Wow! This is news...how low will it go??

Dollar drops below Swiss Franc!!

ZURICH, Switzerland - The U.S. dollar fell below the Swiss franc for the first time ever Friday. The dollar briefly dipped to 0.9996 francs in international trading before rising above parity again.

The U.S. currency's decline against the franc mirrors its fall against the euro. The 15-nation euro reached a new record of US$1.5651 Friday on news of financial woes at U.S. Bank Bear Stearns Cos. (...)

Hettinger said in a recent interview that the dollar would likely stabilize versus the franc, which has seen a revival of its status as a "safe haven" currency since the start of the global financial turmoil last year. (...) The rising value of the franc against the dollar has worried Swiss exporters, and market observers have closely monitored the exchange rate as it approached the psychologically important mark of one-to-one. In 1971, the U.S. dollar was worth four francs.

Well, I don't know what else this means for America or Europe financially (hopefully some of our more knowledgeable types will have something to say), but it sure means we won't likely be seeing as many US tourists in Europe this year (although, watch out America, here come the Swiss!!).

I was curious about this...

Parliamentary elections in Iran

Conservatives tipped to win in Iran election

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranians voted on Friday in a low-key election likely to keep parliament in the grip of conservatives after unelected state bodies barred many reformist foes of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from the race.

But the next assembly may not give Ahmadinejad an easy ride, even if conservatives dominate. They include not just his allies, but critics of his economic policies and politicians looking beyond this election to the presidential poll in 2009.

Reformists favouring more political and social freedom had hoped to capitalise on public discontent about inflation, now at 19 percent. But the vetting process and a government crackdown on dissent have muted their challenge. They may struggle to keep the 40 or so seats they held in the outgoing 290-seat assembly.

Anyone hearing the results of this election?

This is from a...well, I am an American...but I live in Europe (now 3.5 years), like it here a lot and hope to live here a long time (knock on wood)...and so  I count myself as a European too. Anyway, this is not to bash my dear American brethren, or anything like that. However...let me stir up a friendly discussion:

What is a European to do, when all he or she is/has been/and will be hearing in the news is about the <takes a deep breath> American Presidential election, the American-caused world financial crisis, the war...uh, am I leaving anythng out? It is just dominating.

My point being, this IS a European blog, and there ARE plenty of other important and interesting pieces of news, science, sports, arts, etc. etc going on here and elsewhere in the (non-US) world, and I just want to encourage us (including in "us" is our regular American contributors) to keep trying to put up diaries on...Europe and the rest of the World!

That doesn't sound so bad does it? And it is out of no disrespect to or discouragement of US articles...but I for one would just like to see and read more regularly about what is going on here. Any ideas or suggestions about how to encourage this?

Hi everybody! Let's see, well...while good ol` ET keeps rolling along, I have been out wandering in the wilderness. As many of you know, I stopped doing the front-pager thing last summer, because...well...after two + years of being pretty heavily involved with the community and trying to keep things moving on the front-page on an almost daily basis, I was just empty. I had no more energy for the job. Anyway, In Wales and Migeru are doing a great job as the ,,new" front-pagers.

And as for me, it was high time for me to pick up the pace and get more serious in my getting job stuff together, so I could finally get through this interminable middle-aged career change transition I have been going through for the last 3 years. And I have good news to report! I have a new contract as a ,,senior researcher" for a long established (60+ years) research institute, being brought in to help boost an international project studying ,,risk-vulnerability-resilience", with me being the resilience expert. It is only a 6 month position at this point, but if I work hard and produce some good results, I have a good opportunity to parlay this into something more long-term. And not only that, I am finally making progress in my German, and enjoying that too! So things are looking up! (Fingers crossed!!!)

Which is all to say...I'm really  doing okay, and hope this finds all my old ET friends doing well too. And I'm still around, though I am mostly like a ghost these days, drifting in and out of ET on occasion to see what is going on. Life goes on...

Not all who wander are lost...surely there are others like me out here! Cheers all, and lets see what 2008 brings us!! Take care!!

PS:  How about everyone write at least one diary a month for 2008!!

Well, tomorrow (Tuesday Jan 8th) is the New Hampshire Primary, and so I thought I'd throw up an early thread for your predictions on  the Democratic (and the Republican side, if you care to). To make it interesting, give your best guess on percentages too.

And I'd be keen to hear what you all think may be the strategies of the main candidates going into this vote...what do the main players hope to accomplish (for example, I think both Obama and Edwards would like to see Clinton finish third...). Your thoughts?

Cheers

With updated poll

The allure of Tanzania (travelblogging)

In late November my wife and I had an opportunity to travel to Tanzania, and though we had to break our piggy bank to do this, it was definitely for a good cause. Our trip consisted of 2 nights in the Selous Wildlife reserve, 2 nights in Stonetown, Zanzibar, then a week on the Northeast coast of Zanzibar. Below are some photos we took during this trip...we hope you enjoy them!

Diary rescue by Migeru

Apparently this cartoon ran in the New York Times International Magazine last weekend suggesting that the Swiss are becoming fascist, and it seems to have ruffled some feathers here in Switzerland (according to interviews I am reading in the local papers here, anyway). Are you hearing anything in your countries about the Swiss vote?

The official national parliamentary vote is this weekend, although you can vote by mail here now, and many people are doing that. I will be curious to see how the Swiss finally vote...if they do vote heavily for the far-right SVP, or if there is a bigger turnout of the middle and left (which I hope). Plus, a wild card in this year's vote: there are over 100,000 Swiss living in other countries who are allowed to vote by mail...and if there is a big response, that could really turn the outcome to a different direction. We will see what happens.

Any Swiss voters out there? What do you think will be the outcome?

I guess I'm kind of beating the drum on this topic, but...what the heck, it's news! From Stormy Present in today's Salon, via The Independent: Switzerland: Europe's heart of darkness?

Switzerland is known as a haven of peace and neutrality. But today it is home to a new extremism that has alarmed the United Nations. Proposals for draconian new laws that target the country's immigrants have been condemned as unjust and racist. A poster campaign, the work of its leading political party, is decried as xenophobic. (...)

A worrying new extremism is on the rise. For the poster - which bears the slogan "For More Security" - is not the work of a fringe neo-Nazi group. It has been conceived - and plastered on to billboards, into newspapers and posted to every home in a direct mailshot - by the Swiss People's Party (the Schweizerische Volkspartei or SVP) which has the largest number of seats in the Swiss parliament and is a member of the country's coalition government.

With a general election due next month, it has launched a twofold campaign which has caused the UN's special rapporteur on racism to ask for an official explanation from the government. The SVP party has launched a campaign to raise the 100,000 signatures necessary to force a referendum to reintroduce into the penal code a measure to allow judges to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes once they have served their jail sentence.

I find myself wondering, now that the news is spreading out into Europe, just how the Swiss people will respond to this. I hope the Swiss vote decisively against the SVP and their racist campaign. Will enough people care about this to vote?

Devilstower has a good article up over at Daily Kos   "Wheat feels the heat" worth checking out. I went and looked at the Dow Jones link and found this:

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Wheat futures bolted to fresh record highs Tuesday and closed limit-up in many contracts amid fears that drought may slash Australian production for the second year in a row, analysts said.

Unexpectedly large purchases from India also boosted wheat prices, analysts said.
Nearby Chicago Board of Trade September wheat traded as much as 43 cents higher during the day session and set an all-time high of $8.10 a bushel. That exceeded the previous intraday high of $8.05 a bushel. The contract, exempt from the typical 30-cent trading limit because it is in delivery, closed up 40 cents at $8.07 a bushel.

Most-active CBOT December wheat closed limit-up, or 30 cents higher, at $8.05 1/2 a bushel.

Hmm...peak wheat! For many countries, this could be seriously bad news...

A hat-tip to someone, for posting this in yesterday's Salon: most people in Switzerland are tolerant and open-minded towards those residents who hail from other lands, and over 20% of the Swiss population is foreign born. In fact, what would Switzerland be without business with the "Ausländ" and the diversity of "Ausländers" in their culture? However, there is a vocal minority in Switzerland (the far-right wing SVP - or Swiss Volks Partei), that is overtly stating racist and xenophobic themes, in order to play on people's fear to gain political power. This piece of racist crap is the SVP's PR campaign for the coming parliamentary election:

I have been very upset by this propaganda, and have been waiting for a political party in Switzerland to stand up and denounce this campaign...FINALLY!! A leader with backbone steps forward!: swissinfo - Swiss People's Party is accused of "racist" campaign

This last week I returned home from a ten day trip to northern Tanzania. I'm filled with impressions, based on many visits, meetings and conversations ranging from the issues of street children, open space technology, mental health systems in developing countries, energy policy in developing countries to ecology and biology, to name but a few. So I will attempt to assemble some of these impressions into a (hopefully) coherent story, but reader beware...I will also use the opportunity to promote some causes, interests...and fun things too! Plus I will add some photos, so you can get a sense of the place.

 

Old bull elephant greeting us in Tarangire Park

I want to capture this article Fran dug up in Fridays Salon from The Guardian: The Water Margin

Tanzania was glad to secure the services of a British-led consortium to run the newly privatised water system in its capital Dar es Salaam. But then the price of water started to rise ... (...)

Three British expatriates were detained by the police in Tanzania, senior managers at City Water, a consortium responsible for managing Dar es Salaam's water supply. After being held for several hours, the men were served with notices describing them as "undesirable immigrants" and told to leave the country. That evening at Julius Nyerere airport, they were escorted on to a plane bound for London. Their families were left to follow some days later.

(...) Their departure from Tanzania signalled the end of a flagship World Bank privatisation deal that had been trumpeted as a modern solution to public water supply in an underdeveloped country. And it marked the beginning of a legal action that has proved hugely controversial in aid and development circles as Biwater plc, the Dorking-based private water company that led the consortium - and which is owned by Adrian White, a multi-millionaire ex-BBC governor and a former high sheriff of Surrey - pitted itself against the government of one of the world's poorest countries.

The story of water in most cities in the developing world is that the group paying the most is the poor, because they have to resort to the water vendors who peddle this precious commodity around the streets. But in Dar es Salaam it is not only the poor. Decades of neglect and underinvestment in the city's water infrastructure mean that fewer than 100,000 households - in a city of 3.5 million people - have running water.

If anyone has any more information on this particular situation in Tanzania, I would appreciate hearing it. But also, it would be interesting to know of other World Bank water privatization schemes, and how those are faring.

Funny about life in Europe, but I didn't find out about Bush commuting Libby's 33 month prison sentence until this morning (Posted Tuesday 3 July). And this news really, really upsets me...and scares the shit out of me too.

Basically, what Bush has done is blatant obstruction of justice. By commuting Libby's prison term, but leaving the felony account there, Libby is still under prosecution and thus can utilize the 5th amendment in order not to say anything that will incriminate himself (or Bush or Cheney).

And what is Congress going to do about this? I see this situation in the same light as Nixon and Watergate, the "Saturday Night Massacre" - this is as serious a crisis in the US government as can happen. If this isn't an excuse of starting the impeachment process, so a real investigation of the law-breaking administration can occur, I don't know what is.

I'm completely upset about this...I can't even coherently say how outrageous and in-your-face blatant this act is. The President is saying he is above the law. Will anyone stop him here? And if not here, what does he do next? This is a coup of the rule of law...

wow...this is truly awful...and incredibly scary...

Brought across by afew

In fall the Swiss nation-wide parliamentary elections occur, which will decide the composition of the parliament and the 7-headed Bundesrat for the next four years. Today in Swissinfo is an article discussing the results of the recent nationwide poll (carried out by the gfs.bern institute). The article focuses on the gains that the Greens may make, but I think the whole poll results are interesting: Greens confirm steady progress

Four months before Swiss parliamentary elections, support for Green parties has stabilised at over ten per cent - well ahead of their previous score.

This is in contrast to leftwing and rightwing parties, which continue to lose votes, signalling the end to the polarisation that has marked the Swiss political landscape since 1995.

Latest major party poll results below:

To further follow up on the conversation that we started the other day (here), below is the little online article that I had published on the "International Platform for Sports and Development". The article is focused on the use of sport and play programs for kids who have been through disasters or wars (ie, catastrophic events), and so trauma focused. But I would add that these concepts are relevant to the experience of other types of adversity, and that arts and education are also crucial activities (and structures) that can help promote health in children, so I would keep this in mind as you read this:

In recent years new questions in Sport & Development have emerged: can psychosocial sport and play programs help youth learn to manage adversity, or in overcoming severe stress or trauma? And if yes, how might this happen? These questions have been especially important for humanitarian and development workers who wish to respond to the trauma experienced by victims of disasters, conflicts and/or in ongoing societal emergencies. Although the idea of using sport was increasingly discussed over the last few years, only now are empirical psychosocial field research projects actually being initiated to assess the effects of sports and play in helping youth overcome trauma. A key concept in much of this new research involves the idea of resilience - an internal process in which an individual is seen to adapt positively to particularly adverse circumstances. At the moment, it is applying resilience-supporting and enhancing practices in psychosocial sport and play programs that are thought to actively support the emotional and mental health of youth.

(more below)

From the diaries - afew

As some of you know, I am researching the issue of ,,resilience" (with resilience being a concept that relates to the ability of a person to withstand adversity, an internal process involving strength and flexibility - which some are now referring to as ,,positive psychology"), and I came across this quote that caught my eye:

A relevant aspect of enhancing resilience (in individuals) includes the experience of a strong sense of cohesion between community members, and strong community educational, political and religious support"

Now I found this quote in the context of doing research on the children who survived the terrorist attack on a school in Beslan, North Ossetia (and the quote was from ,,Narratives from caregivers of children surviving the terrorist attack in Beslan: Issues of health, culture and resilience", by Moscardino, Axia, Scrimin & Capello, in ,,Social Science and Medicine" vol 64, 2007, p 1776-1787). But my interests go beyond children surviving traumatic experiences, and includes my general interest in the idea of how to enhance strength and flexibility in anyone's life. And specifically, I was struck how this could also apply to the development of the ,,European Tribune Community" .  Follow me below...

From the diaries - afew

Notwithstanding the unexpected bounce back by the Social Party in the just completed French legislative elections, I have been feeling a growing sense of frustration as I watch the Left lose seats and/or power in many recent national elections around Europe. And I wonder "what the heck is going on??"

And I had an interesting (but too short) conversation with Jerome in Paris about the need for a new "hard Left"in Europe too (which I hope Jerome will say more about here).

Now you may not agree with my perception about the Left not doing so well recently...and I sure would like to hear your arguments, because I am eager to be convinced as wrong...but right now it is what I am seeing. So I have some questions to pose for you all out there:

1. Why do you think the Left is or is not doing so well in various countries and regions throughout Europe?

2. What does the Left need to do, to renew itself in a way that regains people's interest (and votes)?

Yesterday I heard about this report on the radio about the use/abuse of child laborers between ages 5 and 15 around the world, and found this article in the "Daily Times":

ILO estimates 218 million child labourers in world

PESHAWAR: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that there are 218 million child labourers the world over. In a statement issued by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) on the World Day Against Child Labour (today), said lack of information on existence and number of bonded child labourers who come from the poorest families are a major problem."

"Bonded child labourers work in workshops, remote quarries, on farms and in the homes as domestic workers," he added. "Approximately 8.4 million are trapped in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography and other illicit and illegal activities. (...)

SPARC spokeswoman Fazila Gulrez said there were three types of bonded labourers, adding, "The first is when a child inherits a debt carried by his/her parents. Another form of bonded labour occurs when a child is used as collateral for a loan. Finally, a child worker may enter into bondage when the parents request an advance on future wages they expect to earn." "In such a clandestine environment, it is impossible to get precise figures on the extent of the phenomenon of child debt bondage," she added. (...)

"The most effective way of reducing and eventually eliminating child labour will be the provision of adequate access to primary and secondary education."

This is stunning news.

Many of these child laborers are used in agriculture...to < gulp > grow the food we eat!

If the issue of improving the lives of children is a major concern of yours, then investing in primary and secondary education is definitely worthy of your attention and effort, as it will provide for the way out for many kids!

Just in case you didn't know (from Rueters): Swiss reputation for tolerance under threat

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's reputation as a haven of tolerance for immigrants has been undermined in recent weeks by calls for a ban on new minarets, a mysterious synagogue blaze and neo-Nazi threats to disrupt national day celebrations.

Switzerland is known for public order and efficiency. Its neutral status and high living standards, as well as its need for lower cost workers, have historically attracted refugees from conflicts around Europe and the world.

But with rising immigration -- and lack of integration caused partly by tight laws on handing out Swiss passports -- religious and ethnic tension has been on the rise, particularly focusing on Muslims.

There will be a vote later this year, and it will be interesting to  see what happens if the Swiss people outlaw the building of minarets. Seems to me that's asking for trouble. Will tolerance or emotional fear and right wing extremism win out? Stay tuned...

From the diaries - afew

I stumbled across this report on the

Save the Children's publications webpage

entitled: "State of the World's Mothers 2007 - Saving the lives of children under 5" (in pdf). It is a thorough and detailed report on where all the countries of world are ranked, as far as mother's and children's health (with a focus on under age 5 children). It is quite shocking. But again, the Northern European countries lead the way in lowest deaths for children under 5 in the world, and in providing for mother's health (among other things).

I can't go into it much right now (I'm at work), but I strongly recommend that you download it and look over the many charts they have...lots of information to chew on. What catches your eye?