Iraq's civilian dead get no hearing in the United States.
Of course, in US both the media and the public have usually been unable to to report and to understand big numbers when it comes to casualties. The US indifference towards Iraqi civilian casualties is nothing new. And even if the US media would be full of the casualty statistics, I don´t think they would have much impact. In the US, death needs individual faces to be understood and acknowledged. 100 00 dead civilians are just six numbers in line to them.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Let´s imagine that after a joint US-Israeli air strike against Iran´s nuclear facilities Iran would then attack US troops in Iraq and win. What would the US government do? A third of the US army destroyed, would they accept a defeat, continue to fight conventionally, or use nuclear weapons? I bet they would use nuclear weapons. They are that crazy, and they know that they would be finished at homefront too if they would lose in the Middle East and not to lose face - even if the public in US would unite against their deranged leadership - they would have to act quickly. And only real way to do so would be to use nuclear weapons. Air strikes from carriers in the Red Sea and the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean(as Iran could take control of the Persian Gulf) would not accomplish that.
Official: FARC Sought Bush Assassination.
Sad thing that the plot failed. FARC has committed so many atrocities - even if it ain´t the worst participant in Colombia´s endless civil war - that it really should do something good, like killing Bush, to amend (a small amount of) it´s crimes.
Sad thing that the plot failed. FARC has committed so many atrocities - even if it ain´t the worst participant in Colombia´s endless civil war - that it really should do something good, like killing Bush, to amend (a small amount of) it´s crimes.
One of Britain´s leading comedians, Jack Straw, knew of the coup plot in Equatorial Guinea months before, but choose to do nothing. His ministerial colleague Blunkett, on the other hand, has chosen to model his personal life to follow the script of a Hollywood movie.
Saturday, November 27, 2004
Barghouti pulls out of Fatah race. More.
Pity. Even if the Palestinians are in an extremely dire situation, where their very future is in jeopardy, there should be room for different voices and more than one real candidate for the voters tho chose, especially as Abbas seems rather desperate and makes promises that make him both look weak and which he simply can´t fulfill, as much as he may try.
Pity. Even if the Palestinians are in an extremely dire situation, where their very future is in jeopardy, there should be room for different voices and more than one real candidate for the voters tho chose, especially as Abbas seems rather desperate and makes promises that make him both look weak and which he simply can´t fulfill, as much as he may try.
Thursday, November 25, 2004
How to Create a WIA -- Worthless Intelligence Agency.
It´s a funny thing how people that couldn´t stand CIA ran for it´s defence when George W. and his handlers started to bully the agency.
It´s a funny thing how people that couldn´t stand CIA ran for it´s defence when George W. and his handlers started to bully the agency.
Biographer takes shine off Spielberg's Schindler.
"Spielberg´s Schindler"? The movie character is an artistic creation. What the biographer says is that the myth is bigger than the man himself, which is just how things usually are.
"Spielberg´s Schindler"? The movie character is an artistic creation. What the biographer says is that the myth is bigger than the man himself, which is just how things usually are.
US 'alienating' world's Muslims say Pentagon advisers.
But isn´t that just the goal of the US foreign policy? Creating enemies?
But isn´t that just the goal of the US foreign policy? Creating enemies?
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Ukraine set for talks on crisis.
What´s there to talk about, really? Kutshma and Yanukovitsh are hardly ready to step down...
What´s there to talk about, really? Kutshma and Yanukovitsh are hardly ready to step down...
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Kiev crowds circle president's HQ. More.
If the opposition fails, Ukraine will become a vassal state of Russia. If the opposition wins, Crimea and the eastern Ukraine, where Russians are a majority, may try to run to the arms of Mother Russia. Putin, whose (and Kutshma´s) puppet Yanukovitsh is, could not say no to them. After all, Crimea was a part of Russia until 1954, and the loss of it and especially that of Ukraine - for both historical and economical reasons - was and is a hard pill to swallow for the Russians. Even moderate Russians´ view of Ukrainian independence, nationalism and the Ukrainians themselves is very often blatantly negative and racist. The Russians can´t understand why the Ukrainians would want to be Ukrainians and independent, when they could be Russians and Ukraine a part of Russia.
If the opposition fails, Ukraine will become a vassal state of Russia. If the opposition wins, Crimea and the eastern Ukraine, where Russians are a majority, may try to run to the arms of Mother Russia. Putin, whose (and Kutshma´s) puppet Yanukovitsh is, could not say no to them. After all, Crimea was a part of Russia until 1954, and the loss of it and especially that of Ukraine - for both historical and economical reasons - was and is a hard pill to swallow for the Russians. Even moderate Russians´ view of Ukrainian independence, nationalism and the Ukrainians themselves is very often blatantly negative and racist. The Russians can´t understand why the Ukrainians would want to be Ukrainians and independent, when they could be Russians and Ukraine a part of Russia.
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Chronicles of Ice.
Quote:
A glacier is time incarnate. When we lose a glacier -- and we are losing most of them -- we lose history, an eye into the past; we lose stories of how living beings evolved, how weather vacillated, why plants and animals died. The retreat and disappearance of glaciers -- there are only 160,000 left -- means we're burning libraries and damaging the planet, possibly beyond repair. Bit by bit, glacier by glacier, rib by rib, we're living the Fall.
Quote:
A glacier is time incarnate. When we lose a glacier -- and we are losing most of them -- we lose history, an eye into the past; we lose stories of how living beings evolved, how weather vacillated, why plants and animals died. The retreat and disappearance of glaciers -- there are only 160,000 left -- means we're burning libraries and damaging the planet, possibly beyond repair. Bit by bit, glacier by glacier, rib by rib, we're living the Fall.
Democracy - the new excuse.
Quote:
...are those who are demanding democracy in Palestine willing to also define the borders of the Palestinian democratic state before they demand democracy? Or is the idea to create a virtual democracy and only then foist it on every bit of land that will be liberated? This is all only hairsplitting, because the Israelis (and the Americans) who are demanding democracy in the PA would do well to rub their eyes (with astonishment, as usual) and take note of what's happening: The Palestinians themselves are demanding their democracy. They are not waiting for Israel to force them.
Quote:
...are those who are demanding democracy in Palestine willing to also define the borders of the Palestinian democratic state before they demand democracy? Or is the idea to create a virtual democracy and only then foist it on every bit of land that will be liberated? This is all only hairsplitting, because the Israelis (and the Americans) who are demanding democracy in the PA would do well to rub their eyes (with astonishment, as usual) and take note of what's happening: The Palestinians themselves are demanding their democracy. They are not waiting for Israel to force them.
Friday, November 19, 2004
US marine commander declares victory in Iraq. I know that the American military isn´t known for the genius of it´s top brass, but even they should know that a)it´s stupid to declare these kind of things, when they will be certainly proved to be false and that b)these kinds of claims only make the guerillas to intensify their attacks to show that the claims are wrong, which means that more soldiers and especially civilians will die.
The possible last common ancestor of all the great apes - humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutangs - have been found from Catalonia. Pierolapithecus catalaunicus lived about 13 million years ago, weighted about 35 kilograms and had a spine more like the great apes than their closest living relatives, like gibbons. More.
US tries to destroy the EU-Iran agreement on the enrichment of uranium by Iran. Claims to have "evidence" of Iran´s supposed nuclear weapons program - courtecy of Iranian resistance fighters/terrorists(formerly funded by one Saddam Hussein).
I suppose the old story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is not known to members of the US administration?
I suppose the old story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" is not known to members of the US administration?
Thursday, November 18, 2004
If the US can't fix it, it's the wrong kind of democracy.
Without Arafat, a Middle East peace settlement is in fact far less likely.
Quote:
Meanwhile, pressure for democratic reform of pro-western dictatorships remains striking by its absence. The presidents of Egypt, Pakistan and Uzbekistan are free to carry on torturing and jailing their opponents without the inconvenience of the democratic reforms demanded of the Palestinians and others... The Palestinian problem is instead primarily one of colonisation and occupation - and the denial of self-determination and refugee rights. Those are the issues, rather than democracy, that the US and its allies have to address if they want to draw the poison of the conflict. But that is manifestly not what Bush and Blair have in mind when they call for Palestinian democratic reform. Instead, as elsewhere, they mean the promotion of politicians and institutions which will entrench western-friendly policies: in the Palestinian case, those prepared to crack down on the armed groups, sign up to Israeli terms for a limited bantustan-style statehood and abandon wider Palestinian national aspirations. Hence the effort Britain, the US and Israel have put into cultivating and building up local leaders - such as Muhammad Dahlan, Arafat's former head of security in Gaza - who they hope will play such a role. Of course, this has nothing to do with democracy or reflecting Palestinian opinion: it is the very opposite. Indeed, when it comes to new elections to the Palestinian legislative council, the only shift is likely to be towards greater radicalism, if the Islamist Hamas movement decides to take part.. Many of those who have been rubbishing Yasser Arafat's record so enthusiastically, and crowing about the opportunities offered by his death, fail to grasp the pivotal nature of his leadership. Only he drew support from all sections of the Palestinian people - in the occupied territories, the diaspora and Israel itself - and had the authority to make a comprehensive agreement stick. That is also why the US and Israel tried so hard to destroy or marginalise him in the name of "reform" when he refused to do so on their terms. What it surely means now is that the chances of a settlement have receded: if Arafat didn't believe he could win Palestinian support for the kind of deal likely to be on offer in the near future, then certainly no other Palestinian leader can.
One reason why the Anglo-Saxons claim they want "democractic reforms" from Palestinians is that a)no one can seriously oppose "democratic reforms" without looking bad b)it sounds good, yet you don´t have to define any clear demands, which the Palestinians could claim to have fulfilled and which would make it´s future use in extortion unpossible. And why then Egypt, Pakistan, Uzbekistan etc don´t have to listen to these kind of demands that are made to an oppressed people in a occupied land? Because the leaders of those countries are loyal collaborators. The only thing that they have to fear is a total US success in it´s plans for the Middle East and Central Asia, and the chance of that has already gone. The Americans need them. They can´t make these kinds of demands to them. If their regimes would fall, there would be no loyal servants of US ready to take over. The countries would become enemies of the US.
Without Arafat, a Middle East peace settlement is in fact far less likely.
Quote:
Meanwhile, pressure for democratic reform of pro-western dictatorships remains striking by its absence. The presidents of Egypt, Pakistan and Uzbekistan are free to carry on torturing and jailing their opponents without the inconvenience of the democratic reforms demanded of the Palestinians and others... The Palestinian problem is instead primarily one of colonisation and occupation - and the denial of self-determination and refugee rights. Those are the issues, rather than democracy, that the US and its allies have to address if they want to draw the poison of the conflict. But that is manifestly not what Bush and Blair have in mind when they call for Palestinian democratic reform. Instead, as elsewhere, they mean the promotion of politicians and institutions which will entrench western-friendly policies: in the Palestinian case, those prepared to crack down on the armed groups, sign up to Israeli terms for a limited bantustan-style statehood and abandon wider Palestinian national aspirations. Hence the effort Britain, the US and Israel have put into cultivating and building up local leaders - such as Muhammad Dahlan, Arafat's former head of security in Gaza - who they hope will play such a role. Of course, this has nothing to do with democracy or reflecting Palestinian opinion: it is the very opposite. Indeed, when it comes to new elections to the Palestinian legislative council, the only shift is likely to be towards greater radicalism, if the Islamist Hamas movement decides to take part.. Many of those who have been rubbishing Yasser Arafat's record so enthusiastically, and crowing about the opportunities offered by his death, fail to grasp the pivotal nature of his leadership. Only he drew support from all sections of the Palestinian people - in the occupied territories, the diaspora and Israel itself - and had the authority to make a comprehensive agreement stick. That is also why the US and Israel tried so hard to destroy or marginalise him in the name of "reform" when he refused to do so on their terms. What it surely means now is that the chances of a settlement have receded: if Arafat didn't believe he could win Palestinian support for the kind of deal likely to be on offer in the near future, then certainly no other Palestinian leader can.
One reason why the Anglo-Saxons claim they want "democractic reforms" from Palestinians is that a)no one can seriously oppose "democratic reforms" without looking bad b)it sounds good, yet you don´t have to define any clear demands, which the Palestinians could claim to have fulfilled and which would make it´s future use in extortion unpossible. And why then Egypt, Pakistan, Uzbekistan etc don´t have to listen to these kind of demands that are made to an oppressed people in a occupied land? Because the leaders of those countries are loyal collaborators. The only thing that they have to fear is a total US success in it´s plans for the Middle East and Central Asia, and the chance of that has already gone. The Americans need them. They can´t make these kinds of demands to them. If their regimes would fall, there would be no loyal servants of US ready to take over. The countries would become enemies of the US.
Sunday, November 14, 2004
CIA plans to purge its agency.
Sources say White House has ordered new chief to eliminate officers who were disloyal to Bush.
Partisan politics in CIA can only signal good times for the foes of the USA, because an intelligence agency whose leadership is selected because of their ideology and their loyalty, instead of competence and ability, will be an impaired one. It will not give the country´s leaders information that they need, but information that they want. It´s operations will not be dictated by the needs of the country, but by the dreams of it´s leaders.
Sources say White House has ordered new chief to eliminate officers who were disloyal to Bush.
Partisan politics in CIA can only signal good times for the foes of the USA, because an intelligence agency whose leadership is selected because of their ideology and their loyalty, instead of competence and ability, will be an impaired one. It will not give the country´s leaders information that they need, but information that they want. It´s operations will not be dictated by the needs of the country, but by the dreams of it´s leaders.
Any truthful history is also objective history. Bad history is written by people who can´t shed their political, ideological, religious and etc views. A good historian is not "in love" with her or his subject. There must be a certain remotessness, which makes it possible for the historian to see things more clearly than the people whose lives and actions she or he studies. If the historian lacks this detachment from her or his subject, she or he ends writing fiction instead of fact.
The Arafat Voids.
Thomas Friedman writes nowadays like a village idiot who has just fallen on his head and thinks that Göbbels should be the role model for journalists. What ever happened to truth and impartiality, mister Friedman?
The Irony of Arafat.
Quote:
To understand that requires clearing away the obfuscation around the so-called “generous offer” of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that Arafat refused at Camp David in 2000. That offer included Israeli withdrawal from Gaza but would have allowed Israel to annex valuable and strategically crucial sections of the West Bank and retain “security control” over other parts, including all Palestinian borders. The net effect would have been to institutionalize some of the worst aspects of the occupation. Arafat could not, and should not, have accepted it.
This is one of the things that are "forgotten" by critics of Arafat. Imagine what the same people would write if Israel would be demanded to give up the control of it´s borders and hand it to Syria?
Quote:
To understand that requires clearing away the obfuscation around the so-called “generous offer” of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that Arafat refused at Camp David in 2000. That offer included Israeli withdrawal from Gaza but would have allowed Israel to annex valuable and strategically crucial sections of the West Bank and retain “security control” over other parts, including all Palestinian borders. The net effect would have been to institutionalize some of the worst aspects of the occupation. Arafat could not, and should not, have accepted it.
This is one of the things that are "forgotten" by critics of Arafat. Imagine what the same people would write if Israel would be demanded to give up the control of it´s borders and hand it to Syria?
The two-state solution has to work this time.
Marwan Barghouti, held in an Israeli jail, may be the man to halt the Middle East killings.
Quote:
There is a real stupidity in this argument, demonstrating that it's not only the protagonists in the struggle who become mad. It isn't just the impressionistic problem of getting Tel Avivians used to the idea of being a minority in a country run by people who like their funerals to be full of gunfire and death-chants. It is the idea that the Jews of Israel will voluntarily give up their statehood - where no-one else in history ever has - that is so bizarre.
Well, people have given up their statehood. Or at least their leaders in the name of the people they led. Few examples:Texas in 1845, Sansibar in 1964, Sikkim in 1977. And then there´s Scotland in 1707. And of course there are the demands now made to Nauru, independent since 1968, that it should surrender itself to Australia, because it´s economy is a mess. Going deeper, one will find more examples of cases where people, or their leaders, "gave up their statehood". There´s nothing bizarre in these cases, usually only simple politics, less at least than there´s in writing an article in a big British newspaper, which contains descriptions of funerals among foreign peoples using racist stereotypes. After all, even in Britain there are still occasionally - and nowadays little more often - held funerals, where people fire guns towards the skies. And sometimes the dreadful Westerners even celebrate by firing cannons, can you believe it?
If you want to find an example of what unification of Palestine under a single state would mean, a better example is South Africa. It´s not a paradise - crime is rampant - but when the Afrikaaners gave up THEIR statehood in 1994, the sky didn´t fall and the oppressed didn´t massacre the oppressors, as doomsayers predicted. The fact is, that there´s a single state in Palestine now. The question is, which is easier:Giving equal rights to all people that live under it´s rule or to try to separate it in to a big and a small state so that even the small state, with a land area 1/5 of the bigger one and a population of 66% of the bigger one - if no refugees return (or will be returned by neighbouring countries, by force) - is, as Tony Blair tells us time after time(without telling what he exactly means by it), viable.
Of these, the latter would still be the easier solution, the more realistic one, but as time goes on, the former becomes more and more certain - minus the acceleration of the even now ongoing ethnic cleansing and acceptance of it by the international community. And the one-state solution doesn´t necessarily have to be that bad. People have to eventually learn to live side by side, whether one-state or two-state solution will prevail, even after terrible things have happened. Like they are trying to do in Ruanda, Burundi and many other places around the world. Surprisingly, most people can. Even if the mental wounds take generations to heal.
Marwan Barghouti, held in an Israeli jail, may be the man to halt the Middle East killings.
Quote:
There is a real stupidity in this argument, demonstrating that it's not only the protagonists in the struggle who become mad. It isn't just the impressionistic problem of getting Tel Avivians used to the idea of being a minority in a country run by people who like their funerals to be full of gunfire and death-chants. It is the idea that the Jews of Israel will voluntarily give up their statehood - where no-one else in history ever has - that is so bizarre.
Well, people have given up their statehood. Or at least their leaders in the name of the people they led. Few examples:Texas in 1845, Sansibar in 1964, Sikkim in 1977. And then there´s Scotland in 1707. And of course there are the demands now made to Nauru, independent since 1968, that it should surrender itself to Australia, because it´s economy is a mess. Going deeper, one will find more examples of cases where people, or their leaders, "gave up their statehood". There´s nothing bizarre in these cases, usually only simple politics, less at least than there´s in writing an article in a big British newspaper, which contains descriptions of funerals among foreign peoples using racist stereotypes. After all, even in Britain there are still occasionally - and nowadays little more often - held funerals, where people fire guns towards the skies. And sometimes the dreadful Westerners even celebrate by firing cannons, can you believe it?
If you want to find an example of what unification of Palestine under a single state would mean, a better example is South Africa. It´s not a paradise - crime is rampant - but when the Afrikaaners gave up THEIR statehood in 1994, the sky didn´t fall and the oppressed didn´t massacre the oppressors, as doomsayers predicted. The fact is, that there´s a single state in Palestine now. The question is, which is easier:Giving equal rights to all people that live under it´s rule or to try to separate it in to a big and a small state so that even the small state, with a land area 1/5 of the bigger one and a population of 66% of the bigger one - if no refugees return (or will be returned by neighbouring countries, by force) - is, as Tony Blair tells us time after time(without telling what he exactly means by it), viable.
Of these, the latter would still be the easier solution, the more realistic one, but as time goes on, the former becomes more and more certain - minus the acceleration of the even now ongoing ethnic cleansing and acceptance of it by the international community. And the one-state solution doesn´t necessarily have to be that bad. People have to eventually learn to live side by side, whether one-state or two-state solution will prevail, even after terrible things have happened. Like they are trying to do in Ruanda, Burundi and many other places around the world. Surprisingly, most people can. Even if the mental wounds take generations to heal.
Arafat Was the Excuse, Not the Reason, for the Failure of the Peace Process.
Quote:
The Bush administration insisted that, as a condition for receiving U.S. support for an end of the Israeli occupation, the corrupt and autocratic Palestine Authority under Arafat had to clean up its act and become more democratic. However, the United States did not insist that the corrupt and autocratic government of Kuwait allow for more transparency and democracy as a condition for supporting its freedom from Iraqi occupation.
Much of this - and of the whole - article is more in the style of presenting personal opinions as facts - and the writer not telling that he´s doing so - but this is a nice inscight.
But Kuwait? Well, according to the US, Kuwait doesn´t need more democracy - like right to vote for women - and more open use of the country´s money as long as it has oil.
Quote:
The Bush administration insisted that, as a condition for receiving U.S. support for an end of the Israeli occupation, the corrupt and autocratic Palestine Authority under Arafat had to clean up its act and become more democratic. However, the United States did not insist that the corrupt and autocratic government of Kuwait allow for more transparency and democracy as a condition for supporting its freedom from Iraqi occupation.
Much of this - and of the whole - article is more in the style of presenting personal opinions as facts - and the writer not telling that he´s doing so - but this is a nice inscight.
But Kuwait? Well, according to the US, Kuwait doesn´t need more democracy - like right to vote for women - and more open use of the country´s money as long as it has oil.
Considering that USA prepared for the attack for months and that the US army created a tight siege around the city only a day before their attack, the news of al-Zarqawi´s "escape" - if he even has been in Fallulah during the last months - are certainly not surprising.
Sharon and the Future of Palestine.
Quote:Sharon is not about to agree to the minimal conditions for a workable Palestinian state. His unshakable resolve to avoid dealing with the Palestinians—even to prevent chaos in the wake of the promised withdrawal from Gaza—and to widen Jewish settlement activity throughout the West Bank, which has increased following the announcement of his disengagement plans, gives the lie to such wishful thinking.
The latest report from Israel's Peace Now Settlement Watch found that building and infrastructure construction is taking place at 474 settlement sites in the West Bank and Gaza, including fifty sites where expansion or new construction deviates from the existing boundaries of the settlements, in violation of promises made by Sharon to President Bush. As of the end of August, there were around 3,700 housing units under construction throughout the occupied territories. Moreover, the ground was being prepared for thousands of additional houses—even in locations earmarked by Sharon for evacuation under the disengagement plan. The growth and extension of major settlements in the West Bank now being carried out help to divide it into three noncontiguous Palestinian cantons, in effect Bantustans that Palestinians could inhabit under Israeli surveillance without having a unified state of their own.
Under the guise of "state lands" Sharon's government has continued to expropriate territory in the West Bank to expand the settlements, according to data from Israel's Civil Administration. Since the start of 2004, some 2,200 dunams of land (550 acres) in the West Bank have been declared state lands, compared to 1,700 dunams designated as such last year. As noted by Peace Now's Settlement Watch, this designation consistently allowed Israeli governments to establish and expand the settlements, enabling them to circumvent their commitment not to expropriate any more Palestinian territory for settlement construction.
For Sharon, withdrawal from Gaza is the price Israel must pay if it is to complete the cantonization of the West Bank under Israel's control. Just as important, Gaza is to be turned into a living example of why Palestinians are undeserving of an independent state. Under the conditions attached by Sharon to the disengagement, Gaza —an area that makes up only 1.25 percent of the Palestine Mandate but contains 37 percent of the Palestinian population—will exist essentially as a large prison isolated from the world, including its immediate neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and the West Bank. Its population will be denied the freedom of movement essential to any possibility of economic recovery and outside investment. Sharon's insistence that withdrawal from Gaza will be entirely an Israeli initiative and will not be negotiated with any Palestinian leaders seems designed to produce a state of anarchy in Gaza, one that will enable him to say, "Look at the violent, corrupt, and primitive people we must contend with; they can't run anything on their own.
Dedicated to Democracy.
How USA destroyed democracy - and budding capitalism - in an effort to "save" countries from Communism in Latin America.
No government of the USA has ever thought the Latin American countries and their citizens fit to decide which is best for them. The USA, so the Americans think, always knows better.
How USA destroyed democracy - and budding capitalism - in an effort to "save" countries from Communism in Latin America.
No government of the USA has ever thought the Latin American countries and their citizens fit to decide which is best for them. The USA, so the Americans think, always knows better.
Friday, November 12, 2004
Maybe Discovery could next make a documentary that claimes to offer proof that the ancestors of Romans really did came from Troy...
But speaking of bad science:
In Discovery Channel's RAMESES: WRATH OF GOD OR MAN?, a Find in a Massive Tomb Could Be a Crown Prince Who Provides Ties to the Story of Exodus.
This kind of archaeology should have really died with 19th century.
The Exodus story is a myth. Even these folks don´t believe in the biblical account, but they seem to have a need to believe in what we could call an "Exodus light" scenario.
These kind of stories of decades long wanderings of peoples in a search of a homeland are not that uncommon, especially in Mesoamerica, and are more symbolical than historical in account. Even in Western Europe the aristocrats long held strong in belief that they were descendent from foreign, German conquerors, which gave them right to rule over the "native" population.
The Exodus story also connects the people of the kingdom of Judea with one of the most powerful states in the world known to them, Egypt - which was partly responsible for the destruction of the kingdom as it supported their rebellions against Babylonia, after Egypt had lost the battle over Syria and Palestine to Babylonia in the years after the fall of the Assyrian empire in 612 BCE - like the story of Abraham connects them with the major cultural and religious center of Ur, in Mesopotamia. The stories of mythical kings like David and Solomon then gave the kingdom - which had lived in the shadow of the more powerful northern kingdom of Samaria, now known as Israel, until that kingdom´s destruction by Assyria in 721 BCE - a great, glorious past, which could be used to rally people "around the flag", so to say, and used as a model for the future of the kingdom.
In Discovery Channel's RAMESES: WRATH OF GOD OR MAN?, a Find in a Massive Tomb Could Be a Crown Prince Who Provides Ties to the Story of Exodus.
This kind of archaeology should have really died with 19th century.
The Exodus story is a myth. Even these folks don´t believe in the biblical account, but they seem to have a need to believe in what we could call an "Exodus light" scenario.
These kind of stories of decades long wanderings of peoples in a search of a homeland are not that uncommon, especially in Mesoamerica, and are more symbolical than historical in account. Even in Western Europe the aristocrats long held strong in belief that they were descendent from foreign, German conquerors, which gave them right to rule over the "native" population.
The Exodus story also connects the people of the kingdom of Judea with one of the most powerful states in the world known to them, Egypt - which was partly responsible for the destruction of the kingdom as it supported their rebellions against Babylonia, after Egypt had lost the battle over Syria and Palestine to Babylonia in the years after the fall of the Assyrian empire in 612 BCE - like the story of Abraham connects them with the major cultural and religious center of Ur, in Mesopotamia. The stories of mythical kings like David and Solomon then gave the kingdom - which had lived in the shadow of the more powerful northern kingdom of Samaria, now known as Israel, until that kingdom´s destruction by Assyria in 721 BCE - a great, glorious past, which could be used to rally people "around the flag", so to say, and used as a model for the future of the kingdom.
Stormy Uranus takes astronomers by surprise.
These "Uranus surprises astronomers" things have come common during the last years. So one could imagine that the astronomers shouldn´t be surprised as they see the same things - but more clearly - that they have seen for years now. But of course, misleading headings are sometimes essential part of good PR - even in science.
These "Uranus surprises astronomers" things have come common during the last years. So one could imagine that the astronomers shouldn´t be surprised as they see the same things - but more clearly - that they have seen for years now. But of course, misleading headings are sometimes essential part of good PR - even in science.
US states defy Bush over greenhouse gases.
Well, the Republican party says it opposes strong federal government, so they should be pleased by this...
Well, the Republican party says it opposes strong federal government, so they should be pleased by this...
Beyond Arafat on the Road to Peace.
Quote:
Chances like this aren't likely to come again in Mr. Sharon's lifetime. If he wants to avoid Mr. Arafat's fate - dying as a former hero turned obstacle to his people's progress - he has to take advantage of it. As Israel's greatest friend, the United States must do everything it can to make that happen. Unfortunately, Bush officials are tap-dancing, spouting the same tired excuses that America can't do anything to restart the road map to peace until Palestinian extremists end their violence against Israel, and until Palestine has a leader America can trust.
No surprises here. These excuses will be spouted by US officials as long as there isn´t a leadership in Israel that wants peace instead of more land and continued conflict. After all, according to both leading Democrats and Republicans, the United States is loyal to Israel.
After Arafat
There is little to suggest Sharon will seize this chance.
Nor that the Yankees will pressurize him to seize this chance.
Let´s be frank. There´s probably no chance of a lasting and just peace until on the Israeli side the funerals of not only Ariel Sharon, but also Benjamin Netanyahu have been kept. After Netanyahu has been also removed from the scene along with Israel´s very own Jabba the Hutt, there´s a chance for a moderate leadership to emerge in Israel, but not before, I fear. At least that´s what polls in Israel are telling us.
There is little to suggest Sharon will seize this chance.
Nor that the Yankees will pressurize him to seize this chance.
Let´s be frank. There´s probably no chance of a lasting and just peace until on the Israeli side the funerals of not only Ariel Sharon, but also Benjamin Netanyahu have been kept. After Netanyahu has been also removed from the scene along with Israel´s very own Jabba the Hutt, there´s a chance for a moderate leadership to emerge in Israel, but not before, I fear. At least that´s what polls in Israel are telling us.
Israel's death festival.
Such unabashed glee is disrespectful and dangerous.
The majority of the Israeli Jews have been brought up to hate and fear Arabs - if not by their parents, then the state and the media - and are racists - if not in action, then in words - so there´s nothing surprising here. And they have deliberately demonized the Palestinians and their elected leader so that they themselves could pretend to be blameless.
On the other hand, it should be remembered that there were large number of Israeli Jews whose attitude towards Rabin´s assassination was the same as towards Arafat´s death.
Such unabashed glee is disrespectful and dangerous.
The majority of the Israeli Jews have been brought up to hate and fear Arabs - if not by their parents, then the state and the media - and are racists - if not in action, then in words - so there´s nothing surprising here. And they have deliberately demonized the Palestinians and their elected leader so that they themselves could pretend to be blameless.
On the other hand, it should be remembered that there were large number of Israeli Jews whose attitude towards Rabin´s assassination was the same as towards Arafat´s death.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Away from the Earth and the human miseries, Mars Express has taken one of the most high-resolution pictures of Martian moon Phobos in color.
CNN has declared the Zionist colonial settlements, basically fortresses, in the remaining Palestinian lands - in a style reminiscent of Orwellian newspeak - as "Jewish Zone".
Frankly speaking, the Americans and their beloved Jews can go to hell. The Americans are garbage and the Jews are too occupied of being the center of the entire universe to be able to be human beings.
Frankly speaking, the Americans and their beloved Jews can go to hell. The Americans are garbage and the Jews are too occupied of being the center of the entire universe to be able to be human beings.
Mordechai Vanunu arrested by Israeli police.
One would have thought that they would have had enough decency to let the man be.
One would have thought that they would have had enough decency to let the man be.
Veteran leader Yasser Arafat dies.
Great loss, but his dream of free and independent Palestine lives on and will come true.
Great loss, but his dream of free and independent Palestine lives on and will come true.
Blair to promote foreign policy in election.
Pretty much in contradiction with The Guardian´s article below.
Pretty much in contradiction with The Guardian´s article below.
Downing Street plays down hopes on Middle East as Blair meets Bush.
Yasser Arafat maybe living his final moments, but Tony Blair is living the final months of his political life if he can´t produce solid proof that his foreign policy hasn´t been a total disaster. As there´s little real difference between the three major parties considering Britain´s economy, education and etc, then European integration and Iraq could be the deciding factors when people go to the polls next year. And of Tony hasn´t got any achievements to show, then he could quite well this time next year not be making history, but be himself a historical figure.
Yasser Arafat maybe living his final moments, but Tony Blair is living the final months of his political life if he can´t produce solid proof that his foreign policy hasn´t been a total disaster. As there´s little real difference between the three major parties considering Britain´s economy, education and etc, then European integration and Iraq could be the deciding factors when people go to the polls next year. And of Tony hasn´t got any achievements to show, then he could quite well this time next year not be making history, but be himself a historical figure.
I´m not in an agreement with this Literary Saloon (and Renaudot proze jury chairman Brincourt) claim that book prizes are about promoting writers and so shouldn´t be given to books by dead now dead authors, because the writers are not the only ones that prizes promote; they promote also the book.
Lifetime achievement awards belong to people who are alive, but there´s nothing wrong giving a prize to a book that has been published just for the first time and whose author is dead. Goncourt prize is really about promoting the book, for example. All the money that the author will gain by getting the prize comes from the increased sales - which the prize causes - of the book.
Lifetime achievement awards belong to people who are alive, but there´s nothing wrong giving a prize to a book that has been published just for the first time and whose author is dead. Goncourt prize is really about promoting the book, for example. All the money that the author will gain by getting the prize comes from the increased sales - which the prize causes - of the book.
The mastermind behind excuses of US government´s use of torture is the new US attorney general. Gonzales claimed that if US soldiers or staff of government agencies torture people on the orders of the president, then they can´t be prosecuted, and that international treaties considering prisoners of war are not binding if Bush says so. And now he gets his reward.
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Kicking the hobbit habit.
The nickname for the new hominid Homo floresiensis has its advantages, but will the label obscure the true importance of the find...
Natural disorder .
A God-fearing majority is set to tyrannise the US.
59 million people voted for the chimp. There are 293 million inhabitants in the USA.
But still, tens of millions of people who think they know what an invisible, omnipotent being wants and who have succeeded in putting their own people in total control of the most powerful country in the world... Nothing good will come out of it. Even if much of it will be comical, in the same manner that we can now say that Adolf Hitler, raving madly to his cohorts in some old movie reel, is comical.
A God-fearing majority is set to tyrannise the US.
59 million people voted for the chimp. There are 293 million inhabitants in the USA.
But still, tens of millions of people who think they know what an invisible, omnipotent being wants and who have succeeded in putting their own people in total control of the most powerful country in the world... Nothing good will come out of it. Even if much of it will be comical, in the same manner that we can now say that Adolf Hitler, raving madly to his cohorts in some old movie reel, is comical.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
New York Times’ Friedman gloats as Arafat lies near death.
The same thing that I wrote of. Not a nice picture of Friedman himself.
The problems in the peace negoations in Palestine are not really individual persons or their personality. There´s one simple problem, which by the way is the same in the question of Western Sahara; the international community, where the Western countries, especially the USA, hold the reins, are not ready to force the occupying power to make concessions. Instead they pressurize the people that are the victims, the whose land is occupied, demanding concessions from them, and if they get them, then the government of the occupying country demands more concessions, seeing the concessions already made as a sign of weakness and as nobody is ready to pressurize them, they have no qualms about the way the negotiations proceed and eventually get stuck.
As the futile battle continues in Fallujah - futile because the guerillas can´t win this fight and the Yankees haven´t got enough troops of their own nor enough loyal Iraqi troops to keep the city under their control when they have eventually conquered it, as the current situation in Samarra shows - Tony Blair continues to disregard the facts.
Why the claim that al-Zarqawi would be in Fallujah is almost certainly wrong? Very simply, the remains of victims, whose death has been shown on videos where al-Zarqawi kills them himself, have been found in Baghdad or near it. As it´s unlikely that al-Zarqawi´s group would transport the remains from Fallujah to Baghdad, the likeliest scenario is that al-Zarqawi himself is living in either Baghdad itself or very close to the city.
Why the claim that al-Zarqawi would be in Fallujah is almost certainly wrong? Very simply, the remains of victims, whose death has been shown on videos where al-Zarqawi kills them himself, have been found in Baghdad or near it. As it´s unlikely that al-Zarqawi´s group would transport the remains from Fallujah to Baghdad, the likeliest scenario is that al-Zarqawi himself is living in either Baghdad itself or very close to the city.
Darfur peace deal 'to be signed'.
There´s a long way from a signing a peace deal to making it effective on the ground.
There´s a long way from a signing a peace deal to making it effective on the ground.
Sadly it seems that Yasser Arafat´s death is near. He´s suffering from a brain hemorrhage.
His death will be a great loss. He has his faults, but they are not the ones he´s usually accused of. Surely he has made mistakes, but the people that accuse him of making them are often themselves far worse. During his leadership, PLO has in it´s 40 years of fight for Palestine killed less than 2000 people. There are very few liberation movements with a record like that. And leaders of countries who are now fighting Iraq, countries who first supported the Baath-regime 1968-91(when it killed at least tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and started a war against Iran that caused the death of a 1 000 000 people) and then turned against it and have since killed 100 000 - 250 000 people in the Gulf War, 500 000 - 1 000 000 people by the use of sanctions and 30 000 - 150 000 people during this Iraq war are not in any kind of position to accuse him of anything. Nor are the arrogant, murderous, racist bastards who rule Israel and to whom Judaism and it´s history is a license to kill people and steal their lands.
His death will be a great loss. He has his faults, but they are not the ones he´s usually accused of. Surely he has made mistakes, but the people that accuse him of making them are often themselves far worse. During his leadership, PLO has in it´s 40 years of fight for Palestine killed less than 2000 people. There are very few liberation movements with a record like that. And leaders of countries who are now fighting Iraq, countries who first supported the Baath-regime 1968-91(when it killed at least tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and started a war against Iran that caused the death of a 1 000 000 people) and then turned against it and have since killed 100 000 - 250 000 people in the Gulf War, 500 000 - 1 000 000 people by the use of sanctions and 30 000 - 150 000 people during this Iraq war are not in any kind of position to accuse him of anything. Nor are the arrogant, murderous, racist bastards who rule Israel and to whom Judaism and it´s history is a license to kill people and steal their lands.
Earliest tracks of 4-legged stroll.
Quote:
Our four-legged, five-toed ancestors conquered the land earlier and more independently than expected, say paleontologists studying newfound 345 to 359-million-year-old tracks at an eroding beach in eastern Canada. At least six different kinds of four-limbed reptile-like animals -- a.k.a. tetrapods -- with five digits on their feet left their tromping prints in the mud of what was once a tropical swamp at Blue Beach, Nova Scotia. The five-digit tracks range in size from four inches to less than an inch and seem to contradict the prevailing idea that the first tetrapods had wide variety of other-than-five-toed (polydactyl) feet, out of which five-toed (pentadactyl) animals later won out as the most efficient on land.
Quote:
Our four-legged, five-toed ancestors conquered the land earlier and more independently than expected, say paleontologists studying newfound 345 to 359-million-year-old tracks at an eroding beach in eastern Canada. At least six different kinds of four-limbed reptile-like animals -- a.k.a. tetrapods -- with five digits on their feet left their tromping prints in the mud of what was once a tropical swamp at Blue Beach, Nova Scotia. The five-digit tracks range in size from four inches to less than an inch and seem to contradict the prevailing idea that the first tetrapods had wide variety of other-than-five-toed (polydactyl) feet, out of which five-toed (pentadactyl) animals later won out as the most efficient on land.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Pressure on Europe´s bird species.
More than 200 of Europe's bird species - including 70 in the UK - face an uncertain future, a study has warned.
Quote:
It found 226 species - 43% of Europe's total - were threatened by intensive agriculture and changes in climate. Forty-five species had declined in the past 10 years and a number could disappear soon without action, the coalition of groups said.
More than 200 of Europe's bird species - including 70 in the UK - face an uncertain future, a study has warned.
Quote:
It found 226 species - 43% of Europe's total - were threatened by intensive agriculture and changes in climate. Forty-five species had declined in the past 10 years and a number could disappear soon without action, the coalition of groups said.
Rebuilding lives in southern Sudan after 21 years of war that killed between 1.5-2.5 million people.
Screams will not be heard
This is an information age, but it will be months before we learn the truth about the assault on Falluja.
Media claims that "most civilians have fled Falluja", but this is a town of 300 000 people - where are the refugees? Shouldn´t they be filling the roads? Shouldn´t there be huge refugee camps being build for them?
This is an information age, but it will be months before we learn the truth about the assault on Falluja.
Media claims that "most civilians have fled Falluja", but this is a town of 300 000 people - where are the refugees? Shouldn´t they be filling the roads? Shouldn´t there be huge refugee camps being build for them?
In here, even those that don´t worship Israel like the true believers do, tend to believe this myth of the "warrior people of Israel", in which sadly even professional historians sometimes fall. I really can´t bring to my mind in the history of humanity "a warrior people" who would have so much problem stomaching their own casualties and accepting the cost of a conflift, which is their own creation, as the Israelis do. They really believe that in a proper conflict, only people from the other side should die, not a single one from their own side. Even leaders of the Israeli military act hysterically when the Israeli army experiences losses. I don´t think there´s any other modern army that would publicly call it´s attacks against civilians as "revenge".
Ailing Arafat deserves fair judgment.
Quote:
A double consensus is forming around Yasser Arafat: one, that the old man is dying and two, that he was a failure. The first assumption is, alas, all too plausible. The second is based almost entirely on an Israeli perspective.... Abu Amar, the old man, won his father-of-the-nation tag by being a fighter. His undisputed courage as a guerrilla leader was put into the shade by his extraordinary courage in accepting the basic premise of Oslo: the Palestinians would, for the first time, recognise Israel and accept an inferior state of their own.Inferior, because it would comprise less than a quarter of the land of Palestine, and because that land would be the poorest and least productive. Inferior, because Israel would still be the regional superpower, and would dictate defence, economic and development issues. Inferior, not least, because Israel would control the water supplies. All this Arafat swallowed. What he did not realise is that the Israelis saw Oslo not as a compromise, but as a victory. And as victors, they demanded more and more spoils: permanent sovereignty over Arafat's beloved Jerusalem; a permanent settler presence in the West Bank; a permanent security cordon along the Jordan, and complete control of airspace and coastline. There was to be no question of any right of return for the Palestinian diaspora, nor any compensation for up to six million refugees and their descendants... Many Israelis are genuinely bewildered Arafat did not grasp, with both hands, what the then prime minister, Ehud Barak, offered. The common cliche is Israel was prepared to give way to 95% of Palestinian demands. That was, and remains, a complete nonsense, as is the myth Arafat lacked the courage to accept. He didn't because he couldn't. It would have meant giving up Jerusalem, giving up chunks of the West Bank, giving up dignity itself. It would have meant betraying the refugees, the most sensitive of all Palestinian issues. And in that winter of 2000-01, Palestinians were dying by the score in the intifada provoked by Ariel Sharon's infamous walkabout in the Haram as-Sharif, Islam's holiest site in Jerusalem. To have surrendered to Barak in that context, would have been political - and possibly literal - suicide. Israelis were dying too, of course, in unprecedented numbers. The present ratio of death is 3.5 Palestinians for every Israeli; about 4,500 in all. However, it has always been a given in Israel that Jewish lives are more important than any others, and the death toll of the past four years has stunned, shocked and enraged Israelis.
Quote:
A double consensus is forming around Yasser Arafat: one, that the old man is dying and two, that he was a failure. The first assumption is, alas, all too plausible. The second is based almost entirely on an Israeli perspective.... Abu Amar, the old man, won his father-of-the-nation tag by being a fighter. His undisputed courage as a guerrilla leader was put into the shade by his extraordinary courage in accepting the basic premise of Oslo: the Palestinians would, for the first time, recognise Israel and accept an inferior state of their own.Inferior, because it would comprise less than a quarter of the land of Palestine, and because that land would be the poorest and least productive. Inferior, because Israel would still be the regional superpower, and would dictate defence, economic and development issues. Inferior, not least, because Israel would control the water supplies. All this Arafat swallowed. What he did not realise is that the Israelis saw Oslo not as a compromise, but as a victory. And as victors, they demanded more and more spoils: permanent sovereignty over Arafat's beloved Jerusalem; a permanent settler presence in the West Bank; a permanent security cordon along the Jordan, and complete control of airspace and coastline. There was to be no question of any right of return for the Palestinian diaspora, nor any compensation for up to six million refugees and their descendants... Many Israelis are genuinely bewildered Arafat did not grasp, with both hands, what the then prime minister, Ehud Barak, offered. The common cliche is Israel was prepared to give way to 95% of Palestinian demands. That was, and remains, a complete nonsense, as is the myth Arafat lacked the courage to accept. He didn't because he couldn't. It would have meant giving up Jerusalem, giving up chunks of the West Bank, giving up dignity itself. It would have meant betraying the refugees, the most sensitive of all Palestinian issues. And in that winter of 2000-01, Palestinians were dying by the score in the intifada provoked by Ariel Sharon's infamous walkabout in the Haram as-Sharif, Islam's holiest site in Jerusalem. To have surrendered to Barak in that context, would have been political - and possibly literal - suicide. Israelis were dying too, of course, in unprecedented numbers. The present ratio of death is 3.5 Palestinians for every Israeli; about 4,500 in all. However, it has always been a given in Israel that Jewish lives are more important than any others, and the death toll of the past four years has stunned, shocked and enraged Israelis.
Sunday, November 07, 2004
After reading another rubbish nonsense from Dennis Ross, I was left thinking his accusations against Arafat. There was something familiar in them and then I understood what troubled me in them. The accusations that Dennis Ross hurles against Arafat brought to my mind Shimon Peres. He´s really more the kind of person Ross accuses Arafat of being. One could say that Shimon Peres has failed in everything in the last 30 years and somehow that hasn´t been able to send him out of the political stage. He´s now again the leader of Labor Party and contender for the office of prime minister. He´s a political survivor who rises from his political grave like Dracula in an old Hammer movie and after he´s yet again defeated, you know that his return can´t be far ahead. In reality, of course, one reason for this is the sad state of the Israeli Labor Party - the return of another political corpse, Ehud Barak, is another sign of this - which, like the Democrats in the US, seems to be unable to gain power again in the foreseable future.
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