While a bit cold, New Hampshire is a beautiful state and the University of New Hampshire, Durham, is an exquisite setting - all worth fighting for against anti-racist demands.

Ledger Inquirer, “University of New Hampshire hit by racism claims”, 12 May 2017:

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press

DURHAM, N.H.

Some University of New Hampshire students say the school has failed to address currents of racism on campus and are demanding that it double the number of students and faculty of color, offer diversity training for all staff and amend the student conduct code to expel students who post “racially insensitive” content.

The actions were called for Thursday night as several hundred students met with the administration in a tense and often heated gathering over what they said has been its failure to address long-running concerns about racial insensitivity on campus.

Sparked by what some saw as offensive actions by white students wearing ponchos and sombreros during a Cinco de Mayo party last week, the mostly minority students told UNH President Mark Huddleston and his administration about racist incidents they had experienced and how they felt authorities had ignored their concerns.

Several black students talked about friends being spat upon and called racial epithets or, in one case watching someone drive past campus with a Confederate flag flying from their vehicle and call their friend a racial epithet. Others recalled a growing intolerance from fellow students following the election of President Donald Trump.

“If you keep poking at a balloon, it’s going to explode,” said Jubilee Byfield, a 21-year-old black sophomore, recounting how black friends were turned away from a fraternity party. “Do you want to be a school that didn’t say anything about it?”

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Please advertise this book if you can - Jez

75 Proud Years:  Pioneers and Progress of Rhodesia

As someone with an interest in Rhodesia, we thought you might like to know that we now have a reprint of this 1965 Rhodesian Government publication :

With an introduction by Ian Smith , the book covers the history of Rhodesia from 1890 to 1965 in some detail and surveys the enormous progress made in agriculture, commerce, industry and social development of benefit to both white and black Rhodesians.

With 124 pages, this A4-size softcover book is a facsimile copy of the original with contemporary advertisements and would be an invaluable addition to any collection of Rhodesiana .

The book costs £12.50 and p&p is £2.90 (with a 10% discount to former customers) .

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JPost, “Lauder: Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are one in the same”, May 2017:

World Jewish Congress president outlines three-pronged approach for tackling Jew hatred.

Ronald S. Lauder at the 2017 JPost Annual Conference .. (photo credit:NOA GRAYEVSKY)

In a powerful speech at The Jerusalem Post annual conference in New York on Sunday, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder presented a clear message to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activists and Israel haters everywhere: anti-Zionism and antisemitism are one in the same.

“Being anti-Israel is being antisemitic, plain and simple,” Lauder said, pointing to the latest UNESCO vote that denied Jewish ties to the Temple Mount, and to rising levels of antisemitism on college campuses.

Lauder argued that anti-Zionism is antisemitism in a new form, one that has emerged in recent years.

“There’s also something new, antisemitism that tries to hide itself and anti-Zionism. People who want to destroy the world’s only Jewish state – having failed to destroy Israel militarily and economically – are now trying to destroy Israel politically and morally,” he said.

To combat these threats, Lauder laid out his organization’s three-pronged plan to combat these issues.

“The World Jewish Congress has a plan to meet these challenges. We at the WJC created three new divisions that are hard at work to defeat this new form of antisemitism. These efforts will form an ‘iron dome’ to defend Israel against anti-Semitism,” he asserted.

To that end, the WJC has launched a communications department to enable Jews in being “proactive and aggressive” against “enemies who define us.”

The organization has also assembled a team of top-tier lawyers to actively promote legislation against BDS, an initiative that has already seen some progress, with 19 states in the US passing anti- BDS laws.

As the third part of its plan, the organization is working to increase its presence on college campuses, where young Jews are most likely to encounter anti-Israel vitriol.

The speech came a day after the New York Times reported that Lauder was pushing US President Donald Trump to broker a deal with the Palestinians.

Lauder praised Trump in his remarks. “We have a new pro-Israel American President, Donald Trump,” he said.

“A man I’ve known almost 50 years. Let me tell you, Israel has a great and true friend.”

“France has already condemned boycotting Israel, and I have no intention of changing this position.” - Emmanuel Macron

TheTower, “Party of French President Macron Boots Anti-Israel Candidate Over Anti-Semitic Tweets”, 15 May 2017:

The party of newly installed French President Emmanuel Macron expelled a candidate for a parliamentary seat on Friday over anti-Semitic comments he made on social media, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

En Marche removed Christian Gerin, a journalist, from its ticket for next month’s legislative elections after tweets he made were publicized by LICRA, a watchdog that exposes anti-Semitism and racism.

The tweets in question were posted between 2013 and last year. One tweet by Gerin asked, “When will there be a separation between CRIF and state?” CRIF is an umbrella organization representing the Jews of France. Its opponents say that CRIF wields too much influence in France.

Gerin characterized former Prime Minister Manuel Valls as “virulently Zionist, racist and an Islamophobe.” He also advocated for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

LICRA, which is one of the oldest civil rights organizations in France, characterized Gerins’ tweets as having “clear anti-Semitic connotations.”

A spokesman for En Marche, Laurence Haim, confirmed that Gerin was suspended over the tweets.

As interior minster and later prime minister in the previous Socialist government, Valls was vocal in expressing his opposition to anti-Semitism. In 2014, he said, “Criticism of Israel that is based on anti-Zionism — that’s anti-Semitism today, this is the refuge of those who do not accept the State of Israel.”

A year later he said in a Paris synagogue that the fight against anti-Semitism in France “must be renewed.”

Macron also denounced boycotts of Israel during his campaign, deeming them anti-Semitic, The Jerusalem Post reported.

“The role of France is to conduct an independent and balanced policy that would guarantee a dialogue by all sides and the construction of peace,” Macron said as he visited Lebanon in January. “France has already condemned boycotting Israel, and I have no intention of changing this position.”

The Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, ruled in October 2015 that the BDS campaign is a form of hate speech.

Brescia

Council of Canadian Citizens, “Brescia, Italy: Suicide of the Lioness?”, 15 May 2017

Known as the Lioness of Italy for its resistance to the Austrian army in 1849 during the First War of Italian Independence, is the city of Brescia blindly building its own funeral pyre as it takes in thousands of African migrants on a daily basis? It has been argued by liberals and many Catholics that the city is a model of integration and that Italian “conviviality” can succeed where Anglo-Saxon multiculturalism and French assimilationism have failed.1 Indeed, Brescia supposedly offers a third way: “interculturality” involving face-to-face “dialogue” between different cultures.2 What this actually means in practice is difficult to decipher. In any case, such claims are dangerously optimistic and utopian, to say the least.

History

Before considering the current wave of (state aided) migration let us take a very brief look at the origins of the city and its experience during another period of large scale of migration: the Völkerwanderung. We will see that during and after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, Germanic tribes settled in and around Brescia, as they did in many other parts of Italy, but that these warriors and their families were ultimately assimilated into the Roman population. It could be said that Brescia conquered its conquerors. But what of the current migrants? As one former mayor put it, Brescia is in effect a “frontier city.” Can Africans and other non-Europeans arriving in such huge numbers also be assimilated? And, assuming for the sake of argument that they can be, how long will the process take and at what cost?

         

The Roman historian Livy wrote that Brescia, or Brixia as it was then called in Latin, had been the chief settlement of the Cenomanian Gauls who crossed the Alps and established themselves in Italy north of the River Po,3 which is thought to have been inhabited by the Ligurians, possibly a pre-Indo European population. In the period before and after the Second Punic War (218/201 BC), the Roman Republic defeated the Celtic tribes south of the River Po and founded colonies in the area. The Cenomanian Gauls north of the Po for their part were defeated in 197 BC and Romanisation gradually ensued. In 27 BC, Octavian Augustus granted Brixia, now a significant urban centre, the status of colonia civica augusta.

As the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century and in the centuries that followed, Brescia frequently found itself centre stage of the Völkerwanderung. In 402 AD the city was ravaged by the Ostrogoths under Alaric and in 451 it was besieged and sacked by Attila the Hun. In 496 Odoacer, the general who had deposed the last Roman Emperor in the West, Romulus August, was defeated and killed by the Ostrogoths under Theoderic who styled himself “King of the Goths and Romans.” The Ostrogoths finally succumbed to a resurgent Byzantine Empire and Brescia fell in 562. But Brescia remained in Byzantine hands for just six years when another Germanic tribe, the Lombards, invaded Italy almost unopposed and established a Kingdom that lasted until the Frankish conquest of 774. As least as far as Brescia was concerned the barbarian incursions and migrations had now largely come to an end. What is striking about these arrivals is the ultimate assimilation of these conquering Germanic populations into the Roman population. The Lombards gradually abandoned their social customs and clothing and the use of their Germanic tongue was replaced by the neo-Latin vernacular of the local population.

African and Asian Invaders

National Geography and Academics call them the “New Italians”

It is estimated that less than 3% of those who cross the Mediterranean are actually fully-fledged refugees. In Brescia the situation is even worse with around 72% of the arrivals classified as illegals. And these figures refer to 2016 only. Few clandestini are ever deported and most drift into the black economy, try to reach northern Europe or end up in the criminal underworld. A truly monstrous situation has arisen which amounts to failure by the state to fulfill its fundamental duty of upholding the rule of law and defend its citizens. A whole industry has now grown up around migrants: lawyers, think tanks, hotel owners, landlords and liberal/catholic cooperatives providing accommodation for them. The costs are enormous. According to one report, in 2016 the system of “accoglienza” (welcoming) was costing the province of Brescia around 2 million Euro a month!

The phenomenon of migration from Africa began in the late 1980’s but, to be fair, the much-maligned Berlusconi actually managed to get the situation under a degree of control thanks to his relations with Libya. Then came the chaos caused by the overthrow of Gaddafi and the civil war, the ousting of Berlusconi and a series of “technocrat” and liberal governments appointed by President Napolitano, a former communist who in 1956 backed the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Key figures in government circles are known globalists with connections to refugee organisations. Laura Boldrini, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, is a former spokesperson for the UNHCR in Rome and was editor of its magazine Rifiugiati (Refugees).

Now, in addition to this onslaught from Africa, Brescia already has a non-European population that makes up around 13% of its roughly 200,000 inhabitants, the biggest groups being North Africans, West Africans and South Asians.5 This is the one of highest in percentage terms in Italy and the real figure is without doubt higher because of illegal immigration and the figures do not include foreigners naturalised as Italian citizens. The vast majority are unskilled workers and their dependents. Foreigners suffer a disproportionately high rate of unemployment and it goes without saying that they make up the bulk of the prison population. The member of the Lombard Regional Council in charge of Security, Civil Protection and Immigration called Brescia “the capital of foreign crime” in Northern Italy.6 Brescia too has had its fair share of terror plots, foreign fighters and Islamists.

Political Climate

Italian opinion now reflects the divisions we see over much of the Western World between the globalist metropolitan establishment on the one side and “provincials” and defenders of the nation state on the other. Much of the media, academia, big business, the professions, the church, the school system and polite society generally are politically correct and anti-populist. The courts too have taken controversial decisions. In a town near Brescia recently, a member of Lega Nord, the northern separatist party critical of mass immigration, was fined for writing that certain cooperatives “profit from the traffic in illegal immigrants.” The judge held that the statement was “discriminatory” as asylum seekers are given temporary leave to stay in the country and technically are not in Italy illegally!8 As public anger over the situation rises (see below) such cases are likely to mushroom in future. Comparisons have been drawn with medieval heresy trials as a nervous establishment seeks to criminalise beliefs contrary to prevailing liberal orthodoxy.

Africans demanding that Italians live up to the ideals of Freedom and Democracy first nurtured in Africa

However, when pressed on the issue one finds that even people within these milieus will privately express deep concern, especially about Islam. There may be self-censorship as well because opposition to mass immigration is considered provincial and low status. A survey of ten European countries conducted by Chatham House (hardly an evil populist hotbed) suggested that over half the population of those countries wanted a ban on Muslim immigration. The survey suggested that 69% of Italians have an unfavourable view of Muslims. Fortunately, two national newspapers Il Giornale and Libero Quotidiano and websites such as Tutti i Crimini degli Immigrati (All the Crimes of the Immigrants) do not hesitate to cover immigration related issues.

The liberal and liberal elements in the Catholic church in Italy have a curious belief they can succeed where so many others have failed. In autumn 2015 the liberal newspaper La Repubblica ran an article claiming that a school in downtown Brescia where the children are entirely foreign is an example of how Brescia is a “model” and that integration “works here.”

Yet the journalist goes on to say that one reason that the school population is almost entirely non-Italian, and indeed largely non-European, is that Italian parents no longer send their children there because of the concentration of foreigners. Indeed, at times the teachers have to “educate” not only the kids but also the parents who hold regressive social attitudes in relation to activities such as mixed swimming classes. Even the journalist admits that sometimes it is “they,” i.e. the foreigners, who create problems, citing a Nigerian parent who said that boys must be served by girls.

Liberals and immigrants protest against Italian “racists” in Brescia, 2010

We are told that time, patience and resources are required. But here we are speaking about relatively new arrivals. Other countries now face the failed integration of many adult second and third generation Muslims turning to traditionalism, fundamentalism and even terrorism. It is surely complacent to argue that such problems can be avoided by time, patience and resources. Is it not more realistic to admit a basic incompatibility of cultures? Italian progressives who pride themselves on their cosmopolitanism and openness actually seem to live in a national, or in the case of Brescia, provincial bubble, complacent in their belief that when it comes to integrating immigrants Italians do it better. They seem to have learned little or nothing from the experiences of other countries.

So far the Italian state so far has had no official policy of multiculturalism and does not engage in practices such as affirmative action. It is rare to find members of ethnic minorities working for the state as mass immigration is, compared to most other countries, a relatively recent phenomenon. Further, the country also enjoys relatively restrictive citizenship laws which also tends to exclude individuals of foreign origin from working for the state and voting in elections. The country has therefore also escaped the sort of scandals seen for example in UK where there have been cases of electoral fraud in South Asian communities in London10 and reports of a disproportionate number of misconduct proceedings against ethnic minority police officers.

That said, the Italian education system in particular suffers from liberal bias. History textbooks, for example, are heavily influenced by multiculturalist thinking, provide a vulgar Marxist interpretation of colonialism, push cultural relativism and fail to conduct any analysis of crimes committed by communist regimes. Classroom tasks and activities with a pro-immigration bias are commonplace.

But will Italy go down the same path as some other Western countries and loosen its nationality laws, introduce diversity quotas in the state and, in effect, discriminate against its indigenous population? Will its liberals also play the identity politics card and seek to buy support from enfranchised Africans and Asians? Or will Italy learn from mistakes of other countries now enjoying the bloody harvest of mass immigration that went too fast and too deep? Some of the things we see do not augur well as liberalism in Italy is slavishly enamoured with what it sees as more “advanced” multicultural societies.

There are, however, signs of resistance at a popular level. In August 2015 villagers in Collio near Brescia protested the arrival of migrants and in November 2016 200 residents of the town of Montichiari also near Brescia staged a week long protested outside a former barracks that was being transformed into a refuge centre for hundreds of asylum seekers. The rejection of the left’s referendum proposals and the downfall of Matteo Renzi in December 2016 was arguably in part due the government’s open door migrant policy.

One Sicilian Public Prosecutor has raised questions about possible connections between people traffickers and NGOs operating in the Mediterranean and even went so far as to say that some NGOs might have “interests in the manoeuvres of international speculation.” But without evidence and without the resources to conduct further enquiries the Prosecutor has said that the investigation has suffered a setback. It was reported in the Italian press that on 3 May 2017 Prime Minister Gentiloni held a meeting with wealthy liberal philanthropist George Soros, a man who reportedly funds NGOs operating off the Libyan coast, to discuss “investments in Italy.”

We shall see whether the prosecutor gets his resources. Until the next general election, expected to be held in 2018, and until perhaps we see a thorough going transformation of the political culture and collapse of liberal consensus, we can expect migrant numbers to swell still further as Brescia, like the West generally, continues to build its own funeral pyre.

QZ, “Trump just gave China what it wanted for its new Silk Road: a credibility boost from the US”, 15 May 2017:

China’s “new Silk Road” initiative aims to link the economies of Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa—but Beijing would really like the US to get on board.

Also called “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR), the initiative involves expensive infrastructure projects—led by Chinese state-owned companies—in dozens of nations. The US has much to offer, and as part of a trade deal (paywall) with China announced last week, the Trump administration agreed to send one of its top Asia experts, Matthew Pottinger, a National Security Council official, to a two-day OBOR summit just completed in Beijing.

His presence amounted to a nod from the US. Recent pieces in China’s state-controlled media hint at why that’s so important to Beijing:

“Under the current international framework, the US is leading international organizations like the United Nations, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund,” read a commentary (link in Chinese) in Xiakedao, a WeChat account run by the People’s Daily. “This is like a date, when a girl says yes to dinner and a movie—there will be further development possibilities.”

It goes on:

“It’s estimated that $1.7 trillion would be required for annual infrastructure investments on nations involved in OBOR, but the three [funding] institutions involved—the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the New Development Bank, and the Silk Road Fund—only have capital totaling $240 billion. The US can help advocate OBOR in key fundraising areas.”

The US can also help deal with “security and geopolitical challenges” in the implementation of OBOR, noted a commentary in the Global Times. For instance, India has some issues with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an OBOR land-corridor project (with a $46 billion investment from China) that partially runs through contested territory in Kashmir.

The commentary said:

“Washington’s participation in the Belt and Road initiative will have knock-on effects, encouraging its allies to see the initiative from a more rational and objective perspective, and thus help win Beijing and its infrastructure projects more international understanding and influence.”

The US economy will also benefit from OBOR, suggested Chinese state media.

The US should be “a stakeholder in the initiative,” read a column in the Global Times, as joining it would “deliver benefits to American companies and help increase job opportunities within the country.”

America “has a lot to gain by participating in the Belt and Road,” said an opinion piece in the People’s Daily. It should “embrace China’s progress in regional integration and seize the opportunity.”

The presence of Pottinger no doubt cheered Beijing, which had difficulty luring top leaders to the summit—of the 64 OBOR nations that could have sent their heads of state, only 20 chose to do so.

Read next: Your guide to understanding OBOR, China’s new Silk Road plan

QZ, “Just two domain names now stand between the world and global ransomware chaos”, 15 May 2017:

A second wave of global infections caused by hackers in a global ransomware attack has been halted. The hackers responsible for the cyber attack, unprecedented in its global scale, demanded ransom be sent to three bitcoin addresses. So far they have amassed the equivalent of over $42,000 in ransom. But a new “kill switch” by Matthieu Suiche, the founder of cybersecurity startup Comae Technologies, has prevented about 10,000 infected machines from propagating the ransomware since it was flipped roughly 24 hours ago.

The WannaCry ransomware was originally halted by the UK cybersecurity researcher who goes by the name MalwareTech. He “accidentally” stopped the rapidly spreading infection by registering domain (9iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com) that he found in WannaCry’s code, without knowing what its effect would be. The domain turned out to be a kill switch left in the code to stop the ransomware’s propagation.

The act of registering the domain name halted the malware’s spread.

       
       

After the initial WannaCry kill switch was found, researchers predicted that variants would soon appear that were harder to stop. Suiches analyzed two new variants that appeared yesterday, and found that one of them contained a similar kill switch mechanism, but using a different domain (ifferfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea.com). He registered the new domain about 20 hours ago, and infection rates have plummeted.

The number of active, infected, machines overall is down to the hundreds now, from about 200,000 machines just two days ago, according to data collected by MalwareTech. In the chart below, “online” indicates whether a machine is still connected to the internet and capable of spreading the malware:

       
WannaCry infections on May 15, 2017 at 8:50am

The worst is not quite over. Yet more variants will appear, and large organizations must scramble to install a fix released by Microsoft to prevent further infections and propagation. Until those variants crop up, as Suiche observed, just two domain names stand between the world and total anarchy on the internet.

Read this next: Russians and Koreans are the biggest payers to the global ransomware hackers

The impending failure of the Iran deal is being disingenuously blamed on the very moderate Iranians that ethno-nationalists would hope to empower in and of the deal - that failure being blamed on them, as opposed to who actually deserves the blame: primarily the Trump administration and its friends.

Daily Telegraph, “Iran presidential candidates lay blame for ‘failed’ nuclear deal on reformer Rouhani”, 13 May 2017:

President Hassan Rouhani faced accusations of a failed nuclear deal which has not benefitted the Iranian people, during the final televised debate with his rivals before the country’s presidential election next week.

The vote is being seen as largely a referendum on reformer Mr Rouhani’s outreach to the rest of the world following a landmark accord with global powers, which ended sanctions but bitterly divided the country.

The president is believed to be the frontrunner in the May 19 election but the failure of the 2015 accord to bring economic gains for the public has brought an opening that his main competitors, powerful conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi and hardline Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, have sought to exploit.

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