A year ago. It was a historic visit. It's a shame, if we're honest, how awful the coverage was. It wasn't noting the historic moment or what it emant for the people. Yes, you had VACTICAN NEWS and some Catholic outlets who di cover the purpose of the visit and the response to the visit Pope Francis made to Iraq. But you also had a western corporate media, especially within the US, that couldn't cover reality because they were too busy moralizing.
What do they teach at journalism school? Or are the students just all that stupid?
Iraq's most recent president Barham Salih Tweets:
Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) observes:
Pope Francis has changed the Iraqi public’s perception of Christians, the head of Iraq’s Catholic Church said, a year after the pontiff made a historic trip to the country.
Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans and head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, told The National the level of respect towards Christians has increased immensely since the Pope’s visit.
“The visit was a blessing for Iraq and a point of change, as Iraq finally opened up to the world,” Cardinal Sako said.
“I have to be honest with you, it has changed the way ordinary people think and their perceptions about coexistence among different religions in Iraq has shifted for the better.”
More Iraqis have started to accept the concept of diversity, he said.
“We barely hear that someone saying, 'this person is a Christian or a Muslim,'” Cardinal Sako said in a phone call from Baghdad.
The visit by Pope Francis sent a message of encouragement to not only his 1.3 billion followers but to those Iraqis attempting to recover from the extremist rule of ISIS and those growing disillusioned with their government.
Right now, there's a push to censor this and that. RT is only one example. We don't need censorship. If Americans had to depend solely on the US meida, we'd be the most pathetic and uninformed people in the world.
You will not catch any of the US outlets -- which seemed hellbent on derailing the Pope's visit last year -- publishing an anrticle like THE NATIONAL did today.
They also aren't interested in the ongoing corruption in Iraq -- corruption due to the government and the system the US government installed. EUROPEAN VIEWS notes:
Bribing public officials, paying kick-backs to fixers, and financing slush funds. What reads like an indictment of some prolific crime syndicate is in reality a summary of the recent allegations of misconduct levelled at telecom giant Ericsson and its actions in Iraq.
For the last few weeks, Ericsson has been hard at work to stem the reputational bleeding. In a recent interview given to the financial publication Dagens Industry, CEO Börje Ekholm appeared to come clean by admitting that payments intended to secure access to transport routes may have gone to “terrorist organisations, including ISIS”.
However, more revelations from an investigation conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) – the ‘Ericsson List’ – have ensured that the spotlight remains firmly on the Swedish telecom firm. Having analysed leaked internal company documents, the ICIJ established that the payments referenced by Mr. Ekholm, amounting to around $171,000, were in reality bribes paid to ISIS militants.
In response to these most recent revelations, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) notified Ericsson on Wednesday that they breached the terms of their Deferred Prosecution Agreement for a second time. News of the DoJ’s move further fanned the flames of the crisis engulfing the company, whose stock value plummeted by around 13% in a single day.
In the corrupt state, the political stalemate continues. RUDAW reports:
Iraqi parliament voted on Saturday to reopen registration for
presidential candidates days after the country’s federal court called
off a similar decision by the legislature.
Iraq held parliamentary elections on October 10 but the political
parties failed to elect a president for the country on time due to
strong rivalry between Kurdistan Region’s ruling parties over the
position. After the Federal Supreme Court removed the Kurdistan
Democratic Party’s (KDP) candidate Hoshyar Zebari last month over
corruption allegations, the parliament presidency reopened doors for
candidates. This time, the KDP fielded the Region’s interior minister
Reber Ahmed but the same court ruled on
Tuesday the reopening of registration “unconstitutional” on the grounds
that the decision was not made by majority of MPs but by the
parliamentary speaker.
The parliament convened on Saturday. The session was attended by 265 MPs, according to a statement by the legislature which added that 203 MPs voted in favour of the reopening of registration for presidential candidates.
The registration begins on Sunday, lasting for three day, the parliament said later.
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