Friday, January 27, 2012

Holocaust Memorial Day: Calendar: Observance links genocide of European Jews with other genocides

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World marks Holocaust Memorial Day


Events commemorate victims of genocide as survey shows social media may hold role in speaking out against hatred
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The Guardian (January27,2k11)
article by Maev Kennedy

— Reposted here by Owlb, refWrite Frontpage general editor
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Holocaust Memorial Day will be marked across the world on Friday with a series of events including services, talks, concerts and vigils remembering not only those who died in the second world war but the victims of many genocides since.
Ceremonies will take place at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, in Israel and at Auschwitz in Poland. The day is commemorated worldwide every 27 January, the date the Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops in 1945.
In Britain – where the date has been marked annually since 2001 – a survey carried out for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust shows that more than half the respondents felt social media had a role to play in fighting hatred and discrimination. Although the poll showed social media had largely replaced face-to-face meetings, manybelieved speaking up online could make a real difference.
The survey was carried out to highlight the trust's theme for this year of Speak Up, Speak Out, urging people to speak out against hatred and discrimination: many signed pledges in Trafalgar Square in London on the eve of memorial day.
In a special video message, the Archbishop of CanterburyRowan Williams, urged people to find the courage to speak up for the rights of neighbours and strangers, "for people like us and also for people not like us".
"Holocaust Memorial Day brings back to our minds the appalling consequences of a situation when people don't speak for their neighbour and don't speak for the stranger, when people are concerned for their own security, their own comfort zones. And when we look back on that tragic history, one of the things that prevents it from being a totally dark night is the presence of some of those who were willing to speak for strangers and to take risks alongside strangers."
The archbishop referred to the example of one of the founders of the Council of Christians and Jews - which recently celebrated its 70th anniversary - Archbishop William Temple, who had "come to the conclusion that he had to learn to speak for the stranger".
In 1943, Temple argued in the House of Lords that the west had to do more to combat the atrocities against Jews under the Nazis. The council had led to decades "of intense friendship and relationship building", he said.
York, whose Jewish citizens were slaughtered in 1190, is launching aJewish History Trail, and held a prayer ceremony at the grassy mound by Clifford's Tower, the site of the massacre.
In Newport, South Wales, 94-year-old Ron Jones will attend a ceremony at the cathedral, and recall the football matches he played in at the PoW camp attached to the Auschwitz complex. He believes the matches every Sunday helped make him fit enough to survive the long forced marches when the Germans emptied the camp in the final stages of the war.
"It kept us sane, it was a bit of normality, but it sounds wrong somehow to say I've got fond memories of playing football, considering what was going on just over the fence," he told the BBC.
The results of the Holocaust Memorial Trust social media survey were analysed independently by Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary anthropology and a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, who said: "Our research has shown that people are more prone to saying something on social media that they later regret, because in these digital environments we don't receive the immediate checks and balances that we get during face-to-face interactions. This can therefore result in a careless or inappropriate tweet, or at worst, cyber bullying."
The survey found that 55% of 2,000 people questioned felt social media had replaced face-to-face interaction, and 39% said they had used them to speak up about something they felt passionately about. Of this group, 44% felt what they wrote led to people blogging or tweeting on the issue, or actual changes.
However, 26% admitted they had, or would, say something on a website they would never say face to face. A quarter regretted something they had posted, almost half because they later considered it inappropriate, and 27% because they thought it had upset somebody. More than a third, 36%, said they had witnessed or been a victim of online bullying, and while 41% of this group said they had intervened, almost 25% said they had done nothing.

































































































PoliticsCanada: Bureaucratic Boondoggle: Prime Minister Steve Harper pours millions into phantom agency

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— Reposted by Politicarp, refWrite Frontpage politics columnist


general editor, refWrite Frontpage politics columnist

PoliticsUSA: Republican Primaries: Conservatives in slugfest against Gingrich the Gasbag, Drudge informs

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More later ....

general editor, refWrite Frontpage


— Politicarp


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

EconomicsUK&Eurozone: Financial Times: Play the European game, says Barnier; Greek bondholders, Nokia Siemens, China wants Hollywood film companies



EU's Barnier urges Cameron and City 
to ‘play the game’
David Cameron and the City of London must learn to “play the European game” and give up seeking UK exemptions that would hurt the economy and endanger open trade, the European Union’s top financial regulator Michel Barnier will warn on Monday
http://link.ft.com/r/KC2844/KQBQO8/JKXVG/2OZFLU/ZG4KVT/28/h?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=22 January22,2k12


Greek bondholders draw line in the sand
Private owners of Greek debt have made their “maximum” offer for the losses they are willing to accept, the bondholders’ lead negotiator has said, implying that any further demands could kill off a “voluntary” deal and trigger a default
http://link.ft.com/r/QM42II/GD1DJO/TFRK7/B5YBNV/IILBQ8/T3/h?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=22  January22,2k12


An investigation into the future of capitalism scrutinising its legitimacy, its weaknesses and suggesting ways in which it could be reformed.


— Capitalism in Crisis Part 3 - 
Financial Times in-depth series
———————————
Financial Times (London UK) supplies a 
mosaic of brief items in its free email 
newsletters (if, like me you can't afford 
a subscription).


— posted by EconoMix, refWrite frontpage economics columnist

 general editor, refWrite frontpage economics editor
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Lenders show faith in Nokia Siemens
Nokia Siemens Networks has raised more than €1.2bn of finance from a consortium of 14 European and US banks in a vote of confidence from the lending market in the troubled telecoms equipment maker’s strategic overhaul
http://link.ft.com/r/TWK799/FKUK93/OQEMC/ZGVS68/VLZ5BV/E4/h?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=22 January22,2k12


China investors set their sights on
Hollywood
(1)
A consortium led by Chinese media entrepreneur Bruno Wu is scouring Hollywood for film companies to acquire, in a sign of China’s growing interest in the US entertainment industry
http://link.ft.com/r/4RNQTT/C4N45C/ZL19K/EXQ6DW/XHMWBL/28/h?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=22  January22,2k12


China investors set their sights on Hollywood(2)
Consortium which missed on out on deal to acquire Summit Entertainment is leading charge from Asia into the cultural heartland of the westhttp://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/B5F5OR/70OUJ/2OZFYB/JETGH5/B7/h?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=22 January23,2k12
(update)
Paris and Berlin seek to dilute bank rules
Demands will delight some bankers but likely to infuriate policymakers in London, who have been fighting French-led attempts to dilute Basel IIIhttp://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/B5F5OR/70OUJ/2OZFYB/YB5X4D/B7/h?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=22  January23,3k12

Lagarde calls for bigger eurozone firewall
The head of the International Monetary Fund said on Monday the eurozone needed a bigger firewall to prevent Italy and Spain sliding towards default, underlining Europe’s responsibility in solving its own sovereign debt crisis. In a speech in Berlin, Christine Lagarde, IMF managing director, said that without a larger bail-out fund, fundamentally solvent countries like Italy and Spain could be forced into a financing crisis.
http://link.ft.com/r/6NPSBB/ORO3VL/G45OT/307NE2/GDUGZZ/QR/h?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=23 January23,2k12


UK Minister rounds on ‘environmental Taliban’
Britain’s climate change minister has rounded on the ”environmental Taliban” of green campaigners, insisting they are wrong to accuse the government of abandoning its commitment to an ambitious low carbon agenda
http://link.ft.com/r/YIQXNN/C4RUM4/56839/625WMF/QN6X1P/6C/h?a1=2012&a2=1&a3=3 
January 03,2912

Monday, January 23, 2012

PoliticsUSA: Healthcare-financed abortions: You will pay for it; Christian hospitals well do it

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No Change to 
Contraceptives Mandate /
Narrow Exemption




The answer, delivered on Friday, was: No change

Religious groups of various faiths have been protesting ever since the federal 
government announced in the summer that all health insurance plans, except 
for those offered by churches, will have to cover a wide range of birth control 
measures. The mandatory drugs and procedures that must be offered by almost 
all health plans starting this August includes all contraceptives, including two 
abortifacient drugs, sterilization, and reproductive counseling.

The administration's exemption for religious employers was broad enough to 
protect from the mandate only churches and religious orders. But it was crafted 
not to protect religious organizations that serve the public (and not only 
co-religionists) or that offer material or psychological help (and not only prayer 
or preaching). Churches would be exempt from violating their consciences 
about paying for drugs and procedures they reject as immoral, but parachurch 
organizations (faith-based service organizations) would not be exempt. Also 
not exempt: individuals with a conscientious objection to paying for those drugs; 
owners of secular organizations with a moral objection; religious colleges and 
universities--they would have to include the drugs and procedures in the plans 
not only for their employees but also for their students.


Source: eNews for Faith-Based Organizations (IRFA)
(January23,2k12)  Editor: Dr Stanley Carlson-Thies, Institutional 
Religious Freedom Alliance

Re-posted here by Politicarp, 
refWrite frontpage politics columnist


general editor, refWrite frontpage


I don't oppose all abortion, and strongly maintain 
that Protestant Christian, Catholic, Jewish and other
faith-based hospitals shoud not be forced into the
abortion racket. — Owlb


Dr Carson's article continues below:
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Note that the contraceptives mandate applies to all health insurance plans—
it is not a condition attached to federal funds such that a religious organization

can avoid the violation of its convictions by refusing a federal grant or contract.

Not only Catholic leaders, but also evangelicals and orthodox Jews, among 
others, protested the mandate, because it requires including contraceptives
because it

includes abortifacients, or because of the evil of forcing religious employers to  
pay for "preventive services" they regard as immoral. And they protested the 
exemption that essentially defines most faith-based service organizations as not 
being religious at all. That's a terrible precedent to put into federal law and 
practice.

On Friday the administration gave its answer to all of the protests is: No change! 
No budging. No accommodation. No change in the mandate, for example, by
eliminating the most controversial drugs, Plan B and ella, from required
coverage. No change in the exemption, not even to protect church-governed
charities.

The administration blandly assured everyone that it had carefully listened to the 
many protesting religious leaders. But it judged that no change was necessary. 
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services 
said, "I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting 
religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services."   

Oh, there was a concession, one change: the administration announced a
one-year delay in imposition of the birth control mandate for nonprofit 
employers who currently do not pay for contraceptives in their health insurance 
plans because of their religious convictions.
This delay, Secretary Sebelius said, "will allow these organizations more time and fledibility and flexibility to adapt to this new rule."

In other words, this is not a year to negotiate a change that would accommodate 
religious convictions. No, just a year for the organizations to learn to suppress 
their moral qualms.

A year delay, many observers noted, puts the deadline for these protesting 
organizations safely on the other side of the presidential elections.

Among the responses to Friday's announcement:

* Galen Carey, VP of Government Relations for the National Association of
 Evangelicalssaid, "No government has the right to compel its citizens to 
violate their conscience.  The HHS rules trample on our most cherished
 freedoms and set a dangerous precedent."

* Richard Land, President of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious  
Liberty Commissioncalled the decision "outrageous." "It's analogous to  
giving a man on death row a one-year stay of execution. You can follow your  
conscience for one more year."

* Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. 
Conference of Catholic Bishops, said, "Never before has the federal 
government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace 
and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn't happen in a 
land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights."

* Even the Washington Post blasted the administration, saying that it should 
have expanded the exemption and calling the one-year delay a "feint at a 
compromise."   

Remedies: Two religious colleges, Belmont Abbey College (Catholic) and 
Colorado Christian University (Protestant) have already sued the federal 
government. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represents the two 
colleges. Other religious institutions of higher education are contemplating 
lawsuits. And several bills have been introduced into Congress to deal with 
the religious-freedom and conscience concerns in the health reform legislation, 
including the problem of the birth control mandate.

Adding insult to injury, some defenders of the administration, to fend off 
charges that its actions diminish religious freedom, try to heap credit on it 
simply for upholding the law. For example, Sarah Posner, at Religion 
Dispatches, has written, "[T]he notion that the federal government has 
somehow discriminated against Catholics is rendered even more absurd by 
the hard numbers: in 2011 alone, according to the federal government 
database at www.usaspending.gov, Catholic Charities received over $753 
million in federal funding. Meanwhile, the Obama administration has not, as 
the president promised on the campaign trail, reformed faith-based funding to 
ensure, among other things, that groups receiving taxpayer aid do not
 discriminate in hiring." But, of course, the federal government awards funding 
to particular private organizations not as an act of favor but because those 
organizations appear to be the most cost-effective suppliers of services; and 
what critics term "religious job discrimination" in fact is a management practice 
that is undergirded by federal laws and court decisions.   

Take Note:  The Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance organized two 
letters from leaders of organizations of various faiths, protesting the mandate  
and narrow exemption.



Saturday, January 21, 2012

EconomicsAsia: Comparing 11 companies: Lee Kun-hee of Samsung 'most influential' leader

Lee Kun-hee of Samsung, the most influential business figure




Survey by AsiaN and AJA, 50 Asian journalists answered
Journalists of Asia think that Samsung is the most influential company in Asia. The AsiaN in association with the Asia Journalist Association conducted a survey on 20~30 November in celebration of its launch and 50 newspaper, TV, and online journalists of 33 different nationalities participated. The results show that the following Asian companies are influential in order of Samsung, Toyota, Sony, Tata, and apple.

Three names are allowed per journalist and Samsung is listed as number one with 31 votes. Toyota is number two with 20 votes. Sony with 14, Tata Group of India with 7 and Apple of the USA with 7 followed. Hyundai has 6 votes, CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation) has 4 votes, Huawei of China and LG of Korea have 3 votes each and Nokia and Panasonic have 2 votes each. Haier, Google, Gazprom, Honda, Nestle, Toshiba, Shell, Posco, Berjaya, Facebook and China Mobile have 1 vote each.


Who do the Asian journalists think the most influential business figure in Asia? Three names are allowed per journalist and Lee Kun-hee of Samsung is number one with 10 votes. First runner-up is Akio Toyota with 8 votes. Lakshmi Mittal of ArcelorMittal and Li Ka-shing of Cheung Kong Holdings have 5 votes each. Steve Jobs of Apple who died in last month and Ratan Tata of Tata have 3 votes each. The Saudi Arabian Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the actor Jackie Chan, Jerry Yang of Yahoo, Chung Mong-koo of Hyundai, Liu Chuanzhi of Lenovo and Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Limited have 1 vote each.






Both Indian and Chinese companies included
ASEAN companies including Malaysian one attracted attention
Apart from those above, the following business people have 1 vote each – the late Chung Ju-yung of Hyundai, Kim Seung-youn of Hanwah, Lee Soo-man of SM Entertainment, the analyst Vincent Chan, Wang Jianlin of Dalian Wanda Group, Robert Kuok Hock Nien of Malaysia, Yunus of Bangladesh, Azran Osman Rani of AirAsia X, Jack Ma of Alibaba Group, the late Konosuke Matsushita of Panasonic and Bill Gates of MS.
Meanwhile, Korean journalists answered in the survey conducted by the AsiaN in association with the Asia Journalist Association in November, Chairman Lee Kun-hee and Samsung as the most influential businessman and company respectively. First runner-up was Chairman Akio and his company Toyota. Other runner-ups were Sony, Hyundau, SINOPEC, Apple, Tata and SoftBank, ranked third to seventh.
AsiaN (December30,2k12)
— Re-posted here by EconoMix
general editor, refWrite frontpage