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World’s Poor Take on the West

Crucial global trade talks open in the luxury holiday
resort of Cancun today with 146 countries squaring up
for a bruising five days of negotiations amid little
expectation that much headway will be made to bridge
yawning gaps between rich and poor.

With security at an almost paranoid level – a third
Mexican warship anchored off the Caribbean beach
yesterday – the two big power blocks, the EU and the
US, were playing their negotiating cards close to their
chest.

But there was a new militancy among developing
countries, led by China, Brazil and India, which are
determined not to be bulldozed in the horse-trading.

Last night the town was brought to a halt by a march of
about 1,000 peasant farmers, indigenous peoples and
students who were stopped at the entrance of the
luxury hotel zone by thousands of police. No arrests or
violence were reported.

Whereas previous trade rounds have been stitched up
by the EU, the US and Japan, poor countries have
roundly rejected a last-minute deal on agriculture from
Washington and Brussels as inadequate.

Instead a coalition of developing countries,
representing 60% of the world’s farmers, has tabled its
own far more ambitious proposal, which would
substantially cut western farm subsidies – currently
worth six times more than all global aid spending.

An alliance of charities and developing world groups
yesterday demanded that these subsidies should be
reduced and that further liberalisation of the world
economy should be stopped.

“The failure of developed countries to honour their
commitments to a development round calls into
question the credibility of the WTO,” a spokesman for
ActionAid said.

The trade secretary, Patricia Hewitt, arrives later this
week to lead the British negotiating team, but the
environment secretary, Margaret Beckett, already here,
was optimistic yesterday. “There are a lot of delicate
and difficult negotiations ahead,” she said. “Most
people do not want these talks to fail. That would be
disastrous for the international economy.”

Nevertheless, delegates have been at each others’
throats in the weeks leading up to the meeting, on
everything from farm subsidies to intellectual property
rights.

A largely symbolic deal on cheap drugs for the
developing world is all there is to show for two years of
haggling since the new round of talks was launched in
Doha, Qatar, in November 2001.

There developing world countries were promised that if
they agreed to participate in the new round, the west
would phase out export subsidies which experts blame
for the mountains of cheap food dumped each year in
poor countries, bankrupting local farmers.

The EU and the US also promised to open their
markets to poor country agricultural exports and to trim
the most trade-distorting subsidies which keep their
inefficient farmers in business.

Two years after Doha it is clear that the EU would
prefer cosmetic to radical surgery. Having botched the
reform of its common agricultural policy, Brussels has
taken to denouncing developing countries for
demanding what was promised at Doha.

Washington blew its credentials as the champion of
farm reform when the Bush administration signed a
farm bill giving US farmers an extra $80bn (£50bn) in
subsidies over the next 10 years.

Trade experts say that without a deal on agriculture the
negotiations could stall in Cancun, making it even less
likely that they will end on schedule by January 1
2005.

“There are two requirements for a successful
outcome,” said Kevin Watkins of Oxfam.

“First, industrialised countries need to agree a clear -
and short – timeframe for eliminating export subsidies.
Second, they need to cut the production subsidies that
generate surpluses and facilitate export dumping.”

The most contentious area is the EU’s demand for
global foreign investment and competition rules.
Developing countries fear this could prevent them
imposing stringent regulations on foreign
multinationals.

Led by India, half the WTO’s developing-country mem
bers have signalled that they are unhappy about the
talks.

Investment is the issue most likely to cause a bust-up
in the EU caucus. Britain, once the most fervent
supporter, is back-pedalling furiously. If Pascal Lamy,
Europe’s senior negotiator, insists on forcing the issue,
he could face a rebellion in his own caucus room.

Privately, ministers hint that the round is unlikely to
end on time.

Key issues

Agriculture Developing countries want richer nations to cut huge farming subsidies

Industrial tariffs The US wants to open developing world markets to exports, but states fear cheap imports will swamp infant industries

Global investment EU wants WTO global rules putting foreign investors on same footing as local firms

Services West wants free trade expanded into service sector, where its banks and financiers enjoy advantages

Special deals for poorer countries Developing nations want concessions on onerous WTO rules and agreements

Tags: Poor, Take, West, World's

The West promotes Islamic Terrorism and the Extermination of Oriental Christians

The atrocious act of beheading in Mosul an Aramean priest, father Paulus Iskandar, kidnapped in the district Al- Sina’a on Monday 9 October 2006 by a unknown Islamic group in Mosul, illuminates very well the reality of a hidden war: that waged by the Atheist, pseudo-Christian, West against the Eastern Christians.

When today at 13.00 hour (Iraqi time) the funeral of the Aramaean priest took place, the British and the French should have been lowered, and honours of Hero offered by the respective ambassadors in Baghdad. There is no doubt that behind the murderous Muslim hand the European colonial empires have been hidden.

The fact that political and diplomatic classes in these countries may dismiss this historical conclusion as conspiracy-oriented illusion changes nothing in this regard.

Diachronic Western Christian Hatred against Oriental Christians

Missionaries sent at the times of the Ottoman Empire spread division instead of the union they were repeatedly promising, and for centuries. The first arrived there in the middle of the 16th century, and since the Aramaean Christians were settled in the Eastern Ottoman provinces and in the Western Iranian provinces, missionaries were long playing politics, promising help (hat never arrived) instead of religious doctrine modification.

The Christian Aramaeans were either Monophysitic (the term is conventionally used) or Nestorian, whereas non Christian Aramaeans were Gnosticist Mandaeans. By those days they consisted in at least 35% of the respective provinces that cover vast parts of today’s Western Iran, the entire South-Eastern part of Turkey (around ¼ of the country’s area), plus Syria and Lebanon. They were speaking various dialects of Syriac Aramaic, later phase of Jesus’ own language, a language and scripture of which originate Arabic.

The Western missionaries, although ruling the countries they came from (contrarily to the Eastern Christians who were minorities within the two superpowers of the Islamic World), must have felt a severe complex of inferiority towards the Aramaeans, whose language and scripture was the international language par excellence for many long centuries before and after the Islam, being used from NW Africa to China, and from Central Asia to the Eastern Coast of Africa. Latin and Ancient Greek had also been vehicles of international communication, but in a far more restricted area than Aramaic.

European Christians exposed Oriental Christians to Ottoman /Iranian punishment

After the perverse work of the criminal, bogus-Christian missionaries, Aramaeans within the Ottoman Empire were exposed through various activities (that were taken because of the false promises) in favour of Safevid Iran, and then severely reprimanded.

In the same way, Aramaeans within Safevid Iran were exposed through various activities (that were taken because of the false promises) in favour of the Ottoman Empire, and then thoroughly chastised.

European Christians split Oriental Christians

Furthermore, all the Aramaeans were exposed to further division, as some Nestorian Christians (renowned for more than 1000 years for their aniconic cult – they were not using icons or statues – and their rejection of Jesus’ divine nature) conditioned their faith and introduced Roman Catholic practices, accepted the supremacy of the Roman pope, and were convinced that they are …. “Chaldaeans”. With cuneiform scriptures forgotten, our understanding of the term was exclusively of Greek and Biblical connotation. What is true is that never Aramaeans had called themselves “Chaldaeans” before!

With more missionaries coming over the centuries to further destroy and damage the Oriental Christians, gradually Aramaeans were multi-split to Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, Presbyterians, etc, etc, etc. In the 19th century, the Lazarists pseudo-Christians, apparently working for the murderous freemasonic plans of the French Middle Eastern policy, started persuading unsuspicious Aramaean populations of Urumiyeh that they were descending from the glorious Assyrians of the Mesopotamian past, a heritage that Western scholarship had rediscovered – thanks to Sir H. C. Rawlinson’s decipherment – only to further use in the Orientalist alteration of History.

With our elementary knowledge of the Assyrian / Babylonian past, and our advance in the study of the Aramaean pre-Christian Antiquity, already before WW I we knew that
1. the Chaldaeans (Kaldu in Assyrian / Babylonian) were just one of the Aramaean tribes who lived in Southern Mesopotamia, and finally prevailed over the Babylonians,
2. the Assyrians were for no less than 600 the most ferocious enemies of the Aramaeans, never intermingled with them or other Middle Eastern peoples, and finally disappeared, leaving few traces in their posterity. Assyrian cuneiform was not written after 609 BCE (date of the real end of Assyria), whereas Babylonian cuneiform was still in use 600 years after the Achaemenid Persian invasion of Babylon (!), and
3. the Aramaeans were different people and culture of the Middle Eastern Antiquity, and although they formed many kingdoms (like that of Aram Dimashq) before they were all absorbed within Assyria (and then inherited to Nabonid Babylonia and Achaemenid Iran, Alexander’s Macedonia, Arsacid Parthia and Seleucid Syria, and finally to Rome and Sassanid Iran) played greater role in later times, as Aramaeans were better tradesmen than statesmen.

It was therefore clear that, for the Aramaeans, calling themselves Chaldaeans would be as comical as if the modern Greeks had called themselves Aeolians or Dorians (i.e. by the name of just one Greek tribe).

European Christians deprived Oriental Christian Aramaeans from their National History

Through all this, it can be easily understood that, as it happened in the case of Greece, and other national states (Bulgaria, Serbia, Israel) that were detached from the Ottoman Empire in order to be shaped into modern national states (although local populations did not wish so in the beginning, and they were pulled into the anti-Ottoman fight needs of France and England), Aramaean students from Urfa, Antakya, Homs, Tartous, Mosul, Julamerg (Hakkari), and Baghdad would travel to European capitals, like Greeks, Tunisians, Serbs, Egyptians, and others to study there their past, and then return home to set up the basics of National Education, Historiography, etc.

We do not intend to express here evaluations about this colonial plan; we simply state that young people from colonized / detached parts of the Ottoman Empire were accepted in European universities in order (not to learn and contribute to academic and scientific development but) to study falsified versions of their History, and be sent back with a false degree (“bon pour l’ Orient”) in order to impose version of National History that would fit the political – ideological – cultural needs of the Colonial Powers.

Contrarily to many other cases, this did not happen to the Aramaeans! Although one could certainly compile (as early as 1900) out of Assyrian – Babylonian, Aramaic, Biblical, Talmudic, Greek, Persian, Syriac – Aramaic and Arabic historical sources a National History of the Aramaean Nation, giving the modern descendants of the Kings of Aram Dimashq the diachronic insignia of 3200-year long continuity, this development was thoughtfully averted.

The reasons are many, and have to do with
a. several political machinations of colonial character in the Middle East,
b. the premeditated extermination of the Aramaean Nation, and
c. educational – cultural issues related to basics of the colonial fabrication of a bogus-History.

European Christians attempt to eradicate the Aramaeans in order to forge a perverse falsehood able to generate wars upon wars: Pan-Arabism

The political machination we have just referred to are relevant to the establishment of the falsehood of Pan-Arabism. French academia led the way in this regard; Paris needed to eliminate the Ottoman Empire, and for this reason the disreputable Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres forged a false nation, named ‘Arabs’.

To focus on Aramaeans would be detrimental against the promotion (during the 19th and the 20th centuries) of Pan-Arabism. That is why the French and the British eliminated Aramaean students from their universities, and they did not teach Aramaic History but in a fragmentary way, as if
1. Ancient Aramaic History is a department of Assyriology,
2. Late Antiquity Aramaeans are relevant of the History of the Roman Trade with China, and
3. Christian Aramaic History is not a real part of History, but a department of unnecessary – if not bizarre – Theology.

Criminal French pseudo-scholars eliminated Tatianus and a pleiad of other leading Aramaean philosophers, erudite scholars, learned scientists, and historiographers from their faslsification promoting syllabuses, and have insisted on doing so until now!

How could they keep diffusing the falsehood of Pan-Arabism, if someone, graduated from a Faculty of Aramaean Studies, asked:

- But all these Arabic speaking populations of Iraq, Syria, SW Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Emirates, SE Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine are of Aramean origin, aren’t they?

With focus on Aramean National History, one would easily understand that all these masses of Arabic speaking people are simply Aramaeans who were linguistically arabized because they accepted Islam. They have nothing to do with the Arabs of Hedjaz, and therefore there cannot be ‘Arab national history’ for non Arab peoples, in the same way the US Blacks are not part of the Anglo-Saxon History.

With focus on Aramaean National History, one would easily understand that the Aramaic speaking populations of the aforementioned areas are simply the descendents of the Aramaeans who did not convert to Islam. Not the only Aramaeans, but simply the Christian Aramaeans.

With focus on Aramaean National History, the Arabic speaking Muslim Aramaeans of today would be brought closer to their Noble Past, the Greatness of Palmyra, Hatra, Edessa – Urhoy, Rekem – Petra, Dura Europos, and the other royal moments of their glorious History. They would not be left to the nomadic barbarism of Arabic Hedjaz, and they would be socially – behaviourally attracted to better and higher standards of life; they would have never been engulfed in the despair of the Islamic Terrorism because they would not have been treacherously dispossessed of everything.

This is the criminal and antihuman result of the colonial atrocities of the demented French and British pseudo-humanist scholars: by dispossessing the Muslim Aramaeans of the Greatness of their Past (which was superior to the Greek and the Roman historical records – let alone the French and the British!), they pushed them to
1. Lack of Identity
2. Lower and Vulgar Behavioural System
3. Tolerance to Ignorance and Intellectual Stagnancy
4. Vast complex of psychological inferiority
5. Overall cultural shock and mental despair, and
6. Paranoiac – blind reaction in the form of a bogus-Islamic terrorism that was promoted by the French-British rejection to offer Christian and Muslim Aramaeans a National History and proper – Western (!) – Education and Culture. It was certainly promoted through machinations, not directly, but this is the essence of Colonialism: by depriving the Christian and Muslim Aramaeans from intellectually strong elites that would prevail over the ignorant sheikhs, driving them to a socio-intellectual margin, they made of these illiterate sheikhs the standard bearers of a falsely conceived national – religious – cultural independence.

The European Colonial Anti-Aramaean Hatred is Premeditated

Natural consequence of the increasing promises (made by the colonial criminals to the already multi-divided Aramaeans of the beginning of the 20th century) was the further exposure of the Aramaeans within the Ottoman Empire. The case is very similar to the Armenian issue.

Disreputable France may issue as many trash laws as its besotted Socialist parliamentary thieves wish, but the reality is this: France and Russia are the first and supreme responsible for the maltreatment of the Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman administration. French and Russian agents pushed the Armenians to high treason, to rebellion against their own state, namely the Ottoman Empire.

There is a vast difference between demanding one’s rights and siding with a national enemy. The criminal genocidal French must know this very well. What would happen to the Corsicans in WW I, if they rebelled against French police, siding with the Kaiser?

There is a fully and filthy cynical machination in this case: the French knew before it happened that, by pushing Armenians to sabotage among the ranks of the Ottoman army that was fighting against Russians, they were exposing them to lethal threat. They knew it, but did not care! The lives of the Armenians of Igdir did not cost 1/100 of the lives of a French of Elsass (why should we write this German word as Alsace?). This is the case of the – perpetrated by the French – Armenian Genocide; we referred somewhat extensively to this affair, because it is quite parallel to another – equally important issue – that the French did their ingenious (I should say Satanic) best to cover and to hide.

The European Colonial Stashing of the Aramaean Persecutions by Kurds in the Ottoman Empire and Iran

Yet, what occurred to the Armenians had happened under worse form to the Aramaeans of Julamerg (Hakkari), Urumiyeh, Tur Abdin and Mosul. The Patriarchate of Kutshanous has been totally destroyed, but probably the French enjoyed very much the disastrous loss of a multitude of 10-century old Syriac manuscripts that were all burnt and that is why, although vociferous about the Armenians, they never complained about the terrible events of 1915 – 1916.

Stashing the extermination of thousands of Aramaeans and the tsunami-like destruction of a sizeable part of the Human Cultural Heritage is one of the most forlorn pages of the History of European Shame.

Of course, at a moment the Anglo-French criminals were pushing with their Pan-Arabist fabrication, and dividing the illegally stolen Ottoman properties, they could not open discussions about Aramaean Massacres carried out by Kurds. This would offer the decimated Aramaeans a last chance to join forces against the merciless Scylla and Charybde of colonialism. It would generate undesired developments and put a certain hindrance to the colonial plan to vulgarize and besot the Middle Eastern masses for later use.

France and England must pay at least 1 trillion US $ (today’s value) for properties lost, mass eradication, and compulsory emigration that was the only choice for the Aramaeans of the first quarter of the 20th century. Millions of Aramaeans left for America, Europe, and other parts of the world, as it was planned by the French and the British who mounted their Pan-Arabist trap; the same situation continued during the times of the iniquitous mandate and the bogus royal / republican grotesque pan-Arabist chieftains. Only in the early 60s, the Aramaeans or Iraq were about 2 million people. France and England must pay for the Pan-Arabist tyranny that they ‘bestowed’ upon them with nefarious consequences. The only conclusion that can be drawn from the study of the criminal acts perpetrated by the colonial powers against the Aramaeans is the best advice for the US forces in Iraq.

America should create an Aramaean state as break wave against Islamic Terrorism.

Tags: Christians, Extermination, Islamic, Oriental, promotes, Terrorism, West

West meets tough opposition to farm subsidies

Washington and Brussels were last night trying to drive a wedge between a group of more than 20 developing countries which are holding out for deep cuts in the west’s lavish farm subsidies.

Despite the personal intervention of the US president, George Bush, the developing countries held firm yesterday and delayed the start of talks on agriculture, which are seen as crucial to a trade liberalisation deal in Cancun.

The EU, meanwhile, warned former colonies in Africa and in the Caribbean that their joining the so-called Group of 21 could well endanger their privileged access to Europe’s single market. Washington told Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala that if they left the G21 they would get a “sweetheart deal” giving them increased access to America’s $10 trillion economy.

“At every ministerial meeting we see the US and the EU playing divide and rule while claiming to act in the interests of developing countries”, said Duncan Green, of the Catholic aid agency Cafod. “Nobody believes them any more.”

Ahead of this week’s meeting of ministers from the World Trade Organisation’s 146 member states, President Bush contacted the leaders of four key developing countries, India, Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa, in an attempt to prevent their opposition of a deal on agriculture agreed by Washington and Brussels.

Brazil has led the opposition to the modest concessions offered by the EU and the US, and has become the target of Washington and Brussels, seen as the main obstacle to the west’s agenda.

Celso Amorim, Brazil’s foreign minister, stormed out of a late-night meeting with Washington’s main trade negotiator, Robert Zoellick, after the Americans demanded Brazil withdrew the G21′s alternative proposal on agriculture. Mr Amorim told ministers yesterday that the G21 represented 63% of the world’s farmers: “Our proposed framework incorporates significant negotiating positions [and] has been carefully designed, technically as well as politically. It cannot be ignored. Already we see a new dynamic which hopefully can lead to real negotiations.”

The hardline stance of Brazil and its allies forced the EU and the US to plan separate meetings with the G21 yesterday before the agriculture negotiations. “It’s very difficult to put the hammer on countries like China, India and Brazil,” said one senior trade source. “They are powerful separately, let alone together.”

The deputy US trade representative, Peter Allgeier, warned that all member states would have to compromise for a successful deal. He said he was perplexed by the G21 which includes both large, food exporting countries, such as Brazil and Argentina, interested in finding new markets for their produce, and countries such as India, which traditionally favour protection for their small farmers. “It is not immediately obvious that they are a coherent group.”

Washington’s attempts to appease anger in the developing world through concessions on cotton also ran into difficulties. West African countries are holding out for real cuts in the $4bn (£2.6bn) the US spends yearly subsidising its cotton growers who flood world markets with their surplus produce, depressing the prices for reportedly more efficient producers in Benin, Chad, Burkino Faso, and Mali.

Sources in Cancun said that the US position was made more difficult because it had to get any deal on cotton through Congress, where the chairperson of the influential senate agriculture committee came from Mississippi, the biggest cotton producing state.

Fatiou Akplogan, Benin’s trade minister, said: “If nothing is done urgently this could lead to the total loss of revenue for our producers, an increase in poverty and destruction of our economic system.”

Yesterday, the director-general of the WTO, Supachai Panitchpakdi, took charge of the negotiations.

Tags: Farm, meets, opposition, Subsidies, Tough, West

Grand theft in the wild west: the end of the affair

America Online executives regularly flouted conventional accounting practices, according to an explosive book that lifts the lid on the “wild west” atmosphere that surrounded the company’s record-breaking merger with Time Warner in January 2000.

Alec Klein, the Washington Post reporter who broke the stories that led to a US government investigation into accounting practices at AOL, claims in his book, Stealing Time, that employees routinely bent the rules during the internet company’s salad days of the late 90s.

“By late 1999, many companies seeking to do business with AOL were no longer viewed as potential partners. They were a target, to be used,” writes Klein. In the book, published in the US this week, he details how AOL deal-makers would find out how much a “target” dotcom had raised in funding and then aggressively go after half its money.

Klein conducted interviews with hundreds of employees at AOL and Time Warner, including the ousted AOL Time Warner chief executive, Gerald Levin. “Fuck ‘em, that was our mantra,” one AOL executive told Klein. “We’d say that all the time, we took it to heart. Destroy ‘em. Fuck ‘em. We lived by that.”

According to the book, the hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into AOL in the form of advertising revenue generated an “anything goes” culture.

The high-rolling dotcom era also contributed to excesses that made the yuppies of the 80s seem tame, according to Klein. “The dotcom feeding frenzy was creating obscene riches at virtually every level of the company,” he writes, describing how one top AOL marketing official had her personal stair climber machine shipped to every hotel in which she stayed. When, on one occasion, it failed to turn up, she simply bought a new one and left it in the hotel.

Klein described how, as the merger between the two parties grew closer, AOL executives were anxious to keep advertising revenues rolling in to avoid a slump in the share price that could put the deal at risk.

“We had to maintain this facade, to show [Wall] Street that AOL was not backing away from its numbers,” an AOL insider told Klein. “At this point, we understood we couldn’t tell the Time Warner side how much trouble we were in.”

Many of the allegations centre on AOL’s business affairs unit, headed by David Colburn, who earned the sobriquet “god” within the firm. Last year Colburn was ousted from AOL and has refused to comment on allegations of improper accounting. In one bizarre episode, Klein describes how Colburn invited three rabbis to a company party to pray for AOL’s share price to rise.

“The rabbis weren’t just there to pray for AOL stock. He offered a deal: if each rabbi agreed to pray for AOL’s shares to rise to a certain level and they hit that level, Colburn promised to donate $1m to a Jewish cause,” claims Klein.

“Colburn’s unit could have been called the wild west. When AOL was negotiating with another company, deal-makers said some of their colleagues who knew of the transactions but were not directly involved would use that information to buy stock in the other company before its deal with AOL was announced publicly,” he adds. There is no suggestion Colburn was aware of this activity. He also goes into further detail about the inflated deals that led to AOL admitting last year it had overstated its accounts by $168m (£100m), prompting a government investigation.

One unconventional deal uncovered by Klein involved the British racecourse owner, Wembley, which owed AOL £13.7m from a legal dispute.

According to Klein, AOL offered to settle the debt by selling Wembley £13.7m in online ads and, with the quarter due to close, went ahead and booked them without telling the client. Klein also claims that business affairs officials ordered AOL employees to take artwork from the company’s 24dogs.com site and create their own banners and buttons, which were soon spread throughout AOL’s websites.

Since the $159bn (£94bn) merger in January 2000, then hailed as a revolutionary deal that would transform the media world, AOL Time Warner’s stock price has collapsed. Revenues and subscriber numbers at the internet division slumped, and the anticipated overlaps between AOL and Time Warner’s film, music and magazine publishing divisions failed to materialise.

According to Klein’s book, there was a culture clash from the beginning, as seasoned Time Warner executives reacted with horror to the dotcom upstarts moving into their building.

“Colburn, AOL’s notorious deal maker, was hunched over a conference table in the boardroom, reviewing the deal terms, when he turned to a Time Warner executive and curtly ordered him to fetch some more documents,” Klein writes.

“The Time Warner official, unused to doing the bidding of another, took umbrage. ‘You act like you’re taking us over,’ he intoned. ‘We are,’ Colburn snapped.”

This mismatch would eventually lead to the departure of virtually all the top AOL Time Warner executives involved in the original deal – including Steve Case, who stepped down as chairman last year, chief operating officer Bob Pittman and former chief executive Levin.

AOL Time Warner declined to comment on the book’s disclosures.

Tags: affair, Grand, theft, West, Wild

Charleston West Virginia

Even if it merely survives a weekend, it is very important that each vacation must be spent in enjoyment and relaxation.

Not many people have the vacation they imagine. Even planning it takes a lot of effort to make ones vacation successful. Some of the travel problems could be about monetary resource, the weather condition or the deficiency of a good places to travel.. But if you think of West Virginia you do not have to worry about your finances anymore because the expense is reasonable. You can never tell what mother nature is gong to do so weather is something nobody can ever ascertain. West Virginia is located in the eastern part of the US and at several spots are bordered by Virgina and Maryland.. It is relished by everyone that vacations there because of the great mountain landscape views it offers. It is rich not only with natural beauty but with corporate housing in Charleston West Virginia as well. The whole commonwealth possesses four major cities which have wealthy cultural and historical backgrounds. Any kind of vacation in Charleston West Virginia is ensured to institute entertainment because you can try visiting each of the four cities and discovering something new and desirable in them. In addition to, there are national parks, national and state forests, state parks and historical places you may attend.

If you’re concerned about bearing the correct budget in visiting West Virginia, be confident that it ought to be the least of your concerns. Inexpensive weekly rates in Charleston WV grant every visitor or traveler a sigh of relief. The values give them the opportunity to prolong their stay and delight in to a greater extent what the city offers. Accommodations in Charleston WV ensure that you will be able to have the perfect place to spend your vacation no matter what your budget is. Relaxation depends a good deal on the quality of comfort hotel rooms have got. In Charleston West Virginia, you can unquestionably unwind. To the highest degree hotel rooms also offer great amenities like wireless internet, two-line desk phones and refrigerators on asking. These comforts not merely give comfort but are also accommodating if you abruptly have to do something for work. Because accommodations is inexpensive, there is no rationality for you to not take the entire household or all your acquaintances for a weekend getaway.

There’s an unsettling feeling in having to leave behind your pets behind while you are going on vacations. Although most youngsters love vacations, you have to hear them sound off about leaving behind their furry friends at home on the ways. Not only is this theatrical, it also brings down the modality of everyone. Accommodations in Charleston WV include accommodations for pets. In West Virginia, everyone are welcomed and that includes pets. Pet-friendly hotels in Charleston West Virginia are there so your pets likewise can have a extraordinary time. With this, every youngster will look forward to vacations. Whenever it’s in West Virginia, you actually can bring your entire household to a vacation.

During their stay, numerous visitors are bewitched by the numerous things this place extends. These and the incorporated living accommodations in Charleston West Virginia are the primary reasons why most people who come to visit are enticed to abide here permanently. Relocating to Charleston West Virginia is a lingering thought in many of its visitors. Why not when it’s a genuinely impressive place with its self-generated wonderment’s and law-abiding communities?

Tags: Charleston, Virginia, West

What’s Hot in the West End? A Guide to the Top London

When visiting London, the first question you need to ask yourself if whether you want to see a musical, comedy or play and the second question which you must ask yourself is which show to attend! Anything that you could wish to see is always playing in London’s West End. Just be sure to book your tickets ahead so you don’t miss the shows.

Even if you have seen a production of a Musical in another country, London’s West End can offer you another view of the same show. Many times the productions are varied enough that the show which you saw before is barely recognizable. If a new actress or singer is in the lead role of a production, the entire experience is altered into a fantastical one which will leave you delighted time after time. So be sure to check out what is available in London’s West End and book ahead. You don’t want to miss out on the show of the season.

So what’s hot in the West End right now? Here is our Guide to the Top London Theatre Shows. There are several Plays, Comedies and Musicals which you can enjoy while visiting London. Here are some of the amazing shows which you might want to catch this season:

Adrian Grant’s “Thriller Live” which pays homage to the late Michael Jackson. It is a live production that will make you remember the best of the “King of Pop’s” greatest hits. The music is perfection and the choreography is just what is needed to make this event the show of the year. Do not miss out.

Maurine Dallas Watkins’s “Chicago” staring Ruthie Henshall, Terra C MacLeod, Ian Kelsey, David Ganley and Jasna Ivir. It is one of the hits of the season which will leave you wanting more. The choreography by Ann Reinking is stunning. The cast is flawless and the costumes will take your breath away. It is one of the best productions of “Chicago” yet to date.

When it comes to Comedy you simply must catch Jason Moore’s “Avenue Q”. It is a fun and lively comedic show which everyone has loved from the start. “Avenue Q” is hip and young and the perfect thing to catch while visiting London’s West End.

If you wish to catch a play while visiting the hippest part of London’s best, then be sure to see Stephen Daldry’s “An Inspector Calls”. It is running at the Wyndham. This production reminds one of the days when a play had a special pleasure to it. This will make an evening in London’s West End the perfect night event.

Also playing is William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. While you might have seen it elsewhere, if you’ve never seen it in London’s West End then you haven’t seen “Twelfth Night” at all. You simply must see this wonderful production of staring Richard Wilson, James Fleet, Richard McCabe, Nancy Carroll, Alexandra Gilbreath, Jo Stone-Fewings, Sam Alexander and Miltos Yerolemou. It is wonderful and a Classic to be enjoyed. It is playing currently at Duke of York’s. London and Duke of York’s is a perfect night out for you and that someone special.

At ticket vendors online there are often special offers to be had. Be sure to ask about the reduced prices for many productions. Also remember that booking ahead can often save you not only time, but money as well. Enjoy the night in London’s West End this season for the shows that will make your Thespian Heart soar!

Tags: Guide, London, West, What's

Academics appeal for West Bank education rights

An international group of distinguished academics – including the philosopher Jacques Derrida and Hilary and Steven Rose – have signed up to an appeal to support students’ right to education at Birzeit University on the West Bank.

The appeal comes after the university was, for the first time in its history, entered by Israeli forces on Saturday.

According to the university’s head of external relations, three Israeli Army vehicles entered the gates on Saturday in what, she said, amounted to a “clear violation” of international law.

“By chance the university president was nearby as the troops entered. He stood in front of the jeep to stop them getting to the administration building, there was a severe exchange and then they left. He asked if they had military orders, he was sure that they hadn’t.

“This has never happened before. We don’t know whether it was on the soldiers own accord or not, but it was a clear violation,” Riham Barghouti told EducationGuardian.co.uk.

She added there was concern within the university that the visit was a warning of things to come. The university is taking the issue up with international organisations, including UNESCO, which deal with violations to human rights and academic freedoms.

Since March 2001, roadblocks have severely restricted the movement of staff and students in and out of the university. Since April this year, curfews in Ramallah, eight miles away from the university’s campus, have caused further disruptions. Ms Barghouti explained that the university had been taking special measures to ensure its 5,000 students and 700 staff complete the semester’s work – already two months overdue – despite the curfew and road blocks.

Students and staff are increasingly living on campus, and distance learning is being developed for those with internet access.

“Birzeit has limited resources but this has become the priority, without it [internet access] the university would collapse,” Ms Barghouti said. She added that the distance learning and development of internet communications as an emergency measure was also adding to the long term development of the university’s IT capacity.

The road from Ramallah leads to the University and 27 small villages. University insiders are convinced that the sole purpose of the roadblocks is to disrupt the workings of the university. Last October students demonstrating at a roadblock were shot at with rubber bullets by Israeli soldiers.

A distinguished list of academics, writers and artists this month signed an appeal for support of academic freedom at the university. The effect of the curfew and road blocks put the “future of the university at grave risk”, according to the appeal.

“We believe that these measures, resulting in the virtual strangulation of a major Palestinian institution, violate international humanitarian law, including provisions against collective punishment and guarantees for the protection of civilian populations under military occupation, students’ right to education, academic freedom, and the fundamental rights of human beings to live in dignity and freedom,” it concludes.

It calls for immediate action from the Israelis to “restore the right of education to Birzeit University students” by removing road blocks and curfews, and for the international community to “assume its responsibility under humanitarian law by taking real and concrete steps to provide protection to the Palestinian civilian population”.

The appeal is signed by 32 academics and artists from 12 countries, including Steven and Hilary Rose, who were at the centre of the debate over an academic boycott in the UK.

Ms Barghouti said of the appeal: “It’s of utmost importance to have international support. It’s important that everyone has the right to education, but it also creates an alternate image of who we are and what we’re trying to do as Palestinians and academics.”

Tags: Academics, Appeal, Bank, Education, Rights, West

West African Criminal Networks of Illegal Immigration

Each year tens of thousands of people from West African countries are transported by road to North Africa, mainly Morocco, from where they to Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar, whether hidden in trucks, which make the journey aboard ferries, or rafts.

In some cases there is also the smuggling of illegal immigrants by sea directly to France and Italy from North African countries.

The German authorities have discovered the following routes used for smuggling illegal immigrants from West Africa:

- By air, from Nigeria to Germany, the Netherlands or Belgium.

- By air, from Nigeria to Italy, which plays an important function as a distribution center, and from there to Germany, the Netherlands or Belgium.

- By land, sea and land again, following the Nigeria – Morocco – Spain – France – Germany.

Sierra Leone and Liberia are also among the countries of origin, and that women are encouraged to enter Ceuta, Spanish city located in the North African coast, to become pregnant and then ask the Spanish authorities that the move to mainland Spain. In fact, it appears that more and more visibly pregnant women or newborn children seeking access to mainland Spain aboard rickety boats.

The Spanish authorities also found the use of a route by air and by land: immigrants come from Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and fly in directly to the Netherlands, from where they travel to Spain by train.

According to British authorities, illegal immigrants from West Africa arrive to the United Kingdom mainly by air. In this country it has been found also an organized child trafficking by Nigerian, who poses as their parents. It has often been used in Ireland as the first point of entry into the European Union on its way to the UK. In general, as reported by the BKA, Nigerian often organizes marriages of convenience to facilitate illegal immigration and encouraging the commission of other crimes.

The Irish authorities have reported that 50% of Nigerian emigrating to the European Union chose Ireland as a destination. In the first ten months of 2004, 2864 Nigerian applied for asylum in Ireland. Nigerian companies and individuals seek for massive invitations to conferences, which are used to obtain the travel documents. After arrival they interrupt contact with the university or institution that has sent the invitation.

According to Nigerian police, in 2004 a total of 7206 people, mostly girls, were deported to Nigeria, 80% of which came from Saudi Arabia, Italy and Spain. However, only 21 people were arrested and charged on the export of minor to perform work in inhuman conditions. Since the estimated price that this type of offenders charged only for a voyage by sea from the Gulf of Hammamet (Tunisia) to the Italian coast is 1,000 USD per person. Although it is possible to calculate the real benefits obtained with this business, there are reasons to believe that their actual costs are low. Therefore, given the few arrests that are practiced in connection with this crime, it seems that the smuggling of migrants is a profitable, low risk, with great potential to interest the West African criminal networks.

The prostitution rings in West Africa, and in some cases complicit in other places, recruiting women between 15 and 35 years primarily in Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana and Sierra Leone. It is estimated that only Europe arrive each year to 10,000 Nigerian women trafficked. Some of the victims of this business knowingly accept work as prostitutes, while others are attracted to other countries with the promise that there will work as models, in companies or as domestic workers, or that will be offered the opportunity to study. Arriving at his destination the captors confiscated his passport. For example, one known case in which the Nigerian network tried to use Guinea as a transit country of 35 girls for the sex trade in Europe, mainly in Italy.

According to information available, the European Union countries which are used as destination point for these women are Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Spain, France and Italy. This does not mean that other European countries are not affected by this type of crime committed by the West African networks. Switzerland is another country. Often women are victims of this crime to be exchanged between different groups to be exploited in various countries. According to reports, these exchanges have taken place in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

The information available indicates that INTERPOL most used routes in this activity are air, directly from Nigeria to France, Italy and the UK. But there have also been other overland from West Africa across the Sahara and then by sea across the Mediterranean to Europe.

In Germany and the Netherlands have been detected using voodoo rituals. The woman is led first to a voodoo session in their home country. Then in the destination country of the European Union is preparing a package according to the rituals of voodoo and is given to a member of the network as a guarantee of the obligation for women to pay the “debt” owed by eligible transport and receive a series of forged documents. To pay this “debt”, women are prostitutes on the streets or in brothels run by madams originating in West Africa. According to Germany, these madams are in turn controlled by low-level traffickers often contracted marriages of convenience with local criminals to obtain a residence permit. If necessary, use violence to control women. It is difficult to take action against this type of network since, as is customary in the West African organizations, there is often no clear link between petty criminals and responsible for the network.

Often, the victims of this crime do not cooperate with security forces, either by fear of violence can be exercised against relatives in their home countries or superstition. The police forces must take this into account if they wish to improve their effectiveness in combating such networks. When women pay the “debt”, they return to their home countries or stay in the European Union, effectively “promoted” to the position of madam.

Tags: African, Criminal, Illegal, Immigration, Networks, West

YouTube - West Los Angeles College Go West Go Far

West Los Angeles College, founded in 1969, is part of the California Community College system. We are located in the hills of Culver City on 70 beautiful acres with views of Marina del Rey, West LA…

Tags: Angeles, College, Far, West, YouTube

Drug Trafficking in West African Criminal Networks

Poor countries are a source of production or transportation of illegal goods or as transit points for trafficking, while developed countries offer clear opportunities for the sale and acquisition. These countries have more interest for criminal groups as a base for their activities, namely:

a) In the European Union, Ireland – UK – Germany – Netherlands – Belgium – Italy – Spain

b) In Latin America and the Caribbean-Netherlands Antilles – Venezuela – Peru – Ecuador -Brazil

c) In Asia – Afghanistan – Pakistan – Thailand

d) In the Middle East, Lebanon – Dubai – Bahrain

West African criminal networks operate with great ease and flexibility. Often they change people with whom they work, sometimes because the nature of the crime, others to confuse the police.

In addition, in West African cultures there is a strong sense of family ties, as reflected in the fact that they are always willing to help their relatives, often without reserves. This feature can explain the corruption in Nigeria and other countries in the region. Moreover, these networks share information for their activities. The operational method used successfully by a group can be then used by a different group composed of other members. They collaborate with other criminal groups, including Colombian and Pakistan drug trafficking organizations discreetly in the background, escaping from the attention of the police and the general public.

The network leaders encourage people who are part of the influential circles of Nigeria to support the activities of criminal networks in West Africa, with the promise that they will hold financially and help them preserve their privileged status.

The activities of these networks we can distinguish four categories:

1) Traditional crimes;

2) Crimes that support to other crimes;

3) Enabling criminal activities;

4) Combining crimes.

Usually, the West African criminal networks prefer to be engaged in long term business relations by distributing products in bulk to minimize the risks of detection, even if that represents less profit. These networks have relationships with the Colombian and Pakistan cartels in the field of trafficking in cocaine and heroin, respectively.

Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa are countries where they store cocaine and heroin for distribution worldwide. The linkages between the activities of distribution of cocaine and heroin that carry out the West African criminal networks are significant in Europe.

The Austrian police have reported that heroin and cocaine markets in the country are controlled by West African networks operating internationally and whose members, from the highest-level dealers to those working in the street, are natives of this African region. Similarly, although traditionally these criminal networks are using the technique of “shotgun” (sending many mules with small amounts of drugs each) to transport drugs, they are now also using them for remittance of larger amounts of money.

Cocaine

Cocaine trafficking is a very popular activity among West African networks and that it is very lucrative. The cocaine-producing countries are Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, but the West African criminal organizations prefer to install their operating bases in neighboring countries or in countries close to them. This imply a strong presence in Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil (where lives more than 50,000 Nigerian) and the Netherlands Antilles.

These networks may occasionally arrange transport of large shipments of cocaine by sea, usually prefer to minimize the risks by sending small remittances through postal systems or smugglers. Recent developments in Curacao show that the frequency of deliveries of small quantities has increased considerably in recent years.

Often the courier companies are the way chosen by Nigerian criminal organizations to transport cocaine from Ecuador and Venezuela. The Netherlands, France, Spain and Italy are the European Union countries used by these networks as transit points for drugs en route to Nigeria. Cocaine is shipped from Brazil in large volume shipments. These shipments pass through Nigeria and other West African countries. The final destinations are South Africa, the European Union and the United States.

In South Africa the crack trade is controlled by Nigerian and it is a business closely linked to the sex trade, because many women subjected to sexual exploitation in this country are addicted to crack and their customers are encouraged by them to consume it.

West African networks often use smugglers, particularly in Brazil and the Netherlands Antilles, for shipments to the European Union. The transport “mules” are recruited in Africa as well in the countries of origin or destination.

The recruitment of facilitators has grown into a specialized activity of certain members of the networks. The recruitment is to train the persons to take up their tickets and the money they need to travel, to receive the mules, escort and house them until the drug reaches its destination. Itineraries vary, but the most popular destination airports in the European Union are Amsterdam Schiphol, Madrid Barajas and Paris-Charles de Gaulle. Further distribution is responsible members of the network located mainly in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. The major destinations are Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy.

The drug transportation through “mules” is not an exclusive activity of organizations of West Africa, but it is certainly one of the areas of crime in which they excel. Therefore, the fact that a country suffers a serious drug problem may indicate that West African criminal networks are operating in it.

Heroin

Heroin trafficking networks in West Africa as supplying countries choose Pakistan, India and in lesser extent, Thailand, where there is a major Nigerian colony. Afghanistan is another source of heroin. Nigeria, Ivory Coast and South Africa are being used as major transit country for further distribution of heroin to the United States and to a lesser extent, Canada and to the European Union via Turkey.

Recently it has been known another method of sending traffic to Africa in heroin packets across Germany. The UK has served as a transit point for heroin bound for the United States. Other places of transit are Dubai and Lebanon.

More and more heroin is consumed in South Africa, which could mean that West African networks have chosen this country and storage center for the drug.

Ecstasy

In January 2009, South Africa apprehended 27,000 ecstasy tablets. The “mules” that made the transport were a Burundian and a Nigerian, arrived by air from Belgium. The tablets were found inside speakers.

Interpol General Secretariat has noted the involvement of Nigerian in the importation of large quantities of ecstasy tablets as further retail distribution in South Africa. According to the reports provided, the tablets come from the Netherlands.

Since the Netherlands and Belgium are the major producers of ecstasy in the world and the West African criminal networks are present in both countries, the trafficking of this drug could become a new source of illicit income for them.

The process of developing the drug and access to chemicals and equipment necessary for their manufacture is simple, and that its traffic has high profitability, it is foreseeable that West African groups living in South America gradually will become involved in this business producing their own.

Tags: African, Criminal, Drug, Networks, Trafficking, West