[paraclete]

Scotland: Divorce is never an easy process


Australia: we have a very disdvantaged group in northern Australia and much money is poured in there with little effect, but laws prevent the establishment of say; special development areas where wages are lower, etc. If it were a seperate nation in charge of its own development, the handout mentality might change and the people feel empowered, plus development would be at their own pace, managed by their own people and implemented according to their own ideals, which seem very different to the rest of the country and aid could take entirely different forms

much development is stymied by cultural issues, sacred places and all that. they would be free to pursue their own culture which is a vastly different value system to the rest of the country

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...9.00264.x/full

[tomder55]

whereas we genuinely screw our native population. The Federal Gvt has this antiquated agency called Bureau of Indian Affairs which thinks that the only way our natives can prosper is if they run casinos .

[paraclete]

Yes we are no so enlightened, our natives have various business opportunities, tourism, cultural guides, cattle raising but of couse this gives opportunity to very few whereas the the real money making enterprises are in the hands of our enterpreneurs. paternalism doesn't equal development or equality

[tomder55]

Is Donetsk the next Crimea ?

[paraclete]

eastern Ukraine would always be problematic but earlier indications were that the people might speak russian but were not inclinded to join Russia, so some troublemakers from the old regime. This happens when there is a vacuum caused by undemocratic takeovers not legitimised by elections

[tomder55]

you mean like Russian nationals storming the gvt building ? What happens when Russian nationals in Latvia ,Lithuania ,Estonia decide they need to carve out pieces of their country for Mother Russia ? These nations all have NATO membership.

[paraclete]

Tom you know the answer as well as I do, we might see insurrections all over the former USSR, there are a lot of Russians scattered about. The question here is whether we have a small minority of malcontents or a movement. You could bet Russia doesn't want large numbers of new poor citizens, it might remember Germany it took a while to straighten out reunification and how much NATO wants a war. nature abhors a vacuum and the Ukraine right now is a vacuum

[talaniman]

Unfortunately, those few malcontents are a great excuse for Putin to invade the Ukraine to protect Mother Russian citizens.

[paraclete]

Russia has a long history of invading to protect Russian minorities. However today we have a vastly different geopolitical situation, these places are not as isolated as they once were

[tomder55]

When President Bill Clinton signed a 1994 agreement promising to “respect” the territorial integrity of Ukraine if it gave up its nuclear weapons, there was little thought then of how that obscure diplomatic pact – called the Budapest Memorandum – might affect the long-running defense partnership between the United States and Japan.
But now, as American officials have distanced themselves from the Budapest Memorandum in light of Russia’s takeover of Crimea, calling promises made in Budapest “nonbinding,” the United States is being forced at the same time to make reassurances in Asia. Japanese officials, a senior American military official said, “keep asking, ‘Are you going to do the same thing to us when something happens?

’
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/wo...e-leaders.html

[paraclete]

Yes an interesting question I would like to know the answer myself in reference to the ANZUS treaty. it is a big question, can the US be trusted to meet its treaty obligations in all instances? If you can sell the Ukraine up the creek, you can sell any of us

[smoothy]

That's only true under Obama... luckily he's legally prohibited from running for office a third time... so the wholesale vote fraud that got him in the last two times can't do it a third time.

Unless Hillary gets in... she is likely to be just as bad. She's just say..."what difference does it make?" in her shrew like grating voice....

[paraclete]

Unless Hillary gets in... she is likely to be just as bad

It's a long time to a presidential election, what's the mood over there, would they do it again?

[smoothy]

[smoothy]

Ukraine: Jews Served Notice to Register or Face Deportation |

[paraclete]

Hmmm

[tomder55]

that is Russian agitprop . There is a history of anti-Semitism in the region and Vladdy would like to portray himself as their protector .

[paraclete]

let's put it this way Tom noone wants another pogrom, the jews must not become the excuse for the invasion of the Ukraine

[tomder55]

I'm just relieved that Vladdy the Invader has decided he has no interest in Alaska .
Vladimir Putin Says Alaska Is Too Cold To Annex

[paraclete]

Apparently it is the Russians in eastern Ukraine who want to round up the jews and I think the Russians got a good deal when they got rid of Alaska why would they want it back, too far from home