Montag, 23. Oktober 2017

War Profiteers

"Germany approves sale of three Thyssenkrupp submarines to Israel" - http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-israel/germany-approves-sale-of-three-thyssenkrupp-submarines-to-israel-idUKKBN1CS1DI

Mittwoch, 16. März 2016

Global military spending

Global military spending was down in 2012 for the first time since 1998. And for the second year in a row, arms sales from private industry to governments were down as well.
Despite the decline in military spending, the business of war remains a good one. The 100 largest arms producers and military services contractors recorded $395 billion in arms sales in 2012. Lockheed Martin, the largest arms seller, alone accounted for $36 billion in such sales during 2012. Based on figures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 24/7 Wall St. examined the 10 companies profiting most from war.
The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan is among the biggest reasons for the drop in military spending, according to SIPRI. Spending on these campaigns fell from $159 billion to $115 billion between 2011 and 2012.
Austerity also contributed to cuts in military spending. Budget control measures were responsible for a $15 billion reduction in U.S. military expenditures in 2012. Belt-tightening in Europe also had an impact on arms sales. In 20 of the 37 countries in Western and Central Europe, military spending declined by more than 10% between 2008 and 2012.
In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Dr. Samuel Perlo-Freeman, director of the SIPRI Programme on Military Expenditure and Arms Production, said that while government military spending is waning in the United States and Western Europe, many developing countries are increasing their expenditures. Arms sellers in several countries, most notably Russia, are benefiting from their nation’s military budget expansion, Perlo-Freeman noted. While U.S. military expenses declined in 2012, Russia’s increased by an estimated 16% that year.
Companies reacted differently to the sales downturn. L-3 Communications spun off part of its business in 2012 to limit exposure to declining government military spending. Other government contractors wrote off significant losses in response to decreased military spending, including General Dynamics, which took a $2 billion goodwill charge related to declining opportunities in the defense sector.
Faced with possible tough times, some companies have engaged in corrupt practices. Last year, the CEO of Italian aerospace and defense firm Finmeccanica was charged by Italian prosecutors with fraud and corruption related to the company’s sale of helicopters to the Indian government. However, according to Perlo-Freeman, this is nothing new. “The arms industry has always been associated with corruption both in international arms transfers and sometimes in domestic procurement.”
Arms sales have remained concentrated among the same small number of companies for more than a decade. The top 10 companies have largely remained in place because industry consolidation in the 1990s made them dominant players, even through fluctuations in government military spending. “These companies tend to have their core competencies in getting money out of governments,” Perlo-Freeman said.
To identify the 10 companies profiting most from war, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 companies with the most arms sales based on SIPRI’s list of the top 100 arms sellers in 2012. Arms sales, including advisory, planes, vehicles and weapons, were defined by sales to military customers, as well as contracts to government militaries. We also considered the company’s 2012 total sales and profits, and the total number of employees at the company, as well as nation-level military spending, all provided by SIPRI.
These are the companies profiting the most from war.

Montag, 2. November 2015

HANDBOOK for REVOLUTION



Blueprint for Revolution: 

How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men and Other Non-Violent Techniques to Galvanise Communities, Overthrow Dictators or Simply Change the World,

„All dictatorships are based on the same things“, 

„Corruption, nepotism, ineffective management, 
social injustice, power and fear. “ 




Revolution needs imagination. 

To break a firmly added regime, one begins best of all with 
protests against dogexcrement, 
the unwarranted rise of the pancake prices 
or the salt tax – 
this is more effective than to throw Molotov cocktails.

Based on ideas of the non violence theorists 
here are methods to prepare effectively actions, 
and to to avoid the same mistakes, 
which are used by the authoritarian regimes 
ruthlessly and to diminish fear.

Humor is the best action. 

If you’re hoping to get a mass movement going 
within a very short span of time i
n the age of the internet, 
humour is a key strategy. 

Also, by and large, dictators hate jokes.

While the state propaganda News were on TV the Solidarnosc-trade unionists have 
carted her television sets at the moment of the news through the streets 
– a graphic, but harmless action, 
because no law forbids such an after-dinner walk … 

After 15 years of "ridiculous making" 
The activist & author Popovic is persuaded of the fact that 
„the policemen are not prepared to handle with comedians. “ 
This would unnerve them.



It can happen anywhere

Innumerable would-be activists have come to me over the years saying “I like what you teach, and I know it worked for Serbia, but revolution will never happen here.”


Judging from history, it seems as if violence is what shapes the world. When you are facing state brutality, widespread corruption and an authoritarian system that thrives on fear, it is easy to feel that way.

But time and again I have seen many of those very same people go on to spark revolutions in their own countries. Even under the direst conditions, it is still possible to get people to fight for a cause. So the first step in starting a revolution is believing that it can happen, wherever you are.


Pick your battles

„Select fights for which the application 
is worth and also with view of success. “ 

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu emphasises the importance of trying to match your strong points against your enemy’s weak points.

The best revolutionary leaders are adept at spotting these and planning their campaigns around them. Your opponent may have superior military might, but perhaps you have greater numbers, or are more nimble, or are simply a lot cooler.

In Serbia, my friends and I made Milosevic a laughing stock simply by painting his face on a barrel and encouraging people to beat it with sticks. That was funny enough, but when the police arrived to arrest the barrel things really took off. It’s hard to remember to be scared when you can’t stop laughing. And what is less cool than sending armed men to arrest a joke?
Another examples:
Gandhi fights first against the unfair salt tax of the Britons
and only late against her colonial regime.

Or the Californian Harvey Milk who was chosen on grounds of an anti-dog excrement campaign in the town council, before he rose to a leading figure of the gay's movement and lesbian movement.

Against it Popovic criticised the lacking compromise readiness of the students on the place of the heavenly peace who should have yielded after the first concessions of the Communist party of China,
or also the very media-oriented, but Femen a little capable of consensus.


„Use all modern communicative devices “

Thus went the video of the young Saudi Arabian 
who went without permission of a man by the car 
on the social networks around the whole world.

Therefore, the "commercials" aspect should not be neglected: 
You bet, posters, public contacts are necessary 
to become an inalienable interlocutor. 

Thus Popovic criticises the name and the draught of the "Occupy" movement -
„you take Wall Street, and what do you make then?“ – 




where, nevertheless, her slogan – 
„We are 99%“ – 
could have served as a basis of a mass movement.


Hobbits can save the world

Galadriel tells the hobbit Frodo that 
“even the smallest creature can change the world”.
From the Iliad onwards, history seems to have been intent on 
telling us that our heroes should be elite warriors or genius outliers. 

But when you look at some of the people 
who have had an enduring impact on our culture today - 
many of them aren’t obvious hero material. 
They started out as ordinary, even unassuming individuals, 
but went on to achieve exceptional things. 
In other words, they are hobbits.

Anything but blue-eyed 

And above all
Popovic persists on the principle of the freedom of violence 
– not to attack first the dictatorships where her strength lies, 
its their battleground - not yours.

Remember that violence doesn’t work


I have dedicated my life to non-violence, 
but the reality is that you can be opposed to violence in all its forms and yet when you pick up a gun, still feel, in some dark place in your soul, as if there is no challenge you can’t face and no problem you can’t solve. 
Being armed changes people, and sometimes revolutions that start out peaceful can turn violent. 
But before you consider a turn to the dark side, consider the fact that research shows that it is often 


In an analysis of every conflict between 1900 and 2006, 
two US academics discovered that
non-violent resistance campaigns were nearly t
wice as likely to succeed as violent ones. 

Keep that at the forefront of your mind for the times
when your principles are challenged.

Popovic remembers that the saucepan concerts of the indignant grandmothers 
embarrassed the police of Milosevic because they did not want to force back 
the frail old ladies before running camera by force.


He has now published a highly readable book, the deftly titled Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men and Other Non-Violent Techniques to Galvanise Communities, Overthrow Dictators or Simply Change the World, combining an entertaining primer on the theory and practice of peaceful protest with a very personal account of his own involvement with it.





Revolution braucht Fantasie. Und um ein fest gefügtes Regime zu stürzen, beginnt man am besten mit Protesten gegen Hundekot, die ungerechtfertigte Erhöhung der Pfannkuchen-Preise oder die Salzsteuer – das ist wirksamer als Molotov-Cocktails zu werfen. 

Mehr zum Thema: 

Beruf: Revolutionär. Unser Interview mit Srdja Popovic. 
Protest! Wie man die Mächtigen das Fürchten lehrt.(Fischer Verlag) ist keine langweilige politische Abhandlung für Schreibtisch-Guerilleros. In diesem Handbuch 2.0. für alle Empörten, die sich gegenüber bösen Machthabern ohnmächtig fühlen, wimmelt es nur so von aussagekräftigen Formulierungen und amüsanten Anekdoten. Das Buch beruht auf Erfahrungen mit Aktivisten aus aller Welt, mit denen Popovic und andere Milosevic-Bezwinger bei Schulungen stundenlang diskutiert haben, und die zunächst voller Skepsis ausriefen: „Serbien und Otpor! ... das alles ist schön und gut, aber bei uns wird das nie funktionieren!“   

Das Einmaleins des gewaltlosen Widerstands
Alle Diktaturen beruhen auf denselben Dingen“, erklärt der CANVAS-Gründer. „Korruption, Vetternwirtschaft, ineffiziente Verwaltung, soziale Ungerechtigkeit, Gewalt und Angst.“  Ausgehend von den Ideen des non-violence-Theoretikers Gene Sharpe hat CANVAS Methoden entwickelt, um Aktionen wirkungsvoll vorzubereiten, Fehler zu vermeiden, die von den autoritären Regimen schonungslos ausgenutzt werden, und Angst abzubauen. 
Erste Regel: Humor ist das beste Aktionsmittel. So haben die Solidarnosc- Gewerkschafter die staatliche Propaganda bloßgestellt, indem sie ihre Fernsehgeräte zur Zeit der Nachrichten durch die Straßen karrten – eine demonstrative, aber harmlose Aktion, denn kein Gesetz verbietet einen solchen Verdauungsspaziergang… Nach 15 Jahren „Lächerlich-Machen“ ist Popovic davon überzeugt, dass „die Polizisten nicht darauf vorbereitet sind, mit Spaßmachern umzugehen.“ Das würde sie verunsichern.       
Zweite Regel: „Kämpfe auswählen, für die sich der Einsatz lohnt, die aber auch Aussicht auf Erfolg haben.“  Ein Beispiel: Gandhi kämpft zunächst gegen die ungerechte Salzsteuer der Briten und erst später gegen ihr Kolonialregime. Oder der Kalifornier Harvey Milk, der auf Grund einer anti-Hundekot-Kampagne in den Stadtrat gewählt wurde, bevor er zu einer Leitfigur der Schwulen- und Lesbenbewegung avancierte. Dagegen kritisierte Popovic die mangelnde Kompromissbereitschaft der Studenten auf dem Platz des Himmlischen Friedens, die nach den ersten Zugeständnissen der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas hätten einlenken sollen, oder auch die sehr medienwirksamen, aber wenig konsensfähigen Femen.  
Dritte Regel: „Die modernen Kommunikationsmittel nutzen“. So ging das Video der jungen Saudi-Araberin, die ohne die Erlaubnis eines Mannes mit dem Auto fuhr, über die sozialen Netzwerke um die ganze Welt. Deshalb soll der „Werbe“-Aspekt nicht vernachlässigt werden: Logo, Plakate, öffentliche Kontakte sind vonnöten, um zu einem unverzichtbaren Gesprächspartner zu werden. So kritisiert Popovic den Namen und das Konzept der „Occupy“-Bewegung  - „Ihr besetzt Wall Street, und was macht ihr dann?“ – wo doch ihr Slogan – „Wir sind die 99%“ – als Grundlage einer Massenbewegung hätte dienen können.
 Und vor allem beharrt Popovic auf dem Prinzip der Gewaltfreiheit – um erstens die Diktaturen nicht dort zu attackieren, wo ihre Stärke liegt, und zweitens um nicht die „Großmütter, Ärzte, Dorfpfarrer und Dichter“ zu vergraulen, also die breite Masse, die unumgänglich ist, um die herrschende Minderheit zu stürzen. Popovic erinnert sich daran, dass die Kochtopf-Konzerte der empörten Großmütter die Polizei von Milosevic aus der Fassung brachten, weil sie die gebrechlichen alten Damen nicht vor laufender Kamera gewaltsam zurückdrängen wollten.   

Mittwoch, 28. Oktober 2015

The Black Rock




"...we must move away from dogma, 

whether it’s conspiracy theories or free-market,”








There 
may be 
147 companies in the world 

that own everything,


and 
they are dominated by 
investment companies.



But it’s not you and I 
who really control those companies,
 even though much of our money is in them.


 Given the nature of how money is invested, 
there are four companies in the shadows 
that really control 
those companies that own everything.



That means 
the real power to control the world 
lies with four companies:





2. Northwestern Mutual, 



which owns

#Russell Investments,
#Fidelity,
#American Funds,
#MFS,
#Pimco,
#Franklin Templeton Investments,
#American Century Investments





4. Barclay’s, 



A multi-asset shareholder,
which took over Lehman Brothers 
and its Lehman Aggregate Bond Index,
the dominant world bond fund index. 



Together, 
these four firms 
dominate the world of indexing.

And in turn, 
that means they hold real sway 
over the world’s money.

AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world, science may have confirmed the protesters’ worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.




Vanguard, Fidelity



the Investment Bank


BlackRock

Nr. 12 OF THE 25 LARGEST 
U.S. ENDOWMENTS & FOUNDATIONS
89 OUT OF THE FORTUNE 100 are BlackRock´s partners & clients
and holds 91% OF THE LARGEST U.S. RETIREMENT PLANS

which control a staggering 
$30 trillion in global wealth.

(30,000,000,000,000; 

30 x million x million)








or the other side:


BlackRock operates worldwide






for instance: GERMANY 2009




GERMANY 2015

Siemens
Allianz
Daimler
BASF
SAP
Lufthansa, BlackRock biggest shareholder
Deutsche Bank, Blackrock biggest private shareholder: 6,62%
E.ON
Rheinmetall
RWE
Gerresheimer
Deutsche Telekom, BlackRock shareholder 4,5 %
Allianz SE, BlackRock shareholder 5,3 %
Klöckner Pentaplast
Jack Wolfskin
Euler Hermes.


more
BlackRock 

superconnected 

companies:



FMR - Fidelity Management and Research Company 4.71% 03/31/2015

JP Morgan Chase & Co 

Vanguard Group Inc

UBS AG The Bank for Banks

Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 

Deutsche Bank AG
Goldman Sachs Group Inc
Morgan Stanley
BNP Paribas 
AT&T
Freddy Mac
Google
HSBC
MetLife
Merryl Lynch
Southern Cross Healthcare
Spirit Group
TRW Automotive,
Nalco,

Freescale Semiconductor
Merlin Entertainments Group,
Universal Orlando Resort,

Cineworld,

Houghton Mifflin,

SeaWorld

Allied Waste,
Texas Genco
Graham Packaging

Calpers, 
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority,

Porcelain Industries, Inc.
BlackRock Advisors LLC
BlackRock Fund Advisors
BlackRock Investment Management LLC
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
University of Pennsylvania
BlackRock Financial Management, Inc.
NYU Langone Medical Center
Norwalk Health Services Corp.
NYU Hospitals Center
BlackRock CoRI Funds
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
Robin Hood Foundation
BlackRock Capital Management, Inc.
The Lexington Master LP
iShares Trust
New York University
The Boys' Club of New York
Automated Security (Holdings) Plc
The Financial Services Roundtable
The Norwalk Hospital Association
The Museum of Modern Art
Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust, Inc.
Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.
Hope & Heroes Children's Cancer Fund
Augustana College (Illinois)
Periwinkle Theatre For Youth
Extra Mile Education Foundation
iShares, Inc.
Confluence Technologies, Inc.


BlackRock 
peers with


Apple
ExxonMobil 
Chevron
McDonald's
Microsoft



Shell

and




HolderShares% Held
Norges Bank Investment Management
as of 24 Apr 2015
86.63m2.72%
The Vanguard Group, Inc.
as of 30 Sep 2015
57.95m1.82%
UBS AG (Investment Management)
as of 28 Sep 2015
39.34m1.23%
Massachusetts Financial Services Co.
as of 30 Sep 2015
38.53m1.21%
Credit Suisse AG
as of 01 Oct 2015
37.24m1.17%
BlackRock Fund Advisors
as of 08 Oct 2015
27.03m0.85%
Capital Research & Management Co. (World Investors)
as of 31 Jul 2015
23.76m0.75%
Capital Research & Management Co. (Global Investors)
as of 31 Jul 2015
23.39m0.73%
MFS International (UK) Ltd.
as of 31 Aug 2015
21.41m0.67%
BlackRock Advisors (UK) Ltd.
as of 08 Oct 2015
17.50m0.55%






There are few things as fundamentally crucial to the existence of human beings and, indeed, all life on Earth as water. It is difficult to believe any human being thinks water is privately-owned, a commodity, to use for profit at the expense of human life, but Americans know there are entities that will go to any lengths to feed their corporate greed. In several states in this country, climate change is wreaking havoc on the people in the form of severe, multi-year droughts. So, with extreme water shortages, what do two industries do with the vanishing precious resource? They either mix it with deadly carcinogens and pump it, under extremely high pressure, back into the ground, often directly over active earthquake faults, or draw it out of the ground, bottle it, and sell it for profit. It is a wealthy corporations’ ideal business model; free raw materials and a product no human being can survive without.
California, like many states primarily in the southwestern United States, is facing one of its most severe droughts on record. The conditions are so severe that in January Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought state of emergency in preparation for water shortages that are especially dangerous during the summer months. The critically severe drought has entered its third year of a projected decade (at least) long drought, and throughout California water restrictions are having a profound impact on agriculture. In fact, the water shortage is so severe that farmers in some of the most agricultural-rich areas of the country are being forewarned there may be no water within two years at best; that is if the extreme conservation measures work.

However, while the rest of the state is attempting to conserve what little life-sustaining water California has left, the Nestle Company ignores the emergency measures the state adopted because its water bottling plant is conveniently located on a Native American reservation. Like all N.A. reservations, it is considered a sovereign nation by the US government. It is a water-theft enterprise any greedy corporation would lust after because unlike farmers, individual Californians, and every municipality in the state, Nestle is exempt from complying with any water-saving state or federal regulations. To make matters worse, Nestle is depleting what precious water reserves lie deep underground in the aquifer and pumping it directly to its bottling plant and selling it for profit. This is not a new endeavor for Nestle, and their blatant disregard for Californians’ need for basic survival was best expressed by Nestle’s CEO and Chairman.




According to the former CEO and now Chairman of the largest food product manufacturer in the world, Nestle, corporations own every drop of water on the planet, and because he believeswater is not a basic human right; if human beings get thirsty, they have to pay or die. It is the ultimate privatization insult to mankind, and worse because Nestle is intent on privatizing water the world over; a natural resource that falls from the sky and seeps into the Earth for man to use for survival. In the case of California, and other regions around the world, what precious little water remains for basic survival is being stolen by a filthy corporation to sell to those who can afford to survive, and they are being assisted by Native Americans claiming to be good stewards of the Earth. Maybe this is Native American vengeance on the white man for invading their sovereign land, massacring them, and sending the survivors to permanent interment camps with high-sounding names like “sovereign nations.” But that is another story altogether; this is about Nestle draining California’s water.



UNILEVER 

is on shopping-list of 

BlackRock


SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 
Washington, D.C. 20549 
SCHEDULE 13G
Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(Amendment No:  5) 
UNILEVER PLC
--------------------------------------------------------
(Name of Issuer) 
Common Stock
--------------------------------------------------------
(Title of Class of Securities) 
B10RZP7
--------------------------------------------------------
(SEDOL Number) 
December 31, 2014
--------------------------------------------------------
SEDOL No.   B10RZP7
(1)Names of reporting persons. BlackRock, Inc.
(2) Check the appropriate box if a member of a group 
(a) [  ]
(b) [X]
(3) SEC use only
(4) Citizenship or place of organization 
Delaware

Brands of




The

Head 

of BlackRock



Laurence D. Fink, 

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BlackRock, 
also leads the Global Executive Committee.