Angry S Africa Heading for Famine While Forgiving Zimbabwe Heading for Prosperity

Land expropriation failed miserably in Zimbabwe and the new government has wisely reversed courses

South Africa has learned no lessons from Zimbabwe's descent into poverty and seems determined to follow its course

‘Time for Reconciliation Over’: South Africa Votes to Confiscate White-Owned Land

A worker leaves after working at a farm in Eikenhof, South Africa © Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

The South African parliament voted on Tuesday in favor of a motion seeking to change the constitution to allow white-owned land expropriation without compensation.

The motion, which was brought by Julius Malema – the leader of the radical Marxist opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters – passed by a wide margin of 241 votes to 83 against. 

Several parties – the Democratic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, Cope and the African Christian Democratic Party – did not support the motion. The matter has been referred to the parliament’s Constitutional Review Committee, which must report back by August 30.

“The time for reconciliation is over. Now is the time for justice,” Malema told the parliament. “We must ensure that we restore the dignity of our people without compensating the criminals who stole our land.”

South Africa has a population of over 50 million people. According to a 2017 government audit, white people own 72 percent of farmland.

Last week, South Africa’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, pledged to return the lands owned by white farmers since the 1600s to the black citizens of the country. He added that food production and security must be preserved.

The official opposition Democratic Alliance party (DA) has criticized the motion, saying it will undermine property rights and scare off potential investors.

The DA’s Thandeka Mbabama told the parliament that expropriation without compensation was a way to divert attention from the failure by successive ANC-led (African National Congress) governments.

“It is shocking that at the current rate it will take 35 years to finalize (land) restitution claims lodged before 1998,” said Mbabama, who is deputy shadow minister for rural development and land reform.

It’s been more than two decades since the end of apartheid in the 1990s, and the ruling ANC party is still trying to tackle racial disparities in land ownership in South Africa.

The president of farmers’ group the Transvaal Agricultural Union, Louis Meintjes, warned the country risks going down the same route as Zimbabwe, which plunged into famine after a government-sanctioned purge of white farmers in the 2000s.

“Where in the world has expropriation without compensation coupled to the waste of agricultural land, resulted in foreign confidence, economic growth and increased food production?” Meintjes said, as cited by Australia’s news.com.au.

“If Mr Ramaphosa is set on creating an untenable situation, he should actively create circumstances which will promote famine. His promise to expropriate land without compensation sows the seed for revolution. Expropriation without compensation is theft.”

White farmer gets land back under Zimbabwe's new leader

Farmer Darryn Smart and his family are welcomed back to their farm by workers and community members CREDIT:  FARAI MUTSAKA/AP

A white Zimbabwean farmer evicted by the government of Robert Mugabe has returned to a hero's welcome as the first to get his land back under the new president, in a sign of reform on an issue that had hastened the country's international isolation.

With a military escort, Robert Smart made his way into Lesbury farm about 124 miles east of the capital, Harare, on Thursday to cheers and song by dozens of workers and community members.

Such scenes were once unthinkable in a country where land ownership is an emotional issue with political and racial overtones.

"We have come to reclaim our farm," sang black women and men, rushing into the compound.

Two decades ago, their arrival would have meant that Smart and his family would have to leave. Ruling Zanu-PF party supporters, led by veterans of the 1970s war against white minority rule, evicted many of Zimbabwe's white farmers under an often violent land reform program led by Mugabe.

Farmers, Darryn, left and Robert Smart, right, are welcomed back to their farm 

CREDIT:  FARAI MUTSAKA/AP

Whites make up less than one per cent of the southern African country's population, but they owned huge tracts of land while blacks remained in largely unproductive areas.

The evictions were meant to address colonial land ownership imbalances skewed against blacks, Mugabe said. Some in the international community responded with outrage and sanctions.

Of the roughly 4,500 white farmers before the land reforms began in 2000, only a few hundred are left.

But Mugabe is gone, resigning last month after the military and ruling party turned against him amid fears that his wife was positioning herself to take power. New President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a longtime Mugabe ally but stung by his firing as vice president, has promised to undo some land reforms as he seeks to revive the once-prosperous economy.

Mr Smart is the first to have his farm returned. On Thursday, some war veterans and local traditional leaders joined farm workers and villagers in song to welcome his family home.

"Oh, Darryn," one woman cried, dashing to embrace Mr Smart's son.

In a flash, dozens followed her. Some ululated, and others waved triumphant fists in the air. "I am ecstatic. Words cannot describe the feeling," Darryn told The Associated Press.

Smart's return, facilitated by Mnangagwa's government, could mark a new turn in the politics of land ownership. During his inauguration last month, Mnangagwa described the land reform as "inevitable," calling land management key to economic recovery.

Months before an election scheduled for August 2018 at the latest, the new president is desperate to bring back foreign investors and resolve a severe currency shortage, mass unemployment and dramatic price increases.

Zimbabwe is mainly agricultural, with 80 percent of the population depending on it for their livelihoods, according to government figures.

Earlier this month, deputy finance minister Terrence Mukupe traveled to neighboring Zambia to engage former white Zimbabwean farmers who have settled there.

‘You Have to Call it by Name’: Merkel Publicly Admits ‘No-Go Areas’ in Germany

The New Normal - Muslim No-Go Zones in Germany

Migrants stay outside the Berlin Office of Health and Social Affairs (LAGESO), October 12, 2015 /

Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters

“No-go areas” do exist in Germany, Angela Merkel admitted in an interview, adding that the arrival of “so many refugees” in the country “has raised multiple questions.”

Speaking with RTL, Merkel acknowledged that there are areas in Germany where people cannot feel safe. She also made it clear that it’s time for the authorities to do something in order to ensure public safety.

“It's always a point to me that [ensuring] domestic security is the state's obligation, the state has the monopoly of power, the state has to make sure that people have the right to it whenever they meet and move in a public space,” Merkel argued.

She then took aim at “no-go areas,” which gained notoriety all across Europe during the refugee influx that reached its peak in 2015. Merkel bluntly dismissed the claim that 'no-go areas' are non-existent in Germany, stressing instead that “there are such spaces, and you have to call that by name and you have to do something about it.”

Merkel, who is steps away from her official fourth term as the Germany chancellor, said her government had a “tough time” in the past. She then referred to harsh criticism over her “open-door policy” and her reluctance to set an upper limit for the new refugee arrivals: “Of course, the arrival of so many refugees has raised multiple questions.”

However, some critics said that Merkel did not allow much self-criticism during her speech. Merkel is not known to have said that she wouldn’t have acted another way when the migrant crisis broke out.

While the chancellor refrained from touching upon the subject of rising violent crime among refugees, her interview came several weeks after a government-sponsored study showed a drastic increase in violent crime committed by male migrants aged 14 to 30. 

The massive influx of asylum seekers led to a spike in violent criminal acts, the study, which was conducted by a group of criminologists and forensic experts, stated. The review was conducted at the request of the German Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

Refugee policy became the subject of extensive negotiations between Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats when the two discussed reaching a coalition agreement earlier this year. The agreement, among other points, emphasized the need to crack down on human traffickers and “massive strengthening” of the EU border agency Frontex.

This is good! Unlike some European countries, Merkel is not ignoring the problem of violent behaviour from migrants, nor is she pretending it doesn't exist. 

CDC Official Who Handled Zika and Ebola Outbreaks Mysteriously Missing

© Tami Chappell / Reuters

A respected Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official who worked on the Ebola and Zika outbreaks has disappeared without a trace. He was last seen leaving work midway through the day, saying he was feeling ill.

The Harvard-educated epidemiologist and US Navy officer Timothy J. Cunningham, 35, has been missing since February 12, when he left work after saying he was feeling unwell.

His parents became concerned when he wouldn’t answer any texts or calls. They drove all the way from Maryland to Atlanta, Georgia, after some relatives went by and saw his house was empty and two windows were open. Inside the house, they found Cunningham’s phone, wallet and driver's license. His car was still parked in the garage and his dog, Mr. Bojangles, aka Beau, was left on his own.

“Tim never leaves Beau unattended,” the missing man’s father, Terrell Cunningham told NBC News. "He just doesn't do it.”

“None of this makes sense,” Timothy’s brother Anterio told WAGA-TV, a Fox affiliate in Atlanta. “He wouldn't just evaporate like this and leave his dog alone and have our mother wondering and worrying like this. He wouldn't.”

“I feel like I’m in a horrible Black Mirror episode,” his sister Tiara told the New York Times.

With two degrees from Harvard, Cunningham worked on the government’s response to the Zika and Ebola crises. He had recently been promoted to the rank of commander, and was one of The Atlanta Business Chronicle’s ‘40 Under 40 Award’ winners. But family members said in recent calls and texts that Cunningham seemed to not be himself.

Family, friends, and Timothy’s college alumni are all taking part in the search, and have raised more than $20,000 as a reward for any information, a sign of the high regard in which Cunningham was held. His family hopes that someone may recognize him somewhere, perhaps as a patient at a hospital.

2 Attacks Thwarted & 3 Mosques Closed in Terrorism Crackdown in France in 2018

 The New Normal - France - Terrorist threats

© Philippe Huguen / AFP

The French interior minister has revealed that authorities have thwarted two planned terrorist attacks since the start of the year. Several mosques have been also shut down over preaching radical ideas, according to the official.

The foiled assaults were aimed at the military and sports facilities, Gerard Collomb said in an interview with Europe 1 radio on Sunday.

The suspect plotting to attack sports facilities was a convert who wanted to make his way to Syria, Le Parisien and AFP reported citing inside sources. In the second case, the 33-year-old suspect from Nimes was planning to attack soldiers taking part in Operation Sentinelle, a military operation launched in January 2015 to guard sensitive targets from terrorist attacks. According to the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), the man pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a video, while explosive materials were also found in his home.

Collomb added that although the suspects behind both plots are now in custody, the terrorist threat still exists and will continue for several more years.

For almost two years, France had been under a state of emergency following the November 2015 Paris attacks which killed 130 people. The state of emergency was lifted by President Emmanuel Macron in November of last year, only to be replaced by a controversial new counter-terrorism law giving security services more power to search and detain suspects at their homes, as well as shut down places of worship.

Gerard Collomb said that three mosques had been closed on Sunday in Aix-en-Provence, Sartrouville and Marseille, for preaching radical ideas.

241 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in France since the shooting at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015. Last year, three people were killed in two attacks claimed by IS in France, one on the Champs-Elysees in Paris and another at the Saint-Charles station in Marseille. According to figures provided by the interior ministry in January, 20 attacks were also thwarted that year.

Xi Jinping - President of China for Life?

China's Communist Party sets stage for Xi

to remain in power

By Ben Hooper 

The Communist Party of China is suggesting abolishing presidential term limits, clearing the way for Chinese President Xi Jinping to remain in power for many years to come. File Photo by Xie Huanchi/UPI | License Photo

UPI -- The Communist Party of China has proposed ending presidential term limits, signaling President Xi Jinping plans to remain in power for years to come.

The state-run Xinhua news agency announced Sunday that the Central Committee of the Communist Party is suggesting constitutional amendments to be voted on by lawmakers when an annual legislative session convenes next month.

The proposals include plans to remove the clause in the constitution that limits presidents to serving for only two five-year terms.

Observers said the move signals President Xi Jinping, 64, intends to remain in power for many years after the end of his second term, which is due to end in 2023.

The Communist Party declared Xi as its greatest living theorist and appointed him to a second five-year term as head of the head party and took the unusual move of not identifying a likely successor, which was taken by many as an indication that Xi would seek to retain the presidency for more than two terms.

"I think this is without a doubt the clearest confirmation we've had yet that Xi Jinping plans to stay in power much longer than we thought," Jude Blanchette, a Beijing resident and political expert who works for company research body the Conference Board, told The New York Times of the Communist Party's latest announcement. "We should expect Xi Jinping to be the dominant political force in China for the next decade."

The move would enshrine Xi as China's longest-serving leader since Mao Zedong.

"Xi wants to be like Mao," a Chinese official involved in decision-making told The Wall Street Journal. "With Wang Qishan as vice president, Xi can just focus on big strategic issues as the nation's paramount leader and let Wang take care of all those foreign trips and other affairs."

The legislature is expected to pass the proposal after the session begins March 1.

"I don't see any reasonable challenges for him," Beijing-based political analyst Wu Qiang, told the Times. "He has removed any potential political competitors."

So getting rid of talented, capable people, Xi surrounds himself with incompetents. Consequently, he stands out even if he is unexceptional.

Pakistani Islamist Radicals Hail Acquittals Over Lynching

Islamic Insanity turn murderers into heroes

Associated Press

SHABQADAR : Political workers of two religious parties in Mardan, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), have welcomed the release of 26 people acquitted in the Mashal Khan lynching case, terming them ‘heroes’.

Led by JUI-F provincial leader and former Member of National Assembly (MNA) Shujaul Mulk and JI leader Maulana Attaur Rehman, the workers gathered at Mardan Motorway on Wednesday to welcome the acquitted, who were released from Haripur jail.

video 17:54

One of the released, namely Izaz Khan, also issued a threat as he addressed workers from atop a stage, showing no remorse as he vowed to strictly punish those who commit blasphemy in the future.

Workers of the two parties welcomed the acquitted with chants of Ghazi (warrior of Islam), showering them with flowers, and announcing a rally after Friday prayers in their honor.

The gathering was attended by local Khatm-e-Nabuwat workers, who chanted slogans in favour of those in jail, as well as those released, condemning the deceased Mashal Khan as a blasphemer.

On April 13, 2017, the country had witnessed the brutal lynching of journalism student Mashal Khan at Abdul Wali Khan University in broad daylight, after he was accused of blasphemy.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident afterwards.

The FIR – registered under section-302, 148, 149, 297, 427 of the Pakistan Penal Code along with section-7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act – said that the tragic event was preceded by a students’ protest in which the mob accused Mashal and his two friends – Abdullah and Zubair – of committing blasphemy.

An anti-terrorism court in Abbotabad on Wednesday awarded death sentence to one and 25-year-prison to five others in the Mashal Khan murder case, releasing 26 other suspects.

Sweden Eyes Doubling Military Budget by 2035, Citing Russian Bogeyman

The New Normal - Sweden, going broke playing NATO's game

Preparations for Aurora 17 field exercise in Skovde, Sweden. © Bjorn Larsson Rosvall / Reuters

The Swedish armed forces have called for military spending and the number of servicemen to be more than doubled by 2035 to combat future challenges, with Russia listed as the main one.

The plan is to increase the annual military budget from the current 53 billion kronor ($6.5 billion) to around 115 billion kronor ($14 billion) in seventeen years. The report, formally called the ‘perspective study,’ was published on Thursday and is yet to be submitted to Sweden’s parliament. The paper also argues that it is necessary to boost staff numbers from 50,000 people today to around 120,000 people by 2035. 

The main conclusions section of the report starts with Russia and has several paragraphs devoted to the threat it poses. “Russia has through its action in Georgia in 2008, as well as in the Crimea and in East Ukraine in 2014, showed that it does not hesitate to use military force to achieve its political goals,” the report stated.

The Swedish Army’s report also mentions that Moscow plans “to increase their military capabilities after 2020” and to strengthen the ability to “rapidly mobilize” for “offensive operations” in the near future. The report says Sweden will “inevitably” find itself in the middle of a conflict zone if Russia comes into conflict with NATO.

It is inevitable because NATO seems determined to make it happen. Bear in mind that this report is written by RT and therefore has a definite Russian slant. But also consider that NATO has been as much, if not more of an aggressor in the region than Russia. Also, keep in mind that Sweden is a very long way from the Black Sea.

It should be a concern to Swedes that billions of kronor might be wasted on the military, much of which will end up in the hands of arms merchants - those same people who control NATO and many other western countries. 

Sweden's budget is already being pushed by the extraordinary expenses related to integrating migrants. As Germany pointed out the other day, waves of radical Muslims are headed to their prisons. Prisons are very expensive and radical Muslims within them will be very difficult to deal with safely. 

Russia is expected to have “the greatest impact on the security policy situation in the Baltic Sea area,” according to the paper.

The “irrational myth about the almighty Russian threat” was recently criticized by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Munich Security Conference. A day before delivering his speech there, Lavrov told Euronews that “only an inflamed imagination” could come up with the idea that Moscow was about to attack the Baltic or Poland, but Russophobic rhetoric in the West never seems to abate.

An EU-established independent international fact-finding mission concluded that the war in South Ossetia in 2008 “started with a massive Georgian artillery attack” and that “there was no ongoing armed attack by Russia before the start of the Georgian operation.” It also found “no evidence to support any claims that Russian peacekeeping units in South Ossetia were in flagrant breach of their obligations.” 

Crimea reunited with Russia in spring 2014 after the move was overwhelmingly approved in a snap referendum. The popular vote was prompted by a violent coup in Kiev, and the almost immediate offensive on regions in the country’s southeast, where locals refused to recognize the newly imposed regime.

Corruption is Everywhere - Russia, Argentina, North Korea, and even Latvia

Police bust cocaine ring at Russian Embassy

in Argentina

By Ray Downs 

Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich speaks during a press conference in Buenos Aires on February 22

after a policeman was arrested for trafficking 385 kilos of cocaine between Buenos Aires and Moscow.

Photo by David Fernández/EPA-EFE

UPI -- An international drug trafficking ring operating out of the Russian Embassy in Buenos Aires was dismantled and several arrests made, Argentine police announced on Thursday.

Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said the arrests mark the end of a 14-month investigation that began in December 2016 when Russian Embassy officials found 850 pounds of cocaine stashed in 16 pieces of luggage and alerted Argentine police. The police then switched the cocaine with flour, inserted a tracking device and waited until the bags were moved.

The suspected traffickers attempted to move the bags several times, but weren't able to do so until December 2017, The New York Times reported. At that time, the bags were put on a plane to Moscow. Three Argentine customs officials traveled with the bags to monitor them.

When the bags arrived at the Moscow airport, two Russian men there to pick them up were arrested.

Two dual citizens of Russia and Argentina -- Ivan Blizniouk and Alexander Chikalo -- were also arrested, according to Argentine newspaper, Clarín. Blizniouk is a Buenos Aires police officer accused of facilitating the shipment to get through customs. Chikalo is suspected of handling the logistics.

Ali Abyanov, a former Russian embassy official in Buenos Aires, was arrested in Moscow on Thursday. He is suspected of being the contact person at the embassy for the cocaine shipment, which came from a person police only named as "Mr. K."

Mr. K remains at large and an international warrant was put out for his arrest.

North Korean agents demanding more bribes

from defector networks

By Elizabeth Shim  

North Korea is increasingly targeting defector networks and siphoning funds meant for defector families.

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

UPI -- North Korea state security agents are increasingly profiting from money defectors in the South are wiring to their families, a sign bribery and corruption is rising among state authorities.

Brokers who are entrusted to transfer funds coming from South Korea to families in the North are being targeted and threatened, but North Korean security agents are willing to go easy on brokers if they obtain a greater cut of the funds, Daily NK reported Friday.

A source in North Hamgyong Province told the South Korean news service on Thursday authorities want more, and that for every $1,000 wired to the North, security agents take as much as $500 to enrich themselves, according to the report.

"As recently as two months ago the fee they asked was about 25-30 percent of funds being transferred from South Korea or China," the source said. "Now it is normal to ask for 40 percent."

The cut of money being pocketed by state authorities is rising because agents now have to send money to their senior supervisors as well, according to the report.

Most defectors in the South send money to their families in the North. According to the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights in Seoul, more than 60 percent of defectors in a 2016 survey said they have sent money to the North at least once.

About 30 percent said they send about $2,500 each time they make a transfer, and most said they send money once or twice a year.

It is unclear whether money transfers will become easier as détente continues on the peninsula.

South Korean news service OhMyNews reported Friday Pyongyang's decision to send Kim Yong Chol, the North Korean vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party Central Committee, is a sign Kim Jong Un is prioritizing improved relations with the South over seeking immediate dialogue with the United States. Kim is to attend the Winter Olympics' closing ceremony on Sunday.

Latvian bank linked to N. Korea money laundering ordered closed

By Allen Cone 

Pedestrians walk past a branch of the Norvik bank in Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday. The European Central Bank on Saturday announced the bank, which has been linked to accusations of money laundering involving North Korea, would close.

Photo by Valda Kalnina/EPA

UPI -- The European Central Bank on Saturday announced it plans to close a Latvian bank linked to claims of money laundering involving North Korea.

The European regulator said Latvia's third-largest lender, ABLV Bank, was "failing or likely to fail" and its assets will be wound up, meaning they will liquidated, and they will be taken over by the laws of Latvia and Luxembourg, where one branch is located.

Earlier the central bank froze ABLV payments after an exodus of withdrawals. Latvia's representative on the ECB Governing Council, Ilmars Rimsevics, was released Monday after being detained on bribery allegations. Investigators are looking in whether he sought a bribe of $124,100.

More than $700 million in deposits and securities -- 18 percent of its liabilities at end-September -- were withdrawn after the U.S. Treasury described the bank's practices as "institutionalized money laundering." It added that the bank helped fund the North Korean missile program. Most of the bank's customers were shell companies registered outside Latvia, the Treasury Department said.

Although ABLV said it raised more than $1.67 billion, over four business days, the ECB said it lacked adequate cash liquidity. It referred the lender to Europe's Single Resolution Board.

"The bank is likely unable to pay its debts or other liabilities as they fall due," the ECB said in a statement on Saturday in Frankfurt, Germany. "The bank did not have sufficient funds which are immediately available to withstand stressed outflows of deposits before the payout procedure of the Latvian deposit-guarantee fund starts."

The bank said the allegations are politically motivated.

"It was absolutely sufficient for the bank to resume executing payments and meet all obligations toward its clients," ABLV said in a statement. "Yet due to political considerations the bank was not given a chance to do it."

Peters Putnins, who's also a member of the ECB's supervisory board, said officials don't anticipate tapping into nation's deposit insurance fund for payouts that must be started no later than March 7.

"Taxpayers don't have to worry: the bank itself will make these payments with its own resources," Putnins told reporters.

I thought they had insufficient resources? Hmmm. 

Deposits of as much as $123,000 are protected under Latvian and Luxembourg laws.

Chinese Regulators Seize Anbang Insurance; Chief Wu to be Tried for Fraud

Corruption is Everywhere - even China

By Ed Adamczyk  

Chinese office workers leave Anbang Insurance's (AD) China headquarters in Beijing on June 14, 2017. AD's chairman and insurance mogul Wu Xiaohui was reported detained in China's continued crack down on corruption, according to a major Chinese magazine. Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

UPI -- The Chinese government on Friday seized the assets of privately-owned Anbang Insurance Group, which owns New York City's Waldorf-Astoria hotel and other global properties.

Anbang founder Wu Xiaohui will be prosecuted for fraud, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission announced. The action, which furthers Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption efforts, is meant to end the acquisition fervor of Chinese tycoons and offer government protection to millions of Chinese citizens who bought Anbang investments. It is also an indication that China will no longer encourage global asset growth and will instead focus on shoring up its internal economic structure, Bloomberg News reported.

Anbang has $315 billion in assets and is among the highest-profile Chinese company in international investments. The company purchased the iconic Waldorf-Astoria in 2014. The hotel, and Anbang's other properties, are now is been overseen by government regulators. A year ago the company was in talks to invest in a company owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and White House adviser.

The seizure is China's largest takeover of a privately owned company.

Wu has been in custody since June, when the government began its crackdown on Chinese tycoons accelerating global mergers and acquisitions.

His detention is meant to distance Wu from his company and prevent purchasers of high-yield Anbang insurance companies from panicking and surrendering policies for cash, the South China Morning Post reported.

Backlash Against NRA, Gun Industry Spreads in Wake of Florida Shooting

Are the voiceless finding their voice?

Several notable businesses have either cut ties with the NRA

or demanded measures to reduce violence

CBC News

Over 20 businesses offer some type of incentive to National Rifle Association members in the U.S., according to reports. (Ted S. Warren/Associated Press)

The National Rifle Association and the firearms industry are facing backlash in the wake of the deadly Florida high school shooting, with calls to boycott the big lobby group spreading from social media to businesses.

Over the past week, several notable businesses have either cut ties with the NRA or demanded measures from the association to address gun violence in the U.S.

First National Bank of Omaha announced Thursday it would not renew a contract with the group to issue NRA-branded Visa credit cards.

"Customer feedback has caused us to review our relationship with the NRA," said bank spokesperson Kevin Langin.

Meanwhile, rental car company Enterprise, which also owns Alamo and National car rentals, said on Twitter it would end its discount program for NRA members as of March 26. 

U.S. cybersecurity firm Symantec also took to Twitter on Friday to announce it would stop its discount program with the group.

Insurance giant Metlife  cut discounts for members, while Chubb announced it would stop underwriting a controversial NRA-branded insurance policy for gun owners that covers legal costs in self-defence shootings.

Over 20 businesses offer some type of incentive to NRA members in the U.S., according to reports.

Gun stocks

On Wall Street, the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, said it would be speaking with weapons manufacturers and distributors to "understand their response" to the Florida high school killing last week that killed 17 people, in the second deadliest public school shooting in U.S. history.

"We focus on engaging with the company and understanding how they are responding to society's expectations of them," BlackRock spokesperson Ed Sweeney told Reuters.

The investment company has over $6 trillion in assets under management and is the largest shareholder in major gunmakers such as Sturm Ruger & Co. and American Outdoor Brands.

Shares of the two gun manufacturers recovered from steep losses in morning trading on Friday, with Sturm Ruger closing up 1.8 per cent, while American Outdoor Brands lost 1.2 per cent in New York.

Under pressure

The responses from businesses come as gun control activists and social media users continued to increase pressure on lawmakers and industry players to take action in response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HIgh School.

The hashtag #BoycottNRA remained one of the top trending topics on Twitter in the U.S. on Friday.

Online backlash heightened this week after NRA leaders attacked the Democratic Party and gun control activists, saying they were exploiting the Florida shooting. 

"Evil walks among us and God help us if we don't harden our schools and protect our kids," said NRA executive vice-president Wayne LaPierre at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday.

"The whole idea from some of our opponents that armed security makes us less safe is completely ridiculous."

He accused Democrats and "elites" of wanting to "eradicate all individual freedoms."

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to speak at the same conference today after aligning himself with the group on Thursday when he suggested that some teachers could be be armed in schools.  

The NRA is one of the biggest financial contributors in elections, spending nearly $55 million in influencing the leadership race in 2016, according to records.

Gun regulation

Yet despite his support for the NRA, Trump called for more gun regulation in the U.S. after meeting this week with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas and their families.

He has commented and tweeted this week about measures such as background checks and increasing the age limit for purchases of some kinds of guns.

Several U.S. states have also announced new gun safety initiatives. 

The Democratic governors for northeastern states of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island said they would co-operate to seize and trace illegal guns and prevent dangerous people from making legal purchases. 

The states are vulnerable to trafficking, because they are located on the Interstate 95 corridor, which is the one of the most travelled highways in the U.S.

In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott announced proposed measures to address state gun laws, including raising the age to purchase firearms to 21, and banning the purchase and sale of bump stocks. 

German Prisons may Face ‘Wave of Extremists’, State Justice Minister Warns

The New Normal - Radicalized German prisons

FILE PHOTO: The high security prison of Stuttgart-Stammheim © Ralph Orlowski / Reuters

Detention facilities in Germany are trying to cope with a growing number of radical Islamist extremists, and officials fear a “wave of extremists” in jails.

Around 150 Islamists are currently being held in prisons across Germany, Die Welt reported on Wednesday, citing the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). They are either serving jail sentences or are in custody on terror-related charges. A number of other inmates being held, the so-called "relevant persons," are said to be sympathizers or supporters of radical Islam. 

Eva Kuhne-Hormann (CDU), who is minister of justice for the German state of Hessen, painted a bleak picture of the country’s security situation. "Over the next few years, we must expect a wave of extremists in our prisons," she told the newspaper. She noted that the sheer number of Islamists in German jails "poses great challenges for our deradicalization and prevention work."

The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe initiated around 1,000 terrorism prosecutions last year alone, Die Welt reported. Rene Muller, chairman of the Federal Association of Criminal Investigators, fears that "If more people are arrested, the security risk for the employees will also increase.”

Muller says it’s important to have special training and education for the staff in the face of dangerous Islamist prisoners.

His parents sure named him wrong

Last month, Christian Ganczarski, a German Islamic convert and a former senior Al-Qaeda member, attacked and wounded guards at the high-security prison in Vendin-le-Vieil in northern France after learning that he might face extradition to the US in connection with investigations into the September 11, 2001, attacks. The prison service said the 51-year-old assailant was armed with scissors and a razor blade. 

Experts agree that dangerous Islamists being held in prisons across Germany pose a real threat to public security. “The number of Muslims in the jails is big enough to create a group who can influence others in the jails because the others are not organized in any form,” Ralph Ghadban, a Lebanese-German political scientist and publicist, told RT.

The problem is that “Our society is not prepared for dealing with such problems,” Rainer Rothfuss, a former German intelligence officer, said.

“I think we really need to think of alternative solutions. The legal basis in parliament would need to be prepared, discussed, debated, decided. What is the purpose of keeping [extremists] in our prisons instead of solving the problem by deporting them, sending them back to their countries of origin. Deportation is something that threatens their existence, and therefore I think this would be much, much stronger of a signal compared to just social reintegration programs,” he told RT.

The number of violent Islamist radicals living in the German capital jumped more than fourfold in six years, a new security report said last month. As many as 950 followers of Salafism, a radical, ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, currently live in Berlin, the Tagesspiegel daily reported, citing a report by the German domestic intelligence service, BfV. The number of Islamists in Berlin has more than doubled since 2011, and is steadily rising as 100 new followers joined local Salafist groups since last spring, the paper reported. 

Over recent years, 127 radicals traveled from Berlin to Syria and Iraq to join terrorist organizations such as Islamic State, BfV said. 

Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, recently warned that the security services are facing a record number of Islamists. The number of Islamist sympathizers is at an “an all-time high,” he noted in December. The official noted that the fundamentalists are increasingly abandoning radicalization in mosques in favor of “small conspiratorial circles, primarily on the internet,” which is proving a “particular challenge” for the security services. 

New South African President Wants to Seize Land from White Farmers Without Compensation

Corruption is Everywhere - will it be in Ramaphosa's South Africa?

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa © Mike Hutchings / Reuters

South Africa’s new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has pledged to return the lands owned by white farmers since the 1600s to the black citizens of the country.

The government plans to accelerate land redistribution through expropriation without compensation.

“The expropriation of land without compensation is envisaged as one of the measures that we will use to accelerate the redistribution of land to black South Africans,” said Ramaphosa, who was sworn into office to succeed Jacob Zuma as president last week.

The millionaire ex-businessman Ramaphosa promised that land expropriation operations will not be a “smash and grab” exercise and promised to handle the matter properly, adding that people “must see this process as an opportunity.”

“No-one is saying that land must be taken away from our people,” he said, “Rather, it is how we can make sure that our people have equitable access to land and security of tenure. We must see this process of accelerated land redistribution as an opportunity and not as a threat,” he added during a speech to parliament on Tuesday.

Such a drastic move would not damage the country’s agriculture or economy, the South African president promised.  

“We will handle it with responsibility. We will handle it in a way that will not damage our economy, that is not going to damage agricultural production,” he said.

This I gotta see!

More than two decades after the end of apartheid in the 1990s, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party is under pressure to tackle racial disparities in land ownership in South Africa. The country is home to over 50 million people, with whites owning most of the land.

According to a recent study, black South Africans constitute 79 percent of the population, but directly own only 1.2 percent of the country’s rural land. Meanwhile, white South Africans, who constitute 9 percent of the country’s population, directly own 23.6 percent of its rural land, and 11.4 percent of land in towns and cities, according to the Land Audit report.

Zimbabwe land grab

A similar program of land redistribution was carried out by then-Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Thousands of white farmers were forced from their lands.

However, food production plummeted without the experienced farmers’ contribution, and Zimbabwe’s economy suffered massively. In 2010, the Guardian reported that Mugabe used land reform to reward his allies rather than ordinary black Zimbabweans. 

In 2016, Mugabe signed a decree that foreign companies would face closure unless they sold or gave up 51 percent of their shares.

Speaking about the redistribution of land in his country, Ramaphosa said that “in dealing with this complex matter” South Africa would not “make the mistakes that others have made.”

Good luck with that, Cyril!

Merkel Walks Out of Parliament After AfD Leader Lambasts her Support for Migrant Quota System

In several decades as a political junkie, I have never heard of a

head of state walking out of parliament because they didn't like

what the opposition was saying. Is Angela getting tired?

Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the German parliament on February 22, 2018. © Axel Schmidt / Reuters

German Chancellor Angela Merkel walked out of a parliamentary session after a leader from the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party criticized her support of a proposed EU refugee distribution system.

While Merkel and AfD have never been friends, one particular comment by the party’s co-founder, Alexander Gauland, prompted her to leave the Bundestag on Thursday. That remark slammed the chancellor's support for an EU quota system for accepting refugees.

"Countries want to decide for themselves who they take in. There is no national duty with regard to multiculturalism," Gauland said.

AfD co-founder Alice Weidel also had a lot to say during the session, including her view that Merkel is trying to punish the UK for voting to leave the European Union.

"The EU wants to make an example of Great Britain, a punishment beyond any economic or political reason. This is not how one treats a European partner," Weidel said. "Now Brussels, Paris, and Berlin are afraid that others could follow, that other states in Europe could take back their sovereignty."

She went on to accuse the European Commission of "planning to restrict Britain's access to the single market even during the transition period." Such a plan against Germany's biggest trading partner in the EU amounts to "taking free trade and competition as a hostage and making a failed EU ideology," Weidel said.

"The good trading relationship with Great Britain and the rest of the continent have to be maintained – otherwise Europe will be at a disadvantage in global trade." Merkel appeared to be less offended by Weidel's comments, as she at least remained inside parliament while the AfD leader was speaking.

While some of the AfD leaders' remarks were booed in the Bundestag on Thursday, the fact remains that it has seen a sharp growth in popularity. Recent polling found that it has garnered record-high support, becoming more popular than the Social Democrats (SPD) for the very first time. 

I wonder if the Visegrad group knew they have an ally in the German Bundestag?

Ex-Bolivia President to Become First Former Head of State to Stand Trial in US

Corruption is Everywhere

 - and Death Squads often follow in South America

Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada © Joyce Naltchayan / AFP

A federal judge has ruled that the former president of Bolivia must face a civil trial in the US. The case alleges the Bolivian military massacred at least 50 citizens in extrajudicial killings in 2003.

A judge in Florida ruled last week that former Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and his former defense minister, Jose Carlos Sanchez Berzain, must stand trial in the US, where they both live.

De Lozada was first elected in 1993 and remained in power until 2003. His regime was staunchly pro-US and pro-privatization. This is the first time that a former head of state will stand accused in a civil human rights trial in a US court. 

In 2016, a US appeals court held that the trial could proceed under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), which allows lawsuits in US federal courts for extrajudicial killings. District Court Judge James Cohn ruled last week that there was sufficient evidence to move to trial.

In October 2003, de Lozada’s military forces killed 67 people  and injured 400 more, mostly those who were poor and from the nation's indigenous Aymara communities. The citizens were protesting the privatization of Bolivia’s oil and gas reserves.

Mamani v. Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín, filed by families of eight Bolivians killed, alleges that the politicians ordered the extrajudicial killings in advance. Most of the violence took place in El Alto, a city overlooking the capital La Paz.

The trial has important social and political implications for the country’s indigenous population. “The trial will offer indigenous Aymara people, who have historically been excluded from justice, a chance to testify about events that led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries,” Beth Stephens, an attorney for the Plaintiffs, told the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“The former president and his minister of defense must now listen as we testify about what happened,” said Teofilo Baltazar Cerro, a member of the indigenous Aymara community of Bolivia, which was heavily involved in the protests. “We look forward to this historic opportunity to have our day in court."

The trial will begin on March 5, in the federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Sanchez de Lozada, nicknamed ‘Goni’, fled to the US in 2003. He is a multimillionaire mining executive who was educated in the US from a young age. He speaks Spanish with a noticeable American accent, which earned him the nickname ‘El Gringo’ in Bolivia.

Bolivia has been seeking de Lozada’s extradition from the US for over 10 years. In 2007, he was formally charged by Bolivian prosecutors with genocide over the 2003 incidents. The Obama administration refused to extradite him to Bolivia to stand trial in 2012, however.

The conflict in which the killings allegedly took place concerned the privatization of natural resources and the exploitation of Bolivia’s vast natural gas reserves. The protests become known as the ‘Gas Wars’ and ultimately led to the resignation of de Lozada.

In the US he became closely aligned with the administration of former President George W Bush. According to the Center for Public Integrity, he was listed in 2012 as the head of Petromina LLC, a mining advisory firm.

Much of Bolivia's oil and gas industry ended up in the hands of Amoco, Enron, and Shell. Brazil's Petrobas was involved in building pipelines to Brazil. How much money changed hands below the table is anybody's guess, but I suspect it was considerable.