romunov’s blog et al

Our minister for Environment has stepped down, beating his colleagues to call a nay vote on him. The sit is now empty, there is rumor that at least eight candidates await the commission. We anxiously wait who will assume the position and sign an illegal Regulation on shooting of bears and wolves in 2010? Bets are up!

This sort of reminds me of the MEMRI moment a while back (see my post from 2006), when a story how Ahmadinejad (Iranian president) called on the destruction of Israel. It was later revealed that this was an erroneous claim at best, as an Israeli run translational service mis-translated the speech.

But to the current story. A few days ago Venezuelan presidenet Hugo Chavez blamed the US for the earthquake in Haiti using its geo-weapon. This has been repeated throughout the web and print media ever since. Monthly review reports that this claim was falsely attributed to the Venezuelan president, saying the claim came from an obscure opinion post on a Venezuelan state TV.

Before I start ranting, a few explanations are in order. To anyone not familiar with our system, a high school or college student can legally work, which becomes part of their income. Students are contracted and paid through a private business mediating “small” jobs for students.

Student organization of Slovenia has recently produced a video regarding working hours of students. They are banging the drum to rally students against a proposition of a bill that may be passed into law. They claim forced reduction of working hours, which will, according to their forecasts, result in streets full of homeless students… or something. In the video they also claim a student requires around 500 €/month to “survive”. There are also other outrageous claims, which you better see for yourself.

Students are contracted to perform a number of tasks, from bar-tending to high skill jobs like working on a multi million € projects. Students are often (most of the time) equivalent to a newly graduate, which makes it harder for a young unemployed person to compete. My biggest beef with small jobs for students is the way business owners exploit it as a means to get cheap labor force. In a sense I understand them, as it’s more economical to get a student(s) who does work equally well as a regular hired person would. I feel this issue needs to be addressed as a priority. This would not only take the load off of a busy student (don’t laugh), but will also stimulate to hire more young people, who are most vulnerable when seeking or keeping employment. This is why I’m more in favor of making newly graduated student more attractive to hire over students. In my opinion this could be elegantly achieved with amending current laws.

I feel small jobs are a way of destroying what several generations of people have shed sweat and blood to get working rights as we have them today (paid leave, sick days, working hours…). Students are forfeiting a number of acquired rights hand over fist, which I think should be stopped.

At last, I think this deserves at least a mention. In the entire video, they fail to mention that the Organization has a direct stake in this. The Organization is funded by a certain percentage of earnings from mediating small jobs and with slashing of working hours, their piggy bank will shrink. They fail to confront the listener/watcher that they are using public funds to promote the security of their jobs.

There were some applauses heard at the back. I wonder who was that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYj5baVfB0Y&feature=player_embedded

As you might have learned, just rising from the dead, that the poor nation of Haitians experienced a rather shocking day. They little island was rather unfortunately standing on the epicenter of a giant earthquake. I will not get into why the nation ranks pretty high on the poor country list, but this has several rather important consequences. Confer Japan, which is shock proof, Haiti infrastructure doesn’t use reinforced concrete, which makes building fragile at best (come to think of it, I live in a concrete house with little or no steel reinforcement - gulp). This is one of the reasons why about 90% of their infrastructure has been laid in ruin.

With a weak government (which is definitely not a pre-condition, let us all remember hurricane Katrina and its aftermath) and their cultural heritage, looting and pillaging is nothing new. It would seem chaos has erupted, but no need to worry, the US has already send 10.000 troops and god knows how many mercenaries from Xe (BlackWater). Several people have already warned that this may be a prelude to occupation. Maybe.

… happened squat. The “pandemic” swine flu didn’t killed scores, just like promised by the WHO and its “affiliates” (governments). I have called our hotline for swine flu and their model predictions were totally off. That didn’t get in the way of spending thousands of Euros for panic propaganda material, though.
According to the authority on body county, the World health organization (WHO), death toll from the “pandemic” swine flu is about 13.000. Well, if this constitutes a pandemic, then I don’t wanna be right (or how the expression goes?). For comparison, from regular seasonal flues, about quarter to half a million people die each year. And they ask why I don’t trust the government… Of course, at the end of the day, all we have to ask is “why”. I would wager a hefty bet that big pharma and vaccines may have had something to do with it. Maybe.

Numbers here.

The United States will eventually pass a huge bill, that may force everyone to buy health insurance. Unwillingness or inability to do so may result in a fine or jail time. Pretty much what we have here. If you’re employed, your employer takes care of it (but takes from your pay check).

The interesting part about this is how Obama campaigned (and also when in office) talked how the discussion on the bill will be televised. Here’s the clip:

Guess what happened. Yes, he has flip flopped on the issue, just like any other. The Congress wanted an open debate, but White House demanded (like they’re ABOVE the Congress?!) limited televised session of one hour. I will let you find out how long the debate has been and will be, lasting. That way, you can draw your own conclusion why this is such a big deal.

All praise Jebus, a country with kohones exists:

Iceland’s president has refused to sign a controversial bill to repay $5bn (£3.1bn) to the UK and the Netherlands.

As a matter of fact, the president will issue a referendum to decide on the matter:

Announcing the decision to hold a referendum on the bill, President Grimsson said that the Icelandic public had the right to choose.

Yeah, why should the people pay for bad decision by bankers?

Read more over here.