The Sunday Papers "Mozart Edition"

international | eu | opinion/analysis Sunday January 08, 2006 18:27 by Iosaf mac D .:. "the ipsiphi" barcelona

{in which Austria EU, Russia g8, Sharon's death & 2006 Preview are treated upon}

It has been long observed that people for some reason on their non-banking days readily absorb shite about Dangerous Places, Famous People, Sensible Saving Options, Holidays, Interesting facts, Sport results, Media, gardening and health as well looking ahead at “democratic evolution” and looking back at "how history was made" and reminding all of the old enemy "Authoritarianism". I am finally about to explain to all of you "believer or not" why the election of Ratzinger as "black pope" was so terribly important to us.
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"hipatia" or "hypatia" martyred for Reason .:. & Enlightenment by the Cult of X.

First off, a sincere Happy New Year to all readers of Indymedia in general, Indymedia Ireland or "Saormheain Eireann" as we have now decided to call ourselves in the Irish Language. For those who haven't read the "Sunday Papers" before, this is a regular opinion piece which includes many comments (generally but not always my own), in which I, an Irish contributor to the IMC network in Barcelona attempt { often indulging a certain intellectual propensity for jokes and cryptic clues"} either a preview or a review of issues of "macro-importance" to my peers in cyber-activism. & on ocassions I have also used these articles to "leak" and "spin" info of importance and then again, also stuff which might seem ludicrous at the time.
The "sunday papers" of 2005 (and before) published on IMC Eire are available to peruse at this link
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?search_text=sunday+papers
& of course one edition which escapes that search "The Workers Papers" of may 1.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69645
& one item i consider part of the "cryptology series" : The Battle of Trafalgar.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70500
& naturally the review of Elections in 2005
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73567

Enough Explanations Let's do the first Sunday Papers of 2006 -

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In no particular order :-

Austria

1/1/2006 Austria assumed the presidency of the €U. Chancellor Schlussel now is the "Leader" of over 480,000,000 €uropean citizens, as well as his own little mountain nation. As well as facing opposition in Europe he will naturally also worry about his opposition at home. & they are generally termed "far right". It is not unthinkable that within 6 months the "far right" will influence European policy making in fact it for the first time it is perfectly reasonable to say "The Extreme Right have returned to Power".
The presidency of this particular state and for vital reasons. For eurocrats these are generally reduced to 5 areas - budget, enlargement, security, environment, infrastructure. For us on the left and progressive wings of politics and culture, they are generally seen as :- Labour issues (& particularly migrant labour and precarity),
Ecology, Racism, Democratic Evolution, War, Social Integrity and most importantly Fair Relations with the former imperial posessions of the €U whether they be "on teh continental mass" of Europe or beyond in the "3rd world". You can see how the BBC scored the UK presidency here :-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4533268.stm and thus get an idea of what faces the Austrians.
The Austrian EU presidency has already chosen a logo for the year which may be seen here :-http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73588
It did not meet without an appropriate pan-european response. A response which also saw a controversial Art project comissioned by the Austrian state to mark its various anniversaries of 2005, those of "independence", "peace" and what is yet seen as a dubious "denazification". The project named "25 peaces" provoked such extreme reactions towards the end, that the very site of the project and artists related to it were subject to cyber attack over the New Year period. If you go to this link you'll see some of the "25Peaces" including one billboard image of The 12 stars of Europe with clockwise top to bottom in place of stars -
a Swastika, christian Cross, Mercedes logo, Sickle and Hammer, €uro symbol, NATO, Anarchy, Shell Oil PLC, radiation symbol, Star of David, Islamic Crescent Moon, CND sign and of course back to the Swastika at 00h00.
http://www.diepresse.com/diashow/artikel.aspx?channel=p&id=528834&bild=1
scroll through that link and see most of them, including one project which saw the square where Hitler declared the annexation of Austria turned into a public vegetable plot. With 60 plots bought by local business interests. (As an explanatory note to the polemic, the NAZIs were the first political party to advocate the planting of public vegetable plots. It was considered a "good idea" and during the 1930s their planting of vegetables on roundabouts and other abandoned plots of land drew admiration all over the continent. I'd like to also remind you that no amount of "good ideas" on their part may hide what they did. We call it "the holocaust". They confiscated the property of many millions of people, stripped them of their citizenship, and educational qualifications, restricted their rights to marry and then sent many millions of them to concentration camps where they worked in slavery and were subject to experimentation.

Thus it is noteworthy that only on the 29th of December 2005, 60 years later, when most victims of the Holocaust are dead, The Austrian state announced it would settle 19,000 oustanding cases relating to compensation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4567638.stm
One of Austria's famous politicians Jorg Haider appeared in Austrian news for the transfer of EU power. http://www.salzburg.com/sn/nachrichten/artikel/1906429.html
The Standard offered the opinion that Haider at the heart of Austria is now at the heart of Europe, and may behave like "an elephant in a china shop".
http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2290665
http://derstandard.at/?url=/?id=2289750
Indeed after the collapse of the EU constitution due to the now obvious discontent at the abandoned "europe of social equals" in favour of "a €urope of Capital", enlargement issues form a serious part of the 2006 agenda for Austria.
http://www.kurier.at/oesterreich/1228325.php
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70042
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68685
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69659

The woman to watch is indeed an Austrian by the name of Ferrero-Waldner (just like the sweeties) she's €U comissioner for external relations and mopping up of enlargement issues and of course balancing Austria's western neighbour prejudice with its eastern neighbour prejudice. & we can not underestimate the depth of that prejudice.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benita_Ferrero-Waldner
http://europa.eu.int/comm/commission_barroso/ferrero-waldner/index_en.htm

Austria's neighbours are thus worth a mention.

Slovakia -
The Slovakian Government has made an agreement with the Vatican under Ratzinger to adjust its Abortion and Fertility laws, the move seen as an undermining of the Slovakian Feminist lobby, is yet another proof of the "New €uropean Authoritarianism".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4588450.stm

& of course none could forget the New Year's show of might by Russia when it cut the Gas supply agreed in 2002 to the EU via the Ukraine and Bylerussia.
Slovakia - The Slovakian Government has made an agreement with the Vatican under Ratzinger to adjust its Abortion and Fertility laws, the move seen as an undermining of the Slovakian Feminist lobby, is yet another proof of the "New €uropean Authoritarianism".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4588450.stm

For more views from established commercial press on the challenges facing Austria from a very powerful and influential neighbouring state's perspective read :-
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=6355236&cKey=1136130635000
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=6354496&cKey=1136294234000

And naturally we must make mention of that .:. Lord of Light ·.· Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (who rumoured to have tourets) gave us Music which is eternal, though living in poverty at times of great authoritarian power which saw some of his masterwords censored. This year is his anniversary.
And a skull found many years ago, rumoured to be his will be DNA tested "just to see".
Can we wait? Maybe they'll clone him.

Last word for now, is remember Austria hands over to Finland, also a neutral state, and also one which has historical relations to Russia. This year will see the rôle of Russia and her legacy on this continent in the post WW2 as much as post Cold war age.


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The Black Pope.

The average life expectancy of a working Pope is less than 7 years. In his short term as pontiff, Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger has already made symbolic statements which underscore the fear felt in many European sectors at the true extent of the Authoritarian vision nurtured by the German Speaking Pope and who his court are.
C/F: http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73019&condense_comments=false#comment130776
Please comrades & peers & fellow activists of the global movement, do not mistake the world vision of Ratzinger, whose life has been spent and influenced under the shadow of the Austrian Alps for "Catholic Conservatism" alone. The influence of the RC church on rightist elements throughout Europe may not be underestimated. I'd like you to consider the "house arrest" of a Spanish General this weekend for threatening to undermine the democratic process and making very veiled threat of either "overt" or "covert" action against members of the democratic community. Such nefarious wishes, draw comfort and sustenance from the authoritarian and "sexual ethics confused" RC contemporary church.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73706

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Israel.

It is now apparant that we have lived the age of Ariel Sharon as it ought to have been ovbious as soon as Yasser Arafat died at the hospital of Percy France on the 11th of November 2004.
Whether or not the peace process, be it the "road map" sponsered by the US or the "barcelona doctrine" sponsered by the EU may suceed after his death is now a very real doubt. The EU proposals have already floundered at the Barcelona €U-med conference of 2005
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=6270391&cKey=1133134515000
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=6272696&cKey=1133168716000
And though belatedly agreement was made on some areas of "counter-terrorism" the resulting fudge can in now way be thought to lay a peaceful foundation for the very apparant "strife" in both Palestinian and Israeli domestic politics as they both move to elections later this year.
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=6273847&cKey=1133246118000

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Sudoku.

It really helps with the more difficult puzzles, if you use a pencil and keep empty grids, work in rough. After practise your numeric ability will improve.

Horoscope

Have you ever stopped to think how gullible you may be?

Weather

Its broken. We set up an indymedia climate this year, after it became obvious to our American chums that we needed one.
http://www.climateimc.org/

Dangerous Places

Iraq. the Levant. Afghanistan. Being Homeless on the Street. The Road coz the Drivers are drunk. School. If you help people feel safe - then you'll be too.

Travel

Oh go on! Here's a little plug.
"Reclaim the debate! Resist the G8! In July 2006, the G8 will hold its annual Summit in St.Petersburg, Russia. Vladimir Putin says he's placing "energy security" at the top of the G8 agenda during Russia's presidency. The G8 countries consume 45% of world oil and produce 47% of global CO2 emissions. Their "energy security" is our energy grave!
Yes Indeed, we're going to Russia - details @
http://reclaimthecommons.net/
or
www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060103183157493

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The illustration for this Sunday Papers is a painting by a Victorian English artist of the martyrdom of Hipatia (or Hypatia) Look her up on Wikipedia or Google.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia

As usual I apologise for not using "spell check" and thus leaving errors of orthography. If you can correct them you're literate ;-) Have a good week.