In search of a new balance of power in Asia

The United States is signaling that it is going to limit its military presence in countries far away. Maybe Donald Trump listened to those realists who have suggested for a long time that America can uphold its superpower status only if it focuses on offshore balancing strategy. No matter what the intentions really are, the US government’s declarations result in redefining foreign policies of Asian states. The limitation of American presence changes the regional distribution of power, and forces other actors to assess their alliances and to search for new partners who might be an asset in case of conflict.

Changes in the balance of power in Asia
Until the US leaves Asia, the balance is preserved. The limitation of involvement suggested by Washington results in a search for new allies by all states in the region in order to level the capabilities. America’s withdrawal gives new opportunities to China, which can extend its sphere of influence and endanger Russia and India. However, the military threat won’t appear instantly. We’ll probably witness an increase in economic penetration. The economic imperialism resulting in power maximization may be the indicator of growing revisionism understood as a policy aimed at bringing down the actual status quo in Asia and establishing a new order. Continue reading →

The isolation of Italy in the migrant crisis is self-inflicted and likely to remain so.

There’s some sort of collective cognitive dissonance in Italy about the migrant crisis. Both politicians and mainstream media, right or left, “globalist” or “populist” put the blame on the other European countries and their alleged lack of solidarity for not wanting to redistribute the 180’000 migrants Italy took last year. It isn’t just the fault of the Visegrad Group. Since the European meeting in Tallin, the Italian government received the “Non” of French President, motivating his answer with the argument that 80% of the arrivals are economic migrants,the politically correct term for illegals that should be repatriated, the “No” of Spain, the “Nein” of Austria and so on.

The opinion of the European Commission is unchanged, Italy should speed up returns, with the supplemental aid from the EU itself.

So while solidarity isn’t really lacking, the media and politicians, regardless of their persuasion, began screaming “Europe has forsaken us”, “They left us alone”. As if Italy were facing a natural calamity and were not responsible for what is going on. Reality could not be more different.

The “populist” party Movimento 5 Stelle almost got it. They founda video where Emma Bonino, former Minister for Foreign Affaris, admitted that Italian governments had agreed that everyone rescued by Frontex should be brought to Italy. So the beans are spilt: all the migrants were being shipped to Italy because… the Italian government decided so. It may be that the then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi traded flexibility on the Italian budged with the European Commission in exchange for taking in all the migrants rescued in Italian and international waters by Frontex. Continue reading →

The biggest enemy of European integration? Current EU leaders.

We could say that, just looking at the plight of Southern European countries after years of EU-imposed austerity, where trust in the European project is fading, while the euro currency is increasingly under question.

This time however, we look eastwards, at big, bad Visegrad. The group composed of Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary has shared and separate interests.

Among the former is their unwillingness to take part in the refugee relocation program. Why? Because Angela Merkel invited them without first consulting the rest of Europe.

This is unbearable for the EU leadership, who loves diversity and wants to pass it off as a way forward, unless it’s diversity of opinion, a core tenet of the liberal democracy they claim to represent. Liberalism that once was about “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it’’, a quote maybe erroneously attributed to Voltaire, has now become “I disapprove of what you say, so just don’t say it’’.

The problem is even deeper. The Visegrad bloc has gained independence from a forced solidarity, another international project, the Soviet Union, less than 3 decades ago. Their experience makes them wary of unelected, centralized utopias. And yet once again they found that they have been entrapped in another one. Just when they thought they left one dystopia to join the free world, the free world itself has turned into one. Solidarity is voluntary, it can’t be forced. Angela Merkel’s approach resembles that of the Soviets rather than free people. Continue reading →

Wherever you look, you see a real property bubble

Too high prices on the real property market only concern allegedly the rich and and popular cities. When you consider the case more closely, the bubble risk appears to be threatening also emerging economies.

Rumour about the real property bubble is spreading far and wide in Great Britain, Scandinavia and the Netherlands.In its report for the last year, UBS listed Vancouver, London, Stockholm, Sydney and Munich among the cities with especially inflated prices.

The reports hardly ever mention that one of the decisive factors causing the rise in prices are the open borders and the excessive immigration. For instance in London alone there live approximately 300 000 Russians who invest, mostly illegal money, in real property.Apart from Russians it is also the Chinese and people from Qatar who raise the property prices in the British capital and who have long taken over London’s City. Continue reading →

NBC cannot accept that Poles love Trump and hate Stalinists

[a reader’s contribution]

Western left-leaning European media (from a central or eastern European viewpoint even the so-called right-wing media in the West appear to be left-leaning) sometimes comment on the events in Poland, Czechia, Slovakia or Hungary, always with a patronising, condescending attitude, almost reprimanding their East European brothers if the latter “do not behave”. Such are also the reports on President Donald Trump’s visit to Warsaw, Poland, and his speech delivered at a historical place, against the backdrop of a huge monument to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising (not to be confused with the much smaller 1943 Ghetto Uprising in the same city).

The left-leaning media seem to relish the reports that allegedly Poles were induced or forced to participate in the Donald Trump welcoming partyto which I have the following to say:

It may have been so, although I know my compatriots and I know they would go to greet an American president without being told to do so.
Exactly the same methods were applied when Poland was being pushed into the embrace of the European Union, but then, the journalists somehow did not care because the pervasive narrative was that all reasonable people wanted to become a part of the European structure.

I remember the time prior to our accession to the EU: you could not take a breath without inhaling this sticky overbearing propaganda trying to convince us that the EU was oh such a salvation. One of the renowned professors even said that Poland’s accession to the EU was comparable with Poland’s Christening (966, a date commonly regarded as the birth of Poland as an internationally recognised political entity) from a thousand years before. Can you imagine? Continue reading →

La rete dell’immigrazione di George Soros in Italia

Il seguente article è basato sulla ricerca di Francesca Totolo pubblicata su lucadonadel.it.

Confini aperti e censura dei media.
Perché c’è una crisi migratoria nel Mediterraneo? Perché le ONG sono coinvolte? Perché c’è una estesa rete di attivisti ed organizzazioni dei ‘’confini aperti’’ dietro la faccenda; molti di loro sono finanziati o collaborano con la Open Society Foundation di George Soros. È illegale? No. L’attivismo politico è una parte essenziale delle democrazie. Tuttavia, in alcuni casi le cause promosse sono irrealistiche o insostenibili. La rete della lobby dell’immigrazione in Italia è composta da ONG internazionali finanziate da Open Society (in verde), ONG Italiane, sempre finanziate da Open Society, in blu e organizzazioni con progetti condivisi con OSF in viola.

Continue reading →

Soros-sponsored immigration network in Italy

The following article is based on Francesca Totolo’s research published on lucadonadel.it.

Open Borders, Media Censorship
Why is there a migrant crisis in the Mediterranean? Why are NGOs involved? Because there is an extensive network of open borders activists and organizations behind it; many of them are directly funded by or cooperated with George Soros’ Open Society. Is it illegal? Not really. Political activism is an essential part of democratic societies. However, sometimes it goes too far, or the promoted causes prove to be either unrealistic or unsustainable.
The network of the “immigration lobby’’ in Italy is made up of International NGOs financed by the Open Society Foundation (green), Italian NGOs financed by OSF (blue), and organizations with shared projects with OSF (purple).

Continue reading →