The Largest Minority

June 2nd, 2009 by John Geraghty

In Ireland, the economy is not the only thing in meltdown. Fianna Fail, the majority partner in government are in political turmoil. They are on the brink of not being the largest party in the country since the foundation of the state. Their support has dropped to an average of 20% in recent months, putting them well behind their rivals Fine Gael and nearly on par with the Labour Party, who have traditionally propped up either party into government. There is currently an election campaign under way for local councils over the country and 12 seats in the European parliament.

For Fianna Fail the biggest race of the election is in Dublin where they are struggling to hold onto their European parliament seat. The constituency has been redrawn so that four sitting MEP’s are battling it out for just three seats this time around. Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell and Labour’s Proinsias De Rossa are both regarded as shoe-ins. Before last Saturday, the race for the last seat was regarded as a two horse race between Eoin Ryan and Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald.

A TNS-MRBI poll in the Irish Times last Saturday introduced another face into the race. Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party has previously been a member of Dail Eireann (Irish parliament) for the Dublin West constituency and is well known for his campaigns against water charges, bin taxes and for the rights of exploited workers for the Turkish company Gama, with Joe going to prison for his part in the bin tax protest. These struggles have made Higgins a household name in working and middles class households alike, giving the Socialist Party the chance to reach a much wider audience than it would traditionally receive.

Higgins stands at 9% in the poll, having gone up 2% since the last of its kind. He is joined on 9% by Eoin Ryan, with Mary Lou McDonald down 3% at 12%. The significance of this poll is that one week before election day McDonald and Ryan are on a steep downward slope and Higgins is rising in popularity, due in some small way to peoples resentment of the negative campaigns and very visual bickering between Ryan and McDonald.

Ireland votes with a single transferable vote system, whereby on each ballot you may vote for your candidates in order of preference, e.g. 1,2,3 and so on. Should your 1 vote be eliminated, your vote then transfers to your number 2 in assisting them to meet the quota. (It’s much more complicated than that, but this is the simple explanation.) As such, we may see a lot of tactical voting that may well swing in Higgins favour, albeit as they may prove to be, from an unlikely source. Labour voters second preference for Higgins will mean little, given that De Rossa will likely sneak above the quota on the first or second count. Mitchell of Fine Gael, the party of business as they present themselves, may prove to be a larger transferrer of votes to the socialists than one would expect. Fine Gael voters would find it difficult to give a preference to Fianna Fail, as they are attempting to overtake them, for the first time, as the largest party in the state. They would find it even more difficult to give any support to Sinn Fein, a party that Fine Gael have not regarded as legitimate and are still treated with intense suspicion by the Fine Gael base.

The only viable option for these voters, if they find the idea of either  Fianna Fail or Sinn Fein as repugnant, is Joe Higgins, who, most acknowledge whether they agree with him or not, is a very capable politician with unique satirical oratorical ability. The Socialist Party, to Fine Gael are not a threat, likely as they are to join a smaller political grouping in the European parliament.

For the Socialist Party, gaining a European seat would open a lot of doors. Higgins has already signified his intention to run for the Irish parliament when the next general election arises, which would see an existing Socialist Party councillor filling his European seat. Higgins is also running as a local election candidate. Success in Europe would also enable the party to nominate a replacement for him on the local level should he succeed in both races. This would allow the party to bring more personalities to the fore, and reduce their reliance on existing councillors as standard bearers.

Before Friday June 5th’s election Higgins needs to secure a further 1.5% in first preference votes to be in with a real chance of being elected. Non an unthinkable proposition, considering it is Higgins with the momentum and there is no clear indication of where transfer votes will end up.

Higgins campaign in the city of Dublin, an area with a population of over a million people, has been run on a budget of 28,000 euro by 90 volunteers. His election would be a considerable feat for a poorly resourced yet deeply committed candidacy.

The people who are best informed in matters such as these are those who have money to win or lose, which is why I regularly check Joe Higgins odds on the Paddy Power bookmakers website. Joe Higgins has dropped from 8 to 1, to 6 to 4. It wouldn’t be a bad bet.

April 3rd, 2009 by Manila Ryce

Thousands flooded London’s financial district to make demands on the world leaders attending the G20 summit. Dozens were arrested Wednesday as thousands of demonstrators jammed the streets. Former British MP Tony Benn, the current president of the Stop the War Coalition, speaks with Amy Goodman. After the G20 talks, President Obama will stop in France and Germany to take part in a NATO summit marking its sixtieth anniversary. Mass demonstrations are expected with thousands of protesters from over twenty European countries and the United States.

January 28th, 2009 by Manila Ryce

To: European Union

January 26, 2009

Touring some of Gaza’s worst-hit areas of Israel’s 22-day assault which killed about 1,300 Palestinians, including 400 children, Louis Michel, a senior EU official and former Belgian foreign minister, described the situation as “abominable, indescribable”. He then added:

“At this time we have to also recall the overwhelming responsibility of Hamas. I intentionally say this here - Hamas is a terrorist movement and it has to be denounced as such.”

He then went on to state that there would be no dialogue with Hamas, saying its use of terrorism against Israeli civilians, including the use of “human shields” in Gaza meant it was not a legitimate resistance movement. He called on Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist and to renounce violence.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7851545.stm

We the signators of this petition are shocked, appalled and outraged by these comments.

They are the moral equivalent of rubbing salt into the wounds of the people of Gaza.

We demand the immediate ouster of Louis Michel from his position as EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid. We also demand a public apology be immediately given to the people of Gaza, especially to those who have lost members of their family in Israel’s 22-day attack on Gaza.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned
visit the link above to sign the petition

December 7th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

“Bitte - nicht so schnell!” is German for “Please - not so fast!”

Residents of Fucking, Austria (pronounced “foo-king”) are fed up with having their village’s signs continually stolen by British tourists. “We will not stand for the Fucking signs being removed,” said police chief Kommandant Schmidtberger. “It may be very amusing for you British, but Fucking is simply Fucking to us. What is this big Fucking joke? It is puerile.” In an attempt to curb the thefts, the authorities have begun setting the signs in concrete.

Andreas Behmueller, a local tour guide, was also perplexed by this fixation the British have with Fucking. “The Germans all want to see the Mozart house in Salzburg, every American seems to care only about ‘The Sound of Music,’ the occasional Japanese wants to see Hilter’s birthplace in Braunau,” he explained. “But for the British, it’s all about Fucking.” Guesthouse manager Augustina Lindelbauer also seems to have a Fucking problem. “Just this morning I had to tell an English lady that there were no Fucking postcards.”

source

September 10th, 2008 by evmonk

Rarely does the entire world agree, but Obama v. McCain has produced a global consensus! Okay, there were only 22 countries polled, but still…

If we can momentarily put aside our obvious preference for neither of the major party candidates, we’ll see that something important and perhaps unprecedented is happening. The world, speaking in unison, is pleading with Americans to elect Obama. The American people, like all people, are prone to manipulation by clever media campaigns, scare tactics and political chicanery. But I genuinely believe that while we were dumb enough to elect Bush…twice, 2008 is the last straw. Let’s make sure that this clear conviction from the rest of the world becomes a theme over the next two months. If Americans understand the depth and passion behind public opinion around the world, they won’t make the same mistake thrice.

Anyway…I’ve pulled out what I feel are the highlights of the poll below and after the break, and the full report (PDF) is definitely worth skimming if you’re interested in this type of thing.

All 22 countries in a BBC World Service poll would prefer Democratic nominee Barack Obama elected US president instead of his Republican rival John McCain. Obama is preferred by a four to one margin on average across the 22,000 people polled.

The margin in favour of Obama ranges from just 9 per cent in India to 82 per cent in Kenya. On average 49 per cent prefer Obama to 12 per cent preferring McCain. Nearly four in ten do not take a position.

The poll also explored the expected impact of the US election. In 17 of the 22 countries surveyed the most common view is that, if Barack Obama is elected president, America’s relations with the rest of the world are likely to get better. If John McCain is elected, the most common view in 19 countries is that relations will stay about the same as they are now.

A similar poll conducted for BBC World Service by GlobeScan ahead of the 2004 US presidential election found that, of 35 countries polled, 30 preferred to see Democratic nominee John Kerry, rather than incumbent George Bush, elected president. At the time, the Philippines, Nigeria and Poland were among the few countries to favour Bush’s re-election. All three now favour Barack Obama over John McCain….

Read the rest of this entry »

August 14th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Pepe Escobar of The Real News is always a breath of fresh air in the shitty world of corporate media.

Georgia is a strategic client state of the US, and the primary energy hub in the region to supply the West. To circumvent Russia and Iran, Bill Clinton established the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline carrying a million barrels of oil a day westwards through Georgia during his presidency. As our thirst for oil has grown under the Bush administration, so too has our economic and military support, along with hostilities against our imperial control.

This is not about Russia wanting to suppressing Georgian independence, but about American dominance over oil and natural gas through yet another US-backed puppet. Russia still sees the “missile defense system” planned to be installed in Eastern Europe as nothing less than an act of aggression, and for good reason. It’s absurd to believe the official story that such a system has anything to do with defending poor little Europe from the aggressive superpower which is Iran. No, the Russians understand fully that the purpose of the “missile defense system” is to provide first-strike capabilities against them.

US expansion is rapidly turning former communist states into Western military bases right up to the Russian border, so as a reaction to US and NATO aggression the Russians are rebuilding their military machine and nuclear capabilities. With the bipartisan desire to preemptively attack Iran with the help of Israel, a nation which just can’t wait to shoot its nuclear load, this energy war could easily turn into a nuclear war. The world’s major consumers of energy are located far away from the sources of that energy, meaning that the empires of the US, Russia, Europe, and China will expand and continue to come into greater conflict as the need to tighten their control grows stronger.

June 27th, 2008 by evmonk

Global Voices, a unique blogging project started by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, is holding their yearly conference in Budapest for the next two days. Today the conference panels are focused on the censorship and freedom of expression online. Tomorrow there will be a number of panels on citizen media and the use of web2.0 to improve the political process, build community, and bridge the language barrier. The entire even is being streamed and liveblogged, and archived video of every panel is available here. If you’re interested in this stuff, there are some great speakers and discussions. But remember that these are bloggers and technophiles, so their presentations aren’t always the most entertaining.

If you haven’t heard of Global Voices, check them out. They aggregate and review blogs from around the world and then organize the best posts by region and topic, in addition to having a general feed.

June 18th, 2008 by D.C.

In a free society one would expect to be able to hold their own personal opinion (even if it goes against the government) and be able to voice this opinion to whoever will listen. In Turkey this simple concept is illegal and seems to have sparked controversy. Bulent Ersoy, a very popular transsexual singer in Turkey, has been charged with trying to turn the public against the military.

It was in February that she made comments that the Turkish war against the separatist PKK group was not worth the deaths of so many Turkish soldiers. If convicted Ersoy faces up to four years in jail. Hakkan Ozgur, one of the officials that submitted a complaint against Ersoy, explains why she was charged:

“The Turkish military is fighting a war on terror,” “I believe making propaganda against this is illegal. It creates doubts in people over whether to go to the military. It sows doubt in the minds of those whose children are already serving.”

I find his comments preposterous. Bulent Ersoy’s opinion that too many people are dying in a war shouldbe perfectly legal. She has the ability to voice this opinion to a wide audience, and why not use it? Bono, of the band U2, uses his star-status to voice his opinions. the Dixie Chicks have used their popularity to voice opinions against the War in Iraq, and they haven’t been charged. I do realize that Turkey is a much different society than North America, but I think these basic rights should be common throughout the world.

I also balk at Ozgur’s use of the excuse that Turkey is “fighting a war on terror.” It seems that this is a common way to avoid criticism for denying simple rights for people (maybe he is taking some cues from George W. Bush). If someone is doing something that a government doesn’t want them to do, it seems the ‘war-on-terror-card’ gets played. According to BBC, to persuade people from questioning governmental actions in Turkey they cite Article 318 of the penal code - dissuading people from military service. It is also a crime to insult the Turkish nation and its institutions. Personally, I think this is little more than oppression. The ability to question your government seems to me to be very essential to making sure that things are done properly which benefits all. 

I applaud Ersoy in her courage to voice an opinion, and question the practices of her government that she finds questionable. Although, her trial can have two effects: It will either create fear to question the government because a high profile person such as Ersoy was charged, or the fact that a high profile person such as Ersoy questioned the government will influence others to do the same. I hope that the second effect takes hold in Turkey. The people have a right (or should have a right) to point out something wrong with the government, military, etc. if they wish. I feel like sending a copy of Voltaire’s works to the Turkish government. The voice of the people should be taken into fully consideration when running a country because it should be about the people, for the people.

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