NEW EUROPEANS - SWOT, GOALS, STRATEGY, POLICIES

31 July 2023PROBLEMS / REQUIREMENTS - FOCUS ON DEINDUSTRIALISATIONDe-industrialization is the loss of manufacturing jobs - Trump's rust belt from 80s/90s, Obama's Detroit after the 2008, now Germany's turn from sanctions cutting off cheap Russian energy and raw materials.Not just sanctions, rising interest rates must also be a factor as Germany is an export-led economy and now its products are more expensive than the competition. Though...

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AND IF AMERICA LOSES AGAINST RUSSIA?

30 July 2023Some risks to pursuing war.*Losing* is one risk most here this afternoon haven't thought about.If America loses in Ukraine it's a foregone conclusion that it will lose in Taiwan. Losing against China means it has lost its global supremacy. Many would suggest cancelling the offensive and starting negotiations before it's too late. Means this month or next, if we are lucky.America losing in Ukraine could be like Britain losing in Suez. At the time, other countries were buying gilts because gilts were the safest of homes for your money....

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TRUMP HEADING TO PRISON FOR THE REST OF HIS NATURAL

28 July 2023So the charges are piling up and Donald Trump is heading to prison for the rest of his life. I wonder why that could be.You have to realise that this is supported by almost all members of Congress, both Senate and the House of Representatives and on both sides of the chambers.What have they got in common? It looks like they all support these mad foreign wars, for reasons we can guess. Whereas before we had been thinking that America was run by the "military-industrial-congressional elite", now we can see that it's true, at least in...

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THE FUTURE OF NATO

27 July 2023 Beyond NATO membership lie the fodder and the enemy.Europe's turn comes next - it has already started paying the price economically, with the sanctions.Do you think Western Europe will get involved militarily? Never mind the nuclear, it doesn't have the resources to tackle a resurgent Russia, certainly not now; maybe NATO's eastern fringe would like to have a go?American put their own boots on the ground? Certainly not! Sure...

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THE EFFECT OF TROLLS ON THE OUTCOME OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE

24 July 2023 Just a reflection on the Western Government trolls. Propaganda means the things which are to be propagated. It is about information and misinformation, concerning your strengths and weaknesses, what you present and what you hold back.When you are the defender, you present yourself as strong, fearsome. When you are the attacker, you present yourself as weak, the more easily to slip under the radar, attack and kill. ...

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THE INDONESIAN SPICE ISLANDS

24 July 2023"This Kashmiri dish is a very famous traditional dish. My friend's kashmiri wife cooked this for us in the 70s and the taste still lingers. We are going to cook this dish this week and thought of sharing it with you all. If u dont have  garam masala use your own garam masala. Zafrani garam masala is not available in Doha but i am getting it fm Kochi this week. But always manage with substitutes." I do have garam...

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THINGS ARE GETTING HOTTER

24 July 2023 "I am in Doha and getting roasted everyday. Temp was 46C yesterday with govt warning that it could go up to 55C and requesting citizens to avoid exposure to sun between 10 am and 3 pm, avoid keeping gas cylinders outside, avoid gas filling during day time, avoid filling gas full tank etc. First time I see these warnings.Back home in Kochi it is raining non stop with temp in the 20s."Yes, climate change is another catastrophe...

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EX COLONIALIST, STILL SUPREMACIST

23 July 2023I'd suggest we stop mixing up   The West with mixed up as The World.Many Westerners are what's called Western-centric, navel gazers, if you will allow me to draw your attention to something the ego easily misses.More and more - and thanks to the effects generated by The West on the long-suffering  Global South (what after decolonisation in the 60s may be 70s was called   The Third World), we live increasingly in a    The West v. The Rest world, it's called    Multi-polar and...

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WHO SAYS PUTIN IS A DICTATOR?

23 July 2023https://youtu.be/u0A2Wxgc...

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DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WESTERN AND CHINESE CULTURES

23 July 2023What are the major differences between Chinese and Western cultures?Having lived in Thailand for about 10 years now and in Europe for longer and the Middle East too, I think I’m well qualified to compare Chinese and Western cultures.The biggest difference I discovered between the two, at a fundamental level, is their priorities. Chinese culture tends to prioritise the result or the end, whereas Western society prioritises the process or the means.China is Outcome-Driven To put it very bluntly, China cares more about money than...

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THIS UTTERLY FOOLISH ADVENTURE IN FOREIGN POLICY

23 July 2023 I am waiting for the book to come out, not on the military or political history of the war, but on the role played by our media in keeping us in the dark for so long, the propaganda war of Western gov.ts against their own peoples, the Why? and the How?. Could Noam Chomsky write a farewell jubilatory apocryphal "Manufacture of Consent 2.0"?You can only fool people for so long. Now, newspapers in the West are starting to publish...

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THE WEST V. THE REST

22 July 2923 perestroikapĕr″ĭ-stroi′kənounThe restructuring of the Soviet economy and bureaucracy that began in the mid 1980s.A program of political and economic reform carried out in the Soviet Union in the 1980s under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev.An economic policy adopted in the former Soviet Union; intended to increase automation and labor efficiency but it led eventually to the end of central planning in the Russian economy.What...

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VALUE INVESTING WITH ASWATH DAMODARAN

21 July 2023 Someone value investors listen to Aswath Damodaran.A good interview:https://youtu.be/mlEiGnCLL80His blog:https://aswathdamodaran.blogspot.com/?m=1About him, if you are still interested!https://www.blogger.com/profile/12021594649672906...

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WHERE IN THE WAR ARE WE HEADING

17 July 2023 Defeat, chaos and submissionORIGINSAmerica provoked this war through Nato expansion, colour revolutions, refusal of dialogue and its openly-declared intent to weaken Russia (before pivoting to China incidentally!) and more specifically the invitation to Ukraine in 2008 to join Nato. America has contained and cornered Russia to a point where Russia feels its security and very existence is so compromised it must respond. Russia...

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BALI CULTURE

16 July 2023The lady first on the left is my landlady. She looks younger than she is, a lot younger, maybe it's the yoga, she is very busy but always hugely relaxed and friendly. ✓ Naben (a Balinese cremation ceremony).  This was remembering my landlady's grandfather, back in her village. Again, many cremated at the same time, they pool their money to reduce costs. Different colours for the different...

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A REALISTIC START TO THE END GAME IN UKRAINE

16 July 2023 Let us recall the issues that prevent a peaceful resolutuon. There are two: territory - both sides cannot have Crime; neutrality - Ukrain wants what it thinks is the security of Nato membership, Russia insists on neutrality.The regimes in Kiev and Washington won't accept peace until Russia is defeated, which it never will be, on pain of nuclear war. If Ukraine were ever to join Nato with its regime, it would rag Russia some...

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TWO SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT THE WAR IN UKRAINE

14 July 2023 END GAMESLooking back on this war or special military operation, as the Russians like to call it, there are a couple of points that stand out as really quite surprising.Although a government's first priority is the security of its land and its people, this cannot be taken at the expense of its neighbours, instead "balance of power" arrangements normally prevail. Russia saw the threat by NATO to move into Ukraine, rightly or...

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is.gd/3H0KKJAbout three weeks ago I was traveling through the brousse of a third-world country and stooped for lunch at a roadside 'warung'. I found myself enjoying a leg of grain-fed roast chicken, served up in all its bone and fibre, when a tooth got a superficial crack.The tooth had been root-canalled back in Europe, the root was ok not cracked.  and a local dentist did a crown and all is now fine after treatment identical to any you'd get in the UK.Except it wasn't. The root canal cost £1,000 in Ealing and a crown would have cost the same....

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LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE RULES OK

21 April 2024 - UPDATETHREE REASONS TO INVEST IN THE LSEInvesting in the London Stock Exchange (LSE) can be attractive for several reasons, particularly for those looking to diversify their portfolio or tap into unique investment opportunities Consider That Prices of companies on the LSE are amongst the cheapest in the world for Industry and sector. Here are three compelling reasons to consider investing in the LSE:1. Diverse Range of CompaniesThe...

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WAR IN EUROPE OR A NEW SECURITY ARCHITECTURE

11 July 2023 Finland and Sweden joining NATO is good news for investors in American arms manufacturers and NATO, bad news for Finland and Sweden's taxpayers, and otherwise seems to be unnecessary unless you think Russia is planning to zip up its Western frontier this side of Eastern Europe ie back to pre 1991.Doubtless the Americans helped along the collapse of the Soviet Union in many ways, not least by promising Gorbachez and Yeltsin...

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THE WAR TO END ALL WARS CAN STILL BE AVOIDED

10 July 2023 While the Nasties are in power in Kiev, Ukraine cannot join NATO. This is because they will continue to rag Russia for Crimea and the Donbas, Russia will respond, then the regime in Kiev will call in NATO under art.5.Before you know it, NATO - which means America - will be at war with Russia. It won't be a proxy war anymore, it'll be WW3 (like Biden said at the start), it'll be two superpowers fighting each other in Ukraine...

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PLAYING DIRTY

8 July 2023https://youtu.be/06Ytz9vGyBY It's ok to want to be number one, but it's how you get there, it's your values, that matter.Power is a result of your population, your people with their skills and ambitions; and with the wealth base that you have built up which includes your infrastructure, your technology, your knowledge. In its race to be number one America has cheated. It's not really the best man that is winning,...

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WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE UK ECONOMY - PT II

7 July 2023I visited S Africa not so long ago, twice in fact. I traveled along the Garden Route from Cape Town to Durban, and then up the middlt to Jo'burg. So to get an idea of the UK economy, as lived by ordinary people, let's compare the two countries.The UK is a poor country, compared with the top EU countries, but it has a strong currency and an enormous wealth of soft power and influence on the world stage.Now of course there are poor neighbourhoods...

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WHAT WILL ZELINSKY DO WHEN HE SEES THAT THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING FOR HIM?

7 July 2023https://youtu.be/EKAsY3QczIA What will Zelinsky and The West do when the Ykrainian offensive patently fails after running out of army, machines and munitions?What will Zelinsky and The West do when they see Russia's million-man-army heading their way to the Polish border?When Zelinsky sees the Russians coming, he'll scurry to the Polish for protection and ask for Kiev to be incorporated back into Poland. Will the Russians accept...

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