Saudi Arabian dictatorial Pentagon allies: no women Olympians

This video says about itself:

Amnesty International accused Saudi government of torture and arbitrary arrest.

From the Daily Mail in England:

Olympic chiefs face fury after Saudi Arabia set to become only team to send no women to Games

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 19:40 GMT, 25 May 2012 | UPDATED: 03:57 GMT, 26 May 2012

Saudi Arabia look likely to be the only nation competing at the London 2012 Olympic Games without a single female among their team.

Having discussed the issue in Quebec yesterday, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) talks resulted in them not imposing any sanctions on the Middle Easterners.

IOC President Jacques Rogge, under pressure from human rights and sports groups to force Saudi Arabia to have female athletes as part of its London delegation, refused to consider the possibility of sanctions against the Gulf state or allow Saudi women to compete under a neutral flag.

‘We are continuing to discuss with them, and their athletes are training and we hope that they will qualify in due time for the Games,’ Rogge said.

‘There is absolutely no reason to consider the participation of Saudi women under an IOC flag,’ he added.

Human Rights Watch’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said: ‘Saudi Arabia is the last hold-out denying women and girls the ability to take part in sports.

‘The Saudi government’s position should trigger serious scrutiny by the Olympic family. The dismal and unequal conditions for women and girls who seek to practice sports in Saudi Arabia need to change now.’

The London Games were set to be the first where every nation included a woman in their delegation, but the Saudis seem set to successfully resist such calls.

Earlier this year, Saudi Olympic Committee president Prince Nawaf bin Faisal refused to endorse female participation in the English capital.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Qatar, Brunei and Saudi Arabia fielded all-male teams, but this year the former two have confirmed they [sic] female athletes will represent their countries.

Meanwhile the IOC ethics commission is wrestling with a scandal swirling around Pal Schmitt, the former Hungarian president and IOC member accused of plagiarism.

Schmitt, a double Olympic gold medal-winning fencer who ran for the IOC presidency in 2001, could face sanctions after he was stripped of his sports doctorate by Budapest’s Semmelweis University for copying sections of his thesis without proper acknowledgement.

UPDATE: Saudi Arabia caves in over female athletes: here.

Fukushima nuclear capitalists linked to Yakuza criminals

This Japanese punk rock video is by Scrap, a band consisting of people who lost all through the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The song is in Japanese, except the English language chorus, which is not very complimentary for the TEPCO nuclear corporation, the bosses of Fukushima. There are English subtitles with the video.

From the Atlantic Wire in the USA:

How the Yakuza and Japan’s Nuclear Industry Learned to Love Each Other

Jake Adelstein

May 24, 2012

After the arrest of a yakuza boss for his alleged role in supplying workers to TEPCO’s Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant, we are learning the details of how Japan’s nuclear industry relied on organized crime. Since July of last year, a few months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami resulted in a triple meltdown at the Fukushima plant, investigators have been probing possible yakuza links to TEPCO and the nuclear industry under the guidance of the National Police Agency.

“Yakuza involvement in the nuclear industry is believed to go back to 2007 or earlier,” said a police source, “and the gangs involved were dispatching yakuza to nuclear sites all over Japan.”

The yakuza boss arrested has been identified as Makoto Owada, a high-ranking member of the Sumiyoshi-kai (住吉会) crime group, the second largest organized crime group in Japan with roughly 12,000 members. Owada is charged with illegally dispatching workers to the reconstruction site from May to July of last year. The Fukushima plant is located in Sumiyoshi-kai territory (in yakuza parlance nawabari). However, in his initial statements to the police at the time of his arrest, Owada admitted that he had dispatched workers, including his own yakuza soldiers, to nuclear power plant construction sites all over Japan from as early as 2007.

“If we didn’t do it, who would?” asked one mid-level yakuza boss, who defended the criminal groups’ involvement.

Woman takes on Yakuza godfather over protection racket: here.

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Rare Sumatran striped rabbit photographed

This video from Indonesia says about itself:

26 November 2008

The Sumatran Striped Rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri), also known as the Sumatra Short-eared Rabbit or Sumatran Rabbit, is a rabbit found only in forest in the Barisan Mountains in western Sumatra, Indonesia.

It is listed as a critically endangered species — its rarity may be due to deforestation and habitat loss.

The rabbit is usually about 40 cm (1 ft, 4 in) long. It is gray with brown stripes, with a red tail and rump, and the underside is white. It lives in forests at altitudes of 600-1400 metres. It is nocturnal, resting in the burrows of other animals. It usually eats the stalk and leaves of understory plants, but captive rabbits ate grain, and tropical fruits.

Sightings of the species have only been reported three times since 1972, most recently in late January 2007 in a photograph taken with a camera trap installed in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park.

ScienceDaily (May 25, 2012) — Using camera traps, wildlife researchers including doctoral candidate Jennifer McCarthy and environmental conservation professor Todd Fuller of the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently captured photographs of one of the rarest animals on earth, the Sumatran striped rabbit. They say it may now be found only in two remote national parks on the Indonesian island: here.

One of South Africa’s most endangered mammals – the Riverine Rabbit: here.

USA: A rabbit named after Playboy publishing magnate Hugh Hefner is dying out primarily due to sea level rise, a new study concludes: here.

Australian dinosaurs, sandstone, threats, new research

This video from Australia says about itself:

WOODSIDE DRILLING INTO AUSTRALIA’S MOST SIGNIFICANT DINOSAUR TRACKSITES HERITAGE

May 11, 2012

Woodside threaten National Heritage listed dinosaur footprints in Kimberley

Woodside jack-up barges could be on the verge of destroying National Heritage listed dinosaur footprints on the Kimberley coast today, according to information provided to conservation group Environs Kimberley. Woodside have not referred their proposal to Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke for approval.

The Australian Heritage Council describes the dinosaur footprints as follows:

“The Broome Sandstone tracks along the Dampier Coast are the best record of dinosaurs from the western half of the continent and the large number and variety of tracks in a range of depositional settings provides an otherwise unobtainable census of dinosaur populations and communities.

“The Broome Sandstone tracks are therefore one of the most taxonomically diverse dinosaur track sites known anywhere in the world and certainly the most diverse in Australia.”

A report provided by the company shows that the drilling, which starts today, is to take place right up against the boundary of the National Heritage Listed area in which dinosaur footprints are known to occur. Broome based conservation group Environs Kimberley is concerned that Woodside is drilling too close to the National Heritage boundary, in an area where no surveys have taken place.

“We are shocked that Woodside has not referred this project to the Federal Government, given that they are proposing to drill in such a sensitive site and as far as we know could be right on top of dinosaur footprints,” Environs Kimberley Director Martin Pritchard said.

“The National Heritage boundary consists of the Intertidal Areas between Highest and Lowest Astronomical Tide, according to the government’s maps, and Woodside’s maps show they will be working very close to this area, and possibly within it, which is outrageous,” said Peter Robertson of the Wilderness Society.

“Woodside should stop work and refer this project to the Federal Minister for the Environment, Tony Burke, before any damage is done to a National Heritage listed area,” said Mr Pritchard.

Media Contact:

Martin Pritchard Environs Kimberley — 0427 548 075

Peter Robertson The Wilderness Society — 0409 089 020

More on the campaign to save the Kimberley enviroment and heritage: here.

From PLoS ONE:

Impact of Sauropod Dinosaurs on Lagoonal Substrates in the Broome Sandstone (Lower Cretaceous), Western Australia

Tony Thulborn

Kenmore, Queensland, Australia

Abstract

Existing knowledge of the tracks left by sauropod dinosaurs (loosely ‘brontosaurs’) is essentially two-dimensional, derived mainly from footprints exposed on bedding planes, but examples in the Broome Sandstone (Early Cretaceous) of Western Australia provide a complementary three-dimensional picture showing the extent to which walking sauropods could deform the ground beneath their feet.

The patterns of deformation created by sauropods traversing thinly-stratified lagoonal deposits of the Broome Sandstone are unprecedented in their extent and structural complexity. The stacks of transmitted reliefs (underprints or ghost prints) beneath individual footfalls are nested into a hierarchy of deeper and more inclusive basins and troughs which eventually attain the size of minor tectonic features.

Ultimately the sauropod track-makers deformed the substrate to such an extent that they remodelled the topography of the landscape they inhabited. Such patterns of substrate deformation are revealed by investigating fragmentary and eroded footprints, not by the conventional search for pristine footprints on intact bedding planes. For that reason it is not known whether similar patterns of substrate deformation might occur at sauropod track-sites elsewhere in the world.

Recently discovered dinosaur footprints in the Kimberley region of Western Australia are under threat from a proposed liquid natural gas project, according to a leading Australian expert: here.

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Blue tit nest in lifebelt

From Wildlife Extra, about England:

Bird builds nest in lifebelt

Unusual nest site for Blue tit

May 2012. An RSPB member stumbled across a blue tit that chose to build its nest in a peculiar place – an emergency life jacket.

Luckily, Julia Keddie from Richmond in Surrey, wasn’t in need of the equipment at the time. She said: “I was taking a walk around Kew Gardens with a friend when I noticed a flurry of activity near to the life jacket equipment and went to investigate. After a while I noticed a blue tit going in and out of a small opening on the front and realised it must be nesting there and raising its family.

“Fingers crossed nobody will fall into the lake during the rest of their nesting period; if they do there’ll be some very unhappy birds.”

Ian Hayward from the RSPB’s Wildlife Enquiries team, said: “It may look like an odd place to set up home, but there’s probably a nice nest-sized cavity in there. Birds make their nests in all sorts of weird and wonderful places. They see a safe, secure and cozy spot to lay eggs and raise chicks and don’t care what it looks like or what the neighbours might think.

“We get sent lots of pictures from members who’ve spotted unusual nesting habits. In the past we’ve had birds nesting in traffic lights, bins, hanging baskets and even an ash tray outside a pub, but that’s the most unusual one I’ve seen this year.”

Ireland: May 2012. Dessie McKenzie of the Linnet Inn, Boho, Co Fermanagh, proudly showed off his most unusual client – a family of blue tits which have taken up residence in the cigarette box just outside the pub. The birds have been nesting there now for the past two weeks and the adults have been frantically feeding the chicks whom, by all accounts sound like a raucous bunch: here.

Greek military dictatorship to impose austerity?

This video from Greece says about itself:

16 July 2008

Leros Psychiatric Hospital – Kρατικό Θεραπευτήριο Λέρου

Leros “Psychiatric Hospital”. Filmed in 1995 by achilleasv.

The Asylum of Leros (Colony of Mentally Ill) was established in 1959, taking over the military installations left on the Greek island by the Italians from the Second World War.

The purpose was to contain all psychiatric patients from all Greek mental health instituitions, who were deemed untreatable, to one single confinement space.

The asylum grew rapidly as “difficult” patients were shipped to Leros and by the 1980s as many as 4,000 patients were held there.

Political prisoners had also been incarcerated there, during the military dictatorship in Greece (Greek junta 1967-1974).

The staff were not doctors or nurses and had no medical training.

They were local islanders and were used as guards.

The inmates were systematically beaten, even tortured and crushed of whatever sensibilities they once had.

In the 80s Leros’ asylum has received significant journalistic attention.

In September of 1989, the London Observer published details of horrific conditions at the Leros asylum, describing it a “concentration camp”.

In 1990 the BBC filmed inside the asylum. The documentary “Island of Outcasts” (Channel 4) brought attention to these horrendous human rights abuses.

As Leros’ conditions generally mirror those of the nation’s other public mental hospitals, the last twenty years the psychiatric care system in Greece is undergoing a transformation of its service network, propelled to a great extent by recommendations and funding from the European Union. The new direction is toward deinstitutionalisation and a community-care approach.

However, twenty years since the beginning of the psychiatric reform in Greece, there is a threat for people with mental health problems to return in mental hospitals due to severe financial problems of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Units as the Greek Ministry of Health is unable to correspond to its obligations.

By Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden:

Greek ruling elite prepares for showdown with working class

26 May 2012

As Greece prepares for elections on June 17 amid an overwhelming popular rejection of austerity, the ruling class is making secret preparations for a military crackdown against the workers. These preparations are taking place in parallel with more public discussions within the European Union on financial mechanisms to penalize Greece, should the Greek population vote to reject EU austerity demands.

An article published Wednesday in the right-wing Greek daily Kathimerini, “Euro Exit Scenario Gives Greece 46 Hours to Manage Process,” lays out a “synthesis of euro-exit scenarios from 21 economists, analysts and academics.” The newspaper writes that the introduction of a new Greek currency would need to be meticulously planned and carried out within a 46-hour window, over a weekend, in consideration of global stock market trading schedules.

There would be immediate moves to repress social opposition. The article states: “Over the two days, leaders would have to calm civil unrest while managing a potential sovereign default, planning a new currency, recapitalizing the banks, stemming the outflow of capital and seeking a way to pay bills once the bailout lifeline is cut.”

Citing two senior researchers, the article notes that “the country may deploy its military as soon as early morning Saturday and close its borders, preparing to stamp euros as drachma as an interim solution once a public announcement has been made.”

Greece’s outgoing finance minister, Filippos Sachinidis, said of an exit from the euro, “All our achievements will be wiped out and it will happen in such a violent way, I don’t know if we will be able to continue functioning as a modern democracy.”

In these comments there is an undoubted element of political blackmail. The ruling elite declares that the workers must accept every cut demanded by finance capital and the Greek state or face an apocalypse. Should the workers refuse, they warn, the banks will cut off credit to Greece, forcing it to print its own money. Overnight, the markets will financially ruin the country by speculating against the new currency. At this point, the army will be deployed to halt bank runs by depositors and crush social opposition.

The political establishment hopes by publicizing such arguments to secure a vote for Greece’s traditional ruling parties, the right-wing New Democracy (ND) and the social democratic PASOK, which support the EU austerity measures and so-called “bailouts.” In the May 6 elections, these two parties together won only 32 percent of the vote.

More fundamentally, however, the “contingencies” being discussed and planned, both openly and secretly, reflect the acute intensification of class antagonisms in Greece and internationally.

What has been imposed in Greece, under the diktat of the “troika”—the European Union, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF)—is barbarity on a scale unseen since the Nazi occupation. An official at Greece’s official statistics bureau said last week: “By the close of 2012, we estimate the economy will have shrunk by a total of 27 percent since the start of the recession five years ago… That’s almost a third. It’s completely unprecedented for an advanced Western economy.”

Whether finance capital tries to continue its failed euro bailout or decides to speculate against a national Greek currency, the enforcement through the existing parliamentary mechanisms of such brutal and unpopular social attacks will grow increasingly difficult. Hence the growing threat of a recourse to some form of military-police rule. The Greek people have already had a bitter experience with such methods in the form of the 1967-1974 military junta.

Since the eruption of the financial crisis in 2008, the Greek ruling class has repeatedly relied on the army to suppress working class opposition. The army was mobilized to smash the 2010 truckers’ strike and was poised to intervene against the 2011 refuse workers’ strike.

Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch’s scandals

From daily News Line in England:

Saturday, 26 May 2012

Blair at Inquiry on Monday

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair is to appear before the Leveson Inquiry into media standards on Monday.

Under-pressure Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt will give evidence on Thursday, when he will be asked about his office’s links with News Corp during its bid to take over satellite broadcaster BSkyB. Prime Minister Cameron yesterday claimed he did not ‘regret’ asking Hunt to rule on the abortive deal and asserted that Hunt had acted ‘impartially’.

Blair will be questioned over whether his relationship with News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch and the company’s News International subsidiary was too close. Blair’s former trade minister Lord Mandelson told the Inquiry on Monday that the relationship had ‘arguably’ become ‘closer than wise’ but dismissed claims of a ‘Faustian pact’ involving commercial concessions for News Corp in return for support from its newspapers.

Blair travelled to Hayman Island in Australia to address News Corp executives in 1995, as part of a Labour strategy to win over newspapers that had unfavourably portrayed previous leaders Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock. He is also godfather to one of Murdoch’s children.

Current home secretary Theresa May is expected to face questioning about police handling of phone-hacking allegations when she appears on Tuesday along with Education Secretary Michael Gove.

Business Secretary Vince Cable and Justice Secretary Clarke will give evidence next Wednesday.

Gove, a former Times journalist, a newspaper owned by News Corp, is expected to be asked about the frequency of his contacts with senior News Corp executives, as 11 meetings were recorded between the May 2010 general election and July 2011.

Hunt will face questions about whether his overt support for the bid was compatible with his job in overseeing it.

Cameron claimed yesterday that there was no ‘great conspiracy’ between him and Rupert Murdoch in return for support for his government but admitted that the relationship between politicians and the press had become ‘too close’. His comments came as Hunt’s former special adviser Adam Smith began his second day of questioning at the Leveson Inquiry.

Smith told the Inquiry that he was ‘bombarded’ with information from News Corp lobbyist Fred Michel. Smith admitted that he was aware that Michel was trying to extract information during News Corp’s bid for broadcaster BSkyB.

Smith resigned last month after admitting his contact with News Corp had got too close. He told the Inquiry that he had ‘no specific instructions’ on the limits to information he could provide to News Corp.

He added: ‘It wasn’t uncommon to give advance notice of certain statements but I would use my judgement on what to say or what not to say.’

Smith said that officials at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport knew that Michel was his point of contact at News Corp and they would have mentioned Michel by name to Hunt on the ‘odd occasion’.

Counsel to the Inquiry, Robert Jay QC, asked Smith why he resigned, saying ‘no one was criticising you – what did you think of that?’

Smith replied: ‘I thought by this stage that the perception had been created that something untoward had gone on, and that was why I’d offered my resignation the evening beforehand. “Everyone thought I’d have to go” was confirmation in my mind that everyone else thought that.’

British minister called Murdoch aide ‘papa’: here.

Prime Minister Cameron’s former director of communications Andy Coulson [ex-Murdoch empire] was detained by police investigating allegations of perjury yesterday. Coulson was detained at his home in the Dulwich area of London at 6.30am by seven officers from Strathclyde Police and taken to Glasgow for questioning: here.

PRIME minister Cameron claimed yesterday that Andy Coulson, who had resigned as editor of the News of the World and who currently faces charges of perverting the course of justice, misled him when he was interviewed for the job of Tory press chief: here.

The coalition rift began to gape even wider on Sunday after Liberal Democrats indicated they might not stop their MPs voting with Labour to launch an investigation into Jeremy Hunt.

Former Tory prime minister John Major has told the Leveson inquiry that Rupert Murdoch attempted to influence his government’s policy on Europe: here.

Labour MP Chris Bryant electrified the Commons today by accusing Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt of lying to Parliament over his contacts with the Murdoch empire.

David Cameron faced awkward questions about his decision to hire former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his spin doctor today: here.

IT HAS emerged that Leveson, whose current inquiry was brought into being by Prime Minister Cameron, complained to the UK’s top civil servant after a cabinet minister, Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove, a former Murdoch employee at the Times newspaper, raised ‘concerns’ that his inquiry was targeting the freedom of the press: here.

UK Prime Minister Cameron given kid gloves treatment at Leveson inquiry: here.

The Australian arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp said today that it is making a AU$1.97 billion (£1.1bn) bid to take full control of TV company Consolidated Media Holdings.

Murdoch’s News Ltd intensifies media restructuring in Australia: here.

Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate News Corp. lobbied in favor of the new Panama free trade pact, according to federal lobbying disclosure forms — a pact that will make it more difficult for the U.S. government to crack down on Panama-related tax abuses. Panama is a notorious tax haven, and News Corp. also operates a subsidiary there. The company’s flagship American news outlets — The Wall Street Journal and Fox News — reported extensively on the three free trade deals passed by Congress last week without disclosing the parent firm’s lobbying activity: here.

Britain’s Leveson Inquiry hit by allegations of political interference: here.

David Cameron’s former spin doctor Andy Coulson and former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks will be charged with phone-hacking, the Crown Prosecution Service said today: here.

Andy Coulson, David Cameron’s former spin doctor, has been charged with illegally paying to get the royal family’s phone numbers: here.

MURDOCH’S POODLE HUNT GETS HEALTH PRIVATISATION JOB: here.

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War profiteers smear US journalists

This video from the USA is called Iraq For Sale – Full Movie.

By Eric W. Dolan in the USA:

Propaganda firm owner admits smear campaign against U.S. journalists

Thursday, May 24, 2012 17:14 EDT

The co-owner of a U.S. defense contractor that specializes in Information Operations admitted on Thursday to trying to discredit two USA Today journalists with an online smear campaign.

“I take full responsibility for having some of the discussion forums opened and reproducing their previously published USA TODAY articles on them,” Camille Chidiac, the minority owner of Leonie Industries and its former president, said in a statement.

“I recognize and deeply regret that my actions have caused concerns for Leonie and the U.S. military. This was never my intention. As an immediate corrective action, I am in the process of completely divesting my remaining minority ownership from Leonie.”

Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker reported in February on “dubious, costly” propaganda campaigns carried out by contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reporters noted that Leonie Industries was awarded a contract from the Department of Defense, even though the company’s owners owed at least $4 million in federal taxes.

Leonie Industries is a relatively small company that specializes in cyber operations, intelligence analysis, psychological operations, and counter-IED explosives operations. …

After reporting on the company, the two journalists were targeted by a online disinformation campaign apparently meant to destroy their reputation. Fake Twitter and Facebook accounts were created in their name, along with websites that purported to be owned and operated by them. Comments quickly sprung up on message boards, Yahoo! answers, Wikipedia, and blogs criticizing the two reporters’ investigation of Leonie Industries. Some comments even suggested the two journalists worked for the Taliban.

…

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “has directed the department to review this matter and to take appropriate action,” according to a Pentagon spokesperson.

“I am glad to see that we now know who was responsible for these false attacks on Tom Vanden Brook, Ray Locker and USA Today,” Susan Weiss, executive editor of USA Today, said. “We stand behind our reporters and our stories.”

Mitt Romney’s Big Oil presidency?

This video from the USA is called Jack Gerard won’t reveal how much API spends on the “Vote 4 Energy” ad campaign.

Mitt Romney May Place Top Oil Lobbyist in Charge of His White House. Lee Fang, Republic Report in the USA: “When oil companies need help in Washington, they call Jack Gerard. According to media reports in his native Idaho, Gerard is on the shortlist to become Romney‘s White House chief of staff. Gerard is the president of the American Petroleum Institute, the largest oil lobbying association in the country. For his work, he’s one of the highest paid lobbyists in the Beltway, making $6.4 million in 2010 alone”: here.

See also here.

Mitt Romney and the Women Who Don’t Love Him: here.

Fine to nail Romney with Bain Capitalism. But let’s not forget Romney’s budget proposal, which mimics Paul Ryan’s. Take a moment to make yourself aware of both, because they’re eye-opening and scary: here.

‘Free’ trade between India and Europe?

This video is called Disposable People: 3 billion peasant farmers.

By Prakash Karat:

A treaty for the rich

Friday 25 May 2012

Talks over a free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union have rumbled on for some time. Left forces in India and Europe have opposed the FTA – but why?

Free trade agreements have become a common instrument for advancing the interests of big corporations and financial institutions around the world.

Big business seeks to open up markets and remove barriers to the cross-border movement of goods, services and finance.

The Doha round of negotiations at the World Trade Organisation on lowering “trade barriers” has long since stalled, with developed and developing countries at odds over a range of issues such as agricultural subsidies and tariffs on industrial goods.

This has led to many governments which favour economic liberalisation to enter into bilateral trade agreements. Current negotiations over the EU-India FTA should be seen in this light.

The agreement in question is officially called the Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement. Talks started in 2007 and a final deal with the EU is expected to be concluded by the end of this year.

India‘s corporate media makes it seem that the only remaining roadblocks to the FTA lie in cutting tariffs on automobile and wine imports from the EU, which India opposes, and details of the employment of Indian professionals in the EU, on which Europe’s diplomats are unwilling to make concessions.

But these differences are based on extremely narrow interests. For the vast majority of Indians there are far more significant problems with the FTA. In India there are widespread fears that the agreement will be harmful for large sections of the people.

The FTA proposes a complete elimination of import tariffs for over 90 per cent of agricultural and industrial products in India. This will mean that agricultural products such as cereals, other crops, processed foods, milk and other dairy products and meat and poultry could be freely imported into India by the EU.

Agriculture in the EU is highly subsidised and these subsidies are outside the remit of the trade negotiations.

Millions of small-scale peasants in India engaged in crop production and animal husbandry stand no chance of competing with shiploads of subsidised products from the EU.

Set against a backdrop of rising costs for farmers, a lack of fair prices and a burgeoning debt burden this could put millions of livelihoods at risk.