Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Saturday 24 January 2015

The European Union Times


Posted: 23 Jan 2015 09:16 AM PST


Almost 1.4 million Irish residents, or 30 percent of Ireland’s population, were forced to endure “enforced deprivation” throughout 2013, the state’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) says.
New figures, published on Wednesday, offer a sobering insight into the socioeconomic impacts of Austerity Ireland.
The CSO’s research analyzed Irish citizens’ income and living conditions throughout the course of 2013. It found the rate of enforced deprivation in Ireland had more than doubled between 2008 and 2013.
“Enforced deprivation” is a form of poverty characterized by a lack of two or more basics required for a comfortable standard of living. Such benchmarks relate to the ability to afford adequate food, heating and clothing.
Recent European Commission data indicates the Irish face much higher levels of poverty and deprivation than other comparable EU states.
Trade unionist and political economy expert Michael Taft warns Irish society “is riddled with high levels of poverty and deprivation.”
He says the fact over 1.3 million Irish citizens are living in deprivation is a “social and moral indictment of the priorities of a government that privileges tax cuts over poverty-reduction.”
Since Ireland’s 2008 economic crash, the proportion of people in consistent poverty has soared by 100%, according to Irish think tank Social Justice Ireland.
Of almost 1.4 million Irish people living without life’s basic essentials, over 440,000 are children and more than 90,000 are pensioners, the group warns.
A frayed social fabric
The CSO’s report found deprivation rates in Ireland rose from 13.7 percent in 2008 to 30.5 percent in 2013.
Meanwhile, Irish citizens’ average income after tax plunged to €17,374 (£13,300) in 2013 – a decrease of roughly 2 percent on 2012.
Taft said 53 percent of Irish citizens who are unfit to work due to illness or disability lack basic requirements deemed essential for a reasonable standard of living. He described the situation as a “social obscenity.”
“With poverty rampant, with over 1.3 million living in deprivation, the Government is playing its tax-cutting fiddle while society burns,” he said.
The political economy expert added private and social housing tenants in Ireland are also suffering serious financial stress.
On Tuesday, during a visit to Ireland, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said the Irish populace were “heros.”
Her assessment related to Ireland’s supposed economic recovery, following a gruelling 4-year TROIKA bailout.
The IMF-EU structural readjustment program shredded Ireland’s social fabric, and sparked the highest levels of emigration the state has seen since the so-called Great Famine (1845-1852). One of Ireland’s darkest historical periods, the famine left a legacy of mass starvation and emigration in its wake.
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Posted: 23 Jan 2015 09:00 AM PST


A four-year-old Australian boy has received the world’s first treatment for managing type 1 diabetes after doctors fitted him with an artificial pancreas.
The new device, which looks like an mp3 player, was attached to Xavier Hames’s body using several tubes inserted under his skin, Australian health officials said on Wednesday.
The four-year-old became the first patient to use the new device following successful clinical trials.
“The technology mimics the biological function of the pancreas to predict low glucose levels and stop insulin delivery… This in turn avoids the serious consequences of low glucose such as coma, seizure and potential death,” Western Australia’s health department added.
The artificial pancreas is an automated system that simulates the normal pancreas to adapt to body insulin levels through the automatic administration of one or two hormones.
The technology tracks glucose levels and stops insulin delivery up to 30 minutes before a predicted hypoglycemic attack, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) said.
The attacks usually take place at night when sleeping patients may not be able to respond to or recognize the potentially fatal episode.
Type I diabetes is a disease where the body cannot produce the hormone needed to convert glucose from food into energy for cells.
Untreated, diabetes causes serious damage to organs in the long run, including vision loss and kidney failure.
Type I diabetes is typically diagnosed in younger individuals.
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Posted: 23 Jan 2015 08:54 AM PST


Students banned from chanting at all sporting events.
High school students from Idalou, Texas were accused of racism Tuesday after chanting “USA!” at a girls’ basketball game in nearby Slaton.
Fans of the Idalou Wildcats, who reportedly began the chant after the Slaton Tigers were defeated, were labeled racist due to Slaton school district’s large Hispanic population.
Speaking with Fox 34 News, Slaton Superintendent Julee Becker argued that the chant was used in a divisive and offensive manner.
“The chant USA should be for all of us, it should be inclusive,” Becker said. “We are making other people aware of what that behavior by just a few, what impact it had on us, us as a tiger nation and family.”
Idalou Superintendent Jim Waller immediately responded to the accusation with a written and verbal apology, ordering his district to discontinue all chanting due to the “perception it creates.”
“I apologize to Slaton ISD and the chanting will not be allowed to continue at games because of the perception that it creates,” Waller said. “We understand competitiveness and school excitement and support, but we need to be supportive in our words to our team and not use words that may be interpreted as insensitive to an opposing team.”
Although Idalou students denied claims that the chant had racist overtones, Waller stated that his district would no longer permit the use of “USA!” at sporting events.
Becker, seemingly unsatisfied with the apology and ban on speech, asserted that the issue was far from over.
“They deserve to know that we won’t let it go,” Becker said. “We don’t tolerate racism in our schools.”
Becker also stated that the incident was representative of a deep-rooted racism in American culture.
“The symptoms of racism, they run deep,” Becker added.
A similar incident played out in 2012 when both Caucasian and Hispanic students began chanting “USA!” after beating a team that happened to be comprised primarily of Hispanic students. In response, students involved in the incident were banned from attending basketball games for the rest of the season.
Schools in California went one step further in 2010 when students were banned from wearing American flag shirts during Cinco de Mayo due to perceived racism. In early 2014 the Ninth Circuit Court upheld the ban, stating that fears of racial violence by upset Hispanic students outweighed the First Amendment right of others.
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Posted: 23 Jan 2015 08:42 AM PST


We are mere days away from the upcoming snap elections in Greece. The consequences of the elections will go far beyond Greece itself.
In the last several years, the rise of Golden Dawn in elections was inspiring nationalists all over the western world, this time is different however. The reason for this difference in the upcoming election is simple, this time the outcome will force the unification of parties people once thought were enemies to each other. It will prove that Golden Dawn is the only true national opposition.
Golden Dawn’s Giorgos Misiakas, recently stated in an article that “Golden Dawn is a post election nightmare for the system“. This nightmare goes far beyond Golden Dawn being the third political force in the country, exposing the lies of the media.
The even bigger nightmare for the system is that “Radical Leftists“,”Social Democrats” “Conservatives” and even what is labeled the “Far-Right” will have to take their different colored masks off and work together, thus exposing themselves to the public for what they really are. They will show they are nothing more than pawns of the international money lenders.
First lets take a look at the “Far Right”
Panos Kammenos of the “Independent Greeks” party, a party that made a lot of big talk against illegal immigration and postured itself as the anti-memorandum “Far Right” “Patriotic” but “Not-Extremist” alternative to Golden Dawn. Recently Kammenos stated that he would enter a coalition with “Radical Left” SYRIZA in order to contribute to the stability of the country. So here we have the so called “Patriot” willing to ally with a party that openly wants to destroy every aspect of national identity and defense and open the borders.
This goes beyond Greece however, in France yesterday the leader of what is called the “Far Right” Front National, Marine LePen made a statement that she will be supporting SYRIZA and hopes they win the national elections in Greece, even though she “Does not agree with their policy on immigration”.

Very strange indeed, considering Greece with open borders under SYRIZA means in effect that illegal immigrants will have nothing stopping them from going to places like France since once you are inside the EU there are very few border checks between EU states.
Next we have the “Social Democrats”
They have decided to morph into smaller pieces, the remnants of PASOK have now spintered into several different factions, all of which show little difference from each other, such as “Potami” and what is called “To Kinima”, both of which say they won’t fully announce their positions until after the elections. Yes, you read that right, political parties that say they wont tell you what they will do until after you vote for them. Both of these parties rely on thier media names and popularity of their TV personalities. Basically what this translates to is they want to pretend they are different until after they get elected (in order to capture entice the former PASOK voters into coming out to vote again) so they can go along with the international money lenders plans later.
“The Conservatives”
The current government of New Democracy, now days before the elections is making many “patriotic” statements, all of a sudden they are concerned with illegal immgation and flag waving. They also are trying to scare people into voting for them again, claiming that SYRIZA will destroy the “progress” they have made and make the banks shut down and pensions stop.
“The Radical Left”
Lastly we have SYRIZA, which means in english a “Coalition of the Radical Left”. “Radical Left” by the Greek definition traditionally means “Trotskyites“, “Maoists“, “Stalinists” and “Anarcho-Communists” just to name a few. In the last years however, SYRIZA has been receiving a huge influx of PASOK social democrats, and even a few former New Democracy members in its ranks, while still claiming it will “Tear Up the Memorandum” and other times says it will give the debt a “Haircut” and “Renegotiate“.
This change in words depends on who they are speaking to and when, but when Alexis Tsipras was here meeting with international money lenders in New York and in Washington DC meeting with the US Department of State he was made clear of his role in Greece, and we can assure you that his role certainly is not as “radical” as some may think.
Golden Dawn has created a nightmare scenario for their theatrical performances after the elections. Without exception, every single party despite it’s label will fight to stop Golden Dawn till the bitter end. The national resistance of Golden Dawn will set a very important precedent in Europe that constitues the meaning of a true national resistance.
Despite all their tricks, Greek nationalists will not bend, and Greece will win!
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Posted: 23 Jan 2015 08:23 AM PST


A Chinese company has used 3D printers to create five-story homes using construction waste. The project architects say this is the world’s tallest building constructed using this technology.
The new project is the brainchild of Shanghai-based WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co, who also managed to use 3D printing technology to create a 1,100 square meters villa in the Suzhou industrial park of China’s Jiangsu Province. It is not known how comfortable the buildings will be to live in, but one cannot argue with the cost, the villa complete with interior decoration cost a little over $160,000.
According to the 3D printing website 3ders.org, it took the company a day to print one level of the building and another five to put it together. In order to undertake the mammoth task, the company used a massive 150-meter long and 6 meter high printer. They use recycled building waste for the materials or ‘ink’ which also contain glass fiber, steel and cement and special additives. The process works by secreting layers of construction material on top of each other to create densely packed building blocks.




The company says the buildings are perfectly safe to live in, and are expanding their horizons and hope to build housing blocks as tall as 12 stories in the future.
WinSun estimates 3D printing technology can be very savvy: it may save between 30 and 60 percent on building materials with costs slashed by 50 percent up to 80 percent. The firm said that it may also shorten production time by 50 to 70 percent.
The company has been building up a reputation. In April, it managed to print 10 full-size houses in a day.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 10:43