- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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As Obama plans taxes on super-rich, Billionaire Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin 'de-friends' United States and applies to give up his US citizenship to keep more of his fortune
He found refuge, security, and opportunity in the US. He went to university in the US. He invented the technology in the US. He made his billions in the US. And when it came to pay his dues and taxes, he renounced his US Citizenship and decides to go away!
“Days shy of Facebook's stratospherically hyped stock market listing, one of the firm's bright young founders has sparked outrage after deciding to renounce his US citizenship. Eduardo Saverin, a 30-year-old entrepreneur who helped Mark Zuckerberg launch the site from a Harvard dormitory just eight years ago, appears on a list of 1,780 once-proud citizens who last year told Uncle Sam that they would like to give up their passports. The move, which emerged over the weekend, is widely regarded as a tax dodge.”
A pertinent question for all Facebook users, who have made Facebook what it is today, so unbelievably profitable, is; how should we all come together and register our disaproval of his action?
Yet another and even more important question is how do we change the global financial structure to make tax dodging far more difficult than what it is today? In addition to closing 'tax havens' and breaking down the walls of bank secrecy laws, perhaps it is time to bring back the tariff in modern form. Those who do business in a country, making investments, selling and buying products should be obligated to pay taxes in an amount related to their commercial interests in that country. Those who play in the market place in a nation should not be allowed to escape taxes levied for the common good of that nation merely by changing their citizenship or their residency.
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- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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Merkel's party humiliated by shock election defeat
“Angela Merkel's ruling conservatives suffered a humiliating defeat in key elections in Germany's most populous state yesterday when voters rejected her party's austerity policies and handed a resounding victory to her pro-growth Social Democratic Party opponents…Germany's conservative Environment Minister, Norbert Röttgen, the party's candidate in the election, had mounted a vigorous campaign centred on Ms Merkel's austerity policies, which aimed to cut the state's €230 billion debt. "Today is a very bitter day," Mr Röttgen conceded last night. "We have been clearly defeated."…
This defeat for more austerity in Germany, as well as the statement by the Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann who wants the European Union council to agree a growth pact at its next summit and invest in education, employment and infrastructure, plus the victory for the Socialist President Hollande in France, should be seen as the sign that “The Voices of Wisdom in Europe” are winning the arguments: enough of protecting the 1% who gave us the crises; time to invest in and for people and hope for a better future.
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Merkel's party humiliated by shock election defeat
Austria wants EU to agree growth pact at next summit
- Written by: Kamran Mofid
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The Republic Of Hunger
Facts:
“Every third malnourished child in the world is from India.
More than 40 per cent of India's 61 million children are malnourished.
Malnutrition, classroom hunger and school dropout rates continue to be grave, giving rise to extreme poverty and hunger.
47% of those under three years old are undernourished and underweight
Measured by the prevalence of malnutrition, India is doing worse than sub-Saharan Africa.
In recent years the GDP has grown at nearly 10% each year.
By 2011 there were 57 billionaires in India.”
India’s Premier Manmohan Singh called this malnutrition, hunger and poverty “a national shame”. The Premier then noted that “We cannot hope for a healthy future with a large number of malnourished children”.
Dr. Manmohan Singh’s worries and concerns are noted and appreciated. But, here we need to be more precise, if we wish to move away from hollow words to real action, which is surely needed if countries such as India wish to eradicate poverty, hunger and malnutrition. Dr. Singh’s reputation was forged in his time as finance minister in the 1990s, when following the advice of International Monetary Fund he pushed through a series of economic liberalisation and reforms which set the stage for India's subsequent boom and entry onto the world stage as a rising economic power.
The Questions:
Given the above, one might, with much justification, ask what have been the fruits of the decades of embracing neo-liberalism, with is privatisation, liberalisation, deregulation, marketisation and more? What is the use of India boasting the rise of millionaires and billionaires, the high-tech industries and more, when a huge percentage of its children are hungry, malnourished, and underweight? Where is the trickle-down effect? 10% average GDP growth rate for what? What has happened to Indian spirituality, looking after the community and the common good?
Dr. Singh once said: "The greatness of democracy is that we are all birds of passage. We are here today, gone tomorrow. But in the brief time that the people entrust us with this responsibility it is our duty to be honest and sincere in the discharge of these responsibilities."
I very much wonder how he can reconcile the above statement with so much continuing and worsening poverty, hunger, and malnutrition in India.
I very much recommend you to watch this informative video:
The Republic Of Hunger
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2012/05/201251010473237279.html#.T69J2A_f4jE.gmail