MAYDAY 2008

from the dictatorship of the proletariat
to the dictatorship of the young cannibals ...
Click to the pictures and read the whole story !

AFGHANISTAN - More Dangerous Than Ever

UPDATE April 27 :
President Karzai survived an attack of the Taliban that took place during a military ceremony where members of the government and influential tribal leaders of his coalition gathered. One tribal leader and a member of parliament were killed. (Report by AL-JAZEERA)


AP / Associated Press released the following news:

Friday, April 18 :
The son of General van Uhm, commander of the Armed Forces of the Netherlands in Afghanistan, has been killed in a bomb explosion, only some kilometers away from Camp Holland. Taliban said they always knew the whereabouts of the general's son.

Saturday, April 19 :
The Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, who has been reported missing since February 11, is beeing held by the Taliban. That has been proven by a video, published by the Arabic TV station Al-Arabiya. Azizuddin was captured in the boundary region between Pakistan and Afghanistan only some days before the general elections in Pakistan.
At the time of his disappearance, Arabic sources already hinted at a relationship between his possible abduction by the Taliban and the arrest of one of their military leaders (Al-Jazeera, February 2008).

CHINA - First High-Speed Train Launched

People's Daily online reported (April 11, 2008):
Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co. Ltd., a CNR company, launched three units of its high-speed train CRH3 that is supposed to reach a maximum speed of 350 km/h. Resembling the German ICE train (330 km/h) rather than the French TGV, each unit consists of 8 wagons (one first class, six second class and one second class restaurant wagon) and is intended to transport 557 passengers. In 2009, a total of 57 train units will be in operation.
Bad news for Germany that is trying to sell its brand-new magnetic hovertrain TRANSRAPID to China.

A series of photos, showing the new Chinese train, is available on the Chinese language site of People's Daily.


For further information, please refer to the English language site of the TRANSRAPID manufacturer.
Financial Times Germany reports on latest developments of the TRANSRAPID project (German language site).
Another German language site, showing the ICE system that seems to be more adequate for Chinese mass transportation requirements, can be found here: German Railways Authority.

CUBA - latest development

On February 25, 2008, Raul Castro officially replaced his brother Fidel in a well-prepared "change of the guards". Though, Raul is president now, Fidel Castro will remain an important figur in the background of Cuban politics.
(source: "Euro News" citing "Cubavision")


First thing we learnt from Castro's Cuba after that change:
Following an invitation from Jaime Cardinal Ortega y Alamino, Archbishop of Havana, German missionaries of the order of Saint Benedict are going to found a monastery on Communist Cuba, a mission imagined to be impossible up to now. As Archabbot Jeremias Schröder OSB of the Ottilien Missionary Benedictines put it:
"The role of the church in society is no longer rejected in Cuba. It is again valued. The cardinal succeeded in achieving a reasonable level of understanding with the government. Thus relations with the church in Cuba clearly improved, and one might say, 'liberalized.' This development is also a result of the visit of Pope John Paul II in January 1998. A further impulse was surely the February 20-26 visit of Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Pope's trip"
(source: "Radio Vatikan online" and "What's New OSB",
March 5/6 2008)

U.S. Latinos Dying for Oil

Mexican activists opposing the war in Iraq
now revealed that a majority of Latinos from
Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras are among
the 3.950 officially registered U.S. casualties.
Source:
Telesur (Mexico) via Cubavision (Feb. 7, 2008)

Bush on the Edge of Dying ?

Even "defunct"
Cuban leader
looking better !



Fidel Castro
with Brasilian
president
Lula da Silva
(Jan. 16, 2008)

US-Iran: Recession Fuelling Political Tension

Update March 26, 2008:
With consumer's confidence in the U.S. lowest since 1974 and jobs harder to find than ever, an even deeper recession is expected to come.
source: BBC business report March 26, 2008


War on Iran is
looming while
economic reces-
sion in the U.S.
is already under
way. The naval
conflict of Janu-
ary 2008 could
become an ex-
cuse for hostile
action to be
taken immedi-
ately by a des-
perate Bush
administration,
even before the presidential elections to come.
While Goldman Sachs and Merril Lynch still disagree
about the actual state of a U.S. recession, not about the
fact itself, 3000 fresh troops are to be sent to Afghanistan;
troops to pacify that secret base of action against Iran
and to ensure logistic support for those bomber squadrons,
expected to deliver the first blow against Iran's capital of
Tehran.
President Bush who eagerly described the U.S. as being
"addicted to oil" and the Republican's most promising
candidate McCain who recently volunteered in a public
"singing out" of that old Beach Boys' tune in its moder-
nized version "Bomb, Bomb Iran !", both are now very
close to their goal.
Political tension abroad and economic recession at home
have always been the perfect mix to trigger off a global
conflict.

战斗伊朗的美军基地：
阿富汗
吉尔吉斯斯坦
迪戈加西亚岛