The Thread

SavantGarde

Well-Known Member
#91
Here is a little known fact....and what are the bigger implications of such a State within a State.....!!!

Frauds & Deceptions: The Truth About 'City' Of London

The Rogue Empire

Henk Ruyssenaars' article on July 10th 2006 drew attention to the book "Descent Into Slavery" by Des Griffin in which the real meaning of the term "City of London" is explained. The following is an excerpt from that article.

"To the majority of people the words "Crown" and "City" in reference to London refer to the Queen or the Capital of England.

This is not the truth. The "City" is in fact a privately owned Corporation - or Sovereign State - occupying an irregular rectangle of 677 acres and located right in the heart of the 610 square mile 'Greater London' area. The population of 'The City' is listed at just over four thousand, whereas the population of 'Greater London' (32 boroughs) is approximately seven and a half million.

"The Crown" is a committee of twelve to fourteen men who rule the independent sovereign state known as London or 'The City.' 'The City' is not part of England. It is not subject to the Sovereign. It is not under the rule of the British parliament. Like the Vatican in Rome, it is a separate, independent state.

"The City", which is often called "the wealthiest square mile on earth," is ruled over by a Lord Mayor. Here are grouped together Britain's great financial and commercial institutions: Wealthy banks, dominated by the privately-owned (Rothschild controlled) Bank of England, Lloyd's of London, the London Stock Exchange, and the offices of most of the leading international trading concerns. Here, also, is located Fleet Street, the heart and core of the newspaper and publishing worlds.​

The Lord Mayor, who is elected for a one year stint, is the monarch in the City. As Aubrey Menen says in "London", Time-Life, 1976, p. 16:

"The relation of this monarch of the City to the monarch of the realm [Queen] is curious and tells much."​

It certainly is and certainly does!

When the Queen of England goes to visit the City she is met by the Lord Mayor at Temple Bar, the symbolic gate of the City. She bows and asks for permission to enter his private, sovereign State. During such State visits

"the Lord Mayor in his robes and chain, and his entourage in medieval costume, outshines the royal party, which can dress up no further than service uniforms."​

The Lord Mayor leads the queen into his city.

The symbolism is clear. The Lord Mayor is the monarch. The Queen is his subject.

The small clique who rule the City dictate to the British Parliament. It tells them what to do, and when. In theory Britain is ruled by a Prime Minister and a Cabinet of close advisers. These 'fronts' go to great lengths to create the impression that they are running the show but, in reality, they are mere puppets whose strings are pulled by the shadowy characters who dominate behind the scenes. As the former British Prime Minister of England during the late 1800s Benjamin D'Israeli wrote:

"So you see... the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes"​

(Coningsby, The Century Co., N.Y., 1907, p. 233).

This fact is further demonstrated by another passage from Menen's book:

"The Prime Minister, a busy politician, is not expected to understand the mysteries of high finance, while the Chancellor of the Exchequer is only expected to understand them when he introduces the budget. Both are advised by the permanenet officials of the Treasury, and these listen to the City. If they suspect that some policy of the government will back-fire, it is of no use their calling up British ambassadors to ask if it is so; they can find out more quickly from the City. As one ambassador said: "Diplomats are nowadays no more than office boys, and slow ones at that. The City will know. They will tell the Treasury and the Treasury will tell the Prime Minister."

Woe betide him if he does not listen. The most striking instance of this happened in recent history. In 1956 the then Prime Minister, Sir Anthony Eden... launched a war to regain the Suez Canal. It had scarcely begun when the City let it be known that in a few days he would have no more money to fight it; the Pound would collapse. He stopped the war and was turned out of office by his party. When the Prime Minister rises to address the Lord Mayor's banquet, he hopes that the City will put more behind him than the gold plate lavishly displayed on the sideboards."​


The British government is the bond slave of the "invisible and inaudible" force centred in the City. The City calls the tune. The "visible and audible leaders" are mere puppets who dance to that tune on command. They have no power. They have no authority. In spite of the outward show they are mere pawns in the game being played by the financial elite.

It is important to recognise the fact that two separate empires were operating under the guise of the British Empire. One was the Crown Empire and the other the British Empire.

The colonial possessions that were white were under the sovereign - i.e. under the authority of the British government. Such nations as the Union of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada were governed under British law. These only represented thirteen percent of the people who made up the inhabitants of the Britsh Empire.

All the other parts of the British Empire - nations like India, Egypt, Bermuda, Malta, Cyprus and colonies in Central Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong and Gibraltar were all Crown Colonies. These were not under British rule. The British parliament had no authority over them.

As the Crown owned the committee known as the British government there was no problem getting the British taxpayer to pay for naval and military forces to maintain the Crown's supremacy in these areas.

The City reaped fantastic profits from its operations conducted under the protection of the British armed forces. This wasn't British commerce and British wealth. The international bankers, prosperous merchants and those members of the aristocracy who were part of the "City" machine accumulated vast fortunes .

About seventy years ago Vincent Cartwright Vickers stated that :

...."financiers in reality took upon themselves, perhaps not the responsibility, but certainly the power of controlling the markets of the world and therefore the numerous relationships between one nation and another, involving international friendship and mistrusts... Loans to foreign countries are organised and arranged by the City of London with no thought whatsoever of the nation's welfare but solely in order to increase indebtedness upon which the City thrives and grows rich..."​

In "Empire of the City" E. C. Knuth said:

" This national and mainly international dictatorship of money which plays off one country against another and which, through ownership of a large portion of the press converts the advertisement of its own private opinion into a semblance of general public opinion, cannot for much longer be permitted to render Democratic Government a mere nickname. Today we see through a glass darkly: for there is so much which it would not be in the public interest to divulge."...​



The battle for power and riches is an ancient one, but any attempt to make sense of the present world situation where the bulk of humanity is being herded like sheep into a corral without some knowledge of history is a difficult if not impossible task.

At present names have been replaced by groups, capitalists, republicans, democrats, terrorists, corporations, NATO, UNO, NAFTA, EMI, ECB, ASEAN. Names that are spewed out like confetti in an endless list of anonymity.

In spite of modern technology the figures in the background remain blurred. Mention the word "Jew" or "Conspiracy" and everyone with few exceptions will turn away. Why? Fear? Of what? What is the magic talisman which makes the mention of these co-religionists a no-go area? Is it because they have infiltrated every aspect of human activity? Is it they who are pulling the strings which are leading the world on its downward slope?

The Jew has been mistrusted since way back. But what is apparent now is that any attempt to offer an answer to the question is clamped down upon. What does that indicate? Above all it indicates that these shadowy figures fear more than anything else the truth.

Professor Jesse H. Holmes, writing in, "The American Hebrew," expressed the following similar sentiments:

"It can hardly be an accident that antagonism directed against the Jews is to be found pretty much everywhere in the world where Jews and non-Jews are associated. And as the Jews are the common element of the situation it would seem probable, on the face of it, that the cause will be found in them rather than in the widely varying groups which feel this antagonism.

In Europe and Russia alone, the Jews have been banished 47 times in the last 1,000 years: Mainz, 1012; France, 1182; Upper Bavaria, 1276; England, 1290; France, 1306; France, 1322; Saxony, 1349; Hungary, 1360; Belgium, 1370; Slovakia, 1380; France, 1394; Austria, 1420; Lyons, 1420; Cologne, 1424; Mainz, 1438; Augsburg, 1438; Upper Bavaria, 1442; Netherlands, 1444; Brandenburg, 1446; Mainz, 1462; Lithuania, 1495; Portugal, 1496; Naples, 1496; Navarre, 1498; Nuremberg, 1498; Brandenburg, 1510; Prussia, 1510; Genoa, 1515; Naples, 1533; Italy, 1540; Naples, 1541; Prague, 1541; Genoa, 1550; Bavaria, 1551; Prague, 1557; Papal States, 1569; Hungary, 1582; Hamburg, 1649; Vienna, 1669; Slovakia, 1744; Mainz, 1483; Warsaw, 1483; Spain, 1492; Italy, 1492; Moravia, 1744; Bohemia, 1744; Moscow, 1891.


(The above is excerpted from The Synagogue of Satan by Andrew Carrington Hitchcock.)

Of what were these people guilty to arouse such a reaction from so many diverse people?
 

deneb

Well-Known Member
#92
2 toilets cost Planning Commission Rs 35L
Planning Commission, which is mired in a controversy over what constitutes the poverty line, has spent a whopping Rs 35 lakh for renovation of two toilets here, an RTI reply has revealed.

The Commission, which came up with a controversial poverty line figure of Rs 28 per day for an individual, has spent Rs 30 lakh for the renovation of the toilets on the lines of Indira Gandhi International Airport.

An additional Rs 5.19 lakh was spent on installing door access control system for the toilets at Yojana Bhawan.

The access control system will mean only those people who have been provided smart cards can use these swanky toilets.

"Cost of installation of Door Access Control System is Rs 5,19,426 for two toilets. Cost of renovation of two toilets where door access control system is installed is Rs 30,00,305," the reply to activist Subhash Agrawal said.

According to the RTI reply, 60 smart cards have been issued to the officials of the Planning Commission which have to be used to get access to the toilets.

The Commission had also decided to install CCTV cameras in the corridors leading to these toilets as the officials said there were instances of pilferage in the toilets.

Estimates have been sought from the CPWD.

Apart from the poverty line estimates issue, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had come under criticism after a newspaper, based on RTI reply, reported that foreign travel expense incurred by him between May and October, 2011 was a staggering Rs 2.02 lakh per day.

Another report said that he undertook 42 official trips (between June 2004-January 2011) of 274 days at a cost of Rs 2.34 crore.

Refuting the inferences drawn in the later editorials, Ahluwalia had said that foreign travels are necessary for discharge of official duties.

The Commission officials, in a note on renovation, had observed, "With the approval of JS (admn), CPWD(E) was requested to submit estimates for SITC for door access control system and CCTV cameras. However Executive Engineer CPWD(E) has forwarded estimates for installation of door access control system in two toilets (one each on first and second floor) RBI side, Yojana Bhawan."

"Things like disturbing/breaking of sanitary appliances are taking place frequently. It may not be out of place to mention that very high dignitaries visit Yojana Bhawan in connection with official work in addition to this non-official members of different committees visit Yojana Bhawan for attending meetings," the officials said in another note.

Disturbing of sanitary fittings or non functional sanitary fittings portray a very untidy picture of planning commission to the visiting dignitaries, it said.

Another noting proposing the upgradation of toilets last year shows that the two toilets to be renovated as a pilot project and after execution of work, decision on renovation of other toilets would be taken.

According to the note, it was desired that three other toilets of the Planning Commission may also be renovated on the same lines.
http://www.financialexpress.com/news/2-toilets-cost-planning-commission-rs-35l/958177/0

But planning commission says the toilets were upgraded for the public.

http://newindianexpress.com/nation/article537528.ece

So a person living on Rs 28 can use one toilet costing 17 Lakhs and benefit from a growing economy. What a plan by the planning commission
 

deneb

Well-Known Member
#94
“If you look at technology-driven growth industries over the past two centuries — steam engines, railroads, telephony, electric power, the Internet — people become too excited about growth and overinvest in it. When the bubbles burst, markets overcorrect on the downside, even though the fundamental growth drivers may still be as present as they were before. We love to find jewels buried amid the rubble after that kind of explosion occurs.”
David Nierenberg
 

deneb

Well-Known Member
#96
It makes sense to revive Air India
There has been much debate over infusion of taxpayer monies into Air India. Fine, but is there an option?

National carriers are ‘protected species' with sovereign governments going ‘all-out' to infuse billions of dollars to avoid bankruptcy. Emerging economies need strong national carriers for economic growth, tourism and trade.

Thai Airways, Malaysian, Qantas and Air New Zealand are all classic cases of government bail-out, clubbed with formal turnaround plans. Post 9/11, the US government committed $15 billion to bail out bankrupt carriers. What Air India is going through today is not at all uncommon!
Scope for turnaround

The Turnaround Plan will need to alter some fundamental parameters of Air India's operations, which will be challenging and frustrating. But, India's traffic potential gives a lot of leeway for Air India to get its act together; many of the global carriers would not have this luxury.

With less than 2.5 per cent of the Indian population travelling by air, ‘per capita trips' being just 0.05 (China is 0.3, US 2.1), with only 125 of the 450 airports functional and top 25 Indian airports accounting for 95 per cent of the passenger traffic, a huge potential for air traffic growth in India is clearly visible.

With Indian carriers expecting to order 1,300 aircraft in the next 20 years, Air India alone would possibly buy 200 aircraft, which leaves enough scope for Air India focus on its core ‘airline business' (and hive off non-core activities such as maintenance and ground handling ) and steadily improve its low staff productivity, without the need for immediate staff retrenchment.

Now, should Air India be bailed out, at any cost? With such growing traffic, the existence of five to six viable carriers is important. In the last seven years, the number of carriers has dwindled; Sahara merged with Jet, Air Deccan with Kingfisher, and Indian with Air India. Paramount is gone; Air India and Kingfisher have had serious flight disruptions, shrinking capacity — all of this resulting in increased air travel cost. Hence it makes sense for the government to go all-out to revitalise Air India, provided the ‘turnaround plan' is made workable.
Merger pains and gains

There is much talk about how difficult it is to merge Air India and Indian Airlines. Globally, airline mergers have proven to be effective for reducing costs, in spite of challenges. A number of merger integration models are also available.

In the case of US Airways' merger with America West in 2005, given the salary and cultural disparities, the two sets of pilots refused to operate aircraft that came in from other airlines, until the combined seniority list was agreed upon; this reduced operational flexibility for more than seven years.

It took more than two years for United and Continental to complete the merger integration process until which time independent operations under a combined leadership continued. In 2004, Air France and KLM took advantage of their merger to reap benefits of scale, in spite of vast cultural diversity; only the back-end is integrated. The front-end retains two respective brand identities, separate web sites and independently operating respective hubs in Charles De Gaulle, Paris and Schiphol, Amsterdam.

All mergers are frustrating, but have to be managed for synergies and economies of scale.

Implementing the Air India-Indian merger at the earliest is thus inevitable, irrespective of challenges involved. The government needs to bite the bullet now.

This will reduce cost, avoid duplications in aircraft, routes, staff, spares, office space, improve capacity utilisation and load factor, and provide bargaining power in terms of aircraft, fuel and insurance procurement. This is a ‘low hanging fruit' which should be seized upon.
Leadership factor

Mr Rohit Nandan is the fifth CMD of the carrier, in four years. Infusing funds without empowered leadership, free from political interference, is a waste of taxpayer resources. Air India needs focused leadership, more than anything else.

US Airways went into two successive bankruptcies within three years of 9/11 attacks; what turned it around by 2006 was the strong leadership of David Siegel and Doug Parker, who established the necessary trust with the pilots unions, negotiated salary cuts to the tune of $1.5 billion and successfully merged US Airways with America West.

Piyasvasti Amranand, an economist from London School of Business with no aviation experience, turned around Thai Airways when government infused a billion dollars in 2008, restoring the airline to record profitability by 2010, increasing share price ten-fold.

Air New Zealand merged with Ansett and subsequently slipped into bankruptcy during 2001, when the government nationalised it back and infused billions of dollars. Ralph Norris, a banker, successfully turned around the airline by 2005. Malaysian collapsed in 2005 when faced with severe competition from low-cost carriers such as Air Asia. Idris Jala, professional of repute working for Shell, turned around Malaysian by 2007, aggressively restructuring and taking Air Asia ‘head-on' in pricing. If Air India is provided with an empowered leadership, why can't it turn around?

A common thread in all the above successful turnarounds is gaining staff trust in negotiating staff compensation linked with productivity, entering ‘low cost' model directly or through a subsidiary, deploying technology to enhance Internet bookings, hedging fuel, all of which significantly reduces costs. These can be achieved only by a strong leader, not necessarily with aviation expertise.
staff productivity

Staff is a major contributor to any airline's success. With severe shortage in pilots forecast over the next ten years, nurturing them becomes critical.

Pilots also need to realise that unreasonable demands, holding the airline to ransom, would affect the very viability of the airline. Pilot unions in the US negotiated benefits so much in pilots' favour that eventually they had to forego a large part of it, when their airline entered bankruptcy protection.

Pilots should objectively negotiate compensation linked with productivity, in line with regional benchmarks.

Possibly, when an empowered leadership is in place, Air India employees may open up to ‘less pay-more work' type negotiations, realising that their compromise will make a difference to the airline's profitability; today they may not have that comfort factor.

Turnaround plans have helped global carriers become efficient; benchmarking with low-cost carriers, parameters such as load factor, yield and employee productivity have steadily improved. Clearly, it is the strong leadership that has been instrumental in successfully turning around carriers.

However, the financials of these carriers are still very sensitive; profitability is still minimal even at close to 80 per cent load factors, signalling that a minor drop in demand for air travel, due to whatever reasons, could spell catastrophe.

In spite of infusing capital, empowered leadership and effective turnaround, Air India may still be exposed to difficult times; after all, even the most efficient airline in the world, South West reported third quarter losses in 2011. The story thus does not just end with the infusion of Rs 30,000 crore, but the efforts, for sure, could strengthen Air India.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article3505436.ece
 
#97
It DOESN'T make sense to revive AI, it makes more sense to let it sink (where the passengers are concerned) and it it remain only in the name for the government servants to enjoy. It AI gets well, it will sink the private airlines including the badly mismanaged Kingfisher and the Parliament can never afford to disappoint Mallaya, can it ??
 

SavantGarde

Well-Known Member
#98
It DOESN'T make sense to revive AI, it makes more sense to let it sink (where the passengers are concerned) and it it remain only in the name for the government servants to enjoy. It AI gets well, it will sink the private airlines including the badly mismanaged Kingfisher and the Parliament can never afford to disappoint Mallaya, can it ??
AI was sunk through active collusion between private players, Aviation Ministry & AI management.....it should be revived at any cost...there is enough business for all existing players including 5 more...... in next 5 years....infact all collusions of so called Captains of the Industries should be ended....!!!
 
#99
AI was sunk through active collusion between private players, Aviation Ministry & AI management.....it should be revived at any cost...there is enough business for all existing players including 5 more...... in next 5 years....infact all collusions of so called Captains of the Industries should be ended....!!!
...and cost more tax money :mad: :mad:

Yesterday there was a TV report about how regular flights of AI were diverted for "VIP duties". Is this what we are paying for ?? To comfort the fat cats ??
 

deneb

Well-Known Member
In praise of performance
When a product that we buy lets us down with shoddy performance, many of us tend to react by complaining, and perhaps rightly so. But think about it. How often do we try to be vocal in our appreciation when we come across outstanding products?

My dad, a retired professor, now in his late seventies, took one such initiative in my childhood and in the process demonstrated to his five children the power of expressing gratitude.
Tears of Nostalgia

My elder sister had delivered her baby and was yet to be discharged from a hospital in Tuticorin where we lived then. A teenager, I was running errands, shuttling between home and hospital. Reaching our house, I was shocked to see my father sitting alone in a room, with tears trickling down his cheeks.

“What worries you dad ?” I walked up to him and asked. Pointing to something on the table, he said, “Worry ? Nay, my son. Sheer ecstasy on seeing that member of our house! “Member ? I see no one around, dad.”

I was concerned about his emotional state when he snapped, “You mean only the animate can qualify as members? What about that majestic vacuum flask sitting on the table? It has been with me through thick and thin.” He started pouring out as moisture laced his eyes.

“I bought this flask three decades ago. It has stayed with me through your mother's five deliveries. There were times when your mother or I or some relative who visited us took ill. Every time, this flask would be pressed into service and it would flawlessly dish out piping hot water, steaming horlicks or sizzling filter coffee.
New Body for the Soul

“Just before your sister's delivery, I noticed that the outer shell of the flask had rusted. I took it to a local store and the salesperson transformed it, replacing the outer tin sheet. In this new avatar, the flask has started to faithfully serve gen next.”

“I am sorry I didn't know its history, dad.”

“Ah, it is ok. I was just thinking of sending a letter of admiration on the tireless performance of this marvel to its manufacturer — of how it has stood by me for so long... Of how I managed to get a new body for its soul and so on...”
Glittering new arrival

Three months later, one fine day, when family members had gathered for a ceremony, our postman brought a registered letter and parcel for dad. My father opened the letter first. It was signed personally by the managing director (MD) of the flask manufacturing company. He had thanked my father profusely for the and added that the company had published it in its corporate magazine, a copy of which had been enclosed.

The MD went on, “As a token of our ‘thanks' to you, we have sent you our latest model of a stainless steel, two-litre flask. Please use this and give us your treasured feedback .”

My proud father unveiled the parcel and heartily welcomed a glittering new flask to our household, or rather, let me say one more new member to our family!
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/article3515924.ece
 

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