Is Europe dancing to Mark J’s tune?

Note from Dan: Back in January Mark Jurkevich weighed in with the column below. It’s aimed at American corporations, but the same issue is rather suddenly rankling Europeans. Voters in Switzerland have overwhelmingly approved a recent law that (gasp!) gives corporate shareholders at least some limited control over executive compensation, and the European Union seems headed in that direction to a lesser extent, with bankers. Mark called me Monday from Poland to tell me about those, and we decided to recycle this one, below. Could the U.S. be next?

By Mark Jurkevich

Executive pay in public U.S. corporations has evolved into an out-of-control racket. Left unchecked, the resulting huge and growing income gap between the elites and the shrinking middle class will soon resemble typical third-world patterns.

According to a widely referenced Congressional Budget Office statistic, since 1979 the income of the top 1 percent grew 275 percent, while that of the middle 60 percent grew only 40 percent. The U.S. owns the highest gap in the developed world, according to New Republic.

The trend is continuing unabated. In 2011 the top 500 CEOs of publicly traded companies received 16 percent increases in compensation, while the average American worker received 3 percent, according to Forbes Magazine. Read more »

Guest Post

Note from Dan: Below are parts of two emails I received and cobbled together Sunday by a reader in Roanoke who was responding to Sunday’s column. He requested I not use his name.

By Anonymous

Thanks for your piece on Roanoke’s St. Patty’s Day.

It was my great fortune to spend some time in Dublin, Ireland in the 1960s.

Among the many shocks was to find that the only day of the year the pubs were closed was St.Patrick’s Day — this seems to have remained the case for ten or so more years.

Another contrasting shocker was that Easter was more like our July Fourth, Soldiers and tanks were on parade. The Easter Rebellion of 1916 was, of course, the origin.

And St. Patrick’s Cathedral was a Protestant place of worship — and had but handful of souls on Sunday. The “Pro-Cathedral,” the Catholic venue, had, as you might suppose, people hanging out the windows. Read more »

Note from Dan: Mark Jurkevich has been traveling a lot lately so he’s taking a break. Here’s one of his columns from last March, with a new headline and art. With  foreign-sponsored chaos in Syria, Europeans evacuating Benghazi and Islamists streaming over the Libyan border into Mali and Algeria, it’s no less apropos today.

By Mark Jurkevich

Here we go again – the ritualistic drumbeat is reaching a frenzied finale preparing Americans for a U.S.-supported bloody overthrow of a sovereign state’s government in the name of spreading democracy; this time, Assad in Syria.

The Left and the Right are in a testosterone-driven race to lead the charge; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the “Friends of Syria” conference in Tunisia declared the Assad government illegitimate, while Republican leadership demands “safe passage corridors” for rebels. Since Assad is not using jets, they can’t call it a no-fly zone.

Over the last fifteen years Americans have been conditioned by this ritual – a long standing sovereign government starts being referred to as a “regime,” we are told it’s undemocratic, the “freedom loving” opposition is suddenly armed to the teeth, then, after much bloodshed and expenditure of U.S. treasure, the sovereign government is toppled. Inevitably, the fruits of this ritual are – well, like most big government programs – a costly mess with myriad undesirable consequences.

Democracy Building is indeed a big government program. The total estimated costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan projects are $4 trillion, according to a Brown University study. Add in the other half dozen “democracy project” costs during this time, and it’s enough to solve the U.S. debt crisis. The usual big program waste and fraud are well documented for these projects. They also have a 100% failure rate for replacing a tyrant with a peace-loving democratic government.

Given the enthusiastic support for the Democracy Building program by the GOP’s conservative wing, the Tea Party and evangelical Christians, one can only conclude that they believe their core unifying value of shrinking big government programs stops at the U.S. border. Yet, these democracy projects, wars of choice, are more wasteful and ineffective than the big domestic programs conservatives want to cut. There’s also a side effect of these projects that should be of particular concern to the evangelicals: they have consistently caused the destruction of ancient Christian communities.

To date, the track record includes: Read more »

Monument in Purnuskes, Lithuania, which since 1989 has been considered the most widely accepted geographic center of Europe. | Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Jurkevich

The inward-looking tendencies of European Union politicians has not only perpetuated their financial crisis, but has also created a delusional view of geography.

For example, last week the press office for UK’s Prime Minister Cameron advised that he will shortly be giving a major speech “on Europe.”

What they really meant is that he will be giving a speech on the UK’s views of the European Union.

There is a big difference.

The EU is a political structure of 27 countries that combined make up a surprisingly small part of the continent called Europe.

Cameron himself is guilty of this chauvinistic view of the EU.

In advance of his speech, he told the BBC:

“Right now, I think there are a lot of [British] people who say ‘I want to be in Europe, but I’m not happy with every aspect of the relationship, so I want it changed.’ “ 

Obviously, Cameron can no more pull Great Britain out of Europe than he can change his biological mother. What he can do, theoretically, is pull Britain out of the EU.

One can only shake his head every time a Brussels bureaucrat lectures about what countries like Ukraine or Belarus must do if “they want to join Europe,” or what Russia must do to “improve relations with Europe.”

It’s a safe bet that few folks in Brussels know the EU capitol is approximately twice as far as Moscow is from the geographic center of Europe – 1,750 vs. 950 kilometers.

Those distances are only estimates. While I can smugly declare that only an act of God can remove the island of Great Britain from Europe, defining the borders of Europe is much more complicated. Read more »

(Above) Palestinian Authority President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, right, shakes hands with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, as he hands him a letter of appointment authorizing him to form the new coalition government in Gaza City. (Below) President Barack Obama with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

By Mark Jurkevich

Recent Israeli and U.S. policies have considerably strengthened Hamas, although it’s labeled a terrorist organization by both countries. This has been achieved by making concessions in response to Hamas’ violent resistance to Israeli occupation, while simultaneously punishing rival Fatah for pursuing a solution through peaceful political means.

Since 2007, Palestinian authority has been split into Hamas-controlled Gaza and the Fatah-controlled West Bank. The split occurred after the surprise victory by Hamas in Gaza elections supervised and certified as free and fair by international observers, including former President Jimmy Carter.

The election results caught U.S. and Israel by surprise. They strongly favored Fatah. In response, while heaping additional financial rewards on Fatah controlled West Bank, they applied punitive economic sanctions on the people of Gaza, including one of the harshest blockades on civilians anywhere since World War II. My November essay  “The human-rights-tragedy in Gaza” gives a taste of what life is like under the Israeli blockade.

The split between Fatah and Hamas is of great strategic value to Israel. For decades it has been under international pressure to negotiate a two-state solution with the Palestinians. But thanks to the split, Israel has been able to justify avoiding meaningful negotiations, arguing that it has nobody to negotiate with, as long as the Fatah-Hamas power schism continues.

Cynically, key Israeli and U.S. policies are designed to continue the split indefinitely. For example, via The Palestinian Accountability Act Congress links Fatah’s financial support to guarantees it will not reconcile with Hamas. Financial handouts are critical to West Bank Palestinians, given that the Israeli occupation makes it impossible for the people to develop a self-sustaining economy. Read more »

Frank Vincentz | Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Jurkevich

In Cold War-era Eastern Europe, the appearance of bananas on grocery shelves was a sure sign Christmas and New Year’s were nigh. The imported holiday treat for the masses was a costly hard currency splurge by communist central planners.

Bogusia, my Polish wife, recalls her father braving 2-hour lines in 15- degree December weather to buy bananas. Timing was always nerve racking. If her father bought too early, the bananas would begin turning brown by Christmas Eve; if he waited too long, the bananas might be sold out and the children would be heartbroken. After the Christmas Eve dinner, Bogusia and her younger siblings would eagerly rush to find elaborately wrapped bananas under the Christmas tree. It was the highlight of the evening.

While bananas were associated with the year-end holidays behind the Iron Curtain, the fruit has also been at the center of political intrigue and conflict elsewhere more or less continuously since the late 19^th century. From the beginning, the United Fruit Company, and its successor, Chiquita Banana, has played a central role.

Registered in New Jersey, United Fruit was founded in 1899. By the 1920s it operated in 10 Central American and Caribbean countries. It dominated the world banana market, including an 80% share in the U.S. alone.

The banana market was not the only thing United Fruit dominated. Bradley Palmer, its driving co-founder, developed a strategic relationship with the U.S. government. He was an advisor to many Presidents and Congress. With both overt and covert U.S. government assistance, United Fruit took control of much of the infrastructure in the countries it operated in.

This included the postal service, railroads, ports and telecommunications. United Fruit’s Tropical Radio & Telegraph Co. played an historically important role in the development of radio communications. It had a controlling interest in a number of national telecom companies, including those of Cuba and Guatemala. Read more »

AP Photo

Note from Dan: Mark Jurkevich had to unexpectedly fly to Istanbul Sunday to tend to some affairs. While he’s gone, here’s a post of his from Feb. 2, 2011 (merely just an email to me) regarding the U.S., Israel and its 2010 invasion of Gaza, and the latter’s effect upon Egypt. Nine days later, President Hosni Mubarak was deposed. Civil unrest in Egypt continues.

By Mark Jurkevich (Feb. 2, 2011)

Assuming President Hosni Mubarak falls, this will pretty much wipe out the U.S./Israel long standing regional strategy, in my opinion

I believe the likely scenario to unfold would have a lot of parallels to the 1979 Iranian revolution (and for that matter the 1917 Russian revolution); first a transitional moderate government will flounder around for a few months and then a more ideological group will grab power on a long term basis. That latter group in this case will be controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.

In my opinion, what irreversibly set in motion the undoing of Mubarak is the Israeli invasion of Gaza two years ago.

With that, the U.S. and Israel did not leave Mubarak, their “partner,” any good choices. In that sense, the Gaza invasion will likely prove to be a catastrophic strategic mistake for Israel and the U.S.

Ahhh, it seems that more and more frequently Israeli’s testosterone fueled decisions are turning into costly mishaps:  the aggression on Lebanon, the war-crime filled invasion of Gaza, giant murder squads operating in United Arab Emirates.

I would welcome your thoughts on the subject.

Lencer | Wikimedia Commons

By Mark Jurkevich

A dark link binds two events that occurred last week half a world apart: the Israeli military action in Gaza, and Congress’ vote to repeal the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.

Like most initiatives in foreign affairs, the 1974 Jackson-Vanik Amendment had a declared idealistic objective, and an undeclared practical objective. Officially, it was designed as a human rights bill, tying U.S./Soviet trade to facilitating Soviet Jewish emigration from behind the Iron Curtain, where, it was claimed, antisemitism was rampant.

The practical objective was to help Israel build Jewish settlements in the newly occupied Palestinian territories. At the time, much to the consternation of Zionists, there were too few American and European Jews willing to move to move to Israel proper, let alone the Palestinian territories.

Thanks to Jackson-Vanik, today Israel is a trilingual country, with a constantly growing Jewish settlement presence in the occupied lands. The pro-Israel organization JINSA honors the former Senator with its annual Henry M. Jackson Distinguished Service Award.

On the opposite end of Jackson-Vanik’s human-rights success are the people whose lands have been systematically confiscated and settled as a matter of Israeli governmental policy since the early 1970s– the Palestinians. There are many authoritative sources about the human-rights plight of the Palestinians, including America’s very own former president Jimmy Carter. Read more »

SourtoeCocktailClub.com

By Mark Jurkevich

Mexico’s Mezcal, with its famous worm, is no match for our northern neighbor’s novelty drink – the Sourtoe Cocktail. The former comes with one worm in each bottle; the latter comes with one amputated human toe in each drink.

Dawson City’s Downtown Hotel, in the heart of Yukon Territory, has been proudly serving the Sourtoe Cocktail since 1973, when local riverboat captain Dick “River Rat” Stevenson found a severed big toe in a pickle jar.

Stevenson’s original rules for joining the Sourtoe Cocktail Club still ring in the late night hours at the hotel saloon – “You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but the lips have gotta touch the toe.”

The purist version of the cocktail is very simple – Yukon Jack whiskey is poured into a rocks glass. The bartender then fishes out a human toe from a dry salt pack and drops it into the glass. If you successfully down the drink, bottoms-up style, so that the toe ends up resting on your lips, you become a member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club. Read more »

Wikimeda Commons | Text by Dan

By Mark Jurkevich

Many Americans have a flawed view of the USA’s standing among the community of nations. The self-perception is that we are number one by practically every meaningful measurement.

This view is not surprising given that every politician and all mainstream media saturate us daily with slogans such as:

• American exceptionalism (Does that mean we are the chosen people?);
• America is the leader of the free world (What countries belong to this club? Who is the leader of the unfree world?);
• America has the best health care system in the world;
• Most of the world supports the huge U.S. military because they know it is there to protect them (From who?);

My inspiration for writing this post came from a comment about the huge U.S. military, left last week on this blog. The following comment was in response to my post Global Prosperity Index Boots America From Top 10: Read more »