Christian Chavagneux and Ronen Palan’s Les Paradis Fiscaux is a great (and mercifully short) introduction to tax heavens, banking secrecy and the offshore financial world. And it’s in French. For my non-French readers, not to worry, hopefully, my review will give enough substantial information… or, y’all could learn French! However, I have preserved what I think are the best quotes in the original language so as to preserve their value.
The book’s central thesis is that the development of... Read Full Story
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon appointed a new UN High Commissioner on Human Rights to succeed outgoing Commissioner Louise Arbour: South African Judge Navanethem Pillay who currently serves at the International Criminal Court. She seems like the right person for the job, judging from her short bio on the ICC website:
"In 1967 Judge Pillay became the first woman to start a law practice in Natal Province, South Africa, and the first black woman to serve in the High Court in her country... Read Full Story
BBC NEWS | Americas | Life for Argentine ex-army chief via kwout
After the arrest of Karadzic , it seems it is getting harder and harder for mass murderers and torturers to get away with their crimes, even decades later.
The BBC link also has a lot of links on the way Argentina has been dealing with the Dirty War .
Authored by SocProf. Hosted by Edublogs. Read Full Story
So says the Worldwatch Institute :
"The number of "microborrowers" worldwide-people participating in the rapidly growing field of microfinance-increased by 17 percent in 2006, benefiting both communities and the environment, according to the latest Vital Signs Update released by the Worldwatch Institute.
"By helping individuals and villages replace firewood, oil, and kerosene with solar, wind, hydro, and biofuels, microfinance institutions help to improve the local environment while... Read Full Story
This qualifies as good news, I guess:
Blackwater to leave security business following problems in Iraq | World news | guardian.co.uk via kwout
And it was also able to operate with immunity in Iraq, which is what made it controversial. Ultimately, the US Congress passed a law to have military codes apply to private military contractors.
But let’s not feel too bad for Blackwater. It has operations all over the world and a major training facility in North Carolina.
Hopefully, this would... Read Full Story
Porter un jean n’empêche pas d’être violée, Europe - NouvelObs.com via kwout
Here is the story, again, from Italy. Ten years ago, a man sexually assaults a teenager and gets convicted of rape. He appeals his conviction, arguing that the sexual encounter was not rape because the young woman was wearing a pair of jeans. Jeans are hard to remove, ergo, no rape because, obviously, the young woman had to have helped in the jeans removal.
In 1999, the Appeals Court subscribed to this reasoning in... Read Full Story
This is the photo that puts Italy to shame and rightfully so:
The picture that shames Italy - Europe, World - The Independent via kwout
It is hard to imagine the amount of indifference and dehumanization it takes to just go and enjoy an afternoon at the beach with the corpses of two girls nearby.
It is a well-known group mechanism where members of a stigmatized (Erving Goffman again) minority are either mistreated or simply become invisible as non-human entities. As non-human entities... Read Full Story
Is Russia engaging in a new cold War? One might think so when reading news like this:
BBC NEWS | Europe | Chavez calls for Russia alliance via kwout
Ok, part of this is usual Chavez chest-thumping and posturing. There is nothing new here. It is also clearly a sign of the declining political power of the United States. One has to examine this in the context of a time where President Bush had a good relationship with Vladimir Putin, who, even though he is no longer president, still exercise... Read Full Story
Via the Independent,
Top war crimes fugitive Karadzic arrested - Europe, World - The Independent via kwout
Couldn’t happen to a better person. If anyone deserves a war crime and crimes against humanity conviction, it’s him. After all, in addition to overseeing the slaughter of Bosnians, he is also charged with running death camps. He is expected to be transferred to the International Criminal Court.
But we should not forget that both the siege of Sarajevo and the fall of Srebrenica are the... Read Full Story
