GLR News and Information > Geography, Economy & GLR Politics

How things are made by others

(1/5) > >>

Mogul:
Never thought the land in Iceland was ever so cheap... They have a Lesbian Prime Minister, btw.

Source: http://www.france24.com/en/20110830-china-tycoon-buy-part-iceland-ft


--- Quote ---China tycoon to buy part of Iceland: FT

A Chinese tycoon is trying to buy a huge tract of land in Iceland for a $100 million eco-tourism project that will include a golf course, the Financial Times said Tuesday.

Huang Nubo, a real estate investor and former government official, has sealed a provisional deal to acquire 300 square kilometres (about 200 square miles) of Icelandic territory, the newspaper said.

Iceland occupies a strategically important location between Europe and North America and has been touted as a potential hub for Asian cargo should climate change open Arctic waters to shipping.

Forbes ranked Huang as China?s 161st richest man in 2010, with a net worth of $890 million. His company, Zhongkun Group, owns resorts and tourist facilities across China and around the world.

The Financial Times said he had previously worked at China?s Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Construction.

The Iceland Review Online reported last week that Huang signed a deal with land owners including the Icelandic government last Wednesday, and that the deal was dependent on approval by both China and Iceland.

Iceland's booming economy collapsed in 2008 when its hugely overstretched banking sector plunged suddenly into crisis and its three major banks collapsed within a matter of weeks.

Since then, the country has gone through much soul-searching and a string of painful changes to put its house in order, helped by an International Monetary Fund rescue.

On Friday last week, the IMF approved the final release of funds in its $2.25 billion bailout programme for Iceland.
--- End quote ---

Feral:
It is an interesting game, to be sure. We have seen precisely this sort of maneuver in the area of Gay nationalism as well. I do not know how much weight to give to a source like Wikinews, but this reporting from a different viewpoint is familiar.


--- Quote ---Despite the claim Means has made, Naomi Archer, liaison of Lakotah Oyate stated to Wikinews that Means took control of the organization and hijacked it and its website on December 29. Archer also said that Lakotah Oyate or the delegation are not a government entity and do not make decisions for the Nation.

"The legitimate actions of the Lakota people are not determined by one person [Russell Means] or even one group, but by the [Lakota] people themselves," added Archer.

...

Since the Delegation's press conference, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Reservation have rejected Means's and the delegation's declaration of secession.

"They're individuals acting on their own. They did not come to the Rosebud Sioux tribal council or our government in any way to get our support and we do not support what they've done. We do not support what Means and his group are doing and they don't have any support from any tribal government I know of. They don't speak for us," said Rosebud Sioux Tribe president, Rodney Bordeaux.

Despite those rejections, Archer said that the Pine Ridge Reservation's council will "consider the proposal." A representative for the Standing Rock Reservation's council has said that that reservation is also considering Lakotah Oyate's proposal.
--- End quote ---


Wild declarations of independence seem to be thought of as a sure means to quick news coverage. They are... but not to positive coverage. It seems to be thought that, if one heroic figure will come forward, the masses will rise up and follow. No examples of the successful use of this strategy come to mind.

Mr. Means appears also to have more reasonably suggested the formation of a power company, a bank, and similar institutions. That would be an entirely sane approach. It is possible to create autonomous institutions. Having done so, it is possible to create even more autonomous institutions. In due course, ever-growing autonomy becomes an accomplished fact. The flags, the logos, the lines on maps -- these are quite insubstantial things. If one really must have them, then an autonomous people can produce them. It is a simple matter. The state of Alaska solicited the aid of school children to assist them with the acquisition of these symbols -- an indication of the relative gravity and importance of such things. Imagining that these insubstantial things have the magical power to bring real autonomy into existence (rather than being simple expressions of an accomplished autonomy) supposes that symbols possess somewhat more magic than they really have.

In my view, this event really must be seen as a lesson in how not to proceed.

Mogul:
Not yet successful, but a nice try in the US-context:

Lakota Sioux Indians Declare Sovereign Nation Status


--- Quote ---Threaten Land Liens, Contested Real Estate Over Five State Area in U.S. West

Lakota Satisfies Treaty Council Mandate of 33 Years, Drafted by 97 Indigenous Nations

Dakota Territory Reverts back to Lakota Control According to U.S., International Law


Washington D.C. – Lakota Sioux Indian representatives declared sovereign nation status today in Washington D.C. following Monday’s withdrawal from all previously signed treaties with the United States Government. The withdrawal, hand delivered to Daniel Turner, Deputy Director of Public Liaison at the State Department, immediately and irrevocably ends all agreements between the Lakota Sioux Nation of Indians and the United States Government outlined in the 1851 and 1868 Treaties at Fort Laramie Wyoming.

“This is an historic day for our Lakota people,” declared Russell Means, Itacan of Lakota. “United States colonial rule is at its end!”

“Today is a historic day and our forefathers speak through us. Our Forefathers made the treaties in good faith with the sacred Canupa and with the knowledge of the Great Spirit,” shared Garry Rowland from Wounded Knee. “They never honored the treaties, that’s the reason we are here today.”

The four member Lakota delegation traveled to Washington D.C. culminating years of internal discussion among treaty representatives of the various Lakota communities. Delegation members included well known activist and actor Russell Means, Women of All Red Nations (WARN) founder Phyllis Young, Oglala Lakota Strong Heart Society leader Duane Martin Sr., and Garry Rowland, Leader Chief Big Foot Riders. Means, Rowland, Martin Sr. were all members of the 1973 Wounded Knee takeover.

“In order to stop the continuous taking of our resources – people, land, water and children- we have no choice but to claim our own destiny,” said Phyllis Young, a former Indigenous representative to the United Nations and representative from Standing Rock.

Property ownership in the five state area of Lakota now takes center stage. Parts of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana have been illegally homesteaded for years despite knowledge of Lakota as predecessor sovereign [historic owner]. Lakota representatives say if the United States does not enter into immediate diplomatic negotiations, liens will be filed on real estate transactions in the five state region, clouding title over literally thousands of square miles of land and property.

Young added, “The actions of Lakota are not intended to embarrass the United States but to simply save the lives of our people”.

Following Monday’s withdrawal at the State Department, the four Lakota Itacan representatives have been meeting with foreign embassy officials in order to hasten their official return to the Family of Nations.

Lakota’s efforts are gaining traction as Bolivia, home to Indigenous President Evo Morales, shared they are “very, very interested in the Lakota case” while Venezuela received the Lakota delegation with “respect and solidarity.”

“Our meetings have been fruitful and we hope to work with these countries for better relations,” explained Garry Rowland. “As a nation, we have equal status within the national community.”

Education, energy and justice now take top priority in emerging Lakota. “Cultural immersion education is crucial as a next step to protect our language, culture and sovereignty,” said Means. “Energy independence using solar, wind, geothermal, and sugar beets enables Lakota to protect our freedom and provide electricity and heating to our people.”

The Lakota reservations are among the most impoverished areas in North America, a shameful legacy of broken treaties and apartheid policies. Lakota has the highest death rate in the United States and Lakota men have the lowest life expectancy of any nation on earth, excluding AIDS, at approximately 44 years. Lakota infant mortality rate is five times the United States average and teen suicide rates 150% more than national average . 97% of Lakota people live below the poverty line and unemployment hovers near 85%.

“After 150 years of colonial enforcement, when you back people into a corner there is only one alternative,” emphasized Duane Martin Sr. “The only alternative is to bring freedom into its existence by taking it back to the love of freedom, to our lifeway.”

We are the freedom loving Lakota from the Sioux Indian reservations of Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana who have suffered from cultural and physical genocide in the colonial apartheid system we have been forced to live under. We are in Washington DC to withdraw from the constitutionally mandated treaties to become a free and independent country. We are alerting the Family of Nations we have now reassumed our freedom and independence with the backing of Natural, International, and United States law. For more information, please visit our new website at www.lakotafreedom.com.
--- End quote ---

Mogul:
This one operates as a "private club":

--- Quote ---It is America’s wealthiest postcode – 216 acres of tropical gorgeousness and palatial living reachable only by private ferry, yacht or helicopter. Surrounded by sand imported from the Bahamas, planted with orchids and palms brought from the Indian Ocean and South Pacific, and a-twitter with the sound of caged toucans and macaws that enjoy daily outings with a bird walker, Fisher Island is known as Fantasy Island. [..] The public are not allowed on to the island unless invited and the privacy of its mainly white residents – largely financiers, corporate executives and property barons with little public name recognition who live there part-time – is fiercely guarded. [..] The latest census, in 2000, gave the population as 467 and the island operates as a private club where cash is not required, just a membership card. It has eighteen tennis courts, two marinas and a heliport.
--- End quote ---

Apart from the irrelevant social issues, a "private club" might be a workable scheme in some legislations. www.fisherisland.com

Mogul:

--- Quote from: Athrael on Thu, Sep 13, 2007, 23:37 ---Obviously these kids displayed signs of antisemitism or Nazi leanings at home. Can the state be responsible for the way the parents notice or fail to notice what their children are doing or which way they were going?
--- End quote ---

Yes. It is within the responsibility of the state to regulate immigration and naturalization processes. It is also within the responsibility of the state to ensure that children are educated and supervised by qualified individuals only. Certainly, the state can't supervise each and every family, but children don't grow up in a vacuum -- they go to school, they have neighbours and they most assuredly spread their views to a sufficient number of people to make the society become alerted at an early stage. The state has the responsibility to encourage parents, teachers, neighbours and school psychologists to give full attention to children with antisocial behaviour and mindset. 

As for immigrants, the established policies vary from country to country -- some governments accept (or ship in) everybody, even felons, while others are very picky and accept only skilled workers and business people. The interests of some would-be immigrants quite often run contrary to the interests of the state, and of course any good government will upheld the interests of the state.

The irony in the reported case is that those "kids" grew up not somewhere in a "normal" country, but in Israel, and to people who claim themselves to be Jewish. Those people came to Israel pretending their being persecuted, while they indeed were Russians tolerating anti-Jewish opinions. We are not talking here about revolting teenagers who paint graffities on bridge pillars, we are talking about young men who purposefully and repeatedly physically assaulted vulnerable members of society. Aggressive and dangerous criminals must be removed from society, whatever has caused them to become criminals. In that particular case, deprivation of citizenship status and parachuting them over Syria woud be an option.

Gay people who will arrive in the Gay State from some Christian or Muslim country with their reluctant teenager sons, will probably put others in danger. Also, the children born and raised in the Gay country, can non the less grow up homophobes. This will not necessarily be the case in all or even most of these families, but there will be a sufficiently large numbers of them. Thus there probably will be a need for additional supervision of children and, if neccessary, deportation of those straights who turn out to be homophobes.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page