Press Release by Arab NGO Network for Development[1]and Counter Balance

Beirut/Brussels – In a joint statement a group of 67 civil society organizations from across 12 Arab countries are raising concerns about the EU and US backed financial aid packages for post-revolutionary countries in their region on the grounds that it could damage the process of democratic transitions and divert the revolutions’ economic and social justice goals.

“The democratic change pursued by the peoples of the region is not served by increase in aid that comes tied with policy conditionality, further liberalisation of trade and investment, deregulation, and orthodox recipes that contributed to the injustices that Tunisian and Egyptian people faced” Kinda Mohamadieh, programme manager at the Arab NGO Network for Development. “Such conditionalities should not be re-enforced through various forms of partnerships and aid packages promoted in the name of democracy support. The path to development of each country should be decided by its own people, via constitutional processes and national dialogue.” Ανάγνωση του υπολοίπου »

Libya’s Pathway to Peace

By BARACK OBAMA, DAVID CAMERON, and NICOLAS SARKOZY

Published: April 14, 2011

Together with our NATO allies and coalition partners, the United States, France and Britain have been united from the start in responding to the crisis in Libya, and we are united on what needs to happen in order to end it.

Even as we continue our military operations today to protect civilians in Libya, we are determined to look to the future. We are convinced that better times lie ahead for the people of Libya, and a pathway can be forged to achieve just that.

We must never forget the reasons why the international community was obliged to act in the first place. As Libya descended into chaos with Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi attacking his own people, the Arab League called for action. The Libyan opposition called for help. And the people of Libya looked to the world in their hour of need. In an historic resolution, the United Nations Security Council authorized all necessary measures to protect the people of Libya from the attacks upon them. Ανάγνωση του υπολοίπου »

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Vincent Matalon

Jeudi 31 mars, le secrétaire général de l’ONU, Ban Ki-moon, a déclaré que la communauté internationale était “unie” à propos de la Libye. Il est vrai que la coalition intervenant dans le pays est particulièrement large, rassemblant à la fois des pays arabes, l’OTAN, les Etats-Unis et un bon nombre de pays européens. Ανάγνωση του υπολοίπου »

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Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story (The New York Times)

A voluminous report on the financial crisis by the United States Senate — citing internal documents and private communications of bank executives, regulators, credit ratings agencies and investors — describes business practices that were rife with conflicts during the mortgage mania and reckless activities that were ignored inside the banks and among their federal regulators.

The 650-page report, “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse,” was released Wednesday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, whose co-chairmen are Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, and Tom Coburn, a Republican of Oklahoma. The result of two years’ work, the report focuses on an array of institutions with central roles in the mortgage crisis: Washington Mutual, an aggressive mortgage lender that collapsed in 2008; the Office of Thrift Supervision, a regulator; the credit ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service; and the investment banks Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. Ανάγνωση του υπολοίπου »