Switzerland will still go to any lengths to protect the ultra-rich dictators and mafia who flock there. Mutabar Tadjibaeva – multiple rape victim, survivor of repeated torture and still dogged human rights activist, is wanted for questioning by Geneva Police for the crime of ringing the bell of Gulnata Karimova’s 25 million dollar house and asking to speak to her.
That is absolutely all she did. I know, as I was there and did it too. We both left our visiting cards, took some photos from the streets so the children of Uzbekistan could see where the profits from their slave labour in the cotton fields went, and then we left on the bus, as we came.
Uzbekistan is the World’s sixth most corrupt country according to Transparency International. I doubt one in ten of the houses in Cologny is bought with earned money. This is Gulnara’s 25 million dollar home, with the cranes then building a massive extension at the back.
I can understand that Gulnara does not want people to know she lives at 7 Rue Prevote (both e’s have acutes), Cologny, Geneva. A weird, weird village that also houses Gulanara’s sister Lola and the children of the Presidents of Kazakhstan and Armenia, among others. There are lterally thousands of CCTV cameras. At this time of year none of the homewoners are there, just security guards in Adidas wear. The only noise is the barking of guard dogs. The 4 wheel drive Porsches, Range Rovers and Mercedes G wagons are sat still and cold on the drives.
That a speaker at the FIDH human rights film festival is harassed in this way is bad enough. But Mutabar was also there to give formal depositions in human rights cases to the United Nations. That dictatorships can use the Geneva police to harass dissidents visitng the UN is scarcely healthy.
Switzerland attempted to clean up its image as the repository of illegal cash by adopting anti money-laundering legislation. But that legislation specifically exempts real estate – you can buy your Cologny mansion without having in any way to declare how you got all that cash. The ever corrupt Swiss exempted it because Switzerland makes money from it. Outbreaks of democracy on the streets of Cologny are liable to be bad for property values – hence the interest of the Geneva police, in the world’s best disguised fascist state.
I wonder in I can interest Occupy and the human rights groups in an annual summer camp for activists at Cologny? Let’s give the Geneva police some more difficult field of anti-democratic harassment than a small torture victim.
No. 7 Chemin de la Prévôté. (Provost’s Way)
Cologny is a very pleasant area of Geneva. It has its vile element, but there are nice and decent people living there too. Claude Wolff and his wife Pet Clark, for example.
Mr Murray,
It will be very useful if you could publish photos you have taken of lavish Karimov’s mansions on your web site. They could then be circulated to other Uzbekistan related web sites.
Tris
Poor Petula Clark – she deserves nicer neighbours (no, that isn’t saracstic or ironic, I mean it).
Habbabkuk
I do not know why the Geneva police consider ringing the doorbell a crime. Why don’t you phone them up and ask them? I have been trying repeatedly to call their spokesman M. Grosjean and ask, but nobody ever answers the phone.
Now why don’t you take over and call? The number is 0041224275600. You can then explain to us why the police want to call in Mutabar for questioning, and why that is all perfectly reasonable and OK. Maybe Evgueni can call too.
Another of her scams.
http://www.rferl.org/content/gulnara-karimova-telecom-bribes-swedish-tv/24796854.html
Q. What happens when Papa pops his clogs?
She certainly has a nice long neck for the hangman’s use. In the photo here with another French actor, Delon this time. What’s up with these fading French lotharios?
http://www.rferl.org/content/karimova_sisters_down_200_million_for_the_year/24412389.html
No that was Lola, not Gulnara.
Mary
She is making billions and moving them out of the country (Uzbekistan), working hard to build her reputation and earn prestige amongst world famous and powerful and you are suggesting here that she has long neck perfectly suitable for hanging?
I see no logic.
She will be out of the country (Uzbekistan) well in advance before her brutal father is removed from Ak-Saroy (Presidential Palace in Tashkent) presumably with his foot forward (this is how departed men are removed).
Well then change she to them. Both are perfect daughters of their brutal father.
TI’s numbers are based upon ‘perception’….whose? It would seem surveys of the population, and if that’s correct; it’s the point.
I think the Public does not associate Banking and the Swiss moneychangers with corruption, and so this sort lawful suppression goes unnoticed, or people assume that if you are being interviewed by the police, there must be some basis within the confines of due process. IOW; if you’re not guilty, why were you arrested? Corruption is endemic. As the chart indicates, no one gets 100, even in ‘perception’. It’s all relative. Much of the genuine corruption, even in the UK and US (73 and 74), is hidden because it is less socially acceptable in some cultures. This includes Sweden and the Swiss, who think theirs doesn’t stink, and this again, is perception…self-perception.
Switzerland is just as corrupt as any other country or culture. It’s just that some feel constrained to hide their societal warts, while others, like Karimova, decorate them with paid-for bureaucrats.
A dictator or Chairman of a board or a conductor of an orchestra all have a job in running a group, that is instrumental as individuals and that group in producing a satisfying outcome.
A democracy somehow different more like a jazz piece than a classical one.
Now as I see it a free style jazz outfit wil deviate but with intentions for a satisfying outcome.
What we need are either sensible conductors and a decent jazz band and we ought to find a reasonable composition to work from.
Currently the peice being played is globalisation; a may sound good just need further consideration for the poor and needy.
Industry, commerce and finance are being globalised. Democracy isn’t.
Could this be the residence in question?
Two shots: one with and one without crane
Ben
Unlike you (I presume) I lived in Uzbekistan. It well deserves place number 6 in most corrupt countries’ list. In Uzbekistan one (uzbek citizen) could barely pass border control without not just paying a bribe but being demanded to pay a bribe. In Uzbekistan one could barely obtain qualification without not just paying a bribe but being demanded to pay a bribe. In Uzbekistan one (uzbek citizen) could barely be registered in capital without not just paying a bribe but being demanded to pay a bribe. In Uzbekistan one could barely exchange local currency onto foreign currency without risking being caught, beaten, imprisoned and then released after paying a bribe. And it goes on and on.
Calum
Yes, that’s it. Can you tell which one was taken first? No evidence in second one of having used that kind of crane, unless putting in something very substantial underground…
Craig @11:18am, I duckduckgoed “Streisand effect” — it’s actually a Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Maybe someone may be able in the future to update Wikipedia with Gulnara and others in the “weird, weird village”
Jay/clark;
Direct democracy could be described as a jazz concert, but most democracy is representative, or a Republic. Most people don’t want to have intimacy with the process of making sausage, and they prefer delegating their roles to elected representatives, and this is the crux of the problems with governance. I don’t really lament the low percentage of citizens who actually vote, because the laziness or time constraints of the working class, means they will cast ill-informed ballots, canceling the votes of those who’ve done their homework. Too many use the dartboard-style when they go to the polls. This is not good. Clark, I think democracy is being promulgated, but only as a false-flag for freedom and opportunity. The Oligarchs are recognizing that they must provide a fresh coat of paint to their shenanigans. As Mohandas said “Thousands of British, simply cannot control millions of Indians” (paraphrased)
Uzbek; I am not saying all are equally corrupt. It’s all relative.
@Mary 4 Mar, 2013 – 3:43 pm
You’ve reminded me of a bit of O/T tittle tattle. I once attended a craft fair in the grounds of Glamis Castle, the childhood home of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. Someone who worked there showed me something interesting.
The fences on the estate include cast iron ratchet devices for tensioning the wire. Every wire had one wherever there was an extra strong post, a strainer as it’s called, so there were hundreds of them. And every one of these devices had a swastika on it. Perhaps the royals used their family connections to acquire some left over German military equipment.
I took a photo and sent a copy to Private Eye, but they didn’t use it or even reply. I would imagine they’re still there if anybody wants to create a bit of mischief.
I’ve still got the original photo somewhere.
Craig, Two more pics. The first (CM3), I guess shows the property before any changes. The second CM4), again shows the crane.
My guess is that, of the two photo posted previously, the one with the crane (CM2) was taken before the craneless one (CM1)
A Node — what is date of fence? Swastika used to be Indian peace sign or something — my grandmother’s 1930s quilt booklet shows pattern.
Funny thought, though, in that context, what were they thinking? — maybe good fences make good neighbors? At least it’s not electric wires?
Wikipedia article covers wide pre/non Nazi use, including in Britain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_swastika_in_the_early_20th_century#Britain
and in quilts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_swastika_in_the_early_20th_century#Use_in_popular_culture
The photo of the house with the crane is the one I gave a link to in the first comment. It is dated 2012. Don’t know about the other one Calum provided as it is a still and you cannot see the Google caption and magnification at the bottom.
A Node (cont’d)
No mention of Glamis Castle though
More interesting stuff, does Firefox disable links to “swastika” stories? There’s a link given in wikipedia ref #75 to: http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/docs/MUSEUMS/cc/russellexhibits/quilts/quilt2.htm — but which when you click on it, the http:// part disappears and you go nowhere
same thing happened in my search results on duckduckgo. I searched “swastika quilt pattern 1930s”, and one of the most likely results is this one: http://swastika.dabbox.com/ — you NEED good luck to ever get there.
(Is it just me in US?)
Man, this so sucks when my American grandma’s quilt booklet pattern is disappeared!
Not even in the Wayback Machine!
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://swastika.dabbox.com/
Wait! The Nevada State Museum link works there:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070818025045/http://dmla.clan.lib.nv.us/DOCS/museums/cc/russellexhibits/quilts/quilt2.htm
“Koni 2012” was a fizzle.
“Gulnara 2013” might fair better.
.. or even fare.
Any legal eagles here please? Your assistance would be appreciated.
A DFAT document recently released under FOI laws in Australia seems to confirm the existence of the infamous sealed indictment/s for Assange and Wikileaks. It depends what exactly the word “pleadings” means in the context of a Grand Jury. Anyway, there’s six of them, they’ve existed since at least November 2011 and the document in question confirms:
The 26-page document (pdf) is linked in this article and the section about the sealed “pleadings” is on pages 10/11 of it:
http://darkernet.in/aussie-fm-lied-on-tv-show-re-wikileaks-grand-jury-proof/
Actually, here’s the pdf itself:
http://darkernet.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/dfat-foi-1212-F4791.pdf
This is all well and good but as in most corrupt systems, the corruption happens at the top – it’s the everyday citizens of Switzerland who will suffer from this corruption. Its in the EU’s interest to corrupt Switzerland’s political class and smash its sovereignity so that it blends in to the EU bureaucracy soup.
Talking about fascism – i really hope that Craig still doesn’t believe all nation states should be destroyed to make way for super banking states like the EU?
Somebody bothered to ask the police spokesperson, it seems:
http://www.20min.ch/ro/news/geneve/story/Opposante-convoqu-e-par-la-police-11873097
‘Il n’a pas précisé les raisons de la convocation de la militante des droits de l’Homme, mais a souligné que la police genevoise n’avait pas établi de mandat à son encontre.’
It is correct they don’t give a reason, but they emphasize that there was no warrant or any such thing. and referring to her as human rights activist sounds rather friendly.
Well, Swiss-bashing is very fashionable it seems.
Clark
http://fr.thefreedictionary.com/convoqu%C3%A9e (ask to attend variant I guess)
http://fr.thefreedictionary.com/mandat ( Police Warrant presumably)
So asked to report to police in city of Geneva
Stressed that no warrant had been issued.
Well that’s my guess anyway.
Ben Franklin, I suspect that increasing people’s chances to vote actually encourages people to vote more, and to look more deeply into the issues they’re voting about. Maybe people don’t bother to vote because they feel that it doesn’t achieve much, or they agree with some policies from one side and some from the other, but given more versatile choices and a system that actually responds they feel more motivated to get involved. Evgueni’s comments about Swiss democracy (on older threads) seem to support this.
I agree that people often have too little time to examine political matters, but if people had the power they would probably change that. Keeping the workers over-worked has advantages for the corporate-political system. It robs people of the time they’d need for all sorts of things, like education, doing or making stuff for themselves, building community, and organising themselves to exert political pressure.
Arbed; pg 7 has a CC; for London and Stockholm, as well as Chile…hmmm. I think I understand the first two, but Santiago? Is Pinochet back?