India wants to protect itself from Pakistan, and Mr Brown fears a terrorist attack in his own country

India and Pakistan are closely linked to England : one belongs to the Commonwealth and the other is the motherland of the main community of immigrated people. However, after the Mumbay terrorist attack the 26th of November, the relations became very tensed, as police services had found a Pakistani membership of the attack after Mohammed Ajmal Amir Qasab, a Pakistani millitant who belongs to Lashkar-e-Taiba, had been captured. As Pakistan is neighbour to India, tensions arose rapidly. In fact, India refuses to acknowledge that the attack was only led by terrorist groups, and accuses directly its neighbour, which claims that it didn't have any link with this tragedy. But, it is good to precise that this quarrel already existed even before.

Thus, Prime Minister Gordon Brown flew to Pakistan and India to discuss about the situation with his homolgues. In fact, he gave £6 millions to Asif Ali Zardari (Pakistan's president) according to help the developpement of security in the country. Finally, we can say that the terror takes root there, and the need to secure is urgent, as it could end up with a war between Pakistan and India if the quarrel would reach an higher point...England is also worried about that, as the police service has under surveillance around 30 potential terrorist leaders and 2000 other suspects, all Pakistanies....

The terrorist attack of Mumbai could change England's immigration policy, as it could regulate exchanges and travels between Britain and Pakistan, according to have a better control of the situation and to guarantee security of both, and also India. It could be a translation of a real decrease of trust and thus, of economic exchanges. But, as India belongs to the Commonwealth, it cannot be a partner to left appart, on the contrary, England should secure Pakistan and seek for other terrorists in its own country to restablish relationships and calm down the tensions, and avoid a war, which could end up with nuclear bombs, as both India and Pakistan have it. The attack is an example of a growing terrorist network, as leaders now use different means to provide informations, and also, a better organization, as simple solidiers are trained in real camps, with recent weapons and new strategies (civil war strategy used in Irak and Afganisthan). It is a sign that this threat is ready to, maybe (but with a firm possibility), raise a veritable army and a very well developped network.

NB : It is also good to say that, few days after the attack, medias (especially in France) hid the fact that it was of Islamic nature...

Les tentions entre la Chine et la France sont toujours présentes

Les tentions entre la Chine et la France sont toujours palpables ... La Chine espère toujours avoir le "monopole" de la France, économiquement et politiquement parlant. Elle ne veut surtout pas que le chef de l'état français s'entretienne avec le Dalaï Lama, le "chef" du Tibet, leur meilleur ennemi.
Exprimant leur envie d'approfondir leurs relations avec la France, la Chine voit l'entretien entre les 2 chefs d'états, une sorte de trahison. Le porte parole du ministre des affaires étrangères chinois Liu Jianchao, espère que la France fera le bon choix quant aux décisions que la France prendra avec son homologue Tibétain. Il estime que la France a pris une position erronée. Je site : "En raison de la position erronée de la France, le peuple chinois est mécontent. Nous espérons que la France prendra une position correcte et fera le bon choix"
Le gouvernement appel au calme, cependant, des appels au boycott de produits français et des pétitions anti-Sarkozy ont commencé à circuler sur l'internet chinois.
Le relations entre la France et Pékin avaient déjà connues un bémol en Mars lors du boycott des produits de la chaine de distribution Carrefour très présente en Chine. Cette tension s'était apaisée cet été lorsque Nicolas Sarkozy était allé à la cérémonie des JO de Pekin.

La principale information que nous pouvons retenir de cet article, est le manque de tact de la Chine avec ses relations envers l'exterieur. Il nous montre aussi le manque d'envie de cette dernière de discuter avec le Tibet pour leur indépendance. La conséquence que cet entretien entre la France et le Tibet pourrait causer, serait de refroidir les relations entre la France et la Chine, déjà fragile. N'oublions pas que la France avait signé quelques contrats commerciaux avec la Chine pour la modique somme de 20 milliards d'euros. Certes il faut discuter avec le Tibet, et ce n'est pas parce-que la Chine nous menace que l'on devrait avoir peur, mais il faudra y aller avec le plus de diplomatie possible et ne pas rompre le dialogue avec la Chine ...

Le début d'une crise Mexicaine.

La crise financière qui a débuté aux Etats-Unis affecte désormais leur voisin, le Mexique. En effet, la hausse du chômage américain touche de nombreux immigrés mexicains, qui se voient alors contraints de retourner dans leur pays.

Selon "L'Institut des Mexicains à l'extérieur", plus de 600 000 émigrés mexicains aux Etats-Unis vont retourner au Mexique entre novembre et décembre, et peut-être plus de 900 000 à partir de janvier (chiffres contestés par L'institut national de migration). Sur les 12 millions d'émigrés mexicains aux Etats-unis, c'est donc pratiquement 10% d'entre eux qui retourneraient dans leur pays natal...

Mis à part le retour de nombreux émigrés, le Mexique va aussi faire face à un autre problème: en effet, les transferts d'argent des émigrés, qui sont la seconde source de devises du Mexique (environ 17.5 milliards de dollars de janvier à septembre 2008), vont aussi être affectés. Les Mexicains ayant perdu leurs emplois (plus d'un million) ne pourront plus faire parvenir de l'argent au pays, dont ces sommes font vivre un cinquième de sa population...

Suivant la tendance mondiale actuelle, le gouvernement Mexicain va mettre en place un plan d'environ 32 milliards de dollars pour soutenir l'emploi. De plus, pour faire face aux futures demandes d'emploi, le gourvenement compte sur le programme "Trois pour un", crée en 2002, où il fournit 3 dollars pour financer des entreprises à chaque dollar envoyé des Etats-Unis.

Nous pouvons retirer de cet article le fait que ,premièrement, le Mexique (14ème puissance mondiale) est toujours trop dépendant de son voisin Américain, et qu'une chute des USA entraîne systématiquement la chute du Mexique. Cet article nous montre aussi (une nouvelle fois) l'étendue mondiale et diversifiée de la crise financière qui a démarée en 2007. Il faut désormais espérer que le gouvernement Mexicain saura faire face à tous ses problèmes et que le Mexique ne tombera pas dans une grande crise financière tel qu'en 1995 car cette fois-ci, les USA ne seront pas là pour l'aider.

Liens:

   - Crise économique de 1995

UK, after banks' rescue, mortgage defaulters

Gordon Brown proposed a governmental plan to rescue mortgage defaulters : a mortgage insurance scheme.
People who are not able to pay their mortgage, because they've lost their jobs or because of a drop of income, could defer their interest payments for up to 2 years.
"The sum forgone by the banks would be added to the mortgage and have to be repaid when the holder's circumstances improved."
If people can't pay their interests after this time, the government would pay the interest deferred.
This plan will concern customers of HBOS, Abey, Natiowide,Lloyds TSB, Northern Rock, Barcklays, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC.
Gordon Brown also said that Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley would delay the repossession, which is "a standard practice anyway".

This plan seems to be a response to people's critics about rescuing plans. People, through government help, were paying the institutions who were the causes of the crisis. Now, people who were " victims of the system" are helped too. This would take a weight away of some customers shoulders, although, if they have more time to pay, they will have more interest to pay too. Opinions seem to be split over this policy : some people don't want to pay, after the banks, for people that "put themselves into debts", and some other are quiet happy with that, such as the Liberal Democrat party, who's saying that he proposed this policy months ago.
But what called my attention is that, as for the nationalisation of a few banks in Great Britain, this policy is state interventionism. According to what I know, the UK wasn't very 'used' to such interventionism. I think that this event, amid other similar ones, shows that a new economic system is slowly coming, or at least that changes in policy are taken. However, I think that in order to manage this change, people's minds and views have to change too, and this is more difficult and long than an economic restructure.

Electric cars' future is not what we hoped

At the basis, it was meant to be the solution to stop consumming petrol and save the environnement. However, we can see that the sales are not what constutors were expecting. In fact, the sales fell to a half this year. Only 156 from January to October. Last year, the sales reached 374 in Britain. But how can we explain that consummers are not very tempted to buy electric or hybrid cars ?

Electric cars offer lots of avantages. It makes praticaly no noise, consumms no petrol and doesn't pollute the environnement. It is the best vehicule we ever found which respects the environnement and the people. It is thus very attractive, but it isn't destinated to every consummers. In fact, is has more or less the profile to the city. As it rejects no carbon, it doesn't let durty black fume in the air or on the walls and the air is more breathable. As it is silent, it doesn't disturb people in their appartement, who were fed up to hear the big car of their neighbour once started up. Thus, it is the perfect model which is adapetd to the city, and it is secure as well, as the speed doesn't reach a lot. And the small size is very useful : you can park almost everywhere, and avoid trafic jam. But, in our society where we tend to suppress all cars of any sorts, does the electirc car has a future ?

In fact, cities have increased their interests towards public transports, the car doesn't have its place. With the rebirth of the tramway, like in Marseille and Dublin, people can move everywhere they want. Now, with the velib' (Paris, Aix en Provence, Marseille), it is easier go from a place to another, as long as you find an other station where to put it. Cities try to remplace the car by other means, as the population increases, they found good solution. Thus, cars, even electric, are not very welcomed in this project. We can take the example of London, where car parks are built outside the town to avoid trafic jam, polution, noise etc...

But, in the countysides and around the cities, where we have to take the car often to go to work for example, is could be a solution of developpement of the market of electric cars. In fact, the new tendency is to have a little car which we often take to do our daile trajec (bringing children to schools...) and either a sport car, a monospace or 4X4 for special occasions... We have to take it into accounted, as MG and Chrysler are in bad position, because they continuied to believe that they could build big big cars for ever...