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If Jean-Claude Trichet was hoping for a statesmanlike send-off from the capital of his adopted country of eight years, the students of Berlin’s Humboldt University had other ideas.
In what may be his last public speech before his term at the European Central Bank ends, Mr. Trichet developed his idea for a tighter institutional structure in Europe, including a single European finance ministry–an idea that he first proposed four months ago in another German city, Aachen.
But the contrast with Aachen could hardly have been greater. Rather than deferential silence and rapturous applause, Mr. Trichet was met with heckling and aggressive questions about the ECB’s actions in Greece and its support of European banks.
Minutes after he started speaking, nine students stood up and silently unfurled large black-and-white banners that criticized the repeated bailouts of European states and banks. “Get the troika out of Greece,” read one, a reference to the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the ECB.
Moments later, another student loudly interrupted Mr. Trichet with a lengthy tirade about the iniquity of bank bailouts.
Mr. Trichet listened for a while before continuing determinedly with his speech, and the student was eventually silenced.
In Aachen, Mr. Trichet’s speech at the local University was met with respectful silence, and questions focused on his European achievements.
The different reception reflects growing public frustration in Germany at ever larger bailouts of troubled euro-zone states, as well as anger across the world against bailouts of financial institutions.
Half a mile away up Berlin’s chic Unter den Linden Avenue, German politicians in the Bundestag prepared to debate leveraging Europe’s rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility–a move that will increase risks for German taxpayers.
The question-and-answer session after Mr. Trichet’s speech was also lively. One female student tackled him on fiscal cuts in Greece. “Could you, Mr. Trichet, live with a wage of €470 a month after 10 or 12 hours of work,” she asked. “I know it’s a bit less than you earn.”
Another student received a storming round of applause for a question citing a sharp rise in Greece’s suicide rate since the start of the crisis.
Mr. Trichet defended the troika’s actions in Greece with reference to long-term growth and tackling youth unemployment.
“It seems to me that the right question is, are we creating prosperity for all the economy,” he said.
“Do you know that unemployment has decreased in Germany since the start of the crisis?” he added.
“You’re a liar,” shouted one female student.
“All that we do is directed to improve resilience and correct the anomalies that you are deploring and that we are deploring,” Mr. Trichet replied, and was rewarded with a round of applause.
GOMBAK: Some 40 students from various universities staged a protest within the International Islamic University (UIA) grounds tonight, condemning “persecution” against vocal academician Professor Abdul Aziz Bari.
Gathering at about 8pm in front of the UIA mosque, the students lighted up candles and held up papers printed “Mahasiswa tuntut kebebasan akademik” (students seek academic freedom) and “Bebaskan university daripada cengkaman politik” (free university from political stranglehold).
However, the university administration confronted the students when they attempted to march to the hall where Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was officiating at the “Piala Perdana Menteri” debate competition.
After negotiating for some 15 minutes, they were finally allowed to march a shorter distance in silence towards the hall, but were stopped from going near it.
The students then exited the campus compound and continued their protest at the university gates, this time shouting: “Hidup mahasiswa. Hidup ilmu. Hancur kezaliman!” (Long live the students, long live knowledge, down with cruelty!)
Speaking to reporters later, the spokesperson for the group, Muhammad Zaki Sukery, who is also the deputy president of Malaysian University Student Solidarity Movement (SMM), said the protest was held not only for Aziz.
“This is not just for the professor. Malaysia needs to be more open to freedom of knowledge,” said Zaki, a former student of the lecturer.
“Lifting his suspension is not enough; there is still the police investigation; his laptop was even seized. He is still under pressure. We have now asked Prime Minister (Najib Tun Razak) to intervene. Whatever Aziz did was within his rights and jurisdiction as an academic; he should not be undergoing this,” he said.
Two objectives
“We understand that Ikbal has handed the memorandum and the minister has promised to give it to the prime minister,” said SMM chairman Ahmad Syukri Abdul Razab.
Syukri said that the memorandum contained two objectives: urging the nation’s leaders to allow freedom to academicians and students; and urging that investigation on Aziz be dropped without conditions.
“No time limit is given. But we warn our nation’s leaders that they shouldn’t wait until we call the rakyat to rise up to protest with us in bigger numbers.
“We won’t hesitate and we already have the support of electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0,” said Syukri, who urged the authorities to reply soon.
Speaking to FMT, one student, who wished to be known only as Yuyuluna, said the government, and UIA were being unfair.
“Aziz Bari does not belong to UIA; he belongs to those who love knowledge. When he talks about the truth, and happens to side with the opposition’s stance, it is unfair that they bring him down just because they felt that they’ve been slapped,” she said.
“What about the professor who said that Malaysia was never colonised? He is a disgrace and he is the one who should be suspended. Aziz was just giving his comments. He has even criticised the opposition before,” added the 22-year-old Malay literature student.
No peace of mind
Another student, who declined to give her name, said: “Everybody has the right to voice his opinions and not be punished for it, especially an academic like the professor.”
Last week, Aziz was suspended from the university because of his comments in an article that appeared in Malaysiakini on Oct 12, saying that the Sedition Act 1948 does not criminalise anyone for making comments on a ruler’s decree.
The constitutional expert made the statement after ruler of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah, absolved the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (JAIS) of any fault in the latter’s raid on the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC) in August.
For his views, the university suspended him and served him with a show-cause letter. The suspension was lifted last night ahead of a visit by Najib to the university today.
Najib cancelled his visit today to attend the funeral of Saudi crown prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.
Last Friday, hundreds of university students held a rally in UIA in support of Aziz. They accused UIA of “violating academic freedom”, “being tyrannical” and attempting to please political forces.
Colleagues and lecturers from other universities have also backed Aziz.
The university has since lifted the suspension pending an investigation. Aziz has said the lifting of the suspension was “meaningless” as the damage has already been done.
He said that the police investigation and the action of his university had affected his peace of mind and ability to teach.
TERTIARY institutions are concentrating too hard on attracting revenue from foreign students but not providing support when they get here, says an immigration lawyer.
While education is a burgeoning export industry, there is not enough consideration given to whether students are suited to the courses in which they enrol, nor is there sufficient pastoral care for those in need, said Anne O'Donoghue, whose company, Immigration Solutions Lawyers, often represents foreign students who fall foul of authorities.
The legal firm has seen a sharp rise in students seeking legal advice about their studies that coincides with a government push to crack down on apparent breaches of study requirements.
TERTIARY institutions are concentrating too hard on attracting revenue from foreign students but not providing support when they get here, says an immigration lawyer.
While education is a burgeoning export industry, there is not enough consideration given to whether students are suited to the courses in which they enrol, nor is there sufficient pastoral care for those in need, said Anne O'Donoghue, whose company, Immigration Solutions Lawyers, often represents foreign students who fall foul of authorities.
The legal firm has seen a sharp rise in students seeking legal advice about their studies that coincides with a government push to crack down on apparent breaches of study requirements.
Ms O'Donoghue said education agents were part of the problem, as their loyalties lay with the institutions - primarily private providers - to boost numbers, rather than with the students.
''I have often found they've gone through an education agent to get the college in the first place but the education agent may not be looking at what will suit that particular individual, rather the colleges they represent. They may be doing courses that are totally inappropriate for them.
''Foreign students are worth quite a lot of money to the Australian economy and they should be rethinking whether if certain people are doing certain courses, whether they are suited to those courses.''
The government has focused attention on foreign students since the Knight review recommended tightening visa requirements. Discouraging people using study as a stepping stone to migration was a key to the government's response to the report in September.
The Immigration Department has cracked down on those not meeting their student requirements. More than 15,000 student visas were cancelled in 2010-2011, up from 9500 the previous year. The department said the figures included those ''who had departed Australia and no longer had active enrolment, however still had long validity on their visas''. The Migration Review Tribunal recorded increases in rejection of student visa requests.
"We were able to decrypt data by sending modified ciphertexts to the server, by gathering information from the received error messages,"Said the researchers. The discovered vulnerability can result possible leak of sensitive information and leaving number of major Web-based applications, ranging from business communications, e-commerce, and financial services, to governmental and military infrastructures in trouble.
"There is no simple patch for this problem. We therefore propose to change the standard as soon as possible,"The researchers say that there is no short-term solution and strongly recommend that the standard be updated.
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| GE Global Research Center |
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| Chocolatier Jacques Torres with many chocolates |
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| Oldest Fossil photograph from nytimes.com |
Telenor Pakistan has signed an agreement according to which it will
outsource part of its customer services operations to Sybrid. For the
purpose, Sybrid will establish a contact center in Islamabad which will
initially comprise 100 customer relations officers but with the capacity
to move to 500 depending on business needs. The agreement was signed by
Christian Albech, CEO Telenor Pakistan and Iqbal Ali Lakhani, Chairman
Lakson Group & CEO Sybrid at a local hotel today.
