April 10 2008 by The Systemic Analyst.

Here’s an interesting map for anyone watching the rate of home foreclosures in the U.S. The worst affected areas by the sub-prime mortgage fiasco are to date California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois and Nevada.

Posted in Economic Issues, North America | No Comments »

April 10 2008 by The Systemic Analyst.

The Globe and Mail has reported that Industry Canada minister Jim Prentice has decided to block the sale of the satellite Radarsat-2 by Canadian firm MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.  to the U.S. firm Alliant Techsystems Inc.

The move, hailed as unprecedented, could be a boon to the Conservative party. Widely seen by critics and the media as pandering to the U.S., the Conservative government’s refusal stands in direct contradiction to such negative imaging.

Whatever the political gains, it’s a good thing that Radarsat-2 is to remain Canadian. 

Posted in Security Measures, North America, Politics | No Comments »

April 10 2008 by The Systemic Analyst.

There are some for whom simply ignoring yesterday’s big elephant isn’t enough; they wish the beast would just disappear. Geri Müller, president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Swiss National Council and Council of State, has been publicly calling for Carla del Ponte’s resignation as Swiss ambassador to Argentina.

Mr. Müller, in interviews with ”Rendez-vous” and Gratiszeitung “News”, said that Ms. del Ponte’s announcement to publish her memoirs of her time as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is “unacceptable.” Citing “impartiality” as a requirement for her current post, Mr. Müller feels the publication of Ms. del Ponte’s memoirs compromises such objectivity. 

Another source, Ticinolibero, quotes Mr. Müller as saying “we will have a big problem if the department of Micheline Calmy Rey [the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs] does not recall Carla del Ponte from her post as ambassador to Argentina.”

The Regnum Information Agency in Russia reports Mr. Müller hopes Ms. del Ponte will voluntarily resign quoting him as saying:

“if she does not do so on her own, then, in my opinion, the Swiss Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee must consider and decide the matter. I would like to see del Ponte recalled from her post in Argentina. The next meeting of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee will be held at the end of April, and I hope that by then it will be clear what she has decided to do.”

Mr. Müller is a member of Switzerland’s Green Party.

Ms. del Ponte’s book, which gave rise to Mr. Müller’s calls for her resignation, describes an Albanian criminal ring that kidnapped Serbians to harvest human organs and how gathering evidence against NATO’s campaign in Serbia was made impossible.

It will be interesting to watch Ms. del Ponte’s reaction to the calls of Mr. Müller. If she feels strongly about the cause which she now appears to have taken up she should be expected to resign in protest. Of course, it would be hard to grudge her continued silence a few more years should she be on the verge of retirement. The inflexibility of bureaucracy has already pushed her from one job and a pension in this unstable world market might be very lucrative indeed.

What’s a couple more years of ignoring the elephant anyway? The West has already precipitated yet another mess in the Balkans with its recognition of Kosovo; the elephant will still be in the middle of this Western room in a few years, it just might be a little bigger, is all.

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