"Existem indícios de novas células de terrorismo islamista na Catalunha" in La Vanguardia, 20 de Janeiro de 2008

El conseller de Interior, Relaciones Institucionales y Participación, Joan Saura, aseguró hoy que "existen indicios" de "nuevas células" de terrorismo islamista en Catalunya, "y el hecho de que se actúe en la detención de personas es importante para que todo no vaya más allá".

Saura aseguró que todos los cuerpos de seguridad están "en alerta" y mantienen una coordinación "profunda" por este motivo, por lo que además los Mossos d'Esquadra "priorizan las tareas de prevención en la lucha antiterrorista".

El conseller señaló así la necesidad de "priorizar el principal riesgo en Catalunya". En este sentido, calificó la operación policial de ayer como un "éxito que ha evitado un nuevo posible asalto de grupos radicales islámicos".

El conseller aseguró que tanto la Guardia Civil, como el Cuerpo Nacional de Policía y los Mossos d'Esquadra "tienen especial atención por detener cualquier tipo de acción violenta".

"Estamos actuando con eficacia" ante "un riesgo que tiene Catalunya, el Estado español y el resto de países de la Unión Europea (UE), confirmado sobre todo por los comunicados de Al Qaeda, que señalan Europa y especialmente España como objetivos de atentados con la intención de recuperar Al Andalus", afirmó Saura.

El conseller explicó que en estos momentos se están realizando los análisis en todo el material confiscado en la operación de ayer y confió en que "en las próximas horas" el Ministerio de Interior "pueda dar ya resultados concretos de la operación".

"El propio ministro confirmó que no daría el nombre de los detenidos hasta que no se aclarase y se investigara todo", añadió. También explicó que el registro de última hora de la tarde de ayer en un comercio de la calle Hospital "no comportó la detención de ningún miembro más de la célula islamista", sino que contó con la presencia de una persona ya detenida que, en tanto que la inspección se realizaba en su casa, "era necesario que estuviera presente".
http://www.lavanguardia.es/lv24h/20080120/53428692285.html
JPTF 2008/01/20

Cartoon de Yaakov Kirschen sobre "o amigo saudita dos americanos"

"Pós-positivismo e ideologia na Teoria das Relações Internacionais" in revista Relações Internacionais nº 16

As Relações Internacionais conhecem actualmente uma enorme diversidade teórica e até epistemológica. A «viragem pós-moderna» da disciplina, normalmente identificada na Teoria das Relações Internacionais como resultante do debate pós-positivista, é essencialmente uma réplica de idênticos desenvolvimentos noutras disciplinas das ciências sociais e humanidades. Esta mutação de um processo de imitatio scientia para um processo de imitatio post-modernum levanta várias questões que são objecto de análise e discussão neste artigo, nomeadamente a da relação entre conhecimento, ciência e ideologia e a das razões da crescente aceitação das abordagens pós-positivistas. Por último, é lançado o desafio da «desconstrução» desta nova ortodoxia e das suas estratégias ideológicas e epistemológicas de legitimação (ver revista).

Post-Positivism and Ideology in International Relations Theory
The discipline of International Relations is currently characterized by significant theoretical and epistemological diversity. The «postmodern turn» is usually identified as a spin-off from the post-positivistic debate, and can be viewed as a similar outcome to other developments occurring in the field of the humanities and the social sciences. This mutation of an imitatio scientia process to another process of imitatio post-modernum raises several questions, some of which are examined and discussed in this article, namely, the relationship between knowledge, science and ideology and the reasons for the growing acceptance of the post-positivistic approaches. Finally, the article makes an appeal to the «deconstruction» of this new orthodoxy and its ideological and epistemological strategies of legitimacy (see R:I).

"Acesa controvérsia na Alemanha sobre a criminalidade dos imigrantes" in New York Times, 14 de Janeiro de 2008

A brutal war of words has broken out between the two major parties here over violence committed by youths with immigrant backgrounds, and neither side is backing down.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has found herself straddling the divide, caught between her contradictory roles as party leader during a heated regional election campaign and as the head of a delicate coalition government.

The controversy began suddenly in late December, when a 20-year-old Turk and a 17-year-old Greek were caught on videotape severely beating a 76-year-old retiree in the Munich subway. The pensioner’s skull was fractured in the attack, which shocked the nation. Far from a brief flare-up, the political battle over crime, punishment and ethnicity has only intensified since.

Germany has its difficulties with its immigrant residents, of which Turks are the largest group, but nothing like the kind of raw conflict seen in other European countries, particularly France. Germany’s Nazi past, and, as a result, the pains that mainstream politicians here usually take to avoid even the appearance of overt nationalist sentiment, have tended to keep a lid on the kind of debate pursued more openly by far-right parties elsewhere on the Continent.

Yet there are signs that could be changing. Roland Koch, a Christian Democrat and the premier in the state of Hesse, home to Frankfurt, seized on the Munich attack as an opportunity to push for tougher penalties for juvenile immigrants who commit crimes. Voters in Hesse and Lower Saxony go to the polls on Jan. 27 in closely watched races for their state parliaments, with Hamburg following in February.

At an election rally here on Sunday before thousands of supporters, Mr. Koch made the typical candidate’s speech, touching on roads and schools, chances missed by his Social Democratic predecessors and the successes of his own government. The loudest cheers came when he turned to his theme of law and order.

“Anyone who raises their fist in this country will experience the combined resistance of the entire civil society of this republic,” Mr. Koch said. His position struck a chord with Christian Democratic voters.

Herbert Thiel, 66, who had come from the Hessian town of Eschborn for the rally, said, “The others, their politics are all illusion and utopia, as if all people are the same.” He said that safety was the most important issue in the campaign. Privately, everyone discusses the problem, he said, but not talking about immigrant crime in public “is an unwritten rule.”

Mr. Thiel was far from alone in his thinking at the campaign stop in Wetzlar, where a majority of those who were asked said fighting crime was the top priority. The question for Mr. Koch on election day will be how important the undecided voters think the issue is. The Social Democrats are campaigning on instituting a national minimum wage, also a popular and highly emotional issue here.

At stake in the election is control of the three state governments, as well as their seats in the upper house of the federal Parliament. But beyond the short-term political tussle lies the question of long-term damage to the country’s halting attempts to integrate its newcomers, many of whom were born here but are still viewed as outside society’s mainstream.

Politically, the Christian Democrats have everything to lose, since they already control all three governments. Even if they manage to maintain control, simply losing seats would likely be interpreted as a sign of weakness, as the campaign for the next national elections in 2009 already looms large. Mrs. Merkel hopes to win a large enough share of votes to break up the marriage of convenience with the Social Democrats known as the “grand coalition.”

She struck a more measured tone when she spoke at the rally after Mr. Koch. “Violence in this country, whoever is responsible, is not acceptable,” Mrs. Merkel said. She asked for a discussion “in all calmness” with the Social Democrats.

When the debate first flared up, Mrs. Merkel seemed to steer clear of the controversy. Then a few days later she stepped up to support Mr. Koch. “It cannot be that a minority in this country creates fear in the majority,” she said, leaving wiggle room as to whether she was referring to immigrant youth specifically or to young people generally.

Mrs. Merkel pointed to the high share — 43 percent — of violent crimes committed by those under 21, and the fact that close to half of those were by what she called “foreign youths.”

Critics argue that the problem lies in disproportionately disadvantaged backgrounds, and that poor German youths are as likely to commit crimes as poor Turks or Russians. Statistics show that juvenile crime rates fell in 2007 from the prior year, but the debate has been more rhetorical than statistical.

Immigrant groups, Germany’s Jewish community and in particular the rival Social Democrats have called Mr. Koch a populist xenophobe and worse. Peter Struck, parliamentary floor leader for the Social Democrats, went so far as to accuse Mr. Koch of being “glad at heart” that the Munich subway attack had happened, a charge Mr. Koch denied.

Critics say the racial overtones cross the line. A campaign poster in Bavaria showed a still image from a surveillance video of the attack, in which the one attacker in the frame is a black silhouette. The victim’s image is cut out, making him a pure white shape. Where he slumps on the ground are written the words, “So that you are not the next.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/world/europe/14germany.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
JPTF 15/01/2008

A mulher ocidental e o homem muçulmano

Filosofia ‘à la carte‘: da sedução nacional-socialista (Nazi) à sedução pós-moderna (PoMo) por Nietzsche

Se há um filósofo tratado com a reverência de um profeta por (quase) todas as ideologias anti-democráticas e iliberais, este é certamente Nietzsche. A primeira vaga de hermenêutas nietzscheanos teve o seu apogeu com a direita radical alemã e italiana dos anos 20/30 do século XX. Nessa altura, aquele que satiricamente afirmara "filosofar com um martelo", foi elevado ao estatuto de "filósofo da corte" por fascistas italianos e nacionais-socialistas alemães, ambos seduzidos pelas ideias de uma elite de übermensch (“superhumanos”), que estava "acima do bem e do mal" e tinha por destino último governar o rebanho humano. Com a queda traumática da utopia übermensch do III Reich deu-se uma verdadeira "transmutação de todos valores". Numa lógica de tipo "fundacionalista", o "filósofo do martelo" foi reconstruído como precursor da utopia multiculturalista e das políticas de identidade, sendo usado contra as próprias democracias liberais que venceram com os totalitarismos nazi e fascista. Pela via à primeira vista improvável da esquerda radical francesa, surgiu uma segunda vaga de hermenêutas que suplantou a direita radical alemã e italiana dos anos 20/30 num culto de Nietzsche (les extrêmes se touchent...), mais fashion e de tipo pós-estruturalista ou pós-moderno (PoMo, para os críticos). Com o seu apogeu nos anos 60/70 do século, baseou-se em apropriações "originais" do pensamento de Nietzsche, feitas por Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida e outros. Apesar de já ter perdido algum do glamour do passado, hoje continua bem instalada na academia e a ter os seus entusiastas e locais de culto, sobretudo nos meios "alternativos" das Humanidades e Ciências Sociais. Quanto a outros adeptos de ideologias fortes, anti-democráticas e iliberais, como os actuais movimentos islamistas radicais, parecem também já ter descoberto o potencial de "emancipação" e de "progressivismo" da filosofia de Nietzsche e as enormes potencialidades políticas do seu uso à la carte. A perspectiva de uma promissora terceira vaga de hermenêutas, despida do eurocentrismo das anteriores, paira já no ar. Enquanto esta não chega, podemos saborear o laudatório Nietzsche e o Pós-modernismo de Dave Robinson (Londres, Icon Books, 1999) e o não assim tão laudatório Nietzsche, Profeta do Nazismo: O Culto do Superhomem (na realidade uma denúncia contundente) de Abir Taha (Bloomington, Authorhouse, 2005).
JPTF 2008/01/14

Incursões na liturgia do pós-modernismo: "Why We Are Not Nietzscheans", Luc Ferry e Alain Renaut (eds), Imprensa da Universidade de Chicago, 1997

Quem pensa que as práticas de culto entraram em declínio com os avanços da ciência, da tecnologia e a secularização materialista das sociedades ocidentais, sendo banidas da academia, engana-se. Em Porque não Somos Nietzscheanos, uma obra editada por Luc Ferry e Alain Renaut, originalmente publicada em língua francesa em 1991, os autores mostram como uma liturgia nietzscheana, dedicada àquele que "justamente" é considerado o santo-patrono do pós-modernismo, está viva, de boa saúde, e bem instalada na academia. Esta tem os seus dogmas, os seus rituais, os seus evangelizadores e os seus devotos, particularmente nas Humanidades e Ciências Sociais. A França, nos anos 60, ficou famosa como terra de fé, tendo dado ao mundo uma geração inesquecível de evangelizadores, onde se destacaram nomes como Deleuze, Derrida e Foucault. Infelizmente, nunca mais surgiu uma geração que igualasse em devoção ao culto nietzscheano a do Maio de 68. Mas, como em todos os cultos, existem apóstatas incómodos que insistem em contestar os dogmas e ameaçam perigosamente a fé dos crentes. Ironicamente, foi em terra francesa, no passado a mais promissora para as profecias de Nietzsche, que Alain Boyer, Andre Comte-Sponville, Luc Ferry, Alain Renaut, Robert Legros, Philippe Raynaud e Pierre-Andre Taguieff escreveram este conjunto de ensaios que se arrisca a chocar o pudor dos crentes no relativismo pós-moderno e a abalar profundamente as suas convicções mais sacralizadas.
JPTF 2008/01/13

Adeus ao proletariado, vivam os estudos queer!

Desde que em 1980 o filósofo e crítico social marxista, André Gorz, proclamou o "adeus ao proletariado" muita coisa mudou em França, na Europa e no mundo. A exploração burguesa-capitalista do proletariado, a raison d ´être da ideologia marxista e da utopia da sociedade sem classes, deu lugar a novas causas pós-modernas e moralmente correctas. A tradicional preocupação marxista com a economia foi substituída por uma nova obsessão com a cultura. A velha utopia de uma sociedade radicalmente igualitária e da fraternidade operária, deu lugar à nova utopia multiculturalista, de identidades alternativas, emancipadas da opressão normalização liberal. A luta genuinamente progressista pela igualdade degenerou num culto fetichista da diferença. O marxismo clássico metamorfoseou-se, ou foi pervertido, em "marxismo cultural". Os estudos económicos marxistas foram ultrapassados pelos estudos culturais e pelos estudos queer na academia. O sociólogo-antropólogo-crítico cultural pós-moderno ocupou o lugar do economista marxista-científico como intellectuel engagé e defensor de causas. A classe operária, demasiado insensível, preconceituosa e politicamente incorrecta, foi afastada do pedestral em que se encontrava, sendo o panteão agora ocupado por novos ídolos oprimidos: as minorias étnicas, religiosas e de género e as orientações sexuais alternativas (GLBT). O nº 76 da Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais mostra-nos como estas tendências "científicas" e "inovadoras" chegaram (atrasadas e por imitação, como quase sempre) também à academia portuguesa. Uma leitura imprescindível para todos os proletários e outros ex-oprimidos perceberem quem (não) se preocupa com eles.
JPTF 2008/01/12

Incursões na liturgia do pós-modernismo: o politicamento correcto

Dois livros para reflectir. As virtudes morais absolutas do politicamente correcto, expostas pelos seus próprios adeptos - a esquerda multiculturalista -, empenhada numa revolução cultural para promover a virtude. E os efeitos opressivos do policiamento da linguagem a que esta deu origem, com a criação de uma novilíngua orveliana que limita a liberdade de expressão e de pensamento.
JPTF 2008/01/12

Abaixo as máscaras! A ideologia do politicamente correcto analisada na revista Géopolitique nº 89, 2005, pp. 3-57

Interessante dossier crítico sobre o politicamente correcto (political correctness) com artigos de Pierre Béhar "Crise de civilização, crise de linguagem"; Lucien Jerphagnon "Do politicamente correcto ou da boa consciência"; Pierre Manet (entrevista); "A religião do semelhante"; Philippe Raynaud “Political Correctness: vitória ou declínio?"; Chantal Delsol "O Novo Despotismo"; Philippe Muray "Politicamente abstracto"; Paul Thibaud "Excepção francesa"; Philippe Bénéton "Moralmente correcto"; Philippe Barthelet "A gramática do diabo"Paul Valadier "Igreja Católica e correctness”; e André Grjebine e Georges Zimra (diálogo) "Da língua de pau ao politicamente correcto".
JPTF 2008/01/12

"Blogger chinês agredido até à morte por filmar confronto com autoridades locais" in CNN, 11 de Janeiro de 2008

Authorities have fired an official in central China after city inspectors beat to death a man who filmed their confrontation with villagers, China's Xinhua news agency reports.

The killing has sparked outrage in China, with thousands expressing outrage in Chinese Internet chat rooms, often the only outlet for public criticism of the government.

The incident has also alarmed advocates of press freedom, who say municipal authorities had no right to attack a man for simply filming them.

Police have detained 24 municipal inspectors and are investigating more than 100 in the death of Wei Wenhua, a 41-year-old construction company executive, Xinhua reported on Friday.

The swift action by officials reflects concerns that the incident could spark larger protests against authorities, whose heavy-handed approach often arouses resentment.

On Monday Wei happened on a confrontation in the central Chinese province of Hubei between city inspectors and villagers protesting over the dumping of waste near their homes.

A scuffle developed when residents tried to prevent trucks from unloading the rubbish, Xinhua said.

When Wei took out his cell phone to record the protest, more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him, attacking him for five minutes, Xinhua said. Wei was dead on arrival at a Tianmen hospital, the report said.

Qi Zhengjun, chief of the urban administration bureau in the city of Tianmen, lost his job over the incident, Xinhua reported Friday.

The beating was condemned online. "It's no longer news that urban administrators enforce the law with violence," said an editorial on the news Web site Northeast News, according to The Associated Press.

"But now someone has been beaten to death on site. It has brought us not surprise, but unspeakable anger."

Chen Yizhong, a columnist on Xinhua's Web site, asked why violence by city inspectors is allowed to continue. "Cities need administration, but urban administrators need to be governed by law first," he wrote.

An international press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders, protested the killing.

"Wei is the first 'citizen journalist' to die in China because of what he was trying to film," the group said in a statement.

"He was beaten to death for doing something which is becoming more and more common and which was a way to expose law-enforcement officers who keep on overstepping their limits."

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/01/11/china.blogger/index.html
JPTF 2008/01/11

O Tratado de Lisboa e a Constituição Europeia: os Dupond & Dupont ajudam a descobrir as diferenças para o não referendo

Europa (à portuguesa) engana os cidadãos: "UE nervosa recorreu a Cavaco Silva" in Diário de Notícias, 9 de Janeiro de 2008

O Presidente da República teve um papel preponderante na decisão final de José Sócrates em não convocar um referendo nacional ao Tratado de Lisboa. Segundo soube o DN junto de fontes políticas, Aníbal Cavaco Silva terá recebido nos últimos dias várias mensagens de países com peso na União Europeia. Os contactos diplomáticos, segundo as mesmas fontes, ocorreram com a tensão gerada em muitos países da UE com a mera possibilidade que existia de Sócrates se decidir pelo cumprimento da sua promessa eleitoral.

Estes outputs de países como a Alemanha (o país liderado por Angela Merkel foi o mais incisivo nestes contactos) terão virado inputs de Belém em relação a São Bento, ainda segundo as supracitadas fontes. Ou seja, pelos canais institucionais, a Presidência da República terá feito saber ao Governo qual era o sentimento reinante na maior parte dos países europeus. Indicações que também já existiam em São Bento e que vinham agudizando-se desde que se sabia que, tirando a Irlanda (que constitucionalmente é "obrigada" a fazer o referendo), todos os outros estados europeus haviam já optado pela ratificação parlamentar. Nos últimos dois dias, a Eslovénia considerou o referendo como impensável. Janez Jansa, primeiro-ministro da Eslovénia e presidente em exercício da UE, voltou ontem a subir o tom, dizendo que os países europeus "têm de ter uma visão mais abrangente da questão, não pensar apenas nos aspectos nacionais mas também no interesse europeu". Segundo Jansa, é preciso questionar "até que ponto os eventos num país influenciam eventos noutro onde a situação é algo diferente".

Cavaco Silva, que há meses vinha dizendo que o referendo não era de todo prioritário - embora o convocasse, caso surgisse uma proposta parlamentar nesse sentido, como prometeu em plena campanha presidencial -, disse ontem peremptoriamente que "desperdiçar a oportunidade que o Tratado de Lisboa representa constituiria um preço elevadíssimo para a União Europeia".

O Presidente falava durante a apresentação de cumprimentos de Ano Novo pelo Corpo Diplomático acreditado em Lisboa, que decorreu no Palácio Nacional de Queluz. Uma cerimónia em que, sabe o DN, ficou patente o desconforto de vários diplomatas europeus perante uma eventual decisão pró-referendo. Alguns destes embaixadores já tinham feito chegar, como disseram fontes políticas ao DN, esse desconforto ao Palácio de Belém, inclusivamente através de telegramas diplomáticos.

Na noite da assinatura do Tratado de Lisboa, a 13 de Dezembro, José Sócrates não se esqueceu de referir a posição de Cavaco Silva como sendo contrária ao referendo. Na altura, à SIC Notícias, Sócrates deixou a decisão em aberto, mas tentou vincular o Presidente. Só que Belém acabou por vir lembrar que a promessa de campanha era para manter e se a maioria parlamentar avançasse com o referendo, ele seria convocado.

Promessa eleitoral que Sócrates também tinha (no caso, convocar o referendo), mas optou por ir abrindo espaço para a subverter e não ficar isolado em termos europeus. Na sua edição online de ontem, o semanário Sol afirmava também que "o primeiro- -ministro já sossegou outros líderes europeus, que temiam a consulta popular em Portugal".

O triângulo Cavaco-Durão Barroso-líderes europeus foi decisivo para Sócrates ter os argumentos de que precisava para inverter a promessa eleitoral e dizer "não" ao referendo. Hoje, no primeiro debate quinzenal segundo o novo regimento, Sócrates irá defender que o Tratado de Lisboa é uma coisa e o Tratado Constitucional era outra.
http://dn.sapo.pt/2008/01/09/nacional/ue_nervosa_recorreu_a_cavaco_silva.html
JPTF 2008/01/09

Incidente entre a marinha dos EUA e as lanchas dos guardas revolucionários do Irão no estreito de Ormuz

"Koštunica não pretende a Sérvia na UE" in B92, 7 de Janeiro de 2008

Following the prime minister’s message to Brussels that it needs to choose between signing the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU or sending a mission to Kosovo, the director of the Belgrade Center for Human Rights said that neither Koštunica nor those around him actually wanted Serbia to join the EU.

“It’s an expression of the view that we do not belong there, and that Serbia’s traditional allies are not present there.”

Following an opinion poll that showed that 70 percent of the population supported EU membership, said Dimitrejević, those who opposed EU entry now had to concoct reasons.

According to the NGO director, the first of these was the NATO bombing, as in Serbia it was much easier to attack NATO than the EU, as the military alliance had attacked Serbia.

“The agreement we’re now signing with the EU is purely commercial, which will improve our economic circumstances, and, because of the wish of the people, one cannot directly oppose it, but a situation can be created where we don’t join the EU,“ he explained.

In Dimitrejević’s opinion, that situation is now artificial, inasmuch as they wish to show that, in the post-initialing period, the EU is doing something to damage Serbia territorial integrity, which is why Belgrade should refuse to sign the SAA.

The NGO director believes that undefined borders are not a reason to halt the process of European integration, as “the state can enter international organizations, even without its borders being exactly determined.“

In this respect, he points to the examples of Cyprus who entered the EU without defined borders, and Albania, whose frontiers had not been established when it was accepted into the League of Nations.

“These are neither legal reasons to reject membership, nor are they practical, as I don’t know why it would be any worse for an EU team to govern Kosovo than an American one,“ Dimitrejević added.

The NGO director feels that it is very possible that once the agreement has been signed, parliament may then question its ratification.

Commenting on the EU’s reaction to the prime minister’s statements, he said that “Brussels won’t let herself be provoked that easily, as it has her reasons for wanting Serbia in the EU.”

“However, that desire isn’t as great as we’d like to think in our own media, who believe that the EU is dying for us to enter, and will, as a result, make enormous concessions to us with that aim in mind.”
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=01&dd=07&nav_id=46736
JPTF 7/01/2008

"O multiculturalismo está a criar intolerância" in Telegraph, 7 de Janeiro de 2007

por Philip Johnston

It has taken a long time to happen, but at last an authoritative and senior establishment figure has pointed to the elephant in the room. Before the Bishop of Rochester's article yesterday in The Sunday Telegraph, the debate about immigration focused almost exclusively on who benefits financially. We have tiptoed around its effect on our society and culture. Even the somewhat belated recognition by ministers that newcomers should show a commitment to British values and demonstrate a knowledge of English tends to be couched in economic terms and ones favourable to the immigrants themselves - that they will get a job more easily and their lives will be enhanced if they are more integrated.

However, few politicians have been willing to do what Michael Nazir-Ali has done, which is to question the impact of a growing Muslim population upon the very fabric of the nation, turning it within half a century into a multi-faith and multicultural land. It is hardly surprising, perhaps, for a Christian prelate to lament the powerful appeal of another faith challenging where his own once reigned supreme. Furthermore, the recent immigration of more than half a million eastern Europeans has delighted Roman Catholic leaders whose churches were full to bursting over Christmas.

But they share an historic and religious heritage. The issue that Bishop Nazir-Ali raised has more to do with our failure to integrate Muslims because our political elites were in thrall to what he called "the novel philosophy of multiculturalism". One consequence was the ease with which extremists exploited an emphasis on separatism to recruit among the more impressionable young men in their communities.

Attempts have been made to impose an "Islamic" character in some cities by insisting on artificial amplification for the adhan, the call to prayer, and even to introduce some aspects of sharia to civil law. Sitting in the background, seemingly stalled for the time being, are plans to establish Europe's largest markaz - an Islamic prayer and meeting area able to accommodate at least 40,000 people - right beside the site for the 2012 London Olympics, where it would be a potent icon of how Britain has changed.

In truth, the bishop has simply articulated what many in the Government and in the race relations world have already come to realise (and which most of the rest of us understood years ago), and that is the baleful consequences of three decades of multiculturalism. Last year, even the Commission for Racial Equality, once a cheerleader for the concept, recanted with a report that depicted Britain as an unequal and segregated nation in danger of breaking up.

Like Bishop Nazir-Ali, it feared that extremism was being fostered by the retreat of different groups behind their ethnic walls. For many years, those who wanted Britain to be recognised as a multicultural society which needed to revise, or even jettison, five centuries of Protestant hegemony held centre stage. Anyone who questioned it had their reputations trashed. The multiculturalists even coined an insult - Islamophobia - to try to close down the debate. Some of them yesterday accused the bishop of "scaremongering".

But while multiculturalism began as a facet of Britain's characteristic toleration of other people's ways, religions, cuisines, languages and dress, it metamorphosed into a political creed that held that ethnic minority groups should be allowed to do what they like. It became a guiding principle of governance. When he became prime minister in 1997, Tony Blair urged the nation to embrace multiculturalism. Almost 10 years later, as he prepared to leave Downing Street, he was making speeches informing immigrants they had "a duty" to integrate with the mainstream of society. "Conform to it; or don't come here. We don't want the hate-mongers, whatever their race, religion or creed," he said.

But the "hate-mongers" were already here; and if they weren't they found getting here easy enough. There was a ready-made audience for their anti-western rhetoric among some sections of the Muslim community who had become estranged from the rest of the country - not just from the white Christian majority but from everyone else. So estranged that some were, and still are, prepared to kill others and themselves. When Mohammed Siddique Khan, the leader of the July 7 suicide bombers, spoke in his "martyr video" of "the injustices perpetrated against my people" he did not mean the folk among whom he grew up in Yorkshire.

As Bishop Nazir-Ali recognises, the religious diversity that can - and should - be easily accommodated in a liberal, democratic and (still) overwhelmingly Christian country has taken on a more malign aspect which politicians are belatedly seeking to address. Ministers are even trying to enlist the help of Muslim women in countering the extremists by sending them on training courses to give them the skills and confidence to confront fanatics. This may be a laudable aim but simply is not going to happen in many Muslim communities.

Inevitably, Bishop Nazir-Ali's comments have proven controversial, not least his observation that some parts of the country are no-go areas for non-Muslims. But this segregation has been apparent for many years and was officially acknowledged as long ago as 2001 after riots in some northern towns. The inquiry into their cause was appalled to find British people living "parallel lives", with some young people from ethnic minorities able to go through life exclusively in the company of their own kind.

The diminution of this country's commitment to Anglicanism mourned by the bishop was taking place even without the arrival of another proselytising faith as potent as Islam. However, there is a wider issue that affects everyone: it has to do with the sort of country in which we all want to live. Religious intolerance breeds political intolerance; and we are seeing the great legacies of an enlightened Christian tradition - individual liberty and freedom under the law - squandered because of a need to face down extremists who deride such concepts and who should have been confronted a long time ago.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml;jsessionid=C3LSQF2Y4RNOXQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/opinion/2008/01/07/do0702.xml
JPTF 2008/01/07

O marido pode bater na mulher, segundo a Xária (Sharia) islâmica? Clérigo do Bahrain, Adullah Aal Mahmud, pronuncia-se

"Preço do barril de petróleo ultrapassou os 100 dólares" in CNN, 2 de Janeiro de 2008

Oil prices soared to $100 a barrel Wednesday for the first time ever, reaching that milestone amid an unshakeable view that global demand for oil and petroleum products will continue to outstrip supplies.

Surging economies in China and India fed by oil and gasoline have sent prices soaring over the past year, while tensions in oil producing nations like Nigeria and Iran have increasingly made investors nervous and invited speculators to drive prices even higher.

Violence in Nigeria helped give crude the final push over $100. Bands of armed men invaded Port Harcourt, the center of Nigeria's oil industry Tuesday, attacking two police stations and raiding the lobby of a major hotel.

Word that several Mexican oil export ports were closed due to rough weather added to the gains, as did a report that OPEC may not be able to meet its share of global oil demand by 2024.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery rose $4.02 to $100 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to Brenda Guzman, a Nymex spokeswoman, before slipping back to $99.48.

Crude prices, which have flirted with $100 for months, have risen in recent days on supply concerns exacerbated by Turkish attacks on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and falling domestic inventories.

However, post-holiday trading volumes were about 50 percent of normal Wednesday, meaning the price move was likely exaggerated by speculative buying.

"I would imagine the speculators are the biggest drivers today," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp., in Chicago.

It's hard to say whether prices would have risen as quickly on a normal trading day, Flynn said. While crude prices have soared on mounting supply concerns in recent months, speculators have often been cited as a reason for the swiftness of oil's climb.

Moreover, many of the concerns about supply disruptions have yet to materialize, but that hasn't stopped buyers from driving prices higher.

"Although the (Nigerian) violence has not impacted oil flow out of the country, it has reignited supply concerns as militant attacks have reduced Nigeria's crude output by roughly 20 percent since 2006," said John Gerdes, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey in a research note. Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer.

Separately, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said its member nations may not be able to meet demand as early as 2024, though OPEC also said that deadline could slide for decades if members increase production more quickly. Word that several Mexican oil export ports were closed due to rough weather added to the gains.

On top of those concerns, investors are anticipating that crude inventories fell by 1.8 million barrels last week, which would be the 7th weekly decline in a row.

"(A decline) is not anything unusual for this time of year, but when it happens for 7 weeks in a row, it starts to add up," said Amanda Kurzendoerfer, an analyst at Summit Energy Services Inc. in Louisville, Ky.

Oil prices are within the range of inflation-adjusted highs set in early 1980. Depending on how the adjustment is calculated, $38 a barrel then would be worth $96 to $103 or more today.

At the pump, meanwhile, gas prices rose 0.6 cent Wednesday to a national average of $3.049 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices, which typically lag the futures market, have edged higher in recent days, following oil's approach to $100.

Gas prices peaked at $3.227 a gallon in May as refiners faced unprecedented maintenance issues and struggled to produce enough gasoline to meet demand. A similar scenario is expected this spring, when gas prices could peak above $3.40 a gallon, according to the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.

The EIA's inventory report, delayed until Thursday this week due to the New Year's holiday, is also expected to show gains in gasoline supplies and refinery activity, and a decline in supplies of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel.

In other Nymex trading Wednesday, February heating oil futures rose 9.06 cents to $2.74 a gallon while February gasoline futures climbed 7.92 cents to $2.57 a gallon. February natural gas futures advanced 26.7 cents to $7.75 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, February Brent crude rose $3.11 to $97.58 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/01/02/oil.record.high.ap/index.html

JPTF 2008/01/02

Lendo o futuro em 2008, cartoon da revista The Economist

"Funestas coincidências em torno da morte de Benazir Bhutto" in Le Monde, 30 de Dezembro de 2007

por Kamran Haider

Par un funeste caprice du destin, le docteur Mussadiq Khan a tenté en vain de sauver jeudi la vie de Benazir Bhutto, visée par un attentat, tout comme son père avait échoué 56 ans plus tôt à maintenir en vie le Premier ministre de l'époque, également assassiné.

Khan a tout tenté pour essayer de sauver Bhutto lorsqu'elle a été emmenée dans un hôpital de Rawalpindi après avoir été la cible d'un attentat suicide alors qu'elle quittait une réunion électorale organisée dans un parc public de la ville.

Le père de Khan, Sadiq Khan, était de garde dans un hôpital de Rawalpindi en octobre 1951 lorsque le Premier ministre de l'époque, Liaquat Ali Khan, fut emmené après avoir été blessé par balles lors d'un rassemblement... organisé dans le même parc que celui où Bhutto tenait meeting.

Liaquat Ali Khan a perdu la vie et le parc a été rebaptisé "Liaquat Bagh" en sa mémoire. Bagh signifie "jardins" en Urdu.

"C'est la volonté de Dieu", a déclaré Khan à Reuters à propos de cette coïncidence qui a voulu que le père et le fils prennent en charge deux dirigeants pakistanais attaqués au même endroit, à plus d'un demi-siècle de distance.

Khan a indiqué que Bhutto était tout près de la mort lorsqu'elle est arrivée dans son hôpital.

"Elle ne respirait pas. La pression artérielle était nulle, son coeur ne battait plus. Nous avons entrepris une réanimation complète. Nous avons tout tenté mais malheureusement nous n'avons pas réussi à la réanimer", a-t-il expliqué.

"J'ai fait de mon mieux mais je n'ai pas réussi. Que puis-je dire ? (...). C'était une grande dirigeante. C'était notre dirigeante", a-t-il ajouté.

Khan confirme la thèse avancée par le gouvernement sur les circonstances de la mort de Bhutto. Selon lui, celle-ci a été tuée dans le souffle de l'explosion en se cognant la tête contre le levier du toit ouvrant de sa voiture.

Cette version est contestée, notamment par une proche collaboratrice de l'ancien Premier ministre selon laquelle elle a été atteinte d'une balle à la tête.

Autre coup du destin, Bhutto a été tuée à environ deux kilomètres de l'endroit où son père, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a été pendu en 1979.

Les deux fils de Khan sont médecins. Il espère qu'ils n'auront pas à vivre d'autres coïncidences comme celle-là.

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/depeches/0,14-0,39-33747704@7-37,0.html
JPTF 2007/12/30