Almere-Digest

September 7, 2015

Europe’s multi-layered hypocrisy on refugees or "Kettle (US) calling the Pot (EU) black" ? - by Anne Applebaum

Picking apart the layers of irony and hypocrisy that surround the European refugee crisis is like peeling an onion without a knife. At a train station in southern Moravia, Czech police pulled 200 refugees off a train and marked numbers on their arms. On its eastern border, Hungary is building a barbed-wire fence to keep out refugees, remarkably like the barbed wire “iron curtain” that once marked its western border. Choose whatever image you want — ships full of Jews being sent back to Nazi Europe, refugees furtively negotiating with smugglers at a bar in Casablanca — and it now has a modern twist.

Sun, a British tabloid, has spent a decade railing against immigrants of all kinds. Not long ago, it told the British prime minister to “Draw a Red Line on Immigration — Or Else.” Now, after the publication of photographs of a dead Syrian toddler washed up on a Turkish beach, it wants him to “Deal With the Worst Crisis Facing Europe Since WW2.”

Having just declared that there was no point in accepting “more and more refugees,” poor David Cameron has now declared that, actually, Britain would accept more and more refugees. His aides hurriedly explained that “he had not seen the photographs” when he made the original statement.

More layers of hypocrisy: Although the photographs are indeed terrible, they aren’t actually telling us anything new. Refugees have been crossing the Mediterranean for months. Hundreds have died. Also, if we are disturbed by a dead child on a beach, why aren’t we disturbed by another dead child in a bombed-out house in Aleppo, Syria? What’s the distinction?

Even now, almost all of the slogans being bandied about as “solutions” are based on false assumptions. Nations should accept real refugees but not economic migrants? For one, it’s rarely easy to tell the difference. More to the point, the number of potentially “legitimate” refugees is staggeringly high.

As of July, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had registered more than 4 million Syrian refugees, of whom well over a million are in Turkey and 1.5 million are in Lebanon, a country of only 4.8 million people. That’s not counting Iraqis, Libyans, Afghans and others who have equally suffered political or religious persecution, or even the millions of displaced Syrians still in Syria. Exactly how many of them will Europe take.

Note EU-Digest : A typical case of "the kettle calling the pot black". No one writes or talks about the fact that this whole migrant drama is the result of a totally defunct US Middle East policy, in which they dragged, or better even, forced Europe to follow ". If only Europe had some independent political leaders with the courage to tell the US to "go and take a hike." Unfortunately most of our European politicians are not looking out for Europe where it counts.

Also click here for additional information on the above issue.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-crisis-on-europes-shores/2015/09/04/2fb38864-5319-11e5-933e-7d06c647a395_story.html

September 5, 2015

The Netherlands: More Netherlands residents providing refugee assistance - by Janene Van Jaarsveldt

More and more Dutch people are opening their hearts to refugees and offering help where they can. The central agency for asylum seekers in the Netherlands, the COA, have so many volunteers reporting that they can hardly keep up.

Telephone operators at the COA are so overwhelmed that the agency has asked people to rather report via an online contact form, instead of calling, NOS reports. “The waiting time is too long”, a spokesperson said to the broadcaster. “And it would be a shame if people’s ideas just lie there and aren’t heard.”

Refugee foundation Vluchtelingenwerk currently have about 8 thousand volunteers registered with them.

That’s about as much as when the war in Yugoslavia led to a record number of volunteers in the 90’s.
When the temporary asylum centers opened in the IJsselhallen in Zwolle this summer, about 400 volunteers showed up offering, for example, to run errands or provide a meal.

Private initiatives are also popping up. A Facebook campaign called “Because We Carry” is collecting baby slings to donate to the many refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos. “Here mothers have to walk 70 kilometers with their young children to get help. That’s hard if youre already exhausted after the boat trip, but it’s even harder if you’re also carrying children in your arms.”

Another popular initiative on Facebook is the page “Ik ben een gastgezin voor een vluchteling“, or “I am a hos family for a refugee” in English. More than 15 thousand people have already reported on this page. The term “host family” in the group name does not mean that the people are taking in refugees, but instead offering support and help with the asylum application process.

Read more: More Netherlands residents providing refugee assistance - NL Times

Eastern Europe and Refugees: Fighting the wrong battle: Central Europe’s crisis is one of liberal democracy, not migration - Michal Simecka and Benjamin Tallis

The hostile response of central and eastern European heads of states to the prospect of accepting Syrian refugees is emblematic of a wider problem of democracy and liberalism in these countries.

When the European Commission unveiled its plan for binding refugee resettlement quotas in April 2015, few had expected the governments of ex-communist Member States - which have no Middle Eastern or African immigrant communities to speak of - to warmly embrace the scheme.

However, the intensity, hysteria and hypocrisy of the anti-migrant backlash shocked many, including some in the Visegrad countries themselves. Political cowardice and popular mistrust of supposedly liberal elites has allowed poisonous rhetoric directed at migrants to dominate, which risks political isolation and hinders common European action to address the crisis.

Encouragingly, counter-currents of resistance to the xenophobic rhetoric and callous political expediency are starting to emerge in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the Visegrad governments, meeting in Prague for an emergency summit on Friday, as it becomes increasingly clear that their approach is not only out of line with Europe's moral responsibilities, but also out of line with key European states such as Germany and France.

However, these belated, weak and ineffective responses are symptomatic of deeper social and political problems in the Visegrad countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary). The migration crisis has exposed another crisis – of liberal democracy in post-communist societies.

It is regrettable - indeed "scandalous", as French foreign minister Laurent Fabius put it – that on one of the few issues on which the Visegrad countries have made their collective voice heard, it contradicts European values and the ethos of the EU. Given the region’s history it is particularly concerning that Central Europeans are currently part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Note EU-Digest: Sad and deplorable to see how some of our own EU member states in Eastern Europe like Hungary and Poland are reacting to efforts being undertaken to come to a common solution to solve the avalanche of Middle Eastern refugees by a system of proportional distribution of these refugees around the EU. With an aging population and a lack of qualified workers this migration flow actually be a blessing in disguise for the EU.

Read more: Fighting the wrong battle: Central Europe’s crisis is one of liberal democracy, not migration | openDemocracy

What's the greatest risk to Turkey's economy? - by Barın Kayaoğlu

Any one of the following problems would ring alarm bells for an emerging market: a slowing economy,rising inflation,distrustful citizens exchanging local currency deposits for dollars whenever possible, rising tide of violence scaring away foreign tourists and hurting hard currency reserves and concerned foreign investors eyeing the exit because of a bearish stock exchange and a possible hike in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve.

The Turkish currency, which had an average value of 1.90 to the dollar, is likely to decline further and surpass the three-lira threshold soon. “Never mind three, it could even be tr/dolar-3-lira to the dollar,” wrote Mert Yildiz, a senior economist at the prestigious economic and financial analysis firm Roubini Global Economics.

According to one report, because the AKP has used dollar figures to boast of its role in the “Turkish economic miracle,” the bleeding in the lira means Turkey could lose its place in the G-20, the group representing the world’s top 20 economies.

<a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/08/turkey-economy-political-uncertainties-greatest-risk.html">Read more: What's the greatest risk to Turkey's economy? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East</a></div>

Read more: What's the greatest risk to Turkey's economy? - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Turkey - Refugees: Outcry over Bodrum migrant tragedy

Relatives of people who drowned as two boats sank after leaving southwest Turkey have identified the bodies.

At least 12 people believed to be Syrian refugees died off the coast of Bodrum peninsula as they headed for the Greek island of Kos.

Twelve bodies including five children were recovered. Seven people were rescued. Two reached the shore in life jackets.

Among the victims were Aylin Kurdi, 3 and his brother and Galip 5.

Images of Aylin lying face down on a beach have been published across the world sparking a fierce debate over the ethics (link contains the images) of showing a dead child’s body

Thousands of migrants have died this year trying to reach Europe by sea.
Almost 100 people are said to have been rescued by Turkish vessels on the same night as they tried to reach Kos.

September 3, 2015

Global Economy: US and Chinese Economies are in "lockstep" and this could spell major trouble for US

Let no one fool you - specially not the Wall Street "news makers.

Both the US and Chinese Economies are in lockstep and the US economy could get in big trouble because of that.

The investment relationship that has blossomed between China and the U.S., even though it has benefited both countries, has also made both of their economies very dependent on each other, but the US more so than China.

Chinese companies have started more companies or joint ventures in the U.S., thereby increasing the number of Americans working for Chinese firms.In a sense China has now also become a supplier of secondary capital to the USA, in addition to the regular US debt they have been buying up..

Another alarming fact is that based on the present (June 2015 figures) US debt to China stands at $1.272 trillion,.

That's roughly one-fifth of the $6.175 trillion held by foreign countries. The rest of the $18 trillion debt is owned by either the American people, or by the U.S. government itself.

The United States has thus allowed China to become one of its biggest bankers, to provide the American people low consumer prices.

This selling of debt to China is mainly used by the US to help the US economy to grow by funding federal government programs. It has also kept U.S. interests rates artificially low. However, what very people want to talk about, specially the financial world, is that China's increasing ownership of U.S. debt is shifting the economic balance of power in China's favor.

China's position as America's largest banker also gives it considerable political leverage. Consequently every now and then China threatens to sell part of its US debt holdings. It knows that, if it did so, U.S. interest rates would rise, which would slow U.S economic growth to a trickle.

As China grew economically stronger it has also been calling for a new global currency to replace the dollar, which is presently used in most international transactions. China usually makes this call whenever the U.S. lets the value of the US dollar drop, which makes the debt China holds less valuable.

China certainly is not so stupid to call in its US debt all at once. If it did so, the demand for the dollar would plummet like a rock. A dollar collapse would disrupt international markets worse than the 2008 financial crises and China's economy would suffer along with everyone else's.

It's more likely that China will slowly begin selling off its US Treasury holdings.

Bottom line the financial poker game between the two most powerful economic players in the world is certainly not over yet, but China is holding some very powerful cards in its hand.

The financial world better sit up and start smelling the roses.

EU-Digest

Wanted Dead or Alive: ISIS' Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi profiled - by Pamela Engel

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,

The world knows little of the Islamic State terror group's brutal leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but a new article from counterterrorism expert Will McCants provides one of the most extensive accounts yet of his background.

McCants, director of the Project on US Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution, wrote an upcoming book on the Islamic State — aka ISIS, ISIL, and Daesh — and researched Baghdadi's life to explain his rise to become one of the most wanted terrorists in the world.

Since Baghdadi became the self-proclaimed "caliph" of ISIS in 2014, he has only appeared in public once, at a mosque in Mosul, Iraq. He was rumored to have died in an air strike earlier this year, but ISIS subsequently released a statement from him along with proof that he was still alive.

Even with new information about his life tricking out in the press, Baghdadi — aka Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Al-Badri — remains a mysterious and reclusive figure.

Click on the link below to know more about his background, as laid out by McCants in his Brookings essay.