French kissing

What is wrong with the French?
It seems that the leaders of France are suffering severly from Megalomania.
Rafarrin has visited China recently and signed trade deals worth about 2.4 billion Euros, in the wake of this France are both backing Chinas new secession law, mainly constructed to keep Taiwan on hold and inbounds and not search for international recognition as a state, and France also wants China to be able to buy weapons in order to put strength behind their new anti secession law by ending the weapons embargo against China.

What are the French up to? Not only are they jeopardizing the new EU constitution by the grandstanding of Chirac but now Rafarrin all of a sudden is deciding the EU foreign policy and also putting down a studded boot on Taiwans right to exist as a sovereign nation. Perhaps we should start a vote for France to seceed from EU, without France things would be better. Thankfully we have UK to put things in perspective, there should be no end to the Chinese weapons embargo as long as their politic is one of brute force and intimidation of countries that deserve their freedom.

The opportunism of the French is a blemish for the French people, it is time to wake up and realise that the French state no longer is an empire or plays a big role in the world, these actions only hightens the disliking of French politics and also makes it harder to produce a EU foreign policy when one country constantly moves on it's own agenda based on dreams of yore.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1559253,00.html

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

Wehrmacht pope

So we have a new pope, I must say I am disappointed in several ways.
First Ratzinger is from Europe, the Catholic church is expanding the fastest in Africa and SouthAmerica, why not take a pope from one of those two areas.
Ratzinger is also as conservative as John Paul was and will most likely keep the traditional Catholic view on contraceptives, thus ensuring the proliferation of AIDS in Africa.
Lastly, Ratzinger is 78, how long before we have to do this all over again? A new conclave to choose a new pope, his own brother admitted that he should have refused to be a pope.

There are also many rumours about Pope Benedictus XVI relations to Hitler Germany during the war, he has admitted to be a member of the Hitler Jugend and was also a soldier in the Wehrmacht towards the end of the war guarding a BMW factory.
Was he forced in like he says? Or was he, along with alot of others, duped by Hitler?

Questions remain, all in all I feel that the Vatican has made a mistake.

Sincerley
Mr Silence Dogood

The problem with taxes

The world bank has, according to Swedish newspapers, proposed a global tax on Internet and airline flights.
Of course I was checking my calender hoping to be brought back to april 1 but it seems that date has passed already. Swedish goverment is positive, of course it's a tax.
But there are some issues, who would collect the tax? To what purpose? Where would the money go? How will they make all countries change their legislation to allow for a NGO to have taxationrights over the citizens?

It's all a sham I tell you, Socialistic kneejerk reaction of proposing taxes with no clear goals or structure in how to get there, we need to make everything equal...

I'd rather make all poor people rich and starving people full instead of putting my energy to make rich people poorer, seems to be a waste of energy, buth then again thats me.

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

A Brown day for IMF

"I do not accept the IMF’s statement. I say this with respect to the staff of the IMF. They’ve been wrong before - we’ve achieved high levels of British growth. I believe they are wrong again." - GORDON BROWN

Now Mr Brown, what does this mean?
The proposed budget for the UK has a black hole according to the International Monetary Fund, the hole is calculated to £12 billion and the IMF states that Mr Brown will have to raise taxes or cut the spending proposed in this years budget. Mr Brown of course denies the need for a tax increase, wise after the Socialistdemocrats in Sweden announced a raise in taxes as a promise for next years election caused a landslide in electoral votes.

The managing director of IMF, Rodrigo de Rata was challenged by Mr Brown in a joint pressconference. de Rata claims that the British budget is spending more than they will get in taxes. Browns response to this was
"I will not accept its recommendations and we will go ahead with our public spending plans."

Isn't it lovely when goverments spend your money without making sure they have the money to spend? Mr Brown also conveniently disregards the fact that IMF is not alone in it's assessment of the British economy, HSBC, Barclays Capital, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and even Deutsche Bank claims the same thing as IMF, in order to keep the budget taxes must be raised or they will have to cut spending. But then again this is Mr Brown, he knows better than all these respected financial institutes.

So to sum up:
• Gordon Brown claims IMF figures on UK economy are incorrect
• IMF claims chancellor will have to cut spending or raise taxes by £12billion
• Brown also holds rotating chairmanship of the IMF

Ain't life grand? Let's hope for a more fiscal sanity after the election. That goes for you to Mr Nuder, the jobless growth in Sweden is not what we need (nor more jobs in the public sector to keep unemployment figures down artificially).

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

The sick people

Swedes!
We are the sickest people in Europe, this of course, has no relation to the fact that we have extremely generous benefits. Johnny Munkhammar's blog (In Swedish) talks about this very good, I have translated pieces for the benefit of non-Swedish speaking(/reading) people.

The average working person in Sweden paid last year about 30.000 SEK (US$ 4.200) to the people on sickleave. In the period 2000 to 2004 on average 14% of the Swedish population in working age were either on sickleave or early retirement, this was the highest number in the EU.
Sick leaves are increasing faster than the annual growth of the economy, add to this the (official) 6% unemployed, totally 20% of the workforce. Without breaking a sweat we can add 5% more to this number with all people not working or in unemployment schemes, this will now render the number 25% of the workforce, one full quarter living off taxes from the working part of the population. (My note: Remember we are only counting the people in the workforce, not total population). These 25% not only lives off the taxes, they do not contribute any products or services back to society. Statistics does not show that the rate of these early retirements or sick leaves are decreasing, quite the opposite, they are increasing. This is what is behind the speeches about helping the sick and unemployed, they are made dependent on public funds. Most of them would like to work if they just got the chance. Unless politicians were so eager to buy their votes with money from people that work"

This is wellwritten By Mr Munkhammar, question is what are we going to do.
The Swedish economy is growing, however the number of jobs are not, quite the contrary the rate has climbed somewhat. The Socialist also quite recently passed a law stating that the company has to pay more money when the staff is on sick leave, not only do they increase the benefits, they also dump the cost on the companies, soon smaller companies will require a illness history before hiring any staff. I guess this will be good days for the temp agencies though, just the development the Socialists say they want to stop. Aren't they cute?

Sincerely
Mr SIlence Dogood

Happy Birthday

Just want to wish a great woman a Happy Birthday.
I hope you get all the presents that you wish for and more, see you soon.

You are very special
and you deserve the best.
I wish you a wonderful life
filled with love and happiness.
I hope others bring you joy,
just as you've brought joy to me,
then you can weather any storm
and be all you want to be.

My Russian friend

While Putin is in Hannover meeting with Schroeder and signing trade treaties a new Yukos affair is rearing it's head in Moscow.
It was announced a couple of days ago that TNK-BP owed 1 billion US$ in back taxes from 2001, since TNK-BP didn't exist in 2001 these demands are probably on either slavneft or TNK prior to the merger with BP. Might this be another Yukos affair? Is the Kremlin out to consolidate the Russian oil market? This also raises the question on how much control Putin has in these questions. The handling of the Yukos affair left much to be desired when it came to justice and fairness and the company, when sold, was briskly picked up by government agencies.

Problem with TNK-BP is just BP, if Kremlin decides to go after this company then BP as a 50% shareholder and a west company will probably leave investments in Russia since the risk of nationalization seems to be large, other western companies might hesitate before investing in Russia, hence Kremlin is shooting themselves in the foot. Putin needs to go back to Kremlin and see what is going on before the Russian economy collapses.

Interesting reading about the Russian Oil industry

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

two interesting points in Sweden

Two things happened this weekend.

1. Ardalan Shekarabi, the leader of the Socialist youth organisation resigned today after allegations of misappropriation of funds and voter fraud. Shekarabi and his henchmen applied for structural benefits and through a number of accounts and organisations the money ended up in Ardalans campaign account. There has also been questions regarding voter fraud and inflated membership numbers (In Sweden a youth party organisation receives money from the goverment based on the number of members).

2. The Socialist party in Stockholm are having talks about impeaching Annika Billström Socialist mayor of Stockholm. Why? Well last year the CEO of Stockholm Waterworks (a municipal company with a Socialist as CEO put there as thanks for serving the party), she granted a loan on 2.5 million SEK without informing the board to a company run by her. Annika does the decent thing and fires her for these offences, what happens? Well, since the Socialists believe they run everything and can do anything they want Annika immediately was the target of ridicule within the organisation and now faces impeachment. Poor Annika, when she finally does a decent thing the rest of the socialists respond like thism they want their hegemony of the power to remain, we can do what we want, we are the Socialist party...

Sincerley
Mr Silence Dogood

Socialism clinging

Blair and other leaders of Socialistic parties are all fighting to keep industrial jobs within the borders of the country, I believe this to be wrong. We should not fight a loosing battle, we should not let the workforce put together coils or farming equipment when another country can do that cheaper.
Why you ask.
Simple, the western world is slowly (because of socialists) moving towards a Service community, we are leaving the Industrial society behind us and leaving that Industrial revolution that made us so prosperous to other countries that need to start making money and build an industrial base. Western Europe should concentrate on the transformation to a society void of most Industries, of course there will always be a modicum of Industries left, just like there are still farmers left.

The left is screaming about this and I believe it is due to the fact that the lefts voter base is largely composed of workers in the industry, they fear a service society since the voter would want more freedom and choice, within the industry it has been easy to maintain a us vs them but in the service society these lines are not clearly drawn. When we left the Agricultural society and entered the Industrial era there was no one to hold us back, now there is.
To talk about nonsense such as we are doing this for the best interest of the poor workers in China Cambodia and Baltic states is clear humbug.
These states will with a rise in industrial jobs get more money, the worker will improve his/hers and his/her familys situation, just like it happened here in Europe where it went from bad conditions to affluence for a large part of the population it will happen in China to, if we let it. It will even go faster because of the communication revolution we have seen as of lately, the workforce that seemed endless in China has lately started to migrate and move, make demands and increase their annual income. These are all good things.

So Mr Blair, let go of the old world, embrace the new world and give the developing countries a chance to break free of the poverty that so far has been keeping them in a stranglehold.
And while you are at it tell Mitterand and Schroeder to keep their hands off the Services directive. It is the best to come out of EU in a long time.

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

A Mexican standoff

occurring as a short notice in todays SvD (Swedish daily) it was told that the PRI and the ruling party PAN made common cause and voted to withdraw the immunity for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the popular Mexico City mayor belonging to the leftist party PRD.
Mexico is a strange country, like in Sweden one party has ruled it like their own backyard until last election were PRI was ousted after 71 years and PAN, the right wing party took office headed by Vicente Fox. Apparently we can now see what power corrupts since PAN and PRI joined forces to oust one of the more popular contenders for the presidency.

So what is this all about?
Well in 2001 Obrador disregarded a court order to stop a road construction leading up to a hospital, the road was built and this is now being used against a person that has long been a leader in the polls for president in the election next year. If Obrador is indicted and sentenced he can't run for office in 2006 and he will also be forced to step down as mayor of Mexico City. Two of the parties saw their chance of getting rid of the one serious contender so that they can grasp the office they would have been denied. I find this appalling and despicable.
I am no friend of the left, I loath their view of people and their way of destructively build a society, however I am a warm friend of democracy and to remove a political candidate in this manner reeks of foul play, bad self esteem and a disregard for democracy and the voters.

I sincerely hope that this decision will come back to haunt both PRI and PAN, I hope that voters will turn out and vote, however much it pains me, for the left in the election 2006. There has to be a sincere and noticeable backlash to circumvent democracy in this blatant try.

Shame on you Vicente Fox, shame on the PRI and the PAN. However my personal feelings towards leftists and socialists I will root for Obrador to beat this wrap and punish the foul players in the next election.

Viva Obrador

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

Going Dutch on referendums

It is coming up soon, the referendum for the new EU constitution is coming up in France. The latest 9 polls shows the No side to be winning not to surprisingly, however what is surprising is the Dutch decision to call off their own referendum if France votes no, not because the Constitution needs to be ratified by all 25 countries, no but because "The Dutch voters would be unduly influenced by a No in France".

One wonders if that logic does not stand if France votes Yes to the new constitution.
It is comments like these and the horse-trading of the Service directive that makes people more EU sceptic.
Right now we are debating a referendum in Sweden too, I hope they won't go for that basically because.
1. The issue is far too complex for ordinary Bobs and Bobettes to actually understand in the short timespan we have.
2. What would a No mean? Do we leave the Union? Was there a part of the constitution the voters disliked or was it the whole idea?
3. We have a Parliamentary Democracy in Sweden, it is not a direct democracy. In my mind the Germans have understood this and forbidden referendums. If we yell for a referendum every time an issue arises we need to either change our political system or our politicians, because we clearly don't believe they can understand the issues better than what we can with all the ABF study groups available...

So what now?
Well, If there is a No in France it's back to the drawing board and perhaps that is not too bad, the constitution as it stands now is far to powerless and would not serve as a good base for a European Union, perhaps it will be for the benefit of the Union if the referendum ends with a No, time will tell.

And France needs some time and space to put the "fear of the Turks" into Europeans too, they are not part of Europe, the Mexicans of Europe and all that. Perhaps LePen can do a comeback.

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

Luck 'o the Irish

Gerry Adams has called for the IRA to put down their weapons and stop the war, it is time to seek other ways for the Republicans to get a change in Ulster without weapons in hand.
Although I welcome this play by Mr Adams, I am not particularly fond of his statement
"Against mighty odds you held the line and faced down a huge military foe, the British crown forces and their surrogates in the unionist death squads,"

The IRA, or actually Provisional IRA as they are known, is nothing more than a terrorist organisation, they should not be hailed as freedom fighters as the IRA was know under the Easter uprising, or during the time of the Irish Volunteers or Irish Citizens Army. In 1921 Ulster voted to stay in Britain and the rest voted to seceded, they created what is now known as Republic of Ireland.

However, it seems to be an end to yet another terrorist organisation now, for some time the pIRA has been dismantling, even though some factions have kept up the noice like the Real IRA and the bombings of Omagh, there has been serious consideration by pIRA to lay down their arms and let Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein talk to the Brits.

The straw that finally broke the camels back was the bank robbery of the Northern Bank and the unprovoked killing of Mr McCartney outside a pub in Northern Belfast. The murder changed the normally silent majority against the pIRA and it is in this light that Mr Adams calls for the pIRA to lay down their arms and pursue a peaceful resolution of the conflict. In his own words:

"Since then there has been a vicious campaign of vilification against republicans, driven in the main by the Irish government," said Mr Adams - referring to Dublin naming him as a member of the ruling IRA Army Council.

So the struggle, he said, "can now be taken forward by other means". And he posed a question for the IRA: "Can you take courageous initiatives which will achieve your aims by purely political and democratic activity?"

All we need now is for Ian Paisley to step down. He is spreading his poison into the peace process and I view him as much of a show stopper for real talks as I viewed Arafat in the Middle East. Perhaps if we can get the Brits to silence Paisley and start some real talks we can see the chance for lasting peace in North Ireland and perhaps even Taoiseach Ahern will support a vote for reunification of Ulster to the other counties on Ireland. Time will tell...
Read the article in full about this story

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

On a more personal note

A brief discussion with my manager in EMEA has pushed back my move to Hong Kong by two months so instead of leaving for May 2 I will now move July 1. Still going though folks, on another more personal note I just have to say, I met a special someone, she is sweet, beautiful, smart, opinionated, stubborn and she likes basically the same stuff I do. I hope to spend more time with her but only time will tell.

In the meantime I'll continue to display all my rants here.
In waiting for my next rant please look at this link about Pencak Silac. Malaysia and Malaysians have always fascinated me.

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

The Sun didn't rise today (for labour)

Labour party, oh sorry, new Labour is not having a good time, even though Blair has officially declared election Labour is Labouring under severe stress, the Sun, usually a steadfast supporter of Blair has suddenly declared itself independent.
Oh my, what is Blair to do now? Without the support of Page 3 girls and the Tabloid sensationalism new Labour might just have their work cut out for them.

Although no one believes the election will go to the Tories, oh sorry Conservatives, New Labour will have to battle it out. Lately the Conservatives formerly known as the Tories have taken cue from the Liberal democrats it seems, they are blaming the poor economy on an influx of new EU citizens to the UK, Poles, Slovaks, Czechs and other people willing to work has sought themselves to the UK and lo and behold they get employment. Of course this scurvy has to be pointed out and fought.

Ah well what is there to say when people claiming to be liberal are actually stock conservative and quick to find external "problems". Although I do not care for Mr Blairs New Labour, the Conservative option just isn't viable in UK politics, they need another couple of years to grow into the new Costume.
Michael Howard needs to stop playing the fear card and embrace the new inner market, stop clinging to the Industrial society, embrace and accept that we have moved on to a Service oriented society just like we moved on from the Agricultural society, I find it hard to believe Michael Howard debating Tony Blair about the threat of Industry to the Agricultural society "that is the backbone of UK".

So there we go, let's see if Blair can get the Sun to rise again.

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood

F! strikes back

So it has happened, something we all been waiting for ever since the former Communist leader Gudrun Schyman got booted off the Communist party after newspapers found out she was cheating on her taxes, employed illegal cleaning help (a help she consistently denied others in parliament since it would be an income trap and only rich people could afford to use it, like her).

Gudrun is an acknowledged good orator, she is also a recovering alcoholic (at least alleged), we can still remember the "accident" at the theatre where poor Gudrun kust didn't make it to the bathroom in time (or perhaps she mistook the carpet for a toilet, what do I know what thoughts were dwindling down her brainstem at the time. Gudrun loves the limelight far to much to stay out of it and a feminist party is right now the only feasible way for her to get her cushy job back, she is now pushing, confrontational style feminism in Sweden, some years back she compared Swedish men to the Talibans and last year she proposed a tax for all men because there are some men that hit women and as such all men are guilty. I always welcomed that tax since all men then could slap Gudrun in the face once a year just for being such a populist, I mean we all pay for that privilige don't we? An extra fun tidbit was that Gudrun "revealed" the day after that she had been hit by her former husband, conveniently he was not in the country but was tracked down and it turned out there had been hitting however the other way around. We can't judge her too hard though, she had probably hit the Madeira hard those times, you know how that can be.

So back to F! Feminist Initiativ as they call themselves, FI is going to run a confrontational style feminism á la SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men). If you don't know about SCUM or Valeri Solana I propose you all read up on it, basically Valeri assumed all men being not more than apes and that all women had the duty to kill them whenever they had the chance. This is the type of radical feminism that grows rigth now, I am all for equality between the sexes however to push this type of radical left wing feminism in which you willify all men, even those that joins the feminism and helps the radical feminists (they are viewed as useful idiots and should be killed also in the end) will not help the cause or point out the structural discriminations in society.

I can only hope that this party dies on election day, but we will not know until next year if Gudrun will get her chance again, that she has had direct input over political life over the years without changing the society even though she claims that is her goal is not doing anything for her credibility.

She likes the money and the spotlight, she couldn't care less for anything else.
Shame on you Gudrun, for dragging equality down into the trenches where you will get your attention.