Adonis Diaries

Posts Tagged ‘Angela Merkel’

Why mostly incompetent persons become leaders?

Posted by: on: February 2, 2020

 And what can we do about it?

Jan 9, 2020 / 

If we want to improve the competence level of people in leadership positions, we need to improve our own competence for judging and selecting them, especially when they are men, says organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.

Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic  is the chief talent scientist at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and at Columbia University in New York City, and an associate at Harvard’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab.

He is the author of the book Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (and How to Fix It), upon which his TEDx talk was based. You can find him on Twitter (@drtcp) or at www.drtomas.com.

Have you ever worked with people who are Not as good as they think? 

This finding won’t come as a surprise to most of us, but statistically, these people are more likely to be male than female.

That’s right — men are typically more deceived about their talents than women are. And they are also more likely to succeed in their careers. That’s because one of the best ways to fool other people into thinking you’re better than you actually are is to fool yourself first.

I’m an organizational psychologist, and I use science and technology to predict and understand human behavior at work. One of the areas that fascinates me is the relationship between gender, personality and leadership and more specifically, how gender and personality shape our choices of leaders and how those leaders then impact organizations.

Discussions of gender tend to focus on the under-representation of women in leadership, which, sadly, is more or less universal.

But a bigger problem is the fact that most leaders are incompetent.

Indeed, whether in business or politics, incompetent leaders have negative effects on their followers and subordinates, causing low levels of engagement, trust and productivity and high levels of burnout and stress.

Just google “my boss is” to see what most people think of their managers (and just maybe, you’ll feel a bit better about your manager). You’ll see words like “crazy,” “abusive,” “unbearable,” “toxic,” and other words that are too rude to repeat.

So, the main question we should be asking is Not why there aren’t any more women leaders, but why do so many incompetent men become leaders? 

My research suggests there are three main reasons, and the first is our inability to distinguish between confidence and competence.

Across cultures and countries, we tend to assume that confident people have more potential for leadership, but in any area of talent, including leadership, there is very little overlap between confidence (how good people think they are at something) and competence (how good they actually are at something).

The second reason is our love of charismatic individuals, particularly since the explosion of mass media in the 1960s.

But this has been turbocharged by the recent digital age. We appear to want leaders who are charming and entertaining, but as most of us know, there is a big difference between an effective leader and being a stand-up comedian.

In fact, the best leaders are humble rather than charismatic, to the point of being boring.

That’s why they’re rarely featured in blockbuster movies. For example, imagine a movie on Angela Merkel — she wakes up, has breakfast with her husband, goes to meetings well-prepared, lets other people talk without interrupting them, makes rational decisions, and there are no scandals about her.

In contrast, there is a surplus of captivating biopics on charismatic leaders with a fascinating dark side, who end up ruining countries and organizations.

The third and final reason for the rise of incompetent men is our inability to resist the allure of narcissistic individuals — people with grandiose visions that tap into our own narcissism. 

We’ve always admired famous people, but our admiration for people who admire themselves or are famous for just being famous has been rising for decades. At this rate, future generations will look back at Kim and Kanye and say, “Whoa! Weren’t they modest?”

Much of the popular advice that focuses on helping people become leaders nurtures and promotes a narcissistic mindset: “Love yourself, no matter what”, “Don’t worry about what people think of you” or “If you think you’re great, you are.”

Unfortunately, this creates a surplus of leaders who are unaware of their limitations and unjustifiably pleased with themselves.

They see leadership as an entitlement and they lack empathy and self-control, so they end up acting without integrity and indulging in reckless risks.

In contrast, the best leaders keep their narcissism in check. They care a lot about other people, including what they think of them, and they spend a great deal of time worrying about their reputation, which is why there are very few scandals about them.

So, how do we stop incompetent men from becoming leaders?

The first solution is to follow the signs and look for the qualities that actually make people better leaders.

There is a pathological mismatch between the attributes that seduce us in a leader and those that are needed to be an effective leader.

If we want to improve the performance of our leaders, we should focus on the right traits. Instead of falling for people who are confident, narcissistic and charismatic, we should promote people because of competence, humility and integrity.

Incidentally, this would also lead to a higher proportion of female than male leaders — large-scale scientific studies show that women score higher than men on measures of competence, humility and integrity. But the point is that we would significantly improve the quality of our leaders.

The second solution is to distrust our instincts.

Most of us love our intuition, but most people are just not as intuitive as they think. In that sense, intuition is a bit like a sense of humor.

90% of people think they have a fantastic sense of humor. Yet how many people are actually funny? A much lower percentage.

One implication is to focus less on the impressions people make during job or media interviews, which are just an invitation to project our own biases and prejudices.

Even when we have good intentions, it is not easy to overcome this. For example, unconscious bias training will rarely help you ignore that the person in front of you is white, female or attractive. In fact, the more you try to suppress certain thoughts from your mind, the more prominent and present they become.

If we want to improve the quality of our leaders and help more women get to leadership positions, the last thing we should do is lower our standards when we select women. 

This means we shouldn’t ask women to behave more like incompetent men — for example, asking them to lean in when they don’t have the talent to back it up or to spend more time on self-promotion or advancing their own personal interests.

It also means not ruling out men because they lack the traditional masculine features that match our flawed archetypes of leadership.

To the extent that we can do these things, we will end up with better leaders.

However, progress starts with each and every one of us. If we want to improve the competence level of our leaders, we should first improve our own competence for judging and selecting leaders, especially when they are men.

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Euro-American Immigration Crisis? Different in nature?

Posted by: on: September 11, 2016

Euro-American Immigration Crisis? Different in nature?

On Sept. 4, Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) (Merkel’s party) was defeated in its race to control the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state government.

The CDU finished third, after the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party, which came in second. This defeat is significant because this was the home region for Angela Merkel, who has been German chancellor for over a decade.

Last week, Donald Trump met with the Mexican president and, upon his return to the U.S., delivered a major address on immigration.

Also, the Hungarian and Serbian prime ministers met this week and warned of increasing migration into Europe, discussing plans to stem the tide.

Merkel’s party’s defeat in her home region comes exactly a year after Hungary, overwhelmed by the inflow of migrants from Syria, tried to block their movement, and Merkel redefined European policy on immigration by opening German borders to all refugees.

The election result shows not only the political unpopularity of her move in Germany.

It also drives home that the reaction against immigration in both Europe and the United States is not dying down.

It has not yet reached a point where anti-immigration sentiment is taking widespread political control in most countries involved. But it has become a transnational movement that cannot be ignored and is not going away.

Dominant mainstream parties’ first strategy to marginalize anti-immigration elements was to identify them as racists.

The assumption was that if anti-immigrant forces were equivalent to the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, those who saw themselves as mainstream would shun the anti-immigrant movement. The strategy had little effect.

The anti-immigration sentiment was sufficiently strong and widespread that the charge of racism did not deter it. The movement was large enough that it could not be marginalized by the label.

I would argue that the label had, to some extent, an effect opposite to that which was desired. The anti-immigration faction would not shift and took the position that if that meant they were racists, well and good.

For those opposed to immigration, the charge tended to legitimize racism, rather than marginalize the anti-immigrant movement. The mainstream parties had lost the power to define the mainstream.

Where do you stand on immigration?

The Euro-American Immigration Crisis | Geopolitical Futures
geopoliticalfutures.com

There are obvious reasons for the hostility to immigration.

One is economic.

Since 2008, the European economic system has at different times deteriorated or stagnated. In the United States, the economy has stopped growing rapidly.

Throughout Europe and the U.S., life has become more difficult, particularly for those earning the median income.

These segments of society especially feared the impact of large numbers of immigrants on wages and unemployment. Those political parties on the left that had historically supported the interests of the lower half of society were the most vociferous opponents of the anti-immigrant sentiment.

That lower-income half of society was left with no representation.

Therefore, the door opened to the emergence of parties that were opposed to immigration. They merged this position with hostility to the mainstream parties that many in the lower half felt had abandoned them.

The issue of immigration became entangled with terrorism and crime.

There is a war underway, and on occasion radical Islamists launch attacks in Europe. Large waves of migrants likely include at least a handful of jihadists, and a handful is enough to launch a terrorist attack.

The fear in countries like France was palpable, and leaders like French President François Hollande announced that there was a war.

Large-scale migration, which provided cover for terrorists, seemed to make no sense. The sense of embattlement forced the mainstream to take anti-immigrant sentiment much more seriously, further opening the door for anti-immigrant parties.

In the United States, the fear of immigrant criminality is not frivolous.

Throughout the United States’ history, immigrants such as the Scotch-Irish, the Catholic Irish, the Italians, the Jews and so on contained significant criminal elements. As these groups settled in the U.S., elements of the first and second generation peeled off into criminality.

I have no doubt that their grandchildren are on the boards of hospitals and museums.

But Mexican migration is no different from other migration and it brings with it street crime and, similar to Italian migration, organized crime stretching to the home country. This builds wariness, if not ostracism, from earlier generations of immigrants.

I grew up in the Bronx. Running numbers, dealing dope and shaking down store owners was part of life for some first-generation immigrants.

Most of us kept our heads down and looked forward to when we could leave the old neighborhood, which for some bizarre reason I am now sentimental toward.

I knew the Jews who ran the gambling, hired Irish muscle and paid Italians for protection.

And when the Puerto Ricans moved in, they took over the gambling, and the Jews, Irish and Italians moved to the suburbs.

Ninety-nine percent of the Puerto Ricans were like our parents, busting their chops to make a living and sending us to school. But it was the 1 percent that scared us, and anyone not afraid was not in touch with reality.

There was a phrase used back then: limousine liberals. They were people who went to Groton and Yale and came back to lecture us on how we should embrace each other.

They hadn’t a clue about what went on in the streets and we were pretty sure they didn’t care. They weren’t talking to us.

They were talking about us, trying to demonstrate our ignorant fear, and how they hoped to make us better people. God knows they weren’t going to tangle with the guys with knives and guns.

I don’t live in an area with a large contingent of Mexican immigrants. But I am sure that 99 percent of them just want to get out of those neighborhoods and have their kids become doctors or accountants.

I also know that the 1 percent of punks and gangsters are no joke and if I had no education and no job I’d be living among them. And I know I would be afraid, as those who lived in the Bronx before the Jews, Irish and Italians settled there were afraid of them.

In the end, I would like to think that those of us who survived came out better citizens, as will happen to Mexican immigrants. But let’s not kid ourselves. Being a stranger in a strange land is a dangerous thing all around.

It is not this process that alienates those in the bottom half of society from those way above them. It is the dishonesty or the ignorance that tells us there is nothing to be afraid of and we should be ashamed of being afraid.

This has opened the door to Donald Trump and the European right. When Trump talks about Mexican rapists and killers, he is speaking about a small handful of Mexicans.

From the point of view of those who went to Groton and Yale, that is very few and not worth talking about. For those who walk the streets with them, it is that tiny handful that terrifies. And when the mainstream parties dismiss their fear, they make the anti-immigration movement stronger.

I am pro-immigration. I have to be. I was born in Hungary. I went through the grinder of assimilation, the fear of violence and the contempt of the better born.

I also know from American history that the country I live in could not have been built without immigrants.

Where would we be had the English not migrated here? And I know that Europe’s population numbers are falling and that they need workers and many of the available workers will be Muslim.

But the advocates of immigration should not make it sound so easy. Many of them do not live in the neighborhoods where immigrants sort themselves out.

They don’t apply for jobs where the willingness to work for a few cents less an hour means the difference between working and telling your kids you didn’t get the job.

It is not that immigration isn’t necessary, but the pious advocates for immigration don’t live in the meat grinder where the old poor and the newly arrived poor meet.

There is finally the question of assimilation.

I don’t think it ever occurred to me that I could choose to Not learn English or look like other Americans. I knew in my bones that my only road out of the old neighborhood was to transform myself into an American.

Why else would my parents have brought me here? I was bilingual and still am. But I spoke Hungarian only at home and English at school.

I knew a secret that seems to have been forgotten today. At home, there is one culture. Outside, there is another. The latter is the culture of those who could throw a curveball, live in the apartments on Central Park South and give their kids what I didn’t have.

They were decent people, they invited me in to play. But it was their bat, their ball and their rules. Now, they are mine.

In Europe, it is harder to get into their game and that is what makes Europe different from the U.S.

In the United States, the meat grinder grinds fine, but there is an exit if you can find it. In Europe, I’m not sure whether you can ever get out of the meat grinder.

I became an American by playing by American rules. I’m not sure there is such a path in Europe.

But I know this about both places. Immigration is tough and it is dangerous both to the immigrants and those who welcome them.

Immigration is necessary, but it carries a price for all sides. Until the real story of immigration is told, the anti-immigration parties will rise and the center will become harder to believe or respect.

Note 1: The flux of immigrants and migratory workers to colonial Europe received a strong boost from enterprises after WWII. Business needed cheaper workforces from North Africa, the Sub-Sahara, Turkey…

Did the former colonial powers managed to swallow and overcome their sense of humiliation after being defeated in war? Did they treated the new comers with a decent level of dignity?

During the economic booms, these immigrants/autichtone probably obtained higher levels of life security than back home: better pay, health care, schooling…

Did integration stopped here? Do these autochtone of different colors, race…have to return back home, reverse migration, after decades of settling in the new nation, simply because the economy  is bad?

Or to cajole these far-right parties who claim losing their existential character?

And if the Jews in Israel are forced to return to their country of origins, simply because we believe their colonial behaviour is trampling on our existential characters?

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An Open Letter from leading economists to Angela Merkel: Austerity Has Failed

Posted by: on: July 11, 2015

 

Austerity Has Failed: An Open Letter From Thomas Piketty to Angela Merkel

Five leading economists warn the German chancellor,

“History will remember you for your actions this week.”

July 7, 2015

Greece escalating to an unpayable 175 percent of GDP. The economy now lies broken with tax receipts nose-diving, output and employment depressed, and businesses starved of capital.

The humanitarian impact has been colossal—40 percent of children now live in poverty, infant mortality is sky-rocketing and youth unemployment is close to 50 percent.

Corruption, tax evasion and bad accounting by previous Greek governments helped create the debt problem.

The Greeks have complied with much of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s call for austerity—cut salaries, cut government spending, slashed pensions, privatized and deregulated, and raised taxes.

But in recent years the series of so-called adjustment programs inflicted on the likes of Greece has served only to make a Great Depression the likes of which have been unseen in Europe since 1929-1933.

The medicine prescribed by the German Finance Ministry and Brussels has bled the patient, not cured the disease.

Together we urge Chancellor Merkel and the Troika to consider a course correction, to avoid further disaster and enable Greece to remain in the eurozone.

Right now, the Greek government is being asked to put a gun to its head and pull the trigger.

Sadly, the bullet will not only kill off Greece’s future in Europe. The collateral damage will kill the Eurozone as a beacon of hope, democracy and prosperity, and could lead to far-reaching economic consequences across the world.

In the 1950s, Europe was founded on the forgiveness of past debts, notably Germany’s, which generated a massive contribution to post-war economic growth and peace.

Today we need to restructure and reduce Greek debt, give the economy breathing room to recover, and allow Greece to pay off a reduced burden of debt over a long period of time.

Now is the time for a humane rethink of the punitive and failed program of austerity of recent years and to agree to a major reduction of Greece’s debts in conjunction with much needed reforms in Greece.

To Chancellor Merkel our message is clear; we urge you to take this vital action of leadership for Greece and Germany, and also for the world.

History will remember you for your actions this week.

We expect and count on you to provide the bold and generous steps towards Greece that will serve Europe for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Heiner Flassbeck, former State Secretary in the German Federal Ministry of Finance

Thomas Piketty, Professor of Economics at the Paris School of Economics

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University

Dani Rodrik, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, Harvard Kennedy School

Simon Wren-Lewis, Professor of Economic Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

Note 1: There are various kinds of creditors. The worst kinds are major superpower creditors who themselves owe the highest debts  and will never pay them back (like the USA, France, Japan, England…)

 

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“Indirect victims of Holocaust”? Palestinians were colonized since 1869

Posted by: on: November 16, 2014

“Indirect victims of Holocaust”? Palestinians were colonized since 1869

When Gaza was attacked during the summer, Angela Merkel promised to “stand by the side of Israel.”

The German chancellor has done much more than offer verbal support for Israel’s crimes. Under her leadership, the Berlin government has been equipping Israel with submarines that reportedly carry nuclear weapons.

France built the 6 submarines and Germany provided the finance from German taxpayers’ pockets’.

France was the only supporter for colonizing and partitioning Palestine before WWI and the main power after WWII to delivering sophisticated weapons and nuclear plants.

The first settlement was established in 1869 in a land donated by the Ottoman Sultan close to Jaffa.

Beginning 1882, Edmond de Rothschild invested $100 million over the next 17 years to purchase land and build colonies.

Lord Balfour acknowledge the partition of Palestine in 1917. A year later, both France and the US president ratified Balfour declaration. The western powers had already set their mind in partitioning Palestine before WWI ended.

During its mandate over Palestine, England cracked down on the countless Palestinians uprising and civil disobedience (Intifada) using extreme forms of violence and torture techniques. England refrained from persecuting the extremist terrorist Jewish factions such as Jabotenski, Begin, Shamir, Irgun…

At the start of WWII, England trained thousands of Jews in Palestine on how to demolish bridges, plant bombs and execute assassination… The Palestinians were denied enlisting in the army.

Merkel may sympathize with Israel on account of the Nazi behaviour, but she and Max Blumenthal are not to ignore the fact that Palestine was already planned to be partitioned long time ago and have to desist throwing sands in the eyes of the world community.

Emran Feroz in The Electronic Intifada this November 14, 2014

Germany made Palestinians “indirect victims of Holocaust,” says author Max Blumenthal

14113-germany.jpg

The German chancellor and the Israeli prime minister met with their respective cabinets in Jerusalem in February. (Saeed Qaq / APA images)

Some German politicians have tried to muzzle debate about Israel by denouncing its critics as “anti-Semites.”

The American journalist Max Blumenthal — author of Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel — faced such a smear on a recent speaking tour in Germany.

A number of elected politicians alleged that a scheduled talk by Blumenthal and his colleague David Sheen in a Berlin theater would serve “to promote anti-Semitic prejudice.”

This was deeply ironic: both Blumenthal and Sheen are themselves Jewish. The politicians denouncing them failed to produce any evidence that they are hostile towards fellow Jews.

Blumenthal spoke to Emran Feroz in Stuttgart.

Emran Feroz: You recently witnessed the destruction caused by Israel in Gaza. What scenes had the most effect on you?

Max Blumenthal: Emergency operations had to be performed in dentist chairs, while the bodies of dead children had to be laid in ice boxes, which were originally designed for ice cream. Those were probably the most shocking testimonies I heard.

EF: Not long after your trip to Gaza, you started using the hashtag #JSIL (Jewish State of Israel in the Levant) on Twitter. Making this kind of comparison between the group Islamic State and Israel is taboo in Germany. Why did you dare to do this?

MB: It is strange that you equate, in Germany, IS with Hamas or describe the entire Palestinian national movement as “heirs of the Nazis,” while there is such an outrage regarding my comparison. It was not a direct one-to-one comparison, but I wanted to point out the hypocrisy behind supporting one religiously exclusive state that forces minorities out of its territory while attacking another.

EF: But by using this hashtag, you must be suggesting that Israel and IS are somehow similar.

MB: Sure, they are. The “Jewish state” has no internationally recognized borders. The same relates to the “Islamic State.”

Both constructs have emerged after the original indigenous population were partly expelled and ethnically cleansed.

In the case of Israel it was the Palestinian indigenous population; in the case of the IS [they] are the Christians, Yazidis, Shiite Muslims (and even Sunni Muslims).

Both “countries” rely on a religious exclusivity in the Levant.

And both think they represent all Muslims and Jews worldwide and thereby help inspire Islamophobic and anti-Semitic sentiments.

Both the Jewish state and the Islamic State recruit confused young men from around the world as foreign fighters to engage in atrocities.

When Israel’s defenders failed to address the comparisons on their merits, they simply attempted to hijack the #JSIL hashtag by declaring it stands for the “Jewish State of Israel Lives.”

EF: IS fighters behead their victims and then spread the videos of the beheadings through YouTube and social media. Do Israeli soldiers also make such videos?

MB: During the last attack on Gaza, the Israeli army killed civilians via drones and Jewish Israeli citizens celebrated the killings on Facebook. Some Israeli citizens gathered on a hill in the border town of Sderot and celebrated the bombing of the military with chips and beer. I find that this is not less macabre and disgusting. (How about pouring gasoline in the mouth and setting a Palestinian youth on fire?)

EF: How present is religious extremism inside the Israeli military?

MB: It is very present. A major figure of the last military operation in the Gaza Strip was commander Ofer Winter, who was celebrated as a national hero. Prior to the mission Winter said to his troops, that the Palestinians had sinned against God and therefore all must be punished.

So he declared a literal “holy war” against the Palestinian people. This is not the only way Winter has expressed the religious extremism that is rising in Israeli society.

In one instance, an Israeli woman singer wanted to perform in front of [Winter’s] soldiers. He refused [permission] to do so and said that a woman is not allowed to do that.

EF: Many women are part of the Israeli army. This is celebrated in what are effectively promotional campaigns for Israel. How can there be misogyny in the Israeli military if it has many female members?

MB: What is not mentioned is the fact that it is more likely that these women are assaulted by their male counterparts in the army than by Palestinians. I think that only imperialist feminists argue that women can be emancipated in an army like the Israeli one.

Good examples of this type of feminism are political figures like Samantha Power or Angela Merkel or Tzipi Livni because their peculiar brand of feminism goes hand in hand with the imperialistic interests of the western powers who are so invested in majority Muslim countries, where the population is portrayed as culturally backwards and in need of “liberation.”

EF: During the last attack on Gaza, the family of Ibrahim Kilani — who are German citizens — were killed. His son Ramsis, who lives in Germany, said that up to today nobody has apologized to him. The German government has not called him a single time. How can you explain this behavior?

MB: The behavior of the German government shows not only the lack of interest in the rights of the Palestinians, but also the very lives of them. The life of these people is practically non-existent in Germany. They are the new “un-people.”

The German foreign minister issued condolences for the families of those German citizens killed on an airliner over eastern Ukraine, possibly by Russian separatists. But they’ve said nothing to the Kilani family.

The negation of Palestinian lives has been German policy since the days of Konrad Adenauer [chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963].

In those days Israel had no problem to negotiate on Holocaust reparations with the head of the chancellery, Hans Globke, who was a known Nazi in the Third Reich. This cash flow from Germany went directly to the Israeli occupation machine that has made the Palestinians indirect victims of the Holocaust.

The current bloodshed is a result of this policy and every German should ask himself: how does this policy honor the Holocaust?

EF: Your willingness to make such statements probably explains why some German politicians do not want to see you here in Germany. What happened to you exactly?

MB: Some politicians, such as Volker Beck, a parliamentarian from Germany’s Green Party, had launched a campaign to silence us — me and the journalist David Sheen. The reason for this is the fact that they do not want to know of another version of Judaism and they certainly do not want to hear about the facts on the ground.

Their attitude actually promotes anti-Semitism.

It is simply anti-Semitic to equate Zionism with Judaism and to limit Jewish identity to the narrow confines of Israeli nationalism. For a gentile politician to do it is beyond disgusting.

EF: The Gaza Strip remains destroyed. And, according to some media outlets, a third intifada (actually the fourth if you don’t forget 1936 that lasted 4 years) is going to happen in the occupied West Bank. Is this really the case or is it just scaremongering?

MB: Last year the al-Aqsa mosque [in Jerusalem] was stormed “only” eight times by Israeli soldiers. This year this happened 76 times. Radical religious elements have announced that they want to demolish the mosque to build a Jewish temple. If this happens, the situation will take on global implications that will be approach the apocalyptic.

The whole conflict is taking on a religious dimension, which is devastating for all involved, and, as I said, will promote radicalization around the globe. I think the third intifada actually is at the door.

However, I believe that this word — intifada — does not adequately describe the situation. It is not effective enough to describe what is actually going on. At that time — in the case of the first and second intifadas — this term was appropriate.

Now with so many Palestinian political leaders in prison or dead and such a complex matrix of control imposed on them, a nationwide revolt cannot take place. What we are seeing is creative resistance with limited means occurring on a national level but at sporadic moments.

And it will continue and intensify as long as the status quo is in place. It is that deadly status quo that German foreign policy protects and promotes.

Emran Feroz is a Germany-based freelance journalist, blogger and activist. He is also the founder of Drone Memorial, a website listing victims of drone attacks. His Twitter account is @Emran_Feroz

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Hot posts this week (Feb. 20/2014)

Posted by: on: February 27, 2014

Hot posts this week (Feb. 20/2014)

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Non-medicated Laxatives. It is good: A single lusty scene per movie…

Posted by: on: February 24, 2014

It is good: A single lusty scene per movie…
Excellent for constipated people.
Two erotic scenes would not add much benefit to the constipation condition.
Three scenes is tantamount to risking a generalized diarrhea.
Better than lust, the extreme Israelis discovered a superior remedy to constipation.
If the Israelis don’t get their daily dose of sadistic behaviors and actions against the Palestinians, they get constipated. And they begin harassing the world community of “Anti-Semitic” trends.
Australian documentary on Israel torture techniques against Palestinian children  a link.
Germany Angela Merkel PM, a staunch Zionist,  (see link in note 1) and 17 of her cabinet ministers have landed in Israel today for discussion. What do you think would be the objective of this mass transfer of Germany top officials to Israel?
Netanyahu PM knows exactly that the EU has demanded a complete stoppage of settlement building and expansion, and Merkel made sure that Israel gets the message loud and clear.
Is Germany preparing Netanyahu  for his meeting with Barack Obama? Kind of extracting small tangible “concessions” to ratify a totally biased “peace treaty” with the Palestinians in exchange of a couple $billion in financial aids?
The Palestinians should try this alternative to increase Israelis constipated condition: Stay at home for a couple of days and refrain from crossing any of the Zionist military check-points.
Most probably, the Israelis will find all kinds of excuses to barge into peaceful Palestinian houses and get their daily dose of “laxative”.  And make a dash to the nearest WC “Oh, Oh. I got so excited and almost dirtied my pants“.
Or they may run to the closest olive tree, get their pants down and cut the tree: The tree is now impure and should be taken down and burned…
These kinds of insane archaic behaviors that only an apartheid religious ideology can generate.
Note 2: Stoned and dangerous https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/stoned-naked-armed-and-dangerous-disturbing-images-from-israeli-soldiers-instagram/
Note 3: Kill-goyim-children https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/israel-legalizes-crimes-of-hate-in-wartime-jews-should-kill-goyim-children/
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Most powerful woman. Angela Merkel: Good for the world, bad for the Middle-East

Posted by: on: February 17, 2014

Most powerful woman. Angela Merkel: Good for the world, bad for the Middle-East

Angela Jenkzsch Kasner Sauer Merkel’s biography when she lived in East Germany for 35 years is relegated in the notes section.

This article will focus on Angela’s positions toward Israel and the Shoah.

Merkel position is correct that it is all the German people who lived in East and West Germany who bear the responsibility of the great catastrophes, all the Shoahs that were inflicted on the Slave, Russian, Greek, and Jewish people…

Taking “Principled” position that “racism will never rule the world again” has to be reformed with pragmatic policies regarding actual, on the ground, practices of apartheid and racism in Israel.

On many occasions, in the UN and in the Knesset, Merkel declared Germany commitment to Israel security as a “Jewish State“. She even forced “Jewish State” in her party documents.

It stands to reason that part of Merkel’s position to the State of Israel was developed and linked to her closest advisers as she started her political career minister of Woman and Youth and then minister of the Environment.

Apparently, the second most powerful woman is Merkel’s hand right woman Beate Baumann (a staunch Zionist supporter). Beate has been the closest person to Angela since Merkel was given the portfolio of minister for Women and Youth in 1993, and has been her personal secretary ever since.

Two other advisers were also Zionist supporters. One of them, Lutz Stavenhagen, was Secretary of State for Security Services, who cooperated with Israel security and secretly shipped them tanks make of components belonging to the National People’s Army. He admitted his responsibility and was forced to resign.

Sure, Angela is against Israeli settlement in the Palestinian occupied land, and she occasionally remind Israel of Europe stand on these policies, but resuming building free nuclear submarines for this apartheid State is not sending the proper message that “racism should never rule again“.

The Holocaust means “burning sacrificial (living species) for the God”

Shoah is the Hebrew term to mean “Great Catastrophe”.

The Israelis prefer the word Shoah on the ground that the Germans didn’t sacrifice the Jews for a God. I beg to differ.

Nazi Germany sacrificed the believers of the One God Jehovah because there was no room for Jehovah in the monotheist German One God Idol representing the Teutonic people. The two “One God” were archaic in nature and the battlefield had to be waged among two people believing that they are the “superior race“.

The German people during WWII were not fighting for Hitler or Jesus… They were bound by a superior Religious sect that should dominate the other sects in “Continental Europe” from France to the Pacific.

There were countless Shoahs during the occupations of Nazi Germany: there were great catastrophes that befell the Slave people in Yugoslavia, the Russians, the Tzigans, the Greeks… Every people that lived in the Vital Space of Teutonic Germany.

The Jews may stick to this succinct word of Shoah, but it is to be reminded that over 60 million people suffered the same malevolent and “terminal” decision to displace other omnipotent “monotheist” Gods.

Merkel is blinded into not taking a strong stand against Nazi Israel who committed the Shoahs against the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Lebanese and currently the Syrians, displaced all over the world in order for the “Superior Race” to dominate in its vital space in the Near East region.

Merkel supported Israel preemptive war on Gaza in 2008 and went as far as dispatching German navy, a first since WWII, to “monitor” any shipment of arms to Gaza.

Actually, the German navy mission was to cover the frequent missions of Israeli navy to commit assassinations on Syrian officials on the Syrian shores and allow shipments of arms to the Syrian insurgents into the port of Tripoli (Lebanon).

Merkel is angry with Israel Netanyahu PM frequent decisions to continue building settlement in Palestinian lands in opposition of the EU consensus to stop the building of settlements, and she finally had to come full circle in acknowledging the existence of a “Palestinian State” at the UN.

The claim that Angela position on the State of Israel stands out from the successive German Chancellors is not correct.

Since the establishment of Israel, Germany extended more economical, financial and military aid to Israel than the USA before the preemptive war of 1967.

In around 1955, Ben Gurion negotiated a $2 billion aid with Adenauer (A sum that far exceeded the combined GDP of all the “Arabic States” at the period. While Israel secret agents were hunting down, tracking and assassinating German scientists working in Egypt.

Note 1: Angela was born in Hamburg in 1954. The family moved to East Germany and settled in the city of Templin. The second largest Soviet garrison was located in Vogelsang, close to Templin.

The father Horst Kasner (Kazmierczak) was the pastor of Waldhof (forest court) and dean of the protestant Pastoral College and trained clergymen in rhetoric and oration.  The mother Herlind Jentzsch taught English and Latin.

Angela claims to be a quarter Polish since her grandparents were born and lived in the province of Posen.

Angela was excellent in mathematics and the Russian language and she loved the Russian literature and culture.

The family watched West Germany programs on TV and the sports on the East German TV.

Angela studied physics at the Karl Marx Univ. in Leipzig in 1973 and resumed her higher education at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. She was the only woman working in the field of quantum chemistry and got her PhD in 1984.

She researched her topic in the Heyrovsky Institute in Prague. At the age of 23, she married the physicist Ulrich Merkel in 1977 and they divorced in 1982. She remarried with Dr. Joachin Sauer 15 years later.

After the divorce, Angela hitch-hiked through southern Russia to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Before the unification of Germany, Angela managed to travel to West Germany only once to attend a wedding of a cousin, although she lived in East Berlin for decades. Her brother is Marcus and her 10-year younger sister is Irene.

Note 2: Biography is extracted from Stefan Kornelius “Angela Merkel: The Chancellor and her World”

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What’s happening in Yemen? Civil war not over yet? Previous oligarchy still in power?

Posted by: on: September 4, 2012

What’s happening in Yemen? Civil war not over yet? Previous oligarchy still in power?

The latest news from Al Qaeda claim that its fighters in Yemen have relocated to Syria to fight the regime there…If Al Qaeda organization is so flexible and agile, who is moving them around to the various “fresh” hot spots, before the previous hellish spot has not regain peace and tranquility? Who is still financing Al Qaeda and the radical extremist Sunnis?

The ousted dictator Abdullah Saleh is back in Yemen and running the political scene: He is saying that Qatar is exacerbating the conditions in Yemen by infusing millions of dollars to particular military groups…

Another news: The US weapon market share is two-third the world total of $85 billion!

Stephanie Brancaforte  from Avaaz.org posted:

Former Yemeni dictator Saleh  Add your voice for peace and security in Yemen,and we’ll deliver the message to German Chancellor Angela Merkel!

Sign the petition

In recent weeks, gunmen loyal to Yemen’s former dictator Abdullah Saleh have taken over the Defense and Interior Ministries, sowing panic in the capital and threatening to drag the country into a civil war which could spillover into neighbors Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Yemenis are worried that another civil war could erupt any day, after pro-Saleh gunmen took the Interior and Defense Ministries by force, killing guards and sending a chilling signal to other pro-democracy politicians.

Saleh and his cronies have already shown that they prefer to hand over parts of Yemen to Al Qaeda affiliates, who have been bombing buildings and kidnapping innocent Yemenis and a Saudi diplomat.

Such intimidation will continue unless Saleh’s clan is removed from politics once and for all.

The international community, particularly the USA, has been all but silent as the Yemeni people suffered. It’s time for decisive action from the European Union to save the situation and stop the bloodshed.

The best way to uproot Saleh’s crushing control is to strip away his financial might by imposing sanctions and freezing his assets.  Much of Saleh’s stolen cash is in Germany. If German Chancellor Angela Merkel leads a freeze on his assets, it could accelerate the end of his reign of terror.  Let’s make sure the EU takes this crucial next step to pull Yemen back from civil war.

Germany is a major donor for Yemen and also hosts the former dictator’s stolen assets, and can lead the EU in raising the financial stakes for Saleh and his murderous allies. Now the tension has come to a head, with the old guard seeing this as its last chance to seize power by the gun before democracy takes root.

If enough of us demand action, we can build tremendous pressure on German Chancellor Merkel to lead the charge and freeze the stolen assets — add your name to help pull Yemen back from the brink!

Avaaz members successfully petitioned to freeze both Qaddafi and Mubarak’s assets — let’s do it again for the Yemeni people. Add your voice, and this petition will be delivered straight to Chancellor Merkel when we reach 10,000 signatures:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/freeze_salehs_assets/?bFAfecb&v=17423

With determination we are standing with people across the region in their struggles for freedom and dignity.

Stephanie, Wissam, Luis, Ricken, Bissan, Ian and the rest of the Avaaz team

More Information:

Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh Loyalists Encircle Defense Ministry
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/10/yemen-ali-abdullah-saleh_n_1765503.html

Saleh blocks key reforms needed in a ‘new’ Yemen
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/editorial/saleh-blocks-key-reforms-needed-in-a-new-yemen

Yemenis protest against Saleh’s allies
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/video/2012-08/04/c_131760992.htm

Time to freeze Saleh’s assets
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/11/10/time_to_freeze_saleh_s_assets

UN envoy urges rapid Yemen power transfer
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iVw3HueQ5eaEgd3SLlvrXBySenHQ?docId=CNG.8b133ba066aa9037d241ecc82c2f5a00.91

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“Why Hezbollah of Lebanon pissed me off”: GW. Bush explains

Posted by: on: September 9, 2011

“Why Hezbollah of Lebanon pissed me off “: GW. Bush explains

GWBush wrote in his biography:

“On July 12, 2006, Laura and I had a stop-over in Germany on our way to the G8 at St. Petersburg. Angela Merkel recounted her childhood during the communist era in East Germany. Angela had a happy childhood, but her mother never ceased to warn her of mentioning family discussions in public: The Stasi (internal intelligence services) was everywhere.

News of Hezbollah capturing Israeli soldiers as hostages (and killing 8 Israeli soldiers who arrived promptly to the rescue and fell in the trap) triggered a strong reaction from Israel.

Israel bombed Hezbollah targets in South Lebanon, and bombed the civilian airport in Beirut to prevent further weapon supplies.

Hezbollah launched missiles on Israeli towns and cities

(How simplistic are the recollection of Bush Jr. on this important preemptive war on Lebanon! In a paragraph, Bush Jr. summarized the various attacks of Hezbollah on American targets within Lebanon in 1983…)

At the G8 summit, all members condemned Hezbollah for starting Israel reactive war. (

It was proven later on that Bush and Israel had finalized a plan of attack to begin in September, and thus Hezbollah preempted this planned war, but was not aware of the violent all-war reaction of Israel).

I was frustrated that Israel declined to attack Syria, thus facilitating communication and movement of Hezbollah.

Israel military targets in Lebanon were mostly doubtful, especially targets in Beirut and north Lebanon.  The immense damages to the infrastructure in Lebanon and the over 1,500 casualties among the Lebanese civilian were widely disseminated in the news media, and hampered the long-term prosecution of the war.

(In the first week, Israel failed to capture the first small town on the border called Maroun el Ras)

On the second violent week of Israel war, many members in the G8 demanded a cease-fire.  I didn’t side with their request: I wanted to continue the war until Hezbollah military power is eradicated. Fundamentally, the war on Hezbollah was to sending a strong message to Iran and Syria.

Unfortunately, Israel behavior in the third week of the war plan exacerbated the world community and the Lebanese government headed by Seniora, which was a strong ally to the US drive for democracy and liberty…

Israel bombed a building in Qana and killed over 30 civilians huddled in the basement.

(Israel had bombed Qana in 1996 where civilians took refuge in a UN compound and killed over 30o civilians).

Seniora was furious and was about to resign if the war resumed. The Arab leaders were afraid that the carnage in the pictures and video, circulating 24 hours on TV, could foment strong reactions of the people in the streets.

I convened the National Security Council, and the debate was hot.

Dick Cheney said: “We have to let Israel finish off Hezbollah.”

Condoleezza Rice replied: “If we allow that, you may kiss good-bye to the presence of the US in the Middle-East region” and she proposed a cease-fire resolution in the UN and dispatching a multinational UN force to the Litany River.

I was for the resumption of the war, but I feared that lodging a veto in the UN will lead to isolating the US, instead of Syria and Iran.  Consequently, I figured out that long-term pressures on Syria and Iran out-weight the short-term successes on Hezbollah.  I dispatched Condi to the UN to iron out resolution 1701.

A cease-fire took hold on August 14,  Israel reactive and approximate war decisions, cost its precious and remaining credibility in the world community, even though Hezbollah was seriously weakened militarily.”

Four days before the voting on a resolution, Israel attempted a last, all-out advance of just 3 miles toward the Litany River.

Hezbollah destroyed 50 Merkava tanks and forced the Israeli troops to retreat every which way to the border.

(Interestingly, in the third day of the war, the delegates of Lebanon to the UN demanded to submit a cease-fire resolution.  The UN ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, informed them haughtily and in no uncertain terms that there will be no resolution before Israel annihilate Hezbollah.

Three days before the actual cease-fire, it was Bolton hurrying up to the Lebanese delegates and begging them to present a resolution.  He explained: “The Israelis are horribly harassing us for a cease-fire resolution, at any cost…”)

Note 1: The July war 2006, covered only three pages of the 484-page of the autobiographical book “Decisive moments: GW.Bush”  Amazingly, this war was the turning moment for the total failure of the US strategic plan of the “Greater Middle East.

Israel was reduced to defensive position, licking its wounds, examining its failures…

The Arab dictators and absolute monarchs who encouraged Israel to prosecute the war in order to eradicate Hezbollah military power were judged traitors by the Arab masses.

Turkey and the European States were pissed off with GW.Bush insistence of continuing the war for over 4 weeks. It was evident after the first week that the strategic goals have fizzled.  The remaining 3 weeks of the war were total liability to the US administration and Israel.

Hezbollah was on the offensive and frustrated all the haphazard attempts of Israel to getting back on the driver seat.

Note 2: Three days before the decided cease-fire, Israel imported cluster bombs from England of Tony Blair and launched 3 million bombs in south Lebanon (kids are still being killed and injured six years later).

This behavior was in retaliation of huge frustration and with the hope that the tiny bombs will delay the return of the inhabitants to their homes.

Amazingly, the next day of the cease-fire, the citizens in the south returned in mass, irrespective of official warnings and the destruction of all bridges…

Israel goals failed on all front, and Hezbollah emerged as the first resistance force to checking Israel offensive all-out war.

Note 3: You may read the follow-up article How I spread liberty...https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/how-i-spread-liberty-george-w-bush-explains/

Note 4: Why Israel begged for a cease fire? https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/why-israel-begged-for-an-immediate-cease-fire-in-its-preemptive-july-war-of-2006/

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