The Netherlands: Crowdfunding - Debut Of Exciting New Dutch Vocalist Jo Sarah

Jo Sarah

Following our earlier report we met up again with the exciting new Dutch singer Jo Sarah and asked her how her  recordings have been going these past weeks. 

"These have been some fast moving weeks recording my album. It was really  awesome recording my songs at the Wedgeview studio’s with my band - they were fantastic", said Jo

The album is going to be really special.  she said and will have 5 songs and a small surprise!! "So please stay tuned for the release in January 2015."

 "We are now in the process of mixing the songs….and I can already hear and feel it’s going to be an album to be proud about", says Jo Sarah

Sarah said she has also started a "crowdfunding" to finance the production of her album and that donations already reached more than 50% of her goal - "thanks to all the wonderful people who have so graciously donated funds".

Anyone interested to help Jo Sarah reach her funding goal can find out more about it by clicking on the following link:  Crowdfunding Jo Sarah!

EU-Digest

Vatican And The Gay Community: Catholic bishops veto gay-friendly statements leaving Pope Francis the loser - by Lizzy Davies

Pope Francis appeared on Saturday night to have lost out to powerful conservatives in the Roman Catholic church after bishops scrapped language that had been hailed as a historic warming of attitudes towards gay people.

In the final report of an extraordinary synod on the family which has exposed deep divides in the church hierarchy, there is no mention – as there had been in a draft version – of the “gifts and qualities” gay people can offer. Nor is there any recognition of the “precious support” same-sex partners can give each other.

A paragraph entitled “pastoral attention to people of homosexual orientation” – itself a distinctly cooler tone than “welcoming homosexual persons” – refers to church teaching, saying there can be “not even a remote” comparison between gay unions and heterosexual marriage.

“Nevertheless,” it adds, “men and women of homosexual tendencies must be welcomed with respect and sensitivity.” They should not suffer from discrimination, it adds. But the shift in tone is clear. And, in a potentially stark sign of the discomfort provoked among many bishop, even this watered-down passage failed to pass the two-thirds majority needed for it to be approved.

Read more: Catholic bishops veto gay-friendly statements leaving Pope Francis the loser | World news | The Observer

The Netherlands: Dutch exporters find way via Turkey to circumvent imposed Russian Sanctions

The Dutch Fruit and Vegetable publication "Fresh Plaza" reports that Russia accuses Poland of illegal re-export, so it closed its borders last week for all products from Poland.

The Eastern European country is reported to transport Polish produce under a false label as re-export to Russia. Traders from other countries are also reportedly using smuggling routes.

The Netherlands and Spain were recently mentioned in the media in connection with the smuggling. The Canadian borders are opened to Belgian pears. The agreement was reached after efforts from Belgium and the EU For other EU member states, similar trade agreements are on the table. In the Czech Republic, apple prices have gone down to 30%.

The country is mainly hit indirectly by the boycott, and gets little compensation from the EU for that reason. Growers in Lithuania refuse to destroy produce, so they are not entitled to receive compensation. As a result, growers are in danger of bankruptcy. And negotiations between Russia and Jordan and Iran are still going. Both countries want to significantly increase export of fruit and vegetables to Russia.

EU-Digest

EU Personal Privacy Rights: Google Has Received Nearly 145,000 Requests to Be 'Forgotten' - by Brendan Sasso

Thousands of Europeans are scrambling to take advantage of a new legal right to force Google to delete search results about them.

Since the process began several months ago, Google has received 144,954 requests to delete 497,695 pages from its search engine, the company revealed in a report Friday.

But Google actually rejected most of the requests under the "right to be forgotten." The company granted 41.8 percent of the requests to scrub links.

Facebook was the most common site that people tried to hide from search results, followed by profileengine.com, a site that archives social-media information. Google's own YouTube came in third.

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom were the top sources of requests to delete links, according to the report. 

"We believe it's important to be transparent about how much information we're removing from search results while being respectful of individuals who have made requests," Jess Hemerly, a public policy manager at Google, said in a blog post. "Releasing this information to the public helps hold us accountable for our process and implementation."

The top European court ruled in May that companies must delete "inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant" pages. The ruling was based on Europe's privacy laws, which are much more expansive than those in the U.S. People argued they shouldn't be haunted for their whole lives by embarrassing Web pages.

Note EU-Digest: one of the many benefits of being part of the EU

Read more: Google Has Received Nearly 145,000 Requests to Be 'Forgotten' - NationalJournal.com

EU-US Trade Negotiations: Concerns rise over US-EU trade talks - as Europe demonstrates against talks - by Andrew Walker

There are rising concerns in Europe over negotiations to liberalise trade with the United States.

The project, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, aims to remove a wide range of barriers to bilateral commerce.

Opponents are planning demonstrations and protests across Europe today October 11, with large numbers of events in Germany, France, Spain and Italy,

In Britain, events are planned in at least 15 cities and towns.

One campaigner involved in planning the day of action said she expected at least 400 local actions in about 24 European countries.

The EU and the US launched the negotiations last year and the aim is to stimulate more trade and investment, and, in the process, to produce more economic growth and employment.

One aim of the negotiations is to reduce the costs to business of complying with regulations. A firm in, say Europe, that wants to export to the US often has to comply with two sets of rules.Critics say the result of this would be lower standards of protection for workers, consumers and the environment. Food safety is a particular concern among European opponents of the negotiations.

In the EU, campaigners say that consumers could be faced with more genetically modified food, hormone treated beef and chicken meat that has been rinsed with chlorine.

Another major concern is the provisions under discussion to enable foreign investors - for example American firms investing in the EU - to sue a host government in some circumstances if they are hit by a change in policy.

That turned out to be so controversial that the European Commission decided to hold a public consultation. There were 150,000 responses which the Commission is still analyzing.

The conduct of the negotiations is also contentious. Campaigners say they are secretive and undemocratic. They also dispute TTIP advocates' claims about the economic benefits.

Overall these negotiations have proven to be extremely controversia and should not be allowed to be shoved down the throats of European Citizens.

Read more: BBC News - Concerns rise over US-EU trade talk

Global Economy: Debt risk, market turmoil threaten financial crisis - David Parkinson

Nagging debt risks, heated currency wars and renewed market turmoil are making the global economy a precarious place, six years after the financial crisis.

On the sixth anniversary of the S&P 500’s biggest one-day drop in history – a 106-point plunge on Sept. 29, 2008, that marked the beginning of one of the worst market collapses of all time – the respected annual Geneva Report on the World Economy is raising concerns about a “poisonous combination” of record and still-rising global debts and chronically slow growth. It warned that this leaves the world exposed to a heightened risk of further economic stagnation and even another potential financial crisis.

Read more: Debt risk, market turmoil threaten financial crisis - The Globe and Mail

May you live in interesting times - How Global Developments Impact On Your Life - editorial

May you live in interesting times"  -  While purporting to be a blessing, this is in fact a curse. The expression is always used ironically, with the clear implication that 'uninteresting times', of peace and tranquility, are more life-enhancing than interesting ones.

"May you live in interesting times" is also  widely reported as being of ancient Chinese origin but is really neither Chinese nor ancient, being recent and western. It certainly seems to have been intended to sound oriental, in the faux-Chinese 'Confucius he say' style, but that's as near to China as it actually gets.

The saying probably refers back to the days before the second world war when British PM Neville Chamberlain used it to described the state of the world at that time.

Tying the state of world affairs from Chamberlain's days to the present we could  probably quite appropriately use the French saying: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose - the more it changes - the more it stays the same.  Or, the fact is - history repeats itself.

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