Thursday, November 04, 2010


Curse the judge, shout fanatics as the Muslim girl who knifed British MP smiles as she gets "life" in prison

A judge was subjected to a tirade of abuse in his own courtroom yesterday as he jailed an Al Qaeda-inspired Muslim woman for attempting to assassinate an MP.

Islamist protesters harangued Mr Justice Cooke from the public gallery at the Old Bailey, shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ (‘God is great’), ‘British go to hell’ and ‘Curse the judge’.

The outbursts came as Roshonara Choudhry, 21, was sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing former minister Stephen Timms. Choudhry smiled broadly as the judge told her: ‘You said you ruined the rest of your life. You said it was worth it. You said you wanted to be a martyr.’

Choudhary has been found guilty of trying to murder Labour MP Stephen Timms. Today it can be revealed she had a hit list of politicians

Outside, a second group demonstrated as the judge told the high-flying student – who stabbed the politician twice in the stomach as ‘punishment’ for voting for the Iraq invasion – that she must serve at least 15 years behind bars.

The chaotic scenes unfolded as Home Secretary Theresa May dramatically revealed that the Al Qaeda gang behind last week’s ‘Lockerbie-style’ cargo plane bomb plot are already working in the UK.

In court the judge pointedly contrasted Mr Timms’ Christian beliefs with the ‘distorted thinking’ of his attacker, who refused to recognise the court and appeared by videolink for her sentencing.

‘I understand that he (Mr Timms) brings to bear his own faith, which upholds very different values from those which appear to have driven this defendant,’ he said. ‘Those values are those upon which the common law of this country was founded and include respect and love for one’s neighbour, for the foreigner in the land, and for those who consider themselves enemies, all as part of one’s love of God. ‘These values were the basis of our system of law and justice and I trust that they will remain so as well as motivating those, like Mr Timms, who hold public office.’

The stabbed MP yesterday backed calls for an overhaul of U.S. websites hosting terror videos. The MP, attacked at a constituency surgery, said: ‘My real worry about it all is that a very bright young woman with everything to live for would reach the conclusion that she should throw it all away by attempting to kill the local MP.

‘It is puzzling and alarming that she seems to have reached the conclusion by spending time on some website. ‘That raises questions about what’s on the web. As I understand it, the material she accessed would be illegal if it were hosted in the UK.’

Hundreds of videos inciting violence, including clips by the U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki who inspired Choudhry to attempt to assassinate the MP, were removed from YouTube yesterday.

Their removal followed a private speech in the United States by security minister Baroness Neville-Jones in which she called on the White House to ‘take down this hateful material’.

Mr Timms, 55, describing the moment he was stabbed in East London in May by the smiling student, said: ‘I shouted out, “What was that for?”’ ‘That was the last thing that I expected to happen and there was absolutely no explanation to me. She didn’t say a word. It was a complete bolt out of the blue.’

After being disarmed by the MP’s assistant and held by a security guard, Choudhry told detectives the stabbing was ‘to get revenge for the people of Iraq’.

Sentencing Choudhry after she was found guilty of attempted murder and two counts of having an offensive weapon, the judge said that if she had succeeded in killing Mr Timms he would have given her a whole-life sentence, meaning she would never be released.

He told her: ‘You intended to kill in a political cause and to strike at those in Government by doing so. ‘You did so as a matter of deliberate decision-making, however skewed your reasons, from listening to those Muslims who incite such action on the internet.

‘You are an intelligent young lady who has absorbed immoral ideas and wrong patterns of thinking and attitudes. ‘It is not only possible, but I also hope that you will come to understand the distorted nature of your thinking, the evil that you have done and planned to do, and repent of it.’

He added: ‘You do not suffer from any mental disease. You have simply committed evil acts coolly and deliberately.'

Choudhry, from East Ham, East London, spoke only to confirm her name when she appeared by videolink for sentencing yesterday. Wearing a black headscarf, she sat placidly blinking behind her glasses as she watched proceedings on a screen in front of her.

The court heard she was a straight-A pupil and top university student at King’s College, London. She had hoped to become a teacher but dropped out weeks before carrying out the attack.

English language lecturer Alan Fortune said she was an outstanding student who had been expected to achieve a first class honours degree, adding: ‘The world was her oyster.’

SOURCE







White girl claims to be black

Under Australia's absurd laws, someone with a tiny amount of Aboriginal ancestry can claim to be an Aborigine -- and get the "affirmative action" benefits of that



A YOUNG Aborigine was "shocked" and "humiliated" to hear she might not look "indigenous" enough for a job promoting the Aboriginal employment initiative GenerationOne, founded by the mining entrepreneur Andrew Forrest.

Tarran Betterridge, 24, a Canberra university student, applied for the post through an ACT company, Epic Promotions, which had been asked to find five people of "indigenous heritage" to staff a stall at Westfield in Canberra handing out flyers for GenerationOne.

Ms Betterridge was interviewed for 20 minutes on October 20 and told she was "perfect". However, the interviewer, Emanuela D'Annibale, said she first had to check with her client, an agency called Let's Launch, because of guidelines specifiying it wanted "indigenous-looking" people for the job. Ms D'Annibale then took Ms Betterridge's photo, but denies forwarding it.

Ms Betterridge's mother is white and her father is a Wiradjuri man from the Dubbo area.

When Ms Betterridge phoned the next day, Ms D'Annibale told her she was not needed as Let's Launch had already found enough casual employees.

Yesterday Ms D'Annibale confirmed working to guidelines that required at least some recruits to "look" indigenous. Ms Betterridge was "lovely", she said, but "if you're promoting Italian pasta, and you put Asians there, how's that going to look? Wouldn't you pick an Italian to promote the Italian pasta?"

She would have liked to hire Ms Betterridge anyway because "she was really nice, she had so much knowledge and background … but the reason we needed at least one person who looked indigenous [was] so that it would be friendlier to indigenous people".

"I wouldn't have picked her for Aboriginal at all … to me she looked like an Aussie girl." She said Ms Betterridge hadn't been hired because the agency didn't need five people.

Ms Betterridge is "shocked a company that wants to increase indigenous employment would question hiring a person because they do not meet the colour standard".

The chief executive of GenerationOne, Tim Gartrell, expressed repugnance at the claims last night. He said he instructed those responsible to apologise, and would no longer use the recruiting contractor's services. "The comment made by a recruiting contractor is completely inappropriate and doesn't reflect the views, practice or ethos of anyone in GenerationOne," he said.

Despite this, the NSW Aboriginal Land Council seized on the episode to attack GenerationOne, accusing it of abetting "staggering" discrimination against Ms Betterridge. "For them to deny an Aboriginal student a job - a real job - because of the colour of her skin shows that GenerationOne is not interested in walking the talk," its chairwoman, Bev Manton, said.

Let's Launch was not available for a formal response last night, but unofficially denied issuing the guidelines quoted by Ms D'Annibale.

SOURCE









No whites need apply

I understand that a movie called “For Colored Girls” is probably going to have an all-black cast. But why an all-black crew?

“Moviemaker Tyler Perry has attacked reports suggesting he only hires African-Americans for his movies, insisting he does not discriminate. An all-black cast for the actor/director’s latest film, For Colored Girls, was expected, but new reports suggest his entire crew was made up of non-white people as well. But Perry insists he never sets out to create an all-black working environment.” See here

—Sure, so even though blacks are 16% of the population he made sure they were 100% of the crew, but no, he doesn’t discriminate, keep reading:

“He tells WENN, “I don’t discriminate. I want to know who’s the best for the job but I will ask, ‘Is there a black person that is just as good?’ when we’re in the hiring process because it’s very important to me that the kids, 19 and 20-year-old PAs (production assistants) running around, see it.”

—How about “is there a white person that’s just as good?” No, that sounds racist. Yet if you replace the word “white” with “black,” then it’s perfectly fine.

“They’re looking at me but I want to make sure there’s a fair representation all around. My make-up department is a black woman, the hair department is a black woman, the producers are black. I’ve got black grips, black electricians.”

—Is an all-black crew a fair representation of what? Blacks? I guess it is.

“These people are almost non-existent in the business, so trying to find them has been a bit difficult but I hope more people will go into it and bring their best. I’m not gonna hire you just because you’re black. You gotta be good at the job because I run a tight ship and we all do above and beyond. “Just because you’re black, that don’t mean you’re in. You have to do a good job.”"

—What a liar, of course he’s going to hire you because you’re black, specially when he’s asking “‘Is there a black person that is just as good?” People like Perry are always whining about bigotry and discrimination, but when it comes to hiring workers, they’re just as bigoted, if not more.

SOURCE (See the original for links)




Unfair trade: Ethical food ‘is not lifting Third World farmers out of poverty’

Sales of its food have boomed on the back of promises that it delivers a fair price and decent working conditions to Third World farmers. But Fairtrade products are failing to lift the farmers out of poverty, according to a study published today.

Less than 25 per cent of the price premium paid by shoppers for Fairtrade’s ‘ethical food’, such as coffee and chocolate, reaches the farmer, the controversial think-tank report suggests.

The study from the Institute of Economic Affairs says the high cost of joining the scheme prevents many of the poorest farmers from becoming members. The certification charge to join the organisation starts at £1,570 in the first year, which the IEA says is a huge sum for producers in the poorest countries.

The report – Fairtrade Without the Froth – says: ‘Fairtrade’s selling point to customers is that by paying a premium and buying certified products they will help producers in developing countries. ‘Although at the margins this may be true, research shows that Fairtrade is not a strategy for long-term development. Conventional trade is often more effective. ‘It is likely that producers end up with only a small fraction of the extra margin consumers pay.

‘Even analysts sympathetic to the movement have suggested that only 25 per cent of the premium reaches producers. No study ever produced has shown that the benefit to producers anything like matches the price premium paid.’

In fact, a number of retailers have made great play of the fact that their Fairtrade food and other products cost no more than those from conventional sources, so consumers are not paying any premium.

Fairtrade works with 1.3million farmers and, taking into account their workers and dependants, supports around seven million people.

In Britain, the Fairtrade Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation, licenses use of the Fairtrade mark. The foundation is part of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International.

Big names such as Cadbury Dairy Milk, Starbucks, Green & Black’s and Ben & Jerry’s have added their commercial weight to the scheme. The net effect is that UK sales of Fairtrade products rose 12 per cent last year to reach £800million.

The IEA report follows studies by right of centre think-tanks, which have argued that the phenomenon actually keeps Third World farmers poor.

But Barbara Crowther, policy director of the Fairtrade Foundation, hit back at the criticism. ‘Increasingly, consumers are not paying any extra for Fairtrade products,’ she said. ‘For example, Sainsbury’s did not put up prices when it moved to Fairtrade bananas and Cadbury did not make its Dairy Milk bar any more expensive. ‘It is spurious to suggest Fairtrade costs more. People may choose to pay more for Fairtrade products, but that might be because of other attributes, in terms of quality and taste.’

She said the registration fees were not expensive and reflected the cost of auditing the farms involved. A fee of £1,570 could cover a farming co-op of 50 growers, which amounts to an average of just over £30 each.

‘Many studies have been published by independent academics which demonstrate that Fairtrade is making a real difference to people’s lives,’ she said.

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN (Note that EYE ON BRITAIN has regular posts on the reality of socialized medicine). My Home Pages are here or here or here or Email me (John Ray) here. For readers in China or for times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site here.

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