VATICAN

VATICAN POLICIES ‘CATASTROPHIC IN THEIR IMPLICATIONS’

A lack of tolerance to modern social problems - along with repeated child abuse and money laundering allegations - is forcing the congregation away from the Catholic Church, Keith Porteous Wood of the International Secular Society told RT. 

Failure to deal with these issues, as well as other “symptomatic” failures, is partly the reason why Pope Benedict XVI is stepping down, Porteous Wood argues.

RT: One of the growing allegations right now is that there is some sort of influential gay network operating within the Vatican. What do you think? If there is anything behind that? Is that why the pope is leaving, or is there no mileage in that at all?

Keith Porteous Wood: I think, it is symptomatic of the fact that he has lost control, which that whole episode over his butler showed that very strongly. But, I think there are several other important factors playing as well. I’m certainly aware of two major issues over child abuses that are going to come up and are going to be very, very hard for the Vatican to swallow. Because it is not like it is the child abuse, bad though that is, is the issue - it is actually that the finger of blame is going to be pointed at the Vatican for having obstructed justice and all the secret files that it won’t release.

So, that is going to look very, very bad, and I think people will get less and less tolerant about that. And the Vatican has shown no real sign of actually coming to terms with this, of putting its hands up and really atoning for its past sins, and being much more open and dealing more properly with victims and actually getting the people who perpetrated these crimes turned over to the police.

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he arrives on St Peter's square for his last weekly audience on February 27,  

RT: It begs the question: why not? Why have they not done that?

 

KPW: The Vatican has forever been an organization that is only interested in its own power and preserving its own reputation and its own finances - it has always been thus. But with the kind off communications we have today, they can’t get away with that any longer. And the stronger regulatory powers as well - that is also coming around to hit them quite big time on money laundering. I mean, there have been rumors for ages about the way the internal banking of the Vatican works. In fact, they could not even get the credit cards working in their museums. It's so humiliating, and so symbolic of the complete breakdown of the system.

They just can’t get away with that any longer either. And it is very interesting that his grace, even though he was right at the end, that Cardinal O’Brien from the UK said that he thought it was about time that priests should be allowed to marry, which may also be behind some of the child abuse problems. I think the time has come: the church has to make up its own mind, it is not for me to tell it, but I think an awful lot of people are thinking it is time they ought to be much more open to modern thinking over issues like these, and also their obsession with contraception is so damaging in the third world to women, to women’s health, to overpopulation. That is something that is so quiet and not talked about, but it is catastrophic in its implications.

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RT: What does the Church need to do now, to change all the negative things you’re talking about?

KPW: The outgoing pope has to pad the college of cardinals with people who are not more conservative then he is, so it is going to be pretty hard. But if they’ve got any sense they should look and see that the vast majority of Catholics don’t actually agree with all the positions of the sensitive social issues. And I think, they actually need to look at their own congregation, and start taking some signs from that, and be much more sensible over issues like contraception, homosexuality, abortion - all those kinds off things - and actually be open to secular justice on matters such as child abuse and money laundering.

 

SYRIA: ASSAD WINNING THE WAR?

ASSAD PULLS AHEAD IN SYRIAN WAR. PUTIN, KHAMENEI ARE CO-VICTORS 

Via DEBKAfile

PEACE TALKS IN MOSCOW

March 5 has been set as the date for peace talks to open in Moscow between the SYRIAN opposition and the Assad regime, debkafile reveals exclusively. Opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib is waiting to meet the Assad regime’s representative, possibly Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem, in the RUSSIAN capital by the end of February to set up the talks. Bashar Assad has taken his resignation off the agenda and insists on reserving the option to run again for president in 2014.

REBEL MOVEMENT HAS REACHED ITS LIMIT

He is backed in this by President Vladimir Putin. And even the SYRIAN opposition appears to have tacitly bowed to this precondition – an admission that the rebel movement has reached its limit and Assad’s genocidal, no-holds-barred tactics have paid off. With all their acclaimed victories, rebel forces know that their desperate bid to conquer Damascus was repulsed by the SYRIAN army’s superior fire power and heavy armor. 

Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring Background Information:

See: ASSAD FIRM IN THE SADDLE (January 2013)

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/syria-assad-firm-in-saddle.html

SYRIAN REGIME LIKELY TO SURVIVE UPRAISE (June 2011)

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2011/06/syrian-regime-likely-to-survive-upraise.html

ASSAD FIRMLY IN CHARGE IN SYRIA (March 2012)

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/03/syria.html

They were thrown back from the heart of Aleppo, SYRIA’S largest city. And they failed to gain control of Assad’s chemical arsenal. 

Ferocious fighting failed to bring the big SYRIAN Air Force bases into rebel hands. Now, most of the fighting opposition to the Assad regime is ready to negotiate terms for a ceasefire as the opening gambit for a political settlement. They face their enemy standing firm as the unvanquished ruler of SYRIA and commander-in-chief of its armed forces at the cost of Syria 80-100,000 Syrian lives and a ravaged country. In so doing, Assad has cemented the Tehran-Damascus-Hizballah alliance. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s’s sphere of influence now stretches from the PERSIAN GULF up to the MEDITERRANEAN – his reward for the billion dollars worth of aid per month he poured into buttressing Assad. His other ally, Hassan Nasrallah, whose Hizballah operatives fought shoulder to shoulder with SYRIAN troops, emerges as the strongman of LEBANON. 

Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring Background Information:

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/syrias-chemical-weapons-taken-off-us.html

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/12/russian-forces-take-syrian-chemical.html

Comment by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring:

IRAN’S influence in SYRIA stretches far beyond the uprising. Thus is it can hardly be considered to be a new challenge for ISRAEL or the USA. As claimed numerous times on this blog,  ISRAEL would, on balance, prefer the Assad regime to continue; for it is a known quantity and any new regime could severely destabilize the effective balance-of-power between two uneasy neighbors’………… 

For in-depth analysis read:

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/syria-feasts-and-rites-of-confusion.html and

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/syria-israel-iran-and-usa.html

TURKEY GAMBLED HEAVILY ON BRINGING DOWN ASSAD IN ORDER TO BECOME A REGIONAL POWER PLAYER – AND MISSED
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Assad’s staunch backer in diplomacy, arms and moral support, congratulates himself for picking the winning side in SYRIA’S civil war and, moreover, frustrating US and NATO designs to remove the SYRIAN ruler from power. Those are the winners.

Comment by Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring:

Unlike in LIBYA, this time around RUSSIA and CHINA (See:http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/06/china-and-syria.html) reiterated their stance and did not tolerate to be left out of the equation as was the case with the toppling of the LIBYAN regime and subsequent oil bonanza shared by FRANCE, the UK and the USA.

Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring Background Information:

TRANS ARABIAN PIPELINE “TAPLINE”

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/syria-cause-and-effect.html


Geopolitical Analysis and Monitoring wrote in January 2012:

GEO STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE OF IRAN’S NATURAL RESOURCES AND GAS PIPELINE DEAL BETWEEN IRAN SYRIA AND IRAQ and

REACTIVATE SAUDI ARABIA’S AND USA ARAMCO TRANS ARABIAN OIL PIPELINE?
http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/01/strait-of-hormuz-and-syria.html

Oil Price wrote February 2013:

IRAN-IRAQ: PIPELINE TO SYRIA UPS ANTE IN PROXY WAR WITH QATAR
IRAQ’S agreement to allow IRAN to build a pipeline through its territory and on to SYRIA is in direct competition with QATAR’S similar designs for a SYRIA pipeline that would connect to TURKEY. This pipeline is another proxy in the SYRIAN conflict theater and Iran’s response to its loss of ground here. It is also a sign of IRAN’S growing foothold in IRAQ. QATAR will respond in kind.
The IRAQI Cabinet green lighted IRAN’S $10 billion pipeline project, which will supply gas from the South Pars field (which is the largest in the world, and which, as mentioned above, it shares with QATAR) to SYRIA and beyond to other export markets. There is talk of extending the pipeline to LEBANON.
The first part of the pipeline—some 225 kilometers—through IRAQ will reportedly be completed in June 2013. The pipeline will connect the southern IRANIAN port of Assolouyeh to IRAQ and then to SYRIA—for now. It will have a 110 million cubic meter/day capacity. The plan is to give IRAQ 20 million cubic meters/day of IRANIAN gas for its power plants, with 20-25 million cubic meters/day going to SYRIA.

And the losers are the UNITED STATES, the GULF EMIRATES and SAUDI ARABIA, ISRAEL and TURKEY. Barack Obama’s vision of a democratic, liberal “Arab Spring” has collapsed. Al Qaeda is a ubiquitous presence as transitional governments struggle to their feet – or not - in TUNISIA, LIBYA and EGYPT. ISRAEL finds a tighter than ever SYRIAN-Hizballah-IRANIAN noose closing around its borders as Tehran’s nuclear weapons program marches on. TURKEY gambled heavily on bringing about Assad’s overthrow as the key to its bid for regional power– and missed.

ITALY AND ARGENTINA: A COMPARISON

PRODI: MAFIA AND BUREAUCRACY ARE ITALY'S WORST PROBLEMS

ITALIANS will have their first general elections in almost five years. 

The last time they went to the polls to choose politicians for the upper and lower houses of parliament was when Romano Prodi left office as prime minister in 2008. Five years on and a financial crisis later, a lot has changed. 
 

ITALY still has the eighth largest economy in the world and the third largest in the EUROZONE. But volatility on bond markets drove it close to bankruptcy last year, while youth unemployment, according to the EUROPEAN Commission, has hit 37 percent. 

IF SILVIO BERLUSCONI WINS, IT COULD TRIGGER A SHOCK ON FINANCIAL MARKETS THAT WOULD FORCE ROME TO SEEK A BAILOUT

Meanwhile, in the run-up to voting, ITALY'S largest investment bank, Mediobanca, has warned that if Silvio Berlusconi, its populist former leader, wins it could trigger a shock on financial markets that would force Rome to seek a bailout.

Speaking to EUobserver, Prodi highlighted two reasons for ITALY'S economic misery.

"I give a lot of responsibility [for the crisis] to criminality, to the mafia," he said.

See: ARGENTINES IMMIGRANT BACKGROUND  &  ARGENTINA, BARELY 30 YEARS OF DEMOCRACY, A YOUNG NATION TRYING TO FIND ITS BEARING  http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/11/argentine-evolution.html

"In ITALY you have very efficient companies and you have a lot of acquisitions by foreign countries, but no greenfield investment and no research-based investment. ITALY is not being chosen for such new initiatives. What do I mean? I mean that foreign companies are willing to buy market share in ITALY, but they don't want to take further risks because of this problem [ORGANIZED CRIME] we have in ITALY, even if it is limited to certain regions and even if there is an ongoing fight against it," he added.

See: CRIME AND CORRUPTION ARE TWO OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST MULTINATIONAL INDUSTRIES http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2012/09/crime-corruption-and-political-system.html

 

THE SECOND REASON IS THE SLOW PACE OF ITALIAN BUREAUCRACY.

"The difference between now and 20 years ago is that these days people make decisions so quickly. You see how companies move from one day to the next from the UNITED STATES to ASIA. So if you have a public administration that takes years to give permission to build a new factory, this is not compatible with the modern world. These are the two problems: ITALIAN public administration and corruption," Prodi noted.

APATHY AMONG YOUNG ITALIANS

"The traditional behaviour, the culture of this country has to change even more than it did after it entered the euro," he added.

The 73-year-old centre-left politician and economist is also worried about apathy among young ITALIANS.

"They don't react. There is no reaction [to the crisis]. It is quite dramatic," he said.

"I have been teaching in universities for many years and I still have some seminars, but students never said to me before: 'Look, professor, I am sure I will be unemployed' or 'I am sure I will only find temporary work, if I am lucky'," he noted.

He said the crisis has created abnormalities in the ITALIAN labour market. 

EU NEEDS MORE STIMULUS AND LESS AUSTERITY

"We have a new phenomenon in ITALY - immigration of low-skilled manpower for jobs that ITALIANS don't want to do even if there is unemployment, and increasing emigration of the most talented young people. Italians with PhDs work more and more abroad. My nephews are among them … We cannot go on this way," he noted.

Prodi is less unhappy because young ITALIANS are emigrating to other EUROPEAN countries instead of the US.

But he said the EU needs more stimulus and less austerity in order to save the prospects of the current generation.

"Honestly, I don't understand why EUROPE does not now choose a different economic policy. Look - even GERMANY is not growing. EUROPE is becoming a black spot in the world … GERMANY has a fantastic surplus in its balance of trade. Why don't they put some fuel in the locomotive?" he said.

"I hope that in the future, ITALY again becomes a country of innovation, of new initiatives," he noted.

"If you look at the balance sheets of medium-sized, family-run ITALIAN companies, they are fantastic, and this year we increased exports more than GERMANY in relative terms," he added.

Related background Information: 

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2013/01/european-democracy-at-crossroad.html

http://geopoliticsrst.blogspot.com.ar/2011/11/regime-change-in-europe-from-democracy.html

BANKS DOMINATE DEBATE

Turning to the weekend's elections, Prodi said that even as EU politicians and market analysts look to ITALY, ITALIAN voters are showing little interest in EUROPE.

One reason is there is little difference between the candidates in terms of EU policies.

"The basic EUROPEAN doctrine is shared by all the people in the coalition. The democratic centre-left group is pro-EUROPEAN. [Caretaker PM and former commissioner Mario] Monti is by definition pro-EUROPEAN. Even Berlusconi is basically pro-EUROPEAN. Out of the new groups, like [that of satirist Beppe] Grillo, they are more anarchic, but [EUROPE] is not really part of the debate. It is strange, but this is life," he said.

THERE SHOULD BE A "WALL" BETWEEN BANKS AND POLITICIANS IN ALL OF EUROPE

Instead, political campaigns are devoting attention to banks.

ITALY was last month shocked by news that Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world's oldest still-running bank and ITALY'S third biggest lender, has over €700 million of losses on its books due to dodgy trades.

The ITALIAN city of Siena is the bank’s largest shareholder, linking the scandal to local politicians.

Prodi said that in the old days local elites could effectively oversee bank activity. But today, their involvement has no benefit due to the speed and complexity of bank transactions. 

He noted there should be a "wall" between banks and politicians in all of Europe.

"This is a problem not only for ITALY. Landesbanken are the main political problem in GERMANY, Civic banks in SPAIN … In all cases, the mixture of local political life and management of the banks is too strong," he said.

From next year, the EUROPEAN Central Bank will directly supervise 150 big banks.

But oversight of the rest of EUROPE'S 6,000-or-so smaller lenders will stay in the hands of national supervisors.

"I am not happy that EUROPEAN Central Bank control has been limited," Prodi noted.

"In a world where all the banks, big or small, can go to the international markets and create huge quantities of debt, how can a local-level structure make decisions about that?" he said.