Boggart Abroad: 05/26/16

Thursday, May 26, 2016

EU Member States Halt Visa-Free Deals for Ukraine, Georgia

On May 20, security ministers of EU Member States approved European Commission's proposal to make changes to plans for visa-free travel arrangements with non EU countries following warnings of further growth in illegal immigration. The measure was taken amid EU-Turkey visa free regime talks, which now also look set to fail because of Turkey's refusal to implement required reforms in human rights law.

The move came as the European Union was actively engaged in negotiating visa-waiver programs with Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo and against the background of a widening migrant crisis, and increasing dissatisfaction among member states of the way EU commission bureaucrats have repeatedly ducked their responsibility for dealing with the immigration crisis.

"Visa liberalisation has great advantages for the EU and other countries. Yet we need an emergency brake for all visa free countries to make sure that visa liberalisation cannot be abused," Council President Klaas Dijkhoff was quoted as saying in a press statement after the Brussels meeting.

Dijkhoff, also the Dutch migration minister, said he was "pleased that ministers had agreed on a mechanism that would make it easier to act against abuse". Next stage would be discussing the plan with the European Parliament, he added.

The revised mechanism sets out grounds for suspending visa-free travel agreements with non-EU members, such as an increased transit of third-country nationals through countries that the EU has agreements with. It is not the same as open borders travel, theoretically only available to EU citizens in the Schengen zone, but widely abused because of left wing ideological committments to a border free world (and ultmately the dystopian nightmare of a world government.

"EU states do not intend to exempt Ukraine and Georgia from the decision to halt progress of the visa waiver suspension mechanism," a source told RIA Novosti. "such an intention may considerably slow down the process of granting a visa-free regime for Ukraine and Georgia."

The new mechanism sets out possible grounds for suspending free-travel agreements with non-EU members, such as an increased transit of third-country nationals through countries that the EU has agreements with.
In December 2015, the European Commission gave a positive assessment of Ukraine and Georgia successfully meeting all benchmark requirements necessary for the liberalization of the visa regime with the bloc. In spring, the Commission made a proposal to the European Council and the European Parliament to add Ukraine and Georgia to the list of countries the citizens of which could travel to the Schengen Area without visas.

However, no decisions on these issues have been approved by either of the EU bodies so far. It looks like this could develop into another battle between the Brussels bureaucrats and elected governments of member nations.

The Anger Of The Masses Is Rising

Privilege serves the same purpose as power, benefiting the few at the expense of the many, regardless of the system's ideological labels: Charles Hugh Smith

Anger personified (image source: universesings.com)

Disenchantment with the status quo and disgust with the corrupt elites, corporate cronyism and politically correct authoritarianism has not only triggered a surge of anti establishment, anti - globalist anger across Europe, as has been demonstrated (and further fuelled by) the establishment stitch ups and election rigging that have kept Front National in France, The Danish People's Party, UKIP in Britain, Germany's AFD, The Sweden Democrats and most recently the Austrian Freedom Party rightful and well earned success in elections, and kept anti EU-federalisation politicians chosen by the people from fulfilling the roles they were elected to. The same broad-based anger has fuelled the populist campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the campaigns for the Democratic and Republican Party nominations in the U.S. Presidential Election.

Globally, the people disenfranchised by the status quo, in Peggy Noonan's phrase, the unprotected, people like myself for example, for many years a supporter of the UK's Liberal Party (when it knew what 'liberal' meant), I have always lived in either safe Conservative or Labour constituencies so under our first-past-the-post election system my vote has never been likely to elect a candidate I wanted to represent me. I now vote for UKIP, it is more a protest vote than from political conviction and also write blogs and contribute to online news and opinion sites. Others, in Britain, throughout Europe and in the USA, Canada and Aistralia are starting to express their discontent in the streets, in social media and in elections.

Why are the disenfranchised people around the world getting so angry. And why are there so many more of them that suspected? It's obvious to everyone in the unprivileged classes and a mystery to the "we're doing just fine here, what's your problem?" privileged classes: The system is rigged to benefit the elite few, say 5% of people (not necessarily based on earnings or personal wealth), and marginalize the many. For a long time people thought that was the way things were, unlike myself, many were happy to vote left or right on the basis of who they thought was the least bad. In recent years however, the few have become so blatant in their abuse of privilege and the gap between rich and poor has widened so much, hollowing out the middle income groups, the administrative and skilled worker groups, that something had to give.

The two structural engines of disorder at the heart of the system according to Charles Hugh Smith in his book Why Our Status Quo Failed and Is Beyond Reform, are:

Automation, software and the forces of globalization are disrupting jobs and wages everywhere.

Centralized hierarchies and the forces of globalisation have extended the power of privilege globally so the few are benefiting at the expense of the many.

The growing concentration of wealth and power in the privileged elites is evidenced by the fact that 8% of the world's populace owns 85% of its wealth. What is driving this increasing concentration of wealth and power?

To understand growing disparity between rich and poor and the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of the old elites and corporate powers we must first understand the dual nature of privilege. Just as there is hard power (military power) and soft power (exporting cultural wares and values) so there is hard and soft privilege. hard privilege is exercised by authoitarian governments that criminalise free speech and dissent and operate oppressive surveillance and policing policies.

Soft privilege operates by utilising the tyranny of weakness. "Oh but how can you not be moved by a picture of a beaten puppy on Facebook?" How can you be indifferent to a picture of a starving African child in a television charity appeal. How can you not support the right of big, hairy arsed blokes in frocks to go into the same toilet as little girls are using. What a cruel, heartless, brutal, racist, sexist, homophobic person you are. Do you recognise the technique?

Yes, perfectly rational and acceptable reactions are branded extreme because they do not conform to what the elites have decreed you ought to think And few people are eager to stand aside from the crowd and exercise their right to be individuals. No, you do not have to care about abused puppies or starving children (there's probably nothing you can do about it, there will always be some people who abuse animals and we have been throwing money at Africa for fifty years but nothing has changed. As for the blokes in frocks, sorry guys it does not matter what you 'identify' as, or if you have your dick and balls cut off, if you never had a womb and ovaries you cannot possibly be a woman. If you can't get your head round that, you're very sick.

Privilege serves exactly the same purpose as power, benefiting the few at the expense of the many regardless of the system's ideological labels. Socialist, Communist and free-market capitalist regimes all throw up oligarchical elites that loot the system and plunder the national assets that should benefit the populaces. Those who came to do good and stayed to do well as the saying goes, must first gather privileges before they can acquire wealth and power.

The grievances of Chinese workers robbed of their wages, Greek small-business owners burdened by ever-rising taxes and EU imposed austerity measures, downsized corporate warriors in the U.S.A and redundant industrial workers in Britain and France may appear to be different, but in reality their grievances all arise from one source: unearned privileges that benefit the few at the expense of the many.

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