Burglary, murder and other crimes have increased in North Korea in the wake of the failed currency revaluation last November, an online news outlet run by North Korean refugees told The Korea Times on Wednesday.

The report came out after Won Sei-hun, director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), said last week that despite the internal trouble following the currency reform, the Communist country is still under control. He ruled out the possibility of a coup in the North.

The North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity (NKIS) reported that a North Korean was shot dead in a fight after he, along with several other hungry residents, attempted to loot food items by jumping on a train in North Hamgyeong Province.

The train shipping imported foods from China was passing through the region. The province shares a border with the northeastern part of China.

“A man, who was identified only as Jung, died during a physical fight with security forces,” the report said.

The NKIS Web site provides stories about what’s happening in the isolated state based on reports from secret stringers living in large North Korean cities.

The North Korean freelance reporters send their stories to the organization’s staff based in Seoul by cell phone on a regular basis, an activist of the organization told The Korea Times, asking not to be named.

She declined to give details on the secret reporters, such as the number of stringers and what cities they are based in.

The NKIS said residents in North Hamgyeong Province have been living in horror as several burglary and murder cases have been reported since last month.

Crime has risen in the North after the failed currency reform led ordinary people to face an even worsened economic reality. After the revaluation, prices soared, and it was harder for people to make ends meet.

When a cancerous metastasis spreads too much, a person usually dies as no further surgery is possible. When metastases invade a nation, surgery is mandatory, as physical death doesn’t apply. Italy is presently the most metastasized among Western political societies, and her cancer is corruption in public affairs.

In past weeks the alarms have become deafening. Political scandals have multiplied -national figures being sent to jail, or indicted for crimes that deserve jail; respected institutions (like Protezione Civile, a powerful sub-ministry, headed by Mr. Guido Bertolaso, which deals with emergencies) disgraced; lastly, a two billion Euro tax fraud, the biggest one in a couple of centuries (56 arrests yet to be made). The prestigious Fiat-owned daily ‘La Stampa’ has summarized the state of affairs as “Repubblica dei Corrotti”, meaning a country governed by the corrupt. Warnings of danger are becoming desperate.

In the years before and after the Great War many countries of the world were shattered by revolutions and/or authoritarian  coups d’Etat, some of which paved the way to WW2. What can Italy do in order to escape disaster? The obvious answer is – changing her ways drastically and as soon as possible.

Change 1: The profession of the career politician must be dismantled in a succession of strokes, with a shift from parliamentary democracy to a selective (restricted) direct democracy. Corrupt politicians should be sent to labor camps.

Change 2: The whole body of government officials should be invested by an extraordinary assault. In the 1914-18 war the most extreme punishment on mutinous or coward combat units was decimation- selecting by lot and executing by firing squads every tenth man of companies, regiments, even brigades. Nothing less than bloodless decimations will crush corruption in the Italian bureaucracy. In the top echelons of civil service one officer in ten must be indicted and suspended. Until they prove their innocence they shall lose salaries, pensions, benefits. Their properties, including houses, cars, boats, etc., must be temporarily confiscated or seized, their office shall be given to substitutes (who will themselves be subjected to the next decimation). The loss of some experienced bureaucrats will not be painless, but the lucky ones will work harder and practice less corruption. Such harsh measures will  beneficially terrorize rank and file too.

Change 3: Those business people whose deals involve taxpayer’s money must be ‘decimated’ in ways that are appropriate to them, beginning with huge fines, confiscations, time in jail and will get refunds if proved innocent.

The sinister establishment  which runs, even owns, Italy will never do the above things, which of course will be said to infringe the noble Constitution, the law codes, civil and human rights, and so on and so forth. Therefore, the establishment must be pulled down through a temporary breach of legality and by an emergency leadership. Present laws protect thieves and scoundrels too much. If nothing is done, metastases will ‘kill’ more than decimations.

Massimo Calderazzi is member of the Société Européenne de Culture, to which many eminent
scholars and a few Nobel prizewinners belong.

Joseph Stalin returns to the streets of Moscow. On the eve of the 65-year anniversary of the Great Victory, the name of the “Father of Nations” will not only be present in the vestibule of the Kurskaya Metro station, but also on information stands, which are being prepared for the holidays by the Committee on Advertising, Information and Displaying Advertisements in Moscow. News agencies, citing high-ranking officials from the Committee, reported yesterday that these stands, which are being installed at the request of the veterans, will provide information on Stalin’s role as the Commander in Chief and his contribution to the defeat of fascism.

This announcement was the highlight of yesterday’s press conference with the Advertising Committee’s head, Vladimir Makarov – which was his first press event since his release from the Pre-Trial Detention Center Number Five, where he had been held on criminal charges of abuse of power and damaging the budget of Moscow. Early this week, Makarov, who has been under arrest since the autumn of last year, was released after Moscow City Duma Speaker Vladimir Platonov volunteered as his guarantor.

But the significant news about the fact that the Investigation Committee under the Prosecutor General’s Office agreed not to insist on keeping the official under arrest (thus confirming that Russian law enforcement agents know means of constraint other than through arrests), faded after Makarov stated he is ready to meet the requests made by the veteran organizations and place a stand with information describing Stalin’s achievements in the center of the city. According to Interfax, which cited the First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Advertising, Information and Displaying Advertisements in Moscow, Aleksandr Menchuk, the main lobbyist for the return of the generalissimos to the streets of the country’s capital, was in contact with the head of Moscow’s Veteran Council, and it was he who appealed to the authorities with these requests.

Despite the fact that the willingness of Moscow authorities to set up information stands on Stalin in the capital has not been confirmed, the reaction of the democratic society to the statements made by the officials from the Advertising Committee were just as predictable as the veterans’ reaction to the “Anti-Soviet” sign above the shish-kabob bistro. Yesterday, leaders of almost all human rights organizations said that they find the emergence of Joseph Stalin’s portraits in Moscow and especially the praising of the role he played in the Great Patriotic War unacceptable.

“I hope that the authorities of Moscow will have enough common sense and competence to abstain from distributing similar posters,” Yan Raschinsky, member of Memorial Human Rights Center, told Vremya Novostei. “Such ‘immortalization’ is offensive to all nations of the Soviet Union, who won the war despite the mistakes and the crimes of the communist government, and despite the fact that Stalin’s policies enabled and approximated this war.”

Read more here.

Although memories of Pinochet-era human rights abuses rocked the final weeks of Chile’s presidential campaign, billionaire businessman Sebastian Piñera — a center right politician who voted to put an end to the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile’s 1988 plebiscite — won a convincing 51.6 to 48.4 percent victory over center-left Concertacion coalition candidate Sen. Eduardo Frei on Sunday, writes The Santiago Times.

Piñera won in 10 of Chile’s 15 regions, including most of the nation’s urban areas: Iquique, Valparaiso, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, Concepcion, Temuco and Punta Arenas.  Frei fared best in less populated parts of the country, though not in southern (Patagonia) Aysen, where residents strongly oppose government-supported plans to build a major hydro-electric dam project.

Frei conceded the election early Sunday evening in the company of former (Concertación) presidents Patricio Aylwin and Ricardo Lagos. Frei wished Piñera success as Chile’s next president, but said he and the Concertacion coalition that has governed the past 20 years are leaving power “with our heads held high.”

Former President Lagos spoke, too, wished Piñera well and repeated three times that the Concertacion has heard the nation’s call for a generational change in its political leadership.  Lagos then ceded the platform to three of the Concertacion’s most outstanding young leaders: Carolina Toha, Ricardo Lagos Weber and Claudio Orrego.

All three “new” leaders, however, have long belonged to Chile’s governing class and achieved their current leadership positions – at least in part – by virtue of their family name and political connections.

Before giving a victory speech to his supporters, President-elect Piñera phoned President Michelle Bachelet to express his hope that Chile’s most popular president (81 percent approval rating) would counsel him on how to best steer his government. He also said he hoped to continue many of the policies she promoted. The conversation was broadcast live on TV.

President Bachelet said she would be pleased to share breakfast with Pinera on Monday morning.

Read more here.

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The country dropped its long-standing blockade of a much-needed reform of the European Court of Human Rights on Friday when the State Duma ratified Protocol 14 to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Deputies voted 392-56 for the reform, with opposition coming from the Communist and the Liberal Democrats’ factions, Interfax reported.

The vote came as little surprise because United Russia, the ruling party that commands a two-thirds parliamentary majority, had announced in December that it would review its position after President Dmitry Medvedev asked deputies to take a fresh look at the matter.

United Russia and the Foreign Ministry said the Council of Europe, the organization overseeing the court, had made concessions that addressed all their reservations. Council of Europe officials, however, stressed that no changes to the protocol had been made.

Thorbjorn Jagland, the council’s secretary-general, promised during a visit to Moscow last month that ratification would significantly increase Russia’s influence over future reforms of the 47-member organization, Kommersant reported Saturday.

One of the reforms that Jagland will suggest this week is to strengthen the link between a member’s budget contributions and its number of staff in the council, the report said.

Such a reform would greatly benefit Russia, which last year contributed 12 percent to the council’s budget. “If this is implemented, the number of Russians in the council will be doubled,” an unidentified source in Strasbourg, the seat of the organization, told Kommersant.

Jagland on Friday praised the Duma’s ratification, saying in a statement that “Russia is sending a strong signal of its commitment to Europe.”

The country had been the only Council of Europe member that refused to ratify the protocol, despite the fact that a third of the cases flooding the court come from Russia.

Read more here.

Over four million girls between the ages of 6 and 11 do not have access to primary education in Nigeria, a joint UNESCO – UNICEF report has said. Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development Hajia Salamatu Sulieman disclosed this yesterday while on advocacy visit to Borno State. She described illiteracy as catastrophic for any child, especially the girl child, saying it exposes them to poverty, ignorance, maternal mortality, hunger, violence, abuse, exploitation, trafficking, HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

“As we all know, education is a basic human right, vital to personal and social development and well being. Therefore, all children including the girl child deserve quality education. Unfortunately, the child is often marginalized and her prospects are sacrificed when it comes to sending children to school. We see them often enough on the streets and at the markets hawking food and various wares. Although Nigeria has made steady progress in primary school enrolment, girls still account for more than half of the nation’s out of school children”, she said.

The minister said progress in girls’ enrolment, retention and completion would have to be twice as rapid as it is now, if Nigeria is to meet the Millennium Development Goal of achieving gender parity in education by 2015 including the attainment of universal primary education.

Read more here.

An independent United Nations human rights expert said today there are strong indications that the video of alleged extrajudicial executions by Sri Lankan soldiers that aired last August on British television is authentic, and called for an inquiry into possible war crimes committed during the conflict with Tamil rebels, says Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka.

Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, commissioned three experts in forensic pathology, forensic video analysis, and firearm evidence to examine the video, after concluding that the investigations carried out by the Government had not been thorough or impartial.

A forensic video specialist says footage broadcast by Channel 4 News, appearing to show the summary execution of Tamil Tiger fighters, wasn’t fabricated, as the Sri Lankan government has claimed.

It was a quick and violent end to a long and violent war; 80,000 dead; maybe 20,000 in what was called the No Fire Zone in the last few bloody weeks.

Tens of thousands of Tamil civilians caught up in the final showdown as artillery shells slammed down; both government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam accused of war crimes.

But journalists and independent investigators were denied access to the combat zone, and even after it was all over to eye-witnesses too. But reports still filtered out of unspeakable suffering.

Then, in August, this grim video was obtained by and broadcast by Channel 4 News.

The raw footage, a continuous shot one minute eight seconds long, purported to show the casual execution of eight bound, blindfolded, naked Tamil men by Sri Lankan government soldiers.

Read more here.

Armed conflict killed hundreds of children and adversely affected many others in 2009 – the deadliest year for Afghan children since 2001 – an Afghan human rights group has said.

About 1,050 children died in suicide attacks, roadside blasts, air strikes and in the cross-fire between Taliban insurgents and pro-government Afghan and foreign forces from January to December 2009, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) a Kabul-based rights group, said in a statement on 6 January.

“At least three children were killed in war-related incidents every day in 2009, and many others suffered in diverse but mostly unreported ways,” Ajmal Samadi, ARM’s director, was quoted in the statement as saying.

Security incidents increased 65 percent in the last quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, according to a report of the UN Secretary-General entitled The Situation in Afghanistan and its Implications for International Peace and Security.

A sharp rise in the civilian casualties of war in 2009 has also been reported: The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) recorded 784 conflict-related civilian casualties between August and October 2009 – 12 percent up on the same period in 2008.

“Both male and female children have been the increasing victims of war and criminality in Afghanistan but the government has not done enough to alleviate their hardship and to reduce their deprivation,” Hamida Barmaki, a child rights officer at the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), told IRIN.

ARM said it recorded at least 2,080 cases of grave violations of child rights in 2009. These included the recruitment of children as suicide bombers and foot soldiers, murder, rape, forced labour, and the denial of essential services by warring parties and criminal groups.

Insurgent attacks on schools, aid workers and facilities also deprived thousands of children – boys and girls – of access to education and healthcare, it said.

ARM has reported sexual abuse and the recruitment of children by police and private security forces, and has accused the Afghan government of doing little to stop unlawful practices.

Read more here.

In 1992, I immigrated to the United States along with one thousand other Tibetan refugees under a special United States government sponsored resettlement program. Prior to my departure, I sought an audience with our family spiritual teacher who we call a Lama. After some initial small talks, He told me, with much confidence that compassion for others is both good in itself, and also in one’s own self-interest. I had of course heard these sentiments before, but somehow His confidence and warmth added much to this meaning. However, soon after I landed in the United States, it was making money that was the forefront of my attention. With the assistance of my Aunt, I quickly got a job as a dishwasher (like many before me) to begin my American dream. It has now been almost 18 years living in this great country.

America has given me much: enabled me to provide some monetary and other support to my family/relatives/community, self finance my higher education, find the love of my life, own our own home, travel extensively throughout the world, find my dream job and be involved in founding one of the largest Tibet related grass root human rights organizations.  However, the greatest gift this country has given me is it has allowed me to see the wisdom of my culture.

Since Tibet’s occupation in 1959, it has been roughly estimated by the Tibetan exile administration that over 1.2 million Tibetans (out of 6 million) were killed and over 6,000 monasteries were destroyed.  Many of my own relatives suffered terribly.

Despite the atrocities, our elders and teachers (led by His Holiness the Dalai Lama) to this day have always preached that revenge is not the answer.  They remind us that China also suffered terribly under their leaders’ bad policies.  They teach us that the real cause of suffering is due to destructive emotions such as hatred, jealousy, pride and the lack of understanding that we are all interdependent which disturbs the natural clarity of our own minds.  To impress on young Tibetans this point and the danger of not having control over one’s own mind our elders occasionally share this funny story:

A certain Tibetan Buddhist monk was told that he would have to choose from among three things: to have sex with a woman; to kill a goat; or to drink alcohol.  After due consideration, the monk decided that having sex would break his vow of celibacy, and that killing a goat would be taking a life, but drinking alcohol, although it involved breaking a monastic rule, didn’t seem quite as bad.  So he drank, got drunk, then killed the goat and had sex with the woman.

There is no doubt that Tibet has much to learn from the outside world in politics and economics.   However, I feel confident that the ancient Tibetan culture can be an important part of the solution to the world’s many problems.  The world currently struggles through so many issues such as climate change, terrorism, war and financial crises.  The answers we try to find appear 100% focused on treating the symptoms.  Perhaps we are making the same mistake as the Tibetan Buddhist monk.  Maybe we need to be more aware of the dangers of the intoxicants of our own destructive emotions in order for us to make smarter judgments. If not, our technology and intellect will only create new problems and amplify existing ones.

The author is an MBA graduate from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a BA from Dickinson College.  He currently works in the banking field with a focus on the energy sector. Tsewang is one of the Founding Board of Directors of Students for a Free Tibet, first Tibetan to officially enlist in the United States Military and served as the Executive Director of the Tibetan Community Center Project (NY) from 2007-2008. He can be reached at densang123@yahoo.com.

llustration by AJA www.ajaalbertojimenezalburquerque.blogspot.com

It has been almost a week since approximately 58% of Swiss voters banned the construction of new minarets in Switzerland.  The referendum was sponsored by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which seeks to prevent the ‘Islamification’ of Switzerland.  The Swiss Foreign Minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, expressed surprise at the outcome of the poll.  “Each limitation on the co-existence of different cultures and religions also endangers our security,” she said in response to putative security concerns related to the Islamic community’s existence in Switzerland.  Navi Pillay, the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed dismay at the democratic decision and suggested that by implementing the law, Switzerland would be in violation of various international commitments.

Switzerland’s Muslim population – about six percent of Swiss nationals are Muslims – will likely appeal the democratic result in the European Court of Human Rights.  Their claim will be that the law banning minaret construction is illiberal because it infringes upon their freedom of religion – a central tenet of Western Liberalism.  As a consequence, the law should be overturned.  But is the law really illiberal and racist?

The desire to safeguard cultural traditions and religious heritage is strong in many societies.  Why then is the Swiss decision to ban the construction of minarets widely condemned as racist and a provocation?  The answer lies in the values purportedly upheld by Western Liberalism.  First, the basic unit of political legitimacy is the individual, and liberalisms values are the individual’s adjuncts.  Freedom of speech means freedom for the individual to speak.  Likewise, freedom of religion means freedom for the individual to practice his religion.  Banning the construction of minarets means individual Muslims cannot express their religious culture and architecture freely.  So, the decision to ban the construction of minarets is illiberal, but is it racist?  It is impossible to know the intentions of Swiss voters.  Did they seek to safeguard their cultural heritage against globalization’s tides by obviating the existence of identifiably Islamic architecture?  Or, did Swiss voters view the vote as a symbolic referendum on the existence of Muslims in their midst, in their towns and cities?

The Swiss voters’ intentions are unknowable, but one can make inferences based on behavioral patterns and regional trends.  I’m inclined to see the vote as a referendum on Muslims in Switzerland.  If the Swiss sought to protect their traditional architectural tradition, a wide variety of restrictions on modernist or non-traditional architecture would be in place.  That is not the case; skyscrapers are not traditionally Swiss structures.  The other possibility makes more sense – that 58% of Swiss voters resent the presence of Muslims in their country.  And possibly, that 58% of Swiss voters resent Muslims in general.

One needs to take a broader view of the region to begin to understand what happened in Switzerland a week ago.  The Swiss are not exceptional in their suppression of Muslims’ individual human rights in Europe.  In neighboring France, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy enforces a dress code against Muslim women.  Ostensibly, the ban on burkas and headdress in public schools is to protect women from the dictates of the repressive men in their lives.  The overweening French President fails to see the twofold irony of this position.  First, implicit in this view is the incapacity of women to make decisions about their own lives.  Women are small children, incapable of making wardrobe decisions.  Second, Mr. Sarkozy substitutes one repressive man in these pitiful women’s lives for another.  He sidelines the husband/father/brother and takes their place as the man dictating their manner of dress.  Given the absurdity of the French argument for banning Muslim freedom of expression, one can be forgiven for believing that the ban is the result of a general antipathy towards Muslims.  It was only a few years ago that the racist Jean-Marie Le Pen, the head of the France’s National Front Party, came second in national presidential elections.

Austria too has seen a surge in ant-Islamic behavior.  The now-deceased racist Joerg Haider – former head of the Austrian Freedom Party – was elected and formed a government, which was ultimately dissolved under the pressure of international sanctions.  Nick Griffin, leader of the hyper-nationalist British National Party (BNP), has led the racist charge in England.  His party restricts membership to ‘Caucasians’ and seeks to encourage non-white people to emigrate out of England.  The BNP used to represent a fringe movement.  Not anymore.  It recently garnered enough votes to win two seats in the European Parliament.  Meanwhile in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders leads his Party for Freedom in the charge to stem the flow of Muslim hoards into that country.  His recent movie, Fitna, was deemed so inflammatory and racist that he was banned from entering the UK.  The ban was subsequently overturned and Mr. Wilders was permitted to showcase his supremacist views in October, 2009.

That Europe has long viewed itself as a bastion of Christendom, and set out to conquer and civilize the uncivil, non-Christian heathendom is plainly obvious in the history of that continent.  Christian Crusaders devastated the Muslim world.  They were followed by Anglo and Francophone missions civilisatrice and colonial exploitation.  All the while, European ideals – Western liberal ideals – were bandied about as a mark of the moral superiority of the White conquerors.  In fact, the falsity of European idealism was in plain view.  When it was asserted by European liberals that all men are created equal, it was meant that all white and Christian men are created equal.

European racism found a variety of outlets through which to improve the world; the Belgian genocide of the Congolese under King Leopold II, the German genocides of the Hereros in the early twentieth century, and the European Jews some time later, the French colonial projects in Northern Africa and those that Britain undertook at the same time.  Gradually, the world rejected European racism and Christian Europe withdrew and retrenched.  Many former colonial subjects and economic refugees moved to Europe to partake in the post-colonial economic miracles being experienced there.  But, they soon found, not even the Nazi Holocaust could rid Europe of its racism.  Indeed, the reemergence of the rightwing parties I mentioned above serves only to demonstrate that enough time has passed for Europe to forget its ugly anti-Semitism and the fruits it bore.

It is past time for Europeans to teach their children that all men are created equal.  That the freedoms of religion, association, speech and others are not solely reserved for whites or Christians, but are guaranteed for all men.  If Europe fails in this task, and 58% of Swiss voters suggest it is failing, the Clash of Civilizations – that Judeo-Christian fantasy described by Samuel Huntington – may indelibly mark the twenty-first century.

Ahmed Moor is a 25-year-old Palestinian-American from the Rafah refugee camp. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he now lives in Beirut.