New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming ?a Fifth of Thos... Tue Dec 24, 2024 13:46 | Will Jones
Experts?have issued an urgent call for lockdown-style social distancing ahead of Christmas Day amid surging flu infections, claiming that a fifth of those infected have no symptoms but can spread it.
The post Experts Call For Return of Lockdown-Style Social Distancing as Flu Surges, Claiming “a Fifth of Those Infected Have No Symptoms But Can Spread It” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link J.K. Rowling Leads Backlash Against Sturgeon for Claiming There Was No Public Opposition to Gender S... Tue Dec 24, 2024 11:23 | Will Jones
J.K. Rowling has led a feminist backlash against?Nicola Sturgeon?after she was accused of ?rewriting history? over the gender self-ID law controversy by claiming there was no public opposition until "forces muscled in".
The post J.K. Rowling Leads Backlash Against Sturgeon for Claiming There Was No Public Opposition to Gender Self-ID Until “Forces Muscled In” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Science Shock: CO2 is Good for the Planet, Peer-Reviewed Studies Suggest Tue Dec 24, 2024 09:00 | Chris Morrison
Dramatic evidence has been published in a number of recent science papers that CO2 levels are already?'saturated', meaning little or no further warming is to be expected and rising CO2 levels are all beneficial.
The post Science Shock: CO2 is Good for the Planet, Peer-Reviewed Studies Suggest appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Whoever Rules Britain Is Going to Be Unpopular Tue Dec 24, 2024 07:00 | Noah Carl
It isn't so much that the Tories are getting more popular as that Labour is getting less so. Which illustrates a more general predicament for the Tories and any other party that might have aspirations to government.
The post Whoever Rules Britain Is Going to Be Unpopular appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Tue Dec 24, 2024 00:40 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en

offsite link Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en

offsite link How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en

offsite link Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en

Voltaire Network >>

The Reality Of Sanctions On Syria.

category international | anti-war / imperialism | other press author Friday February 17, 2012 18:18author by pat c Report this post to the editors

Sanctions: such a simple word, it sounds harmless. But sanctions are really War by other means. Here Michael Jansen writes about the reality of sanctionsc as ordinary Syrian people suffer. Full text at link.

SHOESHINE BOYS and girls line up with their simple kits along the pavement across from the luxury Cham Palace Hotel, which charges more than a poor man’s monthly wage for a single night’s stay.

Women holding bundles which may or may not be babies sit on the broad walkway in a colonnade. Grubby children peddling chewing gum and lottery tickets pursue pedestrians for blocks in the hope of receiving a coin or two. In all the years I have been visiting Syria, I have never seen such desperation.

Economic sanctions touted as targeting the regime actually affect the poor, punish the middle class, and destroy commerce.

In November, a dollar bought 54 Syrian pounds; today a dollar is worth 70 and more. Prices have risen by 35-50 per cent. Unemployment and underemployment are soaring. The Central Bureau of Statistics put the unemployment level for 2011 at 8.6 per cent for males, 22 per cent for females, and 20.4 per cent for youth. These figures do not reflect reality. Many men have never formally entered the workforce or have gone abroad for work while only 10 per cent of women are employed outside the home.

Before the troubles began 11 months ago, the economy was growing at a rate of 4-6 per cent. This surge came after the launch of a liberalisation programme which transformed the country’s command economy into a “social market” one, featuring a free market with guaranteed development for the poor.

Independent economic consultant Nabil Sukkar says oil exports have fallen but Damascus expects to make up some losses by increasing non-oil exports such as agricultural products (especially olive oil), pharmaceuticals and textiles.

Although Syria’s imports are falling, the country could end up with a larger budget deficit. Syria’s $17 billion in reserves, reduced to $14-15 billion, “are not being replenished as before by oil exports and tourism”.

He points out that “sanctions have created bottlenecks and black markets. Smugglers benefit.”

Related Link: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0217/1224311917640.html

 #   Title   Author   Date 
   UN vote seen as stepping stone toward military intervention in Syria     pat c    Sun Feb 19, 2012 19:18 
   US, Egyptian junta seek to arm Syrian opposition     pat c    Fri Feb 24, 2012 17:38 
   "yom kippur" war was all a big scam...     lefty    Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:30 
   A note from Syria     Abdul Al-Hogwash    Sun Feb 26, 2012 20:41 
   lesser of two evils?     lefty    Mon Feb 27, 2012 07:21 
   Secular democracy??????     Contrarian    Mon Feb 27, 2012 09:32 
   you mean, contra..     opus diablos    Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:00 
   did you forget     opus diablos    Mon Feb 27, 2012 13:02 
   oh and..     opus diablos    Mon Feb 27, 2012 13:24 
 10   So they passed     Reader    Mon Feb 27, 2012 16:29 
 11   Consistency     Contrarian    Mon Feb 27, 2012 18:57 
 12   typo     lefty    Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:30 
 13   agreed, contrarian     opus diablos    Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:59 
 14   and again..grains of salt     opus diablos    Tue Feb 28, 2012 13:58 
 15   A bit of a rant....     Contrarian    Tue Feb 28, 2012 15:47 
 16   purePR guff contrarian. Only a fool would be naive enough to go along with what you said     realist    Wed Feb 29, 2012 12:31 
 17   Realist?     Contrarian    Wed Feb 29, 2012 15:20 
 18   you are just repeating knee jerk right wing propaganda regarding cuba.     realist    Wed Feb 29, 2012 15:55 
 19   Benign dictatorship, me arse!     Contrarian    Wed Feb 29, 2012 16:18 
 20   democracy, contra??     opus diablos    Tue Mar 06, 2012 13:48 
 21   RTE continue its biased news reports on Syria     lefty    Wed Mar 07, 2012 17:24 
 22   Irish People?     Reader    Wed Mar 07, 2012 22:18 
 23   please read properly before attacking peoples posts     lefty    Wed Mar 07, 2012 22:38 


Number of comments per page
  
 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy