Many here in Sri Lanka happen to think that the West is more moral and less corrupt than Sri Lanka. Yes, they appear to be moralistic with us poor folk in Asia and Africa. Thats because the money involved is peanuts and we are/were dependent on handouts. No different from the upper class in Sri Lanka who used to screw the female help and throw them out when they became pregnant. I am sure everyone knows of such family secrets. On the other hand the same upper class would deplore the "loose morals" of the poor.
Now we find that Germany and the UK are not willing to sanction Russia on its invasion into Crimea, because it will hurt their monetary interests.
Excerpts
one country that has the most to lose from Russian sanctions, Germany,
and specifically its industrial superlobby has already said "Nein" to
any truly crippling trade blockade of Moscow would backfire on Germany's
own economy and bottom line.
The White House has imposed visa restrictions on some Russian
officials, and President Obama has issued an executive order enabling
further sanctions. But Britain has already undermined any unified action
by putting profit first.
It boils down to this: Britain is ready to betray the United
States to protect the City of London’s hold on dirty Russian money. And
forget about Ukraine.
Britain, open for business, no longer has a “mission.” Any moralizing
remnant of the British Empire is gone; it has turned back to the pirate
England of Sir Walter Raleigh. Britain’s ruling class has decayed to the point where its first priority is protecting its cut of Russian money —
even as Russian armored personnel carriers rumble around the streets of
Sevastopol. But the establishment understands that, in the 21st
century, what matters are banks, not tanks.
The Russians also understand this. They know that London is a center
of Russian corruption, that their loot plunges into Britain’s empire of
tax havens — from Gibraltar to Jersey, from the Cayman Islands to the
British Virgin Islands — on which the sun never sets.
British residency is up for sale. “Investor visas” can be purchased,
starting at £1 million ($1.6 million). London lawyers in the Commercial
Court now get 60 percent of their work from Russian and Eastern European
clients. More than 50 Russia-based companies swell the trade at
London’s Stock Exchange. The planning regulations have been scrapped,
and along the Thames, up go spires of steel and glass for the
hedge-funding class.
Britain’s bright young things now become consultants, art dealers, private banker and hedge funders. Or, to put it another way, the oligarchs’ valets.
Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, gets it: you pay them, you own
them. Mr. Putin was absolutely certain that Britain’s managers —
shuttling through the revolving door between cabinet posts and financial
boards — would never give up their fees and commissions from the
oligarchs’ billions. He was right.
The Shard encapsulates the new hierarchy of the city. On the top
floors, “ultra high net worth individuals” entertain escorts in luxury
apartments. By day, on floors below, investment bankers trade
incomprehensible derivatives.
Come nightfall, the elevators are full of African cleaners, paid next
to nothing and treated as nonexistent. The acres of glass windows are
scrubbed by Polish laborers, who sleep four to a room in bedsit slums.
And near the Shard are the immigrants from Lithuania and Romania, who
broke their backs on construction sites, but are now destitute and
whiling away their hours along the banks of the Thames.
The Shard is London, a symbol of a city where oligarchs are
celebrated and migrants are exploited but that pretends to be a
multicultural utopia. Here, in their capital city, the English are no
longer calling the shots. They are hirelings.
The Shard encapsulates the new hierarchy of the city. On the top
floors, “ultra high net worth individuals” entertain escorts in luxury
apartments. By day, on floors below, investment bankers trade
incomprehensible derivatives.
Come nightfall, the elevators are full of African cleaners, paid next
to nothing and treated as nonexistent. The acres of glass windows are
scrubbed by Polish laborers, who sleep four to a room in bedsit slums.
And near the Shard are the immigrants from Lithuania and Romania, who
broke their backs on construction sites, but are now destitute and
whiling away their hours along the banks of the Thames.
The Shard is London, a symbol of a city where oligarchs are
celebrated and migrants are exploited but that pretends to be a
multicultural utopia. Here, in their capital city, the English are no
longer calling the shots. They are hirelings.
From:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-09/why-london-too-will-balk-sanctions-against-russia-and-putin-knows-it
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/opinion/londons-laundry-business.html?_r=2
Also Read
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/03/yanis-varoufakis-ukraine-three-awkward-questions-western-liberals-comment-eus-role.html
Addendum
A comment: Well, I do not believe that a few thugs will produce a grassroots
uprising but that there is a real dissatisfaction in the population
towards the corruption of the government. It represents a worldwide
trend that questions increasingly the decision makers who are not really
responsible (immunity) but ensure a comfortable lifestyle for
themselves while the rest of the people are increasingly struggling. We
see corruption left and right and the increasing concentration of power
has to reverse so that decisions are again made on the lowest possible
level of the hierarchy.
Contrary to the commenter, I think the last 50 years or so of history was an aberration, where the poulace had a say in the politics of their country. The oligarchs and industrialists initially did not know how to respond and keep control of the general populace. Now oligarchs and industrialist Worldwide have figured out mechanisms to grab control into their hands. Using laws and loopholes in laws which they "sell" to the general population as in for their own good power is consolidated in a few as in most of history.
A research article by Jayasumana et al (2014) proposes the cause for Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown etiology (CKDu) are chemical complexes formed by Glycphosate (RoundUp) when it combines with hard water and heavy metals in fertilizer.
