Tag Archives: UK

Smile As You Destroy Their Democracy

There list of hypocracies and deadly inconsistancies continues to grow between Israel and Palestine.
On this blog I’ve been very vocal at the distress I felt seeing the international community demand elections in Palestine, and then slapping them with financial and political penalties for party they elected.
As I’ve said so often: you (nations) may not like Hamas, but you can’t just refuse to acknowledge their legitimacy because you didn’t want them to win.

But thats old news. The hypocracies I’ve been watching tonight on this late night CNN that I sometimes turn on, are of a whole new dimension. Apparently, if CNN can manage to report something accurately, the Israeli Army has bombed the Palestinian Interior Ministry, offices of FATAH (the former governing party) and offices of Hamas (the recently elected party in power).
Putting aside, if at all possible, the hostile moves such as the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, on the part of some vaguely named Palestinian extremist group, what kind of statement does this look like from the Israeli government and the western powers that support it, financially and politically.
Will they really soon recognize a Palestinian state? If so, will they then proceed to bomb the government buildings whenever they deem it necessary? How is that respecting democracy and being committed to dialogue?
Of course there are radical elements on both sides that commit crimes. But it seems extra baffling to see that the most violent (with the most capacity for carrying out violent attacks) and the most radical of the groups involved is in fact the Israeli government’s own military!

And once again, before all this destruction, signs and statements that Hamas is changing and can be counted on to participate in dialogue.

All this darkness…. that’s it.. I’m hitching a ride to Paris for the weekend.

Why Admit It?

There are so many ironies and things that just make no sense in this world, obviously we’ve all noticed that at some point in observing how things work. On the one hand the government, any government, but lets just say the American one – can seem very in control, very underhanded, and very capable of anything. But then something will happen that shows the government is incapable, inefficient, and generally a mess. I just noticed the latest one:

The headline on the BBC reads: Triple Suicide at Guantanamo Camp

Three guys hanged themselves at the Guantanamo Concentration Camp. That in itself isn’t surprising, actually a total of 3 deaths is pretty low for a prison where prisoners are subject to all sorts of torture. But what baffles me is why they admit it. Why tell the world? They rarely let any information about the place out. Even photos are pretty controlled. The military has reported that there have been 41 suicide attemps. Why even admit that? I would have assumed they would never release such information, and claim things are perfect at the prison and all is under control.

But they don’t keep secrets very well. Or somehow information gets out that you can’t believe they actually admit. Maybe it’s even too hard to face the truth for tax paying citizens who fund this torture camp. So the military just reports the shameful truth about prisoners who have no rights and may not have committed any crimes and how their killing themselves to escape the horrors they are subjected to.

If there’s a strategy here… I can barely see it.

This Man Has a Name… His Name is Henry Paulson

I went with an obscure movie/reality post title today, but I’m going to talk about neither the new treasury secretary of the US nor the film.

I’m also not going to talk about the Iranian president’s interview with Der Spiegel that D-Rock just pointed out to me. Not yet.. I’ve something special planned for it in my podcast in the coming days.

Instead, today I have to turn my attention to Indonesia. Several days have now passed since the 6.5 earthquake and the death toll of over 5,000 continues to rise. And to further complicate things a volcano is now spilling lava within the earthquake’s area. Of course, as of this morning, 27 countries had already offerred help in the form of people/stuff/money. But it is such a difficult part of the world, not only because of what seems like a large amount of natural disasters, year after year, but because despite its wealth in natural resources and the fact that the clothes on your back are probably made there – it is still the under-developed world, where the average person has little in the way of emergency measures and options and the government certainly doesn’t seem to make it priority number one that their nation be equipped to handle various levels of natural disaster emergencies.

For the willing and able, I refer you to the Java Earthquake Relief Wiki, where you may find some role you can play as a citizen of the same planet. And to best keep up to speed via blogs, use the WorldWideHelpTeam.

bm132 Summer of Yeast 2006, Madge Weinstein and the MacDocMan Take on Circumcision

A break from my usual style of podcast. Madge Weinstein passed through Amsterdam yesterday, before eating her way to Hungary, she and I went to visit the famed Dutch vlogger and pro-foreskin crusader, the MacDocMan. I should note that he didn’t know he was being recorded initially, but I thought the conversation was interesting and fun and hopefully he agrees because otherwise I’m sure he can afford a lawyer and I certainly can’t. If you’re fragile and you can’t stand talk about genitals, this show is not for you… wimp.

Useful Links:

MacDocMan’s Vlog on Male Circumcision
Madge Weinstein Yeasts Across Europe
Is the Stock Market on the Verge of Collapse?

 

An Excellent Way to Settle Disputes Between Iran and Israel

Let me just preface this post with one thing I want to be clear on: I’m not being sarcastic on this one. Matter of fact, remind me not to use sarcasm as a regular method of blogging, it’s a lazy cop out I occasionally fall into. I digress, here’s the headline from the BBC today:

A group of Israeli diplomats wants to sue Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide.

Incitement to genocide is what it sounds like. And under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, it is a crime. Nevermind the punishment, I’m not here to worry about that. What interests me is the method this group of Israeli’s have chosen to use to combat the statements and the potential implications of those statements by the Iranian president. This is what I called civilized. Not bombs or soldiers or threats, legal action on an international scale. It’s how it would work in my slightly more idealistic version of the world.

But this interests me for another reason. During my days as a masters student here in the Amsterdam, I had a professor who was very involved with the UN and particularly concerned about the role of media that incites genocide. Think Rwanda, for example, where radio was the tool used by Hutu extremists to first incite more and more hate and eventually culminating in violence which, if I recall correctly, was coordinated by use of radio programs as well.

So my professor had this idea for the creation of a monitor under the UN umbrella. It would be a media monitor, and its function would be to watch media (all types) to proactively detect if and when it is being used to incite genocide. Now, you might already be asking “then what” but like I said before, one step at a time; and it would be a very important step to be able to catch these things BEFORE they happen.

It has been some time since I sat and talked with that professor, and this is all reminding me of his plan. And although this situation with Israel and Iran is slightly different, and I don’t claim to know if the Iranian president is guilty or not-STILL- I have the utmost respect for any government or group of citizens who put together a case to be presented before the international court and before the eyes of the entire world, pointing out the violation of a very important treaty, and when a leader could be inciting violence on a mass scale.

So we’ll see what happens. And whatever happens, the symbolic value, the example such an action represents in the form of using non-people killing methods, is big in itself.

Seeking the Truth about Charles Taylor

Tonight I was hoping to get the “ok” from Pauline in Ivory Coast to do the podcast that focuses on Charles Taylor, which we’ve been discussing in sporatic email. Anyone who either reads the Known Universe or heard my program about the conflict in Ivory Coast remembers Pauline, the roving reporter transplanted from Amsterdam to Abidjan. Last I spoke with her she had just returned from a visit to Dakar, Senegal. Talk about adventure!

You may recall my post about a month ago bringing up the topic of Charles Taylor and pondering whether or not he is a sociopath, and generally discussing his alleged crimes. Pauline read it, and offered another point of view on the whole thing. She’d just returned from Liberia, and mentioned how in reality, many people there still support their former president and despite all the things he stands accused of, think his actions were justified. I was a bit surprised to hear it, although I think it’s a normal response in many cases that the abused still love the abuser.

But I leave the details and the closer analysis to the podcast, as soon as I reconnect with her. In the mean time I’m sorting through more details of his life, things I hadn’t considered before. Here are some eye-opening highlights:

– Taylor actually broke out of a Massachesetts prison back in in 1984! Where he was being held for embezzling almost 1 million dollars from a Liberia related institution. When I say broke out, I mean hollywood style, complete with rope of bed sheets, sawing through bars, and a getaway car. Talk about good training for later becoming president.

– In 1997, after leading one faction of a civil war in Liberia, elections were held and he ran for president. One of his campaign slogans was, “He killed my Ma, he killed my Pa, but I will vote for him.” – He went on to win by a landslide.

– Pat Robertson, famous televangelist who occasionally urges his viewers to assasinate world leaders, struck a deal with Taylor back in 1994. The deal gave Robertson the right to the diamond rich mines of Liberia, which were transported via airplane through his Operation Blessing relief organization. Robertson told his viewers that those flights were actually flying relief supplies to the victims of the genocide in Rwanda.

All this being said. I’ve never been to Liberia. I’ve never walked a day in the shoes of a Liberian, and certainly will never fully understand how all that trauma from so much war and manipulation can effect you. All the more reason I look forward to hearing from Pauline, who fortunately for all of us, has been looking into these questions, and trying to gather more information and testimony from people who lived it and continue to live in the new Liberia, post-Charles Taylor.