Posts Tagged ‘NaBloPoMo’
Posted last week (July 15)
Posted on: July 16, 2010
“Oil and blood in the Orient”
Posted on: July 13, 2010
Tom Reiss investigates the identity of an author who wrote in German “Blood and oil in the Orient”, “Ali and Nino”, and “The daughter of the Golden Horn” and signed under Kurban Said. Kurban Said was known in Germany of the 1920’s as Essad Bey who was the first to describe Stalin in details and accounted for the tormenting period of Baku (Capital of Azerbaijan on the Black Sea and “Zarathustra” land).
It turned out that Essad Bey was Liova Nussimbaum, nicknamed Lev (1905-1942). Lev is a Jew born in Baku of a rich oil baron from Baku (Abraham) and a mother (Berta Sluzk). The Sluzk were Jewish serfs working for Prince Sluzki in Ukraine and many converted to Christianity to improve their living conditions.
Berta had left Zürich, headquarters of Russia revolutionaries, and ended up in a Baku. Lev’s father noticed Berta who was serving a prison sentence at the Baku prison and arranged for her to be set free and married her. Berta resumed her “revolutionary” activities and extended money to the revolutionary groups (that will later be called Bolshevik) between 1905 and 1912. Joseph Stalin, under the code name of Koba, was 28 years old and was leading the Bolshevik groups that asked ransoms in order to provide protection for minority ethnic groups.
Berta committed suicide by poison after she was found out of communicating with the revolutionary gangs and then, she became an embarrassment to her family. Lev was then 9 years old. Berta bequeathed her library to Lev and Abraham respected his wife’s will and allowed Lev to occupying the library and reading all day long.
Lev was mostly forced to be secluded in his home and library because of the dangerous conditions outside. In the rare outings, Lev was surrounded with body guards and a nurse: He was considered of fragile health.
Lev and his father fled Baku in 1917 during the First World War: the armies of Tsar Nicholas II were defeated by Germany and Baku was becoming a hotbed for instability and chaos. They crossed Turkmenistan and then Iran and had many adventures. Lev gave accurate description of locations, dates, customs, and fashion of the regions they travelled, but his accounts were mostly fantasies that he dreamt of during his seclusion in Baku.
Father and son returned to Baku as the Turks and Germans occupied it briefly before the English returned. Azerbaijan experienced independence for less than a year before the Bolshevik returned in 1920 and Azerbaijan became part of the Soviet Union. Father and son managed to flee Baku, separately, in order to avoid close surveillance. Lev reached the second city of Gandja (ancient capital) walking. The citizens in Gandja chased out the few Russian soldiers for a few days before the Bolshevik army encircled the city and entered it with the accompanying massacres.
Lev managed to get out of Gandja and stumbled on a German colony-village (Helenendorf) by the borders with Georgia. This colony was established in 1813 after the Napoleonic wars and Tsar Alexander I encouraged many Germans to populate the Caucasus region. As Germany invaded Russia in 1940, Stalin made sure to transfer all the Germans in 1941 to Siberia; very few Germans returned to Germany in 1991.
Lev spent some time in Tibilissi (Capital of Georgia) and then, boarded an Italian boat with his father in 1921 to Constantinople. The French, English, Italian, and Japanese troops had headquarters in different quarters of Constantinople.
Apparently, Nazi Germany studied extensively the procedures and tactics of the Bolshevik Tcheka (secret services) and added its refinements. Lev and his father settled in Berlin of the 1920’s and wrote his books that were translated and appreciated in the USA. Lev converted to Islam in 1923 at the Turkish Embassy. He died in Northern Italy at the age of 35 but looked seventy. Lev was the first to publish Stalin biography since the Pockennarbige (smallpox face)or Iossif Djougachvili knew Lev’s mother and he stayed in their home in 1920.
I might publish another post on Lev Nussimbaum as I finish reading the book. You may read my account on Baku https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/bakou-1905/
“Euro B”: For internal trades?
Posted on: July 8, 2010
“Euro B”: For internal trades?
Most population or demographics of the Northern European States such as Germany, Holland, Danmark, Sweden, and Norway are on average much older than the Southern States such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Greece. For example, the average age in Germany is 45 and thus, Germany spends less for new housing and can save much more than the younger States. States experiencing high deficits in budget and in GNP need plenty of credit to get its young citizens settled down.
The smaller or emerging States in the EU are suffering from another major handicap. In the previous decade, these States received plenty of financial funding from the richer States in the EU and thus, most of the young people quit colleges and universities in order to work in a booming economy and to make money and purchase consumerism products that their families never owned or experienced.
Statistics show that 80% of the newer entrepreneurs in Spain and Portugal have not earned a college degree; they have restricted and limited skills to compete in this global economic environment. An entire generation was lost to shoulder the next challenges.
The problems of the Euro currency and the economy of European Union (EU) States had begun before the latest financial crash, but this financial upheaval uncovered problems that were swept under carpets for as long as the illusion of global economic development was not that evident.
The European common market is a vast market of 450 million consumers, as large as the combined USA and Russia markets. If the EU policies focus on internal trades among its States then, most of the difficulties would be far more bearable in this climate of stringent conditions to slowing down deficits in budget and to GNP.
The EU needs to consider issuing a currency valid for its internal trades that is heavily devalued compared to the current Euro. This inner currency may be called “Euro B” which will have the consequences of lowering the cost of living compared to reductions in salaries and public reduction in sectors of health, education, family planning, and small business lending facilities. The other consequence is that tourism will increase and tourists will be able to purchase more consumerism goods as product prices effectively fall.
Another additional remedy that may keep internal trades developing smoothly is to allowing hard hit States to asking for more liquidity of “Euro B” as internal trades increase and develop. Obviously, Germany should keep the exclusive monopoly of issuing Euro, both Euro A and Euro B(a monopoly that generates over 5 billion Euros to Germany per year), but the mechanism for evaluating the needs for more liquidity should be more lenient and timely.
For example, the colonies in the US before independence experienced economic expansions while England was having hard times. Benjamin Franklin, Ambassador to France after the US independence, let out the secret: Economic expansion was related to the colonies enjoying the right to “printing” currency when the economy needed this “oiling” mechanism.
England then convinced the US government, after US independence, to have the monopoly of issuing money instead of the US treasury. The Rothschild family in England endeavored to ruin the US economic expansion by refraining from issuing badly needed currencies. The dollar received a higher value than being simply an oiling mechanism: thus, the dollar was overvalued and the economy shrank.
The “Euro A”, designed for external trades outside the EU, can still be devalued, but since export balances favor only export economies such as in Germany then, “Euro A” may be considered as a political currency that should not affect significantly internal trades in the European common market.
The Euro of the European Union (EU) currency or what I call “Euro A” is witnessing healthy devaluation lately compared to the dollar and needs to be lower to around 1.1 to the dollar. The increasing difficulties experienced by many States in the EU result from initial weaker economies that could not compete efficiently in the European common market and then, were buffeted by the US financial crisis as financial multinationals extended credits not based on tangible sound economic improvement.
As long as “Euro A” is overvalued and individual States have no sovereignty for issuing currency then, the smaller States will have no options but exercising internal devaluation of 20% represented in lower salaries and harsher budget cuts.
The European and international financial and political medias are breaking the taboo of discussing whether maintaining the Euro is a viable alternative in the short-term. The arguments of the group that staunchly defends the Euro is mostly based on political reasons: To them it is becoming a matter of safeguarding dignity and sovereignty. It believes that the Euro is the major factor in the reconstruction of the European market and for the political stability and the cohesion of the European market. This group would like you to believe that without the Euro there would be no EU.
The “taboo breaker” group believes that the EU is in dire difficulty because it prematurely created a common currency before ironing out and strengthening common politics. Germany and its satellites States in the northern hemisphere benefited most from the Euro since their currencies were highly overvalued “stronger” than the Euro and thus, they managed to compete better and export more to the European common market. The other States in the Union could not deal with a Euro that was much overvalued compared to their national currencies and thus, had to suffer in market competition.
The financial and economic commotions in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain are symptoms of the financial and economic imbalance with respect to the vaster and stronger economies in Germany, France, and Italy. This group believes that the EU is heading toward a deflationary period within a couple of years if no structural institutions are installed.
The main source of imbalance is that the original six States in the Union had firmer and better tested administrative and political institutions that could apply regulations agreed on; they had the capability to supervise and monitor laws and regulations governing the union members. The weaker States are at great disadvantage: The main powerful States in the union have no confidence in the resilient determination of the weaker States to effectively executing the agreed upon regulations and second, the weaker States are prohibited to issuing (printing money) to satisfy liquidity in their internal trade and commerce.
It is not the Euro that created the common European market: the EU was already instituted and functioning well before the common currency was created on political grounds. The Euro was mainly to be the material “symbol” of the Union and this symbol degenerated into a calamity at the first major problem. The EU could have imagined much less costly symbols for its unification until political coherence was firmly established, tested, and thoroughly evaluated.
The Maastricht treaty set limits to budget deficit below 3% and public deficit below 60%. Currently, only Spain has kept its public debt at 54% and Germany its budget debt at 3.3%. The remaining States in the Euro have doubled and even tripled both limits. Joblessness is very bad all over the Euro zone averaging 10%; Spain has 20% and Ireland and Greece about 14%.
It seems to me that the Euro has encourage many mafia type “economies” to expand simply because it became much easier to transfer a unique currency and circumventing further money exchange regulations and constraints. The “Euro A” will be a good barrier for whitewashing mafia money outside the EU.
The financial institutions and the medias are sending waves of terrors claiming that there is lack of confidence in the Euro; they claim that this confidence is so low that investors are shirking the Euro zone States. I believe that the Euro should stay but be restricted to the main large economies such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Danmark, and Norway where the same homogeneous spirit for taking seriously the application of financial and economic regulations among the member States.
The other weaker States should have an alternative common currency or “Euro B”, far devalued from the Euro and backed by the “Euro A”, until political coherence and institutions are equalized in efficiency and modernity. The weaker states should enjoy the privilege of preempting slow internal trade by issuing liquidity in the newer common currency within limits.
Bees and ants: What fluid of energy?
Posted on: July 7, 2010
So many authors went to great length describing the life of insects (ants, bees, beavers…) and how they built perfect residences and how they sacrificed (from mankind notion) for the sake of continuation of their breed. Invariably, these authors end up glorifying mankind and his “unique fluid of energy: Capacity for thinking!”
What is sacrificing once life for the survival of the community? You think that there are pre-conditions to classifying a murder by “sacrifice”; first, the person must be fully conscious of his decision and with sane brain and reflecting power; and second, the person must have reached the decision voluntarily without undue pressures from his community, family, or his buddies.
Now, how could these authors and researchers communicate with insects to figure out that sacrifice was the purpose instead of brute massacres for some kind of survival? How could these researchers figure out that there are no trained architects among the insects? Just stating “instinct” of survival or gene structure does not cut it: “Black boxes” in sciences are proof of total ignorance on the subject matters.
Governments would like you to believe that the millions of soldiers who died in senseless battles were sacrificing their blood and life for the other “citizens”. Soldiers who were horded by force under law gimmicks were not martyrs. Soldiers who volunteered under community pressures in order to saving the “honor and dignity” of the community are indeed “sacrificial” lambs. Do you know of any voluntary soldier who was convinced that he will die? Most probably, it is his co-arm companions who will die: Statistics stupid! When the turn of the volunteered soldier’s shit is to hit the ceiling in a battle then, it is too late to backtrack; he is pressed by his co-arm companions and captains to advance . Otherwise, this volunteered conscript is to face a firing squad with all kinds of unjustified character deficiencies heaped upon him.
The high command is not that interested in the number of death: it is concerned with the number of injured soldiers. High command needs to investigate how many soldiers committed self-inflicted injuries to avoiding front lines engagements. Statistics of rate of injuries recommend serious investigations when higher than “normal”.
Thinking should be a constant exercise; most important before deciding on preemptive wars. Unfortunately, thinking is not on the table; just maps, PowerPoint graphs, and the rate of return of multinationals for the razzias.
I was never been paid to communicate with insects; they are so tiny and thus, when they invade my comfort zone then I kill them. All that I ask of insects is not to show up where they shouldn’t. (That is exactly what superpowers do to redundant States.) I blame those soft-hearted and cowered people who demand to save the blood sucking mosquitoes on the ground that they must have been created for the benefit of mankind; a benefit not yet discovered. Consequently, we have to sacrifice our blood and comfort for the survival of mosquitos.
I am a mental for killing mosquitoes; I wet a short towel and then, fine tune and adjust my snapping maneuvers to guaranteeing a kill. Yes, I get up from my couch just to go after tranquil mosquitoes. I would love to be remembered in Guinness Books as the meanest mosquitos hand terminator.
Adonis Diaries 