"A woman swathed in black to her ankles, wearing a headscarf or a full chador, walks down a European or North American street, surrounded by other women in halter tops, miniskirts and short shorts. She passes under immense billboards on which other women swoon in sexual ecstasy, cavort in lingerie or simply stretch out languorously, almost fully naked. Could this image be any more iconic of the discomfort the West has with the social mores of Islam, and vice versa?
Ideological battles are often waged with women's bodies as their emblems, and Western Islamophobia is no exception. When France banned headscarves in schools, it used the hijab as a proxy for Western values in general, including the appropriate status of women. When Americans were being prepared for the invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban were demonised for denying cosmetics and hair color to women; when the Taliban were overthrown, Western writers often noted that women had taken off their scarves.
But are we in the West radically misinterpreting Muslim sexual mores, particularly the meaning to many Muslim women of being veiled or wearing the chador? And are we blind to our own markers of the oppression and control of women?"
So begins a most thought-provoking article by Naomi Wolf in The Age. Wolf is co-founder of the American Freedom Campaign, a US democracy movement. Read the piece, in full, here.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Robert Fisk: The 'l" word....again and again!
The redoubtable Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent, details what he describes as "whoppers" of lies both the Israelis and Hezbollah put out - as also the US - but which go unchallenged by the media.
"How on earth do they get away with it? Let's start with war between Hizbollah and Israel – past and future war, that is.
Back in 2006, Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers from their side of the Lebanese frontier and dragged them, mortally wounded, into Lebanon. The Israelis immediately launched a massive air bombardment against all of Lebanon, publicly declaring Beirut's democratically-elected and US-backed – but extremely weak – government must be held to account for what Hizbollah does. Taking the lives of more than 1,000 Lebanese, almost all civilians, Israel unleashed its air power against the entire infrastructure of the rebuilt Lebanon, smashing highways, viaducts, electric grids, factories, lighthouses, totally erasing dozens of villages and half-destroying hundreds more before bathing the south of the country in three million cluster bomblets.
After firing thousands of old but nonetheless lethal rockets into Israel – where the total death toll was less than 200, more than half of them soldiers – Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's leader, told a lie: if he had known what Israel would do in revenge for the capture of two soldiers, he announced, he would never have agreed to Hizbollah's operation.
But now here comes Israel's environment minister, Gideon Ezra, with an equally huge whopper as he warns of an even bigger, more terrible war should Hizbollah attack Israel again. "During the (2006) war, we considered the possibility of attacking Lebanon's infrastructure but we never (sic) resorted to this option, because we thought at the time that not all the Lebanese were responsible for the Hizbollah attacks... At that time, we had Hizbollah in our sights and not the Lebanese state. But the Hizbollah do not live on the moon, and some (sic) infrastructure was hit." This was a brazen lie. Yet the Americans, who arm Israel, said nothing. The European Union said nothing. No journalistic column pointed out this absolute dishonesty."
Complete reading the article here.
"How on earth do they get away with it? Let's start with war between Hizbollah and Israel – past and future war, that is.
Back in 2006, Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers from their side of the Lebanese frontier and dragged them, mortally wounded, into Lebanon. The Israelis immediately launched a massive air bombardment against all of Lebanon, publicly declaring Beirut's democratically-elected and US-backed – but extremely weak – government must be held to account for what Hizbollah does. Taking the lives of more than 1,000 Lebanese, almost all civilians, Israel unleashed its air power against the entire infrastructure of the rebuilt Lebanon, smashing highways, viaducts, electric grids, factories, lighthouses, totally erasing dozens of villages and half-destroying hundreds more before bathing the south of the country in three million cluster bomblets.
After firing thousands of old but nonetheless lethal rockets into Israel – where the total death toll was less than 200, more than half of them soldiers – Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's leader, told a lie: if he had known what Israel would do in revenge for the capture of two soldiers, he announced, he would never have agreed to Hizbollah's operation.
But now here comes Israel's environment minister, Gideon Ezra, with an equally huge whopper as he warns of an even bigger, more terrible war should Hizbollah attack Israel again. "During the (2006) war, we considered the possibility of attacking Lebanon's infrastructure but we never (sic) resorted to this option, because we thought at the time that not all the Lebanese were responsible for the Hizbollah attacks... At that time, we had Hizbollah in our sights and not the Lebanese state. But the Hizbollah do not live on the moon, and some (sic) infrastructure was hit." This was a brazen lie. Yet the Americans, who arm Israel, said nothing. The European Union said nothing. No journalistic column pointed out this absolute dishonesty."
Complete reading the article here.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
McCain's Hail Mary Pass.... and the keys to the White House?
A piece in The Nation by William Greider puts into context the choice by John McCain [72 years today] of a VP for his election campaign [aged 44] in a piece "McCain's Hail Mary Pass":
"The news was so stunning I refused to believe it until I saw John McCain on the TV screen announcing his pick for Vice President. There's no need to disparage Sarah Palin. She's seems like a smart, serious person. But what the choice reveals about McCain is devastating with a capital D for Desperation.
Within forty-eight hours, all America will be talking about her. What people will say is, "You mean, if John McCain croaks, she becomes our president?" Gasp, yes. That is what McCain has decided. So much for "experience" and wise judgment as a campaign issue.
The Senator was widely thought to be on the fifty-yard line, nose to nose with Barack Obama. But this selection reveals the Republican campaign strategists knew better. Picking the obscure and under-experienced governor from Alaska for veep means McCain and his people recognize they are in a very weak position for the fall campaign. So weak they decided to throw a forty-year Hail Mary pass and hope audaciously for a lucky catch."
Meanwhile, The Nation itself editorialises in "We'll Take It From Here" on the forthcoming election:
"As they arrive in Minneapolis for their convention, Republicans cannot evade the monuments to their misrule. Only a few miles from convention headquarters is the site of the I-35W bridge, which collapsed last summer, killing thirteen and injuring 145, symbol of the Republican drive to "starve the beast" by stinting on basic public investment, rolling back sensible regulation, scorning the very government they were elected to lead. Also nearby is the Larry Craig memorial toilet, symbol of the seamy hypocrisy of those who would enforce a blinkered morality on others, as they flout it privately. In Minnesota hotel rooms a short video, presented courtesy of the Campaign for America's Future, thanks Republicans "for the memories": Iraq, Katrina, record home foreclosures, Gilded Age inequality, corporate cronyism, Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and more.
Eight years ago, the people gave the right the keys to the country. With a GOP Congress, conservatives had the power to govern on their own terms--and they drove the country off a cliff. America is weaker and more isolated abroad, with our reputation besmirched and our influence blunted. They've made us the world's largest debtor, with our dollar debased and our economy dependent on the generosity of foreign central bankers. Three million manufacturing jobs have been lost. George W. Bush and John McCain say the basics of the economy are strong, but most Americans have fared worse, even when the economy grew. The wealthiest 0.1 percent--those with incomes over the $5 million that McCain says one must earn to be rich--have captured grossly disproportionate rewards from the nation's growth. Corruption and cronyism--Halliburton, Enron, WorldCom, Big Pharma and Big Oil--have plundered billions from our Treasury. The Iraq debacle has squandered more than $1 trillion and counting. Heavy challenges like global warming have been scorned. Our broken healthcare system has deteriorated even further while our civil liberties have been curtailed by an imperial President who disrespects the Republic itself. The right's failure is complete."
"The news was so stunning I refused to believe it until I saw John McCain on the TV screen announcing his pick for Vice President. There's no need to disparage Sarah Palin. She's seems like a smart, serious person. But what the choice reveals about McCain is devastating with a capital D for Desperation.
Within forty-eight hours, all America will be talking about her. What people will say is, "You mean, if John McCain croaks, she becomes our president?" Gasp, yes. That is what McCain has decided. So much for "experience" and wise judgment as a campaign issue.
The Senator was widely thought to be on the fifty-yard line, nose to nose with Barack Obama. But this selection reveals the Republican campaign strategists knew better. Picking the obscure and under-experienced governor from Alaska for veep means McCain and his people recognize they are in a very weak position for the fall campaign. So weak they decided to throw a forty-year Hail Mary pass and hope audaciously for a lucky catch."
Meanwhile, The Nation itself editorialises in "We'll Take It From Here" on the forthcoming election:
"As they arrive in Minneapolis for their convention, Republicans cannot evade the monuments to their misrule. Only a few miles from convention headquarters is the site of the I-35W bridge, which collapsed last summer, killing thirteen and injuring 145, symbol of the Republican drive to "starve the beast" by stinting on basic public investment, rolling back sensible regulation, scorning the very government they were elected to lead. Also nearby is the Larry Craig memorial toilet, symbol of the seamy hypocrisy of those who would enforce a blinkered morality on others, as they flout it privately. In Minnesota hotel rooms a short video, presented courtesy of the Campaign for America's Future, thanks Republicans "for the memories": Iraq, Katrina, record home foreclosures, Gilded Age inequality, corporate cronyism, Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and more.
Eight years ago, the people gave the right the keys to the country. With a GOP Congress, conservatives had the power to govern on their own terms--and they drove the country off a cliff. America is weaker and more isolated abroad, with our reputation besmirched and our influence blunted. They've made us the world's largest debtor, with our dollar debased and our economy dependent on the generosity of foreign central bankers. Three million manufacturing jobs have been lost. George W. Bush and John McCain say the basics of the economy are strong, but most Americans have fared worse, even when the economy grew. The wealthiest 0.1 percent--those with incomes over the $5 million that McCain says one must earn to be rich--have captured grossly disproportionate rewards from the nation's growth. Corruption and cronyism--Halliburton, Enron, WorldCom, Big Pharma and Big Oil--have plundered billions from our Treasury. The Iraq debacle has squandered more than $1 trillion and counting. Heavy challenges like global warming have been scorned. Our broken healthcare system has deteriorated even further while our civil liberties have been curtailed by an imperial President who disrespects the Republic itself. The right's failure is complete."
America: Lost its Way says former Oz PM
"At the end of the Cold War the United States was supreme and unchallenged, Russia was in decay, poor, disorganised, with ill-equipped military forces. At that time, many people believed the 21st century might have been the time for the human race to advance issues of decency, to establish a more permanent, international peace and really to see that relations between states would be governed by law and not by power. Instead, we have a period of tragic and serious mistakes, a period of prejudice and of refusal to learn from history.
America's leadership was critical to the establishment of the United Nations and to the establishment of a rules-based international system that would outlaw war unless necessary for self defence or sanctioned by the Security Council.
After the end of the Cold War, America could have done so much to continue the advance to an even more effective, rules-based system where law governed relations between states. Instead, today's America has pushed these high aspirations and noble principles aside and led us, step by step, to a point of crisis.
What went wrong?"
The question is posed by none other than former Liberal [read Conservative for those outside Australia] PM Malcolm Fraser in an op-ed piece "America has lost its way in the world" in The Age.
Fraser answers his own question. For example:
"After the Cold War, the neo-conservatives sought to cement American supremacy. Their underlying philosophy was to enshrine American power throughout this century and beyond, to recast the rest of the world in America's image, if necessary by force of arms. The neo-conservatives did not want the restraint of international agreements, of law or of organisation. To them, September 11, 2001, was an opportunity to free America from those restraints.
As a consequence, the United States has made mistake after mistake and made the world a more dangerous place.
The first mistake was to declare war on terrorists, as opposed to recognising that the problem was really one of intelligence, good policing, supported, as necessary, by military action.
The second mistake was to say to the world, you are with us or you are against us. There was no middle path."
Read what Fraser concludes here.
America's leadership was critical to the establishment of the United Nations and to the establishment of a rules-based international system that would outlaw war unless necessary for self defence or sanctioned by the Security Council.
After the end of the Cold War, America could have done so much to continue the advance to an even more effective, rules-based system where law governed relations between states. Instead, today's America has pushed these high aspirations and noble principles aside and led us, step by step, to a point of crisis.
What went wrong?"
The question is posed by none other than former Liberal [read Conservative for those outside Australia] PM Malcolm Fraser in an op-ed piece "America has lost its way in the world" in The Age.
Fraser answers his own question. For example:
"After the Cold War, the neo-conservatives sought to cement American supremacy. Their underlying philosophy was to enshrine American power throughout this century and beyond, to recast the rest of the world in America's image, if necessary by force of arms. The neo-conservatives did not want the restraint of international agreements, of law or of organisation. To them, September 11, 2001, was an opportunity to free America from those restraints.
As a consequence, the United States has made mistake after mistake and made the world a more dangerous place.
The first mistake was to declare war on terrorists, as opposed to recognising that the problem was really one of intelligence, good policing, supported, as necessary, by military action.
The second mistake was to say to the world, you are with us or you are against us. There was no middle path."
Read what Fraser concludes here.
Torture enthusiasts are in the line of British fire
Torture, and all that involves - let alone its legality - is very much topical at the moment. If one were to listen to the Bush White House, and its cohorts, its OK to torture. Needless to say there are many others, notably some seemingly misguided lawyers, who take the position that torture can be justified in certain circumstances. That disgraceful professor of law at Harvard, Alan Dershowitz, is one of those who fall into the latter camp.
Richard Ackland, lawyer, commentator and editor of Justinian, in his weekly op-ed piece in the SMH, puts the question of torture out there and reflects on a English case dealing with the subject - and in the process, rightly, takes a stick to those lawyers who would supported torture.
"Remember that clutch of outspoken and confident lawyers who in last year's torture debates bravely came out for the freedom to torture?
They seemed mostly to be from Melbourne. One was a professional loud mouth, whose name I've forgotten, and there was another fellow from one of the Victorian academic centres who also saw the value in an appropriate bit of torture.
Extreme scenarios were posed. What if a detainee knew where the bomb was located that was timed to blow up Parliament House. Well, torture away until you got the answer. Dick Cheney helpfully chimed in, "It's a no brainer".
The only trouble now is that it's unlikely the torturees can even be tried for their alleged crimes. Their confessions are not worth the trouble, or as the judges say, "the evidence is unreliable".
Increasingly this is the truth facing the last spluttering moments of the Bush Administration.
One of the US Federal courts recently reopened a damages claim brought by Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen arrested by the U.S. at JFK airport in 2002 and forcibly extradited to Syria for "interrogation".
He was "interrogated" for a year before being released without charge.
In New York a judge has given the CIA a final deadline before holding the agency in contempt for the "spoliation" of torture videotapes. And then there's Jose Padilla, a US citizen falsely imprisoned in a Navy brig for three-and-a-half years, who is suing John Yoo, the former Justice Department "lawyer" and one of the principal architects of the Bush government's torture policy.
However, the most recent and the biggest blow to torture enthusiasts has come from the Brits. Last week the High Court in London ruled that the UK Government should hand over to lawyers of a Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed, exculpatory secret documents. Mohamed was a British resident who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. The United States illegally rendered him to (shudder) Morocco, where he was held for over a year, moved to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan, then to the Bagram prison in that country before being shipped off to Guantanamo Bay, which is his current address."
Read the complete piece here.
Richard Ackland, lawyer, commentator and editor of Justinian, in his weekly op-ed piece in the SMH, puts the question of torture out there and reflects on a English case dealing with the subject - and in the process, rightly, takes a stick to those lawyers who would supported torture.
"Remember that clutch of outspoken and confident lawyers who in last year's torture debates bravely came out for the freedom to torture?
They seemed mostly to be from Melbourne. One was a professional loud mouth, whose name I've forgotten, and there was another fellow from one of the Victorian academic centres who also saw the value in an appropriate bit of torture.
Extreme scenarios were posed. What if a detainee knew where the bomb was located that was timed to blow up Parliament House. Well, torture away until you got the answer. Dick Cheney helpfully chimed in, "It's a no brainer".
The only trouble now is that it's unlikely the torturees can even be tried for their alleged crimes. Their confessions are not worth the trouble, or as the judges say, "the evidence is unreliable".
Increasingly this is the truth facing the last spluttering moments of the Bush Administration.
One of the US Federal courts recently reopened a damages claim brought by Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen arrested by the U.S. at JFK airport in 2002 and forcibly extradited to Syria for "interrogation".
He was "interrogated" for a year before being released without charge.
In New York a judge has given the CIA a final deadline before holding the agency in contempt for the "spoliation" of torture videotapes. And then there's Jose Padilla, a US citizen falsely imprisoned in a Navy brig for three-and-a-half years, who is suing John Yoo, the former Justice Department "lawyer" and one of the principal architects of the Bush government's torture policy.
However, the most recent and the biggest blow to torture enthusiasts has come from the Brits. Last week the High Court in London ruled that the UK Government should hand over to lawyers of a Guantanamo detainee, Binyam Mohamed, exculpatory secret documents. Mohamed was a British resident who was arrested in Pakistan in 2002. The United States illegally rendered him to (shudder) Morocco, where he was held for over a year, moved to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan, then to the Bagram prison in that country before being shipped off to Guantanamo Bay, which is his current address."
Read the complete piece here.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Afghanistan: Disaster upon Disaster!
From "Not the Same as Being Equal" on truthout.org:
"Despite George W. Bush's claim that he's "truly not that concerned" about Osama bin Laden, the administration is erecting 10 "Wanted" billboards in Afghanistan, offering rewards of $25 million for bin Laden, $10 million for Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and $1 million for Adam Gadahn, an American member of Al Qaeda, now listed as a "top terrorist." That's 10 nice, big, literal signs that the administration is waking up, only seven years after 9/11 and the American "victory" that followed, to its "forgotten war."
When I wrote this piece for TomDispatch in February 2007, I'd been working intermittently since 2002 with women in Afghanistan - women the Bush administration claimed to have "liberated" by that victory. In all those years, despite some dramatic changes on paper, the real lives of most Afghan women didn't change a bit, and many actually worsened thanks to the residual widespread infection of men's minds by germs of Taliban "thought." Today, Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women outdo men when it comes to suicide.
To transfer those changes from paper to the people, "victory" in Afghanistan should have been followed by the deployment of troops in sufficient numbers to ensure security. Securing the countryside might have enabled the Karzai government installed in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to extend its authority while international humanitarian organizations helped Afghans rebuild their country. As everyone knows, of course, that's hardly what happened.
Now, a promised new American surge in Afghanistan threatens to be too much, too late. Bent on victory again, Americans are easily manipulated by false information to call in air strikes and wipe out whole villages - men, women, and children - even with no enemy in sight. (In 2007 alone, the U.S. dropped about a million pounds of bombs on the Afghan countryside.) Just the other day, masses of men took to the streets to protest the death of 95 civilians, including 19 women and 60 children. Masses of men once grateful to the U.S. for overthrowing the Taliban, and hopeful of American help in rebuilding the country, are now turning against the Bush administration's ever more lethal occupation.
You don't see women among the protesters because they are at home behind closed doors, confined, just as they were before the American "liberation."
Read on here.
"Despite George W. Bush's claim that he's "truly not that concerned" about Osama bin Laden, the administration is erecting 10 "Wanted" billboards in Afghanistan, offering rewards of $25 million for bin Laden, $10 million for Taliban leader Mullah Omar, and $1 million for Adam Gadahn, an American member of Al Qaeda, now listed as a "top terrorist." That's 10 nice, big, literal signs that the administration is waking up, only seven years after 9/11 and the American "victory" that followed, to its "forgotten war."
When I wrote this piece for TomDispatch in February 2007, I'd been working intermittently since 2002 with women in Afghanistan - women the Bush administration claimed to have "liberated" by that victory. In all those years, despite some dramatic changes on paper, the real lives of most Afghan women didn't change a bit, and many actually worsened thanks to the residual widespread infection of men's minds by germs of Taliban "thought." Today, Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women outdo men when it comes to suicide.
To transfer those changes from paper to the people, "victory" in Afghanistan should have been followed by the deployment of troops in sufficient numbers to ensure security. Securing the countryside might have enabled the Karzai government installed in the Afghan capital, Kabul, to extend its authority while international humanitarian organizations helped Afghans rebuild their country. As everyone knows, of course, that's hardly what happened.
Now, a promised new American surge in Afghanistan threatens to be too much, too late. Bent on victory again, Americans are easily manipulated by false information to call in air strikes and wipe out whole villages - men, women, and children - even with no enemy in sight. (In 2007 alone, the U.S. dropped about a million pounds of bombs on the Afghan countryside.) Just the other day, masses of men took to the streets to protest the death of 95 civilians, including 19 women and 60 children. Masses of men once grateful to the U.S. for overthrowing the Taliban, and hopeful of American help in rebuilding the country, are now turning against the Bush administration's ever more lethal occupation.
You don't see women among the protesters because they are at home behind closed doors, confined, just as they were before the American "liberation."
Read on here.
Obama and the Clintons - but the "star" John Kerry
The media is overflowing with reports of the Obama bandwagon pre his acceptance speech today. Much has been written about Bill and Hilary Clinton's addresses to the Democratic Party Convention.
In "Kerry Goes After McCain" The Nation reports, however, that the spotlight ought to shine on previous presidential candidate John Kerry:
"The 2004 Democratic nominee for president – who was bluntly informed by grassroots activists that they did not want him to run again in 2008 – might not have gained a prime-time speaking spot at the convention except for the fact of the Massachusetts senators' early and enthusiastic support of Obama.
But Kerry did more with his time at the podium than Clinton or Biden, who has seemed oddly constrained since his selection as Obama's vice presidential running mate.
Kerry savaged McCain.
'I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years. But every day now I learn something new about candidate McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say, let's compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain.
Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you're against it.
Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself. And what's more, Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same "Rove" tactics and the same "Rove" staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and smear. Well, not this year, not this time. The Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America will reject them in 2008.'
But he also distinguished Obama from McCain more thoroughly, and effectively, than any other convention speaker.
'So remember, when we choose a commander-in-chief this November, we are electing judgment and character, not years in the Senate or years on this earth. Time and again, Barack Obama has seen farther, thought harder, and listened better. And time and again, Barack Obama has been proven right.
When John McCain stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier just three months after 9/11 and proclaimed, "Next up, Baghdad!", Barack Obama saw, even then, "an occupation of "undetermined length, undetermined cost, undetermined consequences" that would "only fan the flames of the Middle East." Well, guess what? Mission accomplished.
So who can we trust to keep America safe? When Barack Obama promised to honor the best traditions of both parties and talk to our enemies, John McCain scoffed. George Bush called it "the soft comfort of appeasement." But today, Bush's diplomats are doing exactly what Obama said: talking with Iran.
So who can we trust to keep America safe? When democracy rolled out of Russia, and the tanks rolled into Georgia, we saw John McCain respond immediately with the outdated thinking of the Cold War. Barack Obama responded like a statesman of the 21st century.
So who can we trust to keep America safe? When we called for a timetable to make Iraqis stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, John McCain called it "cut and run." But today, even President Bush has seen the light. He and Prime Minister Maliki agree on – guess what? – a timetable.'
If Democrats are looking for a template to apply in the fall campaign, they could do no better than the one Kerry offered them Wednesday night. Indeed, had Kerry been as aggressive as this in 2004, this week's convention might well be nominating him for a second term."
In "Kerry Goes After McCain" The Nation reports, however, that the spotlight ought to shine on previous presidential candidate John Kerry:
"The 2004 Democratic nominee for president – who was bluntly informed by grassroots activists that they did not want him to run again in 2008 – might not have gained a prime-time speaking spot at the convention except for the fact of the Massachusetts senators' early and enthusiastic support of Obama.
But Kerry did more with his time at the podium than Clinton or Biden, who has seemed oddly constrained since his selection as Obama's vice presidential running mate.
Kerry savaged McCain.
'I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years. But every day now I learn something new about candidate McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say, let's compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain.
Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you're against it.
Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself. And what's more, Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same "Rove" tactics and the same "Rove" staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and smear. Well, not this year, not this time. The Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America will reject them in 2008.'
But he also distinguished Obama from McCain more thoroughly, and effectively, than any other convention speaker.
'So remember, when we choose a commander-in-chief this November, we are electing judgment and character, not years in the Senate or years on this earth. Time and again, Barack Obama has seen farther, thought harder, and listened better. And time and again, Barack Obama has been proven right.
When John McCain stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier just three months after 9/11 and proclaimed, "Next up, Baghdad!", Barack Obama saw, even then, "an occupation of "undetermined length, undetermined cost, undetermined consequences" that would "only fan the flames of the Middle East." Well, guess what? Mission accomplished.
So who can we trust to keep America safe? When Barack Obama promised to honor the best traditions of both parties and talk to our enemies, John McCain scoffed. George Bush called it "the soft comfort of appeasement." But today, Bush's diplomats are doing exactly what Obama said: talking with Iran.
So who can we trust to keep America safe? When democracy rolled out of Russia, and the tanks rolled into Georgia, we saw John McCain respond immediately with the outdated thinking of the Cold War. Barack Obama responded like a statesman of the 21st century.
So who can we trust to keep America safe? When we called for a timetable to make Iraqis stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, John McCain called it "cut and run." But today, even President Bush has seen the light. He and Prime Minister Maliki agree on – guess what? – a timetable.'
If Democrats are looking for a template to apply in the fall campaign, they could do no better than the one Kerry offered them Wednesday night. Indeed, had Kerry been as aggressive as this in 2004, this week's convention might well be nominating him for a second term."
Poverty! A Grim Prognosis
Consistent with previous reports, many expert, from various sources, poverty in the world is said to be much more acute than previously thought.
BBC News reports:
"The World Bank has warned that world poverty is much greater than previously thought.
It has revised its previous estimate and now says that 1.4 billion people live in poverty, based on a new poverty line of $1.25 per day.
This is substantially more than its earlier estimate of 985 million people living in poverty in 2004.
The Bank has also revised upwards the number it said were poor in 1981, from 1.5 billion to 1.9 billion.
The new estimates suggest that poverty is both more persistent, and has fallen less sharply, than previously thought.
However, given the increase in world population, the poverty rate has still fallen from 50% to 25% over the past 25 years."
BBC News reports:
"The World Bank has warned that world poverty is much greater than previously thought.
It has revised its previous estimate and now says that 1.4 billion people live in poverty, based on a new poverty line of $1.25 per day.
This is substantially more than its earlier estimate of 985 million people living in poverty in 2004.
The Bank has also revised upwards the number it said were poor in 1981, from 1.5 billion to 1.9 billion.
The new estimates suggest that poverty is both more persistent, and has fallen less sharply, than previously thought.
However, given the increase in world population, the poverty rate has still fallen from 50% to 25% over the past 25 years."
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Sailing into Gaza
From CounterPunch:
"On Saturday, after 32 hours on the high seas, I sailed into the port of Gaza City with 45 other citizens from around the world in defiance of Israel's blockade. We traveled from Cyprus with humanitarian provisions for Palestinians living under siege. My family in Michigan was worried sick.
They are not naïve. They knew that Israel could have attacked us — as Israeli forces did in 2003, killing nonviolent American witness Rachel Corrie (Editor’s note: Corrie, also of the International Solidarity Movement, was run over by a bulldozer operated by Israeli Defense Forces during a protest against the destruction of Palestinian homes; an Israeli military investigation ruled the death accidental) and Brit Tom Hurndall (an ISM representative who died nine months after being was shot in the head in Gaza by an IDF sniper; the sniper was convicted of manslaughter) as well as thousands of unarmed Palestinian civilians over the years.
My family members, though, remember that 60 years ago part of our own family was uprooted and driven from their homes in Palestine by Israeli forces. This loss no doubt fueled my decision to risk my safety and freedom to advance the human rights of innocent men, women and children in Gaza.
Our two boats were greeted upon arrival by thousands of jubilant Palestinians who in 41 years of occupation had never witnessed such a scene. To get there we braved anonymous death threats and the Israeli military interfering with our means of communications despite rough seas that jeopardized our safety. Before our departure, the Israeli foreign ministry asserted its right to use force against our unarmed boats."
Read on here.
"On Saturday, after 32 hours on the high seas, I sailed into the port of Gaza City with 45 other citizens from around the world in defiance of Israel's blockade. We traveled from Cyprus with humanitarian provisions for Palestinians living under siege. My family in Michigan was worried sick.
They are not naïve. They knew that Israel could have attacked us — as Israeli forces did in 2003, killing nonviolent American witness Rachel Corrie (Editor’s note: Corrie, also of the International Solidarity Movement, was run over by a bulldozer operated by Israeli Defense Forces during a protest against the destruction of Palestinian homes; an Israeli military investigation ruled the death accidental) and Brit Tom Hurndall (an ISM representative who died nine months after being was shot in the head in Gaza by an IDF sniper; the sniper was convicted of manslaughter) as well as thousands of unarmed Palestinian civilians over the years.
My family members, though, remember that 60 years ago part of our own family was uprooted and driven from their homes in Palestine by Israeli forces. This loss no doubt fueled my decision to risk my safety and freedom to advance the human rights of innocent men, women and children in Gaza.
Our two boats were greeted upon arrival by thousands of jubilant Palestinians who in 41 years of occupation had never witnessed such a scene. To get there we braved anonymous death threats and the Israeli military interfering with our means of communications despite rough seas that jeopardized our safety. Before our departure, the Israeli foreign ministry asserted its right to use force against our unarmed boats."
Read on here.
Now what, post Georgia?
Newsweek explains and puts into context events in Georgia, where Russia stands in the scheme of things and how we can expect to see the world in at least the foreseeable future:
"The war in Ossetia is all about drawing a line under further NATO expansion—and sending a strong signal to Georgia, Ukraine and Europe that Russia won't be pushed around. And from the moment Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, Russia's neighbors started to take its threats more seriously. The invasion marked the end of Russia's browbeaten, humiliated post-cold-war era and the beginning of a new, more assertive, more imperial Russia. What will Russia's next move be? In Georgia, according to Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, Russia will establish a "security zone along the administrative border of South Ossetia" that will include 18 strongpoints manned by Russian peacekeepers. Just where that border runs will be defined by Russia. On the ground last week, Russian backhoes were seen digging in just north of the Georgian city of Gori—well beyond the old front line, and close enough to Georgia's main east-west road to cut Georgia in half within minutes.
What worries Russia's neighbors now is that the messy breakup of the Soviet Union left millions of ethnic Russians stranded in other post-Soviet states. Ukraine is 17 percent ethnic Russian; Estonia and Latvia nearly 40 percent; Kazakhstan 26.1 percent. And there are signs the Kremlin is systematically reaching out to these Russian-speaking communities through a range of lavishly funded cultural programs designed to boost Russia's soft power in the region. Other programs are more overtly political: the Kremlin-backed annual Foros Forum convenes in Crimea, a majority ethnic Russian region in Ukraine, and aims to "shape a new generation of young Russian politicians," according to one of the organizers, Duma deputy Sergei Markov. A selection of young activists from Kremlin-created youth groups like Nashi and the Youth Guards join the leaders and activists of Ukrainian pro-Russian movements to listen to lectures by the likes of Aleksandr Dugin, a leading light of the Eurasia movement, which preaches a Russian-led power block as an alternative to the West. "People gather to support our fraternal Ukrainian nation, which is groaning under the pressure of NATO," says Gennady Basov, leader of the nationalist Russian Bloc Party, a pro-Moscow pressure group based in Crimea."
Read the full piece here.
"The war in Ossetia is all about drawing a line under further NATO expansion—and sending a strong signal to Georgia, Ukraine and Europe that Russia won't be pushed around. And from the moment Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, Russia's neighbors started to take its threats more seriously. The invasion marked the end of Russia's browbeaten, humiliated post-cold-war era and the beginning of a new, more assertive, more imperial Russia. What will Russia's next move be? In Georgia, according to Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, Russia will establish a "security zone along the administrative border of South Ossetia" that will include 18 strongpoints manned by Russian peacekeepers. Just where that border runs will be defined by Russia. On the ground last week, Russian backhoes were seen digging in just north of the Georgian city of Gori—well beyond the old front line, and close enough to Georgia's main east-west road to cut Georgia in half within minutes.
What worries Russia's neighbors now is that the messy breakup of the Soviet Union left millions of ethnic Russians stranded in other post-Soviet states. Ukraine is 17 percent ethnic Russian; Estonia and Latvia nearly 40 percent; Kazakhstan 26.1 percent. And there are signs the Kremlin is systematically reaching out to these Russian-speaking communities through a range of lavishly funded cultural programs designed to boost Russia's soft power in the region. Other programs are more overtly political: the Kremlin-backed annual Foros Forum convenes in Crimea, a majority ethnic Russian region in Ukraine, and aims to "shape a new generation of young Russian politicians," according to one of the organizers, Duma deputy Sergei Markov. A selection of young activists from Kremlin-created youth groups like Nashi and the Youth Guards join the leaders and activists of Ukrainian pro-Russian movements to listen to lectures by the likes of Aleksandr Dugin, a leading light of the Eurasia movement, which preaches a Russian-led power block as an alternative to the West. "People gather to support our fraternal Ukrainian nation, which is groaning under the pressure of NATO," says Gennady Basov, leader of the nationalist Russian Bloc Party, a pro-Moscow pressure group based in Crimea."
Read the full piece here.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Israel just keeps on expanding
The Israelis are the first to claim that they don't have anyone on the Palestinian side with whom to negotiate some sort of settlement of the on-going dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians.
True or not, the undoubted fact is that Israel, contrary to international law and repeated calls from many directions not to, keeps on expanding in the building of settlements on the West Bank. Certainly Israel's actions are totally counter to being conducive for the Palestinians to want to sit down and talk with the Israelis.
Prompted by a revelation by Peace Now building and settlement-expansion is up, dramatically, this year from last year, Condi has, with a limp wrist, called on the Israelis to desist.
AFP reports in "Rice criticises settlements but sees progress in Mideast talks":
"In the report published on Tuesday, the Peace Now group said the Israeli housing ministry "initiated 433 new housing units during the period of January to May 2008, compared to just 240 units during the period January to May 2007."
The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has meanwhile increased by 550 percent, from 417 housing units in the period surveyed compared to 65 units in the same period last year.
In Arab east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the number of tenders has increased by a factor of 38, the group said, from just 46 units in 2007 to 1,761 in 2008."
True or not, the undoubted fact is that Israel, contrary to international law and repeated calls from many directions not to, keeps on expanding in the building of settlements on the West Bank. Certainly Israel's actions are totally counter to being conducive for the Palestinians to want to sit down and talk with the Israelis.
Prompted by a revelation by Peace Now building and settlement-expansion is up, dramatically, this year from last year, Condi has, with a limp wrist, called on the Israelis to desist.
AFP reports in "Rice criticises settlements but sees progress in Mideast talks":
"In the report published on Tuesday, the Peace Now group said the Israeli housing ministry "initiated 433 new housing units during the period of January to May 2008, compared to just 240 units during the period January to May 2007."
The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has meanwhile increased by 550 percent, from 417 housing units in the period surveyed compared to 65 units in the same period last year.
In Arab east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the number of tenders has increased by a factor of 38, the group said, from just 46 units in 2007 to 1,761 in 2008."
Darling, it's over: Has technology made it impossible to have an affair?
Put the travails around the world to one side for a moment and reflect on how technology has apparently impacted the ability of those in a relationship to "play around" without being detected.
Yet again technology impacts on our daily lives - as The Independent explains - perhaps in ways we hadn't considered, let alone wanted:
"Mobile phones, BlackBerrys, emails, social networking... Never before has it been so easy to cheat on a partner. But has technology made it simply too difficult for philanderers to cover their tracks? With evidence suggesting that fewer people are undertaking long-term extramarital love affairs, Nick Harding peers beneath the sheets and asks: is it the end of the road for the adulterer?"
And:
"In today's world, to function as an effective member of 21st-century society, we have to engage with a bewildering array of electronic gadgets, few of which we fully understand. We stomp digital footprints all over the place, and the unforeseen result of engaging in the information age is that it is becoming harder to have secrets – and, as a result, it is harder to cheat on each other."
Yet again technology impacts on our daily lives - as The Independent explains - perhaps in ways we hadn't considered, let alone wanted:
"Mobile phones, BlackBerrys, emails, social networking... Never before has it been so easy to cheat on a partner. But has technology made it simply too difficult for philanderers to cover their tracks? With evidence suggesting that fewer people are undertaking long-term extramarital love affairs, Nick Harding peers beneath the sheets and asks: is it the end of the road for the adulterer?"
And:
"In today's world, to function as an effective member of 21st-century society, we have to engage with a bewildering array of electronic gadgets, few of which we fully understand. We stomp digital footprints all over the place, and the unforeseen result of engaging in the information age is that it is becoming harder to have secrets – and, as a result, it is harder to cheat on each other."
The Three Dumbest Neocon Predictions Since the Disaster in Iraq
Although the threats of an attack on Iran are, at least for the present, seemingly receding, the fact that the neocons are still active "out there" can't be ignored.
AlterNet analyses the neocon's "record":
"Now that the Beijing games have wound up, we can get on to a sporting event with real significance: a Neocon Olympics to decide the most grossly wrong, stupid prediction by a Neocon pundit post-Iraq. Of course, it's a very rich field. Being totally wrong about absolutely everything is the Neocons' job, and they've been working overtime on it. Their proudest moment had to be in the lead-up to the Iraq war when Kenneth Adelman assured America that democratizing Iraq would be "a cakewalk." Indeed, early Neocons like Adelman and Richard Perle (who predicted that Iraq would settle down "at the first whiff of gunpowder") set the bar for disastrously wrong predictions so high that some have suggested that the trophy be retired in their honor. But doing that would mean shutting out all the more recent Neocon predictions. Their little mistakes may not have cost as many trillions of dollars and thousands of lives as Adelman and Perle's, but give them time. They're doing their best to push us into more disastrous wars, and with team spirit like theirs, they may yet succeed."
The top contenders can be read here.
AlterNet analyses the neocon's "record":
"Now that the Beijing games have wound up, we can get on to a sporting event with real significance: a Neocon Olympics to decide the most grossly wrong, stupid prediction by a Neocon pundit post-Iraq. Of course, it's a very rich field. Being totally wrong about absolutely everything is the Neocons' job, and they've been working overtime on it. Their proudest moment had to be in the lead-up to the Iraq war when Kenneth Adelman assured America that democratizing Iraq would be "a cakewalk." Indeed, early Neocons like Adelman and Richard Perle (who predicted that Iraq would settle down "at the first whiff of gunpowder") set the bar for disastrously wrong predictions so high that some have suggested that the trophy be retired in their honor. But doing that would mean shutting out all the more recent Neocon predictions. Their little mistakes may not have cost as many trillions of dollars and thousands of lives as Adelman and Perle's, but give them time. They're doing their best to push us into more disastrous wars, and with team spirit like theirs, they may yet succeed."
The top contenders can be read here.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Big Question: Will Iraq disintegrate if the United States withdraws its troops?
In the light of reports that the US will withdraw its troops from Iraq in 2011 The Independent has a timely piece on what that will mean in the now war-torn country. Not to be overlooked is that the invasion started nearly 5 1/2 years go - remember Shock and Awe? - and that millions of people have left the country.
Read the answers to the Big Question, here.
Read the answers to the Big Question, here.
Afghanistan: Pouring fuel on already troubled waters
"The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind forward with their terrible human toll, even as the press and many Americans play who gets thrown off the island with Barack Obama. Coalition forces carried out an airstrike that killed up to 95 Afghan civilians in western Afghanistan on Friday, 50 of them children, President Hamid Karzai said. And the mounting bombing raids and widespread detentions of Afghans are rapidly turning Afghanistan into the mirror image of Iraq. But these very real events, which will have devastating consequences over the next few months and years, are largely ignored by us. We prefer to waste our time on the trivia and gossip that swallow up air time and do nothing to advance our understanding of either the campaign or the wars fought in our name.
As the conflict in Afghanistan has intensified, so has the indiscriminate use of airstrikes, including Friday’s, which took place in the Azizabad area of Shindand district in Herat province. The airstrike was carried out after Afghan and coalition soldiers were ambushed by insurgents while on a patrol targeting a known Taliban commander in Herat, the U.S. military said. Hundreds of Afghans, shouting anti-U.S. slogans, staged angry street protests on Saturday in Azizabad to protest the killings, and Karzai condemned the airstrike."
Chris Hedges, writing on truthdig.com assesses what looks like Afghanistan becoming an ever-increasing flashpoint - not that Iraq is all that peacefully bedded down as the pr hype would suggest.
As the conflict in Afghanistan has intensified, so has the indiscriminate use of airstrikes, including Friday’s, which took place in the Azizabad area of Shindand district in Herat province. The airstrike was carried out after Afghan and coalition soldiers were ambushed by insurgents while on a patrol targeting a known Taliban commander in Herat, the U.S. military said. Hundreds of Afghans, shouting anti-U.S. slogans, staged angry street protests on Saturday in Azizabad to protest the killings, and Karzai condemned the airstrike."
Chris Hedges, writing on truthdig.com assesses what looks like Afghanistan becoming an ever-increasing flashpoint - not that Iraq is all that peacefully bedded down as the pr hype would suggest.
The Olympics through Arab eyes
Village Voices writes:
"Millions around the world were glued to their television screens watching their favourite athletes at this year's Beijing Olympics, which just closed. What did Arab bloggers have to say about the world's premier sporting event and their country teams? Following are a few reactions........."
Read some interesting blogs from around the Middle East here.
"Millions around the world were glued to their television screens watching their favourite athletes at this year's Beijing Olympics, which just closed. What did Arab bloggers have to say about the world's premier sporting event and their country teams? Following are a few reactions........."
Read some interesting blogs from around the Middle East here.
Check out US presence worldwide
Mother Jones has an interesting visual [map, actually] pin-pointing where the US is present around the globe - here.
"In fact, our research shows there are relatively few places on the planet where the US military isn't active in some way. American soldiers regularly rotate in and out of key locations on humanitarian and training missions. From weapons to cash to attendance at US military conferences, from researching tropical diseases to extending host-nation runways to building ports, the Pentagon is there to help—in exchange for a little help from our friends: overflight and basing rights, port privileges, and legal immunity for the troops. (See "How to Stay in Iraq for 1,000 Years.")
Where the US military doesn't tread, it funds. Indeed, humanitarian and military aid from the United States have proved most useful in coaxing foreign countries to give us what we ask for. It's no accident that 22 percent of US foreign aid, as Joshua Kurlantzick reports in our September/October issue, now flows directly through the Pentagon. Conversely, the US Agency for International Development funds military training in a number of countries."
Read the complete analysis "Mission Creep" on Mother Jones here.
"In fact, our research shows there are relatively few places on the planet where the US military isn't active in some way. American soldiers regularly rotate in and out of key locations on humanitarian and training missions. From weapons to cash to attendance at US military conferences, from researching tropical diseases to extending host-nation runways to building ports, the Pentagon is there to help—in exchange for a little help from our friends: overflight and basing rights, port privileges, and legal immunity for the troops. (See "How to Stay in Iraq for 1,000 Years.")
Where the US military doesn't tread, it funds. Indeed, humanitarian and military aid from the United States have proved most useful in coaxing foreign countries to give us what we ask for. It's no accident that 22 percent of US foreign aid, as Joshua Kurlantzick reports in our September/October issue, now flows directly through the Pentagon. Conversely, the US Agency for International Development funds military training in a number of countries."
Read the complete analysis "Mission Creep" on Mother Jones here.
A very dire warning
"The prospect of global wars driven by climate change is not something often discussed publicly by our political leaders.
But according to one of America's top military analysts, governments in the US and UK are already being briefed by their own military strategists about how to prepare for a world of mass famine, floods of refugees and even nuclear conflicts over resources.
Gwynne Dyer is a military analyst and author who served in three navies and has held academic posts at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and at Oxford and he says there is a sense of suppressed panic from the scientists and military leaders he spoke to for his latest book, "Climate Wars".
Thus Dyer was introduced and then interviewed on The World Today on ABC Radio National.
If the following isn't a grave and dire warning then it is difficult to imagine what is:
"Dyer: Actually I spent the past year doing a very high speed self-education job on climate change and I think I probably talked to most of the senior people in the field in a dozen countries.
They are scared. They are really frightened. Things are moving far faster than their models predicted.
I mean you may have the Arctic Ocean free of ice entirely in five years' time in the late summer. You know, nobody thought that would happen until about the 2040s. Even a couple of years ago so there is this sense of things moving much faster.
The military are picking up on that and drawing their own scenarios and analyses and predictions up accordingly. The train is leaving the station."
Read the transcript or listen to the interview here.
But according to one of America's top military analysts, governments in the US and UK are already being briefed by their own military strategists about how to prepare for a world of mass famine, floods of refugees and even nuclear conflicts over resources.
Gwynne Dyer is a military analyst and author who served in three navies and has held academic posts at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and at Oxford and he says there is a sense of suppressed panic from the scientists and military leaders he spoke to for his latest book, "Climate Wars".
Thus Dyer was introduced and then interviewed on The World Today on ABC Radio National.
If the following isn't a grave and dire warning then it is difficult to imagine what is:
"Dyer: Actually I spent the past year doing a very high speed self-education job on climate change and I think I probably talked to most of the senior people in the field in a dozen countries.
They are scared. They are really frightened. Things are moving far faster than their models predicted.
I mean you may have the Arctic Ocean free of ice entirely in five years' time in the late summer. You know, nobody thought that would happen until about the 2040s. Even a couple of years ago so there is this sense of things moving much faster.
The military are picking up on that and drawing their own scenarios and analyses and predictions up accordingly. The train is leaving the station."
Read the transcript or listen to the interview here.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Iraq: The hidden toll
The Americans are said to be moving to their military leaving Iraq sometime in 2012. Obviously McCain and Obama are positioning themselves on what their respective withdrawal plans are. Meanwhile the pr machine is putting it out there that the "surge" in Iraq has shown positive results in the war-torn country. But has it?
Greg Mitchell, writing on The Huffington Post, reflects on the casualties in Iraq - but no less importantly [but largely "hidden"] the death by suicide of veterans back in America post service in Iraq:
"When the U.S. military death toll in Iraq dropped to 13 last month it received wide attention. But now, midway through August, the toll this month has already topped the July rate. Meanwhile, two more Iraq vets have killed themselves here at home.
A U.S. marine killed by gunmen in Fallujah west of Baghdad on Thursday became the 15th American to die in August. A troubling seven had died in noncombat incidents. The 15 tally tops July by two.
And the war at home? Each week -- some time each day -- brings the report of another Iraq vet suicide."
Greg Mitchell, writing on The Huffington Post, reflects on the casualties in Iraq - but no less importantly [but largely "hidden"] the death by suicide of veterans back in America post service in Iraq:
"When the U.S. military death toll in Iraq dropped to 13 last month it received wide attention. But now, midway through August, the toll this month has already topped the July rate. Meanwhile, two more Iraq vets have killed themselves here at home.
A U.S. marine killed by gunmen in Fallujah west of Baghdad on Thursday became the 15th American to die in August. A troubling seven had died in noncombat incidents. The 15 tally tops July by two.
And the war at home? Each week -- some time each day -- brings the report of another Iraq vet suicide."
The New Old Age
Times are ever-changing - in a variety of ways. One significant change, thanks to medical science and better nutrition and the like, is that people are living longer. That poses a challenge to and gives rise to a host of issues for children of aging parents.
The NY Times has now devoted a "space" to the the whole topic of aging parents, as it explains here:
"Thanks to the marvels of medical science, our parents are living longer than ever before. Adults over age 80 are the fastest growing segment of the population, and most will spend years dependent on others for the most basic needs. That burden falls to their baby boomer children, 77 million strong, who are flummoxed by the technicalities of eldercare, turned upside down by the changed architecture of their families, struggling to balance work and caregiving, and depleting their own retirement savings in the process.
In The New Old Age, Jane Gross explores this unprecedented intergenerational challenge and shares the stories of readers, the advice of professionals, and the wisdom gleaned from her own experience caring for her late mother in her waning years."
The NY Times has now devoted a "space" to the the whole topic of aging parents, as it explains here:
"Thanks to the marvels of medical science, our parents are living longer than ever before. Adults over age 80 are the fastest growing segment of the population, and most will spend years dependent on others for the most basic needs. That burden falls to their baby boomer children, 77 million strong, who are flummoxed by the technicalities of eldercare, turned upside down by the changed architecture of their families, struggling to balance work and caregiving, and depleting their own retirement savings in the process.
In The New Old Age, Jane Gross explores this unprecedented intergenerational challenge and shares the stories of readers, the advice of professionals, and the wisdom gleaned from her own experience caring for her late mother in her waning years."
The Long Silence.....and an Awakening
"For many years, now decades, I have been silent as a Jew about Israel’s relationship to, and treatment of, the Palestinian people and my place as an American Jew in that equation. Recently, I looked back at the Jews who I have known personally, as friends and acquaintances, and examined how their views about Palestinians and Israel have affected me and deepened my silence. "
And:
"I think writing this piece has been a kind of purging for my years of silence regarding Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As Israeli settlements expand in the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip continues, I can no longer remain silent."
Howard Lisnoff is an educator and freelance writer. His piece, in part above, appeared on CounterPunch. Read the full piece here.
And:
"I think writing this piece has been a kind of purging for my years of silence regarding Israeli treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As Israeli settlements expand in the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip continues, I can no longer remain silent."
Howard Lisnoff is an educator and freelance writer. His piece, in part above, appeared on CounterPunch. Read the full piece here.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Beyond gold medals
"China is on track to displace the U.S. as the winner of the most Olympic gold medals this year. Get used to it.
Today, it's the athletic surge that dazzles us, but China will leave a similar outsize footprint in the arts, in business, in science, in education."
So begins an op-ed piece "Beyond gold medals" by Nicholas Kristof in the IHT.
And:
"Now the world is reverting to its normal state - a powerful Asia - and we Westerners will have to adjust. Just as many Americans know their red wines and easily distinguish a Manet from a Monet, our children will become connoisseurs of pu-er tea and will know the difference between guanxi and Guangxi, the Qin and the Qing. When angry, they may even insult each other as "turtle's eggs."
Today, it's the athletic surge that dazzles us, but China will leave a similar outsize footprint in the arts, in business, in science, in education."
So begins an op-ed piece "Beyond gold medals" by Nicholas Kristof in the IHT.
And:
"Now the world is reverting to its normal state - a powerful Asia - and we Westerners will have to adjust. Just as many Americans know their red wines and easily distinguish a Manet from a Monet, our children will become connoisseurs of pu-er tea and will know the difference between guanxi and Guangxi, the Qin and the Qing. When angry, they may even insult each other as "turtle's eggs."
Great Games, Great Bills
Now that the Olympiad is drawing to a close, what is one to make of it all? There are many considerations and reflections to be had.
Associate Professor Victor Matheson [of economics at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts] puts forward his views on the Games and what they mean, overall, to China and the world, in an op-ed piece in IHT:
"For the past two weeks, the world's attention has been focused on China, and the country has used the Olympic Games as an opportunity to announce its arrival as a major political and economic power. At a cost of $40 billion, however, the Beijing Olympics represent the most expensive coming-out party in history, and the question remains whether China will earn a decent return on its investment.
Despite their success on the playing fields, the event has been an economic disaster for the Chinese. The anticipated influx of tourists has not materialized, and despite "selling every ticket" many venues are half full. Indeed, Beijing's tourism bureau predicts that the total number of visitors to the city this month will be virtually unchanged from the figures from the previous August. Sports fans have crowded out regular visitors during what is normally a busy tourist season, and strict security measures have scared away other potential guests."
Yet....
"In one sense, however, these Games have been an unqualified success. The Olympics have instilled a sense of pride in the Chinese people, over 80 percent of whom report that they believe the country "is on the right track." An astounding 93 percent of Chinese surveyed by the Pew Research Center thought that the Games would improve the country's image. Certainly the feel-good effect of the Olympics should not be dismissed lightly. But will the positive feeling remain as the Chinese people dig themselves out from under the $40 billion price tag?"
Read on, here. Incidentally, the figure for the all up costs of the Games quoted on ABC Radio National this morning was $80 billion.
Associate Professor Victor Matheson [of economics at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts] puts forward his views on the Games and what they mean, overall, to China and the world, in an op-ed piece in IHT:
"For the past two weeks, the world's attention has been focused on China, and the country has used the Olympic Games as an opportunity to announce its arrival as a major political and economic power. At a cost of $40 billion, however, the Beijing Olympics represent the most expensive coming-out party in history, and the question remains whether China will earn a decent return on its investment.
Despite their success on the playing fields, the event has been an economic disaster for the Chinese. The anticipated influx of tourists has not materialized, and despite "selling every ticket" many venues are half full. Indeed, Beijing's tourism bureau predicts that the total number of visitors to the city this month will be virtually unchanged from the figures from the previous August. Sports fans have crowded out regular visitors during what is normally a busy tourist season, and strict security measures have scared away other potential guests."
Yet....
"In one sense, however, these Games have been an unqualified success. The Olympics have instilled a sense of pride in the Chinese people, over 80 percent of whom report that they believe the country "is on the right track." An astounding 93 percent of Chinese surveyed by the Pew Research Center thought that the Games would improve the country's image. Certainly the feel-good effect of the Olympics should not be dismissed lightly. But will the positive feeling remain as the Chinese people dig themselves out from under the $40 billion price tag?"
Read on, here. Incidentally, the figure for the all up costs of the Games quoted on ABC Radio National this morning was $80 billion.
So, who is this Joe Biden guy?
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Blogging Revolution
"Across the world, young generations are challenging tired state media by writing online about politics, sex, drugs, relationships, religion, popular culture and especially Angelina Jolie. From Egyptian activists opposed to female circumcision to outspoken, pro-Western women in Cuba, people are being empowered by new technology to create spaces away from the prying eyes of meddling authorities.
The rise of the online community means the relationship between the state and its people is shifting radically. Individuality is emerging in societies that routinely shun such behaviour and repressive regimes are not pleased."
The Review section of today's Australian newspaper publishes an interesting piece on blogging, and its "impact" around the world - especially in countries with repressive regimes - written by author Antony Loewenstein relating to his book to be released [MUP] next week "The Blogging Revolution" [go here and here]
The rise of the online community means the relationship between the state and its people is shifting radically. Individuality is emerging in societies that routinely shun such behaviour and repressive regimes are not pleased."
The Review section of today's Australian newspaper publishes an interesting piece on blogging, and its "impact" around the world - especially in countries with repressive regimes - written by author Antony Loewenstein relating to his book to be released [MUP] next week "The Blogging Revolution" [go here and here]
Capturing, and working with, the shifting ground
Especially interesting as it comes from a Jewish publication, Forward this week has a thought-provoking Editorial on how America, and the West, have to understand that the Islamic world is changing - and it ought to be "captured" and worked with before it's too late:
"A major shift is under way in the politics and power balance of the Islamic world, and it calls for a fundamental change in American and Western strategic thinking. Handled well, the shift holds out the possibility of a lasting thaw in the tensions that now dominate relations between the West and Islam. But if it is mishandled or ignored, the likely result will be a continuation of the current, dangerous spiral downward. Right now, it appears that our leaders — Republicans and Democrats alike — are missing the warning signs."
And:
"For all that, the fundamentalists’ upward trend could present America and the West with an opportunity if not to win, then to change the rules of the game. We could welcome the steps by Turkey and Jordan to open dialogues with radicals, rather than condemning them. We could make clear that we, too, would like to enter a dialogue if we knew something would come out of it. We could make peace the goal of the dialogue rather than a precondition.
With luck and skill, an embrace of the less hostile fundamentalists could put America back at the center of a broad coalition of friendly nations willing and eager to follow our lead, instead of the despised, crippled giant we have become over the past decade."
"A major shift is under way in the politics and power balance of the Islamic world, and it calls for a fundamental change in American and Western strategic thinking. Handled well, the shift holds out the possibility of a lasting thaw in the tensions that now dominate relations between the West and Islam. But if it is mishandled or ignored, the likely result will be a continuation of the current, dangerous spiral downward. Right now, it appears that our leaders — Republicans and Democrats alike — are missing the warning signs."
And:
"For all that, the fundamentalists’ upward trend could present America and the West with an opportunity if not to win, then to change the rules of the game. We could welcome the steps by Turkey and Jordan to open dialogues with radicals, rather than condemning them. We could make clear that we, too, would like to enter a dialogue if we knew something would come out of it. We could make peace the goal of the dialogue rather than a precondition.
With luck and skill, an embrace of the less hostile fundamentalists could put America back at the center of a broad coalition of friendly nations willing and eager to follow our lead, instead of the despised, crippled giant we have become over the past decade."
Friday, August 22, 2008
There are better options
Yes, there are better options than tackling Iran as the Israelis want to - says Daniel Levy in an op-ed piece in Haaretz:
"Israel's response to the Iranian challenge has been out of synch with developing realities for some time. Recently though, it has become dangerously counter-productive, anchored as it is in denial. As Israel intensifies its role as threatener-in-chief, and clings to a "more sticks, bigger sticks" line, events all around are moving on.
The supposed logic behind Israel's escalating threats, suggesting it is ready to go it alone militarily, is threefold. It pressures Iran, thereby increasing international leverage in negotiations; a nervous world feels compelled to up sanctions and deliver results; and the path is smoothed to international acceptance of possible future Israeli action. Except that the logic (always a tenuous one) is now being repudiated on all three fronts.
Iran apparently views the threats as a reason to pursue more vigorously, not desist from, its enrichment program. In general, Iran's perception that it is the threatened party (surrounded by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Arabian Gulf) adds impetus to its weapons-acquisition program. Israeli threats only add to that momentum. Sanctions tend to be a plodding, blunt and ineffective policy instrument. Iranian technological advances have outpaced sanctions every time. Anyway, the prospects of intensifying collective UN sanctions has likely been buried in the rubble of America's spat with Russia over Georgia and its breakaway provinces."
"Israel's response to the Iranian challenge has been out of synch with developing realities for some time. Recently though, it has become dangerously counter-productive, anchored as it is in denial. As Israel intensifies its role as threatener-in-chief, and clings to a "more sticks, bigger sticks" line, events all around are moving on.
The supposed logic behind Israel's escalating threats, suggesting it is ready to go it alone militarily, is threefold. It pressures Iran, thereby increasing international leverage in negotiations; a nervous world feels compelled to up sanctions and deliver results; and the path is smoothed to international acceptance of possible future Israeli action. Except that the logic (always a tenuous one) is now being repudiated on all three fronts.
Iran apparently views the threats as a reason to pursue more vigorously, not desist from, its enrichment program. In general, Iran's perception that it is the threatened party (surrounded by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Arabian Gulf) adds impetus to its weapons-acquisition program. Israeli threats only add to that momentum. Sanctions tend to be a plodding, blunt and ineffective policy instrument. Iranian technological advances have outpaced sanctions every time. Anyway, the prospects of intensifying collective UN sanctions has likely been buried in the rubble of America's spat with Russia over Georgia and its breakaway provinces."
This man for President?
Strange as it seems to outsiders - read, non-Americans - John McCain is leading Obama in opinion polls in the US. Perhaps its the scare campaign underway about Obama or the fact that Obama is not white. Whatever, it must be a concern that McCain is seriously in contention to become President.
Leaving aside that he is now the subject of ridicule that he doesn't even know how many homes he has - he ventured the suggestion, 4, when it's actually, 7 - that the man is ill-equipped to lead any country, let alone the US, emerges from this piece in The Nation "MCain's Warped Worldview":
"The world according to John McCain is one in which America is triumphant at home and abroad thanks to the Bush legacy, rolling to victory internationally and mastering its domestic economic problems. If daily news, like reports of the ten French soldiers killed by a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and the US government's imminent nationalization of much of the American mortgage-lending industry, would seem to deny such a rosy scenario, then that only shows skeptics lack the courage that sustained McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
There you have it encapsulated, the McCain campaign for President, an irrational mélange of patriotic swagger and blindness to reality that is proving disturbingly successful with uninformed voters. How else to explain the many millions of Americans who tell pollsters they prefer a continuation of Republican rule when so many of them are losing their homes to foreclosure and the nation is devastated by out-of-control military spending?
The economy is in a downward spiral, the national debt is at an all-time high, the dollar is an international disgrace and inflation in July had the steepest rise in twenty-seven years, driven by oil prices fivefold higher than when George W. Bush invaded the nation with the world's second-largest petroleum reserves.
While the oil-rich Mideast nations we protect refuse to fully open the oil spigots as payback for our military efforts, McCain celebrates General David Petraeus as his number-one hero for "victory" in Iraq. Aside from the reality that victory there is now defined as returning to the level of stability provided by Saddam Hussein, who the Bush Administration admits had nothing to do with the bin Laden-led terrorists, even that goal requires the cooperation of our former sworn enemies, Iran's ayatollahs."
Leaving aside that he is now the subject of ridicule that he doesn't even know how many homes he has - he ventured the suggestion, 4, when it's actually, 7 - that the man is ill-equipped to lead any country, let alone the US, emerges from this piece in The Nation "MCain's Warped Worldview":
"The world according to John McCain is one in which America is triumphant at home and abroad thanks to the Bush legacy, rolling to victory internationally and mastering its domestic economic problems. If daily news, like reports of the ten French soldiers killed by a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and the US government's imminent nationalization of much of the American mortgage-lending industry, would seem to deny such a rosy scenario, then that only shows skeptics lack the courage that sustained McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
There you have it encapsulated, the McCain campaign for President, an irrational mélange of patriotic swagger and blindness to reality that is proving disturbingly successful with uninformed voters. How else to explain the many millions of Americans who tell pollsters they prefer a continuation of Republican rule when so many of them are losing their homes to foreclosure and the nation is devastated by out-of-control military spending?
The economy is in a downward spiral, the national debt is at an all-time high, the dollar is an international disgrace and inflation in July had the steepest rise in twenty-seven years, driven by oil prices fivefold higher than when George W. Bush invaded the nation with the world's second-largest petroleum reserves.
While the oil-rich Mideast nations we protect refuse to fully open the oil spigots as payback for our military efforts, McCain celebrates General David Petraeus as his number-one hero for "victory" in Iraq. Aside from the reality that victory there is now defined as returning to the level of stability provided by Saddam Hussein, who the Bush Administration admits had nothing to do with the bin Laden-led terrorists, even that goal requires the cooperation of our former sworn enemies, Iran's ayatollahs."
The Anger, the Longing, the Hope
Uri Avnery writing on Gush Shalom, reflects on the just deceased Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish - and pays the man a moving tribute - and no less importantly, on the general state of play between the Israelis and Palestinians:
"One of the wisest pronouncements I have heard in my life was that of an Egyptian general, a few days after Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem.
We were the first Israelis to come to Cairo, and one of the things we were very curious about was: how did you manage to surprise us at the beginning of the October 1973 war?
The general answered: "Instead of reading the intelligence reports, you should have read our poets."
I reflected on these words last Wednesday, at the funeral of Mahmoud Darwish.
During the funeral ceremony in Ramallah he was referred to again and again as "the Palestinian National Poet".
But he was much more than that. He was the embodiment of the Palestinian destiny. His personal fate coincided with the fate of his people."
Continue to reading, here.
"One of the wisest pronouncements I have heard in my life was that of an Egyptian general, a few days after Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem.
We were the first Israelis to come to Cairo, and one of the things we were very curious about was: how did you manage to surprise us at the beginning of the October 1973 war?
The general answered: "Instead of reading the intelligence reports, you should have read our poets."
I reflected on these words last Wednesday, at the funeral of Mahmoud Darwish.
During the funeral ceremony in Ramallah he was referred to again and again as "the Palestinian National Poet".
But he was much more than that. He was the embodiment of the Palestinian destiny. His personal fate coincided with the fate of his people."
Continue to reading, here.
Farewell my beautiful Zimbabwe: how paradise turned to poverty
A poignant article in The Independent by Justine Shaw, a woman originally from Zimbabwe, now living with her family in Australia, on how her former home-country, Zimbabwe, has turned from a paradise to a land of poverty.
"Mugabe has crippled Zimbabwe, reducing most of its people to beggars or barterers and black marketeers. The ultimate irony is that, whether by accident or design, it has taken 28 years for them to prove the racist detractors correct when they prophesied that the incoming Zanu-PF government would be incapable of governing the country."
"Mugabe has crippled Zimbabwe, reducing most of its people to beggars or barterers and black marketeers. The ultimate irony is that, whether by accident or design, it has taken 28 years for them to prove the racist detractors correct when they prophesied that the incoming Zanu-PF government would be incapable of governing the country."
China Nabs Another Gold Medal: Government sets new record for jailing Olympics protesters
Ken Silverstein, writing on Harper's Magazine, on China's latest addition to its medal tally:
"The New York Times reported yesterday that the Chinese government had refused to allow a single demonstration in any of the official “protest zones” it had created for the Olympic games. Now two elderly woman have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” for seeking a permit to demonstrate.
'The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to the police this month in an effort to get permission to protest what they contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in Beijing…Although it is unlikely that women as old as Ms. Wu and Ms. Wang would be forced into hard labor, many of those sentenced to [re-education] often toil in agricultural or factory work and are forced to confess their transgressions.'
Two other rights advocates from southern China “have not been heard from since they were seized last week at the Public Security Bureau’s protest application office in Beijing,” the Times reports.
I haven’t seen how or if NBC, which through GE paid hundreds of millions of dollars for exclusive rights to broadcast the games, has covered these facts. Maybe they can bring out their “expert” commentator, Joshua Cooper Ramo, managing director and partner at the Beijing office of Kissinger Associates, to discuss the arrests of Ms. Wu and Ms. Wang. I’m sure conditions are excellent at the re-education camp the two women will be checking into, and a small stretch of hard labor will no doubt do them well."
"The New York Times reported yesterday that the Chinese government had refused to allow a single demonstration in any of the official “protest zones” it had created for the Olympic games. Now two elderly woman have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” for seeking a permit to demonstrate.
'The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to the police this month in an effort to get permission to protest what they contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in Beijing…Although it is unlikely that women as old as Ms. Wu and Ms. Wang would be forced into hard labor, many of those sentenced to [re-education] often toil in agricultural or factory work and are forced to confess their transgressions.'
Two other rights advocates from southern China “have not been heard from since they were seized last week at the Public Security Bureau’s protest application office in Beijing,” the Times reports.
I haven’t seen how or if NBC, which through GE paid hundreds of millions of dollars for exclusive rights to broadcast the games, has covered these facts. Maybe they can bring out their “expert” commentator, Joshua Cooper Ramo, managing director and partner at the Beijing office of Kissinger Associates, to discuss the arrests of Ms. Wu and Ms. Wang. I’m sure conditions are excellent at the re-education camp the two women will be checking into, and a small stretch of hard labor will no doubt do them well."
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Friends in high places....and being true to journalism
Glenn Greenwald writing in Salon in "Journalists and their good friends in the White House"
addresses the question of reporters and their contacts - say at the White House - and how that impacts on their ability to be journalists in the truest sense of the word:
"The Washington Post's White House reporter, Michael Abramowitz, was asked yesterday during a chat to name some of his "favorite people who work at the White House but who are not in the spotlight," and Abramowitz happily and easily offered a long list:
"I like your question. One of the things you find in covering the White House is that many of the staff are extremely friendly and dedicated, and it's fun to get to know some of them. The truth is reporters tend to hang out with the people in the [White House] press office, so the names I might give you tend to be lower-level press aides, like Carlton Carroll, Stuart Siciliano and Pete Seat -- and spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. They are extremely helpful to me (and I don't mean this list to be all-inclusive.)
I also enjoy talking with deputy chief of staff Joel Kaplan and deputy national security adviser Jim Jeffrey -- I wouldn't be surprised if Joel is one day a cabinet officer or a CEO somewhere. He has an interesting life story -- he joined the Marines after graduating from Harvard, then became a lawyer and is basically the top aide to Chief of Staff Josh Bolten.
Of course, Joel and others I mention are extremely discreet, so it's not like anyone is really dishing on the president! You need to look elsewhere for that."
That sounds like a really fun and playful circle of friends -- just a great, great group of people -- and Abramowitz seems to derive much satisfaction from being able to be a part of it. Only a curmudgeon -- or some shrill, angry Leftist type that just doesn't understand How Journalism Works -- would begrudge Abramowitz his fun.
But, in theory at least, White House press officials are the principal impediments to a White House reporter's being able to do his job. The core function of the White House press officials with whom Abramowitz loves to "hang out" and of whom he is obviously so fond is to manipulate his reporting in favor of the White House, to conceal or distort facts that are incriminating of the President, to disseminate narratives that promote the Government's goals. That's true in general, and particularly so for the most secretive and manipulative White House in modern American history. For that reason, healthy "watchdog" journalism would dictate that such officials are viewed with suspicion, that the relationship would be far more adversarial than affectionate, that reporters would speak of such officials dispassionately rather than gushing with the kind of personal praise one generally reserves for one's dearest friends and closest colleagues."
addresses the question of reporters and their contacts - say at the White House - and how that impacts on their ability to be journalists in the truest sense of the word:
"The Washington Post's White House reporter, Michael Abramowitz, was asked yesterday during a chat to name some of his "favorite people who work at the White House but who are not in the spotlight," and Abramowitz happily and easily offered a long list:
"I like your question. One of the things you find in covering the White House is that many of the staff are extremely friendly and dedicated, and it's fun to get to know some of them. The truth is reporters tend to hang out with the people in the [White House] press office, so the names I might give you tend to be lower-level press aides, like Carlton Carroll, Stuart Siciliano and Pete Seat -- and spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. They are extremely helpful to me (and I don't mean this list to be all-inclusive.)
I also enjoy talking with deputy chief of staff Joel Kaplan and deputy national security adviser Jim Jeffrey -- I wouldn't be surprised if Joel is one day a cabinet officer or a CEO somewhere. He has an interesting life story -- he joined the Marines after graduating from Harvard, then became a lawyer and is basically the top aide to Chief of Staff Josh Bolten.
Of course, Joel and others I mention are extremely discreet, so it's not like anyone is really dishing on the president! You need to look elsewhere for that."
That sounds like a really fun and playful circle of friends -- just a great, great group of people -- and Abramowitz seems to derive much satisfaction from being able to be a part of it. Only a curmudgeon -- or some shrill, angry Leftist type that just doesn't understand How Journalism Works -- would begrudge Abramowitz his fun.
But, in theory at least, White House press officials are the principal impediments to a White House reporter's being able to do his job. The core function of the White House press officials with whom Abramowitz loves to "hang out" and of whom he is obviously so fond is to manipulate his reporting in favor of the White House, to conceal or distort facts that are incriminating of the President, to disseminate narratives that promote the Government's goals. That's true in general, and particularly so for the most secretive and manipulative White House in modern American history. For that reason, healthy "watchdog" journalism would dictate that such officials are viewed with suspicion, that the relationship would be far more adversarial than affectionate, that reporters would speak of such officials dispassionately rather than gushing with the kind of personal praise one generally reserves for one's dearest friends and closest colleagues."
McCain: Senator, Grow Up!
Like it or not the rest of the world is drawn to being "participants" in the presidential election process presently underway in the US. Whoever is elected to the White House is most likely to impact world events in the 4 years of that president's term. So, it's going to be either Obama or McCain.
Keith Olbermann, never shy in calling a spade a shovel, more than takes on McCain on his pronouncements about the war in Iraq:
"Though victory in Iraq is finally in sight," you told the V-F-W today, Senator McCain, "a great deal still depends on the decisions and good judgment of the next president. The hard-won gains of our troops hang in the balance. The lasting advantage of a peaceful and democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East could still be squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines. And this is one of many problems in the shifting positions of my opponent, Senator Obama."
The shifting positions of Senator Obama?
Senator McCain - on the 22nd of May, 2003 ... you said, of Iraq, on the Senate floor, quote:
"We won a massive victory in a few weeks, and we did so with very limited loss of American and allied lives. We were able to end aggression with minimum overall loss of life, and we were even able to greatly reduce the civilian casualties of Afghani and Iraqi citizens.
Senator - you declared victory in Iraq, five years and nearly three months ago.
Today you say: "victory in Iraq is finally in sight"?
The victory you already proclaimed five years ago?
Are we going back in time Sir?"
Read on, on truthout.com [or watch the video] here.
Keith Olbermann, never shy in calling a spade a shovel, more than takes on McCain on his pronouncements about the war in Iraq:
"Though victory in Iraq is finally in sight," you told the V-F-W today, Senator McCain, "a great deal still depends on the decisions and good judgment of the next president. The hard-won gains of our troops hang in the balance. The lasting advantage of a peaceful and democratic ally in the heart of the Middle East could still be squandered by hasty withdrawal and arbitrary timelines. And this is one of many problems in the shifting positions of my opponent, Senator Obama."
The shifting positions of Senator Obama?
Senator McCain - on the 22nd of May, 2003 ... you said, of Iraq, on the Senate floor, quote:
"We won a massive victory in a few weeks, and we did so with very limited loss of American and allied lives. We were able to end aggression with minimum overall loss of life, and we were even able to greatly reduce the civilian casualties of Afghani and Iraqi citizens.
Senator - you declared victory in Iraq, five years and nearly three months ago.
Today you say: "victory in Iraq is finally in sight"?
The victory you already proclaimed five years ago?
Are we going back in time Sir?"
Read on, on truthout.com [or watch the video] here.
Sailing to Gaza
Gaza has, in effect, been under siege from the Israelis for years. Only fairly basic items are allowed into the area. Not even school supplies can get through: Haaretz article here.
Meanwhile, a boat-load of people are sailing from Cyprus to Gaza in an endeavour to break the Israeli's blockade of Gaza. Information Clearing House in a piece "Sailing to Gaza" backgrounds some of the participants, including this one:
"Another is Professor Jeff Halper. He has lobbied and travelled far and wide as head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition. Seeing temple after temple of the family taken apart by swing shovels as one vicious arm of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the remnants of Palestine has turned his determination from steel to diamond.
'''The mission is to break the Israeli siege, an absolutely illegal siege which has plunged a million and a half Palestinians into wretched conditions: imprisoned in their own homes, exposed to extreme military violence, deprived of the basic necessities of life, stripped of their most fundamental human rights and dignity. The siege violates the most fundamental principle of international law: the inadmissibility of harming civilian populations.''
''This is why I, an Israeli Jew, felt compelled to join this voyage to break the siege. As a person who seeks a just peace with the Palestinians, who understands (despite what our politicians tell us) that they are not our enemies but rather people seeking precisely what we sought and fought for - national self-determination, I cannot stand idly aside. I can no more passively witness my government's destruction of another people than I can watch the Occupation destroy the moral fabric of my own country. To do so would violate my commitment to human rights, the very essence of prophetic Jewish religion, culture and morals, without which Israel is no longer Jewish but an empty, if powerful, Sparta.''
''Ordinary people have often played key roles in history, particularly in situations like this where governments shirk their responsibilities. My voyage to Gaza is a statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people in their time of suffering, but it also conveys a message to my fellow citizens.'' And he explains why.(5)"
Meanwhile, a boat-load of people are sailing from Cyprus to Gaza in an endeavour to break the Israeli's blockade of Gaza. Information Clearing House in a piece "Sailing to Gaza" backgrounds some of the participants, including this one:
"Another is Professor Jeff Halper. He has lobbied and travelled far and wide as head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition. Seeing temple after temple of the family taken apart by swing shovels as one vicious arm of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the remnants of Palestine has turned his determination from steel to diamond.
'''The mission is to break the Israeli siege, an absolutely illegal siege which has plunged a million and a half Palestinians into wretched conditions: imprisoned in their own homes, exposed to extreme military violence, deprived of the basic necessities of life, stripped of their most fundamental human rights and dignity. The siege violates the most fundamental principle of international law: the inadmissibility of harming civilian populations.''
''This is why I, an Israeli Jew, felt compelled to join this voyage to break the siege. As a person who seeks a just peace with the Palestinians, who understands (despite what our politicians tell us) that they are not our enemies but rather people seeking precisely what we sought and fought for - national self-determination, I cannot stand idly aside. I can no more passively witness my government's destruction of another people than I can watch the Occupation destroy the moral fabric of my own country. To do so would violate my commitment to human rights, the very essence of prophetic Jewish religion, culture and morals, without which Israel is no longer Jewish but an empty, if powerful, Sparta.''
''Ordinary people have often played key roles in history, particularly in situations like this where governments shirk their responsibilities. My voyage to Gaza is a statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people in their time of suffering, but it also conveys a message to my fellow citizens.'' And he explains why.(5)"
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
How Hilary Lost It!
With Obama on the cusp of naming his proposed VP - and some suggesting it might be Hilary Clinton - The Atlantic.com in a piece "The Front-Runner’s Fall" reveals how Hilary conducted her campaign for the Democratic presidential candidate:
"Hillary Clinton’s campaign was undone by a clash of personalities more toxic than anyone imagined. E-mails and memos—published here for the first time—reveal the backstabbing and conflicting strategies that produced an epic meltdown."
Read the piece, here.
"Hillary Clinton’s campaign was undone by a clash of personalities more toxic than anyone imagined. E-mails and memos—published here for the first time—reveal the backstabbing and conflicting strategies that produced an epic meltdown."
Read the piece, here.
So, what is life like in downtown Baghdad?
Forget about what the Western media reports - or for that matter what the politicians, especially the Americans, spin as part of a pr exercise.
From downtown Baghdad an Iraqi on his blog "Last of Iraqis" reports on the conditions and life in the war-torn city.
From downtown Baghdad an Iraqi on his blog "Last of Iraqis" reports on the conditions and life in the war-torn city.
Missiles and money
Wanna know why the Americans are so intent in placing missiles in countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia? - and why the Russians don't like them at its doorstep? Foolhardy, stupid US policies and money - lots of it - are the reason, according to George Monbiot writing in The Guardian in "The US Missile Defence System Is the Magic Pudding That Will Never Run Out":
"So why commit endless billions to a programme that is bound to fail? I’ll give you a clue: the answer is in the question. It persists because it doesn’t work.
US politics, because of the failure by both Republicans and Democrats to deal with the problems of campaign finance, is rotten from head to toe. But under Bush, the corruption has acquired Nigerian qualities. Federal government is a vast corporate welfare programme, rewarding the industries that give millions of dollars in political donations with contracts worth billions. Missile defence is the biggest pork barrel of all, the magic pudding that won’t run out, however much you eat. The funds channelled to defence, aerospace and other manufacturing and service companies will never run dry because the system will never work.
To keep the pudding flowing, the administration must exaggerate the threats from nations that have no means of nuking it - and ignore the likely responses of those that do. Russia is not without its own corrupting influences. You could see the grim delight of the Russian generals and defence officials last week, who have found in this new deployment an excuse to enhance their power and demand bigger budgets. Poor old Poland, like the Czech Republic and the UK, gets strongarmed into becoming America’s groundbait.
If we seek to understand American foreign policy in terms of a rational engagement with international problems, or even as an effective means of projecting power, we are looking in the wrong place. The government’s interests have always been provincial. It seeks to appease lobbyists, shift public opinion at crucial stages of the political cycle, accommodate crazy Christian fantasies and pander to television companies run by eccentric billionaires. The US does not really have a foreign policy. It has a series of domestic policies which it projects beyond its borders. That they threaten the world with 57 varieties of destruction is of no concern to the current administration. The only question of interest is who gets paid and what the political kickbacks will be."
"So why commit endless billions to a programme that is bound to fail? I’ll give you a clue: the answer is in the question. It persists because it doesn’t work.
US politics, because of the failure by both Republicans and Democrats to deal with the problems of campaign finance, is rotten from head to toe. But under Bush, the corruption has acquired Nigerian qualities. Federal government is a vast corporate welfare programme, rewarding the industries that give millions of dollars in political donations with contracts worth billions. Missile defence is the biggest pork barrel of all, the magic pudding that won’t run out, however much you eat. The funds channelled to defence, aerospace and other manufacturing and service companies will never run dry because the system will never work.
To keep the pudding flowing, the administration must exaggerate the threats from nations that have no means of nuking it - and ignore the likely responses of those that do. Russia is not without its own corrupting influences. You could see the grim delight of the Russian generals and defence officials last week, who have found in this new deployment an excuse to enhance their power and demand bigger budgets. Poor old Poland, like the Czech Republic and the UK, gets strongarmed into becoming America’s groundbait.
If we seek to understand American foreign policy in terms of a rational engagement with international problems, or even as an effective means of projecting power, we are looking in the wrong place. The government’s interests have always been provincial. It seeks to appease lobbyists, shift public opinion at crucial stages of the political cycle, accommodate crazy Christian fantasies and pander to television companies run by eccentric billionaires. The US does not really have a foreign policy. It has a series of domestic policies which it projects beyond its borders. That they threaten the world with 57 varieties of destruction is of no concern to the current administration. The only question of interest is who gets paid and what the political kickbacks will be."
Home after 5 years in Gitmo
Josh White writing in The Washington Post:
"I've covered the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2004 as military correspondent for The Post. Jumah al Dossari first caught my attention in October 2005, when I heard the story of his gruesome suicide attempt during a visit from his lawyer. Then known as Detainee #261, Dossari clearly was making a public plea for help. Though the U.S. military has said many times that all detainees at Guantanamo are treated humanely and that Dossari had been getting the help he needed, detention in Guantanamo apparently became more than he could bear. His wish to die humanized the desperation of many detainees held indefinitely at the facility.
U.S. officials maintained for years that Dossari was a dangerous terrorist who had been arrested after going to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against U.S. forces. Dossari also spent some time in the United States and allegedly tried to recruit terrorists with fiery sermons, something that obviously raised concerns among his interrogators and jailers. Nevertheless, he was never charged with a crime, never admitted any connection to terrorism and was ultimately released to Saudi Arabia in July 2007.
His return to freedom has been smooth. He is employed, married and doing well. When I talked to him by cellphone from Dammam late last year, he spoke of a hope and a peace and a forgiveness that arose from his "black days" behind bars at Guantanamo."
Read what Jumah al Dossarihas has to say about his experience [s] here.....
"I've covered the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2004 as military correspondent for The Post. Jumah al Dossari first caught my attention in October 2005, when I heard the story of his gruesome suicide attempt during a visit from his lawyer. Then known as Detainee #261, Dossari clearly was making a public plea for help. Though the U.S. military has said many times that all detainees at Guantanamo are treated humanely and that Dossari had been getting the help he needed, detention in Guantanamo apparently became more than he could bear. His wish to die humanized the desperation of many detainees held indefinitely at the facility.
U.S. officials maintained for years that Dossari was a dangerous terrorist who had been arrested after going to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against U.S. forces. Dossari also spent some time in the United States and allegedly tried to recruit terrorists with fiery sermons, something that obviously raised concerns among his interrogators and jailers. Nevertheless, he was never charged with a crime, never admitted any connection to terrorism and was ultimately released to Saudi Arabia in July 2007.
His return to freedom has been smooth. He is employed, married and doing well. When I talked to him by cellphone from Dammam late last year, he spoke of a hope and a peace and a forgiveness that arose from his "black days" behind bars at Guantanamo."
Read what Jumah al Dossarihas has to say about his experience [s] here.....
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Perils of an Israeli Transition
It isn't all that often that US newspapers - or newspapers anywhere for that matter - at least challenge Israel and its actions. The NY Times has been reticent to even criticise Israel.
It is therefore interesting that in this US election year the Times does editorialise in "Perils of an Israeli Transition"on what Israel ought to be considering in a new PM post Ehud Olmert's departure:
"History is unlikely to be kind to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel. He disastrously mismanaged the 2006 Lebanon war. And now, besmirched by financial scandals, he has announced plans to leave office as soon as a successor can be confirmed.
Mr. Olmert does, however, understand that a two-state solution with the Palestinians is vital for Israel’s security. We hope that his successor does as well and brings a greater sense of urgency to the negotiations.
There has always been a wide gap between what Mr. Olmert understands about the need for a peace settlement and what he has done about it. Merely meeting the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, for periodic talks is not enough.
Without jeopardizing its security, Israel could take important steps to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians and give them a real stake in peace. In his remaining weeks or months in power, Mr. Olmert could burnish his legacy, and the prospects for an agreement, if he announced a full freeze on expansion of Jewish settlements and reduced the number of roadblocks in the West Bank that are strangling the Palestinian economy."
Arab countries and George W don't escape advice either. Read the Editorial here.
It is therefore interesting that in this US election year the Times does editorialise in "Perils of an Israeli Transition"on what Israel ought to be considering in a new PM post Ehud Olmert's departure:
"History is unlikely to be kind to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel. He disastrously mismanaged the 2006 Lebanon war. And now, besmirched by financial scandals, he has announced plans to leave office as soon as a successor can be confirmed.
Mr. Olmert does, however, understand that a two-state solution with the Palestinians is vital for Israel’s security. We hope that his successor does as well and brings a greater sense of urgency to the negotiations.
There has always been a wide gap between what Mr. Olmert understands about the need for a peace settlement and what he has done about it. Merely meeting the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, for periodic talks is not enough.
Without jeopardizing its security, Israel could take important steps to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians and give them a real stake in peace. In his remaining weeks or months in power, Mr. Olmert could burnish his legacy, and the prospects for an agreement, if he announced a full freeze on expansion of Jewish settlements and reduced the number of roadblocks in the West Bank that are strangling the Palestinian economy."
Arab countries and George W don't escape advice either. Read the Editorial here.
The Chinese censorship foreigners don't see
Rebecca MacKinnon was one of the founders of Global Voices and now has her own blog RConversation. As she lives and works in Hong Kong her "beat" is very much what is going on in China.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal Asia under the headline "The Chinese Censorship
Foreigners Don't See" she instances that there is more than just what has become known as the "Great Firewall of China":
"Beijing's Internet censorship hit global headlines recently, when foreign journalists in town to cover the Olympics discovered their access to well-known overseas Web sites was blocked. Yet while the government has now unblocked some of those sites, those journalists shouldn't think the broader problem is solved. Censorship of ordinary Chinese people's electronic communications within China has changed little. Visiting reporters just aren't noticing because these forms of censorship relate to Chinese-language content they're not familiar with, hosted on Web sites and services located on computer servers inside China, which foreigners generally don't use.
The "Great Firewall," the common moniker for China's filtering system that blocks various Internet addresses and keywords, really only pertains to Internet sites and services hosted on computer servers outside China. Inside China, companies that host Web sites, blogs and chat rooms are held responsible for objectionable content posted on their services. All of China's blog-hosting services, YouTube-style video sharing sites and the like hire entire departments of people to flag and delete things that may get them in trouble with the government authorities who could revoke their business license.
This context is key to understanding the wide-ranging conversations, many of them political, that are now happening on Chinese blogs and chat rooms. There is indeed a vastly larger space for public discourse on matters of public concern than existed even a few years ago. But that space still has limits. Chinese Web users now experience a more targeted and subtle approach to censorship than before."
Writing in the Wall Street Journal Asia under the headline "The Chinese Censorship
Foreigners Don't See" she instances that there is more than just what has become known as the "Great Firewall of China":
"Beijing's Internet censorship hit global headlines recently, when foreign journalists in town to cover the Olympics discovered their access to well-known overseas Web sites was blocked. Yet while the government has now unblocked some of those sites, those journalists shouldn't think the broader problem is solved. Censorship of ordinary Chinese people's electronic communications within China has changed little. Visiting reporters just aren't noticing because these forms of censorship relate to Chinese-language content they're not familiar with, hosted on Web sites and services located on computer servers inside China, which foreigners generally don't use.
The "Great Firewall," the common moniker for China's filtering system that blocks various Internet addresses and keywords, really only pertains to Internet sites and services hosted on computer servers outside China. Inside China, companies that host Web sites, blogs and chat rooms are held responsible for objectionable content posted on their services. All of China's blog-hosting services, YouTube-style video sharing sites and the like hire entire departments of people to flag and delete things that may get them in trouble with the government authorities who could revoke their business license.
This context is key to understanding the wide-ranging conversations, many of them political, that are now happening on Chinese blogs and chat rooms. There is indeed a vastly larger space for public discourse on matters of public concern than existed even a few years ago. But that space still has limits. Chinese Web users now experience a more targeted and subtle approach to censorship than before."
Obama: The Candidate people still don't know?
Frank Rich, in his weekly op-ed column in the NY Times, reflects on the US presidential candidate he says is still not know to the general populace:
"As I went on vacation at the end of July, Barack Obama was leading John McCain by three to four percentage points in national polls. When I returned last week he still was. But lo and behold, a whole new plot twist had rolled off the bloviation assembly line in those intervening two weeks: Obama had lost the election!
The poor guy should be winning in a landslide against the despised party of Bush-Cheney, and he’s not. He should be passing the 50 percent mark in polls, and he’s not. He’s been done in by that ad with Britney and Paris and by a new international crisis that allows McCain to again flex his Manchurian Candidate military cred. Let the neocons identify a new battleground for igniting World War III, whether Baghdad or Tehran or Moscow, and McCain gets with the program as if Angela Lansbury has just dealt him the Queen of Hearts.
Obama has also been defeated by racism (again). He can’t connect and “close the deal” with ordinary Americans too doltish to comprehend a multicultural biography that includes what Cokie Roberts of ABC News has damned as the “foreign, exotic place” of Hawaii. As The Economist sums up the received wisdom, “lunch-pail Ohio Democrats” find Obama’s ideas of change “airy-fairy” and are all asking, “Who on earth is this guy?”
Read on here.
"As I went on vacation at the end of July, Barack Obama was leading John McCain by three to four percentage points in national polls. When I returned last week he still was. But lo and behold, a whole new plot twist had rolled off the bloviation assembly line in those intervening two weeks: Obama had lost the election!
The poor guy should be winning in a landslide against the despised party of Bush-Cheney, and he’s not. He should be passing the 50 percent mark in polls, and he’s not. He’s been done in by that ad with Britney and Paris and by a new international crisis that allows McCain to again flex his Manchurian Candidate military cred. Let the neocons identify a new battleground for igniting World War III, whether Baghdad or Tehran or Moscow, and McCain gets with the program as if Angela Lansbury has just dealt him the Queen of Hearts.
Obama has also been defeated by racism (again). He can’t connect and “close the deal” with ordinary Americans too doltish to comprehend a multicultural biography that includes what Cokie Roberts of ABC News has damned as the “foreign, exotic place” of Hawaii. As The Economist sums up the received wisdom, “lunch-pail Ohio Democrats” find Obama’s ideas of change “airy-fairy” and are all asking, “Who on earth is this guy?”
Read on here.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Olympics: Welcome to the "no-fun Games"
John Taylor was the Australian ABC's China correspondent from 2002 to 2006. He returned to Beijing for the Olympics - and reports on the Radio National's Correspondent's Report:
"Welcome to the no-fun Games, the dirty Games, the repressive Olympics, the One Party party. You could go on and on like that.
China has invested billions of dollars in this international set piece to show the world it's back, and to be reckoned with. But it's not going as the Communist officials planned.
The weather has been all over the place. The pro-Tibetan protests have kept on coming. The venues aren't full. And the joy that was so evident on the streets of Sydney eight years ago just isn't here.
It's not that they haven't tried. I reckon the authorities have tried as hard as they can to make sure Beijing looks and is as good as it can. But I don't think the officials get it because of who and what they are: unelected, and unaccountable, except to each other.
They can't be honest, because they believe the public is to be feared, not embraced. Power is vested in the few, not the many. Friends and family come before the public. It creates distrust, anger, and danger.
But these truths can't be acknowledged, and must be hidden. China is striving to be a harmonious society, officials say. It is peaceful and non-threatening to the world.
But when does putting on your best face cross over to be just faking it? Is it faking it to have a little girl mime to another child's singing, because the Opening Ceremony needs a very pretty child? What about inserting computer graphics of fireworks into the live televised Opening Ceremony?
It wasn't faking it to the authorities that organised the Opening Ceremony. It didn't matter that it wasn't real: it looked better, and it fooled people, so great!
On the day the Olympics began, there was a carnival atmosphere outside the main Olympic precinct. Thousands of people spontaneously flocked to the area. The fences were strong and kept them out, but they actually didn't want to go in: they wanted to share their Olympic anticipation."
Interestingly, Mike Carlton, writing his weekly column in the SMH, comes to a not dissimilar conclusion:
"Somehow, the Olympic Games are not doing it for me this time around."
And:
"But there is something just not happening. And after some deep thought - at least a minute of it - I have worked out what it is. These games lack a heart and soul. There is no warmth to them. You never get the feeling that anything spontaneous might ever be allowed to get in the way of the relentless, goose-stepping march of organisational perfection.
Where are all the people? At Sydney 2000, and in Athens four years ago, the streets and the parks and the bars were thronged. There was a carnival mood. In Beijing, to judge from the television pictures, you could machine-gun some of the public spaces and not hit anyone. Perhaps they already have. The place has no life to it."
"Welcome to the no-fun Games, the dirty Games, the repressive Olympics, the One Party party. You could go on and on like that.
China has invested billions of dollars in this international set piece to show the world it's back, and to be reckoned with. But it's not going as the Communist officials planned.
The weather has been all over the place. The pro-Tibetan protests have kept on coming. The venues aren't full. And the joy that was so evident on the streets of Sydney eight years ago just isn't here.
It's not that they haven't tried. I reckon the authorities have tried as hard as they can to make sure Beijing looks and is as good as it can. But I don't think the officials get it because of who and what they are: unelected, and unaccountable, except to each other.
They can't be honest, because they believe the public is to be feared, not embraced. Power is vested in the few, not the many. Friends and family come before the public. It creates distrust, anger, and danger.
But these truths can't be acknowledged, and must be hidden. China is striving to be a harmonious society, officials say. It is peaceful and non-threatening to the world.
But when does putting on your best face cross over to be just faking it? Is it faking it to have a little girl mime to another child's singing, because the Opening Ceremony needs a very pretty child? What about inserting computer graphics of fireworks into the live televised Opening Ceremony?
It wasn't faking it to the authorities that organised the Opening Ceremony. It didn't matter that it wasn't real: it looked better, and it fooled people, so great!
On the day the Olympics began, there was a carnival atmosphere outside the main Olympic precinct. Thousands of people spontaneously flocked to the area. The fences were strong and kept them out, but they actually didn't want to go in: they wanted to share their Olympic anticipation."
Interestingly, Mike Carlton, writing his weekly column in the SMH, comes to a not dissimilar conclusion:
"Somehow, the Olympic Games are not doing it for me this time around."
And:
"But there is something just not happening. And after some deep thought - at least a minute of it - I have worked out what it is. These games lack a heart and soul. There is no warmth to them. You never get the feeling that anything spontaneous might ever be allowed to get in the way of the relentless, goose-stepping march of organisational perfection.
Where are all the people? At Sydney 2000, and in Athens four years ago, the streets and the parks and the bars were thronged. There was a carnival mood. In Beijing, to judge from the television pictures, you could machine-gun some of the public spaces and not hit anyone. Perhaps they already have. The place has no life to it."
"Live Richly"
The sub-prime mortgage debacle continues to take its toll, not only in the US, but worldwide. The ramifications are huge, most especially for those individuals who borrowed to buy a home - now, most probably already re-possessed or likely to be some time soon.
"Live Richly" was the catch-cry of the banks in the US as they persuaded those who could probably least afford it, to borrow monies well beyond their capacities.
The IHT explores and explains how the whole thing has both imploded and exploded:
"Live Richly"
That catchy slogan, dreamed up by the Fallon Worldwide advertising agency, was pitched in 1999 to executives at Citicorp who were looking for a way to lure Americans to financial products like home equity loans. But some in the room did not like it. They worried that the phrase would encourage people to live exorbitantly, says Stephen Cone, a top Citi marketer at the time.
Still, "Live Richly" won out. The advertising campaign, which cost about $1 billion from 2001 to 2006, urged Americans to lighten up about money, and helped persuade hundreds of thousands of Citi customers to take out home equity loans - that is, to borrow against their homes. As one of the ads proclaimed: "There's got to be at least $25,000 hidden in your house. We can help you find it."
Not long ago, such loans, which used to be known as second mortgages, were considered the borrowing of last resort, to be avoided by all but people in dire financial straits. Today, these loans have become widely accepted in the United States, their image transformed by ubiquitous ad campaigns from banks.
Since the early 1980s, the value of home equity loans outstanding has ballooned to more than $1 trillion from about $1 billion, and nearly a quarter of Americans with first mortgages have them. That explosive growth has been a boon for banks. Banks' returns on fixed-rate home equity loans and lines of credit, which are the most popular, are 25 percent to 50 percent higher than returns on consumer loans over all, with much of that premium coming from relatively high fees.
However, what has been a highly lucrative business for banks has become a disaster for many borrowers, who are falling behind on their payments at near-record levels and could lose their homes. The portion of people who have home equity lines more than 30 days past due stands 55 percent above its average since the American Bankers Association began tracking it around 1990; delinquencies on home equity loans are 45 percent higher. Hundreds of thousands are delinquent, owing banks more than $10 billion on these loans, often on top of their first mortgages.
None of this would have been possible without a conscious effort by lenders, who have spent billions of dollars in advertising to change the language of home loans and, with it, Americans' attitudes toward debt."
"Live Richly" was the catch-cry of the banks in the US as they persuaded those who could probably least afford it, to borrow monies well beyond their capacities.
The IHT explores and explains how the whole thing has both imploded and exploded:
"Live Richly"
That catchy slogan, dreamed up by the Fallon Worldwide advertising agency, was pitched in 1999 to executives at Citicorp who were looking for a way to lure Americans to financial products like home equity loans. But some in the room did not like it. They worried that the phrase would encourage people to live exorbitantly, says Stephen Cone, a top Citi marketer at the time.
Still, "Live Richly" won out. The advertising campaign, which cost about $1 billion from 2001 to 2006, urged Americans to lighten up about money, and helped persuade hundreds of thousands of Citi customers to take out home equity loans - that is, to borrow against their homes. As one of the ads proclaimed: "There's got to be at least $25,000 hidden in your house. We can help you find it."
Not long ago, such loans, which used to be known as second mortgages, were considered the borrowing of last resort, to be avoided by all but people in dire financial straits. Today, these loans have become widely accepted in the United States, their image transformed by ubiquitous ad campaigns from banks.
Since the early 1980s, the value of home equity loans outstanding has ballooned to more than $1 trillion from about $1 billion, and nearly a quarter of Americans with first mortgages have them. That explosive growth has been a boon for banks. Banks' returns on fixed-rate home equity loans and lines of credit, which are the most popular, are 25 percent to 50 percent higher than returns on consumer loans over all, with much of that premium coming from relatively high fees.
However, what has been a highly lucrative business for banks has become a disaster for many borrowers, who are falling behind on their payments at near-record levels and could lose their homes. The portion of people who have home equity lines more than 30 days past due stands 55 percent above its average since the American Bankers Association began tracking it around 1990; delinquencies on home equity loans are 45 percent higher. Hundreds of thousands are delinquent, owing banks more than $10 billion on these loans, often on top of their first mortgages.
None of this would have been possible without a conscious effort by lenders, who have spent billions of dollars in advertising to change the language of home loans and, with it, Americans' attitudes toward debt."
Pravda's message to George W
As the US steps up the rhetoric about Russia's actions in Georgia, Pravda has a piece "Mr Bush, Enough!!" in which the writer comes out swinging, in effect saying that people in glass houses ought not be throwing stones. However "strong" the language, Pravda does have a point, or two, to make. The US has been caught in and with double standards:
"So you have the colossal audacity, Mr. Bush, to “warn” Russia to pull back? As the wanton, perverse war criminal under whose watch the world saw the crime known as “shock and awe” committed, I’d say you were well out of your mind to suggest that Russia should pull back.
What’s a little shock and awe among inferior people we want to rob and destroy, eh?
What do human beings need an infrastructure for?
Why do they need clean water? Why do they need electricity?
What’s a little torture?
What’s a little regime change? Don’t recall when that was a goal of yours?
What’s a little deviant, perverted sexual experimentation and humiliation?
What’s a few secret detention camps?
What’s wrong with destroying an environment for 4 billion years and generations after generations of people? After all, they’re just rag heads, aren’t they Mr. Bush?"
"So you have the colossal audacity, Mr. Bush, to “warn” Russia to pull back? As the wanton, perverse war criminal under whose watch the world saw the crime known as “shock and awe” committed, I’d say you were well out of your mind to suggest that Russia should pull back.
What’s a little shock and awe among inferior people we want to rob and destroy, eh?
What do human beings need an infrastructure for?
Why do they need clean water? Why do they need electricity?
What’s a little torture?
What’s a little regime change? Don’t recall when that was a goal of yours?
What’s a little deviant, perverted sexual experimentation and humiliation?
What’s a few secret detention camps?
What’s wrong with destroying an environment for 4 billion years and generations after generations of people? After all, they’re just rag heads, aren’t they Mr. Bush?"
McCain more dangerous than Bush
"The brief, bloody Georgia war provided another example of John McCain’s reckless views on foreign policy and what he’ll do if he becomes president.
He’s Bush but worse. Forget the moderate image, promoted by an admiring media. Forget the so-called straight talk and independence. With the Russian-Georgian war winding down, McCain has firmly established himself as an old-fashioned Cold Warrior and a supporter of the huge oil companies that have a big stake in Georgia and the rest of the Caucasus.
President Bush talks to the Russians. McCain seems to long for the Iron Curtain days of those long decades of conflict with plenty of brinkmanship, saber rattling and possibly a trip to the edge of war.
Bush chatted with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during the Olympics, even while Russian troops were invading Georgia. Engagement with the Russians is alien to McCain. For example, he urged Bush to boycott a meeting of the Group of Eight, composed of major industrial nations, in St. Petersburg in 2006. Bush ignored his advice.
And whereas Bush said that when he looked Putin “in the eye,” “I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy” and “I was able to get a sense of his soul,” McCain said, “I looked into his eyes and saw three letters, a K, a G and a B.”
Scary! Someone more dangerous than President Shrub? Bill Boyarsky, writing on truthdig.com., believes so. The evidence to support his view seems to be there.
He’s Bush but worse. Forget the moderate image, promoted by an admiring media. Forget the so-called straight talk and independence. With the Russian-Georgian war winding down, McCain has firmly established himself as an old-fashioned Cold Warrior and a supporter of the huge oil companies that have a big stake in Georgia and the rest of the Caucasus.
President Bush talks to the Russians. McCain seems to long for the Iron Curtain days of those long decades of conflict with plenty of brinkmanship, saber rattling and possibly a trip to the edge of war.
Bush chatted with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during the Olympics, even while Russian troops were invading Georgia. Engagement with the Russians is alien to McCain. For example, he urged Bush to boycott a meeting of the Group of Eight, composed of major industrial nations, in St. Petersburg in 2006. Bush ignored his advice.
And whereas Bush said that when he looked Putin “in the eye,” “I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy” and “I was able to get a sense of his soul,” McCain said, “I looked into his eyes and saw three letters, a K, a G and a B.”
Scary! Someone more dangerous than President Shrub? Bill Boyarsky, writing on truthdig.com., believes so. The evidence to support his view seems to be there.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Searching for love in the midst of war
The consequences of the invasion of Iraq continue to reverberate in so many ways. It all serves to show that the Coalition of the Willing were totally clueless in even remotely considering what the fall-out from their illegal invasion might lead to. The SMH reports in "Internet becomes Iraq's new matchmaker":
"Young Iraqis in Baghdad are surfing the internet to search for partners to tie the knot as violence and sectarian tensions take their toll on more traditional forms of socialising.
Dating has fallen victim to the insecurity that has reduced the capital to a sullen network of rival neighbourhoods, leaving little space for men and women to meet other than in cyber chat rooms."
And:
"According to a 2006 study by the World Health Organisation and the Iraqi health ministry, 49.3 per cent of Iraqi men and 47.5 per cent of all women are either single or divorced."
"Young Iraqis in Baghdad are surfing the internet to search for partners to tie the knot as violence and sectarian tensions take their toll on more traditional forms of socialising.
Dating has fallen victim to the insecurity that has reduced the capital to a sullen network of rival neighbourhoods, leaving little space for men and women to meet other than in cyber chat rooms."
And:
"According to a 2006 study by the World Health Organisation and the Iraqi health ministry, 49.3 per cent of Iraqi men and 47.5 per cent of all women are either single or divorced."
The forgotten people?
Whilst the US and Russia exchange barbs and some sort of French-driven truce has been established between Georgia and Russia - questionable whether it has been effective one might add - the LA Times reports that there are some 100,000 people caught up in the conflict still awaiting aid and that their plight is grim. So much for the politics....but the people are the ones to suffer!
"They squat in abandoned buildings, crash in rickety schoolhouses or sleep under bushes and trees. They stumble into the city wooden-faced and traumatized, children in tow, with little or nothing but the clothes they were wearing when they fled their houses.
Tens of thousands of Georgians have been forced from their homes by days of fighting and Russian occupation, leaving this small country suddenly swamped in a major humanitarian crisis. Georgia is now packed with homeless and panicked families in desperate need of shelter, clothes, food and medicine. This week's cease-fire has not ended the suffering.
The crush of displaced people has proved more than the government or aid organizations can handle. Many who have taken shelter in the Georgian capital say they could not have survived if not for an impromptu outpouring of charity from fellow Georgians, who have opened their doors to strangers and shown up at shelters bearing food, bedding, soap and medicine.
Although aid is being quickly flown into Georgia and has begun to arrive at shelters, including 82 tons from the U.S. over the last two days, many refugees are still waiting for help. People are sleeping on the bare floors of schools and other government buildings, some of which lack proper bathrooms or electricity".
"They squat in abandoned buildings, crash in rickety schoolhouses or sleep under bushes and trees. They stumble into the city wooden-faced and traumatized, children in tow, with little or nothing but the clothes they were wearing when they fled their houses.
Tens of thousands of Georgians have been forced from their homes by days of fighting and Russian occupation, leaving this small country suddenly swamped in a major humanitarian crisis. Georgia is now packed with homeless and panicked families in desperate need of shelter, clothes, food and medicine. This week's cease-fire has not ended the suffering.
The crush of displaced people has proved more than the government or aid organizations can handle. Many who have taken shelter in the Georgian capital say they could not have survived if not for an impromptu outpouring of charity from fellow Georgians, who have opened their doors to strangers and shown up at shelters bearing food, bedding, soap and medicine.
Although aid is being quickly flown into Georgia and has begun to arrive at shelters, including 82 tons from the U.S. over the last two days, many refugees are still waiting for help. People are sleeping on the bare floors of schools and other government buildings, some of which lack proper bathrooms or electricity".
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