LyrArc Article Gist
About 2.8 million people have registered to vote for a 200 member Congress in the first elections in Libya after 4 decades.

LyrArc Article Gist
This report in the WSJ gives the background and positions taken by Patriarch Krill of the Russian Orthodox Church, and his support for the war in Ukraine as part of Russian lands nationalism. Russian lands nationalism is an idea that comes from the beginnings of the Russian version of Christianity that had its origins in Kviv Ukraine in the 10th century. Patriarch Krill has had a varied role questioning some some state policies and then backing off and supporting the state says WSJ. In 2011 patriarch Krill stood up for protesters critical of manipulation in parliamentary elections that year. Patriarch Krill grew up in the years of Soviet rule and was 24 in 1970 when he began his work in the church. He was rector of a seminary in Leningrad by 1984 and after being critical of the Soviets and war in Afghanistan was sent to Smolensk says this report in WSJ. After he returned he worked with the Soviet state, and after voicing concerns in 2011 about parliamentary elections described as manipulated he has supported the Russian state as it becomes assertive about Russian lands nationalism. To understand the Orthodox Church in Russia one has to know its presence in the post Soviet period. About 63% of Russians belong to the Orthodox Church. It also includes Ukrainians. After Crimean invasion by Russia the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that makes up one third of the Russian Orthodox parishes was recognized as a separate church by Patriarch Bartholomev of Constantinople. Patriarch Bartholomev and Pope Francis the two leaders of the eastern and western churches in Constantinople and Rome have been critical of Patriarch Krill and his support for the war and the idea of Russian lands nationalism. Since the war some parishes in Russia have signed a letter opposing the killing of brothers in Christ and one parish leader was fined $500 for his statements. There is now intense debate among Russians about what this war means in bringing conflict on brotherly peoples about their preferences in 2022 for aligning with Europeans in the western part of Europe. For most of Europe in the 21st century there is a big change, in the countries near the Baltic sea in Northern Europe, in countries in the middle of Europe, in Eastern Europe, the 21st century is seen as a time when states and peoples are making their own choices about freedom and what their preferences are particularly the young people. They no longer understand or conform to ideas of the earlier period or centuries. And this is what has made Ukrainian young people oblivious about what Russian lands nationalism means and its relevance today. Buddhism is today not prevalent in South Korea a democratic state and in China a Communist state in the way it existed for centuries. For it to be relevant people need to begin to believe in it as in Japan or Sri Lanka or Thailand. In the 21st century young people are making different choices and this may well be where the Ukraine war shows that people's choices count particularly in the 21st century, and it has little to do with the west or the US or NATO or even Russia. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Zarkadakis points to modern Greece's burden of history since the struggle for freedom from the Turks in 1821. The resurgence of European interest in ancient Greece, he says, burdened modern Greece with a narrative of their identity based on romantic and idealistic notions of Europeans in other nations. It also burdened ordinary Greek people with learning three Greek languages, including the language of the ancient Greeks. Failure to live up to the expectations of the intellectual classes of Europe from their perceptions of a distant past led them to look down on the people of Greece- as evident in perceptions in the German media about Greeks as lazy (the Mediterrranean peoples and lifestyles not as hardworking as the Germans) and liars (the national accounts being largely fudged till a Dutchman at the IMF presented the correct picture in 2009), and cheats (extensive tax evasion). He says this ignores the national traits of Christian Orthodox (which would suggest "mercy" or significant forgiveness of debt when debt reaches a point of becoming uncollectable) the economic history of successive defaults in 1893 and 1932 (lack of economic maturity), a strong cultural trend that tends to circumvent the governing authority. The desire to modernize Greece of the intellectual classes and governing politicians in Greece, and the dependence on the European Union as the sole guarantor of such modernization, has he points out led to a sort of arrogance that ignores the anxieties and fears of the ordinary people of Greece. This was evident in the way efforts to get a referendum on the austerity plans imposed on Greece were quashed by EU officials and the Greek politicians. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Mark Gilbert, a visiting associate professsor of European History at the John Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in Bologna, describes the crisis of the political culture in Italy that goes deeper than the economic crisis and has lasted for most of the post war period. Gilbert says the political parties have avoided implementing financial discipline and opening up the economy for most of the last two decades, except for brief periods, and did not take the opportunity of joining the eurozone to make serious changes. Italy has many parties with the Democratic Party having 25-30% support in the polls and Berluconi's People of Liberty (PdL) having the support of 20-25% of voters. There is also the Northern League, the Third Pole of centrist Catholic parties, the Italy of Values party, and the Ecology Freedom party. Italy lacks a national consensus on making the changes. The risk is that Monti will not have enough time to make the changes, as new elections may be held by April 2013. His government was formed as a government of technocrats led by former EU commissioner Mario Monti, after President Napolitano forced the PdL, the PD, and the Third Pole to work together to support the new government. Changes are needed in the legal system, local government, the health sector, and in the university system. One factor favoring Monti is that 90% of Italians voters are dissatisfied with the political parties, according to Italian think tank ISPI. For Italy the EU crisis has in this sense a positive aspect as it has forced Italy to come to grips with economic and cultural changes under a leadership from outside the political system....

LyrArc Article Gist
This op-ed in the WSJ calls for increased trade and investment and closer U.S. ties with Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean island nation of 21 million people at the southernmost tip of India. This follows the election of Maithripala Sirisena as the new president in the recent election. Formerly called Ceylon, this nation and India share a long tradition of democratic processes and free press since independence for almost 7 decades. These are the only 6 nations with British influence that have preserved democratic processes and mutiparty systems, including a vibrant free press, gradually established during the period of British rule- the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Ceylon or Sri Lanka as it is now called. These institutions were transferred to 2 nations during a short period of American rule- Japan and Germany. Western Europe, and Eastern European countries since the fall of the Berlin Wall have joined this core group of countries. All these countries have a common bond and interest in building and strengthening democratic institutions and shared prosperity in a larger global neighborhood. Other countries in the British Commonwealth have struggled to develop multiparty systems and free press such as Malaysia, Ghana and Kenya, or had periods of military rule as Nigeria. Indonesia and South Korea have emerged from periods of military rule and are developing effective democratic processes to join what is now a large community of nations with a common interest in democratic process, truly functioning democracy, respect for the opposition, and freedom of people to express their views to participate in the working of government....

LyrArc Article Gist
Zardari is described as "very, very weak" by the administration, and his popularity is only in the double digits compared to 83% says the NYT. From the standpoint of democratically elected government it is important to note that Zardari himself was never directly elected, and is highly unpopular and weak, and known for corruption. If anew election was held today its highly unlikely that he would be elected. Even Benazir Bhutto's popularity may be aresult of years of military rule, and the efforts by General Musharraf to suppress freedoms and prolong his rule. Her party came to power in addition from a sympathy vote after the Musharraf government did little to provide the securtiy that could have prevented her from being shot at an election rally. With the lack of good alternatives -not the military which has provoked wars with India, not the Bhutto parties which have lasted for only short periods marked by corruption, and its not clear if the Sharif governments have done much better- its hard to say how the people of Pakistan can register their voice for responsibile democratic government which works diligently to bring services in healthcare, education, and build infrastructure, for Pakistan to keep up with the region's development....

LyrArc Article Gist
The amazing story of Abdel Hakim Belhaj who is seen as a foe by the CIA and turned over to Gaddafi's regime from Bangkok, followed by six years in Libyan jails. He is in the Western mountains near Tripoli leading a brigade that enters Tripoli. Because of the military discipline and experience gained in Afghanistan, Belhaj is put in charge of Tripoli by the Libyan Transitional Council. He looks to the future and is grateful to NATO and the U.S. for freeing his country. He holds no rancor for the past and looks to the future.

LyrArc Article Gist
Lehman has repackaged about $2.8 billion of leveraged buyout debt and loans that were difficult to sell into an investmentvehicle called "Freedom" which in turn issued debt securities backed by the loans. A bit of financial engineering which got investment grade ratings from Standard and Poors and Moodly's. Some of this was given to the Fed in exchange for loans from the Fed from its newly created lending facility. The borrowing from this new lending facility has been robust which is a good sign for the credit markets functioning.

LyrArc Article Gist
Mr Obama's vision of a nuclear weapons free world going back to his days at Columbia University. There as a senior he took Prof. Michael Baron's seminar on international politics and American policy. In a paper for that course Mr Obama analyzed how a President might go about negotiating nuclear arms reductions with Russia. Baron says Obama has been thinking about these issues for a long time. About this time Obama wrote an essay in the Columbia Sundial student newspaper. This was the time when the Greens movement for a nuclear weapons free world was strong in Germany, and Reagan was pushing for a nuclear arms development race with Russia. The article was titled "Breaking the War Mentality." As a senator Obama joined Senator Dick Lugar -who has worked hard for non-proliferation- on a trip to Russia to monitor efforts by Ruusia to scrap nuclear arms and secure atomic materials from theft or diversion. He allied himself with four Reagan period veterans Kissinger, Shultz, Perry and Sam Nunn, who in a 2007 WSJ op-ed article, argued that it was time- as the headline for the article said -to work for "A World Free of Nuclear Weapons." The steps in practice Obama plans to take are the following. A Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, which would bar all nations signing it from making fuel for their atomic bombs. Rewriting crucial provisions of the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, strengthening inspection provisions and closing loopholes that let N. Korea drop out in 2003. Countries would have to give up the freedom to make fuel for reactors and instead buy it from an international fuel bank. Global consensus and prevention when it comes to deviant states hoping to enhance their own security, or regimes or terrorist groups, will be crucial in setting up a new system for a nuclear weapons free world....

LyrArc Article Gist
Ike (President Eisenhower) quotes Eric Hoffer in his book "The True Believer", for a longshoreman's wisdom and insight. Writing to a veteran who asks Ike why the lack of certainty in his voice in 1959 as he nears the end of his second term. "Faith in a holy cause, is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves." Ike tells Biggs that, " in a democracy debate is the breath of life." That there is no universal degree of certainty, the confidence in in their understanding of our problems, the clear guidance from ahigher authority. This is important to keep in mind today as one looks at the way leaders from those in finance, industry and central banking and in government who acted as though there was this universal degree of certainty about the financial system and its workings, always to the good, and for the way in which the policies were handled in dealing with other countries. Its also true when one looks at the situation from other countries such as the period under Gandhi and Nehru in India, or Mao and Chou en Lai in China. There also what appeared to have universal certainty did not turn out thay way and policies had to be reversed and legacies examined. What Biggs wanted was "someone to speak for us and to back him completely if the statement was made in truth." And Ike's response was to say that dictatorial systems, and here one can include systems with figures who created their own sense of awe and hero image, make one contribution to their people that leads them to support such systems. And this was "the freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions."...

LyrArc Article Gist
Polls by Renato Mannheimer show popular support for the People of Freedom party of Mr. Berlusconi, which won 37% of the vote in 2008, is now down to 17% This comes after a series of corruption scandals. The most recent involves embezzlement of 1.7 million dollars by a politician from the Rome-Lazio regional government. New parties are being formed which are drawing increasing support. The Five Star Movement of Beppe Grillo, a former comedian, which opposes being in the eurozone and calls it a "noose" for Italy shows 18% support, according to a poll by the SWG agency. In that poll the Italy of Values party had 6% support, and the Left Ecology party 6%. Mannheimer says only one third of Italian voters are now in favor of the large established parties, indicating a big change is underway in Italian politics. The new parties are also critical of prime minister Monti's policies. This happens just as political and business leaders in Italy are calling for Monti to run for office to continue policy changes he has made to improve Italy's competitiveness and lead to economic recovery. Monti, a former EU Commissioner, was appointed as prime minister after pressure from German chancellor Merkel and the EU led to a loss of parliamentary support for Mr Berlusconi with key members of his own party defecting. After passing legislation for changes to Italian labor laws and making other shanges to improve Italy's competitiveness since taking office in November 2011, Monti is now seen in Italy, and outside Italy in EU circles, as the only person who can lead Italy out of the economic crisis; even though his reforms and austerity measures have not proved popular....

LyrArc Article Gist
Comedian and politician Beppe Grillo, from Genoa, who leads the Five Star Movement party. This party has increased its support from 4% in 2011 to about 18% in recent opinion polls. Grillo is a moderate liberal who has benefitted from the unpopularity of austerity measures taken by prime minister Mario Monti and the rapidly declining support for Berlusconi's People of Freedom party after recent coruption scandals. He has opposed traditional politics of established parties since 2005 when he pulled together people over social media and the internet. Support for political parties in Italy is rapidly fragmenting with Berlusconi's party dropping to 17% in polls and no party having significant support. In this situation business leaders support a continuation of the Mario Monti government beyond the April elections if no party gets a mandate from voters. Grillo says his movement is similiar to other movements that oppose the euro and austerity measures such as the Marie Le Pen movement in France. It is against this background that the Social Democrats in Germany have united behind Peer Steinbruck, a former finance minister, who has the best chance against Merkel in 2013 elections for chancellor in Germany. Most of the difficult and necessary actions that Merkel and the German public have supported are already taken- the changes in labor laws in Italy, France's 2013 budget that targets 3% deficit in 2013, efforts of Italy, France and Spain to improve competitiveness- and capital markets continue to provide vigilance in this direction, creating a situation where Merkel may have exhausted her effectiveness. This creates an opening for a change in policy in the eurozone that offers more German flexibility on stabilizing the eurozone and supporting the embattled governments of Monti in Italy and Rajoy in Spain facing popular protest and not enjoying the kind of support Monti says France has from Germany....

LyrArc Article Gist
The caretaker government of prime minister Mark Rutte in the Netherlands will commit to following austerity plans in its Stability Program report to the European Union. Elections are now set for September 12, 2012. The government was able to get the support of two smaller left-leaning parties to austerity plans. Opposition parties have questioned the policies and said they will reverse them if elected. Rutte's Liberal party and Jaeger's Christian Democrats, with the help of the Christenunie, D66, and Groenlinks, now hold a slim 2 seat majority in the 150 seat Dutch parliament. The Freedom party that had previously supported Rutte withdrew support for austerity policies that it said would hurt pensioners. The moves help avert a credit ratings drop by the credit ratings agencies leading to a loss of the Dutch triple A credit rating. The measures will increase the sales tax from 19% to 21%, make health care spending cuts and impose a pay freeze on civil servants. Savings achieved will be 11 billion euros. Rutte described his actions as: "the government's respose to the acute crisis in confidence in the financial markets." Earlier in the week Fitch Ratings had threatened to lower the Netherlands credit rating. The measures will reduce the Dutch deficit to 3% in 2013 from 4.5% in 2012 to meet EU fiscal compact rules. The changes to the health system are part of changes advocated by the OECD and the IMF because of surging health care costs for an aging Dutch population. There is concern about the sales tax increase because of its effect on consumer spending, and recent comments by S&P managing directors and others in financial markets emphasize the need for economic growth, as austerity measures by itself are inadequate solutions....

LyrArc Article Gist
Increasing regional tensions with a more assertive Japan and China. U.S. president Obama's so called "pivot to Asia," appears to have little impact. China has tended to look for its own security architecture in Asia that excludes the U.S. U.S. efforts to reduce tensions are being ignored by China in May-June 2014, as China asserts itself in waters that are in dispute with Vietnam. The lack of U.S. influence compares unfavorably with the situation that prevailed since 1900, when the U.S. had the most significant influence in Asian waters. It has more to do with a policy of withdrawal under the Obama administration than U.S. capabilities. The policy of withdrawal in the Middle East comes after much of the sacrifice had been made and the situation in Iraq changed, so that for a much smaller incremental effort the U.S. could have both lived up to its principles and ideals for democracy and freedom as well as win public opinion in the Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East. This withdrawal in the Middle East has given Russia and China the wrong signal leading to more assertive stance in Europe and Asia, and creating uncertainty where little uncertainty existed about U.S. determination. Under whatever terms it is wrapped the policy of the Obama administration is one of withdrawal. It is dangerous because it will mean a more costly effort would be needed under a future administration to restore the situation which prevailed earlier- in which the U.S. has helped create a climate in which the entire region including China and Japan have prospered economically, without the region descending into a competition between Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and India. The Obama administration with its muddled policies has inadvertently created this situation....

LyrArc Article Gist
Paul Bremer the American in charge on the ground in Iraq issued a decree on May 22, 2003 disbanding the Iraqi army, to extirpate all forms of Saddamism and dismantle the intelligence and command centres of the Iraqi military. This was not part of the original invasion plan according to some reports. Bremer's decision sent many of these officers to fight against the Americans as insurgents, cost American lives and lives of the insurgents effectively turning the invasion into a years long war with hit and run insurgents formerly of the Saddam army. Also effectively destroying or weakening the former elements of Saddam's army. In the process it gave Shiites the first hope of living free of Sunni control and Sunnis who wanted no part of Baathist politics and repression their freedom to exercize their rights, it also brought in the turmoil and lack of security, the bombing of Shiite holy sites by politically motivated Sunni elements and Shiite reprisals, that led to effective partition of the country something a long history of ethnic conflicts and colonialism may have already exacerbated long before the arrival of Americans. The documents of the war planning may suggest that keeping the Iraqi army intact was part of the plan but Bremer could not have issued the decree and had Bush back him up unless Bush and Rumsfeld felt the same way about extirpating Saddamism, seeing it in the way Americans treated Nazis and Nazi instituitons after invading Germany and seeing it the way the Americans saw the Japanese militarists and their institutions after the invasion of Japan. The Baathist treatment of the Kurds, the gas attacks on the Kurds, the destruction of Shia in the marshes after the first American invasion, the repression of Sunni and Shiite, were reminiscent of Nazism and Japanese militarism....

LyrArc Article Gist
This editorial in WSJ says the WHO report on the most likely source of the pathogen for the coronavirus lacks credibility. It says the statement by former CDC head Mr. Redfield is more credible when he said last week, that the "I still think the most likely etiology of the pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory." Redfield added that virus transfer to a lab worker is not unusual in such research. Even WHO says it needs more research into the source. This editorial says the Biden administration knows the underlying intelligence and should release it to the public, that it should not accept a whitewash of the whole thing, leaving it as an unknowable. The need to take preventive steps in the future would help the world's population including China and India, the most populous nations in the world with most of the world's population, as well as the  countries in Latin America, North America, Africa, and Europe. Because the brunt of the coronavirus impact was borne by the people of the world preventive action is needed to restore hope for the future. One of the lessons of the crisis is that public and governmental involvement from many countries particularly the leading democracies is essential to restore hope, health cannot be delegated to any organization alone much less the WHO, ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This group of 26 leading scientists from Australia, France, Britain and the US are calling for a new international full, open and unrestricted forensic investigation into the origins of the coronavirus in its original location of Wuhan. This happens as scientists on the WHO investigation team in Wuhan say they did not have unrestricted access to conduct their investigation. The Biden administration has restored ties to the World Health Organization after the Trump administration cut ties on this issue of transparency. The Biden administration says transparency is an essential condition for the US as it seeks to continue US participation in WHO. The US, India, France, Britain and other European nations have a long history of participation in WHO and were original founders. Recent flawed election processes at WHO and the lack of effective leadership from western foundations have led to the lack of effective leadership of WHO that prevailed in post war world for the first five decades of the organization. Much of that leadership was from western nations, India and Japan, during a period in which the pandemics were managed limiting their spread from the areas of origin. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The US is working with its allies to find out the true origins of the coronavirus, bringing together intelligence, the scientific community, allies and putting in every effort as a priority. Being checked is whether the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.