Global Events – Synopsis 2015

March 20, 2015

By Padmini Arhant

The global events marked by mayhem, misery and melancholy is representative of those in power i.e. incognito rule and proxy governments together with servile contingency ever remaining at disposal for self-destructive cause.

The agents spreading viciousness misuse communication outlets including parliament floor and entertainment format. Sadly they do not realize their venom consuming them conforming to reaping what one sow in life.

These negative developments aimed at self-interests reflect on the rulers and operatives declining status and confirm the demise of deceptive regimes and cohorts in the suicide mission.

1. Middle East – The manufactured terror used as pretext to destabilize nations is a classic example of the blank misleading the belligerence to precipice.

The self-ruinous venture is costing them and allies in economic, political and strategic terms with severe damages to the point of no return. 

Those behind continuous death and decimation of innocent lives care less about consequences and defiance is mistaken for strength in the face of internal decay and inevitable dissipation. 

Hegemony and coalition intervention through terrorism in Syria, Iraq and Libya is evidently counterproductive.

Interestingly subsequent involvement claimed as necessary to curb their own terror networks such as ISIS and ISIL…despite having them on taxpayer funded payroll.

Lebanon and Palestine under constant attacks from Israel justified in the name of Israel’s security. 

The kingdoms, fiefdoms and hegemony loyalists facilitating carnage by funding, training and recruitment of terror groups ignore blowback experienced from terror instigation.

Iran and P5+1 endless nuclear talks under estimates human intelligence wasting citizens tax contributions for purpose other than nuclear issue to deflect public attention from domestic and international crises.

The redundant exercise poses credibility factor for major nuclear states continuing proliferation with nuclear testing and enhancements unheeding global concern.

Any seriousness on nuclear matter would be exemplified in self-disarmament. The action would then qualify them to seek others to follow precedence.

Furthermore, Iran’s closer ties with hegemony shared in duplicity and scripted performance clarifies futile attempts to void contemporary phenomenon and original identity.

2. Africa – Hegemony goals are clear in militarization of this continent for unfettered access to resources and permanent colonization leading to prolonged subjugation in the twenty first century.

Abject poverty, hunger and disease affecting millions are hegemony legacy.

3. Asia :

Asia Pacific – Occupation of nations with military bases and provocation in Korean peninsula is tip of the iceberg in the policy fostering rivalry over rapprochement.

Additionally removing governments and leaderships regarded obstacles to hegemonic ambitions is the tradition.

The mysterious disappearance of Malaysian commercial airlines, installing militia rule in Thailand, forging relations with authoritarian system in Singapore and fomenting controversy in Indonesia are few of the many indulgence in that part of the world.

Central Asia – Afghanistan and neighboring countries are essentially declared imperial bastions again for natural endowments and strategic presence. 

South Asia – The dominion republics compliance with hegemony instructions on nuclear expansion and divestments in defense contracts override importance to environment and economy notwithstanding the infrastructure. 

The agriculture land is industrialized and privatized to satisfy political campaign donors’ demands leaving the farmers with no choice but accept conditions in the land deal.

As a result, national dependency on import elevating food prices or inflation due to crop production shifting from self-sufficiency to inadequacy is apparently irrelevant. 

On transparency and democratic value – The ordinary citizens beguiled with hegemony nominees landslide victory in the state and national elections in the so-called democracy.  The electoral process marred with voting irregularities and corruption not excluding massive cash infusion in political campaigns enables shadow governance.

4. Latin America – Hegemony interference in this region is well known and persists until now. The nations are routinely targeted stifling democracy.  Any government pledging to national progress is promptly displaced with anti-democratic rule.

5. North America: 

United States – United States tax dollars squandered in pretentious squabbles to maintain dysfunctional governance. While there are numerous problems confronting the nation, the lawmakers diligently oblige covert execution diverting time and money on extraneous affairs.

The social injustice conspicuous with demographic isolation and marginalization of Native Americans, African Americans, Muslims, Undocumented workers, immigrants from certain ethnic background as well as women in lower economic strata.

Guantanamo Bay and secret prisons with torture chambers cannot possibly be a national pride.

Canada – The indigenous citizens plight slighted regardless of law enforcement agency excess use of force and neglect in some instances constituting abuse. Hegemony influence on political, economic and other areas attribute vassal statehood.

Mexico – The national dilemmas are combating corruption and drug cartels with weapons influx from United States initiated in the fast and furious program. The experiment premised on arbitrary arms sales reaching nefarious elements had no prohibitive measures exacerbating safety and security of the country.

Yet another challenge is preserving national assets viz. petroleum and precious metals from oligarchy acquisition.

6. Europe – Austerity, staged unrest and volatility is the trend to stymie economic growth and political stability.

EU creation primarily expended in debilitating member states within Union with egregious economic policies largely favoring selective groups and entities at local population expense.

EU and United States intrusion in Ukraine promotes disintegration and territorial annexation besides NATO extension burdening the region with military expenditure rather than investments in the economy.

Hegemony hallmark is false flag incidents in resistance to peace and harmony with preference for eternal discord in community.  The turmoil then used as the reason for military aggression or drone authorization to curtail violence.

Environment protection is on the reverse with funding slashed in the national budget for political driven appropriations. 

Human rights violations peaks defining human character or the lack thereof with no recognition for life and individual respect. 

The discriminatory practice based on various orientations propagated to polarize society for political and personal gains not taking into account irreversible ramifications on the source and catalysts. 

To summarize status quo – the situation mirror dissolution emanating from incorrigible disposition expediting decadent era conclusion.

Peace to all!

Thank you.

Padmini Arhant

Written by Padmini Arhant · Filed Under Featured, World Events | Leave a Comment 

Euro Crisis and Impact on Global Financial Markets

May 27, 2010

By Padmini Arhant

It originated in Iceland with the pervasive subprime mortgage factor and similarly affected other economies like Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain, referenced as PIGS.

Although, every nation in this category share the contaminated ‘derivative’ traded internationally, the lack of deficit control with the national budget exceeding the GDP growth also contributed to the meltdown and subsequently reflected in the poor credit rating.

More prominently, Greece identified with:

“Goldman Sachs between the years 1998-2009 has been reported to systematically helped the Greek government to mask its national true debt facts.

In September 2009 though, Goldman Sachs among others, created a special Credit Default Swap (CDS) index for the cover of high-risk national debt of Greece. This led the interest-rates of Greek national bonds to a very high level, leading the Greek economy very close to bankruptcy in March 2010.”

The culmination of internal and external mismanagement primarily led the Mediterranean economy to the brink of collapse seeking bailout from the European Central Bank (ECB), EU and IMF.

European Union was challenged with a predicament in the Greece bailout to either ignore the problem or address it to avert the contagion in Europe.

Since Greece is an EU member using the reserve currency euro in the 16 of the 27 states representing the eurozone, the former alternative would have had serious ramifications.

Besides, the euro being the second most traded currency in the world after the U.S. dollar; it has multifaceted impact on the financial markets dealing with high volume trading especially in the futures exchange.

The industrialized and emerging economies are in a bind with the euro value reduction, due to the competitiveness expansion in export trade. For example, the export oriented Germany is at a competitive edge with the United States, Japan and China irrespective of Germany specializing in high end industrial and heavy machinery equipments.

Hence, the euro crisis upside is the European nations gaining export affordability.

Accordingly, the emerging economy and the major U.S. creditor China is concerned about the potential split in global market share and availing the opportunity to reject the U.S. request for currency (renminbi) value adjustment, which has been set below the market determination despite China’s extraordinary trade surplus.

China’s currency, renminbi (RMB) or yuan (CNY) has been withheld from floating as the international currency in the foreign exchange market to protect the status quo.

At the same time, the positive aspect of the dollar appreciation is omitted in the evaluation and that being the foreign investments in U.S. dollars particularly the Treasury bills held by China is strengthened in value and guarantee long term security in futures contract.

Financial stability measures adopted by EU, IMF and ECB with approximately one trillion dollars of which a conditional rescue loan worth $110 billion to Greece is approved to reverse the negatives in the financial markets reacting to the euro downslide from the unsustainable government debts and deficit level.

Had the eurozone requirement on its union members to keep deficits below 3 percent of GDP maintained, Greece and other struggling economies need not have been subject to harsh austerity strategies that has resulted in protest among the mainstream population in Greece and Ireland.

Regardless, the current global financial crisis calls for wasteful expenditure elimination and the national budget review to direct investments in high value returns.

Appropriate actions involving tax hikes and spending cuts are necessary to balance the budget.

However, spending cuts targeting the fundamental programs inevitably generating revenues through productive workforce and consumers is counteractive.

Restoring essential programs and services for the job creation and preservation, youth education, citizens’ health care, social security, safe and clean environment nurture healthy and middle class society to ease the burden on the top 1% or 10% wealthy taxpayers in different economies.

Most importantly, the defense budget consuming a significant proportion of taxpayer revenue in the prolonged wars could be divested to peaceful and profitable opportunities benefiting the citizens at the domestic and international front.

The ideal solution for the European Commission and the monetary union to avoid rising deficits in Europe without compromising the member states’ sovereignty in their national fiscal policy decisions would be to establish an independent, non-partisan committee by the states to examine the individual spending and tax plan, rather than the centralized monitoring or the neighboring authority verifying it.

Further, the constitutional amendment by Germany to contain the deficit to 0.35 percent of GDP by 2016 provided the higher deficit not attributed to GDP decline is a trendsetter in curbing the economic crisis.

In concurrence with the economic experts’ advice – The ECB expediting the credit approval on government bonds used as collateral upon qualifying the self-regulated constitutional limit on deficits is prudent in deterring broad speculative lending activities.

Alongside, the EU sweeping financial reform with tough standards against the hedge fund managers including the two proposals by German Parliament:

Global financial transaction tax and Financial activity tax focused on CEO’s Personal Income & Bonuses are effective steps with the exception of the global financial transaction tax because it is eventually transferred to the end-consumer and may not be a viable option for all participants.

Nevertheless, international agreement on financial regulation by G-20 and other nations is crucial in order to emerge from the existing crisis and prevent the future economic recession.

The systemic risk in the multi trillion dollars ‘derivatives,’ that caused the financial debacle in Europe, Middle East (Dubai), North America, Asia and elsewhere demands stringent policies and independent investigations on fraudulent ventures.

The financial overhaul passed by the U.S. Senate last week has been under scrutiny by analysts with mixed response and elaborated in the article titled:

“New Financial rules might not prevent next crisis – Associated Press, Sun May 23rd. 2010 at 3.55 PM EDT. Reported by Jacobs from New York and contributed by AP writer Jim Drinkard.”

Unequivocally, closing the loopholes as detailed in the cited article and other reports is paramount to establish a financial system free of K street influence.

The apparent revolving-door relationship between Wall Street and Capitol Hill in which employees and consultants have moved in and out of high level US Government positions, with the prevalent conflict of interest is a hindrance to any legislation.

Only the electorates with the voting power in a democracy can remove the persisting obstacles by rejecting the special interest representatives in politics against meaningful legislation.

People as the consumers, taxpayers and voters are the ultimate force in achieving the progress for common good.

Thank you.

Padmini Arhant

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Corporate Role in the Environmental Crisis

October 1, 2009

By Padmini Arhant

Tragedy strikes once again in the earthquake prone Indonesia causing a chain of events in other coastal territories viz. the Western Samoa hit with Tsunami, The Philippines embracing the worst casualties in the poorest region from the Typhoon, Japan and Hawaii remaining on alert due to the warnings issued by the U.S. Geological Survey.

When calamities of this magnitude happen, it predominantly takes toll on the poorest population unwillingly surrendering themselves to premature death or scrambling to survive the wrath of the environmental force. It’s no longer the natural disasters as once declared but instead the insatiable appetite to satisfy the ‘wants’ is forcing the entities to use the means for their material status at the habitat’s peril.

Unfortunately, rescue, evacuations and rehabilitation are costly even to the rich nations, evidenced in the Katrina victims still in the process of reorganizing their lives. Thankfully, the generous investment of time, money and resources by the private philanthropists like the actor Brad Pitt, organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and volunteers from all walks of life is easing the burden on the natives in rebuilding their homes.

For the poor nations, recurring crisis of this nature cause tremendous economic and social challenges leaving them in poverty, hunger and disease that leads to the political turmoil common in the island nations of The Philippines and Indonesia. The people in these parts of the world deserve a decent existence prevalent elsewhere.

Global summits like G-20, Earth Day, Peace Forum, etc., are crucial to evaluate the international goals and achievements on important issues pertaining to life. However, these summits become ‘elite and exclusive’ if the tree bearing the fruits fails to provide for the entire inhabitants on earth.

The rich and the developing nations can do more on their part in alleviating global poverty and disease through the democratic process by defining the ethical standards for the corporations, the defense forces, and the mass media, the dominant forces in the evolutionary process.

Environmental abuse by the domestic and foreign corporations of the industrialized and emerging economies worsening at the expense of the people… particularly the middle, the lower and the poorest groups in the economic strata. The irony being these neglected demography constitute a significant part of the consumer chain and yet receiving little or no respect and value from the free market beneficiaries.

In the global economy, when the mighty corporations venture into the continents rich in natural resources but lacking in technical know-how and basic tools for self-sustenance, the local population involuntarily mortgage their precious agricultural lands and lives including the freedom to the foreign investment power.

The foreign investors’ role not limited to short-term profit oriented schemes;
In fact, it’s often expansive with a long-term strategy infiltrating into the political infrastructure of those nations as proven in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East leaving those regions in eternal political instability, civil wars and environmental catastrophes.

The ‘so-called’ investors successfully subvert any horrific industrial accidents and deliberate environmental pollutions by influencing the political powers in the respective domains. Thus, the ‘corruption’ stigma assigned specifically to the exploited regions. Meanwhile, the responsible sources honored as the ‘noble,’ wealth distributors dedicated to liberating the poorest nations from the misery.

In the absence of any international indictments against the culprits, the systemic ethical erosion has contributed to the obliteration of the once solid socio-economic structure yielding the status quo.

Not all is lost as the people in every part the world have the power to create a cornerstone for the collective benefit rather than the individual interest. It may not happen instantaneously, nevertheless the foundation required to build the monument that would accommodate the needs of all.

Human values appreciated through genuine care and support to the victims of such disasters. Crisis is indiscriminate to color, race or religion and the human concern or the lack thereof immensely impact the recovery.

Please reach out to the victims by offering any affordable donations through international organizations like the Red Cross and others engaged in the humanitarian relief.

I share the grief and sorrow with the victims’ families in this tragedy.

Thank you.

Padmini Arhant

Written by Padmini Arhant · Filed Under Environment | Leave a Comment