The power of Canterbury naval forces

Four reasons why Canterbury should secede

* the majority of people are gradually losing their rights
* the national economy is weak
* crime is out of control
* New Zealand cannot defend itself

Derivatives and tax havens

The 34 New Countries Created Since 1990

Jul 10 2011

Since 1990, 34 new countries have been created. The dissolution of the USSR and Yugoslavia in the early 1990s caused the creation of most of the newly independent states.

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Somewhere from a hangar tunnelled into the Southern Alps

Independence beckons for Scotland

Breaking up is supposed to be hard to do but Britain's government confirmed Tuesday it would happily offer Scotland the powers it needs to sever centuries-old ties to England.

Prime Minister David Cameron's government said it would sweep away legal hurdles to allow the Scots a vote on whether their country should become independent for the first time since the 18th Century Act of Union, which united Scotland with England to create Great Britain.

But in return, Cameron who opposes any breakup of the United Kingdom, which also includes Wales and Northern Ireland is urging Scotland to make its intentions clear "sooner rather than later." He claims investors are becoming increasingly wary of Scottish leader Alex Salmond's plans to delay a vote for several years, damaging Britain's economy.

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How Swiss Bank Accounts Work

James Bond enters a Swiss bank in Spain and is frisked before he can meet with the banker. In the "Da Vinci Code," a triangular-shaped key activates a robotic arm that pulls a safety deposit box from the wall in a Swiss bank in Paris to ultimately reveal the secret to Christianity. The funny thing is neither of these scenes would actually happen in a real Swiss bank. There is no such robotic system and, while Swiss banks do have security, they don't search their clients before letting them access accounts. Most of us have formed ideas about what Swiss bank accounts are and how they work based on scenes like these that we've seen in the movies, read in books, or maybe even heard in the news. In other words, most of us have a distorted or mostly unrealistic view of what it really means to have the prestigious Swiss bank account. Let's dig deeper into Swiss Bank Accounts and see how they started, who can have an account and unlock the mystery.

Swiss bank accounts aren't just for millionaires, criminals or government officials trying to hide ill-gotten wealth, or celebrities protecting their assets from former spouses. They're available to anyone and lots of average people have Swiss bank accounts. People who live in countries with unstable governments and banks in particular often turn to Swiss banks because of their security and privacy.

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Power of the Swedish Armed Forces - Swedish military video

Global Economy Could Endure Disaster For a Week

The global economy could withstand widespread disruption from a natural disaster or attack by militants for only a week as governments and businesses are not sufficiently prepared to deal with unexpected events, a report by a respected think-tank said.

Events such as the 2010 volcanic ash cloud, which grounded flights in Europe, Japan's earthquake and tsunami and Thailand's floods last year, have showed that key sectors and businesses can be severely affected if disruption to production or transport goes on for more than a week.

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Give us Men!

Give us Men!
Men-from every rank,
Fresh and free and frank;
Men of thought and reading,
Men of light and leading,
Men of loyal breeding,
The nation’s welfare speeding;
Men of faith and not of fiction,
Men of lofty aim in action;
Give us Men-I say again,
Give us Men!

Give us Men!
Strong and stalwart ones;
Men whom highest hope inspires,
Men whom purest honor fires,
Men who trample self beneath them,
Men who make their country wreath them
As her noble sons,
Worthy of their sires;
Men who never shame their mothers,
Men who never fail their brothers,
True, however false are others:
Give us Men-I say again,
Give us Men!

Give us Men!
Men who, when the tempest gathers,
Grasp the standard of their fathers
In the thickest fight;
Men who strike for home and altar,
(Let the coward cringe and falter),
God defend the right!
True as truth the lorn and lonely,
Tender, as the brave are only,
Men who treat where saints have trod,
Men for Country, Home- and God:
Give us Men! I say again- again-
Give us Men!

-Josiah Gilbert Holland

Switzerland of the Pacific

PORT VILA, Vanuatu — Hanging on the wall in the National Portrait Gallery in London is a valuable and historic painting whose real ownership is known only to a company in this sleepy town in the southwest Pacific.

A diamond tiara insured for $180,000 locked in a London bank vault also is nominally owned by the same, little-known trust company called the Melanesian International Trust Co.

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These quotes were taken from actual Federal (US) employee performance evaluations...

"Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom and has started to dig." "His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity" "I would not allow this employee to breed" "This employee is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definite won't be" "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap" "When she opens her mouth, it seems that it is only to change feet" "He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle" "This young lady has delusions of adequacy" "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them" "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot" "This employee should go far, and the sooner the better" "Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thing to hold it all together" "A gross ignoramus - 144 times worse than an ordinary ignoramus" "He certainly takes a long time to make his pointless" "He doesn't have ulcers, but he's a carrier" "I would like to go hunting with him sometime" "He's been working with glue too much" "He would argue with a signpost" "He has knack for making strangers immediately" "He brings a lot of joy whenever he leaves the room" "When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell" "If you see 2 people talking and one looks bored, he's the other one" "A photographic memory but with the cap over the lens" "A prime candidate for natural deselection" "Donated his brain to science before he was done using it" "Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't coming" "Has 2 brains, one is lost, the other is out looking for it" "If he were any more stupid, he'd have to be watered twice a week" "If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you'd get change" "If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean" "It's hard to believe that he beat out 1,000 other sperm" "One neuron short of a synapse" "Some drink from the fountain of knowledge, he only gargled" "Takes him 12 hours to watch 60 Minutes" "The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead"

Honest Swedish Army Commercial

You can run, but fewer places to hide tax

T HAS been a long, expensive and occasionally brutal war but as Project Wickenby enters its sixth year there are signs the federal government's much-pilloried multi-agency taskforce investigating the abuse of tax havens by rich Australians is beginning to scare people straight.

New figures show that for the first time since the multi-agency taskforce began operations in 2006, money has begun to trickle back from the secretive jurisdictions where it had been hidden away.

In 2010-11, the volume of funds flowing back to Australia from 13 major tax secrecy jurisdictions increased for the first time since 2007-08, the year the Australian Taxation Office uses as a baseline. Over the same period, flows to the havens slumped 22 per cent.

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Austrian Armed Forces

Muldoon tried to get US to mislead NZ public

The Government of the late Sir Robert Muldoon tried to persuade the United States to mislead New Zealanders on the extent of its commitment to defend the country under the Anzus alliance, confidential Australian papers reveal.
The 1983 Australian Cabinet papers, released by the National Archives, show that Sir Robert was afraid support for the alliance would be undermined if New Zealanders understood the limits Washington had placed on military support.
And while the then Secretary of State, George Shultz, had explained those limits "quite categorically" during talks between alliance ministers, both the US and New Zealand fudged the reality of America's position in the communique the Anzus Council issued.
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National Archives of Australia

A Brief History Of: Swiss Banks [Time Magazine]

Along with Chocolate and Cheese, Switzerland is synonymous with secrecy: it's long been known as a place to put your money if you don't like taxes or you commit crimes for a living. Not an entirely fair characterization, to be sure, but it's a safe bet that the decision by Swiss bank UBS to turn over the names of some accused tax evaders has a few of the world's richest criminals a bit nervous. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis.)
Switzerland's tradition of financial discretion goes back at least to the 17th century. In the wake of World War I, as many European currencies became unstable, the consistent (not to mention neutral) Swiss franc attracted depositors. After France, incensed by the loss of revenue, raided a Swiss bank's office in Paris and revealed the names on its accounts, the Swiss passed a law in 1934 making such disclosures criminal. Years later, Swiss banks both sheltered the assets of German Jews and accepted looted Nazi gold (and later set up a $1.25 billion compensation fund for Holocaust victims). Corrupt leaders ranging from the Philippines' Ferdinand Marcos to Nigeria's Sani Abacha have used Swiss banks to hide ill-gotten gains. (See the top 10 financial collapses of 2008.)

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