At the risk of repeating myself, I want to put yesterday’s post in a wider context:

As spring makes demonstrating less uncomfortable, Europeans are taking to the streets by the tens of thousands to protest the austerity measures their leaders have come up with to combat the crisis induced by the 2008 financial debacle.

In a tribute to the movement that began more than a year ago in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, and and is still on-going, yesterday, tens of thousands, fed up with 25% unemployment, gathered in Madrid’s main square, Puerta del Sol and and in 80 other cities across Spain.

In London, hundreds of protesters gathered outside St Paul’s Cathedral, where an Occupy protest camp was removed in February, and marched peacefully through the financial district.

Smaller protests have taken place in the Portuguese capital Lisbon and in Germany’s financial centre, Frankfurt.  German demonstrations come as the 13.2 million people eligible to vote for the state legislature in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous and industrialized state, elect a new regional government.  Not all Germans agree with Chancellor Merkel’s austerity measures, which have included greater freedom to fire workers, putting about one fourth in temp positions.

1,000 marchers converged on Tel Aviv to protest the cost of living, with marches also reported in other Israeli cities. Prime Minister Netanyahu has just consolidated his power by bringing the main opposition party Kadima on board, none too soon to undertake domestic reforms. Fareed Zakaria noted today that he can no longer invoke the fragility of his support to delay making peace with the Palestinians, while Iran’s Ahmedinejad noted that this failure represents a greater danger to Israel than any military attack.

The common thread in all these situations is epitomized by the oft heard criticism of the international Occupy Movement of failing to offer concrete proposals for change. But at this point popular pressure, combined with brutal government crackdowns, may make the emphasis on reform too little, too late.

If you think this is an exaggeration, Iraq Veterans Against the War are circulating an on-line petition asking the commander of the Illinois National Guard to refrain from sending in the National guard when they gather for the NATO Summit, where they will as I wrote yesterday:

“…..ceremoniously return our NATO service medals to denounce the disastrous 11-year war in Afghanistan.

The Illinois National Guard Deputy Director of Domestic Operations recently stated publicly that he stands ready to deploy National Guard troops on peaceful NATO protesters.

Send an email to Major General L. Enyart, head of the Illinois National Guard, and urge him not to activate troops against fellow veterans.”

A few minutes after I signed the petition and hit ‘send’ I received the following email:

‘Symantec Mail Security detected prohibited content in a message sent from your address. (SYM:13657982411663453303).’  

It was from the IL-ExchangeService@ng.army.mil, Recipient, MG Enyart.

When I went to look for the Vets’ email in my inbox, it had been remotely moved to the trash.

While European protesters have inherited a long tradition of solidarity, the heritage of American activists emphasizes individualism. As a result, the latter campaigned for changes to SOPA in the name of the free sharing of artistic works. It was, it seems, less motivated to prevent the Patriot Act from assimilating citizen organizing through “wire, oral and electronic communications’ to terrorism, which brings us back to the beginning of this post.

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Today I received the following email from Iraq Veterans Against War .

“Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will return our medals in protest of the NATO Summit May 20 in Chicago. Help us make sure that the Illinois National Guard is not deployed against us.

Iraq Veterans Against the War and our Afghanistan Veterans Against the War Committee will lead a unity march with the Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda. At the end of the march, we will ceremoniously return our NATO service medals to denounce the disastrous 11-year war in Afghanistan.

The Illinois National Guard Deputy Director of Domestic Operations recently stated publicly that he stands ready to deploy National Guard troops on peaceful NATO protesters.

Send an email to Major General L. Enyart, head of the Illinois National Guard, and urge him not to activate troops against fellow veterans.

This is going to be a peaceful demonstration to show that U.S. veterans and the American people say no more endless wars that destroy hundreds of thousands of lives, strip the humanity of all involved, and drain trillions of dollars from our communities that could be used for schools, health clinics, housing, and to create jobs.

But we are concerned that the National Guard may be used against us and other marchers. Help ensure that no service member is mobilized against fellow veterans, the people of Chicago, and peaceful people demonstrating against the failed policies of NATO’s generals.

Respectfully urge him him to refuse to activate Illinois National Guard members against those exercising their first amendment right to peacefully demonstrate against NATO’s war in Afghanistan.

For more information about the NATO Summit protest, read our full Call to Action and view News clip about the upcoming action.

In Solidarity,

IVAW NATO Action Team

Almost as soon as I clicked ‘send’, the following email appeared in my inbox.

“Symantec Mail Security detected prohibited content in a message sent from your address (SYM:13657982411663453303)

Subject of the message: Stand with the people of Chicago and your fellow veterans.

Recipient of the message: “william.enyart@us.army.mil” <william.enyart@us.army.mil>”

Wanting to reopen the message from IVAW, I saw that it had disappeared from my inbox.  It had been remotely moved to the trash.

Americans know little about French political life, and many readers may be to young to have been aware of the 1981 French Presidential election which brought the socialists to power for the first time since the the late nineteen fifties.

Francois Mitterrand’s election was greeted with the same euphoria as Francois Hollande’s, and the bouquet of red roses presented to Hollande upon his victory was a clear reference to the symbol of the Socialist Party under Mitterrand.

Although Mitterrand served two seven year terms, during which many social programs were enacted, his presidency is remembered as the caviar left.

If Francois Hollande is to garner a different reputation, he will have to continue as Mr. Normal, his chosen nickname. That shouldn’t be too difficult: until now he has zipped around Paris in a three-wheeled scooter, and is reported to never have worn smart suits, even when he was a graduate student at the posh National School of Administration.

Hollande’s three degrees – administration, politics, economy – having made him a policy wonk, they should serve him well as he launches his campaign to bring Europe back from the brink, opposing German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s insistence on austerity.

Francois Mitterrand was elected at the end of the growth period known as the Thirty Glorious Years. For sure, life for his socialist successor will not be a bed of roses.

Francois Hollande who tonight won the French presidency seventeen years after the end of the Mitterrand presidency, has been a party insider for his entire career.  A graduate of three major post-graduate schools – political, business and administration – he has never held high elected office, but is in the words of the French English language channel a household word in France.

The fact that Hollande had four children with another French Socialist leader, Segolene Royale without marrying her, shows that at least on a personal level, he lives his convictions.  He is expected to continue his current relationship while inhabiting the Elysee Palace, something the American right will surely seize upon.

Astonishingly, the well-known Washington Post columnist and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for international commentaries confessed tonight that he has no idea who Francois Hollande really is.  For someone who spent considerable time in France, this is either shocking – or an illustration of American indifference to socialist leaders.

For the rest of the world, the most significant thing about Hollande’s election is his determination to re-roll back the center-right rollback of Francois Mitterrand’s social measures, and to work on better integration of France’s Muslim population. Significantly,  the flags of France’s ex-North African colonies, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, can be seen floatingat the post-election rally in Place de la Bastille, where one could hear the typical throaty celebratory cry.

With Europe in full-blown economic crisis, Hollande will confront German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her determination to impose more austerity measures than pro-growth policies.  Already, on France 24, pundits are criticizing his agenda, especially those associated with British or American institutions.

One French commentator noted that he and President Obama have similar social agendas, which isn’t doing the American President any favors.

What happens in the coming months in a country where the extreme right-wing National Front received 18% of the vote in the first round of this election should be of particular interest to the American Occupy Movement: Having finally succeeded in bringing American labor to celebrate May 1st as the internationally recognized workers’ holiday, its next task will be to make the French battle to reinstate the left’s social policies an example to its followers.

The world is alive with revolts, regime change and revolutions – but also presidential elections.  Russia just had one, Egypt is trying to organize one, France will vote in a runoff this Sunday, May 6.  As America finally joins the rest of the world in celebrating the workers’ holiday on May 1st, and the Occupy movement picks up steam again, the French presidential election in which a socialist is tipped to win provides a unique occasion for voters to become aware of the benefits they can only aspire to, but which have been available to the French and other Europeans since the end of World War II.

Before reviewing Hollande’s’ platform, readers need to know that there are twelve political parties represented in the French Parliament:

• Union for a Popular Movement (313) Socialist Party (186) New Centre (22) Radical Party (18) French Communist Party (17) Radical Party of the Left (8) Europe Écologie–The Greens (3) Democratic Movement (3) Left Party (3) Movement for France (2) Arise the Republic (2) National Centre of Independents and Peasants (2) Citizen and Republican Movement (1)

The existence of so many parties is considered a disadvantage. In the case of France has led to a sometimes dizzying succession of Prime Ministers, and half a dozen constitutions since the Revolution of 1789.  But it can be argued that at any given moment, the political landscape is more in synch with society than one which is hemmed in by a 200 year old constitution that has been amended only 27 times.

This year, the French Socialist Party and the Radical Party of the Left jointly held the first ever open primary, in which participants were required donate at least one Euro and sign a pledge to the values of the Left to be eligible. The audacity of commitment!

Before we look at Francois Hollande’s platform, let me mention a few of the benefits that I have been familiar with living in France for a total of 28 years, beginning in 1947 and ending in 1999, (with extended periods in several other countries):

1) Near free health care: a modest co-payment for doctors’ visits, hospital, rehab (including medical massages.  Reasonable co-pays for dental and eye care.

In 1981, I had emergency surgery.  A social workers visited me in hospital to inquire whether my two teen-age children needed to be taken care of, and offered me a three week stay in a convalescent facility at no charge.

2) Workplace benefits: Did you ever wonder how there can be so many restaurants in France? This is partly thanks to the fact that companies which do not have a cafeteria must provide restaurant vouchers so that employees can eat out at low cost.  The arrangement not only makes for a pleasant break in the daily routine, but keeps restaurants in business.

3) Family benefits: Regardless of income, all French families with school-age children receive a monthly benefit, depending on the number of children and their ages. This was instituted after the Second World War in order to boost the birthrate. The lack of an income ceiling has been the subject of fierce debate, but France’s upper classes  are determined to hang on to this benefit, which allows them to increase the percentage of the population having the ‘right’ ideas.) Families receive an extra benefit before the start of the fall term to help with supplies.  Francois Hollande promises to raise this amount by 25%.

Now to some of the highlights of the Socialist candidate’s platform:

With respect to health insurance, Hollande would again make hospitals public service institutions, reversing their assimilation to the private sector under Sarkozy. Hollande also intends to institute greater access to medical care in the provinces, with the goal of making travel to the nearest facility take no more than half an hour. Hollande promises to limit the amount doctors can charge for their services when operating outside the standard fee system, and to encourage lower prescription prices.  He will also propose that terminally ill patients suffering physical or psychological pain that cannot be alleviated be allowed to die with dignity. These are good examples of the way alternations in power between left and right affect everyday life.

The Socialist candidate also promises to create a public investment bank, and a special savings account whose assets would be used to encourage small business.

In another move that would be unheard of in the United States, Hollande promises not to privatize the electric company, trains, or post office, and to call for a European directive to protect the public sector; he promises to protect small farmers vis a vis industrial food distribution channels, and to promote the modernization of the fishing industry.

France has a large pubic sector, and Hollande intends to protect it, reversing Sarkozy’s policy of not replacing every other retiree.

In terms of income and taxes, French revenues above 150 000 Euros (about 175,000 Dollars) will be taxed at 45%. Those who have accumulated 42 years of social security taxes will again be able to retire at 60, instead of 62, as under Sarkozy.

Hollande will also propose that companies limit remuneration disparities to 1-20. He promises to combat racial profiling, and to hire 60,000 people in the education sector, for which he proposes many reforms.

If they win the election, the socialists will reinstate rent control, and promote construction of low income housing, making state-owned land available to local communities.

With respect to finance, they will forbid banks to trade with customer money and create a tax on financial transactions.  (This latter, known as the Toobin Tax, has been in discussion in France since the early nineteen eighties…) Hollande also proposes to review the value of the Euro vis a vis the dollar and the Yuan, and calls for a new international monetary policy.

The socialist presidential candidate wants to reduce French nuclear energy from 75% to 50% by 2025 and promote renewable energy solutions, as well as instituting progressive rates for electric gas and water consumption so that basic needs can be met without bankrupting low income families.

This is a typical social democratic platform, not unlike those of socialist candidates in other European countries, which come in way ahead of the United States on quality of life indices.

It’s true that most people work for the state for about half a year (as a self-employed translator I calculated that my earnings went to the state until about July 10th).  And while it is not a good idea to get behind in one’s payments, when all is said and done, most French working people feel that the security they get for their taxes is well worth the burden. That security includes the knowledge that even when the 1% are in power, they can only nibble away at long accepted benefits for the many.

This morning I tweeted this: “iPad etc: fawning over pictures, Americans ignore war famine climate change and government destruction of their rights, including internet.”

Tonight I find this in my email:  www.tomdispatch.com/post/175532/tomgram%3A_lewis_lapham%2C_machine-made_news/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=683deec048-TD_Lapham4_22_2012&utm_medium=email#more.

When discussing the ‘threat’ of the Islamization of Europe, it is useful to be aware of some historical facts, as well as of 20th-21st century South/North population pressures.

What is known historically as the Muslim conquest lasted from the 8th (eighth) century to the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922.  By 750 A.D., successive Muslim Empires encompassed North Africa and the Saudi Arabian peninsula, whence they stretched to Northern India.  Muslims conquered India between the 13th and 16th centuries, converting part of the population from Hinduism.  (In 1947, after India became independent, part of India’s Muslim population was transferred to the new sovereign state of Pakistan.)

Between 1095 and 1291 European Catholic monarchs organized no fewer than seven Crusades in a futile attempt to wrest the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

Undeterred, Muslims conquered Eastern Europe all the way to Hungary: anyone having lived in Hungary cannot escape learning that two fateful battles against the Muslims were fought in the town of Mohacs, in Southwestern Hungary in 1526 and 1687, marking the beginning and the end of Ottoman domination of that country.

What relevance do these facts have for current efforts to prevent the Islamization of Europe?

The first is that by the time the Ottoman Empire fell, Islam had been a powerful force for more than a thousand years.  The second is that at present, after a decline of less than a century, Islam is once again a rising force, as the second largest world religion (23% of the world population versus 33% for Christianity).

Add to this South/North population pressures, and it is difficult to believe that Europe will remain a predominantly Christian region forever.  Islam is the largest religion in Africa, just across the Mediterranean, which is home to one fourth of the world’s Muslim population.

Presently, the French presidential election nears, in which immigration, mainly from Africa, is a hot issue; a Norwegian stands trial for having assassinated some 70 people in cold blood to ‘protect’ his country from multiculturalism; the United States continues to indulge in wars against Muslim countries of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, while its citizens are protected from prosecution by ‘stand your ground’ laws that facilitate racial killings, a few more statistics may possibly help forestall at least some bloodshed:

I have written elsewhere that Caucasians constitute an absolute minority on the face of the earth.  But the world Caucasian is a loaded term, but let us say for the sake of argument that it refers to populations who are neither Asian, Indian nor Black.  A website called nationsonline.org divides the world population according to continent:

For a total world population of just under 7 billion, Africa accounts for over 1 billion, Asia over 4 billion, the Americas, 900 million, Europe, 739 million and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand) 35 million. That makes ‘Caucasians’ barely 2/5ths of the world’s population.

Besides being the dominant religion in the Middle East, Islam is the religion of forty percent of the population of southeast Asia, and is the fastest growing religion worldwide.

In its quest for dwindling resources the world needs to avoid waging what is surely destined to be (once again) a losing battle over God.

Yet again my apologies for not writing.  Just want o let people know that Julian Assange will start a program on RT (see your local publi ctelevision channel) this coming Tuesday, with a presentation tomorrow Monday.

As things go from bad to worse, here is a joke is from the Robert Anton Wilson website, which I found thanks to reader Tom Tom:

From: hondalover11279
To: Aaron Leitch

Operator: Thank you for calling Pizza
Hut. May I have your national ID
number?

Customer: Hi, I’d like to place an
order.

Operator: I must have your NIDN first,
sir.

Customer: My National ID Number, yeah,
hold on, eh, it’s 6102049998-45-54610.

Operator: Thank you Mr. Smith. I see you
live at 1742 Meadowland Drive, and the
phone number is 494-2366. Your office
number over at Lincoln Insurance is 745-
2302 and your cell number is 266-2566.
Email address is smith@home.net Which
number are you calling from?

Customer: Huh? I’m at home. Where’d you
get all this information?

Operator: We’re wired into the HSS, sir.

Customer: The HSS, what is that?

Operator: We’re wired into the Homeland
Security System, sir. This will add only
15 seconds to your ordering time.

Customer: (sighs) Oh well, I’d like to
order a couple of your All Meat
Special pizzas.

Operator: I don’t think that’s a good
idea, sir.

Customer: Whaddya mean?

Operator: Sir, your medical records and
commode sensors indicate that you’ve got
very high blood pressure and extremely
high cholesterol. Your National Health
Care provider won’t allow such an
unhealthy choice .

Customer: What?!?! What do you
recommend, then?

Operator: You might try our low-fat
Soybean Pizza.I’m sure you’ll like
it.

Customer: What makes you think I’d like
something like that?

Operator: Well, you checked out ‘Gourmet
Soybean Recipes’ from your local library
last week, sir. That’s why I made the
suggestion.

Customer: All right, all right. Give me
two family-sized ones, then

Operator: That should be plenty for you,
your wife and your four kids.
Your 2 dogs can finish the crusts, sir.
Your total is $49.99.

Customer: Lemme give you my credit card
number.

Operator: I’m sorry sir, but I’m afraid
you’ll have to pay in cash. Your credit
card balance is over its limit.

Customer: I’ll run over to the ATM and
get some cash before your driver gets
here.

Operator: That won’t work either, sir.
Your checking account is overdrawn also.

Customer: Never mind! Just send the
pizzas. I’ll have the cash ready. How
long will it take?

Operator: We’re running a little behind,
sir. It’ll be about 45 minutes, sir. If
you’re in a hurry you might want to
pick’em up while you’re out getting the
cash, but then, carrying pizzas on a
motorcycle can be a little awkward.

Customer: Wait! How do you know I ride a
scooter?

Operator: It says here you’re in arrears
on your car payments, so your
car got repo’ed. But your Harley’s paid
for and you just filled the tank
yesterday.

Customer: Well, I’ll be a #%#^^&$%^$@#

Operator: I’d advise watching your
language, sir. You’ve already got a
July 4, 2003, conviction for cussing out
a cop and another one I see here in
September for contempt at your hearing
for cussing at a judge. Oh yes, I see
here that you just got out from a 90 day
stay in the State Correctional Facility.
Is this your first pizza since your
return to society?

Customer: (speechless)

Operator: Will there be anything else,
sir?

Customer: Yes, I have a coupon for a
free 2 liter of Coke.

Operator: I’m sorry sir, but our ad’s
exclusionary clause prevents us from
offering free soda to diabetics. The New
Constitution our country started using
in 2006 prohibits this.
Thank you for calling Pizza Hut!

That’s what I heard this morning on RT, the Russian English language news channel available in many parts of the U.S. on public stations.  Though not mentioned on either RTs website or those of CNN or the BBC, this is very big news.

According to the Brotherhood’s website /www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=29843, delegates held talks starting Monday of this week with U.S. news media and think tanks.  Today they are holding a conference on Islamist movements in power at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

The delegation will also participate in other public events at Georgetown University, the US Chamber of Commerce as well as meeting with the Egyptian community and US officials.

Meanwhile, Brotherhood leader and founder of the “Egyptian Business Development Association” (EBDA), Hassan Malik has been reassuring investors that their money will be safe in Egypt.  (On March 24 he organized an international conference ‘to support Egypt’s economy through business’).

The Brotherhood’s new Freedom and Justice Party won a plurality in the recent post-Mubarak parliamentary elections, and yesterday it announced that it would run a candidate for president, reversing a previous decision. In other news from the website:

(The Chairman of the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood), ‘Dr. Morsi asserted that the FJP puts the Palestinian issue at the forefront of its interests, because it is an issue linked to the national security of Egypt and the Arab and Muslim world. He highlighted the importance of overcoming the differences between Palestinian factions, working to complete national reconciliation efforts, and ending the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. These, he added, are key stepping stones on the way of defending Al-Aqsa Mosque and liberating the Holy City of Jerusalem.

‘Further, the FJP Chairman said that the Palestinian issue and the siege of Gaza were two key factors in sparking Egypt’s January 25 Revolution, which confirms the great importance of the Palestinian cause to the Egyptian Government and all the Egyptian people. Dr. Morsi added that this prompted FJP members in the People’s Assembly and Shura Council to push for lifting the siege on the Gaza Strip, and the visit by the Egyptian parliament’s Arab Affairs Committee to Gaza….noting the party’s support for providing the people of Gaza with electricity and diesel fuel and other necessities. Dr. Morsi also pointed that members of Egyptian People’s Assembly have engaged many parliamentary mechanisms to warn of the danger of Judaization operations carried out in the Holy City of Jerusalem.’

In other words what is probably the Muslim world’s largest and oldest organization (founded in 1928), wants to reassure the Egyptian street of its support for the Palestinian cause, while attracting economic support from the American business community.  An undertaking that will be worth watching.

The piecemeal nature of the information that reaches the American public prevents us from seeing discrete events within a larger framework, the ‘big picture’ that I have been writing about for years, and which, by the way, is now the title of Thom Hartmann’s excellent show on Russia’s English language TV channel, RT.

What is happening across the Middle East?  1) Our client governments use increasingly brutal methods to keep their people down; 2) The United States tries to prevent these governments from losing power, not mainly because we need their oil, but because a radical shift toward any kind of people power in that region puts Israel in real danger (as opposed to the boogeyman dangers it has been crying wolf about for decades: first Iraq, now Iran).  (Likewise, Russian support for Syria may be about retaining port on the Mediterranean, or a carved-in-stone policy of not supporting enemies of the state, but it is also about supporting the ‘front-line state’.)

One can only wonder why Israel is focusing so obsessively on Iran’s  putative nuclear program, when it is surrounded, if not by hostile regimes, then certainly by hostile populations.  Israel has been brutally occupying Palestinian lands for decades, acting as a veritable Goliath vis a vis a weaker Arab people, and the Arab street know that its rulers have been American puppets for decades, as part of the U.S.’s commitment to defend Israel.

As they fixate on the supposed deleterious influence of Islam, our politicians take no account of ideology. Across the Muslim world, the 99% wants more equity, while we want docile regimes run for and by the 1%.  On Israel’s southern border, it is no surprise that the Muslim Brotherhood is defying the military rulers of Egypt after seeming to support them after Mubarak’s ouster: the Brotherhood’s new generation of leaders are more interested in seeing their country break free of American domination than in checking on headscarves, while the military would be inclined to continue Mubarak’s subservience to the U.S., its weapons supplier.

As far as I have seen, no news channel has viewed the Syrian crisis in terms of the Arab world’s greater or lesser hostility toward Israel.  The Assad regime has constituted a resolute enemy on Israel’s northern border, and Israel would feel more secure if Syria were run by American puppets.

American nervousness over the composition of the rebel movement is not about whether it is democratic, but about the attitude toward Israel of those who could replace Assad.  We would like to cherry pick the political figures who will replace Assad, but we really have no way of knowing which ones will go along with Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

It is truly amazing that the future of health care in the U.S. will be determined by the opinion of the Supreme Court concerning the meaning of our 236 year old Constitution.

Surely, the Founding Fathers who argued over Article One, Section Eight, which includes the Commerce Clause, could not have foreseen that their concern with regulating trade between the colonial states, the Indians and foreign powers, would one day be used to deprive a sigificant minority of Amerians of health care.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the United States is unique among nations in being governed by an ancient document.  Americans are made to worship the stability of their system of government, contrasted to the succession of constitutions that have typified other nations.  But there comes a point where ‘stability’ becomes paralysis. The campaign to amend the Constitution so that it reflects the modern world should get a boost from the Supreme Court’s decision as to whether President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (known derogatorily as Obamacare) is constitutional – even if, by some miracle, it goes against the challengers.

The tendency of the mainstream media to pretend that anything the political establishment does is okay, is as damaging as its tendency to ignore political actions by other powers.  A couple of years ago I noted in this blog that then-President Putin was calling for the dollar to no longer be the world’s reserve currency.  Now the BRICS countries (the major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are holding their fourth annual summit in New Delhi, at which they are actually discussing the creation of alternatives to the Western dominated IMF and World Bank.

Such a project might have appeared as nothing more than a pipe-dream a few years ago, but the financial meltdown – better weathered by the BRICS countries than by the West, by the way – is making it ever more likely.

Stay tuned to places like France 24, (France’s English language service which still pronounces its name in French) RT, or Al-Jazeera – all of which you can find on the web – to know what’s really going on in a world where progressive change rather than paralyzing tradition is operating.