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World View: South Korea Refuses to Extradite Yasukuni Arsonist to Japan

World View: South Korea Refuses to Extradite Yasukuni Arsonist to Japan

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

  • Syria’s Bashar al-Assad will make a major speech on Sunday
  • U.S. troops pour into Turkey to operate Patriot missile systems
  • Israel quietly puts the ‘E-1′ settlement plan on hold
  • South Korea refuses to extradite Yasukuni arsonist to Japan
  • Greek communities adopt local currency to enable bartering

Syria’s Bashar al-Assad will make a major speech on Sunday

Syrian soldier (EPA)
Syrian soldier (EPA)

Syria’s state-run news agency, SANA, made a bare-bones announcementthat president Bashar al-Assad will deliver a major nationwide speechto the nation on Sunday, the first in seven months. The announcementhas raised hopes that al-Assad will announce some sort of plan toachieve peace, but it’s just as likely that he’ll announce plans toconduct more slaughter. The uprising has killed more than 60,000people since it began in March 2011, and the vast majority of thosekilled have been innocent civilians, women and children who weretargeted for extermination by the al-Assad regime’s forces. In hislast formal speech, given last June, al-Assad said:

“If we work together. I confirm that the end to thissituation is near.”

Global Post and Al-Jazeera

U.S. troops pour into Turkey to operate Patriot missile systems

U.S. troops have stared to arrive in Turkey to man Patriot missilesystems meant to protect the country from potential Syrian missiles,following Nato’s November 30 approval of Turkey’s request for thePatriot systems. Some 400 American troops will be airlifted intoTurkey in the next few days, and additional equipment will reachTurkey by sea later in January. Germany and the Netherlands are alsodeploying their own batteries of U.S.-built Patriot systems. Whenfully deployed, there will be more than 1,000 American, German andDutch troops based in Turkey. AP

Israel quietly puts the ‘E-1′ settlement plan on hold

Days after the Palestinian Authority won the vote in the UnitedNations General Assembly to create the State of Palestine, Israel’sprime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a series of sanctions inresponse to this “attack on Zionism.” (See “3-Dec-12 World View — Israel withholds tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority”)

One of those announcements was plans to build 3,000 new settlementhomes in the West Bank in the “E-1 area.” This plan was particularlycondemned because filling that area with settlements would cut off theWest Bank from Arab neighborhoods, and would end the “peace process”(which is dead anyway).

Now Netanyahu is being criticized by Israel’s right-wing because he isreportedly delaying plans to build the settlements. Accordingto Uri Ariel:

“Stopping the publication of the building plans forE-1 proves that his talk about settlement is an illusion. The dayafter the elections, we will again discover the real Netanyahu,the one who freezes building and gives in topressure.”

However, the prime minister’s office denied that the project has beenshelved. Israel National News

South Korea refuses to extradite Yasukuni arsonist to Japan

Japan had sought from South Korea extradition of a Chinese nationalwho set fire to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which houses veteransof WW II, including some war criminals. The South Koreancourt refused the request, saying:

“[Extraditing Liu to Japan would] “deny the universalvalue of most of the civilized countries. …

The Yasukuni Shrine is the property of a religious group in legalterms but (the court) deems the shrine holds a political symbolwhere the war criminals are enshrined.”

So I guess South Korea believes that it’s OK for anyone to burndown any building that symbolizes an ideology that they disagreewith. Perhaps this court decision will motivate some NorthKoreans to burn down some Seoul buildings, or perhaps launcha few missiles at some South Korean homes or warships.

The 38-year-old Chinese national is now back in Shanghai. Japan Times andThe Kankyoreh (Seoul)

Greek communities adopt local currency to enable bartering

A number of communities in Greece, led by the central Greek port cityof Volos, are adopting a new ad-hoc local currency called the Tem(“Alternative Monetary Unit”) to make it easier to barter goods andservices in the face of the growing financial crisis. Thousands ofpeople have joined the bartering network that uses the Tem currency.According to one mother of five who uses the currency:

“One Tem is the equivalent of one euro. My oil andsoap came to 70 Tem and with that I bought oranges, pies, napkins,cleaning products and Christmas decorations. I’ve got 30 Tem leftover. For women, who are worst affected by unemployment, and don’thave kafeneia [coffeehouses] to go to like men, it’s likebelonging to a hugely supportive association.”

The financial crisis is linked to a deflationary spiral that makes ithard for many people to obtain any currency (coins or bills), and thismakes it difficult for ordinary people to barter goods and services.By introducing a new local currency, the “wheels of commerce areoiled,” and bartering becomes a lot easier. This even has the effectof increasing employment, in the sense that people who work in thisbartering network get paid in the available Tem currency, rather thanin the unavailable euro currency. Guardian and BBC

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