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August 31, 2008
"Hurricane deaths are rare in Cuba, where evacuations are well organised and begin early."
The quote "Hurricane deaths are rare in Cuba, where evacuations are well organised and begin early." is a throw-away comment within the report (Observer 31/8/2008) about the progress of Hurricane Gustave, now rampaging across the Gulf of Mexico and threatening New Orleans three years after Katrina devastated large areas. Katrina was grade 3 while Gustave looks like grade 4 at the moment. It hit Cuba's western edge destroying banana crops. This is also a tobacco growing area.
The mayor of New Orleans has advised the population to "move their butts" out of the area in anticipation of extensive damage where levee repairs and reinforcements remain incomplete.
This is just one example of why I find the experience of Cuba, a relatively poor country constantly threatened by the all-powerful neighbour, and withstanding an economic embargo, putting people's well being above economic expediency (i.e. maximum profit). New Orleans was ill-prepared for Katrina and rescue operations were slow and ineffective. The poor took the brunt of losses. Cuban aid, such as an offer of doctors and medical supplies, was rejected by the boss George W.
Fidel Castro himself comments on how the world's media focussed attention to negative stories about Cuba's participation at the Olympic Games in Beijing. The least we can do is give this valiant country a fair hearing!
Posted by John at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
August 30, 2008
"Twitters of protest"
Noam Chomsky has criticised the U.K. for failure to speak out about "shameful acts" against U.S. detainees. The "special relationship" between the U.S. and U.K. had given the U.K a great opportunity to make it clear that the treatment of prisoners such as those at Guantanamo Bay is a disgrace and not to be tolerated. All Chomsky has heard are "twitters of protest".
The craven following of U.S. acts in its hegemonic policies across the globe continues with support for Georgia against Russia. The suspicion that this has been set up by the U.S. is confirmed by statements from Vladimir Putin.
Putin thinks that the motive behind U.S. action is to give advantage to one of the Presidential candidates. He did not say which one. Given the high profile strut around Russia's boarding territories the same question could be asked about David Miliband who wants to take advantage of Gordon Brown's fall from grace.
Miliband is part of the New Labour cliques as much as any one. A comment from a rather unlikely source, a book on the "biography" of the Spitfire. The author makes a point that "New Labour has reduced our civil liberties in a way in which the Luftwafe failed! Pause for thought.
Posted by John at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2008
The dead hand of Ofsted moves on pre-school
The fetish with recording even young children's academic achievements advances into pre-school years. Ofsted complain that fewer child minders are being rated as "good".
One of this group says that last year she had a high rating, but this year it had dropped to satisfactory. Why? Evidently it was a matter of a failure to supply adequate paperwork now being added to the tasks of child minders as has already happened in schools. So it is not the child care which is being looked at, but the ability to tick boxes. The carer concerned said that it was unlikely she would be taking more children next year.
We can agree that the wellbeing and safety of children is paramount, and that the standard of that care is high. However the bureaucratic impositions that have done such damage in so many institutions can easily become counterproductive.
The over testing of young children has proven to be unnecessary and harmful to young people, and placed a distraction from education. Schools become more like training establishments. Children should be enjoying their young years, but more and more impositions add stress replicating the pressures of the adult world.
Posted by John at 3:09 PM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2008
Mandelson at large
Peter Mandelson was sent into exile in Europe following his inability to stay out of trouble in UK, this in spite of his closeness to then PM Tony Blair. Several attempts were made to reinstate him but reports of his personal property dealing and fiddles put paid to him. We all sighed with relief.
However an article by George Monbiot in today's Guardian (26/8/2008) shows how he is dealing with trade. In particular fish stocks of poor nations are being plundered because European nations have not managed their own supplies. Demand far over reaches supply. Monbiot compares this to food famines caused by British colonial rule in India in the late nineteenth century when millions died after food stocks were plundered. The rulers, like Mandelson, themselves lived in comfort and style.
Posted by John at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
August 25, 2008
The British Camp at Malvern
Decided to take the train today parking at the my favourite station with free park and ride. The train to Malvern Link went direct. I wasn't sure of the local bus services since the information seems quite sketchy on the web. Eventually a bus came along which took me through Great Malvern right up to the British Camp. Here I followed in the footsteps of the British chief Caractacus and composer Edward Elgar.
I took the high road which is quite a steep climb. It was still quite cloudy but the sun appeared through to make it quite warm, except up on top by the Hereford Beacon where it can only be described as "bracing". As you can see from the panorama there are wonderful views of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and the Malverns themselves. The Iron Age fort is still clearly visible forming deep trenches around the hillside.
Years ago when my son was little the silence was broken by jet aircraft which could be seen approaching the hills below summit level before shooting upwards. They were said to be testing radar defences for low flying planes. Today there was just one helicopter droning above constantly and annoyingly just as police helicopters do back in Handsworth. Apart from this the scenery, the heather, small orange butterflies make it a joy to be out. It is evidently the same for others as they raise a greeting as we pass.
I then realise my train pass expired a few days back, although neither I nor my friend in the ticket office at the Hawthorns had noticed. This was quickly rectified at Great Malvern Station. The London Midland Service was to New Street with clearly impressive brand new stock. However we were told that everyone would have to change trains in an unscheduled stop at Worcester Shrub Hill. I changed at the previous Worcester Foregate Street. The Snow Hill trains are relative old and decrepid. Anyway we started promptly only to stop again just outside the station. It was announced that due to a broken down train in Shrub Hill there would be a delay - this was the train I had just left presumably. Finally we trundled into Shrub Hill where the train reverses direction. Out of Shrub Hill we stop again. Finally we progress through Kidderminster to Stourbridge Junction. "Due to the late running of this train" it wasannounced "the next stop will be Snow Hill, passengers for ...The Hawthorns must change here".
I
tt wasn't long before a train destined for Leamington Spa came, so off we go again. A few yards down the line we stop again before crawling into Lye station, an unscheduled stop, We reached Hawthorns just past 6 o'clock a one hour journey having taken nearly two. This is not the first time a great day out has been a little tarnished by a wearying return home.
Posted by John at 6:50 PM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2008
Peace it Together
I received this e-mail from Jonathan Tyrrell today which I'd like to share:
"hi,
i thought you might like to read about a project i've been working on:
http://peaceittogether.ca
http://news.google.com/news?client=safari&rls=en-gb&q=%22peace%20it%20together%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wn
and the visit the web site of one of the participants:
see you in a couple of weeks!
j"
I wish the project every success!
Posted by John at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)
Advancing World War III
The Stop the War Coalition is stepping up it's activities in the wake of war in Georgia. David Miliband, who wants to be our next leader very badly, is pushing even harder for Georgia to be accepted into NATO. Stop the War points out that had Georgia already been a member then other NATO members would have been obliged to support Georgia. So we're now looking down the barrel of a gun again. WELL DONE DAVID!!!
We can't take comfort in a General Election sorting matters out, given that David Cameron has also waded into Georgia with an identical agenda. Al this in pursuit of the U.S. Neo Cons who push the idea of Armageddon, Christian Zionism and far right extremism which would be hard to match by any Muslim cleric.
The Stop the War current mailing is reproduced here because the irresponsibility and "hypocrisy" of our leading politicians is staggering:
STOP THE WAR COALITION
NEWSLETTER
No. 1054 20 August 2008
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
T: 020 7278 6694
Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
1) A MESSAGE FROM TONY BENN
2) STOP THE WAR STATEMENT ON GEORGIA
3) AFGHANISTAN: ANOTHER DISASTER FOR NATO
4) THE STORY BURIED BY THE UK MEDIA
5) NO TO NATO: INTERNATIONAL DEMONSTRATION
*************************************
1) A MESSAGE FROM TONY BENN.
Tony Benn sends the following message urging people to join
the Stop the War demonstration at the Labour party
conference in Manchester on Saturday 20 September.
STOP THE SPREAD OF WAR
War in the Caucasus has highlighted the growing danger of
war spreading. Seven years after the start of the war on
terror, occupation continues to bring misery to Iraq and
Afghanistan, but the consequences of the war are spreading.
US policy of expanding NATO eastwards has been an important
feature of the conflict between Russia and Georgia, as has
the West's desire to control the oil and other natural
resources of the region.
The British government continues its uncritical support for
George Bush, with foreign minister David Miliband echoing
Bush's claim that invading other people's countries is not
acceptable in the 21st century. Their hypocrisy is
staggering.
The war on terror has been a failure and the majority of
people in Britain want the British troops out of Iraq and
Afghanistan. Their view is matched by the majority of
citizens in Iraq and Afghanistan, where high levels of
violence, death, refugees and lack of basic facilities are
all part of everyday life for millions. Despite all this,
the US is stepping up its threats against Iran.
When he came to office, Gordon Brown promised to plan troop
withdrawal from Iraq. He has reneged on that promise. We are
demonstrating in Manchester to make clear we want to stop
war spreading and we want all the troops home now. We urge
you to join us. - TONY BENN.
DEMONSTRATE AT THE LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE
SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER. ASSEMBLE 12.30PM
ALL SAINTS, CAVENDISH STREET, MANCHESTER M15
LEAFLETS
Leaflets for the demonstration are available from the Stop
the War office: Tel 020 7278 6694. Email
office@stopwar.org.uk
A copy of the leaflet can be downloaded from:
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/images/download.pdf
TRANSPORT:
Transport is being organised to the demonstration from
across the country. For details see
http://tinyurl.com/696px8 or call the Stop the War office:
020 7278 6694.
FOR DEMONSTRATION UPDATES GO TO:
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
*************************************
2) STOP THE WAR STATEMENT ON GEORGIA
A report on the Stop the War meeting, GEORGIA, NATO & THE
SPREAD OF WAR, with videos of all the platform speakers is
now available online:
http://tinyurl.com/6p77y8
Stop the War has published a statement on the Georgia
crisis, highlighting "a new stage in the growth of
instability around the world, threatening confrontation
between the United States and the Russian Federation". The
statement can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/6jxtww
*************************************
3) AFGHANISTAN: ANOTHER DISASTER FOR NATO
The deaths of ten French soldiers in one battle and growing
British and US casualties reveal the military reality behind
the rhetoric of George Bush's 'Operation Enduring Freedom'.
Despite Geoff Hoon's recent claims that progress is being
made, resistance to the occupation is becoming bolder and
more effective. The French soldiers lost their lives in a 36
hour gun battle just 30 miles from the capital Kabul. Most
of the south and east of the country -- which we were told a
few years ago had been 'pacified' -- is now officially
recognised as being under rebel control.
NATO air strikes are causing so much bitterness at the
number of innocent civilians being killed that even
Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai -- who was installed to
be the stooge of the US government -- has publicly demanded
that the bombing stops. The violence created by occupation
is making an already dire situation desperate for the Afghan
people. Malnutrition is widespread and child mortality rates
and life expectancy are lower now than they were before the
so called 'liberation' of the country in 2001. Security has
deteriorated so badly that aid agencies and NGOs are having
to cancel sorely needed relief programmes.
According to Gordon Brown, "We are winning the battle in
Afghanistan". In truth, as the Guardian's Seamus Milne wrote
this week, "The war in Afghanistan, which claimed more than
6,500 lives last year, cannot be won. It has brought neither
peace, development nor freedom, and has no prospect of doing
so… The only real chance for peace in Afghanistan is the
withdrawal of foreign forces." (See
http://tinyurl.com/6hgb5v)
This is the message we will be taking to Gordon Brown when
we demonstrate at the Labour Party conference in Manchester
on Saturday 20 September.
*************************************
4) THE STORY BURIED BY THE UK MEDIA
In a new book, American journalist Ron Suskind has
demolished any remaining shred of credibility for the attack
on Iraq in 2003. His book proves that both M16 and the CIA
knew there were no weapons of mass destruction before the
invasion and that both agencies made this clear to the Bush
administration. The media in Britain has largely ignored the
story, but you can see Suskind discussing his book on the US
Daily Show, available online here:
http://tinyurl.com/553g2n
*************************************
5) NO TO NATO: INTERNATIONAL DEMONSTRATION
The eastwards push of NATO is the prime cause of the recent
war in the Caucasus. UK foreign secretary David Miliband is
particularly keen to rush through Georgia's membership of
NATO. This is despite many commentators pointing out that,
if Georgia had been a NATO member when its invasion of South
Ossetia provoked a Russian response, all the countries in
the alliance would have been obligated to go to war with
Russia -- in other words, it could have led to World War
III.
Next year is the 60th anniversary of NATO's formation and it
will be celebrated as an organisation founded to preserve
peace. In reality it is engaged in spreading conflict and
war well beyond the countries of the north Atlantic. Antiwar
and peace movements across Europe -- including Stop the War
and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament - are organising a
demonstration at NATO's conference in Strasburg on 4-5 April
to call for an end to NATO expansion and the withdrawal of
all foreign troops from Afghanistan.
Further details of the NO TO NATO demonstration will be
available shortly. A briefing on NATO's expansion by Kate
Hudson, the chair of CND, is available here:
http://tinyurl.com/5unyde
Posted by John at 9:44 AM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2008
Hey Liam, terrorists do eat fish and chips!
Politicians and media who play with our sensibilities are floored by the report in todays Guardian (21/08/2008) from MI5. It points out that there is no rule of thumb, but those who have been detained so far are not so likely to be foreign nationals or religious fundamentalists as people brought up in the U.K.
Liam Byrne, MP for Hodge Hill in Birmingham, has banged on about the need to instil "British values" in all of us (I tell you I failed the test which foreigners must take if they want to settle here!) When asked what those values were he fumbled around and came out with "cups of tea" and "fish and chips".
The problem is that together media hype and political expediency has done untold damage to community relations by playing up widely held suppositions at home and abroad. But if you're going to attack communities containing Muslims abroad then you're going to have to try to pull the wool over peoples' eyes at home.
On the basis of our suppositions highly controversial legislation has been forced through parliament curtailing all our rights. Legislation designed to combat terrorism is used in all sorts of petty ways to curtail hard one freedoms.
On the basis of intelligence one supposes the 2006 Terrorism Act says that the threat remains "Severe". Interesting the way this is hammered home with "severe" meriting a capital letter. Kind of enters the world of "Dad's Army": "Don't panic Mr Mainwaring"!
This is not to joke or minimise the need for security, but of we're off target with our suppositions in the first place, we're unlikely to be looking in the right places for threats of terrorist activity. The MI5 Report suggests an urgent need for review.
Problem for politicians is that they will be forced to shut up or look for other means of political expediency and take away key ammunition for media stories of doom and destruction. What is played down is the role that politics has played in alienating people who already supposed themselves to be British. The harsh reality to be told that you don't belong after all gives cause itself to start asking questions. When you see that deviousness and downright lies lead to the involvement in illegal wars that itself is incitement. Perhaps one or two of our leaders need to be given warnings under the 2006 Terrorism Act.
Tail piece. And MI5 don't appear to have been doing nothing in the abuse of individuals accused of being terrorists!
Posted by John at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)
August 20, 2008
Pauline Campbell's Will
I have received a message that Pauline Campbell's will has disappeared and her wishes to benefit charity are being ignored. Her legacy deserves better than that.
The news of Pauline's death came as a shock to her friends and many who didn't know her but were affected by her dedicated work. Pauline was fearless and at each demonstration would request that women arriving at the prison in a van should be taken to a place of safety. The police response was violent and she and her supporters were thrown to the ground on more than one occasion.
Her actions were followed by court appearances. Not only were they costly, they proved to be of no value, a complete waste of time. Pauline was honoured and took part in a number of broadcasts, in fact she was the regular speaker every time the subject of deaths in prison came up. She was invited as a speaker at a international conference on penal abolition.
Protest over the death of Lisa Marley a young mother who, like her daughter Sarah, had died at Styal Prison. LIsa died on 28th January this year.
To read about the other protests by Pauline Campbell and a dedicated group of followers go to the "complete archive" and scroll down to "justice".
Posted by John at 9:07 AM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2008
Brown or Miliband or Cameron? No thanks
We hear that Miliband won't change the fortunes of New Labour, but then people have twigged that it's a band of people stuck in a groove, not any one individual. So Cameron to the rescue? Not after his intervention in Georgia when he demonstrated his foreign policy credentials. We're on a hiding to nothing.
NATO meets today to discuss the "crisis". The assumption is it's all of Russia's making and Miliband is on his way to say so.. George Monbiot in the Guardian (19/8/2008) sums up the problem when he asks what America's global defence system has to do with the price of eggs. Georgia has been persuades it wants to join NATO. Poland, the Czech Republic and other neighbouring states are being lined up as missile sites. Russia has made the point that those countries housing the U.S. missile defence system will be targets for their nuclear missiles. That includes the U.K. Monbiot points out that the trouble spots are supposed to be Iran and North Korea, so how will the defence system address that?
So well done everyone, we've succeeded in recreating the cold war. We fell for U.S. nonsense in supporting them in Iraq, we follow the rhetoric into Iran. Now we're swallowing this one hook, line and sinker.
The following is from the Socialist Labour Party:
What is happening in the Caucasus?
"The conflict between South Ossetia and Georgia is in effect a conflict between Russia and the United States. It is a conflict that has been building for some time.
To understand recent developments it is crucial to put it in context.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, who were opposed to the break-up, have exercised self-rule. While many of the east European states fell under the economic and political control of the United States, these two areas, and similarly Belarus, did not; preferring to maintain their close relationship with Russia. Indeed in 1996 Belarus and Russia formed 'the Union of Sovereign Republics.'
In contrast to this the United States, through the National Endowment for Democracy and other agencies, was creating and funding the so-called 'colour revolutions' in the Ukraine (the Orange Revolution) and Georgia (the Rose Revolution), which brought to power governments favourable to the US and governments that would open up their economies to the IMF and World Bank and oversee the wholesale privatisation of their state-run industries and the introduction of 'free market' economic measures. Moreover this strategy brought pro-US regimes onto Russia's doorstep with the added threat to Russia being the stationing of US missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic and the urging by the Bush administration for both the Ukraine and Georgia to become members of NATO.
The US strategy of isolating and encircling Russia has been ongoing since 1991 with the ultimate aim being the destruction of an independent Russia and gaining access to its massive natural resources, particularly oil and gas.
On 31st July this year the German daily newspaper Junge Welt (jungewelt.de) ran an interview with Phillip Corwin who was the highest ranking United Nations civilian official in Yugoslavia during the 1990s. In the interview he was asked why the United States wanted to destroy Yugoslavia. This is his reply:
"I think the main reason for the destruction of Yugoslavia was the ambition of NATO to move eastward. Although the Cold War had ended, the Cold Warriors were still in power. Washington still felt Russia was its biggest threat because it had so many nuclear weapons, and Washington wanted to move up to the borders of the former Soviet Union. (jungewelt.de 31st July 2008).
The Georgian attack on South Ossetia was part of the US/NATO strategy of moving towards the Russian border. Georgia is a US client state. Its President, Mikheil Saakashvili, is Harvard educated and a former employee of the New York law firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler. The Georgian army is armed and trained by the US.
It is inconceivable that Georgia took military action without the approval of the United States.
One month before Georgia launched its attack the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, visited Tbilisi and met with President Saakashvili and issued a provocative statement denouncing Russia and giving US backing for Georgia's NATO membership.
What the Bush administration thought Russia's response to the Georgian aggression would be is not known. But for the first time Russia militarily hit back at the US foreign policy strategy and immediately was accused by President Bush of 'not respecting the sovereignty of nations.' One wonders whether to laugh or cry at such hypocrisy.
Nevertheless, the announcement that US troops are being sent to the region, under the guise of 'humanitarian aid' only emphasises that this whole US strategy carries with it the inherent threat of further conflicts and the unthinkable prospect of a nuclear war."
Declaration of the Georgian Peace Committee.
Once more Georgia was launched into a situation of chaos and bloodshed. A new fratricidal war exploded with renewed strength on Georgian soil.
To our great disappointment, the alerts of the Georgian Peace Committee and of progressive personalities of Georgia on the pernicious character of the militarization of the country and on the danger of a pro-fascist and nationalist policy had no effect.
The authorities of Georgia once again organized a bloody war,feeling the support of some western countries and of regional and international organizations. It will take decades to cleanse the shame poured by the current holders of the power over the Georgian people.
The Georgian army--armed and trained by U.S. instructors and using also U.S. armaments--subjected the city of Tskhinvali to a barbaric destruction. The bombings killed Ossetian civilians, our brothers and sisters, children, women and elderly people. Over 2,000 inhabitants of Tskhinvali and of its surroundings died.
Hundreds of civilians of Georgian nationality also died, both in the conflict zone as well as on the entire territory of Georgia.
The Georgian Peace Committee expresses its deep condolences to the relatives and friends of those who have perished.
The entire responsibility for this fratricidal war, for thousands of children, women and elderly dead people, for the inhabitants of South Ossetia and of Georgia falls exclusively on the current President, on the Parliament and on the Government of Georgia.
The irresponsibility and the adventurism of the Saakashvili regime have no limits. The President of Georgia and his team, undoubtedly, are criminals and must be held responsible.
The Georgian Peace Committee declares and asks broad public opinion not to identify the current Georgian leadership with the people of Georgia, with the Georgian nation, and appeals to all to support the Georgian people in the struggle against the criminal regime of Saakashvili.
We appeal to all the political forces of Georgia, the social movements and the people of Georgia to unite in order to free the country from the Russian-phobic and pro-fascist anti popular regime of Saakashvili!
Tbilisi, Aug. 11, 2008
Georgian Peace Committee
0182. Apt. 2, quarter 8, house 10, massif 3, Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel: ++ 995 93 761363 Fax/Tel: ++ 995 32 731516
There was comment that we kept our eye off the Russians while looking at the centres of terrorism made out to be in Islamic countries. It wasn't Russia we should have been watching it was the U.S. So who out of Brown, Miliband and Cameron is the biggest idiot? You decide, you vote. Have you reopened that old shelter? You might be needing it with any of them.
Posted by John at 9:26 AM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2008
This one hit the headlines
The Guardian (18/8/2008) reports another "mistake", this time the death of women and children in a house in Afghanistan targeted by British troops. The figure of civilian deaths and injuries we know is high, so those shown here are just an example. Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine. In each of these death and destruction are daily occurrences. When the Russians have the temerity to protect their back yard all hell lets loose with David Cameron calling on a ban of Russians going shopping. Russian violence cannot be condoned any more than that of the western nations, but the U.S. in particular has been doing a lot of things they would class as provocative if it happened in their back yard. That's precisely why the fourth fleet are out there in Caribbean waters.
There's now talk about pulling out of Iraq. Brown appeared to go along with that when he first took over from Blair, but since there has been prevarication coupled with the decision to throw forces into Afghanistan. This is a result.
Recent headlines have covered British troop deaths, but again how full a picture is this? Occasionally you get a glimpse of wounded in Selly Oak hospital here in Birmingham. It's harder and harder to see the reason for all this. If it was supposed to protect our interests in affordable fuel supplies long term it has manifestly failed.
Time to end war and live up to the notion that we are civilised people. Conduct in so many areas of activity belies that idea. The War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague is supposed to signal our progress, yet it is selective and being used for partisan purposes which undermines any pretence to impartiality.
Posted by John at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2008
Making a killing - in and out of the NHS
NICE has made a ruling that some drugs are too expensive, so some patients are expendable. Big business is making a killing by overpricing pharmaceutical products to maximise profits. The issue is raised in the Observer lead today, 17/8/2008.
An awful lot of spam that arrives in my mail and on this website are people pushing some kind of drug, I guess most of which is totally unnecessary if not outright harmful to our wellbeing. The question of whether prescribed drugs are always the best forms of treatment has also come under scrutiny. This is particularly the case in the treatment of depression where talking therapies can be equally valuable at least.
So our health is market driven, and those with their hands on the drugs industries, legal or illegal (what's the difference?) can hold us to ransom over the price of the products they peddle.
The pharmaceutical industry in Cuba provides an alternative vision of an industry which is innovative but provides products at a lower cost. Another example of the need for a change in priorities from profit to human need.
Posted by John at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2008
Sharing global power
The question was raised about "us taking our eye" off the ball when Russia became involved in Georgia. This implies a given that U.S. and "we" are one. The other question to be asked haven't we taken our eye off what the U.S. is up to in other parts of the world outside the Middle East and Afghanisan? In the Guardian (16/8/2008) the Turkish President makes interesting comment.
At a conference I attended in December '07 speaker after speaker commented on U.S. bases in their countries, some of which border on Russia. Unsurprisingly Russia isn't any more keen on having bases in her "backyard" any more than America. So why the feigned surprise when Russia takes action in Georgia and tells Poland that if they are considering US bases there they will become nuclear targets too?
The U.S. and western nations have been highly provocative in their plans to extend NATO around Russia's borders, even into the former empire. Bush continues under the guise of "aid" to Georgia.
The U.S.'s dangerous games are not confined to threats against Iran, far from it. Everywhere you look it's the same.
Posted by John at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2008
Cost of contractors in Iraq
The use of contractors in Iraq since 2003 is estimated at $85 billion. This doesn't include any figures for 2008 so it could have topped $100 billion by now.
The matter is being called into question following complaints of corruption and over-pricing. The involvement of private companies with killing and torture has raised anger in Iraq, and what happens to employees themselves and their families when they are killed or injured is not governed by military procedures.
The use of contractors is unprecedented and not confined to the U.S. We learned recently of the suicide of one of the security guards among the five British personnel kidnapped in Iraq. While one of those taken was a computer expert the other four were acting as his bodyguards.
The world has put together rules of engagement and made plans for dealing with war criminals. At every turn these are flouted or bypassed as war trials end up being selectivive and used as political vehicles themselves.
Posted by John at 9:26 AM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2008
Israeli army tactics sickens protestors. It sickens us too
The Israeli administration allows its army to do anything it likes, including upholding actions deemed illegal by its own courts. Today's news from Bil'in shows that while they are attempting to degrade the Palestian people - here exercising non-violent protest, in fact they only demonstrate their own degradation. As another articles, a tribute to the Palestinain poet Mahmoud Darwish, posted today shows Jewish people do not universally support the attitude of the extremist right wingers with their message of Zionism. If this action is a demonstration of what these superior beings are about they need to go away and think again. Any normal human being would hang their head in shame.
Toilet water - the new kind of weapon used against the people from Bil'in
Bil'in's Protest 8/08/08
Today,8 August 2008, after the Friday Prayers, the inhabitants of Bil'in, Israeli, and international peace activists participated in a demonstration against the wall. They raised Palestinian flags and signs with slogans that condemn the policies of the occupation. The slogans condemned the construction of the wall, the confiscation of Palestinian lands for the construction of settlements, the road closures, and the seizure of Palestinian villages, towns, and cities. The protesters also carried signs with slogans against the killing of innocent civilians, especially children. In addition, the slogans condemned the attacks on detainees, in particular, shooting at them while detained, hand cuffed and blindfolded.
The protest started from the centre of the village, and the protesters chanted similar slogans in addition to those that called for national unity. Upon arrival to the wall, the protesters while raising photos of the murdered children, Ahmed Husam Yousef Musa and Yousef Ahmed Amera, attempted to cross the wall in to their land. The action was a symbol of protest against the monstrous violations that Israeli soldiers commit against Palestinian civilians. Israeli soldiers murdered Ahmed 10 days ago, 29 July 2008, and Yousef 3 days ago, 4 August 2008 - both while participating in non-violent protests against the construction of the segregation wall in Ni'lin.
Today, the protesters succeeded to arrive at the location of the wall, and they repeated chants and slogans against the occupation soldiers and their officers that command them to shoot unarmed civilians. Soon after, confrontations started, the soldiers started firing tear gas, and sprayed us with toilet water. We would like to take a sample for analysis. Many people immediately had to be sick after being sprayed with this water. This is not the first time they use water, but this time was the first that they used water from the toilets. In addition to the water, the soldiers use many types of weapons on the Palestinians. For example they use many types of gas, many types of rubber bullets, clean water, water mixed with gas, scream, saltball, sackbeans. All of these are new weapons.
From a different point, the Israeli Supreme Court gave 45 days (52 as of today) to the Israeli army to correct the current track of the segregation wall that passes through the village. Israeli Chief Justice, Dorit Beinisch, and two of her fellow colleagues, condemned the Israeli government's neglictance of the Supreme Court's ruling last year, which ordered the correction of the current track of the wall.
Chief Justice Beinisch confirmed to the Israeli government representative, Avi Lisht, her ruling to correct the track of the wall and added; "we ruled that the current track cannot sustain as it does now."
The people of Bil'in submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court in 2005, hoping to prevent the Israeli occupation army from confiscating their lands. The confiscated lands would be used to build the segregation wall and further annex the remaining of the land in favor of constructing the illegal settlement, 'East Metateaho'.
On July 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court decreed the illegitimacy of constructing the wall on Bil'in's lands, and further ordered the government to propose a different track of the wall without harming the nature of the village. A year after the ruling, and because the Israeli government did not act in accordance with the ruling, the people of Bil'in through their advocate, Mikhael Sfard, decided to return to the Supreme Court. The Israeli government further continues the same policy without acknowledging the Supreme Courts ruling.
Thank you for you continued support,
Iyad Burnat- Head of Popular Commitee in Bilin
Head of Friends of Freedom and Justice in Bilin
Email- ffj.bilin@yahoo.com
Mobile- (00972) (0) 547847942
Office- (00972) (2) 2489129
Fax- (00972) (2) 2489129
Posted by John at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)
Tribute to Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian National Poet
The following tribute to Mahmoud Darwish, known as the Palestinian National Poet, was sent to me by Jewish Voice for Peace:
Mahmoud Darwish died on Saturday after a heart surgery at a US hospital. He was often called the Palestinian "national poet". In his poems, he used Palestine as "a metaphor -- for the loss of Eden, for the sorrows of dispossession and exile, for the declining power of the Arab world in its dealings with the West." ("A Poet's Palestine as Metaphor," NY Times, Dec., 2001).
Darwish's official website
Some of his poems can be found online.
A sample of his work is the following:
----
I Come From There
I come from there and I have memories
Born as mortals are, I have a mother
And a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends,
And a prison cell with a cold window.
Mine is the wave, snatched by sea-gulls,
I have my own view,
And an extra blade of grass.
Mine is the moon at the far edge of the words,
And the bounty of birds,
And the immortal olive tree.
I walked this land before the swords
Turned its living body into a laden table.
***
I come from there. I render the sky unto her mother
When the sky weeps for her mother.
And I weep to make myself known
To a returning cloud.
I learnt all the words worthy of the court of blood
So that I could break the rule.
I learnt all the words and broke them up
To make a single word: Homeland
---------
Of several articles I read, I like the one below, a May 2002 interview in the Progressive Magazine.
Racheli Gai and Judith Norman
----------------
Mahmoud Darwish: Palestine's Poet of Exile
By Nathalie Handal, May 2002 Issue
"Absent, I come to the home of the absent," the leading Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, writes. No other poet captures the Palestinian consciousness and collective memory the way he does. At sixty-one, whether he is giving a reading in Paris or Palestine, he draws crowds of thousands, from government officials to schoolteachers, taxi drivers to students.
In his latest collection, Judarieh (Mural), the poet finds himself in between love and death, wondering which of the two will conquer. "After the stranger's night, who am I?" Darwish writes. So, when I speak to him by phone on March 22, I ask him who he is. He rapidly responds, "I still do not know."
On many occasions he has expressed the notion that only poetry can bring harmony to a world devastated by war: "Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by confirming its attachment to human fragility like a blade of grass growing on a wall while armies march by," he has written. I ask him if he still believes that.
"I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe," he responds, "but now I think that poetry changes only the poet."
Darwish has published twenty books of poetry, five books of prose, and his books have been translated into more than twenty-two languages. He has won numerous awards, including the Lotus Prize (1969); the Lenin Peace Prize (1983); France's highest medal, the Knight of Arts and Letters (1993); and this April he will be honored with the Lannan Foundation Prize for Cultural Freedom.
"I am still not a poet, and sometimes I regret I chose this way," he tells me. Still, he is finishing his forthcoming book of poetry, State of Siege.
His work speaks of his internal exile and uprootedness, his meditations on his historical, collective, and personal past. Many of his poems mirror the loss of homeland, the frustrations of being under siege, of being occupied. Here is a couplet from "The Earth Is Closing on Us":
Where should we go after the last frontiers,
where should the birds fly after the last sky?
Other poems allude to myths, draw parallels between the Native American and the Palestinian experiences, speak of his mother, or address a Jewish lover. In "Rita and the Rifle," he writes:
Between Rita and my eyes
There is a rifle. . . .
Ah, Rita!
What before this rifle could have turned my eyes
from yours.
In "A Soldier Dreaming of White Lilies," he writes to his Jewish friends:
I want a good heart
Not the weight of a gun's magazine.
I refuse to die
Turning my gun my love
On women and children.
He describes Palestine as a metaphor--for exile, for the human condition, for the grief of dislocation and dispossession. In "Eleven Planets in the Last Andalusian Sky," he writes:
I'm the Adam of two Edens lost to me twice:
Expel me slowly. Kill me slowly
With Garcia Lorca
Under my olive tree.
Darwish was born in 1941 in the village of Birweh in the upper Galilee of Palestine. The creation of Israel in 1948 meant the wiping of Palestine off the map and the destruction of 417 Palestinian villages. Darwish's village was one of them. The same year, he fled with some members of his family to Lebanon. Months later, he returned "illegally," but too late to be included in Israel's census of the Palestinian Arabs who remained. There was no record of his existence. Thus started his absent-present status. When Darwish eventually left in 1970, his absence made him even more present in the consciousness of Palestinians, and his poems became extremely popular, especially "Identity Card," written in 1964, and excerpted here:
Record!
I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?
Record!
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged . . .
Early on, he discovered he could write, and that his words were weapons. Darwish tells me that his childhood dream was to be a poet, adding that he published his first poem when he was about twelve years old. "It was not a love poem," he says. "I described our journey from Palestine to Lebanon."
Darwish published his first collection when he was about eighteen or nineteen years old. Some were love poems, he says, and some were political poems. "I was very strongly influenced by Al-Mutanabbi and the Mahjar poets (emigrant poets such a Kahlil Gibran) and modern Arab poets such as Qabbani, Al-Sayyab," he says. When I ask if any Western poets influenced him, he says, "Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Yeats, and today, Derek Walcott is probably my favorite poet. I also like the Polish poets, especially Symborska."
In 1960, Darwish graduated from high school and moved to Haifa, where he became editor and translator for al-Ittihad daily and al-Jadid weekly, published by the Rakah (Communist) Party. In 1970, the poet left for Moscow to study political economy, and from then on his life was one migration after another. In 1971, he arrived in Cairo to work for Al-Ahram daily. It was the first time he went to an Arab country, the first time he saw everything written in Arabic.
In 1973, he went to Beirut, where he edited Palestinian Affairs, published by the Center for Palestinian Studies. He joined the P.L.O. soon after and played a significant role in it. And he became the unofficial poet of Palestine, a description he rejects. "I do not like the label; it is a burden," he says to me.
In 1981, he founded and became editor of the pioneering literary journal Al Karmel. But the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon led the poet on yet another migration, this time to Tunis and Cairo, and he eventually settled in Paris. In 1993, he resigned from the P.L.O. Executive Committee and protested the Oslo accord, saying that he wanted peace but a fair one. Darwish says that real peace means being equal with the Israeli society, and that the Palestinian people should have the right to return, that the question of the refugees, of Jerusalem, of the settlements should be resolved, and of course, Palestinians must have the right to self-determination.
After thirteen years in Paris, Darwish immigrated to Jordan in 1995, and in 1996 started living between Amman and Ramallah, where he continues to edit Al Karmel. During a brief visit in 1995 to Galilee and Jerusalem (Israel granted him permission to return for the funeral of his friend the writer Emile Habibi, and an unlimited stay in Palestinian self-rule areas of the West Bank), he said that he "felt like a child." Thousands waited for him, welcomed him, told him he was loved, and asked him to stay. He was deeply moved, cried, and said he would never leave. But he was not given permission to stay in his hometown for more than a few days. He still longs to go home, "although I might realize that the harshest exile is in my homeland," he says. Thus, Darwish remains a stranger passing through.
When he lived in Israel, the government harassed him and several times put him in prison or placed him under house arrest for reading his poetry.
In 1988, one of his poems, "Passing Between the Passing Words," was even discussed in the Knesset. He wrote:
So leave our land
Our shore, our sea
Our wheat, our salt, our wound.
Israelis claimed he was demanding that the Jews leave Israel. Darwish disputed that, saying he meant they should leave the West Bank and Gaza.
Yossi Sarid, who was Israel's education minister, suggested in March 2000 that some of Darwish's poems should be included in the Israeli high school curriculum. But Prime Minister Ehud Barak declared, "Israel is not ready."
Darwish insists that terror is not a means to justice. "Nothing, nothing justifies terrorism," he wrote, condemning the September 11 attack on the United States in the Palestinian daily Al Ayyam.
Concerning the current situation, he tells me: "We should not justify suicide bombers. We are against the suicide bombers, but we must understand what drives these young people to such actions. They want to liberate themselves from such a dark life. It is not ideological, it is despair."
I ask him how he sees the future. The Israelis cannot "give us back our house but live in our garden, in our living room," he says, his voice rising. I ask whether a Palestinian state will exist. In a firm voice he tells me, "A Palestinian state already exists." He adds, "The Palestinian people feel that they are living the hours before dawn. Their national will is stronger in reaction to the challenge. They do not have another option but to continue to carry the hope that they are going to have a normal life."
He says there is a simple solution that only seems complicated and that the two sides can resolve the questions of the borders and all the other issues under negotiation. He repeats a number of times, "There is hope."
After a lifetime of longing, perhaps Darwish is too optimistic, too wishful. A few days after our conversation, Israel sends tanks into Ramallah. I call Darwish back, finding him this time in Amman, Jordan. His voice, far and fading, tells me that it is all "so barbaric, so cynical."
But I get the impression that he still feels there is a place to go "after the last frontiers . . . after the last sky."
Nathalie Handal is a poet and writer living in New York and London. She is the author of a poetry book, "The Neverfield" (Post Apollo Press, 1999), and is the editor of an anthology called "The Poetry of Arab Women" (Interlink 2001
................................................................
--------
Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
------------
Posted by John at 8:05 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2008
Bolivia is no longer a beggar state - Morales
Ivo Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia. As such he has huge support from the majority but impoverished people while there is continuing opposition from wealthy European communities where governors of Bolivian states owe greater allegiance to "The Empire = USA) than Bolivia itself. Some have stated that they will declare their territory to be independent.
After his first term as president Morales has declares that "Bolivia is no longer a beggar state". As elections loom to test Morales hold on power Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has arrived to give his support. As with Morales Chavez has found massive support from the dispossessed. When in 2002 Chavez was kidnapped by a group with U.S. backers people poured into the city from the poverty-stricken barrios to come to his aid.
A blog written from inside Bolivia has expressed an opinion which demonstrates the practical help that Venezuela has given to Bolivia in resisting deals from powerful transnational corporations.
"During an April 25 session with India's Jindal Steel & Power Ltd., two Venezuelan experts whispered into the ears of their Bolivian counterparts and passed them notes, says Juan Mogrovejo, a representative of Jindal Steel who attended the meetings. Then the Bolivians hardened their terms, demanding that the length of the contract be cut to 20 years from 40. "The proposed contract changed radically," Mr. Mogrovejo says. Other companies have also expressed dismay at the new terms.
In other words, Venezuelan economic experts evidently came in and helped the new Bolivian government negotiate a better deal for the Bolivian people. That is worrisome - for foreign corporations who had hoped to keep negotiating really exploitive deals that took Bolivians for a ride. It is too bad Venezuelan experts like these weren't at the table, along with Bolivian officials who cared, when the Bechtel water takeover deal was negotiated in 1999, or during the gas negotiations a decade ago. Bolivia would have more money in its treasury and close to a hundred people killed in protests against those deals might still be alive."
At the conference I attended in Havana in May it was Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean that was the centre of gravity. There was a powerful feeling that changes were taking place in not one but in many countries in the region. There was also a feeling that priorities were different to those imposed on us in the so-called democratic western world. Small states faced with economic embargo by the industrially powerful north were resisting that domination. Naturally this is far from uncontested and their remain powerful forces within and without that could at any time crush the indigenous populations once more.
The last thirty years has seen emerging democracies overthrown by force replaced by fascist dictators as Allende was replaced by the brutal Pinochet in Chile. Campaigns of genocide were carried out against those who had had enough of repression and exploitation. Even the U.S. eventually recognised that its associations with mass murderers portrayed it in an unwelcome light and so Reagan introduced a different superficially more liberal policy. Clearly the US administration is worried by what is currently happening in its "Backyard" and has sent its Fourth Fleet into the area to sniff out trouble.
Update. Morales wins popular support tempered by regional governors' continuing opposition.
Posted by John at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
Compensation to innocent civilians
The British Government likes to portray itself as fair and justify its actions however unnecessary and disgraceful. In order to salvage some form of respectability for conducting illegal war it sought to pay compensation to victims caught up in exchanges involving British troops. Casualties are mounting and suffering intensifying, but payments are out of the window.
Day by day it becomes clearer that threats to our way of life and well being come not from the "enemy". Neoconservatives in US invoked the idea of "terrorist", and in league with hugely wealthy and powerful private corporations they look after their own interests. Who's paying? Well not them. It's being reclaimed in huge profits from rising fuel and food costs and paid for those least able to meet the endless demand. Among their shareholders don't be surprised to see some eminent names, including those who have taken us into battle in the first place.
Posted by John at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)
August 8, 2008
Israeli settlers prevent a Christian service in Beit Sahour
The following is from George Rishmawi, our friend in Bethlehem. George accompanied us in Ramallah and Bethlehem in January 2004. I met him in Birmingham earlier this year. The illegal land grab continues as Israeli soldiers fail to protect Palestinians and their international supporters holding a Christian service.
Original Message -----
From: George N. Rishmawi
To: PCR List
Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 5:31 PM
Subject: [rapprochement] Israeli Settlers try to re-occupy land in Beit Sahour
Dear All,
The Israeli settlers are trying to re-occupy a land that belongs to Beit Sahour in Ush Ghrab site. Please see the article below,,, your full support is needed... the
presence of the settlers will prevent the construction of a hospital for children.
or go to this link
http://www.imemc.org/article/56403
Besides, IMEMC and AIC produced a film about the site,,
Ush Ghrab; Liberated Land under Attack click the link or copy & paste it into your browser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ZaFwi6WBo
Israeli settlers prevent a Christian service in Beit Sahour, assault worshippers
Over two hundred Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinian and International worshippers who were holding a prayer service at Ush Ghrab park in Beit Sahour Wednesday evening.
As the mass started the settlers, who organized an activity in the same site, started to provoke the worshippers and asked them to leave, eyewitnesses reported.
Settlers also threatened some of the local and international journalists who were present. The Israeli soldiers who were there asked the internationals and the
Palestinians to leave the park and did not attempt to stop the settlers when they started to force everyone to leave, the witnesses said.
The city council of Beit Sahour is planning to build a children hospital in the site in cooperation with intentional organization CURE. However, the Israeli army imposed a military order on the designated area and the settlers started to frequently plan activities on the site and claimed that the land belongs to them and that they want to built a settlement on this land.
The worshippers raised their prayers for the sake of the children of Bethlehem in order to have the planned hospital built.
The settlers, who come from the neighboring illegal settlements of Har Homa and Efrat and others in the Bethlehem area, erased murals that some Palestinian and
international activists had made a week ago and wrote some racist graffiti, calling for the death of Arabs.
Ush Ghrab was occupied by the Israeli army in 1967 and was used as a military base. In 2006 the army abandoned the site and the city council in Beit Sahour
rehabiliatated the site and turned part of it into a public park, and had a plan to build a hospital on the rest of it, in addition to some other facilities that would server the local community in Bethlehem.
--
-----------
George N. Rishmawi
The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People
(PCR)
Director
Phone: +972(0)2-277-2018 Fax: +972(0)2-277-4602
+970-599-833-888 (cell)
+972-(0)544-351-339 (cell)
www.pcr.ps , www.imemc.org
--------------------------------------------------------------
George S. Rishmawi
Coordinator,
Siraj, Center For Holy Land Studies
Beit Sahour, Schoold Street
P.O.Box 48
Palestine
Email: george@sirajcenter.org
abusaliba@yahoo.com
abusaliba@gmail.com
abusalib@p-ol.com
Website: http://www.sirajcenter.org
http://www.wusul.com/wusul/CommunityHomePage.faces
http://www.mepeace.org/profile/GeorgeSRishmawi
Tel: +972 2 274 8590
Fax: +972 2 274 8774
Mobile: 0599 180 872
USA number: 1 989 607 9480
Posted by John at 8:38 AM | Comments (0)
August 5, 2008
Who owns Africa?
Anyone but Africans it seems as the diamond industry demonstrates internal competition from everywhere else. So the Israeli-Arab conflict emerges between Jewish and Lebanese tycoons, both extracting huge amounts of wealth from the African soil. Deadly enemies united in capitalist enterprise.
As I've discussed before it seems that nowhere is the diamond trade clean. Canada for example made claims that it's diamonds were not "blood diamonds". Closer examination of operations shows that land on which diamonds are mined belongs to the Inuit who themselves benefit little while their land is despoiled. Familiar.
Back in Africa "The most prominent Israeli businessman in the region is diamond tycoon Beny Steinmetz, who is worth an estimated $3 billion. Steinmetz operates through foreign companies in Sierra Leone, Botswana, the Congo and Zambia. He owns the largest diamond mine in Sierra Leone - Koidu, which produces an estimated $20-30 million worth of diamonds annually."
Beny it appears is also very active in the business in Russia.
Posted by John at 12:47 PM | Comments (0)
The murder of Palestinian children
The Israeli state can do what it likes. Having killed a 9 year old another young man was shot in the head by the occupying forces. What are the crimes of the Palestinians involved? They are protesting at the illegal land grab.
Who speaks out? Not Bush, not Brown, nor Obama. No British politician (well actually some do bu they are ignored by the media). Who is the terrorist in these cases? Bush was successful in defining who "the terrorist" is. Blair bought it and the media was complicit. Have the people agreed? Far from it, many are outraged, but the elected representatives of our so-called democracies have other masters. The powerful, the owners of our fuel and food supplies, can dictate the terms. The rules are those who can take what they want and it is given legitimacy by democratic governments. What moral authority have they then over not-so-democratic regimes? Nowhere is the idea that you can take someone else's land with impunity than in thee Palestinian territories. Oh yes there have been murmers from Bush, from Rice and Brown. Clearly the Israeli Government is impressed by totally ignoring them, their own laws. They are using live amunition on defenceless people, including children.
As with other issues - privatisation of public services, support for the rich and powerful, there are no alternatives. No major party in the UK will say differently. Democrats and Republicans look decidedly similar.
Meanwhile the murders continue apace. No one is prosecuted, no one says "stop". These are peaceful protests which don't grab media attention, yet the courageous people continue week in week out. It is a deep, deep shame on a society which believes itself to be civilised.
Posted by John at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)
August 3, 2008
The irrelevance of New Labour's battle to the global crisis
Here we go with reports of Blair speaking of a "vacuous" Brown and Miliband pleasing the Blairites - if they can't return to Tony then David is their man. Brown's former reputation was always a lot stronger than Tony Blair's, as a former ambassador to the United States, Sir Christopher Meyer, testified. He recalls how many of those visiting Washington were viewed as "political pygmies", while John Reid and Gordon Brown stood out from the crowd. While Blair skated superficially over issues, it was Gordon Brown who showed a grasp of detail.
In the Blair Brown succession the choice for New Labour was circumscribed, and so it will be again this time with only those shown to be New Labourites in the frame, including some of the "pygmies" Meyer describes. Accepting the New Labour mantra means more of the same. Returning to the Blairite agenda appears to be the significant "changes" our hero David is talking about.
How does this fit in with the current crisis. It's been fashioned by globalisation, privatisation characterised by the interests of global markets and massive international interests of powerful corporations. Many politicians have personal interests in them. So the idea of New Labour, in common with Tories - Lib-Dems who knows? (As I've already pointed out they run with the Tories here in Birmingham.) As Ian Johnson of the SLP points out, we need a new bus. No good continually changing the driver
It means looking at the needs of the users of the likes of Northern Rock above the interests of the failed managers and directors, handsomely rewarded nevertheless. People who put their money into Farepack lost out, but who cares?
There are muttering about possible windfall taxes on the excessive profits of those in control of fuel supplies, but their power frightens governments into inaction. Hunger and starvation is now well on the agenda, and for many elderly people a stark choice between food or fuel. If New Labour are fumbling with measures to help then let's hear from them loud and clear. It's unlikely that will be policies which address the fundamental problem, but sticking plasters, which can at best only marginally support the most vulnerable. It will do nothing about the onslaught we are told is still to come.
Posted by John at 1:17 PM | Comments (0)
August 1, 2008
Nine year old Palestinian boy shot in the head
Not front page news? If not, why not? Are the army out of control? If not, who is deciding that children are legitimate targets? The following is from Jewish Voice for Peace.
The first two items below, issued Tuesday July 29 and Wednesday July 30 and circulated on activist email networks, announce two separate demonstrations by Israeli peace groups protesting Israels' violent targeting of Palestinian children and, in particular, of children taking part in attempts at peaceful protests against the severe oppression they experience under occupation.
In many cases it is the violence of the Israeli military that intentionally escalates plans for peaceful resistance and the third item below, from "Haaretz", reports a discipline problem in the military deployed to contain civilian protests in the West Bank, despite a campaign by the chief of staff "to restore discipline to the IDF" after Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 2006. According to the July 30th report, "a series of events - the shooting of a bound Palestinian protester; two Military Police probes; and as of Tuesday the suspension of a battalion commander - show a worrying and dangerous downward spiral."
Reflecting the significance of international organizing and activism against these incidents, journalist Amos Harel adds that, "these happenings are taking place under increased scrutiny by the international media" In an absurd inversion of logic and blame he claims that this, "encourages the opponents of the fence to ratchet up the conflict [and a]pparently, it also increases pressure on IDF officers, who are having difficulty keeping events in check," implying that the out-of-control violence Israel's military can be attributed to international scrutiny and pressure.
Rela Mazali
From: Adar Grayevsky
To: adar grayevsky
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 11:55 PM
Subject: [againstwall] 10 year old boy murdered in Nilin - Demo today infront of Barak's home at 19:00
English follows
Please forward
Ahmad Husam Yousef Mousa murdered yesterday in Nilin-
Demonstration today, Wednesday, at 19:00 in front of defense minister Barak's home We'll meet at 18:30 at El Al terminal,Tel Aviv central train station (Arlozorov) Ahmad Husam Yousef Mousa, 10 years old, was murdered yesterday as he demonstrated together with his friends against the separation wall which is being constructed on the lands of his village Nilin. When Ahmad and his friends reached the construction site the soldiers shot rubber bullets at them and they began to retreat. At that point one of the soldiers shot a live round at Ahmad's head from a distance of about 10 meters.
During the demo earlier in the day, 18 demonstrators were injured.
During 6 years of popular struggle against the wall, the occupation forces have killed 11 demonstrators, 7 of them children, and thousands were injured. Time and time again, soldiers violently suppress demonstrations and attack those who take part in them with lethal weapons. To date, none of the soldiers who killed demonstrators has been prosecuted.
Today, Wednesday we will set out to protest the murder of 10 year old Ahmad in front of the home of defense minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv.
Stop the Killing, Stop the Occupation !
We'll meet at 18:30 at El Al terminal,Tel Aviv central train station (Arlozorov)
>From there we will march to the Akirov towers on Pinkas street where Barak lives.
For more details call Dan 050-7851465
------------------------------------------
From: taayush2000@yahoo.com
Date: 2008/7/29
Hebrew follows
Dear Friends,
We are invited by children of South Hebron area to join them in a non violent protest against the settlers' attacks of the school children of Tuba and the expansion of the illegal outpost Havat maon.
This week the school children where attacked again by masked settlers. One of the international activists who were escorting them was injured, and his camera was stolen.
This Saturday, 2/8/2008, Palestinians, Israeli and international activists will march together in a joint call to end the occupation, stop the settlers' violence, land theft and illegal building.
Your presence is very important especially these days, as the army and police are trying to prevent our non-violent solidarity activities in the west bank, while no serious action is taken against those who act violently on a regular basis.
For registration send mail with your name and phone number to . Pafush@yahoo.com
We will leave Jerusalem at 8:00. Transportation from Tel-Aviv will be arranged according to the no. of participants.
Please bring a lot of water, walking shoes,a hat, ID, and dress in a respectful way.
------------------------------------------
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1006699.html
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 07:14 30/07/2008
ANALYSIS: Israeli security forces losing control in the West Bank
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent
Recent protests around the village of Na'alin in opposition to the separation fence seem to show a loss of control. The death of a 9-year-old, apparently shot by a Border Policeman, is the most serious turn of events so far. Palestinian sources said the boy, Ahmed Moussa, was in the area of the clashes and was shot in the head; the Palestinian Authority's director of civil affairs, Hussein al-Sheikh, and West Bank Civil Administration head Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai agreed that an Israel Defense Forces doctor would examine the boy's body to determine the circumstances of his death.
However, a series of events - the shooting of a bound Palestinian protester; two Military Police probes; and as of Tuesday the suspension of a battalion commander - show a worrying and dangerous downward spiral. The fact that these happenings are taking place under increased scrutiny by the international media encourages the opponents of the fence to ratchet up the conflict. Apparently, it also increases pressure on IDF officers, who are having difficulty keeping events in check.
Na'alin has in recent months become an arena of daily fighting as work on the fence there has damaged thousands of dunams of agricultural land owned by the villagers. The struggle against the fence is relatively violent, with dozens of Border Police and IDF soldiers injured by stones thrown at them.
The release by the human rights organization B'Tselem of video footage showing an Armored Corps battalion commander, Lt. Col. Omri Bruberg, holding a protester while a soldier shot him with a rubber bullet at a distance of about 1.5 meters, focused media attention on protest and ignited an embarrassing battle of versions between the battalion commander and the soldier, his direct subordinate. Following the Military Police probe, a polygraph test and leaks to the press, GOC Northern Command Gad Eisenkot (Bruberg's commanding officer) gave the necessary, if belated, order to send the officer on leave until the investigation is concluded.
Even according to Bruberg's minimalist version, he authorized the soldier to rattle his weapon "as a deterrent," when using a weapon to frighten a restrained person is strictly forbidden by the rules of engagement. Now Bruberg is also under investigation for allegedly kicking a Palestinian. In the latter case, it is still difficult to know whether the complaint is authentic or whether it is a matter of "hitching a ride" on an officer who is clearly in trouble.
According to IDF statistics, the boy who was shot Tuesday was the first Palestinian citizen to be killed in the West Bank this year, after the killing of 34 terrorists (the Palestinians count a number of civilians killed, but they, too, concede that the number is low). That figure reflects more care in this matter than in previous years, along with a lessening of friction with the Palestinian population. The control by PA security forces in the West Bank, as well as security coordination with the IDF, are improving.
But every funeral of a child oils the wheels of the struggle and could result in major terror attacks. The Shin Bet security service notes that pictures of dead children following Operation Warm Winter in March was a major spur to the terrorist who attacked the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva.
The situation in Na'alin is the kind of problem that requires the personal attention of Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as of GOC Central Command Gad Shamni. In an interview in 2004, Ashkenazi, then deputy chief of staff, said: "My greatest concern is that the IDF will lose its humanity because of the continued fighting." That has not happened to the extent Ashkenazi feared, but neither does the chief of staff's campaign to restore discipline to the IDF after the Second Lebanon War seem to have been a great success in view of the events in Na'alin.
Related articles:
· Officer suspended after failing polygraph over Na'alin shooting
· IDF launches new probe of officer who ordered bound Palestinian shot
· Palestinian boy, 9, killed during protest at West Bank fence
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Jewish Peace News editors:
Joel Beinin
Racheli Gai
Rela Mazali
Sarah Anne Minkin
Judith Norman
Lincoln Shlensky
Rebecca Vilkomerson
Alistair Welchman
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Jewish Peace News archive and blog: http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com
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Posted by John at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
Profits just keep rolling in
We just sit back and watch as energy companies announce mighty profits following the price hike for consumers. Centrica, overlord of British Gas, announced a massive increase while British Gas employees went out to celebrate. The idea was to inform staff about rising bills, but they appear not to have been on message when they started partying. This was somewhat encouraged by the provision of entertainment and booze and things got out of hand.
Private companies own our utilities so control is in the hands of individuals who amass wealth and power. There is little consumers can do, although competition was the big idea which meant that they have choice. In practice it appears that prices are remarkably similar from providers who appear to be a rather large club. We should expect however that government would be able to act on behalf of energy users, particularly those most vulnerable to the effects of the availability and cost. Reaction has been piecemeal and minimal with announcements that winter fuel payments would be increased. If both fuel and food prices continue to increase as promised the amounts announced will hardly touch the needs of many in hardship.
That price rises and shortages are on a global scale points to the difficulties brought about by "globalisation". We were promised benefits from such a process, but once again it is claer that beneficiaries are those who control the means of production. The rest who don't are consigned to the wilderness. Meanwhile the talk is about replacing Brown in New Labour, or possibly moving to the Tories under Cameron at the moment. Another case of rearranging the deck chairs since nothing will touch the fundamental problem. Large corporations often own greater resources than the governments of countries in which they operate, acting as agents for other governments. Many of those holding office have themselves interests in those companies.
A glimpse of how it might be otherwise is seen in a piece written by Fidel Castro for May Day celebrations in Havana this year. In January 2009 Cuba will have achieved 50 years of resistance to the domination of corporate interests and can boast considerable achievement in health and education, not only in Cuba, but in many countries round the world. In this respect this little island is in advance of it powerful neighbour, the U.S.A.
Castro comments on the world crisis and exemplifies processes going on in Bolivia now:
"As horrifying news arrives from all over the world about the scarcity and cost of food, the price of energy, climate change and inflation, problems that are being presented in unison for the first time as vital questions, imperialism is bent on breaking up Bolivia and subjecting it to alienating work and hunger."
Wile I missed the May Day celebrations I arrived in Havana on 3rd May and saw for myself how the country was pulling together in spite of adversity and the embargo imposed by the U.S. Castro comments elsewhere on Obama's determination to "free" Cuba. What from? A return to the gangsterism associated with the highly corrupt Batista regime?
This is not just a question of whose side we are on. Who is on our side? While industry might manufacture a range of luxury goods for our comfort this is inessential for our heath and well-being. They have increasing control over our health, our education, our food, our energy supplies. Those who resist should be praised, not vilified. I count my visit to Cuba with like-minded comrades from the Socialist Labour Party as an act of solidarity. With Cubans yes, but with all of us who are struggling against the tyrannies imposed on us by mighty self-interest.
Posted by John at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
