Monday, January 18, 2016

Four Horsemen - How the global economy really work



FOUR HORSEMEN is an award winning independent feature documentary which lifts the lid on how the world really works.

As the global economy continues to veer from crisis to catastrophe many more people are looking for wise counsel on how to reshape the Western Economy. Over the last three years 23 global thinkers many of whom have been marginalized -have come together to break their silence and explain how the world really works.

Their views transcend mainstream media and short-term political explanations to describe in simple terms what needs to be addressed in our universities, governments and corporate structures. We will not be returning to business as usual.

The lo-fi doc sheds light on the arcane information on economic practices. Illustrating its factors through simple however efficient diagrams, it proves precisely how easy it could be to comprehend how money functions and how scary it really is to discover that, apparently, 97 % of the amount of money on the planet is actually debt.

Featuring many first-time on camera interviews with leading Economist plus Nobel Memorial Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, Brand new York’s Times bestselling writer of ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man’, John Perkins a dozen financial specialists from the gold and silver coins industry and the Former Chief of Staff  to US Secretary of State, director Ross Ashcroft uncovers the systemic, legalised corruption associated with governments plus the bank operating system allowing the wealthy to get wealthier as the majority of the planet lives within abject poverty – still waiting for the ‘trickle down’ economics to pan out as promised us years ago.

Four Horsemen is a 2012 British documentary film directed by Ross Ashcroft. The film criticises the system of fractional reserve banking, debt-based economy and political lobbying by banks, which it regards as a serious threat to Western civilisation. It criticises the War on Terror, which it maintains is not fought to eliminate al-Qaeda and other militant organizations, but to create larger debt to the banks. As an alternative, the film promotes a return to classical economics and the gold standard. Among those interviewed are Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist at the World Bank; Noam Chomsky, linguistics professor; John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man; Herman Daly, economy professor and former economist at the World Bank; and Max Keiser, TV host and former trader. The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on 14 March 2012. A book based on the film has been published.

FOUR HORSEMEN is free from mainstream media propaganda — the film doesn’t bash bankers, criticise politicians or get involved in conspiracy theories. It ignites the debate about how to usher a new economic paradigm into the world which would dramatically improve the quality of life for billions.

http://www.fourhorsemenfilm.com/

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Ethiopia a failing state the case of the Oromo



The Oromo people (Oromo: Oromoo; Ge'ez: ኦሮሞ; ’Oromo) are an ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia, northern Kenya, and parts of Somalia. With around 25 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnicity in Ethiopia and the wider Horn of Africa, at approximately 35% of Ethiopia's population according to the 2007 census. Oromos speak the Oromo language as a mother tongue (also called Afaan Oromoo and Oromiffa), which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. The name was given as Ilm’ Orma ("Sons of Men" or an eponymous 'Orma') in the 19th century; the present form is probably an obsolete plural of the same word orma ("person, stranger").

Most Oromos do not have political unity today due to their historical roles in the Ethiopian state and the region, the spread out movement of different Oromo clans, and the differing religions inside the Oromo nation. Accordingly, Oromos played major roles in all three main political movements in Ethiopia (centralist, federalist and secessionist) during the 19th and 20th century. In addition to holding high powers during the centralist government and the monarchy, the Raya Oromos in Tigray played a major role in the revolt inside the Tigray regional state, known as "Weyane" revolt, challenging Emperor Haile Selassie I's rule in the 1940s. Simultaneously, both federalist and secessionist political forces developed inside the Oromo community.

Presently, a number of ethnic based political organizations have been formed to promote the interests of the Oromo. The first was the Mecha and Tulama Self-Help Association founded in January 1963, but was disbanded by the government after several increasingly tense confrontations in November, 1966. Later groups include the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM), the United Liberation Forces of Oromia (ULFO), the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Oromia (IFLO), the Oromia Liberation Council (OLC), the Oromo National Congress (ONC, recently changed to OPC) and others. Another group, the Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO), is one of the four parties that form the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition. However, these Oromo groups do not act in unity: the ONC, for example, was part of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces coalition that challenged the EPRDF in the Ethiopian general elections of 2005.

A number of these groups seek to create an independent Oromo nation, some using armed force. Meanwhile, the ruling OPDO and several opposition political parties in the Ethiopian parliament believe in the unity of the country which has 80 different ethnicities. But most Oromo opposition parties in Ethiopia condemn the economic and political inequalities in the country. Progress has been very slow with the Oromia International Bank just recently established in 2008 though Oromo owned Awash International Bank started early in the 1990s and with the first private Afaan Oromoo newspaper in Ethiopia, Jimma Times, also known as Yeroo, recently established. Though the Jimma Times – Yeroo newspaper has faced a lot of harassment and persecution from the Ethiopian government since its beginning. Abuse of Oromo media is widespread in Ethiopia and reflective of the general oppression Oromos face in the country. University departments in Ethiopia did not establish curriculum in Afaan Oromo until the late 1990s.

Various human rights organizations have publicized the government persecution of Oromos in Ethiopia for decades. In 2008, OFDM opposition party condemned the government's indirect role in the death of hundreds of Oromos in western Ethiopia. According to Amnesty International, "between 2011 and 2014, at least 5000 Oromos have been arrested based on their actual or suspected peaceful opposition to the government. These include thousands of peaceful protestors and hundreds of opposition political party members. The government anticipates a high level of opposition in Oromia, and signs of dissent are sought out and regularly, sometimes pre-emptively, suppressed. In numerous cases, actual or suspected dissenters have been detained without charge or trial, killed by security services during protests, arrests and in detention."



According to Amnesty international, there is a sweeping repression in Oromo region of Ethiopia. On December 12,the reputed German Paper Deutsche Welle reported violent protects in Oromo region of Ethiopia in which more 20 student were killed. According to the report, the students were protesting against the governments re-zoning plan named 'Addis Ababa Master Plan'.