An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore
Monday, November 30th, 2009
Dear President Obama,
Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.
It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).
So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.
There's a reason they don't call Afghanistan the "Garden State" (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan's nickname is the "Graveyard of Empires." If you don't believe it, give the British a call. I'd have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev's number though. It's + 41 22 789 1662. I'm sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you're about to commit.
With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the "war president." Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line -- and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.
Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn't have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You can feel it in your bones.
I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush's Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.
Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you're doing it so you can "end the war") will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you've said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone -- and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout "tea bag!"
Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.
We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can't take it anymore. We can't take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of "landslide victory" don't you understand?
Don't be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn't be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can't change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.
The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can't be won over by abandoning the rest of us.
President Obama, it's time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, "No, we don't need health care, we don't need jobs, we don't need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, 'cause we don't need them, either."
What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that's what they'd do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.
All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture, rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam "might" be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish -- the full terror of which we scarcely know.
When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has.
Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God's sake, stop.
Tonight we still have hope.
Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON'T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother's son.
We're counting on you.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
P.S. There's still time to have your voice heard. Call the White House at 202-456-1111 or email the President.
lunedì 30 novembre 2009
domenica 29 novembre 2009
...da Libero news...
Russia, torna a colpire il terrorismo. Decine di morti sul Nievski Express(di Claudio Salvalaggio e Franco Quintano)
MOSCA - Torna lo spettro del terrorismo in Russia, dopo la bomba da sette chili di tritolo che ieri sera ha fatto deragliare il treno veloce Nievski Express Mosca-San Pietroburgo a 300 km dalla capitale, con un bilancio ancora provvisorio di 26 morti, 18 dispersi e un centinaio di feriti, di cui metà gravi. Coinvolto anche un imprenditore udinese, Armando Noacco, 58 anni, già operato in un ospedale di S. Pietroburgo per una frattura al bacino. "Improvvisamente il treno è deragliato e in un attimo si era capito che era la fine", ha raccontato dal suo cellulare. "Mi sono risvegliato in mezzo alle lamiere, con gente che gemeva, piangeva e chiedeva acqua. Poi mi hanno aiutato, mi hanno liberato, portato in ospedale e fornito tutta l' assistenza", ha proseguito, confermando le scene drammatiche rilanciate per tutta la giornata dalle tv russe.
Gli investigatori sono convinti che sia stato un attentato e hanno già aperto un'inchiesta per terrorismo e detenzione illegale di esplosivo. Sono stati ritrovati i resti di ben due ordigni, uno esploso ieri sera sui binari mentre il convoglio passava a 200 km/h e l'altro vicino a un pilone, detonato parzialmente solo oggi pomeriggio, senza fare vittime. "C'é stata un'esplosione sotto la locomotiva, non so cosa abbiamo urtato, abbiamo deragliato, non so altro, è tutto in fumo", ha telefonato dal suo cellulare il macchinista al ministero delle emergenze, con una chiamata registrata e diffusa dalle tv. La polizia sembra avere già una pista. Il ministro dell' interno, Rashid Nurgaliev, ha rivelato che un uomo sta dando delle informazioni e che si sta già cercando una prima persona sospetta, "un uomo di circa 40 anni, tarchiato di corporatura, rosso di capelli", anche se ad agire sarebbero state più persone.
Sul luogo dell'attentato, ha aggiunto, vi sono "tanti oggetti che ci possono indicare la direzione nella quale andare per far luce su questo crimine". Ma finora gli investigatori non si sono sbilanciati sulla matrice cecena o ultranazionalista dell'attentato. La prima non si palesa da tempo fuori dal Caucaso, la seconda invece sembra avvalorata da una rivendicazione via internet del gruppo neonazista Combat 18, una delle tante sigle dell'arcipelago estremista russo. E' nato come movimento neonazista britannico affiliato al gruppo estremista Blood and Honour e si è diffuso in particolare in Inghilterra e Germania ma è presente anche in Italia. In Russia i suoi militanti hanno anche un sito inquietante, che in base alla legge sull'estremismo dovrebbe essere chiuso da un pezzo. Vi si teorizza anche il diritto al terrore in una strategia della tensione che non risparmia i "civili", per far cambiar rotta a un governo "che sta distruggendo la nazione russa". Gli attentati ai treni potrebbero essere il tentativo di alzare il tiro nella strategia della tensione "made in Russia". Ma resta aperta anche la pista del terrorismo ceceno, che in passato ha colpito treni, metro, aerei.
C'é un'analogia, secondo il presidente delle ferrovie russe, Vladimir Iakunin, con l'attentato del 13 agosto 2007, quando un'esplosione contro un altro Nievski Express sulla linea Mosca-San Pietroburgo ferì 60 persone: per quella vicenda a Novgorod è in corso un processo a due ingusci, uno dei quali ha confessato che l' attentato fu compiuto su ordine della guerriglia cecena. Per lo stesso episodio è ricercato uno dei capi dei ribelli ceceni, Pavel Kosolapov, legato al comandante Doku Umarov. Durante la giornata si sono susseguiti bilanci provvisori, che oscillavano tra 25 e 39 morti su un totale di 661 passeggeri su 14 carrozze. Il Nievski, uno dei treni più eleganti, è usato dai turisti ma anche dai pendolari, soprattutto nel fine settimana, in quella che resta la linea più trafficata del Paese e dove in dicembre passerà anche il treno ad alta velocità Sapsan. Il leader del Cremlino, Dmitri Medvedev, che ha ricevuto condoglianze da tutto il mondo, ha sollecitato un'inchiesta rapida e accurata e annunciato, insieme alle ferrovie, indennizzi per le famiglie delle vittime e per i feriti.
MOSCA - Torna lo spettro del terrorismo in Russia, dopo la bomba da sette chili di tritolo che ieri sera ha fatto deragliare il treno veloce Nievski Express Mosca-San Pietroburgo a 300 km dalla capitale, con un bilancio ancora provvisorio di 26 morti, 18 dispersi e un centinaio di feriti, di cui metà gravi. Coinvolto anche un imprenditore udinese, Armando Noacco, 58 anni, già operato in un ospedale di S. Pietroburgo per una frattura al bacino. "Improvvisamente il treno è deragliato e in un attimo si era capito che era la fine", ha raccontato dal suo cellulare. "Mi sono risvegliato in mezzo alle lamiere, con gente che gemeva, piangeva e chiedeva acqua. Poi mi hanno aiutato, mi hanno liberato, portato in ospedale e fornito tutta l' assistenza", ha proseguito, confermando le scene drammatiche rilanciate per tutta la giornata dalle tv russe.
Gli investigatori sono convinti che sia stato un attentato e hanno già aperto un'inchiesta per terrorismo e detenzione illegale di esplosivo. Sono stati ritrovati i resti di ben due ordigni, uno esploso ieri sera sui binari mentre il convoglio passava a 200 km/h e l'altro vicino a un pilone, detonato parzialmente solo oggi pomeriggio, senza fare vittime. "C'é stata un'esplosione sotto la locomotiva, non so cosa abbiamo urtato, abbiamo deragliato, non so altro, è tutto in fumo", ha telefonato dal suo cellulare il macchinista al ministero delle emergenze, con una chiamata registrata e diffusa dalle tv. La polizia sembra avere già una pista. Il ministro dell' interno, Rashid Nurgaliev, ha rivelato che un uomo sta dando delle informazioni e che si sta già cercando una prima persona sospetta, "un uomo di circa 40 anni, tarchiato di corporatura, rosso di capelli", anche se ad agire sarebbero state più persone.
Sul luogo dell'attentato, ha aggiunto, vi sono "tanti oggetti che ci possono indicare la direzione nella quale andare per far luce su questo crimine". Ma finora gli investigatori non si sono sbilanciati sulla matrice cecena o ultranazionalista dell'attentato. La prima non si palesa da tempo fuori dal Caucaso, la seconda invece sembra avvalorata da una rivendicazione via internet del gruppo neonazista Combat 18, una delle tante sigle dell'arcipelago estremista russo. E' nato come movimento neonazista britannico affiliato al gruppo estremista Blood and Honour e si è diffuso in particolare in Inghilterra e Germania ma è presente anche in Italia. In Russia i suoi militanti hanno anche un sito inquietante, che in base alla legge sull'estremismo dovrebbe essere chiuso da un pezzo. Vi si teorizza anche il diritto al terrore in una strategia della tensione che non risparmia i "civili", per far cambiar rotta a un governo "che sta distruggendo la nazione russa". Gli attentati ai treni potrebbero essere il tentativo di alzare il tiro nella strategia della tensione "made in Russia". Ma resta aperta anche la pista del terrorismo ceceno, che in passato ha colpito treni, metro, aerei.
C'é un'analogia, secondo il presidente delle ferrovie russe, Vladimir Iakunin, con l'attentato del 13 agosto 2007, quando un'esplosione contro un altro Nievski Express sulla linea Mosca-San Pietroburgo ferì 60 persone: per quella vicenda a Novgorod è in corso un processo a due ingusci, uno dei quali ha confessato che l' attentato fu compiuto su ordine della guerriglia cecena. Per lo stesso episodio è ricercato uno dei capi dei ribelli ceceni, Pavel Kosolapov, legato al comandante Doku Umarov. Durante la giornata si sono susseguiti bilanci provvisori, che oscillavano tra 25 e 39 morti su un totale di 661 passeggeri su 14 carrozze. Il Nievski, uno dei treni più eleganti, è usato dai turisti ma anche dai pendolari, soprattutto nel fine settimana, in quella che resta la linea più trafficata del Paese e dove in dicembre passerà anche il treno ad alta velocità Sapsan. Il leader del Cremlino, Dmitri Medvedev, che ha ricevuto condoglianze da tutto il mondo, ha sollecitato un'inchiesta rapida e accurata e annunciato, insieme alle ferrovie, indennizzi per le famiglie delle vittime e per i feriti.
sabato 28 novembre 2009
http://incontriamocinelpartitodemocratico.blogspot.com/
E' un vero peccato aver scovato questo blog ad un anno esatto dalla sua chiusura-: succede, navigando in questo mare pressochè infinito, di approdare ad un'isola ormai abbandonata, ma che porta i segni di un passaggio, anche importante, di pensieri e di ragionamenti. Un'ennesima riprova, se mai ce ne fosse bisogno, che dai partiti tradizionali difficilmente se ne può ricavare qualcosa di buono. Urge una radicale trasformazione di questi organismi, è impellente una nuova costruzione della democrazia nel nostro Paese.
mercoledì 25 novembre 2009
Riflessioni sul sistema dei partiti
In tutto il mondo, la gestione della Politica è affidata al sistema partitico, ad esempio negli U.S.A. le elezioni si concretizzano nel confronto tra il partito democratico ed il partito repubblicano, ognuno sostenuto dalle sue lobbies-
E’ proprio questo il punto: con il tempo, i partiti si sono trasformati in centri di potere, dominati dalle segreterie e dalle lobbies e si sono via via allontanati sempre di più dai reali bisogni della gente comune- da qui il disinteresse sempre più accentuato verso tutto ciò che riguarda la politica e la sua gestione.
Se è vero che in ogni caso spetta ai partiti, in quanto libere associazioni di cittadini, il governo della res publica, è ancor più vero che occorre agire con determinazione sulle regole interne di queste associazioni per permettere un reale coinvolgimento della massa elettorale, composta di iscritti ai partiti e non, ma anche e soprattutto da un numero considerevole di “invisibili”, persone che non possiedono un bagaglio culturale sufficiente per una scelta meditata, o, peggio ancora, afflitti da impellenti bisogni materiali, di fronte ai quali è vano parlare di democrazia e di partecipazione.
“Partecipazione”: è forse questa la parola chiave per scardinare questo sistema logoro ed inefficiente: si potrebbe, per esempio, estendere il sistema delle Primarie anche alla scelta dei candidati locali, sottraendola alle segreterie e costringendoli ad un più intenso rapporto con i loro rappresentati.
Dovrebbe poi esserci un' apertura maggiore dei partiti verso il bacino elettorale, con riunioni dedicate ad argomenti che possano risvegliare l’interesse anche di chi ha a che fare ogni giorno con problemi “vitali”
Rispetto ad un passato più o meno recente, oggi disponiamo di un nuovo formidabile mezzo di aggregazione e di confronto: nel “mare magnum” del web possono incontrarsi le opinioni ed i punti di vista di quella “maggioranza silenziosa” che oggi aspira ad un nuovo modello di democrazia.
E’ proprio questo il punto: con il tempo, i partiti si sono trasformati in centri di potere, dominati dalle segreterie e dalle lobbies e si sono via via allontanati sempre di più dai reali bisogni della gente comune- da qui il disinteresse sempre più accentuato verso tutto ciò che riguarda la politica e la sua gestione.
Se è vero che in ogni caso spetta ai partiti, in quanto libere associazioni di cittadini, il governo della res publica, è ancor più vero che occorre agire con determinazione sulle regole interne di queste associazioni per permettere un reale coinvolgimento della massa elettorale, composta di iscritti ai partiti e non, ma anche e soprattutto da un numero considerevole di “invisibili”, persone che non possiedono un bagaglio culturale sufficiente per una scelta meditata, o, peggio ancora, afflitti da impellenti bisogni materiali, di fronte ai quali è vano parlare di democrazia e di partecipazione.
“Partecipazione”: è forse questa la parola chiave per scardinare questo sistema logoro ed inefficiente: si potrebbe, per esempio, estendere il sistema delle Primarie anche alla scelta dei candidati locali, sottraendola alle segreterie e costringendoli ad un più intenso rapporto con i loro rappresentati.
Dovrebbe poi esserci un' apertura maggiore dei partiti verso il bacino elettorale, con riunioni dedicate ad argomenti che possano risvegliare l’interesse anche di chi ha a che fare ogni giorno con problemi “vitali”
Rispetto ad un passato più o meno recente, oggi disponiamo di un nuovo formidabile mezzo di aggregazione e di confronto: nel “mare magnum” del web possono incontrarsi le opinioni ed i punti di vista di quella “maggioranza silenziosa” che oggi aspira ad un nuovo modello di democrazia.
lunedì 23 novembre 2009
...la vacanza è finita...
Fw: Check in online now - VANOS/MARIEPIERRE
Posta in arrivoX
Rispondi |Marie Pierre en Rudy a me
mostra dettagli 22 nov (1 giorno fa)
----- Original Message -----
From: NoReply@brusselsairlines.com
To: RUDYMP@SKYNET.BE
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 8:13 PM
Subject: Check in online now - VANOS/MARIEPIERRE
Dear customer,
Flying in less than 24 hours?
Avoid the queues at the airport and check in online now.
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Select your own seat online
Print off your boarding pass and go straight to your gate or
Drop your luggage at our no-queues luggage drop (beside check-in)
Check in and print your boarding pass now
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Posta in arrivoX
Rispondi |Marie Pierre en Rudy a me
mostra dettagli 22 nov (1 giorno fa)
----- Original Message -----
From: NoReply@brusselsairlines.com
To: RUDYMP@SKYNET.BE
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 8:13 PM
Subject: Check in online now - VANOS/MARIEPIERRE
Dear customer,
Flying in less than 24 hours?
Avoid the queues at the airport and check in online now.
Simple, fast and secure check-in system
Check in as from 24 hours before your flight
Select your own seat online
Print off your boarding pass and go straight to your gate or
Drop your luggage at our no-queues luggage drop (beside check-in)
Check in and print your boarding pass now
Don't forget to bring your pass with you to the airport!
Brussels Airlines ©
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.425 / Virus Database: 270.14.76/2517 - Release Date: 11/21/09 07:47:00
sabato 21 novembre 2009
money for nothing - Dire Straits - Roby's hint -
Guardali gli yo-yo
È il modo in cui lo fai
Suoni la chitarra su MTV
Così non va ***
È il modo in cui lo fai
Soldi facili e pollastrelle gratis
Adesso così non va
È il modo in cui lo fai
Fammi dire che la gente non è stupida
Forse ti verrà una vescica sul mignolo
Forse ti verrà una vescica sul pollice
Dobbiamo installare forni a microonde
Consegne di cucine su misura
Dobbiamo spostare questi frigoriferi
Dobbiamo spostare queste TV a colori
Vedi la checca truccata e con l’orecchino
Si amico, sono i suoi capelli
Questa checca possiede un jet
La checca è un milionario
Dobbiamo installare forni a microonde
Consegne di cucine su misura
Dobbiamo spostare questi frigoriferi
Dobbiamo spostare queste TV a colori
Avrei dovuto imparare a suonare la chitarra
Avrei dovuto imparare a suonare la batteria
Guarda, sta appiccicata alla telecamera
Gente, ci divertiremo
Hey lassù? Cos’è?
Musiche hawaiane?
Suonando il bongo come uno scimpanzé
Così non va, è il modo in cui lo fai
ottieni i tuoi soldi facili e le tue pollastrelle gratis
Dobbiamo installare forni a microonde
Consegne di cucine su misura
Dobbiamo spostare questi frigoriferi
Dobbiamo spostare queste TV a colori
Suoni la chitarra su MTV
Così non va, è il modo in cui lo fai
Soldi facili e pollastrelle gratis
Soldi facili e pollastrelle gratis
That ain’t working = così non va, non è un lavoro serio (con cui guadagni i tuoi soldi facili)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now look at them yo yo's that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't working that's the way you do it
Money for nothing and your chicks for free
That ain't working that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb
We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
See the little faggot
With the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire
We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
Move, move...
Yeah
We gotta move these refrigerators
Look at them, look up...
I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums,
Look at that mama,
She got it sticking in the cameraman
And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?
Banging on the bongoes like a chimpanzee
Now that ain't working that's the way you do it
Get your money for nothing
Get your chicks for free
We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
Give it up, give it up
That ain't working that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't working that's the way you do it
Money for nothing and your chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Give it up, Give it up...
Give it up, Give it up...
È il modo in cui lo fai
Suoni la chitarra su MTV
Così non va ***
È il modo in cui lo fai
Soldi facili e pollastrelle gratis
Adesso così non va
È il modo in cui lo fai
Fammi dire che la gente non è stupida
Forse ti verrà una vescica sul mignolo
Forse ti verrà una vescica sul pollice
Dobbiamo installare forni a microonde
Consegne di cucine su misura
Dobbiamo spostare questi frigoriferi
Dobbiamo spostare queste TV a colori
Vedi la checca truccata e con l’orecchino
Si amico, sono i suoi capelli
Questa checca possiede un jet
La checca è un milionario
Dobbiamo installare forni a microonde
Consegne di cucine su misura
Dobbiamo spostare questi frigoriferi
Dobbiamo spostare queste TV a colori
Avrei dovuto imparare a suonare la chitarra
Avrei dovuto imparare a suonare la batteria
Guarda, sta appiccicata alla telecamera
Gente, ci divertiremo
Hey lassù? Cos’è?
Musiche hawaiane?
Suonando il bongo come uno scimpanzé
Così non va, è il modo in cui lo fai
ottieni i tuoi soldi facili e le tue pollastrelle gratis
Dobbiamo installare forni a microonde
Consegne di cucine su misura
Dobbiamo spostare questi frigoriferi
Dobbiamo spostare queste TV a colori
Suoni la chitarra su MTV
Così non va, è il modo in cui lo fai
Soldi facili e pollastrelle gratis
Soldi facili e pollastrelle gratis
That ain’t working = così non va, non è un lavoro serio (con cui guadagni i tuoi soldi facili)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now look at them yo yo's that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't working that's the way you do it
Money for nothing and your chicks for free
That ain't working that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb
We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
See the little faggot
With the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire
We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
Move, move...
Yeah
We gotta move these refrigerators
Look at them, look up...
I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums,
Look at that mama,
She got it sticking in the cameraman
And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?
Banging on the bongoes like a chimpanzee
Now that ain't working that's the way you do it
Get your money for nothing
Get your chicks for free
We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's
Give it up, give it up
That ain't working that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't working that's the way you do it
Money for nothing and your chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Money for nothing chicks for free
Give it up, Give it up...
Give it up, Give it up...
MariePierre est arrivee!
Je suis arrivee ce matin a 8 heure, la nostalgie: les montagnes avec de la neige!
Mais le principal est de revoir mes amis Lisa et Renato en bonne santee
MP
Mais le principal est de revoir mes amis Lisa et Renato en bonne santee
MP
giovedì 19 novembre 2009
...aspettando Marie-Pierre...
...Il tempo scivola via, come al solito veloce, troppo veloce- mi sorprendo a pensare, al momento di addormentarmi, al mio amico Ferruccio:...siamo davvero foglie malamente attaccate ad un ramo, in balia di tutti i colpi di vento- io, con i miei libri, le mie riviste, i miei videogames, il mio fedele pc, e con l'improvviso tarlo che rode dentro: e poi?, e quando? Oggi ho passato un po' di tempo con il mio nipote Roberto, e tra un enigma e l'altro del nostro amico robottino (leggi Machinarium) gli ho comunicato la notizia: sarà lui il mio erede per quanto riguarda il mio pc ed i videogames- meglio pensarci per tempo, no?, non si sa mai...
Sabato e domenica prossimi avremo in visita la nostra amica del Belgio- Marie-Pierre: Vorrei che scrivesse un suo pensiero sul mio blog: speriamo...
Sabato e domenica prossimi avremo in visita la nostra amica del Belgio- Marie-Pierre: Vorrei che scrivesse un suo pensiero sul mio blog: speriamo...
lunedì 16 novembre 2009
...da Libero news...lo scandalo della fame nel mondo.
Papa: "Basta sprechi, la Terra ha cibo per tutti"
di Eloisa Gallinaro
ROMA - Grandi dichiarazioni di principio e solenni impegni a passare dalle parole ai fatti, ma neppure un centesimo di euro in più stanziato per salvare subito qualcuno di quei bambini che ogni sei secondi muore di fame nel mondo dei poveri. Un vertice senz'anima, quello che si è aperto alla Fao, a Roma, con l'obiettivo dichiarato di dare una risposta all'emergenza alimentare che coinvolge oltre un miliardo di persone.
Nessun confronto vero, oggi, anche a causa della latitanza dei leader occidentali, con l'eccezione del presidente del Consiglio Silvio Berlusconi, che ha fatto 'gli onori di casa' e presieduto la sessione plenaria di apertura. La condanna solenne del Papa di "opulenza e spreco" e di "speculazioni", il discorso autorevole del segretario generale dell'Onu Ban Ki-moon sul legame tra "sicurezza alimentare" e "sicurezza climatica", gli appelli accorati del direttore generale della Fao Jacques Diouf non sono bastati a dare certezze e risposte, anche se Berlusconi ha sottolineato che è venuto il momento di "decidere le date e le modalità " dei versamenti di quei 20 miliardi di dollari contro la povertà promessi al G8 dell'Aquila. Anche Diouf, alla fine ne ha preso atto. "Non sono soddisfatto", ha detto nella conferenza stampa che ha concluso la prima giornata del Vertice, per la mancanza di scadenze precise all'interno del documento finale. E ha aggiunto di esserne "rammaricato". Del resto, ha spiegato, "non ho negoziato io il documento", anzi "ne sono stato escluso, non c'ero neppure".
Un'altra promessa è arrivata dal presidente della Commissione europea José Manuel Durao Barroso. L'85% del miliardo di euro messo in campo dall'Unione Europea per combattere la fame - ha detto - sarà assegnato già entro il 2009. Nessuna traccia, invece, dei 44 miliardi di dollari ritenuti indispensabili da Diouf per sostenere i piccoli agricoltori, nonostante l'invito del presidente egiziano Hosni Mubarak "a oltrepassare la fase del dialogo verso delle misure serie e concrete". E nonostante il discorso chiaro del presidente brasiliano Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, secondo il quale "la fame é la più terribile delle armi di distruzione di massa esistenti sul pianeta". Vistosa, peraltro, anche l' assenza di qualche notissimo esponente dei Paesi in via di sviluppo, come il venezuelano Hugo Chavez, che ha inviato il suo ministro dell'agricoltura. Addirittura 'sobrio' il leader libico Muammar Gheddafi, che ha parlato solo per una decina di minuti denunciando l' "ipocrisia" delle ex potenze coloniali che non hanno mantenuto nessuna delle promesse formulate nei vertici precedenti.
Presenti in massa, invece, come previsto dal copione dei bisogni, i capi di Stato e di governo dell'Africa subsahariana, con l'eccezione del presidente dello Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe giunto ieri mattina a Roma, che oggi al vertice non si è visto e dovrebbe parlare domani. Deluso anche il sindaco di Roma, Gianni Alemanno, per il quale, nel documento finale, "manca una chiara indicazione dell'impegno finanziario". Insoddisfatte le Ong, che hanno rilevato "l'assenza di ogni impegno concreto". D'altra parte sul documento finale, smussato nelle settimane scorse da ogni possibile asperità e approvato per acclamazione poco più di due ore dopo l'inizio del summit, non c'é stato dibattito. Si evocano cinque azioni da mettere in campo per combattere la fame, i cosiddetti "5 Principi di Roma per una sicurezza alimentare globale sostenibile", e si chiede ai governi di assicurare ai Paesi in via di sviluppo i soldi promessi. Quando, è tutto da vedere.
di Eloisa Gallinaro
ROMA - Grandi dichiarazioni di principio e solenni impegni a passare dalle parole ai fatti, ma neppure un centesimo di euro in più stanziato per salvare subito qualcuno di quei bambini che ogni sei secondi muore di fame nel mondo dei poveri. Un vertice senz'anima, quello che si è aperto alla Fao, a Roma, con l'obiettivo dichiarato di dare una risposta all'emergenza alimentare che coinvolge oltre un miliardo di persone.
Nessun confronto vero, oggi, anche a causa della latitanza dei leader occidentali, con l'eccezione del presidente del Consiglio Silvio Berlusconi, che ha fatto 'gli onori di casa' e presieduto la sessione plenaria di apertura. La condanna solenne del Papa di "opulenza e spreco" e di "speculazioni", il discorso autorevole del segretario generale dell'Onu Ban Ki-moon sul legame tra "sicurezza alimentare" e "sicurezza climatica", gli appelli accorati del direttore generale della Fao Jacques Diouf non sono bastati a dare certezze e risposte, anche se Berlusconi ha sottolineato che è venuto il momento di "decidere le date e le modalità " dei versamenti di quei 20 miliardi di dollari contro la povertà promessi al G8 dell'Aquila. Anche Diouf, alla fine ne ha preso atto. "Non sono soddisfatto", ha detto nella conferenza stampa che ha concluso la prima giornata del Vertice, per la mancanza di scadenze precise all'interno del documento finale. E ha aggiunto di esserne "rammaricato". Del resto, ha spiegato, "non ho negoziato io il documento", anzi "ne sono stato escluso, non c'ero neppure".
Un'altra promessa è arrivata dal presidente della Commissione europea José Manuel Durao Barroso. L'85% del miliardo di euro messo in campo dall'Unione Europea per combattere la fame - ha detto - sarà assegnato già entro il 2009. Nessuna traccia, invece, dei 44 miliardi di dollari ritenuti indispensabili da Diouf per sostenere i piccoli agricoltori, nonostante l'invito del presidente egiziano Hosni Mubarak "a oltrepassare la fase del dialogo verso delle misure serie e concrete". E nonostante il discorso chiaro del presidente brasiliano Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, secondo il quale "la fame é la più terribile delle armi di distruzione di massa esistenti sul pianeta". Vistosa, peraltro, anche l' assenza di qualche notissimo esponente dei Paesi in via di sviluppo, come il venezuelano Hugo Chavez, che ha inviato il suo ministro dell'agricoltura. Addirittura 'sobrio' il leader libico Muammar Gheddafi, che ha parlato solo per una decina di minuti denunciando l' "ipocrisia" delle ex potenze coloniali che non hanno mantenuto nessuna delle promesse formulate nei vertici precedenti.
Presenti in massa, invece, come previsto dal copione dei bisogni, i capi di Stato e di governo dell'Africa subsahariana, con l'eccezione del presidente dello Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe giunto ieri mattina a Roma, che oggi al vertice non si è visto e dovrebbe parlare domani. Deluso anche il sindaco di Roma, Gianni Alemanno, per il quale, nel documento finale, "manca una chiara indicazione dell'impegno finanziario". Insoddisfatte le Ong, che hanno rilevato "l'assenza di ogni impegno concreto". D'altra parte sul documento finale, smussato nelle settimane scorse da ogni possibile asperità e approvato per acclamazione poco più di due ore dopo l'inizio del summit, non c'é stato dibattito. Si evocano cinque azioni da mettere in campo per combattere la fame, i cosiddetti "5 Principi di Roma per una sicurezza alimentare globale sostenibile", e si chiede ai governi di assicurare ai Paesi in via di sviluppo i soldi promessi. Quando, è tutto da vedere.
domenica 15 novembre 2009
...da Libero news..."verrà il peggio"
Cgil in piazza a Roma, Epifani: "Verrà il peggio"
ROMA - "Il peggio deve ancora venire": ed é in arrivo una "valanga" di licenziamenti. Il segretario della Cgil, Guglielmo Epifani, parla così della crisi dal palco di Piazza del Popolo davanti alle 100 mila persone che, secondo gli organizzatori, hanno partecipato alla manifestazione indetta dal sindacato di Corso d'Italia. E non si ferma qui, il leader della Cgil si dice "pronto" allo sciopero generale minacciato da Cisl e Uil se il governo non allenterà la pressione fiscale su lavoratori e pensionati.
Un esecutivo che, per Epifani, "va contro il mondo dei lavoro". Dal ministro del Welfare, Maurizio Sacconi, immediato è il commento alla mobilitazione del sindacato: la Cgil - dice - è ancorata al "Novecento e alle sue ideologie". La situazione economica del Paese, per il leader della Cgil, rimane invece grave e la crescita del Pil nel terzo trimestre del 2009 dopo 15 mesi di cali non può farci stare tranquilli: con quel +0,6% "siamo ritornati indietro al primo trimestre del 2003, quello che oggi fa l'Italia è esattamente quello che faceva sei anni fa". E ce ne vorranno altrettanti per uscire da una crisi che non ha toccato ancora il fondo: "gli effetti più negativi sull'occupazione si registreranno nelle prossime settimane". Epifani nel suo comizio davanti ai lavoratori e agli studenti giunti a Roma da tutta Italia con 3 treni speciali e 750 pullman, ha preannunciato infatti una "valanga di persone che se ne andranno a casa".
Uno scenario che si avvererà sopratutto se il governo continuerà a non fare "nulla" e a restare "invisibile" nei confronti delle difficoltà del mondo del lavoro. Il leader del sindacato di Corso d'Italia, oltre al governo, punta il dito anche contro gli imprenditori, almeno quelli che "stanno facendo i furbetti, stanno intervenendo per rilevare, chiudere, rivendere e naturalmente licenziare i lavoratori". Coprendosi dietro lo schermo della crisi. Nel suo discorso Epifani si è anche rivolto apertamente a Cisl e Uil: "Nel caso in cui si volesse fare lo sciopero generale sul fisco, la Cgil è ovviamente pronta ed è in prima fila". Nei giorni scorsi, infatti, Raffaele Bonanni e Luigi Angeletti avevano detto che, se il governo non avesse diminuito il fisco su pensionati e lavoratori, come per gli altri, sarebbero stati pronti allo sciopero generale.
Ma per Sacconi il popolo della Cgil è "un piccolo mondo antico che rappresenta un pezzo del Paese, ma rimane ancorato al '900 e alle sue ideologie''. Pur rispettando la manifestazione il ministro del Welfare afferma di "non comprendere perché la Cgil scelga frequentemente la via del conflitto, spesso anche pregiudiziale nei confronti del governo e dell'isolamento nei confronti delle altre organizzazioni sindacali".
Per il leader del Pd Luigi Bersani, che alla manifestazione ha fatto pervenire un messaggio di appoggio "il Governo ha perso 18 mesi preziosissimi" e adesso è "l'ora di una svolta. Il Parlamento - sottolinea - deve varare una vera manovra anti-ciclica a sostegno della domanda aggregata".
ROMA - "Il peggio deve ancora venire": ed é in arrivo una "valanga" di licenziamenti. Il segretario della Cgil, Guglielmo Epifani, parla così della crisi dal palco di Piazza del Popolo davanti alle 100 mila persone che, secondo gli organizzatori, hanno partecipato alla manifestazione indetta dal sindacato di Corso d'Italia. E non si ferma qui, il leader della Cgil si dice "pronto" allo sciopero generale minacciato da Cisl e Uil se il governo non allenterà la pressione fiscale su lavoratori e pensionati.
Un esecutivo che, per Epifani, "va contro il mondo dei lavoro". Dal ministro del Welfare, Maurizio Sacconi, immediato è il commento alla mobilitazione del sindacato: la Cgil - dice - è ancorata al "Novecento e alle sue ideologie". La situazione economica del Paese, per il leader della Cgil, rimane invece grave e la crescita del Pil nel terzo trimestre del 2009 dopo 15 mesi di cali non può farci stare tranquilli: con quel +0,6% "siamo ritornati indietro al primo trimestre del 2003, quello che oggi fa l'Italia è esattamente quello che faceva sei anni fa". E ce ne vorranno altrettanti per uscire da una crisi che non ha toccato ancora il fondo: "gli effetti più negativi sull'occupazione si registreranno nelle prossime settimane". Epifani nel suo comizio davanti ai lavoratori e agli studenti giunti a Roma da tutta Italia con 3 treni speciali e 750 pullman, ha preannunciato infatti una "valanga di persone che se ne andranno a casa".
Uno scenario che si avvererà sopratutto se il governo continuerà a non fare "nulla" e a restare "invisibile" nei confronti delle difficoltà del mondo del lavoro. Il leader del sindacato di Corso d'Italia, oltre al governo, punta il dito anche contro gli imprenditori, almeno quelli che "stanno facendo i furbetti, stanno intervenendo per rilevare, chiudere, rivendere e naturalmente licenziare i lavoratori". Coprendosi dietro lo schermo della crisi. Nel suo discorso Epifani si è anche rivolto apertamente a Cisl e Uil: "Nel caso in cui si volesse fare lo sciopero generale sul fisco, la Cgil è ovviamente pronta ed è in prima fila". Nei giorni scorsi, infatti, Raffaele Bonanni e Luigi Angeletti avevano detto che, se il governo non avesse diminuito il fisco su pensionati e lavoratori, come per gli altri, sarebbero stati pronti allo sciopero generale.
Ma per Sacconi il popolo della Cgil è "un piccolo mondo antico che rappresenta un pezzo del Paese, ma rimane ancorato al '900 e alle sue ideologie''. Pur rispettando la manifestazione il ministro del Welfare afferma di "non comprendere perché la Cgil scelga frequentemente la via del conflitto, spesso anche pregiudiziale nei confronti del governo e dell'isolamento nei confronti delle altre organizzazioni sindacali".
Per il leader del Pd Luigi Bersani, che alla manifestazione ha fatto pervenire un messaggio di appoggio "il Governo ha perso 18 mesi preziosissimi" e adesso è "l'ora di una svolta. Il Parlamento - sottolinea - deve varare una vera manovra anti-ciclica a sostegno della domanda aggregata".
venerdì 13 novembre 2009
omaggio ad Alda Merini
Confesso, non conoscevo questa autrice e stamane, in edicola a caccia di novità, mi sono ritrovato tra le mani un libriccino, dal titolo "Le madri non cercano il paradiso"- ultima fatica terrena di questa poetessa che mi riprometto di leggere,cercando di penetrarne le atmosfere.
In un mondo sempre più grigio ed in caduta libera verso un futuro certamente non roseo, la poesia è come una boccata d'aria pura, un paio d'ali che ti trasporta verso un cielo ancora tenacemente, ostinatamente azzurro...
mercoledì 11 novembre 2009
Machinarium
E' da un po' che non scrivo un post con farina del mio sacco- ultimamente ci ho dato giù di brutto con il copia ed incolla: potrei dire impegni di famiglia, mancanza di idee, stanchezza mentale e prime avvisaglie di senilità...
Orsù, scacciamo il grigiore quotidiano ed allontaniamoci per un attimo dall'incessante pioggia di notizie inutili o tristi o desolanti...c'è un robottino che attira la mia attenzione, all'interno di un'avventura grafica di ottimo livello- sarà che un po' mi somiglia: si ricompone, in qualche modo, dopo essere stato scaricato, in mezzo ad altre ferraglie, in un angoscioso paesaggio di rottami, ed inizia la sua missione, una nuova vita insomma, una nuova chance, che non sperava più di avere...ed io, rottame dimenticato in un angolo, da un sistema di mercato stupidamente ed ottusamente crudele, spero di avere la mia chance, una missione, un pezzo di vita ancora, degna di essere vissuta...
domenica 8 novembre 2009
mercoledì 4 novembre 2009
...The EU seigniorage...
The EU seigniorage ticking time BOMB - EU: la bomba a orologeria
AUDIT THE ECB, THE EU CENTRAL BANK ! Bulletin
Posted by Marco Saba
The EU seigniorage ticking time BOMB - EU: la bomba a orologeria
THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE 'FRAUD-BUSTING' EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER
April 17, 2008 |
London Miscellany
February 2008
Ashley Mote examines the chequered past of the Estonian EU Commissioner Siim Kallas, now responsible for the EU's fight against fraud.
One of the strangest coincidences that occurred when the present European Commission was appointed in 2004 was the selection of two former communists, from two of the smallest new member states, to control and manage the entire European Union budget between them for the next five years.
You may not believe in coincidences, especially when over 100 billion euros a year are involved. Many well-placed observers in Brussels at the time didn't either, especially sceptical MEPs.
Both Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania and Siim Kallas of Estonia were educated and learned their politics in the Soviet Union. Both were later politically active under the communist regimes in their own countries before the USSR collapsed. Siim Kallas was a member of the communist party from 1972 to 1990.
Now, Mrs Grybauskaite controls the EU's budget and Mr Kallas is responsible for its administration, which includes the apparent fight against fraud and corruption.
This brings us to the point. Mr Kallas has a curious past in the matter of money management. By the end of this story you may find yourself wondering why such a man was made a Commissioner in the first place - worse, why the president of the Commission, Manuel Barroso, then appointed him to supervise the outflow of funds.
In 1992, barely three years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Siim Kallas, then aged 43, was already the head of the Bank of Estonia. Indeed he had previously been in charge of the state-owned bank's administration during the Soviet regime, when the application of strict international banking rules was not always observed to the letter and Kallas depended on KGB support for survival.
In the spring of 1992 Estonia received 11.4 tons of gold from the Bank of England. It was - and always had been - Estonia's property. On 17 June 1940, it had been shipped to London for safe-keeping as the situation in the Baltic states deteriorated fast and occupation became a certainty.
Estonia's government-in-exile made a gentleman's agreement with the then British government, which was upheld by successive administrations. The gold would be at their disposal and returned only to a free and independent Estonia. Indeed, the British never recognized the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union.
In the spring of 1992, the gold held in Britain for 52 years was safely returned to its rightful owners - the people of Estonia. It was then put to good use by a young and ambitious Estonian government. They would re-launch their own currency.
The gold was crucial in the creation of the new kroon. Former Soviet slave states were still using the Russian rouble. Even if they liked the idea, they lacked the courage and the necessary reserves to support a new currency. The return of such an immense asset to Estonia, now worth many times its original value even after inflation, made such an adventurous proposal viable. The venture was a great success. The kroon quickly became serious money. The Estonian economy boomed. Over the next few years the country became a potential Hong Kong of the north.
Of course all that came to an abrupt halt when Estonia joined the EU in 2004. Nowadays the Bank of Estonia has to buy euros with its reserves every time it prints kroon. But the European Central Bank in Frankfurt does not have to buy kroon in return. The net effect is to move Estonian wealth into the Eurozone, which Estonia is obliged to join when the European Central Bank decides its economy is ready.
This little technicality has a name - seigniorage. The American Federal Reserve practised the same mischief on 'dollarised' countries for years - and probably still does. But we digress!
Siim Kallas, as head of the Bank of Estonia, presided over this daring currency reform and quickly became one of the best known figures in public life in Estonia.
Why things then went so spectacularly wrong remains a mystery to this day, but for the word 'greed'.
Using the gold as collateral, in 1993 the Bank of Estonia secretly arranged the transfer via a third party of US$10m to a Swiss bank (1). It was part of a contract in which - it was later alleged (2) - the bank was supposed to receive highly improbable dividends from oil trading.
The precise details of this contract - if that is what it was - remain shrouded in ambiguity to this day. Indeed, it took several years for even basic information to emerge in Estonia, let alone anywhere else.
We know that the bank was not, in fact, the beneficiary of income generated by the $10m. We know that the anonymous beneficiaries had given no guarantees for the safe return of the capital to the Bank of Estonia. We know they did not bear any of the attendant liabilities. So when the money disappeared, along with all the income it had supposedly generated, the people of Estonia had been defrauded.
Details of this scandal only seeped out three years later, and it took a further four years before the very same Siim Kallas found himself in the dock on charges relating to these events.
By that time, he had long since left the Bank of Estonia to found the Reform Party, a new group in Estonian politics. It soon became part of the ruling government coalition and Kallas was installed in the Estonian government as Minister of Finance, no less.
In September 1998, Siim Kallas and his advisor Urmas Kaju (of whom more later) went on trial for investing public money without the authority of the Council of the Bank of Estonia. They were further accused of causing material loss to the people of Estonia by attempting to divert interest from the investment. They were also accused of theft and Kallas of misusing his position.
According to the magazine Central European Review
Kallas was convicted on the charges. But the convictions were overturned on appeal, bar one charge of providing false information which was referred back to the lower courts.
Then, according to the same source reporting on 30 October 2000, the four-year criminal case against Kallas finally came to a close when the lower court acquitted him of the one outstanding minor charge.
Unusually, the prosecutor in the case Andres Ãœlviste then attempted to re-open the prosecution, on the grounds that Kallas had provided the auditors of the Bank of Estonia with false information. But Estonia's chief prosecutor, Raivo Sepp, overruled his deputy, took over the case and ended it. Sepp defended his controversial decision by claiming that he trusted the Estonian judicial system's judgements in bringing this long-running case to a conclusion.
The former Estonian MP and doctor of law Ando Leps has written at length about this case (3). He claims that Kallas was at the centre of money problems at the Bank of Estonia before the accusations that led to a trial, and that he had previously depended on KGB support.
It must have been a considerable help to Siim Kallas that his representative throughout this lengthy legal process was the high-profile lawyer Indrek Teder, who just happened to be the law partner of Märt Rask, then Justice Minister in the Estonian government and chairman of the Estonian Supreme Court. By a happy coincidence, Rask was also a member of the Reform Party, of which Kallas was then the leader.
Retrospective rumours
Some years later, a prominent lawyer in Estonia, who had taken no part in any of these events, found himself at a meeting with one of the leading police investigator Rocco Ots throughout the Kallas case.
The police officer was only too glad to analyse the Kallas case to a lawyer not involved at the time. Leaving aside the strength of the evidence itself, he heavily criticized the way in which various hearings had been conducted. Rocco Ots criticized the evaluation of evidence at every level. He went so far as to say he thought the whole court process corrupted.
In Estonia there is a time-limit on bringing prosecutions to court. Several years had already passed before investigations began in earnest, so investigators had little time to complete the gathering of evidence. Unsurprisingly, Kallas' Reform Party, now a part of the government, was able to exploit this lack of time. It was spectacularly slow in answering questions and providing information. The Reform Party also tried to explain away all the public interest and investigations as political theatre.
Nonetheless, valuable evidence was accumulated, including important computer-disks relating to the case, only for them to be rejected as inadmissible evidence.
There were serious doubts in the prosecution's mind about motivation. According to the investigator Rocco Ots, the main objective of Kallas and his associates was to seize the interest from the investment for their own ends and later return the money to the Bank of Estonia. In which case, what happened to the original capital and where did most of the interest go?
Another version of these events suggested that the stolen money was 'invested' in the interests of the state in an Estonian oil business. This explained its disappearance, even if it then raised questions about the ownership of the shares. This version at least had logic on its side. Oil had been one of the most profitable businesses in Estonia for many years, servicing Russian sales of oil reserves worldwide.
The police investigator Rocco Ots also described events when an official Estonian police delegation visited Switzerland to collect evidence of the misappropriation of Estonian public funds. Despite being alerted to the arrival of the Estonian police, the Swiss police failed to meet them.
The visitors eventually found their Swiss counterparts, who claimed to the astonishment of the Estonian police that, some days before, another Estonian delegation had visited and taken away all the evidence. The Swiss police claimed not to know who the first group were, except that they purported to have authority to collect and remove all material evidence.
It has been suggested since by people close to the case that the only credible explanation is that the earlier visitors were from the Estonian secret service. Were they acting on the instructions of someone involved in the defence?
The decision of the Prosecutor General to stop the appeal for a re-trial and refuse a renewal of the investigation astounded the investigating team.
Little wonder the police were convinced long before Kallas' acquittal that members of the government, and the Reform Party, were taking all measures to undermine the case, better still stop it altogether.
One prosecutor, who was working in the office of the prosecutor general when the Kallas case was in the courts, now believes that Raivo Sepp was personally threatened. Certainly attempts were made to bring criminal charges against him, but they led nowhere and few thought the accusations credible.
Meanwhile, there was palpable tension within the prosecutor's office, and bonuses were stopped. Yet, once the Kallas case was dropped, the bonuses returned and an extra payment arrived at Christmas.
Throughout this long and sorry tale, Siim Kallas was advised by a close associate, Urmas Kaju. At least one prominent Estonian businessman has confirmed recently that Mr Kaju approached him during the early 1990s with an invitation to join in what the gentleman concerned now believes to have been the very same $10 million scam. In his case, another bank was also to be involved - the Northern Estonian Bank. He declined the invitation, and doesn't regret it. But he can't help wondering whether his business life in Estonia might not have been a great deal more successful if he had agreed. He suspects that the Northern Estonian Bank held the accounts into which the $10 million and the proceeds disappeared, and thinks they probably hold them to this day. But as we shall see, other evidence suggests it was stolen before ever being returned to any bank in Estonia. Urmas Kaju was an alcoholic who had a serious car accident in 1996 (4). He still lives in Estonia.
Given all these circumstances it is quite extraordinary that the Estonian government never invited Interpol to help with enquiries. None of the main characters were ever interviewed by Interpol. The newly formed Europol has taken no interest either, despite being set up precisely to deal with cross-border organized crime in Europe.
Bank 'management'
We now know, from his own account of these events (5) that it was Urmas Kaju, Kallas's advisor at the Bank of Estonia, who opened the account in Switzerland, on the basis of a private placement agreement. The funds were then transferred by yet another Estonian bank, Põhja-Eesti Pank (PEP). Later those funds were withdrawn by unidentified persons and disappeared without a trace.
PEP has justified its actions by saying that the transaction was prepared by the management of the Bank of Estonia. The contract that formed the basis of the ill-fated investment was signed by a representative of the Bank of Estonia (Kaju himself, authorised by Kallas), and the details for the money transfer were received directly from the Bank of Estonia.
The private placement agreement was the formal banking basis for PEP to make a transfer of $10 million dollars to a Swiss bank, for one year and a day. In order to receive the funds, the recipient was supposed to submit a guarantee from a reliable independent credit institution (with at least AAA rating), to ensure the return of at least the same amount after the term specified in the agreement.
Urmas Kaju has since claimed (6) that Delaware companies with offshore accounts had been opened to receive the interest payments on the 'investment'. He further claims that the supposed involvement of oil traders was to hide the high profit potential, and also to encourage the Swiss to think such a transfer a perfectly ordinary transaction between major banks.
According to Kaju, the false references to oil were quite believable. Most of the money in the oil business between Russia and the rest of the world then moved through Swiss bank
accounts, and still does. So an account opened for such purpose would not draw any particular attention among dozens of the same kind. Indeed, many of these other legitimate accounts would routinely involve much larger sums.
Enter two other characters in this extraordinary plot. First is Abram Sher, an Estonian businessman who served time during the Soviet era for illegal currency speculation. He helped set up the Bank of Estonia scheme, acted as mediator and made sure the first few interest payments arrived on time. Then, suddenly and without warning, he declared that the money had 'disappeared' (7)
This brings us to Sher's contact Victor Schiralli. Schiralli is a doctor-at-law, but Kaju describes him as a small-time Sicilian crook - "the type you could find in the lobbies of most hotels in Zurich"? (8). He survived by posing as a financial intermediary. Later it was discovered that the Sicilian was not intermediating for anyone. Instead he and Sher gave the post-Soviet bankers their first lesson in capitalism. They exploited a technical gap in a money transfer order prepared by inexperienced banking staff in the Baltic. In vulgar terms, they pickpocketed a thick wad from a yokel just arrived in town. And the yokel was Peeter Vähi, president of Põhja-Eesti Pank. Before his appointment he had had no professional experience of banking, except as a customer. He had previously sold Soviet Lada vehicles to Belgium.
PEP was created in the aftermath of an earlier banking crisis, largely to cover the tracks of the money lost by the Bank of Estonia to the Vne_ekonombank of Moscow. The survival prospects of the credit institution were so much in doubt that Siim Kallas personally invited Peeter Vähi to manage it.
In his new position, Vähi was similarly convinced that the new central authority - the Bank of Estonia - would know and control everything. And, in any case, he owed Kallas a big favour. He was a soft touch at both ends of the deal.
After Vähi had been handed an authorising document from Switzerland and separately received $10 million from his new 'superior', the former car dealer probably did not dare to consult even with the specialists of the money market department of his own bank. Instead he handled the paperwork himself - and screwed up.
Vähi assumed that Kallas, his boss, knew what he was doing. Having received from Vähi, their boss, the order to transfer the funds, the dealers at PEP processed the order. They assumed that Vähi knew what he was doing.
Thus the money for this adventure was readily lent by the Bank of Estonia to another Estonian bank, PEP, which was not unusual. But it simultaneously transferred the liability to return the loan in due course to a third party. Thus PEP became liable and it is virtually certain that the president of PEP did not fully understand the position he was now in. The Bank of Estonia had overstepped its own rules, but now apparently had clean hands.
Greed, ignorance and incompetence
So, in the end, we are left with a prima facie fraud based on an explosive combination of greed, ignorance and incompetence. Those in the know did not fully understand, and those who understood said nothing.
All the evidence suggests Kallas and his cronies allowed greed to overwhelm both their judgment and their knowledge. It was a daring and dangerous illegal adventure for which they had no expertise. They merely had access to the opportunity.
The Swiss account should have been opened with the condition that the $10 million could be withdrawn from the account only by a person presenting a guarantee from a third bank with reliable AAA rating. This guarantee was never demanded or presented. Instead the money was simply stolen from Põhja-Eesti Pank by small-time crooks with connections in Switzerland.
Since independence, Estonia has sadly grown accustomed to political scandals and lies. It seems that the Estonian voter is somewhat indifferent when one of his elected leaders is accused of being a cunning fraudster, corrupt or incompetent. Quite possibly he is seen as a combination of all three.
The only villain who comes out of this with any credit - even by his own warped standards - is Victor Schiralli, the Sicilian opportunist who found a way to remove $10 million from a Swiss bank account and walked clean away. To this day there is an arrest warrant out for him. His eventual arrest may even open the Kallas case again.
Meanwhile, Siim Kallas, the greedy and incompetent former head of the Bank of Estonia, now spends his time in Brussels - would you believe - fighting fraud and corruption in the EU which - as the EU itself admits - currently costs taxpayers over €2 million a day.
This is why nothing much has changed on that front since his appointment in 2004, and nothing much is likely to change while he is in office.
(Ashley Mote in an independent MEP for South-East England who has researched EU financial mismanagement over many years. Since his election in 2004 he has had a seat on the European Parliament's Budget Control Committee.)
Footnotes
(1) Eesti Pank: Persoonid ja saladused. Author: Urmas Kaju. Tallinn 2003 p. 145
(2) Ibid p. 140
(3) Kesknädal. 06.12.2000
(4) Eesti Pank: Persoonid ja saladused. Urmas Kaju. Tallinn 2003
(5) Ibid pp. 139-141
(6) Ibid
(7) Ibid p. 145
(8) Ibid p.140
See also: OLAF POLICE CAN'T INVESTIGATE THE ECB EURO-SEIGNIORAGE SCANDAL:
COMMISSIONE EUROPEA
UFFICIO EUROPEO PER LA LOTTA ANTIFRODE (OLAF)
Il Direttore Generale
Bruxelles, D/07210 09.09.05
APo/sr D (2005-AC-7558)
OLAF Operations
Dottor Marco SABA
c/o OCO - Observatoire du Crime Organisé
CP1148
1211 Genève 1
CH - SUISSE
Oggetto: Presunte frodi connesse al fenomeno del cosiddetto "signoraggio"
CMS no. OF/2005/0166 (si prega di citare il presente numero in tutta la successiva corrispondenza)
Gentile Dottor SABA,
nel ringraziarla per le informazioni fornite circa il fenomeno di cui all'oggetto, desidero
comunicarLe che, dopo approfondita analisi degli elementi a disposizione, il Consiglio
Esecutivo dell'OLAF ha ritenuto che le situazioni rappresentate non rientrino nella
competenza dell'Ufficio, così come stabilita dall'art. 1 del Reg. (CE) 1073/99 [1].
Conseguentemente, l'OLAF non svolgerà alcun ulteriore verifica in relazione alla citata
vicenda.
Distinti saluti,
[firma]
F.-H. BRÜNER
________________________________
[1] Regolamento (CE) n. 1073/1999 del Parlamento europeo e del Consiglio, del 25 maggio 1999, relativo alle indagini svolte
dall'Ufficio per la lotta antifrode (OLAF) - in G.U.C.E. n. L 136 del 31/05/1999 pag. 0001 - 0007;
Commissione europea - Rue Joseph 11, 30 - B-1049 Bruxelles - Belgio - Telefono: (32-2) 299 11 11
Ufficio: J-30 05/56 - Telefono: linea diretta (32-2) 29 55186 - Fax: (32-2) 29 66998
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AUDIT THE ECB, THE EU CENTRAL BANK ! Bulletin
Posted by Marco Saba
The EU seigniorage ticking time BOMB - EU: la bomba a orologeria
THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE 'FRAUD-BUSTING' EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER
April 17, 2008 |
London Miscellany
February 2008
Ashley Mote examines the chequered past of the Estonian EU Commissioner Siim Kallas, now responsible for the EU's fight against fraud.
One of the strangest coincidences that occurred when the present European Commission was appointed in 2004 was the selection of two former communists, from two of the smallest new member states, to control and manage the entire European Union budget between them for the next five years.
You may not believe in coincidences, especially when over 100 billion euros a year are involved. Many well-placed observers in Brussels at the time didn't either, especially sceptical MEPs.
Both Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania and Siim Kallas of Estonia were educated and learned their politics in the Soviet Union. Both were later politically active under the communist regimes in their own countries before the USSR collapsed. Siim Kallas was a member of the communist party from 1972 to 1990.
Now, Mrs Grybauskaite controls the EU's budget and Mr Kallas is responsible for its administration, which includes the apparent fight against fraud and corruption.
This brings us to the point. Mr Kallas has a curious past in the matter of money management. By the end of this story you may find yourself wondering why such a man was made a Commissioner in the first place - worse, why the president of the Commission, Manuel Barroso, then appointed him to supervise the outflow of funds.
In 1992, barely three years after the fall of the Berlin wall, Siim Kallas, then aged 43, was already the head of the Bank of Estonia. Indeed he had previously been in charge of the state-owned bank's administration during the Soviet regime, when the application of strict international banking rules was not always observed to the letter and Kallas depended on KGB support for survival.
In the spring of 1992 Estonia received 11.4 tons of gold from the Bank of England. It was - and always had been - Estonia's property. On 17 June 1940, it had been shipped to London for safe-keeping as the situation in the Baltic states deteriorated fast and occupation became a certainty.
Estonia's government-in-exile made a gentleman's agreement with the then British government, which was upheld by successive administrations. The gold would be at their disposal and returned only to a free and independent Estonia. Indeed, the British never recognized the occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union.
In the spring of 1992, the gold held in Britain for 52 years was safely returned to its rightful owners - the people of Estonia. It was then put to good use by a young and ambitious Estonian government. They would re-launch their own currency.
The gold was crucial in the creation of the new kroon. Former Soviet slave states were still using the Russian rouble. Even if they liked the idea, they lacked the courage and the necessary reserves to support a new currency. The return of such an immense asset to Estonia, now worth many times its original value even after inflation, made such an adventurous proposal viable. The venture was a great success. The kroon quickly became serious money. The Estonian economy boomed. Over the next few years the country became a potential Hong Kong of the north.
Of course all that came to an abrupt halt when Estonia joined the EU in 2004. Nowadays the Bank of Estonia has to buy euros with its reserves every time it prints kroon. But the European Central Bank in Frankfurt does not have to buy kroon in return. The net effect is to move Estonian wealth into the Eurozone, which Estonia is obliged to join when the European Central Bank decides its economy is ready.
This little technicality has a name - seigniorage. The American Federal Reserve practised the same mischief on 'dollarised' countries for years - and probably still does. But we digress!
Siim Kallas, as head of the Bank of Estonia, presided over this daring currency reform and quickly became one of the best known figures in public life in Estonia.
Why things then went so spectacularly wrong remains a mystery to this day, but for the word 'greed'.
Using the gold as collateral, in 1993 the Bank of Estonia secretly arranged the transfer via a third party of US$10m to a Swiss bank (1). It was part of a contract in which - it was later alleged (2) - the bank was supposed to receive highly improbable dividends from oil trading.
The precise details of this contract - if that is what it was - remain shrouded in ambiguity to this day. Indeed, it took several years for even basic information to emerge in Estonia, let alone anywhere else.
We know that the bank was not, in fact, the beneficiary of income generated by the $10m. We know that the anonymous beneficiaries had given no guarantees for the safe return of the capital to the Bank of Estonia. We know they did not bear any of the attendant liabilities. So when the money disappeared, along with all the income it had supposedly generated, the people of Estonia had been defrauded.
Details of this scandal only seeped out three years later, and it took a further four years before the very same Siim Kallas found himself in the dock on charges relating to these events.
By that time, he had long since left the Bank of Estonia to found the Reform Party, a new group in Estonian politics. It soon became part of the ruling government coalition and Kallas was installed in the Estonian government as Minister of Finance, no less.
In September 1998, Siim Kallas and his advisor Urmas Kaju (of whom more later) went on trial for investing public money without the authority of the Council of the Bank of Estonia. They were further accused of causing material loss to the people of Estonia by attempting to divert interest from the investment. They were also accused of theft and Kallas of misusing his position.
According to the magazine Central European Review
Kallas was convicted on the charges. But the convictions were overturned on appeal, bar one charge of providing false information which was referred back to the lower courts.
Then, according to the same source reporting on 30 October 2000, the four-year criminal case against Kallas finally came to a close when the lower court acquitted him of the one outstanding minor charge.
Unusually, the prosecutor in the case Andres Ãœlviste then attempted to re-open the prosecution, on the grounds that Kallas had provided the auditors of the Bank of Estonia with false information. But Estonia's chief prosecutor, Raivo Sepp, overruled his deputy, took over the case and ended it. Sepp defended his controversial decision by claiming that he trusted the Estonian judicial system's judgements in bringing this long-running case to a conclusion.
The former Estonian MP and doctor of law Ando Leps has written at length about this case (3). He claims that Kallas was at the centre of money problems at the Bank of Estonia before the accusations that led to a trial, and that he had previously depended on KGB support.
It must have been a considerable help to Siim Kallas that his representative throughout this lengthy legal process was the high-profile lawyer Indrek Teder, who just happened to be the law partner of Märt Rask, then Justice Minister in the Estonian government and chairman of the Estonian Supreme Court. By a happy coincidence, Rask was also a member of the Reform Party, of which Kallas was then the leader.
Retrospective rumours
Some years later, a prominent lawyer in Estonia, who had taken no part in any of these events, found himself at a meeting with one of the leading police investigator Rocco Ots throughout the Kallas case.
The police officer was only too glad to analyse the Kallas case to a lawyer not involved at the time. Leaving aside the strength of the evidence itself, he heavily criticized the way in which various hearings had been conducted. Rocco Ots criticized the evaluation of evidence at every level. He went so far as to say he thought the whole court process corrupted.
In Estonia there is a time-limit on bringing prosecutions to court. Several years had already passed before investigations began in earnest, so investigators had little time to complete the gathering of evidence. Unsurprisingly, Kallas' Reform Party, now a part of the government, was able to exploit this lack of time. It was spectacularly slow in answering questions and providing information. The Reform Party also tried to explain away all the public interest and investigations as political theatre.
Nonetheless, valuable evidence was accumulated, including important computer-disks relating to the case, only for them to be rejected as inadmissible evidence.
There were serious doubts in the prosecution's mind about motivation. According to the investigator Rocco Ots, the main objective of Kallas and his associates was to seize the interest from the investment for their own ends and later return the money to the Bank of Estonia. In which case, what happened to the original capital and where did most of the interest go?
Another version of these events suggested that the stolen money was 'invested' in the interests of the state in an Estonian oil business. This explained its disappearance, even if it then raised questions about the ownership of the shares. This version at least had logic on its side. Oil had been one of the most profitable businesses in Estonia for many years, servicing Russian sales of oil reserves worldwide.
The police investigator Rocco Ots also described events when an official Estonian police delegation visited Switzerland to collect evidence of the misappropriation of Estonian public funds. Despite being alerted to the arrival of the Estonian police, the Swiss police failed to meet them.
The visitors eventually found their Swiss counterparts, who claimed to the astonishment of the Estonian police that, some days before, another Estonian delegation had visited and taken away all the evidence. The Swiss police claimed not to know who the first group were, except that they purported to have authority to collect and remove all material evidence.
It has been suggested since by people close to the case that the only credible explanation is that the earlier visitors were from the Estonian secret service. Were they acting on the instructions of someone involved in the defence?
The decision of the Prosecutor General to stop the appeal for a re-trial and refuse a renewal of the investigation astounded the investigating team.
Little wonder the police were convinced long before Kallas' acquittal that members of the government, and the Reform Party, were taking all measures to undermine the case, better still stop it altogether.
One prosecutor, who was working in the office of the prosecutor general when the Kallas case was in the courts, now believes that Raivo Sepp was personally threatened. Certainly attempts were made to bring criminal charges against him, but they led nowhere and few thought the accusations credible.
Meanwhile, there was palpable tension within the prosecutor's office, and bonuses were stopped. Yet, once the Kallas case was dropped, the bonuses returned and an extra payment arrived at Christmas.
Throughout this long and sorry tale, Siim Kallas was advised by a close associate, Urmas Kaju. At least one prominent Estonian businessman has confirmed recently that Mr Kaju approached him during the early 1990s with an invitation to join in what the gentleman concerned now believes to have been the very same $10 million scam. In his case, another bank was also to be involved - the Northern Estonian Bank. He declined the invitation, and doesn't regret it. But he can't help wondering whether his business life in Estonia might not have been a great deal more successful if he had agreed. He suspects that the Northern Estonian Bank held the accounts into which the $10 million and the proceeds disappeared, and thinks they probably hold them to this day. But as we shall see, other evidence suggests it was stolen before ever being returned to any bank in Estonia. Urmas Kaju was an alcoholic who had a serious car accident in 1996 (4). He still lives in Estonia.
Given all these circumstances it is quite extraordinary that the Estonian government never invited Interpol to help with enquiries. None of the main characters were ever interviewed by Interpol. The newly formed Europol has taken no interest either, despite being set up precisely to deal with cross-border organized crime in Europe.
Bank 'management'
We now know, from his own account of these events (5) that it was Urmas Kaju, Kallas's advisor at the Bank of Estonia, who opened the account in Switzerland, on the basis of a private placement agreement. The funds were then transferred by yet another Estonian bank, Põhja-Eesti Pank (PEP). Later those funds were withdrawn by unidentified persons and disappeared without a trace.
PEP has justified its actions by saying that the transaction was prepared by the management of the Bank of Estonia. The contract that formed the basis of the ill-fated investment was signed by a representative of the Bank of Estonia (Kaju himself, authorised by Kallas), and the details for the money transfer were received directly from the Bank of Estonia.
The private placement agreement was the formal banking basis for PEP to make a transfer of $10 million dollars to a Swiss bank, for one year and a day. In order to receive the funds, the recipient was supposed to submit a guarantee from a reliable independent credit institution (with at least AAA rating), to ensure the return of at least the same amount after the term specified in the agreement.
Urmas Kaju has since claimed (6) that Delaware companies with offshore accounts had been opened to receive the interest payments on the 'investment'. He further claims that the supposed involvement of oil traders was to hide the high profit potential, and also to encourage the Swiss to think such a transfer a perfectly ordinary transaction between major banks.
According to Kaju, the false references to oil were quite believable. Most of the money in the oil business between Russia and the rest of the world then moved through Swiss bank
accounts, and still does. So an account opened for such purpose would not draw any particular attention among dozens of the same kind. Indeed, many of these other legitimate accounts would routinely involve much larger sums.
Enter two other characters in this extraordinary plot. First is Abram Sher, an Estonian businessman who served time during the Soviet era for illegal currency speculation. He helped set up the Bank of Estonia scheme, acted as mediator and made sure the first few interest payments arrived on time. Then, suddenly and without warning, he declared that the money had 'disappeared' (7)
This brings us to Sher's contact Victor Schiralli. Schiralli is a doctor-at-law, but Kaju describes him as a small-time Sicilian crook - "the type you could find in the lobbies of most hotels in Zurich"? (8). He survived by posing as a financial intermediary. Later it was discovered that the Sicilian was not intermediating for anyone. Instead he and Sher gave the post-Soviet bankers their first lesson in capitalism. They exploited a technical gap in a money transfer order prepared by inexperienced banking staff in the Baltic. In vulgar terms, they pickpocketed a thick wad from a yokel just arrived in town. And the yokel was Peeter Vähi, president of Põhja-Eesti Pank. Before his appointment he had had no professional experience of banking, except as a customer. He had previously sold Soviet Lada vehicles to Belgium.
PEP was created in the aftermath of an earlier banking crisis, largely to cover the tracks of the money lost by the Bank of Estonia to the Vne_ekonombank of Moscow. The survival prospects of the credit institution were so much in doubt that Siim Kallas personally invited Peeter Vähi to manage it.
In his new position, Vähi was similarly convinced that the new central authority - the Bank of Estonia - would know and control everything. And, in any case, he owed Kallas a big favour. He was a soft touch at both ends of the deal.
After Vähi had been handed an authorising document from Switzerland and separately received $10 million from his new 'superior', the former car dealer probably did not dare to consult even with the specialists of the money market department of his own bank. Instead he handled the paperwork himself - and screwed up.
Vähi assumed that Kallas, his boss, knew what he was doing. Having received from Vähi, their boss, the order to transfer the funds, the dealers at PEP processed the order. They assumed that Vähi knew what he was doing.
Thus the money for this adventure was readily lent by the Bank of Estonia to another Estonian bank, PEP, which was not unusual. But it simultaneously transferred the liability to return the loan in due course to a third party. Thus PEP became liable and it is virtually certain that the president of PEP did not fully understand the position he was now in. The Bank of Estonia had overstepped its own rules, but now apparently had clean hands.
Greed, ignorance and incompetence
So, in the end, we are left with a prima facie fraud based on an explosive combination of greed, ignorance and incompetence. Those in the know did not fully understand, and those who understood said nothing.
All the evidence suggests Kallas and his cronies allowed greed to overwhelm both their judgment and their knowledge. It was a daring and dangerous illegal adventure for which they had no expertise. They merely had access to the opportunity.
The Swiss account should have been opened with the condition that the $10 million could be withdrawn from the account only by a person presenting a guarantee from a third bank with reliable AAA rating. This guarantee was never demanded or presented. Instead the money was simply stolen from Põhja-Eesti Pank by small-time crooks with connections in Switzerland.
Since independence, Estonia has sadly grown accustomed to political scandals and lies. It seems that the Estonian voter is somewhat indifferent when one of his elected leaders is accused of being a cunning fraudster, corrupt or incompetent. Quite possibly he is seen as a combination of all three.
The only villain who comes out of this with any credit - even by his own warped standards - is Victor Schiralli, the Sicilian opportunist who found a way to remove $10 million from a Swiss bank account and walked clean away. To this day there is an arrest warrant out for him. His eventual arrest may even open the Kallas case again.
Meanwhile, Siim Kallas, the greedy and incompetent former head of the Bank of Estonia, now spends his time in Brussels - would you believe - fighting fraud and corruption in the EU which - as the EU itself admits - currently costs taxpayers over €2 million a day.
This is why nothing much has changed on that front since his appointment in 2004, and nothing much is likely to change while he is in office.
(Ashley Mote in an independent MEP for South-East England who has researched EU financial mismanagement over many years. Since his election in 2004 he has had a seat on the European Parliament's Budget Control Committee.)
Footnotes
(1) Eesti Pank: Persoonid ja saladused. Author: Urmas Kaju. Tallinn 2003 p. 145
(2) Ibid p. 140
(3) Kesknädal. 06.12.2000
(4) Eesti Pank: Persoonid ja saladused. Urmas Kaju. Tallinn 2003
(5) Ibid pp. 139-141
(6) Ibid
(7) Ibid p. 145
(8) Ibid p.140
See also: OLAF POLICE CAN'T INVESTIGATE THE ECB EURO-SEIGNIORAGE SCANDAL:
COMMISSIONE EUROPEA
UFFICIO EUROPEO PER LA LOTTA ANTIFRODE (OLAF)
Il Direttore Generale
Bruxelles, D/07210 09.09.05
APo/sr D (2005-AC-7558)
OLAF Operations
Dottor Marco SABA
c/o OCO - Observatoire du Crime Organisé
CP1148
1211 Genève 1
CH - SUISSE
Oggetto: Presunte frodi connesse al fenomeno del cosiddetto "signoraggio"
CMS no. OF/2005/0166 (si prega di citare il presente numero in tutta la successiva corrispondenza)
Gentile Dottor SABA,
nel ringraziarla per le informazioni fornite circa il fenomeno di cui all'oggetto, desidero
comunicarLe che, dopo approfondita analisi degli elementi a disposizione, il Consiglio
Esecutivo dell'OLAF ha ritenuto che le situazioni rappresentate non rientrino nella
competenza dell'Ufficio, così come stabilita dall'art. 1 del Reg. (CE) 1073/99 [1].
Conseguentemente, l'OLAF non svolgerà alcun ulteriore verifica in relazione alla citata
vicenda.
Distinti saluti,
[firma]
F.-H. BRÜNER
________________________________
[1] Regolamento (CE) n. 1073/1999 del Parlamento europeo e del Consiglio, del 25 maggio 1999, relativo alle indagini svolte
dall'Ufficio per la lotta antifrode (OLAF) - in G.U.C.E. n. L 136 del 31/05/1999 pag. 0001 - 0007;
Commissione europea - Rue Joseph 11, 30 - B-1049 Bruxelles - Belgio - Telefono: (32-2) 299 11 11
Ufficio: J-30 05/56 - Telefono: linea diretta (32-2) 29 55186 - Fax: (32-2) 29 66998
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...Dear Colleague...
Dear Colleague,
The United Nations General Assembly, after the recent Special Session of the Human Rights Council, should soon be discussing the Report of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict led by Justice Richard Goldstone with three other experienced members. In addition to its field visits to the Gaza Strip and Amman, Jordan, public hearings were held in Geneva in June and July 2009. Staff members from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights were in Gaza from May to July 2009 to conduct field investigations.
Citizens of the World have placed great importance on fact-finding as a way to strengthen world law. Non-governmental organizations have often taken a leadership role in such fact-finding. See the history of such NGO efforts by Hans Thoolen and B. Verstappen Human Rights Missions: A Study of the Fact-Finding Practice of Non-Governmental Organizations (1986). World Citizens have also stressed the importance of fact-finding by the United Nations and intergovernmental bodies. See the analysis by the former Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, B.G. Ramcharan (Ed.) International Law and Fact-Finding in the Field of Human Rights (1983) and the useful overview by Richard B. Lillich (Ed.) Fact-Finding Before International Tribunals (1991).
Thus, the Report of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict merits a discussion of high quality both for its importance to the conflicts in the Middle East and for its importance to strengthen further world law. As Justice Navanethem Pillay, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights has said “Accountability for breaches of international humanitarian law and for human rights violations, as well as respect for human rights, are not obstacles to peace, but rather the preconditions on which trust and, ultimately, a durable peace can be built.”
We are sure that you share the convictions of Citizens of the World that fair and comprehensive fact-finding is a key element in the development of the rule of law and that you will give the ‘Goldstone Report’ the full attention it merits.
Respectfully yours,
Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
The United Nations General Assembly, after the recent Special Session of the Human Rights Council, should soon be discussing the Report of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict led by Justice Richard Goldstone with three other experienced members. In addition to its field visits to the Gaza Strip and Amman, Jordan, public hearings were held in Geneva in June and July 2009. Staff members from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights were in Gaza from May to July 2009 to conduct field investigations.
Citizens of the World have placed great importance on fact-finding as a way to strengthen world law. Non-governmental organizations have often taken a leadership role in such fact-finding. See the history of such NGO efforts by Hans Thoolen and B. Verstappen Human Rights Missions: A Study of the Fact-Finding Practice of Non-Governmental Organizations (1986). World Citizens have also stressed the importance of fact-finding by the United Nations and intergovernmental bodies. See the analysis by the former Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, B.G. Ramcharan (Ed.) International Law and Fact-Finding in the Field of Human Rights (1983) and the useful overview by Richard B. Lillich (Ed.) Fact-Finding Before International Tribunals (1991).
Thus, the Report of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict merits a discussion of high quality both for its importance to the conflicts in the Middle East and for its importance to strengthen further world law. As Justice Navanethem Pillay, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights has said “Accountability for breaches of international humanitarian law and for human rights violations, as well as respect for human rights, are not obstacles to peace, but rather the preconditions on which trust and, ultimately, a durable peace can be built.”
We are sure that you share the convictions of Citizens of the World that fair and comprehensive fact-finding is a key element in the development of the rule of law and that you will give the ‘Goldstone Report’ the full attention it merits.
Respectfully yours,
Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
domenica 1 novembre 2009
...ancora dal sito di P. Barnard...Ascoltate questa donna...
Ascoltate questa donna.
In 'Ecco come morimmo', ho raccontato, fra le altre, una cosa terribile: come il Potere ha disabilitato milioni di noi cittadini impedendoci così di partecipare alla polis, cioè di cambiare il nostro tempo. Ho spiegato perché questa è la tragedia somma e cosa fare per contrastarla. Ci hanno tolto il tempo materiale per poter persino pensare, meno che meno agire.
La mail di questa donna toglie il fiato, per la verità di ciò che dice, per come è tragicamente vero per milioni di persone. Va imparata a memoria.
"Da: **** @yahoo.it>
Oggetto: Un saluto.
A: dpbarnard@libero.it
Data: Sabato 10 ottobre 2009, 11:26
Buongiorno Paolo.
Mi chiamo Daniela, ho 50 anni e ti seguo da tempo sul tuo sito.
Velocemente ti ringrazio per il tuo lavoro.
Le tue riflessioni coincidono spesso con le mie e credo di "sentire" la tua rabbia quando spieghi che i cambiamenti devono avvenire in ciascuno di noi. E' a questo punto che nasce il mio dramma che forse è quello di migliaia di persone come me, spezzate e piegate dall'impossibilità di agire, dovendo fare i conti con le leggi di questo sistema che non ci lascia più scampo. La mia è una storia come tante, fatta di difficoltà quotidiane infinitamente più lievi di quelle di chi muore ogni giorno per povertà, guerra, fame,ingiustizia ecc.ecc. Ma i conti dobbiamo farli con la nostra vita e con la nostra quotidianità. Dalla quale ormai manca il tempo anche per pensare. Io mi sento sbattuta contro un muro e schiacciata da una mano invisibile che mi spinge incessantemente e non mi lascia IL TEMPO di muovermi. Il lavoro mi massacra per molte ore al giorno, e sempre più spesso ho la sensazione che i miei PADRONI non solo mi sfruttino per i loro guadagni, ma abbiano un nemmeno tanto celato piacere sadico nell'impormi TEMPI assurdi, orari improponibili ecc. La cosa più grave è la totale rassegnazione di colleghi quasi tutti giovani, come me ricattati e incapaci di reagire per timore di essere cacciati via. Così si spinge sempre più sull'acceleratore e si rompe il freno: sempre di più senza regole, senza limiti, solo richieste sempre di più. Tutto cio' moltiplicato per milioni di persone, non tutti hanno la percezione di questa realtà e allora meglio per loro, perchè se invece ce l'hai, non puoi fare nulla, devi andare avanti aggrappandoti a speranze come a corde di carta. Lo sai che si spezzeranno, ma tanto è: ci provi.
I paladini dell'antisistema sono corde di carta e non cambieranno niente. Perchè IL TEMPO per alzarsi non c'è più, perchè la mano invisibile ti spinge contro il muro e ti blocca. Perchè DEVI risolvere i tuoi bisogni primari e quelli dei tuoi figli e se non ti PIEGHI ti ritrovi per la strada e non sei capace di fare questa scelta. Il tumulto della mia anima è immenso, ma oggi sono sola come tanti, in un sistema che non ti vuole se non accetti le sue regole.
A presto."
In 'Ecco come morimmo', ho raccontato, fra le altre, una cosa terribile: come il Potere ha disabilitato milioni di noi cittadini impedendoci così di partecipare alla polis, cioè di cambiare il nostro tempo. Ho spiegato perché questa è la tragedia somma e cosa fare per contrastarla. Ci hanno tolto il tempo materiale per poter persino pensare, meno che meno agire.
La mail di questa donna toglie il fiato, per la verità di ciò che dice, per come è tragicamente vero per milioni di persone. Va imparata a memoria.
"Da: **** @yahoo.it>
Oggetto: Un saluto.
A: dpbarnard@libero.it
Data: Sabato 10 ottobre 2009, 11:26
Buongiorno Paolo.
Mi chiamo Daniela, ho 50 anni e ti seguo da tempo sul tuo sito.
Velocemente ti ringrazio per il tuo lavoro.
Le tue riflessioni coincidono spesso con le mie e credo di "sentire" la tua rabbia quando spieghi che i cambiamenti devono avvenire in ciascuno di noi. E' a questo punto che nasce il mio dramma che forse è quello di migliaia di persone come me, spezzate e piegate dall'impossibilità di agire, dovendo fare i conti con le leggi di questo sistema che non ci lascia più scampo. La mia è una storia come tante, fatta di difficoltà quotidiane infinitamente più lievi di quelle di chi muore ogni giorno per povertà, guerra, fame,ingiustizia ecc.ecc. Ma i conti dobbiamo farli con la nostra vita e con la nostra quotidianità. Dalla quale ormai manca il tempo anche per pensare. Io mi sento sbattuta contro un muro e schiacciata da una mano invisibile che mi spinge incessantemente e non mi lascia IL TEMPO di muovermi. Il lavoro mi massacra per molte ore al giorno, e sempre più spesso ho la sensazione che i miei PADRONI non solo mi sfruttino per i loro guadagni, ma abbiano un nemmeno tanto celato piacere sadico nell'impormi TEMPI assurdi, orari improponibili ecc. La cosa più grave è la totale rassegnazione di colleghi quasi tutti giovani, come me ricattati e incapaci di reagire per timore di essere cacciati via. Così si spinge sempre più sull'acceleratore e si rompe il freno: sempre di più senza regole, senza limiti, solo richieste sempre di più. Tutto cio' moltiplicato per milioni di persone, non tutti hanno la percezione di questa realtà e allora meglio per loro, perchè se invece ce l'hai, non puoi fare nulla, devi andare avanti aggrappandoti a speranze come a corde di carta. Lo sai che si spezzeranno, ma tanto è: ci provi.
I paladini dell'antisistema sono corde di carta e non cambieranno niente. Perchè IL TEMPO per alzarsi non c'è più, perchè la mano invisibile ti spinge contro il muro e ti blocca. Perchè DEVI risolvere i tuoi bisogni primari e quelli dei tuoi figli e se non ti PIEGHI ti ritrovi per la strada e non sei capace di fare questa scelta. Il tumulto della mia anima è immenso, ma oggi sono sola come tanti, in un sistema che non ti vuole se non accetti le sue regole.
A presto."
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