Juarez needs more weapons

Post by **stilltrucking** » December 28th, 2009, 8:08 am

Post by **mtmynd** » December 28th, 2009, 9:14 am

Interesting. I had no idea Switzerland was so well-armed. They're very quiet about that fact, I guess.

In Mexico if a soldier got to keep his rifle, more than likely he couldn't afford bullets. Beans before bullets.

Post by **stilltrucking** » December 28th, 2009, 12:34 pm

I thought it was a crock of shit.
Yeah he was impressed by the holocaust museum. Was he impressed with the way his country played footsie with the N*zi's during world war two or how they turned away the refugees fleeing the holocaust or hid the billions of dollars of N*zi gold.
I don't think those guns are the reason for their low crime rate. They are a rich country with an excellent social services network in place.
Sorry I was being sarcastic. I should have used an emoticon or something.

Nazi Gold, Jewish Accounts, and Swiss Banks
Dateline: 07/23/97

For several months, the controversy over Switzerland's role in World War II has raged in the media, among people, and between nations. Questions have been raised concerning dormant Swiss bank accounts, Nazi gold, and loot acquired during the Third Reich.

Refugees
Beginning in September 1939, Hitler swiftly conquered country after country within Europe. By June 1941, Switzerland's neutrality became a beacon of hope. Increasingly severe restrictions and persecution of Jews caused many to search for safety. Thousands of Jews tried to hide themselves as well as their money in Switzerland.

As Jews reached Switzerland's borders they were turned away. It had become easy to recognize Jewish passports since Germany had begun affixing German Jewish passports with the letter "J" for "Jude" ("Jew" in German) in 1938. The Germans did this at Switzerland's request for an easier way to identify Jews coming to its borders. Though Switzerland did accept 65,000 civilian refugees, tens of thousands were turned away.

In the summer of 1942, when the mass deportations had begun taking millions to their deaths in camps, Switzerland closed its borders completely to all refugees. Though contemporary views of this action question Switzerland's intentions, Switzerland was not the only nation to close their borders to Jews during the war and the United States and Great Britian are prime examples.

Nazi Gold and Loot
During the war, the Nazis stole gold, jewelry, and other valuables from the millions of Jews they murdered. The Germans needed a way to place these commodities in the international market so that they could use the money they received in exchange for their war effort. The Swiss helped facilitate the exchange in addition to holding Nazi accounts. Many speculate that some of the gold that the Swiss accepted were the dental gold and wedding rings taken from Jews at the camps.

Bank Accounts
Many Jews never physically attempted to reach Switzerland, but attempted to protect their money by opening Swiss bank accounts. Many Jews who opened these accounts perished in the Holcocaust.

There are many survivors who remember that their parents opened accounts, but they don't know the account numbers nor have any paperwork concerning the accounts, so they were turned away from the banks after the war. Some banks requested death certificates of the account holder before they would allow the survivors to access the money. This was a completely unreasonable request since millions were murdered in the Holocaust with no official record of their deaths.

For several decades after the war, individual survivors petitioned and requested information about these accounts with little to no success. In 1974, the Swiss announced that they found 4.68 million Swiss francs in dormant accounts. This money was divided between two Swiss relief agencies and to the Polish and Hungarian governments.

In 1996, U.S. Senator Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY) brought the subject of the dormant accounts to the U.S. government's attention, and hearings were started to unearth the truth about the survivors' claims. Pressure from the United States has angered the Swiss, who feel that this is an attack upon their reputation for the benefit of U.S. banking agencies.

The questions concerning the morality of the Swiss during the war came into the public limelight when a security guard at a Swiss bank noticed on January 14, 1997 a pile of documents pertaining to Nazi and wartime accounts waiting to be shredded. The Swiss claim that these were of no interest to the hearings.

On January 29, 1997, the city of New York considered boycotting Swiss banks. Eight days later, three Swiss banks announced that they would create a humanitarian fund of 100 million Swiss francs (U.S. $70 million).

Since most of the Jews who opened these accounts were killed, there are no accurate figures about how much money Jews really placed within the Swiss banks. Jewish organizations believe there could be billions, while the Swiss have only uncovered several million.

Most recently, in June, the Swiss government announced that it would establish a $5 billion humanitarian foundation.

But what about the survivors of the Holocaust whose families' entire fortunes were stored in Swiss accounts? As of July 23, 1997, the Swiss have produced a list of dormant accounts that will be accessible to the public. Any person with a valid claim on these accounts will go through an accounting firm and then an international panel will decide whether or not there is reasonable evidence to award the claims.

For the list of dormant accounts, please visit http://www.dormantaccounts.ch

Post by **mtmynd** » December 28th, 2009, 1:24 pm

oh, great... should i continue eating swiss cheese? the dilemmas in my life. geez... or should i say cheese...

damn, i had no idea of their track record back in WWII. keep that eagle eye out, Jackson... we need folks like you to keep things straight. most of us are NOT historically inclined as you... at least i'm not. history was my failure back in high school... my F sent me to summer school. my ego was crushed. but i do enjoy the history channel and historic movies.

(i came back after Soo noticed I needed a 'not' where it is now. is that Freudian or what? )

Post by **stilltrucking** » December 28th, 2009, 1:41 pm

I think one the greatest blessings a child can find is a teacher who loves to teach, who likes kids, and is truly passionate about his subject

Mr. Waskow, Patterson Park High School 1959 my history teacher was one such man.

USB the Swiss bank has been in the news lately. I think they just paid a five hundred million dollar fine to the U.S. Government for some tax evasion scheme. A slap on the risk. And USB also tied into the banking fiasco, Phil Gramm from Texas got some law passed for them when he was a U.S. Senator paved the way for the disaster.

Oh well. History is fun to me. As Santayana said those of us who remember it are doomed to repeat it.

Meanwhile everything is as it should be, we are all flowing towards Vela.

Lots in the San Antonio Express News yesterday about Juarez.
I have not read it all yet. Let you know if I find anything interesting

Post by **mtmynd** » December 28th, 2009, 3:57 pm

You're absolutely right on about the teacher thing. I had a college prof, English, who complimented something I had written... told me I should consider being a writer. When a student hears something positive about something they do or have done, I behooves a teacher to compliment that student. No telling what they'll do with it.. hopefully good.

Phil Gramm... now there's perfect example of a Republican... firm believer in money... at any cost. Texas sure has some gems when it comes to thieves and liars in the political arena.

Yup, JT, I know you do enjoy history. A good thing... to enjoy is to love and to love is to live. I don't know who said that, but I'm sure somebody besides myself said it.

Everything is as it should be, is right... in the final analysis there is nothing to complain about. By the time we express our complaint, the damn problem is long gone and something new pops up to rile the crowd.

Post by **stilltrucking** » December 28th, 2009, 7:21 pm

So many Buddhist websites have links about Nietzsche but I am clueless to Nietzsche's views on Buddhism or Hinduism, he seems to put it down to nihilism. But that may not be so. It maybe just my misreading of him. But it seems to me there is something very helpful to see the ying yang. What I don't know is if duality is just a function of our brains. Something we are wired to see. I do believe there is a non duality but I can't get to it from here. Or at least I can not write about it.

"The human brain not only can hold two contradictory ideas at the same time but insists on it." Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Not sure if I have just wandered all over the place or if I have connected some dots. I call it my Faust syndrome, wanting to connect dots.

Or as Vonnegut put it

Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, "Why, why, why?"

Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand

New problems are sometimes just the same old problems.

The fall of the Ottoman Empire after WW I. Defunct almost a hundred years and we ae still dealing with the fall out in the middle east, in eastern Europe and else where.

Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Juarez needs more weapons

Juarez needs more weapons

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