Faith: How personal manifestations of Faith can become a source of conflict.

It is always amazing to see how large numbers of people from different religions always feel the need to show, by some outward manifestation, to which religion they belong.

Jews wear the Kippah. Christians often use the Cross around their neck as an ornament, and many Muslim women wear the Burka.

In a sense one can safely say that these public manifestations of Faith have nothing to do with the definition of Faith and as a matter of fact can often  become a source of  conflict.

The definition of Faith is really quite clear: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Or as it is also said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you”.

Maybe something to think about when we talk about Peace on Earth?

EU- Digest

EU unveils plans for a ‘capital markets union’

The EU has unveiled a new plan to encourage companies to tap difference sources of investment.

The European Commission says firms rely too heavily on banks for funding.

It reckons they should explore alternatives, such as venture capital.

The end goal would be to create a single European market for raising capital.

“In the US, SMIs get about five times as much funding from the capital markets or non-bank financing as they do here in the EU. And if our venture capital markets were as well developped as they are in the US companies could have raised an extra 90 billion euros over the past five years,” said Britain’s Jonathan Hill, the EU commissioner for financial stability.

Read more: EU unveils plans for a ‘capital markets union’ | euronews, Europe

The Netherlands: A nation of tall cheese-eaters

The Dutch drink a lot of milk, eat a lot of cheese, and are now the tallest people in the world. Could there be a connection? The author of a new book on the Netherlands, Ben Coates, explains how the Dutch became not only voracious but also very discerning cheese eaters.

Earlier this year, a museum in Amsterdam was the scene of a terrible crime. Doing their rounds at the end of a busy day, curators were horrified to discover that one of their most prized exhibits - a small shiny object glittering with 220 diamonds - was missing. A security video showed two young men in baseball caps loitering near the display case, but the police had no other leads. The world's most expensive cheese slicer was gone.

In some countries, a theft from the national cheese museum might sound like the plot for an animated children's film. In the Netherlands, however, cheese is a serious business. For the Dutch, cheeses, milk, yoghurts and other dairy products are not only staple foods but national symbols, and the bedrock of a major export industry.

The Netherlands' love of all things dairy is largely a consequence of its unique geography. Four hundred years ago, much of the country lay under water, and much of the rest was swampy marshland. "The buttock of the world", was how one 17th-Century visitor described it, "full of veines and bloud, but no bones". Over the next few centuries though, the Dutch embarked on an extraordinary project to rebuild their country. Thousands of canals were dug, and bogs were drained by hundreds of water-pumping windmills.

Some of the new land was built on, but large areas were also allocated to help feed the growing population of cities like Amsterdam. Silty reclaimed soil proved perfect for growing rich, moist grass, and that grass in turn made perfect food for cows. Thousands of the creatures soon were grazing happily on reclaimed land.

The country's most popular breed - the black and white Friesian - became world famous. At one point, a Friesian called Pauline Wayne even lived at the White House, providing fresh milk for President William Howard Taft and giving personal "interviews" to the Washington Post.

Read more: A nation of tall cheese-eaters - BBC News

The EU Refugee Crises: Refugees And Reform In Europe - by Mohamed A. El-Erian

There is a simple truth beneath the growing human tragedy of Europe’s refugee crisis, and the European Union cannot address the massive influx of exhausted, desperate people in a manner compatible with its values unless governments and citizens acknowledge it. Simply put, the historic challenge confronting Europe also offers historic opportunities. The question is whether Europe’s politicians – who have failed to deliver on far less complicated issues over which they had a lot more control – can seize the moment.

The scale of the challenge is immense, with the flow of refugees extremely difficult to monitor and channel, let alone limit. Fleeing war and oppression, tens of thousands of people are risking life and limb to find refuge in Europe – a phenomenon that will continue as long as chaos persists in countries of origin, such as Syria, and countries facilitating transit, such as Iraq and Libya.

In the meantime, Europe’s transport networks are under stress, as are shelters, border crossings, and registration centers. Common asylum policies – including, for example, the basic rule that asylum-seekers should be registered at their point of entry into the EU – are not functioning or are being bypassed. And the cherished concept of effortless travel within the border-free Schengen Area is under threat.

These problems are aggravated by coordination failures. Attitudes toward refugees vary widely across countries, with Germany taking a particularly enlightened approach that contrasts sharply with Hungary’s notably heartless one. Some countries, such as the Czech Republic, have blocked deals to share the burden fairly among European Union members, including through mandatory quotas.

Europe has the opportunity to turn today’s refugee crisis into a catalyst for renewal and progress. Let us hope that its politicians stop bickering and start working together to take advantage of this opening. If they fail, the momentum behind regional integration – which has brought peace, prosperity, and hope to hundreds of millions of people – will weaken considerably, to the detriment of all.

Read more: Refugees And Reform In Europe » Social Europe

The Netherlands: More than 440,000 Dutch citizens call for referendum on US influenced Ukraine-EU treaty

A Dutch citizens’ initiative to force a non-binding referendum on a far-reaching treaty between Brussels and Ukraine had gathered 446,000 signatures already  by early Sunday evening.

The campaign to hold a referendum was launched by shock blog Geenstijl, think-tank Forum voor Democratie and the Burgercomite EU association earlier this month. In 2014, the Dutch approved legislation to allow ‘advisory referendums’ on controversial topics, if supporters can gather 300,000 signatures. The Dutch parliament has already voted in favour of the treaty.

The aim of the treaty is to foster political relationships and kickstart economic integration and supporters say it shifts Ukraine away from Russia and more towards the wes

Most of the Dutch citizens who voted in favor of holding a referendum say the treaty will cost Dutch taxpayers billions of euros and that the EU’s expansion drive is having an adverse impact on democracy in the Netherlands. They also argue that the Dutch parliament no longer does what its own voters want, but are driven by US influenced Brussels’ interests.

Some of the supporters of the referendum are also saying that the present Ukraine government came to power illegally and is basically a US creation to increase their influence in Eastern Europe..

In The Hague, politicians congratulated the organisers of the lobby, RTL news reported, even though the ruling Labour party, the Christian Democrats and D66 all reiterated their support for the treaty.

The Socialists and anti-immigration PVV parties are opposed and PVV leader Geert Wilders has already said he will campaign for a ‘no’ vote. The electoral council will now check the results to make sure the signatures are genuine. Once it gives the green light for the referendum, it must be held within six months.

This means the referendum vote is likely to take place during the Dutch presidency of the EU, which starts in January 2016.

EU-Digest

The Netherlands: Spectacular galactic show above Almere as the moon turns red

It was a spectacular galactic show in Almere early this morning for those who were courageous enough to get up at 3.00 am and face the relatively cold of 8C.to watch the moon turn into a scary dark redish color.

The pictures speak for themselves.

Moon slowly turning red

 

The Blood moon

                                                                                                                                                                     Almere-Digest 

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A United EU is closer than you think - The people want it. The elites are the obstacle - by Miguel Otero-Iglesias

There is a strong consensus on the eurozone crisis among economists and political analysts both in Europe and the United States: for the eurozone to endure, it would need to develop into a fiscal union and, consequently, a political one. In the same breath, however, influential commentators argue that this is politically unfeasible in the current context of a heightened North-South divide within Europe.

And there seems to be a strong consensus among pundits that political union in Europe is a pipe dream.
The problem is that this oft-repeated assertion — usually invoked as if it were irrefutable — is thrown at audiences without a shred of evidence to back it. The naysayers simply point to the latest European parliamentary elections as clear evidence of a rising tide of Euroskepticism.

In doing so, they err, for they equate Eurocritics with Euroskeptics. The French National Front and UKIP are against the very concept of the EU; but they should not be confused with Spain’s Podemos, Syriza in Greece, and the Italian Five Star Movement, who are against this EU in particular.

There is a big difference. If you give Alexis Tsipras, Pablo Iglesias or Beppe Grillo the chance of having a federal and democratic union, with a Commission president directly elected by the peoples of Europe, they would very likely sign up to it. Give it to Nigel Farage or Marine Le Pen, however, and they would laugh in your face. That is the difference between Eurocritics and Euroskeptics.

Even among the Euroskeptics, the anti-EU rhetoric has a voting ceiling. Europe’s main political divide is not between those for or against the EU, but between those who are more cosmopolitan — and largely in favor of further integration under the principle of subsidiarity — and those who would like to withdraw behind their national borders.

That is why the National Front, UKIP and Alternative for Germany have switched from anti-EU rhetoric to anti-immigration discourse. They realize that their potential voters are not anti-European, but rather those who have lost out from globalization. Euroskeptics comprise no more than 15-20 percent of the electorate of any European country. In Germany, the EU’s largest member state, the figure is even lower.

That Euroskeptics are no more than 20 percent does not necessarily mean that the remaining 80 percent are keen to create a United States of Europe; far from it. However, the figure does call into question the widespread assertion that political union in Europe is impossible. There is little conclusive evidence on the subject. However, data from the Eurobarometer — the closest we have to a gauge for measuring public opinion in Europe — suggest that Europeans want more, not less, integration.

The difference is whether they live or not in the eurozone. While 67 percent of those within the zone are in favor of the euro, only 35 percent outside it are. In the UK the figure is 20 percent, but in Germany it rises to 74 percent. The same can be said about having a European identity. Up to 62 percent of those in the eurozone feel that they are European as well as their own nationality, but outside the eurozone the figure is 53 percent. Not surprisingly, only 39 percent of Britons feel European (compared with 64 percent of the French).

"For or against a European economic and monetary union with one single currency, the euro" 67% said yes,, 26 % said no, and 7% said they don't know.

"Do you see yourself as Nationality only; European and Nationality; European only; or Don't know;"-  61% considered themselves European and national, 34 % said they were more nationally oriented, 2 % said they considered themselves only European and 1% did not know./

Overall, the limited evidence available strongly suggests that Britons do not want further integration, but that all other Europeans, especially those in the eurozone, are more open to the idea. Fortunately, the Eurobarometer asks two more specific questions on the topic.

One is whether more decisions should be taken at the EU level. In that respect, ‘only’ 48 percent of Europeans are in favor, so enthusiasm about giving more power to Brussels is tepid. However, there are still more in favor than against (40 percent). Yet again there is a difference between the percentages within the eurozone — 50 percent — and those outside — 43 percent. 

The second, and more important question, is whether the EU should develop into a federation of nation states. Here, only 41 percent are in favor, but, again, those against are even fewer, at 34 percent. A whopping 25 percent just do not know. 

It may well be that the peoples of Europe (especially in the eurozone) want more integration, but that it is their national governmental elites that are holding back because they stand to lose the most from a greater degree of union.

For the latest  EU Barometer polls click here