Tag Archives: Berlin Wall

News, Politics, Government

Thatcher's ceremonial funeral to include full military honors

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The British government says former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral will be held April 17.

Undertakers on Tuesday removed the ex-leader’s body from London’s Ritz Hotel, where she died Monday, amid preparations for a ceremonial funeral with full military honors.

A van carrying Thatcher’s casket left the hotel for an undisclosed location.

Officials say Thatcher’s funeral will be held with full military honors at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is not technically a state funeral, which requires a vote in Parliament, but is the same level of honor given Princess Diana and the Queen Mother Elizabeth.

Thatcher’s coffin will lie overnight at the Houses of Parliament before the funeral, and then travel on a horse-drawn gun carriage to the cathedral along a route lined by military personnel.

“The Iron Lady” died at 87 after suffering a stroke.

“It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning,” Thatcher spokesperson Lord Bell said Monday in a statement.

Thatcher led Britain’s Conservatives to three election victories from 1979 to 1990, the longest continuous period in office by a British prime minister since the early 19th century. Alongside former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Thatcher battled against communism and saw the Berlin Wall get torn down in 1989.

“We have lost a great leader, a great prime minister and a great Briton,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement.

Tony Blair, a former British prime minister, said Thatcher had a vast impact on the world.

“Very few leaders get to change not only the political landscape of their country but of the world,” he said. “Margaret was such a leader.”

President Barack Obama said with Thatcher’s death, America has lost a “true friend,” while former President George W. Bush echoed Blair’s sentiment, calling Thatcher an “inspirational leader.”

“Prime Minister Thatcher is a great example of strength and character, and a great ally who strengthened the special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States,” Bush said in a statement.

Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II was sad to hear the news of Thatcher’s passing, adding that she would be sending a private message of sympathy to the family.

It said the funeral will be attended by a “wide and diverse range of people,” and the service will be followed by a private cremation.

During 11 bruising years as prime minister, Thatcher transformed her country by a ruthless dedication to free markets and infuriated European allies. She transferred large chunks of the economy from the state hands to private ownership.

“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money,” she once said, according to Reuters.

To her fervent admirers, battling Maggie was an icon, a national savior who ended Britain’s post-World War II cycle of confrontation and decline — eclipsed as a 20th-century British leader only by Winston Churchill.

Her vehement critics, however, saw her as a bellicose figure at home and abroad, a destroyer of industries and, with it, a way of life.

She was a sharply divisive figure even within her Conservative …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

History

Berlin Wall section removed despite protests

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By hnn

Construction workers backed by German police have removed a section of the Berlin Wall to make way for a building project, despite calls for the historic site to be preserved.

Residents expressed shock at the removal of the East Side Gallery, as that section is known, which followed a series of protests, including one attended by the actor David Hasselhoff.

A police spokesman, Alexander Tönnies, said there were no incidents as work had begun at about 5am to take down four sections of the wall, each about 1.2 metres wide, to make way for an access route to the planned high-rise luxury flats along the Spree river….

Source:
Guardian (UK)

Source URL:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/27/berlin-wall-section-removed-protests?INTCMP=SRCH

Date:
3-27-13

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University

Articles of Interest

Crews Take Down Sections of Berlin Wall

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By Evann Gastaldo Sorry, David Hasselhoff, you failed : Work crews removed four sections of the Berlin Wall‘s famed East Side Gallery this morning. The 1.5-yard sections that were removed will make way for an access route to the luxury apartments planned for the area, the AP reports. Protesters had demanded that the… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

News, Politics, Government

Pre-dawn operation removes part of Berlin Wall

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Work crews backed by about 250 police have removed portions of the Berlin Wall known as the East Side Gallery to make way for an upscale building project, despite demands by protesters that the site be preserved.

Police spokesman Alexander Toennies told The Associated Press there were no incidents as work began about 5 a.m. to remove four sections of the wall, each about 1.5 yards (1.2 meters) wide. That will make way for an access route to the planned high-rise luxury apartments along the nearby Spree River.

Plans to remove part of the 1.3-kilometer (3/4-mile) stretch of wall sparked protests that developers were sacrificing history for profit.

At least 136 people died trying to scale the wall that divided communist-run East Berlin from West Berlin.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

If Cyprus Were America

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By Morgan Housel, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Cyprus is now the most talked-about economy in the world — an odd position to be in for a country that few could find on a map until this week. 

Cyprus‘ $13 billion bailout, combined with roughly $6 billion of uninsured deposits whose future is in high doubt, seems minuscule compared with other international crises. And it is. But when put into context of how tiny a country Cyprus is, the numbers become staggering.

Cyprus has an annual GDP of $24.7 billion, according to the World Bank. Its combined bailout and deposit losses, therefore, total something around 75% of GDP.

If the United States required a bailout of equal proportion, the bill would total $12 trillion, or 18 times the size of the 2008 TARP bank bailout. Cyprus‘ deposit losses alone total up to the American equivalent of $4 trillion, or roughly equal to all the deposits held by Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup combined.

Cyprus Popular Bank reported a loss of $5 billion in the year ended September 2012, according to S&P Capital IQ. The equivalent of 20% of GDP, a similar loss in the United States would total $3.2 trillion, or nearly one-quarter of the entire market capitalization of the S&P 500 . And that was just one year’s loss at one bank. In the last two years, Cyprus Popular Bank lost $8.6 billion, or more than a third of Cypriot GDP. The American equivalent would be like losing the annual output of California, Texas, New York, and Florida combined.

These comparisons are useful only because they lead squarely to one point: The Cypriot banking sector was grotesquely large in relation to its economy. This is largely because the tiny island country became a haven for foreign cash, drawing in assets at a rate many times disproportionate to the wealth of its citizens. Peter Gumbel of TIME writes:

Over the past 30 years, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the island has banked on its ability to attract money from Russia and elsewhere as an offshore center. Oversight has been tightened up since Cyprus joined the E.U. in 2004, but it remains relatively lax by international standards, and foreign companies pay a flat tax rate of just 10%. For a while the strategy seemed to work well; Cyprus built up a gargantuan banking industry, which is currently about five times the size of its total economy, according to Standard & Poor’s.

The flood of foreign cash further relied on the belief that Cyprus‘ EU neighbors and the continent’s central bank would could to the rescue should its banking sector stumble. To an extent, they did. But not before large depositors were forced to take large haircuts on their cash. Now, senior finance members of the EU are signaling that similar deals can be used as a template for future bailouts.

The idea of a banking haven is done, in other words. After the dust settles, it is unavoidable that Cyprus …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Piece of Berlin Wall used in Albanian memorial

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A memorial containing a 2.6-ton piece of the Berlin Wall has been unveiled in Albania to honor former political prisoners who suffered under the late dictator Enver Hoxha’s Communist regime.

The memorial was unveiled Tuesday at a residential area in the capital Tirana, known as the ‘Bllok,’ where senior members of the Hoxha regime once lived. The Berlin Wall fragment was placed next to a concrete bunker and concrete supports taken from a notorious mine where prisoners were once forced to work.

Some 100,000 Albanians were imprisoned, sent to internment camps or executed during Hoxha’s repressive regime, which lasted from 1944 until December 1990.

But many former political prisoners remain dissatisfied with unfulfilled pledges of compensation and reintegration into Albanian society.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Articles of Interest

Hugo Chavez: Faithful To Death

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By Paul G. Kengor

Hugo Chavez SC Hugo Chavez: Faithful to Death

Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared at American Spectator.

There’s an old joke from the Cold War. It went like this: Hardline East German communist Walter Ulbricht (who erected the Berlin Wall) died and went to hell. There, the devil gave him a choice between the socialist sector and the capitalist sector. Devoted to the end, Ulbricht stuck to the faith, saying: “I’ll go to the socialist sector.” “Good choice,” averred the devil. “Over in the capitalist sector, they’re getting the full hellfire treatment. But in the socialist sector, they’ve run out of coal.”

Say what you want of Hugo Chavez, of his tactics, of his beliefs, and (as many are doing) of perhaps where he might be right now. But this much is certain: he stuck to the faith.

Many of us were downright amazed when Chavez, in his late 50s and desperately ill from cancer, opted to go to Cuba for treatment. It was a surefire death sentence. Only the most hopelessly devoted communist would be so naïve. Loaded with vast wealth he stole from his people, Chavez effectively chose acupuncture over the 21st-century healthcare widely available anywhere in the West.

And yet, the Venezuelan dictator clung to his religion. He went to Havana.

Chavez apparently gained some measure of comfort near the aging breast of his dying, beloved Fidel. He had so much in common with Castro, admiring the totalitarian’s unparalleled, unprecedented seizure of power and resources, all in the name of redistribution and “social justice.” Like Fidel, he pilfered enough riches from the ostracized affluent class to make himself one of the world’s wealthiest leaders. As he did, he churned the propaganda, blaming his nation’s every ill on his predecessors and on the alleged criminality of the very same rich—as Fidel has done, as the left generally has done.

A few years back, my wife and I were in Washington meeting with an old friend from grad-school days, a native of Venezuela named Daria. When we introduced her to another acquaintance, she remarked with a sad smile, “I’m from Venezuela. We’re communist now.”

In Chavez’s partial defense—and this isn’t saying much—he never achieved the scales of collectivism and depths of depravity of Fidel Castro, or of the world’s really bad communists. Venezuela didn’t become Cuba or the Soviet Union. Needless to say, Hugo Chavez was no Joe Stalin—even as, remarkably, he died on the 60th anniversary of Stalin’s death.

Nonetheless, like any man of the left, he had his enemy groups, and he used them to full advantage. Some of these assorted villains were flagged in a curious Washington Post obituary which headlined Chavez as a “passionate” albeit “polarizing” figure. What earned him even this slight compliment from the Post? Who knows? The same article noted that Chavez referred to the Catholic Church hierarchy as “devils in vestments.” But perhaps the Post was impressed less with Chavez’s opprobrium for the Catholic Church than his encomiums for Barack Obama.

Of course, Chavez was a big fan of Obama. He made …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

News, Politics, Government

Removal of Berlin Wall section put on hold

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A real estate developer has put on hold until at least mid-March plans to remove part of one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall.

On Friday, hundreds of angry protesters prevented construction workers from removing all but a tiny piece of the 22-meter (72-foot) section of the East Side Gallery wall to make way for an access path for a luxury housing project.

Several thousand demonstrators protested against the construction plans on Sunday.

Work was supposed to resume this week but Volker Thoms, a spokesman for project investor Maik Uwe Hinkel, said Monday it has been put on hold until at least March 18.

A forum that brings authorities together with locals is scheduled to meet on that day. Over the weekend, Hinkel spoke with Berlin’s mayor.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Developer pledges to continue Berlin Wall removal

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A German property developer has rejected calls to halt work to remove one of the last remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall, despite angry protests against the plan.

Maik Uwe Hinkel says work to move a 22-meter (yard) section of the 1.3 kilometer (3/4 mile) section of the wall will resume next week.

On Friday, hundreds of protesters stopped workers from moving the 19 concrete slabs, each about 1.2 meters (4 feet) wide, to make way for an access road to a luxury condominium being built on the banks of the reunited city’s Spree river.

Hinkel said in a statement Saturday that his company has all necessary permits to move the mural-covered slabs and the road will also benefit the reconstruction of a bridge destroyed in World War II.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Berlin wall memorial uprooted for condo project

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Berliners are protesting as a construction company removes a section of a historic stretch of the Berlin Wall known as the East Side Gallery to provide access to a riverside plot where luxury condominiums are being built.

An approximately 20-meter (22-yard) stretch of the 1.3 kilometer (3/4 mile) section of wall is being removed by crews Friday while demonstrators look on. Since German reunification, the stretch of the wall has been preserved as a historical monument and transformed into an open air gallery painted with colorful murals, and has become a popular tourist attraction.

District chairman Franz Schulz tells Bild newspaper that the section of the wall is being removed to allow access to a new luxury apartment building planned for the banks of the Spree river.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Articles of Interest

The Real Answer To The Immigration Question

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By Michael Reagan

Mexico SC The Real Answer to the Immigration Question

America has almost 12 million illegal immigrants.

Many of them came here on visas and never left.

But about 60 percent of them walked in from just one country — Mexico.

Though the stalled Obama Economy has caused about 900,000 to go home since 2007, there are still about 6 million Mexicans living in the United States who’ve sneaked across our borders.

Everyone from Marco Rubio to John McCain and our golfer-in-chief are trying to figure out how to deal with the illegal immigrants we have already and prevent future waves of Mexican migrants.

But no one seems to be talking about why so many Mexicans risk so much — including their lives — to break into America.

What is it that makes so many of them leave their families and children behind and travel — often on foot — to seek economic opportunity in the USA?

I’ve been to Mexico on business and on vacations. It’s a beautiful country, rich with oil, gas, and other natural resources. It’s blessed with 114 million good and hardworking people.

Mexico has everything it needs to be a First World country. But it’s cursed.

Its government is corrupt and inept — and always has been. Now its federal government is a running joke. It’s unable — and unwilling — to stop illegal drugs or people from crossing into the USA.

Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places in the world. Deadly criminal cartels effectively control the U.S.-Mexican border, trafficking in drugs and humans. Drug violence is so widespread that some cruise ships no longer visit Mexico’s Gold Coast.

No wonder so many Mexicans come north to a country where good jobs are plentiful, the wages are high, and the streets are safe. If I were a Mexican, I’d be leaving too.

Yes, as Republicans say, it’s time to protect our borders better. Yes, it’s time to come up with realistic ways to deal with the illegal immigrants we already have living among us.

But it’s also time for one of our so-called political leaders to ratchet up the rhetoric and pull a Ronald Reagan.

When the Soviet Empire still controlled half of the world, my father stood near the Berlin Wall in 1987 and famously told Mr. Gorbachev that if he was really for peace, prosperity, and liberalization, he should “Tear down this wall!”

It was a bold and masterful political move that showed the whole world that Ronald Reagan and the United States stood steadfastly on the side of freedom in the waning days of the Cold War.

One of our most important wars today — and one we clearly are not winning — is the drug war on our southern border.

What we need now is for President Obama to skip the back nine at the Floridian, go down to our border with Mexico, and deliver a message to Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto.

“Senor Nieto,” our part-time president should say, “End the corruption. Crush the drug cartels. Make Mexico a peaceful and safe society. Free your economy from the shackles of socialism so your citizens can …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

Articles of Interest

America’s Role In A Darkening Age

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By Breaking News

United States map SC America’s Role in a Darkening Age

When, in the 1950s, Nikita Khrushchev said, “We will bury you,” and, “Your children will live under communism,” Eisenhower’s America scoffed.

By 1980, however, the tide did indeed seem to be with the East.

America had suffered a decade of defeats. Southeast Asia had fallen. The ayatollah had seized power in Iran. Moscow had occupied Afghanistan. Cuban troops were in Ethiopia and Angola. Grenada and Nicaragua had fallen to the Soviet bloc. Eurocommunism was all the rage on the continent.

Just a decade later, the world turned upside-down.

The Berlin Wall fell. Eastern Europe was suddenly free. The Soviet Union disintegrated. China abandoned Maoism for state capitalism.

Read More at takimag.com . By Patrick J. Buchanan.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism

News, Politics, Government

2 alleged Russian spies on trial in Germany

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Dead letter drops. Fake papers with cover stories to match. Secret orders by radio from Moscow.

The accusations read like something out of the Cold War but the charges against a couple who went on trial Tuesday in Stuttgart stem primarily from after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag — only the fake names on the fake Austrian passports they used to enter Germany are known — are charged with providing Russia‘s foreign intelligence service with information on German, EU and NATO security policies and more general details on Russian-German relations.

The pair, thought to be in their 40s or 50s, denied charges of espionage as their trial opened in Stuttgart state court, but refused to make any other statements.

No verdict is expected before June.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News