REPORTING FROM BERLIN
NEW BUBBLE IN THE MAKING
HOW TO FIGHT FORECLOSURE

You are going to hear a lot from and about Berlin in the next months as Germany and the world media mark the twentieth anniversary of thd fall of the Berlin wall, which led, we were told, to the end of the Cold War even as tensions with Russsia remain on a slow boil and peace has yet to break out.

The expected “peace dividend” and fall off in military expenditures never happened. If anything, the money spent on arms has escalated globally with new wars and enemies replacing old ones.

I writing from Berlin, once the symbol of the “free world,” the city which housed the Nazis, and experienced their destruction including the dead of A Hitler, the superman among supermen. The city was then then divided and became the epicenter of the East-West conflict, the town where John F Kennedy came to proclaim that he too was a Berliner, unaware that in this town a Berliner is a donut, not a person. It was also the place in which Ronnie Raygun demanded that the Wall Be torn down. His demand did not do it, but fell it did.

I first came here in l967 when another movement was growing here, the German version of SDS, battling against the Vietnam war and locked in battle with the Fox News of that Era, the The newspaper chain headed up by that reactionary’s reactionary Axel Springer. Springer had built his headquarters right on the wall in a full confrontational mode. The student activists led by a phenomenal leader I knew, Rudi Dutschke, later known for advocating that the left make a “long march through the institutions” was challenging him.

Today the street in front of that building, the scene of many protests, is named for Rudi who was quite literally shot down in the streets. My bet is that Rudi will not be remembered in the coverage to come of Berlin.

Today, Berlin is one city, with the former East Berlin, the hippest neighborhood. The coolest museum in town honors the old DDR, or East Germany which was “unified” with the west 20 years ago but many of its former residents have not been overjoyed to have lost their country and remain hostile to the German political order. Many are part of the Left block, others have moved to the activist right, even embracing the emerging fascists if only because the former regime had made then an enemy and so supporting them now is a forum of protest.

Today the unemployment rate in the East is about twice that of the West, and the economic benefits promised by the unification have yet to be experienced by many. There are protests by workers in the East, who are nostalgic about the old days, and a feeling that people in the more affluent West don’t care.

I have been invited here to the Prix Europa, a media festival for TV, Radio and what they all “emerging media.” Some 231 productions are in the competition They come from 35 countries in eight categories. Media professionals ffrom all over Eruope, including the new members of the EU in the East are here to screen them all and decide who will get the prize. Unlike the Emmy Award judging sessions that I was part of where only a few minutes of nominated programs were seen, here everything is shown and discussed. It is a serious process. I sat in a session moderated by the legendary British documentarian Paul Watson.

I am here to be part of a session called “Journalism Went Online—Do we need a new job description. I will be joined by journalists from Denmark, Germany and the UK with an on-line publisher moderating.

I was asked to introduce myself and discuss the issue on the Prix Europa Blog.

While my film Plunder is not in the competition because it was not funded by a European broadcaster, it is now in their library and some of the participants have seen it, and I am told, like it. The only award I will be getting is of more frequent flyer miles.

Now some news compiled on the other side of the pond:

WP: OBAMA AIDES ON THE OFFENSIVE: THE FIGHT WITH THE BANKS

Top Obama administration officials sharply criticized Wall Street firms planning to pay big bonuses, pointedly contrasting the soaring profits some financial companies have recorded in recent days with continuing high jobless rates across the country.
The firms are benefiting from government efforts, some initiated by the Obama administration, to stabilize and restore confidence to the capital markets after a global financial crisis that began last year. With their fortunes rebounding, the Wall Street firms plan to pay tens of billions of dollars to executives.

“The bonuses are offensive,” Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” adding that banks must do more to support lending across the country and should stop their lobbying efforts aimed at blocking the passage of new financial regulations that are being prepared in Congress.

“They ought to think through what they are doing, and they ought to understand that a year ago a lot of these institutions were teetering on the brink, and the United States government and taxpayers came to their defense,” Axelrod said. “They have responsibilities, and they ought to meet those responsibilities.”

The Obama administration has defied popular opinion in backing huge government bailouts to try to rescue much of the nation’s auto industry and stabilize the financial system, steps it saw as critical to fostering an economic recovery. At the same time, it has attempted to tap into popular anger at corporate America with outspoken criticism of bonuses, perks and other practices that have long been staples of big business.

WATCH: ELIZABETH WARREN: WALL STEET IS WINNING

Anwaar Hussain: PARKISTAN: BATTLE HAS BEGUN IN WAZIRISTAN

Finally, the battle on the one-time protégés begins–the battle that was first promised in June and for which troops had been gathering on Waziristan’s horizons for the past four months. The critical delay not only enabled the militants to overcome the reverses they had suffered in the Malakand region earlier during the summer but to also hit back at the government with added venom. Though the beginning of the battle is indeed hastened by the bewildering tempo at which the godmen have struck at targets across the country during the last couple of weeks, it has begun.

This battle is a strange mix. That is a given. While it is unconventional in the sense that it is not a standard face-off between regular armies, yet is conventional in that it is the same old war with each side trying to impose its will upon the other. Conventional or not, there is no running away from this one. Now is the time to fight.

While everyone is hurrying to the battle stations, here are a few fundamental dos and don’ts that need to be stuck to like glue in the weeks and months ahead.

Hijack the godmen’s cause. History is replete with examples of insurgencies that have degenerated to out-and-out criminalities. This one is no different. The government should use all means at its disposal i.e. media, clerics, political leaders, etc., to highlight the fact that these are no godmen. These are common thugs involved in drug trade, kidnappings for ransom, and contract killings, to name a few activities, masquerading as godmen. Take their golden shoe away from them and beat them back with it. Not only will this infuriate the godmen into a blinding rage and the accompanied stumbles, discrediting the insurgents is also a much easier way to cut an insurgency off and let it die rather than having to kill every insurgent. Victory will be gained only when this isolation of the godmen is achieved and maintained permanently by and with the active support of the populace.

Tell the Americans to stay away at this time.

In Health Care Overhaul Effort, Millions are Being Spent to Influence Congress


ASKING FOR TROUBLE: Copenhagen to Block Speech and Assembly

Translated from original

Climate Organizations: “Trouble-maker legislation” scares demonstrators

New “trouble-maker legislation” is unnecessary and prevents people from using their democratic right to demonstrate, say climate organizations.

The government is playing double jeopardy when they on one hand donate 20 million Danish kroner to peaceful activists and on the other want to impose hard punishment on people who wish to speak up.

This is the opinion of the organization People’s Climate Action (PCA), founded in 2008 by the Danish Foreign Ministry in order to secure a peaceful and organized course with activists during the climate conference.

Today the Danish Minister of Justice, Brian Mikkelsen presents “trouble-maker legislation”, which will give the police more opportunities to make arrests and sentence demonstrators during the climate conference.

“It is deeply problematic if people are prevented from using their constitutional right to gather and speak freely. We fear that this is the result if the right to carry out administrative arrests is imposed,” says Lene Vennits, Head of Office of People’s Climate Action.

Up to 20,000 demonstrators from abroad

The government has already got a majority in parliament to implement the “trouble-maker legislation” during the COP 15 Climate Conference in Copenhagen from the 8th to the 17th of December.