Jack Lemmon as "Bud" Baxter has just discovered that the girl he loves loves someone undeserving. And so, on Christmas Eve, he goes to drown his sorrows. Feel the misery in one of the best films of all time, The Apartment:

Listen here.

Last year we had President Ahmadinejad of Iran, the year before some veiled dozy bint.
This year's Chrismas message on Channel Four comes from Miss Katie Piper.
Acid attack survivor Katie Piper urges viewers to "appreciate the beautiful things and the beautiful people that you have in your life now," in Channel 4's alternative to the Queen's Christmas Day broadcast this year.
In her message, she reflects on her progress over the last year and how strangers' words of kindness have helped her to move forward.
Piper was left fighting for her life after former boyfriend Daniel Lynch raped her and then arranged for another man to hurl the corrosive liquid.
The acid burned through all four layers of skin on her face, some spilling down her throat, and she was left blind in one eye. Piper has undergone more than 30 operations on her face and throat.
But she tells how it took the tragedy for her to reassess her "self-obsessed" life.
She says in her message: "Don't wait 'til there is tragedy in your life. Don't wait 'til you lose somebody. Don't wait until it's too late. Appreciate the beautiful things and the beautiful people that you have in your life now."
Amen to that. That's courage in adversity.

From The Daily Mail. I don't know this pub - I wish I did.
It is the time of year when customers at the Blisland Inn can generally be forgiven for thinking they are seeing things.
That wall, for instance, which has always seemed so solid with its feature barometers and real ale adverts and the old picture of the village football team.
Suddenly, like the legs of one who has had one too many, the wall does not seem so sturdy as before.
Thick stone pillars form a solid archway and the rough-hewn oak door opens to the sort of Nativity scene that has mesmerised people for more than 2,000 years.
There is Mary, cradling the baby Jesus in her arms, while Joseph, three wise men and a shepherd pay dutiful homage.  
The scene is so realistic that one regular at the Bodmin Moor pub in Cornwall remarked, before taking a drink, this week: ‘I have been coming here for 40 years and I never realized that door was there before.’
The extraordinary painting is the work of 56-year-old local artist Janet Shearer, whose previous commissions include a backcloth for the rock band Pink Floyd’s The Wall album and murals for Heathrow Airport and the film Aliens.
‘It’s the art of illusion,’ she said. ‘In reality it is just a blank wall full of barometers and pub memorabilia. My job was to make the painting appear to be part of the fabric of the building.’
Janet took three weeks to complete the canvas which is now stretched across the wall of the pub ready for its Christmas Eve unveiling.
For some locals, the picture is made all the more realistic by the fact that their faces have been used for the figures in the tableaux.
Gary Marshall said: ‘I was delighted to let Janet turn this blank wall into such an incredible scene. It was something different and has turned out to be absolutely brilliant. My customers absolutely love it. It has made our Christmas.’

A good traditional dinner (and I bet thats real ale to wash it down) Morris dancers and a well crafted nativity. Merry Christmas.

My colleague Ann Corcoran at Refugee Resettlement Watch has an update on the Somali murder case in Fort Morgan, Colorado that we had posted earlier,  here.  The venue was a kaffe klatch with Fort Morgan police chief  Keith Kuretich and some locals captured in the Fort Morgan Times article. There were implications made by us and others that the murder of a Somali woman worker, Warrsen Aden Abdi, employed at a Cargill meat packing plant was perpetrated by a possible relative or clan member, a Somali male, Ahmed Abdi. Ahmed  Abdi, another Somali emigre worked at the JBS Swift meat packing plant in Greeley, Colorado, shared the same last name.  Further, eyewitnesses to the crime said that the assailant knew the victim.  In the Fort Morgan Times "coffee with a cop" piece, the police chief. Keith Kuretich tries to quell the grisly rumors about Miss Abdi's murder, while revealing little about the crime, despite the lifting of a court gag order. Instead Kerutich suggests that the crime was no different than other murders in Fort Morgan and that Somalis present no problems as they are being rapidly Americanized. Sure!

Here is the Corcoran RRW post with a comment from yours truly:

Do you remember this story from back in the first week of November. From time to time, I’ve returned to the Ft. Morgan Times to see whatever happened with the case of the Somali woman stabbed to death by a Somali man with the same last name (honor killing?).  Initially a gag order was placed on the case, but to the generally politically correct Ft. Morgan Times credit they appealed to have the gag order lifted and it was. 

However, effectively there must be a gag order because I haven’t found another word printed about it since, until I saw this innocuously titled article from a few days ago:  ‘Coffee with a Cop draws Ft. Morgan locals.’ The article begins with a boring paragraph about the mundane issues affecting the everyday lives of Ft. Morgan residents. But then launches into what appears to be on many peoples’ minds—the Somali murder.

Gruesome details spreading on blogs? Gosh I would love to know which blogs! And, by the way, Ft. Morgan Times, if straight factual news reporting on the case would be occuring there would be no rumors spreading! I have seen no further reporting on the murder since early November (if there has been, someone send me a link!).

Several people sat down with Fort Morgan police officers Friday to talk about traffic, speeding, the hazards of foliage that blocks the line of sight at intersections and the rumors which abound in the community.

For instance, there are rumors floating around that the murder allegedly involving Ahmed Abdi of Greeley in Fort Morgan last month was a ritual killing, but that’s not true, Police Chief Keith Kuretich said as he sat in Cafe Lotus talking with locals during what he’s calling “Coffee With a Cop.”  [Edit:  Honor Killings are a form of ritual killing]

He was joined by Lt. Darin Sagel and Lt. Jared Crone.

One Fort Morgan resident asked Kuretich about the rumor that the woman who was killed was also decapitated.

That also is not true, nor is it true that her tongue was cut out or that she was stabbed multiple times, he said. Those are things said on blogs, but bear no resemblance to reality.

In fact, the murder was no more violent — perhaps less so — than some other stabbings seen in Fort Morgan, although he could not go into too much detail due to the ongoing prosecution, Kuretich said.  [Chief Kuretich, which is it, we learned previously that murders in Ft. Morgan are very rare, so what stabbings are you referring to? Do you have a lot of stabbings to compare it with?]

Yesterday I discussed the case with Jerry Gordon who writes about Somali Muslim issues (among other things) at New English Review, and here is what he said about this case:

The Fort Morgan Police Chief’s kaffe klatch remarks about the murder of the Somali woman, is a bit disingenuous. His dismissal of the ‘rumors’ floating around the blogosphere of grisly details may be appropriate. However, he was less than forthcoming about the relationship between the Greeley Somali assailant and victim who shared the same last name and from eyewitness accounts knew each other. I get concerned about marginalizing any murder, whether it is this one or others that might have occurred in Fort Morgan by saying that this was was no different from others. The chief ought to be taken to task for that and his scrupulous avoidance of the possible family or clan relationship to the Somali woman murder victim. Over all, his remarks were very PC and callous at the same time.

Back to the ‘Coffee with a Cop’ article which abruptly switches to mundane issues like the line at McDonalds as part of a discussion on driving issues.

Many of the things people brought up were fairly common, but Kuretich said he was surprised to hear about the problem with traffic around the McDonald’s restaurant on some days.

Then we return again to what apparently was really on peoples’ minds—the Somalis in their midst.  The Chief assures them that everything will be just fine in the end once the Somalis understand our culture, once they become “Americanized.”  Oh yeh, go check out Lewiston, ME that has a Somali population for many more years than Ft. Morgan has had one, and is where roaming gangs of Somali ‘youths’ are now (years later) randomly attacking and robbing residents. But in Ft. Morgan everything will be peachy.

One of the challenges officers face is not being able to speak the languages of the different East African refugees who have moved into the community, he said.

Residents should remember that not all of the black people in town are Somalis or Islamic, and groups have their own cultures, Kuretich said.

East Africans are like any other people, with most trying to fit into the community and obey the laws, but there are always some in any group who challenge authority, he said.

The main law enforcement issue is the driving of some Africans, who are inexperienced, Kuretich said.

However, with the help of Cargill Meat Solutions and OneMorgan County, some training is going on and that can be seen in practice at Cargill, he said. [Edit:  Cargill lured the Somalis to Ft. Morgan in the first place]

African community members were concerned about driving, too, especially after one person died in an accident, Kuretich said.

Most other concerns come down to understanding cultural differences.

In Somalia, for instance, people hang out in the village square, but that translates to what Americans call loitering if done in downtown Fort Morgan, Kuretich said.

And they do speak loudly sometimes, which is another cultural expression, he said.

Somalis have been cooperative once they have learned what it means to locals, although there are young refugees who might resist it, Kuretich said.

They truly consider Fort Morgan home and want to fit in, he said. They are becoming more Americanized as the months go by.

This, some of you might be pleased to discover, is the final post in this series. The posts have been fun to write and I hope that you have enjoyed some of them and some of the links to the music.

Too little, too late - and the timing seems designed to help his grandson win a seat in the Georgia state Senate. The Carter name isn't likely to run away with the Jewish vote any time soon.

ATLANTA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter apologized for any words or deeds that may have upset the Jewish community in an open letter meant to improve an often-tense relationship.

He said he was offering an Al Het, a prayer said on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. It signifies a plea for forgiveness.

"We must not permit criticisms for improvement to stigmatize Israel," Carter said in the letter, which was first sent to JTA, a wire service for Jewish newspapers, and provided Wednesday to The Associated Press. "As I would have noted at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but which is appropriate at any time of the year, I offer an Al Het for any words or deeds of mine that may have done so."

Carter, who during his presidency brokered the first Israeli-Arab peace treaty, outraged many Jews with his 2006 book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." Critics contend he unfairly compared Israeli treatment of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza to the legalized racial oppression that once existed in South Africa.

Israeli leaders have also shunned him over his journey to Gaza to meet with Hamas, considered a terror group by the U.S., the European Union and Israel.

Carter's apology was welcomed by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a vocal critic of Carter's views on Israel.

"When a former president reaches out to the Jewish community and asks for forgiveness, it's incumbent of us to accept it," he said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem. "To what extent this is an epiphany, only time will tell. There certainly was a lot of hurt, a lot of angry words that need to be repaired. But this is a good start."

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee could not immediately be reached for comment.

The letter comes weeks after his grandson, Jason Carter, said he would run for a Georgia state Senate seat being vacated by President Barack Obama's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Singapore. If David Adelman is confirmed as ambassador in January, Jason Carter will be a candidate in a March special election in the northeast Atlanta district.

Jason Carter, who is running in a district with a vocal Jewish population, said in a statement that his grandfather's letter was unrelated to his campaign and hailed the apology as a "great step towards reconciliation."

President Carter's letter said he hopes bloodshed and hatred will yield to mutual respect and cooperation between Israel and its neighbors. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has long said bringing peace to the Middle East remains one of his unfulfilled goals.

In a recent appearance at Emory University, he said if he had one more day as president he would use it to bring the "full weight of the White House" to the peace process.

"That's what I'd do with my one day in the White House," he said. "Bring peace to Israel and its neighbors."

On the other hand, maybe he's just getting senile.

Watch and listen here.

Watch, and listen, here.

Then please ask yourself what NER provides for you, in your daily life.

Anything? 

Nothing? 

Something that you recognize as being of worth, to you and to others? 

NER needs the support of its readers. How else can we be expected to survive? If we weren't hoping to be, and most definitely needing to be, on the receiving end, as we assume Eleemosynary Position #1, we would  -- if positions were reversed, if it had been you supplying the text and texture, and we had been the ones reading and profiting from what you offered us, and in the process helping us, on average, to become 27% more intelligent, with every passing year -- cheerfully empty our pockets for PayPal, or write a check, or whatever means might best fit the bill. As cheerfully as Alastair Sim does when he sees the light, as Dickens gave him to see the light, in A Christmas Carol.

Stunning news this Christmas eve in the secret war in Yemen.  A  Yemeni air strike took out 29 al Qaeda -Salafi terrorist leaders in Southeastern Yemen allegedly including American born radical Imam, Anwar al-Awlaki and the convicted USS Cole bomber, Fahd al Quso.  More details will doubtless be forthcoming.  It is ironic that both Awlaki and al Quso had been interviewed by Al Jazeera this week,  here and here just prior to the air strike in Yemen.

Al -Awlaki was the radical interlocutor who communicated via email with Fort Hood mass shooting suspect, Maj/ Nidal Hasan. al Quso was just listed by the US last month as a 'most wanted terrorist.."

The New York Times Lede blog had an earlier report on the air strike in southeastern Yemen. The Jawa Report has more details here.

Steve Emerson of The Investigative Project, who was  interviewed on Fox News about these dramatic developments had these comments:

For more insight, let's go now to terrorism expert Steve Emerson, who joins us now. He is the Executive Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, and author of Jihad Incorporated.

Steve, thanks for joining us today.

STEVEN EMERSON: Sure.

WRIGHT: These new findings – or these new reports – that are being confirmed to Fox News right now about the death of Awlaki, what does it mean in terms of the War on Terrorism? Does it mean that the United States is stepping up or intensifying its war on terror?

EMERSON: It certainly does, if confirmed. And so far jihadi websites have not been issuing statements of mourning or declarations of retaliation, so we don't know for sure, but it looks like he was killed. It is definitely an impressive victory in the battle against jihadists – and especially against Al Qaeda leaders.

Al-Awlaki, the cleric, ironically issued an interview just two days ago, and it was translated by MEMRI [The Middle East Media Research Institute], in which he openly stated that he had encouraged and, in fact, made obligatory the shooting at Fort Hood by telling Major Hasan that it was necessary to kill American soldiers. So he sort of signed his own death warrant after he had made that interview, although it may just have been a coincidence that he was killed at this moment.

Certainly, he is one of the few English speaking Islamic radical preachers who can appeal to Western-style jihadists. So taking him out of action definitely removes a major source of inspiration to jihadists in the West.

WRIGHT: Does it also suggest that there's been a lot of Saudi support in terms of dealing with terrorism, and what would that mean in terms of the future in dealing with Al Qaeda remnants there in Yemen as well as other parts of the world?

EMERSON: Well, if, in fact, this indicates that there is a new level of cooperation by Yemeni authorities and/ or Saudi authorities, that would be very advantageous and beneficial to the United States government because, up until now, Yemen has sort of been a – sort of Wild West where anybody could function there, and command and control of Al Qaeda was operating freely. So if, in fact, they took U.S. intelligence and targeted Awlaki, it would make a definitive statement that they are stepping up their alliance with the United States, and that would be a very good diplomatic and military alliance for the future.

WRIGHT: Steve, I want to ask you a couple of quick questions real quickly – I'm losing some time here. But getting back to Nidal Hasan speaking with Awlaki, does this mean that, perhaps, the military and police should look at that attack on U.S. troops there at Fort Hood as a terrorist attack and not a random act of violence by a man who may have just lost it?

EMERSON: Absolutely. Awlaki's interview definitively shows that the Hasan attack was an act of Islamic terrorism, and it should have been classified as such. And I know that federal prosecutors are very frustrated by the fact that they can't use the PATRIOT Act that would expedite and accelerate the prosecution, because it has not been classified as a terrorist attack. But his statements clearly show that it was an Islamic terrorist attack.

WRIGHT: Alright, real quickly, one final question: Saudis. We understand, or we are at least getting some reports, that the Saudis may be giving Israel the go-ahead to do something about Iran and its nuclear buildup. Are you hearing anything about that to confirm that?

EMERSON: Well, for a while now, there have been quiet signals and quiet diplomacy in which, basically, Saudi Arabia has essentially stated, though not articulated exactly in these words, that it would turn a blind eye to an Israeli strike on Iran because the Saudis are just as much threatened by an Iranian nuclear capability as the Israelis.

WRIGHT: And Steve, as you know, that would be a very significant development, if it is the case.

Steve Emerson, terrorism expert for us, thank you very much sir for keeping us up to date. Thank you.

What dies with Awalaki are more details on the email exchanges with Maj Hasan and what the story was on his exit in 2002 for Yemen that many suspect was facilitated by the Saudis. These are the same Saudis who appear now to be 'cooperating' with Yemeni, US intelligence and counterterrorism echelons in the war against al Qaeda and the Yemeni Shia Houthi insurgents that threaten the Saudi kingdom.

Every year for the last 6 years I have played Father Christmas into and out of the Toddlers Christmas party with Jingle Bells on the accordion. When I play it doesn't sound like this.
Jingle Bells in a minor key Klezmer style.

Good night.  Listen out for sleigh bells but don't peep.

Back in the early '60's I was in an MBA program at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. We had a quiet hero in our midst, Yitzhak Ahronovitch, who was the skipper of the fabled  Jewish  immigrant ship, The Exodus that dramatically ran the British blockade in the waning days of the Palestine Mandate just prior to the establishment of the State of Israel.  Leon Uris's book novel and later film,  Exodus,   had thrown a spotlight on this dramatic episode in 1947 involving Haganah commamder Yossi Harel , portrayed in the film by the late Paul Newman.  The skipper does not appear as a character in the film version directed by  Hollywood legend , Otto Preminger. 

As graduate students and budding Zionists at Columbia in those days we were proud to have  Ahronovitch discuss the exploit that had caught the world's attention.  Doubtless at the Columbia U of today, he would have been boycotted by pro-Palestinian campus advocates at my alma mater.

Ahronovitch passed away Weednesday  in Israel, aged 86 years.  The  New York Times and the Jerusalem Post ran obituaries featuring his pivotal role in this signature event  leading up to the founding of the State of Israel.

Here is the Times obituary:

Yitzhak Ahronovitch, the captain of the refugee ship Exodus, whose violent interception by the British Navy as it tried to take thousands of Jewish refugees to Palestine in 1947 helped rally support for the creation of the state of Israel the next year, died Wednesday in northern Israel. He was 86.

_________________________________________________

United Press International, 1961

Capt. Yitzhak Ahronovitch

The New York Times

The Exodus, a ship used to try to take Jewish refugees to British-controlled Palestine in 1947.

_______________________________________

Family members said Captain Ahronovitch died after a long illness, The Associated Press reported.

An antiquated former Chesapeake Bay steamship originally known as the President Warfield, the Exodus 1947, as it was formally renamed, was acquired by the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organization, in 1946. The group planned to use it to transport refugees, most of them Holocaust survivors, to Palestine, then under British control.

The refugees had no legal authority to enter Palestine, and the British were determined to block the ship. In the battle that ensued, three Jews aboard the Exodus were killed. The ship’s passengers — more than 4,500 men, women and children — were ultimately deported to Germany.

The attack and its aftermath, which focused attention on the plight of many European Jews after the war, made headlines worldwide and helped marshal support for an Israeli state.

In a statement on Wednesday, Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, said Captain Ahronovitch had “made a unique contribution to the state which will never be forgotten,” Agence France-Presse reported.

The story of the ship’s thwarted journey formed the loose basis for Leon Uris’s novel “Exodus,” published in 1958. In 1960, the novel was made into a film starring Paul Newman as a character based on Yossi Harel, the overall commander of the Exodus operation. Neither book nor movie, apparently, included a character based on Captain Ahronovitch.

Mr. Harel died last year.

Yitzhak Ahronovitch, familiarly known as Ike, was born in Poland in 1923. (His family name has been rendered in news accounts over the years as Aronowicz, Aronowitz, Aharonowitz and Aharonovitz, among other spellings; his first name was sometimes given as Yehiel.) At 10, he moved with his family to Palestine.

As a young man, he was a member of Palmach, the Haganah’s strike force, The New York Times reported in 1961. In World War II, he sailed on British and Norwegian merchant vessels.

Captain Ahronovitch was 23 when he took the helm of the Exodus. On July 11, 1947, he picked up the refugees at Sète, in southern France. On July 18, as the ship neared the coast of Palestine, the British Navy intercepted it. Captain Ahronovitch tried to break through, but two British destroyers rammed the ship.

Several hours of fighting followed, with the ship’s passengers spraying fuel oil and throwing smoke bombs, life rafts and whatever else came to hand, down on the British sailors trying to board, The Times reported at the time. Soon the British opened fire. Two immigrants and a crewman on the Exodus were killed; scores more were wounded, many seriously. The ship was towed to Haifa, and from there its passengers were deported, first to France and eventually to Germany, where they were placed in camps near Lübeck.

Afterward, Captain Ahronovitch lived out of the limelight. In the early 1960s, he studied for a master’s degree in business administration at Columbia.

His survivors include two daughters, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, The A.P. said.

For five years after its violent end, the Exodus lay derelict, moored off Haifa. In 1952 it burned to the waterline, and in 1963 it was scrapped.

Personent Hodie - one of my favourite carols:

Further to Esmerelda's Klezmer-style Jingle Bells, "Return to the great Jewish themes of outsider-ness & redemption with 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'--- in Yiddish":

Listen here.

Watch and listen here.

Scientists Map Speed of Climate Change for Different Ecosystems

ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2009) — From beetles to barnacles, pikas to pine warblers, many species are already on the move in response to shifting climate regimes. But how fast will they -- and their habitats -- have to move to keep pace with global climate change over the next century? In a new study, a team of scientists including Dr. Healy Hamilton from the California Academy of Sciences have calculated that on average, ecosystems will need to shift about 0.42 kilometers per year (about a quarter mile per year) to keep pace with changing temperatures across the globe.

Mountainous habitats will be able to move more slowly, since a modest move up or down slope can result in a large change in temperature. However, flatter ecosystems, such as flooded grasslands, mangroves, and deserts, will need to move much more rapidly to stay in their comfort zone -- sometimes more than a kilometer per year. The team, which also included scientists from the Carnegie Institute of Science, Climate Central, and U.C. Berkeley, will publish their results in the December 24 issue of Nature.

"One of the most powerful aspects of this data is that it allows us to evaluate how our current protected area network will perform as we attempt to conserve biodiversity in the face of global climate change," says Healy Hamilton, Director of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Informatics at the California Academy of Sciences. "When we look at residence times for protected areas, which we define as the amount of time it will take current climate conditions to move across and out of a given protected area, only 8% of our current protected areas have residence times of more than 100 years. If we want to improve these numbers, we need to both reduce our carbon emissions and work quickly toward expanding and connecting our global network of protected areas."

The team calculated the velocity of global climate change by combining data on current climate and temperature regimes worldwide with a large suite of climate model projections for the next century. Their calculations are based on an "intermediate" level of projected greenhouse gas emissions over the next century (the A1B emissions scenario from The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Under these emissions levels, the velocity of climate change is projected to be the slowest in tropical and subtropical coniferous forests (0.08 kilometers per year), temperate coniferous forests (0.11 kilometers per year), and montane grasslands and shrublands (0.11 kilometers per year). The velocity of climate change is expected to be the fastest in flatter areas, including deserts and xeric shrublands (0.71 kilometers per year), mangroves (0.95 kilometers per year), and flooded grasslands and savannas (1.26 kilometers per year).

The vulnerability of these respective biomes depends not only on the average velocity of climate change they will experience, but also on the sizes of the protected areas in which they are found. For instance, while the velocity of climate change is expected to be high in deserts, this threat is mediated by the fact that protected areas for deserts tend to be larger. On the other hand, the small size and fragmented nature of most protected areas in Mediterranean temperate broadleaf and boreal forest biomes make these habitats particularly vulnerable.

What does this mean for beetles, barnacles, and other groups of species? The researchers note that their index estimates the velocities and residence times of climates, not species. Individual species that have a wide tolerance for a range of temperatures may be able to adapt in place as the climate around them shifts. However, for species that can only tolerate a narrow band of temperatures, the velocity estimates in the study are a close approximation for the migration speeds needed to potentially avoid extinction. Nearly a third of the habitats in the study have velocities higher than even the most optimistic plant migration estimates, suggesting that plants in many areas will not be able to keep up with the shifting climate. Even more problematic is the fact that natural habitats have been extensively fragmented by human development, which will leave many species with "nowhere to go," regardless of their migration rates.

The team's results not only underscore the importance of lowering greenhouse gas emissions -- they also provide data for conservation managers who must now plan for the impact of global climate change. The research was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Stanford University Global Climate and Energy Project.

From a free-trade fundamentalist article here: 

"The WTO website has a Background Note: Trade and the Environment in the WTO that explains, “…protection and preservation of the environment are recognized as fundamental goals of the organization.” Two fundamental principles govern international trade policy: national treatment and the most favored nation (MFN).

• National treatment means any policy measure taken by a member should apply in the same way whether the good is imported or produced domestically. Provided they are similar, products imports should not be treated less favorably than domestic goods.
• The MFN principle means that any trade measure taken by a member should be applied in a non-discriminatory manner across all countries."

This, of course, is unacceptable. There are things more important, many things, than that principle  of "free trade." And Ricardo himself would have seen right through the madness of elevating comparative advantage to an Idol of the Age, not to be questioned for any reason.  The countries that are willing and eager to announce their goals -- in the main, the advanced West  (North America and Europe) have a perfect right, and their citizens a duty, not to buy goods, to boycott goods, even if cheaper, if made in countries that refuse to cooperate in reducing the use of fossil fuels and, still more maddening, successfully block, as at Copenhagen, those advanced Western nations even from announcing their own goals, for fear that that might put pressure on those less eager to comply.

This means, according to all the eyewitnesses, China. Stop buying Chinese goods, promote talk of such a boycott all over the Western world. Not goods from Taiwan iif Taiwan complies.. Goods from China. Put a crimp in the now-dangerously heedless Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (Chinese Version), that China appears intent on creating, and with something sinisterly implacable and aggressive spirit as animated, seventy years ago, the followers of Kodo in Japan.

Watch and listen here.

The text originally appeared here.

Muslims Must Not Pay Price for Europe’s Identity Crisis

 
While Many Muslims share the same feeling of nationalism and patriotism in their homelands in Europe, rightwing racists - who are unfortunately becoming a dominant force in shaping public views in various European states – insist on a very narrow definition of what makes a French, a British, a German or a Swiss. Muslims must not be punished, derided or targeted for daring to hold onto their beliefs, notes Ramzy Baroud.

 
It seems that the targeting of Muslims and Islam has become a kind of national theatre in France. Unlike theatre, however, the disturbing trend can, and will turn ugly – in fact to a degree it already has – if the French government doesn’t get a grip on reality. The world, including France, is a complex, multifaceted and fascinatingly diverse place; it cannot be co-opted to fit national specificities determined by a group of irritable far right racists with a distorted interpretation of themselves and others.

Unfortunately, France is not alone; it merely highlights the most obvious manifestation of growing anti-Muslim sentiments throughout Europe. Unearthing the reasons behind the disturbing phenomena is hardly an easy task, for it arguably requires a greater examination of the political, economic and social woes of European states than it does of the ‘shortcomings’ of Islam.

Islam is a great religion in many respects; it has endured for over 1400 years. Its membership is never confined by skin colour, culture, political ideology or geographic boundaries. Its views of antiquity, on equality, women rights and peace are considered progressive even by today’s standards.

The detractors of Islam fail to see all this. If Islam is dissected politically or ‘academically’, the investigation is done for the sake of destroying its repute, and discrediting or humiliating its followers.

The Swiss People’s Party (SVP) may claim that their commitment is to keep Switzerland secular, devoid of symbols of oppression (as in a mosque’s minaret), but this only sounds like incoherent blabber and reflects nothing but a growing tendency towards racism, intolerance and ethnocentrism. These trends are glaring violations of the liberal philosophies associated with European countries, which guarantee individual and collective rights, including those of self-expression and freedom of speech.

In France, the phenomenon is protracted and more dangerous. Considering that France is the home of five million French Muslims, rightwing tendencies threaten future discord in the country.

The Washington Post reported on December 19 that Bilal Mosque, in the tranquil French town of Castres was desecrated by unknown assailants. “Two pig's ears and a poster of the French flag stapled to the door; a pig's snout dangled from the doorknob. ‘White power’ and ‘Sieg heil’ were spray-painted on one side…and ‘France for the French’ on the other.”

Here, one must recall the alarming words of Britain’s first Muslim minister, Shahid Malik. Himself a victim of hate crimes, Malik lamented a year and a half ago that many Muslims feel targeted like the “Jews of Europe”, and that many British Muslims feel like “aliens in their own country”.

While Many Muslims share the same feeling of nationalism and patriotism in their homelands in Europe, rightwing racists - who are unfortunately becoming a dominant force in shaping public views in various European states – insist on a very narrow definition of what makes a French, a British, a German or a Swiss.

There is indeed an identity crisis that is real and frightening. And it’s one that is not engulfing Europe alone, but also affects and in some instances has devastated many cultures all over the world. While it is a byproduct of misguided and unchecked globalization, in the case of Europe itself the issue is very national and very personal. The European Union, which started as a purely economic body has morphed into a political and pan-nationalist organization that is attempting, by accident or design, to define a united Europe and a prototypical European. This has raised fears of the loss of national identities or whatever remains of it. Expectedly, it is the politically underrepresented, socially marginalized and economically disadvantaged groups that often pay the price of this sort of national resurgence.

Targeting Muslims is a common denominator that now unifies a great proportion of European political elites and media. The reasons are numerous and obvious. Some European countries are at war (which they have chosen) in various Muslim countries; desperate and failed politicians are in need for constant distractions from their own failures and mishaps; associating Islam with terrorism is more than an acceptable intellectual diatribe, a topic of discussion that has occupied more radio and television airtime than any other; also, pushing Muslims around seems to have few political repercussions – unlike the subjugation of targeting of other groups with political or economic clout.

But is their more to this? A 2007-08 Gallup poll asked the following question: does religion occupy an important place in your life? The vast majority in Western European countries answered with a resounding “no”. Only 9 percent of Turkish citizens – a country with a Muslim majority – shared the popular view. Most European Muslims strongly identify with their religion, which has preserved their sense of community, and helped maintain a degree of cultural cohesion and a semblance of collective identity at a time when many in Europe are losing theirs. Muslims must not be blamed for this loss, and nor should they be punished, derided or targeted for daring to hold onto their beliefs.

Returning again to France, what is most alarming about the anti-Muslim measures is that they are largely led by the government itself, rather than a fanatical group of disenchanted ideologues. Eric Besson, the country’s Immigration Minister, stated on December 16 that Muslim veils will be grounds of denying citizenships and long-term residence. Besson was only echoing the disquieting policies of conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy who has started a ‘national identity campaign’ for ensuring an exclusive identity of France - one that is occupied with the targeting of immigrants, particularly Muslims.

Sarkozy, Besson, and Europe’s rightwing and far right politicians must understand the possible ramifications if they continue to press with their reckless and alienating policies.

Radicalization is an unavoidable offshoot of group alienation, which is sadly being used to further fuel the anti-immigrant fervour throughout the continent. It is a vicious cycle, the blame for which lies squarely with the savvy politicians and their obvious agendas. As for those who insist on blaming Islam for Europe’s woes, they should really find another pastime; the self-indulgent game is too hazardous and must stop.

Ramzy Baroud (Ramzy Baroud) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story (Pluto Press, London), now available on Amazon.com.

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