedish development org, Diakonia, representative urging ppl to question application of taxes  https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=28309 Diakonia f. 1966 interl devel org / network ppl, orgs & churches does not carry out any projects of its own / supports local 2009 - Diakonia 400 partner orgs in about 30 countries Secretary General = Bo Forsberg [sources - various] Marta Axners thesis (referred to above) =  few religious leaders (30 ppl) pump out abt 42% published debate articles  2001-2011 Bo Forsberg = top [dagen.se] Oct. 2008 Joakim Wohlfeil said at meeting Gothenburg Diakonia is more a lobby group with political agenda for Middle East [philosemitism] Pro Israel blog [2008] complains Diakonia ME agenda bias w/out accompanying solution to terrorism in region  [philosemitism] COMMENT Not a great translation.   So, very few religious leaders drive what is supposed to be 'public debate' regarding what must be aspects of Swedish foreign (and other) policy and, according to the thesis, the head of Diakonia (a religious quarter lobby group that seeks to influence policy in the Middle East) is foremost in terms of output among this small religious, public debate chorus set. Found this interesting.

Canada - Middle Eastern Player

CANADA  -  MIDDLE EAST Curious what is motivating the huge Canadian display of solidarity with Israel. Here's a bit about trade: Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement In force since January 1997. The Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA) eliminated tariffs on industrial products and some agricultural and fisheries products. Since CIFTA came into force, Canada-Israel bilateral merchandise trade has more than doubled, from $507.3 million in 1996 to over $1.4 billion dollars in 2013. On January 21, 2014, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel, announced the launch of negotiations to expand and modernize the CIFTA Agreement ... http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-agreements-accords-commerciaux/agr-acc/israel/index.aspx?lang=eng&view=d Canada and Israel Begin Third Round of Trade Expansion Talks December 7, 2014 - Ottawa, Ontario - Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade, today announced the start of the third round of negotiations to expand and modernize the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA). The negotiations are taking place in Jerusalem from December 7 to 11, 2014, and will cover a range of issues. An expanded and modernized agreement will support Canadian businesses and investors, deepen trade and investment linkages and further strengthen Canada’s bilateral relationship with Israel. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the launch of negotiations during his official visit to Israel last January. Israel is a priority market for Canada under the Global Markets Action Plan. Quick Facts CIFTA is a cornerstone of Canada’s commercial relationship with Israel. Since CIFTA came into force in 1997, Canada’s two-way merchandise trade with Israel has more than doubled. Key opportunities for Canadian companies exist in sectors such as defence, information and communications technology, life sciences, sustainable technologies, agriculture, agri-food, and fish and seafood. http://www.international.gc.ca/media/comm/news-communiques/2014/12/07a.aspx?lang=eng Trade and Investment (2013) Canadian exports to country: ...   $380,860,289 Canadian imports from country: $1,058,896,443 http://www.canadainternational.gc.ca/israel/bilateral_relations_bilaterales/fs_israel_fd.aspx?lang=eng It looks like Israel does better out of the trade than Canada, as Canada's importing way more than it is exporting. Found this really cool site - International Trade by Commodity Statistics 2013, Canada - but from a quick flick nothing really jumps out at me. ......................................................................... A random check on arms indicates: Canada Is Ramping Up Its Arms Exporting Trade By Nicky Young April 9, 2014 | 10:55 pm Earlier this year, the Harper government proudly announced it has sealed the “largest export deal in the country's history”—a $10-13 billion deal that will create and sustain 3,000 jobs. Contrary to what you might want to think, the commodity we’re sending overseas isn’t maple syrup or lumber; it's light armored vehicles. The recipient? Saudi Arabia: everyone's favorite champion of human rights and democracy. While light armored vehicles sound like fairly chill, non-threatening machines, they’re actually “amphibious reconnaissance vehicles” that are often mounted with machine guns. The Saudis have already used these kinds of vehicles to suppress Arab Spring protests in Bahrain, in hopes of preventing any encroaching Iranian involvement in the area. So basically, Canada’s record-breaking arms deal just provided a significant advantage to the Saudis who are in the midst of an already very complex and hostile arms race in one of the most volatile regions in the world. Nice one! Canada is getting more secretive with protected 'public information'. Read more here. Bolstering economic stability by increasing Canada’s presence in the arms trade has become a cornerstone of Conservative policy in the past few years. One of the more controversial deals, especially in light of recent events, was the $80,000 arms deal to the brutal Ukrainian Yanukovych regime in 2011, which was enabled by Harpers refusal to sign a landmark UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT); a treaty that even the U.S signed. On its own website, the Canadian Government claims to “strongly support the ATT” in a seven year old post they have conveniently ignored editing, while simultaneously ignoring demands to put the treaty they originally agreed with into effect. This issue is certainly underreported, but the NDP issued a statement last month requesting that the Government of Canada follow the lead of Germany and suspend all arms trade with Russia following the invasion of Crimea, because apparently we haven’t already. It appears that this request has gone unanswered. After losing nearly 46,000 jobs in December 2013 alone, Canadians are clearly hurting for work; so maybe we shouldn't be looking the gift munitions in its armed mouth. After all, new jobs have to come from somewhere, and they certainly won’t be coming from public sector. So they might as well come from selling arms to one of the most brutally repressive regimes in the world, right? This strategy feels even more hypocritical when you take a peek at other stances the Conservatives and their buddies are campaigning on. There’s the ongoing Ethical Oil lobbying foundation started by Alykhan Velshi, a former Conservative communications director, who is continuously attempting to pacify Canadians to the tar sands by running TV commercials that argue Canadian oil is the lesser of two evils, when compared to the oil being produced in Saudi Arabia. These ads viciously attack the Saudis on their human rights violations, and yet our International Trade Minister still feels confident about Canada’s decision to sell weapons to their government. As Canada.com reported, the Minister’s spokesman insisted that Canada “rigorously assesses all exports of military goods and technology on a case-by-case basis,” adding that deals are only given the green light “if such exports are consistent with Canada’s foreign and defence policies, including human rights.” This is not to mention Harper’s new "Office of Religious Freedom,” which is emblematic of an open and accepting Canada, while also providing the Conservatives with a great PR look for the country’s religious minorities. Unfortunately, slanging LAV’s to a country where religious conversion from Islam is considered apostasy and punishable by death seems slightly counter-productive to dropping five million a year in hopes of "Protecting, and advocating on behalf of, religious minorities under threat" in Canada. [LOL ... this writer's quite funny.] It seems the glory days in which Canada was held in high regards as a global peacekeeper have come to an end, thanks to economic instability. Since massive cuts to the defense budget in the United States, Canada is now looking to unstable developing nations to market its tools of death. For more information on Canada’s increasing role as an arms exporter, I got in touch with Hilary Homes, an ATT campaigner from Amnesty International Canada. She told me: “Amnesty isn’t opposed to arms sales, we’re opposed to irresponsible arms sales. We’ve been campaigning for the ATT to assess and regulate the risk of weapons being used for human rights violations through sales and licensing. I think people often focus on tanks, guns, and ammunition and forget that transport is needed to moves forces, and LAV’s often have other equipment like automatic weapons mounted to them. Our Government likes to think it’s got a good record in terms of the export regulation of arms. Amnesty would really like Canada to sign on to the ATT and become more rigorous. When you see a sale of this size to a country like Saudi Arabia it raises red flags.” As for Canada’s reluctance to sign the UN’s ATT, Hillary explained: “Canada voted in favour at the UN when first considering the text, but has yet to sign it. Internationally, Canada is way behind the game on that one and really doesn’t have a valid reason. The U.S signed the ATT; they didn’t even sign the Landmine Treaty. Canada needs to live up to prior commitments.” Hilary directed me to Ken Epps, an expert on the Canadian military industry and our arms exporting deals, who is currently serving as Senior Program Officer at Project Ploughshares, an NGO that “works with churches, governments and civil society, in Canada and abroad, to advance policies and actions to prevent war and armed violence and build peace.” Hilary described Ken has someone who has “been in the room,” alluding to his firsthand experience with arms treaties. Ken told me he thinks the Canadian government “intends” to play a large role in the arms trade, adding: “The Saudi deal has certainly been couched in those terms.” He referred me to an article he wrote that demonstrates “the different programs that have been around for some time but are now getting a boost from the current Canadian government all pointed towards increasing Canada’s arms exports. The Saudi deal is the first major indication that things are moving in the direction they want.” In a way, Ken says Canada’s recent deal with the Saudis is “not news” as “between 1988 and 2008 Saudi Arabia was the second largest customer, next to the U.S, of Canadian military goods… it’s just the size suggests that Canada is really trying to boost arms exports.” While Canadian arms dealing may not be a brand new phenomenon, such a large sale to the Saudis is noteworthy. As Ken told me: “This new arms deal is being promoted by the government as jobs, with very little attention paid to the risk of this equipment being used in the next outbreak of conflict in the region… Canada should not be creating jobs dependent on countries where human rights are a major concern. Workers should not be in a position where they are building equipment that they could see on the news being used to attack civilians. I think that’s a pretty poor job creation strategy.” https://news.vice.com/article/canada-is-ramping-up-its-arms-exporting-trade ......................................................................... COMMENT If Canada is invested in selling arms in the Middle East, Canada is therefore probably invested in promoting and maintaining conflict in the Middle East -- or, at the very least, backing up the camp it stands to profit from. No wonder the Canadian Foreign Minister is hysterically pointing at Iran, the imminent Iranian threat to the 'Universe' and galaxies beyond!  Iran is the Saudi Arabian nemesis in the region and Saudi Arabia appears to be Canada's best customer.

This and That

This and That What's happening? Discovered a Turkish controlled 'exclave' in Syria -- guessing it's this place. According to the Treaty of Ankara signed between France and Turkey in 1921, Turkey controls the tomb and no mention is made of the land beneath it. So it's not really a territory within a territory, like I imagined?   Checking elsewhere, it states it's 'smaller than a city block', so it's not just a few feet by a few feet like I first thought when I read about the tomb.  It's some kind of tiny 'territory' after all.  Looks like it's going to shape up as an excuse for Turkey to take 'action' against Syria if the IS group attack this territory. Encountered a creepy photo of what was allegedly the FSA group getting a child to behead what I suppose was a Syrian loyalist:  bound, hand and foot (I think), on his side, with his head resting, raised on some kind of block.  The child held something above his head, swinging.  Not sure what it was.  Imagined it was an axe.  But I'm now guessing it was a sword, seeing it's the Middle East.  Elicited a degree of revulsion. Stumbled on some information on the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA).   Trying to recall what it was, got it mixed up with the other agreements. This one relates to:   "liberalizing the worldwide trade of services such as banking and transport" [wikipedia] It's just another in agreement upon agreement that gives the US control right around the globe. "The EU and the US are the main proponents of the agreement, and the authors of most joint changes."  [wikipedia] But it doesn't end with the US and the EU.  A host of other countries are involved in this and end result is that something like two-thirds of 'trade of services' will be subject to the provisions of this agreement. Apparently, nobody finds the spread of US control at all frightening and they're happy to sign up.  Guess that goes back to being corporate controlled governments doing the bidding of big business, instead of primarily being engaged in representing the people of the nation they're supposedly serving as an elected government in a 'democracy'. Add to that unpleasant picture the fact that this is a 'secret' agreement that was supposed to stay quiet for 5 years after signature.  More information on that is available at the WikiLeaks.org site.  Not sure what I can and can't link to without being in breach of some law or other, so search away.  Easily found. The secrecy of the agreement and the two-thirds of 'world trade in services' being subject to the agreement were the really big red-flag aspects in my view.  But there's also a lack flexibility to respond to changes in world finance that binds governments who sign up for this, and probably other stuff I don't remember or care to know. How outrageous is it that 'democratic' governments are *hiding* what they're signing their entire countries up for! The WikiLeaks site pointed out that the US is pushing for cross-border exchange of data that includes personal and financial information.  So I take it this is yet more surveillance and foreign control.  The G20 ministers meeting resulted in either sign-ups or agreements to sign up for banking data exchange on what is probably a global scale once all the US puppets sign up, so the G20 erosion of liberties could be TISA related -- or just an added round of more of the same erosions. Highly doubt that this will ever affect me personally, in a direct way.   But this affects everybody in terms of the climate their government is creating:  one of secrecy, one of perhaps 'duty' and subordination to foreign interests, one of inability to put national interests first given constraints of such agreements, one of inability to freely act or legislate in future due to provisions of such an agreements, one of divulging citizens' data to foreign interests and therefore conducting what amounts to surveillance on behalf of a foreign power or powers, and so on.  And if you put all of that together, it's like coming under control of some foreign invader state that already controls much of the world.  A world that is shaping up to be one large prison controlled by the US through control of currency, global institutions, defence agreements, the EU, mass surveillance arrangements and various trade agreements. [Image source:  rachelcarsoncouncil.org] If you imagine US control as a vice; it's a vice that's constantly squeezing to erode national sovereignty and to erode civil liberties, right around the world.  It's literally suffocating.

USA - Russia - Steel - Trade Dispute

UPDATE 1-U.S. steel producers win anti-dumping case against cheap imports Fri Aug 22, 2014 3:40pm GMT By Elvina Nawaguna WASHINGTON Aug 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday voted to impose anti-dumping duties against steel pipe imports from seven countries, exempting two, handing a victory to domestic producers who had complained that the cheap imports were undercutting their prices. Countries whose steel will be subject to duties will be India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam. The Philippines and Thailand will be exempt. The decision gives the U.S. Department of Commerce the green light to impose tariffs as high as 118 percent on tubular goods, and is expected to boost the domestic business. U.S. steel companies lodged a complaint in 2013 after imports of the pipes used in the oil and gas industry surged, as foreign manufacturers sought to cash in on booming U.S. shale gas drilling. Imports of "oil country tubular goods" (OCTG) doubled last year and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the U.S. market, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute, an industry group. Companies filing the complaint included United States Steel Corp, pipe specialist Tenaris subsidiary Maverick Tube Corporation; Boomerang Tube; Energex Tube, a division of JMC Steel Group, Northwest Pipe Co , Tejas Tubular Products, Russia's TMK IPSCO and France's Vallourec Star. Shortly after the ruling, U.S. Steel Corp was trading up more than 3 percent at $37.96 per share. The companies said that OCTG imports sold cheaply using unfair government subsidies had harmed their business, dragged prices down and triggered job cuts. Foreign manufacturers countered that they do not supply enough pipe to threaten the U.S. industry, and instead blamed the lower prices on U.S. producers increasing supply. U.S. trade officials are working their way through as many as eight disputes involving various steel products. Friday's decision likely will boost confidence in the domestic industry in the outcome of a current case involving steel-rolled pipes from Russia. U.S. steel producers have accused Russia of flooding the market with cheap flat-rolled steel, and want the Commerce Department to end a trade deal that they said had failed to stop Russia from dumping. (Reporting by Elvina Nawaguna; Editing by Ros Krasny and Susan Heavey) http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL2N0QS10W20140822?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

Normally wouldn't read something like this but it came up in my feed because I'm interested in Ukraine and Russia.

Shale boom equals need for steel.

Domestic producers whining = tariffs.

Don't know what dumping is.  Too lazy to look it up right now.

Trust them to want to get out of a contract with Russia.  LOL.

'Flooding the market'.  WTF?  Thought America stood for 'free markets'.

Don't sound so free to me.