Did he read it?

The question I really want answered is this. Did the President read the letter sent by his Presidential colleague in Iran?

Before Condi got her mitts on it and started to dismiss the contents and denigrate the Iranian President, did the president handle the 18 pages and see the print in the letter?

President Bush might not have been eagerly twiddling his thumbs waiting in expectation to read from a government that has been at variance with the United States for 30 years.

However, this was symbolic, but the United States forgot the occasion and missed an opportunity to at least see if dialogue was possible.

The letter says a lot

Then, we are told the letter says nothing new in terms of the prevailing issues, I beg to differ; the letter does address the concern about how propaganda is being used to demonise states in readiness for military attack.

It addresses the concern that certain countries unfairly think they have exclusive rights to technologies to the exclusion of others; especially, where standards of eligibility differ – North Korea (resignation), Pakistan (détente), India (support), Israel (indifference), Libya (emasculation) and Iran (suspicion).

It highlights the Israeli/Palestinian issue as the crisis of our times and the inaction that makes the “Destroy Israel” rhetoric find support amongst Arabs.

It is interesting that President Bush did find time yesterday to talk to President al-Bashir of Sudan about the Darfur crisis seeking some resolution on troop support in Darfur.

President al-Bashir could arguably be no less a figure of hate than President Ahmadinejad, talk is always important.

Of whom little is expected

If I expected the letter to be accorded a modicum of courtesy in the reading, comportment in the reply and diplomacy in commentary, I would be naïve.

It is a shame that the smart and clever people in the United States government cannot muster a diplomatic coup when presented to ample opportunity.

They forgo the basics of diplomacy for lambast and bluster whilst young men and women of American might end up being sent to lose their lives for a cause that have not been well thought through because the avenues of conciliation were closed by their government.

One is beginning to think the advocates of regime change might just need that tonic in the White House too.

America! Your move

Talking helps

I am no sage nor do I prognosticate, but word reaches me from the BBC that the president of Iran has written to the president of the United States.

The Swiss embassy represents the interests of the United States in Iran and this said letter has been passed through the ambassador of Switzerland in Iran to be forwarded to the United States.

This, it appears is the first time that communications have been initiated at such a high diplomatic level between the two countries in three decades.

I alluded to the concern that presidents in dispute do not exhaust the opportunity to have a heart-to-heart discussion [Mayday!], but then, I was thinking of the United States taking the initiative.

Magnanimous Iran –a welcome contradiction

Magnanimous and Iran might seem alien in the same sentence to many, but I can only commend the Iranians for subscribing to the humanity of communication rather than the bluster of belligerence.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a difficult man to listen to, but I cannot fault the logic of the many unpalatable statements he has made. A trail of hard truths are embedded in the diatribes; we ignore them to our peril.

American hegemony in the global context is becoming a cause for great concern; the lumbering super-power giant has not cottoned on the use of soft power to resolve intractable disputes.

That America and Iran have not spoken for 30 years should give all great cause for concern. That proxies do so much to ramp up the rhetoric of war should give every well-meaning person greater cause of concern, if not despair.

For now, the White House has denied the receipt of this letter, but it would do well for America and the world to ensure that the president does read and understand whatever the contents of the letter are.

Magnanimous America – a maturing behemoth

It would be magnanimous for the Americans to grace that letter with a respectable reply and resist the temptation to point-score in willing to press home an advantage that does nothing for global peace.

The willingness to communication is the willingness to appreciate other views and work out an understanding based on some acceptable compromise.

In my book, Barely-Nuclear Iran is playing a big-boy’s game of diplomacy that now gives them the high moral ground. America! Your move!

The first word was the slowest in coming

Back to school and tardy

After a long break, I am back on the academic trail to finish my last 2 modules and start on my MSc Dissertation.

Each module lasts 8 weeks that could be utter bliss or a complete ordeal and many things factor in between. You need 8 modules for the complete Masters in IT course.

Each week consists of a seminar, which includes a lecture a number of discussion question, probable assignments and project work for individuals or groups.

The seminar week runs from Thursday till Wednesday with the requirement that students must attend by effective contribution in at least 4 days.

So, work begins on the discussion question with ideas buzzing around in my head to distraction, I probably have written a whole conference in my head by Saturday morning but nothing committed to paper.

My head on a block

Writer’s block, they call it, more like an insurmountable mountain as I am drained of all energy to do other things and the clock begins to tick towards the deadline of midnight Sunday to get the discussion question contributions out and start commenting on the views of colleagues.

You might wonder how a person who seems to blog a lot can come to crossroads on writing decisions, well, it is probably like a hangover, until you’ve tried Hair of the Dog you might be nowhere near losing the headache.

From experience, I now find that I probably need 4 hours to knock-out decent copy and whilst the suggested time of study is considered somewhere between 15 to 20 hours a week, 30 of my waking hours are out there trying to be coherent and working to remain relevant.

Miss Marple’s assistant

The fun of study comes from the excitement of learning new things and ideas that one would not normally attend to in everyday life.

Currently, as we start with Computer Forensics, I feel I have just got a bit part in Miss Marple bites into an apple (computer) and she is investigating how the worm got in there.

Cite all sites

I was driven to complete distraction as I struggled to come to terms with the new citation guidelines that have become a nightmare that I acquired a tool – EndNote to handle all that stuff.

I am amazed that a tool that popular is so counter-intuitive and stodgy, most especially when in this day and age referencing from the web accounts for more citations than conventional books.

After a good 2 days of mucking around with the tool, it all began to make some sense, but a bit more practice is required before good value and consistent styles can results.

I fired a missive of 5 long questions to our librarian to help – methinks, the change would have less people citing references if so much time is spent trying to get it up to the demands and standards of the authorities.

Associating Computers with Manual work

More so, I am amazed that the Association of Computing Machinery that has a digital library to rival any large archive still requires that interfacing with contemporary bibliographical tools be a cut-and-paste activity – I am disappointed.

A hundred years of computing history and the largest archive still follows the bookshelf metaphor of a conventional library – something is definitely wrong if computing people cannot for themselves create a labour saving activity for their own use.

Methinks, I have a project to hand, however, I need a programmer’s brain for a radical lobotomy.

Study a-plenty means blogs a-few.

Old-age Rum's field day

Old-age rights

Any septuagenarian can exercise the inalienable right to be subconsciously forgetful to the extent that recorded statements of views expressed years ago may not be remembered.

However, if there is anything anyone would deny is happening as one matures; it is the loss of hearing, the loss of memory and probably the loss of energy.

The loss of hearing plays a great part when the elderly listener who by happenstance has not been pensioned off, holds more meetings with his team than any other predecessor and still does not seem to end up with the substance of their ideas.

Note however, that due diligence is served by being in the meeting and presiding over that meeting.

Blessings of old age

A well known trait of the elderly when entering those stages of hearing loss might be grumpiness, irascibility, stubbornness, dogged determination and downright rudeness which in some other quarters can be utterly unacceptable.

The elderly by their wealth of experience gained through years of toil or service can offer us gems of wisdom and thoughts to ponder; some can quite imponderable that you end up in the unknown unknown.

That is a place that only too few people have been to, because they are the only ones who can reveal the existence of that place. They are the sages of our age.

Bliss of old age

The loss of memory presents convenience for those who cannot remember and frustration for those who can remember but cannot find correlation with the main proponent of the subject.

If no record can be found of the subject being addressed for the proponent to remember, then it one man’s word against another. We are left to decide on the ability of either to convince with conviction and hopefully, truthfully.

This era of mass media however offers the ability to record, replay, review, research, recall and reproduce whatever material has been subjected to scrutiny.

The loss of energy might inform the reason why a mechanical device might be required to do the routine task of signing letters that should be of great import to the recipients.

Unequal values of old age

So, if at any time in the future after that recording; someone who remembers or who researches asks a question about a statement made in the past, the expected response should be concurrency.

Where there is no concurrency, the person being asked can defer to check the facts of that event and respond at a later time.

However, if the person being asked is generally given to bluster and falls into the demographic of the type of elderly person described earlier; then the person would not deny, rather suggest that something else was said or they have been misrepresented - conveniently.

Truth about old age

The reporters of this current event can then search their archives and return with the recording of that earlier event which has concurrency with the questioner’s assertions, not once, not twice, but thrice.

I would then assume that the septuagenarian has been caught in a lie – Never! The old man is never ever wrong.

You ask me, “Could that particular septuagenarian be Donald Rumsfeld?” Well, Go Figure!

References

CNN.com - Hecklers interrupt Rumsfeld speech - May 4, 2006:

Target Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld Defends His Record Against Critics - New York Times:

Rumsfeld Blog Archive

Death eludes the State

Whoops! Missed death

The circus around the Al-Qaeda wannabe moves to the lion handling the whip with the man jumping through hoops of fire.

Everyone who is anyone in authority would hold a press conference to commend first, and praise each other to the point of immodesty. We would suffer the back-slapping and the roll call of names of no particular significance jostling for recognition to the point of extreme boredom. Phew!

Zacarias Moussaoui, they claim had an inside on 9/11 as he was arrested on immigration charges weeks before the event; the case was built around the view that he had knowledge of an event that the authorities might have been able to prevent.

The authorities were awash with other bits of knowledge they could have acted on but they were found wanted – Moussaoui, it would appear afterwards might have had less than a bit part or scant knowledge of the events.

Death becomes the state

What is most interesting and might be the turning point in the American polity is the whole weight of the federal government and prosecution was for the imposition of the death penalty.

There was a separate hearing to determine if the death penalty should feature in sentencing, which was almost derailed but some underhand activities by a member of the prosecution.

The defence team appealed to a greater sense of humanity; the fact that another tragedy of the death of a would-be terrorist would not bring the closure that would assuage the pain of victims but celebrate the death of a martyr to a despicable cause.

It shows that a jury can exercise a greater resolve of conscience than the machine of state which just needs to be seen doing something, even it is not right.

Death is no real justice

In Europe, we have already resolved that no vengeance is served with capital punishment; we hold the sanctity of human life as something to be valued to the point of natural expiration.

It informs why we still have serious ethical issues with euthanasia and abortion.

In the end, a jury voted in the majority and relatives of victims of 9/11 who might be in their rights in to demand the death penalty agreed to the sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

In some places, his sentence might be considered harsh, in that we are not certain of what knowledge Moussaoui had of 9/11 and if whatever knowledge he had would have helped the government in absolution of their dereliction of responsibility.

Where be the big fish?

More damning, is the fact that this man who has been a media celebrity for 4 and a half years is very small fry compared to the blue whales of the Al Qaeda leadership who frequently remind us that they are still about and sending forth troops for the global jihad.

At large, at peace and at liberty, they mock the global superpower to derision and more so after they could not persuade a jury of 12 to do their bidding.

This, I would say, this is the death knell of the death penalty in America, the people have spoken, I just hope the president and governors are listening.

The Coalition of the Unviable

An appallingly truthful report

“We are pleased to present…” they said, I am utterly appalled I thought as I read the BBC headlines.

I have just been reading the Failed States Index 2006 produced by US Foreign Policy magazine and the US-based Fund for Peace think-tank, it does make interesting reading as it rates states or nations according to their viability.

Weep for the Rotten Criteria

Twelve criteria feature in this index as follows:

1.      Mounting demographic pressures

2.      Massive movement of refugees and internally displaced peoples

3.      Legacy of vengeance - seeking group grievance

4.      Chronic and sustained human flight

5.      Uneven economic development along group lines

6.      Sharp and/or severe economic decline

7.      Criminalisation and delegitimisation of the state

8.      Progressive deterioration of public services

9.      Widespread violation of human rights

10.  Security apparatus as "state within a state"

11.  Rise of factionalised elites

12.  Intervention of other states or external actors

United in mischief and more

The United States is ensconced in 128^th position being less viable than France, The United Kingdom and even Chile.

They reckon this must be due to the fact that there are mounting demographic pressures; probably the politics, the oil, the environment and all that is between creates significant discord.

Hurricane Katrina has definitely dealt a blow in this matter, since they score a 6 with regards to the massive movement or it was the massive immobility of internally displaced people who probably would never return to New Orleans sadly.

In our era of great American efficiencies and globalisation that is being force-fed to anyone who has an ear, the American Dream is turning into an nightmare for those caught on the negative side of uneven economic development.

It excludes people from opportunity, good health, rigorous justice and the enforcement of their constitutional rights.

Then the widespread violation of human rights where a score of 5 might include the abuse of the executive prerogative in the surveillance of Americans and the presence of the Guantanamo Aberration.

The Coalition of the Unviable

Besides these American failings, strong American allies or piles of mess feature in the Top 10 with Iraq (4), Afghanistan (9) and Nuclear Pakistan (10), barely Nuclear Iran comes in at 53 excelling by not being in sharp or severe economic decline.

I would contend if there were way of measuring viability also in relation to the havoc the primary country wreaks elsewhere, America should feature closer to its allies in the coalition of the unviable.

Nigeria as the most populous African country is where the debate about an at-present unconstitutional third term quest by the President flies in at number 22.

Having paid off most of their debt, they are host to many issues in the criteria that the government has done little to ameliorate.

Players, not Doers

As it were, many are big international players and poor internal doers.

It is however poignant to note that only 10 states do not have the influence of some intervention of other states or actors – Welcome to Earth – Chaos Reigns where people fail.

Views on Think Tanks

M'aider! M'aider! Mayday! Regime Change coming to you!

Talking to each other must help

I sometimes wonder what the world would be like if leaders of the world in areas of dispute, disagreement and discord; beyond their mediators and negotiators decided to have a direct heart-to-heart talk about the issues and tried that last diplomatic effort to seek resolution.

For example, if Mr George W. Bush had ever chatted to Saddam Hussein, would Iraq have been a better place?

It is utterly unconscionable that there is a feeling that if problem regimes meet with world leaders, they give those problem leaders legitimacy.

Well, I beg to differ, if that area of dispute would lead to sending young men and women to their deaths in the defence of the realm, then mediation is not complete till that area of human interaction is exhausted.

Bully-boy Yankie rhetoric

Just before the Iraqi war, the United States adopted a megaphone diplomacy stance of proxy brickbats. They did so much to undermine and denigrate legitimate negotiating organisations and reticent countries with the bully pulpit of a “them and us” rhetoric.

The IAEA, NATO, the UN and Old Europe got such a tongue lashing, but I recall no time when any attempt was made to see reason between the opposing parties.

Now, with the Iranian Nuclear Crisis, we see all the clamour and anxiety of the United States and its spokespeople in contrast to less frantic moves of the United Nations, Europe and the IAEA who seem to be pushed aside when their conclusions are not aligning with that of United States.

I do appreciate the fact that we in the world might not want a Nuclear Iran and we could a lot to stop the enrichment of Uranium to the extent that it might be used in weapons, however, it is impossible to suggest that they must not have that knowledge as Mr Bush says.

Iran really has not broken any laws or treaties rather, they have been remiss in engaging in activities that they have failed to reveal to the IAEA; as if, the US would reveal the extent of their developments to the selfsame IAEA.

Scientists do not stagnate, once they are on to something they are relentless in the pursuit of a breakthrough – that insatiable quest cannot be contained by barking from afar.

I would rather they had the knowledge we all know about than for them to find other novel ways that put them out of reach of our science. For, example, no one seems to have cottoned on how they powered the fastest under-water missile a few months ago.

Assumptions are just not good enough

To base the attacks on Iran on the assumption that they might rather than the reality that they have would take us down the same lane that ended up with Iraq having no weapons of mass destruction.

This War on Terror has done more to turn the world upside-down at the behest of belligerent Americans than the disconcerting views of the Iranian leadership or the lack of cooperation from the North Koreans.

The diatribes against Israel by the president of Iran should be seen in an additional context which Israel should do well to take good note of.

A thorn in the sides of the Israelis

How is it that the West in assuaging themselves of the guilt of the Holocaust, help create the land of Israel and left the big thorn of the Palestinian issue in their sides?

In 2 years, this classic misappropriation of land would clock 60 years and we are still nowhere near a final resolution.

Rather, Israel has usurped more land from 1967 and with impunity built more settlements and like the Communists in Berlin, built a wall to even take away more Palestinian land without the slightest rebuke.

The person who exposed the fact that Israel had nuclear weapons still languishes in jail in an extra-judicial process that belittles the context of democracy.

Cool heads required – Now!

I am not looking for a black and white world; however, no one seems to have the moral high-ground to demand anything of any other country, not the least the United States.

More so, it is not the world asking Iran to stop the development of nuclear weapons, but Americans speaking as though they are speaking for the world at large.

They are preparing for war, amazingly

The greater fear according the NewYorker and this is a worrisome read is how Iran has been infiltrated by American agents to discover sites that might have to be bombed including the use of Tactical Nuclear Weapons.

Scarier is the fact that they want to destabilise Iran such that people would rise for a regime change and ploy that failed woefully in Iraq only a few years before.

Iran does not need to attack Afghanistan or Iraq to retaliate, like retired four-star general did say, “the Iranians could take Basra with ten mullahs and one sound truck.”

That, I would say, would be the beginning of the Armageddon with the destination of Megiddo just a few hundred miles away.

A country surrounded as depicted in the graphic below would be remiss to do nothing about maintaining its sovereignty, their quest for nuclear technology begins to gather support as that truth becomes self evident.

Surrounded by at least 22 US bases and almost 150 thousand soldiers - it is more than an "Annie get your gun" setting, this is serious business.

Map of the oil corridor

References

M’aider

Eureka! is Farsi for Enrichment