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Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
by vbo
Sat Mar 1st, 2014 at 09:42:10 PM EST
Ugly scene from Kharkov yesterday...
Russia's flag hanging on the building of Kharkov Regional State Administration. Some people remove EuroMaidan activists from Kharkov Regional State Administration and force them to kneel in the centre of the square. Among the activists the famed Kharkov-born writer Sergei Zhadan. The militants chant, "Russia" and "Berkut".
Law enforcement officers do not intervene and begin to move toward the Kharkov Regional State Administration.
For those who want to follow events in Ukraine...posts will come from everywhere available. If my comment is not attached do not assume that posted news is my own opinion.
My opinion about this specific post is that I feel deep sorrow when I see how brothers are eager to brutally hurt and humiliate each other... reminds me of Balkan wars...next step we all know what it is...While big powers are flexing their muscles wasting our lives...
Sad world...bloody hell...
by vbo
Thu Feb 27th, 2014 at 07:24:08 AM EST
12:01 GMT:
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has demanded urgent consultations with Russia on the situation in the Crimean autonomous region. Due to the absence of the Russian ambassador in Ukraine, who has been recalled to Moscow for consultations, Russia's temporary charge d'affaires was handed a note demanding that the military contingent of the Russian military bases in Crimea refrain from leaving the bases.
I am not sure anybody in Russia would consider talking to them...They will need to send some (poor) Europeans to talk (Americans are too proud). Maybe Ashton...she is so good with diplomacy...and she deserve it ...
by vbo
Tue Feb 25th, 2014 at 06:32:07 AM EST
Feel free to feed news and putt comments and opinions...It seems that we (some of us) are clogging news room with news from Ukraine and things are going to get even more interesting there in the near future I suppose.I will start with latest news
11:00 GMT:
The EU is waiting for a plan of economic reforms from the new Ukrainian government to decide what kind of foreign financial assistance will be given to Ukraine, said European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
The country needs to create a new government, Ashton said.
She gave no details of this assistance, saying the EU would work with the International Monetary Fund but the IMF would make its own assessment of the situation.
I have a feeling that time is of essence in Ukraine...
by vbo
Thu Nov 21st, 2013 at 11:05:50 AM EST
I'll take you on a little trip to Australia again...
My husband just celebrated his 60th birthday so we have spent two days in nearby Sunshine Coast Hinterland town Montvile obviously here in QLD / Australia.This little town always fascinate me as it is romantic place that somehow seems not to belong to today's world of hassle...There was not too many visitors as summer here is yet to come but temperature is as it is in summer time.
by vbo
Thu Oct 24th, 2013 at 08:21:20 AM EST
USA - Down in Jungleland
Recovery? What recovery? For the growing number of professionals and college graduates being tipped into working poverty, claims the United States is climbing out of the economic abyss is an outrageous lie. Consider the plight of the former TV anchor or the former Wall St trader now both working in a bar for a little over two bucks an hour plus tips. And with many from the middle class now toiling in poor paying jobs with little or no benefits, what happens to the people who used to do that work. From the Jersey Shore to the California coast are we witnessing the future of work in the USA?
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/
Luckily we here in Australia are not there ...yet...not that I know...but with conservatives in power and so called "two speed economy" where not only that mining economy is slowing but outside mining economy (rest of it) not being able to move an inch in right direction let alone to pick up for mining slowing I am seriously scared for the future...of my children and grandchildren. I wouldn't like Australia EVER to become anything resembling USA (in any way shape or form) ...but I am afraid.
So called middle class is slowly losing ground here too, with less well-paid jobs, less benefits from the state (school kids bonus and low income superannuation benefits to be scraped soon together with mining tax that should provide money for them)...and it is just a beginning...After election parliament did not start to work yet and this has been prepared as an "entree/appetizer"...
What exactly you can see around you in your respective cities/countries. Your friends, your neighbours, your relatives...how do they cope?
I'll tell more about my surroundings later...
by vbo
Mon Oct 7th, 2013 at 08:17:25 AM EST
This photos are not mine but I felt like I would like to share them with you. My daughter just came from Greece (Lefkada, or Leucas or Leucadia or Lefkas or Leukas, is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea on the west coast of Greece). It is so beautiful and also very very cheap in this time (they were last group this season). Look at the color of the sea...my daughter was fascinated. Accommodation was more then decent for the money and Greeks are overly friendly (especially for Serbian women, haha).
Maybe that's the best way to help your fellow Europeans...go and spend your money there.
by vbo
Tue Sep 24th, 2013 at 10:13:46 AM EST
It's spring here but temperatures are more like summer...it's going to be 35 degrees on Thursday.
Here are some nice photos of this lovely city where I live.Out and about...
by vbo
Tue Nov 13th, 2012 at 06:47:54 AM EST
Really? I have received this e mail today and I will use it to start discussion about inevitable technology taking over our lives. Now I know that there are sides of technology that are really improving our lives tremendously (like in science, communication and information etc. fields) but look at these photos...because they are sooo true. Now government here wants more people to work from home and soon , in the future all students ( including primary and high school) I suppose will be educated from home, we are buying stuff from home, people today even have sex (incredibly) trough internet etc. Looks like there will be time when we are not going to leave our homes at all...and when we leave it we will be alone missing all those friends from school yard, university, work etc. Picture is really gloomy in my eyes...I can see my 11 years old granddaughter ,who is not even in mobile phones yet, being taken by computer and all those portable games, a lot of her free time ( at our home, at the car, just not yet when we are out and about , but it will come with her interest in mobile phone pretty soon). What your opinion on this is and what would be the way for humans not to become "idiots"?
Here it goes:
Boy, isn't this the truth.......
The day that Albert Einstein feared may have finally arrived.
Having coffee with friends.
A day at the beach.
Cheering on your team.
Having dinner out with your friends.
Out on an intimate date.
Having a conversation with your BFF
A visit to the museum
Enjoying the sights
And...
by vbo
Thu Nov 8th, 2012 at 07:18:44 AM EST
I do not know if you are sick of my photos and comments about Brisbane and surroundings but I can't resist to post them.
I had friend visiting this past weekend and while we were walking around I took some photos.Here they are...
First place is Sanctuary Cove close to a Gold Coast where rich people like to hide and " love life" as add suggests.They like simple things...It is gated community but we poor at least can enjoy their Marine Village ,for now. Thank you guys...
by vbo
Sat Oct 13th, 2012 at 11:05:15 PM EST
Just photos...Bad times...but just for some of us (99%?)
by vbo
Thu Aug 30th, 2012 at 07:36:30 AM EST
Because I can't follow posts any more, being hidden and buried in long worms of text I thought I would put this diary where we can continue our arguments...
First of all let us talk about PR because all this started with them. What exactly some of you like about them and their actions? And what exactly few of us dislike about them and their actions?
As for me I am totally not against protests, activism, fight for more freedom anywhere, let alone in Russia. What I dislike is the way they are protesting by offending other Russian citizens who happened to be religious or even not, but who dislike this specific action. I would prefer if they found other place and means (words) to protest against Putin, even Patriarchy or place that Church have in today politic in Russia.And NO, and that's a big NO I could not agree with draconian punishment they received.I do not think it will stand.We'll see.On the other hand today on TV news here in Australia there was a part saying "PR the most popular group in the world" , so as we all know that kind of popularity has a price tag...especially when one is so popular without world even knowing any of his creations...I can bet that 99% of fans did not even hear or read words of the "song" they are popular for...
No I do not like to see politicians even near priests and also babies but that's reality all over the world in time of an election.
Russia has definitely long way in front of it before it will look anything resembling democracy and protests are definitely one way of moving things ( all tho slowly) in that direction. Having lived in democracy for quite some time now I have to admit that it is far from perfect. Especially when it like lately is actually serving capitalist class big time not taking in to account common well being of other classes. This is a large topic which we should probably leave for another diary and I mentioned it here just to strike similarities with oligarchy that we can see in Russia.
Somehow, long history of democracy compared with short history of not having communism in Russia and elsewhere give people from the west false impression that they have real freedom of choice and bla bla bla...But is it really so? Yes, there is a lot of freedom " on paper" that by the way can be taken in one term of conservative government in power , as we are witnessing right now, but actually how exactly you see your freedom nowadays?
Religion, atheism...We seem to disagree a lot about this...and especially about who has right to impose their values on others in democracy?
Well I just tried to start discussion...Your turn...
by vbo
Mon Jul 23rd, 2012 at 03:29:30 AM EST
Hi everyone! Just came back from my holiday in Serbia so here is a little diary.
I am not going to talk too much about politic all tho at the time I was in Belgrade there were presidential elections. I did not vote for two reasons. First is that I do not feel I am to choose anything or anybody because I do not live there and I am not to take consequences of my vote. Not to mention that I do not know many details that should determine my vote. Second reason is because I do not believe that whoever comes to power will be actually able to choose important things about politic there...it will be determined elsewhere (deals between Russia and USA to be precise). That is considering foreign policy anyway... As for inside policies it is always about who's going to throw more money/benefits over their shoulder to a poor people and I believe people there would know better about this stuff.
In any case people are now used to "democracy" so they do not take hard if their candidate lost this time , because there will be another election in few years ( maybe even earlier) so there was no protests or any kind of anger amongst them. They just want government to be formed so that things can go on. It took some time for government to be formed and SPS (Socialists which is Milosevic's party and his people) are simply unavoidable because no matter what percentage they have no one is going to be able to make government without them. As for a President ( Toma Nikolic) who is an ex Radical ( Seselj's / presently in Hague/ ex colleague) most of the people are embarrassed of his appearance and foreign language incapacity, because he is going to represent them now worldwide. Most of them at the same time believe that no matter what his pre-election promises were he or his government will not dare to do anything radical. That's about it. As why it took so long for government to form , the reason is not that their programs differ so much (because they do, but who cares, the most important thing is to cling in to the power). Real reason is that they could not agree who is going to get what exact ministry and especially power over the BIA ( Serbian CIA) and also even more importantly DB (military intelligence agency in Serbia) that by now used to be under jurisdiction of SPS /Milosevic's people in reality no matter that formally they should answer to government. Enough about politics...
by vbo
Tue Apr 10th, 2012 at 12:36:13 AM EST
by vbo
Mon Oct 24th, 2011 at 01:01:10 AM EST
This Sunday I have visited friend that recently moved in Varsity Lakes, development that is typical modern development that Australia has many of. This one is situated on Gold Coast a little bit in land.
Well in Australian urban areas almost everything is manmade so are those Lakes and everything around them.
Lately as you will see they are making more apartments then houses even this far from the city. These developments have all the infrastructure around them and this one is about 2 km from Robina where they have one mega shopping centre and new modern hospital, but it also has schools , shops, Medical centres etc. right there on the spot. Australians (at least here in QLD) like to live in these places. The only trouble is that it is not easy to find a job in the area. Gold Coast is a tourist area anyway and they can only work in hospitality or trade. Not in this particular area but in a brother area on the Gold Coast there are quite a few people living there who actually do not have to work. So they play golf (there are numerous golf courses) and follow the market to see what their shares earned them today. Also there are a lot of pensioners (not on a state pension, ha-ha). Recently there are a lot of families with small children moving there cause it seems to be safe.
Here are photos. I hope you'll understand why we have to protect our way of life´ ;)
by vbo
Fri Oct 21st, 2011 at 02:15:27 AM EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSTRE79H1FI20111020#a=5
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/20/us-greece-idUSTRE79H1FI20111020
The victory should ensure the European Union and International Monetary Fund release a vital 8 billion euro ($11 billion) loan tranche which the government needs to keep paying its bills past November.
The mix of deep pay and pension cuts, tax hikes and changes to collective bargaining agreements has been bitterly opposed and at least 70,000 people joined protests in Athens' Syntagma Square in front of parliament.
Groups of black-clad youths clashed with rivals from PAME, a communist-affiliated labor group, and police later cleared the square.
At least 74 people were taken to hospital with injuries and one man died of a heart attack on the fringes of the protest, but officials said he had not been hurt in the incidents.
...The head of the Greek Communist party, Aleka Papariga condemned the violence which she said had been deliberately provoked by groups of "hood-wearers".
"This was a pre-meditated attack," she told reporters, saying the rioters served the interests of what she termed "specific mechanisms".
"No matter what happens, we're not leaving," she said. "There's no other way out, people have to take the situation into their own hands."
"I will vote in favor, but this is the last time -- I am struggling with my conscience," said Vasso Papandreou, one of the dissenters who decided to go along with the package.
"Enough is enough, society is despairing, the country is collapsing," she said to applause from other PASOK deputies.
...There has been widespread speculation the government will fall early, forcing a election before the scheduled date in 2013, but Papandreou has repeatedly ruled out stepping down early.
How many more votes...
What would an election change?
"I will be protesting every day, it's a matter of survival. They must go," said 49-year-old Yannis Zahariadis, a civil servant and father of four. "I was forced to borrow money from my mother, a pensioner, to make ends meet."
..."People sent a message on Wednesday that they have reached their limits and can't take any more austerity," said Theodore Couloumbis of the ELIAMEP think-tank.
How long is this going to last until it ends? What the end actually is going to look like?
"We are at a critical point, not only for us but for European history. I have never, in my memory, heard before from leaders of major European countries that there is danger of Europe coming apart," Papandreou told a cabinet meeting before the vote.
Really ?
by vbo
Tue Oct 4th, 2011 at 12:50:35 AM EST
I am just linking to whatever information I found on Internet...
Is it going to grow (and takes Europe and others too)? Is it going to be taken?Can this in any way unite people with left and right political views because it affects 99% of people?
What is the point? Where it could go? Who is to organize it (if it's not orchestrated already)? What are demands and where exactly they are directed? We have asked before: where is the outrage in USA? Is this it? Could it be stopped having in mind that future predicted is so grim?
We all have more questions than answers...But something is moving finally...in right direction...
http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/occupy-wall-street-protests-spread-across-us/story-e6f
rfkur-1226158110369
PROTESTS against Wall Street have spread across the US as demonstrators marched on Federal Reserve banks and camped out in parks from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine, in a show of anger over the wobbly economy and what they see as corporate greed.
In Manhattan, hundreds of protesters dressed as corporate zombies in white face paint lurched past the New York Stock Exchange clutching fistfuls of fake money.
In Chicago, demonstrators pounded drums in the city's financial district. Others pitched tents or waved protest signs at passing cars in Boston, St Louis and Kansas City, Missouri.
The arrests of 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge at the weekend galvanised a slice of discontented America, from college students worried about their job prospects to middle-age workers who have been laid off.
Some protesters likened themselves to the Tea Party movement - but with a liberal bent - or to the Arab Spring demonstrators who brought down their rulers in the Middle East.
...Since then, hundreds have set up camp in a park nearby and have become increasingly organised, lining up medical aid and legal help and printing their own newspaper, the Occupied Wall Street Journal.
...City bus drivers sued the New York Police Department (NYPD) today for commandeering their buses and making them drive to the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday to pick up detained protesters."We're down with these protesters. We support the notion that rich folk are not paying their fair share," said Transport Workers Union president John Samuelsen. "Our bus operators are not going to be pressed into service to arrest protesters anywhere."
...Websites and Facebook pages with names like Occupy Boston and Occupy Philadelphia have also sprung up to plan the demonstrations.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2011/10/first-we-take-manhattan-.html#comments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaXBWpN7ii8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIJAZ90Dk8o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwmAayBn1Uk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG_TKAJyV6k&NR=1
Hahh...Are they going to be hijacked?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/occupy-wall-street-is-a-tea-party-with-brains-2011-10-04
Actually, they have more in common with the tea party movement than the hippie dream, with one key difference. They're smart enough to recognize the nation's problems aren't simply about taxes and the deficit.
They want jobs. They want the generation in power to acknowledge them. They want political change. They want responsibility in a culture that abdicates it. They want a decent future of opportunity.
If that isn't American, then what is?
http://occupywallst.org/
by vbo
Fri Sep 2nd, 2011 at 04:41:46 AM EST
http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/08/30/meet-professor-juan-cole-consultant-to-the-cia/
If one reads CounterPunch.org, Antiwar.com or The American Conservative, one knows that one is reading those who are anti-interventionist on the basis of principle. With Democracy Now and kindred progressive outlets, it's all too clear where a big chunk of the so-called "left" stands, especially since the advent of Obama. In his superb little book Humanitarian Imperialism Jean Bricmont criticizes much of the left for falling prey to advocacy of wars, supposedly based on good intentions. And Alexander Cockburn has often pointed out that many progressives are actually quite fond of "humanitarian" interventionism. Both here and in Europe this fondness seems to be especially true of Obama's latest war, the war on Libya . It is little wonder that the "progressives" are losing their antiwar following to Ron Paul and the Libertarians who are consistent and principled on the issue of anti-interventionism.
Democracy Now, quo vadis? Wherever you are heading, you would do well to travel without Juan Cole and his friends.
After warning of the "difficulties" with the Iraq War, Cole swung over to ply it with burning kisses on the day of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. His fervor was not based on Saddam Hussein's fictional possession of weapons of mass destruction but on the virtues of "humanitarian imperialism."
Cole enthused on his blog: "I remain (Emphasis mine.) convinced that, for all the concerns one might have about the aftermath, the removal of Saddam Hussein and the murderous Baath regime from power will be worth the sacrifices that are about to be made on all sides." Now, with over 1 million Iraqis dead, 4 million displaced and the country's infrastructure destroyed, might Cole still echo Madeline Albright that the price was "worth it"? Cole has called the Afghan War "the right war at the right time" and has emerged as a cheerleader for Obama's unconstitutional war on Libya and for Obama himself.
Now are we going to clarify where ET is standing on this issue?
OK we are not harmonious bunch on this one but I would like to know where "editors" are exactly standing?
by vbo
Mon Aug 29th, 2011 at 08:45:49 AM EST
http://vimeo.com/22123311
I have no comment but I hope you do...I could just cry.
If somebody can please put this video in here I do not know how.
by vbo
Sat Aug 20th, 2011 at 11:58:25 AM EST
OK. We are discussing for ages this horrific economic situation all over the world. We now know so much about what went wrong. What in your expert or humble opinion needs to be done and what consequences it will have in short and long term? Where is the hope?Please give us some answers...
Is it fixable at all even with good will (that we don't see right now)?
How long it would take?
If nothing reasonable is going to be done where we are heading, for how long and with what consequences for states, world and as well for (most) individuals?And how it will end eventually?
Is globalization and super free market here to stay and is it even possible to reverse it?Or is anything new on the horizon?
What would happen with economy if in some totally fictional scenario governments decide to tax super rich greatly?
What will happen with economy when at some point middle class become small and weak to hold this crazy concept of economy based on buying, borrowing, buying and borrowing?
What is your best and worse scenario?
I would like to hear about your ideas for solving this mess...I am clueless...
by vbo
Mon May 16th, 2011 at 10:51:56 PM EST
Surfing trough e bay I accidently came to an offer (made for Australians) for 10 apartments (whole building) in USA for just $45,000.
There was a video there on Youtube so I watched it. Sad picture...
There I found house and land offers for as much as $6,000. And nobody wants it. This is a catastrophe of terrific scale. Obviously these are poor neighbourhoods but still in those kinds of neighbourhoods here in Brisbane you can't find anything below &300,000...example
here:
What is happening with real estate in Europe? Everywhere?
I know couple who tried to sell small one bedroom apartment in the middle of London for few years and couldn't make a sale.
Here in Australia real estate prises are still standing high and I keep wondering for how long yet. Around my area whatever is "for sale" is sold in a month or so (sold signs everywhere).
How is the real estate, so crucial in western economies, going to play out in the future? Anybody with expertise?
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