Pope: "We Need to Work Together" with Scheming, 'Noahide Law' Coercing, Land-Grabber Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

"Maimonides legislates that it is incumbent upon the Jewish people even to coerce the rest of the world if necessary to accept the Noahide laws (Mishneh Torah , Laws of Kings 8,10) ... we certainly must proselytize every human being to keep those seven laws." (Rabbi Shlomo Riskin)

Rabbi Visits Benedict XVI

Pope: "We Need to Work Together"

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 13, 2011 (Zenit.org).- A [Brooklyn] New-York born rabbi who is the chancellor of [an alleged] Jewish-Christian cooperation group in [counterfeit] Israel met with Benedict XVI after Wednesday's general audience.

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of [the illegal] Efrat ["Jewish" "settlement" in the Palestinian] West Bank, met with the Pope and briefed him on the work of the [so-called] Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC) [which receives extraordinary funding from 'Christian' Evengelicals which is used towards the religious Zionist project].

“We are taking Your Holiness’ call to stand in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters in Israel and advocating on their behalf,” Riskin said, according to a CJCUC statement. He [deceptively] told the Holy Father that the group is looking for ways to alleviate Christians' poverty in Israel and to foster dialogue on issues of faith.

Benedict XVI responded that “we need to work together," the statement informed.

full article:

http://www.zenit.org/article-31441?l=english

Also see:

A Grave Mistake in Need of Correction: A Response to the Meeting Between Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and Pope Benedict XVI. The only thing worse than injustice is an attempt to disguise it.

Who Says Judaism Isn't a Proselytizing System?

USCCB States Principles for "Dialogue" Fraud

Rabbi Riskin: "I Stand with Pastor John Hagee"

Bernard-Henri Lévy Indicted for Playing the Great Game

Bernard-Henri Lévy Indicted!

By TARIQ ALI

On January 28, activists belonging to the PIR (Parti des Indigènes de la République) are organizing a trial of Bernard-Henri Lévy in the old PCF/CGT stronghold of Saint Denis. Norman Finkelstein and myself are the only non-French who are giving evidence against BHL. The trial will commence at 6.30pm at the Bourse du Travail de St-Denis. 9-11 rue Génin, Saint Denis. Metro 13 - Porte de Paris.

Note that among the counts of indictment are Bernard-Henri Lévy's ushering of the infidel into France and then inciting conflict between them and the natives:

“Order for the indictment of Bernard-Henri Lévy before the Assize Court, and for his arrest:

We have determined that whereas investigation has established the following facts concerning the accused:

- His unrelenting promotion of imperialism and Zionism,

- His intellectual fakery, symptom of philosophical nullity amid the accumulation of capital and power,

- His leveling of false accusations and calumnies against Iran,

- His warmongering and advocacy of “humanitarian imperialism,”

- His aiding in the creation and promotion of SOS Racisme to smother autonomous immigration movements,

- His dissemination of false news likely to sow social and religious discord between Christians and Muslims.

For these reasons, we rule that there is sufficient evidence against Bernard-Henri Lévy that he committed such acts, punishable under the Criminal Code, in regard to Articles 175, 176, 181, 183 and 184. We order the indictment of Bernard-Henri Lévy, to be lodged at the Court of Assizes of the department of Seine- Saint-Denis to be tried according to law.”

Executed in Chambers, December 18, 2010.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/tariq01272011.html

In a great media spectacle in 2008, Pope Benedict baptized another player of this game, Magdi Allam, who seems to be connected with that other player of the game, Michael Ledeen HERE, HERE, HERE HERE and also through his wife Valentina Colombo, HERE.

See:

More on Benedict's Easter Baptism Spectacle

Mubarak Installs Israeli/British/US Intelligence Operative as Vice President of "New" Egyptian Government

More of the same.

See:

Mubarak names his deputy and new PM

Egypt's Next Strongman

Anyone Whose (Alleged) Representatives are Engaged in "Dialogue" With Zionists, Pay Close Attention to This

Anyone paying attention already knew that "dialogue" with "The Jews" is a one-way racket, but the depth of the fraud is far worse than most could imagine.

Tear up the Palestine Papers

Betrayed by their leaders, Palestinians have to start their struggle again in a spirit of national reconciliation and unity

Abdel Bari Atwan - Gulf News
January 30, 2011

Trusted colleagues inform me that the cache of 1.600 leaked documents now known as the ‘Palestine Papers' came from three main sources: Palestinian nationalists who are opposed to Palestinian National Authority (PNA) policies and reject their role as negotiators; former members of the PNA who have defected due to differences with the leadership and have old scores to settle; and people who anticipated financial reward for their contribution.

While Palestinians reel with shock at the contents of confidential minutes, e-mails, memos and handwritten notes, the PNA's leadership is equally horrified at having been discovered courting Israeli and US officials and selling its countrymen down the line.

It should come as no surprise that the PNA is so porous. The organisation's internal affairs are chaotic and its leaders embarrassingly amateurish.

As countless commentators have pointed out, not one of the group currently brokering the future of Palestine — Mahmoud Abbas, Saeb Erekat, Ahmad Qorei, Yasser Abed Rabbo and Salam Fayyad — has a current mandate to do so. Mahmoud Abbas' presidential term, for example, expired on January 9, 2009, when he unilaterally re-elected himself!

Any notion that this desperation to cling to power was motivated by anything other than self interest, has now been extinguished.

The Palestine Papers reveal a gut-wrenching level of PNA collusion — against its own people — with Israel, the US and Britain. It is also clear that for PNA leaders the enemy is Hamas, not Israel.

Infamous for human rights abuses and imprisoning its rivals without trial, the PNA's security apparatus — we now discover — was founded on a blueprint commissioned by Tony Blair and developed by the British secret service, MI6, in 2004. Israel is close at hand to help: in a 2006 conversation with America's Keith Dayton, Erekat celebrated the PNA's ‘security liaison with Israel'.

At its most sinister, this unpalatable collaboration includes a casual approach to the murder of fellow Palestinians: documents from 2005 detail a discussion between Israeli defence minister, Shaul Mofaz and PNA interior minister, Nasser Yousuf about Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader Hassan Al Madhoun. "We know his address ... Why don't you kill him?" Mofaz asked.

Yousuf replied that ‘instructions' had been given but complains ‘you haven't offered anything'. In the event Madhoun was murdered by Israeli forces. In September 2009, Erekat told a US official that "we have killed our own people to ... establish one authority, one gun and the rule of law".

The documents reveal an incomprehensible attitude to Israel's winter 2008-09 onslaught (code-named Operation Cast Lead) in which 1,400 Palestinians — nearly half of them women and children — lost their lives.

Clandestine meeting

First we discover that Israeli intelligence chief, Amos Gilad, alerted Abbas prior to the attack and met with no resistance. Then from WikiLeaks, we learn that on December 29, 2008, PNA security chiefs held a clandestine meeting with top Israeli military and intelligence officials: not, as we would have hoped, to angrily berate their bloodthirsty enemy, but to discuss the best way to handle anti-Israel protests in the West Bank. According to the US Embassy cable, "the two sides agreed to expedite coordination and exchange information on disturbances".

On October 2, 2009, Abbas blocked a UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution supporting the Goldstone Report. The resolution would have paved the way for a war crimes prosecution against the architects of ‘Operation Cast Lead' including Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni (then foreign minister).

Leaked minutes from a Washington meeting between Senator George Mitchell and Erekat suggest that the UNHRC vote was used as a bargaining tool: Mitchell promised to broker a resumption of the stalled peace process and to talk up the Palestinians' demands in exchange for Abbas calling for the vote to be deferred. It was during this meeting that Erekat enthusiastically insisted that "we want to help the Israelis".

The papers consistently portray a PNA more concerned with remaining in power than the welfare of fellow Palestinians. In 2008, it blocked the release of 450 Arab prisoners in exchange for kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Qorei bluntly informed Livni that such a move would "make Hamas appear as a hero before the public and that Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] gives speeches only".

Also in 2008, concerned that Israel's brutal siege of Gaza was being thwarted by Palestinians tunnelling along the Egyptian border, Qorei urged Livni to "occupy the [Philadelphi] crossing".

Six months before Livni personally oversaw ‘Operation Cast Lead', Qorei flattered the Kadima leader saying "I'd vote for you". The papers are littered with such sycophancy: Erekat frequently addresses Netanyahu by his pet name ‘Bibi'.

Yet the Israeli and US negotiators showed little respect for the PNA group. In 2008, the Israelis presented a map of proposed land swaps, but wouldn't let the Palestinians keep a copy. The sight of the then 73-year-old Abbas copying the map on to a paper napkin is truly painful.

The end of the Palestine Papers' depressing saga sees an increasingly desperate Palestinian team surrendering one key national position after another: it offers Israel nearly all of occupied east Jerusalem (Erekat cringe-makingly refers to it by its Hebrew name, Yerushalayim); it agrees to Israel annexing its illegal colonies and it limits the right of return to just 10,000 refugees. The Israelis scorn every offer and cold-bloodedly ask for more. Then US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice expertly extinguishes the last flickerings of Palestinian pride with the suggestion that its refugees could be transferred to Latin America.

The PNA leaders and negotiators have completely discredited themselves and the Peace Process. As valiant protesters put their lives on the line for regime change in Egypt, Jordan and Yemen, Abbas and his men must realiee that the days of autocratic, oppressive and corrupt Middle Eastern regimes are numbered.

Abbas is making it known that he intends to resign in September — no doubt hoping that a miracle will occur in the intervening time to save him. The whole group should go immediately, but will probably cling to power until the last possible moment, unwilling to relinquish the material benefits and status they have become addicted to.

There can be no more negotiations between today's Israeli government and these fake Palestinian representatives. The Palestinian people have to start their struggle again in a spirit of national reconciliation and unity, never forgetting that they are an occupied people, resisting all the evils of Israeli occupation through civil disobedience and, if necessary, intifada.

The Palestine Papers represent a shameful history that should now be torn up.

http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/tear-up-the-palestine-papers-1.754082

Mubarak Dismisses Government, Calls for "Dialogue"

Could the people of Egypt believe that a new government formed and run by the same Israeli puppet-tyrant would reflect any significant improvement? Could they believe that "dialogue" with this representative of those schemers building their "Jewish" kingdom from the Nile to the Euphrates is what is needed now? I pray that these people are not so deluded as my countrymen. May God guide these people in their struggle and free them completely from Zionist tyranny.

Mubarak dismisses government

January 28, 2011 - Al-Jazeera

Embattled leader says he will name a new government on Saturday.

The Egyptian president has dismissed his government, saying that he will replace it with a new one on Saturday.

In an address to the nation late on Friday after four days of deadly protests , Hosni Mubarak said that change can not be achieved through chaos but through dialogue.

Mubarak promised to press ahead with social, economic and political reforms.

He appealed directly to the people and said he understood they wanted him to address poverty, employment and democratic reform and pledged progress.

Mubarak urged calm, adding that only because of his own reforms over the years, were people able to protest.

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Cairo, said many Egyptians calling for change would say the sacking of the government is not enough.

"Ultimately in Egypt, the power lies with the president," he said.

"On paper, you have an independent parliament and an independent judiciary but every Egyptian will tell you that at the end of the day, power is concentrated in the hands of the president.

"Very few institutions can challenge his authority so the sacking of the cabinet is not going to end the grievances of the people."

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011128222033802146.html

A Lesson in Modern "Dialogue"

It has been revealed that the Palestinian Authority agreed to suppress the Goldstone Report on the 2008/2009 Gaza massacre to:

"help promote a positive atmosphere conducive to negotiations ... [to] refrain from pursuing or supporting any initiative directly or indirectly in international legal forums that would undermine that atmosphere."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/26/gaza-report-palestinian-authority-stalled

Meanwhile, the Israelis are free to bomb, demolish, assassinate and steal land with impunity, none of which promotes a positive atmosphere. I think that the ostensibly noble end of "creating a positive atmosphere conducive to discussion" is not the real objective here.

Now, a few words from SSPX Superior General, Bishop Fellay regarding his discussions with Rome:

For our part, we wanted to try—willfully and deliberately—to create a serene climate around the discussions. Evidently, an indirect consequence of this can be that, concerning certain themes, unrelated or related to these discussions, for the moment one might have the impression that the Society will not have spoken with as much vehemence as on other occasions.

http://sspx.org/news/is_sspx_being_muzzled.htm

While these words suggest a lofty ideal, Bp. Fellay's actions--taking on a Zionist lawyer/business partner and jointly, vehemently smearing Bp. Williamson in the international media--are evidence that creating a serene climate is not the real objective.

What is evident in both cases is that a certain agenda plods steadily along wreaking havoc while the alleged opposition is neutralized by the alleged need for "creating a serene atmosphere" "conducive to dialogue."

This "dialogue" is no dialogue. It's a time-buying fraud. I pray that people figure this out before they've been robbed entirely of their history, property and their very souls.

Smallholders Play Fundamental Role as Business Partners in Feeding the World

By Kanayo F. Nwanze (this blogpost was originally posted on the World Economic Forum blog)

What do the heads of multibillion-dollar companies and those working in development have in common with millions of small farmers? They all know that agriculture can transform economies and lives, allowing people to move out of poverty.

Nearly one billion people go hungry every day. Most live in the rural areas of developing countries. With food prices once again soaring, clearly more needs to be done so that all people have enough to eat. But if we focus only on feeding people today, we will be doing nothing to prevent hunger in the future. 

We must create the conditions for poor rural people to move permanently out of subsistence and into the marketplace.  GDP growth generated by agriculture is at least twice as effective in reducing poverty as growth in other sectors. And experience repeatedly shows – in China, Ghana, Viet Nam and elsewhere – that smallholders can lead agricultural growth.   

The New Vision for Agriculture, to be unveiled this week in Davos, recognizes the fundamental role of smallholders as business partners in feeding the world, protecting our planet and creating prosperity.
 
Ensuring global food security will require the collective will to create an enabling environment for smallholders,  while addressing the weaknesses in global food and agricultural markets. Only then will we be able to create a business-oriented agriculture sector in developing countries and, in so doing, sow the seeds for a more nutritionally secure world. I am looking forward to the discussions in Davos and hope that this year’s meeting will spur leaders not just to listen and debate, but to take action.

For the most up-to-date, comprehensive assessment of rural poverty, see IFAD’s Rural Poverty Report 2011.

Prospering despite climate change: A lot of ground covered. What stones have we left unturned?

The climate change breakout session of the Conference on New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture was based on (Director of IIED) Camilla Toulmin’s  paper “Prospering Despite Climate Change.”   I’ll use the sum-up by the session chair, IFAD’s Director of Environment and Climate, Elwyn Grainger-Jones, to run through the key points.

• We are seeing impacts today, and urgency for action is growing: current science and emissions reductions commitments are taking us to a 4 degree Celsius average global temperature increase – with extremes of up to 10 degrees Celsius at the N. and S. Poles.  Also, science is increasingly telling us that the speed of change is increasing.  There will be limits to adaptation: some changes will be impossible to adapt to, some may be possible but too expensive to adapt to. Adaptation is not a cure: although from a livelihoods perspective some said it should be our first concern.

• Climate change is increasing the scale and the unpredictability of risk. Camilla Toulmin stressed, the past is no longer a good guide to the future. New risks are also appearing. Climate finance commitments need to be invested in research and technologies; info and communications tools; resource rights; bridging local and modern science; social infrastructure and learning; infrastructure like roads and storage; increasing market engagement and better governance…. to build resilience. We also need to distinguish between risk – which we can plan for – and uncertainty – which we can’t. So, spread risk, build resilience.
  

• Nahu Senaye Araya, the former CEO of Nyala Insurance S.C. (Ethiopia) explained how that company is offering weather risk insurance products (based on farmer demand, including livestock and crops) to smallholder clients through associations and unions. He stressed that the unpredictability of climate made weather index-based insurance premiums (20% of insured sum) much more expensive than mixed insurance packages – health, fire, death (5% of insured sum). Can the poorest afford 20% (or 5% for that matter)? He explained that it was difficult for Nyala to get reinsurance on international markets due to lack of experience with the product and also lack of country specific knowledge and data for use by international re-insurers (what happens to payouts in bad years?). He urged the development to stop the 1-year cycle of aid provision in favour of a 3 to 5 year cycle of support, including through subsidies to bring down premiums in the short run for smallholders. View Mr. Araya’s excellent PPT presentation.
  
  The Ethiopian experience on micro insurance
  

  View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

• Francesco Tubiello of GET-Carbon reminded us that agriculture’s window of opportunity in carbon markets in closing as the Kyoto Protocol is unlikely to be extended post-2012 – and we must reach out to the negotiators to keep agriculture on the radar. They need reminding that in addition to CO2, emissions include nitrous oxide, methane, etc. not covered under market mechanisms. Given the increasing sums committed for climate change support, but the shifting allocation modalities, he suggested we need to concentrate efforts where both adaptation and mitigation can be achieved (integrated, climate-smart approaches), especially where smallholders are concerned.

 

• Following on the “multiple wins imperative” Elwyn noted that – luckily – many of the sustainable intensification or eco-agriculture or landscape approaches (choose your term), such as conservation agriculture and agro-forestry, actually increase resilience and also reduce emissions as they reduce poverty and increase productivity.

• Knowledge was a recurring theme both in terms of missing knowledge causing unpredictability and how knowledge and skills can build individual and community resilience under changing scenarios. Bioversity International’s Deputy Director General, Kwesi Atta-Krah, pointed out “the genetic resources you have today may be useful not to you, but to another country in the future” and stressed support to preserving and exchanging genetic gene pools. ICIMOD’s Dhrupad Chowdhury told us that indigenous communities in marginal and remote areas often employ the most diversified livelihood strategies and genetically robust crops - ready made for adaptation learning, and perhaps even “saleable”. The lead author of IFAD’s Rural Poverty Report 2011 added from the floor that in addition to knowledge about planting and cropping techniques, pest management or new seed technologies, smallholders should also be provided with portable, intangible knowledge and skills to help them adapt and adopt new technologies as challenges and changes arise – including displacement / migration.

 So much more was shared by the fantastic paper presenters, discussants and participants – migration issues, youth education as an investment for family-level resilience, MRV… the 2 hours went by in a flash. Do you think something important is missing from the discussion?

By Jeff Brez

Breakfast with Sir Gordon Conway: learning about the genesis of participatory rural appraisal

IFAD's Conference on New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture brought together numerous leading development actors. One among them is Sir Gordon Conway.

Last night, I had the pleasure of listening to a presentation by Sir Gordon. What struck me was how he managed to convey complex concepts in such a natural way. And this was because he actually told us a story - another example of the power and potential of story telling. Maybe next time, anyone out there decides to do a powerpoint presentation, they can at least try and give it a nice plot and actually TELL the story, rather than reading the slides!

This morning, I decided to be bold and ask Sir Gordon whether he would agree to do a short interview. It was a privilege and an honour to have this short conversation with him.

In less than 4 minutes he:

• shared an important piece of rural development history: the genesis of participatory rural appraisal 
• complimented IFAD for doing analytical work which is grounded in farmer's realities and challenged us to boil down the messages of comprehensive approach to smallholder development emerging from the  Rural Poverty Report 2011 to simple messages so that the people can understand and act upon them
• challenged IFAD to do more on climate change and to take the lead on climate change and agriculture
• shared his optimism on future of agriculture by saying that smallholder farmers in developing countries can feed the world and ensure food security. What we need to do is to use the available the technology and link farmers with markets and the outside world

Capturing ‘the State of Smallholders in Agriculture’ in Latin America

Examining Latin America at the New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture Conference
This is rural poverty in Latin America. And while its dimensions and striations, variegations, flaws, strengths and commonalities are nearly impossible to capture in a single portrait, it’s certainly worth the effort. In their recent paper Latin America: The State of Smallholders in Agriculture, agronomist Julio A. Berdegué and sociologist Ricardo Fuentealba strive to define and delineate the nuanced reality facing one important component of the 62 million rural people living in poverty in the region: agricultural smallholders. The paper presents strong arguments on the nature of rural poverty, development and family farming in the region, also revealing a series of numbers and facts on rural inequality that lead the paper’s authors to conclude that Latin America has “the most unequal rural sector in the world.”

One thing we know for sure, according to Berdegué and Fuentealba, is that the Latin America of today “is truly a very different place than one generation ago.” Since the scorched earth days of the 1980s, the region has changed the way it works and does business. Its politics and economics have turned 180 degrees – in some cases the turn has been more like 270 degrees – presenting new paradigms for industry and development, and new opportunities and challenges for the rural sector.

“The past three decades have seen the region: liberalize and open its economy, including its agricultural sector; dismantle numerous public services related to agriculture; redefine the relative roles of the state, markets and civil society in development; nurture a growing number of medium and large corporations, including multinational ones, that play a dominant role in agriculture as in other sectors of the economy; dramatically expand the provision of basic health and education services, including in rural areas; introduce television, radio and mobile phone communications to the majority of rural areas; reduce its population growth; concentrate population in urban centers, including small and medium provincial towns and cities; expand the rights and opportunities of women; reestablish democracies and strengthen the rule of law and the respect of human rights; increase the responsibilities of regional and local (municipal) governments; expand the size, voice, and contributions of organized civil society; deforest vast regions, contaminate many of its rivers and lakes, and further erode its soils, while at the same time experience an awakening of an environmental consciousness and activism on the part of growing sectors of the population.” -  Latin America: The State of Smallholders in Agriculture, Julio A. Berdegué and Ricardo Fuentealba

All in all, it looks like things should be going well for smallholders in the region. Sure, the growth in large corporations may be siphoning off some of the money that would otherwise be landing in smallholder wallets, but, with all that growth, surely the region’s smallholders would be able to capitalize somehow on three decades of growth. Unfortunately, the numbers just don’t add up.  Over the past three decades, GDP jumped by over 25 per cent in real terms in the region, yet the number of rural people living in poverty dropped by only 12 million – with a drop of 6 million in the number of people who could not meet their food needs. This means that in rural Latin America today, some 35 million people do not have enough to eat on a daily basis and 62 million people are poor.

Inequality for all
Berdegué and Fuentealba say that unequal access to wealth and land are to blame. “If adjusted by inequality, the Human Development Indexes (HDI) of 18 LAC countries, for which there is data, drop below the HDI for Africa (four countries) or Asia (11 countries),” according to the paper, citing current data from the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Report. And according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poor.

“The 20 per cent richest of the rural population earn between 10 and 50 times more than the 20 per cent poorest ranges (ECLAC, 2010); in 9 of 16 countries for which there is data, this measure of income distribution is worsening (Berdegué, 2010).”

Many of the countries have Gini coefficients of 0.5 or higher for rural income, according to the paper, confirming this to be the most unequal rural sector in the world (a Gini coefficient of ‘0’ represents complete equality, while ‘1’ represents maximum inequality). Inequality in land access is even more marked, with an overall Gini score of 0.78, compared with Africa’s 0.62.

Data from the World Bank tells us that every country in the Latin America and Caribbean region – with the exception of Haiti – falls in the middle-income category ($996 to $12,195 per year in GNI). But, as anyone who has ever spent any significant time in the countryside in Latin America knows, these national averages give a rather distorted view of the reality facing most poor rural people in the region. For example, while Mexico’s GDP per capita is US$8,920, the average income of the poorest 40 per cent of the rural population is just US$652 per year, and that of the poorest 20 per cent is US$456 per year (equivalent to the GDP per capita in United Republic of Tanzania).

Defining our target
One of the greatest achievements of the Berdegué and Fuentealba paper is a refined and multi-tiered definition for smallholder farmers in the region.

“The smallholder or family-based agriculture sector in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is defined as a sector made up of farms that are operated by farm families, using largely their own labor. A detailed analysis of recent data for several countries allows us to approximate that there are 15 million family farms in LAC, controlling about 400 million hectares. The family farming sector can be classified in three large groups: (a) Almost 10 million subsistence farms, with 100 million hectares, where households derive a large proportion of their income from non-farm jobs, remittances and/or social subsidies; (b) an intermediate group of 4 million farms with 200 million hectares, that are integrated in agricultural markets but face significant constraints derived both from their asset endowment and from the proximate contexts in which they operate; (c) about 1 million family farms that hire some permanent labor and that manage about 100 million highly productive hectares. The performance and opportunities of these family farmers is largely determined by the characteristics of their proximate context, which is unfavorable in most cases. Recent trends of agrifood markets also create a new environment for family farming in LAC.” -  Latin America: The State of Smallholders in Agriculture, Julio A. Berdegué and Ricardo Fuentealba

And while most indicators point to rapid urbanization and increased diversification of incomes for rural people in the Latin America region, according the paper, the smallholder sector is not actually getting any smaller. In fact, in Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Honduras more rural households are now defining themselves as “self-employed in agriculture.” The problem, say Berdegué and Fuentealba, is that we are using a set of rules and parameters designed for Asia and Africa, and trying to apply them to Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Using the definition of the smallholder sector as that comprised by farms of less than 2 hectares, Nagayets (2005) finds that there are about 5 million small farms in the Americas. This estimate, adopted by other authors (e.g., Wiggins et al., 2010; Hazell et al., 2010) as well as by IFAD in the background concept note for the conference on "New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture" [held January 24 and 25, 2010 in Rome], is patently wrong. While a limit of 2 hectares perhaps fits the distribution of landholdings in Asia, it certainly does not in LAC. Therefore, this procedure distorts our understanding of smallholder agriculture, and misguides the design of public strategies and policies, as it reduces the smallholder to a fraction of its real size, particularly if measured in terms of economic and social contributions.” -  Latin America: The State of Smallholders in Agriculture, Julio A. Berdegué and Ricardo Fuentealba

And while the reclassification of the family farming sector in Latin America and the Caribbean as outlined in the Berdegué and Fuentealba paper is far too complex to capture in a brief format, in examining the issue of farm sizes, it’s worth noting the importance of regional context. For example, in Ecuador, “a subsistence farm on the coastal plains is twice as big as one in the Andean highlands, while one in the Amazon basin is eight times larger. At the same time, a farm of 4.5 hectares in the Andes is already ‘transitional,’ while one of 25 hectares in the Amazon Basin is still in the ‘subsistence’ group.”

Also worth noting is the increased diversification of incomes in the region. According to the paper, about 65 per cent of the region’s 15 million family farms rely on non-farm incomes to keep themselves afloat. “for them, agriculture complements other activities, and remittances and cash, as well as in-kind social transfers and supports are of great importance. Still, this group owns or controls about well over 100 million hectares. Even if small, the income derived from this land is absolutely critical for their survival and to reduce their vulnerability to shocks of all kinds. Many if not most in this group would be considered poor. Yet, an agriculture-based or agriculture-led development strategy would miss the fundamentals in the case of this group.”

A second group of family farmers derive much of their livelihoods from the plow and are well integrated into agricultural markets. Yet this group of about 4 million small farms that control some 200 million hectares of farmland face significant challenges in regards to risk and assets, and would certainly not fall under the guise of the 2-hectare limit.

Supporting this second group is key to the revitalization of rural economies in the region. “The contribution that this group makes to feeding Latin America and, increasingly, other regions of the world, cannot be underestimated. Because they are deeply embedded in the local economies, their agriculture-based development has production and consumption linkages that makes them important local and regional players.”
The final group of family farmers would then be farms that fall somewhere between a traditional Mom-Pop-and-four-pups family farm and a corporate farm. These are farmers that hire labor to increase scales. They hold roughly 100 million hectares and represent 8 per cent of the smallholder sector.

The Berdegué and Fuentealba paper was presented at the New Directions for Smallholder Agriculture Conference held at the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s Rome headquarters in Rome on 24 and 25 January 2010.


Outlooks

Finally a report on gender issues that does not exclusively focus on women and covers all gender dimensions

Allow me start this blogpost with a personal note. When you commit to do social reporting, you need to be alert and actively follow the conversation and exchanges.  This means, no daydreaming and no way you can check your emails. You are a reporter. You need to listen, concentrate and proactively follow what is happening in the room. If the topic is one close to your heart, you have a less of a challenge, otherwise, you can easily get drained.

When I volunteered to do social reporting for launch of the FAO-IFAD-ILO publication Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural development: Differentiated pathways out of poverty, I was not too sure what to expect. While I understand and appreciate the importance of gender mainstreaming and being gender sensitive, I have to confess that I would not describe myself as a“gender diehard”.

I found  this well-attended, well-organized and substantive event quite refreshing and this was mainly because the participants and discussants while acknowledging the gender fatigue managed to move away from rhetoric and telling the same things over and over again rather highlighted the challenges facing rural men and women from a different angle. Kudos to the authors and the organizers.

“Today we’ve come together to celebrate the fruit of two years of hard work which has resulted in this evidence-based publication”, said Rosemary Varga Lundius, one of IFAD’s gender advocates. And indeed a celebration it was.

Henock Kifle, IFAD’s Chief Development Strategist, in welcoming the over 80 development practitioners and the numerous member country representatives highlighted that this joint FAO-IFAD-ILO publication and the accompanying seven policy briefs address fundamental questions such as:

• what do we know about the gender dimensions of rural employment?
• what are the gaps in data and research?
• are there examples of good practice that could inform national policies?

The main purpose of this research was to gather information on:

• the different tasks carried out by rural women and men
• the challenges they face
• the policy responses needed to reinforce their role in agricultural and rural development

“The research combines empirical data and good practices based on national and international experiences. The publication presents an updated analysis of development issues that are crucial for addressing rural poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals,” said Kifle.

The report and the accompanying seven policy briefs provide evidence that rural women have the potential to lift their households and communities out of poverty. But they are hampered by persistent gender inequities. These inequities limit their access to decent work, which they need as a vehicle for economic empowerment, social advancement and political participation.

Loretta de Luca, our ILO colleague, said the a copy of this publication should be in the offices of all member states and policy makers. I think the bigger challenge is how will they use the findings of the report and what actions will they commit to take to overcome challenges such as:

• valuing the contribution of rural women in bringing about economic growth and reducing poverty
• recognizing the economic role of women as farmers, wage labourers and small-scale entrepreneurs
• recognizing women’s “hidden” economic role as caretakers of children and the elderly

Soline de Villard from FAO brilliantly described the policy briefs.  She said: “the accompanying policy briefings are grounded in rural reality. They are ‘down to rural earth.’”

I’m sure developing the policy briefs was more challenging than putting together the 210 page report. This is because practitioners have the tendency to want to cramp far too much cryptic information and fall into the trap of losing sight of their audience needs.

The policy briefs are for people who do not have time to read something cover to cover. So the challenge is to package the wealth of information in such a way that conveys the essential messages in a simple, direct and compelling manner, thus allowing the policy maker to make the right decision and act in a timely manner.

Well, the seven policy briefs not only are ‘down to rural earth’ they are informative and written in a way that clearly outline what action is needed and what policy options are required for:

• promoting decent work that is fair to both women and men
• investing in skills
• promoting entrepreneurship among rural women
• supporting agricultural value chain development
• investing in infrastructure
• making migration work for women and men
• eliminating child labour

Villard in sharing the concept of ‘time poverty’ said:  “rural women work fewer hours than men in productive work, but all together they work longer hours than men - this both for domestic and productive work.”

“Rural women are relegated to under-valued and under-paid work. They do not have access to infrastructure and child care remains one of the key constraints to women proactively participating in rural labour markets”, highlighted Villard.

She also highlighted the fact that rural employment and women’s employment in particular are characterized by:

• time constraints in domestic and productive work
• informal, unpaid working conditions
• risks and isolation, but women are risk averse

Talking about gender inequalities in rural employment, Villard highlighted this inequality is only partially because of difference in assets. “90% of gender wage gap remains unexplained”, said Villard. “This gap could be contributed to gender discrimination and/or risk aversion.”


This made me reflect that perhaps a challenge to achieve gender equality is for both women and men realize that inequality exists.

During the chat show, moderated by own Cristiana Sparacino - who is born chat show host and is now elevated to the ranks of Oraph Winfrey - FAO’s Eve Crowley pointed out that “to alleviate rural poverty and ensure food security, we need to dig in and understand the root causes of the 90% wage gap between women and men.”

One of the findings of the report that I personally found interesting is summarized in this graphics - namely how being female amplifies rural employment deficits.

This publications is one of the few that I’ve come across that touches upon all gender dimensions and not only women issues.  I think that is why I found it so refreshing. Villard in concluding the presentation of the main findings outlined the need for:

• compiling sex disaggregated data
• creating more and better jobs opportunities for rural men and women
• eliminating child labour
• putting in place effective policies

Talking about employment opportunities, Claudio Lenoci, ILO director for Italy reiterated that ”decent work means equal opportunity for both women and men”. FAO’s Marcella Villareal underscored the fact the without addressing gender inequalities we will not be able to achieve the targets of MDG1 and cannot effectively reduce hunger and poverty.

Crowely, echoing Villareal reminded the participants that “to reduce hunger and poverty and ensure food security, we need to power women economically, create greater autonomy for women and reduce social inequality.”

“We need to transform agriculture into a sector that not only provides employment opportunities but also provides a better livelihoods,”added Crowley.  ILO’s Loretta de Luca passionately advocated that we need to make women protagonist and made the case that investing in rural women is good business.

Let me wrap up this blogpost with one last personal reflection. We often talk about the disconnect between theory and practice. This causes some tension between the practitioner who “dirties his/her hands” and the academic who hypotheses, writes articles which are then peer reviewed and published in prestigious journals. Well, during the chat show, I saw this dynamics in action. It was interesting to see an academic such as Deepa Joshi from Wageningen University citing and quoting from books and academic materials, and Norman Messer - an on-the-ground practitioners - sharing concrete on-the-ground examples.

I was left with the question whether there was any room to bridge this gap? and wonder how big is this gap?

At the end of event, I was satisfied and happy to have spent my Friday morning attending the launch of Gender dimensions of agricultural and rural development: Differentiated pathways out of poverty. I am sure we’ll be hear more about this report. It surely has gone pretty viral on Twittersphere. A big thank you to all the wonderful people who are tweeting and retweeting about this report. And once again kudos and congratulations to FAO-IFAD-ILO colleagues!

"Lessons from the Holocaust to be shared with Catholic students"

Cardinal Pole's Blog: "Lessons from the Holocaust to be shared with Catholic students"

A Lesson in "Globalism"

Preservation; distinction for "The Jews." Evisceration; diversity for "The Goyim."



What is this wild-eyed woman talking about when she says "Europe won't survive" unless "The Jews" play a leading role in creating a multicultural amalgam out of it and why doesn't the same multicultural mandate apply to "The Jews" and "Israel"?

Compare the message in the video above with the message in the video at this link:

http://europeanjewishfund.org/video_paideia.html

This organization "Paideia" is a branch of an Israeli state-based "European Jewish Fund." While these organizations eviscerate European religion, culture and tradition, they simultaneously build up Judaic religion, culture and tradition in Europe:

The European Jewish Fund Leadership Program at Paideia combines an in-depth and comprehensive education in the texts that constitute the bedrock of Jewish civilisation, traditional study methodology (Hevruta), an academic approach to interpretation and applied project development, making it a unique program in Jewish studies. It provides the participants with the knowledge and the tools they need to become driving forces in strengthening Jewish community life throughout Europe.

http://www.europeanjewishfund.org/index.ph...ts_2010#paideia

In fact, in its mission statement, the "European Jewish Fund" says it was established:

"... for the very specific goal of strengthening Jewish life in Europe.

To achieve this goal, the Fund focuses on young people and their connection to Judaism and their communities by supporting programmes aimed at building Jewish identity and Jewish pride, especially by re-connecting young people with their rich and vital Jewish past ... The Fund is also focused on addressing such serious threats to Jewish life in Europe as assimilation, anti-Semitism and racism.

Assimilation is without a doubt an existential threat to European Jewry that is becoming ever graver. The threat must be addressed in a serious manner with programmes that are aimed at reconnecting people with Jewish life."

http://www.europeanjewishfund.org/index.php?/en_background

So, in brief, while this "Israel"-based Judaic organization attacks European identity by promoting multiculturalism and diversity, it simultaneously fights assimilation for Judaic persons by promoting Judaic religion, tradition and culture.

The chairman of the "European Jewish Fund" is multi-billionaire "Russian" oligarch, Moshe Kantor who is also the head of the "European Jewish Congress."

Find the "European Jewish Fund" representative for your European nation here:

http://www.europeanjewishfund.org/index.php?/bios/

Also see:

Moshe Kantor's house of lords

"In the East, all our 'anti-Semites' sit in prison"

At Vatican meeting with Cardinal Bertone, World Jewish Congress leaders praise "positive" visit of Pope to Israel

Dom Hélder Câmara - Flexibility. Innovation. Sustainability.

In 2010, the IFAD Office of Evaluation undertook an evaluation of the Dom Hélder Câmara project in Brazil. The evaluation recognised the innovative content of the project and the strong impact on the empowerment of the target group, including women and youth. In this regard, the Office of Evaluation and the Latin America and the Caribbean Division organized a joint learning event aimed at disseminating the evaluation lessons learned and stimulating discussion on relevant development themes. This short slideshow captures the lessons learned from the project evaluation.

Photos ©IFAD/Giuseppe Bizzarri

Rabbi, "Holocaust Scholar" Kosher Stamps John Paul II Beatification

Rabbi Michael Berenbaum's "Holocaust" fundamentalist absolutism stands to benefit greatly from a JPII beatification.

“As I observe young people in relativistic societies seeking an absolute for morals and values, they now can view the Holocaust as the transcendental move away from the relativistic, and up into the absolute where the Holocaust confronts absolute Evil [=Nazism] and thus find fundamental values.” (Rabbi Michael Berenbaum, speaking at Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, January 26-28, 2000)

As I said at the Mass celebrated in 1979 at Brzezinka near Auschwitz: "I kneel at this Golgotha of the modern world" (Pope John Paul II)

Holocaust scholar pays tribute to Pope John Paul

Catholic World News
January 17, 2011

Michael Berenbaum, a rabbi and Holocaust scholar, has praised the Vatican announcement of Pope John Paul II’s beatification.

“Jews have no right to register an opinion on whom the Roman Catholic Church beautifies [sic] and whom it considers a saint,” he writes. “Nevertheless, this has not stopped us from asserting our disapproval of the efforts to canonize Pope Pius XII, the man who served as Pope during the Holocaust.”

“Though I have no vote,” he concludes, “were I to have [a] vote, I would be honored to consider Pope John Paul II a saint, not a saint without flaws, or human fallibility but a saint nevertheless.”

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=8919

Irish Leaders Castigated As Greatest Traitors Of All Time

Irish Leaders Castigated As Greatest Traitors Of All Time

"Goy' Sperm Yields Barbaric Offspring"

Cardinal Martini sez:

Judaism, in its study centers, has elaborated the talmudic tradition in latter-day commentaries. The church cannot ignore the results of this elaboration, as they are present in religious, legal, and philosophical texts of postbiblical Jewish literature. There are many examples of such initiatives. But for them to bear fruit, we will have to extend them to the widest possible number of dioceses, communities, and ecclesial groups, in order to dispel the clouds of ignorance (for which we ourselves are largely responsible) that have separated us in the past and set us in mutual opposition.

I am certain that a profound understanding of Judaism will be vital for the church, not merely to overcome centuries of ignorance and initiate productive dialogue, but also to deepen the church’s self-understanding. ("The Road to Jerusalem," Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini)

I offer below, teachings from post-biblical rabbinic literature, the Sefer HaChinuch [Book of Education]. I hope that readers will extend them to the widest possible number of dioceses, communities, and ecclesial groups, in order to dispel the clouds of ignorance and to inculcate profound understanding of Judaism vital for the Church not merely to overcome centuries of ignorance and initiate productive dialogue, but also to deepen the Church’s distinction from this racial-supremacist, racial-determinist counterfeit.

Rabbi Dov Lior, like Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen who Pope Benedict XVI invited to teach at a 2008 synod, is an apostle of the father of modern racial-supremacist militant Messianic Zionism, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook.

'Gentile sperm leads to barbaric offspring'

Kobi Nahshoni - Ynet

January 11, 2011

Israel Jewish Scene

Rabbi Dov Lior, a senior authority on Jewish law in the Religious Zionism movement, asserted recently that a Jewish woman should never get pregnant using sperm donated by a non-Jewish man – even if it is the last option available.

According to Lior, a baby born through such an insemination will have the "negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews."

"Sefer HaChinuch (a book of [rabbinic] law) states that the character traits of the father pass on to the son," he said in the lecture. "If the father in not Jewish, what character traits could he have? Traits of cruelty, of barbarism! These are not traits that characterize the people of Israel" ...

Lior added identified Jews as merciful, shy and charitable – qualities that he claimed could be inherited. "A person born to Jewish parents, even if they weren't raised on the Torah – there are things that are passed on (to him) in the blood, it's genetic," he explained. "If the father is a gentile, then the child is deprived of these things.

"I even read in books that sometimes the crime, the difficult traits, the bitterness – a child that comes from these traits, it's no surprise that he won't have the qualities that characterize the people of Israel," he added ...

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4006385,00.html

We need to help smallholder farmers become a bigger part of the solution to food security

Robert Zoellick ("Free markets can still feed the world") rightly acknowledges smallholder farms as part of the solution to food security. The Rural Poverty Report 2011, issued by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), makes it clear how important they are.

In many developing countries a majority of smallholder farmers are net food buyers, and rural households make up a substantial majority of the world’s 900 million-plus hungry. Helping smallholders to increase their productivity and marketed supply is thus perhaps the most important thing that can be done to reduce the number of hungry people in the world. Yet we also know that many smallholder farmers are facing growing difficulties – soil erosion, declining soil fertility, salination of arable lands, growing scarcity of water, and increasingly volatile and uncertain weather patterns – and these are undermining agricultural production in large parts of the developing world.

So yes, we need to help smallholder farmers become a bigger part of the solution to food security, but that needs to go hand-in-hand with also helping them to farm in a way that is more sustainable in its use of the natural resource base, and more resilient to the ever-growing impacts of climate change. It's a challenge that is given added urgency by the need to feed a global population that will likely exceed 9 billion by the year 2050. The alternative is continued hunger, mass migration and a threat to the social stability of many developing countries.

Download the Rural Poverty Report 2011. 

It's Not Proper that "The Holocaust" Gets Special Billing

The primacy of "The Holocaust" doesn't diminish the suffering of others?

You better believe the masters of both relativism and absolutism are panic stricken at the thought of their sacrosanct "Holocaust" taking a place on level ground among the pantheon of atrocities against human populations; being relativised among them. That's just not how Judaism works!

My study of how my (previously absolute) religious beliefs are being relativised away in reference to the absolute primacy of "The Holocaust" has left me feeling rather unsympathetic to this totem of tribal megalomania. It's long past time for a sober view of this "Holocaust" and that will begin when it steps down to its proper place among all other crimes against human beings. There can be no honest assessment of the matter when "scholars" (in reality, "Holocaust" absolutists) such as Peter Hitchens obediently bow down before this idol chanting ridiculous mantras such as:

... there is still no crime equivalent to the Holocaust, and any attempt “to pretend that other events — however horrifying — are equivalent [is] dishonest and detracts from that uniqueness a uniqueness which provides an unanswerable case for the existence of the Jewish state.”

This is a tacit admission that Holocaustolatry is backwards and upside down proceeding from the founding of the Zionist state backwards to the alleged events of "The Holocaust." What a radical shift "The Holocaust" has brought about in the universe as it tears through space and time reversing causality! To quote the Israeli interloper from my comments box, "do you really believe this stuff?"

Rights Museum: Is it proper that the Holocaust gets special billing?

Charles Lewis - National Post

January 7, 2011

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is intended to promote the idea that there exists no greater crime than the abuse of individuals because of their creed, colour or religion. It is also meant to convey the noble notion that such affronts should create revulsion in everyone, not just the victims.

But some say that noble intention could be tarnished by plans to give more attention and space to some victims over others — opening an uncomfortable and highly emotional debate about the hierarchy of suffering, something that touches on grievances that have gone on for decades in Canada and elsewhere.

The museum, set to open in Winnipeg in the spring of 2013, will give primacy to the murder of six million Jews during the Second World War, through a dedicated “zone” to the Holocaust.

All other “mass atrocities” will be put together and housed in a separate zone and will include, among other events, the Rwandan massacres, the Cambodian Killing Fields, and the Holodomor — the planned starvation and execution of at least 3.2 million Ukrainians in the early 1930s under Stalin.

For Ukrainian Canadians especially, this decision is emblematic of a long history of vying for recognition of the terror their people suffered at the hands of one of history’s most murderous tyrants.

Any competition for attention could regrettably start to look like the “genocide Olympics,” said Lubomyr Luciuk, director of research for the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada. “Intentionally or not, it leaves the impression that the horrors that befell some of communities are somehow more worthy of memory. That kind of partiality is unacceptable in a taxpayer-funded national museum.”

This is not the first time such controversies have erupted about the recognition of suffering. For example, two years ago, a group lobbying for a memorial in Ottawa to the victims of communism — 100 million in the 20th century in the former Soviet Union, China, Cambodia and elsewhere, according to some counts — encountered resistance from a parliamentary committee over labelling all communists as mass killers. In the end, a compromise was reached in which the term “totalitarian communism” was settled upon, and the memorial is approved for construction.

Angela Cassie, the director of communications for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, said the Holocaust is given particular prominence because it acts as a template to understand the broader idea of genocide wherever it occurs, a kind of window into how genocides begin in the first place.

“We don’t want this to be a competition on suffering,” she said. “But the Holocaust is the most documented of all mass murders so it can be used to deconstruct the steps that lead to all mass murder.

“But I know that many people will still not be satisfied with our decision.”

Arthur Schafer, the director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba, said the decision to give the Holocaust a particular place of recognition in the museum should not be viewed as “diminishing the suffering of others,” because the Holocaust is unique.

No matter the venue or context, he said, the Holocaust always has to be given primacy of commemoration because of the ideology that was behind the murder of the Jews.

“The very rationale for killing Jews was part of the official ideology of Nazism while forced starvation of Ukrainians was not the official ideology of communism. What makes it unique was that it was the end result of planned dehumanizing of people. It was an ideology that said Jews were sub-human, they were toxic and the world needed to be freed of them.”

British journalist Peter Hitchens, author of The Rage Against God, which argued that the Soviet Union became one of the most “disgusting societies” ever to have existed, is well aware of the crimes of the former communist state. He has also wondered why there are no major museums dedicated to the crimes of communism.

Despite this, he said, there is still no crime equivalent to the Holocaust, and any attempt “to pretend that other events — however horrifying — are equivalent [is] dishonest and detracts from that uniqueness a uniqueness which provides an unanswerable case for the existence of the Jewish state.”

U.S. historian Timothy Snyder shines a light on Stalin’s crimes in a new book, and places those awful events along a continuum that climaxed with the Holocaust. Bloodlands looks at how the region between Berlin and Moscow became a region of mass murder perpetrated by both Hitler and Stalin, and how the two maniacal leaders fed off each other. Many forget that the two states were allied for about two years and collaborated on the destruction of Poland.

His description of the Holocaust is even grimmer than most people have understood — and makes the crimes against the Jews even more personal and vile, if this is possible.

But Mr. Snyder also notes that by 1933, the year Hitler came to power, more than three millions Ukrainians had already been killed by Stalin and that the regime continued to kill millions more of its own citizens before and through the war.

In Bloodlands, and in the works of other scholars, it is made clear that Stalin’s strategy was well thought out, even methodical, and was a likely template for the crimes of the Nazis.

Stalin first got rid of Ukrainian intellectuals, he destroyed the Kulaks, the more prosperous peasants, and then set about making sure that millions of men, women and children were denied enough food to survive. Later, Stalin created a form of ethnic cleansing by settling the Ukraine with ethnic Russians.

“In the waning weeks of 1932, facing no external security threat and no challenge from within, with no conceivable justification except to prove the inevitability of his rule, Stalin chose to kill millions of people in the Soviet Ukraine,” wrote Mr. Snyder. “He shifted to a position of pure malice, where somehow the Ukrainian peasant was the aggressor, and he, Stalin, the victim.”

Carolyn Foster, the project co-ordinator for Tribute To Liberty, the Canadian group that lobbied for the communism memorial in Ottawa, said it is not a surprise that there is so much ignorance about the crimes of that ideology — be it the millions in the Soviet Union or the up to 45 million who died under Mao in the Chinese famines of the late 1950s.

“The communists’ stock in trade was killing and propaganda. That’s sort of what they use to basically do what they want to do, to consolidate their power. The propaganda is why there is a veil around what happened. And what better way to hide a crime than by calling it a ‘famine’?

“The Holocaust was a more isolated incident. It began, it ended, and the Germans were the enemy. With communism it was going on before and is still going on, in many different countries under different regimes and targeting many different peoples. It is doesn’t have the containment of the Holocaust. The Holocaust is easy to identify.”

Ms. Foster said working on the Ottawa memorial revealed that the myth of good communism persists — “that if was implemented properly it would be the best system” — and there is need for more education on the history of all genocides.

The Holocaust is better known and understood than the consequences of Stalinism for a number of reasons. The Soviets were allies of the countries fighting fascism. Because the Germans were defeated, the perpetrators fell into Allied hands and so could be brought to justice. The Holocaust was filmed and photographed; almost everyone has an image burned in the mind about the Holocaust, but few would be able to recall a scene from the Holodomor. Moreover, the Germans kept meticulous records, which acted as a paper trail to their own crimes.

Stalin’s crimes came mainly before the war started, whereas the Germans conducted their worst atrocities during it. Once the war was over, the communist crimes stayed hidden behind the Iron Curtain.

Paul Grod, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, declines to compare the 20th century horrors.

“To be clear, this is not about the Holocaust versus the Holodomor, it is about the educational value of having both displayed equitably in the museum,” said Mr. Grod, who said he is proud of his close relationship with the Jewish community.

“Our community was supportive of the museum based on an understanding … it would be equitable, inclusive and fair. We do not see that principle being applied in the proposed content and layout of the museum.”

Every story of mass killing is distinct comes with its own unique circumstances and the danger of filtering one through another risks obscuring how different people were targeted for different reasons, Mr. Grod explained, which is why he objects to other “mass atrocities” being filtered through the template of the Holocaust.

In an interview, Mr. Snyder, author of Bloodlands, said the crimes of the Soviets will become clearer as more scholarship emerges. It has only been 22 years since the fall of the Iron Curtain, and it took till the early 1980s before scholars truly grasped the breadth of the Holocaust, despite the plethora of documents and testimony.

“I don’t like the word ‘unique’ to describe the Holocaust because everything then stands in the shadows of that event. The Holocaust was different; it was a crowning moment in a longer destructive process that began with Stalin,” he said.

“The Holocaust was more horrible than anything else, but you can’t say that unless you put everything else in the picture.”

http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/01/07/rights-museum-is-it-proper-that-the-holocaust-gets-special-billing/#ixzz1AfzgiMBE

Egypt's Muslims Attend Coptic Christmas Mass, Serving as Human Shields

Egypt's Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as "human shields"

Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as “shields” to Egypt’s threatened Christian community

Yasmine El-Rashidi - Al-Ahram

January 7, 2011

Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.

From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic militants and towards an Egypt free from sectarian strife.

“We either live together, or we die together,” was the sloganeering genius of Mohamed El-Sawy, a Muslim arts tycoon whose cultural centre distributed flyers at churches in Cairo Thursday night, and who has been credited with first floating the “human shield” idea.

Among those shields were movie stars Adel Imam and Yousra, popular preacher Amr Khaled, the two sons of President Hosni Mubarak, and thousands of citizens who have said they consider the attack one on Egypt as a whole.

“This is not about us and them,” said Dalia Mustafa, a student who attended mass at Virgin Mary Church on Maraashly. “We are one. This was an attack on Egypt as a whole, and I am standing with the Copts because the only way things will change in this country is if we come together.”

In the days following the brutal attack on Saints Church in Alexandria, which left 21 dead on New Year’ eve, solidarity between Muslims and Copts has seen an unprecedented peak. Millions of Egyptians changed their Facebook profile pictures to the image of a cross within a crescent – the symbol of an “Egypt for All”. Around the city, banners went up calling for unity, and depicting mosques and churches, crosses and crescents, together as one.

The attack has rocked a nation that is no stranger to acts of terror, against all of Muslims, Jews and Copts. In January of last year, on the eve of Coptic Christmas, a drive-by shooting in the southern town of Nag Hammadi killed eight Copts as they were leaving Church following mass. In 2004 and 2005, bombings in the Red Sea resorts of Taba and Sharm El-Sheikh claimed over 100 lives, and in the late 90’s, Islamic militants executed a series of bombings and massacres that left dozens dead.

This attack though comes after a series of more recent incidents that have left Egyptians feeling left out in the cold by a government meant to protect them.

Last summer, 28-year-old businessman Khaled Said was beaten to death by police, also in Alexandria, causing a local and international uproar. Around his death, there have been numerous other reports of police brutality, random arrests and torture.

Last year was also witness to a brutal parliamentary election process in which the government’s security apparatus and thugs seemed to spiral out of control. The result, aside from injuries and deaths, was a sweeping win by the ruling party thanks to its own carefully-orchestrated campaign that included vote-rigging, corruption and rife brutality. The opposition was essentially annihilated. And just days before the elections, Copts - who make up 10 percent of the population - were once again the subject of persecution, when a government moratorium on construction of a Christian community centre resulted in clashes between police and protestors. Two people were left dead and over 100 were detained, facing sentences of up to life in jail.

The economic woes of a country that favours the rich have only exacerbated the frustration of a population of 80 million whose majority struggle each day to survive. Accounts of thefts, drugs, and violence have surged in recent years, and the chorus of voices of discontent has continued to grow.

The terror attack that struck the country on New Year’s eve is in many ways a final straw – a breaking point, not just for the Coptic community, but for Muslims as well, who too feel marginalized, persecuted, and overlooked, by a government that fails to address their needs. On this Coptic Christmas eve, the solidarity was not just one of religion, but of a desperate and collective plea for a better life and a government with accountability.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/95/3365/Egypt/Attack-on-Egypt-Copts/Egypts-Muslims-attend-Coptic-Christmas-mass,-servi.aspx

Terrorism against Christians in the Middle East is the Wages of "Christian" Zionism

Please read the following article and the comments underneath:

Bloodshed in Egypt by Srdja Trifkovic

What this article doesn't mention is the inorganic nature of the "Muslim Brotherhood." This organization is heavily influenced by agents of Western Intelligence. The "Muslim Brotherhood" is no more organic to Arabs and Islam than John Hagee is to Christianity.

Please don't allow yourself to be dragooned into supporting a Crusade that only stands to benefit religious Zionism.

Another Vatican II Peritus Confirmed to be Estranged from the Gospel

From Cardinal Biffi comes testimony of a speech prepared by Vatican II peritus, Fr. Giuseppi Dossetti containing plain dual-covenant theology.

A few comments: Cardinal Biffi's assessment of a grave distortion of the Gospel at the most fundamental level is exceedingly mild.

The "contemporary German author" Cardinal Biffi has in mind is likely Jürgen Moltmann, although, it could be any given German Cardinal or Bishop, or a certain German Pope who is in the habit of reckless statements and acts that betray an ambivalence towards the Gospel at best.

This is useful information but in the big picture it seems to be a limited hang-out for English speakers. Could Cardinal Biffi be unaware of his neighbor, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini's, L'assurdo di Auschwitz e il Mistero della Croce and many other such works? Could he be unaware that one of John Paul II's first papal acts was to offer a Mass at Auschwitz and proclaim, "I kneel at this Golgotha of the modern world"? Does this not at least represent a grave alteration of Christology fatally compromising the whole perspective of "sacred doctrine"? Dual-covenant ("Noahide") theology and the Calvary-relativising theology of Auschwitz are tightly intertwined within the contemporary German school of philosophy/theology that Biffi makes reference to which John Paul II and Benedict XVI were certainly influenced by.

That such violence to the Gospel could be excused as a concession to "Jewish-Christian dialogue" only demonstrates the problem inherent to that "dialogue."

... AN UNPRESENTABLE CHRISTOLOGY


At the end of October 1991, [Vatican II peritus, Fr. Giuseppi] Dossetti graciously brought me the speech I had commissioned from him for the centenary of Lercaro's birth. "Examine it, change it, add, remove freely," he told me. He was certainly sincere: at that moment, the man of God and faithful priest was speaking.

Unfortunately, I found something that wasn't right. And it was the idea, presented favorably by Dossetti, that just as Jesus is the Savior of the Christians, so also the Torah, the Mosaic law, is also currently the path of salvation for the Jews. The assertion was shared by a contemporary German author, and was probably favored by Dossetti because he saw its usefulness for Jewish-Christian dialogue.

But with chief responsibility for orthodoxy in my Church, I could never have accepted putting into doubt the revealed truth that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of all. [...]

"Fr. Giuseppe," I said to him, "haven't you ever read the pages of Saint Paul, and the narration of the Acts of the Apostles? Doesn't it seem to you that in the first Christian community, the problem was exactly the opposite? In those days, it was accepted peacefully and without a doubt that Jesus was the Redeemer of the Jews; if anything, what was discussed was whether the gentiles could also be fully reached by his salvific action."

Besides, it should be enough – I thought to myself – not to forget a little phrase from the letter to the Romans, where it says that the Gospel of Christ "is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: for Jew first, and then Greek" (cf. Rm. 1:16).

Dossetti was not in the habit of renouncing any of his convictions. Here in the end he gave in when I warned him that, if necessary, I would interrupt and publicly contradict him; and he acquiesced to say only this: "It does not seem consistent with the thinking of Saint Paul to say that the way of salvation for Christians is Christ, and for Jews is the Mosaic Law." There was no longer anything erroneous in this statement, and I did not raise any objections, even if I would have preferred that there had not even been a reference to such an aberrant theological opinion.

This "incident" made me reflect a great deal, and I immediately judged it to be of extreme gravity, although I did not speak of it with anyone at the time. Any alteration of Christology fatally compromises the whole perspective of "sacred doctrine." In a man of faith and of sincere religious life like Fr. Dossetti, it was plausible that the misstep was the result of a mistaken and inexact general methodological approach ... ("Cardinal Biffi Breaks Another Taboo. On Dossetti," Sandro Magister, Chiesa, January 3, 2011)

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1346167?eng=y

Also see:

Vatican II Peritus: Because of "The Holocaust," Church Must Reinterpret Gospel

This Palestinian Family has Justice on its Side

"My entire family is ruined ... The whole house feels a sense of catastrophe." [Yet, he] said he bears no hatred toward Israelis. "They are people just like myself. We don't seek vengeance against Israel. We want the return of our lands, and the struggle won't end until our property is restored."

Can someone tell me what it is that Christians are supposed to have in common with "Israel" that would make us favor that barbaric, vengeful nation over this Palestinian family?

Questions are surfacing about Israel's use of tear-gas grenades, as security officials investigate the recent death of a protester at the weekly demonstration near the separation fence at the West Bank village of Bil'in. A 36-year-old woman, Jawaher Abu Rahmah, died on Saturday morning.

The medical report filed in the Ramallah hospital where Abu Rahmah was taken shows that her death was caused by respiratory failure resulting from the inhalation of tear gas.

Jawaher Abu Rahmah was the sister of Bassem Abu Rahmah, who was killed in April 2009 when Israeli soldiers fired a tear-gas grenade at his chest at a demonstration at the fence in Bil'in. Ahmed Abu Rahmah has three surviving brothers; their father died five years ago.

"My entire family is ruined," he said on Sunday. "The whole house feels a sense of catastrophe." He said he bears no hatred toward Israelis. "They are people just like myself. We don't seek vengeance against Israel. We want the return of our lands, and the struggle won't end until our property is restored." ("Protester death shows IDF may be using most dangerous type of tear gas," Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz, January 3, 2011)

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/protester-death-shows-idf-may-be-using-most-dangerous-type-of-tear-gas-1.334858

Compare this message of Christlike forbearance and forgiveness with the message of non-forgiveness of the Pope's elder brothers in the faith:

"Victims of 'the Holocaust' have not given us the right to forgive the perpetrators nor the Holocaust deniers."

"Israel" "Defense" Force Kills Palestinian Woman by Poison Gas

Here is a real gassing where a real weapon and real corpse actually exists.

Female protester killed by Israeli tear gas in Bil’in

Saturday, January 1 2011|Joseph Dana

Jawaher Abu Rahmah, 36, was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital yesterday after inhaling massive amounts of tear-gas during the weekly protest in Bil’in, and died of poisoning this morning. Abu Rahmah was the sister of Bassem Abu Rahmah who was also killed during a peaceful protest in Bil’in on April 17th, 2010.

Doctors at the Ramallah hospital fought for Jawaher Abu Rahmah’s life all night at the Ramallah Hospital, but were unable to save her life. Abu Rahmah suffered from severe asphyxiation caused by tear-gas inhalation yesterday in Bil’in, and was evacuated to the Ramallah hospital unconscious. She was diagnosed as suffering from poisoning caused by the active ingredient in the tear-gas, and did not respond to treatment.

Jawaher Abu Rahmah was the sister of Bil’in activist, Bassem Abu Rahmah, who was shot dead with a high velocity tear-gas projectile during a demonstration in the village on April 17th, 2009.

Full article and video:

http://972mag.com/female-protester-killed-by-israeli-tear-gas-in-bil%E2%80%99in/

China (re)Discovers the Business Wisdom of the Talmud

The Chinese should, but apparently don't, recall the Talmudic business wisdom of the pious, Sephardic Orthodox Judaic opium dealer, David Sassoon, who brought their nation to ruin while profiting handsomely from it not too long ago.

"Han Bing, the (pseudonymous) author of Crack the Talmud, says a series on the 'Jewish Bible' by a prominent publisher made him realize that 'ancient Jews and today’s Chinese face a lot of the same problems"

This message sounds familiar. Could it mean that our "special relationship" with "The Jews" isn't as special as we've been led to believe? Keep an eye on the East and you'll find out.

Selling the Talmud as a Business Guide

P Deliss / Godong-Corbis - Newsweek

December 29, 2010

A page from the Talmud, the book consisting of early rabbinical writings that inform the Judaic tradition.

Jewish visitors to China often receive a snap greeting when they reveal their religion: “Very smart, very clever, and very good at business,” the Chinese person says. Last year’s Google Zeitgeist China rankings listed “why are Jews excellent?” in fourth place in the “why” questions category, just behind “why should I enter the party” and above “why should I get married?” (Google didn’t publish a "why" category in Mandarin this year.) And the apparent affection for Jewishness has led to a surprising trend in publishing over the last few years: books purporting to reveal the business secrets of the Talmud that capitalize on the widespread impression among Chinese that attributes of Judaism lead to success in the financial arts.

Titles such as Crack the Talmud: 101 Jewish Business Rules, The Illustrated Jewish Wisdom Book, and Know All of the Money-Making Stories of the Talmud share the shelves with stories of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. There’s even a Talmud hotel in Taiwan inspired by “the Talmud’s concept of success” that features a copy of the book Talmud Business Success Bible in every room. With the increasing interest in business education in China, and a rise in sales of self-help literature, the production of business guides to the Talmud has exploded. The guides are like the Chinese equivalents of books such as Sun Tzu and the Art of Business.

Han Bing, the (pseudonymous) author of Crack the Talmud, says a series on the “Jewish Bible” by a prominent publisher made him realize that “ancient Jews and today’s Chinese face a lot of the same problems,” ... No statistics are available on the sales of this sliver of the book market. But while the guides haven’t reached the heights of books such as Jewish Family Education, which claims to have sold more than 1 million copies, they currently are “very popular” and a “hot topic,” says Wang Jian, associate dean of the Center of Jewish Studies in Shanghai, a research institution that focuses on Jewish culture and history, and Israel. The Talmud “has become a handbook for doing business and seeking fortunes,” Wang says.

full article:

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/29/in-china-pushing-the-talmud-as-a-business-guide.html

Also see:

New Knucklehead Billionaires, Same Old Judaism

"In the East, all our 'anti-Semites' sit in prison”

Get to Know Alexander Mashkevich

Rabbi Pulls Back the Veil on Judaism's Paganism