‘Largest Massacre of Christians in Syria’ Ignored

By Raymond Ibrahim

One of the worst Christian massacres—complete with mass graves, tortured-to-death women and children, and destroyed churches—recently took place in Syria, at the hands of the U.S.-supported jihadi “rebels”; and the U.S. government and its “mainstream media” mouthpiece are, as usual, silent (that is, when not actively trying to minimize matters).

 

The massacre took place in Sadad, an ancient Syriac Orthodox Christian habitation, so old as to be mentioned in the Old Testament. Most of the region’s inhabitants are poor, as Sadad is situated in the remote desert between Homs and Damascus (desert regions, till now, apparently the only places Syria’s Christians could feel secure; 600 Christian families had earlier fled there for sanctuary from the jihad, only to be followed by it).

 

In late October, the U.S-supported “opposition” invaded and occupied Sadad for over a week, till ousted by the nation’s military. Among other atrocities, 45 Christians —including women and children —were killed, several tortured to death; Sadat’s 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for “subhuman” Christians).

 

The jihadis even made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they massacred, while shouting Islam’s victory-cry, “Allahu Akbar” (which John McCain equates to a Christian saying “thank God”). Another video, made after Sadad was liberated shows more graphic atrocities.

 

Here are the words of Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama (another detailed account):

 

What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two years and a half… 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing. For one week, 1,500 families were held as hostages and human shields.

 

Among them children, the elderly, the young, men and women…. All the houses of Sadad were robbed and property looted. The churches are damaged and desecrated, deprived of old books and precious furniture… What happened in Sadad is the largest massacre of Christians in Syria and the second in the Middle East, after the one in the Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Iraq, in 2010.

 

In the Iraqi attack of 2010, al-Qaeda linked jihadis stormed the church during service killing some 60 Christian worshippers (see here for graphic images of the aftermath).

 

While the archbishop is correct that this is the “largest massacre of Christians in Syria,” it is but the tip of the iceberg of the persecution the nation’s Christian minority has suffered—including beheadings, church bombings, kidnappings, rapes, and dislocation of hundreds of thousands of Christians—since the war broke out .

 

A month before Sadad, another ancient Christian region, Ma’loula, one of the world’s very few regions that still spoke Aramaic, the language of Jesus, was besieged by the jihadis, its churches bombarded and plundered, its inhabitants forced to convert to Islam or die. The last words of one man who refused were: “I am a Christian, and if you want to kill me for this, I do not object to it.”

 

The archbishop concluded his statement concerning Sadad by asking: “We have shouted aid to the world but no one has listened to us. Where is the Christian conscience? Where is human consciousness? Where are my brothers? I think of all those who are suffering today in mourning and discomfort: We ask everyone to pray for us.”

 

Serge Trifkovic—who hails from a European region especially acquainted with Islamic jihad—responds to the archbishop as follows:

 

That no “human consciousness” is to be found in the White House, or in the editorial offices of the leading Western media, is now a matter of well-established record. Just try searching for “Sadad” (or alternatively “Saddad”) on the websites of the Department of State or The New York Times. Ditto the leading European dailies, the CNN/BBC/RTF, the human-rights defending “NGOs” et al.

 

The problem, of which Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh appears unaware, is no longer in the Western elite’s mere indifference to the impending demise of Christianity in the lands of its birth, but in its active, ongoing, and open contribution to that demise. Cyprus (1974) and the Balkans (1991-9) provided the test, Iraq (2003-today) the conclusive proof.

In Syria the Obama administration remains committed to supporting the rebels—ah, yes, only the “moderate” ones, like the Christian-murdering “Free Syrian Army” (discretion advised again), not “even though” the result will be the same, but precisely because it will be.

 

In one of the Arabic videos documenting the aftermath of the Sadad massacre, as the mutilated bodies of one family are drawn from a well , a middle-aged male relative, in tears, says:

 

The most precious in the whole universe [his family], are now gone, leaving me alone, but thank God I am still surrounded by these loving people who remain. I want to say, let people [the jihadis] return to their minds. The problems of the world can only be solved by knowledge and brains. Enough insanity, the nerves of the people are shredded. Enough, enough—return to your minds; you people, you humans—return to your humanity, enough crimes.

 

As a sign of the times, here is a Syrian, an “easterner,” evoking rationalism and humanity, products of the Christian West, at a time when the post-Christian West is governed by anything and everything— propaganda, emotionalism, mindless indoctrination—but the twain.

Washington Drives the World Toward War

Washington has had the US at war for 30 years: Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Yemen, and Syria, with Iran waiting in the wings. 

These wars have been expensive in terms of money, prestige, and deaths and injuries of both US soldiers and the attacked civilian populations. 

None of these wars appears to have any compelling reason or justifiable explanation. 

 

The wars have been important to the profits of the military/security complex. 

The wars have provided cover for the construction of a Stasi police state in America, and the wars have served Israel's interest by removing obstacles to Israel's annexation of the entire West Bank and southern Lebanon. 

 

As costly and destructive as these wars have been, they are far below the level of a world war, much less a world war against nuclear armed opponents.  

 

The fatal war for humanity is the war with Russia and China toward which Washington is driving the US and Washington's NATO and Asian puppet states.  

There are a number of factors contributing to Washington's drive toward the final war, but the overarching one is the doctrine of American exceptionalism.  

 

According to this self-righteous doctrine, America is the indispensable country.  

What this means is that the US has been chosen by history to establish the hegemony of secular "democratic capitalism" over the world.  

The primacy of this goal places the US government above traditional morality and above all law, both its own and international.

 

Thus, no one in the US government has been held accountable for unprovoked aggression against other countries and for attacking civilian populations, unambiguous war crimes under international law and the Nuremberg standard.  

Neither has anyone in the US government been held accountable for torture, a prohibited crime under US law and the Geneva Conventions. 

 

Neither has anyone been held accountable for numerous violations of constitutional rights--spying without warrants, warrantless searches, violations of habeas corpus, murder of citizens without due process, denial of legal representation, conviction on secret evidence.  

The list is long.

        

A person might wonder what is exceptional and indispensable about a government that is a reincarnation of Nazi Germany in every respect.  

People propagandized into the belief that they are the world's special people inevitably lose their humanity.

  

Thus, as the US military video released by Bradley Manning reveals, US troops get their jollies by mowing down innocent people as they walk along a city street. 

 

With the exception of the ACLU, constitutional rights groups and independent Internet voices, the American people including the Christian churches have accepted their government's criminality and immorality with scant protest. 

 

The absence of moral denunciation emboldens Washington which is now pushing hard against Russia and China, the current governments of which stand in the way of Washington's world hegemony.  

 

Washington has been working against Russia for nearly 30 years ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  

In violation of the Reagan-Gorbachev agreement, Washington expanded NATO into Eastern Europe and the Baltic states and established military bases on Russia's borders.  

Washington has extend NATO into former constituent parts of Russia itself such as Georgia and Ukraine.  

 

The only reason for Washington to establish military and missile bases on Russia's frontiers is to negate Russia's ability to resist Washington's hegemony.  

Russia has made no threatening gestures toward its neighbors, and with the sole exception of Russia's response to Georgia's invasion of South Ossetia, and most recently Crimea has been extremely passive in the face of US provocations.  

 

This is now changing.  

Faced with Washingtons regime alternation of US war doctrine, which elevated nuclear weapons from a defensive, retaliatory use to pre-emptive first strike, together with the construction on Russia's borders of US anti-ballistic missile bases and Washington's weaponization of new technologies, has made it clear to the Russian government that Washington is setting up Russia for a decapitating first strike.

 

In his presidential address to the Russian National Assembly (both chambers of parliament), Vladimir Putin addressed the offensive military threat that Washington poses to Russia.  

Putin said that Washington calls its anti-ballistic missile system defensive, but "in fact it is a signifiant part of the strategic offensive potential" and designed to tip the balance of power in Washington's favor. 

 

Having acknowledged the threat, Putin replied to the threat:  

("Let no one have illusions that he can achieve military superiority over Russia. We will never allow it.")

 

Faced with Washingtons regime murder of the nuclear weapons reduction treaty, Putin said: 

("We realize all this and know what we need to do.") 

 

If anyone remains to write history, it is that, the Obama administration will be known as the regime that resurrected the cold war, which President Reagan worked so hard to end, and drove it into a hot war.

 

Not content to make Russia an enemy, Washingtons regime has also made an enemy of China. 

Again history will show that, it was the  Obama administration that, declared the South China Sea to be an area of "US national security interest."  

This is akin to China declaring the Gulf of Mexico to be an area of Chinese national security interest. 

 

To make clear that the claim to the South China Sea was not rhetorical, Washington announced its "Pivot to Asia," which calls for the redeployment of 60% of the US fleet to China's zone of influence.  

Washington is busy at work securing naval and air bases from the Philippines, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, Thailand, Japan and now Taiwan. 

 

Washington has increased the provocation by aligning itself with China's neighbors who are disputing China's claims to various islands and an expanded air space.

 

China has not been intimidated. China has called for "de-americanizing the world."  

The Chinese government announced that it now possesses sufficient nuclear weapons and delivery systems to wipe the US off of the face of the earth. 

China for years has aggressively harassed US missile cruiser in the South China Sea.

 

The militarily aggressive stance that Washington has taken toward Russia and China isindicative of the extreme self-assuredness that usually ends in war.  

Washington is told that US technological prowess can prevent or intercept the launch of Russian and Chinese missiles, thus elevating a US pre-emptive attack to slam-dunk status.

 

Yet the potential danger from Iran acquiring nuclear weapons is said to be so great that a pre-emptive war is necessary right now, and a massive Department of Homeland Security is justified on the grounds that the US remains vulnerable to a few stateless Muslims who might acquire a nuclear weapon. 

 

It is an anomalous situation that the Russian and Chinese retaliatory response to US attack is considered to be inconsequential, but not nuclear threats from Iran and stateless Muslims.

 

Not content with sending war signals to Russia and China, Washington has apparently also decided to torpedo the Iranian settlement by announcing sanctions against companies doing business with Iran.

 

The Iranians understood Washington's monkey wrench as Washington probably intended, as a lack of Washington's commitment to the agreement. 

It remains to be seen whether the agreement can be resurrected or whether the Israel Lobby has succeeded in derailing the agreement that promised to end the threat of war with Iran.

 

American citizens seem to have little, if any, influence on their government or even awareness of its intentions.  

Moreover, there is no organized opposition behind which Americans could rally to stop Washington's drive toward world war.  

Hope, if there is any, would seem to lie with Washington's European and Asian puppets. 

 

What interests do these governments have in putting the existence of their countries at risk for no other purpose than to help Washington acquire hegemony over the world?  

Cannot they realize that Washington's game is a death-dealing one for them?

 

Germany alone could save the world from war while simultaneously serving its own interests.  

All Germany has to do is to exit the EU and NATO.  

The alliance would collapse, and its fall would terminate Washington's hegemonic ambition. 

 

Examining antibacterial soaps, body wash - no evidence antibacterial washes better than soap

FDA.gov                

 

(CNN) —Manufacturers of antibacterial hand soap and body wash will be required to prove their products are more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of infection, under a proposed rule announced Monday by the Food and Drug Administration.

 

Those manufacturers also will be required to prove their products are safe for long-term use, the agency said.

 

"Millions of Americans use antibacterial hand soap and body wash products," the agency said in a statement. "Although consumers generally view these products as effective tools to help prevent the spread of germs, there is currently no evidence that they are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water.

 

"Further, some data suggest that long-term exposure to certain active ingredients used in antibacterial products -- for example, triclosan (liquid soaps) and triclocarban (bar soaps) -- could pose health risks, such as bacterial resistance or hormonal effects."

 

About 2,000 individual products contain these products, health officials said.

 

"Our goal is, if a company is making a claim that something is antibacterial and in this case promoting the concept that consumers who use these products can prevent the spread of germs, then there ought to be data behind that," said Dr. Sandra Kweder, deputy director of the Office of New Drugs in FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

 

"We think that companies ought to have data before they make these claims."

 

Studies in rats have shown a decrease in thyroid hormones with long-term exposure, she said. Collecting data from humans is "very difficult" because the studies look at a long time period.

 

Before the proposed rule is finalized, companies will need to provide data to support their claims, or -- if they do not -- the products will need to be reformulated or relabeled to remain on the market.

 

"This is a good first step toward getting unsafe triclosan off the market," said Mae Wu, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "FDA is finally taking concerns about triclosan seriously. Washing your hands with soap containing triclosan doesn't make them cleaner than using regular soap and water and can carry potential health risks.

 

The FDA first proposed removing triclosan from certain products in 1978, the council said, "but because the agency took no final action, triclosan has been found in more and more soaps."

 

In 2010, the council said it sued FDA to force it to issue a final rule. The new proposed rule stems from a settlement in that suit, according to the NRDC.

 

The rule is available for public comment for 180 days, with a concurrent one-year period for companies to submit new data and information, followed by a 60-day period for rebuttal comments, according to the FDA.

 

The target deadline is June 2014 for the public comment period, then companies will have until December 2014 to submit data and studies. The FDA wants to finalize the rule and determine whether these products are "generally recognized as safe and effective" by September 2016.

 

"Antibacterial soaps and body washes are used widely and frequently by consumers in everyday home, work, school and public settings, where the risk of infection is relatively low," said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

 

"Due to consumers' extensive exposure to the ingredients in antibacterial soaps, we believe there should be a clearly demonstrated benefit from using antibacterial soap to balance any potential risk."

The action is part of FDA's ongoing review of antibacterial active ingredients, the agency said.

Hand sanitizers, wipes and antibacterial products used in health care settings are not affected.

 

Most hand sanitizers have 60 percent alcohol or ethanol and are generally recognized as safe when water isn't available, Kweder said. However, health officials still believe washing hands with soap and water is the best method.

" Beginig Of The End " - Capitalism and Christianity in Western society

By Michael Skywood

A reporter once asked Mahatma Ghandi what he thought of civilisation in the west. "I think it would be a good idea," he said. The same answer might apply to the question, "What do you think of Christianity in the West?"

Most of the Western Christian 'democracies' have lost much of their Christian culture. Even though many of the words and images still remain, secularism and materialism dominate - especially in the West  today, its people tend to bow more to the god of greed than the God of the Scriptures. 

Napoleon once accused the British of being a nation of shopkeepers, would he call us a nation of supermarket goers now?

 

Jeremiah Wright, Obama's original spiritual advisor explains how frustrated he is about how society has changed in the USA.

 

"If you notice, Jesus taught us to pray, . . . . . . . I realize that the country is not all Christian - but just in terms of the principles that I believe cut across interfaith lines and boundaries is in the prayer. 

The model prayer the Lord taught us as the Lord's disciples has no first person singular pronoun. It's 'our,' 'we,' 'us.' That got lost.

 

"We became a 'me'- focused, kind of dog-eat-dog, Ayn Rand, social Darwinist, survival of the fittest, be strong, and with no care, no concern, no compassion for those that are not born above the scratch line," 

Wright said. "And no concern to make the communities in which they live and the world in which we live a community which really cares about all of God's children, regardless of their colours and regardless of their faith."

 

Prior to the first World War, Christianity had been the bedrock, the mantle and soil of Britain. From Christianity we fuelled our wisdom, our rituals, our traditions, our melodies, our manners, our fairness, our sense of duty, our honesty and our sense of family and community.

        

Indeed, the beginning of the Working Class movement and the Labour Party were crafted out of a combination of chapel and communism, from mysticism and Marxism. The combined agenda was unashamedly to create a fairer society, to look after the poor, the vulnerable, the sick, the aged and to care for each other.

The working classes rebelled against being in service to the rich, or being exploited in filthy work, they looked around at the class system and saw the low social mobility and the terrible inequality of wealth in Great Britain.

The influence of Christian education

 

These days a lot of people hate Christianity - to wit, the propaganda against it has been ferocious and effective! - but my premise is that only two things fight unfettered capitalism: 

1. Christianity (and perhaps other major world religions of an ethical tradition) 

2. Socialism. Eradicate these and unbridled barbarism and Fascism result.

This is because ordinary people lose an important part of their political and ethical education and also because the rulers - instead of providing for the poor, the sick and the vulnerable - see only mammon and status for themselves and regard all below them as Darwinian failures. Such is the terror of Social Darwinism which is replacing Christianity.

 

Christians believed that every young child must be taught about both the evil in the world and the potential evil they carry within themselves. This has been criticised as a bizarre and a cruel practice, a practice that will frighten children and give them nightmares. Yet - even though the child may pass through a phase of this - the basic theory is that when a child is aware of evil, the child seeks to do good.

 

She becomes aware of her own short comings, and he takes his sinful self and tries to improve it, to heal it. Christian educators believe it is important to catch a child's sense of ethics when they are young, because by the time teenage-hood has arrived it is too late to lay a good bedrock for learning if it is not already there.

 

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Proverbs 22:15

 

Very few schools in the UK now teach the seven virtues: Chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility, nor the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord, nor the twelve fruits of the spirit: Charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity - and if they do they are full!

 

If the seven deadly sins were better known would we be astonished by Britain in the 21st Century?

 

1)Wrath - Britain is involved in three appalling wars.

 

2) Avarice - Britain's culture of decency and neighbourliness is dissolving into a culture of turbo materialism.

 

3) Sloth - unemployment is rife and there are few jobs for young people and multitudes of TV channels (pushing out rubbish) are on all day for people to slump in front of.

 

4) Pride - the hero in today's society is the celebrity, the supermodel, the sports star, the pop star. All of who actually produce very little of sustainable value but who get enormous pay outs because they represent certain products and 'the aspiration to be rich'. Whatever happened to real heroes with genuine virtues?

Middle East getting pro-Russian

 

On Sunday, two pieces of news emerged in the media a couple of hours apart. First, there was information about a telephone conversation between the Russian President and the King of Saudi Arabia.

Then information emerged that the Syrian opposition agreed to participate in Geneva-2. This is another success of the Russian Federation that is becoming a major player in the Middle East.

Historically, the Russian nation united all nations and peoples in what at different times was called the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation, without assimilating them, but preserving and developing their characteristics and respecting other religions, beliefs, and traditions.

For centuries, the Russian state was developing its diplomacy aimed first of all at respect for other nations, the desire to help them, without belittling anyone (sometimes to its own detriment). This assistance often caused rejection and accusations of imperial tendencies. The times have changed, and now those who were dissatisfied with the Soviet Union and Russia have a chance to compare the actions of Russia with those of the West.

 

It turned out that the West's efforts are primarily aimed at silencing, assimilation, destruction of unwanted religions, attitudes, and democracies. Russia is the only one able to find a compromise. For its Orthodox faith, unlike for Catholicism and Protestantism, peace remains the priority over aggression.

This is particularly obvious in the Middle East, where the Russian diplomacy is achieving one success after another. Consciously or unconsciously, many politicians realize that if it had not been for Russia, the world would have long been led to the Third World War, and it would have resulted in a collapse of the civilization.

The change in the situation in the region became apparent last year, when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited Moscow twice and made not a single visit to Washington.

        

The country "liberated" by the Americans from Saddam Hussein made ​​a bet on cooperation with Russia, signing a package agreement on military-technical cooperation amounting to $4.3 billion dollars. The first batch of Mi-28NE and Mi-35 helicopters under this agreement will be delivered to Iraq in the coming days.

Maliki made ​​this turn not only because the Russian weapons in the local environment have proven to be better than the American ones, but because Russia does not sign oil contracts with Iraqi Kurdistan without asking Baghdad like the Americans do. Al-Maliki knows that the U.S. State Department is dreaming of dividing his country into smaller ones.

The second major victory for the Russian diplomacy was achieved before the historic agreements on Syria. It was done during a visit of the chief of military intelligence of Saudi Arabia, the chief mentor of the armed Syrian opposition, Prince Bandar in Russia in August of this year.

According to the information in Russia Today and international media (Reuters, The Telegraph), citing their own sources), the Prince invited President Vladimir Putin to give Europe at the mercy of "Gazprom" and billions in contracts for purchase of weapons in exchange for the surrender of uncompromising Bashar al-Assad.

Bandar said that otherwise there would be terrorist attacks during the Olympic Games in Sochi. The Lebanese Al Motitor quoted him saying that the Chechen groups that threaten the Olympics are controlled by them, and they would not be sent to Syria without coordination with them. In response, Putin has allegedly threatened a retaliatory strike at the territory of the kingdom.

In any event, Bandar has left with nothing. This became clear after Russia's breakthrough success on Syria, when the contract was made about the destruction of the Syrian chemical arsenal in exchange for the West abandoning the idea of a military invasion and the overthrow of President Assad.

This success was "aided" by President Barack Obama with his love to dotting all sorts of "red lines" and ambitions of a "great politician." However, we should thank him for dotting a "red line" for Russia, whose leadership became keenly aware that if Syria was handed over, Iran would be the next one in line, followed by Russia. Syrian agreements stopped the triumphant march of the Islamists in the Middle East.

In addition, it was a blow to the trans-national government sponsored by the Jewish lobby that, fortunately, has chosen the wrong politician for the world domination represented by the U.S. president. Obama has let them down at the last minute, and did not have enough courage to order the beginning of the intervention.

The Jerusalem Post wrote that Russia was behind the deal with regard to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The newspaper wrote that the U.S. and the West have allowed themselves to be tempted by the Russian proposals, which resulted in Iran likely having enough nuclear capacity at the right time to make a leap for nuclear weapons. The paper is referring to a possible signing of an agreement in the near future with Iran to lift the sanctions in exchange for a temporary (!) suspension of uranium enrichment experiments.

This is an assessment by Israel, but even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu understands that the U.S. is unable to resolve the issue in his favor, neither in this nor in the Palestinian conflict. Who can help? Moscow is successfully working in this direction.

In February, Gazprom has won a key deal on the Israeli market of liquefied natural gas. Observers believe that the 20-year contract is only the first step in Russia's new energy game in the Middle East, wrote The Jerusalem Post. In addition, Netanyahu will arrive in Moscow on November 20 for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

It appears that he wants to follow the path of Al- Maliki, Bandar, and leaders of other countries in the Persian Gulf who take turns coming to Putin for a visit in search of closer diplomatic and military ties. For years, Russia has not played any role in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. Perhaps, Russia should start here as well, and the Russian diplomacy will manage to do it.

Egypt is also not that far away from the shift towards Russia. Last month, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama angered the Egyptian military by its decision to reduce the amount of aid and supply of American arms to this country.

During the upcoming visit of President Putin to Egypt, for the first time since 1970s, Russia will be able to strengthen its position in Egypt lost when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat banished the Soviet military advisers and stopped buying weapons from the Soviet Union.

The balance of power in the Middle East is changing. The western media is explaining it not by Russia's power, but the U.S. weakness. It seems that the strength of the U.S. is in its military power, while the strength of Russia is in its peacemaking potential. The Arabs are tired of fighting.

Russian is able to help in the financial aspect as well, and energy agreements with Israel are the best evidence of that. Middle East wants to cooperate with Russia, but is this what Russia wants? Yes, because calm in the Middle East means calm in the Caucasus.

However, Russia must be careful and not repeat the mistakes of the Soviet Union that mindlessly helped everyone in the hope to outdo the Americans. It is important to obtain benefits, especially economic ones.

Scenario of inequality

by Marcus Eduardo de Oliveira

 

The scenario of socioeconomic inequality worldwide, reaffirmed in various reports issued by international organizations like the UN, FAO, ILO, World Bank and others, is most unfortunate: one in three people do not have access to electricity , one in five does not have access to drinking water, one in six is illiterate. One in seven adults and one child in three suffers from malnutrition.

Every five seconds a child dies of hunger in the world, one person in every seven suffers from chronic hunger. Nineteen children under five years old die every five minute victims of pneumonia; 500,000 mothers every year die in childbirth due to inadequate medical care; 5 million children every year do not complete five years of age, do not enjoy five years of life.

Just over 300 million people worldwide have a life expectancy of less than 60 years, partly due to poor diets and on behalf of pathologies resulting from this lack.

Thirty- five percent of the world population does not have enough energy and protein in the diet. Worldwide, there are two billion people who are anemic, including 5.5 million who inhabit the countries of advanced capitalism.

As a result of chronic malnutrition, about 500 million children located in Latin America, Asia and Africa are at risk of permanent sequels in their bodies over the next 15 years.

 

It is never too late to remember that we inhabit a world where the daily cost to feed a child with all the vitamins and nutrients needed only costs 25 US cents.

According to NGOs (Save the Children), the death of 2 million children a year could be prevented if malnutrition were approached correctly.

        

However, there exists pervasive exclusion, segregation, separation among peers, making inequality an incurable wound. 20 % of the world population - or one in five people - is excluded from participation in the consumption of food and other goods.

According to the Human Development Report (RDH-2013), the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP), about 1.57 billion people (30 % of the population of 104 countries surveyed in the report cited) are in a situation of multidimensional poverty (it is said to possess multidimensional multiple definitions and ways of measuring it). Brazilians who suffer from multidimensional poverty are 2.7 % of the population.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that 48 % of the 12.5 million children located in Latin America engaged in agriculture or family subsistence.

The Report issued by the International Labour Organization (ILO) , attests that the number of poor people increased between 2010 and 2011 in 14 of the 26 developed economies analyzed, including the United States, France, Spain and Denmark.

Also according to the ILO, there are more than 200 million unemployed persons around the world. The expectation is that by the end of 2015, this number will reach 208 million.

From the data in the report "Credit Suisse Wealth Report 2013", 0.7 % of the world population concentrates 41 % of global wealth, while 50 % of adults worldwide have 1 % of the wealth. The global wealth reached this year a record U.S. $ 241 trillion.

On one hand the exuberance of billionaires and on the other, the drama of the hungry. Just the United States focuses 37 of the top 100 billionaires in the world. In Russia there are another 11. In Germany there are six, while India and France has five, four respectively.

The joint fortune of the three greatest billionaires of the planet (Bill Gates, Carlos Slim and Amancio Ortega) reaches at 200.3 billion dollars.

While the wealth of the privileged is growing, the World Bank study elaborates by pointing out that to eliminate extreme poverty would require U.S. $169 billion per year (0.25 % of world GDP) or nine times less than is spent on military expenses in the world, whose frightening figure comes to $1.6 trillion.

It appears that expenses on military equipment are the priority. And thus walks Humankind. What a sad world this is!

 

Marcus Eduardo de Oliveira is an economist, professor and specialist in International Politics.

" Begining Of The End " - Experts praise new Vatican laws, but ask for inspection of Vatican bank

By Cindy Wooden

European experts on preventing financial crimes praised a series of new Vatican laws and procedures but urged the Vatican to move immediately to conduct onsite inspections of the Vatican bank and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See.

"Moneyval" -- the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism -- said, "wide-ranging legislative and institutional measures were instituted to rectify deficiencies" in Vatican law and structures and showed "significant efforts" to implement recommendations Moneyval made in July 2012.

The committee said it was encouraged that the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican bank, had completed a preliminary survey of its account holders, was in the midst of a more thorough review of them, had redefined the categories of customers eligible to hold an account at the Vatican, and had closed some accounts.

However, Moneyval also recommended the Vatican oversight agency, known as the Financial Intelligence Authority, conduct "a full inspection of the IOR (the Italian acronym for the Vatican bank) without any further delay."

Moneyval approved the Holy See-Vatican progress report at a meeting Dec. 9 in Strasbourg, France, and published the full report on its website Dec. 12.

In its report, the Vatican said that at the end of November, the Financial Intelligence Authority was at an advanced stage in planning its onsite inspection of the bank and expected to begin in January 2014 at the latest.

Moneyval also encouraged an inspection of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, commonly referred by its Italian acronym APSA, but the Vatican said the inspection would take place "at a later stage."

APSA handles the Vatican's investment portfolio and its real estate holdings, and also serves as the Vatican employment office and procurement agency. The office originally was set up to manage the assets received as a settlement from the Italian government in 1929 with the signing of the Lateran Pacts.

In its 2012 report to Moneyval, the Vatican estimated APSA's assets to be worth about 680 million euros. The assets included the accounts of 23 individuals -- cardinals and bishops who deposited charitable contributions made in their name to the Vatican or their home dioceses and a handful of laypeople who made large donations to the Vatican and were receiving annuities. The Vatican stopped accepting such arrangements in 2001 and has since been taking steps to close the existing accounts.

Moneyval praised changes in Vatican laws dealing with finance, financial crimes, money laundering and terrorism financing and changes to the role, authority and responsibilities of the Vatican's Financial Intelligence Authority. But is also noted that the Vatican said major changes to the Vatican bank and APSA would have to await the conclusion of work by commissions appointed by Pope Francis to study the two entities.

A key focus of Moneyval has been encouraging the Vatican to strengthen the ability of its Financial Intelligence Authority to set policy to prevent financial crimes, to freeze assets when suspicious activities occur and to audit financial transactions throughout Vatican City.

The Vatican report indicated that Vatican employees have begun to use the new procedures initiated by the authority and to report potentially problematic transactions. In 2012 the authority said it received six "suspicious transaction reports," while in the first 10 months of 2013, it had received 105 reports. The Vatican attributed the huge jump to a combination of the initial review of all Vatican bank accounts and "increased transaction monitoring."

Moneyval had urged the Vatican to implement procedures for seizing or freezing assets when alarms are raised by suspicious transactions. In 2013, the report said, the Vatican seized 1.98 million euro "in a money laundering investigation" involving Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, an accountant at APSA arrested by Italian authorities on charges of fraud, corruption and slander. He also is under investigation in an Italian money laundering case.

Moneyval's approval of the Vatican progress report Dec. 9 "confirms the significant efforts undertaken by the Holy See and Vatican City State to strengthen its legal and institutional framework," said Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, undersecretary for relations with states and head of the Vatican's delegation to Moneyval.

"The Holy See is fully committed to continuing to improve further the effective implementation of all necessary measures to build a well-functioning and sustainable system aimed at preventing and fighting financial crimes," Msgr. Camilleri said in a statement released by the Vatican press office.

Rene Brulhart, director of the Financial Intelligence Authority, told Vatican Radio Dec. 12 that the changes enacted at the Vatican and the verification by Moneyval demonstrate the church's commitment to "applying the measures necessary to present ourselves as a credible partner" in the global fight against financial crime, particularly "the struggle against laundering dirty money and financing terrorism."

" Begining Of The End " - European body accepts Vatican report on fighting financial crime

By Cindy Wooden

A European body that investigates government efforts to combat financial crimes has confirmed the Vatican has made significant progress in reducing the risk that its institutions could be used for money laundering and financing terrorism.

"Moneyval" -- the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism -- approved by the Vatican progress report at a meeting Dec. 9 in Strasbourg, France.

The committee plans to publish the full report on its website Dec. 12.

"The adoption of the progress report confirms the significant efforts undertaken by Vatican City State to strengthen its legal and institutional framework," said Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, undersecretary for relations with states and head of the Vatican's delegation to Moneyval.

"The Holy See is fully committed to continuing to improve further the effective implementation of all necessary measures to build a well-functioning and sustainable system aimed at preventing and fighting financial crimes," Msgr. Camilleri said in a statement released by the Vatican press office.

The December review is a follow-up to Moneyval's July 2012 evaluation; in a 240-page report, Moneyval acknowledged Vatican efforts to comply with international standards but expressed concerns about the Vatican's internal inspection and supervisory powers and procedures.

Since mid-2012, the Vatican City governor's office and Pope Francis have issued new norms, laws and procedures for dealing with financial matters and for strengthening the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority set up by retired Pope Benedict XVI.

In its Dec. 9 statement, the Vatican said it has signed international cooperation agreements with Belgium, Spain, the United States, Italy, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Germany to facilitate the investigation of suspicious financial transactions.

Moneyval also took note of the Vatican's "preliminary review of the customer database" of the Institute for the Works of Religion, more commonly known as the Vatican bank, where an "in-depth audit of customer records" is ongoing, the Vatican said.

Rene Brulhart, director of the Financial Intelligence Authority, told Vatican Radio that Moneyval's adoption of the report "confirms that the Holy See is on the right track," although "there's always room for improvement."

" Begining Of The End " - Pope, with Egyptian Catholic leader, prays for Middle East Christians

By Francis X. Rocca

Concelebrating Mass with the leader of Egypt's Coptic Catholics, Pope Francis prayed for the safety and religious liberty of Christians in the Middle East.

"Let real guarantees of religious liberty be given to all, together with the rights of Christians to live peacefully in the places where they were born, in the native country they love as citizens of more than 2,000 years, in order that they might contribute as always to the good of all," the pope said Dec. 9 during morning Mass in the Vatican guesthouse, where he lives.

Pope Francis concelebrated the Mass with Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak of Alexandria, Egypt, who had come to make his traditional gesture of "ecclesiastical communion" with the Holy See, following his appointment in January by Pope Benedict XVI.

The patriarch told Pope Francis that the Coptic Catholic Church, "in this delicate historical moment, needs the support of your paternal embrace," and prayed that the "light of the holy Nativity might be the star that reveals the path of love, of unity, of reconciliation, and of peace, gifts of which my land has such great need."

As many as 300,000 Christians have left Egypt for other countries since 2011, when a popular revolution ended the nearly 30-year secular rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

Following the military overthrow of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013, violence has surged, most of it targeting Egyptian government facilities but also the country's Christians. In August, more than 70 churches around the country were burned, ransacked and looted. Government officials and the country's Christian leaders have blamed the violence on the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi's Islamist supporters.

Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 85 million, which is 90 percent Muslim. Catholics in Egypt, who are in full communion with Rome, number about 165,000.

In his homily, Pope Francis also played for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and throughout the Middle East.

"Let us pray with confidence that in the Holy Land and all the Middle East peace might be able to rise from the often recurring and sometimes dramatic breaks" in the peace process, he said. "Let hatred and divisions be ended forever! Let the peace agreements, often paralyzed by conflicting and obscure interests, be quickly resumed."

A New World Ordered!

by Jagdish Keshav

 

At this point of history, we are witnessing a high drama, a drama which has reached the nadir of morality, ethics, humanity and decency where a Secretary General of a world body was seen lauding an illegally appointed leader of a sovereign country, a once thriving country that stands almost destroyed by manipulations of International Laws that originated from his offices.

 

One may call it the New World Order in the making or in the process of being generated, to show the world who still is the boss, a boss figure of mostly the Anglo-Saxon race that ruled much of the globe for centuries as colonial powers.

 

Absolute power has indeed corrupted these moronic brains for centuries, for they believed that the sun would never set on their empires. But alas they haven't been proven wrong by their catalytic forces that altered the maps of the world certainly not for the better or for the world, depending on where the people live.

 

The re-drawing of maps is still on as we see. There was a period in the 1940's where the entire Middle East was mapped and drawn as per the wishes of the then colonial masters the Brits, the French and the Italians. One point of interest here would be the Iraq-Kuwait war that happened under late Saddam who stated the reason for the assault on Kuwait was to reclaim the oil wells that were wrongly handed over to Kuwaitis by the Brits during the marking of boundaries of the two nations.

 

The vast oil fields according to historical records proved Saddam was right in regards to these oil wells. But the rest is history as we stand now. This example is to illustrate the fact that the redrawing of maps of countries as per the whims and wishes of the imperial powers is absolutely wrong and has gone unchecked for the past 4 or 5 centuries.

 

The NWO or the New World Order has been in force since the days of colonialism and it is nothing new. The term is gaining more prominence thanks to media and speculation in the minds of the followers of international politics. The ex-colonialists have already charted out a course of a large pie as its main meal.

        

The question is how they will fragment this pie to suit their palates and test their taste buds. Who gets what, how big or small, whether the pie should be thin crusted or stuffed, should have some topping or not are the main geopolitical discussions held between the Illuminati, the Plutocrats, the Oligarchs, the Bilderberg Group and the rest of the families whose members may include the Rockefellers, the Bushes, the Rothschilds, the Saudi Monarchy etc. The last one named is the exception to the rule of overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon figures that squat around to decide the fates of the world we live in.

 

Alfred E Neuman wasn't allowed in since he was considered to be an excuse for a man! But seriously this group has taken over the reigns of the power though very much in secrecy and shrouded in mystery since their actions belie their agenda.

 

The agenda simply put and much professed in the media that is in their grips and grasp, the media that has outgrown Goebbels, the media now Mogulled by Rupert Murdoch's empire of liars and twisters of facts, is complete control of the globe and its resources. Complete control by whom you may not ask, for this dangerous coterie that is invisible to the naked eye or even a spectacled eye is now hell bent on achieving the agenda their forefathers tried and accomplished by colonizing the globe.

 

How they colonised the globe was easy as we know, take long voyages around the many seas, visit very rich and exotic lands, call them jewels of the crown at a later stage, but step into the sands of these new found lands in the guise of a tradesman carrying new ideas and commodities and then begin the whoring later.

 

Well now things are more sophisticated with news blitzing and the brainwashing powers of the electronic media. What goes on behind the screen stays there, if this deadly group of controllers as I would like to call them from now on succeed in their common agenda of taking over of the world, or at least most of it.

 

We are headed towards a new cycle of colonialism that will be more brutal than the ones before. Forget the Crusades and the destruction of Mayan and Incan civilizations! With the powerful globalized medium at their disposal, an entire plethora of cultures may vanish. For the ruler will speak in one language and expect their subjects to do the same.

 

No No it is not all over yet. This coterie may be all powerful. They may be spreading their tentacles in the guises of democracy or human rights or protecting civilians from a so-called barbarian, to assault, destroy and occupy a sovereign country sanctioned by the insipid UN which is a tool for these imperials and neo-colonialists, but there are other blocks of nations watching these goings on who have been victims of colonialism, brutal imperial occupations and brutal fascism on their soil.

 

If if only these past victims of the aforesaid incidents get together in a very tangible, practical manner and stand as a bulwark against any future aggression by these nasty powers, occupiers and pillagers of wealth, then the NWO can be shredded to pieces to thrown into thin air. This my friends can very well happen if the BRICS countries composed of nations from South and Central America such as Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua etc. can join hands with other BRICS nations and add some African nations to join the team, believe me the Illuminatis, the Plutocrats, the Oligarchs, the Bilderberg Group and their kith and kin will have to eat mud in their precious backyards or what is left of it!

 

So folks do not be afraid of the NWO that these scums of imperial powers are trying to enforce. Partly they have succeeded in Libya, but again it ain't over till it's over there too! Unified, the rest of the world stands, these evil forces comprising of ex-colonial and the new-colonial powers who are already bankrupt financially will bite the dust of history.

 

For this as I said before, the BRICS and others must play a vital part of unification in their stand, in their economic cooperation and their armed forces standing by to protect each other. Then gone will be thuggery by the so-called sole super-power and its cohorts in rape and plunder of independent lands.

　

 

The Illuminati of the Vatican

The majority of the highest classes of that age, even the popes and the ecclesiastics, really believed in nothing at all.

         Tolstoy

We have been used to consider the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church as impotent witnesses or victims of progress, modernity and various conspirators. 

Dan Brown with his grotesque intrigues has helped a lot in this configuration of theories and plots that induced a subtle victimization of the Church. 

Yet some writers of considerable profile do not share this view.

 

Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy illustrate a radically opposite point of view: Rome and the Vatican are lairs of modern subversion; of modern paganism, during the Renaissance; and even of socialism, as a reaction to the clergy excesses which revolted too in this time Martin Luther.

 

In his beautiful essay 'what is Art', Tolstoy insists on the role of the Catholic Church in the making of modern subversion. 

That author of War and peace considers that the Borgia, the popes of the Renaissance and a very secular clergy had lost the faith and conducted a policy of paganism that paved the way of spiritual decadence in the West. 

This is anyway what Nietzsche thought on the matter (of course the atheist and 'superman' philosopher was an admirer of the pagan papacy of the Renaissance that had destroyed Christianity!)

 

Men of these rich, governing classes popes, kings, dukes, and all the great ones of the earth were left without any religion, with but the external forms of one, which they supported as being profitable and even necessary for themselves, since these forms screened a teaching which justified those privileges which they made use of.

        

Tolstoy doesn't even allude to the scandalous behavior of the clerks in the so troubled times that caused so many misery and disturbance in Europe. 

Think of the pagan and sexy motives of the Chapel Sistine that seemed comics since their restoration. 

Tolstoy adds on this matter:

 

It was so at the time of the Renaissance and after it, when the chief subject of works of art was the laudation of the strong popes, kings, and dukes... Next, the element of sexual desire began more and more to enter into art, and (with very few exceptions, and in novels and dramas almost without exception) it has now become an essential feature of every art product of the rich classes.

 

The example of the art is excellent to understand that point: 

("since the Renaissance the West abandons the perennial of "TRUE CHRISTIANITY" and succumbed to fashions, to camarillas and to cabals.") 

The main factor of the culture is pleasure, a pleasure linked to power and sex-appeal, not the medieval teachings of the Church.

 

But the Roman Catholic Church is not spared either by Dostoyevsky, who insists on social and politic domains. 

Her responsibilities are often evoked by the great novelist in his works, like the famous tirade of the great inquisitor in the Brothers Karamazov. 

Here the target is not only the baroque church but modernity (which is the same) that produces comfort and therefore annihilates SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 

The man becomes a pawn in the global chessboard of progress; the nations are dissolved into a flock of consuming ants.

 

To quote, prince Muishkin, here he speaks freely and violently, shocking his comprehensive entourage. 

He preaches a message :

 

Roman Catholicism is, so to speak, simply the same thing as un-Christianity,' he added with flashing eyes, which seemed to take in everybody in the room. 'It is not a Christian religion, in the first place,' said the latter, in extreme agitation, quite out of proportion to the necessity of the moment. 'And in the second place, Roman Catholicism is, in my opinion, worse than Atheism itself. Yes- that is my opinion. Atheism only preaches a negation, but Romanism goes further; it preaches a disfigured, distorted Christ-it preaches Antichrist-I assure you, I swear it!

 

Then the prince Muishkin gives his reasons. Of course he exaggerates; of course he is caricatured, somewhat ridiculed, like all the heralds of Dostoyevsky's novels:

 

This is my own personal conviction, and it has long distressed me. The Roman Catholic believes that the Church on earth cannot stand without universal temporal Power.  In my opinion the Roman Catholic religion is not a faith at all, but simply a continuation of the Roman Empire and everything is subordinated to this idea- beginning with faith. The Pope has seized territories and an earthly throne, and has held them with the sword. And so the thing has gone on, only that to the sword they have added lying, intrigue, deceit, fanaticism, superstition, swindling.

 

The harvest of such misconduct was near: republicanism, socialism and atheism that appeared mainly in France and Italy. 

Remember the role of France in the production of modern atheism and the importance of communist parties in all the catholic countries during modern era. Muishkin gives us here a key:

 

How could the upshot of all this be other than Atheism? Atheism is the child of Roman Catholicism-it proceeded from these Romans themselves, though perhaps they would not believe it. It grew and fattened on hatred of its parents; it is the progeny of their lies and spiritual feebleness. Atheism! In our country it is only among the upper classes that you find unbelievers; men who have lost the root or spirit of their faith; but abroad whole masses of the people are beginning to profess unbelief-at first because of the darkness and lies by which they were surrounded; but now out of fanaticism, out of loathing for the Church and Christianity!... Socialism is the progeny of Romanism and of the Romanist spirit. 

 

As if he were intuiting the future role of revolutionary and nihilistic troops in Russia, Muishkin preaches for a Russian national reaction:

 

And we must not suppose that all this is harmless and without danger to ourselves. Oh, no; we must resist, and quickly, quickly! We must let out Christ shine forth upon the Western nations, our Christ whom we have preserved intact, and whom they have never known.

 

I was just wishing to underline another vision of western history and another role of papacy in constructing the modern world: think of the calendar, including of Jesuitical science. 

The fabrication of a central papal figure in the middle ages is certainly one of the main facts in western history. 

The great Belgian sociologist Jean-Claude Paye recently wrote that "the war for democracy is the post-modern version of the Christian holy war conducted against the Saracens, holy war that was sacred because it was preached by the pope, the infallible agent of God on earth".

MERS-CoV: Three more cases

by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

 

160 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus), 68 deaths, apart from the other cases (and deaths) which have not been confirmed by laboratories. Once again the epicenter is Saudi Arabia and once again the World Health Organization suggests "vigilance" (stand back and watch it spread).

 

Stand back and watch it spread, stand back and wait until it is a pandemic and then the pharmaceutical lobbies pulling the strings can swing into action, rub their hands in glee and sell what they describe as "products". That appears to be the policy of the World Health Organization which to date has not said anything about stopping pilgrims travelling to Mecca.

 

The latest victims yet again all have links to Saudi Arabia: three laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported by the WHO, namely a woman with 73 years of age, who fell ill on November 12, was hospitalized on November 14 and died on November 18; a sixty-five-year-old man who became ill on November 4 and was hospitalized on November 14 and the third, a man (37) who became ill on November 9, was hospitalized on November 13 and died on November 18.

 

"None of the three patients had exposure to animals or contact to a previously laboratory-confirmed case with MERS-CoV", claims the World Health Organization. Conclusion: the transmission mechanism of the virus is still unknown, a virus with a mortality rate of 42.6%. On November 4, another bulletin referred that a 56-year-old woman who became ill on October 26 and died on October 30, "had no contact with animals, but had contact with a previously laboratory confirmed case".

 

In August a man, 38, from Hafar-al-Batin, Saudi Arabia, died nine days after contracting the disease, while "Two of his family members are also infected (a 16-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl)".

 

If these cases do not confirm human-to-human transmission, as I have been arguing in this column since the beginning of the outbreak, then it is hard to see what does.

        

The new virus appeared in 2012 and its incidence has been focused principally around the Gulf States or people visiting these countries. Despite the mortality rate of nearly 50 per cent, what does the WHO recommend? It encourages member states to continue surveillance (i.e. sit back and watch), test recent travelers who develop SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infections) for MERS-CoV (while allowing them to make the Hajj instead of prohibiting it).

 

The WHO, in stating "Health care facilities that provide care for patients suspected or confirmed with MERS-CoV infection should take appropriate measures to decrease the risk of transmission of the virus to other patients, health care workers and visitors" is admitting that human to human transmission exists.

 

However, the cherry on the cake: "WHO does not advise special screening at points of entry with regard to this event nor does it currently recommend the application of any travel or trade restrictions". Yet the issue is serious enough for an Emergency Committee to have been set up.

 

What the World should be, China believes

According to Chinese publications, the budget crisis in the United States is a good opportunity for other countries to reject the U.S. supremacy and launch the global "de-Americanization."

 

One needs to build a world order, in which key interests of all countries, regardless of their size or influence would be respected and protected equally, Xinhua reports.

 

According to Xinhua, one needs to start building a better, de-Americanized society, right now, when American liberals and conservatives are mopping up the consequences of the fiscal crisis.

On the possible default of the U.S., Xinhua noted that inter-party feuds in the United States put dollar assets of other states at risk.

 

To crown it all, the publication stated the need to adopt a new international reserve currency to replace the U.S. dollar.