St George’s flags have been proudly flying in Radstock, Somerset after the town council members unanimously voted on Tuesday to buy the national flag of England and to display it on “appropriate occasions,” the local newspaper ‘The Bath Chronicle’ reports.The Radstock town council stated on Tuesday that the original decision not to display the flag was ‘an error of judgment.’Radstock was stormed by protests on the weekend, prompted by the decision not to purchase the flag of St George to fly atop the town’s repaired civic flagpole.This came after concerns of one of the town’s councilors Eleanor Jackson who said that the red and white symbol could offend Muslims living in the English town, because it was used during the Crusades in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.“My big problem is that it is offensive to some Muslims, but even more so that it has been hijacked by the far right…My thoughts are we ought to drop it for 20 years,” Jackson said as quoted be ‘The Telegraph’.According to Jackson the Union flag was a more suitable way of displaying national pride.Though the council has insisted that its decision was unconnected with Jackson’s comments, and had been prompted by practical concerns about staffing and funding.“The general comment made by councilor Jackson, as we moved to the vote, had no impact on the decision we took,” said council chair Lesley Mansell on Tuesday.John Clements, vice-president of national patriotic group the Royal Society of St George, said that the censoring of the national flag is “nonsense”.In addition, the Muslim Council of Britain encouraged the flying of the St George’s flag.”St George needs to take his rightful place as a national symbol of inclusivity rather than a symbol of hatred. St George actually lived before the birth of Islam and should not be associated with any hatred of Muslims,” said a spokeswoman for the council Nasima Begum.Jackson has apologized for her comments, councilor Peter Sas said on Tuesday.“Councilor Jackson issued a public apology and made special tribute to our Armed Forces and the local police who offered her protection following the death threats she received. She acknowledged that her comments were inappropriate and confirmed it had never been her intention to offend anyone,” local media reported. … Read More
Islam could be dominant UK religion in 10 years – census analysis
A new analysis of the 2011 census by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the number of Christians was falling 50 per cent faster than had previously been thought. Earlier analysis of the statistics showed only a 15 per cent decline, but the ONS found that this figure had been beefed up by 1.2 million foreign-born Christians. Furthermore, the re-analysis showed that the majority of Christians were over the age of 60 and for the first time less than half of young people describe themselves as Christian. As a result the ONS has calculated that in a decade only a minority will classify themselves as Christians in England. Christianity is still the dominant religion in the UK with over 50 per cent of the population regarding themselves as believers. However, this may be set to change as the British Muslim population has surged dramatically over the past 15 years, increasing by 75 per cent in England and Wales. The 2011 census puts the Muslim population of the UK at around 5 per cent, a total that has been boosted by around 600,000 Muslim immigrants who have arrived in the UK over the past decade.Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said to UK daily the Telegraph that the decline of Christianity is“inevitable.” “In another 20 years there are going to be more active Muslims than there are churchgoers,” he said.Moreover the number of people identifying themselves as atheists has increased by 10 per cent, rising from 15 per cent to 25 per cent. The change has been dubbed as a “significant cultural shift” by the British Humanist Association, while the Church of England has shrugged off the statistics, maintaining they still retain a strong base of believers.”While this is a challenge, the fact that six out of 10 people in England and Wales self-identify as Christians is not discouraging. Christianity is no longer a religion of culture but a religion of decision and commitment. People are making a positive choice in self-identifying as Christians,” said a spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales told press in December.In addition the census registered an increase in followers of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Judaism.‘Sleepwalking into segregation’The rising number of immigrants and different ethnicities in the UK has given rise to increasing levels of segregation. Think tank ‘Demos’ has labeled the phenomenon ‘white flight’, citing the falling number of ethnic whites in areas where they are minorities. Demos’ investigation revealed that new ethnic minorities like Somalis where moving into areas where older most established ethnic populations like Afro-Caribbeans had previously been dominant.The population of London is indicative of the change in the British demographic with 600,000 white Londoners moving out of the capital in the past decade. In spite of the fact that the British capital’s population has grown by more than a million, the number of white British residents has decreased from 4.3 million to 3.7 million.“We do have an integration problem,” said Demos director David Goodhart to RT. The“changing ethnic composition” of the British capital is causing a large exodus of ethnic white out of the city, he added.Goodhart went on to say that the problem of integration was not confined to Great Britain and is prevalent all around the EU despite attempts to eradicate segregation.“Part of the point of the euro was to disperse German power and prevent the rise of nationalism in Europe, but it has done precisely the opposite on both fronts. We now have serious national resentments in countries like Greece,” he stressed.Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned that the statistics did not spell good news for integration in the UK and warned the country was … Read More
‘Green’ energy kills American eagles
At wind farms throughout the US, iconic and protected birds regularly fly into spinning turbines. The crippled bodies of eagles are often found at the base of the machines after being cut up by the quickly spinning blades.These birds of prey were once included on the list of threatened and endangered species – and although they are no longer listed, their population is still significantly less than it was in the early 20thcentury. Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940, disturbing, killing or taking the birds or their eggs is a federal offense punishable by a maximum of two years imprisonment and a $250,000 for an individual felony conviction, and $500,000 for a felony conviction of an organization. The Obama administration has prosecuted oil companies when birds died in their waste pits and power companies when they were electrocuted, but has never once fined or prosecuted a wind farm.In Converse County, Wyo., a wind farm owned by PacifiCorp kills about one golden eagle each month, the Associated Press reports. Wind farms at Altamont Pass, Calif., kill more than 60 per year. Across the country, more than 573,000 birds are killed on wind farms each year, 83,000 of which are hunting birds, the Wildlife Society Bulletin reports.“There is nothing in the evolution of eagles that would come near to describing a wind turbine. There has never been an opportunity to adapt to that sort of threat,” Grainger Hunt, an eagle expert, told AP.The number of deaths could be even higher than estimated, since many companies do not disclose the number of birds that become mangled at the blades of their turbines. It is also likely that companies underreport this number.Some wildlife enthusiasts have condemned Obama for his hypocrisy in prosecuting oil companies for contributing to bird deaths, while ignoring the faults of the ‘green energy’ industry. The BP oil company paid $100 million in fines for harming migratory birds during the 2010 Gulf oil spill, while PacifiCorp paid $10.5 million for electrocuting 232 eagles in 2009.PacifiCorp also operates several wind farms, which have killed at least 20 eagles but for which it faced no fines or prosecution.“It is the rationale that we have to get off of carbon, we have to get off of fossil fuels, that allows them to justify this,” Tom Dougherty, an environmentalist who previously worked for the National Wildlife Federation, told AP. “But at what cost? In this case, the cost is too high.”If the US government were to enforce the law regarding the killing of eagles at wind farms, then green energy companies may be more inclined to build farms in areas where there are fewer birds of prey. But enforcing this law would likely slow down the wind farm industry, which would contradict the administration’s goal of boosting renewable energy industries, including wind and solar.“Clearly, there [is] a bias to wind energy in their favor because they are a renewable source of energy, and justifiably so,” Rob Manes of the Nature Conservancy told AP. “We need renewable energy in this country.”It may be near impossible for both eagles and wind turbines to co-exist in the long run – but with the administration warning about the effects of climate change and urging greater investments in wind farms, the US national bird could once again end up on the threatened species list. … Read More
‘US engaged in shadow war against Russia’
RT: What impact could this case have on Russia-U.S. relations, which looked pretty good after John Kerry’s visit to Moscow last week?Brian Becker: Or they appeared to be pretty good. This reminds one of the old expression that ‘diplomacy is nothing more than a form of perjury’. You have John Kerry meeting with the Russian foreign minister [Sergei Lavrov] talking about an international conference on Syria. We’ve had many proclamations from the Obama administration recently that there would be greater coordination with Russian security [services] about terrorism. But the fact is, the United States government is carrying out espionage and spying in Russia. All countries do it to each other, but in the case of the United States effort towards Russia, it’s got a larger political motive. Not simply to steal industrial secrets or learn industrial secrets, but to promote a weakening of the Russian government because in fact the US government identifies the Putin government – the Russian government – and its position on international issues as still an obstacle to US foreign policy designs. We see that right now in the Middle East for instance.RT: He was caught with quite low-tech gear – a map, a compass and a couple of wigs – doesn’t this look a little unprofessional?BB: Well, we don’t really know all of the details, we’ll probably learn more – or maybe not – in the coming days. I think the fact that the Russian government has publicized this, made something of it, means the Russian government is calling attention to the fact that the US is doing something of a full court press on Russia; a shadow war so to speak. Using the NGOs and the penetration of Russian society by US soft power through the NGOs at one level, [they are] trying to carry out many, many intelligence operations to get Russians to defect. I think also, if you watch the US media: very favorable coverage of the Russian opposition. Any protest that takes place in Russia, even if it’s small, gets enormous front page coverage. While here, protest movements in the United States get almost no coverage. You see a general scenario being played out of hostility to the Russian government even if there are diplomatic overtures at another level.RT: You have said that spying is going on, so presumably there are Russian spies operating in America.BB: Well of course. This is part of modern statecraft; we know that. We know that in the modern world, industrial and military secrets are something that are gained by spying operations by all countries in fact. The point that I’m trying to make is that there is something unusual about how the Obama administration – and before that you had the Bush administration – is approaching the Russian government. Even though the cold war is technically over, they are still identifying the Russian government as an opponent, as a competitor, because they perceive the Russian government to have interests that block the United States or obstruct the United States; interests in geo-strategically important parts of the world like the Middle East.RT: What do you think of the way the Russian authorities have reacted to this? They simply released him back to the embassy but now they say that he’s got to be deported. Instead of an overreaction the response to the incident has been calm.BB: I think so. I mean they’re publicizing it, [but] it’s a very measured reaction. He could be arrested, he could be held, he could then be exchanged later for those who had been arrested on the American side. Instead he’s being quickly released. I think that the Russian government’s handling of the situation is to make a point, that they recognize and they want the world to recognize Obama sends Kerry to Moscow for talks about Syria while Obama says there is cooperation on the anti-terrorism front, but in fact, the United States is conducting something of a shadow war against Russia.RT: And that’s embarrassing for the US now to be exposed if this is indeed proven to be genuine.BB: Yes, of course they’ll try to put a narrative: ‘this is just the Cold War being played out over and over and over again.’ The Russian government is not trying to overdo the incident but they are trying to prove a point. We’ll see how it plays out in the US media in the coming days.RT: There have been plenty of spy stories like this in recent years – do you think we can expect these practices to continue?BB: Indeed. But I think it’s more than just a spy story. I think the US government is trying to fundamentally weaken the Russian government. They would like to have a Russian government that’s more pliable, that’s more of an accommodationist government. I think right now the Putin government and its foreign policy in particular is a concern for the United States so they’re using espionage and intelligence gathering and other methods to create and foment opposition inside of Russia to Putin, including the penetration of important parts of Russia society by US spies. So I think it’s got a serious political motive behind it. … Read More
Stateless Citizens: Americans renounce citizenship over ‘unfair’ taxation & policies
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Stockholm International School – what’s in IT for students?
The importance of understanding today’s networked society starts in the classroom. Over the last year, the Stockholm International School (SIS) has made a major investment that truly begins with I and ends in T. … Read More
Land grab: Israeli govt backs bill to forcibly relocate up to 40,000 Bedouin villagers
Bedouin leaders have harshly criticized the plan, saying they were not included in discussions of the bill.Under the Prawer-Begin plan, or ‘The Bill on the Arrangement of Bedouin Houses in the Negev,’ the Bedouin population will be relocated to officially recognized Bedouin towns such as Rahat, Khura and Ksayfe, and their current homes will be demolished.”The government approved a plan that will cause the displacement and forced eviction of dozens of villages and tens of thousands of Bedouin residents,” Rawia Aburabia, a lawyer from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), told MAAN news agency. “All of this while the government simultaneously promotes the establishment of new Jewish communities, some of which are even planned to be built on the fresh ruins of Bedouin villages.”The Israeli government promised that those relocated will be given financial compensation and be allotted new plots of land.“The goal of this historic decision is to put an end to the spread of illegal building by Negev Bedouin and lead to the better integration of the Bedouin into Israeli society,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.The bill is expected to soon begin the legislative process in the Knesset. According to ACRI, the Prawer-Begin plan envisions the eviction of around 30 to 40,000 Bedouins, which will destroy their communal and social lifestyle and condemn them to poverty and unemployment.Bedouins have argued they purchased their land in the Negev before the establishment of the state of Israel. The agreements, however, are said to have been verbal, and never registered in Israel’s official Land Registry. Israeli law does not recognize land claims that are not backed by some form of written proof of purchase or ownership.”This is a step that harms the basic rights of the Bedouin. Instead of the state contributing to the Bedouin population, it is acting against it,” Haaretz quoted Rahat Mayor Sheikh Faiz Abu Seheban as saying. “I call on all human rights organizations to oppose the decision, since it damages the social framework in the Negev.”Israel refuses to recognize 35 Bedouin villages in the Negev, which collectively house approximately 90,000 people – nearly half of Israel’s 210,000 Bedouins, according to data published by Bedouin-Jewish Justice in Israel. The villages are not on official maps and lack basic services like water, paved roads and electricity.The other half of Israel’s Negev Bedouins lives in government-planned townships. Residents have complained over a lack of basic infrastructure, transportation, school and health facilities. Israel’s Bedouin townships repeatedly rank in the country’s lowest socioeconomic bracket.The Regional Council of Unrecognized Arab Villages of Negev along with the High Steering Committee of the Arabs of Negev organized a demonstration near Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem on Monday, where they protested the bill.”The plan will under no circumstances be carried out; the Bedouin population will not give up its land,” Hussein Al-Rafia, the former head of the regional council of unrecognized Bedouin communities told Haaretz. “I think the state needs to sit with the Bedouin population and solve the problem once and for all. They have not sat with us seriously.”Knesset member Ibrahim Sarsour addressed the demonstrators, saying that his party, the United Arab List, had rejected the bill. He expressed concern that the recommendations could be approved as a law, and urged the Arab public to use legal methods to prevent its implementation. … Read More
