Anyone who has has an eye on Iran’s politics, other than following the news from time to time, knows that seeing this ’stolen election’ as being one between the democratic moderates and the religious extremists, is only half the story. The moderates in Iran like to cleverly paint themselves as Iran’s best chance at democracy, but they have never done anything other than allow neo-liberal style corruption to run rampant, chiefly to benefit their main supporters – the connected upper middle-classes, who seemed to be the only people the news reporters were talking to in the wake of the election. Both CNN and the BBC conducted interviews with people who at first glance didn’t even seem like Iranian citizens, with American and British accents, the results of having been educated in those countries.
Ahmedinejad is a hardliner, but his particular government has yet to achieve the number of people killed under the rein of so-called moderate Khatami, who appeared with promises of moderation and rights for women, but whose leadership saw no end to the numbers of men and women stoned to death under draconian laws. The same upper middle-classes are ones Ahmedinejad has not been pandering to, which is why they want him out.
The theocracy needs to fall in Iran, but not to be replaced by some sham neo-liberal pretence of democracy. As a number of other bloggers have asked, it’s not a case of ‘where have the votes gone?’ It is rather one of: were they actually there in the first place?
In the wake of a denial from Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos, the US government decided to remove the Netherland from a list of ‘known’ tax havens; a list that included Bermuda and Ireland, as countries that levy a much lower level of corporation tax. Bos and his people have pointed out that the Netherlands’ corporation tax rate is 25.5% compared to the 35% levied in the US (although the US rate is very often reduced to an average of about 22% through various ‘breaks’).
Obama’s administration is concerned over the number of outsourced US jobs and the movement of untaxed capital to foreign countries. It is clear that some US companies do set up foreign offices to avoid the higher tax rate, meaning there is no need to jump through (relatively easy) hoops to get tax reductions, or that even more reduction may be possible. Anyone who knows how a corporation operates would be a fool to deny this possibility.
One area where the Netherlands does excel in tax-exemption is in the intellectual property rules. There is no tax levied on the royalties collected on patents or copyrights, the only real stipulation is that the holders have a functioning business operation in the Netherlands and that this provides some employment and any resulting income tax from this. Many large corporations take advantage of this. It’s also not a coincidence that fair-weather socialists like the rock band U2 shifted their main publishing business to the Netherlands after obviously shrewd financial advice on how to collect tax-free royalties.
The Netherlands is not the only European country committed to giving a helping hand to corporations so the ire of the finance minister (another faux-socialist) is justified on that point, but that doesn’t wriggle out of the fact that the Netherlands rolls out the red carpet for big business.
Unlike the mainstream press we here at ossp like to wait for the facts to emerge, even if we have our own suppositions. It had been reported earlier that the city of Apeldoorn was spending over half a million euros on the royal celebrations, which is a large amount even outside a recession. It has now emerged that the driver of the vehicle that has officially killed 4 people, had lost his job and was awaiting eviction from his home. It’s likely he was harbouring resentment at so much money being spent in the name of already rich people, when he himself is having his life dismantled.
It’s just a shame that so many innocent people had to get hurt on a day of revelry while his point was being made.
Netherlands, Apeldoorn
During the celebrations for Queen Beatrix’s birthday, a two-day national holiday in the Netherlands known as ‘Queen’s Day’, 14 people have been injured when a car drove into the crowds. It has been assumed that the car attempted to drive into the passing royal motorcade and instead ended up driving into bystanders watching the royal parade.
The emergency services, already on hand for the celebrations, began re-animating some of the victims and others have been transported to hospital. The driver of the car has also been hospitalised.
Oil company Trafigura pays out 33 million
The amount was agreed between Trafigura and the British-based legal representatives (Leigh Day & Co) of the Ivory-Coast people. The original demand was for a payment in excess of 200 million euros. The agreement has successfully dissolved the case against the oil concern.
The bigger question concerns how easy it is for a company that causes illness and environmental damage to escape real penalties simply because they can afford to buy people off.
Even though the payment amounts to about 1000 euros per person, this does nothing to alleviate possible real long-term ill effects or anything to undo the environmental damage that has resulted from illegal dumping of waste. As the court case disappears, it is clear that Trafigura will not really be penalised, they can continue to profit from questionable oil procurement practices, as long as they are more careful not to get caught. Having the means to buy your way out of legal redress not only undermines the justice system, it makes a mockery of so-called regulation. It’s clear that regulation of questionable profiteering has a price.
from → Comment, Left-Wing News, News