Know your place in the world!
“Earth’s population is approximately 7.8 billion people. For most people, that’s a large number, that’s all.
However, if you count the world’s 7.8 billion people as 100% human, these percentages become clearer.
From 100% of people:
11% are in Europe
5% is in North America
9% – in South America
15% – in Africa
60% are in Asia
“It has been said that: “When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and waving the cross.”
And, this is happening in America right now! For example:
“At the Conservative Political Action Convention’s (CPAC) recent annual meeting, in a panel discussion, extremist, right wing conspiracy theorist, Jack Posobiec, openly proclaimed: “I just wanted to say, welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it.” He then held up a Christian Cross on his necklace, stating that: “We’ll replace it with this right here. That’s right, because all glory, all glory is not to government, all glory is to God.”
Beautiful article of Michael von der Schulenburg, do read it!
Do we want to—and indeed, can we—live in a world in which violence has become the overriding principle of conflict resolution?
What kind of world do we want to live in? – Other News – Voices against the tide (other-news.info)
De klacht tegen Assita Kanko werd geseponeerd.
Dit is wat EurActiv over het thema schreef enkele weken geleden:
“Anyone who has worked in the European Parliament has horror stories about the small but significant number of MEPs and officials who are abusive, bullies, or sexual predators.
The proof lies in the data collected by the MeTooEP campaign, which surveyed 1,001 respondents earlier this year and found that 48.4% of Parliament staff say they have experienced psychological harassment in their workplace.
Another 15.9% have experienced sexual harassment, and 6.7% have experienced physical violence.
That some lawmakers are also terrible employers should not surprise anyone.
Politics is a tough and ruthless business which attracts people and working practices that operate at the limits of acceptability.
The European Parliament, like other political institutions and, often, the media, has tended to embrace that sense that they are ‘special workplaces’ to which normal rules do not apply.
That creates a culture of impunity which means that the bad apples are never rooted out and goes some way towards explaining why, in the wake of the MeToo campaigns, the Parliament has been slow to reform its working practices.
MEPs say that they are in the process of overhauling their internal structures on how they tackle abuse and harassment, agreeing earlier this week to create a new mediation service in Parliament led by a Head Mediator.
The service is to be independent, neutral, and impartial. MEPs would also be required to attend a training course on “how to create a good and well-functioning team”.
That’s all well and good, though MeTooEP complains that the new regime will not, as it currently stands, establish an external and independent audit or sanction MEPs who fail to follow the mandatory training.
Trade unions and staff committees have been representing their members in the EU institutions for several decades. But the lack of independent mediation, the slow pace of processing claims, and the inherent bias of the system in favour of MEPs and the Parliament have always limited their effectiveness.
“As long as the internal decision-making power of the European Parliament lacks transparency, true change will continue to be challenging to achieve,” says MeTooEP.
That, along with mandatory anti-harassment training for all MEPs and a sanctions regime with teeth, is vital to root out abuse and malpractice.
The nature of the relationship between MEPs and their staff is such a personal one that if that relationship breaks down, for whatever reason, the logical outcome is for the official to leave.
While creating a statute for parliamentary assistants treats them as EU civil servants, these political appointments are in a different category to permanent officials.
That being said, the politicians who legislate for over 400 million Europeans are not above the law. Instead of officials comparing horror stories, it’s time the parliamentary dinosaurs with reputations for bullying and harassment were made extinct. “
 PH (From The Economist 24/04/2023) Has the Ukraine war started a new arms race? Yes, to judge by figures published on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think-tank. Global defence spending rose by 3.7% in real terms in 2022 to a record $2.24trn. It shot up by 9.2% in Russia and septupled in Ukraine. Farther west in Europe, military spending grew by 3.6% to levels unseen since the end of the cold war. Yet the picture is fuzzy. The economic burden of armed forces, at 2.2% of GDP, remains close to its post-cold-war low. In part, the world economy has grown. Of the biggest arms spenders, America was flat and China dipped as a share of GDP. But many of the promised spending increases are yet to come. Inflation may abate. And geopolitical tension—a long war in Ukraine, and talk of a future one between America and China—will push countries to buy ever more weapons.  |
Love Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados: