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Posted by admin in Global Issues on December 1st, 2012
I have made several visits to the Great Britain in the recent and distant past. I could not convince myself all these years that this country could have been the ruler of more than half of the world. But irrespective of my belief, she was the dominant power of the world for over a hundred years or so or roughly until the Second World War.
In 90s, it was polluted and dirty and during my visit in December2011, I found it much more environmentally squalid and unkempt. The degradation of the environment in UK is escalating without any tangible remedies to contain it. The atmospheric hygiene is poor. The streets remain littered for days and weeks together without being cleaned. It is a common scene to see water drains outside the houses choked by stray papers, odd trash items, causally thrown away plastic bags, bottles and wrappers. It might become a third world country in due course. If one compares the civic upkeep elsewhere in Europe like in Germany and Austria, one would come across a bewildering contrast. Germany has been rebuilt after the colossal devastation during the Second World War. The autobahns (highways) between the major cities are modern, wide, properly lined up with gas or fuel stations all along. The face lifting and landscaping is all over the country. The zoning laws are in place and strictly enforced. But in England one fails to find that sparkling touch and luminous spectacle in cities and on roads and highways on a huge scale. One would find the familiar sight of cows grazing along the inter-cities highways on lush green grassy landscape far away. But within the cities the traffic looks to be stuffy and. The traffic lights too are not as modern and plenteous as for instance in the United States. The streets lights look to be dim and sparsely installed on roads in the cities. The cab and private drivers take liberty with traffic laws by jumping the signals or fast driving or parking at forbidden or no parking places. This kind of law breaking is not common but happens sparingly and at odd times.
The British society is essentially conservative and therefore, any change or transformation in the construction of buildings, remodeling the public traffic system and buses is not willingly undertaken or conceived. The outskirts of the cities are full of old taverns and restaurants with their primitive designs dating back to several centuries.
The lamp posts on historical roads in downtown look like relics and were perhaps erected with the discovery of electricity. Since the skies in the United Kingdom remain overcast for better part of the year, there is a pervasive dampness. One feels a kind of depression for not seeing the skies for days together.
One would aspire that the underground mass transit system of local railway is updated and modernized. Also one would wish that the double-decked bus transportation system too is done away with and the normal sized buses with modern frame and latest internal gadgets are introduced. The phenomenal difference in the overall picture of the United States and the United kingdom is that USA looks all new with big shopping plazas and housing constellations fast coming up. In United States, the businesses, the shopping centers and factory areas are separate from the residential areas. Barring the apartment complexes, every built house or living unit is separate from other houses. It would be impossible under the American laws to open a gift shop or small retail outlet in the parlor or garage of the house. In England the houses share wall with each other as part of block. In England, Scotland and other parts, the living or guest rooms can be converted into a kind of kiosk for selling grocery times.
In Britain, the dirt and filth and smut accumulated in lanes around the roads and on the walls of the buildings must be washed and erased through a nationwide sweeping campaign. England has to overhaul its municipal system drastically and radically to put on the grab of a modern society. In the past such huge buildings with Gothic spires and domes were the symbols of the imperial glory of a colonial power.
The House of Commons and also the House of Lords accommodated within the vast edifice of Palace of Westminster have almost the same internal format as at the time of their inception.
The seating arrangement in perpendicular shape is unchanged for centuries. The prime minister has to bend forward to speak and in four years may develop leaning shoulders. The seats are smaller and joined together in rows. The parliament buildings in other countries look like magnificent structures and striking architectural monuments. But British parliament has the same primitive space and set-up. One would wonder if any British government ever would think of constructing a new building for the parliamentarians of both the houses with modern fittings, new seating arrangements, new tables, decorations, wall hangings, microphones and with more space. Yet despite being housed in a traditional old building, it still is one of the most powerful parliaments and pioneering symbol of democracy. In Glasgow the main city of Scotland, the railway stations seems to be following the same system of collecting tickets from the disembarked passengers by the collector standing at the tip the platform. In this city I saw the building made of stone bearing the marks of soot, smoke and blackness caused perhaps by the bombing during the Second World War.In the houses of several of my acquaintances both native British and immigrant Pakistanis, the bath tubs and water supply system with minor modifications is the same as was prevalent several decades ago. The residents in some houses collect the water from the tap in the basin. Unbelievably they use the same water for washing face and gurgling and shaving. I wonder if someone can bear me out on this phenomenon. At about 11 o’clock in the evening, a manual bell is rung in the pubs for the customers to leave by which one is reminded that this should have been the custom in olden days. This is yet another manifestation of British penchant for conservatism.
Of late, the crime is on the rise. Even such worthies as late jimmy Savile a former BBC television host had indulged for decades in molestation of teen age participants in his TV programs as well as his staffers. The street crime is mostly motivated by the racial hatred for the immigrants, for sex or to rob for money. The sex crimes too are proliferating in which both immigrant communities and local citizens are involved. The fabled investigation agency Scotland Yard is shorn of their luster and renown of the past. Many high profile crimes are still shrouded in mystery and unresolved.
The nationals of the British Commonwealth countries had enjoyed special privileges and preferential treatment with regard to visit or immigration visas after the World War II. This practice continued for several decades till the streets of cities in UK were conspicuous with sizable presence of the foreigners. The plight of most of the immigrants or expatriates is miserable. Big families live in small units with limited space. In some houses or the apartments, I have seen the bath tub fixed in the kitchen. The toilet is in the courtyard and one has to walk many steps to reach that isolated place.
The influx of foreign students has been quite heavy during the past two decades. It was pretty easy for the students to get an admission letter from genuine or private and mostly fake educational institutions in UK. The embassy or the high commission would readily grant visa. These young persons would pay heavy amounts to the schools and colleges run by crafty professional businessmen. The basic purpose of most of these students was however, to get a legal stay in UK for a good future. They would be associated with these schools but would in due course find job and marry with a local girl for permanent legal status.
Now these students are in big trouble. They are being deported or sent back home in droves without even fulfilling the legal formalities. Such is the decay and devaluation of the acclaimed justice system in England. There seems to be a drastic halt in granting student visas to educational applicants from Pakistan and other south “Asian countries whose citizens invariably aspire to move to the green pasture like Great Britain. Instead of punishing the crook bosses of these phony schools, the onus has fallen on the hoodwinked young aspirants who came to UK legally for education with underlying motive of a legal stay.
There are localities and neighborhoods in various cities of UK where there is exclusive and complete hold of the immigrants such as South Hall in London. No one would believe on the first glimpse that these are the parts of a western country. The sanitary conditions in such neighborhoods are appalling. With heaps of garbage accumulated all over, with noise and din, with strung dresses and utensils, and cooked food displayed openly with smell all round can remind visitors the similar conditions back home.
Even in politics the immigrants are now demographically in such numbers that they can elect their won member to the House of Commons. In local elections the naturalized citizens have been elected. That shows the grass-root and a genuine democratic culture embedded in the English society. The ceremonies of a new prime minister taking over and the former leaving the 10 Downing Street is very simple and is total contrast to the extravagant ceremonies witnessed in the third world countries.
The writer is a senior journalist and a former diplomat.
Upright Opinion
You can also read this and other articles on [email protected]
December 1, 2012
Additional Reading
Britain is being rebuilt in aid of corporate power
Illustration by Daniel Pudles
They used to do it subtly; they don’t bother any more. Last week a column in the Telegraph argued that businesses should get the vote. Though they pay tax, Damian Reece maintained, they have “no say in the running of local or national government”. To remedy this cruel circumscription, he suggested that elections in the UK should follow the example set by the City of London Corporation. This is the nation’s last rotten borough, in which ballots in 21 of its 25 wards are controlled by companies, whose bosses appoint the voters. I expect to see Mr Reece pursue this noble cause by throwing himself under the Queen’s horse.
Contrast this call for an extension of the franchise with a piece in the same paper last year, advocating an income qualification for voters.Only those who pay at least £100 a year in income tax, argued Ian Cowie, another senior editor at the Telegraph, should be allowed to vote. Blaming the credit crisis on the unemployed (who, as we know, lie in bed all day devising credit default swaps and collateralised debt obligations), Cowie averred that “it’s time to restore the link between paying something into society and voting on decisions about how it is run”. This qualification, he was good enough to inform us, could exclude “the majority of voters in some metropolitan areas today”. The proposal was repeated by Benedict Brogan, the Telegraph’s deputy editor.
No representation without taxation: wasn’t that Alan B’stard’s slogan in the satirical series The New Statesman? Votes for business, none for the poor: this would formalise the corporate assault on democracy that has been gathering pace for the past 30 years.
This column is a plea for distrust. Distrust is the resource on which democracy relies. Distrust inspires the scrutiny and accountability without which representation becomes a lie. Distrust is all that stands between us and bamboozlement by people who, like Reece, Cowie and Brogan, channel the instincts of the billionaire owners of newspapers and broadcasters.
Last week David Cameron argued that those who say business “isn’t really to be trusted” do so as a result of “snobbery”. Business, in fact, is”the most powerful force for social progress the world has ever known”. Not democracy, education, science, justice or public health: business. You need only consider the exemplary social progress in Zaire underMobutu, Chile under Pinochet, or the Philippines under Marcos – who opened their countries to the kind of corporate free-for-all that Cameron’s backers dream of – to grasp the universal truth of this statement.
He gave some examples to support his contention that regulation can be replaced by trust. The public health responsibility deal, which transfers responsibility for reducing obesity and alcoholism to fast-food outlets, drinks firms and supermarkets, reaches, Cameron claimed, the parts “which the state just can’t”.
Under the deal, Subway and Costa are “putting calorie information up front when people are buying”. The state couldn’t possibly legislate for that, could it? Far better to leave it to the companies, who can decide for themselves whether they inform people that a larduccino coffee with suet sprinkles contains no more calories than the average Olympic sprinter burns in a month. He forgot to mention the much longer list of companies that have failed to display this information.
Another substitute for regulation, he suggested, is a programme called Every Business Commits. Through its website I found the government’s list of “case studies of responsible business practice”. Here I learned that British American Tobacco is promoting public health by educating and counselling its workers about HIV. The drinks giant Diageo is improving its waste water treatment process. Bombardier Aerospace is enhancing the environmental performance of its factories, in which it manufactures, er, private jets. RWE npower, which runs some of Britain’s biggest coal and gas power stations, teaches children how to “to think about their responsibilities in reducing climate change”.
All these are worthy causes, but they are either peripheral to the main social harms these companies cause or look to my distrustful eye like window dressing. Nor do I see how they differ from the “moral offsetting” that Cameron says happened in the past but doesn’t today. But this tokenism, in the prime minister’s view, should inspire us to trust companies to the extent that some of the regulations affecting their core business can be removed.
We are living through remarkable times. The government, supported by the corporate press, is engaged in a naked attempt to rebuild the life of this country around the demands of business. Extending the project begun by Tony Blair, Cameron is creating an economy in which much of the private sector depends on state contracts, and in which the government’s core responsibility is to provide them. If this requires the destruction of effective public healthcare and reliable state education, it is of no concern to an economic class that uses neither.
The corporations gaining ever greater powers will be subject to less democratic oversight and restraint, in the form of regulation. Despite the obvious lesson of the credit crunch – that self-regulation is an invitation to disaster – Cameron wants to extend the principle to every corner of the economy. Trust them, he says: what can possibly go wrong?
Twitter: @georgemonbiot
Posted by admin in Global Issues on November 23rd, 2012
Why is the world ignoring Myanmar’s Rohingya? Aung San Suu Kyi is now a victimizer of Rohingya. She is ingnoring the persecution of Rohingya’s at the hands of brutal Myanmar Army. She is deliberately supporting the Myanmar Army to do ethnic cleansing of Muslims. The Neros of Islamic world like King Faisal, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, Pervez Ashraf and Civilian Dictator Zardari are all silent.They have faced decades of discrimination but the Muslim minority’s plight has garnered little international attention.They have been persecuted and discriminated against for decades but few can even pronounce their name let alone know of their plight.
“There is a lot of latent prejudice, racism, whatever you want to call it, inside Burma
towards this community and it’s playing out right now. It’s not over by any means.
It’s a tinderbox and it could blow up at any time.”
– Brad Adams from Human Rights Watch
“It is true that we are not Burmese. We are an independent state – Arakan.
And Rohingya is one of the races of Arakan not Burma …. They [the Burmese] are the ones who intervened, they are the ones who are foreigners [in] this land, they are the ones who invaded.”
– Muhammad Noor, a Rohingya political activist
Buddhist attacks on the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, have picked up over the last few weeks following the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman in May. Human rights groups say the security forces are also involved in the targeted attacks, which started in June. Thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh – but thousands more have been refused entry. For those who do make it across the border their troubles are far from over. An estimated 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar’s Rakhine state with another 200,000 in Bangladesh. They are not recognised by either country. Myanmar has long faced tensions with many of its ethnic minorities, and the new government has agreed to a ceasefire with many of the groups. But last week, Thein Sein, the president of Myanmar, told the UN that the solution was either to send millions of Rohingya to another country or to have the UN look after them.
“We will take responsibility for ethnic nationalities but it is not at all possible to recognise the illegal border-crossing Rohingya who are not of our ethnicity,” he said. He added that the conflict poses a threat to the democratic and economic reforms his government has launched, warning that: “Stability and peace, the democratisation process and the development of the country, which are in transition right now, could be severely affected and much would be lost.” Inside Story asks: Is the plight of the Rohingya being deliberately ignored? Why has the world turned a blind eye to them? Joining presenter Sami Zeidan to discuss this are guests: Justin Wintle, a historian and author of Perfect Hostage, a biography of Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi; Brad Adams, the executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division; Mohamed Noor, a Rohingya political activist; and Dina Madani of the Muslim Minorities and Communities Department at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
“When the communal violence backlash hit the Rohingya in Rakhine state, Aung San Suu Kyi came out with expressions of sympathy for them, but so far she has said nothing about granting them the right of citizenship, and somebody’s got to do that in Myanmar.”
SBY Reacts to Plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya — With a Letter
Rangga Prakoso, Ismira Lutfia & Anita Rachman | August 06, 2012
A Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia protestor in front ofthe Merdeka Palace urges intervention on behalf of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. (Antara Photo/Ardiansyah Indra Kumala)
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesian-islamic-hard-liners-vow-jihad-for-myanmars-rohingyas/530406
Funny how he cannot intervene over Christians, Shia or the KPK/Police – but can poke his nose in here
Yudhoyono’s first statement on the issue on Saturday, following weeks of mounting calls from human rights activists, legislators and students for Indonesia to take a role in finding a solution, received a mixed reaction from observers.
Some claim that Yudhoyono is trying to find a balance between asserting Indonesia’s leadership in the region and preserving the momentum of Myanmar’s democratic reforms. Others argue that the president should meet Thein Sein immediately rather than merely send letters.
Myanmar and Indonesia are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Indonesia says it has been instrumental in pushing the Myanmar junta to embrace democracy.
In a measured statement during a news conference at his private residence in Cikeas, Bogor, Yudhoyono first said that there had been no indication of genocide of Rohingya. He then expressed Indonesia’s hope that Myanmar would stop the attacks against the Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar.
“My letter to Myanmar President Thein Sein expresses Indonesia’s hope that the Myanmar government will solve the Rohingya problem in the best way,” he said.
The president asked Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa to continue Indonesia’s active diplomacy so that Myanmar would allow representatives from the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Asean to enter the conflict zone to find what really happened.
“My hope is that the OIC, UN, Asean, Indonesia and Myanmar can cooperate to find the best solution,” he said.
Predominantly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens, saying they migrated from Bangladesh during British colonial rule. Bangladesh has also disavowed the group, saying it is Myanmar’s problem.
Amnesty International has reported that hundreds of Rohingyas have been killed, raped, beaten and arbitrarily arrested since Myanmar declared a state of emergency in northern Rakhine state, on the border with Bangladesh.
Yudhoyono said Indonesia could offer Myanmar expertise in solving conflicts between the Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya because the country had ample experience in dealing with clashes between Muslims and Christians, such as in Ambon and Poso, Central Sulawesi.
“Just like when we dealt with communal conflict in Poso, Ambon and Aceh, we didn’t want foreign involvement in the cases. We also rejected allegations that we did not protect the minority. I think Myanmar can hear the criticism and act justly,” the president said.
Haris Azhar, a prominent human rights activist and coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), however, suggested that the president should meet directly with Thein Sein.
Ahmad Qisai, an expert from the Paramadina Graduate School of Diplomacy, said Indonesia’s involvement in resolving this situation could boost its image.
Makmur Keliat of the University of Indonesia said Yudhoyono’s statement was only aimed at appeasing the public and the domestic media.
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Global Issues on October 19th, 2012
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On September 7 the Swedish aid agency Swedish Committee for Afghanistanreported that the previous week US soldiers raided one of its hospitals. According to the director of the aid agency, Anders Fange, troops stormed through both the men’s and women’s wards, where they frantically searched for wounded Taliban fighters. Soldiers demanded that hospital administrators inform the military of any incoming patients who might be insurgents, after which the military would then decide if said patients would be admitted or not. Fange called the incident “not only a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict, but also a clear breach of the civil-military agreement” between nongovernmental organizations and international forces. Fange said that US troops broke down doors and tied up visitors and hospital staff. Impeding operations at medical facilities in Afghanistan directly violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids attacks on emergency vehicles and the obstruction of medical operations during wartime. Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a public affairs officer for the US Navy, confirmed the raid, and told The Associated Press, “Complaints like this are rare.” Despite Sidenstricker’s claim that “complaints like this” are rare in Afghanistan, they are, in fact, common. Just as they are in Iraq, the other occupation. A desperate conventional military, when losing a guerilla war, tends to toss international law out the window. Yet even more so when the entire occupation itself is a violation of international law. Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild and also a Truthout contributor, is very clear about the overall illegality of the invasion and ongoing occupation of Afghanistan by the United States. “The UN Charter is a treaty ratified by the United States and thus part of US law,” Cohn, who is also a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and recently co-authored the book “Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent” said, “Under the charter, a country can use armed force against another country only in self-defense or when the Security Council approves. Neither of those conditions was met before the United States invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban did not attack us on 9/11. Nineteen men – 15 from Saudi Arabia – did, and there was no imminent threat that Afghanistan would attack the US or another UN member country. The council did not authorize the United States or any other country to use military force against Afghanistan. The US war in Afghanistan is illegal.” Thus, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, along with the ongoing slaughter of Afghan civilians and raiding hospitals, are in violation of international law as well as the US Constitution. And of course the same applies for Iraq. Let us recall November 8, 2004, when the US military launched its siege of Fallujah. The first thing done by the US military was to invade and occupy Fallujah General Hospital. Then, too, like this recent incident in Afghanistan,doctors, patients and visitors alike had their hands tied and they were laid on the ground, oftentimes face down, and held at gunpoint. During my first four trips to Iraq, I commonly encountered hospital staff who reported US military raids on their facilities. US soldiers regularly entered hospitals to search for wounded resistance fighters. Doctors from Fallujah General Hospital, as well as others who worked in clinics throughout the city during both US sieges of Fallujah in 2004, reported that US Marines obstructed their services and that US snipers intentionally targeted their clinics and ambulances. “The Marines have said they didn’t close the hospital, but essentially they did,” Dr. Abdulla, an orthopedic surgeon at Fallujah General Hospital who spoke on condition of using a different name, told Truthout in May 2004 of his experiences in the hospital. “They closed the bridge which connects us to the city [and] closed our road … the area in front of our hospital was full of their soldiers and vehicles.” He added that this prevented countless patients who desperately needed medical care from receiving medical care. “Who knows how many of them died that we could have saved,” said Dr. Abdulla. He also blamed the military for shooting at civilian ambulances, as well as shooting near the clinic at which he worked. “Some days we couldn’t leave, or even go near the door because of the snipers,” he said, “They were shooting at the front door of the clinic!” Dr. Abdulla also said that US snipers shot and killed one of the ambulance drivers of the clinic where he worked during the fighting. Dr. Ahmed, who also asked that only his first name be used because he feared US military reprisals, said, “The Americans shot out the lights in the front of our hospital. They prevented doctors from reaching the emergency unit at the hospital, and we quickly began to run out of supplies and much-needed medications.” He also stated that several times Marines kept the physicians in the residence building, thereby intentionally prohibiting them from entering the hospital to treat patients. “All the time they came in, searched rooms and wandered around,” said Dr. Ahmed, while explaining how US troops often entered the hospital in order to search for resistance fighters. Both he and Dr. Abdulla said the US troops never offered any medicine or supplies to assist the hospital when they carried out their incursions. Describing a situation that has occurred in other hospitals, he added, “Most of our patients left the hospital because they were afraid.” Dr. Abdulla said that one of their ambulance drivers was shot and killed by US snipers while he was attempting to collect the wounded near another clinic inside the city. “The major problem we found were the American snipers,” said Dr. Rashid, who worked at another clinic in the Jumaria Quarter of Falluja. “We saw them on top of the buildings near the mayor’s office.” Dr. Rashid told of another incident in which a US sniper shot an ambulance driver in the leg. The ambulance driver survived, but a man who came to his rescue was shot by a US sniper and died on the operating table after Dr. Rashid and others had worked to save him. “He was a volunteer working on the ambulance to help collect the wounded,” Dr. Rashid said sadly. During Truthout’s visit to the hospital in May 2004, two ambulances in the parking lot sat with bullet holes in their windshields, while others had bullet holes in their back doors and sides. “I remember once we sent an ambulance to evacuate a family that was bombed by an aircraft,” said Dr. Abdulla while continuing to speak about the US snipers, “The ambulance was sniped – one of the family died, and three were injured by the firing.” Neither Dr. Abdulla nor Dr. Rashid said they knew of any medical aid being provided to their hospital or clinics by the US military. On this topic, Dr. Rashid said flatly, “They send only bombs, not medicine.” Chuwader General Hospital in Sadr City also reported similar findings to Truthout, as did other hospitals throughout Baghdad. Dr. Abdul Ali, the ex-chief surgeon at Al-Noman Hospital, admitted that US soldiers had come to the hospital asking for information about resistance fighters. To this he said, “My policy is not to give my patients to the Americans. I deny information for the sake of the patient.” During an interview in April 2004, he admitted this intrusion occurred fairly regularly and interfered with patients receiving medical treatment. He noted, “Ten days ago this happened – this occurred after people began to come in from Fallujah, even though most of them were children, women and elderly.” A doctor at Al-Kerkh Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, shared a similar experience of the problem that appears to be rampant throughout much of the country: “We hear of Americans removing wounded Iraqis from hospitals. They are always coming here and asking us if we have injured fighters.” Speaking about the US military raid of the hospital in Afghanistan, UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said he was not aware of the details of the particular incident, but that international law requires the military to avoid operations in medical facilities. “The rules are that medical facilities are not combat areas. It’s unacceptable for a medical facility to become an area of active combat operations,” he said. “The only exception to that under the Geneva Conventions is if a risk is being posed to people.” “There is the Hippocratic oath,” Fange added, “If anyone is wounded, sick or in need of treatment … if they are a human being, then they are received and treated as they should be by international law.” These are all indications of a US Empire in decline. Another recent sign of US desperation in Afghanistan was the bombing of two fuel tanker trucks that the Taliban had captured from NATO. US warplanes bombed the vehicles, from which impoverished local villagers were taking free gas, incinerating as many as 150 civilians, according to reports from villagers. The United States Empire is following a long line of empires and conquerors that have met their end in Afghanistan. The Median and Persian Empires, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, Turks, Mongols, British and Soviets all met the end of their ambitions in Afghanistan. And today, the US Empire is on the fast track of its demise. A recent article by Tom Englehardt provides us more key indicators of this:
Genghis Khan could not hold onto Afghanistan. Neither will the United States, particularly when in its desperation to continue its illegal occupation, it tosses aside international law, along with its own Constitution. |
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| Dahr Jamail is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research
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Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Global Issues on October 19th, 2012
Posted by Dr. Manzer Durrani in Global Issues on October 7th, 2012
“Whoever among you sees an evil action, let him change it with his hand [by taking action]; if he cannot, then with his tongue [by speaking out]; and if he cannot, then with his heart [by hating it and feeling that it is wrong] – and that is the weakest of faith” (Narrated by Muslim, 49)
HITLER GHADAAR ZARDARI AND HIS NAUKAR ORDERS MARCH TO BE STOPPED FROM GOING TO KOT KAI WAZIRISTAN: SON OF PAKISTAN IMRAN KHAN FIGHT
Drones ‘terrorising’ Pakistani civilians
* Report says drones giving rise to anxiety, psychological trauma among people
ISLAMABAD: The US campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt is terrorising civilians 24 hours a day and breeding bitter anti-American sentiment, researchers said on Tuesday.
ZARDARI AND KAYANI LISTEN TO THEIR MASTER’S VOICE ORDERS ANTI-DRONE MARCH TO BE STOPPED AT TANK
The attacks have killed thousands of people since they began in June 2004, according to the report by experts from Stanford Law School and the New York University School of Law.
Aside from casualties, the “Living Under Drones” report said, the missile strikes are affecting daily life in the tribal areas, making people unwilling to gather in groups and even stopping their children going to school for fear of being targeted.
After attacks, rescuers are unwilling to help the wounded for fear of being hit by follow-up missiles, said the report commissioned by UK-based charity Reprieve, which campaigns against drone strikes.
“Drones hover twenty-four hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning,” the report said.
“Their presence terrorises men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves.”
The report urged Washington to rethink its drone strategy, arguing it was counterproductive and undermined international law.
Based on media reports and interviews with residents of North Waziristan, one of the areas most heavily targeted by drones, the research said the US conception of the campaign as a “surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer” was false.
Our march into Waziristan should reveal truths thus far hidden from the world’s gaze
Each iteration of the “War on Terror” has depended on secrecy for success. Not success in the conventional sense: the lawless prison in Guantánamo Bay, the secret prisons of Eastern Europe and rendering prisoners furtively to Colonel Gaddafi were hardly sensible policies. But as long as the strategy remained under wraps, the politicians were able to pretend that they were “doing something” about terrorism.
The problems always came when the truth began to leak out. The Guantánamo detainees were not, after all, the “worst of the worst” terrorists: indeed, 88 per cent (686 out of 779) were cleared for release without trial. The Eastern European torture chambers acquired no vital intelligence. Tony Blair’s policy of leaping into bed with Gaddafi served only to delay the Arab Spring.
Thus it will be with drones. The US advertises that it is the most effective of weapons against terrorism. Perhaps, instead, we will learn that it provokes far more extremism than it eliminates.
On Sunday I shall be travelling with Imran Khan, the politician and former cricketer, on an expedition with journalists into Waziristan, in northwest Pakistan — a step towards opening the region up to public inspection. Local chieftains, the Pakistan Army and even the Taleban have all assured our safe passage. Which leaves the US and some of its wayward allies in Pakistan’s Secret Intelligence Service — frankly, the ones who concern me most.
I have written to President Obama letting him know about the march. Indeed, Mr Obama will have signed off on his most recent “kill list” and I asked him to make sure there was no Hellfire missile with my name on it. According to the choreographed leaks to The New York Times, designed to burnish the tough-guy image of this “Drone Age President”, each week he checks through a Powerpoint display of those slated for assassination and — after contemplating the Just War principles of Thomas Aquinas — he gives an imperial thumbs down to those who the CIA says are the gladiators of Waziristan.
So what are we to do? We could call off the march and stay at home. Could any of us, after all, pick out Kot Kai on a map? But ultimately we have only two options: to stand with the innocent victims of drones, or to leave them to their fate. The people of Waziristan, all 800,000 of them, have lived with their fears for eight years now. It is time we drew it to a close.
Soon, drones are going to be intruding on the lives of us all. And when it is our turn to be targeted, who will stand with us?
Clive Stafford Smith is the director of Reprieve
© 2024, All Rights Reserved by Pakistan Think Tank.
Commentators et al
I do not as a rule go for a second bite of the Cherry on these matters – but to substantiate the rule of no exceptions…
The following are figures extrapolated from various Christian Synods:
Islam is currently the fastest growing religion on this planet.
Presently, by last count Q1/2010 1.8 Billion followers
By 2050 they are expected to be just under 60% of the Worlds population – present population growth prevailing.
Not yet a Muslim (this might change should I live long enough), however, it is a benign religion which places humanity and the sciences first. History verifies this – as does the immense cruelties of the Crusaders in the name of Christianity – indeed the first recorded war criminals….. (Gott mit Uns etc etc).
Christian values, (so called) as we like to proudly announce to the world at large (so much for turning the other cheek) – are hardly human values at all looking at Europe from the 11th hundred onwards until the 20th – a thousand years of wars, murder, torture and a general ongoing holocaust – the slaughter of the sciences and the removal of vernacular knowledge – all in the name of a woman and her son. We, also lest we forget the activities of the Jesuits – have little if anything to be proud of.
The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as well as those of Muhammad (in Islam Yesu is a Prophet) are of excellent value. That power and greed has turned faiths into monsters is a matter for man himself. Along the same line – anyone educated with a smidgeon of historical knowledge who follows modern events and is a card-carrying Catholic; is in my book barking mad – the Reformasionists comes a close second.
I wish we had more Shi’ite Muslims on this planet – The Sunni’s are a good bunch too – but without the Wahabi teachings please (1723-1726).
Folks, let us believe in whatever we chose – the individual rights of a human being personified. Let us not use another mans faith as a symbol for the ills we self-created in our own, Western Backyards. Let us not drag buildings, bricks and mortar and the Universal rather bogus earthly Father and his surreal trinity together with Imams on faithless missions into this – as I find amongst some commentators who wish for a secular Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq. A Something which is en par with the abject lunacy of the Card-carrying Catholic.
It is not about religions this – or is it? as the Roman Church has never forgotten – nor forgiven being whooped by Saladin et co – do our collective, genetic memories really go that deep? – or is any excuse a good enough excuse for the US Away to attack someone weaker – as they never appear themselves to pick on their equal or someone strong.
9 January 2011 2:58AM