Japanese newspaper Yomuri reports that economic chrisis has hardly hit Yakuza, the legendary – also quite scary – local mafia. 
Yakuza has something like 90,000 “employees” and since 2006 a good share of them started queing for unemployment wages and further welfare support: Government is trying to stop this peculiar, fairly expensive (400m yen), activity. Not easy, though…

Wanna know what’s happening of socially and politically “unproper” in South Africa? Visit Noseweek!

www.noseweek.co.za

Visit the International Criminal Court Website:

www.icc-cpi.int

Quite unbeliavable, but it seems that experts are regularly “beaten” by a common crowd when committed to produce an extimation or conjecture.
James Surowiecki deeply explains this theory in his wonderful book “The wisdom of crowds” – which we highly recommend to your attention.
You can visit the Iowa Electronic Markets website www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem to introduce yourself to the matter…

Colombia announced Wednesday that it had rescued former (2002) presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt together with 14 other prisoners held by the FARC rebel group, a Marxist-inspired army which has been fighting the Colombian government for more than four decades.

The rescue operation comes after the killing and capture in recent months of several senior commanders of the FARC and was carried out Wednesday in Guaviare, a jungle region in south-central Colombia.
Hopes for the hostages’ freedom had increased after the death or surrender of several top leaders in recent months including death for natural causes of FARC’s senior leader Manuel Marulanda, who built the Marxist rebel army from the remnants of a rural guerrilla group.
Today the FARC remains Latin America’s largest insurgency, with about 9,000 fighters.

Barack Obama has decided to refuse 84 million dollars funds that the US Government would have granted to his campaign: this happens for the first time since 1976, when public funding for the US presidential campaigns were brought into use.
“Yes HE can”, because Obama’s campaign relies on a strong social network – let’s say, a sort of Myspace or Facebook – that collects funds from private citizens and supportive groups: it seems Barack Obama is supported by 8000 local self-financed organized groups and by more than 750000 small financers (5 to 20 bucks each). Ehm… and also a few of the old Wall Street fellas who can definitely afford more than 20 bucks.

By the way, Obama’s network raised more than 300 million dollars: not bad, ain’t it?

The question is: will he be conditioned by his financers/network’s interest? Or he’d only have been “hands free” if he had accepted the public funds? Please, Senator Obama, will you struggle to stay independent? You’re Ignoreland’s fave candidate, don’t let us down…

Visit the International Trade Union Confederation’s website

www.ituc-csi.org
 

Ireland said “no way!” to the EU: for God’s sake, what happened?

Been longtime one of the poorest nations in Europe, today the “Celtic Tiger” is among the healthiest members in the EU club but give shoulders to the Lisbon treaty. 

Two aspects are quite sad, I’d say:
first, it seems the Irish believe that the astonishing economical results were obtained without any help/influence from being part of the EU;
second, Ireland acts exactly as “for centuries loved-hated buddy-enemy” Great Britain, looking for a golden isolation that sounds like a tin whistle out of tune.

The EU is sitting on itself, facing a vital decision: it’s time to go on anyway, and build a modern Pangea able to sit at the same table with such big blokes as Cindia, US, Russia? Or it’s time to start over again, trying to make every member “happy” by lowering the requirements and commitments necessary to enter the game?

Time will tell.