The Golmal Press

Pastures New

2006-04-23T19:17:00.000+01:00

All Change.

Blogging at the new place.

Seriously Golmal – http://golmal.pickledpolitics.com/

Seriously Golmal is brought to you by the peeps at Pickled Politics.

Seriously Moved

2006-04-23T17:37:00.000+01:00

Normal service will resume on Seriously Golmal

Seriously Golmal is brought to you by the peeps at Pickled Politics

Happy Easter

2006-04-17T20:48:00.000+01:00

Hope you all had a great Easter. All of you. But especially you.

Newman's History of Oil

2006-04-17T20:47:00.000+01:00

Robert Newman used to make me laugh in the 90s as half of Newman and Baddiel. Baddiel went on to scratch his arse on Frank Skinner’s sofa faster than you can say “Ben Elton Sells Out” three times. Newman disappeared from the scene but has been very busy as his writings will attest. On Saturday night he was back on TV screens with the History Of Oil on More4. His Guardian interview can be heard here (MP3).

Get off at Euston

2006-04-17T20:18:00.000+01:00

The Euston Manifesto has created a storm. What is essentially a Muscular Liberal’s charter that has been published by “30 journalists, bloggers and thinkers” who assert that they represent the true democratic traditions of the Left by supporting the War on Iraq.

I found it to be a document of two halfs. The first half was brilliant. A clear and modulated call for alignment with the Universal Declaration. Human rights for all, Equality, Development for freedom, No apology for tyranny. Nothing a sensible intelligent person can fault. I loved the inclusion of ‘Open Source’. I’m even willing to forgive the insertion of ‘Opposing anti-Americanism’ for its incongruity, in spite of which this can be the mandate for any Liberal movement within any country. And it is trully Internationalist in that respect.

The second half of the document reads like a proviso to the Universal Principles that have just been brilliantly elucidated in the first. This is the “Elaborations” section which is the bit that gets bitchy, mean-spirited and distinctly non-universal. After months of reading this kind of sneering, snarky pap on pro War blogs none of this was new shit. This is the esposition of the Harry’s Place, ProWar Left, Non-Stopper call them what you will. They also claim to be the “intellectual vanguard of the Left”. Well, I believed them!

The publication has no doubt cooked up a torrent of blog activity from the antWar Left who have been struck dumb for months. The Moral Quicksand of the Moral High Ground by Mark Marqusee has so far been the clearest response to the EM.

In the first place, there's the dishonesty of treating the Socialist Workers' party and Respect as the totality of the left or the anti-war movement. One of the problems with the "line" they wish to draw is that it obliterates the existence of much of the actual left: which is diverse and predominantly anti-authoritarian. Huge numbers of people found no difficulty in opposing the war and the regime of Saddam Hussein; they didn't hesitate to condemn either the atrocities of 9/11 or those committed by the US, the UK and Israel; they want an end to the occupation but do not support actions that target Iraqi civilians. In fact, this latter category also comprises the vast majority of Iraqi opinion. It's telling that this is a constituency whose existence the manifesto authors refuse to acknowledge. Likewise, it's telling that among left secular activists across the developing world - the people in the front line of the struggles against fundamentalism, obscurantism, and repression - there is almost no support for the manifesto perpsective.

Marqusee then proceeds to lay into the Manifesto with a clinical efficiency that brought water to my eyes. When I read it I stood up and applauded the monitor.

Its somewhat depressing that the theoreticians of the Mainfesto finds it necessary to hold up a caricature of the Left: Anti-American, Anti-Israeli, Anti-Semitic, Islamists, Apologists, Gallowavians etc and say that is the actual Left, all of it, every last one of you. It wants freedom of expression but non-critical consumption of American and Israel policy as a fundamental tenet. This critique of the Manifesto by Dave Osler makes a great point in regard to the point of Anti-Americanism:

Of course the Islamists are reactionary theocrats that should be opposed implacably by the thinking left. But so are the US imperialist ruling class. Both sides in this dispute are wrong.

Perhaps the AntiWar Left should be joyously happy that the Euston Manifesto has been launched. Now everyone is talking about the Iraq War and the AntiWar camp looks like it has found a voice against the ideas put forth in the Euston Manifesto.

I see the two War camps as two insurmountable ethical moutains. Somewhere between the AntiWar ethical mountain: “How can you be anti-Saddam Hussein and not support a war to oust him?” and the ProWar ethical mountain, “How can you put your hand on your heart and say that the situation in Iraq is any better for Iraqis than it was under Saddam?” lies the answer. But one thing is for sure – its not in Euston.

And, just in case you’re curious, I shall not be signing it.

Update: The Euston Manifesto have a theme song.

The migrant worker's plight

2006-04-04T23:08:00.000+01:00

I am a Canadian living in Kuwait. Before I came to Kuwait I used to be the very quiet type who minds his own business. However, after my arrival it all changed. I had been witnessing and reading about so many human rights violations against those who can’t and/or aren’t allowed to defend themselves, the impunity enjoyed by the offenders because of the corruption and a system turning against the victims rather than protecting them. Eventually, I could no longer contain my outrage and decided to take a stand. I do not consider myself as a human rights freak but I do care a great deal about the issue. I believe every human being, men and women, deserve to be treated as equal. I despise those who abuse their power to force others into servitude. I admire anyone who has the courage to stand up for the weakest simply because it’s the right thing to no matter what the risks are.

Those are the words of blogger Ben Rivard who writes the Kuwait - fighting corruption, terrorism and human rights violations blog. His blog performs the fine but thankless task of uncovering some of the horrendous Human Rights violations that happen and continue to happen, mostly to South and South East Asians migrant workers in Kuwait. These crimes usually range from non compliance of contactual obligations, which usually means unpaid work, to horrific incidents of mental and physical abuse. This area is a human rights nightmare that affects the lives of the lowest of the low of the Globalisation model: the South Asian migrant worker. There is a human interest story that has gone largely undocumented and unreported. Anyone who has been to or has worked in the Middle East has had some exposure to the widespread nature of this problem. A cursory read of the local press in any Gulf stare will yield dozens of incidents involving abuse of domestic workers. This however is only the thin edge of the magnitude of the offences. Kuwait seems to be particularly bad if the freqency of reports of rape, murders and plain human violence that that surface to the police and the press are anything to go by.

What makes things worse is the total lack of legal and basic human rights support provided by the workers’ own consulates and governments to their citizens working in these, mostly Gulf States. Its almost as if they are compelled to take the backfoot with these Arab countries in relations concerning human and workers rightst to individuals who are often working in menial and low paid jobs. As long as foreign exchange is flowing back into their countries as a result of these workers remittances, they could care less about their individual tragedies and grievances. The incident that threw this into relief was this story of 700 desperate Bangladeshi workers who ransacked their embassy last year in Kuwait because of the total lack of support offered by the consulate against the actions of non-compliance by Kuwaiti employees.

Sunny H has been highlighting the issue as well, and has pointed out Abdullah Al-Mutairi article in the Arab News on the culture of cruelty towards migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.

Another blogger who writes on related human rights issues around the Middle East has surfaced in the shape of Chan’ad Bahraini.

Worth mentioning this open letter by the Human Right Watch to the President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn in 2003:

As the World Bank recognized in its April 2003 report on Global Development Finance, remittances sent home by migrant workers reached $80 billion in 2002, up from $60 billion in 1998. These payments have become more important and stable sources of finance for developing countries than private lending or official development assistance.

Countries receiving large remittances include Bangladesh ($2.1 billion in 2001), Egypt ($2.9 billion), India ($10 billion), Indonesia ($1 billion), Jordan ($2 billion), Lebanon ($2.3 billion), Morocco ($3.3 billion), Pakistan ($1.5 billion), the Philippines ($6.4 billion), Sri Lanka ($1.1 billion) and Yemen ($1.5 billion).

Read the letter in full.

Suicidal Syd

2006-03-12T23:35:00.000Z

Still with Viz, here is an example of their character, Suicidal Syd, who here attemptst to have himself killed by provoking the local chapter of al-Ghuraabaa. An example of a cartoon that satirises radical Muslims (reactions to the Danish loony toons in particular - which is more than welcome) without the breeching of Islamic prohibition on iconography or the sneering racism which was so explicit, it didn't even escape the BNP. We're unlikely to see any embassies burned down on account of this cartoon.

Toopee tip: MediaWatchWatch

Rectoplasm

2006-03-12T23:18:00.000Z

Rectoplasm (noun). Or that which promotes the idea Islamic radicalism is the sole purveyor of anti-Semitism today, whilst failing to mention others of arguably more significance. Rectoplasm also detracts from the fact that Islamic radicalism is waging a war against larger ideas than anti-Semitism alone. Radical Islam's war is against everything that is deemed by them to be “un-Islamic” and this term is used and meant in its widest sense and covers more than simply the hatred of Jews. Terrorism is a menace to billions of people in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, and hundreds of innocent people have have died who are victims of terrorism, plain and simple.

Begum Rokeya and International Women's Day

2006-03-06T17:41:00.000Z

We attended a Bengali cultural festival commemorating International Women’s Day at the Brady Centre (East London) yesterday. Heard an excellent lecture of the life and times of the Bangladeshi feminist, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain given by Shahin Westcom. I’m going to try my best to get a transcript of it to post here, but in the meantime, this site has some information on her as well. The wiki entry is pretty crap – and is begging to be replaced by a proper article, hopefully by someone like Ms Westcom.

Fukuyama Alights NeoCon Bandwagon

2006-03-06T00:34:00.000Z

Francis Fukuyama, right wing political historian and USA bigger-upper par excellence, was quick to bound onto the NeoCon express in the aftermath of 9–11. His support for the NeoCon project went all the way when he continued its support for the NeoCon invasion of Iraq, when he argued for the removal of the Saddam Hussain regime as a necessary reaction to the 9–11 attacks in spite of there being no evidence of a link. So it came as a bit of a shocker when two weeks ago, the international syndicated press rolled out his op-ed that he was ready to disown the NeoCon project in Iraq, because its pear-shapedness was obviously no longer doing his credentials any good. This was the piece (‘Neoconservatism has evolved into something I can no longer support’) that appeared in the Guardian on the 22nd of Feb.

More than any other group, it was the neoconservatives both inside and outside the Bush administration who pushed for democratizing Iraq and the broader Middle East. They are widely credited (or blamed) for being the decisive voices promoting regime change in Iraq, and yet it is their idealistic agenda that in the coming months and years will be the most directly threatened. Were the United States to retreat from the world stage, following a drawdown in Iraq, it would in my view be a huge tragedy, because American power and influence have been critical to the maintenance of an open and increasingly democratic order around the world. The problem with neoconservatism's agenda lies not in its ends, which are as American as apple pie, but rather in the overmilitarized means by which it has sought to accomplish them.

He also accused the NeoCons of being Leninists:

In the formulation of the scholar Ken Jowitt, the neoconservative position articulated by people like Kristol and Kagan was...Leninist; they believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support.

Worth reading every word.

Blair's god

2006-03-05T16:22:00.000Z

Here is the transcript of the Blair’s God comments.

And here in full, is Craig Murray’s views on the BBC’s reportage on the matter:

Yet more scandalous reporting from the BBC. They are saying that anti-war protestors are up in arms because Blair said that "God will judge him for his decision to go to war in Iraq."
That is a deliberate twisting of what Blair said into a more favourable light. I too believe God will judge Blair: the poor bastard has really got it coming in the hereafter. Blair actually said that "Others" were involved in the decision to go to war. When Parkinson pressed him, he confirmed that he was referring to God.
Saying that "God decided we should go to war" is very different from saying "God will judge my actions."
We know that Blair and Bush had decided to attack Iraq before 9/11. We know they prayed together when they took that decision. We know they pushed on illegally once the UN wouldn't back them, despite their lies on WMD. We know they killed scores of thousands of Iraqis, and life is a living hell for many millions still living. We know of the pointless sacrifice of the lives of our own troops.
Blair doesn't just need to be brought down, he needs to be brought to justice. Even before God gets his hands on him.

Sounds like Blair, having expended all other things to hide behind when it comes to Iraq, has finally found it useful to hide behind god. God loves you and what you have done more than you will know, Mr Blair.

Road To Guantanamo on Channel 4

2006-03-01T00:49:00.000Z

The estimable Sunny posted a great round-up of the recent detainment of some of the actors who of Michael Winterbottom’s Road to Guantanamo at Luton Airport after they returned from the Berlin Film Festival. The film got a stupendous reception at Berlin, where it won the Silver Bear award and the Guardian gives it a good review.

The film will get its first airing in the UK on March 9, on Channel 4. Now you know, set your VCRs.

Guilty by Association

2006-03-01T00:00:00.000Z

Madeleine Bunting has managed to sum up this last month for Muslims quite perfectly:

February 2006 has proved a mensis horribilis for British Muslims. Cast your mind back over the past few weeks and virtually all the major news stories were guaranteed to provoke Muslim outrage: from the publication of the Danish cartoons across Europe to the leaked full report of Abu Ghraib abuse, the video of British troops abusing Iraqi teenagers, the glorification-of-terrorism legislation, and the UN report on Guantï¿½namo Bay. The uncanny coincidence of three trials involving free speech - Nick Griffin, David Irving and Abu Hamza - has only thrust into sharper contrast for British Muslims the double standards of which they believe they are so often victims.

When it comes to the David Irving decision in Austria, it is an obvious knee jerk for most Muslims to convince themselves that they are being forced to suffer the use the of ‘Freedom of Speech’, a cornerstone of Liberal Democracy, as a pretext for media-savvy demagougues to victimise them whilst at the very same time, the same cornerstone is used to protect Jews from idiots like Irving. I know its hard to accept for many Muslims, but the two are not comparable offences. Muslims should re-evaluate what it means to deal with provocationary acts directed at their beliefs from a legal point of view rather than from a purely sentimental and reactionary one.

Publishing the cartoons was a breach of religious taboo, and was racist in intent - that we know. However, Muslims know and accept that organised religion has lost its value in the West because it doesn’t chime with Liberal Democracy. And all things remaining equal, thats the system we all live in and should respect.

The publication of the cartoons were anathema to Muslims. However, in order to safeguard themselves from such attacks, there exist laws which govern the protection of those who will use “Freedom of Speech” to incite hatred. Therefore Muslims would be wise to use the apparatus of the legal and judicial systems to fight such attacks on grounds of incitement of hatred or on by any such law that protects rights rather than by destroying property, rioting and ultimately losing the meaning of the offence caused in the first place.

The Holocaust is an event which is loaded with connotations of guilt and culpability for Europeans. It took place in the living memory of people who we are still contemporaries of. The Holocaust was also a culmination of a European pattern of endemic antisemtism that goes back many hundreds of years to when the Jews first came to Europe. See here.

Comparison of another crime, however heinous, to the Holocaust is to deny it. And to deny the Holocaust is to attempt to revise Europe’s dirty history of racism and prejudice and attempt to legitimise, even justify, its crimes on others. This is another anathema. Comparing one anathema to another gets you nowhere and to encourage it is to buy the Muslim bashers pretext to assuage the collective guilt of the the Holocaust and transfer it to Muslims. Muslims seem all too ready to bear this guilt - God only knows why (hello Mr Ahmadinejad). But that is what Muslims cannot afford to do if they want to have their rights respected in return.

There is a trap here which says “Muslims Do Not Press This Button”. Please lets not fall for the obvious by pressing it.

Gay and Muslim

2006-01-26T20:30:00.000Z

The idea of being gay and Muslim seems irreconcilably mutually exclusive, given the Quranic injunctions on the matter:

"Of all the creatures in the world, will ye approach males, And leave those whom Allah has created for you to be your mates? Nay, ye are a people transgressing (all limits)!"
[26:165-166]

"Would ye really approach men in your lusts rather than women? Nay, ye are a people (grossly) ignorant!"
[27:55]

"For ye practise your lusts on men in preference to women : ye are indeed a people transgressing beyond bounds."
[7:81]

"And we rained down on them a shower (of brimstone): Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime!"
[7:84]

Channel 4 earlier this week aired the Gay Muslims documentary, so obviously the idea of being homosexual and Muslim is entering public conciousness. Especially after Iqbal Sacranie of the MCB came out with the injunction that homosexuality was "harmful". A statement for which he had to suffer the indignity of a police investigation. Way to go Sir Iqbal - just when you needed another PR indignity like a hole in the head.

Anyone would think that Sacranie is being overly defensive. Either that or he has no idea of just how widespread homosexuality is in the Muslim world, not just Muslims in the West, but also in its history. Homosexuality is widespread in Muslim countries today - even if societies dare not speak its name. Historically, there have been many Muslim saints who have chastely adored the male form as a path to gnostic enlightenment - as recorded by Ibn Arabi in his writings of travels amongst Andalucian saints. So, there's certainly a spiritual precedent of conciliation.

Still, one hopes that blogs that tackle this matter head on get all the support they need. And such a blog is Eye on Gay Muslims.

Iraqi Misadventure

2006-01-19T17:23:00.000Z

You've got to laugh:
A Text Misadventure.

Kanan Makiya on Islam and Democracy

2006-01-13T01:48:00.000Z

Kanan Makiya is the author of Republic of Fear and Cruelty and Silence. He has brilliantly and authorotatively argued for regime change and the deposal of Saddam since the first Gulf War. He is also Iraqi (his mother is British and his father the Iraqi architect Muhammad Makiya) and is now one of the very few Arab Muslim voices that speaks with any credibility whilst at the same time delivering some difficult messages to the Arab (and the wider Muslim world) for the need to accept democracy and, crucially, for the need for a disengagement of Religion from State.

I have excerpted large tracks of his interview that has been published in Democratiya 3. These are the sections that deals specifically with Islam and its need for its adherents to face up to some fundamental cultural choices, such as the role of Islam in government and the need to reclaim the voice of Muslims from the Salafis and the Jihadis. This will not be an easy message for the large majority of Muslims living in Islamic countries, particularly Arab Muslims, but Makiya’s words are directed at Muslims to address and debate these ideas.

I hate the word modernise, as in an embrace of Modernism. We who live in a Post-Modern world know that Modernism has not come close to answering all the questions, particularly for cultures with deep Traditional foundations. But Makiya deals with that here in the following text by saying that Muslims must and will find their own way to reform Islam and it will most likely not take the same form as the (European Christian) Reformation – which dealt Christianity a death knell in the late 17th century with the last coffin nails banged in with Vatican 2 in the 60s. Islam’s Reformation, when it is to happen, must avoid throwing the baby out with the bath water, at all costs.

On the future transformation of Islam
On a simple level, I mean there is a culture of not taking responsibility for the state of one's house. The culture of constantly shunting that responsibility to others—'imperialism', 'Zionism', and so on—has become a break on moving forward across the Middle East. Look at Muslim societies today. They are relatively backward in terms of income levels. They have been unable to create democracies. They are stuck in a language and a rhetoric that is patently unmodern. The defensive wall that exists between Islam (at least as it is currently constructed) and the necessary changes needed is, above all, the idea that others are responsible for what we've done, and that everything bad that happened to us has happened because of others. The answer to the question 'what is wrong?' is always 'it's somebody else's fault'.
Now, why is Islam in that position, and is it changing? The 'civilisational challenge' is this: can the Arab Islamic world come to terms with the fact that it is responsible for its own ills, and for pulling itself up by your own bootstraps in order to get into the world, rather than keep finding ways of staying out of it? This is not an easy thing. For a religion to undertake that kind of internal self-critique means it has to accept a real reformation of itself. Christianity was able to do that. Judaism was, in a completely different way, more or less able to do that (not as completely). But Islam hasn't even begun to do that. And in the meantime there is a kind of rot. We don't live in a world that allows long periods of time for making this kind of internal reformation of oneself. In the meantime the rot represented by the rise of Salafi Islam, Jihadi Isalm, etc is so great, so palpable, that it is threatening us all, and is threatening Islam itself, above all.
Islam is largely at war with itself. The greatest number of people who are dying on the battlefields are Muslims. Muslims are fighting Muslims. Think of Algeria. Think of the struggle inside Egypt. Think of the Lebanese civil war. The greatest number of casualties so far, 9/11 notwithstanding, is Muslims fighting Muslims. But we don't have a properly focussed debate, with those trying to reform and transform the religion leading one side and those trying to hold it back leading the other.
However, there are very important changes starting to take place, New voices are being heard. Cruelty and Silence is everywhere. That was impossible in 1993. There are Muslims critiquing Islam itself. These voices are starting to emerge. This reformation may be beginning. But they haven't yet cohered into a clear movement with an agenda that is tackling the other side, the Jihadi view of Islam, the obscurantist and fundamentalist side of Islam. So while there are reasons for optimism, there are also reasons to worry. Because, as yet, these new voices aren't anywhere near as strong as they need to be. Moreover, Jihadi Islam now has a substantial social base it didn't have ten years ago. One could even say we look like we're losing the battle at the moment. I certainly hope that's not the case. But we are in the throws of a deep convulsion that is taking place within Islam itself, among Muslims, and we have no way of clearly predicting how this is going to turn out. I call that a civilisational crisis of the first order.
On Islam and Democracy
It's a tension only in the sense that every great religion has to find its own way of freeing itself and moving forward in the world. Islam will find a way that is different to that of Christianity. The same formulas—separation of church and state, etc—may not play themselves out, in the convulsions that take place within Islam, in exactly the same way they played out in Christianity. We should not look for a straight line between the European experience and the Islamic experience. But can it in principle be resolved? Absolutely, I think it can.
Yes, Islam's relation to politics - it's insistence that it legislates for day to day life – can cause problems when you try to separate it from politics (quite different from Christianity where you can start to put religion and politics into two separate boxes). However we negotiate this reformation-transition, we know it is going to be different. But that it can take place is a proposition I completely believe. It hasn't taken place this far simply because the individuals, the subjective factor able to make it take place, have not yet emerged strongly enough from within Islam.
It's not the same thing for a person like me to write from a secular point of view about these issues, and for a cleric, breaking with his own traditions, to write about these issues. In Iraq today there are such clerics. Think of Sayyid Ayyad, a remarkable man in his mid-forties. who has arrived at a series of conclusions utterly from within the Shiite tradition of Islam, which accept the separation of church and state. He's on the lists, he's up for elections, he's on TV, and he's a real firebrand. He is a new kind of force speaking a new kind of language, shocking traditional Muslim audiences. He has a very high opinion, for instance, of the American constitution and the Bill of Rights. Many more people like him need to engage in the debate, as well as people like myself. I and others like me can't break through that wall by themselves; we need help from inside the fortress of Islam. Missing, at the moment, are the clerics who will fight from within and make their argument not in the way I make my argument (from western texts, general texts of human rights or from someone like Hannah Arendt), but from within the religion itself. This is, after all, how the reformation came about. It was largely by very religious, pious men constructing arguments for human rights from within their own tradition. That this can be done in Islam I have not the slightest shadow of a doubt. The nature of scriptural texts is that they are infinitely malleable. It is what you chose to put forward that counts. In fact, it is really quite remarkable how the growing Salafi, or Jihadi, trend of Islam rests on a tiny body of text. It represents a very small minority position within Islam. It has succeeded largely through the strength, vigour and energy of its own militancy, which it has used to capture a whole section of the tradition. That's never happened before. There is, in principle, a huge body of texts and many traditions with which to create an alternative version of Islam. I haven't a shadow of a doubt that it can be done. It just needs the men and women from within to do it.

The whole interview is invaluable.

Corrupt Lobbyists and Jewish Terrorism

2006-01-06T17:15:00.000Z

The latest corruption scandal to hit Washington circles is the biggest one since, erm, the last one. The main concern of the indictment of Jack Abramoff, is how many more Republicans he is going to bring down with him, as he sings like a canary. See chart, for those in his immediate circle who are high risk individuals, not just to themselves but to the reputation of the Bush Administration.

An excellent analysis of the repercussions of this latest scandal is here, by Sunny.

But one of the most interesting encapsulations of the details is provided here, by Prof Juan Cole. And in particular:

Indeed, it was this terror funding of Israeli far right militiamen that tripped Abramoff up, since the FBI discovered that he had misled Indian tribes into giving money to the Jabotinskyites, and then began wondering if he had defrauded the tribes in other ways. (You betcha!) The Indian leaders were furious when they discovered they had been used to oppress another dispossessed indigenous people, the Palestinians, calling it "Outer Limits bizarre" and saying that they would never have willingly given money to such a cause.

Somehow, the thought of Native American Indians holding solidarity with Palestinians, another "dispossessed indigenous people", and their input in blowing the lid off this scandal, has a karmic ring to it.

The language used by Prof Cole in this article is as powerful at blowing the lid of the brand of insipid apologia of Jewish terrorism is as powerful as it gets:

But here's a prediction. None of the Jewish extremists, some of them violent, who are invading the West Bank and making the lives of the local Palestinians miserable will ever be branded "terrorists" by the US Government, and Abramoff's foray into providing sniper lessons will be quietly buried.

Terror isn't terror and aggression is not aggression when it has lobbyists in Congress who can provide luxury vacations and illegal campaign funding.

Read it.

Iraqi Rebuilding Funding Runs Dry

2006-01-06T16:17:00.000Z

Even before the USA/UK pulls out their troops from Iraq, the funding gets pulled first. Back in 2003, Bush made a promise that Iraq was to have the best possible infrastructure to rise from the ashes of the destruction wrought by war. But instead, we now have this:

The $18.4bn (£10.6bn) allocation is scheduled to run out in June 2007. The move will be seen by critics as further evidence of the administration's failure to plan for the aftermath of the war.

A decision not to renew the reconstruction programme would leave Iraq with the burden of tens of billions of dollars in unfinished projects, and an oil industry and electrical grid that have yet to return to pre-war production levels.

Which means the destruction done to infrastructure and institutions will have to be paid by the people of Iraq. Wasn't this always the way it was going to turn out?

Boycott Quandrary

2006-01-06T15:33:00.000Z

In an earlier post back on Harry's Place, on the boycott by the Norwegian county council of Sør-Trøndelag, Gene (the original author of the post and a Harry's Place co-blogger) quoted from an email he sent to one of the council members:

I too hope for peace between Israel and a Palestinian state, but I believe boycotts like this impede rather than advance that goal.
_{[my emphasis]}

However, in an exchange he and I had on the matter in a comments thread discussion on this blog, I asked him what Burmese products he thought Norway ought to boycott, to which he wrote:

A number of Norwegian companies import timber from Burma, a trade that represents ten percent of that country's export earnings.
http://www.fafo.no/nyhet/armofthelaw.htm

I'd start there.

So "boycotts like this impede rather than advance that goal" and is why Gene argues that Norway should not boycott Israeli products. Yet he contradicts this by writing to me that Burmese timber should be boycotted. Please note that I'm not suggesting that Burma should not be boycotted nor defending its regime's transgressions. I also agree with Norway's decision to boycott Israeli products. Ultimately, a boycott is nothing more than of gesture politics, but nevertheless conveys a powerful message.

The point to make is if "boycotts impede rather than advance", then surely that should apply universally. Why should Israel alone qualify for this generous sentiment, whereas Burma (or any other country's on the shit list) should be firmly boycotted?

Who said it was only the Left who dealt in moral relativisms?

Not Mill

2006-01-06T12:18:00.000Z

Civitas, was earlier this week calling for an end to Political Correctness (PC), because they argued, it has allowed the creation of "Muslim Ghettos". Anthony Browne, author of a pamphlet on PC, written under the aegis of Civitas, claimed that PC closed down debates, labelled groups as victims and banned dissent. I've always thought that PC was a device created by others to argue in defence of those who are purportedly marginalised by society. It has its benefits but it has also its abuses. In reality, can't it be argued that the motive for the call for less Political Correctness is almost always made by those who are in the upper echelons of the social food chain, to make generalisations about the those in the lower echelons without the danger of censure? You don’t hear about the Black or Asian communities calling for a need for less PC so that they can comment on the flaws (White Ghettoes?) of the indigenous community without being labelled racists.

Further analysis and discussion is found at Pickled Politics and Robert Sharp.

And while on Civitas, Chris Dillow, economist and author of the informative and tidily written Stumblings and Mumblings, takes umbrage at the claim made by Civitas that John Stuart Mill was a Tory.

Now, Mill was many things, almost all of them good. But an inspiration to the stupid party? Surely, only a very small minority of them, and on a very partial reading of his works.

Here I would like to take the un-PC opportunity to call Civitas a stupid and opportunistic bunch of patriarchial cretins. Tory by definition and, therefore, not at all like John Stuart Mill.

Inspirations and Creative Thoughts: Hindu thoughts around the blogs

2006-01-06T08:18:00.000Z

Inspirations and Creative Thoughts: Hindu thoughts around the blogs

Nice round-up of some excellent blogs on Hindu doctrine by Sadiq Alam from Bangladesh.

Is it a wall?

2006-01-02T23:03:00.000Z

No its a “fence”. And its not “occupied”, its “disputed”. Here is Robert Fisk with more examples of the Semantics of Occupation in use by the media, Telling it like it isn’t.

Then there is the "wall," the massive concrete obstruction whose purpose, according to the Israeli authorities, is to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from killing innocent Israelis. In this, it seems to have had some success. But it does not follow the line of Israel's 1967 border and cuts deeply into Arab land. And all too often these days, journalists call it a "fence" rather than a "wall." Or a "security barrier," which is what Israel prefers them to say. For some of its length, we are told, it is not a wall at all — so we cannot call it a "wall," even though the vast snake of concrete and steel that runs east of Jerusalem is higher than the old Berlin Wall.

Toopi Tip: Jews sans frontieres

Failure at WTO

2006-01-02T22:39:00.000Z

Nitin at Acorn covers Bangladesh’s miserable performance at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha round last week.

While its government has put a brave face in the face of this setback, Bangladesh’s Centre for Policy Dialogue, an independent think-tank, has cited the government’s lack of political and negotiation skills as contributing to the failure. And the ‘South Asian solidarity’ that it was counting on didn’t really materialise. While India supported full exemption for LDCs, Pakistan and Sri Lanka argued against giving duty-free access exclusively to the LDCs.

Yes that said “Pakistan and Sri Lanka argued against giving duty-free access exclusively to the LDCs”. In plain language that means that Pakistan and Sri Lanka voted against Bangladesh to secure duty-free and quota-free access to US and European markets. India voted for Bangladesh.

I hope that message goes out loud and clear to contingents in Bangladesh who have developed a deep-seated hatred for all things Indian (whilst enjoying the benefits of cheap Indian health services and Hindi movies).

The T word

2006-01-02T14:20:00.000Z

One of my favourite blogs is The Religious Policeman. Its one and only remit is to lampoon the pecadilloes of the Saudi Royal Family and the excesses of Wahhabism. It also contains large amounts of piss-taking of the idiosyncracies peculiar to Saudi Arabians. Now it must be said that there are no lack of people willing to lampoon the Saudi Royal Family and take the piss out of Saudi Arabians and I’ve met plenty of them. But none that I’ve come across have ever been a Saudi. Alhamedi claims to be a bone fide Saudi who blogs from London. The Religious Policeman has taken the laughter from behind the closed doors of air-conditioned villas in Riyadh to the blog readers of the world. This has been for me one of the successes of the blogosphere phenomenon.

One of the reasons the Religious Policeman has been so successful is because it offers some real insights into Saudi Wahhabism which is a puritanical interpretation of Islam and happens to form the blueprint of faith for the Islamist Terrorism that is springing up in any number of places around the world. Not least Bangladesh, where this writer comes from.

However, all this hilarity comes with a qualification. As an Arab, Alhamedi cannot be seen to address the plight or even, in fact, to take the side of Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To do that would be to blow his lampooning credentials and he can be sure, if he were ever to do so, that the Religious Policeman would cease to be as amusing. If there were a blog that lampoons Bangladesh and the shameless legacy of the political parties which have held the future of 150 million Bangladeshis to ransom (and God knows that the BD diaspora is crying out for such a blog), I know that if it wanted to “stay in business” it could never be seen to buy into the sentimental politics of either the BNP or the Awami League. That would be seen as siding with one 'mythology' over another 'mythology' and any cachet of objectivity would be lost. Its not for nothing that Alhamedi has been careful not to pour scorn on the failure of the Saudi kingdom, and the Arab World, to come to a consensus about the Palestinian problem.

While it is important for Arabs like Alhamedi to build bridges he must not fall into the trap set by those who equate the support of the Palestinian cause with anti-Semitism or anti-Jewishness. The question of terrorism is often addressed by the Religious Policeman and, in particular, he has been a vociferous critic of Saudi Arabia’s inability or unwillingness to address the thorny issue of the 9/11 atrocity which was wholly the action of 19 Saudi terrorists. But Alhamedi’s obligation to critique his country means that he must skirt around the Islamophobic perception that all Saudis and/or all Arabs (and by a skip and a hop, all Muslims) are violent terrorists.

Lets check out Robert Fisk for a definition of the word Terrorist taken from his book Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War

For the Israelis - for Sharon and Begin and their soldiers - 'terrorist' did not have the same connotation as it does elsewhere. In Europe and America, in many Asian countries, even in the Soviet Union, the word 'terrorism' evokes images of hijackings, bombs planted in restaurants or schools or airports, the murder of civilians on planes, buses, trains or ships. But in Israel, 'terrorist' means all Palestinian Arabs - and very often, all Arabs - who oppose Israel in word or deed. Loren Jenkins used to refer to 'the careless depreciation of meaning' that the Israelis imposed on the word, claiming that this distorted the reality of terrorism. But it was not 'careless'. It was deliberate. Like the Syrians, the Soviets, the Americans and the British, the Israelis drew a careful distinction between good terrorists and bad terrorists. In Israel's case, the fomer were sympathetic to Israel and were graced with various, less harmful epithets - 'militiamen', 'fighters', 'soldiers' -- while the latter opposed Israel and were therefore terrorists pure and simple, guilty of the most heinous crimes, blood-soaked and mindless, the sort of people who should be 'cleansed' from society.
By labelling Palestinians as terrorists, the Israelis were describing their enemies as evil rather than hostile. If the Palestinians could be portrayed as mindless barbarians, surely no sane individual would dare regard their political claims as serious. Anyone who expressed sympathy for the Palestinians was evidently anti-semitic - and therefore not just anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish, but pro-Nazi - which no right-thinking individual would wish to be. Anyone who even suggested that the Israelis might be wrong in their war against the Palestinians could be castigated in the same way. Do you think Hitles was right? Do you agree with what happened at Auschwitz? No, of course not. If Israel called the PLO its enemy, then the Middle East dispute involved two hostile parties. But if the world believed that the Palestinians were evil -- that they represented sin in its crudest form - then the dispute did not exist. The battle was between right and wrong, David and Goliath, Israel and the 'terrorists'. The tragedy of the Israelis was that they came to believe this myth.

I hope the Muttawa the RP continues to be as funny and relevent in 2006 and, at some stage, can address the T word with his customary wit and humour.

New Year

2005-12-31T18:43:00.000Z

A happy, prosperous and fulfilling New Year!

Parallel walls

2005-12-30T01:28:00.000Z

Sør-Trøndelag, a county council in Norway has decided to boycott goods from Israel, on account of the West Bank Barrier (also referred to by Israel as a wall or fence).

"The county has before decided to boycott South Africa in protest against the apartheid government. In a similar way we wish now to make clear that we distance ourselves from Israel's politics"
said Geir Jarle Sir�s from the Socialist Leftwing Party to the Norwegian TV 2.

Harry’s Place, where this item is from, asks why Israel has been singled out for a boycott when leaders of other countries such as Burma, China, Iran and Sudan are “doing much more terrible things”. Sounds like moral relativism to me, since Israel’s “terrible things” are as bad as any terrible thing from Burma, which, irrespective of any boycott, is still more of an International pariah than Israel.

This is more information about the Israel Wall:

“It is estimated that Israel's Annexation Wall will be completed in the early part of 2006. When it is finished it will annex 47% of the West Bank, and hand it over to the settler population.
At least 15% of Palestinians will be left outside the wall1, completely isolated from the rest of society, and over 222,098 refugees for the second or third times will experience, "land confiscation, destruction of property, and denial of access to their lands thus directly affecting their means of livelihood"2. In the end, it is not an over exaggeration to say that the entire Palestinian society will directly suffer by its completion, in addition to the seemingly unstoppable illegal Israeli practices that continue unhindered.”

Meanwhile, an Indian blog from the same end of the political spectrum as Harry’s Place, the eponymously titled Secular-Right India, links to a Reuters report about recent developments on the India-Bangladesh border:

India is deploying thousands of new troops on its frontier with Bangladesh and setting up hundreds of more border posts to check illegal migration and movement of armed militants, a top official said.

New Delhi decided to bolster its eastern border defences in September to crack down on militants moving in from Bangladesh, although Dhaka denies anti-India elements are using its soil.

Secular-Right India, as expected, thinks that this is “An excellent development”. It's unsubtle but this sentiment is by far the most representative of reactions coming from India regarding the border wall building exercise with Bangladesh.

I found a comment by Roz Paterson, tucked away in the archives of the Scottish Socialist Voice:

Inspired perhaps by Israel’s ‘apartheid wall’ to keep out the Palestinians, India is constructing her very own security barrier to discourage migrants from its poorer neighbour, Bangladesh.
The Indian government has made some noises about terrorism prevention but the real motive behind the fence that will ultimately span the entire 2500 mile border with Bangladesh is that India’s economy is booming and she doesn’t want to share.
But where the Israeli barrier has been cunningly arranged to grab fertile lands from the Palestinians, the Indian wall is disadvantaging primarily Indians - approximately 65,000 of them - in this matter. Because of a longstanding border-treaty between the two nations, which states that no fence can be erected within 150 yards of the border, the barrier is set 150 yards back into India. For Indian border farmers this is disastrous, as, thanks to the cranking up of aggression between the two peoples, they must now abandon farmlands they have worked for generations or face being hounded from them by the Bangladeshis once they find themselves on the wrong side of the wire.
The aggression goes back decades and is most powerfully felt in the relations between Indian and Bangladeshi border guards who stalk the perimeter. There is a long history of clashes between the two, but now it’s getting murderous.
Three weeks ago, an Indian local assistant commander is alleged to have been lured across the border by members of the Bangladesh Rifles, where he was tortured then killed. Meanwhile, in India, paranoia regarding Bangladeshi immigrants is running at an hysterical high. So hysterical that, last month, the Maharashtra state government closed down Bombay’s dance bars because, they claimed, the Bangladeshi dancers there were spies!
Despite having nowhere to go, and no money to facilitate a move, many border Indians are upping sticks anyway, too afraid of what may come next. For some, this has ghastly echoes of Partition, when the crude severance of the subcontinent following the British withdrawal forced Hindus to flee in one direction while Muslims fled in the other. Thousands were murdered, others disappeared, still others ran with only the clothes they stood up in... and landed, some of them, in Tripura, near the Bangladeshi border, where they were granted Indian citizenship and allowed to settle. That period of relative peace seems done with now and, for many whose memories extend back to the butchery of Partition, history is coming back to haunt them.

Both walls are to keep people out. Palestinian people in the case of Israel’s wall and Bangladeshi people in the case of India’s. Both have been built on the pretext of keeping terrorists out but thats where the parallel ends. India has built its wall to keep out economic migrants from Bangladesh. So obviously it doesn't take a political scientist to know that the reason for both walls is to protect the economic interests of the wall builders. However, anyone living in West Bengal or East Bangladesh knows that the border is and always has been porous and happens to benefit India as much as Bangladesh with both licit and illicit trade. India has obviously decided that the cost of unprecedented levels of one-way illegal Muslim migrancy into India outweighs the benefits of two-way trade along the longest border in South Asia.

But what is Bangladesh's reaction to all of this? Apparently talks between the two nations are continuing. What should Bangladesh’s correct response to India’s Wall be? Discuss.

Golmal Festive 10

2005-12-29T21:21:00.000Z

The Golmal Press Album Charts for 2005 have been awaited with baited breath since the last of the Xmas leftovers were polished off. So before we get another attack of the munchies, here are the top 10 albums voted by Golmalsters all over the world:

[1] Quasimoto – The Further Adventures of Lord Quas

Another Madlib joint. And knowing Lord Quas, joint is the operative word. This is the second installment of the musings of the herbed-up dysfunctional alien brother from another planet.

The production value alone will keep this in the classics library forever.

This is hip hop. This isn’t hip hop.

[2] Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Master and Everyone

Listening to the music of Will Oldham is like finding yourself staring at an open flesh wound, mesmerised and repulsed at the same time.

This album is pared down to a guitar and the superb lyrics and Oldham’s unique voice.

If this beautiful music doesn’t move you, get in touch with your feelings, you monster. An excellent review can be found here.

[3] DangerDoom (MF Doom and DangerMouse) – The Mouse and the Mask

Two artistst completely on top of their game get into a studio and produce a hip hop album that breaks the mold. Repeated playings brings out its wit, intelligence and humour.

“Genius – but do you even know what that means!”

Absolutely effing blinding.

[4] Various – Choubi Choubi

A compilation of Iraqi pop and folk music from the Saddam era. Shareef may not have liked it, but this album ROCKS!

This is joyful, sexy, hopelessly dance-able, uninhibited and funky. Not for Pro-War Johnnies who like to think nothing good ever happened in Iraq before March 2003.

Essential stuff. Also see Radio India, released by the same people.

[5] Jamie Lidell – Multiply

When electronica wonder-boy drops his anorak and sings, he shows off a voice that is as soulful and beautifully sonorous as anything by Al Green, Prince, Stevie Wonder etc. Yes, that good.

To see the man live is to see his electronica credentials for yourself as he splices and loops his vocals on himself. Wondrous.

Play that funky music, white boy.

[6] Daedelus – Exquisite Corpse

This album blew my socks off when it was released earlier this year. That was when I first heard Mr Daedelus perform a live set on Mixing It (Radio 3).

“Fourteen tracks featuring completely on their game spots from MF Doom, Sci, TTC, Mike Ladd and even Miami's Cyne taking a moment away from creating what will be their amazing upcoming debut album for City Centre Offices.”

[7] Madlib – Mind Fusion Volume 2

The second of the two Mind Fusion releases from the guru-ji, Madlib.

Essentially this is 3 tracks of blissed out rare jazz, funk and 70s soul put together in his inimitable style.

The man is a giant and he lives in our time.

[8] M.I.A. – Arular

All the dancefloor shifters mixed by Diplo are here like Galang and Sunshowers. All the snarly lyrics. All the irresistible breaks. This will be a classic.

Maximum Respect goes out to an London Asian dance superstar who has re-written the rules of Brit-Funk. Politicised, angry and raunchy. Give her a mention, Pickled Politics!

Zeitgeist-bending stuff.

[9] Sufjan Stevens – Come on feel the Illinoise!

Any album which can have a track called 'The Black Hawk War, or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologise For the Inconvenience but You're Going To Have To Leave Now, or I have Fought The Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Land' and still be a beautifully crafted song has got to be worthy of your schekels.

One of the best singer-songwriter working today. Heads and shoulders above the rest. Thank you Sufjan.

[10] Piano Overlord (Prefuse 73) – The Singles Collection 03–05

No chart of the year will be complete without at least one issue from Scott Herren aka Prefuse 73 (and any number of other avatars and incarnations).

Beautiful modal jazz arrangements, honed down hip hop beats, real acoustic instruments sampled over sharp-as-you-like electonica.

Essential stuff.

Thanks to Boomkat for the cover images, reviews, pointers and generally being the best leftfield music store on t’internet.

Tracks from these albums and more are played on that brilliant and unique internet radio station, Radio.TiffinBox.

What I ate for Christmas

2005-12-29T15:29:00.000Z

We’re still in the midst of celebrations of the birth of Jesus (Sayyidana Is’ah) here at Golmal Towers. The holidays have meant a couple of days of revelry involving getting together with family and friends and cooking lots of delicious food and drinking robust concoctions of fruit and wine. Not much different to the way most people do it I suppose. Being happy go lucky immigrants, Mrs Siddhartha and I made up the culinary traditions as we went along. We prepared a 3 duck roast instead of one big bird. A slow-ish roast with an onion and garlic and soy marinade and basted with a sauce made from lashings of pistacchios, almonds, ghee and ginger. Fluffy edged roast potatoes with butter sautéd chestnuts to complete the 'English' course.

A wondrous Khoresht pilau was prepared which is basmati rice with butter, saffron and pomegranate. (It strikes me as I’m typing this that I fancy attempting a Persian style tah-dig “bottom rice” at some point). Along the way was an Indian style lamb stew in black eyed peas with plenty of fenugreek and coriander. Accompanied with a number of Mrs Sidd’s amazing bhartas (patés) which usually involves mashing the item(s) to a paste and garnished with virgin mustard oil, chillies, red onions, black pepper, garlic and fennel. Some of the bharta contenders were grilled eggplant, pea and shrimp, avocado with cherry tomatoes, Brussels sprouts with mustard seed and a solid no-nonsense tahini with parsley and garlic. Being of Bangali household, fish is never a second class citizen at Golmal Towers and we went to town with a sublime King Prawn in Thai red curry sauce and a salmon roast with a citrus accent of oranges and limes. Topping the fish was Ruhi, lovingly cooked in trad Bangladeshi-style involving shallots, tomato and coriander sauce in a thick jeera-based sauce. Accompanied with paratha bread, mango, olive and apple chutnies. Not to forget cucumber raita and the Siddhartha salad – my variation of a Leventine salad. Round off with Indian and Syrian sweets (rasmalai and pakhlava make a great multi-textured combo) and dark chocolate ice cream sundae.

Finished off the meal with cigars and wacky roll ups, wine, Arabic gawa (coffee) and a little light music.

Happy Christmas (2 of 2)

2005-12-23T12:32:00.000Z

Here is a suitably seasonal essay on the unity of faiths from William Dalrymple on New Statesman (you get one look a day).

Moreover, in the year that Islamist terrorism finally reached London, it is important to emphasise that Christianity and Islam are not nearly so far apart as both Bin Laden and the neo-cons would like us to believe. As the British Museum miniature of the Nativity under the tree shows, there are certainly big differences between the two faiths - not least the central fact, in mainstream Christianity, of Jesus's divinity. But Christmas - the ultimate celebration of Christ's humanity - is a feast which Muslims and Christians can share without reservation. At this moment, when the Christian west and Islamic east are engaged in another major confrontation, there has never been a greater need for both sides to realise what they have in common and, as in this miniature, to gather around the Christ child to pray for peace

Happy Christmas (1 of 2)

2005-12-21T17:29:00.000Z

Happy Christmas to all Golmalsters. The symbolism of the icon, The Lord of All Unity:

The position of Christ’s right hand is especially significant. As described by John Baggley in Doors of Perception: “Christ’s right hand is raised in a gesture of blessing that is turned towards the heart, indicating the inner knowledge of Christ that is given outward expression in the open book.” Jesus is placing before our eyes by means of the scripture verse the great desire of His heart for unity and the reason for His gift of glory. This unity is not only unity among Christian believers but also unity in homes, communities and in every human heart.

Thanks to Printery House for the icon and the text.

The Question Why

2005-12-16T12:25:00.000Z

The formidable Rachel from North London wants to know why. Its an awkward question that needs answering.

Even if you don't like the questions, don't like the answers, think you know the answers already, Mr Blair, it is us, not you, who are paying the cost for this, every single bloody day. If the cost of answering questions makes you squirm, then too bad. We voted you in, we pay for you and your wars and your policies to be implemented and you say you act 'in our name'. We run the risks on the trains, the buses, the streets each day. You answer to us, the public and if I could shame you into answering us now, my God, I would.

How dare you presume you know our questions and how dare you presume that they can be answered by a 'narrative of what happened', as if we are children to be placated with a story. I know what happened, I want to know why. I want a debate, Mr Blair, I want a dialogue.

Toopi tip: Tim Ireland @ Bloggerheads

Independence Day

2005-12-16T11:36:00.000Z

December 16th is Bangladesh's Independence Day. A country that was created with the spilling of the blood of millions. Bangladesh was created as a secular constitutional democracy in 1971. Thirty four years later, it is still fighting the very forces it had battled then. In those days the home-grown enemies of freedom were called Razakars, or collaborators. They aided and abetted the Pakistanis in their grim crusade of rape and mass graves. Nowadays, those Islamic extremists look no different, hark back to same obscurantist ideologies and are willing to kill their own to further their cause. Bangladesh is in the midst of a second War of Independence.

To illustrate, Salam Dhaka has posted this juxtaposition of two images. The image above shows a newspaper clipping from 1971 announcing Independence. The newspaper's name shows the legend The Daily ~~Pakistan~~ Bangladesh Times. The second, from 2005, shows the mugshots of Ataur Rahman Sunny, the so-called leader of the JMB the Islamic terrorist army, and his cohorts who have so far indiscriminately killed dozens in terrorist attacks.

The Persian Dancer

2005-12-15T16:20:00.000Z

When Iranian President Ahmadinejad makes anti-Semitic statements he abuses his position and hurts Muslims. When MPACuk makes horrendous racist and anti-Semitic statements in the UK, Muslim Brits should know that at some point they stop speaking on behalf of Muslims and, instead, on behalf of and paying lip service to European ultra-right wing movements. So when Ahmadinejad spouts anti-Semitic garbage, Muslims especially should know that it, and the subsequent political fallout is part of some fucked up political dance of his own making.

Full Marks

2005-12-15T13:38:00.000Z

Stephen Marks was one of the speakers at the MPACuk debate on December 9. The debate is also covered on the Engage website. I am reproducing below his full, unedited clarification of his talk from that evening from the Harry's Place post (and the discussion thread thereon). The reason I re-post it here is to illustrate the tragedy of imbalance that afflicts the Muslim World today. If a Jewish person can speak so clearly and so detachedly on the thorny question of Anti-Semitism and Zionism, it highlights an absence of a correspondent and analogous voice that speaks as clearly and as detachedly on 'Islamism' from the Muslim World.

Cormac says that ‘'Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. That is what most Jews believe. And, sooner or later, you are going to have to address that.” Had he not arrived late, through no fault of his own, he might have heard me say [I quote my notes from which at this point I recall reading more or less verbatim];

“A Muslim friend and former local labour councillor told me some time ago that since 9-11 he has begun to wonder if Muslims will ever be accepted in this country. Relatives, he said, had talked of needing to keep a suitcase packed in case they needed to leave in a hurry.

To anyone from a Jewish background these attitudes are familiar, and were reinforced by the experience of the holocaust. They lie at the root of Jewish support for Israel. However much disquiet many Jews may feel about aspects of Israeli behaviour, they are often inhibited from speaking out by the feeling at the back of the mind that some day we may need Israel as a refuge.

The experience burned into Jewish consciousness is the memory of the 1930s when Jewish refugees found all doors locked in their faces. Their is nothing inherently racist in the idea - whether one shares it or not - that there must be a patch of earth somewhere which will always keep an open door for Jews in the event of another holocaust. In that sense there is nothing necessarily racist in Zionism as an ideology...

Another British-born Muslim friend tells me that he has taken his children to their grandparent’s village in Pakistan so they can get to know their roots. I should add, for the benefit of people like Trevor Philips, that he is the opposite of ‘ghettoised’, participates fully in the wider community, and sees no conflict between that and introducing his second-generation British Muslim children to where their family and culture originated.

Jews would like to do the same. But they cannot take their children to their family’s roots in central or eastern Europe - those communities are extinct. At the most there is a sort of ghoulish ‘Jewish heritage tourism’. For many, Israel is the substitute, almost a sort of psychic compensation for the holocaust. It therefore becomes almost knitted into their identity.

The idea that this state was actually founded on an injustice to someone else is intolerable. It gets repressed, and interpreted as anti-Semitism. After all, what reason could anyone possibly have for condemning Israel, if Israel is just and right? They must just hate Jews. In which case they are the heirs of the Nazis, and must want all Jews dead. How would you react to people like that? Would you engage in polite debate with them?”

I could have told MPAC to their face that they are liars when they claim that their use of arguably anti-Semitic images is unintentional and an honest mistake always followed by taking the offending material down when it is pointed out to them. I could have rejected the point, made with some justice by Mark Elf, that people whose cultural roots lie in the Indian subcontinent cannot be assumed to have the same cultural awareness of what constitutes an antisemitic image or expression as people whose roots are in the secular Western and culturally Christian left. Instead I preferred to try to explain what much of the Jewish attachment to Israel is all about, in terms that would strike a chord with them. And judging from what several of those present said t me afterwards, I succeeded.

But of course that was not all I said, or I would have been a Zionist speaker [which I agree would have made it a genuine debate. Actually when I made this point to them before the debate one of them said they had invited a Zionist speaker - Melanie Phillips!].

And do you know something? I didn’t speak there for the benefit of people like Cormac, Mikey or the HP lot. I spoke there to get a point across to the people there who for the most part struck me as serious and abler to listen.

In the space indicated by three dots after the third paragraph I also stated the following in my talk;

“But the country chosen - by virtue of religious and cultural associations - to be the site of this ‘national home’ was already inhabited by somebody else. Political Zionism, a child of its time in C19 white imperial Europe, sought the backing of a powerful empire for an exercise in colonisation, in which land would be acquired for exclusively Jewish use, and employing only Jews, with open and frank talk - at least in Europe - of the need to ‘relocate’ the existing population to make way for the incoming Jews. It was this, rather than religious bigotry or Jew-hatred, which lay at the root of Palestinian hostility to Zionism”.

No, I am not going to argue the rights and wrongs of that position here. But that is the difference between Cormac, Mikey and others, and me.

Which leads me on to my last point. Why does discussion of this issue so often end in mutual incomprehension and anger? I suggest it is because there are few issues in modern politics in which the two sides are divided not only by a difference of opinion and judgement but by two completely different narratives and views of what constitute the relevant historical facts.

There is a lot of history involved. Much of it is woven into people’s sense of identity. There are elements in each side’s narrative which the other sees as monstrous and only explicable in terms of ignorance or bigotry, and whose very enunciation is seen as a threat.

I could imagine having a discussion about say the Iraq war with someone on the ‘pro-war left’ which did not change either party’s mind but which managed to be quite civil nonetheless, and did not involve any disagreement as to certain basic historical facts. On the issue of Zionism and Palestine there is a failure to agree on the basic historical facts - I would suggest this is because all the serious historical research done on the issue over the last 30 years has shown the central pillars of the classic zionist account to be total mythology. But again, I won’t argue that here.

Anti-Semitism is real and should always be opposed. The Zionist exploitation of ‘antisemitism’ for instrumental reasons is something else, and imho is well analysed by Ran HaCohen at http://antiwar.com/hacohen/?articleid=1335

-Stephen Marks

Multiculturalism after Cronulla

2005-12-13T16:59:00.000Z

Amartya Sen wrote a considered and thought-provoking article on Multiculturalism, originally for the FT last month, which can be found here.

Multiculturalism with an emphasis on freedom and reasoning has to be distinguished from “plural monoculturalism” with single-focus priorities and a rigid cementing of divisions. Multicultural education is certainly important, but it should not be about bundling children into preordained faith schools. Awareness of world civilisation and history is necessary. Religious madrasas may take little interest in the fact that when a modern mathematician invokes an “algorithm” to solve a difficult computational problem, she helps to commemorate the secular contributions of Al-Khwarizmi, the great ninth-century Muslim mathematician, from whose name the term algorithm is derived (“algebra” comes from his book, Al Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah). There is no reason at all why old Brits as well as new Brits should not celebrate those grand connections. The world isnot a federation of religious ethnicities. Nor, one hopes, is Britain.

Now take a look at this piece by Andrew West, writing for the Sydney Morning Herald, in the aftermath of the Cronulla Beach riots. If the Ozzie press is anything to go by, there is little in the way of soul-searching for the white riots and more angry ejaculation along the predictable tack of 'Islam is the enemy':

I do not embrace multiculturalism, as such, because I do not believe all cultures are compatible with non-discriminatory liberalism. I prefer a multi-ethnic, non-racial society, which has at its core a canon of valuesthat include racial and gender equality.
[...]
Some multicultural theorists will squawk and say that I prefer only a soft multiculturalism (if they insist on calling it that) that does not offend western liberal values. They would be spot on. My acceptance ends when theassault on the liberality of society itself begins.

Is Andrew West protesting about Islam taking the form of a monoculture in a pool of other monocultures in Sydney, or, in fact, any other community? Or does the "core culture" that he languor's for nothing more than shorthand for White, Australian and dominant as expressed here by Sharon Verghis, a Malaysian-Indian who lives in the Shire, wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald saying that the locals need to take some responsibility.

Live long enough in Sutherland Shire and you soon become familiar with the codes and rules, unwritten but understood, that govern the area's most famous attraction, Cronulla Beach. If you're a white local, it's your beach. If you're wog/Leb/in any way "ethnic", you go to nearby Brighton-le-Sands, or try your luck elsewhere. Geographically, the two beaches are neighbours. Racially andculturally, they may as well be on different planets.

Racist Riots - Ozzie style

2005-12-13T12:58:00.000Z

Race riots that were sparked off in Cronulla Beach, Sydney on Sunday erupted again overnight and continue to shame Australia with random displays of phoney patriotism and boneheaded jingoism. Carrying on from events on Sunday, pissed-up white youths continued to attack "Middle Eastern looking" people. Most comments on the blogosphere have been deeply remorseful about the actions of the rioters. But there are many Australian bloggers whose opinions resonate with this type of thing:

Muslims have been assaulting Australian men and women for the past decade, then it could be argued that it is the Lebanese Muslims who have been engaged for a sustained period in violent acts of racism inspired and condoned by their belief ideology. In fact, I would argue that what has been going on is an attempt to reduce Aussies to dhimmis via physical acts of violence that create fear and leave a lasting impression. Confronted with such sustained acts ofwarfare, Aussies have no choice but to fight back.

Another bugbear is Multiculturalism - read black immigration. Dr Mark Lopez, author of The Origins of Multiculturalism in Australian Politics, said locals in the Sutherland Shire, in Sydney's south, had taken "a lot of shit" from Muslim youths." (!)

Confirming Rule Number One from the Racists RuleBook: Always use the protection Multiculturalism affords you when you want to vent deeply felt racist opinions.

So lets get this right. When black French people riot, the problem is laid on the doorstep of poor education and the 'isolationist cultural values of immigrant communities'. When white Australians riot, the fault lies with Multiculturalism and un-Australian values brought in by isolationist [Christian/Musim] Arab immigrants. Why am I not surprised?

Of course, John Howard PM piped up with the odd condemnation, but we know his heart isn't really in it. A beach party pogrom against Arabs/Easterners that is in tune with his own visceral personal views is only going to hurt him politically because it is internationally emabbrassing.

This is a legend seen emblazoned on a white riot t-shirt wearer:

We grew here
You flew here

I'm sorry to admit to myself that this whole sorry tale confirms a suspicion I've always had of Australia: Its a deeply racist country sport.

Jon Stewart in London

2005-12-12T11:18:00.000Z

Spent an evening with Jon Stewart yesterday. This involved seeing Jon and two writer-producers from the Daily Show read from Stewart's America: The Book.

It was the 4pm show at the Prince Edward theatre in the heart of London's Theatreland on the stage were, normally, Mary Poppins would be flying around with her umbrella. Sinewy American actor/comedian, Woody Harrelson, popped in to help to get the party started right.

The Vol describes the show exactly as how I experienced it. The show was great comedy and the satire was fast, clever and scathing and absolutely hilarious just like I've come to expect from the Daily Show which we in England have been seeing on More4 for the past 3 months or so.

My only gripe was that the ticket price (£26) was way over what was, in the end, three guys reading from excerpts of a book. It just meant that at that price, I wasn't willing to cough up for the book as well. But it was well worth it and he's still the funniest man around with intelligent anti-War satire. Respect.

Pro-War Logic

2005-12-09T11:14:00.000Z

Last week, the Harry's Place site was the victim of IP redirection by clever techies with time on their hands. The event was pinged across all the pro-war blogs with predictable shock and awe. One pro-war blogger, the "paranoid, smug, arrogant, self satisfied loon bat" AKA Scott Burgess of the paranoid, smug, arrogant, self satisfied and loon batty Daily Ablution described the event thus:

"There are reports that Harry's Place has been hacked down. One poster there has emailed me confirming that this is true.

Oddly, I'm still able to connect, and even to comment, as are at least some others."

The logic used by the Ablutionist in that passage above is analogous to:

"I have reason to believe that my car has broken down. My wife has phoned me confirming that this is true. Oddly, I can still start it and even drive it, which I did, as has at least, some other guy."

You can expect more of this kind of incisive logic for your money from the Daily Ablution. Good luck.

You give me fever

2005-12-06T14:09:00.000Z

It started off as a harmless sore throat. Within days that had developed into a full blown bout of flu complete with runny nose and a phlegmatic cough. I then thought I had recovered. All symptoms of the cold had disappeared. But from last Friday, I started feeling feverish, my body felt it was burning up but I was also feeling extremely cold. But just like the words of the old standard:

Fever in the morning
Fever all through the night.

I'm only feeling feverish in the morning till about midday, and then when I go to bed at night. As a result I'm getting terrible sleep, with long bouts of wakefulness, during which time my mind is playing at full volume. Sleep is little better, with the usual recurring dreams I have (since I was a boy) when I get sick. Dreams which usually involve marching soldiers and planes flying into mountains! Have I got the dreaded dengue?

Worthless

2005-12-02T01:10:00.000Z

My blog is worth $3,951.78.
How much is your blog worth?

If anyone’s willing to even give me a fraction of that, they can take it off my hands.

November Spawned a Monster

2005-12-01T21:19:00.000Z

On November 15 a suicide bomb targetted the criminal court buildings in Barisal, in southern Bangladesh, killing two judges. The bomber survived with injuries. Two weeks later (29 November), two separate bombs were detonated in Gazipur and Chittagong, killing 9 and injuring dozens more. One bomber died instantly while the other is in critical condition. The terrorist organisation who has claimed responsibility for all three bombing call themselves the Jamayetul Mujahideen of Bangladesh (JMB). Their demands are simple:

We do not want Taguti [non-Islamic] law, let Qur’anic law be introduced. Law framed by humans cannot continue and only the laws of Allah will prevail.

Bangladesh is shaken and its people are panicked. This is a country with the densest population in the world. You explode a bomb in any packed location, you'll kill dozens. Clearly reactions are frought and anger at the ruling party is open and vociferous as the country shut today in a mass strike (hartal) as an expression of populist rage. The ruling party, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), who made affiliations with the Jamaati party in a political end game to ensure a parliamentary majority is having to deal with a political alliance with a party (the Jamaat) which sees no qualms in cultivating and empowering its Islamic Fundamentalist tendencies. They now have blood on their hands by giving these religious maniacs with the respectability of political consensus.

This analysis of the events from UnholyWars describes the motives of the JMB:

The JMB, which seeks to establish strict Islamic rule in the Muslim-majority country, also carried out previous attacks on courts. The outfit first carried out attacks on August 17 in court and government office premises in 63 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts, while a second attack was staged in October. Two weeks ago, two assistant judges were killed in the southern town of Jhalakathi by a suspected suicide attacker also allegedly linked to the banned group. Letters said to be sent by the JMB have continued to threaten judges and government officials across Bangladesh, including Supreme Court judges.

Bangladeshi bloggers such as Salam Dhaka, 3rd World View and Rajputro are unanimous in their opinion about who these terrorists are and their motives. This is Salam Dhaka:

It's time for serious talk. Politics aside, we need to ask ourselves "Why does an 18 year old boy strap bombs to himself and want to blow himself up for the happiness of Allah?" Is the motivation money or has he been brainwashed? If so, who is brainwashing them? We can see that most of these kids are madrassa students which is mostly controlled by Islamic Oikya Jote and Jamaat. Is the motivation political power or is it idealogical? I am sure people know where the money is coming from through the Islamic NGO's from countries like Saudi Arabia. Why have we not done anything about it for the last 30 years? The answer is because we are scared to piss of the religious voter. That begs the question - can our political parties solve this problem? clearly they have political and structural limitations.

In the meantime, let us be clear of the root cause of this spate of Islamic Fundamentalist terrorism. It is the direct side effect of a democratic alliance between a right wing secular party (BNP) and an Islamic political party which rehabilitate extremist Islamic fundamentalist groups within it. Call these groups al-Qaeda if you must as their raison d'etre is the same as that of their poster boy bin Laden. Both of these parties are unwilling or incapable of rooting out these groups who in the meantime (5 years of BNP rule) have grown and consolidated their power base. This heart warming picture (right) shows the marriage that has spawned this monster. Ladies and gentlemen, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Maulana Nizami (Jamaat).

Other bloggers who have covered this story are:

M Arman at Drishtipat (PDF)

Gina Cobb

The Big Pharoah

Still crazy after all these years

2005-12-01T18:51:00.000Z

Happy birthday to Woody Allen who turned 70 yesterday. A prolific genius whose body of work encompass films, books, jazz music and for me, his funniest and most joyful work, his standup. Those of his films I’ve seen (and I really should see more) not only rank amongst my favourite as films go but are also regarded as some of the best ever made: Annie Hall, Zelig, Manhattan, Whats up Tiger Lilly, Crimes and Misdemeanours. The list goes on. He’s certainly up there with Kubrick and Bergman in the pantheon of Great Directors.

When I was little boy, I wanted a dog desperately, and we had no money. I was a tiny kid, and my parents couldn't get me a dog, 'cause we just didn't have the money, so they got me, instead of a dog - they told me it was a dog - they got me an ant. And I didn't know any better, y'know, I thought it was a dog, I was a dumb kid. Called it 'Spot'. I trained it, y'know. Coming home late one night, Sheldon Finklestein tried to bully me. Spot was with me. And I said "Kill!", and Sheldon stepped on my dog.

Weekly Round Up

2005-11-27T22:39:00.000Z

In the spirit of the weekly round-up, here are the articles from Blogsville that ruffled my feathers:

Chris Dillow at the very refined Stumblings and Mumblings offers this cracking review of Oliver Kamm’s Anti-totalitarianism: The Left-Wing Case for a Neoconservative Foreign Policy. Kamm is regared as one of the bright young logicians of the Pro-War Left.

“As a liberal lefty with no strong view on the war, I was prepared to be persuaded. Kamm not only fails to do this, but actually weakens the case – and not merely by contaminating it by racism.”

Ouch! This book was meant to have presented the definitive case for going to war and Iraqi regime change and the pro-War Left having been unquestioningly gushing all over it. Not so fast, says Dillow, who not only dismantles Kamm’s arguments but shows us the correct way to write a book review. Nicely done. Read it.

BlairWatch covers the the memo ‘scandal’. This one is going to run and run as long as the Government continues to display all of its trademark belligerance on matters regarding the accountability of Iraq. More links from here by Sunny at PP.

The Sharpener published this on the talk given by the Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali at the ICA on Friday. Its a little fawning for my taste without much description of what was actually discussed. In other words, no awkward questions mentioned but lots on how wonderfully enlightened Hirsi Ali is. I would love to read a more balanced version of the talk, but until then, thats all I’ve found.

And finally, Lenin of the Tomb lays the boot in, in a masterful and well deserved kick in the groin of an amoral egoist who’s been asking for it.

Pro-War? Where you gonna hide?

Debate This

2005-11-24T14:27:00.000Z

EDM: 1088:

That this House believes that there should be a select committee of seven honourable Members, being members of Her Majesty's Privy Council, to review the way in which the responsibilities of Government were discharged in relation to Iraq and all matters relevant thereto, in the period leading up to militaryaction in that country in March 2003 and in its aftermath.

Chicken Yoghurt gives full instructions on how you can use WriteToThem.com to ask your MP to sign the motion. It is even good enough to give you a template of the wording to use:

Dear [MP Name],

I was fortunate enough to meet you during the General Election campaign in April and noted your opposition/position to the war against Iraq. I would therefore like to ask you to sign Early Day Motion 1088 (Conduct of Government policy in relation to the war against Iraq).

If you do not feel you are able to sign the motion, would you please give your reasons for not doing so.

Many thanks and kind regards.

Yours sincerely,

[Your Name]

If the motion gets 200 votes it will be debated in Parliament. What are you waiting for? Make eDemocracy work for you.

Hat Tip: Bloggerheads

Enemies of the Internet

2005-11-24T12:56:00.000Z

The World Summit on the Information Society presented the "enemies of the internet" which are 15 countries whose attitude to freedom of information is to monitor and censor.

In an article in a similar vein, Julien Pain talks about the rise of the use of spyware by authoritarian countries:

All authoritarian regimes use the same devices to control the Internet. First they install filters against "subversive" material. The champions in this are Saudi Arabia and China, which block thousands of online publications. Both impose very broad censorship - of pornographic sites, independent magazines, human rights material and webpages about banned religious movements. Then they install software to read e-mail messages by spotting keywords that are "counter-revolutionary" or "undermine state security" and set up a cyberpolice to track down dissidents.

Hat Tip: Third World Blog

Choubi Choubi

2005-11-23T01:19:00.000Z

This is how the good people at Boomkat describe Choubi Choubi, a compilation of pop and folk music from Iraq of the Saddam era. Its on the Sublime Frequencies imprint and I got it on the strength of the quality of their Radio India compilation. Paroxysms of delight.

Back in stock. Given the amount of Iraq we all see daily on our TV screens, it seems almost abhorrent as to how ignorant the West (and by West, read 'me') are in respect to their cultural output. Bar the odd mention of Mesopotamia on the History Channel, or the fleeting insights afforded by blogs such as Salam Pax, I know fuck all about Iraq's art or music; a situation that is thankfully rectified (in part at least) by Sublime Frequencies franky indispensible collection of 'Folk and Pop Sounds From Iraq'. Ignoring for now the somewhat naove political statements that clutter up the sleeve, 'Choubi Choubi...' is entirely comprised of recordings from the Sadaam-era (1980-2003) and displays a spectrum of sounds that range from the yearning affluence of 'Front My Hope' through to the complex rhythms, squalled strings and prissy vocals of 'Oh Mother The Handsome Man Tortures Me'. A genuinely intriguing album - possibly my favourite in this amazing series so far (bar the magnificent "Radio India") - Buy!...

My personal fave is Ashhad Biannak Hilou by Sadun Jabir. Needless to say it is one of the tracks on my current playlist which you can hear on Radio.TiffinBox. Don't say I never give you nuffin'.

Koushik

2005-11-18T17:02:00.000Z

Koushik is a young Canadian DJ and producer. He was signed up to legendary Stones Throw label by its owner, the hiphop polymath, Peanut Butter Wolf. Earlier this year we were pleasantly surprised with the wonderful Be With album.

"What sets Koushik apart from the others is a beautiful '60s psych-pop element that tends to pervade throughout. It shows itself in the spacious panned strings, acoustic guitars, and harpsichords that fall in and out of each other; and the beats have a harder regimented classic true school hip-hop sound[...]" OtherMusic

Tracks by Koushik can be heard on the updated Radio,TiffinBox playlist. Enjoy the weekend.

Five Easy Questions

2005-11-17T00:35:00.000Z

Juan Cole takes up five questions directed at “Muslims” by [some guy called] Dennis Prager in an op-ed for the LA Times. The questions are:

Why are you so quiet?
Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?
Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?
Why are so many atrocities committed and threatended by Muslims in the name of Islam?
Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?

Prof Cole not only answers these questons, but highlights Prager’s intentions too:

There is something seriously wrong with the questions themselves. They come out of a weird mindset that lumps Malaysians with Moroccans, Kyrgyz with Sudanese, and Uigurs with Moro Filipinos, all just because they have a common heritage in one of the great world religions; it isn't as if their actual local practices and beliefs are all exactly the same.

In addition, I would add that Prager is guilty of gleefully and, without irony, lumping the large majority of the world’s Muslims in with Islamist fundamentalism. Its ignorant and base stuff. One wonders how the US Press can release that kind of stuff. Luckily there are people in the US who know exactly what kind of stuff that is. Its the kind of commonplace knee-jerk favoured by Right-wingsters and the pseudo-Lefties, which even Harry’s Place is wise to.

What happened to Iraq?

2005-11-16T17:30:00.000Z

RiverBend is an Iraqi blogger from Baghdad. She's not blogging to score points for this or that political stripe. She writes with an honest simplicity:

Congratulations Americans- not only are the hardliner Iranian clerics running the show in Iran- they are also running the show in Iraq. This shift of power should have been obvious to the world when My-Loyalty-to-the-Highest-Bidder-Chalabi sold his allegiance to Iran last year. American and British sons and daughters and husbands and wives are dying so that this coming December, Iraqis can go out and vote for Iran influenced clerics to knock us back a good four hundred years.

What happened to the dream of a democratic Iraq?

Iraq has been the land of dreams for everyone except Iraqis- the Persian dream of a Shia controlled Islamic state modeled upon Iran and inclusive of the holy shrines in Najaf, the pan-Arab nationalist dream of a united Arab region with Iraq acting as its protective eastern border, the American dream of controlling the region by installing permanent bases and a Puppet government in one of its wealthiest countries, the Kurdish dream of an independent Kurdish state financed by the oil wealth in Kirkuk…

The Puppets the Americans empowered are advocates of every dream except the Iraqi one: The dream of Iraqi Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen… the dream of a united, stable, prosperous Iraq which has, over the last two years, gone up in the smoke of car bombs, military raids and a foreign occupation.

The question 'what happened to a dream of a democratic Iraq' is of course addressed to all of us who have paid for this war in one way or another. And not just the shameless Pro-War pundits who have resorted to their last weapon: the sneer. How very clever you must think you are.

Hitchens Defending Chalabi

2005-11-11T01:31:00.000Z

Once America’s darling of a post-Saddam Iraq, but now damned to remain overlooked and superceded, Ahmad Chalabi is back in the USA, but not, it would seem, to defend himself nor to clear his name or in fact to even own up to his crimes, as reported here in Prospect.

In a fantastic example of first-hand blogging, Kris Lofgren, covers the story of Chalabi’s speech in Washington. There Lofgren meets up with Hitchens and strikes up conversation, but can’t believe his ears when Hitch comes up with this:

Hitchens then turned the subject back to Chalabi, his good friend. I asked him if he thought Chalabi had been passing American intelligence to the Iranians. "No," he insisted. "It's possible that with his training, you know, at [The University of] Chicago that with his own ability he was able to crack the codes. He is a mathematical genius. His expertise is cryptology. It is possible that he broke the codes himself."

So Chalabi was hacking code whilst embezzling billions from under the noses of Bremer and Negroponte? I’ve heard about praising your friends to the skies, but is Hitchens serious?

Hat Tip: Joshua Micah Marshall

90 Days Bill Defeat

2005-11-10T01:08:00.000Z

Jesus wept. And following today, so must have Tony. On this day his proposal to allow the detention of terror suspects for 90 days without charge was voted out by 31 votes. Signalling the first ever defeat of Blair in Parliament and the precipitation of “Leadership questions”. No doubt, moments of rash, mindless celebration were enjoyed by millions all over England.

The “public support” horse that NuLabour will inevitably be flogging (to death) from tomorrow is questionable to say the least (via PP).

But for me, the best blog comment on this story come from the ever-quotable Laban Tall:

No Briton of any colour should be subject to arrest and lengthy imprisonment without charge or knowing the evidence against them. We have managed without such a law (in peacetime) for 700-odd years now. There is also a sharp distinction to be made between the cases of suspected British terrorists and suspected foreign ones. The Belmarsh detainees, all foreign, are able to leave the UK at any time if they so wish.

Swiss weekend

2005-11-08T23:47:00.000Z

Took my lovely wife and kid to Switzerland for a long weekend. We got back yesterday rather reluctantly. In Lucerne we went up to Mount Pilatus, met up with friends and caught a superb exhibition of the work of the photo-journalist Rene Burri in Zurich. It was so nice to get away from work and get some pure us-time that we have decided to go again in a few months.

Highlight: Watching the news in German about the French riots, Australian terrorists and Blair blaming the French for Iraq Failures and feeling comfortably numb and detached from it all.

Driver Kuldip

2005-11-03T00:59:00.000Z

This will be a sombre Diwali for the Delhi dwellers and the family of Kuldip Singh in particular.

Kuldip Singh, 28, was driving a packed bus when his conductor noticed a passenger abandoning a bag. They immediately stopped the bus and shepherded passengers off the vehicle. Then Mr Singh picked up the bag, saw the wires sticking out of it and realised that it was a bomb. He hurled it away just as it detonated and took the force of the blast in his face.

Hat Tip: Laban Tall asks if anyone knows of any way to contribute.

Happy Greetings to Golmalsters

2005-11-02T23:42:00.000Z

Happy Diwali!

Eid Mubarak!

More sacrifices will be required

2005-10-31T01:38:00.000Z

Good anti-war blog.

Good anti-war article.

Cartoon by Steve Bell.

Outrage Fatigue

2005-10-31T01:15:00.000Z

The Pro-war posse know how to pick their battles. Look at the state of Iraq and the ever-dwindling support that the beleagured Bush Administration is having to face up to to understand why. When the pro-War pickings are as lean as they are its not for nothing that the news of the Senate Report (PDF) on George Galloway has reached a pornographic crescendo in the pro-War blogoshpere.

None of the previous allegations (by the Murdoch Press and Christian Science Monitor) have stuck and a number of libel cases have seen happy George walking away with reparations made at the cost of large sums and humiliated newspaper editors. The Senate Report has been served up with more evidence supplied by Senator Coleman that suggests that Galloway did receive payments from Tariq Aziz and friends. This is the same Senator Coleman who headed a Senate Committe which was made to look like a bunch of incompetent arseholes by Galloway in strident form and in May.

Galloway might have received funds siphoned via Saddam’s government. He might even eat small children for all we know. Pro-War supporters should get over the need to portray Galloway as the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega and the Human Embodiment of the Anti-War movement. The important flash cards here are (a) He isn’t and (b) His crimes (if proven) do not redeem the Great Lie that took us to Iraq.

If I am unable to whip myself into a lather of self-flagellating outrage by George Galloway, it is because I'm all out of outrage on:
this
none of these
this

In the meantime, its important to keep a sense of proportion on this story and this assessment is just that.

Indictment

2005-10-29T09:38:00.000+01:00

The Roof is On Fire
The Roof is On Fire
We don't need no water
Let the Motherf*cker Burn

courtesy of the Bloodhound Gang

Spaceways

2005-10-29T08:49:00.000+01:00

Carlos Niño is a producer, musician and one half of the LA-based underground electronica/hiphop outfit AmmonContact (the other half being Fabian Ammon). He also hosts a radio station called SpaceWays, which is describes itself as playing music that is ‘from folkways to sun ra and what's in between’.

AmmonContact is also regarded as being part of the flourishing trend that is personified by other artists such as Build An Ark, Dwight Trible, Sa-Ra, Daedelus and Madlib. The sublimely funky beats these artists and more can be heard on the current playlist of my internet radio station Radio.TiffinBox.

Your Arsenal

2005-10-29T07:51:00.000+01:00

Do words speak louder than actions in the heated arena of Muslim-Israeli politics? Given the latest Iranian diplomatic fallout, you'd be forgiven for thinking so. The Iranian president passes a stupid and unwise comment about Israel (‘Wiped off the map’), and we get the apoplexy of sanctimonious staged-rage from Bliar and friends. Meanwhile Israel sits quietly on the biggest nuclear arsenal outside of the ratified five nation Nuclear Club, and no one makes a toot. And when Israel ethnically cleanses Palestine of Palestinians and physically removes Palestine from the face of the earth and 'drive it into the sea' we don't hear indignant mouth-froth like we did from our Tony. Israel's actions are always acceptable whereas provocative and silly remarks slipped by Ahmadinejad are not.

Further commentary by Pickled Politics and JSF on this story.

Pakistan Earthquake Appeals

2005-10-09T16:04:00.000+01:00

Google Points to Pickled Politics: This post lists the Charity Organisations handling Pakistan’s Earthquake Appeals.

Please give generously.

Up the Khyber

2005-10-09T15:10:00.000+01:00

Ooh Memsaheeb!

What a week that was. We had two very strange ‘non-stories’ that knocked received political pre-conceptions sideways.

The first one was that George Bush’s motives for invading Iraq were dictated to him by his Personal Jesus. Literal or not, we know that the story contains some truth in it, judging from how hastily the Bush Spin Machine went into action to kill it. This does nothing to dispel the stink created by the inconsistency that is this: Secular Western Liberal Democracy’s mission to democratise the lands of Araby as we know it today and as advocated by the likes of Nick Cohen (and other pro-War muppets) is actually religiously inspired by George Bush’s P2P (Peer to Peer) connection with God.

Secondly, Pakistan has its first reported gay marriage. Now I'm not very brushed up on gay current events, but does that mean Pakistan has had a gay marriage before either the UK or the USA, the 'vanguards of sexual freedom'?

Pickled Politics

2005-10-09T13:52:00.000+01:00

Pickled Politics is a new blog that subtitles itself as ‘current affairs for a progressive generation’. Edited by Sunny Hundal who has had previous incarnations as editor of Asians in Media. He’s a fearless blogger and a reality-based journalist who doesn’t let the sentimental bullshit of the Left, Right, the selective jingoism of the NewLeft nor lame Sectarian baggage get in the way of his analysis. Apart from that, from the short shrift he gives to the neo-patriots in Harry’s Place comments box, its clear he doesn’t suffer fools gladly either. I’ve been enjoying Pickled Politics articles and comments immensely since they opened doors to the blog last month. Keep up the good work Sunny and the guys at PP.

I’m further grateful to PP of course, without whom I wouldn’t have met Lalloo. [via TurbanHead]

The Annointment of Saint George

2005-10-09T13:30:00.000+01:00

Last week, the Guardian and the Indy broke the story that Bush claimed that God told him to invade and “end tyranny in Iraq”. Whats really amusing is the reaction to this story by the two camps for and against the war.

The anti-war reaction was one of bored dismissal. Tell us something we don’t know about the Bush Theocracy. The Guardian will be breaking a story a about a Whitehouse aide claiming Bush is an elitist dullard with a speech impediment next.

The pro-war camp scurried around trying their best to disassociate their causes from the story. Here are two from the pro-war blogswamp:

Scott Burgess @ the Daily Ablution, which regards itself as the Media Watchdog for the jingoistic RightWing NewLeft, does a typically malevolent mouth-frothing dis-job on the editors who broke the news. Calm down dear, its only a “non-story”. Isn't it?

The drink-soaked cretins for war does a typically piss-poor attempt at explaining to us why their ‘Secular’ politics unconditionally supports a man who has conversations with God.

Meanwhile the BBC has been scared off pursuing this story. I wonder why. It couldn’t be because of this could it?

Islam is George Best

2005-10-04T15:28:00.000+01:00

George Best is unwell again. Seeing his name headlined in the press as he relapses back into an alcohol induced kidney infection, expecting if not exactly urging on his death, I'm reminded of the time, back in the day, I was jogging down Headingley Road, Leeds. Amongst the usual inner city dereliction, I saw on a wall, daubed in huge white capital letters in thick, freshly sprayed paint:

EAST IS EAST
WEST IS WEST
ISLAM IS THE BEST

A few days later, jogging down Headingley Road again, I see the same graffiti. Only this time, some Leeds 6 wag had spraycan-edited it to read:

EAST IS EAST
WEST IS WEST
ISLAM IS ~~THE~~ ^GEORGE BEST

Yes, could very well be. A once glorious past brought to heal on a diet of debauchery and vice and by the incompetence of leaders, managers and trainers. Get well soon Mr Best.

Donald's Doggerels

2005-10-04T14:03:00.000+01:00

Wherefore Donald Rumsfeld? Since the AngloAmerican War in Iraq started to go pear-shaped, we've hardly seen the man. We miss his hardman stance, shoulders back, chest afore, making snappy, straight off the bat throw downs against a Pentagon breakbeat. For those of you who have missed the man's wordplay, here is a full anthology.

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

Happy Birthday Google

2005-09-27T14:29:00.000+01:00

Happy Birthday Google. In Spetember 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin opened their doors to Google. Seven years later it is the most popular search engine on the globe. We now have Google Mail, a Google browser on the way and the blog you're reading is part of the Google world. Many happy returns.

No more ideas from the Pros

2005-09-27T01:10:00.000+01:00

The pro-War pundits have run out of ideas. The facts on the ground look bad for those who supported the Anglo-US War on Iraq. Unless, like Norman Mailer, you like seeing the White Guy beat the Brown Guy in a boxing metaphor that goes beyond parody. The war-mongers look stupefied and listless. So what do they do? They trolley out the old memes about ‘stoppers’ because, if you support a war, never deny yourself the right to a bit of chest-thumping (Fuck Yeah!!):

Bunch of Guardian readers. Thanks to the blogosphere, haven’t had to since 2003. And then only by filtered-RSS.
Bunch of UN supporters. Perhaps, but anyone who has lived and worked in the 3rd World for longer than 5 minutes knows that the UNDP are no fools.
They are rabidly anti-Bush and anti-American-Government. No more than the average American given the aftermath of two recent hurricanes.

The pro-war posse is now reduced to character assassination and today's victim is George Galloway. Wow, tough target, man. Its a good thing he's a walking straw man because Palast pulled the rug from under that ‘hero’ before the war-mongers had a chance. It says a lot about the bankruptcy of a valid Invasion-Occupation argument when all you’re left with is a critique of a man’s tan. Is it real or not? You know that 20 minutes into a scorched-earth campaign, your usual over-weight pro-war troll would turn a few shades pinker.

And whilst they continue to masturbate in this manner, here’s Juan Cole and the Commotions with some more of those facts on the ground that the pro-war people can’t bring themselves to countenance, mainly because none of it is complementary to their cause. Here, Mr Cole can be seen in a very interesting interview running off a stream of conciousness on Iraq, its people and the state of the War, without having to look up Google.

Tiffinbox Update

2005-09-26T00:17:00.000+01:00

Note to listeners of Radio.Tiffinbox

Updated the playlist today. Expect to hear amongst other things, a funky mix of West Coast experimental jazz from the 70s, lots of Madlib as the Beatmaster and Lord Quas and beautifully crafted electronica from the likes of London-based Benge.

"Hello my name is Benjamin D Edwards. This is my ninth album I have recorded on my own. I like synthesisers and sports cars. There are nine tracks on my new album, and each one is named after a different sports car from a book my parents gave me when I was 9. They run a school which i could play in all the time when I was little. My favourite room was the music room. I recorded some of the instuments on this album in there like glockenspiels, piano, cymbals and drums and my favorite, the synthesiser. I can make any sound I like on synthesisers and my favorite kind are modular ones because you have to build the sound up from nothing using wires and make a sound nobody has ever heard before. Some of the music I recorded when I was on holiday in France, because I can use a portable synthesiser and computer. I hope you like the music, my favorite track is track 4 and I called it ‘Facel 3’ because that is my favorite car in the book."

Ben is 36 and you will be able to hear Facel 3 on Radio.Tiffinbox

Faith no more

2005-09-25T22:14:00.000+01:00

I pong to this post on Opposing Faith Schools from Harry's Place. I don't know much about the entrails of this issue which qualifies me as an ideal candidate to comment. The point made is that Faith schools should be stopped on the basis that they will reinforce values which are propagated on old (South Asian) sectarian baggage. And that if they are allowed to continue, the State pays for this sectarianism on curricula in schools. Whilst I agree with this conclusion in parts, I don't exactly know which parts. The issue is further clouded when you consider that:

1. Religion and racism, which Nick Cohen calls "the two most toxic causes of strife on the planet", are not going to get airbrushed away by stopping faith schools. They're toxic alright, but the same causes are well propagated by secular schools too. How many BNP members went to secular schools masqerading as madrasas? And if it is posited that BNP members don't learn their racism from schools, then it ought to be asked - why will Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus do so?

2. How far away are we from Saudi Arabian style legislation which bans all schools in the Kingdom if they're not preaching a particualr type of home-grown Nejdi Sunni Islam, which we know and love as Wahhabi-ism. Seems abhorrent, but isn't this the other side of this selective secular fundamentalism?

3. Weren't Cambridge and Oxford Universities essentially founded on the principles of faith schools? Its OK I guess if the elites of the UK continue to benefit from faith schools as long they're certain faiths only? I doubt there is a leader of a Commonwealth Country today who did not benefit from schools created by Christian missionaries.

Will Christian and Jewish schools also be stopped? Whats really behind this push to stop faith schools?

Lenin's Tomb

2005-09-23T01:03:00.000+01:00

I am yet to see a blog called Hitler's Bunker or Gandhi's Loincloth or Reagan's colostamy bag that is as well written and well considered as Lenin's Tomb.

To dismiss Lenny's Tomb is the kind of reflexive anti-Leftist reaction favoured by those ex-Lefties who seem so ashamed of their collective pasts as a bunch of middle class Socialist Worker readers that they've decied to drop the pretence and be what they really always have been: piss-soaked middle-class reactionary cretins for war. Excluding that Spirit of 1976 fellow, who's quite sound actually.

The talented Mr Hitchens

2005-09-19T16:22:00.000+01:00

"[...] On another point, and for extra effect, Hitchens just made something up: just simply lied. He said that the father of the leader of the Lebanese Communist Party was "murdered by Syria." And Hitchens has a trick he uses with great regularity and effect in the US: he always (rightly) assumes that his interlocutor knows less about the Middle East than he does, so he throws specific names of people, places, and political parties. That leaves the other person either unable to reply, or subject to more specific facts that may overwhelm her/him. "

As'ad Abukhalil (The Angry Arab)

"[...] I guarantee you Hitchens did not know Sistani existed in February, 2003. As for Mr. Bremer, Hitchens's hero, his response to Sistani's fatwa was to ask, "can't we get a fatwa from some other mulla?""

Juan Cole

'nuff said.

Cartman on The Aristocrats

2005-09-19T12:42:00.000+01:00

"'The Aristocrats' is a joke that has been with comedians since Vaudeville. 'The Aristocrats' is a joke that is never told in public."

Here's a video (WMV) link to Cartman from South Park telling the Aristocrats joke. Do not click the link if you're offended by references to incest, paedophilia and jokes about 9/11.

Hitchens and Galloway: A pox on both houses

2005-09-18T21:13:00.000+01:00

Finally got to see the the Hitchens-Galloway debate which has generated a tsunami of blogoshpere buzz.

The video is streamed from here.
A transcript is found here.
The Angry Arab analysis makes superb reading.

It was a bitchslapping contest par excellence. The debate felt stretched over 2 hours, but there was plenty of personal insult traded across both sides to keep it entertaining.

I was shocked to see just how much of an unconditional Bush cheerleader Hitchens has become, yet his sincerest arguments (something that was short in supply from these guys) for pro-Iraq War were socialist: The Trade Union movement which was brutalised during Saddam's rule will be greatly enhanced and the condition of the women will be vastly improved. As if we are expected to believe that when they were planning the war in the Pentagon, these were foremost in the minds of Bush's strategists.

Finally, the debate was rolled up by Hitchens who made probably the only point that both he and Galloway, as they went off to their respective book signings, were in perfect agreement on:

"From now on if you want to talk to me, you'll need a receipt and I'll be sitting selling books because this is after all, America."

Thanks to Popinjay, Spirit of 76, for this link: If you really want to see Hitchens dismantled, this video link, from the Daily Show is revealing. Hitchens comes to whore up his new book but gets tied up in knots by presenter, Jon Stewart.

Death is my butter

2005-09-16T11:04:00.000+01:00

Quote of the Day:

"They wanted in Hollywood to make the definitive spy picture. And they came to me to supervise the project, you know, because I think that, if you know me at all, you know that death is my bread and danger my butter - oh, no, danger's my bread, and death is my butter. No, no, wait. Danger's my bread, death - no, death is - no, I'm sorry. Death is my - death and danger are my various breads and various butters."

-Woody Allen - What's up Tiger Lily

Sampled brilliantly by Daedelus on Cloak and Dagger - A Gent Agent. 2004. [Laboratory Instinct]

Currently on the Radio.TiffinBox playlist.

Sister Kate's habit

2005-09-16T10:51:00.000+01:00

Front page on the Sun (odious British gutter rag that does adequately as toilet paper alternative) today: Kate Moss has a £200 per day cocaine habit.

Is this supposed to scandalise or titilate the great unwashed?

For most of the chavs who read it, its simply aspirational.

For the editors who produced this story, its simply jealousy, since most of them are insipid weasels who also aspire to but simply cannot match Kate's appetite.

As for me, well, she's gone up in my estimation tenfold. Go girl!

Conspiracy-soaked Popinjay

2005-09-15T16:56:00.000+01:00

I recently read the following comments-box exchange on Popinjays for War (a well known, reactionary and rabidly pro-war blog), between a commentator (named Callum) and Eric the Unread, one of its contributors:

Callum: I suppose listing the long history of Christian Imperialism would just be an exercise in pointing out the obvious?

Eric the Unread: No, an exercise in pointlessness. They are not currently trying to create a Christian empire by blowing up Saudi public transport.

By 'they', Eric means Islamic extremists, becuse that's what the thread is about.

So my reading of that sentence is that he is directly implying that, converse to Callum's Christian Imperialists, 'They' the Islamic Imperialists are currently trying to create a Muslim empire by blowing up London Transport.

Double Take. Sorry, what?

Even as I write that sentence, I can see that it reads entirely like a cheesy conspiracy theory. Here we go again: Revolutionary Islamists in our midst, blowing up bombs in an organised manner to create an Anarchist/AntiChrist Islamist Empire in the UK. Cue images of hordes of beturbaned and bearded Mujahideen storming through the streets of London, wielding rocket launchers.

Or can it really be that the Unread one actually believes the Underground bombers are part of a plot to bomb Britain into Islamic Empire-hood. Goes a long way to explain why the Popinjay contributors sound like a bunch of shrill, panicky and ethically constipated losers most of the time.

And as if to magically corroborate my point, here's Eric the Undead making a typically derivative point at the expense of a Guardianista article that he has misconstrued, as usual. Nothing new here, just snarky ennui.

Is he is hip, clever and controversial? Hardly, his readers know him to be callow, stupid and boring.

Homeland Insecurity in Bangladesh

2005-09-15T06:29:00.000+01:00

The Home Ministry in Bangladesh recently offered rewards for the capture of two terrorists who are accused of masterminding the recent bomb attacks. Some 475 small bombs exploded in 30 minutes across the country last month, killing two people and injuring more than 100.

Photofits of the two men accused, have been issued.

The description given to this correspondent, on the strength of witnesses who have seen the photofit was:

"Tall short man, pudgy, bald, but with a cowlic, green topi, beard, goatee, possibly dyed with henna, either has no forehead or no neck, depends on the disguise."

If anyone has seen either of these two men, please get in touch with the Bangladesh chapter of Homeland Security.

Preserve us from "Advisers" to Tony Blair

2005-09-14T10:49:00.000+01:00

Last week so called 'Advisers' from the Muslim Council of Britain advised Tony Blair to scrap Holocaust Memorial Day because it regarded it as offensive to Muslims, as detailed here.

I don’t know about you, but I would really like to know who these unelected "Advisers" are and which Muslims they think they are representing? I don’t think its wrong to say that to suggest that Muslims find the Jewish Memorial Day offensive because it is not inclusive is a complete fallacy. Who dreams this BS up?

There’s something rotten in the State of Islamophobia that is formulating this kind of excrement. All it it is doing is trying to portray the entire Muslim community as anti-Semites who do nothing but bay for Jewish blood. This is awful, wrong and should be resisted by Muslims all the way.

In a similar example of another unelected Muslim Adviser to Tony Blair giving Islamophobes a field day: Ahmad Thomson denies the Holocaust and suggested that Freemasons forced Tony Blair to joining up with the Iraq War. The government should not be taking advice, formally or informally from this man. And if it does, it should be made clear that he does not speak on behalf of the Muslim community, and his hateful views are unacceptable and totally ungrounded in reality.

Good News for Canadian Muslims

2005-09-12T17:05:00.000+01:00

Premier Dalton McGuinty has banned all religions arbitrations in Ontario. The province will not become the first Western jurisdiction to allow Shariah Law to settle Muslim family disputes. All religious arbitrations will be banned, including those of Catholics, Jews, Canadian Aboriginals and Jehovah's Witnesses.

Given that an implementation of the Shariah would only have served to alienate the Muslim community even further and added more unwanted gryst for the mill to be exploited by Islamophobes (and you know who you are), this universal ban means that Ontarian Muslims have thankfully avoided getting sucked into a social and PR nightmare. The Muslim Canadian Congress who played an important role in this decision were clearly pleased with this result and mature in their response:

Tarek Fatah, head of the Muslim Canadian Congress, which has called for reforms within Canada's more traditional Muslim organizations, called McGuinty's surprise announcement "a great victory for all Canadians, but particularly Muslims in Canada, and a defeat for Islamic fundamentalists and those who are preaching it in Canada."

This is excellent news for Muslims in Ontario. However, before we cue the MP3 for Everyone's a Winner Baby, the article reports that the Jewish community were not so happy at losing the right to hold arbitrations in Jewish Law:

A representative from Ontario's Jewish community expressed disappointment and shock over McGuinty's decision.

"We're stunned," said Joel Richler, Ontario region chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

"At the very least, we would have thought the government would have consulted with us before taking away what we've had for so many years."

Boy, you gotta carry that weight

2005-09-11T23:49:00.000+01:00

Christopher Hitchens coined the term Islamofacism. One day in 2001, he decided that the Right Wing would be the vantage from where he would take on Islamic Fundamentalism (as opposed to other Right Wing fundamentalisms that we could mention) with his rapier wit, brilliant command of historical and current facts and a panache that can only be described as downright sexy.

But Juan Cole explains in Salon, why Hitchens backed the wrong horse and why his resolve to defend the actions of GWBush and the legacy of a disastrously illegal war has run out of steam, intellectually and morally.

And if you're stuck for reasons to doubt Hitchens' intentions, there's this blog 'dedicated to exposing the lies of the New Right's favourite ex-Marxist'.

Gandhi, Mandela and al-Zarqawi

2005-09-10T20:02:00.000+01:00

"When I look back on it all now the amazing thing is that all the so called terrorists, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, ended up having tea with the queen as heads of Commonwealth countries."

The above quote, from an article by Tony Benn, got me thinking about the nature of how public enemies are slowly rehabilitated by the authorities they spent a career fighting. The question is, is it likely that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi will ever get invited for tea and voul au vents at Buckingham Palace by King Charles in the future, after the glorious success of democracy and the wholesale acceptance of Western-style capitalism in Iraq? Sounds far-fetched but it could be argued that is almost what happened exactly in the case of India.

At some point Gandhi, Mandela and al-Zarqawi have been or are regarded as dangerous revolutionaries. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela instilled the same fear and hatred in their day amongst British ruliong classes as al-Zarqawi does in the US Administration. There is absolutely no difference in their ends - which was this: The expulsion of a foreign aggressor from their countries who were maintaining rule without the consent of the majority of the indigenous people of their respective countries. In other words, to instigate a revolution to resist the a colonialist aggressor.

As for their means, they are identical insofar as all at some point used violence. Gandhi only rejected violence as an option after he met with other intellectuals in India. He was not averse to the use of violence in South Africa, only because the nature of the 'enemy' was different (see below). But lets be clear:

1) The British handed India back to Indians when it became apparent that it was no longer possible to rule a country that was not industrialised. The monetary cost to bring India to that level was too much for Britain to bear. So they dropped India and walked away, sucked dry of resources.
2) Gandhi did not have to use force because Britain was not resorting to carpet bombing and cluster bombs to break the country's resolve like the USA did in Iraq. India had already got into bed, culturally and institutionally with the "King of England" 200 years before Gandhi came along.
3) Apartheid in South Africa fell apart for the same reasons the British Raj collapsed in India. It was financial rather than ideological. In other words, the bottom fell out of South African economy. Also, Mandela was still holed up in Robin Island when power was handed to the ANC.

The insurgents, or al-Zarqawi if you want a name and a face to hate and throw darts at, has to fight on just as Gandhi and Mandela did. Whether they are directly related to USA leaving Iraq is immaterial, he will be regarded as the man who took on the USA in Iraq.

We live in Baghdad baby

2005-09-10T15:48:00.000+01:00

So as the desperate attempts to prop up this disastrous war continue unabated in Tal Affar, US deserters speak out, disillusioned with the motives behind the illegal war in Iraq.

"All these insurgents, as they call them -- they're not. They're people who have nothing left. There was this guy who was mad at us because we had killed his family. Wife, children; everybody but him had been killed. He was seeking some kind of retribution. That is not an insurgent -- that's a desperate man"
Ivan Borek, 19

Those are the words of a real soldier on the ground. As opposed to the view taken by pro-war commenters who would like us to believe that the Iraq War is valid because of the need to fight the presence of insurgents. A new goalpost move which adds another pretext to the list of Reasons on Why We Went to War. Readers will remember that this list included

WMDs (the reason that never was)
To protect poor Iraqis from Saddam (the Humanitarian argument which disproved iteself after the shameful treatment of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib)
To give them Democracy, Freedom and the American Way (New Orleans knows all about that now)
And all new - There's Insurgents out there don't you know

Which is great if you're a RightWing Straussian War supporter happily ensconced in some leafy suburb of London/New York. But not so great if you live in Baghdad, where after two and a half years, the Americans and their Iraq-Rebuilding contractors have yet to supply basic amenities.

Photo: Jerome Daily

Aid to US

2005-09-06T21:53:00.000+01:00

The US has accepted aid in the wake of the Katrina disaster from the following countries [AP].

Iran, once drubbed one part of the 'Axis of Evil', has donated 20m barrels of crude oil to the US. Readers will recall that after the Bam earthquake, the US offered $5M in USAID on condition that Iran turn over any Al-Qaeda members. Iran's offer is conditional on the lifting of US sanctions.

Some of the discrepancies in the donations offered to the USA by countries are startling. Bangladesh, a poverty stricken Muslim country (and from whence this blog's author originates) has donated $1M in cash. Whereas Italy, America's only 'old Europe' ally on the Continent and fearless friend (yeah, right) in the Iraq War has donated "300 cots, 300 blankets, 600 sheets, a water pump, six life rafts, 11,200 chlorine tablets, first-aid kits; baby food"! That must be whats refered to as Christain Kindness?

India has offered $5M in cash but Israel, recipient of USA's heftiest foreign aid package yearly, is "Sending medical team". Yes, well, lets dispel that pregnant silence straightaway and get the Jewish jokes out of the way right now.

The Arabs are, as expected and on cue, dishing out the dinars. Qatar (home of al-Jazeera) donates $100M while Saudi Arabia, generous to a fault as only a US puppet regime can be, has opened the Big Oil valves yet wider, gushing forth to an undisclosed amount.

West Bank Gallery

2005-08-30T17:43:00.000+01:00

Continuing the series on the graffiti art on the West Bank Wall, the BBC have created a nice little picture gallery.

Salman the Clown

2005-08-30T00:49:00.000+01:00

The paradoxical nature of today’s 'memes' often means finding myself agreeing with people I can’t abide and, conversley, disagreeing with a lot of the potted opinions of people that, externally, tick the boxes of the same ‘political camps’ as I do.

Take for example Julie Burchill on Salman Rushdie. Now I have, by and large, the same feelings for Burchill as I have for freshly expectorated phlegm. Yet her views on Rushdie, in all their merciless savagery, are like Chanel No.5, timelessly elegant and spot on.

I would bet that the only reason his recent crappy thesis on Islamic Reformation got published is because he has a new book to sell. And if that isn’t enough of a coincidence, the Guardian graces us with a breathless write up on his new novel, Shalimar the Clown. In it, Rushdie is asked what he thinks about deporting Islamic Militants:

"The idea that by allowing all these groups to hang out here it would somehow protect England from attack was a deliberate philosophy. And it's not even party political because both of them did it. Thatcher did it, Blair did it. I think it's extraordinary to see people screaming hate while living off the state. No, I don't mind."

This is rich coming from the man who emotionally blackmailed the Thatcherite government for protection after Ayatollah Khomeini (the original Islamic bogeyman) threw down the fatwa from Tehran. For years prior to that Rushdie fancied himself as a Lefty and a spokesman for "poor, downtrodden immigrants". Back then, 'Racism in the UK' was Rushdie’s specialist area of punditry. (Nowadays it seems to be Bono’s arse). Lets not forget that Satanic Verses had two axes to grind: One was anti-Islam, and the other, more pronounced, which is largely forgotten because of the fatwa furore, was patently anti-Thatcher (both in person and in dogma). So when the very same Thatcher government, that Rushdie had a made a career of berating, had to foot the bill to afford him with police protection, it was, as Julie Burchill commented archly, “a better piece of irony you couldn’t find hanging in the Tate”.

I have no idea what his new book is like, nor do I want to. But if the last one was anything to go by, then there should be plenty of returned unsold copies in warehouses around the world. I think it would be worthwhile to suggest to Bradford City Council, that in order to stave off unnecessary deaths caused by hypothermia, they could always stockpile these copies of the new Rushdie book to burn, for fuel, this winter.

Apartheid Now

2005-08-29T17:48:00.000+01:00

Linked here, from xymphora’s Withdrawal-palooza, and to add extra Google points:

“In the 5 years of Israel's brutal suppression of the Palestinian uprising against the occupation, I never once saw or heard a segment as long and with as much sentimental, human detail as I did here; never once remember a reporter allowing a sympathetic young Palestinian woman, whose home was just bulldozed and who lost everything she owned, tell of her pain and sorrow, of her memories and her family's memories; never got to listen to her reflect on where she would go now and how she would live. And yet in Gaza alone more than 23,000 people have lost their homes to Israeli bulldozers and bombs since September 2000 -- often at a moment's notice on the grounds that they "threatened Israel's security." The vast majority of the destroyed homes were located too close to an IDF military outpost or illegal settlement to be allowed to continue standing. The victims received no compensation for their losses and had no place waiting for them to relocate. Most ended up in temporary UNRWA tent-cities until they could find shelter elsewhere in the densely overcrowded Strip, a quarter of whose best land was inhabited by the 1% of the population that was Jewish and occupying the land at their expense.”

Watching the Gazan Fiasco – Jennifer Loewenstein. Full article here.

Photo: Washington Post

Crusader, Moi?

2005-08-29T17:25:00.000+01:00

Britain has historically been regarded with the utmost respect by Islamic peoples, Fundamentalists included, in spite of the legacy of the Balfour Declaration [1917]. But it was not until Blair involved himslef as Bush's attack poodle in the 'Great Iraqi Fuck Up' that England has now come to be regarded universally in the Islamic World, along with the US, a 'Crusader state'.

So airbrushing a few militant Muslim Black sheep out of the picture (and kicked out of the UK) will not fix the damage done to Britain's role (both real and perceived) as the World's Umpire. The saddest loss is that Britain will never again have the respect that it once had as the Voice of Reason in International Policy terms. Just ask Michael Jay.

Cartoon by Steve Bell.

Another Long Haul War for USA

2005-08-26T01:09:00.000+01:00

That nice Timothy Garton Ash compares USA in 2005 to Great Britain in 1905 and argues that America simply does not have the stomach for the long haul when it comes to Iraq. He makes a direct correllation between Britain’s Boer War and USA’s Iraq War:

The British won only by a ruthlessness of which, I'm glad to say, the democratic, squeamish and still basically anti-colonialist United States appears incapable.

Kurt Nimmo argues a point on similar lines by drawing a parallel between USA and this time, in his case, France in its colonial adventure with Algeria in the 50s. And he also comes to the same conclusion:

In the meantime, there is a “way to go” before this reality—minus extreme brutality, the United States will never be able to seriously occupy Iraq, as the French were unable to occupy Algeria (where some serious brutality was in fact levied, all for naught)—sinks in.

Only Kurt, doesn’t have to sugar his pills to ensure his grants keep rolling in and keep his ass safely ensconced in Academia like Garton Ash has to and qualifies his points with this little master blaster:

Well, [Chuck Hagel] may not realize it, but that is precisely the game plan—the neocons want to destabilize the Middle East, decimate Islamic societies and culture, and instigate a revamped Sykes-Picot Agreement of sorts, that is to say carve up the Middle East like the Brits and French did in 1916.

Say it like it is, Kurt

Out of Gaza and Into the West Bank

2005-08-26T00:18:00.000+01:00

The forced ‘exodus’ of Settlers (read para-military units armed to the teeth) out of the Gaza Strip and into the West Bank is going on unabated. So far these Israeli occupiers are get given the photo-opportunity of looking like dishevelled martyrs. Every day we see pictures of anguished men and women being turfed out of their homes amidst tears and acrimony. Almost makes you want to sympathise for them right? Wrong. Thats exactly what the Israel and, in cahoots the US, want you to do. They want the world to develop an mental image of Israelis sacrificing their livelihoods and their homesteads. Except that:

Gaza remains an Israeli protectorate. Its borders (both land and air) and its resources (whats left of them after the Settler-Army sucked it dry) remains very much in Israeli possession
By relocating the Settlers out of Gaza, Israel’s payback is that it pretty much gets to demand what it wants from the West Bank. Remember that the West Bank is the single biggest chunk of land and contains the most resources and water (its always about money and water in Israeli politics these days) of any of the land stolen from Palestine since Israel annexed Jersualem in 1967.

And now we find out this. By moving the Settler hordes into the West Bank, Israel also slyly grabs even more unnegotiated West Bank land from the disenfranchised Palestinians and will build another wall around it! So now we finally know what the whole performance of the “forced expulsions” from the Gaza was all about.

Where's Banksy?

2005-08-25T23:11:00.000+01:00

This picture is an example of graffiti art brought to you by Banksy. The spray-painted image of a Guantánamo prisoner is powerful when seen up front and personal in a crowded London street. I spotted it last week on a building on the Angel end of Liverpool Road, close to Chapel Market, London. The man certainly gets around.

Clearly the world took notice and respect for Banksy and his work multiplied exponentially when he demonstrated fierce moral outrage by creating the West Bank barrier paintings. He called Palestine “the largest open prison in the world”. It was protest art pure and simple and when images of the Wall paintings got syndicated all over the world it spoke more about the brutal nature of the Israeli regime than bombs ever could.

And before that I thought that he was only about being a guerilla-art prankster trying to get press coverage by staging well-planned painting 'plantings' on the walls of elitist fine-art establishments like MOMA. Which is cool enough but the West Bank paintings shows him to be one of the few relevant artists alive in the world today.

Death Of A Chav Princess - A Daydream

2005-08-25T15:36:00.000+01:00

Julie Burchill makes me want to fulfill one of my childhood ambitions of becoming a policeman. This would allow me to embellish a daydream I have of guiding the hand of GolMal justice.

The plot of this daydream is about being the lucky policeman given the task to investigate a burglary at Burchill Towers, that has set off the alarm (which notifies the police). Cut to Ms Burchill who, returning home from one of her bouts of gluttonous excess, has apprehended her burglar and proceeds to go ballistic. Hysterically screeching at the top of her shrill Minnie Mouse-on-helium voice, her bulbous eyes pop out of their sockets making for a fearsome sight. Screaming petulantly and hurling violent cholesterol-rich put downs (as only our Julie can) at the young thief while he is making his way out of the crime scene with various bits of property stashed into a faux-Louis Vuitton shoulder-bag. He is caught unawares and acting on reflex, grabs the nearest heavy blunt object (lead piping?) and proceeds to bludgeon the woman's head with gusto and aplomb. After a gloriously frenzied attack, half the contents of Ms Burchill's now-fractured cranium are tastefully adorned all over the the expensive fuschia-coloured wallpaper of the hallway.

I turn up to find the boy-burglar standing over the dead writer, now sprawled shapelessly across the floor. Her flabby hulk still twitching furiously in synaptic Burchillian rage. The boy stands there in mute, frozen horror. He still holds the murder implement in his right hand and the bag of swag in the other.

Being a copper, I take command of the situation. I speak to the boy in sharp terms and tell him to move on, go on, move on. I take the bag and the murder implement out of his hands. I tell him to go straight home. He thanks me and wastes no time to make an exit. I quickly and efficiently destroy all sign of any evidence. After all, I am a policeman and take the utmost professional pride in my work. I complete all the necessary formalities and declare, in the paperwork, that the burglar was caught en-flagarante by the victim who startled him, and he then proceeded to kill her. The thief has absconded leaving behind no usable evidence. The case hits a brick wall and gets closed due to lack of leads and resources.

The bright side of the story is that I do get to have 15 minutes of fame on CrimeWatch UK, when I appeal for witnesses to "come forward". The Times publishes a tearfully clichéd obituary by Tony Parsons and, not to be outdone, the Guardian lets Germaine Greer let off steam in similar vein. I get a promotion and lots of fan email and complimentary comments on my blog.

Daydream over.

Radio.TiffinBox

2005-08-25T01:44:00.000+01:00

Music; what would life be without it? A Wahhabi nightmare in hell, that’s what.

Which is why I finally bit the bullet and after listening to various stations on live365 for years, I have decided to start one myself to reflect my love of perusing record shop shelves.
Please give a warm welcome and a big shout to
Radio.TiffinBox :
http://www.live365.com/stations/fgazi

Playing from a wide range of delicious music inclusive of (but not exclusive to):
Electronic soul and machine funk from Four Tet, Jamie Lidell et al
Underground hip-hop (Madlib and those fine young west coast hiphop chaps)
Savath e Savalas and other Scott Herren disguises
Avante-garde Classical (Steve Reich, Gyorgy Ligeti, Phillip Glass et al)
Indian Classical/Asian Underground (Raag meets Electronica = Raagtronica)
Jazz (from Bebop to Courtney)
Studio One Reggae allstars and other Jamaican riddims
And the great and one and only Sun Ra

Would love to hear your reviews

Bo Bo Bo Selectah!

Blogging again?

2005-08-25T01:37:00.000+01:00

Currently deriving great pleasure from blogs again. Have updated my blog roll (Links section on right hand bar of this page). But one I am especially enjoying is muttawa or The Religious Policeman.

Don't mention the (Iraq) War

2005-08-25T01:26:00.000+01:00

Regarding this utter shite published in the Times:

What a shamefully execrable article this is. I feel embarrassed for the writer (Gerard Baker) that he should expect to get paid for churining out this kind of low-level garbage. However, given that its been published in The Times (Rupert Murdoch's organ of axe-grinding lampoonery), I won't be surprised to find out that he will be paid handsomely for characteristic Times-guano.

First of all he calls "the Galloways and the Kennedys" opportunistic but has left out Howard from the list. Howard is, in the public perception and following his performace in the last general election, synonymous with political opportunism of the most crass kind. By not including him in his list, the writer renders his loyalties transparent.

So now we know who he speaks for, the rest of his peice is an exercise in dangerous and insulting conjecture. How does he know that if England had not invaded Iraq that there would not have been a London bombing? How does he claim to know the bomber's motives so well that he can speak on their behalf?

To pass glibly over events in Islamic history as providing enough pretext for Islamists to bomb London is to ignore sentiments that are common to most Brits of all types of political/religious/racial persuasion. That sentiment is this: the invasion and the occupation of Iraq by US and British forces is illegal and, given the status quo, murderous and destructive. The actions of the bombers are not representative of anyone but themselves, but perhaps an infinitely better article would have been to acknowledge that Iraq angers not only angry young bombers, but also normal work-a-day folk irrespective of religion and race. And that is the reason why the large majority of British people are deeply ashamed of Britain's recent history in Iraq.

Whether The Times likes it or not, no amount of convoluted op-eds like this one will be able to whitewash this fact away.

Terrorists without a cause

2004-08-27T15:33:00.000+01:00

Meanwhile back in the motherland, Bangladesh is in the grips of a massive anti-government hartal (general strike) after the grenade attack at a public rally of the main opposition party (The Awami League) in Dhaka which left 20 dead and hundreds seriously injured. No one has been arrested and the police have yet to come up with any leads. But even the the authorities fail to show any confirmed suspects, it is common knowledge who's responsible. There has been a pattern to these terrorist attacks against the public which started about 2 years ago. The targets have been, amongst others

A cinema in Khulna,

A religious shrine in Sylhet,

The Baishaki (New Year) carnival

A political rally of the (anti-Jamaati) Awami League .

It doesn't take a political-science guru to figure out that are targets of the ultra right wing Islamic groups who tend to be irritated, to say the least, by what they deem to be "un-Islamic". So cinema, shrines, non-Islamic Bengali festivals and of course the anti-Jamaati Awami League tend to be targets.

It is also common knowledge that the Bangladesh government has most to gain if the bombers were to go uncaught and unprosecuted. They, the BNP government, have formed an most unholy alliance with the ultra-right Islamic contingent, the Jamaati Islami's, and as a result have been forced to give rehabilitation to what is basically a political front to a terrorist group.

Unfortunately our 'deshi terrorists do not have the heroic credibility of being pitted against the grunts from the second Platoon of the US Army or against paramilitary Israeli Settlers who have claimed their land. Instead, Bangladehi terrorists have to derive their fun killing innocents who commit the sin of going to the cinema or to a political speech or a carnival.

They don't have the imagination, not to mention the courage, to do anything near as noble as strapping a 100lbs of explosives to their bodies and detonating themselves for their cause. If only they could spend a minute to figure out what their cause was before they whipped themselves into a frenzy and lobbed grenades at a group of innocent bystanders, they might actually be plausible.

SerializedFish

2004-08-18T21:26:00.000+01:00

SerializedFish
Confessions of a Rice and Daal man. A .NET techie with a social conscience and a big fish.

Zionist Org not charitable to Arabs

2004-08-07T05:07:00.000+01:00

A UK Zionist youth organisation called Betar-Tagar commits a racist faux-pas and loses its "charitable" status after publishing material insulting Arabs. The organisation then goes on to do the indefensible by defending the the execrable Arab-basher Robert Kilroy-Silk, who earlier this year had described Arabs as "suicide bombers, limb amputators, women repressors" in a leading British mass-circulation rag.

Shimon Shamila, the uncharitable group's spokesman, said the charity was not racist and could not be responsible for everything it forwarded. Especially when you get caught with your pants down.

Of course it goes without saying that the publishing and distribution of insulting invective by Zionists is never racist, however discussion of it much less reportage of it is undoubtedly hardcore Anti-Semitism.

Sectarian sufferings

2004-07-04T19:49:00.000+01:00

I love this photo. An aged woman from Rajastan praying for salvation after her home and provisions were destroyed by hordes BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) political thugs in India last year. Could just as easily be an aged woman in Keraniganj praying for salvation after her home and provisions were destroyed by hordes of BNP (Bangladesh National Party) political thugs in Bangladesh last year.

Jamaat é War Criminals

2004-06-28T23:57:00.000+01:00

Earlier this month, Prince Charles attended the opening of the all new London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. It is common knowledge that Charles has a genuine interest in Islamic spiritualism and traditional architecture. But did he know that by attending the opening of the Centre he would have to share the dias with Maulana Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, MP for the Fundamentalist Jamaati Party in Bangladesh?

Delwar Hossain Sayeedi's record of violence against Non-Muslim minorities makes our old friend Abu Hamza of Finsbury Park look like a cartoon. (Which is after all he is).

Was the Prince aware of the following facts about Sayeedi:

As a member of the Jamaat e party, he opposed the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. During that time, he in known to have been involved in the killing of thousands of women and children, more often than not, Hindus. His record of War Crimes is well documented.

Sayeedi is an elected MP and a member of the Jamaat e Islami who have in the past 4 years been complicit in a number of hate campaigns against Non-Muslim minorities in Bangladesh. Most recently being the party's involvement with the Banning of Ahmediyya texts.

Humayun Azad, 56, a well known writer, playwright and crtic and auther of over 50 books was stabbed in February It is well known that this was the work of the Fundamentalists in Bangladesh. His enemies have always been the Fundy's and his writing has always taken them to task - in particular Sayeedi's brand of criminal Islamic political opportunists.

How rude, Mr Cheney

2004-06-26T19:07:00.000+01:00

Not reported in the British press is the news that Vice President and former CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney used profanity toward senior Democrat Senator, Patrick Leahy, followed by a "frank exchange of views" during a Senate class photo session.

The story, which was recounted by several sources, goes like this:

Cheney, who as president of the Senate was present for the picture day, turned to Leahy and "scolded" the senator because he had suggested that while serving in the Bush administration Cheney had absconded with lucrative contracts for Halliburton, whilst using a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq.

Leahy, in response, reminded Cheney that the vice president had once accused him of being (horror of horrors!) a bad Catholic. Dick turned around and snarled "fuck off" or "go fuck yourself". Not sure whether he headbutted poor Mr Leahy too.

If only these fuckers at the Senate and the WhiteHouse used this kind of language more liberally, it would be wholly representative of what they are about. Paricularly the uber-cunt Dick Cheney.