Friday - April 28, 2006

Down And Out In Paleswine

They already hate our guts. They celebrated in the streets on 9/11. I want to know how they are going to have “increased hostility toward the West” and what gives these cretins the right to demand money from us? How on Earth did so many stupid people gather together in one spot? These jerks have bitten the hand that feeds them over and over again. They stir up trouble wherever they go. Even the Arab world has little use for the Paleosimians other than as a spear aimed at Israel. Human vermin is what they have always been and will always be. Time to call Orkin ....

Palestinians Making Do With Less in Crisis
_{April 27, 2006, 7:06 PM EDT}

NABLUS, West Bank (AP)—Buying on credit. Selling gold dowries. Giving up tobacco and other small pleasures. With their salaries weeks overdue and savings depleted, Palestinian families are finding creative ways to survive the Hamas-led government’s deepening financial crisis. Even banks and utilities are helping out by allowing customers to overdraw accounts or pay bills late.

Experts warn that a dire economic crisis is looming. “This month, no one paid me,” said Kifayeh al-Ashkar, 40, who cleans houses for government workers in Nablus. “The government can’t pay the salaries of its workers, and the workers can’t pay me.” She said she now feeds her four children plain rice, and has been forced to beg for handouts of milk.

The financial crunch follows the January legislative election victory of Hamas, an Islamic militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction. After the new government was sworn in last month, the Palestinian economy, already battered by five years of fighting with Israel, took a turn for the worse. Western donors who accuse Hamas of supporting terrorism cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, and Israel suspended monthly payments of tax money it collects for the Palestinians.

Without these funds the government is broke and unable to pay its 165,000 salaried workers. No one got paid April 1, and the next pay day is less than a week away. “Life has changed drastically. I don’t know how to manage,” said Elham Yassin, 48, a teacher in Asira, a village near Nablus. Yassin, a mother of seven, earns $500 a month, while her husband, also a teacher, makes about $550. She said the family got a loan from her sister and is subsisting on bread, hummus, yogurt and other inexpensive staples.

“I don’t know where things are going. We don’t have any savings. I’m afraid for the future of my family,” she said. The Palestinian Authority is the largest employer in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the loss of these salaries has rippled throughout society. “This money has played the role of a lifeline to the economy,” said Samir Abdullah, a Palestinian economist.

With so many people living on credit, he said, “We will see people on the streets very soon.” He also predicted increased hostility toward the West, public unrest and even renewed fighting with Israel if the situation continues much longer.

- More on this story at NEWSDAY ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 04/28/2006 at 04:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Paleswine •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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