How the world is changing

China shopping

The Economist published two leaders this week that got me thinking about how the world has changed and how inexorably many have failed to adapt to the change or make the kind of adjustments necessary to embrace change and become more relevant in the future.

In the leader China buys up the world [1], one innocuous statistic showed up which was Chinese firms only own just 6% of global investment in international business. One thing we must not fail to realise is that it is growing and it belies a failing of the capitalist model in the West where somewhat Communist finance is propping up or buying up businesses that were once the mainstays of democracies.

The debate between big and small government that exercises the West is moot much as the idea of state controlled enterprises being inefficient, lethargic and unprofitable. The Chinese are doing something we could well learn and use.

A timeline of decline

Even more arresting is the decline of other economic powers; for in 1914 and 1967, both Britain and America held about 50% of global investment respectively and those years were their peak years.

1914 announced the start of the World War I and there is no telling the cost that was to Britain and consequently World War II just a quarter of a century after. By the 1970s, Britain was not working and seemingly in terminal decline, and though there have been recoveries we find ourselves in another trough exemplified by swingeing cuts which no one is sure would bring recovery talk less of ascendancy.

It would be simplistic to suggest that our governments and representation have helped this decline take root, but blame cannot be too far from their door in the economic mistakes and atrocious policies that have defined each ideological standpoint to the detriment of the lifeblood of the each country’s progress.

Well beyond the World Wars

In 1914 that great African country Nigeria was created and it stands as the most populous black African country by far as well as its second largest economy. With its oil resources first discovered in 1937 there has been promise and prospect but very little to show for what it has.

The second leader in the Economist was about reforming the United Nations with the title Thinking the UNthinkable [2]. There is a strong case for redefining the structure of the Security Council and managing the influence of the permanent members whose status derives from having won the Second World War.

I have my doubts about how France won but that would be stoking the embers of discord. What we have now is the defeated foe of 1945 that is now a strong ally, Germany with an economy much greater than that of France and Britain; one must not forget Japan is a contender too having gone shopping like China only two decades ago.

How times have changed

In effect, 2010 is no more 1945, the fulcrum of power has shifted with the emergence of big democracies, economies and other powers making India, Brazil, Japan, Germany, South Africa and even Nigeria viable permanent members of the UN Security Council.

The growing influence of Islam in global affairs puts both Turkey and Indonesia into consideration too, making the UN Security Council more representative of the shift in power and of the times.

With this change there is probably a case for Britain and France giving up their seats for a European representative but the politics of the UN might not allow for widening of the permanent membership of the Security Council with equal status for all members and the loss of veto power.

Nigeria’s disqualification

The case for Nigeria strong as it may seem on promise is weakened by the notion that it is too anarchic a country compared to South Africa.

This damning assessment is in no way unfair, it simply crystallises our representation, our politics, our economic prospects and sadly our future.

This kind of view can only change when those we elect to represent us lift they game and play it right, all eyes are on Nigeria for 2011 but because of our failings South Africa might well take the spoils.

[1] Chinese acquisitions: China buys up the world | The Economist

[2] United Nations: Thinking the UNthinkable | The Economist

Nigeria: Women badly represented at CEDAW convention

Going to UN to defend

When Hajiya Saudatu Bungudu announced [Source: allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Minister to Defend CEDAW Bill in UN] last month that she would lead a delegation of Nigerian women to the United Nations to defend the sixth country report on the implementation of CEDAW [Source: Wikipedia] in Nigeria, many would have had great expectations.

She as the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development would have been expected to say in truth, detail and candour how the Nigerian woman had been emancipated year on year in terms of rights, privileges, means and achievable goals.

CEDAW is the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women which came in force on the 3^rd of September 1981 with Nigeria signing the treaty on the 23^rd of April 1984 and ratifying that treaty on the 13^th of June 1985, a good six years before the Netherlands. [Source: CEDAW: States parties]

Little to defend

Hajiya Bungudu seemed to have a lot to defend but the text of it all indicates not much had been done.

Legislation was yet to be promulgated and schemes were yet to be put in place to deal with trafficking – a subject highlighted with harrowing detail by the CNN earlier this year on the World’s Untold Stories series with the title Trapped [CNN.com World’s Untold Stories] – widowhood rights, female genital mutilation, unwholesome practices against women and the provision of equal opportunities.

Part of the legislation being promulgated is the Nudity Bill which cannot seem to earn enough opprobrium and seems to draw the most appalling derision, sponsored by the Senator Eme Ufot Ekaette, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Women and Youth [Source: Nigerian Senate – a much improved web site]

Senator Ekaette is a qualified pharmacist and she seems to have brought her prescriptive abilities to this bill.

A dosage of plain nudity

The bill defines public nudity as

a. State of nakedness in the public or open;

b. State of indecent dressing which expose in the public or in the open any of the following parts of the human body:

i. The breast of a female above the age of 14 years;

ii. The laps of a female above the age of 14 years;

iii. The belly and or waist of a female above the age of 14 years;

iv. Any part of the body from two (2) inches below the shoulders downwards to the knee of a female person above the age of 14 years;

v. Any part of the body of the male person above the age of 14 years from the waist to the knee;

c. Any form of dressing with a transparent cloth or clothing in the public or the open which exposes any part of the body from two inches below the shoulders level downward to the knee of a female person above the age of 14 years; provided that exposure of the hands of the female person above the age of 14 years shall not be construed as public nudity.

d. Any form of dressing with a transparent cloth or clothing which exposes any part of the body of the male person above the age of 14 years from the waist to the knee in the public or open.

[Source: Culled from Vanguard Online Edition - Nudity Bill: How Govt officials embarrassed Nigeria with a 73-man delegation at the UN]

Only a pharmacist can consider a dosage of nudity measured 2 inches below the shoulder, it would be like giving an epidural for a broken finger nail.

I could remember as a child, my grandmothers who were well above 14 years of age went around bare-chested, probably because their mammary organs might have lost their sexual appeal to men at large, but I would not say that they were not still of value to the men who sired their children.

Men as rabid sexual animals

Obviously, this whole prescription frenzy panders to the conception that African men are voracious sexual animals who on seeing female flesh succumb to the canine tendency to sniff any and every faecal orifice to satisfy their uncontrolled need for sex.

Well, the men have to clearly let the women know that they are well advanced members of the Homo sapiens sapiens [Source: Wikipedia] species that could exercise restraint, self-control and discernment regardless of what they see.

In fact, many men would like to excuse their wiles and blame their lapses on the women – I would say it is criminal and any man who for whatever state of undress a woman is in, who allows his instincts to molest to take control of his better judgement should be caged like a dog and prodded with red hot iron rods till he learns to join the human race.

Just as everyone has a right to be disgusted and I do get disgusted by some fashion I see, those who decide to be so uncouth about their fashion have a right to express themselves so unashamedly, we just have to find ways of bearing the pain of the decline of style and comportment.

Commonsense is winning

It is unfortunate that those put in leadership to advance the cause of women have been pre-occupied with legislation that creates other means of abuse, discrimination and denigration of women and womanhood.

Thankfully, commonsense has prevailed in the Nigerian Senate that both times the bill was introduced; it has suffered and not advanced as the Senate President has clearly tried to make the sponsors see the difference between issues of morality and those of objective legislation.

This did not deter the women’s delegation from taking this bill to the United Nations to make a complete ridicule of Nigerians.

The first examination

At the 41^st Session of the CEDAW Committee, Nigeria’s document [Source: 41st Session of the CEDAW Committee - WWW.FIDH.ORG] was examined on the 3^rd of July 2008 with the interesting note that the National Assembly rejected a bill to incorporate CEDAW conventions into domestic legislation in 2007.

It noted that legislation still sustained discrimination against women as the inability to transfer their nationality amongst other discriminatory issues mentioned earlier.

Two particular issues suffered more scrutiny - the Nudity Bill and the compulsory pregnancy and HIV tests for university students [Source: akin.blog-city.com - The flaw of the covenant] – this all was preparatory work for the scrutineers at the open session that the Minister later visited to defend the CEDAW that could not make the law books in Nigeria.

The showdown

The minister lead a delegation of 73 members [Source: Vanguard Online Edition - Nudity Bill: How Govt officials embarrassed Nigeria with a 73-man delegation at the UN] to a 2-hour convention that discussed the Nigerian document and all she had to say in the light of glaring evidence amounted to dissimulation because all they had were proposals, draft legislation and activities in the pipeline, there was nothing in the laws of Nigeria that had positively identified the pressing case for the emancipation of women.

A delegate from Jamaica (Glenda Simms) rounded in on the Nudity Bill and with sarcastic derisiveness wondered if the police would have measuring tapes to check the length of dresses in some sort stop-and-measure crack down.

She was as vehement as to suggest that dress codes were about the abuse of power and dressing a woman from head to toe was a form of rape as women had a right to aesthetics of their bodies and the right to present themselves any way they wanted.

The delegate from Algeria (Meriem Belmihoub) on counting their conspicuous number hoped that Nigerian women were just as represented in political life and governance.

The delegate from Bangladesh (Ferdous Ara Begum) wondered about the tardiness in adopting a bill on violence against women.

Between the extremes of a liberated Jamaica through a changing Algeria to the more conservative Bangladesh, no country could have been so roundly condemned and castigated for losing sight of more pressing issues and priorities to address the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world, the discrimination against married and pregnant women, sexual harassment in the work place and a host of other pertinent women’s rights issues.

Speechless in embarrassment

In the end, the delegation of eminent women on a foreign jaunt could not defend the absurd bill and ended up defending the atrocious laws that give men more preference over women – they were at that point an utter embarrassment and disgrace.

There is much work to be done about women’s rights in Nigeria, I have my doubts that the women who went to the UN have the acumen to promote visionary and courageous goals for women and there are definitely better qualified women of Nigerian descent who can do a better job.

I would hope that people who can make things happen in Nigeria would work at encouraging these women to step forward and really give this issue a good shake up because the ladies who have gone on before have to my disappointment been useless, to say the least and that is a real shame. To whom much was given, however little, a lot more was expected.

Nigerians: Ngozi at World Bank, Ibrahim in Burma

Nothing to write about

I have refrained from writing anything about Nigeria until I found seriously uplifting news that makes my very proud of my Nigerian heritage.

It informs the reason why my blog was blank on the 1^st of October which is the anniversary of Nigerian’s independence from British rule because really there was nothing to write about apart from obvious pessimism and unfounded optimism much of which was covered by bloggers and newspapers – Hey! It is just the opinion of one man.

NOI the MD

News reaches me that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been appointed the World Bank Managing Director in charge of Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia regions, literally 2 and a half continents with just about half the world’s population.

With Europe in the mix, this means her role straddles developed through emerging to developing economies, this might as well help in the cross-pollination of ideas, expertise, investment and resources betwixt the regions under her remit.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala also known as NOI for short; brings commendable, excellent credentials, experience and expertise to this job as a long-standing employee of the World Bank, a Finance and Foreign Minister of Nigeria in the recent past and advanced qualifications in field of Regional Economics and Development.

At the risk of sounding like a praise-singing parrot, I give the floor to Robert Bruce Zoellick, the 11^th President of the World Bank as his words say it all.

“Ngozi brings a unique set of skills and experience to the World Bank Group. As an outstanding Minister of Finance and Foreign Minister in Nigeria, Ngozi helped lead the country's reform program on issues of fiscal prudence, transparency of government accounts, good governance, and anti-corruption.

She led Nigeria's quest for debt relief and helped her country obtain an unprecedented US$18 billion write-off from the Paris Club. Ngozi was also instrumental in helping Nigeria obtain its first ever Sovereign Credit rating (of BB minus) from Fitch and Standard & Poor's.

She is an internationally respected world leader. In addition, she knows the WBG well from her 21 years of service. Her commitment to the developing world is unparalleled. I am delighted she has accepted to join my senior team.”

Now, that is a lady doing Nigeria proud and I like the way that she is address in first-name terms by the president, it shows they have a friendly working relationship which is necessary for this kinds of problems that World bank needs to address after the acrimonious split and rancour in the resignation of neo-Con Paul Wolfowitz.

Talent wins through always

Beyond this, it is worthy to note that the intemperance and vindictiveness of the erstwhile President of Nigeria stood in the way of according this lady a very senior post in the United Nations; however, I think she would be better served in this role than being subsumed into the international diplomacy of United Nations’ insincerity.

If not for the way the headship of the World Bank and IMF has been sewn up by Europe and the United States, she is a more than qualified candidate to lead that bank.

Then the question of qualified Nigerians who cannot seem to get recognition and scope to bring radical useful change in service of their fatherland; take heart, extremely good talent would get utilised in this world by people who recognise what you can do.

Sorting out Burma

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stands as a beacon of hope and realisation of that view.

Another person whose nationality has not been mentioned but has been in the news too many times to be ignored is Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari the Under Secretary-General for the Department of Political Affairs who recently returned from Burma (Myanmar, I am not convinced the people had any say in having their country renamed, in fact, many dissidents refer to their country as Burma) after meeting the despotic junta leaders and the democratic activist and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

It must be a difficult job having to visit and converse with people who have trampled on their people, trammelled their freedoms and targeted their aspirations with tyranny and violence, whilst these self-appointed demonic clones masquerading as human-beings hunker down in some remote forest enclave living the life of “Solomonic” kings.

Time to end the culture of impunity

Unfortunately, our disgust for the happenings in Burma to the pronouncement that the culture of impunity at an end sounds more like a hysterical affectation for mass protest and rhetoric than effective action, but it shows how irrelevant the military leaders have become.

If after keeping Aung San Suu Kyi under house-arrest for years, they are setting conditions for meeting her asking that she abandon her support for international sanctions and her confrontational attitude, I know who has been hostile and there is every reason for that dear lady to be confrontation and more, if she had the means, this is where the internation community should give more muscle to the aspirations of the Burmese.

Well, Senior General Than Shwe, you can go meet yourself; as if she is responsible for the state that Burma now is in; after 45 years in government, I think the army should return to the barracks and the doors weld shut.

It is time for the Burmese to have self-determination and for all the evil the military have perpetrated on the people and the monks, it is high time they were vacated to meet their maker, it is laughable that North Korea can call itself a democratic republic and the senior General who might not become a Field Marshall heads the State Peace and Development Council – whose democracy and whose peace?.

Burma is a people not an army, they should not be run around and hammered by iron fists like newly conscripted recruits in a boot camp – the culture of impunity in Burma, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe must come to an end and by the end of this decade if we can all help it.

Sustaining bad reports from Africa

The international shame of it all

One must now begin to wonder if there is anymore pride to be had in being African.

Somehow we have been bestowed with ignominious leadership and representatives who heap opprobrium, ridicule and embarrassment on Africans; it is now unashamed bravado to proclaim African-ness in public and keep a straight face.

Last month we endured with derision the shameful debacle of the Nigerian (S)elections so comprehensively rigged there was almost no just recourse apart from new elections by unbiased organisations, but this did not happen.

A bit earlier, the grandfather of African despotism had his hoodlums beat up his political opponents as his country set records for hyperinflation.

Other African governments have tacitly allowed for Zimbabwe to become a basket-case, it is an utter disgrace.

Death on horseback

The only comfort in Darfur is death visiting people as horse-backed black Nazis called the Janjaweed. The incredible fact being they are equipped for their death mission by the Sudanese government and this has been going on for at least three years.

I am no fan of John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, but his decision to stop the Australian cricket team from touring Zimbabwe is laudable, nothing should be done to let the brigands in that government savour any ounce of credibility; unfortunately the British government could not muster the guts to take that kind of decision 2 years ago.

It appears we still have to learn of ways to ensure Africans do not get a raw deal from our leaders from the West. Where is our humanity, civility or even civilisation?

Sustainable disgrace

To crown it all, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development had a vacant chairmanship position available to be filled by an African and the Africans put forward the Zimbabwean Environment Minister of all qualified Africans we can find for such a role. It is laughable and risible if it were not a complete letdown of Africa and Africans.

Sustained destruction of a once great, resourceful and self-sufficient nation is what this man brings to the job following his service to Mugabe's megalomania.

Someone must be acting out irony or playing a bad joke. It leaves me unwilling to continue to identify as African and one is just not impressed.

We cannot continue to sustain this kind of report from Africa, it is primitive, ignorant, savage and backward, it must stop.

Stripping the "Great" out of Britain

Returning home for Easter

And so the naval personnel would return home just in time for Easter and the UK-Iran Crisis of 2007 is over.

Well, many would assume it is, the people are free, and the Iranian diplomat who was abducted in Iraq suddenly materialised at the Iranian embassy yesterday and it appears another consular official would be able to see the 5 Iranians who have been in American custody since January.

They were granted their freedom as a gift to Great Britain by Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the firebrand, hard-line President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the adjectives the West has bestowed on this man become almost irrelevant in the face of this humanity and kindness.

Agree to disagree

We can as well agree to disagree that our naval personnel were arrested in Iraqi or Iranian waters depending on whose map you are viewing, or basically, it was fair game on either side. As for the patrolling of Iraqi waters with a UN mandate, let us not plumb the depths of the dishonesty that has brought us thus far in the Middle East.

We can however recall that this time 25 years ago, Mrs. Margaret Hilda Thatcher, the Prime Minister then was busy putting the Great back in Britain and with it sowed the seeds that kept the Conservative Party in power for another 13 years.

Then, the territory under dispute since 1830 but deferring to the British was overrun by the military junta of Argentina; the 3 lions roared and thumped the Argentines out of the Falkland Islands with the loss about 1,000 lives however, leaving Great Britain beaming with patriotic fervour - Rule Britannia! Britannia rule the waves was the waking call of anyone who deigned to be British.

Nothing great going on

Today, we cannot say great diplomacy was at play, no great satisfaction that we have proven our point, no great triumph having been overwhelmed at sea by Iranians who have suffered sanctions for decades.

It is arguable that tepid warnings from the UN, the strident support of the EU and the bluster of the US did nothing to help the situation; our diplomats had to relearn the principles of bilateral negotiations rather than the failed US policy of international isolation.

Them and us

The naval personnel would return and be made to recant all their recorded confessions of having trespassed on Iranian nautical territory; the tabloids would lay out full spreads of the gallantry of the lady and the men in the midst of enemy territory.

And whilst making a public show of these detainees could have been against the Geneva Conventions, they were portrayed in places that no one could fault as being inhospitable or uncomfortable.

We, the stricter adherents of the Geneva Conventions would probably not even provide that quality of facility to those in our Western detention centres; at least, recently, we have heard more of their people being tortured and mistreated amongst us and seen lots of our people being well treated amongst them, except in Iraq of course amongst the insurgents.

However, by the time the tabloids have unravelled this saga and milked every ounce of newsworthiness out of this farce, nothing great would have been achieved for Great Britain.

The future can be bleak

In fact, the danger is if any of our people do end up trespassing in Iranian territory again; their treatment may not be as lovely as we have once seen and then a trial on the tenets of Sharia Law might just be the trigger for another poorly fought war in the Middle East.

Surely, this is all has just stripped the Great out of Great Britain; one wonders what great adventure our leaders might seek to repair the damage done, in the near future.

Welcome Home! But heroes would be too strong a word to use in any context.

Bolton bolts

A sham-ppointment ended

Following his election victory of 2004, George W. Bush instigated some rather controversial appointments which did not endear him to many.

We guffawed when Condoleezza Rice was presented as the new Secretary of State succeeding Colin Powell, we wondered why Rumsfeld was still not given the boot and the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court drew more brick-bats than accolades, she eventually declined.

However, the most irreverent of all was that of John Bolton as the US Ambassador to the UN.

Mr. Bolton, a smart, intelligent but abrasive man in want of tact and lacking the graces required of a diplomatic posting could not be countenanced by the US Senate for that position but he went anyway through a recess appointment which had to be confirmed by the Senate eventually.

At a time when the UN was in need for reform through sometimes driven by US animosity for the lack of support for their Iraqi intransigence, Mr. Bolton in the eyes of the President was the right party spoiler to shake the place up.

Diplomacy and demeanour still matters

Unfortunately, they forgot that the UN is still a place where your case has to be eased into the system to garner support – Mr. Bolton probably had great potential but his demeanour made that possibility unrealisable.

After 16 months in the position, the Senate now under the control of the Democrats is still implacable, concerning confirming his appointment and as if by great intuitiveness Mr. Bolton has read the tea leaves and fallen on his sword.

There would be many who like me would not shed a tear for his going and like the metaphor of shaving 10 storeys off the UN Secretariat Building, his presence there has made no bit of difference to improving the perception of Mr George W. Bush’s America.

“There is no such thing as the United Nations. United States makes the U.N. work when it wants it to work. If the U.N. Secretariat building in New York lost 10 stories, it would not make a bit of difference.” John Bolton – 1994

As for the title of this piece, it is not original, but quite apt, anyhow.

Mr Moon's Magic Circus

Of moons and days

Somehow, Friday, October the thirteenth passed without much superstition in computer circles, at least the press did not get carried away as they have in years past with the unlucky 13^th falling on a Friday.

The day however, did not pass without event – the circus confirmed its new chief performer and somehow a bank and a man split the proceeds from banking for the poor.

Considering this time of the lunar cycle, whilst the circus was busy trying to get the pride of lions – five of them - to agree on how to handle the lunatic hyena that has had everyone excited with unpalatable acts and dangerous pyrotechnics – at half moon – the front-runner, first compromise selection of a Moon to light up the circus cannot have been that auspicious.

The moon and the circus

The Moon would have a juggling act on his hands, with a nickname Ban-chusa which can be read in derogatory terms as administrative clerk and all the connotations that that entails, he might as well live the realisation that the outgoing Nanny of the circus called the ScapeGoat.

It somehow has been easy to blame the circus when the circus acts usually consist of representatives of those who are quick to blame, berate or attack the circus.

It is also time to relieve the pride of lions their status as movers and blockers and allow other circus participants equal access to the limelight. There are elephants and rhinos who can command just as much audience excitement but for the vested interests of the pride.

60 years ago, when the circus was founded, animal cruelty and outrageous circus acts could have been par for the course; we live in different times now.

Détente 1718

As the Nanny melts into the background after 10 years of service from Ghana, the Moon has the task of handling the Seventeens and Eighteens that have been imposed on hyena territory.

The lions gnawed at the feed that no one knows what was fed them in the first instance, the hyena obviously was not the best pleased.

It brings to thought how sanctions can be enforced without the threat of force, just as circus acts perform under the threat or commanding presence of the whip.

The silence of a threat

On matters of principle, I have the knack for strongly expressing myself, however, in many of those cases, those to whom I have made my point have not been of the same civility and restraint of animal instinct that I possess – in the end, I have ended up being physically worse off – beaten up by a gang or being grabbed at my throat for expressing displeasure at being disrespected, dispossessed or disgusted.

The concern here is that the fear of physical harm, because people who cannot use their brains in discussion, debate and dispute are going to react like untamed animals unfit for the circus, this might temper the desire to express oneself.

Suddenly, the need to get fit is hardly the point, but that for taking self-defense classes becomes even more pertinent. I should however, know when to run away when my principled stance suggests otherwise.

References

North Korea and WMD

Mr. Moon’s Magic Circus

Note: Mr. Moon’s Magic Circus was a children’s television show in the 1980s with silly comedians and funny acts – The video might not been of the best quality on your system, but the musical score should be fun to listen to.

Condi is not welcome in Lebanon

This represents the kind of propaganda we are fed about the Middle-East conflict. I read on CNN a headline, that Condoleezza Rice has cancelled her trip to Lebanon.

Well, the BBC television news, tells me Lebanon has snubbed Condoleezza Rice and told her not to visit Lebanon till a ceasefire has been agreed.

Indeed, Dr Rice would have had cancel her trip, because she has been told quite clearly, you are not welcome, I must say, that appears in the body of text.

Like I said in an earlier blog, regardless of the American aid which is a sop in expiation for seriously letting Lebanon down, Lebanon knows this for sure, America is definitely not a friend in time of need.

Unfortunately, the UN building in Beirut is now taking the brunt of a violent protest as Israel argumentum ad consequentiam passes the blame for bombing up civilians to Hezbollah.

As I am writing, the culmination of events had now lead Dr Rice to request an immediate unconditional ceasefire. So, much for doors and bolted horses – this doctor is some mean gambler.

References

Sky News: Airstrike 'Kills Or Injures Dozens'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Dozens killed in Lebanon air raid

No talks with Rice before ceasefire

Rice says "time for ceasefire" after Qana bombing

The Red Cross marks the missile target - Updated

Surgical precision targetting

The madness portrayed as strategy by the axis of Israel and American continues adrift as the number of causalities progressively advances to unimaginable figures.

Two events especially make this whole situation dangerously precarious and unsustainable.

As I watched the news yesterday, we were shown patients bandaged up in hospital, having been wounded by some attack whilst they went about their duties.

These patients were ambulance men who at the time of attack were moving other wounded persons to hospital.

Many Israeli propagandists with a spokesperson tag for the army or some other function of government have stressed to distraction that they have been making their strikes as surgical as possible.

It makes one wonder how the crosses on two ambulances ended up becoming the bulls-eye for Israeli missiles. Two separate vehicles, with the internationally recognised Red Cross targeted and destroyed - with precision.

Courtesy of WhatReallyHappened.com

UN endangered in every place

Then, the UN Secretary General in the person of Kofi Annan lamented the killing of 4 UN observers, who can blame him? Hardly 3 years ago, he lost one of the best diplomatic brains in Iraq in the person of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, as the UN looked for ways to help the Iraqi War move towards probable solutions of democracy and peace.

If the belligerent parties cannot provide adequate protection for UN officials or observers, then they should not resort to the UN to help legitimise their activities.

In the advent of these killings, I would surmise Israel has already lost the battle for the hearts of many in the international community and it is unlike that they would do any better with the battle of the minds.

People of all nations including Nigerians killed

Once again the bomb was a direct hit on the shelter of the observers - surgical - which was clearly marked, in all 12 UN employees have been killed or injured, with a closer to home tragedy of a Nigerian civilian employee of UNIFIL being killed in Tyre along with his wife.

Obviously, Mr Annan is close to being vilified for jumping to conclusions at obvious and blatant unwarranted attacks on places and vehicles that should in any civilised endeavour be protected from the ravages of war.

They can investigate all they can, but the lives have already been lost and the trigger-happy sharp shooters in F16 planes are probably planning another precision and surgical strike on another clearly marked out structure - churches, mosques and hospitals better beware.

The stupor of delusion

Beyond this point one really has to try and phantom the logic of continuing these exchanges and onslaughts be Israel and the militants labelled as terrorists. Like Robert Fisk suggests, it is a complete delusion to expect that the stated goal of weakening Hezbollah and humiliating Iran whilst taming Syria is achievable by any means and definitely not by parading the best weaponry on the market.

To quote the man more clearly - "The problem, surely, is that the United States sees this bloodbath as an 'opportunity' rather than a tragedy".

The world cannot abide a situation like this any longer.

References

Robert Fisk: Israeli missiles had clearly pierced the very centre of the red cross on the roof of each ambulance

Annan accuses Israel over attack on UN post

Israeli bomb kills UN observers

The land of the matter - The Middle-East Cauldron

Good Intentions

(All images courtesy of Wikipedia)

In November 2002, Jack Straw, the then UK Foreign Secretary lamented what the British Empire had bequeathed places it had vacated as the peoples of those lands sought self-determination.

Chief amongst those was that relating to the establishment of the Nation of Israel.

In 1917, in response to desires of the Zionist movement, the Foreign Secretary of that time Arthur James Balfour wrote to the British representative of the movement Lord Rothschild in the following words.

Foreign Office

November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours sincerely, Arthur James Balfour

This formed the basis of what is now known as the Balfour Declaration of 1917, where Britain expressed an interest in the creation of a state of Israel in the land of Palestine, but without prejudicing the rights of the pre-existing non-Jewish communities in that region.

As it transpires, Jack Straw indicates that the assurances given to the Palestinians were not met in an honourable way.

Over time there began conflicts between the Arabs and the Jews, part of which was assuaged by restricting the number of Jewish migrations and barring their acquisition of land.

The British Mandate for Palestine

On the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1922, Palestinian region which was part of the empire came under the administration of the British Empire as a mandate granted by the League of Nations.

Up till 1947, there were conflicts between the Arabs and the Jews at which point Britain was keen to withdraw from the mandate. UN Resolution 818 ended up with this patchwork plan for Israel and Palestine called the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine with the Jews having 55% of the land and the Palestinian Arabs having 45% even though they the Arabs were in the majority.

The UN voted 33 for, 13 against and 10 abstained including the United Kingdom; however, at this point the Balfour Declaration of 1917 had been unravelled, the fact is, there is no way of not prejudicing the existing communities’ rights in old Palestine – and if the Palestinian Arabs were to suffered a deprecation of rights, it should not have been with their majority in numbers ending up with the minority of the land.

Riots, wars, crises, uprisings ensued, which are fully tabulated in the link provided – Arab-Israeli Conflicts.

Herein lays the general framework of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

References

The British Mandate for Palestine

Mandate for Palestine
Key Maps of the region and conflict

Zionism

The conflict of Biblical promise with current realities.

A look at the map of Israel in the biblical times and shows that Gaza which once happened to be the land of Philistines might be the only place the Israeli would be willing to cede of all current Israeli land if the extreme Zionists have their way.

It also shows that the settlers who were unsettled last year did not have any ancient claim to that land for the settlement of the children of Israel. Other maps show changes to that landscape in the 20th Century.

Israel Today

Peace eludes our time with appeasement

Peace eludes our time

Almost 78 years ago, Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich, a perfect English gentleman with a paper signed by Adolf Hilter which was a non-aggression pact securing peace in Europe [1]. We now view that supposed pact of peace as appeasement.

Today, amidst the propaganda and rhetoric that fuels the problems in Lebanon and Gaza as viewed from Israeli eyes, the blanket war on terror is appeased by everyone who can exert influence to halt these hostilities.

Looking like a military state

Each time I view my television an army spokesperson from democratic Israel comes on air, not speaking of their deployments and military activities but dabbling with the politics and wherefores of the conflict.

This is the type of speech one should hear from their political masters, but it appears the politics is becoming militarised and the military is becoming politicise, not of which bode well any democracy.

All weapons break the peace

Besides, we hear time and time again about the thousands of rockets the Hezbollah has, well, are we being naïve here? Israel has helicopter gun-ships, laser guided weaponry and nuclear weapons still undeclared.

Israel is seriously militarised that region in that quest for its defence, that has also lead to the regional militants arming themselves such that when Israel moves with aggression they and not just left with slings and stones to roll over and die.

The main part here is Israel really believes the Middle-East conflict can be resolved with their military might as world leaders pay lip service to the call for restraint and the lack of a determined purpose to see an end to that conflict.

The flytrap of implications

More and more we hear about Syria and Iran being called upon to rein in Hezbollah and Hamas, why they should escapes me.

In fact, I believe there is a more sinister ploy at hand; the need to find a way to implicate both Syria and Iran so that it can become a free-for-all battle royale, this would allow for nuclear sites in Iran to be targeted and destroyed and a possible assassination of the heads of government in those two countries.

The picture looks nasty and I fear for the ultimate effect of this situation.

It can now been argued that the Palestinians and Lebanese have already paid too high a price to return the soldiers unharmed and that is if the Israeli bombardments do not already crush the soldiers in some levelling escapade.

An eruption to wipe out hopes of peace

The world has looked on as the festering Middle-East conflict has ebbed and flowed like an indecisive volcano; it is about to rain lava and pyroclastic flows [2] that would engulf more than we have dared to imagine possible.

Back to the appeasement talk, rather than call to order the parties involved and get this situation to stop forthwith every influential nation has sent boats and evacuation teams to Lebanon to evacuate their citizens.

That, in my view is the license for this conflict to escalate, it says Israel can now maraud with impunity and as long as Hezbollah can still fire its rockets they would continue to descend like mega-hailstones on Haifa and beyond if they find the range.

If anyone should stop doing shit [3], it should start with the world leaders and their flimsy idea of sending in a Lebanon Peace Keeping Force [4] – how does that resolve issues on the ground today?

You need peace to keep it, and for now there is no peace but appeasement that is leading to the untenable, maybe when oil hits $100/barrel somebody might just feel the pinch enough to nip this Middle-East crisis in the bud.

References

[1] BBC ON THIS DAY | 30 | 1938: 'Peace for our time' - Chamberlain

[2] Pyroclastic flow

[3] BBC NEWS | Business | Bush lunch chat is caught on tape

[4] BBC NEWS | Middle East | UN calls for Lebanon peace force

Appeasement

Appeasement is a policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of armed resistance. Since World War II, the term has gained a negative connotation, in politics and in general, of weakness, cowardice and self-deception. - Wikipedia

Forked-tongues fuelling the Middle-Eastern fires

Where is the Genesis of the Middle-East conflict?

I have just had my fill of the fork-tongued diatribe masquerading as diplomacy coming from all quarters regarding the situation in the Middle-East.

When the Hamas militants blew a hole in the wall bordering Gaza and Egypt to allow in Palestinians who had been stranded at the border for weeks the hapless but relieved people thanked Hezbollah for giving them the kind of reprieve that has given them respite.

Let us look at the issues on the ground, indeed militants including Hamas supported personnel have been firing rockets into Israel over the last few months, but all as a result of the occupied situation that the Palestinians find themselves in.

I am not trying to condone or support the struggle which gets conveniently branded as terrorism; there is a serious problem of land conflict in the Middle-East with Israelis and Palestinians in the middle of that muddle.

The fear of 1967 sees no end to this problem

If only we had leaders with conviction who addressed the matter head on and the see the results – Israel completely pulling back to the 1967 lines and Palestine a state within the bounds of what is left – this includes the Jerusalem question – that is the resolution of this conflict.

However, this bizarre occupation where Israel has at will be able to maraud through Palestinian lands with impunity could only exact guerrilla and terrorism type activity where the opponent cannot match the aggressor bullet for bullet and man for man. It would be naïve to expect another situation.

So, the raid on Israel that left 2 soldiers dead and one captured was hardly the Genesis of this situation, the inability for the west to accept the democratic will of the Palestinians allowed Hamas to remain recalcitrant about the right for Israel to exist.

I would contend that if Israel existed within its legitimate pre-1967 borders, Hamas and all other opponents of Israel would have not foot to stand on with their rhetoric.

Recognition should precede calls for influence

Once the West refused to acknowledge democracy because it yielded as it were the “wrong” result, it meant that Hamas would be a weakened and ineffective governing machine unable to command the influence to contain rogue elements.

Then that beach bombing to which we cannot conclusive assign blame still leaves many thinking Israel was responsible – the impunity of Israel had reached a point that certain elements rose to show that Israel in all its might is vulnerable.

Israel’s response to the capture of its soldier-recruit has not only been overly disproportionate, it lacks purpose or the kind of objective that can guarantee the return of the soldier and the earlier someone laments that fact than acquiesce to the hope that reason would prevail on the part kidnappers the better for the poor soldier’s life.

Brothers joined up in arms

But Israel has been unrelenting, so who else would be touched by that intemperate overrun of Palestine but the brothers in arms of Hamas who could divert Israel’s attention – The Hezbollah.

Just as anyone would eventually act if in the presence of great an injustice none of those who can sue for justice actively play the part of arbiter.

So, Hezbollah which happens to be located in Lebanon entered Israel, killed a number of soldiers and captured two as hostage. Where a negotiated settlement might have yielded better results, Israel raced into Lebanon bombing every important structure they could find and killing many innocents.

So, Hezbollah with better weaponry – Katyusha rocket not matching Israel’s manpower however, better than the Qassam rockets has rained disruption but not yet carnage on Israel and the blockade on Lebanese waters has resulted in at least 4 Israeli Navy men being overboard.

A UN debacle and a hissing Bush

So, at the UN as calls for calm and restraint echoed from the chambers the Ambassador to the UN from Israel had the temerity, gall and effrontery to address his Lebanese counterpart in terms that suggested he should in honesty and truth support Israel in the attack on his country which would free Lebanon from the influence of Hezbollah. The is the most warped diplomatic logic I have ever heard from that esteemed chamber and it is amazing that Syria was refused the opportunity to comment on the floor.

So, when Mr Bush from St Petersburg insists that the escalation of violence is primarily due to Hezbollah’s activities; it shows that the warped logic is not only disingenuous; it is dishonest, disgraceful and disheartening. There can be not solution in sight.

Why should Syria care?

Then calls are being made to Syria to rein in Hezbollah – Fat Chance! – Why should Syria get involved no matter what influence they can peddle – Syria’s Golan Heights has been annexed by Israel since 1967 and nothing is being done to resolve that issue conclusive.

However, if Lebanon continues to suffer an onslaught from Israel with the increasing loss of life and the destruction of infrastructure, it would not be long before fraternal ties with Syria have them pitched against Israel.

That would create a domino effect of Iran moving up to support Syria and then the Arab World leading to the Muslim World – simply the makings of World War III.

With Iraq and Afghanistan being simmering cauldrons of violence, the ramifications of Israeli belligerence are far from fully appreciated by all concern and that is scary to say the least.

Israel will never be big in this matter

There are no simple solutions to this matter, but it would take the magnanimity of Israel to do something dovish and materially ground-breaking to bring an impasse this deteriorating situation, unfortunately, Israel does not have the maturity to bring about that quality of statesmanship.

If, those soldiers eventually get returned alive, what a hefty price would have been paid for that and if anything has been lost from all this is the perspective – a quality of far-sighted leadership.

References

The Summary of the Middle-East Conflicts

US and Russia differ on Middle-East

Israel hits Lebanese Ports

Terrorism was a part of the struggle

The Barbarian Ruling Class

Why Barbarian?

In the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, a barbarian is defined as lacking refinement, learning, or artistic or literary culture

Lacking any sense of proportion

To say I was astonished does not begin to help convey my utter disgust and annoyance at the invasion of Iraq, having read that some colonel in the US marines has offered to apologise for wrecking Babylon.

We have time and time again analysed beyond minutiae the circumstances and situation that lead to that expedition which is now supposed to cost the US anything from $400 million to $1.2 billion – well, we should just acquiesce that that is the price of marketing and selling democracy to the indecisive.

 

The Economist - Paying for Iraq | Blood and treasure | Economist.com

Dated without provenance

However, we can go back to when Donald Rumsfeld referred to the Old Europe opposition to the Iraqi escapade in juxtaposition with the New Europe “Coalition of the Coerced and Befuddled” that were in support of that exercise.

It is now indicative of the fact that many in leadership have no sense of history, moment or occasion as they bumble through in an air of modernity forgetting the Genesis of people, events and ideas that have brought us to these modern times.

It transpired that the First Marine Expeditionary Force under the command of Colonel Coleman (also of Fallujah fame) arrived in Babylon, occupied the area, built a helipad amongst the ruins of Great Babylon and used the historical artefacts lying around for their sandbags.

Conserving our history validates our present

It is amazing that the officer corps and the political class of our modern age in the name of egalitarian values is now crowded with “Now” people.

There was a time when people of privilege and class occupied the majority of the British Officer Corps; only recently Prince Harry of Wales graduated from the elite Sandhurst.

Now, before you throttle me, hear me out, these people had a decent education either formally or by association having an appreciation of history, circumstance, adventure and loyalty.

If you had set any of those within a setting as Babylon, much as the immediate concern is for military security and protection, a good few men would have to assigned to protect and conserve ancient artefacts to be preserved and probably exported to safety in the home country.

What is now known as plunder was then a service to humankind and many of those origin-countries have gained political and economic stability, the treasures have been returned to their home countries to be observed and conversed in their purpose-built centres of art or museums.

Graceless hot shots

However, now we have people trained up to be effective killing-machines, the strong-arm of cascading our brand of civilisation and freedom that probably have never heard of the historical and ancient importance of Babylon.

How much faith we have put in the gun, thinking it can solve all problems, but the hard lessons of Iraq has forced the Goliaths to soft-pedal on dealing with nuclear Iran.

That has not prevented the same Iraqi rhetoric from hitting our newswires; the idea that the UN Security Council is in danger of irrelevance if it does not subscribe and succumb to the skewed view of American dominance.

I would say, the UN Security Council becomes irrelevant if it allows itself to be bullied into situations that do not entertain majority global support.

Don’t if, Do!

Now, the said Colonel offers to apologise if the Iraqis demand an apology – my point, exactly – if the Colonel had really come to appreciate in any context what they did then, he would not be waiting for a request.

He would step forward, apologise unreservedly not only to Iraqis but in sense of understanding that Babylon is considered one of the cradles of human civilisation.

Unfortunately, like the barbarians of old, we have bred savages whose education consists primarily of the boot camp and target-practise, so incomplete in schooling that the treasures of humanity might end up being consigned to photographic evidence.

Along with the political class that has no dignity to step down gracefully, only one other recent event equates to their upbringing – the destruction of the great Buddha statues by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Our world is definitely poorer for the fact that we have these cretins in authority.

Related plundered blogs

Innocent red blood spun as roses in their bloom – March 2006

All before noon and not after

Bolton Bolts

The least celebrated and most controversial appointment in George W. Bush’s tenure has handed in his resignation having not been able to persuade the UN Security Council of the need impose sanctions on Iran.

As it transpired, Iran already has its nuclear weapons and in what might seems like a sick joke; Iran not having a Bikini Atoll or some remote Nevada desert has been conducting nuclear tests underground resulting in the increased seismic activity of earth movement and collateral damage.

It begins to make sense why Americans have been allowed to participate in relief efforts that might reveal a lot more than the suffering of the people.

Osama lives in Omaha

Another development sees Osama bin Laden who has acquired both a new identity and is under Interpol witness protection about to blow his cover.

This is because whilst we have been informed that he is a frail man needing dialysis in the mountains of Tora Bora, he is in fact hale and hearty in America enjoying the pleasures of the good life of a multi-millionaire, well especially if you have shares in Beckshire Hathaway.

This is because he was instrumental in creating a presidency of seriously big government from a conservative party which has through the events of September the eleventh been able to pre-occupy us with a war on terror and abrogate every liberty, freedom and right we fought for over the Twentieth Century subsuming it to the need for national security and enforcing it through patriotism.

The new powwow

It would have been impossible to imagine that a president of George W. Bush’s calibre in 2000 would have been able to pull off a feat of untrammelled executive power without the concerted liaison with Osama bin Laden.

It is no wonder now, that more people than lost their lives or got injured in the twin towers have been recorded in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Blowing his cover now would completely upset the balance of power, history and the New World Order. However, who would not acquiesce to this temptation just as Iraq seeks a new leader in Osama bin Laden, whilst the Washington Post and Fox TV have linked up with two Deep Throats with evidence to make the markets go up in a frenzy of agitated abandon.

Euro Bureau rejects cheap dollar

This is not helped by the fact that the great budget deficit is beginning to impact on the balance of trade such that Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Iran and Venezuela has decided to trade their oil in Euros, abandoning the dollar in such a way that China now has to devalue the Yuan to maintain global competitiveness.

The Congress is apoplectic with rage but powerless to act as a few senior senators and representatives were caught on camera protecting the Southern border from invading Mexicans by shooting them in the river as they crossed.

After noon, it is all over

Well, if we really did have a new world order, it would be over by noon.

However, beyond noon, in another life, I would have been a godfather and my goddaughter would be four today.

Happy Birthday dear and to others – It is only April Fool’s day.