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Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Britain Officially Prepares Now for War Against Russia, China and North Korea

Britain Officially Prepares Now for War Against Russia, China and North Korea

On Wednesday, February 21st, the UK’s Minister of Defence, Conservative Gavin Williamson, announced that the United Kingdom is changing its fundamental defence strategy from one that’s targeted against non-state terrorists (Al Qaeda, etc.), to one that’s targeted instead against three countries: Russia, China, and North Korea. He acknowledged that a massive increase in military spending will be needed for this, and that “savings” will have to be found in other areas of Government-spending, such as the health services, and in military spending against terrorism.
The headline in the London Times on February 22nd was “Russia ‘is a bigger threat to our security than terrorists’”. Their Defence Editor, Deborah Haynes. reported:
The threat to Britain from states such as Russia and North Korea is greater than that posed by terrorism, the defence secretary said yesterday, marking a significant shift in security policy.
Gavin Williamson suggested to MPs that more money and a change in the structure of the armed forces would be needed as part of a defence review to meet the challenge of a state-on-state conflict, something that Britain has not had to consider for a generation. …
It is a departure from the national security strategy published in 2015, which listed international terrorism first, and chimes with a decision by the United States last month to declare “strategic competition” from countries such as China and Russia as its top focus instead of counterterrorism. …
He described the Kremlin’s “increased assertiveness”, such as a ten-fold increase in submarine activity in the North Atlantic, a growing Russian presence in the Mediterranean region and their involvement in the war in Syria. “But then you are seeing new nations that are starting to play a greater role in the world, such as China. …
Asked whether Mr Williamson accepted that this would have a knock-on effect for how Britain’s military was structured and its readiness for war, “Yes it does,” Mr Williamson replied.
Just as happened when UK’s Prime Minister Tony Blair made his country the U.S. President George W. Bush’s lap-dog in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May makes her country U.S. President Donald Trump’s lap-dog now in the invasions to come, of North Korea, Russia, and China.
The press in the U.S. and its allied countries (such as UK) might have a difficult time persuading their populations that expanding military expenditures in order to conquer Russia, China, North Korea, and — as U.S. President Trump wants also to include — Iran (but he’ll probably use America’s ally Israel for that part of the operation), could be difficult, because, for example, on the same day, February 22nd, Gallup reported that by a margin of 59% to 37%, Americans disapprove of Trump on the issue of “Relations with Russia,” and back on 23 March 2017, Public Integrity headlined “The public favors cutting defense spending, not adding billions more, new survey finds” and reported:
President Trump’s proposed budget for 2018 isn’t following public sentiment, a new survey finds.
The survey, by the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation (PPC), found that while Trump has proposed a $54 billion boost to federal spending for the military, a majority of Americans prefer a cut of $41 billion. While Trump has proposed a $2.8 billion increase for homeland security, a majority of Americans favor a $2 billion cut. …
Trump’s proposals were at odds with the preferences of both Republicans and Democrats. …
A majority of GOP respondents said they wished to keep the so-called “base” or main defense budget at the current level, although they favored cutting $5 billion in spending from a budget for “overseas contingency operations,” specifically in Afghanistan and Iraq. …
Those results, in turn, were strikingly similar to the conclusions of a 2012 survey by the Center for Public Integrity, PPC, and the Stimson Center, a nonprofit policy study group in Washington, D.C. When respondents were asked in that survey what they would do with Obama’s base defense budget, the majority favored cutting it by at least $65 billion, from $562 billion down to $497 billion. …
The situation is likely to be even more difficult in UK, where according to Gallup’s polling in 2017, as reported in their “Rating World Leaders: 2018”, residents in UK who were asked “Do you approve or disapprove of the job performance of the leadership of the United States?” answered 63% “Disapprove,” and 33% “Approve,” and the net approval (-30%) had declined 26% from the prior President Obama’s rating (-4%), in 2016. 
Consequently, in order for the leaders to do this, there will need to be a total divorce from even the claim of being ‘democracies’, because, on such a momentous decision as to whether or not there should be a Third World War (and if so, whether Iran should be a target in it), going against the overwhelming public opinion wouldn’t be possible except in what is effectively a dictatorship (such as the U.S. has been scientifically proven to be). So: actually achieving this will be a stretch, but at least in the United States — a proven dictatorship — it’s possible.
Whereas the press, both in the U.S. and UK, willingly pumped the lies of the Government, that according to the IAEA Saddam Hussein was only six months away from having nuclear weapons, they might not do it this time against actual nuclearly armed nations, because there probably aren’t yet, and won’t soon be, enough billionaires’ bunkers deep underground — such as here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here — to protect them from even the nuclear blasts, much less anything at all to protect anyone at all from the resulting nuclear winter and global famine. So, perhaps, greed will finally meet its limit: sheer self-preservation. It’s one thing when a foreign country, such as Iraq — or Libya, or Syria, or Yemen — is destroyed, but quite another matter when the world itself will be. The degree of insanity that the military-industrial complex is now assuming to exist amongst the general public, might simply not be there, at all. Finally, Western governments’ weapons-manufacturing firms might need to face the steep declines in their stock-values that all of them so richly deserve, and that’s been held off already for decades too long — since at least 1991, when the Soviet Union and its communism and its Warsaw Pact military alliance all ended, and all that’s left available as bogeymen who must be killed in order to ‘save the world’, is: Russia, China, North Korea — and maybe (if the Sauds and Israel are to have their way), Iran.
It’s not yet clear just when — if ever — the ‘democratic’ countries in The West (the U.S. and its allies, the billionaires there) will reach the limit of their imperial greed. But if the world is their limit, then there is no limit at all, because the world itself will end, before this limit is reached. And, now, it’s not only Donald Trump who is leading the way there, but Theresa May has joined his luxurious march, toward global oblivion.

Exclusive: North Korean leaders used Brazilian passports to apply for Western visas - sources

FEBRUARY 27, 2018 / 8:30 AM 

Exclusive: North Korean leaders used Brazilian passports to apply for Western visas - sources


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LONDON (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his late father Kim Jong Il used fraudulently obtained Brazilian passports to apply for visas to visit Western countries in the 1990s, five senior Western European security sources told Reuters.
While North Korea’s ruling family is known to have used travel documents obtained under false pretences, there are few specific examples. The photocopies of the Brazilian passports seen by Reuters have not been published before.
“They used these Brazilian passports, which clearly show the photographs of Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Il, to attempt to obtain visas from foreign embassies,” one senior Western security source said on condition of anonymity.
“This shows the desire for travel and points to the ruling family’s attempts to build a possible escape route,” the security source said.
The North Korean embassy in Brazil declined to comment.
Brazil’s foreign ministry said it was investigating.
A Brazilian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two passports in question were legitimate documents when sent out as blanks for consulates to issue.
Four other senior Western European security sources confirmed that the two Brazilian passports with photos of the Kims in the names of Josef Pwag and Ijong Tchoi were used to apply for visas in at least two Western countries.
It was unclear whether any visas were issued.
The passports may also have been used to travel to Brazil, Japan and Hong Kong, the security sources said.
A scan obtained by Reuters shows an authentic Brazilian passport issued to North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un. Handout via REUTERS
Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported in 2011 that Jong Un visited Tokyo as a child using a Brazilian passport in 1991 - before the issue date on the two Brazilian passports.
‘JOSEF PWAG’
Both 10-year passports carry a stamp saying “Embassy of Brazil in Prague” with a Feb. 26, 1996, issue date. The security sources said facial recognition technology confirmed the photographs were those of Kim Jong Un and his father.
A scan obtained by Reuters shows an authentic Brazilian passport issued to North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-il. Handout via REUTERS
The passport with Jong Un’s photo was issued in the name of Josef Pwag with a date of birth of Feb. 1, 1983.
So little is known about Jong Un that even his birth date is disputed. He would have been 12 to 14 years old when the Brazilian passport was issued.
Jong Un is known to have been educated at an international school in Berne, Switzerland, where he pretended to be the son of an embassy chauffeur.
Jong Il’s passport was issued in the name Ijong Tchoi with a birth date of April 4, 1940. Jong Il died in 2011. His true birth date was in 1941.
Both passports list the holders’ birthplaces as Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The first security source declined to describe how the passport copies had been obtained, citing secrecy rules.
Reuters has only seen photocopies of the passports so was unable to discern if they had been tampered with.

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Chinese 'ethnic economies' alive and well in Metro Vancouver


Chinese 'ethnic economies' 
alive and well in Metro Vancouver
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A Scandinavian restaurant wants to hire a Scandinavian server. Vietnamese immigrants specialize in nail salons from New York City to Burnaby. South Asians tend to predominate in Metro Vancouver’s trucking and taxi industries.
Welcome to the realm of “ethnic economies,” an umbrella term for an expanding phenomenon in North America and Europe in which informal economies, from small to vast, are built and sustained by certain immigrant and ethnic groups.
Ethnic economies don’t receive much attention in the West. And the few scholars who are interested usually portray them as morally neutral. While some business leaders rave that ethnic economies are wonderfully positive, since they’re based on the affinity that can exist between people of the same ethnicity and language, others raise questions about workplace exclusion.
In highly diverse Metro Vancouver, it is ethnic Chinese economies that are beginning to draw attention. News stories are emerging about a Chinese housing market, Chinese signs on retail outlets, Chinese-specific hiring practices, Chinese malls (there are more than 100 in Canada), a Chinese rental market and Chinese ride-for-hire programs, many of which are exclusive to ethnic Chinese.
A new play, which delves into ethnic economies, is also being performed this month in Vancouver at The Cultch. It’s titled ‘No Foreigners.” Created by playwright David Yee, who is of mixed Chinese and white ancestry, the play was inspired by his experience in a Chinese mall in Richmond with a luxury-bag store salesperson who would not sell him anything, saying: “No foreigners.” By which she meant: “No Caucasians.”
Ethnic economies, which can be worth billions of dollars, are by no means limited to Chinese populations. In their book, Ethnic Economies, scholars Ivan Light and Steven Gold explore vibrant Cuban commercial hubs in Miami, sophisticated South Asian financial networks in East Africa and how well-off Indian immigrants have built a major stake in North America’s hotel sector.
Ethnic economies revolve around the kind of trust, which scholars call “social capital,” that can exist between people of the same ethno-cultural and linguistic backgrounds. They are often lubricated by cash transactions and unpaid family members. Some make up part of the 40 per cent of the North American labour force market that Light and Gold maintain “takes place outside the mainstream economy.”

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A few ethical and legal issues have been raised about ethnic economies in North America.
For instance, it’s normally against the law for larger companies, such as those with more than 15 employees, to hire someone based on their ethnic heritage. So in big Canadian cities like Toronto and Vancouver, where people of colour make up more than half the population, ethnic economies pose a special challenge for all companies, not only those run by Caucasians.
The moral issues associated with ethnic economies are complex, however. Some business ethicists say people have a right to exclude certain people from their organizations — maintaining, for instance, there is little wrong with a women’s-only organization.

The owner of this Richmond outlet eventually apologized for his help-wanted sign seeking a “Chinese sales person.”

It is also not necessarily immoral, say some ethicists, when businesses and governments have certain language requirements of employees. In addition, most people around the world, according to polls, say it is not racist for anyone to try to protect one’s language or culture.
Albert Lo, head of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, says the subject of ethnic economies can be “divisive.” But he maintains it’s crucial to keep an eye out for when an employer who insists on a language requirement for an employee might actually be using it as a cover for ethnic discrimination.
So it is difficult to know how to judge some of the ethnic-economy trends that have been emerging in Metro Vancouver.
B.C. media outlets, for instance, continue to report on how Mandarin-only real estate marketing in Richmond and Vancouver freezes out non-Mandarin speakers (including those who only understand Cantonese). Some resent being excluded from the segment of Metro Vancouver’s hyper-active real estate market that is being fuelled by buyers from East Asia.
Several unlicensed Chinese-only ride-for-hire services have started in Richmond and in other parts of Metro Vancouver. One ethnic Chinese journalist, who was raised in Canada, reported he went on assignment in Richmond to hire a ride-for-hire car and was told by the driver he does not pick up “Westerners.”
Asian-only rental ads are also appearing in Metro Vancouver. In Burnaby, a Chinese landlord posted an “Asian only” rental ad, because he didn’t want white tenants. He was worried they would be party animals. Such exclusionary ads are common on Craigslist, even as human rights officials say it’s illegal to discriminate against a potential renter based on their ethnicity.
Richmond furniture store last year posted a help wanted sign for a “Chinese sales person.” After the sign drew media attention, the owner apologized. But many business owners in Metro Vancouver, particularly those who run Chinese restaurants, are openly lobbying for the federal government to let them bring in temporary foreign workers and immigrants who are able to communicate in Chinese.
This is not to mention an underground Chinese food market, operating out of the trunks of vehicles, that has recently opened across Metro Vancouver, particularly in Richmond. It promotes its services through the food-sharing website Weee! and WeChat, a popular Chinese-language messaging app.
Even though ethnic economies are rarely discussed in the Western media, it’s clear they’re on the rise in welcoming North America and Europe — and will continue to grow. Since they raise so many ethical, legal and cultural issues, including about integration and exclusivity, principles near to the heart of most Canadians, it seems they might be worth more public attention.

Comments 


Vera Tara
Everybody was comfortable when the 'orientals' were relegated to running coin laundries, chinese restaurants, and keeping themselves to cutesy but smelly Chinatown.
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Dave DeWit
they graduated to spyiing on technology companies, real estate speculation, and money laundering at casinos ,tax avoidance schemes, and loyalty to the mother land, increased military build up in the south china sea which threartens surrounding countries and violates international law.
LikeReply93d
Richard Bennet · 
Dave DeWit Human Smuggling Fentanyl, protection rackets,loan sharking, buying our ports and waterfronts, buying our banks, pushing and shoving, screaming we have Mandarin as Canada's thrid language...scuse me I'll take a breath here.
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Gale Leitch · 
They made Chinatown smelly with piles of garbage in the alleys.
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Xin Jin · 
As a ethnic Chinese, I also dislike the fact that some business are exclusive to some people. But using this as a hatred mean to Chinese or other ethnic group is immoral. Some commentors keep bringing the issues of money laudering or other crimes. I think you know most of Chinese people are hardworking and polite. I am totally against the exclusive business model. But does anybody think what would they do, if they do not speak perfectly English and do not know how to do business like Caucasions? Keep do your house lady or do your laundry? You disgusting racists just label our Chinese as racists, so you can put finger on us.
The Chinese exclusive business is somewhat breaking the White exclusive model. Before there is such thing, the high valued industry are way beyond our reach. Now when Chinese can buy multimillion dollar properties, can afford a luxury life, make you not so superior, you are not happy with that. It is just disgusting!
Everyone deserve a better life when he or she work hard to get it. We scorn and prohibit the illegal and immoral way to be wealthy, but we should not exclude someone be better off because of one's ethnicity.
Shame on you so-called glorious and noble non-racist Canadians.
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Richard Bennet · 
The Chinese are the most racist people on earth which has been well documented, they dont even trust or like each other; all other nationalities on earth are called Gweilo by the Chinese, a derogatory slang term for barbarians.
Sorry master Jin you are the racist not Canadians. Pull the other one it has bells on.
The flood of Chinese labour into Canada [Gold Mountain] initially to work the railway was a ruse enabling them to jump camp and plunder for gold and Jade all along the Fraser Valley, along the "Gold Trail" and send their loot in coffins back to the "Motherland", they lied to us, no wonder we held them in suspicion and applied a head tax. To validate this fact all one has to do is to investigate by asking Canadian families living along the Gold Trail.
Does this fact get told in schools, no, because it shows that we have been lied to all along, and indeed what an embarrasment to all the politicians and educators who have raise them up as being [so called] hard workers [what nonsense]...they were ALL hard workers, from so many other nations, not just Chinese.
Their secretive nature and manners were disguisting to Canadian folks so naturally they were criticised by local media and thus ridiculed at the time.
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Don Sukkau · 
Why do we tolerant such blatant Chinese racism? Imagnine what would happen if a home owner stated that only caucasians were saught as renters?
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Gale Leitch · 
I totally agree!
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Jack Steele · 
Non-white immigrant hater Douglas Todd. What a miserable immigrant hating loser. As if Canadians of Jewish, Italian, Portuguese, etc. descent have not been doing the same as the newer Canadians!
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Lyle Craver · 
No that's NOT true. None of these groups have created their own language ghettoes and all hire candidates of all backgrounds which you obviously seem to have forgotten is what the law requires.

Sorry your claim that all groups behave the same is complete balderdash and I'd use a stronger word starting with b if I thought it wouldn't offend people.
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Gale Leitch · 
Lyle Craver Yes, they have. I think you misunderstand the dictionary term "ghetto." A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live. Richmond is a ghetto. If you prefer, I will say that certain ethnic groups have polarized themselves in language communities and hire people of their own ethnicity. Examples are Chinatown and Richmond. I once went for a job interview. When I opened the door, I looked inside at a sea of Chinese faces. They looked at me with smiles on their faces and said, "We're sorry!" They meant they were sorry that I had come all that way only to discover that they were hiring Chinese people only. Another example... a girlfriend applied for and didn't get a job as a data entry person at a Chinese company in Vancouver. She complained to the government and, as a result, they had to hire her. After 2 months of working with Chinese ladies who did not or would not speak a word of English and were rude to her, she had a nervous breakdown and had to go on leave. Another example, many years ago, Chinese employees of a BC Driver Licensing Bureau office were found guilty of accepting cash payments from Chinese who did not pass their driving exams. Fraud. The list goes on and on and on.
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Geoff Tisdall · 
Multiculturalism is the slow death of nations. Soros smiles with pleasure at Vancouver.
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