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Soros and Me?

Alex S. Gabor | 26.11.2005 04:14 | Anti-militarism | Globalisation | Social Struggles

Does George Soros support electing a woman President in 2008? These and other questions are raised by political activist and pundit Alex S. Gabor as he contemplates directing a new documentary on George Soros, his Hungarian nemesis.

Soros Sorry Shirt
Soros Sorry Shirt


Michael Moore did Roger and Me. So I was thinking....

A best-selling author and investigative reporter says it is clear that Left-wing billionaire George Soros is dedicated to helping Hillary Clinton ride into the White House in January 2009 and change America into the socialist utopia they both crave. Is that true?

Richard Poe, managing editor of the David Horowitz blog known as Moonbat Central, claims George Soros is a megalomaniac who is absolutely obsessed with obtaining power and who, after failing to defeat George W. Bush in 2004, has already hitched his wagon to Hillary Clinton's star in anticipation of the 2008 presidential race. If that is the case, where is the evidence of it?

"Soros has financed an elaborate network of nonprofit groups and get-out-the-vote groups and think tanks," the author asserts, "all of which revolves around Hillary and is dedicated to a Hillary presidency. So that's what we're being set up for -- a new America, a new society in the mode of Hillary Clinton and her ideas about the world, says Poe.

But no evidence of any funding toward a Clinton Presidency can be located by this author so it would seem the argument is moot.

The liberal financier's objective is to "remake the world according to his utopian ideas that he has written about in his books," Poe contends. He says Soros and Mrs. Clinton have been aligned for years, even "during -- from the Clintons' point of view -- the darkest days of the impeachment process." All this according to Chad Groening.

Lately I discovered that Soros invested some money in the stock of Halliburton. This is very puzzling to me. Why would a socialist liberal leaning leftist lay any money on a company so heavily involved in profiting from wars?

It was reported by Asbury Park Press that Billionaire George Soros's hedge fund Soros Fund Management LLC bought shares of the world's largest oilfield-services contractor on November 20, 2005.

This information was overshadowed by the mainstream media when it was headline business news that Soros had invested in several high technology firms including Amazon and Microsoft.

There are few people that blur the lines between politics, finances, and philanthropy so ambiguously as George Soros. Naturally, this ambiguity—plus his heavy criticism of George Bush—has made Soros a global figure of controversy.

Born in Budapest, Hungary on August 12, 1930, he left his communist homeland in 1947 after surviving Nazi occupation in World War II.

Relocating in England, he graduated from the London School of Economics (LSE) where he was profoundly influenced by philosopher Karl Popper, from whom Soros developed his own concept of “open society.”

This concept is, according to Soros, central to all his political and philanthropic activities although there are many who suspect whether this is true or whether it is merely a mask for more selfish aims.

Soros Investment Capital Management LLC is the investment advisor to Soros Investment Capital, Ltd., a USD 200 million investment fund sponsored and managed by affiliates of Soros Fund Management LLC, a global investment management organization associated with George Soros, and supported by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a U.S. government agency.

The Fund was organized in November 2000, and its geographic scope was extended to include the Caucasus in September 2002.

Subsequently, the Fund has established offices in Tbilisi and Baku. The fund seeks to invest in equity or equity related securities of privately-owned or privatizing companies operating in the Caucasus, Turkey, and Balkans with the objective of generating capital gains on its invested capital.

According to Nika Kavelashvili, Vice President and Country Director, "the Fund will invest in a commercially oriented and socially responsible manner, and will seek to contribute to the expansion of private sector commercial activity in the region.

"The fund will invest opportunistically throughout the region in a broad range of industry sectors, prioritizing business strategy and quality of management and focusing on investment opportunities that offer clear exit scenarios and a potential for achieving capital gains."

George Soros last Saturday said there was no alternative other than independence for Serbia's province of Kosovo, but it should also ensure the future and the status of its minorities.

Soros was on a three-day visit to Albania during which he was also awarded Tirana city hall's "Honored Citizen" medal for his contribution to improving Albania's education and infrastructure.

"It is really high time to settle the status of Kosovo. My personal opinion is there's no alternative but to give Kosovo independence. But there have to be conditions to ensure the future and the status of the minorities in Kosovo," Soros said at a news conference.

Kosovo, considered by the Serb minority to be the cradle of their statehood and religion, has been run by the U.N. since 1999, when NATO bombing halted a Serb crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians.

The province is entering a delicate phase with talks on its future political status, U.N.-sponsored negotiations on whether the province becomes independent or remains a self-governing part of Serbia.

The U.N. envoy to mediate talks on Kosovo's future, Finland's former President Martti Ahtisaari, was expected to visit Kosovo and Belgrade next week and move to Austria next month to start the talks.

"I think it would be difficult to find a better man for the purpose," Soros said of Ahtisaari.

Soros also was optimistic about Albania's future and its institutional development, though fighting organized crime and corruption were among its top priorities.

"There's always the danger of political interference in the judiciary and that needs to be resisted and needs to be very carefully watched," he said.

Since its opening in 1992, the Soros Open Society Foundation has spent some $48 million on projects in Albania aimed at improving governance, reforming institutions, enhancing opportunities for youth and fostering a better environment for business development.

Separately, Soros has earmarked $57 million for projects specifically for improving education in Albania.

During his recent visit to Albania, Soros met with Prime Minister Berisha to discuss the Albanian Government participation in the process of “brain return” to the country.

Berisha said that the aim of the Government is to bring the people who got educated and qualified abroad back to the country. On his side, Mr. Soros expressed his interest in this project and reassured Prime Minister Berisha about future support on this issue.

Berisha and Soros also discussed the initiatives related to the fight against corruption in the Albanian Government. Prime Minister Berisha emphasized the efforts that the Government will undertake in order to have a functional and uncorrupted administration.

Soros advised the Prime Minister to pay attention to avoid these efforts turning into acts of political vengeance, but to make them real solutions that would hit the corruption in all areas where its existence was proven and documented.

Why would anyone so interested in helping expose government corruption support and invest in as corrupt as they possibly could come, the American corporation Haliburton?

Asked why Beijing had halted plans to let foreign newspapers print in China, Shi Zongyuan, the country’s top press regulator, did not mince his words. “When I think of the ‘colour revolutions’, I feel afraid,” he said.

Mr Shi is far from alone in his concern. Since popular protests toppled the authoritarian government of Georgia in 2003, Chinese leaders and government academics have watched with increasing concern the copycat collapse of similar regimes in Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

Many in Beijing now see the “colour revolutions” – so-called because of the colour and flower symbols adopted by protesters – as a phenomenon to rival the 1989 collapse of communism in Europe and a potential threat to the survival of China’s ruling Communist party.

Chinese analysts suggest that repeated calls by George W. Bush, for the global promotion of democracy have fuelled such revolts and, with Bush stressing the theme again in Japan, it was likely a hidden subtext to his visit to Beijing.

The official People’s Daily recently railed against US media for shaking the “ideological mindsets and cultural foundations” of other countries by exporting US-style values of “freedom and democracy”. This may be "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" all over again.

Officially favoured Chinese academics insist that the US uses such values to undermine unsupportive governments. A recent edition of the party publication Foreign Theoretical Trends said the US had been using “street politics” to push western interests, and warned that Washington was seeking to promote colour revolutions throughout the world. “Facing US cultural hegemony’s assaults and infiltration, we must be serious and vigilant,” said contributor Gong Shuduo. Certainly CIA covert involvement in toppling foreign governments is nothing new.

Such calls have been heeded. In an unambiguous warning to liberal-minded officials, in August the Communist party announced strict rules to defend “national cultural security” by limiting foreign involvement in the media market.

This past week, Mr Shi, head of the General Administration of Press and Publication, told investigative reporters that Beijing had suspended plans to allow foreign newspapers to print in China because of the role of international media in the colour revolutions. It would appear that there are hundreds if not thousands of CIA agents planted within many international media organizations but none of them can be named lest they be prosecuted for threatening national security.

But for Beijing, the lessons of the colour revolutions reach much further. Academics suggest international media have been only one arm of a broad US campaign to back opposition movements that also involves the Central Intelligence Agency and non-governmental organisations.

Concern about the role of overseas-funded non-government organisations, in particular, has quickly permeated many levels of interaction between China, foreign governments and individuals. Domestic media were ordered not to report on a visit to China last month in October by George Soros, the hedge-fund billionaire whose Open Society Institute and related foundations have made scores of grants to NGOs in eastern Europe and elsewhere.

Such foundations may actually be funded not only by Soros himself but his apparently (it appears to be that way) savvy investments in the currency markets backed by such luminaries as the Rothschilds and other prominent clients of his Soros Fund Management Company headquartered in a tax haven territory.

Some Chinese reporters had said that propaganda officials banned the broadcast of television interviews with Mr Soros and ordered newspapers to ignore his trip. Beijing made an exception for one piece of news about Mr Soros – allowing the media to report that he had increased his shareholding in locally listed Hainan Airlines.

Many years earlier Soros was blamed for the financial crisis in Asia and a decade after that he lost several billion on his bets in Russia. Where and how does he get all this money? That is what many people would probably like to know. There are the official reports, but then again, his many books and articles do not truly reveal anything that can be clearly fathomed by the common man on the street.

Hundreds of protesters held a peaceful demonstration in Tbilisi on November 23 to protest against the Rose Revolution, which brought into power President Saakashvili two years ago.

The public demonstration was organized by the Justice Party, which is led by ex-security chief of Georgia Igor Giorgadze, who is wanted for a failed terrorist attack against ex-President Shevardnadze, as well as by a newly formed Anti-Soros movement. The latter was set up in October, as founders said, to resist “expansion” of ideas promoted by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, which, as they put it, “threaten the Georgian nation.”

A group of supporters of late Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia also joined the demonstration.

Meanwhile, later on November 23, 2005, thousands more citizens gathered on Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi to celebrate the second anniversary of the Rose Revolution at the show outside of Parliament. Visiting Presidents of Estonia, Romania and Ukraine, as well as Georgian President and other governmental officials also attended the show.

Just recently, George Soros called for governments in Central and South East Europe to take action on an initiative to end discrimination against Roma, Europe`s largest minority.

The initiative, called the Decade of Roma Inclusion, was endorsed by nine governments at its launch last February and represents an unprecedented international effort to ensure that Roma have equal access to education, housing, employment, and healthcare.

The first steering committee meeting was held more recently since Romania assumed the Decade`s rotating presidency.

Each of the countries participating in the Decade, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovakia, has drafted individual action plans developed in cooperation with Roma leaders and civil society. However, much remains to be done to make the Decade a reality.

"There is a deep level of distrust between Roma and the wider populations," Soros told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the two-day meeting. "Stereotypes will persist as long as there is an underclass."

"In France there is a society that is ripped (apart) by segregation, poverty and hatred. In America, (Hurricane) Katrina exposed to the whole world the terrible divisions in American society," he said.

He said the most serious problems were in Slovakia, partly because the government there is less active on the issue.

"I appreciate the huge challenges governments face in garnering public support for the Decade," said George Soros, chairman of the Open Society Institute, which helped develop the Decade. "But talking about reform is not enough.

"With Romania's leadership, the Decade countries must take concrete steps toward making the Decade a force for change in the region for the benefit of all society as well as for the millions of Roma who are locked out of opportunities to create a better life for themselves."

Soros praised the participating governments and urged them to do more in implementing the Decade action plans and allocating the necessary resources in state budgets. He also underscored the need for Roma themselves to be involved in steering the Decade's course.

Other participants at the meeting included Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, Shigeo Katsu, the World Bank's Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia Region, Anne de Ligne, Head of the Phare Section of the European Commission delegation in Romania, representatives of the participating governments, and those of the European Commission, the United Nations Development Programme, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, the European Roma Information Office, the European Roma and Travelers Forum, the Council of Europe Development Bank, and Roma civil society leaders from the Decade countries.

It would appear from all reports that Soros is very "plugged in" to the highest levels of the global government pyramid.

Soros, whose Open Society Institute has spent some $70 million on programs aimed at combating discrimination against Roma, pledged continued financial support for the Decade, but emphasized that the participating governments must be accountable for its success. "The creation of the Decade shows that the political will exists to change the lives of Roma in Europe," said Soros. "It is the governments' responsibility, however, to translate the Decade goals into meaningful reform."

So it seems that everywhere Soros sows his seeds of an open society he stirs up something that riles the people out of some sort of apathy when it comes to politics and economic reform, yet is the world any different today after his billions have been spent?

How open are Soros and his hundreds of various international "non-governmental" organizations he helped organize around the planet?

Sadly, Soros smells of a stinky shady shadowy secret government that has plans far into the future that will effect every man woman and child on this planet.

We should know more about him, so why not ponder supporting a documentary called Soros and Me?

Alex S. Gabor
- e-mail: galexgabor@yahoo.com