----- Original Message ----- From: The WEEK <the_week at hotmail.com> To: <the_week at hotmail.com> Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2001 9:14 PM Subject: Beijing Olympics; Macedonian deal; Congestion charges (1)
>
> THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT
>
> The welcome decision of the International Olympic Committee to award the
> 2008 Olympics to Beijing was celebrated by millions of Chinese people as
an
> important step forward for their country. One fifth of humanity lives in
> China and it is currently the third most successful country in Olympic
> sports, and yet China has never before hosted the games. In the West the
IOC
> decision was the cue to step up the propaganda campaign against China.
>
> A French foreign affairs spokesman predicted that the Beijing games would
be
> a rerun of Hitler's 1936 Olympics, a spectacular whitewash of the Chinese
> regime's repressive rule. Western opponents of China's criminal procedures
> and sympathisers of the Tibetan theocracy were quick to agree. Curiously
> France's mass political showtrials of Islamists and support for a number
of
> nasty dictatorships around the world did not inspire any criticism of
> Paris's Olympic bid.
>
> After a century and a half of domination by European racists and of
> isolation by American cold warriors, the prospect of a powerful modern
> China, which will not be told how to behave by foreigners, produces fear
and
> loathing in Western elites which no amount of hypocritical abuse will
> assuage.
>
>
> GREATER NATO
>
> Nato and EU negotiators are on the verge of forcing the Macedonian
> government into accepting wide-ranging amendments to the country's
> constitution in a deal with Albanian nationalists. The proposed amendments
> include offering the Albanian minority a political veto, greater autonomy
> from central government for Albanian majority areas and guaranteed
Albanian
> representation in government institutions.
>
> These American-backed proposals are for the sort of multicultural
provisions
> that the USA would not tolerate in its own constitution. The new
Macedonian
> constitution would further entrench the ethnic divisions cultivated by
> nationalists in a country which had been largely free of ethnic violence
> until the 1999 Nato occupation of neighbouring Kosovo.
>
> This success for Albanian nationalists has resulted from a combination of
> military force imported from Kosovo and diplomatic pressure supplied by
Nato
> and the EU. Since February of this year Albanian fighters have taken over
> large parts of the north-west of Macedonia bordering Kosovo. Nato and the
EU
> have meanwhile put huge pressure on the Macedonian government not to fight
> the rebellion but to negotiate with it. On one occasion recently, American
> troops even intervened to protect retreating rebels.
>
> Once Macedonia has been forced into accepting the new constitution, Nato
> will then occupy the country with 3,000 troops to enforce the deal.
Western
> civilian advisers are also waiting in the wings hoping to be able to
> 'reconstruct' Macedonian civil society.
>
> While all eyes are on the trial of Slobodan Milosevic in the Hague for
> allegedly attempting to force a Greater Serbia onto the people of the
> Balkans, the USA and the EU are quietly getting on with rewarding the
> supporters of Greater Albania for the wars they are waging. In the process
a
> third republic of the six which used to make up Yugoslavia will have its
> territory occupied by Nato forces.
>
>
> ROADS FOR THE RICH
>
> London mayor Ken Livingstone's plan to introduce a £5 daily licence for
cars
> entering central London is a major boost to the wider Green campaign to
> reserve busy roads for middle class drivers. Other British city
authorities
> are hoping to implement similar schemes. They will be welcomed as part of
> the 'regeneration' of city centres. They will indeed offer more choices
and
> a quieter environment for those with the wherewithal to live in city
centres
> or the leisure time to enjoy them. Everybody else can crowd on to public
> transport.
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>