Recognising Somaliland would boost the fight against piracy

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Recognising Somaliland would boost the fight against piracy

Written by European Voice

 

Jun 16, 2011 at 06:02 AM

Attempts to tackle the scourge of piracy and keep the Red Sea open for merchant shipping.

On 6 June, Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign policy chief, spoke to the Asia-Europe Meeting in Budapest and, among other things, she touched on the situation off the coast of Somalia, pointing out that 500 people have been imprisoned for piracy off the coast of Somalia and saying that the solution to piracy “lies on land”. It does, of course.

 

With the decent of Yemen and the port of Aden into chaos and with a very real risk that it will become the preserve of fundamentalists, one of the world's most vital arteries has a distinct possibility of being cut.

 

So what to do? How can we help tackle the scourge of piracy and keep the Red Sea open for merchant shipping. Well, one simple way would be to recognise the country of Somaliland. A couple of weeks ago the peaceful democratic Islamic nation of Somaliland celebrated 20 years of independence. On the same day that Ashton was vapouring about things needing to be done, a Somaliland court put six pirates in prison for a total of 45 years.

 

Is it not time that this peaceful land was granted recognition by the international community? Not just because we morally should, but because it is in our interests to support the only part of that unhappy corner of the world that is looking forward to peace and prosperity?

 

Godfrey Bloom MEP

 

Brussels

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

[Taleexi]

Mr. Bloom's views are unpopular in the European circles. Recall his remark that lately removed him from one of the european sessions "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" - His views are hated by most of the member states as much as most Somalis hate the idea of a secession.

[Thankful]

Indeed Mr. Bloom is seen as a stone-age thinking individual when it comes to women's rights. His stone age thinking is obviously not only with women, which is why his views on secessionism in Somalia does not match what the British Government states.

 

UKIP MEP in row over working women

 

Godfrey Bloom

 

Godfrey Bloom: 'I am going to promote men's rights'

A Euro MP for the UK Independence Party has sparked controversy hours into his first day in the Strasbourg parliament.

 

Godfrey Bloom was given a seat on the European Parliament's women's rights committee on Tuesday.

 

But he told the media: "No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age."

 

A range of fellow politicians were outraged, saying his views were terrifying and outrageous.

 

Mr Bloom, an investment fund manager from York, told journalists he wanted to deal with women's issues because: "I just don't think they clean behind the fridge enough".

 

"I am here to represent Yorkshire women who always have dinner on the table when you get home. I am going to promote men's rights," he added.

 

 

 

After widespread criticism on his comments on Tuesday he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday his comments were "said for fun" to illustrate a more serious point.

 

He said equal rights legislation was actually putting women out of work, adding that MEPs had "little or no business experience" and did not understand the consequences of their actions.

 

He said: "It is no place of Brussels and Strasbourg to come in between an employer and an employee.

 

"They probably in quite good faith put in a piece of legislation which is designed to protect women in the workplace but what actually happens is it... writes them out of employment."

 

The original comments provoked a strong reaction from Labour Euro MP Glenys Kinnock, who said: "We know UKIP are Neanderthal in their attitudes, but it is absolutely terrifying that Mr Bloom can fly in the face of what we have worked and fought for, to establish equal opportunities and rights for women."

 

'UKIP time machine'

 

She said she will be keeping an eye on him: "He cannot strut around here saying things like that."

 

Liberal Democrat MEP leader Chris Davies said: "It looks like it is time for a ride back to the 1950s on the UKIP time machine, to the golden age of women's rights and opportunities.

Independence and Democracy is a new parliamentary group of hardline Eurosceptics

It rejects the EU constitution and the "centralisation of Europe"

It says it opposes xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and discrimination

"UKIP look set to prove themselves as a recruiting sergeant for the pro-European cause and all the measures taken by the European Union to promote equal opportunities."

 

The leader of the Party of European Socialists, Poul Nyrup Rassmussen, said Mr Bloom's remarks were "outrageous" and "absolutely unacceptable".

 

Mr Rassmussen added: "This is about equal rights. You cannot have the right to fire people because they are pregnant.

 

"It is not acceptable that employers should callously take account of whether women might get pregnant. We will be following up Mr Bloom's remarks."

 

Mr Bloom is one of 11 UKIP MEPs - a massive increase from the three MEPs the party had in the last European Parliament.

 

They joined 730 others from 25 nations at the parliamentary building in Strasbourg on the first day of this five-year parliament.

 

UKIP aim to bring "Britain back from Brussels" and ultimately want the UK to pull out of the EU altogether.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3912205.stm

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

^^ Thats not the topic adeer

[Thankful]

This is the topic!

 

The individual you quoted and placed his picture on a post is a man that has been criticized for thinking like it was the 1950s (colonial times).

 

Mr. Bloom is not a credible person because he holds views (like women rights) that are contrary to what British and the rest of Western world stance’s are.

 

Do you think a man with views on women, will be listened to on Somalia’s secessionism?

 

Simply put, Mr. Bloom does not think like it is 2011!

[Jacaylbaro]

Attack the messenger eh ??