Ukraine

[Paul McKeown]

NHS Careers - Dietitian

[Christopher Kreuzer]

http://www.internationaldietetics.org/n ... -futu.aspx

'The "c" in dietitians – a long history and fading future (maybe)'

[David Robertson]

Dietitian? Bo££ocks. Has the world gone mad? It's Dietician, not a death threat to a Renaissance artist.

Optitian?
Tactitian?
Magitian?

This is far more serious than affairs in Ukraine! Blood could be spilled

[Peter D Williams]

[quote="Paul McKeown"]The Dull Dietitian strikes again with his razor sharp analysis.[/quote

You appear to know a lot about what a Dietitian is have you been working as one? is the pay good? can you claim expenses like the M.P's do? would claiming for a duck pond be allowed?

Are you saying that UK politicans do not want wealth and power.

Well it time for a nice cup of tea with cherry cake

[John McKenna]

"Blood could be spilled"

If so, a physitian may be required.

[Paul McKeown]

Further razor sharp analysis by the Dull Dietitian.

[John McKenna]

Consider this -

In a recent survey on hunger, the Economist paraphrases the Roman historian Livy:

The food industry has been attracting extra attention of other kinds. For years some of the most popular television programmes in English-speaking countries have been cooking shows. That may point to a healthy interest in food, but then again it may not. The historian Livy thought the Roman empire started to decay when cooks acquired celebrity status.

Livy, Ab urbe condita, 39.6: "... tunc psaltriae sambucistriaeque et convivalia alia ludorum oblectamenta addita epulis; epulae quoque ipsae et cura et sumptu maiore apparari coeptae. tum coquus, vilissimum antiquis mancipium et aestimatione et usu, in pretio esse, et quod ministerium fuerat, ars haberi coepta."

Paul, I am still cooking up a repast in response to your order.
Please remember the best sauce for any feast is hunger.
Thank you for your patience.

[John McKenna]

From Yahoo News today -

Headline: Obama Rage (Republicans against Obama) Costs Ukraine Billions

You know those people who carry on all the time about how the United States looks weak to the world, and how we have to do everything we possibly can to help poor Ukraine stand up to the evil Vladimir Putin? Well, guess what they just did? They just made the United States look weak to the world—and they actually just reduced (yes, reduced) the amount of global aid that can flow to Ukraine to help it stand up to the evil Vladimir Putin.

The deal was this: The Obama administration’s aid package to Ukraine placed before the Senate included some long-sought International Monetary Fund reforms. These reforms, which the administration agreed to in 2010 with the leading nations of Europe...

What’s to object to? To Republicans, this: The reforms include an increase in the U.S. contribution quota to the IMF of $63 billion. They would also give more voice to emerging nations. Now, these two measures are offset by the facts that 1) the overall U.S. expenditure on the IMF wouldn’t go up, because the U.S. would be allowed to decrease other commitments by a like amount, and 2) the U.S. would still have enough voting shares at IMF meetings to retain the veto power it has currently.

But those points don’t matter on the right, of course. Over there, it all spells a diminution of American power... John McCain and Bob Corker, to their credit, supported the aid with the IMF reform tacked on. But most Republicans didn’t, and even though the full package easily passed a procedural vote, Democrats were getting the strong sense that an aid deal with the IMF stuff included wasn’t going to make it...

Let’s take stock of this. The Crimea/Ukraine crisis broke. Republicans immediately were all over Obama for being weak. The whole thing was his fault. We are all Ukrainians now. We had to stand with Ukraine to send a strong message to the malefactor Putin...

On Monday, John Kerry visited Congress and threw in the towel. Better to have whatever we can get now than fight over this and delay matters. Or worse, lose altogether, because there was no chance that the House would ever have passed the IMF-laden version.

Who needs foreign enemies when you have plenty within.

Also, from above, "... reforms, which the administration agreed to in 2010 with the leading nations of Europe..."

That may imply a necessity for others to pick up the tab.
I.e. if the Ukraine cannot get this money from the IMF, because of US Republicans, the EU may be asked to contribute directly - as it has already done, I believe, for the Ukraine's gas bill. Russia is calling in Ukraine's debts and the latter is struggling economically - needing about $25 bn to keep paying its way, last time I heard.

[It is often the following way - the US provides the sticks (arms) and the EU the carrots (aid). In the case of Israel-Palestine the US sticks go to the Israeli military while the EU carrots keep the Palestinians employed and fed.]

[John McKenna]

Oh, and by the way, if you 'give' expensive arms that you manufacture, as the US does, it is better than just giving money, like the EU. The former is productive for the US economy, while the latter is a just drain on the EU's.

BBC News this lunchtime -

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is close to agreement with Ukraine on financial assistance worth $14-18bn (£8.5-£11bn) over the next two years...

The deal is expected to unlock a further $27bn in loans for Ukraine from the European Union and the US...

Edit: It appears that Japan may have been tapped to make up any shortfall caused by the US Republicans (see post above).

The deal goes hand in hand with a reform programme for Ukraine's ailing economy.
A cut in energy subsidies to consumers has been one of the conditions of an international rescue deal and on Wednesday Ukraine's interim government agreed to raise domestic gas prices by 50% in its effort to secure the IMF aid package.
Ukraine's ousted President Viktor Yanukovich had refused to take this unpopular step.
But the country's new Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk told parliament that Ukraine was "on the edge of economic and financial bankruptcy".
He said that without the austerity measures proposed by the IMF, the economy could contract by as much as 10% this year...

The IMF says a key part of Ukraine's reform programme will focus on the country's state-owned energy company, Naftogaz, which imports gas from Russian energy giant Gazprom.
Russia has already said that the discounted gas prices Ukraine gets from Gazprom will come to an end next week.
"Over time the programme will focus also on improving the transparency of Naftogaz's accounts and restructuring of the company to reduce its costs and raise efficiency," the IMF's statement added.
According to the IMF, Naftogaz's deficit in 2013 amounted to close to 2% of national GDP.
Last week the firm's chief executive was arrested in connection with a corruption investigation.
The IMF says it will undertake a review of the country's anti-corruption framework, the way its laws and regulations are implemented, and the effectiveness of its judiciary and tax administration.
In 2013 Ukraine was ranked 144 out of 177 in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. The index measures perceived corruption among a country's public sector officials.

The IMF and 'austerity' have long been synonymous, as have the Ukraine and corruption.

[John McKenna]

The BBC's Gavin Hewitt on the weakness of Europe's position in the Ukraine crisis -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26711621

Might as well throw this golden oldie in, too -

http://vimeo.com/38311242

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Any views here on what direction the terrible events of flight MH17 will take the Ukraine crisis in? Seeing people talking of the crisis becoming internationalised is worrying. Obama said "It is not going to be localised, it is not going to be contained".

[MartinCarpenter]

Hard to tell why it should spread too far? There was an incredibly sad, not very civil, war going on before this. Quite likely some outside power is gleefully feeding it with high powered weapons, with not entirely unpredictable but incredibly sad consequences

You might hope they'd stop but there's a very long tradition of people doing this, and of very unpleasant consequences arising and it hasn't put them off yet.

[Mick Norris]

Interesting analysis here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-28374089

Over the past nine months, many have looked at the Ukrainian conflict as a renewed clash of grand strategies - a new Cold War - with respective leaders deliberately moving pieces on the international chessboard

[John McKenna]

This post was prompted by comments in the Carlsen - Anand 2014 thread in International News.

Despite the one-dimensional EU policy of sanctions against Russia, over the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, there is a much larger clash of two spheres of influence (American versus Russian) - with Europe as its main physical battleground - that caused the conflict to ignite in the first place.

The shooting down of a Malaysian civilian airliner - carrying mainly European nationals - with, in all probability, Russian made and supplied military hardware by, in all probability, Russian separatists cannot simply be written off as an accidental incident in a border war. That such a thing happened shows the cavalier attitude to the conflict, and the destruction of innocent human lives, of both the Kremlin and European governments. (If there had been a single US citizen on that flight things would be markedly different now and the more there were the more marked it would be.)

In last night's Evening Standard, retired General, Sir Richard Shirreff (NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe until March this year) warned of a "mismatch" between talking tough and being "prepared to put on the table". He said "European nations had to put their hands in their pockets". (Just four out of 28 NATO countries - US, UK, Estonia & Greece had met the 2 percent of GDP target - ES.) Or, "they would find it very difficult to put into the field, at sea or in the air and particularly on land, the means required to counter any form of Russian adventurism."

From the BBC -

World leaders have descend on Wales for the 2014 NATO summit at Newport's Celtic Manor.
A security "ring of steel" is already in place at keys sites in Cardiff and in Newport - some 12 miles (20km) of fencing with pedestrian access points.
Police say they must be ready to deal with demonstrations ahead of the event...
More than 150 heads of state and ministers including US President Barack Obama will attend the two-day summit...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-28958292

[Paul McKeown]

Putin wishes to rebuild the Russian/Soviet Empire, against the wishes of his future subjects from neighbouring (currently) independent states. We've been here before. NATO should guarantee Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, although like Poland in 1939, it might take 50 years to make those guarantees good. Putin won't stop with occupying and dismembering Ukraine, unless real obstacles are placed in the way of his irredentism.