THE ESSAYIST

Paul Kagame and Tony Blair

2012-02-02T22:13:00.000Z

It might be that Paul Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front was not after all responsible for shooting down the plane carrying of the then President of the country, Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, on 6 April 1994. Therefore, we still don't know who perpetrated the act that effectively triggered off the mass murder not only of the Tutsi population, but also of any Hutus who refused to participate in the slaughter.

Be that as it may, there is still reason to doubt the Rwandan government's interpretation of the report as ending "..... 17 years of manipulation, distortion of the truth and of a campaign against the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) that aimed to deny the genocide." All the more so since Jacques Kabal, the Rwandan ambassador to France, follows on this statement by emphasizing that the report will help foster better relations between Paris and Kigali. Might the report not indicate that Sarkozy's government has decided that it is time once again to get a piece of the Rwandan pie? Moreover, even if the shooting down of Habyarimana's plane cannot be linked to the RPF, Mr Kagame and his henchmen can hardly be exonarated of their very own war crimes in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Occupying the moral high ground following the genocide the RPF, in alliance with Museveni's Uganda, attacked the Hutu refugees in the eastern part of what is now the DRC. Furthermore, we might even accept that, with the Hutu "Interahamwe" regrouping and attacking elements of the Tutsi population in the Kivu province prior to the intervention of the RPF and Uganda, these attacks were to some extent pre-emptive. Nevertheless, what followed was neither self defence, nor a police action and Hutu men, women and children were systematically rounded up and slaughtered (Feinstein: 445, 446). Indeed, the extent of the crimes have some calling it a second genocide (ibid). Moreover, as one blogger points out, the RPF had already revealed its criminal nature as early as January 1991 when they killed some 500 civilians in Ruhengeri in Northern Rwanda.

It is that last fact that makes Paul Kagame's friend, Tony Blair, seem all the more pathetic when he said at the end of December 2010, in answering criticisms of the undemocratic nature of the Kigali regime, that: "allowances have to be made for the consequences of the 1994 genocide of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and suggested that Kagame's economic record outweighed other concerns." The "economic record" according to Blair is more important than the publication of a UN report from two months earlier which accused Rwanda of war crimes in eastern Congo, including the wholesale massacres of Hutu civilians and the plunder of minerals and more important than an election where Paul Kagame gets re-elected, after a "rigged"vote with his main rivals were either in jail or prohibited from running from office.

"We remain concerned, however, about a series of disturbing events prior to the election, including the suspension of two newspapers, the expulsion of a human rights researcher, the barring of two opposition parties from taking part in the election, and the arrest of journalists," was the official response from Washington to the elections. Might there even be evidence to suggest here that even for those hypocrites Mr Kagame is beginning to be seen as a liabiltiy. Not so for Mr Blair, however, who, with a logic all of his own, says, "You've got to make a judgement about this, and my judgement, rightly or wrongly, is that he is somebody who does want to do the best for his country, is doing the best for his country ....."

His judgement, "rightly or wrongly"? Well, we had a taste of Mr Blair's judgement "rightly or wrongly" when he took his own country into an illegal war. Doesn't he understand that where breaking the law is concerned we are not looking for his judgements or opinions. Perhaps, if he did, he would realise that both he and his friend belong in front of the ICC in the Hague, that his and his friend's opinions don't particularly matter and that rigging elections, persecuting opposition and slaughtering civilians are not misdeamenors that we can commit to profit from.

Ed Milliband evokes Liverpool dockers and Upper Clyde ship workers

2012-01-30T16:00:00.001Z

Apparently Ed Milliband sees the affinity between the working people of Britain as more of a reason for Scotland staying within the United Kingdom than any argument which contends that Scotland is too poor or too weak to break away. In a speech in Glasgow, among other things, he said: "When a Scotsman who works in the shipyards of Govan meets an Englishman who works on the docks in Merseyside, he doesn't see a foreigner, he sees a fellow countryman." Of course, he neglects to mention that the likelihood of that happening is extremely remote.

Firstly, the main dock area in Liverpool has been transformed into some sort of theme park, where any jobs available are more likely to mean working at Costas, or some other retail outlet, than unloading ships and secondly, the chance of getting a job in one of the two major shipyards that remain in operation on the Upper Clyde is extremely thin to say the least.

Moreover, Mr Milliband might want to point out that when it came to saving those dockers jobs during a strike from September 1995 to February 1998 those striking were betrayed by their own union and Mr Milliband's hypocritical Labour Party, while at the same time not forgetting to mention that working in one of the few jobs still available on Upper Clyde would probably mean helping to produce weapons of death for BAE and a corrupt arms industry against which all real socialists should mobilise. Furthermore, even if morals are to take a back seat in the "thinking" of a "celebrity big brother" intoxicated population, it might be pointed out that some twice as many jobs could have been created in health Care, social services or education for the same amount of money.

The Labour Party leader and his ilk have nothing to do with socialism and when Mr Milliband spouts platitudes and seeks to evoke affinities in the manner mentioned above we would do well to remember this. Of course, when it comes to Scottish independence we might do well to remember the adage, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely", and the joke, "what happens when the pope dies? Up popes another one." Nevertheless, whatever the case for an independent Scotland, the hypocrites, liars and criminals, do the union no favours and you never know, while the evidence tends to suggest otherwise, the Scots on their own might just do things a bit better.

The Shadow World

2012-01-26T13:43:00.001Z

In his book 'The Shadow World' Andrew Feinstein comments how, following investigations into deals with Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Hungary,. BAE were fined hundreds of millions of dollars by the US authorities. With the evidence of corruption being irrefutable we might be tempted to clap Uncle Sam on the back for doing a job which the British themselves failed to do. That is if it weren't for the fact that they are such hypocrites.

Therefore, while ostensibly tackling unfair competition at, and corruption by, BAE, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that their own arms companies in general, and Lockheed Martin in particular, are also more than competent when it comes to practicing corruption at home, while going out of their way to determine the course of American foreign policy abroad. In the late nineties, for instance, the erstwhile CEO, Norm Augustine, promised the Romanian government that it would use its influence in Washington to support that country's entry to NATO, if they bought Lockheed Martin's new radar system (Feinstein: 290). Of course, this is not to suggest that BAE does not use its clout in a similar manner.

Moreover, this is hardly a situation of dog eats dog; in the arms industry, there are in fact no losers, as Dan Margolies in his article, 'Cocktails and wiretaps signal a new anti-bribery era' explained:
"But when you go through the DOJ's own allegations and add up the amount of the bribe payments and the amount those bribes caused the companies to get in business, you're still in a situation where they come out net positive." In other words the even with fines totaling almost half a billion dollars, business is still good, very good, for BAE.

Of course, in order for business to remain good, the Orwellian war on terror has to be continued and new battles have to be fought. Therefore, it is that we should bear in mind on reading in Monday's 'Guardian' that,: "Tehran on Monday escalated its threats against the west after Europe struck at the Islamic republic's lifeblood by agreeing to impose an oil embargo on it." Too crazy to contemplate, perhaps, but with Benjamin Netanyahu praising the EU's decision to impose oil sanctions on Iran as "a step in the right direction," and with a freeze of the assets of the Iran's central bank, while we might question the "step in the right direction", we could just be a step closer to once again seeing exactly where that "disastrous rise of misplaced power" ultimately leads. Of course, in understanding this, we would all do well to stop listening to make these liars and hypocrites genuinely accountable.

Tony Blair: "It's about getting things done."

2012-01-21T16:26:00.001Z

In providing political leadership Tony Blair informs us that his "African Government Initiative" (agi) "draws on his ten years as Prime Minister to offer leaders the kind of advice on reform that only someone who has stood in a leader’s shoes can give." Well, if we agree with Mr Blair's contention that "we should support African leaders who improve people's lives, and not simply evaluate systems of transparency and accountability in government", and that "governance is also about effectiveness, the capability to get things done" we can reasonably conclude that he is indeed the right person to give advice here.

After all, this is the man who used his final weeks as Prime Minister to block the Serious Fraud Office's criminal investigation into the sale of fighter jets and other weapons to Saudi Arabia, who has the extrajudicial execution of his "good friend" Gaddafi to thank for his shady business dealings and secret meetings being kept away from public scrutiny and who ..... but where do you stop? With his involvement in the selling of arms to Tanzania, a country which has problems feeding its own people, or with his support for his new "best friend" the despot, Paul Kagame? Perhaps, we should begin but a look at the organisations that serve to cover the crimes of a man who is there "to get things done."

That though is a problem as we don't even know where to begin before getting sucked into 'Tony Blair Inc.', "a Byzantine web of highly specialised limited partnerships and parallel companies, is baffling in its structure". However, we don't have to uncover the myriad of crimes and corruption that accompany a man who, in his role as international Middle East envoy, is biased towards Israel , who a senior Palestinian negotiator, Nabil Shaath, says "sounds like an Israeli diplomat" and who is considered persona non grata in Palestine by the Palestinian leadership. Rather is sufficient to simply consider a fact which is always going to accompany this liar and hypocrite and that is that he is a war criminal.

No ambiguity there; "the invasion of Iraq was illegal. Every applicable law unequivocally confirms this conclusion. There are no grey areas, no extenuating circumstances. Not according to the law." But do we really think Tony gives a shit? After all, there is evidence to suggest that he "has been cashing in on his contacts from a conflict that destroyed the lives of millions to make millions of his own and with his latest little partnership with Kazakhstan's dictator, President Nursultan Nazarbayev, in full swing, we can rest assured that Tony is quite sincere when he advises all and sundry that it is about "getting things done" and if that means not only a lack of transparency and accountability in government, but also millions of dead, we shouldn't be too harsh on him. It is, after all, nothing personal, it is just business.

Ron Paul "America's last chance"

2012-01-17T22:11:00.001Z

There can be not doubt that the United States is owned lock stock and barrel by the military-security complex, Wall Street and the Israel Lobby and while there has not yet been the descent into complete tyranny that is only a matter of time. Moreover, it isn't as if we couldn't have seen it coming.

Fifty one years ago, in his final speech from the White House, President Dwight Eisenhower appealed for the government to "guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex," while adding that "the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist." The advice was not heeded and while Paul Craig Roberts, might see the Republican candidate Ron Paul as being "America's last chance" we can at least suspect that even if this were true, it is a chance that will not be grasped.. Indeed, while Mr Craig's sentiments are noble, his appeal is a trifle naive. That is the least we might deduce from the news from today's 'Guardian'.

At the at the South Carolina Republican presidential debate in Myrtle Beach. Mr Paul summed up his stance and in doing so might have appeared to justify Mr Craig's faith in him.. He said:
"My point is, if another country does to us what we do others, we're not going to like it very much. So I would say that maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy. Don't do to other nations.what we don't want to have them do to us. So we endlessly bomb these countries and then we wonder, wonder why they get upset with us? And yet it continues on and on. I mean, this idea that we can't debate foreign policy, then all we have to do is start another war. I mean, it's warmongering. They're building up for another war against Iran, and people can't wait to get in another war. This country doesn't need another war. We need to quit the ones we're in. We need to save the money and bring our troops home." . Yes, the man at least talks sense. However, and unfortunately, as the 'Guardian' pointed out this is not what a Republican audience is used to hearing and the speech was met with boos.

Of course, we might go further and suggest that this is not only not what a Republican audience is used to hearing, it is not what it wants to hear and while the 'Guardian' might see Mr Paul as still doing well in the polls, the reality is that there is no way he is going to get his party's nomination. While I am on your side Mr Craig, considering Fox News's grilling of Mr Paul, the gung-ho jingoistic garbage spouted by Newt Gingrich and the boos of the party faithful, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that we are extremely unlikely to see Ron Paul running against the resident hypocrite and we are even more unlikely to see him become the president of the United States. There is no need to doubt that the odds are still on that complete descent into tyranny that so worried Mr Eisenhower fifty one years ago.

"Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide"

2012-01-12T20:26:00.002Z

"Human rights are not a prescription for national suicide," wrote Asher Grunis, one of the judges in the Israeli supreme court's 6-5 majority ruling upholding the ban on thousands of Palestinians who are married to Israeli citizens from joining their Israeli-Arab partners.

One is reminded of the Zionist historian Benny Morris who views ethnic cleansing as a necessity in Israel's case and, therefore, not morally reprehensible. Indeed, the decision made by the Israeli supreme court would appear to support Morris's hypothesis that not only was the ethnic cleansing necessary, but that it was "unfortunately" left unfinished and "the Israeli Arabs ar a time bomb ...... a potential fifth column." Of course, anyone who either believes that human rights should be sacrificed for a mythical national ethos, or that ethnic cleansing might be a necessary evil are inevitably morally bankrupt.

The oxymoron Jewish "democracy", built on ethnic cleansing, while flaunting international law and the human rights of 20% of its population can never have any moral high ground. It is a hypocritical farce and the its pseudo democrats and intellectuals are farcical hypocrites.

John Brockman's 'salon for the world's finest minds'

2012-01-08T12:22:00.001Z

In today's 'Observer' a certain John Naughton almost demands our interest by advertising a certain John Brockman's website 'Edge' as being "a salon for the world's finest minds" . A bold claim and not ontradicted by the fact that these "finest minds" are based on academic and intellectual reputation rather than fame and fortune. Indeed, it might be argued that this only cements Mr Naughton's assertion.

Unfortunately, what we do get when we look at the biographies on Mr Brockman's "salon", is an array of the usual white faces from the usual elite universities. Not exculsively so, and there are some notable exceptions such as the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei, but, nevertheless, enough to suggest that Mr Brockman's "finest minds" are exclusively those that he has come into contact with in his role as a literary agent. However, according to Mr Brockman that is not the case and someone is added to the Edge list when someone like "Richard Dawkins" tells him to add them.

However, it is there that the platitudes of this all too limited elitist view of "the finest minds" should end. All the more so in view of the fact that Mr Brockman sees those minds as constituting a "third culture" of people "who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are."Does he honestly believe that we need a Richard Dawkins to do that, does he honestly believe that? Dawkins might loquaciously formulate a hypothesis that we already hold, but something new? Or, having spent two years living in China and working with some exceptionally intelligent, and, of course, exceptionally stupid, Chinese, do I need Ai Weiwei to tell me how fucked up the system in China is?

Humbug, of course, and it goes without saying that the, while the "finest minds" represent a group of people who are in a position to influence those who have access them, there influence is invariably marginal, if not limited. No more and no less, and while even that is still something, we cannot help but feel that in John Naughton, even if he does refer to the above flaws in his article, John Brockman has found someone to promote him not only as a literary agent., but also in his prime role as a networker. Well, John you scratch my back and I will scratch yours and expect to see John Naughton having a profile on 'Edge' in the not too distant future.

There is no objective social reality which is not already mediated by political subjectivity

2011-12-28T22:41:00.001Z

Using 'Stresemann's Vermächtnis' as an example E.H.Carr shows us how documents are usually only a reflection of the author of a particular documents perceptions. He goes on to write that Streseman's faithful secretary, Henry Bernhard, who was entrusted with the editing of the, documents, quite naturally emphasised Stresemann's successful western policy, at the expense of his less successful eastern policy in general and very inconclusive negotiations with the Soviet Union in particular. According to Carr it is the Historian who is left to decipher the documents (1961: 16,17). Of course, implied in this is an assumption that the Historian would bring some sort of objectivity to the proceedings, which might seem that we are seeing at least some flaws in Carr's own determinist view of history.

Nevertheless, the determinist view remains essentially correct and it iis not only a Bernhard whose views might be determined from the outsed. Historians too would bring their own particular prejudices and preferences to bear when looking at any materials which they might encounter. Indeed, when he writes of Georg Lukàcs believing that "there is no "objective social reality" which is not already mediated by political subjectivity", Slavoj Žižek's could at least be suggesting, that this cannot be otherwise and in doing so might even feel that this is almost a paraphrase of Marx's belief that our being in society determines our consciousness. Even if, in the West today, the tools at the disposal of Chomsky's "manufacturers of consent" are such that the ruling elite can manipulate our "objective social reality" to a large degree. Indeed, in the present climate it is to be expected that neither the "occupy movements" that are sprouting up throughout the West, nor the riots in the summer in England, have found a political voice and it is to be expected that people who have been effectively disenfranchised will refer to some jingoistic nonsense, which effectively supports the City of London and is effectively curtailing their rights, in the 'Daily Express' as representing political sense.

Of course, although there is not a level playing field, the "manufacturers of consent" do not have a complete monopoly and as we might expect, while the tools at the disposal of the elite facilitate their manipulating the "objective social reality", there is a hitherto undreamt of body of alternative information. A little bit of searching, a click of the mouse, some skimming and scanning and whatever happened to those WMDs? What really happened on 11/9? What is the truth behind the story in this morning's 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' regarding Iran blocking the Hormus straits? Unfortunately, questions are not being asked often enough and we still have the disenfranchised masses willing to don their poppies and wave their flags in support of illegal wars and a fictive capitalism that continues to roger them on a daily basis. Not only that but it also facilitates a climate whereby half-baked intellectuals can flourish and give voice to the prejudices and banal lies of the day.

Recently, a friend of mine went see a launch for Sir Ian Kershaw's new book in Munich. Apparently Sir Ian, who has officially retired, said that the reason for the book, which covers the last few months of the Second World War, was that when he was in Baden Württemberg some time ago he discovered that the Nazis were still executing deserters etc a couple of days before the end of the war even although the outcome must have been already clear to them. Apparently, someone in the audience asked him what he expected? Nevertheless, Sir Ian's views only reflect the "official" line in 'Blighty' which is still been cultivated for political ends. Of course, it also represents a fundamental misunderstanding of an "objective social reality" which has been mediated by "political subjectivity", but more than that it represents a fundamental misunderstanding as to the nature of man.

As a student I researched the press in Germany from 1933 to 1945 in the "Staatsbibliothek" in Munich and was struck by how life went on after even the carpet bombing of the German cities. For instance, in the "Dresdener Anzeiger", a couple of days after the worst attacks in the middle of february 45, you could read job advertisements and advertisements for products and even announcements for births alongside long lists of people who were missing or dead after the attacks. At the end of April 1945 the children were playing in their gardens, in the "Kindergarten" or in the school yard when they were told to go home and pack their things. The Russians were five kilometres away. The point is the person who asked Sir Ian the question was quite right and the only question I would ask is what are we doing while our "objective social reality" is being formed by the manufacturers of consent?

We continue to watch Premier League football, programme our televisions from our iphones, consider "the Guardian" to be an objective newspaper and in the meantime we have allowed and are allowing the financial and political elites that rule us to conduct illegal wars, to economically ruin us and to effectively disenfranchise us. However, there is now a mass of alternative information and we can access it. Mass murder has been and is being committed in our names and, despite the political subjectivity which the manufacturers of consent mediate we can have no excuses.

Craig Murray: "Christopher Hitchens R.I.P."

2011-12-17T15:14:00.000Z

Although I can empathise with Craig Murray's conclusion that the world will be a better place without Christopher Hitchens, it is difficult to share the sentiments fully. Indeed, while British journalism might be "full of people of the same generation who have lurched from the Trotskyist far left to a crazed neo-con agenda with no intervening period of sanity" , it has to be added that this too is hardly a phenomena that is unique to British journalism. Or what about Horst Mahler?:
"He once was an extreme-left militant, a founding member of the Red Army Faction. Subsequently he became a Maoist and later shifted to the extreme-right. He was for a time a member of the National Democratic Party of Germany. He has been repeatedly convicted of Volksverhetzung ("incitement of popular hatred") and Holocaust denial and is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence."

No Craig, Mr Hitchen's death at best reminds us of the"up popes another one" in answer to the rhetorical question of what happens when the pope dies? In the great scheme of things the "Christophers" and "Horsts" of this world do not matter one iota and it remains essential that we remain focused on the social forces that produce them. Time to demystify Mr Hitchens and move on and in moving on we will discover that it is indeed our being in society that determines our consciousnesses. There was nothing unique in Mr Hitchen's thought and there is certainly nothing unique in Mr Mahler's.

Obama and support for Israel

2011-12-16T23:13:00.000Z

Speaking before the Union for Reform Judaism conference in Maryland on Friday, President Obama stressed that his administration has done more than any other to support Israel. There is no need to look for the details that might substantiate that statement for in doing so we might only conclude that the Obama administration has done at least as much as those of Ronald Reagan, George H Bush, Bill Clinton and George W Bush in bending over backwards to support the Zionist state. It has done no more and no less and the evidence would appear to suggest that Washington's support for Israel, is and has been for a long time, unconditional.

Nevertheless, the political discourse needed to sell this unconditional support is still required. Therefore, we have Obama telling the conference that:
"We stand with Israel as a Jewish and democratic state," he said. "America's commitment and my commitment to security of Israel is unshakeable." Of course, this oxymoronic jargon is nothing new but it does have a continued appeal; we have "a democratic state" and nobody has the right to deny any people their right to self determination. Values that are as American as apple pie and values which "middle America" just loves to identify with.

Of course, the reality that another people have to be ethnically cleansed for the Jewish state to come into existence and the reality that 20% of the population of Israel are being effectively disenfranchised in this "Jewish state" is being ignored. Therefore, we might do well to pick up on this gobblydegook by pointing out that only when a state becomes a state for all of its citizens can it become democratic and that if that happens in Israel, it will, of course, no longer be an exclusively Jewish state.

A "state for all its citizens" that really does sound as American as apple pie. Indeed, we might even be talking about the United States that Obama swore allegiance to. Now, wouldn't helping to establish this kind of state in the region be really supporting Israel and who knows, once that state is established, it might not be important what it is called. At least it would be a viable and far preferable alternative to the "Bantustans" that they will call "Palestine" and the oxymoronic "Jewish Democracy" that we have at the moment.

Whose interests was Cameron protecting?

2011-12-10T14:32:00.002Z

'The Guardian' reports; "Arguing he had to protect the City of London, Cameron demanded that any transfer of power from national regulators to an EU regulator on financial services be subject to a veto." David Cameron has followed the agenda of the City of London and the people who are responsible in the first place for the financial crisis. However, this was to be expected and any real news might have been a decision to the contrary. Nevertheless, that should not prevent us from having a look at two obvious consequences of this decision to continue with the disaster capitalism that got us all into this right old mess in the first place.

Firstly, as the 'Guardian's' Jonathan Freedland points out, the "two speed Europe is here and Britain is in the slow lane." However, the belief that some in the City and in the Conservative Party might have that the UK will be in some sort of "new Switzerland" is viewed with scepticism by Mr Freedland who goes on to write:
"We'll need to retrieve the fondue set that's been lying under the stairs since the late 70s, find a way of making the trains run on time when there's snow on the ground (and when there isn't), develop a love for cuckoo clocks, build a nuclear shelter in every home and get used to not mowing the lawn at the weekend. And of course no wars, no puking in the streets on a Friday night and no poor people. Piece of torte."
We might not always love boring Switzerland but the people can cook, they tend not to be frustrated to the point where they they throw up on the street and ..... well, they do make good products and they have been preserving their Welfare State. Indeed, we even get the impression that the bankers in Zurich at least realise that part and parcel of their having their "torte" and eating it is at least keeping the natives at home happy.

Not so back in "Blighty" and as Olaf Cramme quite rightly points out, another major consequence, of Cameron's pandering to the "Eurosceptics" is that:
"this approach will seriously undermine Britain’s attempt to rebalance its economy. The City of London is set to benefit further from a policy which puts low corporate taxation and regulatory exemption at the heart of the economic strategy. The consequences could be far-reaching and if the financial service industry makes up an even bigger share of GDP because of its growth and revenue potential, other sectors, including manufacturing, can only shrink further. In the end, all this will make it much harder to boost productivity levels in an economy which requires a greater qualified mid-level work force. A return to the pre-financial crisis folly is looming."

..... there you have it folks and at it is at this point that the little embedded video becomes compulsive and compulsory viewing and it is at this point any British reader of this post might just ask him or herself the simple question; "whose interests did Cameron protect yesterday?"

Nick Cohen 'the Guardian' "Schreiberling"

2011-11-13T12:27:00.003Z

An article by Nick Cohen in the online edition of 'The Guardian' led to my revisiting the blog at a time when I had no real inclination to do so.

The over the top sanctimonious praising of Germany for coming to terms with, and atoning for, its past while simultaneously contending that it is that same guilt ridden past, or what is in fact known in Germany as Vergangenheitsbewältigung, that is making Germany incapable of making, what he deems to be, the right decisions, should at best be treated with contempt.

He assertes that "The euro has been a wonderful boon for Germany. It has held down its exchange rate and allowed its exporters to trade at a crushing advantage." and while this is not wholly wrong, wasn't Germany the economic powerhouse of Europe long before the introduction of the Euro? Might it not simply be that Germany actually manufactures products which are better than those made elsewhere? Of course, the truth is that the assault on the Euro is coming from that very same speculative capitalism that attempted to destroy the East Asian economies as early as 1997. It is a system which this man of the crudest half eduction appears, at least by implication, to support. Furthermore, it is a system that is only held together by those selective wars of aggression which he urges Germany to participate in.

Of course, the real problem is that Nick's Deutschlandbild is at best informed by a serious of prejudices that have very little to do with the reality of what that country is or indeed was. For instance, while Brüning's austerity measures did earn him the title of der Hungerkanzler, there is more than enough evidence to suggest that, after the summer of 1932, those measures actually led to an upturn in the German economy which Hitler was to benefit from, which shouldn't imply that I agree with the measures.

Furthermore, today the austerity measures are not only being applied in countries such as Spain, Portugal, Greece in Italy but also, even if less harshly, in Germany and elsewhere in the euro zone and, outside the euro zone, in the United Kingdom. Of course, Nick does not actually disagree with austerity measures as such, he just wants to paint a little picture where the rest of Europe has to suffer so that the "German bourgeois hypocrites, who mouth pious platitudes" can continue to their ride on the gravy train when in actual fact Nick actually supports those institutions that ensure that bourgeois hypocrites generally can continue living the good life.

Finally, the historical analogies are quite simply wrong, the hypothesis is weak and once again we have an Oberschreibling, a möchtegerne intellectual, in the service of both speculative capitalism and his political masters. The last thing that they, of course want, is a strong Euro or, indeed, a Euro at all.We would perhaps be better to look at the Asian crisis of 1997 and not to the Weimar Republic, if we are looking for historical analogies.

Shalit suffered in captivity

2011-10-20T21:20:00.002+01:00

We shouldn't delve into this nonsense too much. Nevertheless, whatever the nature of the "harsh things" suffered by Gilad Shalit in captivity, it would do well to put them into perspective. 'Haaretz' reports:
"Noam Shalit, father of recently released Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, said on Thursday that claims his son was not tortured during his time in Hamas captivity should be taken "with a grain of salt."

We might wonder as to whether the man who was captured in the uniform of an occupying army and an army that less than two years ago slaughtered almost fifteen hundred men, women and children has similar pyschological problems to the "91.4 percent of children in the Gaza Strip who are suffering moderate to severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder."However, if he does, unlike some of them, the IDF soldier, does appear to have all of his limbs and his senses. Indeed, Gilad, who still has his uniform hanging in his wardrobe, might live to "fight" another day.

There are, of course, those who might deem the above to be an unfair comparison. Therefore, it might be useful to consider the following:
"Under Israeli military law, which prevails in the Palestinian territories, the crime of throwing a stone at an Israeli solider or even at the monolithic 20-ft.-high "security barrier" enclosing much of the West Bank can carry a maximum 20-year-prison sentence. Since 2000, according to the Palestinian Ministry for Prisoner Affairs, more than 6,500 children have been arrested, mostly for hurling rocks."
Moreover, on reading this we might quickly come to the conclusion that many of those released a couple of days ago are incarcerated for of not much more than failing to kiss the boots of their oppressors.

However, it is the following statistics that tell their own story:
"7000 prisoners in the occupation jails, including: - - 35 captive- 337 children- 15 members of the Legislative Council- 19 in solitary confinement- 2000 prisoners needing medical attention- 16 prisoners suffering from cancer- 160 suffering from heart diseases, kidney and blood pressure problems- 80 suffering from diabetes- 12 suffering from Hemiplegia- 40 Palestinian prisoners suffering from mental illnesses because of the psychological methods of interrogation used by the Israeli jailers and the prison authorities which include torture."

We can all come to our own conclusions regarding Gilad's suffering. However, on putting it into perspective, the less myopic of us might at least treat the following comment from his father with the contempt that it deserves.
"Gilad felt the Israeli bombings on the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead in 2008. "Gilad was in close proximity to the noise of the war," said Shalit, adding that "it's not a picnic to be in a building while above you there are F-15s and F-16s bombing [from above]." Indeed, we might be tempted to say to Gilad's father, "you have got your son back Mr Shalit, now just shut up and go away."

Iran and the manufacturing of consent

2011-10-14T00:26:00.001+01:00

After a point perservering with analysing the gobbledegook that we are confronted with becomes pointless. The 'Independent' reported on wednesday:
"The US has accused Iran of a "flagrant" violation of international law after claiming the government in Tehran was involved in a plan to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington in what officials called a "deadly murder plot."
... and the 'Guardian' informs us today:
"The United States will apply the "toughest sanctions" to further isolate Iran over the alleged plan to murder the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Barack Obama said on Thursday, despite growing scepticism over the amateurish nature of the plot and the apparently shambolic background of the main suspect."

Why even give thought to this drivel and it really does suffice to ask simply why would the Iranian government plan a plot which, if it succeeded, could very well result in its own overthrow? On the other hand, as Duncan McFarlane quite rightly points out:
"The US, Israeli and Saudi governments by contrast have everything to gain from making this scenario up ; control of the second largest oil reserves in the world ; eliminating a rival for influence in the Middle East; and a distraction from domestic economic problems."

That is analysis enough and, while the hope should be that the latest garbage to come out of Washington is condemned as mind-boggling, mediocre, moronic machiavellianism, we can unfortunately rest assured that the myopic millions will continue to be influenced by a mainstream media that has long since had its raison d’être in manufacturing consent for its political masters.

Al-Qaida criticises Iran

2011-09-28T23:22:00.001+01:00

Someone in Washington might just have good reason to be worried about the 9/11 conspiracy theories, A not so strange deduction that could be made from an article in today's 'Guardian'; we can read that:
"Al -Qaida has sent a message to the Iranian president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asking him to stop spreading conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks."

Well, while I might be taking my own little conspiracy theories a bit too far with that suggestion, US involvement or not, we really might wonder what a story like this is actually doing in the 'Guardian'. At the risk of being overly skeptical, we might at least want to know where the original story in fact came from and what purposes it might serve. After all, have we already forgotten the Bin Laden hoax; well, we didn't get to see the body did we and we can be sure that we are not going to get to examine the original documents when it comes to this latest fairy tale.

Is the two state solution dead and is a one state solution possible?

2011-09-28T10:42:00.001+01:00

On looking at the map, the reason for the Palastinian/Arab rejection of the partition plan proposed by the UN general assembly in 1947 needs no further explanation. Again, we might want to revisit King, Victor Emmanuel III's "Ma è ancora casa di alltri". However, less understandable would appear to be the rejection of the British White Paper of 17 May 1939, which Gilbert Achcar quite rightly referes to as "the major historical error of the Palestinian national movement."

This document rejected the idea of creating a Jewish state on Palestinian soil and just as importantly, it not only declared itself in favour of limiting Jewish immigration for the next five years to 75,000 annually, but it also promised an independent Palestinian state, which would be ruled proportionally, within ten years. Therefore, even if we are to look at the map of Palestine at the time of the UN partition plan some nine years later, we would quickly conclude that that White Paper would appear to form the basis for the best scenario that Palestinians could ever have hoped for. However, we might want to go further and in light the events since, there is enough evidence to suggest that any two-state solution has never been a viable alternative for Palestinians. Especially when we consider the aims of Zionism and the record of the Zionists

Indeed, the ongoing ethnic cleansing which began in 1948 and which continues to this day was always there to ensure that the Palestinians could never have a state of their own. Therefore, it should come as no surprise when we read in yesterday's 'Guardian' that Israel has decided to go ahead and build 1,100 homes in an East Jerusalem settlement. Of course, it comes as no surprise, this has been an ongoing pattern since 1948 and surely, surely, even the most myopic among us must realise that, as far as Israel is concerned, there is to be no two-state solution. That is why we might want to give a one-state solution as suggested by Ali Abunimah and others our consideration.

Unfortunately, while the 'Guardian' reports on a decision to expand the settlements as if it were real news, the real news is contained elsewhere in the article:
"An Israeli police investigation concluded that a settler and his infant son, who were killed when their car overturned last Friday, had been struck by a rock thrown by Palestinians. At their funeral on Sunday night, a rabbi called for "collective punishment" of Palestinians, saying "there are no innocents in a war".

In 1939 it was not only the Palestinians who rejected the British White Paper, but it was also vehemently opposed by the Zionist movement. With 500,000 settlers living in the Occupied Territories - in 1939 the total Jewish population of all of Palestine was less than 500,000 - and with not only individual Zionists calling for the collective punishment of Palestinians, but with it also being practiced by the Zionist state itself, the one state solution, like the two state solution, is at present a chimera. For either to be otherwise, it will require condemning Zionism, like other forms of colonialism, to the dustbin of history and that is where the real political struggle lies.

UN speeches US backed peace process is dead

2011-09-26T11:07:00.004+01:00

More at The Real News

Phyllis Bennis, author of 'Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict' and a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, and Director of its New Internationalism Program, reveals all and nothing in conversation with the 'Real News's Paul Jay.

However, it is neither the possible possibilities that are now available to the Palestinians that should attract our attention; or do we actually believe that that privileged little elite at home in its "Ramallah bubble" will sacrifice itself in the name of Palestinian unity, nor is it Abbas's speech itself, which contained nothing unexpected, but rather the puerile polemic spouted out by Netanyahu. Do these people actually believe that the decision made at Wannsee on January 20, 1942 to exterminate European Jewry is actually relevant to their, Zionist's claims, on someone else's land?

Hitler, it might be pointed out, was eight years old when the first Zionist Congress took place, Netanyahu himself talks about rights going back 4,000 years and, of course, the Zionists have no doubt that God gave them the land. Obviously, a God who didn't have an ear for King Emmanuel III's "Ma è ancora casa di alltri". Of course, the pathos which Netanyahu seeks to envoke is not based on any real grief but rather it is an attempt to gain moral and, ultimately, political capital from the slaughter of European Jewry. However, while it is the Palestinians who, in their suffering, can better empathise with those who suffered and died in the Nazi death camps, the Israeli Prime Minister's ploy is just one more example of what Norman Finkelstein calls, "the misuse of anti-semitism and the abuse of history". Once again we have the victimisers portraying themselves as the victims. However, if the aforementioned drivel just doesn't wash, It is the manner in which that theme is continued in the rest of the speech that is both offensive and worrying.

There is the link established between the Nazis and Iran, which might allow us to rightly worry about Israeli intentions and then there are the ungrateful Palestinians, who bombarded Israel with missiles for eight years, after Israel had voluntarily left Gaza. Gaza is, of course, still de facto occupied but are we being told here that there is no way Israel can evacuate the West Bank? Are we being told that a few "Bantustans" is going to be the Palestinian "state" and that if the Palestinians have their "state", they better behave themselves and do as they are told?

Of course, what happened in Gaza at the end of 2008 and January 2009 can always serve as a warning. Dr Finkelstein has written a good book on those events entitled 'This Time We Went Too Far', the problems is that these people do not understand "too far". How can they? They are pathological liars, they are hypocrites, they are murders. However, when we read of Netanyahu finishing a speech at the UN by quoting "the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago", we can better understand and in understanding we realise that not only are they liars, hypocrites and murderers, but that they are also quite mad. Of course, theirs being a collective condition, they probably don't realise that they are actually insane. Nevertheless, while we won't be able to put them all into a straight jacket, we can at least try to ignore their gobbledegook and get them to obey the law.

The world turned upside down

2011-09-21T01:31:00.000+01:00

A couple of days ago I cited the Italian King, Victor Emmanuel III, responding in 1904 to Theodor Herzl's request for a Jewish state by saying "Ma è ancora casa di alltri" (But it is still the home of other people). Moreover, it is unreasonable to suggest that the death camps and attempted extermination of European Jewry alters that fact. Having said that, however, if there is to be a bone fide case for the establishment of a Jewish state, it might follow logically that that state be in Europe. All the more so when there is enough evidence to suggest that the Israelis tend very much to see themselves as being firmly embedded in western civilisation. Therefore, what about Michael Ben Ari's, a member of the Israeli parliament, comments today?
"If the Palestinians want a state, they can go to Europe or the US – it's very nice there," said Michael Ben Ari, a member of the Israeli parliament. "This is the land of Israel and we are here forever."

Now, while many Israelis have at least two passports, not only is it extremely difficult for Palestinians to get into either Europe or America, but it is even more difficult to see any moral argument that might provide a modicum of support for any attempt to establish a state in Europe or America there. No, it is in fact the Palestinians who have nowhere to go and it is because of this that it is really time for them to establish their state. Only once that has happened can there be any real discussions as to the final status and remember Israel too has yet to define its borders. Indeed, once those borders have been defined, it might just be that many of those Israelis, who have an extra "Jus Sanguinis", might just decide to discover their other home. Indeed, we might first expect many to be discovering an extra "Jus Sanguinis". Today, it is the Palestinians who have nowhere to go.

Netanyahu: "We have rights going back 4,000 years."

2011-09-18T14:00:00.001+01:00

In the post from a couple of days ago one of the major tenets upon which Zionists claims to a state on Palestinian lands rest was shown to have no support, or at least none that can be informed by reason. Today, 'Haaretz' tells us that Netanyahu intends to confront the UN General Assembly with the other major tenet upon which the state of Israel is based.

It would be a little bit too much for him to approach a hetrogeneous world with Judiasm very own divine right. Therefore, we are told that his purpose will be, "to present our truth, which is that we are not foreigners and we have rights going back 4,000 years." Sensible people might, of course, ask, if this guy is actually being serious? Nevertheless, we will have the United States and Australia, to name but two states, who will be supporting this absurdity, even if, applying it to either the Americas or Australasia would result in an ethnic cleansing that would make even the one taking place now in Palestine rather insignificant.

"Ma è ancora casa di alltri" , there is no "homosuperior"

2011-09-16T09:59:00.005+01:00

We can read in today's 'Haaretz' that Netanyahu "will agree to an upgrade of the Palestinian status, but not to statehood." At most, however the Israeili Prime Minister's comments are just one more example of that arrogance, which has distinguished Zionism since its very inception. Indeed, as early as January 23, 1904 in response to Theodor Herzl's request for a Jewish state, the Italian King, Victor Emmanuel III, is quoted as saying "Ma è ancora casa di alltri" (But it is still the home of other people).

Nevertheless, over a hundred years after that response the Zionists are still ignoring international law and bombarding us a gobbledegook rhetoric, a puerile polemic, that ignores the most significant facts, including the most obvious one, which is given suitable substance by Gilber Achcar in his book 'The Arabs and the Holocaust', when he quotes an answer to Zionist accusations of Arab pro-Nazism, which appeared in the Arab daily "Filastin" on 17th June 1934:
"What authorizes the Jews to announce sorrowfully to the Arabs that a Nazi movement has sprung up among them? Is it the Arabs who have driven the Jews from their land, or is it rather the Jews who are driving Arabs from their homes and persecuting the to the point of depriving them of human beings' most basic right, the right to life?" (Achcar: 49).

This is crucial and it should form the premise of any discourse on Palestine. Furthermore, it means that, despite the ongoing ethnic cleansing with new "facts" being created on the ground by the Zionist occupation on a daily basis, the response to Netanyahu today can only the one made by King Victor Emmanuel III to Herzl's request back in 1904; "Ma è ancora casa di alltri".

This really isn't about Israel agreeing to Palestinian statehood and the real concession still to be made is the one where the Palestinians agree either to an Israeli state or one where they accept Israelis sharing a state with them. When that concession is made not only will we have peace in the Middle East, but we will also see the end of the Zionist "Übermensch", that pseudo "homosuperior" whose intellectual antecedents can, to some extent, be found in an ideology which was indeed responsible for the holocaust itself.

Blair needs a fix

2011-08-21T12:45:00.001+01:00

Tony Blair is, of course, a hypocrite, a liar, a war criminal and a number of other things, which you might decide for yourselves. However, he is not some sort of historical aberration. He represents that disgusting hypocritical. lying, criminal, normality, which emanates from 'Blighty's' shores. Therefore, when he now gives his tuppence worth on the causes of the recent riots we would do well to at least treat it with contempt rather than take it with a pinch of salt and not only because this farce is still up to his shenanigans here, there and everywhere, but also because he is so indicative of a very two-faced, very criminal, political caste. Indifference cannot surely be an option. However, to get back to Tony and his latest drivel.

The 'Guardian' reports:
"Blair, who was prime minister from 1997 to 2007, says that neither social deprivation nor a lack of personal responsibility is at the root of the problem. Instead, he says, Britain, like "virtually all" developed nations, needs to deal with a group of people who are beyond the pale." Of course, for Tony Palestinians, who still resist the Zionist state are beyond the pale as, no doubt, are demonstrators in Greece and elsewhere and we all know that Tony is well versed in gobbledegook, that he is a veritable little double speaker, however, when he then goes on to say that:
"This is a hard thing to say, and I am of course aware that this too is generalisation. But the truth is that many of these people are from families that are profoundly dysfunctional, operating on completely different terms from the rest of society, either middle class or poor." ibid , it is time to throw our arms up in despair. It is not about "social deprivation" but it is about "families that are "profoundly dysfunctional"? Of course, we might ask ourselves are profoundly dysfunctional families not normally socially deprived. In many of Britain's cities there are three generations of unemployed in those families.

Of course, looking for what Tony really implies is never too difficult and it becomes all to apparent when he says that:
"The left says they're victims of social deprivation, the right says they need to take personal responsibility for their actions; both just miss the point. A conventional social programme won't help them; neither – on its own – will tougher penalties" ibid.
This is Tony at his "best", at his most revealing. Tony is the man of the middle, the moderate, the middle man, the resolver of conflicts the great healer, the democrat and not the disgusting, hypocritical war criminal, Zionist and liar, that he really is. This is the sell and Tony is selling himself like a crack whore who needs just one more fix. The fix is recognition and power and the cold turkey comes when people no longer take notice of him.

No, a conventional social programme will not address the problems and a society, which Polly Toynbee quite rightly contends, "won't invest in its young" , which sends its unemployed youth to fight in illegal wars, a society where large sectors of the population are excluded from any worthwhile participation needs real social and political change.

2011-08-14T10:40:00.000+01:00

My views on the demonstrations in Israel were made clear in last Monday's post. However, if we can see past the the leader of Haifa’s Carmel tent city, Yossi Baruch's, demand for "a welfare state (and) free education for every girl and boy, from the moment maternity leave ends and until the child finishes a doctorate", and return to the initial demands for affordable housing, we might at least suspect that any eventual evacuation of the settlements has become just that little bit more difficult to envisage.

Nevertheless, while only a week ago I was viewing the demonstrations as just another a attempt by the Zionist state to escape that "hamatzav " which must inform their everyday realities, there is some evidence to suggest that we might not be totally pessimistic regarding the Palestinian cause for even if we suspect that the solidarity between Israeli Jews and Arabs in, for instance, Haifa will dissipate once "the situation" has reasserted itself, there is no need to doubt the writer Sami Michael's sincerity when he told a crowd in Arabic:
“At age 85, it’s hard to be optimistic but the younger generation today makes me feel optimistic. Today the public is showing for the first time a connection between classes, between cities and villages, between Arabs and Jews, and I don’t remember anything like this in Haifa. The impact of the Middle East has reached us, too,”

Unfortunately, while we might not doubt Mr Michael's sincerity and forgive him his optimism, there is enough evidence to suggest that he suffers from that euphoria and myopia which indeed also affected those who took to the streets in Cairo and elsewhere in the Arab world. There too "the situation" has reasserted itself, nowhere was there a real revolution, and to expect that there can be any real change in the Zionist state can come about because of these demonstrations is actually quite absurd.

Time to speak out

2011-08-13T09:33:00.001+01:00

"Conservative-run Wandsworth council in south London has started eviction proceedings against a woman whose son appeared in court charged in connectiin with the riots in Clapham Junction" was the story that caught my eye in this morning's 'Guardian'. Well maybe the SS did have a case for wiping out Lidice in reprisal for Reinhard Heydrich's assassination and if we are to accept this nonsense we are at least one more stop down the road to giving the Israelis the green light for their illegal collective punishment of Palestinians.

However, wait a minute, if the Israelis can argue that Article 53 , of the Geneva Convention, which forbids house demolition as a collective punishment, does not apply to the Occupied Territories, there is certainly no law that is going to restrain our modern day Mongolian hoards, the "Tory tartars". With rushed justice obviously going to imply rough justice, with there being no indication that the dismantling of the Welfare State is going to be interrupted, with our freedom of speech threatened as Cameron promises a crackdown on social networks and with collective punishment already being applied, there is something seriously rotten in 'Blighty'.

Nevertheless, life does indeed go on and today it is back to "panem et circenses", the Premiership starts, with only the Tottenham game being postponed, "ego" is sitting supping his coffee in Eccleshall Road and up and down the country they are following the "experts" analysing the crisis. Tomorrow, the riots will be yesterday's news. However, call me a worrier but Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöll er 's words have a strange relevance:

"First they came for the communists and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."

It is time to speak out but, let's finish that cup of coffee first and, hey, the Premiership starts this afternoon. Although, with the Spurs game being called off there is some hope and in North London at least they might sense that all is not normal.

Riots in England

2011-08-11T22:06:00.000+01:00

'The Independent' reports that there was a twelve year old boy among the looters who appeared in the dock at Manchester Magistrates Court and we are told by 'the Guardian' that in "the broadest sense, most of those involved have been young men from poor areas. But the generalisation cannot go much further than that. It can't be said that they are largely from one racial group. Both young men and women have joined in." There is evidence to support Garry Shewan, the Manchester's Assistant Chief Constable's, contention that:
"This was criminality, pure and simple. It had no racial element to it. It was just mindless violence so I want to let people know that there is no evidence to say any political groups organised or played a part in the disorder."

Nevertheless, while there appears to have been no real political involvement in the riots, we must remember that they are set against a backdrop of a fiscal and sovereign debt crisis and government policies that will ensure that all of the goodies that are being looted are well outside the purchasing power of most of those who are doing the looting. The last remaining Marxist revolutionaries might be using all their energy to hang on to their under-threat tenures. However, all of us, even the mindless rioters, are already engaged in politics even if we are ignorant of that reality. In Britain today, the mindless looting of the rioters is not much more than an inarticulate answer to the carefully planned looting of the bankers and well thought out violence of the political elite.

"Hamatzav"

2011-08-08T21:16:00.002+01:00

While sitting in Eccleshall Road's Caffè Nero.on Monday the story on "hundreds of thousands" protesting over the cost of living in Tel Aviv was picked up on in hard copy of 'The Times'. Unfortunately, with Daniel Finkelstein getting us to pay for the Murdoch press's "quality journalism" no link can be provided. Still, with 'Al Jazeera' already having run the same story on Sunday, there is, at least, no reason to doubt the accuracy of 'The Times' report. It might, however, be pointed out that a regular100-square-metre flat in modest middle-class neighborhoods in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv costing upwards of $600,000 is not something that interests me in the slightest and why should it when the ethnic cleansing of Palestine has long since extended to Israel "proper"? Are we being asked to view this as a "human interest" story when Arab families are being evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem on a daily basis and when the ongoing ethnic cleansing of what is left of Palestine continues unabated?

Of course, this is not meant to be a "human interest" story and what it does in fact represent, as the demonstrations in Tel Aviv itself represents, is an example of what Slavoj Žižek refers to in his book 'Living in the End Times' as a longing for an alternate reality that as become embedded in the Israeli's psyche. This is an attempt to cast off what Israelis call "hamatzav", "the situation"; a situation which is determined by the occupation, Gaza, the electric fence, a situation which permeates their lives at every level. This is Israelis crying out, "we are just normal people who want to live normal lives." It is, of course absurd and no matter how they loud they scream their political reality is, and will continue to be, dominated by the ongoing ethnic cleansing of a country that is not theirs, by the bombing and murder of innocent men, women and children and by a brutal occupation that has now being in existence for forty four years. These are the questions that have to be addressed and until they are there can be no escape from "hamatzav" and there can be no normality.

Massacre in Norway breaks Peres's heart and Netanyahu knows the families' agony.

2011-07-24T20:06:00.000+01:00

When we read of Peres saying that the massacre in Norway "was a tragedy that hurts and touches every human being," and, when Netanyahu tells Oslo how the Zionist state can understand the pain that the families of the victims are facing, revulsion turns to nausea. We might puke and we might also realise that, unless thousands of dead Palestinians are being referred to inadvertently, that these criminals have lived their lie for so long that they no longer recognise the extent of the deceit and crimes that they are involved in.

Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways, the point is to change it

2011-07-12T21:11:00.003+01:00

Beijing's 'Bookworm' is a good place to come up for air; the coffee is illy, the wireless connection is decent enough and, most importantly, there is a selection of books that would, at first glance, surprise many people. For instance, Richard McGregor's 'The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers' is available. Or at least it was available at the beginning of the year. Yes, they can be pretty fickle in Beijing and one day there is no problem just sticking up a satellite dish, turning on your vpn and even picking up a hard copy of a western newspaper at a selected spot (normally a five star hotel or at the airport in Shanghai) .... but we don't even have to wait until the next day?

That is because, even if we are just relaxing and living our "dolce vita" a la 'carpe diem', enjoy the latte by all means, enjoy the ambiance, but scratch the surface and did you notice that there is a whole page missing in that edition of Hong Kong's 'South China Daily' and where is that 'Guardian' article that you read on the internet and where is Frank Dikötter's book on the great famine? In 1981 the "capitalist roader", Deng Xiaopeng, might have announced that Mao was 70 per cent right and 30 per cent wrong, but don't you think you are going to openly criticise him. You can have your 30%, but and the historical narrative is not going to be interfered with by Frank Dikötter or anyone else. As Richard McGregor quite rightly informs us, the party will determine the story and, as Wen Jinbao told Adam Boulton, it is a five thousand year narrative. The problem, however, is that the five thousand year civilisation has about as much substance as Greek democracy and the Qings and the Mings and the rest of them were at least as exclusive as the 1% who traipsed around in ancient Athens spouting out their gobbledegook while the majority of their subjects lived out existences that were even more solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. than that depicted in Hobbes's 'Leviathian'. Yes, the great civilisations, and I mean all of them, were more than a trifle uncivilised. Does nobody read Marx anymore?

Well, Slavoj Žižek does and he does come to some very sound conclusions. Therefore, it was rather distressing to watch him recently in a conversation with Julian Assange, which was moderated by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman. It is not that he is wrong when he says that we in the West are being informed in a way that allows us to ignore what we know and that "they" tell us part of the truth to make it all the more plausible. Moreover, he succinctly hits the nail on the head when he informs us how the Chinese government clamped down on a story about time travel because they are afraid of people imagining alternative realities outside those encompassed by the official story. Nevertheless, with regard to the West, does he really believe that Wikileaks will make it more diffiicult for us to ignore what is happening. Most of the information that has been handed over to the mainstream media is already being ignored. Moreover, Julian Assange's assertion that in a day and age when you don't have to physically remove a "Trotsky" from the photographs but can delete everything by just pressing a button makes it necessary for us to have this "historical record" is absurd. We have digital cameras, we have computers, there are witnesses. In other words, Mr Žižek and Mr Assange, we have Mr Dikötter's book on the great famine and while the Chinese Communist Party will continue to stick to their version of the story, and while, at least in the short term, the Orwellian war on terror will continue here in the West, the story is still being told and history is still in the making.

However, these are dangerous times, and at the moment a nuclear or environmental catastrophe is more inevitable than the historical inevitability that Marx propogated. Nevertheless, there is some advice to Mr Žižek, "the most dangerous thinker in the West"; "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it." In his conversation with Julian Assange, Slovoj Žižek, was not too different from the "Hollywood Left" that he critcises..... and Julian Assange, himself? What a joke! Nevertheless, once again, our "dangerous thinker" synthesises well and, if nothing else, his tete-a-tete at least left me agreeing with his contention that, in some ways, the level of debate and the chances of real change are more likely in a China, where, after all, there are few, if any, mind games and, away from the 70%/30% formula, few part truths and only a big lie. Of course, if that change is to happen either in the West or in China, it will not be due to the "dangerous thinkers", but rather because of social realities which cannot be surpressed.

The coming conflict

2011-07-09T07:09:00.004+01:00

Before leaving Zhengzhou at the beginning of the week there was a mad dash to my bank to transfer money back to Germany. Well, it wasn't exactly a "dash", more of a crawl, as the taxi struggled to negotiate some five kilometres. In the end it was decided to run what was probably about half the distance and there was me turning up, soaked, and in very much of a hurry to transfer the money quickly, so that I could get back home and then on to the airport on time for my flight to Beijing.

The traffic is a major problem in Zhengzhou and experiencing it makes us all too aware of why the laws of thermodynamics dictate that we are living on a planet with finite resources and that that planet cannot support itself indefinitely. The Chinese don't appear to get it but there can be no Chinese road to socialism. For as Marx himself said, "human economies are in the last analysis dependent for survival on the existence of material conditions of production." In a world of finite resources any economy predicted on growth must ultimately fail. The choking, the starting and stuttering, the crawling and the coughing in the traffic in Zhengzhou demonstrate the nature of that failure. If it doesn't explode, it is going to implode.

Of course, people are not entirely stupid and with the Chinese locking up long term oil deliveries from countries such as Brazil, Russia and Venuzuela there is some evidence to suggest that Beijing is thinking about the problem. However, there can be no doubt that, China, is not going to be immune to the shortages and rocketing prices that will accompany world oil production peaking. Moreover, along with those global shortages and rapidly increasing prices we are going to have ever increasing conflict and it is a conflict which will ultimately be global and open. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, might say that China's ever increasing demand for natural resources can be resolved peacefully, but not only does this contradict what is already happening, it also flies in the face of a very fundamental Marxist precept. Hello, Mr Liu, "resources are finite, resources are finite."

The recent post in this blog "The South China Sea and learning to play the "Great Game"highlights one area in particular where this conflict has already started. Of course, there are others; for instance, Central Asia, Latin America and Africa! Moreover, it is a conflict that has been produced by what Naomi Klein refers to as "disaster capitalism". However, the essential contradictions of capitalism. as understood by Marx himself, demonstrate all too clearly that capitalism itself is a disaster. We might be left not only wondering what part of this the Chinese "Capitalist" Party either forgot or chose to ignore and as we prepare to enter another capitalist war.

"Five thousand years civilisation" and old wine in new bottles

2011-07-08T07:42:00.004+01:00

It might be convenient to use my having just spent six months in China as an excuse for neglecting the blog. However, until a couple of weeks ago, the vpn gave me access to blogger.com. Indeed, the few posts during the last six months show that for most of the time I could access everything and anything. At least that was until the run up to and during the 90th anniversary of the CCP, when the DNS posioning took effect Nevertheless, perhaps the last couple of weeks were a blessing in disguise with my being forced out of my little bubble and forced to experience a world of censorship that had remained, more or less, not applicable to me during this particular stint in China. Now, was this what Adam Boulton was thinking as he asked the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, when China was going to make progress on human rights?

That was not what Mr Boulton meant, but that should not seduce us into thinking that the man from Rupert Murdoch's Sky News is as interested in human rights per se, as he is in scoring points for an employer who could show the Chinese Communist Party a trick or two when it comes suffocating a truely free, press. Now, if you don't get the point you might want to have a look at the film "Outfoxed". Of course, being already doped by Murdoch's 'News Corporation', most people are hardly likely to engage cognitively with that or any other real news. Therefore, for them a skimming and scanning of the phone hacking affair that will now see Murdoch's 'News of the World' being most probably replaced by Murdoch's 'Sun', would suffice.

There are human rights violations in China. Nevertheless, the mainstream media, which actually stifles freedom of expression in a West that engages in illegal wars and the surpression of human rights all over the planet, is not in a position to lecture. Indeed, with China itself becoming increasingly chauvanistic as it becomes more and more powerful, this is in fact dangerous and, when Wen Jinbao indirectly refers to his nation's five thousand year civilisation, there is an indication of a new exclusivity. However, with people spitting, shoving, shouting and shiting in public and with factories and cars choking people to death, while employers bully employees, that exclusiveness has about as much moral substance as democracy made in the United States of America. Old wine in new bottles? To some extent, yes, and, unfortunately, Rupert Murdoch and the Chinese Communist Party are going to do everything they can to ensure that we do not become teetotalers.

The South China Sea and learning to play the "Great Game"

2011-06-18T05:28:00.002+01:00

Any unbiased glance at the map above might at least indicate that should the PRC's claims in the South China Sea be realised then we would have PLA troops practically within breaststroke distance of the Philippines and Malaysia. However, it is not the purpose of this piece to discuss the validity of the various rival claims in the South China Sea in general and on the Spratly Islands in particular and, even if the interested reader might want to take a look at those claims. it is another question we should ask ourselves. How often are claims to territory resolved by force instead of peacefully?

With the People's Liberation Army Daily commenting that China "resolutely opposes any country unrelated to the South China Sea issue meddling in disputes," and with the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan "being encouraged by Washington to play a more assertive role in containing China", it is easy to discern what is happening. We might have a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, recently saying that China, "will not resort to the use of force or the threat of force," however, the United States is already upping the ante by using its military muscle to maintain its predominance in waters close to the Chinese mainland. Moreover, by allying itself to all the other parties in the dispute Washington not only has a ready-made coalition for any coming conflict in that particular region but with the John F Kennedy School of Government graduate, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, in power in Mongolia, and US military bases in every country on China's western borders, it will need some maverick diplomacy on China's part to move forward. That diplomacy might start with the Spratlys and some real compromise on Beijing's part would do a great deal to break Washington's stranglehold.

Of course, the oil and gas that are thought to be off the coast of the Spratly Islands, and which would help China fuel is growing economy, would be a high price to pay. Nevertheless, there is evidence to suggest that a bit of "Realpolitik" on Beijing's part could have very serious repercussions for American power. China might have entered the "Great Game" but it will be interesting to see how it plays its cards.

Charades and crimes

2011-06-06T10:35:00.004+01:00

The blog has been seriously neglected since I arrived in China some five months ago. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note on revisiting the last post that .... well, the body was never shown, was it? That "surprise, surprise", has prompted me to insert the little video clip above.

.... and in the meantime; David Cameron has raised the prospect of UK troops operating inside Libya by declaring that Britain is preparing to "do more" to help rebels struggling to oust Col Gaddafi, while Zayed R Alzayani, the head of the Bahrain International Circuit, has informed everyone that The Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix, which was postponed in March due to violent civil unrest, will go ahead later this year, Of course, it is difficult for the West to point the finger anywhere when what we get from that West is crime and hypocrisy on this scale and nowhere are the charades and crimes better summed up than in the little clip above.

Will we get to see a body and, if we do get to see a body, whose body will it be?

2011-05-02T05:43:00.000+01:00

Sitting in Beijing's 'Bookworm' and, using the BBC iplayer with a vpn, I am informed that Bin Laden is dead. A puerile, pathetic, pathos, pours forth from President Obama, while the band plays believe it if you like and one wonders will we ever be shown the body and if we are shown a body, whose body might it actually be?

These are difficult times and yesterday it was with dismay that I noted that the good selection of books at the Foreigners Bookstore in WanFuJing Street did not deter one Chinese customer from seeking out a biography of Deng Xiaoping that was written by his son. Is this the evidence we seek to conclude that the Chinese are not capable of creative and critical thinking? However, peruse the drivel that dominates every High Street 'Waterstones' and have a glimpse at 'Blighty's' non-fiction best seller list.

Nevertheless, there is hope and today in the 'Bookworm' another, perhaps more discerning Chinese customer, opted for a copy of 'The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers'.
Yes, "Hüben wie drüben", the hype and the hypocrisy, prevail and the Orwellian lie is cultivated, but is this our fate or is there not a more promising historical inevitability? There has to be and, at a time when our beings in society in the West in particular are being thoroughly compromised and corrupted, it is time for the one-eyed men, for the discerning among us, to make themselves heard.

Dan Hodges cries at the royal wedding

2011-04-30T06:38:00.003+01:00

In today's 'Guardian' the "journalist", Dan Hodges informs us that, "we needn't be royal wedding party poopers just because we're leftwing". Well Dan, you and your ilk are about as left wing as Uncle Joe, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot and Tony Blair. Of course, that being said, you are not, unlike that gallery of rogues, guilty of mass murder. Nevertheless, you are just one more little insignificant facilitator and instead of glorying in "your" "country's shared heritage", you would do well to remind yourself that that very same country has pursued and is pursuing illegal wars all over the planet and that part of its heritage is colonialism, mass murder and ethnic cleansing on the grandest of scales.

However, while the evidence might suggest that you either suffer from that very worst myopia, namely, turning a blind eye, or that you are just simply a bit of an idiot, my own inclination is to put you and your fellow reveling travelers into a category that is at least tainted by opportunism and informed by ignorance. Yes, maybe you actually believe the shit. However, believe me, it is not because you see nothing wrong in inherited privilege of the type that was displayed yesterday, that you are not a Socialist, it is not even the day that you started to believe that the country has a shared heritage which it can be exclusively proud of. You are not a Socialist, Dan, because you never were and never will be, because Dan, in the real world we don't "hold out until Jerusalem, then burst into tears" or, at least, we don't burst into tears because we think that a royal wedding is indicative of socialism having been built in England's green and pleasant land.

Indeed, one wonders, had there been a spontaneous mass demonstration in London against the ongoing effort to pull the country even further away from "Jerusalem", on the same day as the royal wedding, where would you have been? Yes, you say, "the cuts will still be there on Monday", and they will, and with your, and other "socialists" like you, belief in "this week's growth figures", and shedding of tears at a royal wedding, there is nobody around to fight them. After all, if we are really going to fight the cuts, what better place to start than launching an assault on that hypocritical, parasitical establishment that those very cuts are intended to support and which is epitomised by a farcical, parasitical royal family?

Crown Prince of Bahrain cannot come to the wedding

2011-04-26T07:02:00.000+01:00

Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the crown prince of Bahrain has said that he has decided with "deep regret" to decline the invitation to the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, in a letter sent to William's father Prince Charles, heir to the British throne. The prince gave as his reason, the unrest at home in Bahrain.

Now, while reporting on a royal wedding is itself the ultimate expression of "no news news" in a planet which is, at least, deserving of some real news, we might nevertheless wonder why, with human rights campaigners criticizing his trampling of human rights, this little autocrat is being given an invite to William's big party. Still, on a positive note, it might give us cause to rethink the role of the waste of space, waste of time, Windsors and while we are at it, there might even be time to pause on the hypocrisy of their - yes, "their" - government.

.... and the band played believe it, if you like

2011-03-31T11:05:00.001+01:00

Listening to Hague at the moment talking live on the BBC and isn't the hypocrisy disgusting? There they are monitoring human rights specifically in Libya, Syria and Yemen at and has he forgotten about Bahrain and his mates in Saudi, and what about just about the biggest human rights abuse of them all; the ethnic cleansing in Palestine! Still, Iran gets a mention and so does China ..... "human rights, human rights, human rights", a universal right, and "blah, blah, blah".

Disgusting hypocrites, indeed, and after Cameron yesterday, "drawing a line in the desert sand", we might not be surprised to hear the news that the CIA and MI6 are at work in Libya, after all Washington itself has already made no secret of its support for covert actions. Still, let us look at it positively, after all, it is all about "human rights" and "democracy", isn't it? Yes, the people of Bahrain and Palestine have reason to hope and the band played believe it if you like.

Goebbels to teach Jews in Warsaw Ghetto history of German persecution by Mongols

2011-03-27T05:08:00.001+01:00

It is really only when we look to Israel that any need to synthesize becomes absurd and it becomes all too apparent that the existence of the Zionist state, "our" oxymoron Jewish "democracy" epitomizes that absurdity. There really are no two sides to the so-called conflict and so it is left to the ethnic cleansers to manufacture them and what about the following for their latest effort to create substance to their "argument". The United Nations has launched a new plan to teach the Holocaust in Gaza schools .... and we do not need to be a Sherlock Homes to deduce who got UN to do that, do we?

Isn't it a bit like a "chip on the shoulder" American redneck wanting to tell some Afghan villagers of the horrors of 9/11, while hoping that the said villagers might then be convinced of the necessity of their houses being bombed? Of course, there is an alternative and what about teaching Israeli children the real lesson to be learned from the holocaust? Namely, that ethnic cleansing, and persecution of another people, is morally wrong and can never be morally justified. Methinks, that until that happens Palestinians really don't have any need to learn about the holocaust. After all, they have one of their own and it is still on-going. Nevertheless, if you redneck analogy isn't enough to tell you how absurd this really is, then it might be worth pointing out the the title on Norman Finkelstein introduced the article with: "Goebbels to teach Jews in Warsaw Ghetto history of German persecution by Mongols." Not too sure if the Mongols actually persecuted the Germans, still .... get the point?

Déjà vu

2011-03-20T23:54:00.001Z

As events in Libya unravel there are eerie similarities with Iraq in 2003 and the West shows itself as the hypocrite "par excellence," Most frightening, however, is that as bombs rain down on Libyan civilians there is no end game and .... ooops has everyone forgotten Bahrain? There troops from the United States' "democratic" friend King Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz are helping its other "democratic" friend, King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain surround hospitals and round up peaceful demonstrators. The hypocrisy is mind boggling and surely, surely this time they cannot get away with pulling the wool over our eyes? Of course, just turn on the BBC and read the mainstream press and you might be convinced otherwise; they are getting away with it. No end game, perhaps, but isn't isn't there a real déjà vu, haven't we been there before ..... but then, "no". It has never been any different.

Catching up with the news

2011-03-18T23:48:00.000Z

The earthquake in Japan, the subsequent tsunami and now the threatening nuclear catastrophe, the go-ahead in the UN for a no-fly zone over Libya and the indications of "Blighty" still playing at being great and Cameron going for a defining moment a la Blair, while Saudi guns blaze in Bahrain at the behest of the Al Khalifas, who were brought in over a hundred years ago at the behest of the British to keep the country's Shia minority in its place. One must yawn when these twats talk about "democracy".

However, while the real news is not really being actively pursued by me here in Zhonghua it would appear that the biggest news of my week is my being unable to connect to the German and UK ips through my VPN. Not sure what is causing this massive problem as I can still connect to the US ips. However, the fact is, no downloading stuff onto the BBC Iplayer for the time being and now seesaw dot com stuff either. Still, this just might be a blessing in disguise and already instead of my daily dose of soap beginning in the morning, my attention was turning to RT news this morning ..... and, oh yes, what is this no-fly zone above the skies of Libya really all about?

Civil Society, environmental pollution and sustainable development

2011-03-12T05:17:00.004Z

The blog has been neglected and there are reasons. Firstly, there have been work commitments, which mean that the dolce vita and chewing the cud existence that was facilitated by my being Herr meiner Zeit has given way to a situation where a superficial surfing of the web and 9 ¥ (Renminbi) dvds now see me coming up for air rather than spouting hot air and, secondly, ........ Well, as the Renminbi ndicates; ego is in China again!

Yes, life in the hunky-dory land of blue skies and crystal clear lakes, of things that tick and things that click, of rechts stehen und links gehen, has given way to the dirty old town. Two months in Zhengzhou and two months exposed to a sky that would make you cry and factories that spew out toxics and the question that has to be asked is; "is this sustainable?" Moreover, while the quality of the air that pollutes Henan's capital city might be deemed particularly bad, it is really much of a muchness in Zhonghua and the view across Nanjing today from my room on the nineteenth floor of the hotel is hardly going to have me scrapping my plans to return to Europe in favour of an extended stay anywhere in China.

Still, where there is life there is hope and in his speech to the 4th Session of the 11th National People's Congress, which he delivered exactly a week ago, Wen Jinbao and his mates appear to be at least aware of the problems. Now as we linguists know, awareness raising activities and noticing are fine, but at some stage of the proceedings you have to implement the necessary action and having looked at almost every nook and cranny of a country of 1.34 billion, I notice a civil society which is not too unlike that which reigned in Drumchapel, Glasgow in the early 70s and I am all too aware of an environmental pollution of the sort that the United Kingdom hasn't seen at least since the implementation of the Clean Air Act in 1961 and probably not since those bad old days when Marx and Engels were observing the unacceptable face of "Manchester capitalism". Furthermore, the scale of this is much, much bigger than Drumchapel or Manchester. He chokes, thinking, "..... it is five to midnight in China and there is no reason to be optimistic," and then reminds himself that "where there is life there is hope."

Bradley Manning being mistreated

2011-03-12T04:34:00.000Z

When the assistant secretary of state for public affairs at the US state department, PJ Crowly, says that Bradley Manning is being "mistreated" in the military brig at Quantico, Virginia and that what is being done to him is "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid on the part of the department of defence," we would be correct to deduce that he is not saying this without having been given the green light by Hillary Clinton. Therefore, while there might be evidence to suggest here that there is some in-fighting between the Pentagon and the State Department, we should have no doubt as to who the real hero of the 'Wikileaks' saga is. Bradley Manning is a young man who clearly followed his conscience, who was not prepared to turn a blind eye to war crimes and atrocities and who now faces a very long prison sentence at the least.

That is why, even without the added revelation that Manning is being mistreated in Quantico, it is important for us to become less focused on Julian Assange, who is in fact no longer in control of the cables and who, some would say, is even enjoying his flirtation with fame, and become more focused on the fate of the real hero of the piece. Moreover, it would be most appropriate if Assange himself were to show us how this might be done by setting an example and becoming more vocal in the defence of the real hero of the piece rather than to run about whining about being persecuted himself. After all, to the best of my knowledge, whatever the outcome of the trumped up charges against him, any prison sentence that he might serve is bound to be extremely short, indeed, probably just won't happen, will bring a certain fame with it if it does and will be nothing, nothing at all, like the sentence Manning is most likely to get.

Democratic Change in the Middle East

2011-02-24T16:15:00.000Z

""The world must intervene immediately and stop Muammar Gadhafi," Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel said yesterday, referring to the Libyan leader," while Ehud Barak tells us that the "Mideast unrest" must not culminate in revolutionary regimes and 'Haaretz' informs us that "the US should direct Mideast storm of change towards Iran."

While we are all happy to see the movement towards change in the Arab world and while we would welcome similar change in Iran, does the hypocritical soundings from the oxymoron "Jewish Democracy" not make you want to vomit? If not what about Ehud Barak continuing to stick up for his old mate and informing us that "Mubarak still enjoys respect of many Egyptians, adding that his dignity should be preserved." Yes, they are going to feel a trifle isolated down in Zionistan when they are surrounded by a sea of unfriendly democratic "regimes" who start to demand equal rights for the native population of Palestine.

Sort of caught between the devil and the deep blue sea they are and who knows we might even find the Mossad "Stern Gang" and their mates from the CIA facilitating the Lenin and Robespierre option just to see their "worst fears" validated and keep them in that little state of permanent war without which their little farce would come tumbling down.

In the meantime the 'Guardian' reports that Gaddafi is getting ready for his "Little Big Horn', the middle class have started to organise things in Libya's second city, Benghazi, David Cameron has apologised for the slow evacuation of British citizens and, with the stakes high in oil rich and strategically important Libya, what are the chances of the West already pulling the strings behind the scenes and if, contrary to the scenario outlined in the first paragraph of this post, there are going to be democracies in the region ..... well, we might at least get them to follow the "Washington Rules" and if they need help in setting up their little shams, we can always send someone from Jerusalem to help them.

The Revolution Betrayed

2011-02-12T00:47:00.002Z

There has, at least until now, been no "Thermidorian Reaction"; the masses on the streets in Cairo have never had the power and, again until now, there has been no Robespierre. As Mubarak exits the scene power there appears to be no revolutionary leadership. For the time being we do not have a radical regime being replaced by a more conservative regime. For the time being the people in power in Egypt now are the military.

Nevertheless, there is enough evidence to suggest that the political pendulum has swung back towards something resembling if not a pre-revolutionary state, the state before the people rose up. The military is in power in Egypt and El Baradei, who is increasingly revealing himself to be "our" man in Egypt, emphasizes that the Egyptians will need a year for the transition to democracy. There was no "Thermidorian Reaction", however, there is already evidence to suggest that the revolution has been betrayed and, indeed, it just might be that they will be sleeping more soundly in their beds in Washington and Jerusalem tonight. Nevertheless, there is also reason to believe that their calm is misplaced.

No "Thermidorian Reaction", perhaps, and the situation would appear more akin to Russia after the events of February 1917. The betrayal is there and it is with bated breath that we await that "Egyptian Bolsheviki", the Muslim Brotherhood, to step into a gap which the military cannot possibly fill. If they are sleeping more calmly in their beds in Washington and Jerusalem this evening, there is, indeed, enough reason to suggest that their peace of mind is misplaced.

He who controls the past, controls the future

2011-02-11T15:26:00.002Z

"Der Spiegel" reports that Mubarak has left Cairo in a helicopter. Well, that will be no thanks to the West the nature of which Slavoj Žižek revealed to us all too clearly in the in the 'Guardian' some eleven days ago when he wrote: "The hypocrisy of western liberals is breathtaking: they publicly supported democracy, and now, when the people revolt against the tyrants on behalf of secular freedom and justice, not on behalf of religion, they are all deeply concerned. Why concern, why not joy that freedom is given a chance?"..... and how appropriated that he added: "Today, more than ever, Mao Zedong's old motto is pertinent: "There is great chaos under heaven – the situation is excellent."

Yes, the West is hypocritical, with its preaching free speech, democracy and rule of law, while fighting illegal wars, gagging journalists and putting old wine into new bottles. Nevertheless, the hypocrites do not control the historical and political narrative. There is another side to the story. We have Howard Zinn and the "Myth of the Good War", we have Slavoj Žižek and we know all about the crimes of the West. Yes, our synthesis unmasks the hypocrites and in doing so we have the moral high ground and while we occupying that moral high ground something else is still possible.

..... and so back to Mao Zedong, the chaos under heaven and that "excellent situation" where no debate is possible. Where, the historical narrative is controlled. Yes, the Orwellian thesis "he who controls the past, controls the future" makes sense but in the West we might deny our political "masters"the opportunity to control our pasts are not and, while we can make sense out of the chaos, there is no chaos under heaven and, as the people on the streets in Cairo are showing us, our futures are for us to decide.

First the farce and then the tragedy

2011-02-07T14:33:00.001Z

In the Guardian a couple of days ago it was reported that "President Hosni Mubarak's family fortune could be as much as $70bn (£43.5bn) according to analysis by Middle East experts, with much of his wealth in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles and along expensive tracts of the Red Sea coast."

There is no indication of who these "experts" might be. However, we might believe that with wealth in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate here, there and everywhere, that this man has not only been denying his countrymen their basic rights for decades but has indeed been robbing them blind. Nevertheless, there we have Hillary Clinton saying earlier today,that "Mubarak's departure could affect "significant actions" he has himself taken to get the reform process started."

Now, while this might be some sort of wishful thinking "Realpolitik" on Hillary's part and indicative of an indulgence that the rest of the administration appears to share, the reality is very different and the nonsense which is being spouted forth by Washington is a product of a power which is in rapid decline. Unfortunately, while the farce that has long since taken hold entitles us to a giggle or two, we should be wary of the tragedy to follow for the fact is, no matter who comes to power in Egypt, they will find it very difficult to cooperate in anyway with Uncle Sam and his Zionist chums and should they do so their fate will not be too different from the one faced by the $70 billion dollar man on the Nile.

Mubarak holding onto power

2011-02-04T00:23:00.000Z

Reuter's reports that "Egypt's cabinet denied on Thursday that it had a role in mobilising supporters of President Hosni Mubarak against anti-government protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square and said it would investigate those behind violence." The regime in Cairo is clutching at straws and in the meantime some silly American "expert" tells BBC World that, being denied the right to gather in the "real" world, turned to the internet. No, that isn't silly but what about the assertion that access to western reality television gave them an inclination of the type of things they are missing.

Well, if we are to have a successful revolution what are the odds on Mohamed Mustafa ElBaradei or the head of he Muslim Brotherhood, the conservative Mohammed Badi, turning up on our screens saying "help I am a celebrity, get me out of here"? Still, with Mubarak blaming the Brotherhood for the violence in Tahrir Square despite the pro government forces strolling around and beating up anything that moves and with Mubarak telling CNN's Christine Amanpour that if he were to simply leave office there would be chaos, it would appear that the television appearances for the would be celebrities will have to wait.

Nevertheless, if, we need something to make us sick while the "celebrity" appearances of Badi and ElBaradei are being delayed, what about this: "The United States on Thursday urged the Egyptian government to start talks "immediately" with the opposition on the handover of power, while strongly denouncing attacks on journalists and others." Hillary has spoken and she doesn't have to gobble down a few insects to make us puke, does she?

Egypt and the will of the people

2011-02-01T16:21:00.000Z

It is with interest that we might have noted Kenan Malik's contention that should the West try to thwart the secular radicalism of the uprising in Egypt, it will play into the hands of Islamic fundamentalism. Of course, in failing to see the obvious right from the start, the West has indeed revealed itself to be all but impotent and today we have an indication of Realpolitik from the Muslim Brotherhood and a promise to "respect the will of the Egyptian people",

A more than pragmatic thing to do when you just happen to be the largest opposition party and when the war criminal, Tony Blair, gives voice to the fears of his Zionist friends and warns that Egypt might take a backward step "into a very reactionary form of religious autocracy", there at least appears to be some evidence to support him. Nevertheless, when Essam El Arian, a reformist leader, and one of the Brotherhood members who have escaped from jail in recent days, says that "All of Egypt is changing, and of course the Brotherhood is part of that,"we have no reason either to disbelieve him or to doubt that the Islamic organisation might indeed take part in a democratic process from which it stands to gain much.

Of course, what this all means is that there might be a real chance for democracy not only in Egypt, but also elsewhere in the Arab world, despite the scaremongering from Tony Blair and his ilk. Although, if such a democracy was to take hold in Egypt and elsewhere, this would be much more difficult for the hypocritical West to cope with. In fact, it is quite safe to say that such a democracy is more frightening for the United States, Israel and Tony than a fundamentalist Islamic state could ever be. After all, we don't attack democracies, do we?

A unity government in Egypt?

2011-01-30T16:24:00.001Z

Two days on from Friday's comments on the events in Egypt and Friday's "Financial Times" comes in on the flight from Munich to Beijing. "Protesters defy Egypt crackdown" is the headline and the protesters and today the real news tells me that with military jets flying above Cairo, protesters are still defying the government. However, the real real news has to be that the Muslim brotherhood has moved to form a unity government and has been asking Mohammed El-Baradei to form that government.

With Mr El-Baradei's general humming and hawing during the last few crucial hours we might only cast doubt on any contention that he will have any influence in the longer term and with the United States own humming and hawing and past cooperation with the Mubarak regime we might also wonder at how credible Washington's influence in the future can be. The real real news is, of course, that the Muslim Brotherhood have joined the fray and it is already difficult to imagine any political scenario in Egypt, which might not include them, in the medium and longer term. El-Baradei might be making his pitch to head any new unity government. However, there is already evidence to suggest that sooner or later the United States will have lost a very valuable ally and Israel will be completely isolated in the region.Of course, while the best scenario would see the oxymoronic "Jewish Democracy" surrounded by real democracies, there is unfortunately enough evidence to suggest that this might not be the case.

Change in Egypt?

2011-01-28T17:48:00.002Z

Interesting how essentially little coverage there is of the turmoil in Egypt in a certain Bernhard-Henry Levy's ".... only free society in the Mideast." Now don't get me wrong, there is coverage ... but anything substantial? Well, maybe they know something we don't and with El Baradei arriving on the ground, what are the odds against Washington nipping the Muslim Brotherhood in the bud. Anyway, Hillary Clinton is concerned about the use of violence against protesters and calls for restraint on both sides. Of course, no attempt on Washington's part to restrain Hosni Mubarek's secret police torturing for decades.

The hypocrisy is incredible and back in the "... only free society in the Mideast" we have more comments in 'Haaretz' justifying the murder of a Palestinian in the Occupied Territories after settlers opened fire in a West Bank village than we do on the revolutionary events next door.Might just be that the boys behind the scenes in Washington and Jerusalem have got it all under control. We might expect Mubarek to resign, to be replaced by someone who enjoys a vague popularity, the promise of democratic elections and won't it be interesting to watch the reaction from the ".... only free society in the Mideast" if the Muslim Brotherhood win those? Well, interesting hardly and we only have to look at Gaza to predict the reaction.

The UK government caves into the banks

2011-01-11T08:03:00.002Z

No real news from Ego's Zhengzhou bubble and the real news from the 'Guardian' is that the banks have been given the go ahead to pay unlimited bonuses and this despite the logical conclusion that they owe the taxpayer billions. Of course, the taxpayers will never see their money in any shape or form and, indeed, with the social welfare state being dismantled, it is they who will continue to foot the bill.

In caving into the city the, British government might argue that to have acted otherwise the bankers would have gone elsewhere. However, Ha-Joon Chang is quite right to contend that their had they done so, it would not necessarily have been a bad thing. Of course, we might go a step further and suggest that it would in fact be a good thing, a very good thing indeed.. After all, apart from anything else, who needs the moral influence of a bunch of compulsive "gamblers" who only gamble other people's money and who rob the public at every turn to finance their disgusting immoral habit.

Zhonghua

2011-01-05T14:30:00.000Z

Arrived in Beijing today after a comfortable flight from Munich and discovered on the taxi from the hotel to the 'Bookworm' , a sort of déjà vu from my Suzhou days, that to say my Chinese isn't good enough, would not be good enough. Worked on a small translation from Germany, "skypied" all over the planet and it is, I believe, minus nine outside. Still, no matter, time to go back and catch up with some sleep and boy, oh boy, am I looking forward to the taxi ride home and the "bu dong, bu dong, bu dong".

A disgrace to Israel

2011-01-01T22:38:00.000Z

Thursday's post is to some extent backed up by two reports in today's 'Haaretz'. In one we can read that the thirty-six year old Jawaher Abu Rahmah died on Saturday morning in a Ramallah hospital after she was exposed to tear gas that was shot by IDF soldiers to disperse a peaceful demonstration against the separation barrier in Bil'in on Friday. Of course, little "news" value here as crimes such as this are almost a daily occurance in the occupied territories.

Yes, little "news" value here or at least not enough to prompt a certain Ari Shavit into putting on his thinking cap. For Avit, like Ze'ev Segal a couple of days ago, appears to think that the exploits of the ex-president Moshe Katsav, disgraces Israel more than murdering innocent civilians does. Indeed, Mr Shavit even goes a step further than Mr Segal and contends that an ex-President being convicted of rape might even be a reason for Israelis to be proud of their "democracy" as he asserts that "Moshe Katsav is not the first head of state to have committed vile acts against women. But no other country has taken such strident action against its criminal leaders as Israel did with Katsav."

What a lot of nonsense and, while information on Kim Jong Il's private shenanigans is yet to be disclosed by Wikileaks and while Berlosconi does tend to embarrass himself and his country because of his antics and while Bill Clinton was given a blow job by Monica Lewinsky, we might, nevertheless, maintain with a degree of certainty that heads of states and other leading politicians "committing vile acts against women" is at least unusual. Nevertheless, as I have already stated, my concern would be more about those "other vile acts against women" ..... namely, vile acts such as the one committed against Jawaher Abu Rahmah. It is this that really disgraces the state of Israel. Still when we see Israelis time and time again seemingly being gratified by the violence which they perpetrate, a gratification which is sometimes the motivation of those who assault women, there might be a case for arguing that Moshe Katsav the rapist is in fact not too unlike the rest of his countryman.

Crimes and war crimes, "democracies" and oxymoronic democracies

2010-12-30T14:55:00.001Z

Of course, the assumption that Israel is a "democracy" is every bit as absurd as the contention that the massacre in Gaza two years ago was actually a war. Therefore, the remorse expressed by Ze'ev Segal when he writes on the verdict against ex-President Moshe Katzva, who has just been found guilty of two counts of rape, sexual assault and other sexual abuse, should be taken with a pinch of salt. Segal writes: "Never before has a president in the democratic world been found guilty of such deeds; never has a former president been deemed by a high-ranking court as an inconsistent and untruthful "broken reed", while the complainant against him was found to have spoken the truth."

Well, as already implied, there is no need for Mr Segal and the rest of "Israeli society" to worry too much about Israel's reputation as a democratic country, because, as has already been explicitly stated, to assert that Israel is a democracy is absurd. Indeed, Israeli citizens should be less worried about the accusations against Avigdor Lieberman regarding bribery, fraud, money laundering and nepotism (the charges of bribery against Ariel Sharon have long been forgotten), the corruption charges leveled at ex-Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert and, now the verdict on Moshe Katzva, than they should be about the fact that they find themselves in a veritable little "Absurdistan" which breaks international law at every turn, which is responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity and which treats, at least, 20% of its population as third class citizens.

Still, while other "democracies" do have their fair share of war criminals, it is interesting how, in the oxymoronic "Jewish Democracy" established politicians committing common crimes appears to the norm rather than the exception. Still, while I would like to see this Zionist Gesindel being charged with anything that might result in a lengthy prison sentence, it would be far preferable to see them in front of the ICC at the Hague for crimes against humanity.

Julian Assange is going to write a book

2010-12-27T11:44:00.000Z

A few years ago someone in my family was having problems paying their mortgage and it was suggested that I might buy into the property. That suggestion was soon discarded, however, with the said family member deciding that they wanted to hold onto the whole property by hook or by crook. You might guess what ultimately happened?

Now, if the answer to that last question is somehow implied the original motivation behind the choice is, nevertheless, explicit enough and when I read in today's 'Guardian' that Julian Assange expects to earn more than £1m from a book he is about to write and that he has decided to write the book because the money is needed to keep WikiLeaks afloat and cover his legal costs, then we suspect that he, like the subject of the first sentence, is trying to hold onto "his property" by hook or by crook. After all, it is difficult to imagine that considering Wikileaks fame, Mr Assange could not get enough financial backing from elsewhere.

However, this is Julian's show, it is Julian's produce and now he is out to make it his property. Furthermore, if that statement appears like a cheap shot on my part to discredit the message by attacking the messenger, then we might want to consider for one minute, what exactly is the message up until now?
Americans kill innocent civilians in Iraq, some US diplomat thinks that Guido Westerwelle is vain, another American diplomat doesn't like Sarkozy etc. etc. Well, I am not about, and indeed I cannot, cover the thousands and thousands of documents which have been released, but just for starters; most of us know that the Americans kill innocent civilians in Iraq and elsewhere and personally I also think that both Guido Westerwelle and Nicolas Sarkozy .......... Well, do you get the point?

If you don't, the point is that there really isn't a lot we didn't know or suspect that has come out in these disclosures, at least, up until now. Moreover, we might be a little suspicious at how this information has just been dumped on the mainstream media which can then edit and publish it as it likes. Still, Mr Assange does appear to have found himself a nice little business and with the charges against him in Sweden more than likely trumped-up and with any pending US charges against him having absolutely no legal basis, we might assume that it is a little business, which he is going to do well from.

Indeed, that last point would seem to be confirmed by the news that a number of Daniel Domscheit-Berg, alias Daniel Schmitt, the ex-German spokesman for Wikileaks, is one of the leaders of the new whistleblower undertaking . Well, done Daniel and my biggest regret, having not bought into the said property discussed at the beginning of the post, is not going out and buying property of my own.

Of course, what we can expect is lots of Wikileaks clones, selling information to the highest bidder ...... and the whistleblowers themselves? Well, they, like Private Bradley Manning will probably be languishing in various prisons although like the real news we will probably not even get to hear of them. Talking of which ....... where is all the nitty gritty stuff in Israel? Where are the direct orders to kill civilians in Gaza etc.? Again we know that this happened. Therefore, Julian could you please get this stuff posted as soon as possible and at least give me the opportunity to change my mind about you once more.

BBC Jody McIntyre interview

2010-12-23T23:58:00.002Z

Stumbled on the short clip above via Norman Finkelstein's website. It is better to watch it than have me comment on it and on watching it, it really is all too clear that the the BBC's claims to impartiality are farcical to say the least. Ooops ..... me commenting again!

Anyway, the person being interviewed is called Jody McIntyre, a political acivist and journalist, he has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. At the recent student demonstrations against the government cuts, he was dragged from his wheelchair and assaulted by the police. As already stated, no comment is really needed but it is almost hysterical when the interviewer, Ben Brown, implies that Jody might be partly to blame for being attacked by the police; after all, the police have suggested that he "rolled his wheelchair towards them".

The clip represents a marvelous little study on how ridiculous the mainstream media in fact is when it attempts to turn the aggressor into the victim and vice versa. However, enough said..... watch it and draw your own conclusions.

Steve Rothman tells French not to sell Lebanon 100 anti-tank missiles

2010-12-23T00:50:00.001Z

'Haaretz' introduces him as "the US Representative, Steve Rothman" and there is nothing wrong with that after all Mr Rothman has indeed been the U.S. Representative for new Jersey's 9th congressional district since 1997. However, what 'Haaretz' doesn't tell us is that Steve is one of those lucky Americans who are entitled to U.S. and Israeli citizenship. Still, is that enough for us to suppose that he might be just a little prejudice when it comes to the Zionist state? Normally, it would be, of course.

However, if some convincing is required we should indeed turn to today's news that he "..... has urged France to rethink its plans to sell anti-tank missiles to Lebanon, stipulating that the volatile situation in that country meant that it would put Israel into "grave danger." Now, there are about 100 anti-tank missiles being discussed here and anyway aren't anti-tank missiles supposed to stop tanks? In other words, aren't they used for defence?

Of course, ego is possibly missing the point here, after all, Rothman has helped to secure a total of approximately $47.5 billion in military aid, economic assistance, and loan guarantees for the State of Israel. during his time in Congress and we wouldn't want any unnecessary damage being inflicted on that expensive state of the art stuff while it is killing and maiming innocent civilians. However, it is more than that, or it is, if Mr Rothman is to be believed. He says, "U.S. support for Israel is essential, not only for Israel’s national security, but for America’s. Every bit of that support -- and more -- withstands all reasonable scrutiny."

Time to be a bit unreasonable then and what do we have? Well, we have France supplying the Lebanese with a paltry 100 missiles to help defend themselves when the Israelis next invade and we have an American politician, who some suggest also has Israeli citizenship, telling them not to do it although he helps ensure that Israel gets those arms needed to maim, murder and massacre thousands and we have a silly newspaper reporting this as if Mr Rothman really were some unbiased "US Representative" who genuinely believes that U.S. support for Israel is essential for America's security rather than just one more rabid Zionist who is helping to perpetrate a massive crime against humanity.

Private Bradley Manning the real hero

2010-12-18T15:45:00.003Z

Julian Assange tells "his" adoring public that he had time to think about all those poor souls, all over the world, who experience solitary confinement because of their beliefs, during his own time in solitary confinement in the cellar of a British Victorian prison and I found my mind wandering to a an article by Greg Palast which argues that Mr Assange has not risked anything, unlike the real hero of the Wikileaks/Guardian/Times/Spiegel exposure, Private Bradley Manning.

Well, while Julian enjoys his house arrest at the manor home of Vaughan Smith, a journalist and owner of the Frontline Club in London, the jury might be out on him and, while it is, there really is no need for us, for the time being at least, to begrudge him enjoying the bright lights, after a life in semi-anonymity, even if Greg Palast's "only hope is that, when Judgment is passed, Assange will join his fellows in that ring of Hell devoted to those who wear the mantle of courage stolen from others."

Nevertheless, we would still do well to take a closer interest in the fate of Private Bradley Manning, who is now rotting in Obama's prison cell and who really does deserve that "mantle of courage" that is being referred to. After all, this brave man faces a 52 year sentence and, even while the jury is out on the "Wikileaks leader", we should do well to remember that neither he, nor the 'New York Times', have done anything to help Private Manning, while at the same time they both appear happy to take the bows for providing and printing the material that this soldier risked his freedom for.

The Washington Consensus

2010-12-17T16:02:00.015Z

"Substantial gains have been made in Afghanistan"; the ticker at the bottom of BBC World reinforces the clichés and while the band plays "believe it if you like", President Obama, a year after he ordered 30,000 more troops to the Hindukush, tells those either myopic, moronic or masochistic enough to listen, "I want to be clear, this continues to be a very difficult endeavour, but we're on track to achieve our goals." Are they now? Well, we could briefly discuss what those "goals" are, or, in other words, we could look at the reasons why innocent Afghan civilians and young men from the United States and its allies are being sacrificed.

According to F. William Engdahl there are two reasons the first of which is: "to restore and control the world’s largest supply of opium for the world heroin markets and to use the drugs as a geopolitical weapon against opponents, especially Russia. That control of the Afghan drug market is essential for the liquidity of the bankrupt and corrupt Wall Street financial mafia." It is a thesis, which certainly requires closer consideration and all the more so as it would seem to support Engdahl's main thesis that the "American Empire" or, as he calls it, "full spectrum dominance" is built, like the British Empire before it, on three pillars, namely, control of the global financial markets, oil, and military hegemony. Nevertheless, it is to the last of those three pillars namely "military hegemony" and to Engdahl's second reason for the American presence in Afghanistan which is, "to build a permanent US military strike force with a series of permanent US airbases across Afghanistan", that we should turn.

What is being referred to here is in fact the implementation of what Andrew J. Bacevich refers to as the "Washington Consensus on National Security", where the American military is used not for defence but for global power projection and interventionism. Moreover, while, it is a strategy which supports and complements that other Washington Consensus, namely, the orientation towards those free market policies which Naomi Klein terms "disaster capitalism", it is also a strategy which we might look at on its own. On doing this we will discover that it is not only a policy which has nothing to do with American national security, but is indeed also detrimental to that security.

In his speech to cadets at West Point just over a year ago Obama wanted it known that by sending thousands of additional U.S. troops to fight in Afghanistan he was following in the footsteps of his predecessors.Their policies were to be his policies. There was to be no change. There was to be no questioning of the fact that the Pax Americana is no more legitimate than the Pax Britannica. There was no questioning of the fact that the United States invasion of Afghanistan is every bit as criminal as previous invasions and like those invasions it is doomed to fail.

Just over a year ago Hillary Rodman Clinton in an interview with 'Der Spiegel' said that " (America's ) goal is to defeat al-Qaida" and its extremist allies". That is a pretext for the war on the Hindukush that insults our intelligence. Nevertheless, the United States' real goal in Afghanistan, that is to implement the Washington Consensus is doomed to failure and one might now suspect that beyond the pretext, the hyperbole, and the geopolitical ambitions the only goal is now to avoid the humiliation and slaughter that the British experienced in 1842.

That will probably be avoided and we might instead look to the 15tth of February 1989 and the 'New York Times' report the following day: "The last Soviet soldier came home from Afghanistan this morning, the Soviet Union announced, leaving behind a war that had become a domestic burden and an international embarrassment for Moscow." History, does indeed repeat itself, and we while we can still only speculate, there is evidence to suggest that just as Afghanistan ushered in the end of the Soviet empire, so too might it be the death knell for the Washington Consensus.

Iraqi PM claims US oil company in contact with Iran ... and it's over to you Dick Cheney

2010-12-16T01:32:00.003Z

The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori, but then Dick Cheney, for one, was never about to die for his country, after all, he had "other priorities", such as, getting ready for a political career, which began in 1969, as an intern for Congressman William A. Steiger. Dick was looking for a way to contribute to his nation without getting his head blown off. Not, how Dick would formulate it, but that is what he would like us to believe.

No, nowadays axe swinging Zwinglis are few and far between among today's politicians and we shouldn't really point the finger at Dick. However, when we look at his other "other priorities", later on, even the most myopic among us might want to puke. ".... and if the conflict of interests that his role at Halliburton, the world’s largest oil field services company with multi-billion dollar contracts with oil corporations including Chevron, doesn't make you vomit, what about the following revelation from Wikileaks.

In today's 'Guardian' we can read that, according to Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, "....... Chevron negotiated with Tehran about developing an Iraq-Iran cross-border oilfield in spite of tight US sanctions. Of course, none of this will surprise Dick. After all, this is the man who was calling "Iran the world's leading exporter of terror", while Halliburton was still doing business there, the man who, during his tenure as Halliburton CEO in the 1990's, fought against Clinton's sanctions and expanded Halliburton's business with Tehran.

No, we shouldn't be too harsh on him for not going for the Dulce et Decorum est Pro partia mori thing. Or, at least, not if he had contented himself by pursuing an honest career and a family life instead. However, the man lied, sent others to die and this along with his blatant war profiteering provide should be sufficient to put him behind bars .... and do you know we wouldn't even have to try him for war crimes, ..... no, there are enough felonies here to put this man behind bars as a common criminal for the rest of his life and are there no lawyers out there who want to pursue this one?

Richard Holbrooke is dead

2010-12-14T13:03:00.004Z

Richard Holbrooke, who, according to the 'Guardian', "helped bring peace to the Balkans as the chief architect of the Dayton accords .....", has died, and the eulogies are coming thick and fast. Yesterday, former US President, Bill Clinton, said, that Holbrooke "saved lives, secured peace and restored hope for countless people around the world", while Senator John Kerry called the loss of the "special Afghanistan ambassador" "almost incomprehensible", adding that his "tough-as-nails, never-quit diplomacy" saved tens of thousands of lives." Yes, their God does, indeed, work in mysterious ways and the evidence would appear to suggest that even President Obama's prayers weren't enough to save "a tireless public servant who has won the admiration of the American people and people around the world."

Then it could, of course, have been that God viewed it a bit differently and that he was prepared to let nature take its course with a man who "made millions as an investment banker on Wall Street", who helped to organise the murder of tens of thousands of innocent Vietnamese to give his "diplomatic" career a jump start and who, in 1977, helped speed up the flow of weapons to Indonesia, at a time when the Suharto regime was committing genocide in East Timor. Yes, but what about him bringing peace to the Balkans?

Well if you want to ignore the fact that the Dayton Agreement gave the Serbs, who constitute 34% of the population of Bosnia and Herzogivina, 49% of the land and a lot of that land is land where Muslims and Croats used to live, there might be a success of sorts there abeit a success which is based on ethnic cleansing and which required, if Bosnia's first ambassador to the UN, Muhamed Sacirbey, is to be believed, a secret deal with the war criminal Radovan Karadžić.

Richard Holbrooke, when he collapsed on Friday at a meeting with Hillary Clinton, was America's "special ambassador to Afghanistan" and a key member of the administration's strategy team for a war in Afghanistan and Pakistan in which innocent civilians die on a daily basis. It is when we consider this that we should come to the conclusion that should there be a God, then "he", "she", "it, or "whatever" does, indeed, work in mysterious ways and although, perhaps, absurd and at the risk of some contradiction, maybe President Obama's prayers were heard to the extent that Holbrooke was allowed the luxury of dying peacefully in his bed at the age of 69 unlike the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of innocent men, women and children whose unnatural deaths he is at least partly responsible for.

At 22, Holbrooke's career at the Foreign Service began, perhaps fittingly, in Vietnam. After all, it was the disaster in Vietnam that might have and should have led to a less brutally machiavellian American foreign policy. However, neither Holbrooke, nor the other adehrents to the Washington Consensus were prepared to learn any lessons. Indeed, if anything, since 9/11 in particular, we have seen an even more aggressive implementation of a strategy that seeks to bully people into acceptance of American hegemony along with a flourishing of covert operations which are aimed at destabilising any country and government which doesn't accept that hegemony.

It is a strategy that Holbrooke always supported and it is a strategy that has cost the lives of millions of innocents. Beginning with the Phoenix Programme, Mai Lai, and the killing of entire families in Vietnam, moving on from the crimes of Suharto to the rubber stamping of an ethnic cleansing at Dayton, right up to the ongoing massacres of civilians in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Richard Holbrooke was there and when we read Senator Kerry saying that he (Holbrooke) "saved tens of thousands of lives", we might, indeed, once again scratch our heads and contemplate the ridiculous Orwellian mess that we find ourselves.

Soldier wounded on Gaza border was shot by friendly fire

2010-12-13T00:50:00.001Z

Two Palestinians were shot dead while, according to official Israeli sources, "crawling toward the Gaza border fence". One IDF soldier was wounded. Originally, the news was that the soldier was wounded and the Palestinian "militants" were killed in an exchange of gunfire. Now, we have the news, again from official Israeli sources, that the IDF soldier was, in fact, wounded by friendly fire.

Nevertheless, the original contention that the Palestinians were armed and that the soldiers were also attacked with mortar fire and sniper fire has not been retracted. Therefore, we had two supposedly armed Palestinians exchanging fire with IDF soldiers, while those same soldiers were also attacked with mortar fire and sniper fire from other Palestinians, yet, despite this aggression by a group of "armed to the teeth terrorists" what we have are two dead Palestinians and one Israeli wounded by friendly fire.

Just another piece of news from official Israeli sources during a week in which, according to those same sources, there has been an increase in the number of incidents on the border. In other words, while academic caution is always advisable, we might assume that a number of unarmed Palestinians have been murdered in Gaza in the past seven days.

Let them eat cake

2010-12-09T22:17:00.002Z

Well, there will be no more education for the horny-handed sons of toil, with the coalition winning the vote on tuition fees by 323 to 302 to increase fees to up to £9,000 a year. Now, wouldn't it be nice to have a media that attacked the fact that we have a whole generation of young people in the United Kingdom who will be effectively deprived of a university education.

However, for the mainstream media it is all about the vote in the House of Commons and the violent protests on the streets of London. £9,000 a year for a university education and with estabishments up and down the country hoping to recruit up to 25% of their students from outside the EU ..... well, money makes the world go round and, with jobs few and far between, with benefits also being attacked, we might expect a few .... hundred, hundred thousand, .... a few million, .. more hopeless cases to be walking the streets of London, Liverpool and Leeds. Still, the "news", which I almost forgot ....

"The car containing Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall was attacked in Argyll Street by protesters who threw paint and cracked a window of the car when they were on their way to the Royal Variety performance at the London Palladium. The prince's spokesman said they were unharmed." ..... and the uneducated, unemployed, youth of the country? .... and the Prime Minister, David Cameron, added, "It is shocking and regrettable that the car carrying the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall was caught up and attacked in the violence." Well, let them eat cake, David, let them eat cake!

Hypocrisy, hype and highly speculative, but .....?

2010-12-09T20:12:00.001Z

According to the BBC, "Wikileaks has so far released more than 1,100 of 251,000 secret US cables." This, of course, means that the revelatons from Wikileaks will have a similar life expectancy to that perennial Orwellian "war on terror", which we find ourselves in. Is Julian Assange Osama Bin Laden's alter ego? The one elusive the other in prison for not wearing a condom while having consensual sex. No doubt, we should at least look who is looking to gain from the "war on terror" and who is accumulating the brownie points from the Wikileaks revelations. Anything else is pure speculation!

However, what we do have is today news that a senior US official in Lagos, describes China as "aggressive and pernicious". Is this news? Despite the West having plundered Africa during centuries of colonisation and having continued that plundering through the World Bank and the IMF, is it not to be expected that a "US official" might find China "aggressive and pernicious"? After all, there is China dealing with the unsavoury Omar al Bashir and the equally obnoxious Robert Mugabe. Yes, two not too nice people to be sure, but wait, stop, think? .... and when we do so ......?

When the Wikileak cables reveal the US Assistant Secretary for African affairs, Johnnie Carson, as saying that "China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons,", are we to be given the impression that the United States is actually in Africa for altruistic reasons. Does anyone actually believe that America is in Africa to "push democracy and capitalism"? ..... alright, alright, "capitalism" yes! Or to be more accurate that disaster capitalism of the Chicago school variety that has left millions dead and dying all throughout the third world. That capitalism that allows ten million people to die in Central and East Africa, while American, British, German and French companies plunder the region. However, the United States is in Africa promoting democracy? Of course, any cursory glance at Washington's friends, in Africa and elsewhere, is enough to reveal this contention for the blatant lie that it is. China might not be in Africa for purely altruistic reasons, but the hypocrisy of a West that has been and is still nothing but bad news for that continent is nauseating.

Nevertheless, this is about as much a revelation as the disclosures that we are getting from Wikileaks is, and that has to be the point; do we really need to read the mainstream media report the stance taken by the US government as if it is worthwhile news? All the more so as we are only at 1,100 plus of some 251,000 "no-longer" secret US cables that are going to be released .... if Osama Bin Laden didn't exist, they would have had to invent him ..... and if we thought he would be a hard act to follow; well, it is over to you Julian Assange. If nothing else, a bottom up reading of the "news" reporting on the documents being released, would at least suggest that it is not all bad "news" for Uncle Sam.

US Air Force kills civilians

2010-12-05T14:43:00.000Z

Following on from my post earlier today, it would appear that while there is a lot of reason to be unhappy about how the disclosures from the so-called "US embassy cables" are being presented, even the most superficial reading of the facts should be enough to convince us that we are also dealing with an assortment of crimes here of which mass murder would appear to be a norm rather than an exception.

For instance, according to Amnesty International, "the leaked embassy cables also confirm reports of massive civilian casualties in a U.S. attack on Yemen one year ago. The cables disclosed that the Yemeni government agreed to falsely claim they were carrying out missile strikes that were actually coming from the U.S. military. Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister is quoted mentioning the Abyan strike, in which dozens of local residents were killed, including 21 children."

Now, think about that for a second ..... or to make it clearer just try to envisage a situation where you are sitting at home with your family in Munich or New York, Glasgow or Madrid ....and a foreign airforce drop bombs on your home, wiping out everyone. Forget about the fact that the Yemini government was forced in the first instance to accept responsility and just consider the fact that dozens of Yeminis, including 21 children are dead, and the murderers are Americans who will never be held to account and who are employed by a government that is truely beyond redemption.

Chinese ordered attack on Google?

2010-12-05T11:19:00.001Z

An avocation, a diversion, or simply passing the time; reading newspapers, convenient on the S-Bahn, in Starbucks, or sitting on the toilet. However, make no mistake, it is generally speaking, a "much of a muchness" press and the conversation with my nephew yesterday was most appropriate; the TZ is almost as good as the Süddeutsche Zeitung and that newspaper is probably right up there with the 'Guardian', which Jonathan Cook says "has earned an international reputation—including in Israel—as the Western newspaper most critical of Israel’s actions. That may be true, but I quickly found that there were still very clear, and highly unusual, limitations on what could be written about Israel." Jonathan's criticism could, of course, could be extended. When it comes to real news, the 'Guardian', like the rest of the daily drivel is at best limited.

In yesterday's edition of the 'Guardian', we were confronted with the headline. "WikiLeaks cables blame Chinese government for Google hacking" and under that headline, the subheadline, "Leading politician ordered attacks after googling his own name and finding critical articles, US dispatches say," Now, what is being conveyed to the reader here is that the "bad" Chinese hacked Google, when in fact what we have is the Americans blaming the Chinese for the attack and saying that the reason they did so was that a Chinese politcian found band things written about him after he googled his name. Of course, it might just be that the US diplomats who conveyed this information to Hillary Clinton might just have been telling Hillary what she wanted to hear and what they wanted her to hear. Or, indeed, they might just have been blatantly lying. Certainly, while academic caution is advisable, the evidence would seem to suggest that not only do they lie to the general public but that they also lie their to each. However, that "suspicion" is hardly novel. No, there is another, and in the wake of the Wikileak revelations that are pouring out at the moment, more relevant point to be made.

Quite simply we have all of this data being handed to the mainstream press with Julian Assange saying, "the analytical work was “done by professional journalists we work with and by professional human rights activists. It is not done by the broader community.” Now, while I would agree that human rights activists may indeed want to analyse this information, my tendency would be to disagree that it is better in the hands of "professional journalists" rather than a blogosphere, which might limit the exposure and the coverage that the documents would otherwise get. Julian might believe that he is working with those "professional journalists", however, the reality is that those journalists are working for a mainstream press which is, as Jonathan Cook, implies, at least "limited". We might expect the continued manipulating this information in a manner that is hardly detrimental to Washington and we would do well to use all of our bottom up skills when reading the material.

Wikileaks

2010-12-04T00:52:00.001Z

BBC World today and there was the anchorman reacting to Wikileaks revelation that the Americans are unhappy with Karsai by saying that "our man in Kabul" must, nevertheless, be doing something right. "After all, he is still there," we are told. Marvelous how the mainstream media is capable of using invaluable source material.

He must be doing something right, because "he is still there." What a ridiculous conclusion and following that logic George W Bush, must have done something right, after all he was in office for eight years and Joe Stalin .... well, he must have done just about everything right, after all ...... and even Adolf couldn't have got it all wrong, after all, he did manage to hold on to power for twelve years. Yes, the man with the nice shawls might be hanging on to power but believe me, he is not doing very much right and it would be nice if, among other things, the mainstream media turned its attention to analysing the data that is being provided and came up with some real journalism. Instead, we have a spate of discussions on what people think about the leaks and about the possible political implications of those leaks.

And so back to Wikileaks ..... well the providers that have been hosting the website have been cancelling their hosting services one by one and the Wikileaks crew are probably now running around like chickens with their heads chopped off to get the disclosures onto their own website. Still, it is still all out there and if you want to go to the Wikileaks website to access the documents and study them yourself and bypass the sometimes irrelevant comments from the 'Guardian' and other mainstream media on what the implications of documents are or could be just click on Wikileaks and, who knows, you might come to some conclusions of your own. There are some very big criminals within our midsts.

Wikileaks and a potential war on the Korean peninsula

2010-11-30T19:13:00.000Z

Of course, not much thought will be given by the general public on how the mainstream media picks, chooses, uses and abuses the different revelations by Wikileaks. However, the news that China is willing to accept Korean reunification being given pride of place in today's media is certainly worth thinking about. All the more so, as Chinese officials in Europe today appeared to give some substance to the contention when they said "supports the "independent and peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula", even if they did go on to qualify the statement by adding that "reunification was not going to happen overnight."

Good news we might think, but we might think a bit more and start to consider the consequences of what these leaks might actually lead to. On the one hand, we have Wikileaks revealing that two named senior Chinese officials think that Korea should be reunified under Seoul's control, that China's vice-foreign minister believes that North Korea behaves like a spoiled child and that a Chinese ambassador sees North Korea's nuclear weapons as "a threat to the whole world's security" and a few hours later we have a statement from Chinese officials which, at the very least, lends substance to the information contained in the leaked diplomatic cables. .... and on the other hand?

On the other hand, the regime in Pyong Yang bombed South Korea's Yeon Pyeong Island only a weak ago and we still have countless "experts" trying to figure out why. Desperate measures from a desperate regime, we might think and once again we might think a bit more and in doing so we might come to the conclusion that today, with the news that China is about to drop it like a hot potato, the DPRK has become an even more desperate place. News, we should add, that was instigated by Wikileaks and today totally exploited by the mainstream media.

Yesterday, my conclusion was that we have moved a step closer to an attack on Iran and today we may have moved a bit closer to an all out war on the Korean peninsula for we can expect further desperate measures by a North Korea, which is now in fact totally isolated, and we can expect a response from the Seoul and from Washington to those desperate measures. Moreover, with the evidence increasingly suggesting that China will keep out of the conflict, everybody has less to lose. It would appear that although Wikileaks cannot dictate American foreign policy, it has become a catalyst in ensuring that a machiavellian 'Realpolitik' is employed in ensuring that that foreign policy's goals can be achieved sooner rather than later.

Wikileaks and sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me

2010-11-29T18:00:00.000Z

According to the latest Wikileak revelations there was an attempt by Israel to coordinate their slaughter of innocents in Gaza with Abbas's Fatah and Egypt. In their defence it has to be said that both the PA and Egypt refused to take control of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave in, as 'Haaretz' puts it, "case of Hamas defeat". Is this an implicit admission by the Israelis that there was no victory in Gaza? Of course, there could be no victory, after all, 'Hamas' didn't exactly engage the Israelis in hand to hand combat did they. Indeed, there wasn't a fight and, as Norman Finkelstein rightly contends, "the so-called War in Gaza was a massacre.

Yes, in their defence it has to be said that Abbas and Mubarak refused to accept Israel's "generous" offer. However, we might, indeed, wonder to just what extent Abbas's 'Fatah' organisation in particular has degenerated to a state where Israel can actually envisage having it aiding and abetting the mass murder of Palestinian men, women and children. Indeed, we might suspect that only realpolitik considerations restrained Abbas, while Mubarak probably failed to see the attractiveness of policing Gaza on Israel's behalf.

It is in Palestine and elsewhere in the Middle East that we have the real revelations by Wikileaks. Or, even if it is embarrassing for Washington, are we really concerned about not so diplomatic diplomats seeing President Medvedev's relationship with Putin as similar to the fictive friendship that Robin enjoyed with Batman? Does it really matter that Washington finds the German Foreign Minister arrogant, the German Chancellor lacking in creativity, President Sarkozy over-sensitive and authoritarian and Berlusconi politically weak party animal who is also incompetent? ..... and really who cares whether US diplomats highlighted "inappropriate remarks" made by Prince Andrew about a British law enforcement agency and a foreign country? No, as the old saying goes, "sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me." Moreover, business is business and don't be surprised if we find Angie, Guido, Silvio, Nicholas, Dmitri, Vladimir at some time in the not too distant smiling accross the table at their "friends" in Washington.

However, the revelations on the Middle East represent something else and with us being told that Arab heads of state are urging America to attack Iran, we might, at best, even begin to wonder if there is any real strategy behind these revelations. After all, with the leaks also showing a trigger happy Israel, just itching to pull the trigger and attack Iran, it might be construed that the United States is acting as some sort of restraining influence and when they do decide to attack Iran .... well, they will be telling us all that, although, they have been planning it for years, it is something they just couldn't avoid doing. Indeed, it is in bearing that in mind that we might want to consider the latest news from Teheran where President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has "dismissed the leaks as a "worthless" psychological warfare campaign against his country," while Israel "feels vindicated by the public exposure of Arab and international concern over Iran's nuclear programme."

Therefore, we will probably have par for the course smiles all round at the next G20 conference, ..... and, what about Julian Assange's secret promotion in Langley, Virginia? Of course, I am, no doubt, being a little bit unfair on Julian there and extending the bounds of academic caution. The real news, however, has to be that Israel no "feels vindicated" and, if nothing else, we have moved a little bit closer to an attack on Iran today.

The "experts"

2010-11-22T21:12:00.002Z

A few days ago "experts "were telling us that Ireland needed between forty billion and one hundred billion euros. "Between forty and one hundred billion" .... clever these "experts" aren't they. The figure is appparently closer to one hundred billion and it is the Irish banks who will be getting the money, in case you didn't know. Still, aren't our "experts" marvelous .... well, they did say between 40 and 100 billion!

Oh, apropos of which ... we had another couple of "experts" on Anne Will's talkshow on Germany's ARD yesterday evening. There was Don Jordan, an American journalist and "expert" selling his little story about an empty bag at Cologne airport going unchallenged as proof of a lack of consciousness among the German population when it comes to the terrorist threat and as proof of his "expert" status, and we had a certain Melody Sucharewicz.

Melody appears to be a very fortunate young lady from Munich who emigrated to Israel a few years ago but very possibly hangs on to two passports while millions who were born in her adopted homeland ..... well, we won't go off on that tangent. No, suffice to say that Melody is also an "expert" on terror because she lives in Israel and Israel according to another guest, the German Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maiziére, is being bombed in the north by the Hezbollah and in the south by Hamas. Ah, and you all thought that it was the Israelis who bombed the Lebanon and Gaza!

Anyway, Melody told us a very sad story about how she is frightened to travel by bus and instead takes a taxi and she really had me thinking about the thousands who were too frightened to leave their houses in Gaza less than two years ago and how hundreds of them were murdered with their families in their homes. Which in turn had me thinking how nice it would be to get a couple of people into the studio from Gaza or the Lebanon or, indeed, from one of the countries that are being terrified by the American "expert's" countrymen. Of course, that just wouldn't work, would it? After all, a plump little American in a "nice" suit who speaks German fluently and a pretty, blonde, German-Israeli, they really tick all the "expert" boxes, don't they? No, a bearded illiterate tribesman having his tales of woe translated from Pashtu into German and a nervous little Palestinian lady who has had her family slaughtered by the IDF bully boys .... well, what do they know about terrorism? They are not "experts", are they?

The "bomb"

2010-11-20T12:35:00.002Z

The evidence does more than just suggest their involvement in countless illegal covert operations which resulted in democratically elected governments being toppled and democratically elected leaders and thousands to hundreds of thousands of civilians being murdered. No, although the jury is still out on 9/11 and the Lockerbie bombing and while they are still to be held accountable for their illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fabricated "evidence" used to justify those wars, academic caution can be thrown out of the window when it comes to Lumumba in the Congo, Ghana's Nkrumah, Allende in Chile and countless others. Yes, Washington does not only commit crimes against humanity but indeed, even when caught in flagranti, it also has the chutzpah to either deny everything or at least try to tell us why those crimes were necessary.

The "bomb" in Namibia wasn't, as I suggested yesterday a laptop after all and it now appears that it was a laptop case with a dummy inside. Now, who put it there and why they put it there, we don't know. However, we might suspect that we are getting information from somewhere that we are just not supposed to get and we might also have reason to believe that the people responsible for this outbreak of truth could be stepping on the CIA's toes. Of course, this is speculation and even if it were to answer the "who done it?", it still doesn't tell us why they did it. Furthermore, not even the fact that the dummy was constructed by a company in California, which makes its own little idiomatic bomb from the "war on terror", can answer that question.

Nevertheless, we do get closer to an answer, when we consider that the Süddeutsche Zeitung yesterday was still establishing a connection between the "bomb" and the Somali Islamist group al-Shabab even as the news that it was a dummy was already coming through. Yes, we might speculate as to what they next have in store for Somalia. Moreover, of more direct relevance to Germany is, farce or not, contrived or whatever, what we already have is an atmosphere being facilitated in which Thomas de Maiziére's warning from two days ago does not seem misplaced and an atmosphere in which the decision of the German Constitutional Court on storing private data can be revised. Yes, it is very likely that German surveillance and security firms to already be rubbing their hands with glee here and we can at least expect private data protection laws in Germany to be brought into line with those in the US and the UK,

Of course, this is exactly what is wanted in Washington and if dummy bombs doesn't keep the Germans firmly on board when it comes to establishing a clear and present danger, tightening security, encroaching on its citizens' private sphere, Uncle Sam" might just have another couple of irons in the fire, which means, of course, that we should be grateful for "small" mercies. After all, a dummy bomb in Namibia is much preferable to a real one in Berlin or Munich. Yes, we should be grateful as events past and present all over the planet shows us what they are capable of. It just might be that the next "bomb" made in America, might very well be a real one and maybe, just maybe, they are already perversely planning to take their "war on terror" to the next level. Of course, if that happens they won't even need to deny anything. After all, we will all be shocked into the realisation that it is the "war on terror" that has to fought even if that means subverting the truth. A truly frightening scenario, perhaps, ..... but it is already happening.

Germany prepares itself for a terrorist attack

2010-11-18T18:57:00.003Z

The man in the news is Thomas de Maiziére, the German Minister of the Interior. Yesterday, he said that a terrorist attack in November is a distinct possibility and that there is cause for concern even if there is no need for hysteria. One day later, in the form of a self-fulfilling prophecy, the nonsense starts with a bag containing a detonator, batteries and a ticking clock being detected on a suitcase during screening at the main international airport in Namibia's capital Windhoek. The bag "could have been bound for Munich" we are told and in the meantime we might be pleased to learn that this "detonator, batteries and a ticking clock" which "could have been bound for Munich" was in fact a laptop. Well, it is at least doubtful if there was genuine cause for concern here, but the reaction of the authorities does appear to be more than a little hysterical. Indeed, on arriving in Munich six hours late the passengers were interrogated by the border police.

Of course, there are those who are going to see things very differently and in ZDF's Mittagsmagazin we had Konrad Freiberg, the Chairman of the German Police Union telling us how important it is to keep the records of private telephone conversations, while Hans-Peter Uhl from the Bavarian CSU tells us that anyone who is still against the government retaining private data hasn't understood the nature of the threat. They might, indeed, be right and while we can only hope that this little scare will be all that we will be confronted with, we can be fairly certain that Hans-Peter, Konrad and Thomas will be working together reverse the decision made by the German Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe some eight months ago that the mass storage of private records breaches Germany’s constitution. Of course, one shudders to think what they will come up with if there is actually a terrorist attack in Germany.

News from Blighty

2010-11-16T19:25:00.003Z

'Blighty' rejoices at the news that Prince William is going to marry his girlfriend Kate Middleton, while the British government throws millions of pounds in compensation, which means millions of pounds in taxpayers money, at former Guantanamo Bay detainees in order to prevent the "exposure of thousands of documents in open court on how Britain co-operated with the US on the so-called extraordinary rendition of terrorist suspect".

However, let us concentrate on the "good news" and David Cameron, has told us that "the country would join him and his wife, Samantha, in wishing the couple "great joy". Well, I have just been talking on the phone to Archie MacDonald back in Glasgow, who has just lost his job and whose eldest son Wullie cannot get a university place despite six SCEEB 'Highers' at grade 'A', and he said he doesn't really care. Archie is not daft and he even knows that losing his job and his son not getting a place at university is not nearly as bad as it can get. After all, these people might still have extraordinary rendition and torture up their sleeves when they get really serious. Although, the good news is that 'Downing Street' assures us that in settling claims brought by 16 former Guantanamo we are seeing the end of Britain's complicity in rendition and torture. Now, if that is true then there is indeed some good news from 'Blighty' today.

Now wouldn't that be news?

2010-11-14T15:59:00.000Z

It really is indicative of the absurd world that we live in when the US promises to deliver twenty F-35 fighter jets to Israel, on the proviso that construction on the West Bank is halted for ninety days. It is not only the fact that there is no mention of occupied East Jerusalem where Palestinians are being turned out of their homes and forced off of their land on a daily basis. What if there was? What does "stopping construction" for ninety days actually mean? As we saw during the last "freeze" that there was no freeze at all. However, we shouldn't even be concerning ourselves with this drivel.

The fact is that the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem is illegal under international law and that America's "offer", even if there were a modicum of sincerity behind it, actually amounts to an open admittance of the United States aiding and abetting a crime. Washington should not be "offering" anything here, but rather there should be the demand that Israel withdraws from the occupied territories immediately. Indeed, this is what the international community requires and it is expressed all too clearly in the UN Security Council Resolution 242, which is, as are countless other UN resolutions, simply ignored by the zionist state. Of course, one of the reasons that Israel can turn a blind eye to international law is ..... yes, you've go it, because the United States supplies it with F-35 fighter jets and other weapons! Weapons that have been used to kill innocent civilians on numerous occassions.

Nevertheless, there we have it; the farcical charade of America playing the honest broker and putting pressure on Israel and this is reported by the international press as "news", while the real news, the 'Goldstone Report', Israeli piracy in international waters, extra judicial murder and, of course, the illegal occupation itself, kept from the front page of the mainstream media. That is, of course, if it finds its way into that media at all.

Now, wouldn't it be nice to wake up one day and open the newspaper over breakfast to read; "Washington forces Israel to accept international law" ....... "Today, President Obama demanded that there be a complete withdrawal from the occupied territories in line with UN Security Council Resolution 242, that Israel immediately lift the blockade of Gaza and that IAEA inspectors be allowed access to the nuclear facility at Dimona. The President then added that all American aid to Israel will stop within the next two weeks, while promising to stop all shipments of weapons immediately." ..... Now, wouldn't that be news?

You cannot fool all of the people all of the time

2010-11-12T14:51:00.002Z

The hype continues and in a typical piece of Washington newspeak we are told that there is a "currency war" and that progress towards a more balanced global economy is being undermined by China undervaluing its currency. Of course, away from the hype and on a bottom up reading of a 'newspeak', which among other things maintains that "War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," "Ignorance is Strength," we might conclude that the magic money produced abracadabra style by the Federal Reserve is all about ensuring that there never will be a balanced global economy. Of course, Friedmanism was never about balancing economies, global or national and if any proof of that fact were needed, we need look no further than the United States itself where it looks as if the Obama administration is in the process of extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy.

Fortunately, there is more than a little truth in the contention that you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time and, with China refusing to float its currency and the Germans not about to put a cap on their exports, the great globalisation game pursued by the disaster capitalists might be coming to an end. Moreover, with members of Obama's own Democratic Party up in arms on hearing that the White House is in the process of ceding to Republican demands to extend the high-end tax cuts, it might even be that even in the USA the majority has had enough. Yes, the evidence would indeed suggest that you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

Obama's speech in Jakarta

2010-11-10T20:02:00.000Z

In his speech in Jakarta's National University yesterday, Obama said that in the seventeen months that have passed since his Cairo speech in which he addressed the muslim world some progress has been made in his heralded 'new beginning' "but much more work remains to be done."

Now, in understanding progress to be synonymous with wanting to repair relations with the Muslim world, we might at least expect an investigation into those war crimes that have been documented by 'Wikileaks' or, if that is too much to hope for, expect no more killing of innocent men, women and children in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. However, the reality is very different. Not only will the slaughter in those places continue and increase, but we also now have the opening of the "Yemini front in the "war on terror".

Still, there is hope or there is if anyone actually believes the drivel that comes from a man who in Jakarta actually reminded me of his predecessor right down to the stutters and the platitudes. Regress and not progress is what sprang to mind and one couldn't help think, just one more babbling incoherent gobbledegooker. ...... Oh, and the hope for the myopic among us, for the cretins?

Well, while there will be no investigation into war crimes in Iraq and while there will be no retreat from the killing fields of Afghanistan, regarding Palestine we were told that, the United States "will spare no effort in working for the outcome that is just, and that is in the interest of all the parties involved: two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security." Does this mean that the United States will force Israel to comply with international law, lift the illegal blockade of Gaza, stop building illegal settlements? Of course, it doesn't and it certainly doesn't mean that he will be applying international jurisdication and arresting those responsible for the slaughter of men, women and children in Gaza and for the boarding and murdering of passengers on a ship in international waters.

Still, if it is any consolation to Muslims, they might rest assured that it just "happens" to be them at the moment. Yes, the strategists in Washington are probably not even Islamophobic. The lies, the slaughters, the hypocrisy, have been going on for a long, long time and I am sure that the killing of Catholics all over Latin America and the massacre of millions in South East Asia, was nothing personal ..... After all, it is just business.

David Cameron lectures China on the value of democracy

2010-11-10T10:40:00.004Z

David Cameron goes to Beijing and lectures China on the "value of democracy" and human rights and today back in the land of the "free" the orwellian state continues to role back the welfare state while ensuring that in Britain there will be no need for tanks in the streets. The tanks, of course, can be deployed in illegal wars elsewhere and when human rights abuses from those wars come to light, we have the manufacturers of consent making sure not only that democracy "functions", but also that the crimes are, more or less, conveniently ignored. In "Bighty" all opinions are equal but some are more equal than others. Yes, David, when it comes to criticising China for human rights abuses, it might be better if you were to leave that criticising to someone else and preferably to someone who has distanced themselves from the hypocrites in London and Washington.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

John Pilger calls for resistance

2010-11-05T20:55:00.000Z

John Pilger is, of course, quite right to contend that "normal" politics only exist to protect corporate interests. Nevertheless, while his conclusion that only direct action can challenge the disaster capitalists who, as he says, are out "to destroy the tenuous humanity of the modern state", is absolutely correct, we should not be too optimistic regarding the success of any such action. Indeed, when he goes onto say that Britain's workers can "more than match the French if they are resolute and imaginative", we are left wondering, if he is not trying to compete with the xenophobic right for the allegiance of the working classes and the downtrodden.

However, such a ruse and the appeal to direct action which it supports can be commended, even if we are left suspecting that the call to battle is a desperate one. For, as he himself says: "In Britain, there is no need for tanks in the streets. In its managerial indifference to the freedoms it is said to hold dear, bourgeois Britain has allowed parliament to create a surveillance state with 3,000 new criminal offences and laws: more than for the whole of the previous century. Powers of arrest and detention have never been greater. The police have the impunity to kill; and asylum-seekers can be "restrained" to death on commercial flights." Of course, not to mention a propaganda machine which makes Dr Josef Goebels and his 'Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda' look like the epitome of amateurism.

Furthermore, as Slavoj Žižek recently said in an interview with 'Amy Goodman from 'Democracy Now', those demonstrating in France represent segments of what Marx would have called "the working class aristocracy". Be that as it may, what they most certainly represent, is a workforce, which, despite the onslaught of Friedmanism on continental Europe too, is still organised and has managed to hold onto its privileges. On the other hand, in Britain it is difficult to see what Mr Pilger calls a "resolute and imaginative" class that is capable of collaborating with wider movements for social justice to form the "greatest popular resistance ever." Indeed, the evidence would at least suggest that an amorphous, motley collection, of social groups, in which too many have been subdued by game shows, the manufacturers of consent, and the all prevailing cappucino culture, will be unable to stop the 'Chicago Boys' from wreaking further havoc.

Nevertheless, Mr Pilger is not only, as ever, correct in his analysis, he is also right to call for resistance. For, no matter how hopeless that resistance might be, it is never futile and that is why, we can only hope that as the struggle for the soul of a new Britain takes shape as many as possible will be involved. Moreover, that struggle will ensure that there will be no 'tabula rasa' in Albion and no need to hide after the war against the disaster capitalists has been won on continental Europe.

Lauren Booth becomes a Muslim

2010-11-03T17:28:00.001Z

It should be emphasised that my own views on Palestine have absolutely nothing to do with religion. Indeed, my opinions on religion have been expressed on a number of occasions in this blog. Regarding Palestine what we have is an all too blatant example of unadulterated theft, persecution, ethnic cleansing and murder of one group of people by another group of people. It interests me not one iota that the people who are committing these crimes are Jews and that the majority of their victims are muslims. Moreover, while I have nothing against people worshiping pies in skies or a variation of the theme in the privacy of their homes, I would not like to live in a society where their rituals and dogma dictate the course of my day.

Therefore, when Lauren Booth, Tony Blair's sister-in-law, wonders why people are shocked at her becoming a Muslim, I can only tell her why I am slightly shocked and I am shocked because it is incredible that we have people still believing in some omnipotent being that is a law unto itself, that contends that a man had a conversation with an angel and that that same man rode up to heaven on a horse. Forgive me if I have missed a couple of the more "important" things attached to this, the Isamic, version of the great gobbledegook, which is, of course, no and no more absurd than the "people walking on water" version or variations thereof. However, enough really is enough and while, as a Marxist I can accept that our being in society determines our consciousness and with that at least understand those billions who have been so nurtured that they really, really believe this rubbish, it leaves me a little bit flabbergasted when someone from a completely different culture can actually go on trip to Qom, have a little revelation of their own, and take shit like this on board. Has anyone told Lauren that should she decide to take a little trip to Lourdes and should she have another little revelation and decide to join the Vatican wing of the 'God Squad', it is the duty of every muslim to waste her. Not likely, perhaps, but I would have to assume that Lauren is at least susceptible to tall sorts of nonsense.

On the other hand, with her brother-in-law having now subscribed to the Roman Catholic version of the gobbledegook, it might just be that this is Lauren's way of sticking her fingers up at him. Now, if that is so, it is hardly necessary for her solidarity with Palestine and with those hundreds of thousands of people throughout the Middle East who have suffered because of people like her brother-in-law cannot be called into question. At this level at least there can be no doubt that she has made the right choice. Therefore, Lauren my advice to you would be don't fight the gobbledegook with your version of the same. For if you do, it will become difficult to tell all and sundry that this is not a religious conflict. That is what the Zionists in Jerusalem and Washington and their friends in London and elsewhere want. Don't let these people hide behind their religion, this is quite simply an ongoing crime against humanity, which is motivated by pure greed. Or have we already forgotten about the crimes in South East Asia, South America and elsewhere.

Selling crap

2010-11-02T20:19:00.005Z

'DEC Digital User' was the company's main magazine and there were the lads on the phone telling their perspective customers that we had a circulation of some 20,000. Never mind, that one of my jobs was cooperating with the printer who to the best of my knowledge printed some 5,000 copies. Yes, even in those days they really knew how to sell invisibles in the London Bridge area.

This was Britain in the mid-80s, Friedmanism had taken root, the country's manufacturing base had already more or less disappeared and popping up here there and everywhere were groups of mostly ex-pupils from minor public schools on the make, with their give to the gab: "Good morning John, David Jones here, William from IBM gave me your number, I was wondering if you would be interested in a 'double page full colour spread' in our next edition of 'DEC Digital User.?" They were selling advertising space, raking in between fifty and a hundred and fifty grand a year and, although it hardly looked like it just down the road in the Embankment's "Cardboard City" or, indeed, elsewhere in the city, wealth was being created. In fact, because there was so much wealth the demand for capital goods had to be somehow satisfied with dilapidated housing, and some quite decent public housing too, being sold off for silly money.

Back in the publishers, it would never have occured to anyone, of course, that they were neither selling, nor buying anything tangible and if it did dawn on them, who cared? After all, money was being made and the only sustenance needed to fuel the illusions and delussions was a few fags, a few pints, a few packets of crisps and a couple of pies in the 'Dog and Duck'. Then it was back up stairs for the late calls to California, followed by another couple of pints in some bar at London Bridge before getting the train home. However, the model could not be sustained. At least not through advertising space and property speculation alone and soon our disaster capitalists would don their thinking hats and fictitious capital would open up very real opportunites for the good salesman who was moving on and up.

Others moved onto hardware and some even into selling weapons and then along came September 11th and a whole new security and surveillance industry that had to be sold. Yes, a very different product with very different advertising and we can all be grateful that with the latest "bomb scare" we are only getting the industry's equivalent to a small black and white advert in a glossy magazine, a bomb scare, not a bomb, thank god, and certainly no 'double page full colour spread' of the sort that we got on 9/11, on Bali, in London or Madrid. Still, the small "black and white" advert is already doing its job and we can read in today's 'Guardian' that: "The government has announced a series of measures intended to protect the travelling public from the emerging threat of cargo-hold bombs created by al-Qaida as questions continued to be asked about the initial British response to the alert." The "series of measures", more under-paid private security at Britain's airports, longer waiting, but, most importantly, some new expensive surveillance equipment. Yes, they really have created a nice "little" industry for themselves, haven't they?

Julian Assange walks out on CNN

2010-11-01T11:23:00.000Z

There is a very valid criticism of the documents released by 'Wikileaks' a couple of weeks ago and that is that they seriously underestimate the number of Iraqi dead. Indeed, although the 'New York Times' does concede that by relying on reporting from journalists, morgues, and now soldiers, we can never know what deaths are being missed, the impression, nevertheless, being given by the documents is that the death toll stands at about 115,000 civilians, when in fact in reality the actual figure might be some seven times higher than that. Therefore, we might conclude that we have a serious question here with which we might confront 'Wikileaks' in general and Julian Assange, as the face of the organisation, in particular. Nevertheless, there is enough evidence to suggest that Mr Assange would be more than happy to discuss the figures and it might even be that he would refer to the 'New York Times' line of argumentation.

What we have yet to see is Julian Assange discussing anything less than hard evidence. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that when CNN tries to get him to seriously discuss the ongoing smear campaign against his person, the 'Wikileaks' founder gets up and walks out of the interview for the reality is that the issue that is on the agenda is not his character, but rather an illegal war and mass murder. Furthermore, as I have already said, while Mr Assange would, I am sure be quite willing to discuss the scale this massive crime against humanity, while most likely following the 'New York Times' logic, he is not going to demean himself and, more importantly, the real issue.

Indeed, I am reminded of Norman Finkelstein in the 'American Radical' when he responds to the usual "self hating Jew" accussations against his person by simply replying ..... "and what if they are right, does that alter the facts." As far as Iraq is concerned an illegal war of aggression has been pursued and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians have been slaughtered. Moreover, while the charges against Mr Assange are almost certainly trumped up, the evidence against the war criminals is overwhelming. Organisations like CNN would do well to not aid and abet them.

The misuse of history

2010-10-31T23:04:00.003Z

The 880 page report on the German Foreign Office and its collaboration with National Socialism, which will be published as a book this week, does not seem to offer anything new. The Berfusdiplomaten in the 'Wilhelmstrasse' defended themselves at Nürnberg by saying that they remained in office "um Schlimmeres zu Verhüten" (in order to prevent worse happening). "Das Schlimmste" epitomised by the death camps and the sytematic murdering of European Jewry, gypsies, homosexuals and "Andersdenkenden" was not prevented. Moreover, many of those diplomats followed the path of State Secretary, Ernst von Weizsäcker, and not only didn't prevent worse happening but indeed signed documents which incriminate them of actively participating in war crimes.

This is not news and to be honest it is hardly unexpected for while, twelve Berufsdiplomaten were executed for their resistance to the Nazis, to the best of my knowledge Karl Maximilian Friedrich-Wilhelm von Prittwitz und Gaffron, the German ambassador to Washington was the only ambassador to resign when Hitler came to power. After the 30th January 1933, it was more or less business as usual at the 'Wilhelmstrasse'. Moreover, this is not some sort of a revelation. Therefore, the question that has to be asked is why this report and why do we have the likes of Guido Westerwelle hailing it as "an important work"?

Guido and the rest of the Berlin political establishment are not Historians. Or, if they have that appendage somewhere in their curriculum vitae, they have certainly never done any serious research in that field. Nevertheless, it is not ignorance that is being demonstrated here but rather Berlin showing its allies how it is capable of an ongoing "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" while being a modern, tolerant and reliable friend. It is a case of the German political establishment patting itself on the back at no particular cost to itself. That is why, we would do well to look further afield at who benefits from this piece of no news.

When we do this we soon realise that we are, once again, confronted with a piece of "news", which is in fact common knowledge not only among Historians, but indeed, to large sections of the general public and that this latest "revelation" informs us once again of the need for a Jewish State where all Jews can be safe in a hostile world. Nevertheless, the more sensible among us realise that that völkisch state was an ultimate expression, no perversion, of a nation state based on ethnicity and that, while a safe haven for European Jewry, and for many others, was necessary so long as it existed, it should not be copied. Or is Nazi Germany a model for a modern state.

Under the guise of history, history is being repeated and the real news is not the fact that so few German diplomats resigned after Hitler's Machtergreifung or even that many of them subsequently committed war crimes. Rather it is the fact that the civil servants sitting in government offices in occupied Jerusalem and soldiers in the occupied territories continue to do their jobs and, indeed, many are actively involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity. Moreover, while there are the "refuseniks" and many others in Israeli society who have to be admired, one can only suppose that come the day of reckoning it will be those civil servants and soldiers who have at least abeted an illegal occupation who will be rushing to tell all and sundry that they only stayed in office to prevent worse happening.

Bomb scare

2010-10-30T11:07:00.001+01:00

We might never know the truth behind "the explosive devices found on US bound planes" even if Obama says that the threat is "credible". Well, lots of things are credible and even if we are looking at "the one percent doctrine", "credible" is "credible" and, with another article in today's 'Guardian' telling us that the "Yemen bomb scare 'mastermind' lived in London" we can only speculate on the latest range of opportunities that have just opened up for "big brother" 'Blighty'.

No, surprises there but itsn't it amazing how the mainstream press plays along with this rubbish. "Mastermind" ..... well, happily to say, if this was the work of a "mastermind", then we are discussing a pretty hopeless "mastermind" who failed miserably to achieve his goal of death and destruction and if it is "masterminds" we are looking for then surely we need look no further than those "brilliant" minds behind the mass murder of millions in the Middle East and elsewhere. Yes, we might never know the truth behind the Yemen bomb scare but who knows this might be just another piece of genius made in Washington. Of course, most certainly there won't be many serious investigative journalists who will be allowed to pursue that theory and if there are, they most certainly will not be given access to any sources which might support their thesis.

Who did the torture serve?

2010-10-26T02:07:00.001+01:00

In the chapter on South Africa, 'Democracy Born in Chains', in Naomi Klein's book, 'The Shock Doctrine' one of the jurors on South Africa's "Truth and Reconciliation Commission", the later Head of "South Africa's Foundation for Human Rights", Yasmin Sooka, concludes that "when you focus on torture and you don't look at what it was serving, that's when you start to do a revision of the real history." In a sense it was an expression of her frustration at big business not being held to account for the crimes of apartheid.

The latest revelations from 'Wikileaks' on the Iraq war are to be welcomed as they provide us with further documented evidence of war crimes. However, that should not stop us from looking at what that torture was serving. This was an illegal war that was part of a pre-existing strategy to secure US control of the world's oil supplies and hand over control of the economy to the disaster capitalists . When this strategy has been pursued anywhere torture and the illegal slaughter of innocents are, if not incidental, almost inevitable.

Therefore, although torture, the slaughter of innocents, the looting of the Iraqi economy and the destruction of Iraqi society are all very real crimes, we are still left looking at what or who those crimes served. It is when we do that we can turn our attention to the real criminals, to big business, to big oil, and to the 'Chicago Boys' and the greedy, seedy, politicians who serve them. If we can do this and if we can get just one or two of them in front of the ICC in the Hague, there might be hope. Nevertheless, we would be more than a trifle naive if we expected to that to happen. No, there will be no such questions and most certainly no confession on what this war really served. After all, that really would threaten to put an end to their "little game".

Get ready for the next "independent" inquiry into the Iraq War

2010-10-24T17:29:00.000+01:00

This is more or less a follow up, or rather a complement to, yesterday's post and with me referring to the UN as "insipid" and "useless" what adjectives might now be appropriate to describe Nick Clegg? In the wake of the leaked US military logs Nick has jumped on the UN bandwagon and said that "he did not rule out the possibility of an inquiry into the actions of British forces in Iraq." Well, with the Liberal Democrats having already accused the previous government of "suffocating" the Chilcot inquiry by giving government departments the power to veto sections of the final report, it might appear that Nick is at least being consistent. Unfortunately, what we actually have is another round in that "democracy" game, where they all like to blow their own trumpet in order to hold onto the trappings of power, when in fact real power lies elsewhere.

The fact is that Nick is part of a coalition that is involved in another illegal war and really it is difficult to imagine that he doesn't realise that war crimes are in fact being committed on a daily basis by his government. One wonders then what kind of inquiry does he have in mind in light of the latest evidence that has been brought to light? Of course, it is absurd to think that the any conclusions made by an inquiry led by his government are going to be any less flimsy and farcical than those made by the Chilcot inquiry and, indeed, it is equally as absurd to believe that any substantial findings that actually implicate those at the top, will not be suffocated in exactly the same way as the parts of the Chilcot inquiry were suffocated.

There is a far wider strategy and Nick, by implementing and defending the cuts at home, has already shown where he stands regarding that strategy. Furthermore, his continued support for the war in Afghanistan only reinforces this and his views on Iraq post-facto is only indicative of the political "blah, blah, blah" that these non-entities are permitted when it really doesn't matter. Yes, we might even expect Nick to get his inquiry, his opportunity to rubbish a few politicians who will never be returning to office anyway. That, however, is as far as it will go and at the end of the day there will be no challenges to a system and a strategy that made and makes all of this possible and as Nick announces that he will be asking the Israeli Defence Forces for advice on how to launch an independent inquiry into the murder of innocent civilians in an illegal war, the news from Afghanistan today is that more innocent civilians have been killed.

UN asks Obama to investigate human rights abuses

2010-10-23T16:01:00.002+01:00

What an insipid, useless organisation the United Nations has become and in today's 'Guardian' we can read that it has called on Obama to investigate human rights abuses in the wake of the latest Wikileaks revelations that there were clear violations of the UN Convention Against Torture in Iraq.

The leaks are to be appreciated as they make public a body of evidence which supports what we all more or less knew anyway. However, for the UN to ask Obama to investigate human rights abuses is ... well, it is a bit like asking a particular mafioso down in Corleone, at the height of the Mafia's power there, to investigate the family's crimes, while that very same mafioso is carrying out a couple of hits of his own. What a ridiculous farce!

Nick Clegg accuses IFS of "distorted nonsense"

2010-10-21T22:46:00.001+01:00

The Institute for Fiscal Studies exists to provide economic analysis independent of government, political party or any other vested interests. Therefore, when Nick Clegg describes "its methods of measuring the fairness of coalition's controversial spending review as "distorted and a complete nonsense", we can conclude, that they are doing their job,that they are "independent of government, political party or any other vested interest" and that they are hitting a nail on the head when they question the fairness of the cuts.

There we all were a couple of years ago, pointing our fingers at the real culprits, the banks, and here we are now, having thrown hundreds of billions of pounds, dollars and euros at the banks, having bailed them out, having buoyed them up, got them afloat, up and running, doing very nicely thank you, making sure that the rouble keeps rolling and there is Nick and his new liberals, got themselves onto the government gravy train, and "new" metamorphoses into "neo", ..... but then was Nick and his ilk really anything else?

No, not much for Nick and his mates left to do; the "Chicago Boys" arrived almost thirty years ago and it really is time for the last remnants of keynesian economics to be given the old heave ho. However, let us de-mystify Nick the "liberal". After all, this particular non-entity is there for the longer haul with his chum David and he is only following in the footsteps of the more brazen, blatant "Iron Lady", John Major and the "socialists" Tony and Gordon. Moreover, make no mistake when this mob go to grass ...well, it's a bit like the joke: "What happens when the pope dies?" "Up popes another one!"

The "great" British democracy is on its last legs and with the "Chicago Boys" about to rape all places north of Watford, and quite a few south of it too, while throwing out what is left of Keynes, the hope is that there is still enough fight in those last legs for at least one more battle. Otherwise, lads we will be condemned to much worse than that verbal diarrhea from a group of political nonentities which is there to cloud our realities, we will be condemned to that very reality ...... a sort of "Brave New World" for some and a "1984" for others.

Bint Jbeil and Ahmadinejad blows hot air

2010-10-14T21:09:00.000+01:00

Now, don't get me wrong, I am most certainly not Ahmadinejad's number one fan. In fact, I find him a trifle obnoxious. Nevertheless, when I read in today's 'Haaretz' that his visit to Bint Jbeil is, according to the US and Israel, "an intentionally provocative move", I am left pondering on the meaning the word "provocative" here. All the more so, when the article then reminds us that "Iran has invested heavily in helping to rebuild the town."

No, the logic sort of eludes me on this one, and as long as Ahmadinejad contents himself with blowing off steam by blowing his own trumpet we shouldn't worry too much. Indeed, to point the finger is hypocritcal to the core, especially, when my thoughts drift back to the summer of 2006 and the IDF's own little sojourn into Bint Jbeil and, while their efforts to blow the place off of the map didn't quite succeed, it wasn't for the lack of trying. Now, that really was provocative, wasn't it? And if you don't get my drift, you might want to look at the picture of what the Iranians were left to rebuild after the IDF had left. Yes, Ahmadinejad in Hafai or Tel Aviv .... but Ahmadinejad in Bint Jbeil? Well, sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me and I do have to say that I much prefer the Israelis when they are blowing things out of proportion to when they are blowing places to smithereens.

Nevertheless, it would appear that our "newspeakers" in Jerusalem and Washington have their own definition of what is and what is not provocative. The suspicion that Iran might be able to acquire nuclear weapons and Ahmadinejad being invited to and visiting the Lebanon is provocotive, but Israel having nuclear weapons, indiscriminately bombing the Lebanon and then invading it is not a provocation. One really wonders what planet these people live on! No, what should really worry us when Ahmadinejad sticks his fingers up at Israel, is that there is a collection of trigger happy nutters on the other side of the border who invariably don't content themselves with blowing rasperies or hot air back and there is more than enough evidence to suggest that the answer to where the blowing up will actually come from, is hardly blowing in the wind.

Did Netanyahu predict Chile mine collapse

2010-10-14T14:36:00.000+01:00

Well, they really do like to get in on the act, divert your attention, pat their own on the back. Nevertheless, why 'Haaretz' chooses to publish this particular piece of no news, is still beyond me. The paper reports: "On Wednesday, the Prime Minister's Office announced that Netanyahu himself had predicted the collapse of the Chilean copper and gold mine, where 33 miners had been trapped for 69 days until their ultimate rescue." Now, isn't it strange that we hadn't heard of this remarkable instance of clairvoyance before the event became world news?

Still, no need to doubt Netanyahu's psychic powers, after all, this is the man who can foresee an Israel which might include all of modern-day Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Lebanon as well as large parts of Syria, Jordan and Egypt. There is no historical inevitability, nevertheless, we should be careful as shit does happen and if there is anything to be learned from the collapse of the Chilean mine, it is that we should take the proper safety precautions. Otherewise, we might just wake up one morning to our gifted psychics telling us that they have a right to be in Beruit because God gave it to them.

A history lesson for Avigdor Lieberman

2010-10-11T22:58:00.006+01:00

The last two paragraphs in a 'Haaretz' article entitled, "Lieberman: Israel will not be the Czechoslovakia of 2010", quote Lieberman as saying to the French and Spanish foreign ministers, "In 1938 Europe placated Hitler, sacrificing Czechoslovakia instead of supporting it, and gained nothing from it," Lieberman said. "We will not be the Czechoslovakia of 2010, we will stand up for Israel's vital interests." For the most part, the article in fact is just a report of Lieberman's nonsense verbatim, while obviously being written for effect rather than any news value.

No, we are not about to take Israel's best, "most liberal", newspaper too seriously and it should come as no surprise when the journalist writing the article comes to the following conclusion: "Twenty years later, Hitler demanded that the region be returned to Germany, and Britain and France agreed. A year later in 1939, Germany conquered the rest of Czechoslovakia proper by force." Gobbledegook and journalists are not only not required to investigate, research and write news, they are also no longer required to write. Nevertheless, while it is almost as difficult to find real news in this standard 'Haaretz' fare, as it would be in the 'PyongYang Times', the discerning reader might read between the lines, interpret and deduce and in doing so might even come to the conclusion that the Mr Lieberman is not all wrong, even if he is not all wrong for reasons he might not wish to hear.

The "swissification" of Czechoslovakia never took place and the republic that was to find itself under the auspices of Tomáš Masaryk and then Eduard Benes, both Czech nationalists, was one in which the political elite not only didn't allow political autonomy for minority ethnic groups but, indeed, a country where the Czechs, who, when the first republic was founded in 1918, constituted about 48% of the total population of 6.6 million, were not even a majority. Furthermore, not only were non-Czechs under-represented in the government and army, but government contracts also invariably went to Czech companies. If Lieberman wants to draw parallels between Czechoslovakia and Israel, then it is those facts that should represent the basis of any comparison. Even although, it would still be absurd to suggest that Slovaks, Germans, Hungarians, Ruthanians, Poles and Jews were deprived, excluded or persecuted in the way that Palestinians are today.

Which, of course, brings me to the final point and Lieberman's implication that Israel's existence is threatened in much the same way as Czechoslovakia's was in 1938. The reasons for the failure of a state in which all power was centralised have been touched upon. Therefore, while the agreement signed on the 30th of September 1938, most certainly sealed the downfall of Central Europe's only democracy, albeit one which we can hardly call a "democracy par excellence", the seeds of that downfall were already sown much earlier. Indeed, this was emphasised later on when Gustáv Husák, who was actually a Slovak, broke up the country's federal structure after the crushing of the "Prague Spring", and returned control to Prague. The final dissolution of Czechoslovakia on the 1st of January 1993 almost became inevitable and it at least gives us some indication as to how fragile that union of Czechs and Slovaks in particular always was. Nevertheless, be that as it may, it is this peaceful divorce, which has culminated with both countries being members of the European Union, that Lieberman should be looking to for guidance. The alternative is, indeed, a scenario that will have more in common with the events of 1938 and the catastrophe that followed.

Clearer heads would hope that such a disaster will not happen. Unfortunately, the gobbledegook spouted out by Avigdor Lieberman and his ilk along with more than sixty years of theft, murder and ethnic cleansing indicate that he might be a bit closer to the truth than he thinks when he draws comparisons with Czechoslovakia in 1938 and not Czechoslovakia in 1993. That is indeed why we can only hope that Zionism will follow Nazism into the dustbin of history, which is the only place for ideologies which places race or religion above humanity. However, the evidence would seem to suggest that before that happens, the Zionists will be making many more of their historical comparisons and in doing so they will be moving closer and closer to those figures who they supposedly hate but resemble so much ........ "The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Liu Xiaobo receives the Nobel Peace Prize

2010-10-09T21:03:00.002+01:00

The decision to award Liu Xiaobo the Nobel Peace Prize had me scurrying through a list of past winners and there we have Kofi Annan in 2001 although at the time of writing this I am not too sure why he received the award. No such problems with Obama though and we are told that his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" got him the prize. Well, wasn't it Clausewitz who said that "war is an extension of politics carried out by other means"? Anyway, let's tell the people of Afghanistan and anywhere else where America is dropping its bombs that their dead men, women and children are just a reflection of Obama stengthening diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

Horrifically absurd, of course, but when we read that Arafat, Peres and Rabin were honoured because of their "efforts to create peace in the Middle East", that Elie Wiesel got it because .... well, I am not really sure why he got it even if he is listed as the Chairman of 'The President's Commission on the Holocaust', an Author and a humanitarian, and that Sadat, Begin and Kissinger are among other past winners, we might seriously doubt the seriousness of this prize. Indeed, the evidence might even suggest that the only logical course for anyone wishing to maintain their credibility would be to decline it. As in fact, Vietnam's Le Duc Tho did in 1973 when he was jointly awared it with Kissinger. Well, two years later we had NVA troops in Saigon. At least we cannot accuse Mr Tho of hypocrisy.

The West is hypocritical and we might begin to question the motives behind the prize itself even if we shouldn't doubt Liu's sincerity, his own personal suffering and his willingness to go to prison for his beliefs. Regarding the West's motives I will leave this post's readers to make up their own minds. Nevertheless, we might look at some possible consequences of this award.

While in China I remember having a conversation with my students on a multi-party system only to be told half way through the conversation that they really couldn't discuss this and that most of them were, in fact, in the Party. These were good people, capable of critical thinking and not only are they in the CCP, but indeed they are the CCP. More recently, I had to supervise a dissertation by a Chinese law student who compared the British and Chinese legal systems, while concentrating on and praising the role of the jury, an independent judiciary and the system of cross examination in Britain. His conclusion was that China needs a similar system. Both this particular student and the many other Chinese students I have worked with have convinced me that this is the generation which will change China and which will see China evolve into a country in which people like Liu Xiaobo will, indeed, have freedom of expression. It is not, I believe, in his interests or in the interests of that young generation that really do have hope for the future, for the hypocritical West to point the finger at China and the Chinese government. Moreover, we can only speculate as to their motives when doing so. Nevertheless, if it is supposed to facilitate speeding up change, we might not only ask would there be resulting chaos and could such change be sustainable, but also who would benefit from the resulting chaos? In my opinion China's development in all areas is already astonishing and it should be considered for one moment that, while it is to some extent relative, people in China are freer and more prosperous than they have been at any other time in their history. There is, of course, a long way to go but then China has come a very long way since Deng Xiaoping's "opening up" in 1979.

Finally, there can be, no doubt, that authoritarian governments are worried about people like Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition politician who won the prize in 1995 and Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, the Russian nuclear physicist and dissident who won the prize in 1975, and, no doubt, the Chinese government, which, despite what I have written, is still an authoritarian government, is worried about the extra attention and support that this award will bring Liu Xiaobo. Nevertheless, China today is not Burma or the Democratic Republic of Korea and it is not the Soviet Union in 1975. There is change taking place and while Liu Xiaobo's fate should concern us all and while we should want to do everything to see him being released, it is neither Liu nor even his Charter 08 organisation that will be the real force for change in China. Of course, we should insist on Liu's release. However, it is in all of our interests that we encourage change to take place peacefully and for the benefit of everyone and the last thing we should want to do is confront China with standards that are imposed by a self-serving and hypocritical West.

Abbas threatens to resign

2010-10-08T15:21:00.001+01:00

Abbas is threatening to resign if settlement construction continues and apparently Palestinian sources believe that this will lead to the dismantling of the PA and transferring authority in the West Bank back to Israel. Well, while we might expect Abbas and the corrupt PA to hang in there, as such a scenario smacks of the statesman that Abbas is not, we can contemplate the repercusions of just such a scenario. The farce of Palestinian self-government would be dispelled and the smoke screen that is conveniently used by the Israeli government lifted. Or, let me draw a parallel.

In 1972, in the wake of "Bloody Sunday", the British Government abolished Stormont and introduced direct rule fromLondon. Now, whatever the new order was to be in Northern Ireland, if nothing else, the nationalist community were sure of one thing. A victory of sorts had been achieved. No longer would this problem created by the British be seen as some sort of internal problem in the province. One thing was now blatantly clear and that was a part of Ireland was still being occupied.

Similarly, although Israel is in fact the real authority in the Occupied Territories, as is indeed witnessed by the continued ethnic cleansing that is going on there, if the PA were to be dismantled and authority fofficially transferred to Israel, only the most myopic would fail to see the real nature of this colonial adventure. Moreover, not only would it make it just a little bit more difficult to pull the wool over the international community's eyes, but it would also mean that this farcical cooperation between some Palestinian groups and the Zionist state would have to end and that there would be a unified resistence against the enemy. One cannot help but hoping that there is some substance to Abbas's threat and that today we have moved a step closer to the end of the occupation.

Islam is a part of German society and "Toten Hosen" play in Tel-Aviv

2010-10-05T09:26:00.003+01:00

Now "our" politicians are a motley crew of mediocrities, none of them to be taken too seriously, all of them expendable. Nevertheless, even although organised religion is the most aburd gobbledegook,when the German president, Christian Wulff stands up and says that Islam is an integral part of German society, that can be taken seriously for what Mr Wulff is effectively telling all and sundry is that islamophobia, xenophobia, anti-semitism, racism, is not Salonfähig. In other words, it is just not on, not politically correct. Therefore, it can be reasonably assumed that Germany today is very different from the Germany that woke up on the morning of the 10th November 1938.

Unfortunately, there is still real cause for concern and the evidence would seem to suggest that that "wir haben es nicht gewusst", that look the other way, sector of the population is still thick on the ground. For instance, there is Andreas Frege, better known as Campino, the lead singer in the German group "Toten Hosen", another politically correct, very Salonfähig German whose myopia has him and his mates jumping around a stage in Tel Aviv as .... a punk rocker of all things. Yes, it would appear that he has totally misunderstood that late seventies/early eighties "no future" generation's "not giving a fuck philosophy" and we might expect very different behaviour from someone who has played Macky Messer in Brecht's Dreigroschenoper and who, apparently has supported social projects against racism and provided financial support for legal aid for asylum seekers.

Anyway, there he was in yesterday's ZDF full of praise for how open the people are in Israel and telling us how important it is that a German group can play there, while down on the beach young Israelis supped their Weissbier and told us how they would like to visit Berlin and in the meantime forty miles down the road in Gaza they cannot even travel out of their prison, or just up the road in the Occupied Territories, they have to stop every five minutes to be humiliated at an Israelli control point? Yes, maybe its something to do with his being German, but Andreas hasn't quite understood or he really is guilty of that type of opportunism that saw 99% of Germany's Civil Service stay in office after Adolf came to power. Otherwise, he might take his cue from that group of Israeli activists who wrote an open letter to the Pixies in March, asking “Are you prepared to perform in Tel Aviv,” they wrote, “while just under your nose millions of human beings are suffocating under a cruel Israeli military regime, denying them elementary human rights?” The Pixies didn't go and in not going they have followed in the footsteps of those many other aritists who have boycotted the Zionist regime.

The good news from Germany is that islamophobia, xenophobia, anti-semitism, racism, are, for the time being, not politically correct. The bad news is that there are still a lot of people out there who are all too willing to turn a blind eye, to look the other way. Moreover, this is all the more worrying, considering that, unlike their grandparents generation, they can say something, do something, follow their conscience, without having to worry about ending up in a concentration camp themselves. Moreover, while it is, of course, to some extent understandable, nowhere is the collective myopia, this tendency to turn a blind eye, to look the other way, more obvious than is in Germany when it comes to Israel and it is only when the Germans and German society move beyond this that Christian Wulff's words will be more than just pure political expediency and Germany will indeed have learned from its past.

Avigdor Lieberman prepares the world for the next Nakba

2010-09-28T20:22:00.001+01:00

Avigdor Lieberman looks mentally challenged but we should not be fooled into believing that this idiot, and others like him, do not present us with a challenge of our own for when he has the audacity to stand in front of the UN and present it with "his" draft for a population and territory swap, "as part of an eventual peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians", Palestinians, especially those who constitute 20% of Israel's population, should be worried, very worried indeed! For, Avigdor is only demonstrating George Orwell's axiom that "he who controls the past controls the future, and he who controls the present controls the past”. However, here it becomes particularly absurd and there is no Palestinian past, not even a mythical one, there is only the Palestinian present and the Zionist equation is one of settlements in return for Arabs in Israel moving to a future Palestinian state.

There is no 1948, no 1967 and, indeed, with families still being evicted from their homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on a daily basis, there is not even a yesterday and there was me sitting watching the news on ZDF a few hours ago and hearing that the issue of settlements is the most contentious issue between Palestinians and Israelis. What the settlements is not the "most contentious" issue but rather a further chapter in an ethnic cleansing that began a long time ago. They are being built on land that is illegally occupied under international law. Mr Lieberman you have nothing to swap and the real swap might be how do you compensate the Palestinians in the diaspora? Providing, of course, the Palestinians are willing to discuss compensation in exchange for their right of return. We might doubt that they would want to do that and in doubting it at least aware that history did not begin yesterday and in being aware of that we may want to take up the challenge we have all been presented with. If we don't, then the "controllers of the present" will have their way and not only in Palestine.

Amajinidad's speech, the West's reaction and Ed Miliband as the new Labour Party leader

2010-09-25T21:18:00.001+01:00

Now Amajinidad making those accusations at the UN ... well, it is a bit like Joe Stalin calling Adolf a criminal. Well, it is, but do you know, Joe would have been hiting the nail on the head there. And then there is Obama and his "how dare you talk like that , just a couple of miles from where all those innocent people died" and we are, of course, left wondering how many American politicians have spouted off right next door to where they have ordered the slaughter of millions? Of course, not that physical proximity to the crime really matters very much in a day and age when they can kill hundreds of men, women and children using drones that are controlled from Langley and Mr "hope and change" Obama how many dead are you already responsible for?

Yes, "hope and change", what an absolute joke and it is over to "Bighty" where Ed Miliband is the new leader of the Labour Party and, therefore, the "in the not too distant future" Prime Minister of the 'Blighty' department of "Global Hypocrites' and the wiser among us, of course, know that Ed Miliband or David Miliband or Ed Balls or whoever ..... well, it really is a lot of balls isn't it? Still, the no news newspapers have got their story, a nice follow up on the no news story from yesterday where we have all the "holier than thou" politicians from the West walking out on Amajinidad's speech and we then have the "holier than thou" "already a war criminal" Obama crticising the speech and do you know something ..... while I really am the last person who wants to live in a country where we have to keep our mouths shut while waiting for the 12th iman, the appropriately named mahdi, to appear and as much as we all might dislike Amajinidad, the real news is not to be found in yesterday's speech and in the West's reaction to it, but rather the story worth investigating is what happened on 9/11 and why did it happen? Now, if we get to the bottom of that, the "much of a muchness" men might be revealed for the insipid bunch of hypocritical criminals that they in fact are.

Palestinian resistance is important for all of us

2010-09-22T21:23:00.001+01:00

Apparently the Anti-Defamation League's national director, Abraham H. Foxman, who was present at the meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and American Jewish leaders has said that he was impressed by the Palestinian president calling Mr.Netanyahu "my partner" and the fact that there appears to be some effort on Abbas's part to keep the negotiations open even if the settlement building began, Although, on issues, such as Jerusalem and calling Israel a Jerusalem state, the PA president has not made him happy.

Well, Abbas actually going through this pathetic charade is indicative of his being Netanyahu's partner, while his indicating that he will continue with the negotiations even if the settlement rebuilding "began" should not surprise us. After all, the settlement building never really stopped and we can be quite sure that it will officially "restart" this coming weekend. Nevertheless, we can at least rest assured that if Abbas were to give way on the issue of Jerusalem or, with more than 20% of its population Palestinian and a big chunk of it built on other Palestinians' land, if he were to call Israel a Jewish state, Israel's so-called partner in peace would be a political dodo as far as the majority of his own people are concerned. Although, might that not already be true?

Finally, we might also be asking ourselves the question what this has to do with with what is a group of American citizens, including a certain Mr Foxman, who Wikipedea lists as being an American-Russian? Nevertheless, we know the answer to that question and in knowing it, it really is time to debunk the myth of a plucky little Israel standing on its own and in doing so we might, indeed, begin to appreciate the Palestinian people's resilience in not allowing itself to be bullied out of existence by Washington and Jerusalem. Although, at times difficult to believe, the Zionists will not succeed and this is, I believe, important, not only for the dispossessed, bereaved, maimed and bullied, in the Diaspora, in the occupied territories, in Gaza and, beyond the "green line", in Israel itself, it is important for all of us. For if they do succeed, we are all moving a little step closer to the possibility of it happening to us.

Peace Negotiations

2010-09-21T20:46:00.000+01:00

It is almost surreal following the so-called "peace negotiations" that are going on at present between the "Palestinian Authority" and the Israelis. "Authority" and Abbas does not even have authority over his own people in his own part of what are the occupied territories. Yet, here is Israel looking for a a "partner for peace" and some Palestinian "authority" that will give them, what they feel will be, the legal justification for their steal of the century and in return Abbas and the Palestinians on the West Bank will get all sorts of little freedoms, some little comforts and, providing they behave themselves, permission to move about in their iron cages without being bullied at every turn.

Surreal and the reality is, of course, a very different one and it is expressed all too clearly by the 'Palestinian Return Centre' in London when it expresses its concern over Ehud Olmert's statement that George W Bush's administration offered to resettle 100 thousand Palestinian refugees and thereby affectively terminate the right of return. The Right of Return is not negotiable, it is guaranteed by UN Resolution 194 and it has been affirmed over one hundred times in the UN. Quite simply the Abbas and his PA don't have a mandate to represent all Palestinians inside all of the occupied territories, never mind those in the refugee camps and in the Diaspora.

Real peace negotiations are not about superficial concessions, freezing settlement construction and, despite the Israelis applying some sort of carrot and stick policy, there remains nothing for them to "negotiate" here. It is left for them only to obey international law and withdraw completely from the territories they have occupied since 1967, while immediately lifting the illegal blockade of Gaza. However, more than that the issues at stake here go far beyond even the illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the collective punishment of the whole population of Gaza and whether the Israelis like it or not the fact remains that all Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their original homes and towns. Moreover, while it might just be that during the course of negotiations some of them might just accept financial and moral compensation for the suffering the Zionist state has caused them, that is for them to decide. Nevertheless, when Palestinians do sit down at the table to negotiate on this point, then we will indeed be seeing real peace negotiations.

First as a Tragedy, then as a Farce

2010-09-16T20:36:00.004+01:00

Well, there he was, on leaving the 'Tesco Express' store on Liverpool's London Rd a couple of weeks ago, as proud as punch, with his ego satisfied and, apart from the various two for one fruits, some suspicioulsy GM look-a-like tomatoes and the milk in his bag there was that box of fair trade tea. Yes, ego satisified and as Slavoj Žižek rightly points out, when refering to Oscar Wilde's 'The Soul of Man under Socialism' , in his 'First As Tragedy, Then As Farce', it is, indeed, easier to feel for someone who is suffering than it is to sympathise with a chewer of cuds. Of course, it might be added, all the more so, on realising that the deep thinkers have hardly prevented the deep shit that we find ourselves swimming in and that the various mediocrities who are directly responsible for that shit invariably sought their own raison d'etre and, indeed, their regime's raison d'éat in those deep thinkers; Karl Marx as Stalin's intellectual precursor, Friedrich Nietzsche as Adolf Hitler's! Well, Newton and Maxwell as Einstein's intellectual precursor, perhaps, but does anyone seriously believe that either Adolf or Joe were capable of intellectual thought?

No, quite rightly Žižek points out that it is time for us to put on our thinking caps, analyse the fine mess that we are in from a marxist perspective and, rather than agreeing that communism has failed seek our salvation in applying the communist hypothesis. That will be difficult! Nevertheless, we might do well to look at Žižek's analysis of the world as it is and just as Marx in his observations hit the nail on the head, so too does Slavoj Žižek in his explaination of why there is no such a thing as capitalism with a human face. In understanding this, we might then get ready to act and on acting, we might, indeed, have learned from past mistakes. "First as a tragedy, then as a farce" but, please, please, if there is a next time, no more Friedrich Eberts, Joe Stalin's, Mao-Tse-Tungs and please, please, no more grinning, spinning Tony Blairs.

The system just doesn't work

2010-09-15T22:06:00.000+01:00

With some 25% of those with 'A' levels having no university place, we might conclude that GB Ltd can no longer educate its own. 25% and that would appear to be the percentage of foreign students that many of the country's institutes of higher education are aiming at. Foreign students fees are much higher but that is not the reason that you will get from the universities. No, you will hear how "in a globally connected world, it is important to increase the international profile of the university." or "values have to be shared". Of course, you might occasionally hear something else but you will never hear that it is about the money.

Still, the "Blighty Boys" are not all stupid and there was me being awoken by some drunken "received pronunciation" English fresher at three o'clock in the morning telling a Chinese student in no uncertain terms, "how dare you tell me to keep quiet, you flood this country with your shoddy goods, you take our university places, how dare you." Yes, there are a few indications out to suggest that this little experiment in survival might just backfire. However, what do you do when there are no more ships being built, when government cuts are already gnawing at your city's largest employer, when billions are thrown at the banks so that they can rip you off again and when the media actually has everyone believing that they now have to pay for living beyond their means?

No, the system just does not work and believe me folks it will soon be turning to the loud mouth jingoistic louts, which the lad who woke me up has already metomorphosed into, the bevy boys, the 'Daily Mail' "stop the foreigners" crowd, just to prolong its existence and when it is time to realise it, only the more perceptive among us will realise "hey this isn't liberal democracy, this is fascism"; but hey, who told you that capitalism needed liberal democracy?

Israelis invite Mavi Marmara captain to give testimony at their investigation

2010-09-13T16:04:00.000+01:00

The Gaza flotilla probe panel set up by Israel in an effort to whitewash its piracy and murder at high seas, has invited the captain of the Mavi Marmara to give evidence. His testimony would follow on the heels of the Chairman of Israel's National Security Council Professor Uzi Arad testified before the Turkel committee behind closed doors and the Mossad director Meir Dagan was expected to testify on Tuesday.

Now, no doubt, they will be baying that if Mr. Halid Terzi fails to appear, he obviously has something to hide. Nevertheless, it might just be that he has the good sense not to confer any sort of legitmacy on this so-called "internal investigation". All the more so that by the time Uzi Arad, Meir Dagan and others have spouted fourth their justifications for the crime that took place on May 31st, whatever he says will simply be seen in relation to some bigger picture. A picture which we will be told is all about the survival of Israel itself.

No, my advice to Mr. Terzi is that he steer clear of this farce. Furthermore, although not completely relevant, could you actually imagine an internal enquiry by the Lebanese government in 2006 or the Hamas government in Gaza in 2009 inviting Israelis to give testimony. It is, indeed, time not only for Israel to waken up but for the rest of the world to do so and realise that rather than confer this rogue state with some sort of credibility, it is time to deprive it of any legitimacy until it accepts international law. That could begin with an external investigation into the crimes committed not only at high seas on the 31st of May but also the countless other crimes committed in the past by the Zionist regime and before that we could expect an Israeli withdrawal from, at least, all of the territories occupied after June 67.

No need to be fair when you can be "halfway fair" and get everything

2010-09-12T20:00:00.001+01:00

'Haaretz' reports today that the IDF has killed three Palestinians who, they say, were "approaching the border between Israel and Gaza." The incident took place shortly after "Gaza militants fired three mortar shells at the northern Negev."

As we might expect, their were no casualties from the mortars fired into the northern Negev desert, the three dead Palestinians were not so-called "militants" but innocent farmers and once again we have cold blooded murder being displayed as some sort of reasonable response to what the Israelis would term a "terrorist attack".

Just another story which illustrates the true nature to the "two sides to the conflict" and with Abbas and Netanyahu meeting in Washington and with the 'Guardian' portraying Obama back on the 2nd of September as some sort of honest broker in these talks we might want to read the gobbledegook written in the paper's editorial on the chances of the talks being successful. "In the end it depends on what Obama can do. It is not only a question of whether he has the will and is ready to risk the political capital needed to push the parties to a settlement. It is whether he has the will to push for a settlement that is fair, or at least halfway fair, to the Palestinians."A settlement that is "at least halfway fair, to the Palestinians." Now, "half way fair" really does remind me of that little trick question which asks: "If it takes four men an hour to dig a hole, how long will it take two men to dig half a hole?" Of course, there is no such thing as half a hole and similarly there is no such thing as being "halfway fair".

Of course, there at those who might want to suggest that I temper my ranting and raving, after all with those crazy militants firing shells into the empty desert, the bully boys from the IDF could have quite easily killed six palestinians and not three. The mind boggles and in applying the deranged logic that the 'Guardian' would appear to subscribe to the term "halfway fair" might not be so absurd after all. At least, not in this "two sides to the conflict" orwellian world in which we live.

where there is life, there is hope

2010-09-11T23:38:00.001+01:00

There are many strange things that one encounters in today's 'Blighty' and there was me sometime around wednesday morning indulging in Costa's free copy of the 'Daily Mail' and being told that the Germans are angry because the British are building a war memorial to bomber command. Now, if the Germans are coming out with that old "Dresden was a war crime" argument then the tendency might be to counter by saying that Dr Josef Goebbels did declare the total war in the Berliner Sportpalast on the 18th of February 1943 after they themselves had already bombed civilian populations from Stalingrad to Sheffield, ravaged Europe and were in the process of trying to exterminate the whole of European Jewry. That, however, is not the point.

For one thing, while there might be isolated voices against this monument in Germany, there is to my knowledge no real campaign against it there. Most Germans probably don't care if such a monument is built and if anything are actually slightly amused at the need to build another war memorial some seventy years after the event. However, this has little to do with the second world war and, indeed, very little to do with Germany. It is another case of turning people away from the real problems and the real mess that 'HMS Blighty' finds itself in anno 2010. Yes, divert their attentions and they won't even begin to chew the cud on the fact that only two years ago we were all aware of the fact that it was fictive capital that got us into the fine mess that we find ourselves in and, while a cabinet of public schoolboys goes ahead and dismantles the public sector, we have another piece of jingoistic nonsense to accompany the dead "heroes" from the "war on terror" and the once horny handed sons of toil, now reduced to reduced benefits, might, to quote, Adolf Hitler be made painfully aware of the fact that "wer nicht für uns ist gegen uns" ("whoever isn't for us, is against us").

Of course, we can only hope that the people of Britain, who are about to see their public services decimated, will not fall for this crap and they might want to remind themselves of the fact that very few upper class twits of the Cameron and Clegg ilk actually die, or have ever died, for their country. In German they say "die "Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt", which, although we might translate as "hope is the last thing to die" might be understood figuratively as "where there is life, there is hope". Yes, we can only hope that the realisation is that the battles are not to be fought over something that happened over sixty years ago above the skies of Britain or by those working class "heroes" who are lying and dying in modern imperial wars, but rather on the streets of Britain today and for a system which offers a genuine alternative to that one which has failed miserably and which now tries to attribute its failure to some mythical avarice on the part of its victims.