[shortonsense]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Virginian', 'W')e cant let Israel have all the fun, can we?

UN DENIES CRITICAL AID



The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on Friday said it is suspending humanitarian aid in Gaza until further notice, after Hamas seized control of its warehouses and stole 200 tons of food and supplies.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '
')Is soylent green Halal?

[kam3Oen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')f course. In reality, it's extremely harmful to get off of aid. It could be quite disasterous for Gaza. Politically, not so much. On the other hand, it could be two thumbs up from a PO view point. Can't have a 3% population growth rate if there's no food.

[deMolay]

This would be a total disaster. Can you say direct taxation by an unelected bunch of despots. http://en.ce.cn/subject/financialcrisis ... 0768.shtml

[mattduke]

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar.

Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket.

Persaud, chairman of consultants Intelligence Capital and a former currency chief at JPMorgan, said the recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations on March 25 by the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform.

"It is a good moment to move to a shared reserve currency," he said.

reuters

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'L')UXEMBOURG (Reuters) - A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar.

Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket.

Persaud, chairman of consultants Intelligence Capital and a former currency chief at JPMorgan, said the recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations on March 25 by the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform.

"It is a good moment to move to a shared reserve currency," he said.

reuters

[deMolay]

The parasitic UN has dropped its opposition to the scooping up farmland in poor countries. link

[Dr. Ofellati]

Good post.
We're looking at world-wide revolution at some point.

[rangerone314]

Why does this remind me of how Ireland starved in the 19th century because of a potato famine, while Ireland was still exporting grain and vegetables to England because England owned the farmland in Ireland?

This trend is not going to end well.

[deMolay]

Carving Up Africa For Food and Fuel. Should these countries not now shoulder the food aid for these countries? http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6729.5250.0.0

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he vast majority of an estimated $352 billion in proceeds of organized crime, mostly from the drug trade, was funneled through the global banking system during the financial crisis of the past two years, and in some cases, the money rescued banks from collapse, says the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Antonio Maria Costa told the UK Observer that intelligence agencies and prosecutors alerted him 18 months ago to evidence that drug money was being "absorbed into the financial system."

"In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital," Costa said. "In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor."

The Observer reports:

Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, [Costa] said.

"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.
Gangs are now believed to make most of their profits from the drugs trade and are estimated to be worth £352bn, the UN says. They have traditionally kept proceeds in cash or moved it offshore to hide it from the authorities. It is understood that evidence that drug money has flowed into banks came from officials in Britain, Switzerland, Italy and the US.
Read the complete Observer article here.

Costa has been head of the UN's drug and crime office since 2002, and is known for his tough stance on illicit drugs, including marijuana. He recently warned that Africa is becoming a major drug hub, following an investigation into the crash of a Boeing 727 in Mali that had flown in from Venezuela carrying 10 tons of cocaine.

[efarmer]

Once I had a railroad, made it run,
Made it race against time.
Once I had a railroad, now it's done.
Goombah, can you spare a dime?

[SheikYarbhouti]

This all ties in nicely with the CIA cocaine planes and the dramatic increase in Afghan opium production since American ingress. 93% of the world's heroin isn't getting out of that country on donkeys alone...

[americandream]

The "invisible hand" of the free market at work.

[ian807]

And does this surprise anyone.

Does anyone seriously think that the world's wealthiest people give a rat's patoot? Money is money, and to them, we are merely expendable peasants.

[americandream]

When greed is a virtue, is it any surprise?

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ian807', 'A')nd does this surprise anyone.

Does anyone seriously think that the world's wealthiest people give a rat's patoot? Money is money, and to them, we are merely expendable peasants.

[Revi]

Remember Iran/Contra? Drug money has always underpinned the world financial system. All wars are for G.O.D., gold oil or drugs.

At least they finally did something useful with the money.

Our whole Las Vegas economy may have come crashing down otherwise.

[Ferretlover]

Guideline for the Economics & Finance Forum:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')color=blue] Economics & Finance[/color] Discussions about the economic and financial ramifications of hydrocarbon depletion.

[Tanada]

Based on the news reports I have heard this last week over half of world population does indeed now live in urban settings.

What all those people do to support their existence was not talked about much, but I know in Detroit the majority of the population inside the city are either retired or living with public assistance income.

[SeaGypsy]

Over the weekend the United Nations attacked (backed attacks on) multiple Rwandan rebel camps in eastern Democratic Republic (sic) of the Congo.
What does this mean? Is the USA being surplanted as the resource warrior for the world? It sure looks that way.
Congo was once the worlds biggest supplier of Cobalt, as well as a major source of copper and nickel.
It is believed by many to have the world's largest reserves of cobalt, a key resource in specialised electronics as well as the well known blue glass and pottery.
Is this a one off or the thin edge of the wedge? I don't recall the UN instigating offensive missions. What happened to it's peacekeeper role?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... ion=justin

Edit to add this prelude from the LA Times

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/29 ... -2010jan29

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')January 29, 2010
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo is close to losing all credibility. On its 10-year watch, millions of Congolese have been killed or displaced, raped or forced to toil in mines for precious minerals. The U.N. troops, known as MONUC, certainly are not to blame for those atrocities or for the country's civil strife -- rebels from neighboring Rwanda are mostly at fault. But Congolese soldiers fighting the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, or FDLR, also have been accused of persecuting civilians, and they, unlike the rebels, have had the logistical support of troops provided by the U.N.