News for today's 2018

NORTHERN EUROPE VERSUS SOUTHERN EUROPE

2:46 PM Tukiyooo 0

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9sx-X2wXgDyRwa89WXCxusqh1nFfKYwr7De-weVK32ZIxEOoc1A7ZfVjeGi8s6CpsiNooKR2DpYtpd7iaKOhgbC4ShsTNDAwFLBXA5nd6qOv1k5KmgNo_IOUQbZffY1LA_z6IUGAmdL_y/s1600/571px-SouthernEurope-DarkBlue.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9sx-X2wXgDyRwa89WXCxusqh1nFfKYwr7De-weVK32ZIxEOoc1A7ZfVjeGi8s6CpsiNooKR2DpYtpd7iaKOhgbC4ShsTNDAwFLBXA5nd6qOv1k5KmgNo_IOUQbZffY1LA_z6IUGAmdL_y/s400/571px-SouthernEurope-DarkBlue.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Division" of Northern and Southern Europe"</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">EU</span></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;">’S</span></span><b><span style="color: #134f5c;"><span style="font-size: large;">RACE FOR NATURAL RESOURCES IN SOUTHERN EUROPE</span></span></b></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">First Published in March 2012</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Since the beginning of the financial crisis in GREECE the country has faced some rather unorthodox political developments. One of them, shaking the “cradle of democracy” rather fiercely when a technocrat and footman of International Financial Institutions in particular Goldman Sachs, LUCAS PAPADEMOS seized control over the country with the pretence of new democratic election calls in 2013. Then, midst fierce financial rescue negotiations with the EU, GREECE apparently hit the “jackpot” when recent EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN oil and gas findings stretched further into the AEGEAN SEAS, revealing that the entire eastern MEDITERRANEAN is swimming in huge untapped oil and gas reserves. According to recent researches, the new-found reserves could potentially blot out GREECE’S entire debt, and possibly have even averted it.</span><br /><br /><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Read related article: </span></b> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">NORTH AGAINST SOUTH: IS THE EUROZONE IRREVOCABLY DIVIDED?</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/04/european-shadow-state-faces-growing.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/04/european-shadow-state-faces-growing.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/the-us-turns-its-back-on-europe.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/08/the-us-turns-its-back-on-europe.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/03/austerity-threatens-eu-competitive.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/03/austerity-threatens-eu-competitive.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/03/cyprus-and-germany.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/03/cyprus-and-germany.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/european-democracy-at-crossroad.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/european-democracy-at-crossroad.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/12/europe-spain.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/12/europe-spain.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/france-chooses-path-of-austerity.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/france-chooses-path-of-austerity.html</a></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">EU</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">’S<b>RACE FOR NATURAL RESOURCES</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The minute the potential gas and oil findings in the AEGEAN SEA were confirmed, GERMANY, EUROPE’S key player, in particular changed its political rhetoric’s towards GREECE, demanding that a <b>EUROPEAN ‘commission of experts’ should permanently settled in ATHENS in order to overseeing GREEK finances and budgetary discipline and that the EU should be</b> <b>given veto power over tax and spend plans'</b>, a move that basically would undermine GREECE’S sovereignty.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In view of these facts it seems that EU’S key players are ready to push GREECE into the abbeys in exchange for total control of its natural resources. When looking at the numbers of recent oil gas findings one will understand why suddenly large “storm clouds” are looming over GREECE and the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">OIL: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Preliminary estimates now are that total offshore oil in GREEK waters exceeds 22 billion barrels in the IONIAN SEA off WESTERN GREECE and some 4 billion barrels in the NORTHERN AEGEAN SEA. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">GAS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Recent natural gas surveys conducted in the area will generate an estimate of some <b>nine trillion dollars</b> in revenues, which would transform the finances of GREECE and the entire region.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Oil traders and experts estimate that GREECE could potentially solve its entire public debt crisis through development of its new-found gas and oil. Conservative estimates indicate that exploitation of the reserves already discovered could bring the country more than €302 billion over 25 years.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">THE AUSTERITY PLOT </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The GREEK government instead has just been forced to agree to huge government layoffs, wage cuts and pension cuts to get access to EU and IMF loans that will only drive the country deeper into an economic decline.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">IMF AND GERMANY DEMAND SELL-OFF OF GREECE’S STATE OIL COMPANIES!!! </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBbI8h-l2vOj6zBtWA25N6lyS0XUfMl31GFLfQtsLOJAwCHPSkc2HKnRIJlzSNTAqkoAhekBz9eyQVGdoUbzZ9zmEN9N_DrJ7kGdVAZMXrKRboTyvQ9EppLoQad0q8QkTe9pDUu-xkTtgl/s1600/germany-financial-crisis.jpeg5-460x307.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBbI8h-l2vOj6zBtWA25N6lyS0XUfMl31GFLfQtsLOJAwCHPSkc2HKnRIJlzSNTAqkoAhekBz9eyQVGdoUbzZ9zmEN9N_DrJ7kGdVAZMXrKRboTyvQ9EppLoQad0q8QkTe9pDUu-xkTtgl/s320/germany-financial-crisis.jpeg5-460x307.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The IMF and EU governments, in particularly GERMANY, demand that GREECE sell off its valuable ports and public companies, among them of course, GREEK STATE OIL companies, to reduce state debt. Under the best of conditions the asset selloffs would bring the country perhaps €50 billion. Furthermore plans call for the GREEK state-owned natural gas company, DEPA, to privatize 65% of its shares to reduce debt.  Buyers would likely come from outside the country, as few GREEK companies are in a position in the crisis to take it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In principal this reflects common IMF strategy; used in ARGENTINA and resulted in the countries default. ARGENTINES state assets were privatized and bought by US and European corporations with close ties to the IMF. </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">(See Argentine Water <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization_in_Argentina">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization_in_Argentina</a>)</span><br /> <br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Related article, see: <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/04/feindbild-deutschland.html"><span style="color: blue;">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2013/04/feindbild-deutschland.html</span></a></span></div><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">WHO WILL CONTROL AND ULTIMATELY BENEFIT FROM THE HUGE RESOURCE DISCOVERIES?</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">One significant problem, aside from the fact the IMF demands GREECE selloff its public oil interests, is the fact that GREECE has not declared a deeper exclusive economic zone like most other countries which drill for oil. There was seen little need until now. An EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (EEZ) gives states special mineral rights in its declared waters under the THIRD UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which came into force in November 1994. (See <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html</a>EEZ <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none_14.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none_14.html</a>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Greece’s EEZ issue thus could trigger a new conflict with TURKEY which already is at odds with almost every country bordering the MEDITERRANEAN SEA for it fears of losing the prospect of becoming a major regional energy hub which would increase its geo – political influence in the region and make it a key player in future energy deals, thus eliminating certain “dependence” on EUROPE and last but not least abolish EU membership talks and at the same time pursue its NEO –OTTOMAN EMPIRE ambitions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">(See: <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/06/does-turkey-really-need-eu.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/06/does-turkey-really-need-eu.html</a>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">(See <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/energy-games-in-eastern-mediterranean.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/energy-games-in-eastern-mediterranean.html</a>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">TURKEY reiterated that it would consider it an act of war if GREECE drilled further into the AEGEAN. Until now that did not seem to have serious economic consequences, as no oil or gas reserves were known. With these findings however the situation changed significantly. GREECE could cover “50% of its needs with the oil to be found in offshore fields in the AEGEAN SEA. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">POISONOUS COCKTAIL </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">To add another ingredient to the already poisoned cocktail is that the US also wants a share of the cake and thus is becoming increasingly nervous and manipulative when it comes to natural resources dealings in the region, which the USA considers its turf in the first place.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Thus it</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">comes as no surprise that in</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">July 2011 WASHINGTON seriously stepped in to join the GREEK energy game. Secretary of State HILLARY CLINTON flew to ATHENS with energy on her mind. That was clear by the fact she brought with her her Special Envoy for EURASIAN ENERGY, Richard Morningstar. MORNINGSTAR was husband BILL CLINTON’S SPECIAL ADVISOR to the President on CASPIAN BASIN ENERGY DIPLOMACY. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Allegedly MORNINGSTAR has been the key WASHINGTON architects of WASHINGTON’S geopolitically-motivated oil and gas pipeline projects that would isolate RUSSIA and its GAZPROM gas resources from the EU. MORNINGSTAR and his aid are open opponents of RUSSIAN GAZPROM’S SOUTH STREAM gas pipeline that would transit the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN states. It seems that the current Administration is not at all neutral about the New Greek oil and gas discoveries, for three days after Hillary left ATHENS the GREEK government proposed the creation of a new government agency to run tenders for oil and gas surveys and ultimate drilling bids. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">US OUTWITS THE EU </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Allegedly Morningstar was instrumental in backing the controversial B-T-C oil pipeline from BAKU through TBILISI in GEORGIA across to the TURKISH MEDITERRANEAN port of CEYHAN, a costly enterprise designed solely to bypass RUSSIAN oil pipeline transit. He has openly proposed that <b>GREECE and TURKEY drop all historic differences over CYPRUS, over numerous other historic issues and agree to jointly pool all their oil and gas reserves in the AEGEAN SEA</b>. He also has told the GREEK government it should forget cooperation with MOSCOW on the SOUTH STREAM and BOURGAS-ALEXANDROUPOLIS gas pipeline projects. (See <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/09/middle-east-energy-wars.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/09/middle-east-energy-wars.html</a>and <a href="http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/russia-seeks-to-play-a-leading-role-in-eastern-mediterranean-gas-development-5216">http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/russia-seeks-to-play-a-leading-role-in-eastern-mediterranean-gas-development-5216</a>) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgas%E2%80%93Alexandroupoli_pipeline">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgas%E2%80%93Alexandroupoli_pipeline</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">  </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Such proposal clearly shows that he lacks profound knowledge of the regional conflict between CYPRUS and TURKEY as well as GREECE’S stance on TURKEY and last but not least RUSSIA’S and CYPRUS’S relations and mentality of these cultures.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">According to a report from GREEK political analyst Aristotle Vassilakis published in July 2011, WASHINGTON’S motive for pushing GREECE to join forces with TURKEY on oil and gas is to force a formula to divide resulting oil and gas revenues. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">According to his report, WASHINGTON proposes that GREECE get 20% of revenues, TURKEY another 20% and the US-backed <b>NOBLE ENERGY Company of HOUSTON TEXAS, the company successfully drilling in the ISRAELI and GREEK offshore waters, would get the lion’s share of 60%</b>. Among other issues it seems obvious that the EU, with all means, wants to achieve a “hostile takeover” of GREECE in order to stop US advances in the region. Worthwhile to mention is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s husband, Bill, is a Washington lobbyist for NOBLE ENERGY. Thus the circle starts to close.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">CYPRUS, TURKEY, ISRAEL, LEBANON, SYRIA AND NOW ROMANIA</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As if these geopolitical complications were not enough, NOBLE ENERGY has also discovered huge volumes of gas off the waters of the REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS. In December 2011 NOBLE announced a successful well offshore CYPRUS in a field estimated to hold at least 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. According to NOBLE ENERGY the latest discovery in CYPRUS further highlight the quality and significance of this world-class basin.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">CYPRUS is a complicated piece of real estate. In the 1970’s as declassified US Government documents recently revealed, then-US Secretary of State HENRY KISSINGER actively encouraged and facilitated arms to the TURKISH regime of KISSINGER’S former Harvard student and then- Prime Minister BULENT ECEVIT, to stage a military invasion of CYPRUS in 1974, in effect partitioning the island between an ethnically TURKISH north and an ethnically GREEK REPUBLIC of CYPRUS in the south, a division which remains. The KISSINGER strategy, backed by the BRITISH was believed intended to create a pretext for a permanent US and BRITISH military listening post in the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN during the Cold War. (See <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html</a>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Today the ethnically GREEK south, where NOBLE has discovered large gas deposits, is a member of the EU. Its President, DEMETRIS CHRISTOFIAS, is the only national leader in the EUROPEAN UNION who is a communist. He is also a close friend of ISRAEL, and of RUSSIA. In addition, he is a major critic of AMERICAN foreign policy, as well as of TURKEY. Thus CYPRUS is financially heavily supported by RUSSIA for RUSSIA holds a large amount of off shore accounts on the islands banks and provided CYPRUS a “bailout” credit to avoid default. See: <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/655a3fd2-de31-11e0-9fb7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1pOl6qaog">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/655a3fd2-de31-11e0-9fb7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1pOl6qaog</a>and <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">  </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Now ISRAEL is planning to build an underwater gas pipeline from the ISRAELI LEVANTINE fields across CYPRUS waters onto the GREEK mainland where it would be sold on the EU market. The CYPRUS and ISRAEL governments have mutually agreed on delimitation of their respective ECONOMIC ZONES, leaving TURKEY in the cold. TURKEY openly threatened CYPRUS for signing the agreement with NOBLE ENERGY. That led to a RUSSIAN statement that it would not tolerate TURKISH threats against CYPRUS, further complicating TURKISH-RUSSIAN relations. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">TURKISH-ISRAELI relations, once quite friendly, have become increasingly strained in recent years under ERDOGAN foreign policies. ANKARA has expressed concern about ISRAEL’S recent ties with its historic antagonists, GREECE and the GREEK side of CYPRUS. TURKEY’S ally the “TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS” (not a internationally recognized entity), fears it could miss out on its fair share of the gas after ISRAEL and NICOSIA signed an agreement to divide the 250 kilometers of sea that separate them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">It becomes evident, especially when we glance at a map of the eastern Mediterranean, that the oil and gas prospective bonanza there is a rapidly unfolding conflict zone of tectonic magnitude involving strategic US, RUSSIAN, EU, ISRAELI and TURKISH, SYRIAN and LEBANESE interests. (See TAPA pipeline <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/syria-cause-and-effect.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/syria-cause-and-effect.html</a>)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Parts of above article incorporate </span></i><i><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">F. WILLIAM ENGDAHL article : </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Rising energy tensions in the Aegean—Greece, Turkey, Cyprus</span></i></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">ROMANIA, THE LATEST TO JOIN THE RECENT ENERGY HYPE   </span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By <b><i>Dr</i></b><i><b>Robert M Cutler</b></i> (<a href="http://www.robertcutler.org/">http://www.robertcutler.org</a>),</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">With all its complexity mentioned above, ROMANIA joining the energy hype in the region and one can assume that the latest BLACK SEA offshore sector gas findings will have potential ramifications for the entire EURO-CASPIAN energy complex from CENTRAL ASIA to CENTRAL EUROPE. This find will re-jig calculations around the EUROPEAN UNION'S SOUTHERN GAS CORRIDOR while providing potential new sources of energy for EAST CENTRAL and especially SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE. <br /><br />In that context, the potential for ROMANIA to become a natural gas exporter to SOUTHEASTERN and even EAST CENTRAL EUROPE comes into focus. The significance of the ROMANIAN strike concerns the eventual choice by the consortium developing AZERBAIJAN'S offshore SHAH DENIZ natural gas deposit, between the "western" (through GREECE to ITALY) route for its 10 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) gas and the "northern" (through BULGARIA to SOUTHEASTERN Europe) route. Interesting to note in this context is the fact that ISRAEL and AZERBAIJAN hold strong economic ties with emphasis on energy related projects as well as defense.See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan%E2%80%93Israel_relations">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan%E2%80%93Israel_relations</a>and <a href="http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/west-asia-africa/32445-israel-inks-arms-deal-azerbejain-azerbaijan-iran-relations-detoriate.html">http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/west-asia-africa/32445-israel-inks-arms-deal-azerbejain-azerbaijan-iran-relations-detoriate.html</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">THE PLAYERS: US EXXON, AUSTRIA’S OMV ( PETROM), BULGARIA’S BULGARTRANSGAZ</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div><span style="color: #990000;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">ROMANIAN President TRAIAN BASESCU announced last week that a consortium comprising the US major EXXON MOBIL and the ROMANIAN company PETROM (a subsidiary of the AUSTRIAN OMV) has struck over 100 bcm of gas in ROMANIA'S first deep-water offshore exploration. He said this figure was subject to revision upwards, since there were five other geological formations in the area with characteristics similar to the successful find. If they all proved out the same way, the result would give ROMANIA over a half a trillion cubic meters of offshore natural gas - equivalent to 25-30 years of total ROMANIAN gas consumption at the present rate, or 75-90 years worth of its gas imports. <br /><br />Separately in BULGARIA a week ago it was announced that, in conformance with a February 2011 decision by the EU's EUROPEAN COUNCIL that every EU member state should have at least two sources of natural gas and electricity, the BULGARIAN company BULGARTRANSGAZ will cooperate to build the transborder Interconnector BULGARIA-ROMANIA (IBR). BULGARIA imports most of its gas from RUSSIA, which cut off supplies for three weeks in January 2009 and is thought to be maneuvering within the BULGARIAN political environment to maintain its hegemonic position in the BULGARIAN gas market. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #990000;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">CHEVRON AND NOVINITE</span></b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br />Thus while according to the BULGARIAN press agency NOVINITE the US company CHEVRON will soon start drilling for shale gas in the northeastern ROMANIA around BARLAD, the BULGARIAN cabinet recently made it impossible for CHEVRON to develop shale gas in BULGARIA by revoking an earlier awarded permit for hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"). BULGARIAN environmental activists are now seeking legislation to make that ban permanent. <br /><br />In response, an organization called Movement for Energy Independence (DEN) has formed in BULGARIA calling for the fracking moratorium to be cancelled and for the until now dilatory work on all interconnectors to be accelerated, including the ITB, the IBR, and also the INTERCONNECTOR GREECE-BULGARIA (IGB). <br /><br />DEN also criticizes the current government for enforcing BULGARIA'S gas dependence upon RUSSIA by favoring the MOSCOW-based SOUTH STREAM GAS PIPELINE PROJECT (MOSCOW to BULGARIA under the BLACK SEA) and seeking to help exempt GAZPROM from oncoming EU antitrust rules by accelerating the pipeline's timetable. <br /><br />The IBR, on the other hand, if constructed to be bi directionally reversible, would make it possible not only for BULGARIA to import ROMANIAN gas directly from ROMANIA, but also to transit to ROMANIA the gas that BULGARIA might receive from AZERBAIJAN'S offshore SHAH DENIZ deposit via GEORGIA, TURKEY, and the Interconnector TURKEY-BULGARIA (ITB) still under construction. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><b>COMPLEX ENERGY PUZZLE IN AN EVEN MORE COMPLEX REGION</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 5.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">An Interconnector TURKEY-GREECE (ITG) is already operating, but the SHAH DENIZ consortium has ruled out its extension into the Interconnector TURKEY-GREECE-ITALY (ITGI) to SOUTHERN EUROPE via the Interconnector GREECE-ITALY (IGI) across GREECE and under the IONIAN SEA to ITALY'S geographical boot. (The undersea segment by itself is called the Poseidon pipeline.) <br /><br />However, this does not mean that the SHAH DENIZ consortium has ruled out either the ITG or the separate Interconnector TURKEY-BULGARIA (ITB), should it choose a northern rather than a western route for its gas. Given the newly announced interconnector between BULGARIA and ROMANIA, either the ITG-IGB duo or the ITB by itself would be able to hook up into ROMANIAN national pipeline system via the IBR. <br />The SHAH DENIZ consortium has yet to choose between the BP-proposed South East European Pipeline (SEEP) or a reconfiguration of the NABUCCO pipeline project for the possible northern route. After choosing one of those, it will then choose between it and the designated western-route pipeline, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is set to cross GREECE, ALBANIA, and go underneath the ADRIATIC SEA to ITALY'S boot. <br /><br />Indeed, earlier this week, the BULGARIAN cabinet approved the agreement between the BULGARIAN company NABUCCO Gas Pipeline BULGARIA and the international consortium NABUCCO Gas Pipeline International, signed in June 2011. The next step is for the BULGARIAN Parliament to ratify the contract, following which the stages for implementation of the NABUCCO project in BULGARIA may be further specified. <br />However, none of this means that the ITGI or the IGI is dead. As a consequence of the debt crisis in GREECE, the GREEK principal in the IGI consortium, the public gas company DEPA, is a candidate for privatization; and RUSSIA'S GAZPROM has shown an interest. <br />The possibility of the IGI segment transiting gas later in the decade from MOSCOW'S SOUTH STREAM natural gas pipeline has been discussed in the GREEK press now for some time. Sourcing problems, however, continue to plague the SOUTH STREAM project; RUSSIA has never said where any of its gas will come from. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>

NORTHERN EUROPE VERSUS SOUTHERN EUROPE

"Division" of Northern and Southern Europe" EU ’S RACE FOR NATURAL RESOURCES IN SOUTHERN EUROPE First Published in March ...

MATTER #1: Do No Harm

2:14 PM Tukiyooo 0

THIS WASN'T THE FIRST time that David had tried to amputate his leg. When he was just out of college, he'd tried to do it using a tourniquet fashioned out of an old sock and strong baling twine.<br /><br><br /><br>David locked himself in his bedroom at his parents' house, his bound leg propped up against the wall to prevent blood from flowing into it. After two hours the pain was unbearable, and fear sapped his will.<br /><br><br /><br>Undoing a tourniquet that has starved a limb of blood can be fatal: injured muscles downstream of the blockage flood the body with toxins, causing the kidneys to fail. Even so, David released the tourniquet himself; it was just as well that he hadn't mastered the art of tying one.<br /><br><br /><br>Failure did not lessen David's desire to be rid of the leg. It began to consume him, to dominate his awareness. The leg was always there as a foreign body, an impostor, an intrusion.<br /><br><br /><br>He spent every waking moment imagining freedom from the leg. He'd stand on his "good" leg, trying not to put any weight on the bad one. At home, he'd hop around. While sitting, he'd often push the leg to one side. The leg just wasn't his. He began to blame it for keeping him single; but living alone in a small suburban townhouse, afraid to socialise and struggling to form relationships, David was unwilling to let anyone know of his singular fixation.<br /><br><br /><br>David is not his real name. He wouldn't discuss his condition without the protection of anonymity. After he agreed to talk, we met in the waiting area of a nondescript restaurant, in a nondescript mall just outside one of America's largest cities. A handsome man, David resembles a certain edgy movie star whose name, he fears, might identify him to his co-workers. He's kept his secret well hidden: I am only the second individual whom he has confided to in person about his leg.<br /><br><br /><br>The cheerful guitar music in the restaurant lobby clashed with David's mood. He choked up as he recounted his depression. I'd heard his voice cracking when we'd spoken earlier on the phone, but watching this grown man so full of emotion was difficult. The restaurant's buzzer went off. Our table inside was ready, but David didn't want to go in. Even though his voice was shaking, he wanted to keep talking.<br /><br><br /><br>"It got to the point where I'd come into my house and just cry," he had told me earlier over the phone. "I'd be looking at other people and seeing that they already have their lives going good for them. And I'm stuck here, all miserable. I'm being held back by this strange obsession. The logic going through my head was that I need to take care of this now, because if I wait any longer, there is not much chance of a life for me."<br /><br><br /><br>It took some time for David to open up. Early on, when we were just getting to know each other, he was shy and polite, confessing that he wasn't very good at talking about himself. He had avoided seeking professional psychiatric help, afraid that doing so would somehow endanger his employment. And yet he knew that he was slipping into a dark place. He began associating his house with the feeling of being alone and depressed. Soon he came home only to sleep; he couldn't be in the house during the day without breaking into tears.<br /><br><br /><br>One night about a year ago, when he could bear it no longer, David called his best friend. There was something he had been wanting to reveal his whole life, David told him. His friend's response was empathetic — exactly what David needed. Even as David was speaking he began searching online for material. "He told me that there was something in my eyes the whole time I was growing up," David said. "It looked like I had pain in my eyes, like there was something I wasn't telling him." Once David opened up, he discovered that he was not alone. He found a community on the internet of others who were also desperate to excise some part of their body — usually a limb, sometimes two. These people were suffering from what is now called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID).<br /><br><br /><br>More ...<br /><br><br /><br><a href="https://www.readmatter.com/f/do-no-harm/">https://www.readmatter.com/f/do-no-harm/</a>?

MATTER #1: Do No Harm

THIS WASN'T THE FIRST time that David had tried to amputate his leg. When he was just out of college, he'd tried to do it using a to...

Watsi, a Crowdfunding Site, Offers Help With Medical Care - NYTimes.com

2:04 PM Tukiyooo 0

<base href="data:"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><nyt_text style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div id="articleBody"><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Two years ago, Chase Adam, a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, was riding a bus through a town called Watsi, when a woman got on board asking for money. Her son, she said, needed medical attention and she couldn't pay for it. As the woman walked through the bus, she showed people a copy of her son's medical record. Mr. Adam, who is now 26, noticed that nearly everyone donated money.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The experience gave him an idea.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"I thought it'd be really cool if there was a Kiva for health care," he said, referring to the crowdfunding Web site that allows donors to provide <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/m/microfinance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about microfinance." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">microloans</a> to entrepreneurs in developing countries.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Over the next several months, he devoted his free time to creating a business plan for an online start-up that he named after the town where he got the idea. <a title="The organization's Web site. " href="https://watsi.org/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Watsi</a>, which started last August, lets people donate as little as $5 toward low-cost, high-impact medical treatment for patients in third-world countries.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The procedures range from relatively simple ones like fixing a broken limb to more complicated surgery — say, to remove an <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/melanoma-of-the-eye/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="In-depth reference and news articles about Melanoma of the eye." class="meta-classifier" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">eye tumor</a>. But the treatments generally have a high likelihood of success and don't involve multiple operations or long-term care.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Operated out of an apartment in Mountain View, Calif., Watsi works with nonprofit health care providers in 13 countries, including Cambodia, Nepal, Guatemala and Ethiopia. The providers identify patients meeting Watsi's criteria; the providers themselves have been vetted by Watsi and its medical advisory team, which includes <a title="Biographical information." href="http://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/mitul.kapadia" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Dr. Mitul Kapadia</a>, director of the physical medicine and rehabilitation program at <a title="The hospital's Web site." href="http://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Benioff Children's Hospital</a> of the University of California, San Francisco, and a half-dozen other doctors and medical professionals.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The profiles of the patients are posted on the Watsi site, and the online community begins donating. Medical care is given when the health partners decide that it is "medically appropriate," Mr. Adam said. Sometimes that care is given before money is raised on Watsi, and the profile remains on the site so that fund-raising can continue. Watsi maintains an operational reserve for this purpose, he said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Watsi represents the next generation of charities dependent on online donors, evolving the model started by sites like Kiva. With just a few mouse clicks, Kiva users, say, are able to lend money to a restaurant owner in the Philippines — and to examine her loan proposal and repayment schedule, to read about her and see her photograph.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Charities have long recognized the importance of photographs and narratives in soliciting donations. Watsi's Web site, too, shows vivid images of its patients, and tells their stories. For example, a 9-year-old girl in Myanmar who needs eye surgery has had to miss a year of school because of her condition.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"People like to feel like their donation is making a difference to an individual," said <a title="Biographical information." href="http://www.financialaccess.org/about/team/Timothy%20Ogden" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Timothy Ogden</a>, managing director of the <a title="Web site of the Financial Access Initiative." href="http://www.financialaccess.org/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Financial Access Initiative</a> at New York University's <a title="The school's Web site." href="http://wagner.nyu.edu/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service</a>. "That's how they like to give — where there's a face and a personal connection."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">While Kiva offered pictures and much more from the start, information about its own operations was not always easy to find on its site. In 2009, when donors learned that loans weren't going directly to the people in need but to microfinancing institutions that had already made the loans, there was an uproar.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Even though the model makes sense — microfinancers play an important role in vetting individuals, and by giving them a loan upon request, the borrower does not have to wait weeks or months for money to be raised online — <a title="Article about Kiva." href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/business/global/09kiva.html" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Kiva was criticized</a> for a lack of transparency. It has since clarified how it works.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">The kerfuffle pointed out how much information the public demands in the Internet age, particularly when it comes to nonprofit groups, where "the general public is skeptical," Mr. Adam said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">As a result, organizations like Watsi are trying  to extend their microlending transparency to themselves. On Watsi's Web site, there is a Google Doc — an online document that can be shared by various approved users, and updated in real time — that lists details like the name of the doctor providing care, whether that care was delayed for any reason, a screen shot of the PayPal funds transfer, and whether the treatment was successful. The document also shows Watsi's monthly financial statement, which lists the cost of office supplies, salaries and travel expenses. If any problems  occur during or because of treatment, donors are notified by e-mail.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Mr. Adam said his approach was partly in response to the Kiva controversy. But he said he found inspiration in other nonprofits like <a title="The organization's Web site." href="http://www.nyayahealth.org/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Nyaya Health</a>, a nongovernmental organization started by Yale graduates that provides free health care in Nepal. Nyaya, which is a Watsi medical partner, has a health wiki that lets people upload the organization's monthly financial reports and minutes from internal meetings.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"I think there's a new batch of these nonprofits starting to emerge," Mr. Adam said. "They're dedicated to helping people understand how things work."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Not that this makes everyone comfortable. After one patient who received funding from Watsi did not survive surgery, some health care partners were "a little spooked," Mr. Adam said, given that the doctor's name was listed on the Watsi site. "Doctors don't want their names to be associated with failure," he said, adding that as a result of that, some medical partners briefly stopped approving riskier treatments as a way to avoid more undesirable outcomes.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">And when Watsi began publishing its financial statements, the chief financial officer "was very scared," Mr. Adam said. "He was like: 'What if I made a mistake? People are going to crucify me!' "</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">People did find a few minor mistakes, as it turned out. "They e-mailed us, and we solved the situation in five minutes," Mr. Adam said. "What we've found is that by being transparent, we're actually crowdsourcing a lot of our work." In effect, the public is  "reviewing all our financials, which is fantastic," he said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">But is a Google Doc enough to make donors feel confident about a group's credibility? "Certainly, I don't think it hurts," Mr. Ogden said. "But do we know that the data they're providing is true?"</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"We have a big problem in nonprofit data circles in general about the quality of data," he said, because "the rules for accounting for nonprofits are so lax."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Mr. Adam says such concern is precisely why his organization shows monthly statements line by line. "We provide much more detail about how things actually are working, and specific costs, such as Web hosting and salaries," he said. "You see some  of that on 990 tax forms, but not nearly to the degree of resolution that we have."</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">WATSI recently participated in an incubator program at <a title="The Y Combinator Web site." href="http://ycombinator.com/" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; ">Y Combinator</a>, which provides start-ups with seed money along with mentoring. So far, Watsi has raised about $200,000, which has paid for treatment of more than 270 patients.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">But as those numbers grow, providing detailed information about each patient and his or her care could prove difficult. Dr. Paul Polak, a social entrepreneur and author of "Out of Poverty," said that much detail was possible in a small operation with few patients, but he asked: "How are you going to do that when you have 50,000?"</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Mr. Adam says Watsi is becoming more streamlined. It is developing a system to let its care providers upload patient information directly to a central database. Currently, Watsi enters that data manually into the Google Doc.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">Before entering the Y Combinator program, Watsi was paying for an average of three patients a week. Since completing the program, that average is now 17 a week. And three months ago, Mr. Adam and his two full-time co-workers started receiving a salary. (Mr. Adam makes about $45,000 a year.)</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"Honestly, that's been the biggest milestone so far, with regard to us personally," he said.</p><p itemprop="articleBody" style="color: black; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px 0px 1em; line-height: 24px; ">"When I got that first paycheck, despite it being pretty small, I remember thinking that I couldn't believe I was being paid to do something I love so much."</p></div></nyt_text><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; "><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/business/watsi-a-crowdfunding-site-offers-help-with-medical-care.html?smid=tw-nytimestech&seid=auto&_r=0&pagewanted=all">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/business/watsi-a-crowdfunding-site-offers-help-with-medical-care.html?smid=tw-nytimestech&seid=auto&_r=0&pagewanted=all</a></span></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; color: black; text-align: left; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>

Watsi, a Crowdfunding Site, Offers Help With Medical Care - NYTimes.com

Two years ago, Chase Adam, a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica, was riding a bus through a town called Watsi, when a woman got on board as...

Chocolate pudding

12:07 PM Tukiyooo 0

Chocolate pudding

What a dessert! An overly generous chocolate sponge pudding from Superquinn. Warmed in the microwave and served with ice cream. Yummy - bu...

Hungry doggy

11:30 AM Tukiyooo 0

We ran out of dog food yesterday.  Normally I get Bones dog food "Gain" in Petstop in Blanchardstown. <br /><br />I wouldn't get to Petstop until today so I decided to go to Petland on Camden Street yesterday.  Unfortunately after walking to the shop with the dog I discovered that they don't stock Gain.  I probably should have phoned before I set off.<br /><br />Today I went to Petstore and got Bones his food which he wolfed down when I got home!  He eats the small dog food which he loves -  it is smaller sized pieces which I think he finds easier to eat.  This is about the 5th brand of food we tried with Bones who is one fussy Shi Tzu.  Thankfully he liked it straight away and now turns his nose up at any other food!<br /><br />See below for a charity event organized by Gain in aid of Barretstown.  Olympic champion Katie Taylor will be in attendance and it looks like it will be a great day out for all the family. <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFg4LJFVhGU0rM-c2u6ge6wQD0bLrTciSsasL30H_P4VAvy7Xe5sCA34P66E2sc6iglLa5NPymUmdKlz9Z6ghmUDnWTQllY2et2ix9E1pi5sT53KfTWYWMzdkguB1xBS_heaghG1EWC4bu/s640/blogger-image-829238068.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFg4LJFVhGU0rM-c2u6ge6wQD0bLrTciSsasL30H_P4VAvy7Xe5sCA34P66E2sc6iglLa5NPymUmdKlz9Z6ghmUDnWTQllY2et2ix9E1pi5sT53KfTWYWMzdkguB1xBS_heaghG1EWC4bu/s640/blogger-image-829238068.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEGS0RP2wJ92tf9ldQLTBevRlk74ehmiUDGp22d0IaT5iZvNyigHnRzJiWjlL85Dii_6A8y4oBjtU0cYZBJasQFciSwbqkER2NR6O9Dksc2sRwmU-FzmKJEC4lnwindYRDiuTKEQPBJ_C0/s640/blogger-image-3405171.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEGS0RP2wJ92tf9ldQLTBevRlk74ehmiUDGp22d0IaT5iZvNyigHnRzJiWjlL85Dii_6A8y4oBjtU0cYZBJasQFciSwbqkER2NR6O9Dksc2sRwmU-FzmKJEC4lnwindYRDiuTKEQPBJ_C0/s640/blogger-image-3405171.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0aUcJVkr6MksaGZz5f04xEiHIYJ8dk1TLJ2yOCKlRM21reNGeE6rZhtZihnYhaTPGFuku44GsfLeCrveOL1jRhMsXPwxuYyoiYPi-CNlaRYbbz9WrFmhcqza3B0rJ763VYffANEiOyQtH/s640/blogger-image-570742688.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0aUcJVkr6MksaGZz5f04xEiHIYJ8dk1TLJ2yOCKlRM21reNGeE6rZhtZihnYhaTPGFuku44GsfLeCrveOL1jRhMsXPwxuYyoiYPi-CNlaRYbbz9WrFmhcqza3B0rJ763VYffANEiOyQtH/s640/blogger-image-570742688.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBtGrGokrQ0YFPH7X7Ig9z2LPpmyO3UiSdpgww4rNThCiWCQDi8dloalXmOkTk4BZyjiucPXSM6k11GSDU6VNV3OgLE-ZhVEDjBqr8SYRUFIafFpWVWQqVT1tEGh8lgmUO4c5anbrd3HxT/s640/blogger-image--1154173252.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBtGrGokrQ0YFPH7X7Ig9z2LPpmyO3UiSdpgww4rNThCiWCQDi8dloalXmOkTk4BZyjiucPXSM6k11GSDU6VNV3OgLE-ZhVEDjBqr8SYRUFIafFpWVWQqVT1tEGh8lgmUO4c5anbrd3HxT/s640/blogger-image--1154173252.jpg" /></a></div> <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwbLTUpJpXGV8OLeujXoqMqj0plN4uojDIePJ4arbpJeXLIwu_hqb9fAzyl_2tqptxn2sufOSh8IEaJzNz6UOw1FAwcZa9HmxAHlYpZ1EFWix65wbYqzNEOssrnHvVHaKvHDMf__RxjQPe/s640/blogger-image-1775795328.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwbLTUpJpXGV8OLeujXoqMqj0plN4uojDIePJ4arbpJeXLIwu_hqb9fAzyl_2tqptxn2sufOSh8IEaJzNz6UOw1FAwcZa9HmxAHlYpZ1EFWix65wbYqzNEOssrnHvVHaKvHDMf__RxjQPe/s640/blogger-image-1775795328.jpg" /></a></div>

Hungry doggy

We ran out of dog food yesterday. Normally I get Bones dog food "Gain" in Petstop in Blanchardstown. I wouldn't get to Petsto...

NORTHERN EUROPE VERSUS SOUTHERN EUROPE

MATTER #1: Do No Harm

Watsi, a Crowdfunding Site, Offers Help With Medical Care - NYTimes.com

Chocolate pudding

Hungry doggy

Ads

Archive