The following report is a news release from Noua Dreapta, a nationalist minded organisation in Rumania. Readers excuse the slightly imperfect English, but the message is clear, Rumania is paying now too-for the benefits ( sic ) of globalisation.
On Saturday, the 16th of March 2013, a march took place in Timisoara, western Romania, organized by the local branch of Noua Dreapta ( http://www.nouadreapta.org/ ) and directed against the "IMF Government", the World Bank and the hegemony of the bureaucrats in Brussels over the national states.
About 150 young people from several cities joined in the capital of Banat region and marched at noon on the streets of the city with nationalist and national flags. The young Romanians were joined by a delegation from partner organization Serbian Action, from the neighbouring country of Serbia.
The action began at 14:00 ( 2 clock ) in front of the consulate of the Republic of Moldavia and ended in front of the statue of Mihai Eminescu ( famous poet and nationalist militant ) in city centre. Amongst the favourite chanting of the participants: 'Out, out with the World Bank', We want nationalism, not global-capitalism', 'Down with the IMF Government', 'PDL and USL take turns at stealing', 'We do not want to be a nation of slaves', Noua Dreapta, national pride.
Similarly, banners were displayed containing the following texts: 'MF agreement: crime against the nation', We do not want to be IMF Guinea pigs' 'Stop IMF dictatorship'. In addition, capital punishment instatement for stealing the national wealth was requested by demonstrators at the rally.
"This country does not belong to us anymore, but to the IMF. This is what became clear following all major decision taken during the last period, regardless of the decision being made by either PDL or USL. All of them are responsible to the IMF. The political class represents external interests; they were never interested in the people. We want a political class conscious of the welfare of its people.
Many things are imposed on us by the European Union. You cannot leave the EU, but at least we want a decent treatment", declared Mr. Bogdan Popa, leader of Noua Dreapta in Timisora.
In addition, Catalin Duta, one of the organizers of the demonstration said: "Who are, in fact, the leaders of our country ? They are plagiarists, interlopers, adventurers, manipulators. Romania became a pack lead by hyenas. The IMF is a torture instrument used to ruin a country. Each country that took money from IMF was eventually ruined."
Australia First Party comments, "all lands under the press of globalisation seem to go forwards-only towards ruin."
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Australians In Afghanistan Subservient To CIA Motives
http://australiafirstparty.net
The US CIA arm twisted NATO to invade Afghanistan more than eleven years ago, politically justified because Afghanistan was defined by US Republicans as a state sponsor of terrorism. Bush justified nuclear war after the 9/11 attacks.
Idiots! Osama Bin Laden was always in Pakistan.
The legal argument used by Washington and NATO to invade and occupy Afghanistan under “the doctrine of collective security” was that the September 11 2001 attacks constituted an undeclared “armed attack” “from abroad” by an unnamed foreign power.
The 2001 bombing and invasion of Afghanistan has been presented to World public opinion as a “Just War”, a war directed against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a war to eliminate “Islamic terrorism” and instate Western style democracy.
The economic dimensions of the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT) are rarely mentioned. The post 9/11 “counter-terrorism campaign” has served to obfuscate the real objectives of the US-NATO war.
The war on Afghanistan is part of a profit driven agenda: a war of economic conquest and plunder, “a resource war”.
While Afghanistan is acknowledged as a strategic hub in Central Asia, bordering on the former Soviet Union, China and Iran, at the crossroads of pipeline routes and major oil and gas reserves, its huge mineral wealth as well as its untapped natural gas reserves have remained, until June 2010, totally unknown to the American public.
According to a joint report by the Pentagon, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and USAID, Afghanistan is now said to possess “previously unknown” and untapped mineral reserves, estimated authoritatively to be of the order of one trillion dollars (New York Times, U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, See also BBC, 14 June 2010).
“The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.
The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.
While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.
“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said… “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”
Petraeus knew too much
So the CIA compromised him
The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.
“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines. (New York Times, op. cit.)
Afghanistan could become, according to The New York Times “the Saudi Arabia of lithium”. “Lithium is an increasingly vital resource, used in batteries for everything from mobile phones to laptops and key to the future of the electric car.” At present Chile, Australia, China and Argentina are the main suppliers of lithium to the world market. Bolivia and Chile are the countries with the largest known reserves of lithium. “The Pentagon has been conducting ground surveys in western Afghanistan. “Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large as those of Bolivia” (U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, see also Lithium – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
The Pentagon’s near one trillion dollar “estimate” of previously “unknown deposits” is a useful smokescreen. The Pentagon one trillion dollar figure is more a trumped up number rather than an estimate: “We took a look at what we knew to be there, and asked what would it be worth now in terms of today’s dollars. The trillion dollar figure seemed to be newsworthy.” (The Sunday Times, London, June 15 2010, emphasis added)
Moreover, the results of a US Geological Survey study (quoted in the Pentagon memo) on Afghanistan’s mineral wealth were revealed three years back, at a 2007 Conference organized by the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce. The matter of Afghanistan’s mineral riches, however, was not considered newsworthy at the time.
The US Administration’s acknowledgment that it first took cognizance of Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth following the release of the USGS 2007 report is an obvious red herring. Afghanistan’s mineral wealth and energy resources (including natural gas) were known to both America’s business elites and the US government prior to the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1988).
Geological surveys conducted by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and early 1980s confirm the existence of vast reserves of copper (among the largest in Eurasia), iron, high grade chrome ore, uranium, beryl, barite, lead, zinc, fluorspar, bauxite, lithium, tantalum, emeralds, gold and silver.(Afghanistan, Mining Annual Review, The Mining Journal, June, 1984). These surveys suggest that the actual value of these reserves could indeed be substantially larger than the one trillion dollars “estimate” intimated by the Pentagon-USCG-USAID study.
More recently, in a 2002 report, the Kremlin confirmed what was already known: “It’s no secret that Afghanistan possesses rich reserves, in particular of copper at the Aynak deposit, iron ore in Khojagek, uranium, polymetalic ore, oil and gas,” (RIA Novosti, January 6, 2002):
“Afghanistan has never been anyone’s colony – no foreigner had ever “dug” here before the 1950s. The Hindu Kush mountains, stretching, together with their foothills, over a vast area in Afghanistan, are where the minerals lie. Over the past 40 years, several dozen deposits have been discovered in Afghanistan, and most of these discoveries were sensational. They were kept secret, however, but even so certain facts have recently become known.
It turns out that Afghanistan possesses reserves of nonferrous and ferrous metals and precious stones, and, if exploited, they would possibly be able to cover even the earnings from the drug industry. The copper deposit in Aynak in the southern Afghan Helmand Province is said to be the largest in the Eurasian continent, and its location (40 km from Kabul) makes it cheap to develop. The iron ore deposit at Hajigak in the central Bamian Province yields ore of an extraordinarily high quality, the reserves of which are estimated to be 500m tonnes. A coal deposit has also been discovered not far from there.
Afghanistan is spoken of as a transit country for oil and gas. However, only a very few people know that Soviet specialists discovered huge gas reserves there in the 1960s and built the first gas pipeline in the country to supply gas to Uzbekistan. At that time, the Soviet Union used to receive 2.5 bn cubic metres of Afghan gas annually. During the same period, large deposits of gold, fluorite, barytes and marble onyxes that have a very rare pattern were found.
However, the pegmatite fields discovered to the east of Kabul are a real sensation. Rubies, beryllium, emeralds and kunzites and hiddenites that cannot be found anywhere else – the deposits of these precious stones stretch for hundreds of kilometres. Also, the rocks containing the rare metals beryllium, thorium, lithium and tantalum are of strategic importance (they are used in air and spacecraft construction).
The war is worth waging. … (Olga Borisova, “Afghanistan – the Emerald Country”, Karavan, Almaty, original Russian, translated by BBC News Services, Apr 26, 2002. p. 10, emphasis added.)
While public opinion was fed images of a war torn resourceless developing country, the realities are otherwise: Afghanstan is a rich country as confirmed by Soviet era geological surveys.
The issue of “previously unknown deposits” sustains a falsehood. It excludes Afghanstan’s vast mineral wealth as a justifiable casus belli. It says that the Pentagon only recently became aware that Afghanistan was among the World’s most wealthy mineral economies, comparable to The Democratic Republic of the Congo or former Zaire of the Mobutu era. The Soviet geopolitical reports were known. During the Cold War, all this information was known in minute detail:
… Extensive Soviet exploration produced superb geological maps and reports that listed more than 1,400 mineral outcroppings, along with about 70 commercially viable deposits … The Soviet Union subsequently committed more than $650 million for resource exploration and development in Afghanistan, with proposed projects including an oil refinery capable of producing a half-million tons per annum, as well as a smelting complex for the Ainak deposit that was to have produced 1.5 million tons of copper per year. In the wake of the Soviet withdrawal a subsequent World Bank analysis projected that the Ainak copper production alone could eventually capture as much as 2 percent of the annual world market. The country is also blessed with massive coal deposits, one of which, the Hajigak iron deposit, in the Hindu Kush mountain range west of Kabul, is assessed as one of the largest high-grade deposits in the world. (John C. K. Daly, Analysis: Afghanistan’s untapped energy, UPI Energy, October 24, 2008, emphasis added).
Afghanistan is a land bridge. The 2001 U.S. led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has been analysed by critics of US foreign policy as a means to securing control over the strategic trans-Afghan transport corridor which links the Caspian sea basin to the Arabian sea.
Several trans-Afghan oil and gas pipeline projects have been contemplated including the planned $8.0 billion TAPI pipeline project (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) of 1900 km., which would transport Turkmen natural gas across Afghanistan in what is described as a “crucial transit corridor”. (See Gary Olson, Afghanistan has never been the ‘good and necessary’ war; it’s about control of oil, The Morning Call, October 1, 2009). Military escalation under the extended Af-Pak war bears a relationship to TAPI. Turkmenistan possesses third largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran. Strategic control over the transport routes out of Turkmenistan have been part of Washington’s agenda since the collapse of the Soviet union in 1991.
What was rarely contemplated in pipeline geopolitics, however, is that Afghanistan is not only adjacent to countries which are rich in oil and natural gas (e.g Turkmenistan), it also possesses within its territory sizeable untapped reserves of natural gas, coal and oil. Soviet estimates of the 1970s placed “Afghanistan’s ‘explored’ (proved plus probable) gas reserves at about 5 trillion cubic feet. The Hodja-Gugerdag’s initial reserves were placed at slightly more than 2 tcf.” (See, The Soviet Union to retain influence in Afghanistan, Oil & Gas Journal, May 2, 1988).
The US.Energy Information Administration (EIA) acknowledged in 2008 that Afghanistan’s natural gas reserves are “substantial”:
“As northern Afghanistan is a ‘southward extension of Central Asia’s highly prolific, natural gas-prone Amu Darya Basin,’ Afghanistan ‘has proven, probable and possible natural gas reserves of about 5 trillion cubic feet.’ (UPI, John C.K. Daly, Analysis: Afghanistan’s untapped energy, October 24, 2008)
From the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979, Washington’s objective has been to sustain a geopolitical foothold in Central Asia.
America’s covert war, namely its support to the Mujahideen “Freedom fighters” (aka Al Qaeda) was also geared towards the development of the Golden Crescent trade in opiates, which was used by US intelligence to fund the insurgency directed against the Soviets.1
Instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war and protected by the CIA, the drug trade developed over the years into a highly lucrative multibillion undertaking. It was the cornerstone of America’s covert war in the 1980s. Today, under US-NATO military occupation, the drug trade generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism, Global Research, Montreal, 2005, see also Michel Chossudovsky, Heroin is “Good for Your Health”: Occupation Forces support Afghan Narcotics Trade, Global Research, April 29, 2007).
The US media, in chorus, has upheld the “recent discovery” of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth as “a solution” to the development of the country’s war torn economy as well as a means to eliminating poverty. The 2001 US-NATO invasion and occupation has set the stage for their appropriation by Western mining and energy conglomerates.
The war on Afghanistan is a profit driven “resource war”.
Under US and allied occupation, this mineral wealth is slated to be plundered, once the country has been pacified, by a handful of multinational mining conglomerates. According to Olga Borisova, writing in the months following the October 2001 invasion, the US-led “war on terrorism [will be transformed] into a colonial policy of influencing a fabulously wealthy country.” (Borisova, op cit).
Part of the US-NATO agenda is also to eventually take possession of Afghanistan’s reserves of natural gas, as well as prevent the development of competing Russian, Iranian and Chinese energy interests in Afghanistan.
Since the 2001 invasion, narcotics production in Afghanistan has increased more than 35 times. In 2009, opium production stood at 6900 tons, compared to less than 200 tons in 2001. In this regard, the multibillion dollar earnings resulting from the Afghan opium production largely occur outside Afghanistan. According to United Nations data, the revenues of the drug trade accruing to the local economy are of the order of 2-3 billion annually.
In contrast with the Worldwide sales of heroin resulting from the trade in Afghan opiates, in excess of $200 billion. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism”, Global Research, Montreal, 2005).
http://australiafirstparty.net
The legal argument used by Washington and NATO to invade and occupy Afghanistan under “the doctrine of collective security” was that the September 11 2001 attacks constituted an undeclared “armed attack” “from abroad” by an unnamed foreign power.
The 2001 bombing and invasion of Afghanistan has been presented to World public opinion as a “Just War”, a war directed against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a war to eliminate “Islamic terrorism” and instate Western style democracy.
The economic dimensions of the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT) are rarely mentioned. The post 9/11 “counter-terrorism campaign” has served to obfuscate the real objectives of the US-NATO war.
The war on Afghanistan is part of a profit driven agenda: a war of economic conquest and plunder, “a resource war”.
While Afghanistan is acknowledged as a strategic hub in Central Asia, bordering on the former Soviet Union, China and Iran, at the crossroads of pipeline routes and major oil and gas reserves, its huge mineral wealth as well as its untapped natural gas reserves have remained, until June 2010, totally unknown to the American public.
According to a joint report by the Pentagon, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and USAID, Afghanistan is now said to possess “previously unknown” and untapped mineral reserves, estimated authoritatively to be of the order of one trillion dollars (New York Times, U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, See also BBC, 14 June 2010).
“The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.
The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.
While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.
“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said… “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”
Petraeus knew too much
So the CIA compromised him
The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.
“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines. (New York Times, op. cit.)
Afghanistan could become, according to The New York Times “the Saudi Arabia of lithium”. “Lithium is an increasingly vital resource, used in batteries for everything from mobile phones to laptops and key to the future of the electric car.” At present Chile, Australia, China and Argentina are the main suppliers of lithium to the world market. Bolivia and Chile are the countries with the largest known reserves of lithium. “The Pentagon has been conducting ground surveys in western Afghanistan. “Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large as those of Bolivia” (U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, see also Lithium – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
“Previously Unknown Deposits” of Minerals in Afghanistan
The Pentagon’s near one trillion dollar “estimate” of previously “unknown deposits” is a useful smokescreen. The Pentagon one trillion dollar figure is more a trumped up number rather than an estimate: “We took a look at what we knew to be there, and asked what would it be worth now in terms of today’s dollars. The trillion dollar figure seemed to be newsworthy.” (The Sunday Times, London, June 15 2010, emphasis added)
Moreover, the results of a US Geological Survey study (quoted in the Pentagon memo) on Afghanistan’s mineral wealth were revealed three years back, at a 2007 Conference organized by the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce. The matter of Afghanistan’s mineral riches, however, was not considered newsworthy at the time.
The US Administration’s acknowledgment that it first took cognizance of Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth following the release of the USGS 2007 report is an obvious red herring. Afghanistan’s mineral wealth and energy resources (including natural gas) were known to both America’s business elites and the US government prior to the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1988).
Geological surveys conducted by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and early 1980s confirm the existence of vast reserves of copper (among the largest in Eurasia), iron, high grade chrome ore, uranium, beryl, barite, lead, zinc, fluorspar, bauxite, lithium, tantalum, emeralds, gold and silver.(Afghanistan, Mining Annual Review, The Mining Journal, June, 1984). These surveys suggest that the actual value of these reserves could indeed be substantially larger than the one trillion dollars “estimate” intimated by the Pentagon-USCG-USAID study.
More recently, in a 2002 report, the Kremlin confirmed what was already known: “It’s no secret that Afghanistan possesses rich reserves, in particular of copper at the Aynak deposit, iron ore in Khojagek, uranium, polymetalic ore, oil and gas,” (RIA Novosti, January 6, 2002):
“Afghanistan has never been anyone’s colony – no foreigner had ever “dug” here before the 1950s. The Hindu Kush mountains, stretching, together with their foothills, over a vast area in Afghanistan, are where the minerals lie. Over the past 40 years, several dozen deposits have been discovered in Afghanistan, and most of these discoveries were sensational. They were kept secret, however, but even so certain facts have recently become known.
It turns out that Afghanistan possesses reserves of nonferrous and ferrous metals and precious stones, and, if exploited, they would possibly be able to cover even the earnings from the drug industry. The copper deposit in Aynak in the southern Afghan Helmand Province is said to be the largest in the Eurasian continent, and its location (40 km from Kabul) makes it cheap to develop. The iron ore deposit at Hajigak in the central Bamian Province yields ore of an extraordinarily high quality, the reserves of which are estimated to be 500m tonnes. A coal deposit has also been discovered not far from there.
Afghanistan is spoken of as a transit country for oil and gas. However, only a very few people know that Soviet specialists discovered huge gas reserves there in the 1960s and built the first gas pipeline in the country to supply gas to Uzbekistan. At that time, the Soviet Union used to receive 2.5 bn cubic metres of Afghan gas annually. During the same period, large deposits of gold, fluorite, barytes and marble onyxes that have a very rare pattern were found.
However, the pegmatite fields discovered to the east of Kabul are a real sensation. Rubies, beryllium, emeralds and kunzites and hiddenites that cannot be found anywhere else – the deposits of these precious stones stretch for hundreds of kilometres. Also, the rocks containing the rare metals beryllium, thorium, lithium and tantalum are of strategic importance (they are used in air and spacecraft construction).
The war is worth waging. … (Olga Borisova, “Afghanistan – the Emerald Country”, Karavan, Almaty, original Russian, translated by BBC News Services, Apr 26, 2002. p. 10, emphasis added.)
While public opinion was fed images of a war torn resourceless developing country, the realities are otherwise: Afghanstan is a rich country as confirmed by Soviet era geological surveys.
The issue of “previously unknown deposits” sustains a falsehood. It excludes Afghanstan’s vast mineral wealth as a justifiable casus belli. It says that the Pentagon only recently became aware that Afghanistan was among the World’s most wealthy mineral economies, comparable to The Democratic Republic of the Congo or former Zaire of the Mobutu era. The Soviet geopolitical reports were known. During the Cold War, all this information was known in minute detail:
… Extensive Soviet exploration produced superb geological maps and reports that listed more than 1,400 mineral outcroppings, along with about 70 commercially viable deposits … The Soviet Union subsequently committed more than $650 million for resource exploration and development in Afghanistan, with proposed projects including an oil refinery capable of producing a half-million tons per annum, as well as a smelting complex for the Ainak deposit that was to have produced 1.5 million tons of copper per year. In the wake of the Soviet withdrawal a subsequent World Bank analysis projected that the Ainak copper production alone could eventually capture as much as 2 percent of the annual world market. The country is also blessed with massive coal deposits, one of which, the Hajigak iron deposit, in the Hindu Kush mountain range west of Kabul, is assessed as one of the largest high-grade deposits in the world. (John C. K. Daly, Analysis: Afghanistan’s untapped energy, UPI Energy, October 24, 2008, emphasis added).
Afghanistan’s Natural Gas
Afghanistan is a land bridge. The 2001 U.S. led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has been analysed by critics of US foreign policy as a means to securing control over the strategic trans-Afghan transport corridor which links the Caspian sea basin to the Arabian sea.
Several trans-Afghan oil and gas pipeline projects have been contemplated including the planned $8.0 billion TAPI pipeline project (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) of 1900 km., which would transport Turkmen natural gas across Afghanistan in what is described as a “crucial transit corridor”. (See Gary Olson, Afghanistan has never been the ‘good and necessary’ war; it’s about control of oil, The Morning Call, October 1, 2009). Military escalation under the extended Af-Pak war bears a relationship to TAPI. Turkmenistan possesses third largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran. Strategic control over the transport routes out of Turkmenistan have been part of Washington’s agenda since the collapse of the Soviet union in 1991.
What was rarely contemplated in pipeline geopolitics, however, is that Afghanistan is not only adjacent to countries which are rich in oil and natural gas (e.g Turkmenistan), it also possesses within its territory sizeable untapped reserves of natural gas, coal and oil. Soviet estimates of the 1970s placed “Afghanistan’s ‘explored’ (proved plus probable) gas reserves at about 5 trillion cubic feet. The Hodja-Gugerdag’s initial reserves were placed at slightly more than 2 tcf.” (See, The Soviet Union to retain influence in Afghanistan, Oil & Gas Journal, May 2, 1988).
The US.Energy Information Administration (EIA) acknowledged in 2008 that Afghanistan’s natural gas reserves are “substantial”:
“As northern Afghanistan is a ‘southward extension of Central Asia’s highly prolific, natural gas-prone Amu Darya Basin,’ Afghanistan ‘has proven, probable and possible natural gas reserves of about 5 trillion cubic feet.’ (UPI, John C.K. Daly, Analysis: Afghanistan’s untapped energy, October 24, 2008)
From the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979, Washington’s objective has been to sustain a geopolitical foothold in Central Asia.
The Golden Crescent Drug Trade
America’s covert war, namely its support to the Mujahideen “Freedom fighters” (aka Al Qaeda) was also geared towards the development of the Golden Crescent trade in opiates, which was used by US intelligence to fund the insurgency directed against the Soviets.1
Instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war and protected by the CIA, the drug trade developed over the years into a highly lucrative multibillion undertaking. It was the cornerstone of America’s covert war in the 1980s. Today, under US-NATO military occupation, the drug trade generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism, Global Research, Montreal, 2005, see also Michel Chossudovsky, Heroin is “Good for Your Health”: Occupation Forces support Afghan Narcotics Trade, Global Research, April 29, 2007).
Towards an Economy of Plunder
The US media, in chorus, has upheld the “recent discovery” of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth as “a solution” to the development of the country’s war torn economy as well as a means to eliminating poverty. The 2001 US-NATO invasion and occupation has set the stage for their appropriation by Western mining and energy conglomerates.
The war on Afghanistan is a profit driven “resource war”.
Under US and allied occupation, this mineral wealth is slated to be plundered, once the country has been pacified, by a handful of multinational mining conglomerates. According to Olga Borisova, writing in the months following the October 2001 invasion, the US-led “war on terrorism [will be transformed] into a colonial policy of influencing a fabulously wealthy country.” (Borisova, op cit).
Part of the US-NATO agenda is also to eventually take possession of Afghanistan’s reserves of natural gas, as well as prevent the development of competing Russian, Iranian and Chinese energy interests in Afghanistan.
Note:
1. The Golden Crescent trade in opiates constitutes, at present, the centerpiece of Afghanistan’s export economy. The heroin trade, instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979 and protected by the CIA, generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year.Since the 2001 invasion, narcotics production in Afghanistan has increased more than 35 times. In 2009, opium production stood at 6900 tons, compared to less than 200 tons in 2001. In this regard, the multibillion dollar earnings resulting from the Afghan opium production largely occur outside Afghanistan. According to United Nations data, the revenues of the drug trade accruing to the local economy are of the order of 2-3 billion annually.
In contrast with the Worldwide sales of heroin resulting from the trade in Afghan opiates, in excess of $200 billion. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism”, Global Research, Montreal, 2005).
http://australiafirstparty.net
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
This Issue Has Far Reaching Consequences For The Riverina
Scott Morrison is Minister for the Brisbane Line
PRESS RELEASE: RELEVANT MEDIA
March 20 2013
The Australia First Party has dubbed Scott Morrison the would-be ‘Minister For The Brisbane Line’, after senior Liberals Amanda Vanstone and Arthur Sinodinos came out in favour of armies of visa labour and an open borders immigration system as suitable outcomes for Australian economic and population policy.
Dr. Jim Saleam, candidate for Cook, said:
“Scott Morrison, our Minister for Immigration in waiting, is working overtime to convince Australians and his voters in Cook that he is ‘tough’ on so-called asylum seeking.
As I have already said in this campaign – stopping the boats by flying the planes is the same thing. It is a flim-flam job. In fact, the Liberals plan to create a North Australia ‘Capricornia Zone’ where the borders are open and masses of contract labourers and new migrants and so-called refugees flood the land; it is a new Brisbane Line, a zone established by traitors, where super-profit can be rorted and Australia recolonized and controlled by big corporations and perhaps policed by SERCO. It’s like the wartime Brisbane Line where part of the country was to be ceded to Japanese imperialism and I formally dub Scott Morrison, the ‘Minister For The Brisbane Line’. As Immigration Minister he can run the recolonization programme and supervise the armies of slaves.”
Australia First Party has highlighted two statements from the former Liberal Senator Vanstone and a would-be Liberal Minister Sinodinos as indicative of the Liberal stance, the
related cargo cults of immigration and endless economic expansion:
Mrs. Vanstone said: “”Gillard made her 457 statement because she thought it would help her. She must mistakenly think that most of us hate foreigners. A migrant herself, she should understand the nation was built by migrants. We can’t prosper without them. We are an immigrant nation. It defines us, it is who we are. And yet Gillard encourages us to be sceptical and fearful of those who come in lawfully, and bring their skills ….”
Mr. Sinodinos said: “A frightened country cannot be innovative, outward-looking or resourceful…. Labor’s denunciation of 457 migrants risks further undermining community support for a robust immigration program as part of our national development strategy … The idea that we can protect our way to prosperity or mandate job security has long been consigned to the dustbin of history .. In today’s borderless world, the future belongs to workers and enterprises able to deal with on-going change…”
Dr. Saleam continued:
“Obviously, either Mr. Morrison stands with these good Liberal folks and their plans to explode Australia’s population from Third World sources, or he doesn’t. Given that he must endorse the Liberals’ big Northern Australia scheme, then it follows that mouthing off about being tough on ‘refos’ or whatever, is just so much hot air. And I regret that I won’t be sending him a membership form for Australia First! Essentially, Scott hopes that his voters and the people generally miss the details. This election in Cook is going to be dirty and I want to hurry it there as quickly as possible. The sooner we can brawl over the refugee policy details, the sooner the level playing field exists: the truth against the flim-flam man. I can assure him and his minders that he will not escape the lash of criticism”
Australia First Party activists will be increasing their work in the Cook electorate
over the next month, with door knocking, leafleting and stalls.
Dr. Saleam concluded:
“I do not use a word like traitor lightly. This September election is not just an election but a festival of free expression where Australians can talk openly at the impact on our country of globalization.
The Minister For The Brisbane Line may feel that dividing Australia into a rump-country and a mass mining and agriculture-for-export zone – is clever stuff. I say that treason to the Australian inheritance is just that. The voters of Cook get the chance to see Scott Morrison as he is.”
Further information: (02) 8587 0014 ; 0407 732 868
http://australiafirstparty.net/
AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY CANDIDATE FOR COOK CONDEMNS SCOTT MORRISON”S CON JOB ON REFUGEE POLICY: “SCOTT MORRISON IS MINISTER FOR THE BRISBANE LINE” SAYS JIM SALEAM
The Australia First Party has dubbed Scott Morrison the would-be ‘Minister For The Brisbane Line’, after senior Liberals Amanda Vanstone and Arthur Sinodinos came out in favour of armies of visa labour and an open borders immigration system as suitable outcomes for Australian economic and population policy.
Dr. Jim Saleam, candidate for Cook, said:
“Scott Morrison, our Minister for Immigration in waiting, is working overtime to convince Australians and his voters in Cook that he is ‘tough’ on so-called asylum seeking.
As I have already said in this campaign – stopping the boats by flying the planes is the same thing. It is a flim-flam job. In fact, the Liberals plan to create a North Australia ‘Capricornia Zone’ where the borders are open and masses of contract labourers and new migrants and so-called refugees flood the land; it is a new Brisbane Line, a zone established by traitors, where super-profit can be rorted and Australia recolonized and controlled by big corporations and perhaps policed by SERCO. It’s like the wartime Brisbane Line where part of the country was to be ceded to Japanese imperialism and I formally dub Scott Morrison, the ‘Minister For The Brisbane Line’. As Immigration Minister he can run the recolonization programme and supervise the armies of slaves.”
Australia First Party has highlighted two statements from the former Liberal Senator Vanstone and a would-be Liberal Minister Sinodinos as indicative of the Liberal stance, the
related cargo cults of immigration and endless economic expansion:
Mrs. Vanstone said: “”Gillard made her 457 statement because she thought it would help her. She must mistakenly think that most of us hate foreigners. A migrant herself, she should understand the nation was built by migrants. We can’t prosper without them. We are an immigrant nation. It defines us, it is who we are. And yet Gillard encourages us to be sceptical and fearful of those who come in lawfully, and bring their skills ….”
Mr. Sinodinos said: “A frightened country cannot be innovative, outward-looking or resourceful…. Labor’s denunciation of 457 migrants risks further undermining community support for a robust immigration program as part of our national development strategy … The idea that we can protect our way to prosperity or mandate job security has long been consigned to the dustbin of history .. In today’s borderless world, the future belongs to workers and enterprises able to deal with on-going change…”
Dr. Saleam continued:
“Obviously, either Mr. Morrison stands with these good Liberal folks and their plans to explode Australia’s population from Third World sources, or he doesn’t. Given that he must endorse the Liberals’ big Northern Australia scheme, then it follows that mouthing off about being tough on ‘refos’ or whatever, is just so much hot air. And I regret that I won’t be sending him a membership form for Australia First! Essentially, Scott hopes that his voters and the people generally miss the details. This election in Cook is going to be dirty and I want to hurry it there as quickly as possible. The sooner we can brawl over the refugee policy details, the sooner the level playing field exists: the truth against the flim-flam man. I can assure him and his minders that he will not escape the lash of criticism”
Australia First Party activists will be increasing their work in the Cook electorate
over the next month, with door knocking, leafleting and stalls.
Dr. Saleam concluded:
“I do not use a word like traitor lightly. This September election is not just an election but a festival of free expression where Australians can talk openly at the impact on our country of globalization.
The Minister For The Brisbane Line may feel that dividing Australia into a rump-country and a mass mining and agriculture-for-export zone – is clever stuff. I say that treason to the Australian inheritance is just that. The voters of Cook get the chance to see Scott Morrison as he is.”
Further information: (02) 8587 0014 ; 0407 732 868
http://australiafirstparty.net/
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Chinese Produce Is Responsible For 100's Of Cancer Villages In China
CHINA is supplying an ever increasing quantity of food to Australian consumers, raising concerns about food safety and the capacity of local farmers to compete with cheaper imports.
According to the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service, between January 1 last year and May 31 this year more than 4200 tonnes of prawns were imported from China into Australia.
This was in addition to 153 ton...nes of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, 65 tonnes of fresh apples, 95 tonnes of fresh pears, 325 tonnes of garlic, 72 tonnes of peas and 4292 tonnes of peanuts and peanut butter. Last year, imports of Chinese vegetables rose by 35 per cent from 2007, making it the second-biggest importer, behind New Zealand. As imports have risen, local production has declined.
"Chinese imports are putting the industry in Australia on a very unsound footing and I think Australians should be very concerned about food security," said Tasmanian vegetable grower Mike Badcock, a former chairman of peak body Ausveg.
Mr Badcock said Australian producers faced higher costs due to stricter standards.
"The biggest problem we have got is the government attitude that we have to meet the market, but it is not a fair market and I think the government is playing a very risky game for a short-time cheap product. Once the Chinese have ruined our industries in Australia the prices will go up," he said.
Mr Badcock cited the example of the Australian garlic industry. He said Chinese garlic, a quarter the cost of the local product, had flooded the market. "But once they ruined the producers of garlic in Australia, they put the price back up."
He said 90 per cent of garlic now sold in Australia came from China.
Federal Minister for Agriculture Tony Burke said 98 per cent of the fresh produce in Australia was locally grown. "The question that needs to be asked when deciding whether fresh produce should be allowed to be imported is whether or not there is an unacceptable biosecurity risk. Our systems for assessing that are rigorous and science-based," Mr Burke said.
But opposition spokesman on agriculture John Cobb said: "When we look at the stuff that is coming in and competing in Australia with Australian products, it is staggering."
He argued that when the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme came in, Australian products would become even more expensive.
Australians were alerted to food safety problems in China last year after melamine was found to have been added to baby formula. Six infants died and nearly 300,000 were hospitalised.
In the US, 1950 cats and 2200 dogs died after eating food contaminated with melamine. Melamine-tainted products were also fed to pigs, fish farms and chickens.
A US Department of Agriculture report last month said the most common reasons Chinese products were refused entry to the US were "filth", unsafe additives, inadequate labelling and lack of proper manufacturer registration, and potentially harmful veterinary drug residues in farmed fish and prawns.
Trevor Anderson of the Australian Prawn Farmers Association worries about the risk of diseases such as white spot and yellow head virus that exist in China but not in Australia.
He said a number of antibiotics had been found in Chinese prawns that resulted in bans and restrictions into the US, "who are much more rigorous than we are about these things".
Mr Anderson said Australian farms were run under "rigorous environmental standards".
"Not only are the Environmental Protection Authority watching every step we make, we are watching each other. We have a clean, green image to protect," he said.
The Australian.
According to the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service, between January 1 last year and May 31 this year more than 4200 tonnes of prawns were imported from China into Australia.
This was in addition to 153 ton...nes of frozen broccoli and cauliflower, 65 tonnes of fresh apples, 95 tonnes of fresh pears, 325 tonnes of garlic, 72 tonnes of peas and 4292 tonnes of peanuts and peanut butter. Last year, imports of Chinese vegetables rose by 35 per cent from 2007, making it the second-biggest importer, behind New Zealand. As imports have risen, local production has declined.
"Chinese imports are putting the industry in Australia on a very unsound footing and I think Australians should be very concerned about food security," said Tasmanian vegetable grower Mike Badcock, a former chairman of peak body Ausveg.
Mr Badcock said Australian producers faced higher costs due to stricter standards.
"The biggest problem we have got is the government attitude that we have to meet the market, but it is not a fair market and I think the government is playing a very risky game for a short-time cheap product. Once the Chinese have ruined our industries in Australia the prices will go up," he said.
Mr Badcock cited the example of the Australian garlic industry. He said Chinese garlic, a quarter the cost of the local product, had flooded the market. "But once they ruined the producers of garlic in Australia, they put the price back up."
He said 90 per cent of garlic now sold in Australia came from China.
Federal Minister for Agriculture Tony Burke said 98 per cent of the fresh produce in Australia was locally grown. "The question that needs to be asked when deciding whether fresh produce should be allowed to be imported is whether or not there is an unacceptable biosecurity risk. Our systems for assessing that are rigorous and science-based," Mr Burke said.
But opposition spokesman on agriculture John Cobb said: "When we look at the stuff that is coming in and competing in Australia with Australian products, it is staggering."
He argued that when the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme came in, Australian products would become even more expensive.
Australians were alerted to food safety problems in China last year after melamine was found to have been added to baby formula. Six infants died and nearly 300,000 were hospitalised.
In the US, 1950 cats and 2200 dogs died after eating food contaminated with melamine. Melamine-tainted products were also fed to pigs, fish farms and chickens.
A US Department of Agriculture report last month said the most common reasons Chinese products were refused entry to the US were "filth", unsafe additives, inadequate labelling and lack of proper manufacturer registration, and potentially harmful veterinary drug residues in farmed fish and prawns.
Trevor Anderson of the Australian Prawn Farmers Association worries about the risk of diseases such as white spot and yellow head virus that exist in China but not in Australia.
He said a number of antibiotics had been found in Chinese prawns that resulted in bans and restrictions into the US, "who are much more rigorous than we are about these things".
Mr Anderson said Australian farms were run under "rigorous environmental standards".
"Not only are the Environmental Protection Authority watching every step we make, we are watching each other. We have a clean, green image to protect," he said.
The Australian.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
People’s resistance grows against China’s Trade Centre impost on Wagga
Community resistance to the possible presence of a Chinese Trade Centre in Wagga
Wagga is growing.
Australia First Party has received feedback from locals concerned about the Council’s secrecy over the development application (DA) – and more importantly concerning why a foreign power should be targeting the NSW regional city of Wagga Wagga anyway?
Our people on the ground are making enquiries.
This immigration and trade site does not serve Wagga townsfolk and their struggling local economy. Local business and political interests have commercial-in-confidence links to Wagga’s regional assets and resources and may provide close data for Chinese imperialism.
Such a situation is the very basis for secret commissions, corruption on a grand scale.
Informed locals suspect something sinister.
Chinese traders all on 457 visas flogging cheap Chinese imports .
Wagga Retailers: are your wages more that a couple of dollars a day?
Last weekend, aware and concerned community activists plastered signs about Wagga Wagga critical of the links between local politicians and business and the front-men of the communist superpower.
Their action was reported by Fairfax’s Daily Advertiser, which receives donations
and advertising revenue from the Liberal and Labor parties. Did the Daily Advertiser’s editor run the following headline article after calls to Sydney head office?
http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1357176/maguire-downplays-attacks/?cs=148
Then yesterday, March 12th 2013, Prime TV news in Wagga carried a lead item on the
subject and Australia First Party was interviewed:
http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/n4/video/watch/06954de1-3f62-35a9-801a-7f098d3b0f3c/protest-posters-stir-development-debate/n4_news_video/
Australia First Party will say in its public material that the presence of this Centre would be linked to the future activities of mining companies that will feast on the Riverina once water restrictions (and imported agricultural products) crash our farming communities.
The Chinese imperialists intend to acquire wider control of the Riverina economy.
The proposal to build the Waui Corporation’s Trade Centre enclave in Wagga Wagga, with
thousands of imported workers, is one more sign of the increasing power of China in Australia under the Asian Century kowtowing policy. No end of traitors can be found to
collaborate with China.
Australian productive farmland
Being secretly flogged off by politicians bought by a Chinese Government dangling cash
http://australiafirstparty.net
Wagga is growing.
Australia First Party has received feedback from locals concerned about the Council’s secrecy over the development application (DA) – and more importantly concerning why a foreign power should be targeting the NSW regional city of Wagga Wagga anyway?
Our people on the ground are making enquiries.
This immigration and trade site does not serve Wagga townsfolk and their struggling local economy. Local business and political interests have commercial-in-confidence links to Wagga’s regional assets and resources and may provide close data for Chinese imperialism.
Such a situation is the very basis for secret commissions, corruption on a grand scale.
Informed locals suspect something sinister.
Chinese traders all on 457 visas flogging cheap Chinese imports .
Wagga Retailers: are your wages more that a couple of dollars a day?
Last weekend, aware and concerned community activists plastered signs about Wagga Wagga critical of the links between local politicians and business and the front-men of the communist superpower.
Their action was reported by Fairfax’s Daily Advertiser, which receives donations
and advertising revenue from the Liberal and Labor parties. Did the Daily Advertiser’s editor run the following headline article after calls to Sydney head office?
http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1357176/maguire-downplays-attacks/?cs=148
Then yesterday, March 12th 2013, Prime TV news in Wagga carried a lead item on the
subject and Australia First Party was interviewed:
http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/n4/video/watch/06954de1-3f62-35a9-801a-7f098d3b0f3c/protest-posters-stir-development-debate/n4_news_video/
Australia First Party will say in its public material that the presence of this Centre would be linked to the future activities of mining companies that will feast on the Riverina once water restrictions (and imported agricultural products) crash our farming communities.
The Chinese imperialists intend to acquire wider control of the Riverina economy.
The proposal to build the Waui Corporation’s Trade Centre enclave in Wagga Wagga, with
thousands of imported workers, is one more sign of the increasing power of China in Australia under the Asian Century kowtowing policy. No end of traitors can be found to
collaborate with China.
Australian productive farmland
Being secretly flogged off by politicians bought by a Chinese Government dangling cash
http://australiafirstparty.net
Friday, March 8, 2013
Australia Take Note, we are forewarned !
Let's tackle Chinese Imperialism in Zimbabwe
28.1.13
http://nehandaradio.com/2013/01/28/lets-tackle-chinese-imperialism-in-zimbabwe/
Opinion by Vince Musewe
I just wish I could educate Zimbabweans that, as long as they continue to import cheap goods from China, they are effectively shifting jobs and employment to China.
If I were to become the President of Zimbabwe, one of my first decisions would be to rescind all deals done by ZANU (PF) with the Chinese.
I am disgusted and quite angry to learn that Anjin, one of the companies mining diamonds in the Marange fields in Manicaland province in Zimbabwe, is 90 percent owned by the Chinese and 10 percent by the army and is clandestinely diverting huge diamond revenues that effectively belong to Zimbabweans.
How could we be so stupid to get into a relationship where the army merely owns 10% of a very valuable national asset? Interestingly enough, they are the very ones talking about how they will defend 100% indigenization of the corporate sector.
As far as I am concerned, the extraction of national assets and revenues from Zimbabwe by the Chinese is no different to Western imperialism that resulted in the underdevelopment of Africa. This time, we have Chinese imperialism happening with the consent and participation of our so called liberators.
Our politicians continue to tell us how the imperialists want to destroy Africa and keep it underdeveloped, but right on our door step is de facto Chinese imperialism. I think our liberation struggle political parties have been naïve to believe that looking East will create a advantageous economic relations compared with the West.
Personally, I have not heard of any African country, which has developed rapidly because of the involvement of the Chinese. Yes, they have built infrastructure in Africa, but the cost to our future generations is unimaginable. Their economic agenda is that of extracting as much wealth and value out of Africa as possible. Its all about them.
I cannot believe it that, as Zimbabweans, we have allowed the Chinese to ride roughshod over locals in almost every sector of the economy that they are involved in. There are many disturbing instances reported, not only about the ridiculous quality of their products, but on how they badly treat workers in Zimbabwe and how they boast that they are untouchable.
In addition, their utter disregard of our environment is evident in Harare.
Remember that, despite China’s wealth, the Chinese are one of the most poor and rural populations in the world. Those who end up in Africa are not necessarily the best of breed there. This was also the same pattern during colonialism, where Africa was the dumping ground of those who were escaping poverty abroad.
Chinese products that have flooded the Zimbabwe market are certainly cheaper than local ones or those products imported from South Africa, but their quality and durability is atrocious. All one has to do is to walk around Harare shops and witness Chinese imperialism in action.
Our factories are closed and unemployment is high because we have allowed the Chinese unfettered entry into our markets and yet, worldwide, countries are protecting their economies and the livelihoods of their people from Chinese competition.
In my books, the Minister of Trade and Industry, has responsibility to protect Zimbabwe’s borders from unfair trade practice and cheap imports. Unless I am misinformed, I have not heard of him aggressively addressing this issue. This is a national security issue.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwean consumers are also naïve participants in their own underdevelopment. Whatever happened to the buy local campaign? I wish I could educate Zimbabweans that, as long as they import cheap goods from China, they are shifting jobs to China.
Of course right now, we have a fundamental problem in that, our factories are unable to meet local demand and prices are quite high due to the cost of capital. However, unless we protect our economy with a very aggressive local industrialization policy that builds local capacity; we cannot expect this economy to rebound.
Each day, I sit and think the economic and social costs that have been caused by the ill conceived policies of ZANU (PF) over the last couple of years.
From a land reform program that affected 2 million families and created serious food insecurity that Zimbabweans could not feed themselves, to operation murambatsvina that affected 700,000 families to their disastrous monetary policy in 2008 that effectively made every Zimbabwean poor and now to the indigenization policy that will destroy viable entities and further discourage foreign investment which we desperately need.
Everything these black men have touched has been a disaster. Now we have a case where, billions of US dollars that we need to develop our country are going to China on the pretext of fighting imperialism. That is unacceptable.
This makes me really angry because, it is the poor Zimbabweans that I see every day that are suffering while the ‘chefs’ are getting fat.
I shall definitely be writing a book soon on the underdevelopment of Zimbabwe by ZANU (PF) in partnership with the Chinese, so that our future generations may know the truth and hopefully not repeat the same mistakes.
Wake up Zimbabwe!
Vince Musewe is an economic analyst based in Harare.
28.1.13
http://nehandaradio.com/2013/01/28/lets-tackle-chinese-imperialism-in-zimbabwe/
Opinion by Vince Musewe
I just wish I could educate Zimbabweans that, as long as they continue to import cheap goods from China, they are effectively shifting jobs and employment to China.
If I were to become the President of Zimbabwe, one of my first decisions would be to rescind all deals done by ZANU (PF) with the Chinese.
Vince Musewe
How could we be so stupid to get into a relationship where the army merely owns 10% of a very valuable national asset? Interestingly enough, they are the very ones talking about how they will defend 100% indigenization of the corporate sector.
As far as I am concerned, the extraction of national assets and revenues from Zimbabwe by the Chinese is no different to Western imperialism that resulted in the underdevelopment of Africa. This time, we have Chinese imperialism happening with the consent and participation of our so called liberators.
Our politicians continue to tell us how the imperialists want to destroy Africa and keep it underdeveloped, but right on our door step is de facto Chinese imperialism. I think our liberation struggle political parties have been naïve to believe that looking East will create a advantageous economic relations compared with the West.
Personally, I have not heard of any African country, which has developed rapidly because of the involvement of the Chinese. Yes, they have built infrastructure in Africa, but the cost to our future generations is unimaginable. Their economic agenda is that of extracting as much wealth and value out of Africa as possible. Its all about them.
I cannot believe it that, as Zimbabweans, we have allowed the Chinese to ride roughshod over locals in almost every sector of the economy that they are involved in. There are many disturbing instances reported, not only about the ridiculous quality of their products, but on how they badly treat workers in Zimbabwe and how they boast that they are untouchable.
In addition, their utter disregard of our environment is evident in Harare.
Remember that, despite China’s wealth, the Chinese are one of the most poor and rural populations in the world. Those who end up in Africa are not necessarily the best of breed there. This was also the same pattern during colonialism, where Africa was the dumping ground of those who were escaping poverty abroad.
Chinese products that have flooded the Zimbabwe market are certainly cheaper than local ones or those products imported from South Africa, but their quality and durability is atrocious. All one has to do is to walk around Harare shops and witness Chinese imperialism in action.
Our factories are closed and unemployment is high because we have allowed the Chinese unfettered entry into our markets and yet, worldwide, countries are protecting their economies and the livelihoods of their people from Chinese competition.
In my books, the Minister of Trade and Industry, has responsibility to protect Zimbabwe’s borders from unfair trade practice and cheap imports. Unless I am misinformed, I have not heard of him aggressively addressing this issue. This is a national security issue.
Unfortunately, Zimbabwean consumers are also naïve participants in their own underdevelopment. Whatever happened to the buy local campaign? I wish I could educate Zimbabweans that, as long as they import cheap goods from China, they are shifting jobs to China.
Of course right now, we have a fundamental problem in that, our factories are unable to meet local demand and prices are quite high due to the cost of capital. However, unless we protect our economy with a very aggressive local industrialization policy that builds local capacity; we cannot expect this economy to rebound.
Each day, I sit and think the economic and social costs that have been caused by the ill conceived policies of ZANU (PF) over the last couple of years.
From a land reform program that affected 2 million families and created serious food insecurity that Zimbabweans could not feed themselves, to operation murambatsvina that affected 700,000 families to their disastrous monetary policy in 2008 that effectively made every Zimbabwean poor and now to the indigenization policy that will destroy viable entities and further discourage foreign investment which we desperately need.
Everything these black men have touched has been a disaster. Now we have a case where, billions of US dollars that we need to develop our country are going to China on the pretext of fighting imperialism. That is unacceptable.
This makes me really angry because, it is the poor Zimbabweans that I see every day that are suffering while the ‘chefs’ are getting fat.
I shall definitely be writing a book soon on the underdevelopment of Zimbabwe by ZANU (PF) in partnership with the Chinese, so that our future generations may know the truth and hopefully not repeat the same mistakes.
Wake up Zimbabwe!
Vince Musewe is an economic analyst based in Harare.
Apply As A Refugee
Wagga Wagga City Council welcomes Refugees and foreign big money men, but if you are an Aussie battler, retiree, or homeless, don't bother !!
CAMPERS and travellers arriving in caravans are ignoring – and in some cases laughing at – the signs imposing restrictions on the use of Wilks Park.
The erection of the signs last week was the first step by Wagga City Council to change how the previously unregulated stop-off could be used.
Last year it was decided to restrict visitors to a three-night stay and ban people without self-contained vehicles.
But with no one patrolling the site and investigations into breaches only occurring after a complaint is made, the rules have so far been ignored.
When The Daily Advertiser visited the area yesterday, the homeless still had their tents set up and some visitors talked of plans of week-long stays.
Werner Brown was one of those people, arriving yesterday morning from Mildura in his van.
He said it was his first time in Wagga and he planned to stay for a week because he needed to wait until he could afford petrol.
“I came this morning and I’m planning to stay until pay day because I need fuel money,” he said.
“It’s empty; I won’t hurt anybody by staying longer than three nights.
“If it was busy it might be different.”
Long-time Wilks Park resident Chris Matthews, who is legally classified as homeless, said he was furious about the signs.
“I’ve been here on-and-off for six years,” he said.
“What they’re doing is in breach of the NSW government’s Protocol for Homeless People in Public Places.
“I think the signs are a bloody insult, it’s un-Australian and it’s disgusting.”
Mr Matthews questioned how anyone could tell him to leave if a complaint was made.
That was something council’s Director of Commercial and Economic Development Peter Adams said would be determined on a case-by-case basis.
He said they were yet to receive a complaint, though.
“There hasn’t been a complaint that I’m aware of,” he said.
“There are a number of conditions that we’re working our way through.
“In the bigger picture, this is about council managing the overall competing interests, including those of caravan park owners and considering the visual amenity of the area.
“Council had no control over what happened at the grounds before.”
Mr Adams said staff were currently working with Kooringal Rotary to finalise a refurbishment project for the park.
He said this would include improved roads, a new shelter, fencing and a fire pit.
CAMPERS and travellers arriving in caravans are ignoring – and in some cases laughing at – the signs imposing restrictions on the use of Wilks Park.
Last year it was decided to restrict visitors to a three-night stay and ban people without self-contained vehicles.
But with no one patrolling the site and investigations into breaches only occurring after a complaint is made, the rules have so far been ignored.
When The Daily Advertiser visited the area yesterday, the homeless still had their tents set up and some visitors talked of plans of week-long stays.
Werner Brown was one of those people, arriving yesterday morning from Mildura in his van.
He said it was his first time in Wagga and he planned to stay for a week because he needed to wait until he could afford petrol.
“I came this morning and I’m planning to stay until pay day because I need fuel money,” he said.
“It’s empty; I won’t hurt anybody by staying longer than three nights.
“If it was busy it might be different.”
Long-time Wilks Park resident Chris Matthews, who is legally classified as homeless, said he was furious about the signs.
“I’ve been here on-and-off for six years,” he said.
“What they’re doing is in breach of the NSW government’s Protocol for Homeless People in Public Places.
“I think the signs are a bloody insult, it’s un-Australian and it’s disgusting.”
Mr Matthews questioned how anyone could tell him to leave if a complaint was made.
That was something council’s Director of Commercial and Economic Development Peter Adams said would be determined on a case-by-case basis.
He said they were yet to receive a complaint, though.
“There hasn’t been a complaint that I’m aware of,” he said.
“There are a number of conditions that we’re working our way through.
“In the bigger picture, this is about council managing the overall competing interests, including those of caravan park owners and considering the visual amenity of the area.
“Council had no control over what happened at the grounds before.”
He said this would include improved roads, a new shelter, fencing and a fire pit.
Game's Up ! What Sort Of Trade Will Be On Offer At The Centre ?
| China's African Mischief This is what is in store for Australians, please view this short clip. | ||||||||
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/03/2013382543555853.html
China's has proven its willingness to arm Africa's dictators - even when it votes against such actions at the UN.
|
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Sent To Wuai Group On Behalf Of The People Of Wagga
AUSTRALIA FIRST PARTY
The
Chairman
Wuai Market Group 12th February 2013
Shenyang, China. 110016 Attention J Zhaoxiang
RE: TRADE CENTRE - WAGGA, AUSTRALIA OPEN LETTER
Dear Sir,
I write on behalf of members and concerned citizens, in relation to reports of your company’s intention of economic exploitation in Wagga via the above.
It has also been reported that Messrs Daryl Maguire and Rod Kendal, members of the political caste in Australia has been acting to facilitate this intent, albeit without any sanction of the Australian People.
The concern is that the any such undertaking by foreign corporations is imperialistic, undermines our integrity and independence, and is not in the interests of, nor ever been requested by the Australian People. We consider this a very serious matter.
Your attention is drawn to understanding that imperialism in the economy of Australia in dispossessing Australians of the ownership and benefit of our own resources, is an intolerable compromise of the Commonwealth of our People.
Your corporation may have been misled by other elements of our political caste that foreigners’ economic exploitation in our Australian Society is welcome, however be under no illusions as this position emanates from Quislings, the like of which our Australian Peoples Movement will ensure accountability for such actions.
It may also be that your corporation has been influenced by the current large scale transfer of your fellow country men into Australia, a virtual recolonisation process that has never been sanctioned by the Australian People as it undermines and degrades our European derived civilisation. This is a matter that can now only be addressed by either their voluntary departure, or directed repatriation back to your own country.
I therefore caution your corporation against ignoring this situation in continuing with this imperialistic intent, and bring to your notice that our Australian Peoples Movement, under the full authority of our People, will enforce without redress or compensation, the eradication of such projects, as a necessity for our National self respect and independence.
I urge your corporation to add to the process of mutual respect between the Australian and Chinese People by refraining from such imperialistic activity as has been reported.
To this end I request a public announcement from your corporation rescinding any such intent, which will effectively close this very important matter.
Your immediate attention will be appreciated.
Yours faithfully,
Thomas Mullins State Convenor
Melbourne Branch P. O. Box 223, Croydon, 3136 www.australiafirst.net ausfirst@hotmail.com National Contact Line - 02 8587 0014
The
Chairman
Wuai Market Group 12th February 2013
Shenyang, China. 110016 Attention J Zhaoxiang
RE: TRADE CENTRE - WAGGA, AUSTRALIA OPEN LETTER
Dear Sir,
I write on behalf of members and concerned citizens, in relation to reports of your company’s intention of economic exploitation in Wagga via the above.
It has also been reported that Messrs Daryl Maguire and Rod Kendal, members of the political caste in Australia has been acting to facilitate this intent, albeit without any sanction of the Australian People.
The concern is that the any such undertaking by foreign corporations is imperialistic, undermines our integrity and independence, and is not in the interests of, nor ever been requested by the Australian People. We consider this a very serious matter.
Your attention is drawn to understanding that imperialism in the economy of Australia in dispossessing Australians of the ownership and benefit of our own resources, is an intolerable compromise of the Commonwealth of our People.
Your corporation may have been misled by other elements of our political caste that foreigners’ economic exploitation in our Australian Society is welcome, however be under no illusions as this position emanates from Quislings, the like of which our Australian Peoples Movement will ensure accountability for such actions.
It may also be that your corporation has been influenced by the current large scale transfer of your fellow country men into Australia, a virtual recolonisation process that has never been sanctioned by the Australian People as it undermines and degrades our European derived civilisation. This is a matter that can now only be addressed by either their voluntary departure, or directed repatriation back to your own country.
I therefore caution your corporation against ignoring this situation in continuing with this imperialistic intent, and bring to your notice that our Australian Peoples Movement, under the full authority of our People, will enforce without redress or compensation, the eradication of such projects, as a necessity for our National self respect and independence.
I urge your corporation to add to the process of mutual respect between the Australian and Chinese People by refraining from such imperialistic activity as has been reported.
To this end I request a public announcement from your corporation rescinding any such intent, which will effectively close this very important matter.
Your immediate attention will be appreciated.
Yours faithfully,
Thomas Mullins State Convenor
Melbourne Branch P. O. Box 223, Croydon, 3136 www.australiafirst.net ausfirst@hotmail.com National Contact Line - 02 8587 0014
Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Wagga Trade Centre Will Kill Off What's Left Of Local Business
No protection, no small business
Regional small business
retailers going to the wall in early 2012
LibLab governments (Liberal and Labor
factions) are killing Australian small business.
Our 'do-gooding' globalist
governments have knocked down all the hard fought pillars of Australia's
economy. They have knocked down our tariff protection against cheap Chinese
imports. They have exposed our national currency to the vagrancies and whims of
foreign wheelers and dealers. Keating's floating of the Australian Dollar in
1983 has seen our Dollar's comparative high value only benefitting foreign
importers, while making the price of Australia's exports too expensive to
compete, and overpricing inbound tourism.
The Howard Liberal-Coalition Government's industrial law changes in the late 1990s undermined the gains of Australia's union movement. The rights of unions to strike were further undermined under the Rudd Labor Government in 2007. In the 12 months to August 2007, Australian unions lost 89,000 members (5% of their membership). Most workers in most industries across Australia are now not part of a union, nor a workplace agreement. Most workers, particularly in the services sector, are employed on individual contracts. Workers are at the whim of unscrupulous employers. Workplace conditions are eroding. Workers can now be sacked in mass at a moment's notice.
Last month (April 2012) Toyota at its Altona Plant in Victoria brought in security guards to escort 200 employees in min-vans across the road to a special reception centre to sack them. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) called Toyota's tactics as "heavy-handed" while workers said they had been treated like "dogs and slaves".
Have no doubt, LibLab Work Choices are here!
The Howard Liberal-Coalition Government's industrial law changes in the late 1990s undermined the gains of Australia's union movement. The rights of unions to strike were further undermined under the Rudd Labor Government in 2007. In the 12 months to August 2007, Australian unions lost 89,000 members (5% of their membership). Most workers in most industries across Australia are now not part of a union, nor a workplace agreement. Most workers, particularly in the services sector, are employed on individual contracts. Workers are at the whim of unscrupulous employers. Workplace conditions are eroding. Workers can now be sacked in mass at a moment's notice.
Last month (April 2012) Toyota at its Altona Plant in Victoria brought in security guards to escort 200 employees in min-vans across the road to a special reception centre to sack them. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) called Toyota's tactics as "heavy-handed" while workers said they had been treated like "dogs and slaves".
Have no doubt, LibLab Work Choices are here!
Cheap imports, 19% from China in 2011,
continue to swamp Australia's retail markets pushing out Australian local
producers. When a Chinese sweatshop can land a shirt in an Australian retail
shop cheaper than it costs Australian clothiers to produce it under Australian
standards, how can this be ‘free and fair
trade’?
The only way Australian clothing producers can compete with Asian sweatshops is to either set up sweatshops in Asia and import back into Australia or to set up sweatshops in Australia. Problem is both solutions are happening. So decent Australian producers are going to the wall.
The strategy of the Chinese Government is not to play the artificial 'free trade' game, but to keeps its Yuan currency value low and to dominate and control foreign markets. Despite the global financial crisis, Chinese billionaires this month have reached 130.
The only way Australian clothing producers can compete with Asian sweatshops is to either set up sweatshops in Asia and import back into Australia or to set up sweatshops in Australia. Problem is both solutions are happening. So decent Australian producers are going to the wall.
The strategy of the Chinese Government is not to play the artificial 'free trade' game, but to keeps its Yuan currency value low and to dominate and control foreign markets. Despite the global financial crisis, Chinese billionaires this month have reached 130.
Australia's import quotas have been cast adrift. In 1966, Australia's automobile industry produced 84% of cars for the domestic market. But since Labor's Button Car Plan of 1985 removed import quotas and tariff protection, Australian car manufacturers have been struggling with cheap Asian imports from Japan, Korea and now China.
Australia has now just three domestic
assemblers of complete motor vehicles – GM Holden, Ford Australia and Toyota
Australia. Nissan closed its doors in 1992 and Mitsubishi shut its Australian
plant in 2008. The three remaining companies are all subsidiaries of their
foreign based, parent companies.
LibLab 'economical rationality' theory has only fuelled foreign dominance of Australian industries. Kneejerk desperate fire-fighting to save our industries like the Gillard Labor Government's $275 million taxpayer handout in March 2012 to keep Holden production in Australia demonstrates the depth of LibLab blind ignorance of the impacts of free trade on Australia's First World automotive industry. It is only a matter of time before the snowballing of cheap imported cars finally kills off Australia's remaining automotive 12,000 jobs.
Just like the decades long loyal workers of Qantas, BlueScope Steel, Heinz, Toyota, Murray Goulburn, it will be more of us for the Aussie Scrap Heap!
What happpend to the once proud motto 'Made in Australia'? LibLabs are selling out Australian pride to foreign interests. So why did our parents and grandparents fight wars to defend Australia's way of life? Why are Australian soldiers fighting to defend Afghanistan, only to return home and find thousands of Afghanis arriving for the good life in Australia?
Protectionism is a nation's economic policy
to protect its local internal trade by ensuring the hard fought high local
standards are not undermined by cheap foreign domination with no
standards.
Protectionism helps keep trade fair by
maintaining the economic parameters that allow local small businesses to survive
and thrive. Protectionism guards against the dumping of cheap imports which
steal local market share of local producers and traders.
There is no way that quality producers and
traders who meet Australia's high standards of production, who employ local
workers on decent wages, and who diligently provide safe and healthy workplaces,
can even begin to compete with dodgy Third World producers who ignore and defy
First World standards. The First World's industrial battles throughout the 19th
and 20th Centuries to achieve decent labour rights (fair pay and conditions) are
being knocked down by unfettered dodgy Third World free traders.
The 'Free Trade' myth was always about
allowing Third World producers and traders access to First World markets without
meeting First World standards. The leg up to the Third World has corroded First
World standards. The so-called 'level-playing field' is not where Third World
meets First World. It is opening the flood gates to allow the Third World to
dominate the First World through its sheer breeding numbers in the
billions!
The ultimate winners in this free trade
experiment are the multinationals, which produce and employ cheaply in the Third
World and set up trading in the First World. They buy and sell at such volumes
and dominate market share in retail markets to such an extent that no small
business can begin to compete on price.
Australia has no comparative advantage when
Third World competitor costs of production are sub-Australian standards. Free
Trade is not 'fair trade' by any definition. It only benefits Third World
profiteers. It corrodes our First World standards. It does not encourage the
Third World out of poverty up to First World living standards; rather it
perpetuates Third World exploitation to the basest level possible.
The politically correct economy theory that
it - 'Free Trade' should be rebranded what it is, The Slave
Trade.
LibLab politicians and their bourgeois
Greens cousins who idealise and pontificate in the reality cocoon that is
Canberra, are killing Australian small businesses, particularly across regional
Australia, creating a regional underclass beholden to an increasingly foreign
urban ruling class.
Australia First Blue Mountains
Friday, March 1, 2013
Wagga Traitors Kendall & Maquire Force 20,000 Anti-Christians On The People Of Wagga
China's Christians see
mounting persecution
in country's effort to disband
churches, report finds
Published February 21, 2013
FoxNews.com
May 3, 2012: Rep. Chris Smith, left, and ChinaAid President Bob Fu, right, listen as Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng addresses a Capitol Hill committee over the phone.
Christians and human rights advocates are alarmed over an aggressive crackdown on house churches in China, where the faithful are forced to call their gatherings "patriotic" assemblies or sent to prison where they can face torture, according to a new report.
Cases of the government persecuting Christians rose 42 percent last year, amid a three-phase plan by Beijing to eradicate the home-based churches, according to China Aid, a Texas-based human rights group. Experts say the Communist Party in China has long felt threatened by any movement that galvanizes a large sector of the population, fearing it could wield political clout. But the nation has become more systematically hostile to worshippers, according to Bob Fu, China Aid founder and president.
“There have been new tactics of persecution as well, especially with the government using secret directives and memos with long-term, step-by-step strategies to eradicate house churches,” Fu told FoxNews.com. “This is very serious stuff.”
Last year, the government mounted a new three-phase approach designed to wipe out unregistered house churches by forcing them to join the official "Three-Self Patriotic Movement" and stop defining themselves as churches. The phase included having China's State Administration for Religious Affairs secretly investigate house churches and create files on them, the report found. The current wave of crackdowns, which began midway through 2012, is part of the second phase, according to Fu.
Fu said the government is using a wide array of subtle and ham-handed tactics to persecute Christians, targeting house church leaders and churches in urban areas.
“Instead of using law enforcement officials directly to attack churches, last year we found they used a softer approach,” he said. “They used utility companies, service committees and neighborhood committees to terminate contracts with rental facilities and cut off electricity and water [to the churches].”
Those semi-official agencies, including industrial and commercial affairs departments, used various excuses to “harass, interfere and ban” church services.
“In most cases, they did not take anyone into custody, or detain or sentence, and even if a person was in custody, he was quickly released,” the report found. “The unrelenting persecution of Shouwang Church in the past nearly two years has been conducted in this manner. For example, landlords were pressured to terminate lease agreements with church members, church members who had purchased real estate were unable to take possession of them, church leaders were placed under house arrest and church members were evicted — all of which was done to make it impossible for the house church to operate normally so that it would eventually disband.”
At least 132 cases of persecution affecting 4,919 Christians, including 442 church leaders, were reported last year, up from 93 cases and 4,322 Christians in 2011, respectively. The number of people detained (1,441) and sentenced (9) also increased from the year earlier, the report
found.
A total of 62 cases — the highest countrywide — were reported in Beijing, according to the report, affecting 934 Christians, followed by 11 cases in Xinjiang in northwest China that affected 382 Christians. Fu said the systematic targeting of the estimated 80 million Christians living in China has become commonplace.
“It has almost become routine and that’s the danger,” Fu said. “And when the Chinese government purposefully uses this kind of soft approach, the foreign media in Beijing won’t be able to report it and the government is essentially taking advantage of the passive obedience by the church folks. If it happened to other social groups, there would be large demonstrations.”
Fu said his most pressing goal is to educate the millions of people in the United States and China who are unaware of the rampant persecution.
“Many people, especially in China, don’t even know there are really hundreds and thousands of their fellow Christian brothers being persecuted,” he said. “If a country like China shows it does not respect its own citizens and their most basic freedoms, we should be on alert and take more action from our side in the United States to advance that.”
Fu, a 45-year-old scholar and activist born in China, ran a house church himself in Beijing until he and his wife, Heidi, were arrested for doing so in 1996. He fled to the United States a year later and made national headlines last year while championing the plight of Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer and dissident who fled house arrest to take refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing as then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Washington for talks with Chinese officials.
Fu described himself as Chen’s “ambassador” at the time and was instrumental in China’s ultimate decision to grant Chen, his wife and the couple’s two children, U.S. visas in May. Chen, 41, remains in New York and speaks with Fu on a regular basis, he said.
Cases of the government persecuting Christians rose 42 percent last year, amid a three-phase plan by Beijing to eradicate the home-based churches, according to China Aid, a Texas-based human rights group. Experts say the Communist Party in China has long felt threatened by any movement that galvanizes a large sector of the population, fearing it could wield political clout. But the nation has become more systematically hostile to worshippers, according to Bob Fu, China Aid founder and president.
“This is very serious stuff.”- Bob Fu, founder and president, China Aid
“There have been new tactics of persecution as well, especially with the government using secret directives and memos with long-term, step-by-step strategies to eradicate house churches,” Fu told FoxNews.com. “This is very serious stuff.”
Last year, the government mounted a new three-phase approach designed to wipe out unregistered house churches by forcing them to join the official "Three-Self Patriotic Movement" and stop defining themselves as churches. The phase included having China's State Administration for Religious Affairs secretly investigate house churches and create files on them, the report found. The current wave of crackdowns, which began midway through 2012, is part of the second phase, according to Fu.
Fu said the government is using a wide array of subtle and ham-handed tactics to persecute Christians, targeting house church leaders and churches in urban areas.
“Instead of using law enforcement officials directly to attack churches, last year we found they used a softer approach,” he said. “They used utility companies, service committees and neighborhood committees to terminate contracts with rental facilities and cut off electricity and water [to the churches].”
Those semi-official agencies, including industrial and commercial affairs departments, used various excuses to “harass, interfere and ban” church services.
“In most cases, they did not take anyone into custody, or detain or sentence, and even if a person was in custody, he was quickly released,” the report found. “The unrelenting persecution of Shouwang Church in the past nearly two years has been conducted in this manner. For example, landlords were pressured to terminate lease agreements with church members, church members who had purchased real estate were unable to take possession of them, church leaders were placed under house arrest and church members were evicted — all of which was done to make it impossible for the house church to operate normally so that it would eventually disband.”
At least 132 cases of persecution affecting 4,919 Christians, including 442 church leaders, were reported last year, up from 93 cases and 4,322 Christians in 2011, respectively. The number of people detained (1,441) and sentenced (9) also increased from the year earlier, the report
found.A total of 62 cases — the highest countrywide — were reported in Beijing, according to the report, affecting 934 Christians, followed by 11 cases in Xinjiang in northwest China that affected 382 Christians. Fu said the systematic targeting of the estimated 80 million Christians living in China has become commonplace.
“It has almost become routine and that’s the danger,” Fu said. “And when the Chinese government purposefully uses this kind of soft approach, the foreign media in Beijing won’t be able to report it and the government is essentially taking advantage of the passive obedience by the church folks. If it happened to other social groups, there would be large demonstrations.”
Fu said his most pressing goal is to educate the millions of people in the United States and China who are unaware of the rampant persecution.
“Many people, especially in China, don’t even know there are really hundreds and thousands of their fellow Christian brothers being persecuted,” he said. “If a country like China shows it does not respect its own citizens and their most basic freedoms, we should be on alert and take more action from our side in the United States to advance that.”
Fu, a 45-year-old scholar and activist born in China, ran a house church himself in Beijing until he and his wife, Heidi, were arrested for doing so in 1996. He fled to the United States a year later and made national headlines last year while championing the plight of Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer and dissident who fled house arrest to take refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing as then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Washington for talks with Chinese officials.
Fu described himself as Chen’s “ambassador” at the time and was instrumental in China’s ultimate decision to grant Chen, his wife and the couple’s two children, U.S. visas in May. Chen, 41, remains in New York and speaks with Fu on a regular basis, he said.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/21/christians-house-churches-in-china-see-erious-escalation-persecution-report/#ixzz2MIOQGZty
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