Faruq Faisel

2007-07-03T08:53:00.000-04:00

Living goddess stripped of status

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) July 2, 2007-- A 10-year-old Nepalese girl was stripped of her title as a living goddess because she traveled overseas to promote a documentary about the centuries-old tradition, a news report said Tuesday.

Sajani Shakya had her status revoked because she broke with tradition by leaving the country, the state-run National News Agency reported, quoting Narendra Prasad Joshi, chief of the Bhaktapur Taleju Temple where Sajani is based.
Sajani is among several "Kumaris," or living goddesses, in Nepal, but as one of the kingdom's top three, is forbidden from leaving the country.

However, last month she left Nepal for the United States and other countries to promote a British documentary about the living goddesses of the Katmandu Valley.
Temple officials will replace Sajani when she returns to Nepal later this week, the report cited Joshi as saying.

Living goddesses are worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists. The girls are selected between the ages of 2 and 4 after going through several tests.

They are required to have perfect skin, hair, eyes and teeth, they shouldn't have scars or wounds, and shouldn't be afraid of the dark.

They always wear red, pin up their hair in topknots and a "third eye" is painted on their forehead.

Devotees touch the girls' feet with their foreheads, the highest sign of respect among Hindus in Nepal.

During religious festivals the girls are wheeled around on a chariot pulled by devotees. Living goddesses usually keep their title until their first menstruation.
The main Kumari lives a sequestered life in a palatial temple in the capital, Katmandu.
She has a few selected playmates and is allowed outside only a few times a year for festivals.

Others like Sajani are allowed to stay at home, attend regular school and take part in festivals.
The government last year announced a monthly pension of $40 for serving and retired Kumaris.

Previously, the main Kumari received only a gold coin during an annual festival and the other girls received whatever was offered by devotees.

Nepalese folklore holds that men who marry a former Kumari will die young, and so many girls remain unmarried and face a life of hardship.

Critics have said the tradition violates both international and Nepalese laws on child rights.

2006-12-10T16:12:00.000-05:00

Shame: India and its Dalits

A blog post by Rahul Pandita

Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange cannot sing. His wife or daughter were not models, walking over the ramps in fashion shows. In fact, nobody from the Bhotmanges, a Dalit family living in Khairlanji village of Maharashtra’s Bhandara District, could speak his mind on Umrao Jaan in front of titillating television mikes.

Probably, that is why what happened to the family never made headlines. But what 50-year-old Bhaiyyalal witnessed on September 29 is something that will continue to haunt him for the rest of his life. It was towards the evening when a mob of upper-caste landlords descended upon the Bhotmange household. In their ramshackle hut, Bhaiyyalal’s wife, 44-year-old Surekha was preparing evening meals while her bright 18-year-old daughter Priyanka studied in one corner. Surekha’s sons, Roshan, 23, and Sudhir, 21, sat nearby.

As the landlords dragged the mother, her daughter and two sons outside, Bhaiyyalal was about to reach his home. But when he heard the cries of his family, he halted and hid behind a hut.

Surekha and Priyanka were stripped naked and taken to the village chaupal, 500 meters away. For almost next two hours, they were beaten up, bitten and raped by the mob. One of them was even strapped to a bullock cart. After more than an hour of rape and plunder of their bodies, Surekha and Priyanka died. Eye-witnesses have told the Police that sticks were pushed into their private parts, and even after they died, some people continued to rape their bodies.

Roshan, who was blind, and his brother were beaten up and stabbed to death. Their bodies were thrown at various spots in the villages. The next afternoon the Police fished Priyanka’s body out from a canal nearby.

“ I was too scared; I was almost paralysed,” says Bhaiyyalal, who has now fled to another village, fearing that the upper-caste landlords may even kill him, too. “Nobody, except a single woman from the village, tried to stop the mob. The lone woman was silenced by the men with a slap,” recalls Bhaiyyalal.

For almost a decade, the Bhotmanges had tried to lodge a Police complaint. A portion of their 5-acre land had been grabbed by the upper-caste landlords of the village. Even after that, they would not let the Bhotmange family live in peace with the remaining land. So for years, the Bhotmanges had to tolerate incidents of tractors mowing down the standing crops in their fields.

The Police chose not to pay any attention to their grievances. The upper-caste landlords even tried to prove that Bhaiyyalal’s wife, 44-year-old Surekha had an affair with a Police Patil (honorary Policeman) in neighbouring Dhusala village, Siddharth Gajbhiye, who was actually her cousin. On September 3, the landlords beat up Siddharth so badly that he had to be admitted in a hospital. Fearing for his life, Siddharth’s younger brother got him admitted in a hospital which is 100 kilometres away. The hospital, realizing that it was a medico-legal case, informed the local Police, who in turn informed their counterparts in Khairlanji. This time, the Police was forced to lodge a case and 14 arrests were made. Despite repeated threats, Surekha identified the culprits in the identification parade. All of them were released on bail on September 29.

The same evening, they decided to take revenge. Siddharth Gajbhiye called up the local Police station, six kilometers away, at 6.15 pm. One head constable visited the spot at 8.30 pm, but did not register a report. The next day, Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange went to the Police station to file a report, but he was not taken seriously by the SHO. It was much later that an FIR was lodged. Both policemen have been suspended for not responding, and a case has been registered against the head constable. The postmortem report, intriguingly, said that the two women were not raped.

“Doctors were managed and the police bribed.” This is what Surekha’s nephew has alleged, in a report submitted to a social organization. “Everyone in Kherlanji knows what happened with my aunt and cousins, everyone was a witness to the heinous crime,” he has said in his statement. After pressure from social activists, the bodies were exhumed, and another autopsy was conducted. But that too has not been able to establish rape. Some of the perpetrators of crime are believed to be politically well-connected. Social activists are now demanding the arrest of the doctor who conducted the first postmortem.

“It was a gory dance of death, the height of brutality,” says the district Superintendent of Police, Suresh Sagar. He agrees that the Police did not act well in time. He also clarifies that Surekha did not have any illicit relationship with Siddharth Gajbhiye.

The Police have arrested 44 people so far, including 2 women. Police sources now say that some of them have confessed to the crime.

Priyanka was a bright student and was preparing for her HSC. She was also a NCC cadet and wanted to join the armed forces. “Had it been a case of rape or murder of a model like Jessica Lal, the media would have gone overboard. But in this case, not even the National Commission for Women has reacted so far,” says Dr. Rupa Kulkarni, a Nagpur-based social activist. “This is because Dalits are considered worthless in this country,” she adds. After the protests against the incident turned violent, the State government has finally woken up from its deep slumber. Maharashtra's Chief Minister visited the village and offered a government job to Bhaiyyalal. But Bhaiyyalal declined the offer, saying that all he wants is the guilty to get severe punishment. The question is: Will justice be delivered?

(Rahul covered this incident during his recent visit to Nagpur. This article has appeared in the recent issue of The Sunday Indian)

2006-12-10T15:58:00.000-05:00

Khairlanji and the English press

Why this silence over such savagery? Surekha and Priyanka Bhotmange’s face and name should have become as much part of our consciousness as Jessica Lal’s and Priyadarshini Mattoo’s.

Jyoti Punwani

On December 5, a Mumbai paper carried on Page 1, pictures of two residents who live near Mumbai’s Shivaji Park ready to leave home with bags packed. They were moving out to avoid the influx of Dalits to Shivaji Park on December 6, Dr Ambedkar’s death anniversary.

Dalits converge on Shivaji Park every December 6, and except for a stock picture of rustic poor women buying Ambedkar mementos at makeshift stalls, the event passes off unnoticed by the English press. This time, though, a larger show of strength was expected, given the backdrop of Dalit violence all over Maharashtra following the Khairlanji incident. The Police Commissioner had recommended a holiday be declared to minimise the impact of thousands of Dalits running riot. Large graphics showing which roads to avoid were published; "don’t step anywhere near Dadar’’ was the advice Mumbaikars gave each other.

In the backdrop of all this, the front-page story made sense. Why then did it leave a bad taste, the feeling that the sane were fleeing before the advent of the barbarians? Hadn’t Shiv Sainiks been vandalising the surroundings of Shivaji Park for the last 40 years every Dussehra Day, charged up by Bal Thackeray’s speech? Did these residents panic then? Had the Dalits who converged every December 6 ever created a nuisance?

The report did answer the last question. Apart from the park and roads being full ("I can’t take my evening stroll, nor can I walk my dog, no one can reach my restaurant/clinic’’), the main problem seemed to be the sight of people bathing in the open. Ironically, it was a 21-year-old medical student who found this sight "upsetting’’. Well known critic and Dadar resident Shanta Gokhale’s dissenting voice was quoted at length - the annual congregation created no noise, no stink; instead, she admired the excellent arrangements and the rich confluence of languages there.

Yet, the pictures on Page 1 set the tone of the piece.

Is this an over-reaction? Given the English press’ coverage of Khairlanji, it doesn’t seem so. Few readers of the English press in Mumbai, capital of the State in which the incident took place, know the gory details: the public stripping of mother and daughter, the directive to the brothers to have sex with the sister, the mutilation of the genitals of the brothers (one of them blind) when they refused, the rape of mother and daughter and the insertion of objects inside the daughter’s vagina, then the dumping of the body in the pond…

The girl was a Std XII merit list ranker. These details are available on the Net, so it’s not as if nobody could access them.

Why this silence over such savagery? The mother-daughter’s face and name - Surekha and Priyanka Bhotmange - should have become as much part of our consciousness as Jessica Lal’s and Priyadarshini Mattoo’s. The sole survivor, the father --- Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, should have been on Page 1 for days. The relatives, the other Dalits in the village, the scene of the crime, the opinions of Dalit intellectuals, the local police’s views - all this should have been written about to the extent that we could picture this crime the way we can Tamarind Court. Khairlanji after all, is just 150 km from Nagpur.

Instead, only one story in the Mumbai edition of the Times and the Express carried the incident in its outline -- that too, more than a month after it took place. The Times’ report itself made mocking references to the press ignoring the story, but didn’t forget to mention more than once, the `allegation’ put forward by the aggressors - that the mother was having an affair with her cousin, the Police Patil, which had angered the rest of the village. The entire sequence of events- the dispute over land, the attack on the Police Patil, the fact that the Bhotmanges had given statements against the attackers, the latter’s public declaration that they would teach the former a lesson --- all this came to light much later, when the IG’s investigation into the incident was reported. That was front-paged by the Express; it was after all, a hand-out from the police, just as most of the coverage on Khairlanji was in the English press.

Speculations by the Home Minister and the police on the hidden hand behind the Dalit protests made more headlines than the incident itself. The photographs echoed this perspective: a brilliant Page 1 pic of a golden statue of Buddha looking on at the flames of the violence remains in mind. Shouldn’t the pictures of the Bhotmanges’ bodies been on Page 1?

Even while the protests were on, there was no detailed interview with Dalit intellectuals, protestors or leaders, except to get their response to the allegations by policemen.

* * *
If Khairlanji was one instance of the English press toeing the Establishment line, the reportage of the investigation into the July 11 train bomb blasts in Mumbai is another. The English press in Mumbai has acted almost as a mouthpiece of the Mumbai police, most newspapers even dispensing with the word `alleged’ when printing the police’s accusations against those they’ve picked up on mere suspicion. ``He made the bombs’’ screamed one headline, with the face of the alleged culprit circled. Another headline spoke about the unusually high number of Unani doctors picked up.

It is noteworthy that most of these stories were published even before the alleged culprits were formally charged. The reports were not more than information given by policemen about suspects. Every claim of the ATS (Anti-Terrorist Squad) was published; hence every suspect picked up was a ``mastermind’’ and a ``key catch’’. Even after the courts discharged three of these masterminds, because the ATS submitted that there was nothing to link them to the crime, the newspapers continued to publish whatever the police told them. Pakistan’s hand in the blasts was announced again and again, yet, when it came to the crunch, ie, presenting evidence of that to Pakistan, the ATS backed out. Again, that didn’t affect the ATS’ credibility as far as the press was concerned.

On the other hand, if at all the suspects’ families were interviewed, standard devices denoting disbelief such as the use of the word ``claim’’, and inverted commas, were freely used.
Whenever a suspect was picked up, his family’s claims of innocence were also published. However, afterwards, there was total silence about the treatment of the accused in custody, broken only by the Indian Express front-paging the contents of affidavits filed by some relatives of the accused, alleging torture. However, allegations of torture made after that by the accused in court, were put in the inside pages, again with liberal use of words such as ``allege’’.

This reporter has had two stories turned down by leading newspapers: one, an interview with the family of the main accused, who were willing to go on record about their torture by the police; another, an interview with a man picked up on suspicion and let off the next day.

The reasons given were, for the former, the denial of the allegations by the ATS chief. The report carried his denial. Was he expected to admit that his men had tortured innocents? The condition placed for the latter interview was that ``everyone must come on record’’. But the interviewee, having had a traumatic first brush with the police, was unwilling to give his name. Would this have been the first time that false names would have been used in a report?

It is understandable that on such sensitive issues, journalists should not be used by terrorists to make false allegations against the police. But what about applying the same standards to the police? Given the abject and gruesome record of the Mumbai police in handling terrorist cases - the Khwaja Yunus case is still making news - why does the English press suspend disbelief every time a police officer opens his mouth?

The outcome of printing whatever the police say has created a neat divide in Mumbai. By and large, Muslims believe what the Urdu press says - that not one of those picked up is guilty; non-Muslims believe the English press. ``Finally, if those arrested are acquitted, the headline won’t be `Innocents walk free’,’’ said a youth who too had been picked up only because his brother, a SIMI member, was absconding. ``The headline would be: ‘Blast accused acquitted.’’’

The sister of two of the accused, Faisal and Muzammil Shaikh, asked me, ``Isn’t the press supposed to expose the truth? Then why hasn’t any of the reporters written what we told them?’’ Little did she know that this reporter too would fall in that category.

The role of the English press becomes even more questionable because of its silence on those arrested for the Nanded blasts. Most of them are RSS members, but unlike the Mumbai blast suspects, nobody knows anything about them: their professions, their habits…Given that they belong to the same outfit to which our former PM and Home Minister, also the current leader of the Opposition belong, isn’t it important to investigate their links, to get these worthies to comment? But how could that happen? The police have chosen not to go public with their investigation into that blasts, so of course, the English press keeps quiet too.

There have been a few pieces showing up the gaps in the police investigation of the Mumbai blasts, just as there have been very few pieces exposing the government’s cynical response to Khairlanji. But their small number, their placement in inside/oped pages, leaves little impact. For finally, it’s not the edit and oped pages which for the lay reader, define the paper’s policy, but the headlines and reports on the news page.

Contrast the press’ servility to the Establishment on the Khairlanji and Mumbai blasts issue to its open opposition to the Centre and support for the agitators on the reservation issue. What conclusion do we draw from this about the English press’ biases?

2006-12-10T14:00:00.000-05:00

Condoms now in market oversized for Indian men Madhavi Rajadhyaksha

MUMBAI: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) study has correlated penis size with socio-economic status, geographical location and the overall dimensions of the male.

The ICMR, which has been coordinating the study, is likely to publish its findings in early 2007. The researchers have surveyed 1,400 men visiting family planning centres in seven hospitals, including KEM in Parel, AIIMS in Delhi and PGI, Chandigarh.

The length and width of each erect penis was measured twice and a digital photograph taken. In KEM Hospital, it was the departments of urology and preventive and social medicine which monitored participants. The group was an equal mix of urban and rural folk in the 18-50 age group. ICMR had requested the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi to devise ways to measure an erect penis.

"We had devised an automated system in which an image of the penis would be taken and the computer would interpret different dimensions," said professor of biomedical engineering, IIT Kharagpur Sujoy Guha, who headed the project.

However, this was later discarded for a simple paper-tape that was found to be more practical. While ICMR scientists refused to comment on the findings "as the data is still being analysed", sources admitted that a smaller exploratory study had conclusively showed that the condoms presently available in the market were indeed oversized for Indian men.

The inter-city study drew much interest at the recently-concluded Asia-Pacific Conference of the Society of Sexual Medicine in Mumbai (even as the Germans are about to launch spray-on, fit-for-all-sizes condoms). An international delegate at the conference pointed out that if the study made geographical distinctions in sizes, it may cause discomfort among men in different regions.

2006-12-10T00:42:00.000-05:00

Stop the War

Dear Friends,

This week US President George Bush became almost the last man on earth to support a failed Middle East strategy. The conservative-leaning “Iraq Study Group” - including top figures from Bush's own Republican Party - has just released its long awaited recommendations and condemned virtually every aspect of America’s current approach to the Middle East.

The report is not perfect, but it echoes almost every call to action the Ceasefire Campaign has made since we began in August: it calls for Bush and other leaders to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to talk to Iran, and switch to a diplomatic strategy for stabilizing Iraq that includes the withdrawal of US troops.

The global pressure on Bush to change course is now intense, but he is still holding out. Click below to add your voice to the chorus calling for Bush to adopt the report's key recommendations for change:

Our last petition on Iraq, signed by almost 80,000 Ceasefire Campaigners, was covered by US media in key outlets, and our ad was published in papers in London and Washington. A major response from people around the world at this critical moment is likely to get press attention in the US, and up the pressure on President Bush.

With the release of Iraq Study Group report, every sensible voice from across the political spectrum is now pleading with Bush to change course. Please add your voice here:

www.CeasefireCampaign.org

There are enormous dangers and challenges in Middle East, but there is also great opportunity. A strong diplomatic effort can reverse the cycle of conflict, and Bush is the last man on earth left to convince.

With hope,
Ricken, Galit, Rachel, Tom, Amparo and the rest of the Ceasefire Campaign Team.

2006-12-09T12:06:00.000-05:00

Nobel Peace Prize winner itching for a fight
Muhammad Yunus heads to Oslo prepared to fight a company he believes is sucking profits from the poor of Bangladesh, Fortune reports.

By Sheridan Prasso, Fortune
December 5 2006

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- When Muhammad Yunus travels to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize Dec. 10, he will come prepared to fight for management control over a company he believes is sucking profits from the poor of Bangladesh.

While in Oslo, Yunus says he intends to point out the irony that the country that is awarding him the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work on microcredit is also home to a state-controlled company, Telenor, which he says refuses to honor an agreement to allow Yunus's nonprofit Grameen Bank to take majority control of their joint mobile-phone venture.
Muhammad Yunus will receive the Nobel Peace Prize on Dec. 10.

"There's tension between us and Telenor," Yunus told Fortune in an interview in Dhaka ahead of his departure. "There's a philosophical difference. They're oriented toward profit maximization. We're oriented toward social objectives."

At issue is Grameen Phone, Bangladesh's largest mobile-phone provider, with 10 million customers - among them 260,000 "phone ladies" who provide village phone service for the poor all over the country. As the first mobile-phone company to set up in Bangladesh, Grameen Phone has gained a startling 63 percent market share in the country's rapidly growing mobile market and has become Bangladesh's largest taxpayer. Its 2005 revenues of $433 million, up 50 percent over the previous year, are forecast to increase again to $580 million this year.
Grameen Phone was created in 1996 as a joint venture between Telenor, Grameen Bank and two minor partners, which have since been bought out. Telenor now holds a 62 percent share of the company, with Grameen Telecom, a unit of Grameen Bank, holding the remaining 38 percent.

That means Telenor takes 62 percent of Grameen Phone's net earnings, which amounted to $93.6 million last year. That's a lot of money in a poor country like Bangladesh, and Yunus doesn't want it going to Norway.

Yunus insists that Telenor "agreed to give us majority ownership within six years. Our intent was to convert to a social business enterprise [where profits are reinvested in the company rather than taken out], but Telenor does not accept."

Back in 1996, when the venture was established, Telenor was a state-run company. Although the Norwegian government still holds the majority of shares, Telenor partially privatized in 2000, with the largest IPO in Norwegian history, and issued shares on Nasdaq. It was after that, Yunus says, that Telenor reneged on its agreement. "It's a very simple reason," Yunus says. "It's a cash cow."

Telenor denies that the company is either a cash cow or that it ever agreed to relinquish majority control to Grameen. The revenues of Grameen Phone constitute only 3 percent to 5 percent of Telenor's revenues from mobile activities, says Jon Fredrik Baksaas, who became Telenor's president and CEO in 2002 - the year Yunus says Telenor was to have ceded management control. (Baksaas was CFO in 1996, when the joint venture was created under his predecessor Tormod Hermansen.)

Telenor shares are up 69 percent so far this year, after the company reported that third-quarter revenues increased 35 percent to $3.7 billion over the previous year. Telenor group revenues from its operations in 12 countries were close to $11 billion in 2005.
"Different opinions are part of daily business life," Baksaas said last week by telephone from Bangkok, where he was inaugurating Telenor's new Asia regional headquarters. "We have never committed to reducing our share in the company." Telenor also says it has not yet recouped its investment.

Without Telenor's ability to negotiate volume discounts with telecom suppliers, Baksaas insisted, Grameen Phone would not be anywhere near as profitable as it is today. "We're talking about joint efforts that have really produced one of the most fantastic win-win solutions in telecom history over many years," he said.

Yunus says he asked for a meeting with Telenor's board while in Norway in order to appeal to them directly to honor the previous CEO's promise. But Baksaas said that no meeting had been scheduled - only that as part of the ceremonies Yunus would visit Telenor's offices in order to celebrate his achievement of being the founder of microcredit, not to discuss management control.

"The corporate governance of a group like Telenor does not entertain the mechanics that a board meeting can be established in such a way," Baksaas said. "We believe that on the questions of the future ownership of Grameen Phone, there should be other occasions for those topics to be discussed." He added that Yunus had been invited to discuss such topics at a future, unspecified date. "We are at all times willing to discuss future ownership structures," Baksaas said.

The Telenor CEO denied that ceding majority ownership to Grameen has ever been on the negotiating table. The last time a change in ownership structure was discussed, Baksaas said, was in 2004, when the minority partners exited the consortium. That year, Telenor bought out a third partner and most of a fourth one, increasing its stake from 51 percent to 62 percent; cash-strapped Grameen Bank, which had net earnings of only $5 million from its village lending program the year before, was able to buy only 3 percent of the available shares, increasing Grameen Telecom's stake to 38 percent. "I think we had a very reasonable process going on when shares have been available," Baksaas said.

But according to Muhammad Khalid Shams, managing director of Grameen Telecom and for many years chairman of Grameen Phone, Grameen has been insisting for years that Telenor renegotiate the management structure and honor the pledge made by the previous CEO, who Grameen officials say was asked from the very beginning to enter into a nonprofit venture with Grameen. (Hermansen, the former CEO, could not be reached for comment.)

"We have been talking with them, negotiating with them, reminding them that we intend to make our members the owners of the largest telecom company in Bangladesh, and that they would not have had the license without Professor Yunus's support," Shams says. "They have gone back on that. They say it's only an intention, not legally binding. They seem to have defied the will and intention of their own people. They think they owe it to their shareholders to hang on to Grameen Phone."

Grameen even hired an arbitration lawyer in a third country, Sweden, to seek redress. "He charged us an enormous amount of money and told us there's no guarantee," Shams says, "so we don't want to risk it."

Even though Yunus's desire to meet with Telenor's board while in Norway will not be realized, just about every notable person in Norway attends the Nobel Prize ceremony, giving Yunus a chance to campaign, perhaps with the board members themselves, one ear at a time. Baksaas said he had no plans for a scheduled meeting with Yunus but conceded that "there will be occasions that we will meet and celebrate his achievements."

2006-12-09T11:57:00.000-05:00

From one of the two main global political leaders who can't look forward:

9 December 2006
IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T COME HERE
BLAIR'S BLUNT MESSAGE TO IMMIGRANTS
By Oonagh Blackman, Political Editor
Mirror, UK

IMMIGRANTS and Muslims who have settled in the UK should adopt British values or go elsewhere, an uncompromising Tony Blair said yesterday.

The Prime Minister held up a multi-cultural Britain as something to be celebrated, but added bluntly: "Conform to it or don't come here. We don't want the hate-mongers, whatever their race, religion or creed."

Speaking at a lecture at No10 after flying in from Washington yesterday morning, he said people who wanted to live here had a duty to integrate - reigniting the row over whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear veils.

Mr Blair said: "If you come here lawfully, we welcome you. If you are permitted to stay here permanently, you become an equal member of our community and one of us."
Labour MPs have warned him of rising resentment in communities over the strain on public services like housing, schools and health. His tough stance reflects the rising anger over those seen to be abusing the "tolerance" of British people.

And in a reference to the teacher sacked for refusing to remove her full-face niqab, he said: "It really is a matter of plain common sense that when it is an essential part of someone's work to communicate directly with people, being able to see their face is important."

In a stern tone, he went on: "The right to be different. The duty to integrate. That is what being British means. And neither racists nor extremists should be allowed to destroy it."
His next move was to scrap funding for radical religious and racial groups, after admitting the Government had been naive in the past. He then slapped down calls for the the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the UK, and also said preachers should be able to speak English before coming here.

Mr Blair went on: "There is an unease, an anxiety, even at points a resentment, that our very openness, our willingness to welcome difference, our pride in being home to many cultures, is being used against us' abused, indeed, in order to harm us.

"I always thought after 7/7 our first reaction would be very British: we stick together' but that our second reaction, in time, would also be very British: we're not going to be taken for a ride."
His words are a clear sign Labour fears it is alienating working class voters who feel ethnic minorities are a higher priority.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, welcomed the PM's support for multi-culturalism.

But said: "It was worrying to see the PM using such emotive language. That can only help reinforce a 'them and us' attitude. The reality is that there are a tiny group of people - from various different backgrounds - that commit criminal acts and should be dealt with firmly using due legal process."

But the Tories called Mr Blair's speech a "remarkable turnaround".

Community spokesman Dominic Grieve said: "Many of the problems are at least in part the consequence of a philosophy of divisive multi-culturalism and political correctness that has been actively promoted by Labour over many years."

2006-12-08T00:36:00.000-05:00

Sitcom’s Precarious Premise: Being Muslim Over Here

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
New York Times
December 7, 2006

TORONTO — The handsome, clean-cut young man of evidently Pakistani or Indian origin is standing in an airport line, gesticulating emphatically as he says into his cellphone, “If Dad thinks that’s suicide, so be it,” adding after a pause, “This is Allah’s plan for me.”

As might be expected, a cop materializes almost instantly and drags the man off, telling him that his appointment in paradise will have to wait, even though the suicide he is referring to is of the career kind; he’s giving up the law to pursue a more spiritual occupation.

The scene unrolls early in the pilot of a new Canadian comedy series called “Little Mosque on the Prairie.”

Yet that fictional moment is an all-too-possible occurrence, as witnessed when six imams were hauled off a US Airways plane in Minnesota in November after apparently spooking at least one fellow passenger by murmuring prayers that included the word Allah.

“Little Mosque on the Prairie” ventures into new and perhaps treacherous terrain: trying to explore the funny side of being a Muslim and adapting to life in post 9/11 North America. Its creators admit to uneasiness as to whether Canadians and Americans can laugh about the daily travails of those who many consider a looming menace.

“It’s a question we ask ourselves all the time,” said Mary Darling, one of the show’s three executive producers and an American who has lived in Canada for the last decade. “If 9/11 is still too raw, it might not work,” she said.

There is the other side of that coin too — what will Muslims think? — which the show’s creators usually summarize in one long sentence that mentions the uproar prompted by Salman Rushdie as well as the Danish cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad.

This concern stems from the almost automatic presumption that “to look at Muslims in an entertaining way is going to be controversial because they will riot in the streets,” said Al Rae, one of the show’s writers, who noted that he does research by bouncing potential scenarios off cab drivers here. Or as Amaar, the young man detained in the opening airport scene, puts it sardonically, “Muslims all over the world are known for their sense of humor.”

The strongest insurance against outrage from the faithful is that “Little Mosque” is the brainchild of Zarqa Nawaz, a Canadian Muslim of Pakistani origin whose own assimilation, particularly after she left Toronto for Regina, Saskatchewan, 10 years ago, provides much of the comic fodder.

“It rests on my shoulders to get the balance right between entertainment and representing the community in a reasonable way,” Ms. Nawaz, a 39-year-old mother of four, said in an interview here. “You have to push the boundaries so you can grow and evolve as a community.”

During one recent episode being filmed at a neighborhood swimming pool, two Muslim characters who are normally veiled leave the changing room to discover that a man has replaced their usual female instructor. The horrified women lunge for bath towels to use as temporary hijabs, or veils, to cover their hair.

Ms. Nawaz, veiled since she was in ninth grade, coached both actresses to be less relaxed. “I didn’t feel that they were panicked enough,” she said. “It’s a big deal for a hijab-wearing woman to be seen without one.”

Ultimately the solution is found when, as the script describes, “Fatima comes out dressed in the Haz-Mat Islamic swimsuit.” The costume designer unearthed a swimsuit on the Internet from Jordan that covers her from scalp to ankle and had it shipped to Canada.

The struggle over what constitutes modest dress is central to the show. When a Muslim girl flounces into her immigrant father’s presence with her navel showing, he recoils in horror, saying, “You look like a Protestant.”
She counters, “Dad, you mean a prostitute?”
He responds, “No, I meant a Protestant.”

Ms. Nawaz’s humor also emerges in the pool episode. Johnny, the male water aerobics instructor, is gay, and he pointedly says that the sight of the women’s hair would not be the least bit arousing.
“I always try to start these debates in my community like: Does gay count? Do you have to cover your hair in front of a gay man?” Ms. Nawaz said with a chuckle. (It is not the kind of question that arises in Muslim countries, where being openly gay is virtually out of the question; such behavior is punishable by a death sentence in some places.)

Fellow Muslims often dismiss her thoughts and questions as too outrageous, she admitted. “But now I have a whole series to express them.”

Amaar, for example, is abandoning a law career to become the new imam, or prayer leader, in the small town of Mercy. His predecessor as imam preaches sermons like, “First there was ‘American Idol,’ and now there is ‘Canadian Idol.’ All idols must be smashed.”

Ms. Nawaz wanted the show to look at how a native-born imam, exceedingly rare at the moment, might deal with issues differently from the standard imported imams. The actor who plays the young imam, Zaib Shaikh, is the only Muslim in the cast, although the creators said they had hoped more would audition.

Another episode focuses on the anguished debate among strict Muslim families about allowing their children to dress up and collect candy on Halloween, a Christian affair built atop a pagan festival. Most North American Muslims eventually compromise because the day has been drained of religion. “Little Mosque on the Prairie” turns it into “Halal-oween,” halal being the Arabic word for anything religiously permissible.

The sitcom grew out of the battle in Ms. Nawaz’s mosque in Regina over whether women had to pray behind a partition, a heated controversy across the United States and Canada. She vehemently opposed the idea, ultimately making a documentary released this year called “Me and the Mosque” about the tug-of-war with her own imam as well as similar segregation battles in Chicago and West Virginia.
The documentary sparked her idea that all manner of tension between moderate and conservative Muslims — one episode focuses on the partition issue — would make both Muslims and non-Muslims laugh.

There were 600,000 Muslims in Canada in the 2001 census, with the number now estimated around 800,000. Estimates for the American population are around six million.

In an earnest manner not atypical of Canadians, one goal of the show is to explain Muslim behavior, or at least make Muslims seem less peculiar, much as humor about Jews, Italians or gays helped those groups assimilate.

“On the news all you ever hear are voices from the extreme end of the spectrum,” Ms. Darling said. “This gives voice to ordinary people who look just like other ordinary people.”

With its small-town setting and affable cast of characters — even a talk radio host who labels Muslims as terrorists comes across as rather lighthearted — the show unrolls a bit like “Mary Tyler Moore” or some other 1970s sitcom. It is scheduled to start on CBC on Jan. 9, with eight episodes. More are under negotiation. Pitches will be made to networks in the United States in December; so at first only Americans in border ttates will be likely to have access to it.

Test audiences have been somewhat divided, the producers said. Younger viewers, especially Muslims, tend to laugh openly with recognition. Others, particularly the older generation — whether Muslim or not — hesitate.

“Nobody has done a comedy about Muslims before, so they are not sure how to take it,” Ms. Nawaz said. “Some non-Muslims wonder, ‘Are we allowed to laugh?’ ”

2006-12-04T18:32:00.000-05:00

Bangladesh on the Conflict Risks Alerts

International Crisis Watch puts Bangladesh on their Conflict Risk Alerts, released on December 1, 2006.

According to the bulletin, November overtook July 2006 as the worst month for conflict prevention since CrisisWatch began publication 40 months ago. Fourteen situations deteriorated in November, with seven conflict risk alerts (in anticipation of new or significantly escalated conflict). Improvements were noted during November in only three situations, and no new conflict resolution opportunities were identified for the coming month.

Sectarian killings in Iraq rose to their worst levels since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Violence in eastern Chad increased dramatically, with over 60 villages attacked and hundreds killed. Major fighting erupted in south Sudan between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army and the Sudanese Armed Forces in the first major violation of the 2005 north-south peace agreement. In Somalia, a draft UN Security Council Resolution recommending a regional intervention force and a partial lifting of the arms embargo threatened to generate a full-scale war. Political killing and Shiite resignations in Lebanon increased polarisation and brought the government close to collapse. Côte d’Ivoire became potentially explosive as relations soured further between the prime minister and president, and security forces allied to the latter took to the streets of Abidjan. The situation also deteriorated in Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Burundi, Central African Republic, Colombia, Fiji, India (non-Kashmir) and Tonga.

Three conflict situations showed improvement in November 2006. In Nepal, rebel Maoists and the interim government signed a historic peace deal, ending a 10-year war. Senegalese President Wade met with Casamance leaders in an effort to consolidate peace, announcing several measures for reconstruction and reconciliation. A newly adopted constitution in Kyrgyzstan establishing parliamentary checks on presidential power was ratified, thus easing tensions after mass opposition protests.

For December 2006, CrisisWatch identifies Bangladesh, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Fiji, Lebanon and Somalia as Conflict Risk Alerts, or situations at particular risk of new or significantly escalated conflict in the coming month.

Please see Crisis Watch Report on Bangladesh at:
http://durdesh.net/news/Article339-flat-order0-threshold0.html

Please see European Resolution on Bangladesh at:
http://durdesh.net/news/Article360-flat-order0-threshold0.html

2006-12-03T11:55:00.000-05:00

Beach volleyball bikinis shake up Asian Games in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar (AP) -- When Salim Al-Nabit and his friends went to see beach volleyball for the first time, they left their wives home.

Al-Nabit said he would watch the bikini-clad women, but he certainly wouldn't want his wife to do so. He was there, he added, because it was a matter of national honor.

"We don't see this a lot in Qatar," Al-Nabit said. "I think most people think it is outrageous. But we accept it because it is important for our country. We want others to see us as a generous and hospitable people, willing to accept their ways, even if we don't agree."

Beach volleyball's penchant for bikinis has touched off a bit of a cultural clash in this conservative Muslim city, which by hosting the Asian Games, a regional sports extravaganza, is trying to bolster its bid to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to the Middle East.

The city has transformed itself in an effort to woo the Olympics. It has spent billions on infrastructure and sparkling new sports facilities, including the 50,000-seat "Aspire" stadium.

Doha organizers brought in 80 truckloads of sand from dunes in the desert outside the city to create the proper beach setting for the volleyball competition. They then even had the sand tested by a Canadian contractor to make sure it was just right.

But some things are just too much to ask

Though 16 Muslim nations are represented at the Asian Games, only one, Iraq, is competing in women's beach volleyball. And its team, sisters Lisa and Lida Agasi, are Christians.

Do they feel uncomfortable?

"No, not at all," Lida said after her first game on Saturday. But their coach noted they seemed a bit overwhelmed because "all eyes were upon them."

Even so, the Iraqis wore considerably more conservative outfits than their opponents, the Japanese. While the Agasis were clad in yellow, two-piece tights that went down to mid thigh and covered most of their shoulders, the Japanese pair's uniforms were so small that the country name had to be abbreviated on their bikini bottoms.

The Qatari women are sitting out the event, though Qatar has teams for everything from archery to skeet shooting.

"It's not good," said Parvana Khoory, who watched from the almost-empty stands around the 1,500-seat center court dressed in black from head to toe. "We want a woman to cover all of her body. I think this discourages Muslim women from playing this sport."

Some of the players agree that the outfits don't need to be as brief.

"I felt kind of funny about it at first," said Japan's Satoko Urata. "But what can you do? It doesn't bother me now. They have uniforms like this in swimming and track, too."

That has been a sticking point with Muslim athletes as well. Few Muslim teams at the Asian Games include female swimmers. Of those that do, some, like Pakistan, prefer its women wear full-body swimsuits.

Beach volleyball has strict rules dictating what constitutes proper attire. Women can wear one- or two-piece uniforms, and that usually means they play in bikinis and sunglasses.

Competition manager Ramon Suzara, an official with the Asian Beach Volleyball Association, said that allowances have been made for Muslims.

"They can wear what they want, so long as it is appropriate," he said.

Suzara added, however, that he hopes Muslims will come to accept the same kind of outfits that the athletes of other nations wear.

"This is sport in the 21st century," he said. "I think this will be an eye-opener for Doha."

It was for Al-Nabit, who confessed that, in the end, he enjoyed watching the competition.
"But I felt very shy about it," he said.

2006-11-23T22:15:00.000-05:00

Can this chocolate bar really beat PMT?
Too good to be true? Chocolate touted as cure for PMT

A new chocolate bar designed to relieve the symptoms of PMT (pre-menstrual tension) means women can indulge their tastebuds without guilt. The Women's Wonder Bar contains rose oil to sooth frayed nerves and is rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, said to reduce stomach cramps and headaches. FEMAIL of Daily Mail, London asked four writers to put it to the test . . .

TRACY SCHAVERIEN, 40, lives in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, with her partner, Jerry, and one yearold son, Paddy.

She says:
Who ever coined the phrase 'period drama' must have been referring to me and my monthly mood swings. Ever since I was a teenager, I've been prey to manic highs and terrible lows in the run-up to that time of the month: I cry, I shout and I slam doors.

The only time my PMT was ever under control was when my doctor prescribed the contraceptive Pill to stabilise my hormones. It worked like a dream.

I was still on the Pill when I met my husband. Cunningly, I kept taking it until after our wedding, by which time he was legally bound to stick with me. When I decided to give my body a break from it, my true colours came shining through. Admirably, his spirit remains unbroken - so far!

I doubt very much that a humble bar of chocolate will make a dent in my monthly madness, even if it is "top quality Swiss chocolate" with an "exclusive blend of soy and chaste tree berry with a subtle taste of rose to help soothe the symptoms of PMS and menopause", as the manufacturer claims.

Surely in a world where I drink alcohol and coffee and breathe in pollution the whole time, a little square of chocolate won't have that much bearing on my hormonal state?

As soon as I bite into the dark, smooth chocolate and let it dissolve on my tongue, I can tell it's good quality stuff. But it has a funny taste, a bit like rose petals. If you're a fan of Turkish Delight, you'll adore it. Unfortunately, it makes me feel a bit queasy, but the slightly unpleasant taste means I am able to treat the chocolate as a medical supplement, to be eaten sparingly once a day.

By the end of the month, I have grown to like the taste of my rosy chocolate, but I've got into the habit of savouring one square every evening. And in the run-up to my period, I'm astonished to find that I do feel a little bit calmer than usual.

Of course, my PMT hasn't been eradicated - after watching a documentary about lions I still cry for a day after the mummy lion dies - but I'm noticeably less tense and snappy.

I'm cautiously impressed with the results so far. But perhaps thinking about my PMT has made me more conscious of what's going on in my head, and therefore able to recognise and control mad episodes before they overwhelm me. Whatever the case, it's good to feel a festive spring my step.

ERIN KELLY, a writer, is 30 and lives in North London with her husband, Mike, an actor.

She says:
I have never really considered myself to be a victim of my hormones. OK, so there are a few tell-tale signs when that time of the month is approaching; a little less patience than usual with my loved ones, my computer and, in particular, with bad drivers.

But I'm not the sort of woman whose premenstrual moods make my partner fear for the safety of his private parts. Neither am I the kind of girl who passes up an excuse to eat chocolate. Not just any old chocolate, but healthy chocolate. Every day. In the name of research.
The Wonder Bar is packed with virtuous-sounding ingredients: chaste tree berries, soy, flaxseed. It even contains 'healthy fat' and four times as many antioxidants as green tea. And it's organic.

The manufacturers don't specify how much, or how often, we should eat to reap maximum benefit from the wonder bar, so I prescribed myself one or two squares a day, which I started around midcycle.

For a healthy chocolate, the bar tastes surprisingly decadent. The rich and slightly bitter dark chocolate, infused with essential rose oil, creates a cocoa-cum-Turkish Delight flavour.
The chocolate is also rich and intense, so I didn't feel the need to devour a whole bar at a time.
To be honest, I wasn't expecting the wonder bar to be anything more than a gimmick, a guilt-free excuse to satisfy those pre-menstrual chocolate cravings which, according to the manufacturers, we can blame on natural feel-good chemicals in chocolate.

But a couple of weeks into my experiment something odd happened. My period arrived. Without any warning. No fights with my PC, no horn-blasting at traffic lights.
Admittedly, I suffer from the very mildest symptoms of PMS, and perhaps it was just a happy coincidence that I didn't notice any this month. Or maybe the makers of the Wonder Bar are on to something.

Like any health supplement, its benefits are debatable. But it tastes nice and does no harm, so it must be worth a try.

TESS STIMSON, 38, is a British-born writer and author. She lives in Florida with her husband and three children aged 12, nine and four.

She says:
I don't suffer from PMT and - at certain times of the month - I'll kill anyone who says otherwise. But roughly once every four weeks, my husband goes out of his way to irritate me. He'll suggest we go out to see a movie, which obviously means he thinks I'm fat (why else would he want to take me somewhere dark?) Or he'll buy me flowers, which means he's got something to hide. Or offer to wash up, which means he thinks I'm fat and he's got something to hide.

At times like these, it's only natural for a girl to turn to chocolate. And I do, in industrial quantities. For five days a month, I eat enough Cadbury's Dairy Milk to supply a small country (or, indeed, build one). It doesn't have any noticeable effect on my temper, but it makes me feel better.

So when I'm asked to test a new Swiss chocolate bar that promises to 'take sweet revenge' on PMT as well as being good for you, I'm very keen to know more (although not nearly as keen as my husband).

I'm slightly put off by the fact it describes itself as "an exclusive blend of soy and chaste tree berry with a subtle taste of rose". Chocolate is supposed to be sinful, not chaste. But it is organic, and packed with fibre - as much as an apple - as well as being low-glycaemic, the diet Holy Grail du jour.

It smells of rosewater. And it's dark chocolate, which I hate. I know it's good for me, with its solid cocoa and anti-oxidants. But I don't eat chocolate because it's good for me. I eat it because it makes me feel good. The Wonder Bar doesn't. It leaves an unpleasant aftertaste which even a strong coffee doesn't kill.

Nor do I notice any improvement in my temper: my husband is just as irritating the week before my period as he always was. I still radiate enough heat to solve the world's energy crisis and burst into tears at the sheer poignancy of Desperate Housewives.
Nonetheless, I continue to eat the recommended 2oz per day. In the interests of scientific study,
I have even eliminated all other chocolate from my diet, and asked my husband, as an independent observer, to monitor my moods.

His response is unequivocal. Three weeks into the trial, I come home to find the Wonder Bar in the bin, and four family-sized bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk on my desk.

CLAUDIA CONNELL, 40, is single and lives in South-West London.

She says:
For years, I always thought that I didn't suffer with PMT because none of the people who knew me well ever mentioned a drastic change in my personality.

As it turns out, I had the all-time worst PMT in history and no one dared say anything in case I killed them or burned down their house. The rage starts to build about five days before the big day and stays with me for the next four days.
In other words, I am a vile, spiteful, bitchy nightmare for two weeks out of four. No wonder I'm single! Like all women, I crave chocolate at certain times of the month, so the idea of a bar that satisfies my cravings while, at the same time, helps calm my psychotic tendencies is enormously appealing.

The Women's Wonder Bar was formulated by a U.S. doctor called Philip Cohen, who either wanted to do all he could to help womankind in her days of need, or had a wife that suffered the world's worst PMT and had to invent a cure or get a divorce.

As well as claiming to reduce premenstrual symptoms, the chocolate bar also says it aids sleep, promotes a glowing skin and boosts brain power. It really would be a 'wonder' bar if it did all that.

I started by eating three bars of chocolate a week before my period was due. Even though plain chocolate would never be a first choice, I had to admit the Women's Wonder Bar was incredibly tasty.

However, its sickly sweet smell reminded me of a granny's bedroom - with a hint of parma violets and rose perfume - and it is all packaged in a ridiculously girly pink wrapper, the logic clearly being: "OK, she might be a bitter, miserable hag, but she still likes pretty things."
But once you get beyond the off-putting smell and sample it, the chocolate tastes surprisingly good. As the days ticked by I built up to a greedy two-bar-a-day habit, and as the dreaded day dawned I felt so much livelier and less bloated than normal. I even escaped the skin break-out that usually makes the big occasion for me. Could the Wonder Bar really have worked?

The test came later on when someone stole my parking space in the supermarket car park - I only tooted my horn and made a rude gesture, rather than get out of my car for a screaming face-to-face confrontation, as I would otherwise have done.

Friends normally shun my company at a certain time of the month, but on this occasion I conned a girlfriend into having dinner with me and she remarked that I seemed: 'vaguely normal', which I took as a massive compliment.

I wouldn't say the Wonder Bar turned me from Cruella De Vil into Pollyanna, but it seemed to make a marked difference and I will be tucking in at the same time next month - I always knew chocolate was the answer to all my problems.
• To get the Women's Wonder Bar by Eccobella, log on to: www.healthbychocolate.com

2006-11-23T19:07:00.000-05:00

Teachers emphasize the Indians' side of Thanks Giving
By ANA BEATRIZ CHOLO
Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 21, 6:20 PM ET

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Teacher Bill Morgan walks into his third-grade class wearing a black Pilgrim hat made of construction paper and begins snatching up pencils, backpacks and glue sticks from his pupils. He tells them the items now belong to him because he "discovered" them. The reaction is exactly what Morgan expects: The kids get angry and want their things back.

Morgan is among elementary school teachers who have ditched the traditional Thanksgiving lesson, in which children dress up like Indians and Pilgrims and act out a romanticized version of their first meetings.

He has replaced it with a more realistic look at the complex relationship between Indians and white settlers.

Morgan said he still wants his pupils at Cleveland Elementary School in San Francisco to celebrate Thanksgiving. But "what I am trying to portray is a different point of view."
Others see Morgan and teachers like him as too extreme.

"I think that is very sad," said Janice Shaw Crouse, a former college dean and public high school teacher and now a spokeswoman for Concerned Women for America, a conservative organization. "He is teaching his students to hate their country. That is a very distorted view of history, a distorted view of Thanksgiving."

Even American Indians are divided on how to approach a holiday that some believe symbolizes the start of a hostile takeover of their lands.

Chuck Narcho, a member of the Maricopa and Tohono O'odham tribes who works as a substitute teacher in Los Angeles, said younger children should not be burdened with all the gory details of American history.

"If you are going to teach, you need to keep it positive," he said. "They can learn about the truths when they grow up. Caring, sharing and giving — that is what was originally intended."
Adam McMullin, a member of the Seminole tribe of Oklahoma and a spokesman for the National Congress of American Indians, said schoolchildren should get an accurate historical account.
"You can't just throw an Indian costume on a child," he said. "That stuff is not taken lightly. That's where educators need to be very careful."

Becky Wyatt, a teacher at Kettering Elementary School in Long Beach, decided to alter the costumes for the annual Thanksgiving play a few years ago after local Indians spoke out against students wearing feathers, which are sacred in their culture. Now children wear simple headbands.

"We have many mixed cultures in Long Beach, so we try to be sensitive," Wyatt said. "What you teach little children is important."

Laverne Villalobos, a member of the Omaha tribe in Nebraska who now lives in the coastal town of Pacifica near San Francisco, considers Thanksgiving a day of mourning.
She went before the school board last week and asked for a ban on Thanksgiving re-enactments and students dressing up as Indians. She also complained about November's lunch menu that pictured a caricature of an Indian boy.

The mother of four said the traditional Thanksgiving celebrations in schools instill "a false sense of what really happened before and after the feast. It wasn't all warm and fuzzy."
After she complained, it was decided that pupils at her children's school will not wear Indian costumes this year.

James Loewen, a former history professor at the University of Vermont and author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong," said that during the first Thanksgiving, the Wampanoag Indians and the pilgrims had been living in relative peace, even though the tribe suspected the settlers of robbing Indian graves to steal food buried with the dead.

"Relations were strained, but yet the holiday worked. Folks got along. After that, bad things happened," Loewen said, referring to the bloody warfare that broke out later during the 17th century.

Morgan, a teacher for more than 35 years, said that after conducting his own research, he changed his approach to teaching about Thanksgiving. He tells teachers at his school this is a good way to nurture critical thinking, but he acknowledged not all are receptive: "It's kind of an uphill struggle."

2006-11-23T15:17:00.000-05:00

No Thanks to Thanksgiving
By Robert Jensen, AlterNet.
Posted November 23, 2006.

Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers.

One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.

In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.

Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.

That the world's great powers achieved "greatness" through criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is predictable.

But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It's now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful.

One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims, whose search for freedom took them from England to Massachusetts. There, aided by the friendly Wampanoag Indians, they survived in a new and harsh environment, leading to a harvest feast in 1621 following the Pilgrims first winter.

Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it's also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders. The pattern would repeat itself across the continent until between 95 and 99 percent of American Indians had been exterminated and the rest were left to assimilate into white society or die off on reservations, out of the view of polite society.

Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.

The first president, George Washington, in 1783 said he preferred buying Indians' land rather than driving them off it because that was like driving "wild beasts" from the forest. He compared Indians to wolves, "both being beasts of prey, tho' they differ in shape."

Thomas Jefferson -- president #3 and author of the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Indians as the "merciless Indian Savages" -- was known to romanticize Indians and their culture, but that didn't stop him in 1807 from writing to his secretary of war that in a coming conflict with certain tribes, "[W]e shall destroy all of them."

As the genocide was winding down in the early 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt (president #26) defended the expansion of whites across the continent as an inevitable process "due solely to the power of the mighty civilized races which have not lost the fighting instinct, and which by their expansion are gradually bringing peace into the red wastes where the barbarian peoples of the world hold sway."

Roosevelt also once said, "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth."

How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis? Here's how "respectable" politicians, pundits, and professors play the game: When invoking a grand and glorious aspect of our past, then history is all-important. We are told how crucial it is for people to know history, and there is much hand wringing about the younger generations' lack of knowledge about, and respect for, that history.

In the United States, we hear constantly about the deep wisdom of the founding fathers, the adventurous spirit of the early explorers, the gritty determination of those who "settled" the country -- and about how crucial it is for children to learn these things.

But when one brings into historical discussions any facts and interpretations that contest the celebratory story and make people uncomfortable -- such as the genocide of indigenous people as the foundational act in the creation of the United States -- suddenly the value of history drops precipitously and one is asked, "Why do you insist on dwelling on the past?"

This is the mark of a well-disciplined intellectual class -- one that can extol the importance of knowing history for contemporary citizenship and, at the same time, argue that we shouldn't spend too much time thinking about history.

This off-and-on engagement with history isn't of mere academic interest; as the dominant imperial power of the moment, U.S. elites have a clear stake in the contemporary propaganda value of that history. Obscuring bitter truths about historical crimes helps perpetuate the fantasy of American benevolence, which makes it easier to sell contemporary imperial adventures -- such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq -- as another benevolent action.

Any attempt to complicate this story guarantees hostility from mainstream culture. After raising the barbarism of America's much-revered founding fathers in a lecture, I was once accused of trying to "humble our proud nation" and "undermine young people's faith in our country."

Yes, of course -- that is exactly what I would hope to achieve. We should practice the virtue of humility and avoid the excessive pride that can, when combined with great power, lead to great abuses of power.

History does matter, which is why people in power put so much energy into controlling it. The United States is hardly the only society that has created such mythology. While some historians in Great Britain continue to talk about the benefits that the empire brought to India, political movements in India want to make the mythology of Hindutva into historical fact.

Abuses of history go on in the former empire and the former colony. History can be one of the many ways we create and impose hierarchy, or it can be part of a process of liberation. The truth won't set us free, but the telling of truth at least opens the possibility of freedom.
As Americans sit down on Thanksgiving Day to gorge themselves on the bounty of empire, many will worry about the expansive effects of overeating on their waistlines. We would be better to think about the constricting effects of the day's mythology on our minds.

AlterNet orginally ran this article on Thanksgiving 2005

2006-11-23T13:03:00.000-05:00

The First Annual Synchronized Global Orgasm for Peace

Come on, give peace a chance! ;-)

The Global Orgasm for Peace, conceived by Donna Sheehan, 76, and Paul Reffell, 55, wants everyone in the world to have an orgasm on Dec. 22 as part of a massive anti-war demonstration for the first day of winter.

This is the First Annual Solstice Synchronized Global Orgasm for Peace, leading up to the December Solstice of 2012, when the Mayan Calendar ends with a new beginning.

The couple who believe war is an outgrowth of men trying to impress mates in a case of "my missile is bigger than your missile," said interest is strong with 26,000 hits a day to their website. http://www.globalorgasm.org/ .

The mission of the Global Orgasm is to effect change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy. Now that there are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti- submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW!

The intent is that the participants concentrate any thoughts during and after orgasm on peace. The combination of high- energy orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention may have a much greater effect than previous mass meditations and prayers.

The goal is to add so much concentrated and high-energy positive input into the energy field of the Earth that it will reduce the current dangerous levels of aggression and violence throughout the world.

Global Orgasm is an experiment open to everyone in the world.

Initiators of this event hope that the results will register on the worldwide monitor system of the Global Consciousness Project.

Donna Sheehan and Paul Reffell co-founded the anti-war organization Baring Witness www.BaringWitness.org, a worldwide collective of peace activists who are alarmed enough to spell peace publicly with their naked bodies. The Global Orgasm is a way for even more men and women to be involved in changing the way human affairs are conducted in the world.

Donna and Paul conduct Redefining Seduction http://www.RedefiningSeduction.com. At present they are co-producing the feature-length documentary film Baring Witness and a stage play.

PLEASE PARTICIPATE

WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone you know.

WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass
destruction.

WHEN? Winter Solstice Day - Friday, December 22nd, at the time of your choosing, in
the place of your choosing and with as much privacy as you choose.

WHY? To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, so the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW!

Our minds influence Matter and Energy fields, so by concentrating any thoughts during and after The Big O on peace and partnership, the combination of high orgasmic energy combined with mindful intention will reduce global levels of violence, hatred and fear.

This is something just about everyone can do and enjoy. And you can do it by yourself or with someone else. You don't even have to tell anyone you're going to do it!

The Global Consciousness Project http://noosphere.princeton.edu , Princeton University, runs a network of Random Event Generators around the world, which record changes in randomness during global events. The results show that human consciousness can be measured to have a global effect on matter and energy during widely-watched events such as 9/11 and the Indian Ocean tsunami. There have also been measurable results during mass meditations and prayers.

It's free! It's private! It’s easy! It's fun! It just might be the most important thing you could do for yourself, your family, the planet and our species.

www.GlobalOrgasm.org

2006-11-19T23:13:00.000-05:00

Mexican Embassy to face noisy Ottawa protest

Activists condemn Canada's silence on repression in Mexico

Since October 27, the people of Oaxaca Mexico have faced massive police and paramilitary repression at the hands of the government authorities legally obligated to protect them. The recent crisis follows a period of several months of a peaceful popular mobilization in sympathy with a mass teachers' strike launched in May. The teachers' campaign generated widespread support, and various sectors - students, workers, the unemployed, and indigenous communities - joined in. Since June, Oaxaca City has been controlled by the popular movement coalition that emerged, known as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). On October 27, the unpopular Governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz, moved aggressively to try to regain control of the region. Early that day, thousands of federal police invaded the community, supported by armed overhead helicopters, water-cannons, tear gas, and armoured vehicles. Within three days, APPO estimated that at least 6 people had been killed, and many others wounded, arrested, jailed, "disappeared", and tortured.

One of those killed was U.S. independent journalist Brad Will. The shooting of Will, captured on videotape, is reported to have been carried out by paramilitary forces working on behalf of the police and Governor Ulises Ruiz. The 2004 election of Ruiz is considered by many in Oaxaca as fraudulent, and his resignation has been a focal demand of the APPO movement.

A spokesperson for Oaxaca Solidarity Ottawa, Roberto Miranda, is shocked not only by the violence, but by what he calls the "apparent indifference" to the crisis from the Government of Canada.

"These criminal acts carried out against the people in Oaxaca constitute grave violations of their rights. The silence of Prime Minister Harper regarding the behaviour of his NAFTA partner throughout this crisis is simply appalling."

Miranda and his group are organizing a demonstration at the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa (World Exchange Plaza) on Monday, November 20, 2006 at 4:30 pm.

"Ambassador Garcia Segovia de Madero must convey to the Mexican government that people in Canada and around the world are watching this crisis very closely. This repression must stop immediately."

The event is part of an international day of action in support of the people of Oaxaca.

Roberto Miranda (English, Spanish, French), (613) 864-1590 (cell)Ben Powless (English), (613) 614-4219 (cell)
Links to the poster and to the flyer:
http://www.thesocialistring.com/graphics/oaxaca.pdf
http://www.thesocialistring.com/graphics/oaxaca-fr.pdf

2006-11-18T22:25:00.000-05:00

Mexico: What is happening in Oaxaca?

Roberto Miranda forwards some e-mails on Mexican issues once on a while. Today I was reading one of his messages. There I found an e-mail written by a Vancouver activist who is inOaxaca now.

She wrote:
It was a quiet morning, after an anxious night. Rumors at around 11 pm of the police circling, another call around nine in the morning that six trucks of the dangerous federal police (PFP) had left their occupation in the city centre and were headed on the highway in our direction. There is a sense that it is only a matter of time, but in the meantime, everything is rather ordinary. We cook and clean, and scrub out our socks and undies and hang them up to dry. We run out of cooking gas, and the women from Cotzocon don't blink but haul in some brush from the yard and start a fire and the beans and coffee cookover a roaring flame, and are they ever good. The garden has been totally abandoned since June, so Pedro, Chayo, and I start to pull down dry corn stalks, and we are going to fix the garden up. It is a sign of life. There have been 500 years of Indigenous resistence in Oaxaca, and sometimes just surviving is an act of resistance, an act of foolish faith, in the face of overwhelming violence. Fixing up the garden might be just as important as reconstructing the Calicanto barricade.

I am extremely frustrated with the church presence in this time of grief and hope. The Roman Catholic church has tried to be "neutral", to be a force for reconciliation, which is all good and well, but there are times of trial when reconciliation is not what is required.

The church in Nazi Germany had to hang its head in shame later when its bland stand for neutrality was exposed. The church in Oaxaca which has huge power and influence has not made an obvious stand in favour of the marginalized, although there are a few dedicated priests.

Chayo and I go to visit Sara Mendez, the Coordinatorof the Network of Oaxacan Human Rights Groups. She is in her office her head in her hands crying. Another woman smooths her back, comforts her. But it's a scene that brings us all to a quiet throat-burning place.

It has been a long, terrible five months. Another young man has been killed, Daniel Gomez Lopez, aged 26. His body had been recovered by his family, who then turned it over to a supposed PRI official (or policeman, the situation was still unfolding, and was not completely clear). Now no one knows where the body is. It has disappeared completely, and his family are undone.They are ordinary, poor people, they don't know what's going on, says Sara.

Things are grave, we are entering into a dirty war, she says, there is much fear, there is a clear strategy of terror.

Good night to all my beloved, pray for me and for theIndigenous people of Oaxaca, who just want to beallowed to be, emilie"

Then I read this following AP story:

Oaxaca Governor Refuses to Step Down
Friday November 17, 2006 9:31 AM
By IOAN GRILLO
Associated Press Writer

OAXACA, Mexico (AP) - His name is scrawled on buildings and streets next to the word ``murderer.'' Protesters accusing him of corruption seized the state capital for five months, and thousands of federal troops have failed to resolve the standoff. Even his own party's lawmakers want him gone.

But Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz says he'll serve out his term, which ends in 2010. The slim, mustachioed politician from the once all-powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party is an unfortunate symbol of Mexico's democratic growing pains, a throwback to old-style politics in a nation that has moved on.

He has largely ignored demonstrations that have left nine people dead, calling on the federal government to restore order while he spends four days a week zipping about in a helicopter over the rugged mountains of southern Mexico, visiting 400 villages in 18 months.
Ruiz, a native of Chalcatongo village in the heart of Mixtec Indian country, defended his administration in an interview with The Associated Press.

``I have the backing of the Oaxacan people. I have their affection,'' he said.

Oaxaca, Mexico's poorest state, has been ruled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party since the party's founding in 1929. The democratic changes that have swept much of Mexico since Vicente Fox's 2000 victory ended the party's 71-year grip on the presidency have passed Oaxaca by. Poverty is profound, and many of the state's 3.5 million people lack electricity or nearby roads.

In many ways, Ruiz is no different from any past Oaxaca governor. He just happened to be in office when voters decided they were fed up.

``Oaxaca was a time bomb waiting to go off,'' said protest leader Flavio Sosa. ``Ruiz was just the detonator.''

Violence in the picturesque state capital has gotten so bad that the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday it was extending a warning advising against travel to the once-popular tourist destination, where protesters have crippled the economy by building barricades and torching buses.

On Thursday, Oaxacan teachers officially returned to schoolhouses after a six-month strike against Ruiz. But only a handful of the state's 13,000 schools opened with many teachers in the capital city staying away, saying they feared assaults from pro-government thugs.

The protesters accuse the governor of rigging the 2004 election by buying votes and intimidating opponents with gun-toting thugs who have been captured on videotape firing at protesters. Ruiz denies the charges, and his attorney general, Lizbeth Cana, publicly blames ``urban guerrillas.''

During the campaign, alleged ruling party militants were photographed beating to death two supporters of Ruiz's leftist rival. The state's judicial system - which answers to Ruiz - hasn't produced any arrests or major leads.

The protest movement's members - who include trade unionists, leftists, Indian groups and students - say the problem goes deeper than electoral fraud and political violence. Ruiz, they argue, is the latest in a long line of corrupt Mexican politicians who have looked after the rich and ground down the poor.

Ruiz dedicated much of his first year in office to promoting Institutional Revolutionary Party presidential candidate Roberto Madrazo, who finished third with a mere 22 percent of the vote in July. The party has struggled to survive since, and Ruiz has been left without its usual support.

Since protesters took over Oaxaca City in June, Ruiz has been unable to get to his office most of the time - let alone walk the streets of the historic center.

Even the arrival last month of 4,000 federal police has not guaranteed him safe passage, and on Wednesday he gave his annual government report in a taped video message rather than risk a trip to the state legislature.

Last week, when Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal demanded Ruiz pacify the state or resign, the governor shot back that Abascal should solve his own problems or resign himself.

Ironically, Mexico's democratic changes may be the only thing saving Ruiz's job. In decades past, presidents often removed controversial governors; Carlos Salinas de Gortari got rid of 16 of Mexico's 31 governors during his 1988-94 term, some of whom faced protests far less severe than those in Oaxaca.

Fox, in contrast, has been reluctant to get involved, arguing that only voters can remove elected officials from office.

``The president does not install or get rid of governors. That era has gone, and is gone forever,'' said spokesman Ruben Aguilar.

Many analysts predict Ruiz will eventually fall. The federal Senate has the power to remove governors if it determines they have lost control of their state. Last month, it threw out one bill to get rid of Ruiz, but another has been presented.

``Four more years of this conflict would be disastrous,'' said political analyst Jose Antonio Crespo. ``The pressure will have to break this governor in the end.''

2006-11-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

Palestinian Women Pay Health Toll at Checkpoints

By Brenda Gazzar, Women's eNews
Posted on November 16, 2006, Printed on November 16, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/44302/

SHEIKH SA'AD, West Bank -- At the entrance of this small village near Jerusalem, Palestinian grandmother Khadijeh Musa Alaan was told at an Israeli checkpoint that she could not leave to visit her daughter in a nearby village.
Two Israeli volunteers, Laura Sznajder and Tamar Bilu, politely tried to persuade an Israeli army official to let the 59-year-old woman pass on that hot August afternoon.
He refused. Alaan, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, did not have a temporary permit from the district commander's office, he said..

She was also turned back at the checkpoint in July while trying to visit a doctor for treatment of her diabetes, she says.

Alaan is just one of many women whose health and safety have been placed in jeopardy as a result of Israel's nearly 40-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and increasingly restrictive security measures.

"Health is one of the most basic needs of a human being," says Sznajder, who as part of the Israeli women's organization Machsom Watch monitors military checkpoints in the West Bank for potential human rights abuses and violations. (Machsom means "checkpoint" in Hebrew.)

"The minute that you hurt mobility, you hurt health. They go together."

Palestinian women have for decades faced a multitude of health risks shared by the overall population, including restricted access for patients and medical professionals due to the occupation, the deteriorating economic situation, traditional cultural beliefs, and lack of adequate services and facilities. Since the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in September 2000, those hardships have been aggravated.

Between Sept. 28, 2000, and Aug. 20, 2006, for instance, 10 percent of women in the West Bank and Gaza who needed to give birth in medical centers or hospitals were delayed by Israeli forces from two to four hours, according to the Palestinian Health Information Center, an agency of the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Sixty-eight women gave birth at checkpoints during this period, considered a factor in the deaths of 34 newborns and four mothers. 'Constantly Anxious' Pregnancies
"Palestinian women live in frustration of not being assured that they can reach a maternity facility on time," said Rita Giacaman, professor of public health at the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University in the West Bank. "That means they are constantly anxious during their pregnancy."

An already weak economy has been worsened by sanctions by the United States, Israel and the European Union that followed the election of the militant Hamas government earlier this year. In the Gaza Strip, recent Israeli military actions and a tight siege on goods have resulted in shortages of food, water and medicine that increase the prospects of malnutrition and disease for the more than 1.4 million Palestinians who live there.

About 65 percent of the population in the Palestinian territories lives under the poverty line and about 30 percent of the population is unemployed, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, 18 civilians in Gaza were killed in a shelling that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said was caused by "technical failure." In response, Hamas threatened to resume suicide bombings for the first time since striking a partial cease-fire with Israel in 2005.

Military checkpoints and the new dividing wall known as the "Security Fence," located partly within the West Bank and partly along the border between the West Bank and Israel proper, are meant to deter such attacks, but pose travel problems for Palestinians.

"Militarily, it works," said Capt. Noa Meir, spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces, who spoke with Women's eNews before the most recent shelling in Gaza. "The number of suicide attacks has gone down.. To a large part it's due to the security fence and checkpoints. And the fact that terrorists have been stopped at checkpoints shows that they try to get through them."
Humanitarian Groups Step In

On a humanitarian level, however, several Palestinian and Israeli organizations consider the defensive barriers a humanitarian problem to be alleviated.

In 2004 the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, the largest Palestinian nongovernmental health organization with at least 350 employees that works throughout the West Bank and Gaza, established the Mythaloon Maternity Home near Jenin in the Northern West Bank. The facility is intended to reduce the number of women who deliver babies at checkpoints or on roads and to provide services to expectant mothers, such as birthing counseling, home visits and health instruction for the mother and her family.

The relief society is trying to raise enough funds to open two more maternity homes in the West Bank areas of Ramallah and Hebron. About 60 to 70 deliveries take place at the Mythaloon clinic each month and the need for similar facilities, particularly for communities separated from health services by the security barrier, is great, says Dr. Khadijeh Jarrar, women's health program director.

The Palestinian Medical Relief Society also offers affordable clinical services for women in 26 primary health care clinics throughout the West Bank and Gaza, including breast exams, pap smears and family planning services.
Since 1984, the organization has trained close to 300 women -- mainly in villages -- to serve as community health workers. The women go through a two-year program of nursing and public health.

Another organization is the Tel Aviv-based Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. Founded by Israeli and Palestinian doctors, it advocates on behalf of patients and medical personnel in the West Bank and Gaza who are refused passage into Israel on security grounds.

The organization succeeds in attaining permits for Palestinians in about 98 percent of the cases it advocates for, said Maskit Bendel, director of the Occupied Territories Project for the group in Tel Aviv, which submits about 1,000 appeals for patients denied entry each year..
Palestinians "don't know they can appeal. Nobody tells them," Bendel said.
Waging a Court Campaign

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is also waging a campaign in the Israel Supreme Court to allow Palestinian ambulances from the West Bank to enter Jerusalem, something that has been forbidden since 2002.

Today, Palestinians in the West Bank who need emergency care in Jerusalem must take a Palestinian ambulance to a checkpoint, then be transferred by stretcher to an Israeli ambulance and pay for the expense themselves, Bendel said.

Machsom Watch, which has approximately 400 members and opposes both the Israeli occupation and West Bank military checkpoints, has Israeli women monitoring checkpoints, documenting any violations and intervening to prevent violations, whether it is unwarranted detentions, the prevention of passage of citizens or violence. In extreme incidents, the organization files complaints to the Army.

Many Palestinians haven't been able to leave their towns or villages for years and permits are often given arbitrarily, says Adi Dagan, spokesperson for Machsom Watch.

The organization's goal is to inform the Israeli public and the world "and tell them the story of what is going on there so eventually one day, this will stop," Dagan said. "We don't believe in a nice occupation or an enlightened occupation."

Jarrar of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society agreed, saying that her women's program is merely trying to help Palestinian women survive a crisis.

"We are trying our best to help our women bear their life, not to live a quality life," said Jarrar from her office in Ramallah. "It is impossible. There is no quality in occupation."
Brenda Gazzar is a freelance journalist based in Jerusalem.

2006-11-12T13:53:00.000-05:00

Dubai Swats Pests Ogling Beach Beauties

Tamara Abdul Hadi for The New York Times

The police have arrested more than 500 men suspected of leering at women or photographing them on Dubai public beaches like Jumeirah.

By HASSAN M. FATTAH
Published: November 12, 2006

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 11 — Temperatures have dropped from blazing hot to balmy, the turquoise waters now have a refreshing chill and the sand is just about bearable to walk on.

As winter arrives in this Persian Gulf city, the masses are thronging by the tens of thousands to its white sandy beaches, wearing, in an unlikely exercise in maritime coexistence, everything from black flowing abayas to slinky bikinis.

Thronging right alongside them are Dubai’s “beach pests,” the gangs of men who trudge through the sand, fully dressed, to ogle the women.

Mostly laborers at the front lines of Dubai’s building boom — toiling on manmade islands, innumerable high-rises, even a dome in the desert for the world’s largest indoor snow park — they flood the beaches every weekend to leer at women, photograph them and occasionally try to grope them in the water.

“They pretend to take pictures of their friends, but they are really taking pictures of you,” said Anika Graichen, 23, a German hotel receptionist who has lived here for three years. She lay on the beach last week trying to ignore various groups of men who passed by with their eyes locked on her.

She is almost used to them now, she said. “I think I can understand it,” she said. “It’s the only place they can have a look at women.”

Indeed, for the estimated 500,000 foreign workers here, most from the Indian subcontinent, the chance to spot a woman in a bikini may be hard to pass up.

They typically live in a Dickensian world of squalor, working 12-hour shifts six days a week, often denied their wages of about $150 per month for months at a time. Most of them secure work by taking out loans from recruiting agencies at home to get here, forcing most to stay on for years without seeing their families and loved ones. The workmen have become prevalent in Dubai’s public parks and beaches as their numbers have swelled, and because of the lechery-on-the-beach factor, they are especially noticeable at this time of year.

They tend to beachcomb in groups, their camera-equipped cellphones always at the ready. Many do not know how to swim; some enter the water wearing their traditional robes, made of thin white cloth that becomes transparent when wet — and reveals far more of their anatomy than most beachgoers want to see. Incidents of physical harm to women are rare, though the police have arrested flashers and men committing lewd acts in public.

On Friday, Saifi, a metalworker who would give only his first name, walked along a beach with four friends, pausing from time to time to look around and chat. All in their mid-20s, the men were dressed in jeans and slacks. Saifi’s bright orange shirt made him impossible to miss.
“I come here almost every weekend,” he said. “This beach has no problems, but the others have become more problematic for men.”

He meant the police. He said that he was stopped at another beach two weeks earlier.
“The police said to me, ‘Why are you here, why aren’t you wearing a bathing suit?’ ” he said. “Then they told me to leave.” With a giggle, he admitted that the cause for his eviction was that he had been staring at women.

“Every man looks at a woman in a bathing suit when he sees her,” he said. “What can I do? I’m a normal man.” At a ladies-only day at a local beach earlier in the week, Nisrine Ben-Stitou, 28, a Moroccan citizen who moved here and works in a clothing store, said the harassment was such that she no longer went to the park or the beach on the weekend.

“Some people take pictures, which makes me crazy, or they stay and they watch you,” Ms. Ben-Stitou said. “I went one time, and I said I will never go back. I feel so free in this country and I feel safe, but what happens on the beach — I don’t know why the authorities don’t do something about it.”

Dubai officials, keen to attract tourists to the beaches, say they are trying. They have vowed to crack down with a security plan that includes plainclothes officers and a “three-strikes policy” aimed at keeping out the worst of the offenders.

“The goal is to get people to use the beaches for what they’re meant to be used for,” said Brig. Khamis al-Mazeina, director of Dubai’s Criminal Investigation Department, which polices the harbors and beaches. “There are naturally people who create problems and who are ignorant, but we intend to deal with them.”

Mr. Mazeina said his department had built new watchtowers to scan the beaches and added 35 undercover policemen to patrol as beach bums, looking for the first signs of trouble. Though many workmen fear being barred outright, Mr. Mazeina insists he intends to protect their rights, too, by ensuring that they are treated with courtesy and respect.

“When they see people hanging around for no reason other than to harass women or to try to speak with them, police are authorized to take action,” he said. “We want people to feel secure on our beaches, and we can easily spot people who are not there for the beach. We’ll be watching and if we see anything we will be getting involved.”

On a recent day, plainclothes officers stood atop a watchtower as several officers approached a man who had been photographing a group of women. The man and several of his friends were quickly brought up to the air-conditioned watchtower.

“If we see someone taking pictures like that, we are going to demand to see the photos,” said one officer, who identified himself only as Abdullah because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. He took the man’s camera phone and began flipping through the photos. “We would then delete the suspect photos and give him a warning.”

If the men are spotted taking photos again, Abdullah said, the police will make a formal notice; on a third episode, they will be barred from the beach.

The police say they have arrested more than 500 people under the new policy, the vast majority of them on immigration violations, and several more for outstanding warrants. But 15 were detained, according to police department records, for “a breakdown in public behavior.”
“You try to scare them a bit just to get them to stop,” Abdullah said. “Ask him, ‘What are you going to do with this picture? Would you like it if someone was photographing your sister?’ That’s usually enough to get the point across.”

2006-11-08T01:01:00.000-05:00

Shame on Them
Corrupt millionaire ministers in Bangladesh

Added: (Sat Apr 15 2006)

Corruption is the number one problem for Bangladesh . Transparency International in its annual report placed Bangladesh at the top of the list of most corrupt nations in the world. Certainly, it makes the politicians in Bangladesh , especially those in power, extremely uncomfortable and worried. Although the immediate past ruling alliance in the country were making frantic bids in cleansing the image of Bangladesh, it was well understood that, international community were not convinced that, Begum Khaleda Zia’s government was doing anything in eliminating corruption from different sections in the country.

An intelligence agency of Bangladesg identified 11 mid ranking officials with National Board of Revenue, who own 15 luxurious villas in countries port city of Chittagong , which costs US$ 2.5 million. It is important to mention here that, monthly salary of these officials are less than US$ 400 per month! Police and Customs (revenue) are the most corrupt departments in Bangladesh . Almost all the officers, on their retirement, emerge as multi-millionaire. They acquire wealth and properties in their own name or in the names of their spouses.

The immediate past Government also knew these facts, but was unable to take any action. Names of some of the members of the BNP-Jamat cabinet in Bangladesh came out as the worst corrupts. They minted money like wild gambling. Sixty members of the past parliament rose complaint against a particular minister, while the Prime Minister did not take any action against him. Many of the family members of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia became fabulously rich, by using state power.

The most talked about corrupt figure in Bangladesh is Tareq Rahman, eldest son of Khaleda Zia and Ziaur Rahman. Tareq became billionaire just in few years, while many of his friends, also became very rich under the direct patronization of the son of the PM.

Tareq has established Hawa Bhaban, which is considered as one of the offices of BNP. There are solid evidences of this office’s involvement in interfering in almost all the business contracts in the country during the BNP-Jamat rule. Hawa Bhaban palls are considered as the most influential figures in Bangladesh . One of the Hawa Bhaban palls is Giasuddin Mamun, who is known as Tareq’s closest friend. Hailing from an extreme poor family in the southern part of Bangladesh , Mamun is today one of the richest men in Bangladesh through various corruption, smuggling and many other forms of illegal activities.

Surprisingly one of the assistant press secretaries of Khaleda Zia, when she was the PM, Touhidul Islam alias Ashik Islam was simultaneously working in the PMO as well as in Hawa Bhaban as its spokesman. Moreover, this man is also involved with Tareq’s private television channel, Channel One. There are numerous allegations on Ashik’s involvement in a number of financial irregularities as well of misappropriating state money with various excuses. Government did not take any action against this man, as he is considered to be one of the closest aides of Tareq Rahman.

Khaleda Zia was notified several times about this man’s illegal activities by country’s intelligence agencies. But, she could not take any action against Ashik, as Tareq always stood behind him with fullest support. Khaleda’a own brother, Sayeed Iskander, who is a sacked major of Bangladesh army, also turned into multi-millionaire by using the influence of his sister. Sayeed runs a company named Dandy Dying, which is appears to be a camouflage of his other activities. Behind the mask of Dandy Dying, Sayeed is involved in minting fabulous amount of cash through kick backs and other means. He was virtually the unseen defense advisor to the then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. No posting or promotion in the army was possible without his blessings or recommendations. Sayeed Iskander placed a number of his course-mates and even some of his close relatives in the sensitive and important positions in Bangladesh Army.

Khaleda’s late husband President Ziaur Rahman sacked Sayeed Iskander from Bangladesh Army for his alleged involvement in a number of corruption charges.

Names of most corrupt ministers of the immediate past cabinet are already coming into circulation, with figures of cash they minted during the five-year term of the BNP government since 2001. The corrupt ministers are:

Barrister Nazmul Huda, amount earned – US$ 0.5 billion
Mirza Abbas, amount earned – US$ 43 million
Begum Khurshid Jahan Haque (sister of khaleda Zia), amount earned – US$ 40 million
Tariqul Islam, amount earned – US$ 38 million
Abdul Mannan Buiyan, amount earned – US$ 35 million
Salahuddin Ahmed, amount earned – US$ 32 million
Barrister Aminul Huq, amount earned – US$ 31 million
Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, amount earned – US$ 30 million
Altaf Hussain Chowdhury, amount earned – US$ 28 million
Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku, amount earned – US$ 26 million
Dr. Khandekar Musharraf Hussain, amount earned – US$ 25 million
Barkatulla Bulu, amount earned – US$ 24 million
Abdullah Al Noman, amount earned – US$ 23 million
Lt. Col Akber Hussain, amount earned – US$ 22 million
Major (Retired) Qamrul Islam, amount earned – US$ 21 million
Shajahan Siraj, amount earned – US$ 20 million
Advocate Gautam Chakracarty, amount earned – US$ 17 million
Amanullah Aman, amount earned – US$ 15 million
Ziaul Haque Zia, amount earned – US$ 14 million
Jafrul Islam Chowdhury, amount earned – US$ 13 million
ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon, amount earned – US$ 11 million
Asadul Habib Dulu, amount earned – US$ 10 million
Fazlur Rahman Patal, amount earned – US$ 9 million
Advocate Ruhul Quddus Talikder Dulu, amount earned – US$ 8 million
Lutfur Rahman Khan Azad, amount earned – US$ 6 million

Ex-Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman though considered to be a clean man, his sons were engaged in minting money by using the influence of their father. His sons are involved in several businesses like multi-level marketing (a company, which just disappeared after taking a few million dollars from the innocent people), customs clearing and forwarding business (this company is handling most of the big businesses in the country, just because, the then finance minister’s sons are partners in the business), readymade garments (smuggling of narcotics are done under the cover of this business) etc.

Are these realy true?

2006-11-06T22:57:00.000-05:00

Pakistan's ground-breaking transvestite
By Syed Shoaib Hasan BBC News, Karachi

"Darling, you are sooo naughty," purrs an elegant sari-clad woman glowing out of primetime television.

Going by the name of Begum (Lady) Nawazish Ali, she hosts an eponymous talk show that has taken Pakistan by storm.
Flirting and skirting her way through politics, society gossip and plain old sexual chemistry, Begum has become the most popular icon to inundate Pakistani fantasy in a while.

How is this possible in Pakistan where what is acceptable behaviour from female actors is still largely determined conservative Islamic values?

The answer lies in the identity of the Begum - who is a woman in every sense except the biological one.

"I am God's child," says a smiling Begum Nawazish Ali, or Ali Saleem to give him his birth name, talking to the BBC in his "normal guise".

Clad in jeans and T-shirt, 27-year-old Ali talked passionately about his life and work.
"As long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a woman," he declares.

Twirling his shoulder length curly brown hair, Ali looks wistfully in the distance as he recounts how it was growing up in Pakistan for someone so unconventional.

"My father was in the army and we used to move around quite a bit," he says.

With his parents, he accepts there were problems, leading to his examination by a psychologist when he was 14-years-old. The psychologist, however, allayed all fears, and "from that time on my parents were totally behind me".

That Ali was different from other boys was quite evident from his interests. "I loved playing with dolls and dressing up with my female cousins to whom I have always been very close," he recounts.

In those days of innocence, he would often dream of becoming a woman. "I wanted to be Sri Devi, Nazia Hasan, Benazir Bhutto... all the beautiful and powerful women in my world," explains Ali.

Gifted with a great voice and a natural sense of the theatrical, he delighted in displaying his talents. That was in the early 1990s in Islamabad. Soon after, in 1995, Ali shifted with his family to Karachi.

This was "the worst period in my life", he confesses, with his parents going through a divorce.
It was during these depressing days that Ali met "Yasmin, who made everything possible".

Yasmin Ismail was one of Pakistani television's finest actresses, who died of cancer last year.
"She was the best thing that ever happened to me," says the screen star.

Ali explains how Ismail introduced him to theatre, groomed his natural histrionics and generally played the part of his mentor.

"She was my mother, father and best friend," says Ali wistfully, adding "I give her 100% credit for any success I have achieved."

Ismail was involved in a popular theatre group called Gripps, and that was where Ali started out.

"My first performance was in a play called 'Art ya Atta' (Art or Bread) in May 1998," Ali says. He did an impersonation of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in the play.

"When I spoke, there was pin drop silence and then the house came down," he exclaims.
The applause was thunderous and the show did record business.

The next six years were those of learning and growth. During these times, Ali expanded his repertoire with considerable success.

In March 2004, the idea for transvestite chat show hostess Begum Nawazish Ali first came up during a discussion with friends Nadeem Baig and Omar Adil, a national TV host, in Lahore.

"Omar said that he saw me as much more than the typical characters I was doing and we came up with the idea of this middle aged divorced socialite who knows everybody," gushes out Ali.

Initially, Ali promoted it with GEO, one of the largest TV channels. That deal failed to materialize and rival channel Aaj took up the challenge, quickly putting out a pilot.

"Nadeem was Director entertainment and he told me to bring it over," Ali explains. Aaj moved quickly, and a pilot was soon out.

"It was like nothing anybody had seen," says Azfar Ali, a local television producer. "The most amazing thing was the fact that he was able to deliver it all in a way that the masses could relate to it."

No sooner had the first programme finished than the show was the talk of the town. From politicians to movie stars to sportsmen, all have had their turn on the show. So popular has the show become that a sitting federal minister specially requested to be invited. That may have been unnecessary, as Ali smiles and declares saucily, "I never refuse anyone anything".

The show is not without critics, who accuse it of trivialising politics in a country that has had more than its fill of dictators. Ali denies this, saying "our politicians have been destroyed under a well thought campaign", adding "I want them to be popular again". Furthermore, he says that the military - such a powerful influence in Pakistan - have been deliberately kept out of the show.

"I believe that democracy is the only option for us, and this is my contribution to the cause," Ali says determinedly. He also wants to show what kind of country Pakistan really is, in contrast to the 'Terrorism Central' nation that it is often portrayed as.
"And I will do it," Begum exclaims and, smiling seductively, adds "after all who can resist me?"

2006-11-06T09:29:00.000-05:00

Nepal rebels lock weapons under UN
November 5, 2006

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) -- The leader of Nepal's communist rebels said they have made significant progress in peace talks with the government and have informally agreed to lock up weapons under United Nations supervision.

Rebel leader Prachanda told reporters Sunday that an informal agreement has been reached with the government on arms management.

"We are going to hold peace talks in the next couple of days and make the announcement," Prachanda said.

He said both sides have agreed in principle that weapons held by the rebels and government soldiers would be locked up separately and left under U.N. supervision.

The issue of weapons held by the guerrillas has been the biggest hurdle in the peace process, which is aimed at ending a decade-old insurgency.

The government has been insisting that the guerrillas give up their weapons before joining an interim government, but the rebels have refused to part with their guns.

The two sides declared a cease-fire and began peace negotiations in April after weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations forced King Gyanendra to give up his authoritarian rule.

Talks faltered in June, mostly over the rebels' refusal to disarm.

Prachanda and his deputy, Baburam Bhattarai, returned to Kathmandu on Sunday and later held talks with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. They were joined by U.N. representative Ian Martin.

They declined to talk to reporters afterward.

2006-11-03T11:58:00.000-05:00

Kalimpong Controversy and Kiran Desai’s Prize-winning Novel

CBC in Canada reported today that the residents of the Himalayan town featured in Kiran Desai’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Inheritance of Loss are upset over her portrayal of them.

Desai, 35, is the youngest woman to capture the prestigious book award, a trophy that has eluded her mother, writer Anita Desai.

The jury saidThe Inheritance of Loss was selected because of its "humane breadth and wisdom, comic tenderness and powerful political acuteness."
Desai's aunt recently told a magazine in India that she has not told people in the town of Kalimpong about her niece because "the book contains many insensitive things."

The majority of the town’s 60,000 inhabitants are of Nepalese descent and some have complained the book unfairly portrays them as petty criminals and stupid.
The Inheritance of Loss unfolds in the 1980s and focuses on an affair between a young girl and her math tutor, an Indo-Nepali man who comes from a poor family. Many ethnic Nepalese rebelled during the 1980s, protesting their poor treatment by Indians.

"The book is just an outsider’s view of Kalimpong," Bharat Mani Pradhan, a social worker in the town, told The Guardian newspaper.

Critics say Desai has super-imposed her feelings about the Nepalese onto the novel, a thinly disguised autobiography.
Desai has admitted the book is close to her family’s history and just like the main character, she attended a convent school in the town and lived in her aunt’s house.

Anmole Prasad, another resident, calls it a "one-sided account" which imparts Desai's own "estrangement from this dark, ominous place where Nepalese are just transient interlopers."

Some internet forums in India have been alive with debate about the novel, with people threatening to hold public book burnings of Desai’s novel.

"We see the book as pure fiction and these views are not an issue for us or Ms. Desai," said Hemali Sodhi, Penguin books’ head of marketing for India.

Desai is planning to visit the area, according to Sodhi, and does not fear any possible reprisals.

2006-11-02T00:18:00.000-05:00

Female academic claims Muslim veils originally worn by prostitutes

A 92-year-old historian has been acquitted of insulting Muslim women in a book linking the origins of the headscarf to prostitutes 5,000 years ago.

An Istanbul court judge said Muazzez Ilmiye Cig's writings had not insulted religious honour nor incited hatred and enmity as charged by the prosecution in the overwhelmingly Muslim but secular European Union candidate country.

Dozens of intellectuals, notably Nobel literature prize winner Orhan Pamuk, have been prosecuted over the past year for insulting concepts held dear by Turks, such as Turkish identity or the founder of the republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

"I am a person of the Ataturk revolution and as a Turkish woman I try to bring people together, I'm not someone who is trying to incite hatred," Cig, flanked by 15 lawyers who came to support the Sumerian historian, told the court.

Cig, who has translated 3,000 stone tablets and published her findings last year, had faced up to three years in jail if convicted of all charges. She was applauded by supporters as she left the court house.

Lawyer Yusuf Akin brought the case against Cig saying her conclusions about the headscarf insulted Muslim women.
In its annual progress report on Turkey due to be published on Nov. 8, the European Commission is expected to sharply criticise Turkish prosecutions of intellectuals and journalists for expressing peaceful opinions.

Brussels is particularly critical of article 301 of the penal code, which makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity. Cig was charged under a separate article in the law.

Turkey's centre-right government has resisted EU pressure to modify articles criticised as curbing freedom of expression, saying more time is needed to build up a body of case law. Most cases involving freedom of expression are dropped, it says.

The Sumerians were among the first settled societies considered a civilisation, ruling southern Mesopotamia, in what is now Iraq, from 3000 to 2000 BC.

In her book 'My Reactions as a Citizen' Cig said headscarves were worn by women who worked as prostitutes in temples during the Sumerian period to differentiate them from women who worked primarily as priests. Females often presided over the temples in the polytheistic society, Cig said.

Turkey's ruling AK Party, which has roots in political Islam but has since coming to power distanced itself from those beliefs, wants to relax rules on wearing the Islamic-style headscarf at universities and public offices in Turkey.
Pro-secularists, including the powerful armed forces and parts of the judiciary, fear easing such restrictions will undermine the ideas of Ataturk.

2006-10-23T13:31:00.000-04:00

Nepal
King turns lucky again

From Kantipur online October 22, 2006

By Aditya Man Shrestha

A year ago in 2005, King Gyanendra had a choice "either to make his country as lucky as he is or the unlucky country will eventually make the king equally unlucky" (Lucky king in unlucky kingdom, TKP 27 Oct. 2005). Obviously he neither had the grace nor the guts to turn his country lucky. Come April 2006, the unlucky country turned their king most unlucky with the confiscation of all his state power, but not yet his property. But is he really so unlucky with the generous political leaders patronizing him? No, he is not. He is slowly picking up to turn again lucky.

At the height of public uproar against the king, he was sure to lose his power and he did it. But the stage was well set to get rid of monarchy for good to secure loktantra, a purified form of democracy, on a solid foundation. The institution of monarchy was accused of being historically, since 1950, a setback, a threat and a curse for democracy. But down the six-month period, it is made out to be not all that bad, let alone getting it abolished. Luck is again smiling over the king.
The greatest savior of the king is none other than his greatest enemy, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. But for him, the kingship will be out any time now. However, it won't because Koirala is out to save it. He is the strongest bet and safeguard against republicanism and not the Nepal Army as some critics make it out.

People trusted Koirala twice before by offering him a clear majority in the parliament but both the times he let them down once by dismissing it himself and another time helping his colleague to do so. Despite it, people followed him in the street under showering lathis, tear gas and bullets to put the royal rule to an end. But when they really expected him to secure the promised loktantra by getting rid of kingship, he again let them down.

By doing so, Koirala has definitely helped revive the smile in the king's face. As for himself, he must be dreaming to go down in history as the most kind-hearted, compassionate and forgiving person comparable to none other than his compatriot Gautam Buddha. Otherwise, there is no reasonable reason for Koirala to plead, under his grand design, for a ceremonial monarchy and allocation of an honorable space for the king.

In this rescue mission, he is ready to crush the republican voice within his own party, part company with other partner parties and send the people of Nepal to hell, if need be. He is undoubtedly a brave man who had proven his skill in hijacking and police-post assaults during his days of a revolutionary. The only tragedy is that he is demonstrating at the fag end of his life the same valor to prove himself an invincible reactionary.

Are others lying far behind in getting the king's luck resuscitated? Not really. Madhav Kumar Nepal, CPM (UML) boss is pushing his agenda of a referendum on the fate of monarchy overtly, of course, on a democratic platform. But this is a camouflage to retain monarchy in some emaciated form. He is right that the people should be free to decide the future of monarchy.

What did the people mean when they came out at his call from top of his house during his confinement to join the Jana Aandolan to throw the king out? In fact, his voice became their voice. Again he wants to ask them what their wish is. How many times you need to ask the people what they want of their king? Did not they say enough during the 19-day uprising what they really wanted of the king and the kingship? He can, of course, excuse himself of not hearing everything the people said as he was incarcerated in Kakani. If that is so, he should make his point clear.

Look at the happiest man to see monarchy gone. Sher Bahadur Deuba is committed to republicanism as per his Nepali Congress (Democratic) declaration. He said he was cheated and betrayed by the king several times. He too is wavering in his public pledges and subscribing to the referendum agenda for deciding the fate of monarchy. What makes him compromise his happiness and show his softness towards the king is something mysterious and incomprehensible. Does he want to be dealt with as before? Nevertheless he provides good potential to revive the royal luck to a good shape. With generous people like him, the king does not have to fear of any damage to his throne.

Of all the people, even the staunchest republican, Prachanda looks tuned to countenance monarchy in its feeble form, if it is not possible to abolish it altogether. Is that not the basic understanding of the one-on-one tête-à-tête between him and Prime Minister Koirala several times during the peace talks? What better should the king expect other than this apparent rapport between his political adversaries turning slowly soft, tolerant and compromising? It is nothing less than luck that is favoring the king for his survival reminiscent of his equally inexplicable absence and survival from the dreadful night at the palace in 2001. We must continue to believe with renewed reinforcement that our cultural cultivation of generosity and pardoning has an indelible impact on our political behavior. Is there a better explanation for the revival of the royal luck other than this?

Even our great foreign friends, once angry at our king for his arrogance of power, are reconciled to him forgetting the past and looking to the future to see him turn a good person. We know what they mean when they say it is the people of Nepal who should decide the future of monarchy. The unspoken words are that the people should better retain it in a powerless ceremonial form. They, in other words, mean they have excused our king for being nasty to them during the royal regime and are ready to accept and respect him.

As a Hindi saying goes, if life remains, many good things would follow including power and pelf. With generous enemies like our leaders and his excellencies around, the king does not need any friends to turn his bad luck in good luck. But till kingship remains, the people of Nepal are bound to remain unlucky.

2006-08-09T01:44:00.000-04:00

Young people in the Middle East pay the price of war
8 August 2006
From UNICEF e-news

Omer, 15, lives in Haifa, northern Israel. “After the siren we have about a minute to get into shelters,” she says. “It’s kind of scary.”

Chloe, 19, lives in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. “It’s really changed here,” she says. “You see the fear in people’s eyes. Shops are closed, the streets are empty.”

Julie, 16, lives in Gaza, in the occupied Palestinian territory. “We always hear the planes shelling and throwing rockets,” she says. “We hear the fighting all the time.”

In recent conversations with UNICEF Radio, these three young people – and others from their respective communities – painted a picture of constant trauma caused by the current violence in the Middle East. As armed hostilities continue, the region’s children are paying the price of war:

In Lebanon, more than 900,000 people who have been displaced since fighting between Hezbollah and Israel began on 12 July; an estimated 45 per cent of them are children.

In the occupied Palestinian territory, 37 children were killed in July alone.

In northern Israel, children live in danger and fear as a result of daily rocket attacks.

Although the fighting is preventing humanitarian agencies from reaching people in need – especially in southern Lebanon – some emergency supplies and services have been delivered:
In Beirut, UNICEF and key partners have begun a measles immunization campaign targeting displaced children.

As the lead UN agency for water and sanitation in Lebanon, UNICEF is also providing water bladders and water trucking capacity.

In Gaza, UNICEF is supporting psychosocial counselling sessions to help children cope with their fear and distress.

But much more help is needed to protect the lives, health and well-being of children caught in the conflict.

“The situation is grave and deteriorating rather rapidly,” said UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes Dan Toole, who visited the Middle East last week. “Children are cut off. Families are cut off. Many, many people are without assistance, without food, without water.”

Mr. Toole added that UNICEF is appealing to donor countries for financial support.
“So far we have a lot of promises of funding and very little cash,” he said. “We can’t buy supplies with promises. We need that cash quickly so that we can move forward and supply the equipment, training and personnel that are needed to help children.”

2006-07-28T15:31:00.000-04:00

Can good come from evil?
by GWYNNE DYER

Is it possible that out of the current carnage in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and northern Israel could come a sober recognition on all sides that victory is impossible and that compromise is necessary? It would be nice.

It's clear by now how this outbreak of organized cruelty and destruction is going to end. Israel has already had almost two weeks to pound Hezbollah into smithereens from the air, and it hasn't accomplished even ten per cent of the task. Hundreds of innocent Lebanese civilians have died (together with lots of Lebanese army soldiers who were asleep in their barracks, the very soldiers that Israel allegedly wants to replace Hezbollah's militia in the border areas). But, few of Hezbollah's fighters have been killed, and its rockets continue to rain on northern Israeli cities.

President George W. Bush and his faithful British sidekick, Prime Minister Tony Blair, have staved off demands from practically everywhere else for a ceasefire for two weeks now, and they can probably manage to stall on the issue for at least another week. But, Israel's only option in that remaining week is to commit its soldiers to a full ground invasion of southern Lebanon – which would send Israeli casualties soaring.

By dint of restricting itself to air attacks and keeping its own soldiers out of combat (except for brief "pinprick" incursions across the frontier), Israel has maintained the illusion of the traditional ten-to-one kill ratio familiar from earlier Arab-Israeli wars. But almost all the Arab dead are innocent civilians. In terms of combatants, Israel is probably not achieving much better than a two-to-one ratio.

Hezbollah has between 2,000 and 5,000 well-trained fighters dug into the bunkers of southern Lebanon, and they cannot be eliminated by air strikes. The daily number of rockets landing on northern Israeli towns and cities has scarcely diminished since the start of the fighting. If Israel commits its ground troops to dig those fighters out of their fortifications, its fatal casualties could easily soar into the high hundreds.

Nor is it certain that Israel's American and British backers can hold off a ceasefire long enough to let it accomplish that goal even if it is willing to take the casualties that a ground invasion implies. And it wouldn't make much long-term difference even if Israel did win the ground battle, for the only way to make southern Lebanon Hezbollah-free is to depopulate the region permanently. Almost every Shia family in the south contains Hezbollah members or sympathizers, which is hardly surprising after eighteen years of harsh Israeli military occupation (1982-2000).

So, one way or another, Israel will fail to achieve its war aims – but this could be a good thing, for it will bring the fall of prime minister Ehud Olmert's government and his project, inherited from the stricken Ariel Sharon, to impose a "final peace settlement" on the Palestinians that incorporates East Jerusalem and large chunks of the West Bank into Israel. In reality, that "settlement" would deliver neither finality nor peace, and the fact that this whole project may well be discredited in the eyes of the Israeli electorate along with Olmert's government is cause for at least modest rejoicing.

Hezbollah isn't going to win either, but it can succeed without winning. Its leader, Sheikh Nasrallah, may not have foreseen the scale and ferocity of Israeli strikes against Lebanon when he ordered the attack that killed three Israeli soldiers and made two others prisoners – he may just have been seeking hostages for a prisoner exchange – but Hezbollah only has to survive in order to triumph. Since Israel cannot destroy it, it is almost certain to triumph. That won't help the cause of peace, but it may not doom it either.

Within a week or so, when Washington and London realize that the Israelis cannot achieve their purposes, they will allow a ceasefire in order to save Olmert's face, and it probably will not leave any Israeli troops inside the Lebanese frontier. Olmert's government will probably fall within months anyway, and the whole project of unilaterally imposing unjust borders on the Palestinians that has dominated Israeli politics for the past five years may vanish with it. Which will leave, quite unexpectedly, a clean slate for the next Israeli government to write on.

Israel will carry out prisoner exchanges both with Hezbollah and with the Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip: the German intelligence service that always brokers these exchanges has already been contacted by Olmert's government. A wise and bold new Israeli leader, if such a paragon exists, will have a few months to try to change the dynamic and get back to the negotiated two-state solution that is the only hope for lasting peace in the region.

Is this really likely to happen? Israeli politics offers few candidates for the role of mould-breaker who is willing to talk to Hamas and abandon Israel's territorial ambitions, and the window of opportunity will not stay open long. By this time next year, a calamitous civil war in Iraq is likely to distract everybody's attention away from the tedious, old Palestinian-Israeli confrontation, which would then be allowed to subside back into its sulky, vicious normality. But, Olmert's stupidity has at least created this unexpected opportunity. Wouldn't it be nice if they actually used it?

2006-07-27T12:11:00.000-04:00

My cool friend: Ruba and her first book
Dilruba Z. Ara, I call her Ruba. Born in Bangladesh and lives in Sweden. Her first book "A List of Offences" has just been published by the University Press, Dhaka.

Here is one the reviews that she got. It was published in Life Today/ The News Today Magazine, July 2006 :

"Writers from Asian countries often dominate the top ten lists all over the western world, works such as White Teeth, Suitable Boy and Brick Lane, to name a few. There is currently a great interest in books and films which deal with the difficulties of those who attempt to move across boundaries, physical as well as cultural.

Dilruba Z. Ara’s A List of Offences is no exception. A critic recently likened Ara’s book to The God of Small Things, and he is correct in terms of the interest the book has generated long before reaching the bookstalls of Dhaka. The novel has been sold to Spain, Latin America and Greece and agents are working to promote it in 71 countries, but the similarities end here.

Most of the books mentioned above relate to the cultural clash where East meets West. Although the main character of A List of Offences never leaves her country, the clash of rural Bengal with city Bengal — or East with West is unmistakeable. The protagonist, a young girl from a river village meets and falls in love with an Anglophile lawyer from the big city, and migrates to the city where she goes through a process of disillusionment — similar to the one many immigrants go through when they find themselves in foreign countries.

A List of Offences is a saga about three generations of women. As a young woman, Daria frees herself from the expectations and demands of her past and looks to forge her own future. The story brings up issues of religion, ethnic origin, familial and dynastic relations, love’s rise, demise and perturbations. Ara does this through a rich tapestry of narratives and an almost Dickensian, cast of characters. The rhythmic flow of language is borne of Bengali poetry, the Great Classics and a thorough grounding in Eastern and Western literature and art. The literary style is taut and economical when necessary, yet deeply expressive and graceful. Through the story the river winds slowly, bringing the readers towards the culmination and end. The river gives and the river takes, shaping the soul of Daria through its movement.

The book will appeal to men and women alike. Every reader who has loved the lyrical prose of Roy and Okri, who has been carried away by the rich texture of Marquez and story telling of Sholokhov will love Dilruba Ara’s writing. A List of Offences is a world-class book, by turn, evocative, chilling, informative, humorous, inspiring and brave. The story also has a political dimension relating to women in Bangladesh. While Ara’s father Shahed Ali, an eminent author and literary host, wrote of the poor in Bengal, Ara writes about women. Hers is a subtle message of liberation, which will ring true even in those parts of the world that have already achieved the right of expression. The main protagonist evolves from a shy young woman — dominated by her husband and his family — into a strong woman, who is prepared to make painful and difficult changes defying social norms and expectations.

In addition to its political aspect, this book will, for many years, be remembered for its brilliant portrayal of the everyday life in rural Bangladesh; the traditions, the festivities, the food, the flooding, the lush beauty of a riverside village. The story develops during the time when Bangladesh belonged to Pakistan up until the liberation war that broke out in the beginning of seventies. Bangladesh has produced a great writer and a magical masterpiece of a book, which will come to be considered as one of the few classical novels born from the Indian subcontinent.

Dilruba Z. Ara has currently been recognised for the translation of her father’s short stories into English - Selected Short Stories of Shahed Ali — a collection which was released same day as her novel A List Of Offences was released. At present, she is preparing a volume of her own short stories, several of which have already been published. Detached Belonging, her very first story in English, published last year, has already been chosen as a part of English Literature Course in Cultural University- College/ Stockholm - Sweden and in Creative Writing Course at Kennesaw State University /USA.

Dilruba Z. Ara contributes monthly with her stories to Vista, a magazine published in Lahore, Pakistan. Among her other achievements as a writer, she has been honoured as the Chief Guest in the Literary Salon- International Post-Colonial Conference, held in Stockholm between 27-30 April, 06 to read from A List of Offences.

Dilruba Z. Ara is also a poet and a painter."

by Dr. Anna Herbert, (Phd in Psychoanalysis, Oxbridge, Brunnel. UK)
Currently working as a lecturer, University of Lund, department of Education and Pedagogy.
Sylvia Peck, Authoress, USA.

A List of Offences,
Published, April 06
335 PP.
The University Press, Dhaka.Email: upl@bangla.net
ISBN: 984 05 1763 5
Price: 550 taka
For info log on to http://www.uplbooks.com/

Published in Life Today/ The News Today Magazine July 2006

2006-07-26T15:52:00.000-04:00

Bangladesh:
Hasina's ire at the media and parameters of responsible journalism
By Shahid Alam
Tue, 25 Jul 2006, 09:00:00
Daily New Nation

A curious report in a national English-language daily has given causeto ponder upon the issue of intolerant mindset, in this case among the politicians, and overstepping an admittedly imprecise boundary of ethical and unprovocative journalism.

Of particular interest is the fact that the newspaper reported in its 19 July issue that its sister publication, a national Bangla daily, was not allowed to cover a meeting of Awami League (AL) President and the Leader of the Opposition in the Jatiyo Sangsad, Sheikh Hasina, with a sectionof her party's grassroots level leaders. Significantly, according to the AL security detail turning back the reporter, the AL president herself had instructed them on their action. The party explained that its chief was not pleased with some of the daily's reporting on her programmes.

Prothom Alo happens to be the latest in a fairly lengthy list of national dailies and TV channels, including Jai Jai Din, Dinkal,Sangram, NTV, RTV, Channel 1, Bangla Vision and Boishakhi, who have drawn the ire of the irascible AL chief at various times and, as a naturally corollary, been banned from her presence at her party meetings.

The remarkable aspect of this list is that, while almost all the names on it are either avowedly, or thought to be, pro-government, Prothom Alo is considered by a wide range of, if not all, readers to be decidedly unfriendly towards the incumbent government and inclined to be sympathetic to the opposition, not the least to AL.

The conclusion is not difficult to arrive at: for starters, Hasina is intolerant of all criticism directed at her and her party, even if it comes only occasionally from an otherwise sympathetic media.

ButHasina's fascistic mindset, acid and vulgar tongue irrespective of the setting and the occasion, and palpably dangerous suggestions, threats and pronouncements, which could easily boomerang on her and her party, are common knowledge, having been manifested on innumerable occasions both in and out of state power, and it comes as no surprise that she directed that the Prothom Alo reporter be barred from her meeting.

However, while Hasina may be the most celebrated case of exhibiting displeasure against the media, politicians of various ilk and from different strata of their party have, especially over the last ten years of parliamentary democracy, expressed their vexation against the media, some of which have culminated in violent attacks against journalists that have resulted in their injury and even death. And a few ministers in the incumbent BNP-led government have also banned the media, or a section of it, from their official press conferences and even their departments.

Others complain vigorously against misreporting by the media and rail against yellow journalism creating unnecessary problems for the country, government, and individuals.The fact is that, by its very nature, yellow journalism is designed to distort the truth and, consequently, malign an individual, group or institution with a predisposed agenda. And, does yellow journalism exist in this country? Most assuredly it does, though not to the extent that is generally believed in different circles of the reading public. The problem is that a symbiotic relationship has developed between a section of the media which feeds the public what they want to believe and get titillated by, irrespective of the veracity of the contents, and a public, not excluding the so-called civil society and members of the academia, who are inclined to read and believe what they are predisposed to believe. It is not unlike the earlier and more prevalent phenomenon of the commercial moviemakers feeding the viewing public the most disgusting and distasteful cinematic concoctions and a sizable section of the public lapping them up with undisguised glee.

The problem is that in a society in transition for some time now and not looking like gelling for some time yet, cultural cross-currents will create tensions among groups and, as an inevitable, though unfortunate, byproduct, push forward mediocre and crass culture and practice that the section of the society long used to a more sophisticated tradition will find particularly repugnant.

Yellow journalism is a product of that transitional society and is a function of different variables, one of which is the prevalence of the businessperson-owner of the print media, replacing the journalist-owner, or businessperson-owner with existing close links with the media who once brought high standards and credibility to the fourth estate. And now that high standard is being lowered and credibility steadily eroded by uneven journalistic quality in a proliferation of the print media and a band of "journalists" who have managed to creep in and vitiate the media with what is commonly known as "yellow" effort. Fortunately, the bulk of the community is still upright and true to the profession; unfortunately, however, the numberof the yellow variety is unobtrusively, but unmistakably, growing.

They are the proverbial bad apples that contaminate the entire barreland give the profession a bad name. And, besides a small number of "journalists" engaging in murky practices like blackmail, the editors often find themselves bound by the dictates and personal agenda of the businessperson-owners. This is a distressful situation that the media professionals will have to sort out.

Otherwise, the print and visual media will continue to find themselves at the wrong end of the perception of political parties and individuals who, rightly or wrongly, will feel that they are being deliberately maligned.

In the absence of effective measures to curb yellow journalism, individuals and groups would be inclined to take recourse to measures like banning the media from their presence or, even more worryingly, causing bodily harm to its members. Obviously, laws that work to clampdown on irresponsible journalism and, more importantly, are enforceable, are necessary from the appropriate government institutions, but at least as effective would be the process of self-cleansing by the media itself.

Having dwelt at some length on the media's culpability in failing, in selective instances, to provide ethical and responsible journalistic efforts, it is equally true that the effects of the same transitional society have bred intolerance, including of the political variety. It would take an extensive and exhaustive study to determine the probable impact of the changing society on the tolerance level of the individual, but one cannot deny the existence of political intolerance in the society. It is a prime cause of the unsatisfactory political culture obtaining in Bangladesh. Hasina has taken intolerance to an intolerable extreme because of a fascistic streak in her character and a mindset that is progressively becoming more erratic with advancing years, and AL as a party is billed by many in the know to be more bigoted and dogmatic than BNP, but the ruling coalition functionaries at various levels also manifest unnecessary animosity towards the media for the reason of being the butt of its criticism.It does not help in the growth of a healthy political culture. A little forbearance on the politicians' side and self-cleansing by the media would go a long way towards the development of a healthy media-political leadership relationship in this country. That would only help towards further institutionalizing the fundamental norms of liberal pluralist democracy in Bangladesh.

2006-07-26T00:33:00.000-04:00

Join Global Exchange and hundreds of other groups across the United States in a National Call-In Day for Immediate Cease-Fire Between Israel and Lebanon

TAKE ACTION: Contact your Representative and ask them to sign on as a cosponsor to H.Con.Res.450, calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East. If your Representative has already co-sponsored this resolution, please call to thank him/her. For contact information CLICK HERE

BACKGROUND: Despite mounting civilian casualties on all sides, the United States continues to provide Israel with a green light to destroy Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Last week, both the Senate and the House passed resolutions expressing uncritical support for Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice callously described the killing of Lebanese civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure as the "birth pangs of a new Middle East".

The New York Times reported that the United States is rushing delivery of more satellite- and laser-guided bombs to Israel to sustain its attacks in violation of the US Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts. Americans need to tell the elected representatives that the United States should be working for an immediate cease-fire, not providing Israel with the diplomatic and military support that it needs to wage its attacks.

Today, Tuesday, July 25, several national organizations-including the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Council for the National Interest, Partners for Peace, Progressive Democrats of America, United for Peace and Justice, Peace Action, and the American Friends Service Committee-are organizing a national call-in day to Congress to support H.Con.Res.450, introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), which calls upon the United States to pursue an "immediate cessation of violence" and "multi-party negotiations with no preconditions".

TAKE ACTION: Contact your Representative and ask them to sign on as a cosponsor to H.Con.Res.450, calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East. If your Representative has already co-sponsored this resolution, please call to thank him/her. For contact information CLICK HERE

Text of H.Con.Res.450 Calling upon the President to appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence and to commit United States diplomats to multi-party... (Introduced in House)HCON 450 IH 109th CONGRESS2d Session

H. CON. RES. 450Calling upon the President to appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence and to commit United States diplomats to multi-party negotiations with no preconditions.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 19, 2006Mr. KUCINICH (for himself, Mr. RANGEL, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. CLEAVER, Ms. LEE, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. FILNER, Mr. STARK, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. HONDA, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. WATERS, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Mr. RUSH, Ms. BALDWIN, Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan, Ms. MCCOLLUM of Minnesota, Ms. SOLIS, and Mr. MEEKS of New York) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International Relations

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Calling upon the President to appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence and to commit United States diplomats to multi-party negotiations with no preconditions. Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--(1) calls upon the President to--(A) appeal to all sides in the current crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence;(B) commit United States diplomats to multi-party negotiations with no preconditions; and(C) send a high-level diplomatic mission to the region to facilitate such multi-party negotiations;(2) urges such multi-party negotiations to begin as soon as possible, including delegations from the governments of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt; and(3) supports an international peacekeeping mission to southern Lebanon to prevent cross-border skirmishes during such multi-party negotiations.

TAKE ACTION: Contact your Representative and ask them to sign on as a cosponsor to H.Con.Res.450, calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East. If your Representative has already co-sponsored this resolution, please call to thank him/her. For contact information CLICK HERE

FOR MORE INFORMATION visit the the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

2006-07-25T23:59:00.000-04:00

Greeting and glad tidings ~

Today, July 25th 2006, Dr. Masaru Emoto planned
to celebrate his fourth annual 'Thanks to Love and
Water Day' at the Sea of Galilee, in Israel. Due to
rising conflict, this physical gathering has been
postponed.

As Gratitude is a bridge to peace, establishing coherence between the heart and mind, we have a tremendous opportunity to gather in Light of the current conflict, creating peace by being peace through the power of Gratitude.

Imagine the synchroniticites here:

Today is also the Day out of time, a new moon is rising, AND we are celebrating our 42nd Day of the World Gratitude gathering. A powerful day, indeed!

Let's gather our collective power and celebrate together, aligning hearts and minds worldwide to peacefully bless the waters of the world, those within and without, with our Love and Gratitude.

Here is a simple, yet effective formula for entering peace thru Gratitude: Set aside a moment to fully immerse yourself in Gratitude. Begin by focusing on a memory, one that elicits the feeling of Gratitude within. Move this memory into your heart, allowing your mind to rest by simply focusing your breath. As thoughts arise, release and return to a centered State of Gratitude.
Remain here for a moment, or longer, as inspired feeling the coherence of our collective consciosness swimming in Gratitude.

In honor of our 42nd Day of the World Gratitude Gathering, you are invited to join us for a Sunset meditation, as well. We will be facing the light, with our Love and Gratitude, breathing in thanks and releasing appreciation for all that IS, and all that has been, and all that may BE.

To find info on local Sunset times, go here: http://www.sunrisesunset.com/. Just imagine - we will be creating a physical wave of Gratitude, aligned with the natural cycle of light, beyond time in order to peacefully BE, as One, in Love and Gratitude! Remember, each and every person makes a world of difference! That person is YOU!

In Love and Gratitude, Stacey Robyn and the ground crew of Go Gratitude

P.S. Please join Myself and James Twyman, author of The Art of Spiritual Peacemaking, for a free live, One hour conference call on Gratitude as a means of achieving peace. Here are the details: Tuesday, August 8th - 5pm, PST Number: (605) 990-0001 Code: 1052060 We have 100 lines set aside for the event, AND we'll be recording it for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

P.P.S. Here is a link to a process called 'A bridge to Peace', shared earlier in the year with our family of Gratitude ... it's message is timely, empowering, and worthy of re-view. Please feel free to use as inspired, as a tool for creating peace by being peace.
http://www.gogratitude.com/g-bridge-process.html
305 SE Chkalov Dr. Ste. 103-111Vancouver, Washington 98683

2006-07-25T23:53:00.000-04:00

No More Innocent Victims
Peace activists in the United States of America enter their fourth week of a fast to bring the troops home from Iraq, in which almost 5,000 people have already participated. Visit TROOPS HOME FAST.

July 25, 2006
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki just arrived in Washington DC for his first visit to the United States, where he is meeting with George Bush and members of Congress. But don't you think he should also meet with representatives of the peace movement—since their views now represent the majority of Americans? Don't you think he should meet with those who have been fasting for 22 days now to bring the troops home? On Monday, CODEPINK Women for Peace tried to get a meeting by delivering a letter to the Iraqi Embassy in Washington DC and then setting up camp (called Camp al-Maliki) in front of the Embassy.

They spent the entire day peacefully urging the Iraqi staff to help them to get a letter to the Prime Minister. After initially refusing to even accept the letter, they warmed up to the activist and the Ambassador himself came out to meet the peace activists. He seemed genuinely concerned that the activists had not eaten in 21 days, and promised to convey the message to the Prime Minister.

CODEPINK also took out an ad in one of the largest Iraqi newspapers, Assabah Al-Jadid, expressing their support for a reconciliation plan that includes a withdrawal of US troops, and asking for the Prime Minister to talk to CODEPINK about this plan.

This is not only a great way to pressure for a meeting, but it is also a way to reach out to the Iraqi people to let them know that the American women and people in general stand with them in their call to end the occupation of their country.

A poll earlier this year showed that 87% of Iraqis support a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops; another poll showed that only 1% of Iraqis trusted U.S. troops to protect their security.

Now CODEPINK needs YOUR help to get a meeting with the Prime Minister.

Please take a moment to contact the Iraqi Embassy and say: "Please encourage your Prime Minister to show compassion and meet with the fasters, including Cindy Sheehan, who have not eaten for 22 days."

Call: (202) 483-7500, press 1 for English, then extension 102 for the Ambassador’s office.
Fax: (202) 462-0564
Email: feedback@iraqiembassy.org

Please be polite.Thank you for helping CODEPINK to make sure that Prime Minister Al-Maliki, the people of Iraq don't just hear the voice of George Bush. Let's make sure they hear the voices of the majority in the States, who want to see an end to the bloodshed and the beginning of a true effort to rebuild Iraq and our neglected communities at home.

With peace in our hearts,CODEPINK Women for Peace

2006-07-25T23:30:00.000-04:00

Israeli bomb kills UN observers
Please do not shoot the messenger. I am just passing the message from a "friend.” According to this friend, Hezbollah must apologize to the world for the deaths of the four UN Peacekeepers, because Hezbollah is responsible for their deaths.

It is all Hezbollah’s fault. She says, “What about Iran’s threat to destroy the state of Israel and the fact that Hezbollah is supported by Iran?” Therefore, it is Hezbollah’s fault that four UN Peacekeepers are dead.

She says, “ do you realize that “Hezbollah is sending untargeted rockets across the border whereas Israel is targeting specific military sites and Hezbollah targets”, (for example the UN Observation posts and the civilian homes).

In addition, she ads, “of course innocent civilians are killed, that is war! (It is very easy for one to say something like this unless her son, her daughter, her father, her husband is killed. I know how it feels- my father was killed in a war.) But in the long run, Israel has no choice but to fight (and kill innocent children and people, in Palestine, in Lebanon and in Israel itself.). It is fighting for its SURVIVAL (and inviting the fanatic fundamentalists to terrorize the civilians in Israel.)

In addition, she criticized about me that “It is you who talk about seeing things upside down, like a turtle. Well, why not try to see it from the Israeli side, Israelis who throughout history have had to fight for their very existence, and finally got a homeland of their own in 1948. The Palestinians never had a real homeland. Why should they? They were just Bedouin tribesmen like the rest of the Arabs...they wandered all over the place.... “ (Do I smell racism here?)

According to her Fatwa, “there are times when violence is necessary. Israel was attacked. Hezbolla fired the first rockets inside Israel...Israel has a right to defend itself...Israel is using guided missiles. Yes, civilians are being killed on both sides...
However, they started this, not Israel...”, therefore Israel has procured the right to kill civilians and destroy a country and kill UN peacekeeper in whichever way they wish too

I do not need to get into an argument with this person. For me, war is a war and killing innocent children, women and old people is cold-blooded murders. I am tiered of reading and watching the reports of this kind of violence. I am not interested to know who did it first and who did it second, I am not interested to know who is promoting the rights of Muslims and who is protecting Jews. I only want that this insane killing is stopped, children of Lebanon are not terrorized and the children of Israel are out of the bomb shelters and having a normal life. I have a daughter and I know how a nine-year-old young woman wants to spend her time and grow up. Stop the hostility and give the children of Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and rest of the world a chance to have a normal peaceful life. Whether it is for Islam, Judaism or Christianity- I do not care any more, neither the dying children, I believe.

2006-07-25T21:48:00.000-04:00

Fight the Religious Right: Become a Defender
This post is for my American friends, specially. As many of you know, President Bush is claiming that his stem cell research veto is about values. Yet these are clearly not the values shared by most Americans. Today we are helping DefCon (Campaign to Defend the Constitution) circulate a petition opposing the radical religious right's agenda. If you are concerned about the religious right's threat to the US democracy, American children's education, and America's future, then now is the time to make your voice count.

President Bush has claimed that his stem cell research veto is about values - but these are far from the real values that most Americans share. Instead, the President has adopted the extreme so-called "values voter" agenda of right-wing ideologues like James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson. While the President's misguided veto was a momentary victory for the religious right.

From the Senate's overwhelming passage of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, to the tens of thousands of emails sent to the President prior to his veto, DefCon members led this fight for health and hope.

DefCon will continue this critical fight. But they need your help. Become a DefCon Defender today. While the religious right was able to hold sway over the President, defeating DefCon's stem cell effort, the truth is their agenda is failing. Instead of focusing on critical issues for America like the war in Iraq, the energy crisis, and serious environmental concerns like global warming, they are throwing out smokescreen "value votes" like flag burning and gay marriage.

And they are losing. They are losing because a majority of Americans do not support their extreme right-wing agenda. Now is the time when Americans can most effectively fight their stranglehold on America.

Over the next few months, DefCon plans an all-out assault - DefCon's REAL American Values Campaign. It plans to wage a full-scale, aggressive campaign to counter and combat the religious right at every level including:

continuing fight for stem cell research at the state level;
defending sound science education, including fighting intelligent design in states like Kansas;
continuing aggressive media campaign to expose the religious right's agenda and their improper influence over our elected officials;
continuing to mobilize the tens of millions of Americans opposed to the religious right, and
working to draft them into the Army of DefCon defenders; and
organizing local counter events to the upcoming right-wing focused Values Voters Summit in Washington D.C this September (more on this soon!).

But you need to join the fight. Help DefCon rescue America from the extremists who are masquerading as patriotic Americans. It's time for people like you - people with real American values - to topple the Religious Right.Join the fight today.

2006-07-22T14:10:00.000-04:00

Shame on You, Mr. Harper,
THE ISRAELI WAR ON LEBANON IS NOT MEASURED

If you want to sign this, you must do it online at the link below:
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/me2006

The deliberate targeting by the Israeli army of civilian dwellings, cars, and food convoys, the destruction of roads and civilian infrastructure, and the consequent death of hundreds of civilians is neither justified self-defence, nor does it constitute a moderate response, Mr. Harper.

"This is unequivocally a war of choice",states Israeli columnist Gideon Levy, "a choice to destroy any political force that resists its occupation of Arab lands. The idea that this is self-defence or a response to aggression is either naïve or cynical distortion. "

IT IS NOT FAIR. On July 18th you claimed that violence is not the solution. Why doesn't this apply to Israeli violence? Are you comparing the capture of two soldiers with the destruction of a whole country? After all, Israel has also captured several Lebanese, not to mention the 9000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, including members of the Palestinian parliament.

Would this be a reason to destroy Israel? Do you realize the depth of your bias, Mr.Harper?

IT IS NOT SELF-DEFENCE. The crisis did not begin with the capture of two Israeli soldiers. It is part of the larger Middle East conflict. It started with the expulsion of two-thirds of the Palestinian population in 1948, and it was exacerbated in the 1967 war when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. "An underlying reason that years of U.S. diplomacy have failed and violence in the Middle East persists is that some Israeli leaders continue to create facts by building settlements in occupied territory", stated former US President Jimmy Carter (Washington Post, November 26, 2000).

The violence that we witness today is a result of Israel's desire to enforce its occupation. It is not self-defence.

SUPPORTING IT IS NOT CANADIAN. We, Canadians from diverse backgrounds, including Jews and Israeli Canadians, Arab Canadians (Muslims, Christians and Jews), English and French Canadians, and immigrants are outraged at your blind support for a policy of aggression that has resulted in the death of hundreds of civilians and massive destruction. Your government's position is not fostering peace in the region nor Canada's reputation as an honest broker.

WE DEMAND that the Government of Canada stop supporting Israeli violence, whose destructive power is far more lethal than the combined violence used by militant non-state groups. We demand that Canada adopt an objective position, based on international law as well as Canada's historical reputation as a peacemaker fostering a Canadian tradition of independent thought and action regarding international diplomacy as opposed to support for an unjustified war and a brutal occupation.

2006-07-21T17:48:00.000-04:00

Nepal: INTERVIEW WITH DR BABURAM BHATTARAI
By Akhilesh Tripathi and Ujir Magar

Excerpts of a recent interview with senior Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai:

Q. What agreements were reached between you and the leaders of the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, two largest parties of the Seven Party Alliance (SPA), at the informal meeting at Godavari on July 14?

Dr Baburam Bhattarai: The eight-point agreement signed between the CPN-M and the SPA on June 16 is a milestone for peace and progressive change in Nepal. This agreement was a concrete step forward towards resolving the 10-year-old conflict. The most important understanding reached at Godavari is, as mentioned in the eight-point agreement, to dissolve the reinstated House of Representatives, which represents the old regime, and our people's government, which is the new regime, and form an interim regime. Another important understanding is to keep both the armies (Maoist People's Liberation Army and Nepal Army) under reliable international monitoring until the Constituent Assembly elections. Thus the Godavari meeting helped clear the uncertainties over the dissolution of the House that surfaced after the eight-point agreement. We all agreed that there is no alternative to the eight-point agreement.

Q. Now there is talk about forming an interim parliament by dissolving the HoR. What is this interim parliament? Will the existing parliament be expanded by including representatives from your party to make it the interim parliament? What will be the structure and size of the interim parliament?

Bhattarai: The existing parliament has neither legitimacy nor full representation. The parliamentary parties, just to ensure their role, reinstated it on May 2 by reaching an agreement with the king. Therefore, the dissolution of this parliament is inevitable. There is no question of we joining or sharing this parliament. We have been demanding the dissolution of this parliament from the very beginning and the eight-point deal has made it quite clear. After the dissolution of this parliament, we need an alternative arrangement, which can exercise sovereignty and state authority during the interim period. Therefore, it has been our demand from the beginning to hold a wider political conference of all the three forces of the democratic movement- the Maoist party, SPA and the civil society- to form an Interim Council, which would function as the interim legislature and would represent all the three forces. Some have named this interim legislature as the interim parliament. Only the seven parties are represented in the current parliament. We need an interim legislature, which represents the other two forces, our party and the civil society, as well. The interim constitution to be formed will have provisions for the interim legislature, executive and judiciary. We will need a constitutional court (interim judiciary). Otherwise, the current judiciary may create hurdles in the way forward.

Q. What will be the position of the king in the interim constitution?

Bhattarai: This issue, too, figured in the Godavari meeting. It is our proposal that we should announce a democratic republic in the interim constitution itself because this is the mandate of the April movement. A democratic republic has always been our agenda. Most of the parties in the SPA and a majority of the civil society, too, are in favour of a democratic republic.

Q. It could be the demand or stand of your party. But what decision was reached between you and the SPA regarding the king's position in the interim constitution?

Bhattarai: We will discuss this issue in the meting of the top Maoist and SPA leaders on July 21 (Summit Talks). This will be a major agenda at the summit talks. We will also discuss the modalities of interim security, interim legislature, restructuring of the state and the electoral system. These will be the major agendas of the summit talks.

Q. What will happen to the proclamations the HoR has made so far and the annual budget announced by the SPA government last week?

Bhattarai: We will have to announce a new budget after the formation of the interim government. Therefore he (Finance Minister) made a ridiculous attempt (by presenting the budget). It was totally unnecessary. He made the budget speech without consulting us. We feel that it was just a waste of time and energy.
We will incorporate the positive proclamations of this House and also the positive provisions of the 1990 Constitution into the interim constitution.

Q. You mean the interim government to be formed will announce another budget?

Bhattarai: Definitely. There will be a new structure (interim government) and a new power balance. A new plan will be chalked out for the social, economic transformation. Then there obviously will have to be a new budget.

Q. Going back to the concept of this interim parliament, how will it be represented? Will the existing political separation of the country into 14 zones, 75 districts and 205 electoral constituencies, be followed to choose the representatives of the interim parliament or will there be any other method?

Bhattarai: This is an issue to be settled through consensus among the political forces. In the interim legislature, the seven parties will be one side, we (Maoists) another side and the civil society and other professional organisations the third side. The interim legislature will have the representation of all these three sides. The number (of representatives in the interim parliament) will be decided through consensus among all the forces.

Q. Who will lead the interim government?

Bhattarai: We are yet to discuss this issue. This can be settled through discussions.

Q. Are you ready to join an interim government led by, let's say, the Nepali Congress or the CPN-UML?

Bhattarai: The Interim Constitution will decide on that. We shouldn’t consider the past while looking at it; (Nepali) Congress and UML will be just a part of it. A new power equilibrium has emerged after the recent people's movement. Congress and the UML are old forces. We think they do not represent the new balance of power.

Q. What will happen to your army?
Bhattarai: We have made ourselves clear on this issue earlier. Both armies (PLA and Nepal Army) will be kept at specific locations under international monitoring until the Constituent Assembly elections so that they remain inactive and cannot interfere with the elections. We will reach an understanding to develop a mechanism for this so that the elections are held in a free and fair manner. What I would like to add here is- this issue also figured in the Godavari meeting and we and some other parties expressed concern over it- the democratisation of the royal army which has now been renamed as the Nepal Army is a major question. But this issue is not being widely debated. People are raising questions about the management of only the PLA, which is a pro-democratic army. But nobody cares about the democratisation of the Nepal Army which is still a royal army and which is anti-democratic. This is a major issue and should be properly settled by the interim constitution. If this army is not democratised in the interim period itself, it may create hurdles in the way to constituent assembly elections.

Q. NC leader Ramchandra Poudel, who also was present in the Godavari meeting, has said that the present House of Representatives cannot be dissolved.

Bhattarai: We have already reached an agreement (to dissolve the House). How can he say that now? This will merely be an attempt to block the peace process and invite conflict; it will be suicidal for them (seven parties). Backing away from the agreement would be a violation of the agreement and would mean continuation of the conflict.

Q. At the Godavari meeting, an agreement was reached to help rehabilitate the people who have been displaced and whose land and property have been seized by your party during the 10 years of conflict. When will this agreement be implemented?

Bhattarai: It has been made clear in the 12-point understanding, eight-point understanding and the 25-point (ceasefire) code of conduct. Its implementation has also begun. Some difficulties have, however, been observed in the implementation process at some places. To address this, an agreement has been reached to form a mechanism at the central level with representatives from all parties. The problems seen in the implementation will be settled by this mechanism as per the 12-point understanding.

Q. We have a situation here where the current SPA government has accepted ceremonial monarchy; it has even allocated a certain budget for the royal palace. On the other hand, your dialogue with the government, too, is going side by side. Is it an indication that your party, too, has accepted a ceremonial monarchy?

Bhattarai: There is no question of us accepting any form of monarchy. No one should be confused. A democratic republic has been our continuous demand since the royal palace massacre in 2001.

Q. What will be the king's situation when you join the interim government?

Bhattarai: Our proposal is, let's declare Nepal a democratic republic through the interim constitution itself. But it is still under discussion. Let's see how it goes. It won't be appropriate to say more than this right now.

Q. Your party and the SPA were together in the April Movement. The recent political change was possible through your joint efforts. But in the aftermath of the movement, there still seems to be some lack of trust between your party and the SPA. Many times you have acted like rebels and the SPA as the state. What could be the reasons?

Bhattarai: The main reason is the seven parties sometimes forget that the main fight is against the monarchy. We realised that we cannot defeat the monarchy by fighting against it separately. Therefore we launched a joint movement. The 12-point understanding was an expression of this realisation. The movement became successful because of the 12-point understanding. And the movement's mandate is to abolish monarchy and establish a democratic republic. But they (SPA) sometimes forget that the monarchy is our common enemy and start considering us as their enemy. Their lies the problem. At the Godavari meeting, we raised this issue and asked them, "Who do you consider your main enemy- we or the king?" Then they accepted that the king is the common enemy.

Q. Isn't your armed force also a reason for their worry and the lack of trust between you?

Bhattarai: Our arms are not against them (SPA) and democracy. They are against the monarchy and the royal army. They don't need to fear our arms. We told them (SPA leaders, at Godavari) that they don't fear the weapons of the king, who has cheated them time and again, but always raise the issue of our arms. Then they realised and agreed for the democratisation of the royal army. This has pushed us closer to the meeting point.

Q. Some parliamentarians are saying that the dissolution of parliament will create a vacuum which could encourage the regressive elements.

Bhattarai: This has no logic. What did this parliament do? Could it stop the King's autocracy? Could it stop his February 1 move? Everybody should be clear that this parliament was reinstated by the popular movement based on the 12-point understanding. This parliament was revived through people power. Thus it is clear that this parliament is nothing in itself; the king can do anything with it whenever he likes. Therefore it's not important whether this parliament remains or not; the most important thing is unity of the people, the unity among the allies of the democratic movement. If the unity among the democratic forces is strong, we can form a body that can exercise sovereignty and state authority.

Q. Ambassadors of some powerful countries have said that if the Maoists join an interim government without decommissioning their army, then the interim government formed in this way will not get international acknowledgement and support. What do you say?

Bhattarai: This is not based on facts. World history of conflict resolution shows that nowhere in the world- from South Africa to, Guatemala of Latin America to East Timor to Ireland- have the rebels given up arms before the final step of the conflict resolution process. People like Moriarty who are saying so have forgotten world history. We shouldn't be disillusioned by such statements.

Q. You don't want permanent management of your arms before the constituent assembly elections. This means you are keeping the option to go back to war open until the elections?

Bhattarai: What about the arms of the royal army that have been time and again used against democracy since 1960? It's clear that the royal army's weapons are not under the government's control. Recently the generals went to the palace to greet the king and fired cannons to celebrate his birthday against the government's directive. This clearly shows the royal army, whose name has been changed, is not under government control. Therefore, the real danger is from the royal army.

Q. You participated in the past peace talks also. How much hopeful are you of the success of the peace process this time?

Bhattarai: The situation is different now. This time we and the SPA jointly launched the movement based on the 12-point understanding. In this way, we are friendly forces of the movement. The monarchy is much weaker now as compared to the past. If the unity among the seven parties, our party and the civil society is strengthened, we can defeat the monarchy and ensure the establishment of a democratic republic and peace in the country. Therefore, we are much hopeful of the success of the peace process this time. But we are not completely assured. The SPA leadership will have to play a progressive role for the success of the peace process.
From our side, we will do all we can to make the peace process successful. Because we really want the restructuring of the state and all problems related to caste, region and gender resolved. We want peace. We are committed and will try to establish peace in the country until the end. But if some international powers intervene and do not let this happen, people will rise up again. But, as our chairman has also said, we won't return to the jungle. We will lead the rebellion from here in Kathmandu.

Q. You won't return to war?

Bhattarai: Surely not. The entire Nepali people want peace and progressive change in the country. Then how can we want war? The people should rise up against and defeat those who want war. We will help the people in that rebellion.

Q. Your party quite often talks about the restructuring of the state. How do you plan to restructure the state? How different will it be from the existing political separation of the country into five development regions, 14 zones and 75 districts?

Bhattarai: These development regions, zones and districts are just the revenue collection units of the old regime. These administrative units which they have made to maintain the so-called law and order are very much centralized and represent a unitary state. This did not solve the problems of the people. We should change this unitary state system into a federal state system based on regional autonomy. This can be done based on the nine different autonomous regions which we have formed- Seti, Mahakali, Karnali, Magarat, Tamuwan, Newa, Tamang, Kirant and Madhes autonomous regions. This is the restructuring of the state we have been talking about.

Q. Does the SPA agree with this concept of yours?

Bhattarai: We are discussing this with the SPA. Some parties of the SPA have agreed while some are not clear about it. This too will be a major agenda at the Summit talks. It is our firm stand that the restructuring of the state should be done based on the federal governance system.

Q. Some say that you will return to the jungle again if the constituent assembly elections are not as per your expectations?

Bhattarai: No way. We will not return to the jungle. In the first place, we don't think that the Nepali people will not support our forward-looking agenda in the constituent assembly elections. We are, in fact, convinced that the people will vote for peace, complete democracy and progressive change, if free and fair constituent assembly elections are held. However, it is our public commitment that we will accept the elections result even if it is not as per our expectation. Then we will continue peaceful struggle until we can achieve the progressive change we want.

Q. Will the interim constitution have a ceremonial or any other form of monarchy?

Bhattarai: It won't be acceptable to us. We have already said that we should declare Nepal a democratic republic in the preamble of the interim constitution. This is our proposal and is still under discussion.

Q. But isn't it that the major parties of the SPA want to keep a ceremonial or some other form of monarchy?

Bhattarai: Their relevance will end if they do not realize the need of history. In Nepal, monarchy is a regressive force, parliamentary parties or the SPA are status quo-ist forces, and we are a progressive force. Right now, the progressive and status quo-ist forces should unite to defeat the regressive force.

Q. But some people are saying that it will be more democratic to let the people decide the fate of monarchy in the constituent assembly elections. What's your take on this?

Bhattarai: The constituent assembly will decide on the restructuring of the state by resolving the social, economic and cultural problems. Therefore, the fate of monarchy should be decided before the constituent assembly elections. Our alternative proposal is, let's decide the fate of the monarchy during the constituent assembly elections. Let's give the people a choice between monarchy or a democratic republic through a separate referendum while holding the constituent assembly elections. The referendum will decide the fate of monarchy and the constituent assembly elections the restructuring of the state. We will discuss this proposal also.

2006-07-21T16:44:00.000-04:00

Give Peace a Chance:
Israel Warns 300,000 Lebanese To Flee Homes as Ground Invasion Nears
Friday, July 21st, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/21/1431251

Israel is warning hundreds of thousands of residents to flee from southern Lebanon as it edges toward a full ground invasion. The number of Lebanese killed from the assaults now tops 330 - nearly all of them civilians. About half a million people have been displaced. Thirty-four Israelis have been killed, including 15 civilians.

We speak with Rami Khouri, editor of the Lebanese newspaper, the Daily Star. [includes rush transcript]

Israel is warning hundreds of thousands of residents to flee from southern Lebanon as it edges toward a full ground invasion. Thousands of Israeli troops are reportedly already operating inside the Lebanese border. Israeli planes dropped leaflets and broadcast warnings telling people they would be in danger if they remained in the region.

Meanwhile, Israel's bombardment of Lebanon is continuing for a tenth day. Warplanes targeted more that 40 sites on Friday, mainly in southern Lebanon. The number of Lebanese killed now tops 330 - nearly all of them civilians. About half a million people have been displaced - or one in eight residents. Bombed-out roads and bridges are hampering aid efforts. The UN has warned the humanitarian crisis is worsening by the hour. Thirty-four Israelis have been killed, including 15 civilians killed by rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel.

Rami Khouri, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper and an internationally syndicated political columnist and author. He is Palestinian-Jordanian and a U.S. citizen. - Website: RamiKhouri.com

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined on the phone now by Rami Khouri, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, an internationally syndicated political columnist and author. He is Palestinian Jordanian and a U.S. citizen. He joins us on the phone from Amman, Jordan. Rami Khouri, welcome to Democracy Now! I understand you’re one of the few people trying to get into Lebanon.

RAMI KHOURI: Well, yes. I mean, figuratively there’s some other people trying to get back in. Everybody there is trying to flee. I mean, certainly all the foreigners -- most of the foreigners, not all of them. But I want to get back because our home is there, and my wife and I were in Europe on a personal visit. We couldn't get back to Beirut Airport, because the Israelis had bombed it, so we came to Amman. And we’re going back to Beirut tonight by car via a circuitous route, which we hope will be safe.

But it’s very important for us to go back to stand, first of all, in solidarity with the Lebanese; second of all, in defiance of the Israeli military machine -- I mean, we're going to be safe in our home, we’re not on the frontline -- and third of all, to send a message, I think, to George Bush that this kind of insanity that he is officially sanctioning is one that ordinary people reject and that there is a defiance now of the U.S. and Israel that permeates this entire region. And I think our job as individuals and my job as a journalist is to be there and to cover the story and just to stand our ground.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And the images that we’ve been seeing for the last week of the enormous damage and the killing of innocent civilians, the incredible damage to the infrastructure of Lebanon; your thoughts?

RAMI KHOURI: Well, my thoughts are this is doubly tragic, because it’s the third or fourth time that Israel does this. I mean, it’s just extraordinary that a people as enlightened and with such a difficult history as the Jewish and Israeli people would actually now be the perpetrators of this kind of savagery over and over again, and each time they do it they reap a much worse counter-reaction.

You know, they started this in the late ’60s, when there was a couple Fatah guerrillas in South Lebanon. They bombed Beirut Airport in 1968 for the first time. Then what they got back was a much bigger Lebanese resistance, a leftist nationalist resistance, with the PLO. Then they went into Lebanon in the ’70s, and then in ’80 they occupied South Lebanon, and they reaped in return for that Hezbollah. And they went into Hezbollah in 1996. They tried to wipe them out from the south, and what they have now is a much stronger Hezbollah, supported by Syria and Iran, with missiles that are hitting Haifa and Safed and other Israeli towns.

So I think there’s a kind of an irrationality to Zionism that we’re seeing today, or at least to the Israeli political leadership, that just don't seem to get it, that when you repress somebody and you brutalize them, what you get is not acquiescence and subservience. What you get is defiance and resistance. And I think this is a lesson that most military powers have learned. Certainly the Americans learned it in Vietnam. They’re learning in Iraq. The Russians learned it in Afghanistan. And the Israelis seem unable or unwilling to learn these lessons in Lebanon.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, what Israel says is what they get is they break Hezbollah, and they stop the rockets from flying in. They punish them for taking the soldiers, and they are trying to get them back. Can you talk about the beginning of Hezbollah, and can you talk about Israel's rationale?

RAMI KHOURI: Yeah. I mean, Israel's rationale certainly sounds logical from an Israeli point of view. Anybody -- one of the few things I agree with George Bush on on the world is that, yes, everybody has a right and a duty to defend themselves -- there’s no question about that -- which is precisely what Hezbollah is trying to do. They're trying to get back their prisoners in Israel and the bits of land that are still occupied by Israel.

But the way that the Israelis are trying to defend themselves is actually making themselves more vulnerable. It’s enhancing the political resistance to Israel. It is enhancing the political movements all around the Middle East that are the Islamist movements mostly, like Muslim Brothers, Hezbollah, Hamas. These guys are winning elections all over the place. They’re critical of the U.S. They’re critical of Israel. They’re critical of moderate Arab regimes. They’re close to Iran. What Israel is doing is counterproductive to such an extreme degree that it’s really perplexing how such an enlightened people as the Israelis, who have achieved so much in so many other fields, can be so blind to this issue.

This is a political problem that needs a political solution. There is no military solution to a political problem. And this is a war. Hezbollah and Israel have been doing this for many years. Israel has tried this before, has done it. They’ve occupied. They’ve had free-fire zones, blue lines, red lines, green lines, surrogate armies, no-fly zones, occupation zones. They have tried every trick in the book two or three times. They bombed Beirut Airport now three times in the last 25 years. What more do they have in their arsenal that they haven't used?

And what is fascinating, what they should learn as quickly as possible, is that every time they try to generate security through either punitive military attacks or controlling other peoples' lands in South Lebanon, this only inspires Hezbollah and Hamas now to get missiles and rockets that can have longer range. So all Hezbollah does now is fire these over the Israelis. And you’ve had three groups now in the Arab world in the last 15-20 years who have developed rockets to fire over any kind of zones to hit Israel: Iraq, Hezbollah and Hamas. At some point, you’d think the Israeli leaders or people would wake up and see what is the reality and find an alternative political, diplomatic, peaceful, negotiated and legitimate resolution to this conflict, which I think is the only way out now.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And your sense as a journalist of the impact of the fighting, which is now really on three fronts -- the West Bank, Lebanon and Gaza -- on the other Arab governments in the region, particularly those who have come out critical of Hezbollah and these latest armed actions?

RAMI KHOURI: One of the important dimensions of the phenomenon that we’re witnessing, which is the rise of these Islamist political, social and military groups and resistance groups, like Hamas and Hezbollah, is that they are increasing in their credibility and popularity all over the region, mainly because of what they do, but also because they are a strong antidote to the lack of effectiveness and the declining legitimacy of many of the existing Arab regimes and governments and political elites. So what you’re seeing very clearly all over the region is Arab governments who are criticizing Hezbollah, but Arab societies and political culture, mainstream political culture, and certainly the man and woman on the street, who are increasingly supporting Hezbollah and Hamas.

A lot of people are critical of Hezbollah, to be fair, because they’re saying, well, look, you know, Hezbollah brought about this massive Israeli overreaction and has destroyed Lebanon and is really causing incredible pain to people. So there are criticisms of Hezbollah that are strong and sincere, but the support of Hezbollah, I think, is much, much more significant, and it’s not only about this particular incident in the south.

I think Hezbollah, Hamas and these groups represent an organic natural reaction that has brewed and percolated and now is materializing after 15-20 years, a reaction of societies in the Arab world that has been extremely disappointed by the autocracy and corruption and ineffectiveness of their own Arab regimes, by the brutality and occupation of Israel, and by the rather racist and then now neocolonial and imperial in the military policies -- whatever you want to call them -- of the United States. They’re the reliance on using military force, giving Israel the green light to do whatever it wants; that those three issues -- the Israeli policies, the American policies and Arab governments -- all three have really weighed heavily on Arab societies and normal average decent people, and this is the reaction that we’re seeing.

People are not going to live in a vacuum, and they’re not going to be humiliated and degraded. And they’re going to look for alternatives. And the alternative now that seems to be sweeping this region is the Islamist movements, including the ones doing serious military resistance to Israel. And if you look at Hezbollah, Hezbollah is doing something now which no Arab government in the last 50 years has been able to do, which is to fight a war against Israel, be heavily attacked and keep fighting back, hit Israeli cities with rockets, send one-third of the Israeli populations into shelters for two or three days in a row, and traumatize an entire Israeli population, just as Israel has traumatized Palestinian and Lebanese populations for many, many years. So there is something very significant here politically in terms of what’s going on.

And again, I say this with great sort of sorrow, because it’s not something that we should be proud of or happy about. But it does represent a political shift in the balance of power and the balance of terror, and hopefully it will cause both sides, including when they wake up in the White House, to recognize that only a diplomatic negotiated solution is going to resolve these issues.

AMY GOODMAN: Rami Khouri, we want to thank you very much for being with us, editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, a Palestinian Jordanian, a U.S. citizen now in Amman trying to make his way into Beirut.

2006-07-19T22:32:00.000-04:00

"Stop that shit!"
Palestine is the key to ending the bloodshed in Lebanon
By Uri Avnery07/19/06 "Information Clearing House" -- --

A woman, an immigrant from Russia, throws herself on the ground in total despair in front of her home that has been hit by a missile, crying in broken Hebrew: "My son! My son!" believing him dead. In fact, he was only wounded and sent to the hospital.

Lebanese children, covered with wounds, in Beirut hospitals. The funeral of the victims of a missile in Haifa. The ruins of a whole devastated quarter in Beirut. Inhabitants of the north of Israel fleeing south from the Katyushas. Inhabitants of the south of Lebanon fleeing north from the Israeli air force.

Death, destruction. Unimaginable human suffering.

And the most disgusting sight: George Bush in a playful mood sitting on his chair in St Petersburg, with his loyal servant, Tony Blair, leaning over him, and solving the problem: "See? What they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbullah to stop doing that shit, and it's over."

Thus spoke the leader of the world, and the seven dwarfs - "the great of the world" - say Amen.

Syria? But only a few months ago it was Bush - yes, the same Bush - who induced the Lebanese to drive the Syrians out of their country. Now he wants them to intervene in Lebanon and impose order?

Thirty-one years ago, when the Lebanese civil war was at its height, the Syrians sent their army into Lebanon (invited, of all people, by the Christians). At the time, the then Israeli minister of defence, Shimon Peres, and his associates created hysteria in Israel. They demanded that Israel deliver an ultimatum to the Syrians, to prevent them from reaching the Israeli border. Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister, told me then that that was sheer nonsense, because the best that could happen to Israel was for the Syrian army to spread out along the border. Only thus could calm be assured, the same calm that reigned along our border with Syria.

However, Rabin gave in to the hysteria of the media and stopped the Syrians far from the border. The vacuum thus created was filled by the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 1982, Ariel Sharon pushed the PLO out, and the vacuum was filled by Hizbullah.

All that has happened there since then would not have happened if we had allowed the Syrians to occupy the border from the beginning. The Syrians are cautious, they do not act recklessly.

What was Hassan Nasrallah thinking of, when he decided to cross the border and carry out the guerrilla action that started the current Witches' Sabbath? Why did he do it? And why at this time?

Everybody agrees that Nasrallah is a clever person. He is also prudent. For years he has been assembling a huge stockpile of missiles of all kinds to establish a balance of terror. He knew that the Israeli army was only waiting for an opportunity to destroy them. In spite of that, he carried out a provocation that provided the Israeli government with a perfect pretext to attack Lebanon with the full approval of the world. Why?

Possibly he was asked by Iran and Syria, who had supplied him with the missiles, to do something to divert American pressure from them. And indeed, the sudden crisis has shifted attention away from the Iranian nuclear effort, and it seems that Bush's attitude towards Syria has also changed.

But Nasrallah is far from being a marionette of Iran or Syria. He heads an authentic Lebanese movement, and calculates his own balance sheet of pros and cons. If he had been asked by Iran and/or Syria to do something - for which there is no proof - and he saw that it was contrary to the aims of his movement, he would not have done it.

Perhaps he acted because of domestic Lebanese concerns. The Lebanese political system was becoming more stable and it was becoming more difficult to justify the military wing of Hizbullah. A new armed incident could have helped. (Such considerations are not alien to us either, especially before budget debates.)

But all this does not explain the timing.

After all, Nasrallah could have acted a month before or a month later, a year before or a year later. There must have been a much stronger reason to convince him to enter upon such an adventure at precisely this time.

And indeed there was: Palestine.

Two weeks before, the Israeli army had started a war against the population of the Gaza Strip. There, too, the pretext was provided by a guerrilla action, in which an Israeli soldier was captured. The Israeli government used the opportunity to carry out a plan prepared long before: to break the Palestinians' will to resist and to destroy the newly-elected Palestinian government, dominated by Hamas.

And, of course, to stop the Qassams.

The operation in Gaza is an especially brutal one, and that is how it looks on the world's TV screens. Terrible pictures from Gaza appear daily and hourly in the Arab media. Dead people, wounded people, devastation. Lack of water and medicaments for the wounded and sick. Whole families killed. Children screaming in agony. Mothers weeping. Buildings collapsing.

The Arab regimes, which are all dependent on America, did nothing to help. Since they are also threatened by Islamic opposition movements, they looked at what was happening to Hamas with some Schadenfreude. But tens of millions of Arabs, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf, saw, got excited and angry with their government, crying out for a leader who would bring succor to their besieged, heroic brothers.

Fifty years ago, Gamal Abd-el-Nasser, the new Egyptian leader, wrote that there was a role waiting for a hero. He decided to be that hero himself. For several years, he was the idol of the Arab world, symbol of Arab unity. But Israel used an opportunity that presented itself and broke him in the June 1967 war. After that, the star of Saddam Hussein rose in the firmament. He dared to stand up to mighty America and to launch missiles at Israel, and became the hero of the Arab masses. But he was routed in a humiliating manner by the Americans, spurred on by Israel.

A week ago, Nasrallah faced the same temptation. The Arab world was crying out for a hero, and he said: Here am I! He challenged Israel, and indirectly the United States and the entire West. He started the attack without allies, knowing that neither Iran nor Syria could risk helping him.

Perhaps he got carried away, like Abd-el-Nasser and Saddam before him. Perhaps he misjudged the force of the counter-attack he could expect. Perhaps he really believed that, under the weight of his rockets, the Israeli rear would collapse. (As the Israeli army believed that the Israeli onslaught would break the Palestinian people in Gaza and the Shi'is in Lebanon.)

One thing is clear: Nasrallah would not have started this vicious circle of violence, if the Palestinians had not called for help. Either from cool calculation, or from true moral outrage, or from both - Nasrallah rushed to the rescue of beleaguered Palestine.

The Israeli reaction could have been expected. For years, the army commanders had yearned for an opportunity to eliminate the missile arsenal of Hizbullah and destroy that organization, or at least disarm it and push it far, far from the border. They are trying to do this the only way they know: by causing so much devastation, that the Lebanese population will stand up and compel its government to fulfill Israel's demands.

Will these aims be achieved?

Hizbullah is the authentic representative of the Shi'i community, which makes up 40 per cent of the Lebanese population. Together with the other Muslims, they are the majority in the country. The idea that the weakling Lebanese government - which in any case includes Hizbullah - would be able to liquidate the organization is ludicrous.

The Israeli government demands that the Lebanese army be deployed along the border. This has by now become a mantra. It reveals total ignorance. The Shi'is occupy important positions in the Lebanese army, and there is no chance at all that it would start a fratricidal war against them.

Abroad, another idea is taking shape: that an international force should be deployed on the border. The Israeli government objects to this strenuously. A real international force - unlike the hapless UNIFIL which has been there for decades - would hinder the Israeli army from doing whatever it wants. Moreover, if it were deployed there without the agreement of Hizbullah, a new guerrilla war would start against it. Would such a force, without real motivation, succeed where the mighty Israeli army was routed?

At most, this war, with its hundreds of dead and waves of destruction, will lead to another delicate armistice. The Israeli government will claim victory and argue that it has "changed the rules of the game". Nasrallah (or his successors) will claim that their small organization has stood up to one of the mightiest military machines in the world and written another shining chapter of heroism in the annals of Arab and Muslim history.

No real solution will be achieved, because there is no treatment of the root of the matter: the Palestinian problem.

Many years ago, I was listening on the radio to one of the speeches of Abd-el-Nasser before a huge crowd in Egypt. He was holding forth on the achievements of the Egyptian revolution, when shouts arose from the crowd: "Filastin, ya Gamal!" ("Palestine, oh Gamal!") Whereupon Nasser forgot what he was talking about and started on Palestine, getting more and more carried away.

Since then, not much has changed. When the Palestinian cause is mentioned, it casts its shadow over everything else. That's what has happened now, too.

Whoever longs for a solution must know: there is no solution without settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And there is no solution to the Palestinian problem without negotiations with their elected leadership, the government headed by Hamas.

If one wants to finish, once and for all, with this shit - as Bush so delicately put it - that is the only way.

Uri Avnery is an Israeli journalist, writer and peace activist

2006-07-13T00:34:00.000-04:00

US Woman soldier claims sex harassment in Iraq
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

A female soldier in the US military has refused to serve in Iraq, accusing some of her superiors of using the war zone as a pretext for sexual harassment.

In what is believed to be the first case of a female soldier refusing to serve because she feared sexual harassment, Suzanne Swift, 21, a specialist with the 54th military police company, told the Guardian she did not join her unit when it left for a second tour of duty in Iraq because it meant a return to a regime of harassment.

"It was like their goal to get someone to be their girl for their deployment and usually they wanted someone lower ranking so they could have the upper hand or control," Spc Swift said. "It's like some sick power trip."

Spc Swift's decision to go public in her charges against three of her superiors - is rare in the US military where veteran advocates say women risk retribution if they complain of harassment. But she joins a growing number of US troops who, having enlisted, are refusing service in Iraq. Officially, the Pentagon says there are 4,400 troops absent without leave. Soldiers' advocates believe the true number of deserters is far higher.

Spc Swift joined their ranks on June 11 when she was arrested at her mother's home in Oregon five months after the rest of her unit left for Iraq. She was returned to Fort Lewis, Washington, where a spokesman, Joe Hitt, said she could face desertion charges. Her complaints of sexual harrassment are part of the same investigation.

The soldier says the mistreatment began soon after she enlisted at 19, lulled by the assurances of her recruiters that she would never find herself in a war zone. Less than a year later, she was on her way to Kerbala, in southern Iraq, one of three women troops in her company. Soon after her arrival in Kuwait in February 2004, Spc Swift was propositioned.

She said the harassment became unrelenting. But it was not atypical. Since the eve of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, some 508 women serving in the military have complained of sexual assault, says the Miles Foundation, a private advocacy group. "Sexual harassment and sexual assault is an epidemic in the army," said Larry Hildes, Spc Swift's lawyer. "There is an attitude in the military that has been there as long as there have been women in the military that they are not real soldiers unless they suck it up and take whatever is dished out to them."

Spc Swift says she reported the harassment to the unit's equal opportunities officer and no action was taken. She later began a sexual relationship with a superior.

Spc Swift now says that that relationship, which lasted three months, was coerced, and that she was threatened with being sent on dangerous assignments. "They have absolute power of life and death," she said. "If someone has to run across a minefield, and they don't like you, guess where you are going."

She said that when she ended the relationship, she was repeatedly singled out for harsh treatment. The superior humiliated her in front of fellow soldiers, forced her to carry an outsize wall clock - including to the latrine and during physical training - when she reported late for duty, and wrote her up for poor conduct.

Spc Swift did not report the harassment. The two were assigned to different units when they returned to Fort Lewis in February last year. A week later, she asked another superior where to report for duty. She says he replied: "In my bed, naked." She filed a complaint, and was treated, her mother says, like a "traitor".

When the order came down that she faced redeployment, Spc Swift was resigned at first. But last January on the eve of departure, she turned to her mother in the kitchen and said she was going on the run. "I couldn't do it - remembering the way that people treat you when you are over there," she said. "When you are over there, you are lower than dirt, you are expendable as a soldier in general, and as a woman, it's worse."

2006-07-10T11:39:00.000-04:00

Himalayan Heartbeat in Canada
Ottawa, Canada- 8 July 2006: Renowned Canadian mountaineer, Andrew Brash, who helped save Australian Lincoln Hall in the Mount Everest, said that the Himalayas present extreme challenges that humble any seasoned mountaineer but a spontaneously presented human tragedy that made him abandon his climb to help save another person has profoundly affected his life afterwards. He was speaking on Friday at a program in the Canadian capital, Ottawa.
Canada Forum for Nepal, a Canadian organization that focuses on scholarly exchanges between Canada and Nepal on contemporary issues of Nepal, organized a multifaceted cultural evening, “Himalayan Heartbeat: Nepal Cultural Evening” on 07 July 2006. More than 180 people were present, including former Foreign Minister Hon Flora MacDonald, former Secretary of State for Asia Pacific Hon David Kilgour and many other prominent Canadians.
As principle guest, Andrew Brash presented a breathtaking landscape of Nepal and spectacular scenery of his personal journey from Katmandu to near the summit of Mount Everest. The video footage and slides of his journey vividly presented how humbling the experience of climbing Mount Everest is. He touched the hearts of the audience with the story of Lincoln Hall’s rescue and the feelings the rescue brought to Andrew. Brash touched on the idea that Nepal should focus on building a just and equitable society.
Nepal Specialist - Richard Harmston, said there are four major players (Seven Party Alliance, the Maoists, the King and the civil society) internally and three major players internationally operating in Nepal. Among the international players, he viewed the role of UN as positive and that of the USA and India as questionable. He was of the opinion that an equitable society can take the country much further in a positive direction than leaving the wealth in “King’s basement.” He added, inclusive and accommodative approach is where Nepal should focus and Canada should help facilitate this process.
In his welcome speech, a founding member of Canada Forum for Nepal, Pramod Dhakal said that Nepalese people have brought historic and unprecedented changes in the political and social landscape of Nepal in recent months but the peace is fragile and volatile. He asked the audience to help build a peaceful, democratic and prosperous Nepal by being part of the Canada Forum for Nepal. He said that like in any country the key to realize permanent progress in Nepal remains in igniting the internally available human energy of the country.
Nepalese youth artists performed beautiful dances that spell bounded the audience and a movie “Ujeli: A Child Bride in Nepal” was screened, which presented a very poignant theme of social justice to the audience. Also there was a spectacular display of Nepalese arts and crafts in the Nepali bazaar.

Canada Forum for Nepal
8 Thornbury Crescent, Ottawa, ON K2G 6C6 Canada
Web: http://www.cffn.ca/ Email: info@cffn.ca

2006-07-04T15:43:00.000-04:00

The Sodomy Squadron: Watch out, America!
From AlterNet

Pam Spaulding uncovered the existence of the real movers and shakers behind the radical homosexual agenda: The Sodomy Squadron.

...Washington's America is no longer the America of today. The Judeo-Christian compass that once guided our leaders and citizens has been displaced. A new moral order, one fueled by hedonism and a mutated form of individualism, has taken its place. Translation: Christians have become strangers in their own country.

...If one digs deeper into the cultural psyche of America, he will find that Christianity no longer sets the standard for proper human behavior. The Sodomy Squadron has been flying high, for the Supreme Court has deemed sodomy a fundamental right, the Federal Marriage Amendment was DOA, and Massachusetts strong-armed the Catholic Church into ceasing its adoption program when it demanded that a Catholic agency allow same-sex couples to adopt children under the care of the Roman Catholic Church.

Who could disagree? Christians really have become strangers in America. All they've got anymore is a Christian president with an almost exclusively Christian cabinet whose biggest supporters are conservative Christians to whom he panders relentlessly, including appointing two openly Christian justices to the Supreme Court, an almost entirely Christian Congress, who starts each day's session with a prayer, guaranteed freedom of religion, money that says "In God We Trust," a pledge of allegiance that describes us as "one nation under God," television networks who will accept advertising from conservative religious groups but not liberal political groups, schools who are incorporating a religious belief into science classes, gays being denied marriage in order to protect its "sanctity," women denied access to emergency birth control for no legitimate health reasons but because some religious people have a problem with it, Catholic communities being built in Florida, Museums of Creationism springing up, laws still on the books that respect Christians' holy day (like in Indiana, where you still can't shop for a car or buy booze on a Sunday), and churches not required to pay taxes.

Do the math, people. That adds up to total domination of The Sod Squad!
(Pam's House Blend)

2006-07-03T14:32:00.000-04:00

Heather's Web: I came across Heather's website http://www.dooce.com this morning. I found it cool and interesting. Her name is Heather B. Armstrong. She, her husband, a two year old daughter and a dog live in Salt Lake City, Utah in the States.

She is a Stay at Home Mom. In a previous life she was a web designer, who lived in Los Angeles, California, for several years.

She was raised as a Mormon. She never had a cup of coffee until she was 23-years-old. She had sex for the first time age 22.

She started her website in February 2001. A year later she was fired from her job for this website because she had written stories that included people in her workplace.

Her website chronicles her life from a time when she was single and making a lot of money as a web designer in Los Angeles, to when she was dating the man who would become her husband, to when she lost her job and lived life as an unemployed drunk, to when she got married ,got pregnant, the period when she went through the postpartum depression that landed her in a mental hospital.

According to her, in October 2005 she began running enough ads on this website that her husband was able to quit his job and become a Stay at Home Father as well.

However, I haven't seen much ads on her site. No idea what she means by "enough advertisement." However, the site worth a visit.

2006-07-02T10:59:00.000-04:00

Pakistan: How many man you need to put a light bulb in? At least one, just to put it into......

Operation to remove light bulb from inmate's anus

Thursday June 29, MULTAN, Pakistan (Reuters) - Fateh Mohammad, a prison inmate in Pakistan, says he woke up last weekend with a glass light bulb in his anus.

On Wednesday night, doctors brought Mohammad's misery to an end after a one-and-a-half hour operation to remove the object.

"Thanks Allah, now I feel comfort. Today, I had my breakfast. I was just drinking water, nothing else," Mohammad, a grey-beared man in his mid-40s, told Reuters from a hospital bed in the southern central city of Multan.

"We had to take it out intact," said Dr. Farrukh Aftab at Nishtar Hospital. "Had it been broken inside, it would be a very very complicated situation."

Mohammad, who is serving a four-year sentence for making liquor, prohibited for Muslims, said he was shocked when he was first told the cause of his discomfort. He swears he didn't know the bulb was there.

"When I woke up I felt a pain in my lower abdomen, but later in hospital, they told me this," Mohammad said.

"I don't know who did this to me. Police or other prisoners."

The doctor treating Mohammad said he'd never encountered anything like it before, and doubted the felon's story that someone had drugged him and inserted the bulb while he was comatose.

2006-06-20T23:09:00.000-04:00

Raising a voice
In Canada, they're the `invisible' press. They hope to change that with a new online journal, writes Nicholas Keung
May 27, 2006. 03:25 AM
NICHOLAS KEUNG
IMMIGRATION/DIVERSITY REPORTER

Mohsin Abbas discovered his destiny in Pakistan at age 8, when he found himself near a roadside tea shop watching with fascination as a crowd of people — some illiterate, others too poor to buy a newspaper — debated a column in Maskriq, the main daily in the industrial border city of Sialkot.

"I saw men beating their wives, and kids working as child labour, and I always wondered: Who's responsible for all these problems?" recalls Abbas, now 32. "Then I was at this tea shop looking at these people talking about these stories in the newspaper, and I knew I could use words as a tool to express myself and expose these injustices I saw."

Under a regime often criticized for its restrictions on press freedom, Abbas started freelancing as a journalist while still in high school, served as a stringer for Associated Press and Reuters in war-torn Kashmir, and as a staff writer at the Urdu-language Daily Pakistan, where he worked from 1993 until 2002.

He never shied away from writing about sensitive issues — even police violence, the politically risky topic that ultimately forced him to flee in 2002.

The irony is that Abbas, like many other journalists living in exile in Canada, has been muzzled again in a land that prides itself on freedom of speech. So much so that members of the organization Journalists in Exile, sharing Abbas' frustration, this month launched their own online magazine — at http://www.jexcanada.com/ — to create a place to be heard again.

"I don't have any fear in Canada and I feel free to write about anything that I like," says Abbas, who has worked in sales, in factories and freelancing for BBC news online while awaiting a decision on his refugee claim. "The problem is there's no outlets for our voices to be heard, because the Canadian media would not take a chance on us. I took up the profession for my passion. It makes me crazy that I don't even have a voice now."

Back in Pakistan, Abbas quit only when his life was at stake. He broke a story in February 2002 alleging police involvement in the murders of two journalists, including a Daily Pakistan colleague who had been writing a book about the press and the police.

"The police took my father for questions twice, and my five sisters were begging me to leave the country."

Abbas spent several months wandering through Dubai, London and the United States in dim hopes of returning.

But when Pakistan passed a "defamation ordinance" in October 2002, further tightening censorship, he knew there was no going back. That's when he contacted exiled journalist advocacy groups in Canada.

Like Abbas, most exiled journalists are toiling in two or more "survival jobs" to make ends meet, often while separated from families half a world away. Yet members feel compelled to contribute to the magazine in their free time, to have a forum for issues important to their ethnic communities — issues they feel are neglected in the mainstream media.

They are contributing columns, articles and cartoons, and the website includes links to individual blogs and a special area where journalists can pitch story ideas for the perusal of Canadian media outlets.

Maryam Aghvami, president of the six-year-old exile group, notes that these journalists are often sought-after sources for Canadian media.

"You spend two hours on the phone with a (Canadian) journalist to brief them on issues and get them contacts in the community. As much as I love them, you don't hear from them till their next story," laments the former Reuters reporter from Iran.

"They don't always have the expertise in these communities, and we want to help them so they don't screw up stories. But for us, this is another form of exploitation."

Earlier this year, Aghvami represented the Ethnic Media Press Council of Canada at a federal government news conference in Mississauga on immigration, and found herself passed over when an organizer found out she was with "the ethnic press."

"I asked him after the news conference why I didn't get to ask my questions, and he explained to me that the Q&A was for local and national media only," says Aghvami. "It's shocking and frustrating when others treat journalists like myself with such disrespect, that we're less than others."

Among her group's 70 members across Canada, none has landed a permanent mainstream media job, even though some had previous experience in international English-language media. While a few find freelance work, most volunteer for shoestring community publications to "keep their skills fresh."

"I guess our motivation is to get our self-confidence and self-esteem back, so we can still pick up a pen and write again," says Aghvami, who left Iran in 2001, when political reformists there lost ground to religious conservatives and she no longer felt safe as a female journalist.

She was never jailed or tortured, but when reporting for foreign media she'd get calls from government officials questioning her on her interview subjects.

She was on contract — and still occasionally freelances — as an associate producer with CBC's Fifth Estate, but she has also found bread-and-butter work in the insurance industry and for translation services.

Morteza (Mori) Abdolalian, JEX's co-founder, says the group's members, who hail from two dozen countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, reflect the rich life experiences of many new Canadians and can help local media see "the other side of the community."

"We are the invisible journalists in Canada," says the political writer, who left Iran in the 1976 to study in the Philippines. "It seems that journalists in the West don't really see us as one of them, though we're just as well trained and experienced."

A founder of the Iranian students association at Manila's University of the East, Abdolalian was critical of Iran's theocratic regime in the campus papers, Akhgar and Dawn. It was no surprise that he was greeted by intelligence officers at the Tehran airport upon his graduation in 1982.

He was imprisoned twice by authorities, leading up to his ultimate escape back to the Philippines the next year. When he began being harassed by some Iranian students and embassy staff in Manila, he moved to Japan with a Red Cross-issued refugee passport. After being stateless for five years, he arrived in Canada in 1990.

"We need to speak up for those who can't," says Abdolalian, who runs his own news Weblog at http://www.moriab.blogspot.com/. "This is in my blood because I truly believe in freedom and democracy. It all starts with a voice."

Saleem Samad, 54, an exiled journalist from Bangladesh, says the risks and threats he and many peers faced in defending press freedom are hardly fathomable to Canadians.

He was threatened many times and jailed twice over his three decades in South Asia's English-language press — once blindfolded and left in an isolated cell for five days without food or water.

But nothing could sway him from his passion for writing about conflicts and terrorism.
He fled to Canada in 2004, after a source within the intelligence services warned him his life was in danger.

"My friend just said: `You must go. Now!'

"Things are going wrong everywhere, and we need to expose them to the rest of the world. If I stopped writing about these things, I'd better retire from the profession," says Samad, a former reporter with The Bangladesh Observer and New Nation and a correspondent for Time Magazine's Asia edition.

Samad started a job as a security guard in Toronto a month ago, and hopes to see his wife of 25 years and their two children join him in Canada in September. He is a volunteer editor for JEX's magazine.

"The online magazine is an important forum for exiled journalists to get published," Samad says, "because this is the only platform that's open to us." #

Source: Toronto Star, Sat May. 27, 2006

Link:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1148681732828

2006-06-20T22:19:00.000-04:00

Killing Iraqi Children
By Jacob G. Hornberger
06/20/06
"Lew Rockwell" -- -- In a short editorial, the Detroit News asked an i nteresting question :

“Some war critics are suggesting Iraq terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi should have been arrested and prosecuted rather than bombed into oblivion. Why expose American troops to the danger of an arrest, when bombs work so well?”

Here’s one possible answer: In order not to send a five-year-old Iraqi girl into oblivion with the same 500-pound bombs that sent al-Zarqawi into oblivion.

Of course, I don’t know whether the Detroit News editorial board, if pressed, would say that the death of that little Iraqi girl was “worth it.” Maybe the board wasn’t even aware that that little girl had been killed by the bombs that killed Zarqawi when it published its editorial. But I do know one thing: killing Iraqi children and other such “collateral damage” has long been acceptable and even “worth it” to U.S. officials as part of their long-time foreign policy toward Iraq.

This U.S. government mindset was expressed perfectly by former U.S. official Madeleine Albright when she stated that the deaths of half a million Iraqi children from the U.S. and UN sanctions against Iraq had, in fact, been “worth it.” By “it” she was referring to the U.S. attempt to oust Saddam Hussein from power through the use of the sanctions. Even though that attempt did not succeed, U.S. officials still felt that the deaths of the Iraqi children had been worth trying to get rid of Saddam.

It’s no different with respect to President Bush’s war on Iraq and the resulting occupation, which has killed or maimed tens of thousands of Iraqi people, including countless children. (The Pentagon has long had a policy of not keeping count of the number of Iraqi people, including children, it kills.) In the minds of U.S. officials, the deaths and maiming of all those Iraqi people, including the children, while perhaps unfortunate “collateral damage,” have, in fact, been worth it.

That’s why U.S. officials gave nary a thought to the death of that five-year-old girl who was bombed into oblivion with the bomb that did the same to Zarqawi. The child’s death was “worth it” because the bomb also killed a terrorist, which U.S. officials believe, brings the Middle East another step closer to peace and freedom.

Wars of aggression versus defensive wars
Some would argue that such “collateral damage” is just an unfortunate byproduct of war. War is brutal. People get killed in war. Compared with the two world wars, not that many people have been killed in Iraq, proponents of the Iraq war and occupation would claim.

Such claims, however, miss an important point: U.S. military forces have no right, legal or moral, even to be in Iraq killing anyone. Why? Because neither the Iraqi people nor their government ever attacked the United States. The Iraqi people had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington. Thus, this was an optional war against Iraq, one that President Bush and his military forces did not have to wage.

The attack on Iraq was akin to, say, attacking Bolivia or Uruguay or Mongolia, after 9/11. Those countries also had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks and so it would have been illegal and immoral for President Bush to have ordered an invasion and occupation of those countries as well. To belabor the obvious, the fact that some people attacked the United States on 9/11 didn’t give the United States the right to attack countries that didn’t have anything to do with the 9/11 attacks.

That made the United States the aggressor nation and Iraq the defending nation in this conflict. That incontrovertible fact holds deep moral implications, as well as legal ones, for U.S. soldiers who kill people in Iraq, including people who are simply trying to oust the occupiers from Iraq. Don’t forget that aggressive war was punished as a war crime at Nuremberg.

Suppose an armed robber enters a person’s home and the owner’s neighbor comes over to help him. The homeowner and his neighbor fire at the robber who fires back, killing both the homeowner and his neighbor. Can the robber claim self-defense? No, because he had no right to be in the home in the first place. The intruder is guilty of murder, both morally and legally, because he doesn’t have the right to be where he is when he shoots the homeowner and his friend.

The situation is no different in Iraq because U.S. soldiers don’t have any right to be there. “But they were ordered to invade Iraq by their commander in chief.” They could have refused to obey orders to deploy to Iraq, just as Lt. Ehren Watada has done . Watada refused to loyally obey the orders of his commander in chief. Instead, he chose to obey his conscience and also to fulfill the oath he took to support and defend the Constitution.

Many Americans have a difficult time processing this because they simply want to block out of their minds that their own federal government – the paternalistic government that takes care of them with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, and education and protects them from drug dealers, immigrants, terrorists, and big oil – would ever do anything gravely wrong.

Let’s put the situation this way. Suppose a coalition of Muslim countries successfully invaded the United States to overthrow the Bush regime and that foreign troops were now occupying the country and supervising new elections. Suppose some Americans began violently resisting the occupation and that British citizens came over to help them. While there undoubtedly would be some Americans supporting the foreign occupation of America and cooperating with it, my hunch is that most Americans would support the resistance.

Or put it this way: Suppose it was the Soviet Union that had done everything to Iraq that the U.S. government has done: imposed brutal sanctions that contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children, invaded Iraq, and then had Soviet troops occupying the country while organizing elections, killing insurgents and resisters, censoring the press, confiscating guns, conducting warrantless searches, detaining people without trials, and torturing and sexually abusing detainees.

Is there any doubt that a large segment of the American people, especially conservatives and neo-conservatives, would be railing like banshees against the Soviet communist forces in Iraq?
War versus occupation

Moreover, what people often forget is that the United States is no longer at war in Iraq. This is an occupation, not a war. The war ended when Saddam Hussein’s government fell. At that point, U.S. forces could have exited the country. (Or they could have exited the country when it became obvious that Saddam’s infamous WMDs were nonexistent.) Instead, the president opted to have the troops remain in Iraq to “rebuild” the country and to establish “democracy,” and the troops opted to obey his orders to do so. Occupying Iraq, like invading Iraq, was an optional course of action.

As an occupation force serving a sovereign regime, U.S. forces are not engaged in a war but instead are simply serving as a domestic police force for the sovereign Iraqi regime. The problem, however, is that they’ve been trained as soldiers, not policemen.

The military mindset is totally different from the police mindset. Assume that there is a suspected terrorist hiding among 10 innocent people. How would the military and the police deal with that situation?

The military would not chance the suspected terrorist’s escaping or his killing a soldier in a gun battle. As we have seen in the al-Zarqawi killing, the military would simply drop a bomb on the suspect, even knowing that the innocent people around him would also be killed. In the mind of the military, the “collateral damage” would be worth it, even if it included children.

This military mindset was put on display a few years ago by a CIA paramilitary operation in Yemen. Convinced that an automobile in Yemen was being driven by an al-Qaeda terrorist, the CIA fired a missile into the car, killing all six people in the car, including an American citizen. As the Detroit News would ask, why bother with trying to capture the suspects and then go through all the hassles associated with extradition and trial when one missile can do the trick? And how exactly do we know that everyone in the car was guilty of terrorism and deserving of the death penalty? Because the CIA (which claimed that there were WMDs in Iraq) said so.
Consider another real-world example. A few years ago, the Washington, D.C., area was terrorized by two gunmen who were sporadically shooting and killing people at random. The police were having a very difficult time capturing them. One day, someone spotted the suspected snipers parked at a highway roadside park where lots of other cars were parked.
Taking the chance that the suspected snipers could escape to kill again, the cops slowly surrounded the roadside park. They then approached the car and took both of the suspects into custody, after which they were tried and convicted.

What would have been the military response? Drop a couple of 500-pound bombs on them, just as they did with the terrorist Zarqawi. After all, in the words of the Detroit News, why take the chance that the suspects could escape and kill even more people? So what if the bystanders, including children, would be also killed in the process? That collateral damage would be worth it because the suspects would very likely have gone on to kill more people than the bombs did. Of course, the dead would include American children, rather than Iraqi children, but certainly that wouldn’t be an important distinction to the Pentagon, or would it?

That raises another distinction between the military and the police. It’s not difficult to see that the military holds the Bill of Rights in contempt, which is precisely why the Pentagon established its torture and sex abuse camps in Cuba and former Soviet-bloc countries – so as to avoid the constraints of the U.S. Constitution and any interference by our country’s federal judiciary.
It is not a coincidence that in the Pentagon’s three-year effort to “rebuild” Iraq it has done nothing to construct a judicial system that would have independent judges issuing search and arrest warrants or that would protect due process, habeas corpus, jury trials, and the right to counsel. To the military, all that is anathema, not only because it would presumably enable lots of guilty people to go free but also because it might inhibit the ability of the military to take out people without having to go through all those legal and technical niceties.

Several months ago, a U.S. attorney told a federal court of appeals that the United States is as much a battleground in the war on terrorism as other countries in the world, including Iraq. Heaven forbid that the American people ever permit the U.S. military to expand to the United States the war-on-terrorism tactics it has employed overseas.

More important, all too many Americans have yet to confront the moral implications of invading and occupying Iraq. U.S. officials continue to exhort the American people to judge the war and occupation on whether it proves to be “successful” in establishing “stability” and “democracy” in Iraq. If so, the idea will be that the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis, including countless Iraqi children, will have been worth it. It would be difficult to find a more morally repugnant position than that.

Jacob Hornberger [send him mail] is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

2006-06-20T21:25:00.000-04:00

Kathmandu Post Editorial: Where're women?

The country is on the verge of stepping into the new era. The optimism is in air. Nepalis are openly and eagerly taking part in the discussions of inclusive democracy, and enthusiastically raising strong demands to address the issues of oppressed, suppressed, marginalized, disadvantaged, and discriminated people. Nepali people are going to write a unique history of winning independence and sovereignty on their own. Unfortunately, despite being overwhelmed by the passion of change, we Nepalis are unknowingly being drifted towards the patriarchal hegemony, once again. There is a serious competition among the parties to take the credit of historic movement and epoch-making decisions. However, it seems no party has paid heed to the fact that all the decisions are being taken only by men, and the women who cover over 50 percent population are being pathetically ignored.

The proclamation of the reinstated House of Representatives to include 33 percent women in the government, and the right to the women to give their name to their children are certainly historic decisions and will have a long-lasting positive impact on the society. But that is not enough. Women have to have their say in the state building process. When the political and social spheres of the country are seeing monumental changes, the women lot cannot and should not be sidelined. It's eye shoring to see all the men in the SPA and Maoist leaderships. Obviously, it cannot be changed immediately, but men's overwhelming majority in the party leadership should not be an excuse to exclude women from entering into the peace-talks or in the interim statute drafting committee. We urge both the SPA government and the Maoists to immediately induct women in the processes. We do not want the interim statute to be limping in the absence of the voice of the better halves.

Unfortunately, women who picketed the Singha Durbar for their just rights have been forcefully removed. The Post strongly urges the SPA and the Maoists to immediately address the women's demand. There has to be proper (if not 33 or 50 percent at once) representation of women in the interim constitution drafting committee. The argument that the experts committee cannot be balanced in terms of gender is not well founded because there are women who are competent and experienced than anyone in the committee. Similarly, the government, committed to providing 33 percent seats to women in bureaucracy and other nominated positions, is not paying heed to this provision. As a result, in almost all the nominations the gender discrimination is alarmingly high. We also ask the government to follow what the House has declared, and provide due recognition to the people who occupy over half of the sky.

2006-06-20T21:13:00.000-04:00

INTERVIEW WITH PRACHANDA
Excerpts of a recent interview with Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Prachanda alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal:

Q. Which name do you prefer to be addressed by- Chairman, Prachanda or Puspa Kamal Dahal?

Prachanda: I prefer Chairman and Prachanda. The name Puspa Kamal Dahal represents a certain culture while the name Prachanda represents a feeling and ideology that intends to take the whole country forward independently. Therefore, I want that all of my friends and the Nepali people recognise me with the name Prachanda.

Q. Your name has caused a big shake-up in the political sector. You remained underground for 25 years. Now you have abandoned the underground life and entered public life. How do you feel?

Prachanda: I had a different life before I went underground. I used to teach Science in High School. I was involved in politics as well. I was a member of the Party. We boycotted the Panchayat elections of 2038 BS. Then I became totally underground. My situation after the 1990 popular movement was almost like it is today. I was open to the media and was not completely underground. A totally new process began after the start of the People's War (in 1996). Now the situation is somewhat similar to 1990.

Q. You have suddenly landed on the liberal political ground from a violent political base, especially after the 12-point understanding with the seven parties. What were the reasons behind the understanding?

Prachanda: Our political base was not that rigid. Ours is a party which had to wage a People's War for just rights despite entering Parliament. We were the third largest party in Parliament.... We lawfully tried to raise some issues- issues related to nationality, people's daily requirements and democracy- even back then. We are not rigid. What we said even after starting the People's War is that we are not communists of the traditional type. Even after the start of the People's War, we have always been ready to accept the people's verdict. We had told the government during the very first peace talks let's hold constituent assembly elections; that the solution to our problem lay there. We were never into rigid politics. We were very much wide and flexible.

Q. You took up arms for political change. Isn't that rigid?

Prachanda: To take up weapons is just a form of politics. I don't think you become rigid once you take up arms. Taking up weapons is also a form of flexibility.

Q. While talking about dialogue and sustainable peace, you once said, in a different context though, that even the king was acceptable?

Prachanda: I didn't say this in that sense. What I had said is we are ready to accept what the people decide through constituent assembly elections. We are ready to accept if the people's verdict is in favour of the king or monarchy...The situation was different when Birendra was the king. In our understanding, the relevance of king and monarchy ended after the royal palace massacre.

Q. You said the relevance is over. But you twice held talks with the governments of the same irrelevant king. What was the compulsion?

Prachanda: The relevance is over indeed. Right after the royal palace massacre, we said the institutional development of republicanism was necessary in Nepal. We are still firm and clear on this stand. As regards to the issue of talks; a war was on between two forces. The initiatives for talks had been taken to avoid further bloodshed between the two sides. It didn't mean we accepted the relevance of monarchy.... When the UML and Deuba were in power last time, we said we would hold talks with the master not with the servants. Because we thought talks would mean something only if we knew who had the real power. Enough talking was done with the parties. But nothing happened.

Q. Who first saw the need for the 12-point understanding after the king began his direct rule- you or the parties?

Prachanda: On our part, we had seen the historic importance of the unity between our party and the parliamentary parties right after the royal palace massacre. But the seven parties didn't listen to us. We had said also in the Siliguri (India) meeting that a working unity was needed between the parties and us. On their part, the seven parties, too, couldn't do much for the people in the democratic period. The parliamentary parties were so much indulged in their power games that they could not grasp what we were trying to say, or let's say we could not make them understand properly. Their situation was totally different after February 1, 2005. Then the seven parties came and we signed the 12-point understanding.

Q. Had any international power pushed you or the seven parties towards each other?

Prachanda: It's both. If you talk negatively, Gyanendra pushed us towards each other. His negative actions pushed us towards each other. I doubt if this change would have come, hadn't some international powers, mainly India, urged us (Maoists and parties) to "do something" jointly. Had the seven parties somebody who could think independently, the country would have been different right after the royal palace massacre. The country would not have suffered this much, had there been leaders who could think for themselves. This time, India helped the 12-point understanding in a positive way.

Q. To the seven parties?

Prachanda: Let's not say seven parties; mainly the UML and the Nepali Congress.

Q. But no understanding seems to be building between you and the UML?

Prachanda: It is building as per the need. They, too, are in the seven-party alliance, apparently. Let's say it's building. But they might be thinking that they would lose their ground if we enter peaceful politics. In our opinion, it's a narrow-minded thought. Let me tell you one thing, our talks team was in Kathmandu during the first round of talks. We were raising the issue of constituent assembly. There was a wave of encouragement among the people. The then Prime Minister Deuba was not in a position to do anything on the issue of constituent assembly. After we realised that the peace talks were going nowhere, we planned to attack Dang. After the attacks in Dang, the UML leaders became happy. May be they thought that it would be a great loss to the UML if we entered peaceful politics. But this was not on our mind. We were concerned about giving an outlet to the crisis and taking the country forward. They thought "Thank God! You saved us" when we attacked Dang.

Q. A huge shakeup took place after the 12-point understanding. The House of Representatives was restored and it took a lot of decisions. You have come out in public and look very calm and relaxed. It seems as if you are eagerly enjoying the talks. What is the truth?

Prachanda: This is not the truth. Though it looks that way, it's not like that. The 12-point understanding was reached after a lot of hard work. This is something our party had been thinking about for the past four years. Our Indian friends had contacted and talked with us before the king's coup. We were in Rolpa then. But the right environment for it was created only after Gyanendra took over on February 1. There isn't that much brainwork done by the seven parties behind the 12-point understanding. It would have been great had this understanding been built on their (seven parties') own vision. The understanding lacks depth as it was formed amidst the negative moves of Gyanendra and India's advice (to the seven parties and Maoists) to move ahead positively. We had told the seven parties when they put forward the House restoration issue that this will provide the king and monarchy a back door. Even among the seven parties, six were not in favour of House restoration. But the Nepali Congress could not give up this slogan. Girijababu could not abandon it. We knew that a design was hidden in this (House restoration) slogan...We knew this a year before the 12-point understanding was reached. We went ahead with the understanding despite knowing this. We had no other alternative to agitate the Nepali people to a new level of awareness.

Q. Dialogue with India was on while you were still in Rolpa, before the King's coup?

Prachanda: We were in direct contact. Indian friends were there. They said the House should be restored. We said House restoration had no relevance. It is our conclusion that the people have stood up now in this fashion because of the 10-year long People's War and the 12-point understanding. The people stood up under the cover of the 12-point understanding because a direct confrontation through the People's War would lead to much bloodshed. House restoration was not the people's demand. This was not even on their mind. We have taken it (House restoration) as a recurrence of what happened in 1951. Therefore the people still need to be alert.

Q. But the mass movement has stopped?

Prachanda: Rather than saying the movement stopped, let's say it was time to change its form. There was no situation for the movement to go on the way it was going. It was slightly divided as well. There was a change in the political situation.

Q. How can the talks move forward in such an artificial environment?

Prachanda: This thing is very important. We will stick to the dialogue process till the end. It is our objective that a peaceful outlet is found. But the seven-party leaders are creating an artificial environment. They are doing the opposite. Not respecting the people's feelings. We want to keep the pressure on from the ground... If the talks fail, there will definitely be an October Revolution of its own kind in Nepal. We are ready to lead that revolution.

Q. This means you are ready to wait till October?

Prachanda: What I mean, in clear words, is that if the seven parties do not understand by October, then the situation will move towards an October Revolution.

Q. How optimistic are you? Do you doubt Girija Prasad Koirala's honesty?

Prachanda: Rather than Koirala's honesty, how he will run the politics is the major thing. In my first meeting with him three years back, I had told him "You accept a republic, we will accept multiparty. Then the country will become new. Let's make a new Nepal." He had replied immediately, "Congress cannot go for a republic right now." He is still where he was three years back. He mentioned ceremonial king only yesterday. But this ceremonial thing doesn't work in Nepal. This proves how much rigid he is. This concept of a ceremonial king will not work- one, because of the army, and two, because of the king's own character.

Q. Do you personally feel that the talks will be successful?

Prachanda: I don't think the seven-party leaders are in favour of making the talks successful. And I don't think the international power centres, too, are in favour of giving Nepal and Nepalis a forward-looking exit from the current crisis by making the talks successful. To tell you directly, I haven't seen the signs for the talks to be successful. But again, the Nepali people want the talks to be successful and our party, too, wants the same. It depends on how much the people's and our party's initiatives can be taken forward. The talks will be successful if the pressure can be increased.

Q. What kind of republicanism is it that you have been talking about?

Prachanda: There shouldn't be the parliamentary republicanism, which is in practice in other countries, in Nepal. That doesn't solve the problem. There's no question of an autocracy. We need a republicanism of our own kind.

Q. You have envisioned a people's republic, no?

Prachanda: Mao Zedong's People's Republic cannot fulfill the needs of today's world. It cannot address today's political awareness appropriately. Mao said cooperative party theory; we called it competitive party theory. We have said let's move ahead from the conventional People's Republic and develop it as per the specialties of the 21st century.

Q. You do not follow the old concept of communism?

Prachanda: Definitely not. What happened without competition? In the USSR, Stalin gave no place to competition and went ahead in a monolithic way. What was the result?

Q. Let's talk about the economy. The 21st century world is a free-market world. How do you see the open market economic policy?

Prachanda: The economy should not be given a free rein in the name of a free market. We should take the middle way. Words like libralisation and globalisation are being much touted these days. But if you look at it closely, the very supporters of these theories have not implemented it in their own countries. The most powerful countries and America themselves have not implemented it. They have referred it to the poorest countries. Competition has been referred to undeveloped countries. We are against that policy. It's not right.

Q. The country's resources haven't increased. The number of mouths to feed has. In such a situation, do you think the country's development is as easy as you are saying?

Prachanda: I think development is not that difficult a thing. The main thing is what policies and plans the state adopts and what kind of programmes it brings forward for the millions of people. This is the main thing. One hundred years back, we were very much self-dependent. We were not economically weaker than others. If you compare us with many countries of the world, you will know that we are not weak. Others kept progressing and we kept going downhill. We have serious problems in the policies adopted by the state. What I think is if the state has the right programmes and vision, then there are only 200 million mouths but 400 hands. If the 400 million hands are put to work in the right way, imagine where this could take the country in 10 years.

However, we have to cut down certain things to save money. I have been saying that we do not need this 90 thousand-strong army. We can cut it down by 80 thousand. 10 thousand is enough. And then see how much capital we will have. It's not out of any personal grudge that we want to abolish the monarchy. They have amassed hundreds of billions of rupees. Imagine the kind of capital we will have if that is nationalised. Won't miracles happen if we then mobilise the 400 million hands? We can earn millions from our herbs. We have so much Yarchagumba. Let's open processing factories where it is found. Thousands will get jobs and we can earn hundreds of millions of rupees. Money will start growing there.

Q. You just mentioned about decommissioning the army. What will happen to your army?

Prachanda: The same for the Liberation Army. I have also been training them now. There is no use of increasing the number of our army, either. We don't have the status to beat the Indian or the Chinese army even with our 30 thousand and the 90 thousand-strong royal army. We don't have the status to beat anyone. You go through history; the only thing the Nepali Army has done after the Sugauli Treaty is to kill the people. We can ensure security by forming the people into a militia. If all citizens are made to undergo a five-year military training, there will be 250 million soldiers ready. Once that army is ready, even if India or China attacks, we can save the country. But even if we make a 500 thousand-strong army and keep it in barracks, it cannot fight anyone. What's the use of it?

Q. That means the management of arms and armies will not be a stumbling block on the way to a constituent assembly?

Prachanda: In my opinion, it will not and should not. If the seven-party leaders are really serious about the country, peace and development, this problem will not come. It will not come from our side. We are going to put forward this proposal. I have already talked about it. Let's cut down the armies of both sides. Let's train the people into a militia. The militia will maintain law and order. Let's keep the army only to train the people.

Q. Business people, industrialists and entrepreneurs are a little concerned about you. Their fear is if you can give them so many problems as a powerful party, you will squeeze them once in power.

Prachanda: We encourage those who want to develop industries in the country, create jobs, make profits and invest the profits in the country. We are organising a national meet of the capitalists. There, we will invite even those who disagree with us. We want that Nepal's capital does not go outside. We are clear that there will be no development in Nepal unless the capitalists can make some profit. But let that profit not be through exploitation and let it also not go abroad. We are also going to propose to the capitalists to invest where the most profit can be made. We should introduce a strict law to stop those who earn here and deposit the money in America or India.

2006-06-16T19:52:00.000-04:00

Anwar Hossain and his photgraphy: Bangladesh born photographer Anwar Hossain, who lives in Paris now is having another photo exhibition "Apsara-Aphrodite" at the entrance principle of the Marche-Couvert at Lil Art in Paris on June 23 and 24. I will miss the show as I will be in Paris only towards the end of July. If you are in Paris, please go and enjoy his art.

I know Anwar bhai (as we call brother in Bangladesh) since 1980 0r so.

Daily Star of Dhaka, Bangladesh once wrote about him:

"European Rhapsody"The mental success and the earthly failure," is Anwar Hossain's phraseology that sums up his life in retrospect. It also reveals an attitude and an outlook that hinges on the pursuit of life rather than material success. A man in "self-exile" since 1993, Anwar is frank about his dilemma in living in France where he finds a populace intoxicated with the energy of life as well as art yet trapped in a social infrastructure that tends to commodify art and every adventure that life has to offer. He testifies, "When some people started to see me as a member of Magnum or Gama, I was told by them... these extremely important people... which I would like to quote verbatim 'Its a pity Anwar that you have spoiled thirty years of your life photographing an insignificant country like Bangladesh'".

His reply to this always used to be the same. He answered back as a rule that most of the world is third world and "My whole oeuvre is the ultimate essay or the Iliad of the third world people and their condition."

"Third world means humanity, it could be representative of that...," says Anwar. He has all the doubts stored in one nook of his discursive mind for people who are churning out works that fit the definition of the third world set by the first world.

"There is too much dignity in your work... " was the accusation that Anwar had to stumble upon in his first few encounters with the first world dignitaries. In lieu of the plethora of images that cross the subcontinent volleyed towards the west, Anwar's humans, however destitute or encumbered they are with material concerns, seem to want to speak of life in all its primal glory.
Home-boundWork brings this master photographer back home. He is here every once in a while. Though many may not have any inkling of how out of 20 best Bangla movies produced in this land, Anwar's photographic signature has made a difference in 15 of them all. Constant homebound trips made it happen. Yet, this is a rough figure. The most important bit lies in the exquisitely done cinematography of Emiler Goenda Bahini, Puroshkar, Dohon, Hulia, Chitra Nadir Parey, Nadir Nam Modhumoti, Lalshalu,--- movies that have earned considerable critical acclaim. Their are soon to be released works like Lalon that will again reveal his acumen as a cinematographer.

Looking Back: The First Scene"Working in the movies opened up a 'Pandora's box' for me, not in the negative sense of course..." says Anwar. The movie Shurjo Dighol Bari revived his passion and set him on a course through memory lane. "Everything came together in the movie; my childhood, the paintings I used to admire, the life I led, my education in Pune and all the photographic experiences, everything came together for an explosion that created Shurjo Dighol Bari," recalls Anwar.

This was his first venture. It also became one of the milestones in the history of Bangla movie.

At a village in Manikganj, back in 1980 the longhaired and big-moustachioed Anwar Hossain with his recently acquired degree from Pune, India was filming his first scene decked in a lungi. He was directing his camera assistants and crew to ready the scene for the first shoot. About the contingent that was there with him he now reflects, "We were all equipped and with people who despite their very, primitive idea about movies had a kind of enlightenment in their soul to do something extraordinary. It certainly catalysed my vision."

The crew that he worked with was not at all well versed in movie making. "The problem that started from the very first scene of Shurjo Dighol Bari lied in the fact that my crew had exactly the opposite ideas and practice of film making compared to what I had achieved," says Anwar.

The scene had Joygun (Dolly Anwar) and Mymoon (Elora Gaohor), her daughter, doing some chores in floodwater next to the house. "The water was quickly receding and we panicked," remembers Anwar. He was shooting from the boat that was stabilised with four banana trees propped up in the water. Anwar remembers his handsome assistant cameraman in John Travolta-style garb and hair in meticulous detail. "He had this very high heeled black shoes on, Travolta type of course, and he was a sight of incredible contrast. I was wondering about how this person would be assisting me..." says Anwar.

Context for Anwar has always been important. In fact in his stills as well as in his cinematography, contextual representation is what he so daringly achieves. In the first shoot Anwar depended on the reflection of the water too. Life in its truthfulness and natural phenomenon are the two elements that always drove him. In the shooting of the first scene of the historically important movie that Shurjo Dighol Bari later became, the man behind the camera took charge and transformed a bleak scenario into an insightful observation of reality. Sheikh Niyamat Ali, the director of the film, gave his cameraman full support. Whatever Anwar proposed, he gave the green light to it and it is this freedom with which Anwar applied to his art. One must recall that the same man who was so particular about using reflectors for the whole scene, discarded their use while shooting the scenes in the city in the same movie. "I wanted to create a harshness that would be representative of city life," said Anwar back in 2000 in an interview with the Star Weekend Magazine.

The history of photography and cinematography in Bangladesh did not remain the same since Anwar burst into the scene in the sixties and masterfully turned the course of cinematography in the 80s. Though Anwar regretfully says, "It still remains the same," while referring to the state of cinematography and the technical supports involved in cinema in Bangladesh. As for still photography, he is in great opposition to working project by project with only mercenary motive in sight. "If you are a creator you cannot create without falling in love. Otherwise you should call yourself a businessman, not a photographer or a cinematographer but a photo-businessman," stresses Anwar. Empathy with the subject and the medium, for him, is the only assurance of artistic excellence.

Anwar remembers how his name was often dropped from the list of the registers though he was the first boy of his class at the Armanitola Govt. High School. "Very often the fees remained unpaid and though I used to get scholarship for my position in class my name was never mentioned during roll calling," reflects Anwar.

But, every predicament had its other side. Struggling for survival at such an early age, studying in the light of one hariken (kerosene lamp) at night out in the open porch, the aspiration to live a better life, and most of all the joy of living, only served to widen his perspective and bring in an intensity to his photography. Anwar harks back to his early days to throw light, "I wrote about the way we used to sit down in a circle like a 'well', I delineated the surrounding--- the split sky above, the pomegranate tree at one corner, and the dreamy reflection on life of a child. This was hugely appreciated by my teacher at school."

His creative flair was aflame from the very beginning. He kept on writing poetry. But as he grew up Anwar developed a kinship for paint and brush. He used to get his paint, brush and paper free of cost from the Shishu Kala Bhaban at Art College (presently the Institute of Fine Arts). "I wanted to become a painter," recalls Anwar. "We had no TV or even radio for that matter, we could not afford them back in the early sixties. So, I resorted to expressing myself, my child-feelings, in paper. I remember becoming some thing of an artist in my class," adds Anwar. In 1963, when he was in class eight, Debdas Chakrabarti, the eminent artist, was the art teacher of his school. Anwar too, back then, seemed all set to become an artist.

On the Image Maker's TrailTo be a painter was not an 'honourable' profession, nor was photography taken as seriously as it is now in our culture. So, what set this aspirant painter on the course of a sinuous photographic journey? The man whose love affair with his camera has only bloomed over time reveals, "One of my friends at college approached me and said he wanted to sell his camera for 30 Taka as he was giving up photography." Anwar bought the camera on an instalment basis.

The eighth exposure of the first film that Anwar filled in his newly bought camera was spent on a scene taken from opposite Kamrangir Char. Anwar remembers how he got down into knee-deep water to take the scene of dhopas of Dhaka city. "This was the last exposure of that eight exposure film, and this picture got me an award in Bangladesh," Anwar goes back to his early start. Golam Kashem Daddy used to run the Camera Recreation'? Club, it was at the exhibition of the Club that he got the award.

Anwar came a long way after that. He completed his diploma in architecture, though never practised it in life. He was in love with photography. "Fortunately I did not have girl friends, and looking at girls did not even occur to me as something interesting back then. Therefore, I could spend my time in observing life through the lens," Anwar says jokingly. It is the truthfulness of photography that at last won over painting, which is practised in isolation at one's home or studio. As a member of a poor family who never felt poor, son of a caring and giving mother, Anwar took life for granted. "All the difficulties and hardship was part of life," he feels in retrospect."

2006-06-12T11:50:00.000-04:00

Co-Creating: Since I have written about Co-Creating and the lessons that I got from my friend Nyree to communicate with plants, many of my friends wrote me and asked what all these about- “talking to veggies.” So here is an article that I found on the web, which might answer some of these questions:

Co-Creating with the Devas of Findhorn
by Celeste Adams

Today, the concept of communicating with the plant beings as a way of creating plentiful crops and beautiful gardens, if not exactly embraced by commercial growers, is well known and widely used in the new age and organic farming communities. Forty years ago, this approach to agriculture was pretty much unheard-of in the Western world. But on a barren, sandy, wind swept corner of a rundown trailer park in Findhorn, Scotland, Peter and Eileen Caddy were changing all that.

The Findhorn Foundation, located in northern Scotland, was founded 40 years ago by Peter and Eileen Caddy and their colleague, Dorothy Maclean. It is one of the largest intentional communities in the United Kingdom and is a model for holistic and sustainable living. Despite the fact that Findhorn was built on sand dunes, it is known for its beautiful gardens, which were co-created with the nature devas.

In The Faces of Findhorn, David Spangler writes:
Many people see Findhorn as a place; but to understand truly what Findhorn is seeking to make manifest we must see it from the inside out, and that means from the center of our being outwards. This is true of any of the other centers of Light that are now beginning to emerge. New age communities are springing up in many countries, and small groups of people are coming together to help educate each other into a new way of living. All of these people are agents of the divine plan, in order that at this time in human history there might be worldwide demonstrations for the birth of a new Earth and a new humanity. . . .So the message of Findhorn, the message which is unfolding throughout the Earth, is for humanity to awake, to arise, and to be the creators, now, of the world you have envisioned, and through envisioning are bringing into being.

The Findhorn Foundation attracts four thousand visitors a year, from countries around the world. It is a member of IONESCO and is recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization, or NGO, by the United Nations.

In The Spirit of Findhorn, Roy McVicar describes how Eileen Caddy heard the voice of God in simple, day-to-day directions that inspired her, with Peter Caddy, to create Findhorn:
Little in Eileen Caddy's early life indicated that she would one day be the co-founder of a New Age spiritual community or that she would develop a unique power to hear and to share the voice of God within....After five years there [at the Cluny Hill Hotel] and a year at another hotel in Scotland they [Peter and Eileen] found themselves out of work, with no place to stay, puzzled that divine guidance should work in such devious ways. They then made the move which is now widely known; they went back to their caravan [mobile home], which was sited at Findhorn, and brought it to the very last place they would ever have chosen, a dirty, windswept corner of Findhorn Bay Caravan Park, because that was where God said to go. Despite the fact that the land was barren and dry, beautiful gardens began to grow.

In Faces of Findhorn, Professor R. Lindsay Robb of the Soil Association speaks about the vitality and vibrance of the Findhorn garden:
The vigor, health and bloom of the plants in this garden at mid-winter on land which is almost barren, powdery sand cannot be explained by the moderate dressings of compost, nor indeed by the application of any known cultural methods of organic husbandry. There are other factors and they are vital ones. The other factors that Robb is referring to were Findhorn's co-creation with the angelic and elemental realms.

In her book To Hear the Angels Sing, Dorothy Maclean writes about communicating with angels: I had never set out to learn to talk with angels, nor had I ever imagined that such contact could be possible or useful. Yet, when this communication began to occur, it did so in a way that I could not dispute. Concrete proof developed in the Findhorn garden, which became the basis for the development of the Findhorn Community. The garden was planted on sand in conditions that offered scant hospitality and encouragement for the growth of anything other than hardy Scottish bushes and grasses requiring little moisture or nourishment. However, through my telepathic contact with the angelic Beings who overlight and direct plant growth, specific instructions and spiritual assistance were given. The resulting garden, which came to include even tropical varieties of plants, was so astonishing in its growth and vitality that visiting soil experts and horticulturists were unable to find any explanation for it, and eventually had to accept the unorthodox interpretation of angelic help.

In The Faces of Findhorn, devas and elementals are described as living forces of creative intelligence that work behind the scene. All life is considered an outpost or point of entry through which great intelligences externalize themselves. "The devic or angelic beings work at that level where the divine image or idea is sketched out into the archetypal patterns for all forms. The devas, whose name stems from a Sanskrit word meaning literally 'shining ones,' hold these archetypes in consciousness, wielding and patterning the forces which vivify the physical form and stepping these energies down to the elementals or nature spirits, the 'blue collar workers' who build the forms through which Spirit reveals itself.

One member of the community describes a kind of sensitization process that takes place in learning to communicate with the nature spirits:
When I came to Findhorn in 1971 I began to realize that I was experiencing a broadening of perception; it was as though my physical senses were being extended in a way that's very hard to describe. Walking through the central garden I experienced an extraordinary sense of being greeted and caressed by presences there which seemed to be connected with the flowers. Later that winter I came to follow up that contact with the nature kingdoms when Dorothy asked me to try illustrating her messages from the Devas. For me that whole period was like a sensitization process leading me into a whole different area of communication, a way of perceiving too subtle to say it was through images or sound but rather a direct reception of the essence of another being inside my own essence.

Today, Findhorn has become an important part of the world group. As their website explains:
On December 8, 1997, the Findhorn Foundation was approved for formal association with the United Nations, through the Department of Public Information, as a recognized Non-Governmental Organization. This was the culmination of a series of official collaborations between the UN and the Findhorn Foundation.The new status was also a sign of a great maturing of our community, which has been promoting principles of sustainable development as put forward by the major UN conferences of the last decade — including the environmental aspect of the Rio Earth Summit, the human settlements aspect of Istanbul, and the women's aspect of Beijing — in an attempt to provide a contemporary and evolving model of sustainable living.

To learn more, we spoke with Richard Coates, a public relations officer who has lived at Findhorn for 25 years, and with David Buswell, who operates the enquiry line there.

Celeste: Can you describe the relationship that people had with plant devas in the early years at Findhorn?

Richard Coates: In the early days, we were famous for our 42-pound cabbages, which we don't grow these days. Well, I haven't seen any lately. We're told that this was necessary as a demonstration of the power of the people and an example of what we could achieve by cooperating with the nature realms. By working with those beings, we could produce amazing results. But having demonstrated that, we don't necessarily need to keep doing that. Our gardens are quite magnificent and are admired by many people who come and visit.

Celeste: Dorothy Maclean is known for communicating with the devas and elementals. Are the people who come to workshops at Findhorn learning to communicate with devas?

Richard Coates: Anyone who comes here does one of our "experience weeks," which we give all year long for various nationalities. People work together, live together, and explore together in the gardens. It's a personal experience of being here and how that relates to nature. We allow people to explore on their own and to have the direct experience of working in the garden. It's a very healing thing to do. Part of our experience is a nature sharing in the evening. One of the gardeners will come in and talk. We also have an evening on spiritual practice. Many people like myself will spend the evening, after work or on the weekends, in the garden, and that's part of our spiritual practice.

David Buswell: Dorothy Maclean wrote a great deal about devas and nature spirits. She comes back here several times a year and gives workshops. When people are sensitive to plants, a relationship begins. Communicating with devas is a matter of sensitivity. There's no methodology as such to learning how to do it. That kind of sensitivity is inborn in some people. People who really want to develop that sensitivity go to our workshops, run by Dorothy or others who do these things.The gardeners here all have a basic connection. It really is an individual thing. Some say the plants are "talking" to them. Whatever they mean by that, the essential truth we've found is that the spirit within a plant is capable of communication. And when the plant spirits find humans they can communicate with, it's a boon to them. When human beings can recognize the subtle levels, the plant beings are overjoyed. In ages past, far more people had these gifts. In folk history, they had connections with what they called the fairy folk, or in Ireland, the "little people." So communication with nature devas is not something new. It's an ability that existed when people were closer to the land, one that atrophied with the development of the intellect and industrialization. But today, people are developing sensitivity, and these connections are once more being made.

Celeste: How is the Findhorn Foundation organized and how does it operate?

Richard Coates: The Findhorn Foundation was originally a charitable organization run by charitable laws, not corporate laws. Then it became too cumbersome to handle as a single entity, so it's been broken down into different organizations. Some are charities, some are volunteer organizations. There's also an organic farm, a café, and a shop. This has enabled a lot more people to become involved. Not everybody who is involved here needs to become a member of the Findhorn Foundation to be associated with the work that we're doing here.

Celeste: Why is it important that a place like Findhorn exists?

Richard Coates: It is a place where people can experience different ways of relating to each other, to themselves, to the planet, to society. It is a place that twenty-five or thirty years ago was on the cutting-edge of changing aspects of society. Many places around the world that now exist are based on what the foundation has been doing and demonstrating.The things we have been doing, like health care and organic farming, are now very much a part of mainstream society. Even thinking about the planet as a whole, instead of selfishly looking at the nuclear family, "my country" or "my town," is a change since Findhorn began. Findhorn has inspired people to look at the whole picture, not just part of it.

Celeste: How is Findhorn spreading its message to the world about honoring and preserving the environment?

Richard Coates: Six weeks ago, we had a Restore the Earth conference, all about trees — reforesting, and how we could influence politicians to take care of the environment. This was a precursor to the United Nations conference coming up in South Africa. We are recognized by the UN as a Non-Government Organization, or NGO. We have people at the UN who meet regularly and represent us there. We also have our Trees for Love project, which was started by Alan Watson Featherstone, who has lived here for as long as I have. The plan is to reforest the highlands of Scotland with native trees, going out with work parties and fencing off areas to protect them from deer and so on. Projects like Trees for Love might be small in terms of their individual impact. But as a whole, energetically, these projects build up exponentially.Thinking about the whole planet, and not just my little bit or my backyard — that's how we have to think.

References:The following is a short selection from the many books about the Findhorn Community.

God Spoke To Me by Eileen Caddy (to be republished by Findhorn Press 2002 in a special edition), the first book of Eileen's Guidance — still in print after 35 years.
The Findhorn Garden by The Findhorn Community (Harper Collins), the story of the community's early days.
To Hear The Angels Sing by Dorothy Maclean (Lindisfarne Press), Dorothy's autobiography.
Opening Doors Within by Eileen Caddy, daily selections from Eileen's Guidance.
Flight Into Freedom by Eileen Caddy (to be republished by Findhorn Press 2002), Eileen's autobiography.
The Kingdom Within edited by Alex Walker (Findhorn Press), a selection of writings on the history and work of the Findhorn Foundation by David Spangler, Peter and Eileen Caddy, Myrtle Glines, William Bloom, Dorothy Maclean, and many others.
Simply Build Green by John Talbott (Findhorn Press), a guide to the principles and methods of Eco-building.
In Perfect Timing by Peter Caddy (Findhorn Press), Peter Caddy's autobiography.
Growing People, compiled and edited by Kay Kay (Pilgrim Guides 2001), a recent collection of people's personal experiences of the Findhorn Community

2006-06-09T09:58:00.000-04:00

Chatting with Shaan: Together with Tanveer Mayen, I prsent a weekly hour long live radio show for Bangla speaking people living in Ottawa. Bangla Bettar, the show goes on air every Thursday from 1 PM to 2 PM on CHUO FM radio. Any one, anywhere in the world can also listen to the webcast of this show as well.

This week, famous Indian singer Shaan was our guest. He is going to do a show in Ottawa on Saturday. Prior to his show he chatted with us by phone from Toronto.

I did not know much about Shaan earlier. Few weeks back I was visiting a Bangladeshi friend in Ottawa. As usual, their TV was on and on one of the satellite South Asian Channels I had a glimpse of the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa show. The young host was impressive. The lady of the house told me that the name of the host was Shaan and he is a famous singer in India these days. That was my first introduction to Shaan.

Before interviewing Shaan, I did a little web research. One of the sites said:

“This long haired sensation made his appearance in the song 'Q - Funk' from the album 'Oorja'He burst into the pop scene with sis Sagarika, powered by pop-guru Biddu’s melodies and doing re-mixes. Shaan, the 'oh cho chweet' pop-star, has been wooing the audiences since he stepped into Indian Music industry. He launched 'Loveology' and gave everyone a well received lesson in the arts of larvae...

The track from his second album Tanha Dil, "Bhool Ja", which is an excellent ballad with superb lyrics written by the man himself! "Tanha Dil" catapulted to the charts within days of its release and was very popular on radio! "Dil Kya Kare," is a remix that caught everyone's eye thanks to its electrifying video and soothing melodies. "Mana Janab," is a fun and frolicky blast from the past that Shaan livens up with a latino groove. Induced with lots of emotional and groovy tracks, the album popped up the singer’s star rating, market value and of course ambitions.

He did a bit role in a Kalpana Lajmi film – Daman and the breakthrough happened not in the medium he started his career with, but in the mother of all commercial singing in India – Playback."Musu Musu" from the film Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi won him several offers from leading music directors like Anu Malik, A. R. Rahman while "Woh Pehli Baar" won the budding singer a lot of fans.Shaan took on an altogether different route when remixes became the order of the day. He remixed "Hum Bewafa" and the R D Burman "Roop Inka Mastana". After the success of Koi… Mil Gaya (where he sang In panchhiyon) Shaan got films like Zameen, Inteha and Sssshhh… lined up. “Film music, though, has its limitations – you have to sing the way the composer conceptualises. In an album you can experiment,” he says.

He’s excited about singing an item number with Asha Bhonsle in Bewafa. “She’s been my icon for ages. She has reinvented herself with the changing times,” he sums up.
Shaan loves to sing in English too. “Singing in Mumbai Matinee and Valentine’s Day gave me confidence. I have no training in classical music but I can pull off a semi-classical bandish,” says Shaan, who’s also planning to do fusion with alaaps on the chartbuster Koi kahe number (Dil Chahta Hai).

From an aspiring desk – top publisher to a pop singer Shaan surely has come a long way. He is currently host the show 'Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' on Star Plus that hunts for young talent. “

During our coversation I found him very pleasant. I did not know he was Bengali. He told me his real name, Santanu Banarjee. He talked about his father, mother, wife and two kids. He talked about his struggle and success. He even sang a Bangla song over the phone for us.

Some of his songs are available on line at the following link.
http://www.raaga.com/channels/hindi/artist/Shaan.html

2006-06-08T01:28:00.000-04:00

Insect Hours: My friend Nyree taught me how to communicate with plants. She is into holistic gardening. She told me that she is planiting different types of vegitables this summer, some where near Toronto. She has sent me an e-mail today saying: "Yesterday was pretty exciting (for me anyhow). I added a 24-hour all-you-can-eat lunch buffet to the garden. It's for the insects (ie, please don't eat the corn & tomatoes in the main garden - but these are all yours). I didn't think it was such a big thing but it changes the look & feel of the garden as a whole quite a bit. Seems more complete somehow." I will write more about her gardening later.

2006-05-27T23:20:00.000-04:00

EXCLUSIVE : NEPAL POST-GYANENDRA
After victory, revolution!
Amit Sengupta travels through the still tense and volatile countrysideand finds that Maoists are ready for another push if the Koirala government belies popular aspirations. The night is thick with the smell of the forests and mountains, while beautiful river Karnali ripples below like a shining, pure miracle in the far western end of Nepal. A miracle, because it is perhaps the last untamed river in this Himalayan nation of 6,000-plus small and big rivers, where its biggest rivers like Gandak and Mahakali have become trapped victims of unequal Indo-Nepal treaties, whereby the bigbrother gobbles all the water and little Nepal is left high, dry and thirsty. The Japanese have built a fantastic hanging bridge over Karnali, and as the night darkens as it does in the forests, children from the village across, Chisapani run across the bridge, shouting 'Loktantric Ganatantra', democracy, democracy, republic, republic, like a childhood chant of magical freedom.

This little village too protested for 19 days, blocked the highway, shouting slogans popular across Nepal — Paras goonda, rukh mein jhunda. (Paras is a goon, hang him on the tree). Paras is the notorious son of autocratic King Gyanendra. Also, Gyane chor, desh chod (Thief Gyanendra, leave the country).

In Nepal, clearly, it's anautocratic king versus the people. But Gyanendra, or his son, are in no mood to leave. He is still there, hanging on, and so is his Royal Nepal Army, and so is the discredited army chief, General Pyar Jung Thapa, and the miscellaneous feudal chieftains and the stinking rich elite, who have usurped and fleeced this poor nation of its blood, sweat and natural resources; who have killed, arrested, maimed and eliminated thousands of ordinary people and dissenters, especially the underground rebels of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoists); who have gagged the press, co-opted thej udiciary, destroyed public institutions, hauled writers, artists, lawyers, housewives, human rights activists inside jails and torturechambers, and who had unleashed a reign of State terror and the nights of long knives after the Emergency last year.

We crossed river Karnali in the midnight dark. A wiry man in uniform crosses our way and disappears in the shadows. "Maobadi," (Maoist), whispers Guruji, our driver. We have travelled almost 1,000 km in the last nine days across the strongest Maoist territories, so we are not surprised. We move on, further west, into the tense, volatile, often fiercely violent forests and byways of Nepal's first revolution. Army jeeps upturned, tyres, drums, barbed wire, bunkers, young Gorkha soldiers with their hands on the trigger in blue fatigue, tired and edgy, hundreds of check posts, barricades, barriers. We cross through epic battle-sites, police stations bombed out, bridges under which they killed the Maoists and dumped the bodies, villages where the young ones disappeared, massacred. We enter a sudden battle zone, an empty and desolate army check post on the highway, no soldiers in the bunkers, no guns behind the sandbags, no barricades. It's silence, and even the trees don't seem to move. We slow down and stop.

Anything can happen. They can shoot to kill. They don't trust anybody.We can be the enemy. In these mountains of dense forests, the Maoists can come anytime, from any side, this too is their stronghold and they know the terrain so well. Sometimes they attack the army or district headquarters (as in Kapilavastu in April) in thousands, 5,000-6,000 strong, as they did at Tansen when they captured the town, led by women commanders. (Women constitute 40 percent of the Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA)).

We hesitate, fear runs through our veins, but we move. And then suddenly, a flashlight blinds us. It moves inside our Tata Sumo. "Who are you, where are you going in this night?," the voice is far away and anonymous, one voice, but there are others, and the flashlight is still scanning us. It's the army and we can't see them. Guruji tells' the voice' that we are Indian journalists. The voice retreats but returns. "Okay, go, but don't come back in the night."Not all army check posts are as tense as this midnight mountain post.

Nepal is slowly discovering the first, eclectic, half-empty joys of democracy after a long spell of severe repression. The 19-day non-violent revolution has pushed the king into a corner, but rumours of palace intrigues, betrayals and compromises are all over the place. And the old fears still remain. Will the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) led by old and wily Girija Prasad Koirala, yet again betray the people, as it has done so many times in the past? Will the army stage a coup?

Surely, the elite, fattened by absolute, autocratic power and pelf, will not give up so easily? Will the Maobadis be allowed to join the interim government? Will the discredited 1990 Constitution be scrapped, an interim Constitution be formed and the SPA's 12 point-agreement with the Maoists be adhered to in its totality? Will the Constituent Assembly be formed, and what will happen to the king and the army, and the pla spread across the rural landscape? Will there be a counter-revolution?The truth is that Maoists, now following a ceasefire, control most of Nepal, whereas the king earlier had only Kathmandu and the satellite towns under heavy army control. But still, of the 75 districts, the Maoists control 75 percent, and their mass popularity is entrenched across the landscape. They are feared and admired for their sacrifice, tenacity and guts, they live and die for the poorest of the poor, among whom they work and survive, building schools and roads, distributing land, providing instant justice, and most crucially, creating social and political empowerment, political awareness and effectively destroying the ancient structures of feudal oppression.

And the people hate the king. They blame him for the palace massacre."We personally abused the king and his son. He has to go," said Maoist Comrade Athak in Nepalganj at the Bahraich border in UP. He is the district secretary of Bake and Bardia. In Mahendranagar at the Uttaranchal border (now renamed Bhimnagar by the revolution after Bhim Dutt Pant who led an armed peasant movement in the 1960s and was killed by the king's men), Krishna Dutt of the Communist Party (uml) says, "The Maoists are an invisible force, but they are always there, and they should be in the government because they too were a major force in this jan andolan."

Across Nepal, even in the Terai region of Madhesis bordering UP and Bihar, from Pokhra, 200 km from Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, and hundreds of miles beyond to Gyangsha, Butawal, Lumbini, Kapilavastu, Nawalparisi, Nepalganj, Banke, Bardia, and to Bhimnagar in Mahakali, as in Rolpa where the Maoists first began their struggle in the mid-90s, the red graffiti is written everywhere on the walls: Destroy the criminal autocrat murderer King, Create a democratic people's republic. Their tangible presence is everywhere. And it was they who had mobilised the villagers who had gathered in the towns all over the country in April in thousands.

"The SPA, people and the Maoists were the three forces behind the non-violent jan andolan, but the Maoists were the biggest force," says human rights lawyer Gopal Sivakuti Chintan. "The Maoists have to bei ntegrated in the interim government, the 1990 Constitution should be scrapped, a Constitution should be immediately drafted, the king and his son should be put on trial and their property confiscated, all political prisoners should be released, those who committed crimesagainst the people should be punished and the Constituent Assembly process should have begun. Or else, Nepal will go for a second revolution."

Indeed, Nepal is already going through a second revolution. A million stories, buried by repression, are coming out. A million memories. In Bhimnagar they renamed the Gyanendra Marg as Jan Marg. All hoardings of his majesty's government have been replaced across the rural landscape, including the one right opposite the Singh Darbar, which includes the parliament in Kathmandu by the sickle and hammer of thePeople's Republic of Nepal. Statues of the king and his ancestors have been broken, new songs and poetry are being written, the 'criminalsand oppressors' are being chased out, and people are closely watching the SPA in Kathmandu.

"If they betray, we will not spare them this time," declared Comrade Karan, the young Maoist district secretary of Pokhra, in a jampacked auditorium commemorating the martyrdom of Comrade Vikas Dahal, killed by the army in a fake encounter. The non-violent movement has seen 21 deaths all over Nepal, including one protestor shot dead at point blank range in Kathmandu reportedly by notorious SSP Durja Kumar Rai, who has been suspended. Several have been shot in the leg, like farmer Yamlal of Guleria village in Bardia district.

"If they betray, I will again go to the streets," he says. What if he is shot dead? "I will die for the nation. But a republic we must have, and this king must go."

In the poor dalit colony of Khajura village, the three emaciated children of Shahid Setu Bika run after us shouting pro-democracy slogans. Where has your mother gone, I ask. "She was shot dead by the king," says Ashish. Setu, 26, a dalit, travelled 10 km to Nepalgunj to participate in the struggle.

"There were one lakh people on the streets," remembers Sushma, her neighbour. "A teargas shell hit her and she choked and died." Incredible tales of valour and sacrifice mark the landscape. The people, in thousands, braved the police, andd estroyed the Gyanendra Memorial at the Gyanendra Chowk in Nepalganj, after Setu died. Now the broken memorial has a new board — Shahid Setu Bika Chowk.

Some Maoists now come overground for brief periods since the terrorist tag is gone. They are still wary and alert. They don't trust the army and the government. So how does it feel to be overground? Comrade Ramil Ram, 25, explains: "We know there are conspiracies to kill us, but when the people become strong, we will be protected by them. We have declared ceasefire, but we have other ways of protection."

But not all the time. According to Comrade Athak, 12,000 people havebeen killed by the army and police in the last ten years, 5,000Maoists, and 7,000 ordinary people and Maoist sympathisers. While 2,000 Maoists are still in jail, 1,400 cadre and supporters have disappeared. Like Arti Sharma's husband, Tanka Sharma, a grocery shopowner, in Dhulegauda village in Kaski district near Pokhra. "Yes, he was a Maoist," she says, tears rolling down her eyes. Tara Adhikari, 34, a poor peasant from Saimaran in the same area, said her husband Chabi Adhikari and his sister, Muna, both Maoists, were killed in fake encounters. Only her body was found in the field, her eyes strapped with a cloth, her hands tied behind the back, a bullet in her neck.

While the army doesn't disclose its list of casualties for security reasons, there are sisters, brothers, wives, mothers whose loved ones have disappeared, there are stories of torture, kidnappings, rapes, and murders stalking the bylanes of Nepal's villages. But the resolve of the people seems amazing. You can experience the heightened consciousness, the political clarity and the determination of the humble, friendly, passionate and articulate Nepali people in town after town, village after village. Crushed by feudalism, poverty and oppression, they are ready to die for a free republic — of equality, freedom and justice.

Comrade Suraj from the Kaski area in Pokhra is 25, he has been underground since he was a teenager, and he has participated in armed attacks, as in the Beni assault in the recent past where 64 of his comrades were killed. "It was like cinema, the helicopters shooting at us, we shooting at them. I felt pain for long for my dead comrades, but we must carry on." He, like most young Maoists and even non-Maoists who constitute the scaffolding of the struggle, are coherent, measured and politically sharp.

"This is just one stepforward. We have to raise the pitch beyond Socialism in the next step," he says. He once lived in the jungle, hungry for eight days, chased by the army. "At that time it seemed difficult, but now I find that experience interesting," he says, and smiles. Suraj's wife, Nischal, 21, also a Maoist, was captured along with four women comrades, kept in army custody for 10 days, tortured and then killed. Will he marry again? His smile hides his pain, "We are married to our ideology of liberation. But we must marry, because, with so many dead, who will carry on the struggle in the next phase?"

Next morning, at the Kaski Karagah, the notorious prison, I find Suraj's memory in thin Avantika's angular smile. Just about 25, she has been arrested three times and has spent six years in jail. She and her young comrades, Asha, Sharmila and Lila are sitting on an indefinite fast demanding the release of all political prisoners. There are 14 girls and 73 male Maoist prisoners in the jail, all ofthem in their 20s. The boys are also sitting on fast, shouting slogans, demanding a Constituent Assembly. The girls tell their stories of torture, their heads pushed inside water drums, their feet smashed repeatedly, their eyes sleepless with interrogation. They don't tell me everything, they leave out the gory details. What are you fighting for, I ask. "Freedom, equality, justice and democracy forNepal." Why Maoism? "For Nepal and world revolution."Young, stoic girls and boys, with red bands strapped on their heads with a red star, not yet killed in a fake encounter, still lucky to bealive, determined prisoners of the revolution, fighters unafraid, politically focused, stunningly committed, smiling as easily as the mountain sunshine outside. I shake their hands, and they hold my hand with warmth and fortitude, and my eyes swell with anger and angst. And unfinished hope, like the unfinished hope of the April revolution.

Lal Salaam comrade, I say, and move away. I think of the old, decadent, power-hungry politicians in Kathmandu, and I think of the young idealists and dreamers here and elsewhere, who have put their life at stake chasing the dream. And I am convinced if the young don't find freedom and justice in the first revolution, they must find it in the second and the final tryst with destiny.Yes, the Second Revolution.
Tehalka Jun 03 , 2006

2006-05-26T23:20:00.001-04:00

2006-05-26T23:20:00.000-04:00

Support Bangladesh workers:

May 25, 2006: Union officials arrested, beaten and tortured in Bangladesh following worker protests. Action urgently needed:Contact the Bangladeshi Embassy now!

Dear friends,
Simmering anger at poverty wages and poor working conditions has boiled over into massive worker protests in Bangladesh. Two workers are confirmed dead (informal reports speak of five), hundreds have been injured, and over a hundred factories have been set ablaze in riots over the past few days. After a worker from FS factory in Gazipur (producing for among others for H&M, Gap, M&S, Inditex, Tesco and Next) was shot by the police, the fighting spread to the Savar Export Processing Zone and further. According to the European Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), workers tended to single out factories where there had been problems including Universe Garments, Bandhu, Ringshine and A-One. The protesters are calling for an end to low wages and long working hours. Given the unsafe conditions and the almost complete lack of respect for workers fundamental rights, particularly the right to organize and to bargain collectively (including the development of functional industrial relations and grievance mechanisms) it should come as no surprise that people take to the streets. Instead of launching an immediate investigation into the root causes of the riots and measures to address them, as called for by the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF) and the CCC, the government had the police arrest several union officials, either in their offices or on the road (none of them at the protests). One leader was released on the evening of May 23, but the next day the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers' Union Federation (BIGUF) received reliable information that all three of their staff members who were arrested had been blindfolded and severely beaten and tortured by the police. According to the lawyer assisting them with the case, the arrested union leaders were given medical aid before they were brought to the court, and she personally saw the bruises and cuts. She also said that the court ordered that they remain in detention five more days for further questioning.The BIGUF officers who were reportedly arrested at their union office in Gazipur at about 8:00 a.m. on May 23 have categorically denied taking part in the labour unrest. They are accused of vandalism, destruction of properties and labour unrest in the garment industry. Police also arrested Garments Workers Unity Forum President Moshrefa Mishu on May 23, reportedly while she was on her way to a press conference.

REQUESTED ACTION: Please write to the Bangladeshi High Commissioner to Canada today and call for the immediate release of the imprisoned union officers. This is matter of great urgency.

SAMPLE LETTER (please write your own and send a copy to MSN):

[DATE]
His Excellency Mr. Rafiq Ahmed Khan
High CommissionerHigh Commission for Bangladesh to Canada
275 Bank St, Suite 302Ottawa, ON K2P 2L6
Fax: 613-567-3213
E-mail: bangla@rogers.com

Your Excellency High Commissioner Ahmed Khan:

I (my organization) was greatly shocked to learn that your government has arrested, beaten and tortured a number of union officials in relation to the worker protests of the past few days, which follows years of negligence of workers' rights.

I (my organization) call upon your government to immediately release those union leaders and launch an investigation in the root causes of the riots, focusing in particular on the following problems:- repression of trade unions and failure to respect the right to organize and bargain collectively;- unfair dismissals of elected worker representatives;- excessively long working hours;- low rates of basic earnings;- abuses in piece rate payments;- the late payment of wages;- the use of child labour;- issues of structural and fire safety in the sector;- the corrupt police practice of charge sheeting workers on the flimsiest of evidence;- the practice of supervisors acting as labour contractors and illegally raking off a percentage of wages;- the practice of using hired goons to terrorize and intimidate workers; and- the behaviour of the police and other paramilitary forces when unrest occurs.

Sincerely,

BACKGROUND: Over the past year, MSN, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF) have regularly called attention to the need for structural measures to end the consistent and ongoing worker rights violations in the Bangladeshi garment industry, repeatedly warning that workers are getting desperate and frustrated with the lack of progress.Together with unions and NGOs in Bangladesh, we have called upon brands and retailers, the Bangladeshi government, factory owners and their associations to take immediate action.In Canada, we have urged all Canadian retailers sourcing clothes from Bangladesh to work together with US and European retailers and brands, Bangladeshi manufacturers and their industry associations, the Bangladeshi government, and local and international trade union and nongovernmental organizations to tackle the root causes of continuing worker rights violations in the industry.Through the MFA Forum, there has been considerable discussion about the need to address these root causes, however to date, there has been little concrete action from the Bangladeshi government or the industry associations. Clearly, many garment workers now feel they have nothing to lose.*

Maquila Solidarity Network
606 Shaw Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6G 3L6
416-532-8584 (phone)
416-532-7688 (fax)
http://www.maquilasolidarity.org/

2006-02-25T00:57:00.000-05:00

Democracy Now: If CNN or Al Jazeera are your only source of global information, good luck and enjoy your daily fixes. But only if you are not happy with their new coverage, then may be you should try Democracy Now! This is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 400 stations in North America. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, NPR, community, and college radio stations; on public access, PBS, satellite television (DISH network: Free Speech TV ch. 9415 and Link TV ch. 9410; DIRECTV: Link TV ch. 375); as a "podcast," and on the internet. The program is hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez and produced out of the Downtown Community Television Center, a community media center in New York City’s Chinatown (shown to the right). Democracy Now!'s War and Peace Report provides our audience with access to people and perspectives rarely heard in the U.S.corporate-sponsored media, including independent and international journalists, ordinary people from around the world who are directly affected by U.S. foreign policy, grassroots leaders and peace activists, artists, academics and independent analysts. In addition, the War and Peace Report hosts real debates - debates between people who substantially disagree, such as between the White House or the Pentagon spokespeople on the one hand, and grassroots activists on the other. New stations are adding Democracy Now! to their programming schedules all the time, and there are several movements going on around the country right now to bring Democracy Now! to new communities.

WHY INDEPENDENT MEDIA ? For true democracy to work, people need easy access to independent, diverse sources of news and information. But the last two decades have seen unprecedented corporate media consolidation. The U.S. media was already fairly homogenous in the early 80s: some fifty media conglomerates dominated all media outlets, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, music, publishing and film. In the year 2000, just six corporations dominated the U.S. media. In addition, corporate media outlets in the U.S. are legally responsible to their shareholders to maximize profits. And U.S. “public” media outlets accept funding from major corporations, as well as from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Every Corporation for Public Broadcasting board member is appointed by the White House and confirmed by the Senate. Democracy Now! is funded entirely through contributions from listeners, viewers, and foundations. We do not accept advertisers, donations from corporations, or donations from governments. This allows us to maintain our independence.

2006-02-19T16:30:00.000-05:00

Nepal is not only a regional but a world problem

Ottawa, Canada (19 February 2006): Canada’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon. Flora MacDonald warned that the current crisis of Nepal is not only a regional but a world problem.

She was speaking on Saturday at a seminar in the capital, Ottawa.

Canada Forum for Nepal and Harmony International, a Canadian institute that focuses on sustainable livelihood and human security issues in Asia, jointly organized a panel discussion on “Peace, Democracy and Human Rights in Nepal” in Ottawa, Canada on 18 February 2006. The program was well attended by Nepalese community in Ottawa and concerned Canadians. Guest speakers for the program came from different background, and covered many aspects of current crisis in Nepal.

As chief guest Hon. Flora MacDonald, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, demonstrated her through knowledge of Nepal in the course of many visits she has paid in the last 10 years. She was of the opinion that Nepal is on the verge of failing state and was critical of the government decision for not reciprocating the four- month old Maoists ceasefire. She raised concern about the severe constrain that the ordinary people are facing in their daily activities following coup by King Gyanendra with the support of the army. She criticized the recent municipal polls as not being reflective of the will of the people.

Regarding what to be done, she fully concurred with the International Crisis Group’s recommendations.

She said that Nepal must take up the UN Secretary-General’s offer to help broker and monitor a bilateral ceasefire to create an environment for talks in which to test Maoist willingness to compromise, and consider international offers to assist in a process of reconciliation, including working towards viable postconflict elections. She disagreed with the US approach that rules out dialogue with the Maoists.

Dr. Krishnahari Gautam, a rural development specialist of Nepal, was of the opinion that the present crisis in Nepal is due to multiple factors such as caste system, land holding, access to resources, religion, and gender discrimination. He expressed that the king unconstitutionally rules Nepal and appointed administrators. These appointed bodies have paralyzed Nepal from the top to the grass root level. At the local level, this has resulted into resource degradation, downturn in small, cottage industry, and hardship in rural livelihood. He emphasized that unless the issues of peace, democracy and human rights are addressed, Nepal cannot move forward. In his opinion, the 12-point memorandum of understanding between the parliamentary parties and the Maoists is the only plausible outlet for peace.

Another speaker, Roger Clark, former Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada, shared his broad experience in many troubled countries including Nepal. He also agreed that Nepal is a failing state with one of the worst human right situation in the world. He deplored the highest number of disappearances under state custody in the world, unwarranted arrests followed by torture and beating and violations of economic and social rights that are happening in Nepal. He was critical of media censorship in Nepal.

Quoting Amnesty International report, he said that in Nepal, since 1996, more than 12,000 people have been killed; more than 2000,000 people have been displaced. During the last six weeks alone, more than 1,500 people have been arrested and about 800 are still in custody. Journalists and media activists are targeted; over the last two and half years, more journalists are arrested in Nepal than any where in the world. He suggested many ways through which awareness can be brought to Canadian public, and the government.

Faruq Faisel, Nepal Media and Peacebuilding Specialist, provided eyewitness account of many events in Nepal including Kings’ coup of last February. He expressed his dismay in the way the Nepalese king is pretending as if nothing is happening. He said that we are always talking about three parties in Nepal, but there is a fourth party, the Nepalese people who wants to see the end of conflict. He was of the opinion that due to conflict, the economy is hit hard, commodity prices have skyrocketed, and people are hurt. In concluding he expressed that unless various socio-economic disparities such as caste system, and topdown approach of government are addressed, ending Maoists conflict alone would not end future crises in Nepal.

Moderator of the event, Richard Harmston, former Executive Director of South Asia Partnership (SAP) Canada expressed great concern in unfolding tragedy in Nepal. He felt that people of Nepal should develop the solution of the Nepal’s problems but substantial role has to be played by international community. He maintained that each one of us should take initiative for finding solution for Nepal. We may not be able to see the entire path at once, but we should continue walking, as we know which way the top of the mountain lies.

2006-02-19T10:15:00.000-05:00

The Sunday Times - Review

The Sunday Times
February 19, 2006

Go and live in Saudi Arabia, mad mullahs

Saira Khan, loudmouth star of The Apprentice, tells Deirdre Fernand that young Muslim women like her are the true voice of British Islam and they are sick of the bearded extremists giving them all a bad name.

‘Yeah, definitely I would.” Saira Khan, the 35-year-old star of The Apprentice, the reality TV show, wants to be prime minister. “I would like to see an Asian woman in power. You see, you have to aim high in life.” If she can’t be top dog, she says, she would settle for a lesser role as an adviser. Her portfolio? “Muslim affairs . . . As a modern British Asian woman I don’t see how I am represented in government.”

Viewers of the hit show in which would-be entrepreneurs compete for a £100,000-a-year job — a new series starts this week — will remember her as the gobby, motor-mouthed one. “More terrifying than the Daleks,” commented one reviewer. As Khan ran roughshod over the other contestants and their feelings, she seemed to have emerged from the womb with power shoulder pads.

In the event she was pipped to first place. Many people thought she had been robbed. When she met the singer Julian Lennon on holiday recently he told her he had been glued to every episode. Losing was a “miscarriage of justice”, he said. “Like watching the OJ Simpson trial.”
A year on from the show, she has a new book, Push for Success, out next month, and a television series, Temper Your Temper, to be shown in the autumn. “It’s about anger management,” she says. “It’s to help people negotiate and to deal with confrontation.”

This from Khan? Has the woman gone soft? Admittedly her harsh style is toning down. Last year’s heavy glasses have given way to contact lenses and today’s outfit is all about displaying a softer wrap-dress silhouette and two inches of power cleavage.

Her latest objective is all about less confrontation, more moderation, a word we don’t readily associate with her. Over the past weeks she has watched the Muslim demonstrations following the publication of the Muhammad cartoons with mounting horror.

Seeing marches turn ugly, mullahs pronouncing and embassies blazing, precipitated a personal crisis: “As a person who wants to live here, in a tolerant country as a British Muslim, I couldn’t understand the hatred that some people have.”

At the same time Abu Hamza, the preacher from Finsbury Park mosque, was jailed for seven years for inciting murder and race hate. “I want to say to people like him, ‘Why are you living in the West? Why don’t you go and live in Saudi Arabia?’ “Being a Muslim in Britain is different from being a Muslim in other countries. I am all for peaceful demonstration. If you live in this country there are democratic ways to behave. If you don’t like it, then go and live in a Muslim country.”

Khan believes there is an urgent need for mainstream Islam to speak out. Ever the businesswoman, she would “build a new brand”. Our images of Muslims are skewed, she argues.
On one hand we see the mad mullahs who represent fundamentalists; the other the moderates such as Sir Iqbal Sacranie, leader of the Muslim Council of Britain. But both, and we’re talking broad brush here, are swarthy old men with beards. “We need to rebrand Islam and present a different face. The Muslim council is very important as an organisation but I’m not sure that it means a lot to young British Asians.”

She wants high-profile Muslims such as Imran Khan and the boxer Amir Khan to join forces with her in raising the profile of those who keep the faith — but not too vehemently. Some of them may pray regularly, attend the mosque, forswear pork, but do touch alcohol.

“People like Tony Blair should seek out role models like me who appeal to the majority of people to head up a taskforce. I want British Muslims to be the examples for moderates all around the world.

“I want that group to include women and a cross-section of the Muslim community, not just middle-aged men in beards who were not even born in this country.”

As the daughter of two Pakistani immigrants, Khan knows about growing up both Muslim and British. In her childhood, cultures were always clashing.

Her parents had left their village in Kashmir in the 1960s to seek a better life in Britain. They arrived with only £5 in their pockets and settled near Nottingham. Her father took a job in a lace factory; her mother, who could not read or write, assembled components for Austin Rover.
She was the only Asian girl in her class, one of only three at her comprehensive. Her father was strict, telling her: “It is the woman who carries the respect for the family.” In a school where uniform had been abolished, he made her wear one. When he saw her walking back from school with her knee socks pulled down to her ankles, he whipped her legs from ankle to thigh with a wire coat hanger. She wasn’t allowed to cut her hair and never went to discos like her classmates.

2006-02-18T09:40:00.000-05:00

French Fries and Danish Pastries: Remember when some outlets in the United States of America changed the name of "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries" when at the UN France oppossed the Americal plan to invade Iraq? Now they are not alone anymore, some Iranians have joined that insane crowd as well. I am surprized to see that there are some similarities between American and Iranina mentality, even when (according to Bush) the two nations belong to two different civilizations!

BBC reported today: Iranians rename Danish pastries

Iranians wishing to buy Danish pastries will now have to ask for "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad".

Bakeries across the capital, Tehran, are covering up signs advertising the pastries and replacing them with ones bearing the dessert's new name.

The confectioners' union ordered the name change in retaliation for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper.

The images have caused angry protests across the world.

The union said that their decision was prompted by the "insults by Danish newspapers against the Prophet".

Danish pastries are very popular in Iran and not subject to a boycott affecting other Danish products as they are made locally.

Ahmad Mahmoudi, a cake shop owner in Tehran, backed the move. This is a punishment for those who start misusing freedom of expression to insult the sanctities of Islam

"This is a punishment for those who start misusing freedom of expression to insult the sanctities of Islam," he said.

But others were less convinced.

"I just want the sweet pastries. I have nothing to do with the name," shopper Zohreh Masoumi said.

This is not the first time a popular snack has been hit by fallout from a political row. French fries and French toast were renamed "freedom fries" and "freedom toast" at cafeterias in the US House of Representatives in 2003, after France opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq.

2006-02-16T22:20:00.000-05:00

My Cool Friends: Dr. Abdun Noor

One thing that I am very happy in my life is about my friends. I must say that I am blessed regarding my friendships. Some of my friends are from different generations than me. I have closest friends who are much younger than me. I also have great friends who are from previous generation. In Bangla we call elder friend as Bhai- means brother. Noor bhai is one of my those friends, who belongs to my bhai category. I was introduced to Noor bhai by my editor at that time, Ahmed Zaman Chowdhury.

Noor bhai, Abdun Noor, is a novelist, playwright, and development Practitioner. He was with the World Bank at Washington D.C. when I came to live in Washington in 1990. Like this year, I was going through a hard time in 1990. Noor bhai took me under his wings. I used to go to the Bank to have lunch with him many times a week. And went to his house on the Potomac River for many other times.

Noor bhai has devoted his entire professional life of 44 years to foster development among least developing countries of Africa, Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Caribbean; of which 35 years were from the World Bank.

He received his PhD in Educational Administration from Michigan State University (1965); and studied at Graduate School of Education of Stanford University (1987). He joined the World Bank in 1970. As a young policy planner during early seventies, he has articulated for the World Bank its policy initiative on “Education and meeting of Basic Human Needs”, 1979; for the UNESCO he has written a think piece on “Managing Adult Literacy Programs”.

He has lead preparation of the education and manpower development program of the First Five Year Plan of the Governments of Bangladesh (1973), and the Fourth Five Year Development Plan of Pakistan (1968).

Noor bhai has carried out design and delivery of innovative learning and training courses on The World Bank’s Operations and Portfolio Management for senior staff of the World Bank; Islamic Development Bank; European University of Peace; and Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution and for Arab Bank for development of Africa.

But the work at the Bank is not the only achievement that he has. He is recognized as a playwright, novelist and essayist, in Bangladesh and abroad. He has carried out his creative writings since 1952. His writings reflect the internationalism of his life and span the globe. The first novel, PEGUSUS, 1980, is based on the life of Guyana; the second novel, ”SHUNNA BRITTO” -The Empty Circle- 1990, is based on the life of expatriate immigrant Indians sub continentals residing is USA; the third novel, UTTARAN, Transition of A Married Women” 2003, is based of midlife crisis of a modern Bangladeshi in her own land.

I feel proud that I was involved in publishing some of his works, when I was editing periodicals in Bangladesh.

Noor Bhai has just published an epic novel, “ BICHOLITO SOMOY - The Uncertain Time-, of over thousand pages in two volumes, covering rise of Bengali nationalism during the period of 17th century India.

I am thankful that he has mentioned my contribution behind the writing of this epic.

Reviewer Azizul Jalil, wrote in Daily Star published from Dhaka on Bicholito Somoy:
Married to Najma, an Assamese, Noor was inspired to look east in his quest for a romantic story with an authentic underpinning. This led to a research into available historical documents over a period of five years on the relationship between the Mughals and Assam, then known as Ahom Rajjya.

The result of this work of love, inquisitiveness and imagination is a book of four hundred plus pages in Bangla, "Bicholito Somoy". It is a story of romance, intrigue and valour. Aurangzeb's third son, Prince Mohamamd Azam Shah, sent by the emperor as the Subedar to the difficult but rich province of Bengal in 1678, is one of the principal characters. The book was published by Magnum Opus during the last Boi Mela in Dhaka. A worthy feature is that all profits from the sale of this book would be contributed to the Grameen Shikkha Trust of the Grameen Bank for awarding scholarships to poor students in the rural areas.

Primarily a writer of plays and fiction, Abdun Noor has produced a historical novel of great interest to those who are eager to know about Dhaka's ancient history, glory and tragedies. Readers will not be disappointed. The book is rich in historical events, around which the fictional account has been woven, in an intricate tapestry of fine prose. The characters speak softly into the reader's ears, with the author taking the role of a behind the scene prompter and narrator.
The fictional part of Bicholito Somoy is the story of the life and times of that era in Dhaka when it was a mixture of the grandeur of the life of the nobles and the hard life and reality of the common people.

Part history and part fiction, Bicholito Somoy would be a thoroughly enjoyable reading for the richness of its story and the manner of its telling.

2006-02-16T16:30:00.000-05:00

Why striking bus drivers in Tehran are the real defenders of Muslim rights
Nick Cohen
Sunday February 12, 2006
The Observer http://www.observer.co.uk/

For three weeks, there have been demonstrations across the planet about a great injustice done to Muslims. After baton-wielding cops inflicted dozens of injuries, the fear of death is in the air. George W Bush's State Department has warned of 'systematic oppression', while secularists and fundamentalists have revealed their mutually incompatible values. Since you ask, I am not talking about the global menace of Scandinavian cartoonists that has so terrified our fearless free press, but mass arrests in Iran.

The media have barely mentioned the story, even though it cuts through the nonsense about a clash of civilisations between the 'West' and the 'Muslims'. The Muslims of Tehran are proving themselves to be anything but a monolithic bloc happy to follow the orders of the ayatollahs and their demented President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

There are huge class divisions to begin with, and close to the bottom of the heap are the city's bus drivers. The authorities refused to allow them an independent trade union and ruled that an 'Islamic council' in the offices of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company would represent their interests. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pious have not proved the doughtiest fighters for better pay and conditions. The bus drivers claimed that managers were stealing money from their pay packets. They formed their own union and threatened to strike at the end of January.

Ahmadinejad won the rigged Iranian elections last year with a promise to stand up for the little man against the Islamic Republic's corrupt elite. Faced with a choice between sticking to his word and carrying on with despotism, he showed his true colours by allowing the most ferocious crackdown Tehran has seen since the religious authorities crushed dissident journalists and students in 1999.

The company's managers and Islamic council called in the paramilitary police who arrested the union's six officers and beat workers until they agreed to renounce the strike. Bravely, the majority refused. The state's thugs then targeted their wives and children.

Mahdiye Salimi, the 12-year-old daughter of one of the strike leaders, told a reporter that they had poured into her home in the early hours of the morning trying to find her father. When his wife said she didn't know where he was, the assault began. 'They kicked my mum's heart with their boots and my mum had an enormous ache in her heart. They even wanted to spray something in my [two-year old] sister's mouth.'

No one knows how many people the authorities arrested. The highest figure the British TUC has heard is 1,300. International trade union federations and the British embassy in Tehran estimate that somewhere between 400 and 600 people are still in prison.

Owen Tudor, the TUC's international officer, went to the Iranian embassy to protest and was knocked back by the hatred of unions he met. Probably without realising it, Iranian officials parroted the language of Margaret Thatcher and told him unions were 'the enemy within'. From their perspective, you can see why they would think so. Unions instil democratic habits and encourage solidarity with others regardless of colour and -more importantly in this case - creed. Neither of these admirable traits is likely to appeal to your average fanatic who believes he can read the mind of God.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the US State Department and British Foreign Office have all protested. Trade unions, Iranian exiles and gay groups have demonstrated. Yet the media have barely noticed. The failure is due in part to my trade's perennial inability to walk and chew gum at the same time: we consider stories one by one and today's story is Muslim anger with cartoonists.

I'm not saying it isn't newsworthy, but you shouldn't forget that it was manufactured by hard-line Danish imams who hawked the cartoons round the Muslim world for four months (and, somewhat blasphemously, added obscene drawings of their own). The religious right and Syrian Baathists welcomed them and proved yet again that they need to incite frenzies to legitimise arbitrary power.

Iran has seen all the stunts before because it has endured Islamism longer than any other country. Cheeringly, the old tricks no longer appear to be working. The Associated Press's reporter said that about 400 people demonstrated outside the Danish embassy in Tehran last week, most of them state employees obeying orders, according to the Iranian opposition.

Even if you take the lowest estimate, there are as many striking bus drivers in prison in Tehran as rioters prepared to play the worn-out game of throwing Molotov cocktails at Western embassies. No one ever made money by being optimistic about the Middle East, but after nearly 30 years of Islamist rule, Iranians seem sick of it.

It cannot be said often enough that this is not a clash of civilisations but a civil war within the Islamic world between theocratic reaction and the beleaguered forces of liberty and modernity. As I have tried to emphasise, the best service the rich world's liberal left can render is to get on the right side for once.

2006-02-16T11:45:00.000-05:00

This article can be found on the web at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060206/benjamin

When Will US Women Demand Peace?
by MEDEA BENJAMIN
[posted online on January 24, 2006]

Whenever I travel to international gatherings to talk about the war in Iraq, economic development and women's rights, the question I get asked most frequently is: "Where are the women in the United States? Why aren't they rising up?"

I hear it from women in Africa, who have lost funding for their health clinics because of the Bush Administration's ban on even talking about abortion; from Iraqi women, who are suffering the double oppression of occupation and rising fundamentalism; from European women, who wonder how we can tolerate the crumbling of our meager social services; and from Latina women opposed to unresponsive governments that represent a tiny elite.

The question is variously posed with anger, contempt, curiosity or sympathy. But always, there is a sense of disappointment. What happened to the proud suffragettes who chained themselves to the White House fence for the right to vote? What happened to the garment workers, whose struggles for decent working conditions inspired the first International Women's Day in 1910? What about those who emulated Rosa Parks, risking their lives or livelihoods to confront the evils of racism? Given their tradition of activism, why aren't American women today rising up against a government that dragged them into war with lies, that spies on their peaceful activities and diverts money from their children's schools or their mothers' nursing homes to pay for an immoral war?

I mumble excuses. We have no strong opposition parties or militant trade unions. We have a corporate media that keeps women ignorant. We're either too affluent to care or too poor to do anything about it. I insist that we keep trying, with efforts like CodePink: Women for Peace, the National Organization for Women and other women's groups, like Gold Star Families for Peace. I say that millions have come out to protest against the war but get demoralized when our government refuses to listen. But deep inside, I ask myself the same question: Where are the women? Why aren't they rising up?

I remember when we first started CodePink before invasion of Iraq, and we felt compelled to leave our families, our jobs, our warm homes, and camp out in front of the White House to try to stop the war. "We'll put a call out to women across the country," we said, "and the streets of Washington, DC, will be flooded with angry women saying no to an unjustified war." During the four cold, winter months we spent in front of the White House, hundreds of women came to join us, and more than 10,000 marched with us when we ended the vigil. But we kept wondering, Where were the millions of women who, according to the polls, were strongly opposed to the war? When a grieving Cindy Sheehan called on people all over the country to join in her vigil at Crawford, Texas, last summer, a few thousand people responded, most of them women. But why didn't tens of thousands come? Or 100,000?

Over the years, hundreds of thousands of women--perhaps millions-- have marched in antiwar rallies. Why don't they become part of an ongoing movement? Why do they get demoralized so quickly when their efforts don't bear fruit?

A few months back, I asked a group of international women for advice. Two issues kept cropping up: persistence and solidarity. "It took us decades to overthrow the oppressive apartheid regime," said one woman from South Africa, "and one of the things that kept us going was solidarity from the outside world--people getting arrested at South African embassies abroad, refusing to buy South African products, sending us moral support." The others agreed. "The struggle has to come from within," said a woman who had spent years organizing landless peasants in Brazil, "and you in the US have more freedom to organize than we ever had. But US women need to feel the support of their sisters overseas, just like we have had tremendous international support."

So a few weeks ago, CodePink drafted a Global Women's Call for Peace in Iraq with the idea of asking women around the world to sign on and then march to US embassies on March 8, International Women's Day. We thought that the idea of women worldwide putting pressure on the US government would inspire US women to stand up as well.

We sent our friends overseas a draft of demands--withdrawal of foreign troops, no permanent bases, rebuilding funds going directly to Iraqis instead of US companies and equal rights for women. It immediately "went viral," on the Internet, with women from Mongolia, Mexico, Australia, Albania, the Philippines and Pakistan requesting to be among the initial endorsers.

Our goal of getting 100 prominent women to sign quickly become 150, then 200, and before we even officially launched the campaign, more than 3,000 women (and male allies) had signed on to the new website, Women Say No to War.

So please join us in building this global call, sending it to our friends at home and abroad to get at least 100,000 women on board. Please commit to doing a local action on March 8--shut down a recruiting center, sit in at a Congressional office, hold a vigil on a crowded street corner, paint a peace mural. Or join us in Washington, DC, where Iraqi, US and British women--including Cindy Sheehan--who have lost sons in this war will try to meet with US women leaders, from Condoleezza Rice to Hillary Clinton, to push our peace plan.

Let's make March 8 a day when we revive the fighting spirit of International Women's Day and unleash the power of women across generations, races, ethnicities, religions and borders. Let's make it a day to show our anger over the war, our compassion for our sisters in Iraq, our disgust with our leaders and our determination to change course. And let's commit to building, over the long term, a women's peace movement that will make our global sisters--and our grandmothers--proud.

2006-02-12T20:05:00.000-05:00

My Cool Friends: Partha I have never been to Paris. I am going to this city on a day's notice and only for two days. My duaghter is jealous of me that I will be in Paris on Valentine's day. One of my closest friends, said- "the city of love - or is it the city of light? I hope you're taking an extra day or two to walk around. Will you put pictures on your blog? That would be exciting (I love pictures, and I like blogs - for people I know (like you) - not inane "I went to a party last night blablabla") I like your blog. It's intelligent & funny & interesting (like you?). Wow, I seem to have been overcome with a case of sudden sincerity! Anyhow....I will be keeping my eye on it (no pressure - e-mails are good too) :) I hope you have a good time!"

My friend Partha lives in that city. Please see his website: http://www.mimepartha.com

"Partha is undoubtedly a forerunner in the field of mime in Bangladesh. He started as a musician and his keen sense of rhythm enabled him to let his limbs move and express his surroundings through gestures. Initally Jogesh Dutta of Calcutta imparted some education in mime craft, but Partha's thirst was for world class artists under whom he could develop. He attended the school of Etienne Decroux, the founder of corporal mime and later he worked with world's greatest mime Marcel Marceau. Partha's artistic excellence has unfolded during the past fifteen years on the illuminated stages of both at home and Europe and North America. His devotion and sensitivity uplift an ordinary theme to a sublime height. Partha wrote and choreographed a mimodrama (Cauchemar), in a record time of two months, which was staged in Bangladesh in 1994. This was achieved with the collaboration of different group theatres and professional dancers from Dhaka. The mimodrama concerning child abuse was the first of its kind to be shown on South East Asian stages and its enormous success was acclaimed by the media. Partha travels all over the world to teach the art of mime, organizes workshops with young people and create productions with the attendees. Currently he is in the process of creating a new episode on the theme of environmental pollution. Partha also teaches the art of mime to speech-impaired people."

We spent our youth together in Dhaka. He was an upcoming mime artist and I was a journalist. We became close friends. And then he went to France and I went to Norway. He stayed in France and I came back to Bangladesh. Later I moved to Canada.

Partha came to Canada to visit us almost four years back. That was the last time that I saw him.

Yesterday, when I sent him an e-mail with the news that I was coming to Paris in two days and asked for some directions, he wrote me back write way:

1.I don't know in which terminal of CDG - Air Port are you coming ? If it is terminal no 1 or 2 take Paris bus ( Destnation : OPERA )There is two service one for OPERA and other one for Porte Maillot.So you must take PARIS - OPERA.

When you will reach OPERA end stop - it is behind of Paris Opera house - you walk down in the front of Opera , you will find Metro entrance - the staton call also M° OPERA, if you stay more then three days please buy weekly ticket 1-5 zone , it will cost 30.90 euros.You can come to my house( I live in 1-4 zone, Paris is 1-2 zone ) and go back to the Air Port with that- also hole Paris all the times.You can buy this ticket only in the counter of the Metro.You need one passport size photograph.

The ticket call Hebdomadaire ( means weekly ticket) for 1-5 zone.So when you will come from Airport buy in the bus just one ticket for Paris Opera - it will cost near about 10 euros.

Then from Opera you take Metro: direction call : BALARD ( Line no 8 )and get down in Metro station call : La Moutte Picquet Grenelle.Your Unesco is next stop from this staion.You can walk down or from this station you take the direction call: NATION and get down in next stop call : CAMBRONNE.Don't go towards main building of UNESCO it is parallel to the train line.Keep on your left the train line and walk 5 min. you will reach Annexe of UNESCO.Call me from there.

Wish you safe and happy journey."

So now I am confidant that I will have no problem cruising around Paris. I am excited to see Paris, to see Partha, my friend.

2006-02-11T23:22:00.000-05:00

Denmark My Love: I went to Denmark for the first time in 1983. This was my first foreign trip outside my native Bangladesh. I did fall in love with Denmark right way.

I found that people of Denmark were more socialy aware, at least those who were my friends. And now I am surprized to see what a mess has been created around Denmark and Islam. I am realy sorry about these events.

I am glad that EU Justice Commissioner calls for media code as Muslim cartoons controversy rages.

The report that I just read says that Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said in an interview published Thursday that the EU may draw up a new media code of conduct to forestall any repetition of the global controversy now raging over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers.

Speaking to the London Telegraph newspaper, he noted that Muslims felt "humiliated" by the drawings and urged European media to agree to a charter that would allow them to "self-regulate" when reporting on religion, emphasizing that "the exercising of a right is always the assumption of a responsibility".

In this way, he said, the press will give the Muslim world the message: we are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression, we can and we are ready to self-regulate that right.

The contemplated code would be drawn up by press outlets themselves with the assistance of the European Commission; it would not have formal legal status and would not be legally enforceable by EU authorities against offenders, but could have a persuasive and informally mitigating effect.

Frattini first sought to intervene in the cartoons controversy Tuesday, when he issued a statement calling the publication of the Muhammad caricatures "somewhat imprudent," while acknowledging that freedom of expression was a "'founding principle' of most European nations."

In other developments in the cartoons controversy, large scale but peaceful protests took place Thursday in Lebanon and in Bangladesh. In Beirut, where a crowd attacked and burned the Danish embassy Saturday, an estimated 300,000 Shiite Muslims marched in a traditional Ashura mourning observation that turned into a mass cartoons protest. The leader of the Hezbollah guerrilla group told the marchers that Muslims would insist on getting a full apology from Denmark and wanted the EU to pass laws against insulting the Prophet.

Meanwhile about 2000 Muslims rallied around the main mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh. They shouted "burn the Danish embassy" and torched Danish flags but took no further action.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused the governments of Iran and Syria of encouraging some of the protests and agitation, saying "they have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes, and the world ought to call them on it."

Syrian Ambassador to Washington Imad Moustapha immediately denied the allegations, saying "We in Syria believe anti-Western sentiments are being fueled by two major things: the situation in Iraq and the situation in the occupied territories, the West Bank and Gaza."

On the otherhand, the news in Canada itself is not healthy at all. Two Calgary based publications will be among the first in Canada to print the now-infamouse Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have sparked bloody riots across the Islamic world and protest in the West.

The Jewish Free Press, which is sent to 2,000 Calgary homes is running them in this week's edition.

Calgary based Western Standard magazine will follow suit in its issue hitting the news stand late next week.

I am so sad!!!!!!

2006-02-08T23:36:00.000-05:00

Military Hides Cause of Women Soldiers' Deaths
By Marjorie Cohn
t r u t h o u t Report
Monday 30 January 2006

In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior US military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.

The latrine for female soldiers at Camp Victory wasn't located near their barracks, so they had to go outside if they needed to use the bathroom. "There were no lights near any of their facilities, so women were doubly easy targets in the dark of the night," Karpinski told retired US Army Col. David Hackworth in a September 2004 interview. It was there that male soldiers assaulted and raped women soldiers. So the women took matters into their own hands. They didn't drink in the late afternoon so they wouldn't have to urinate at night. They didn't get raped. But some died of dehydration in the desert heat, Karpinski said.
Karpinski testified that a surgeon for the coalition's joint task force said in a briefing that "women in fear of getting up in the hours of darkness to go out to the port-a-lets or the latrines were not drinking liquids after 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and in 120 degree heat or warmer, because there was no air-conditioning at most of the facilities, they were dying from dehydration in their sleep."

"And rather than make everybody aware of that - because that's shocking, and as a leader if that's not shocking to you then you're not much of a leader - what they told the surgeon to do is don't brief those details anymore. And don't say specifically that they're women. You can provide that in a written report but don't brief it in the open anymore."

For example, Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, Sanchez's top deputy in Iraq, saw "dehydration" listed as the cause of death on the death certificate of a female master sergeant in September 2003. Under orders from Sanchez, he directed that the cause of death no longer be listed, Karpinski stated. The official explanation for this was to protect the women's privacy rights.
Sanchez's attitude was: "The women asked to be here, so now let them take what comes with the territory," Karpinski quoted him as saying. Karpinski told me that Sanchez, who was her boss, was very sensitive to the political ramifications of everything he did. She thinks it likely that when the information about the cause of these women's deaths was passed to the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld ordered that the details not be released. "That's how Rumsfeld works," she said.

"It was out of control," Karpinski told a group of students at Thomas Jefferson School of Law last October. There was an 800 number women could use to report sexual assaults. But no one had a phone, she added. And no one answered that number, which was based in the United States. Any woman who successfully connected to it would get a recording. Even after more than 83 incidents were reported during a six-month period in Iraq and Kuwait, the 24-hour rape hot line was still answered by a machine that told callers to leave a message.

"There were countless such situations all over the theater of operations - Iraq and Kuwait - because female soldiers didn't have a voice, individually or collectively," Karpinski told Hackworth. "Even as a general I didn't have a voice with Sanchez, so I know what the soldiers were facing. Sanchez did not want to hear about female soldier requirements and/or issues."

Karpinski was the highest officer reprimanded for the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, although the details of interrogations were carefully hidden from her. Demoted from Brigadier General to Colonel, Karpinski feels she was chosen as a scapegoat because she was a female.

Sexual assault in the US military has become a hot topic in the last few years, "not just because of the high number of rapes and other assaults, but also because of the tendency to cover up assaults and to harass or retaliate against women who report assaults," according to Kathy Gilberd, co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild's Military Law Task Force.

This problem has become so acute that the Army has set up its own sexual assault web site.

In February 2004, Rumsfeld directed the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to undertake a 90-day review of sexual assault policies. "Sexual assault will not be tolerated in the Department of Defense," Rumsfeld declared.

The 99-page report was issued in April 2004. It affirmed, "The chain of command is responsible for ensuring that policies and practices regarding crime prevention and security are in place for the safety of service members." The rates of reported alleged sexual assault were 69.1 and 70.0 per 100,000 uniformed service members in 2002 and 2003. Yet those rates were not directly comparable to rates reported by the Department of Justice, due to substantial differences in the definition of sexual assault.

Notably, the report found that low sociocultural power (i.e., age, education, race/ethnicity, marital status) and low organizational power (i.e., pay grade and years of active duty service) were associated with an increased likelihood of both sexual assault and sexual harassment.
The Department of Defense announced a new policy on sexual assault prevention and response on January 3, 2005. It was a reaction to media reports and public outrage about sexual assaults against women in the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ongoing sexual assaults and cover-ups at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, Gilberd said. As a result, Congress demanded that the military review the problem, and the Defense Authorization Act of 2005 required a new policy be put in place by January 1.

The policy is a series of very brief "directive-type memoranda" for the Secretaries of the military services from the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. "Overall, the policy emphasizes that sexual assault harms military readiness, that education about sexual assault policy needs to be increased and repeated, and that improvements in response to sexual assaults are necessary to make victims more willing to report assaults," Gilberd notes. "Unfortunately," she added "analysis of the issues is shallow, and the plans for addressing them are limited."

Commands can reject the complaints if they decide they aren't credible, and there is limited protection against retaliation against the women who come forward, according to Gilberd. "People who report assaults still face command disbelief, illegal efforts to protect the assaulters, informal harassment from assaulters, their friends or the command itself," she said.

But most shameful is Sanchez's cover-up of the dehydration deaths of women that occurred in Iraq. Sanchez is no stranger to outrageous military orders. He was heavily involved in the torture scandal that surfaced at Abu Ghraib. Sanchez approved the use of unmuzzled dogs and the insertion of prisoners head-first into sleeping bags after which they are tied with an electrical cord and their are mouths covered. At least one person died as the result of the sleeping bag technique. Karpinski charges that Sanchez attempted to hide the torture after the hideous photographs became public.

Sanchez reportedly plans to retire soon, according to an article in the International Herald Tribune earlier this month. But Rumsfeld recently considered elevating the 3-star general to a 4-star. The Tribune also reported that Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, the Army's chief spokesman, said in an email message, "The Army leaders do have confidence in LTG Sanchez."

For background, see: Marjorie Cohn Bush on Trial for Crimes against Humanity • Marjorie Cohn Abu Ghraib General Lambastes Bush Administration •

2006-02-08T20:03:00.000-05:00

Danish paper refused "offensive" Jesus cartoons
By James Kilner
Wed Feb 8, 12:08 PM ET
(Additional reporting by Rasmus Jorgensen)

The Danish newspaper that first published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad infuriating Muslims worldwide previously turned down cartoons of Jesus as too offensive, a cartoonist said on Wednesday.

Twelve cartoons of the Prophet published last September by Jyllands-Posten newspaper have outraged Muslims, provoking violent protests in the Middle East, Africa and Asia."My cartoon, which certainly did not offend any Christians I showed it to, was rejected because the editor felt it would be considered offensive to readers -- readers in general, not necessarily Christians," cartoonist Christoffer Zieler said in an email he sent to Reuters on Wednesday.

Jens Kaiser, the former editor of Jyllands-Posten's Sunday edition who turned down the cartoons three years ago, said he had done so because they were no good.

"Having seen the cartoons, I found that they were not very good. I failed to see the purportedly provocative nature," he said in a statement.

"My fault is that I didn't tell him what I really meant: The cartoons were bad.

" Kaiser said he told Zieler he had not used the cartoons because they were offensive to some readers.

Zieler's five colored cartoons portrayed Jesus jumping out of holes in floors and walls during his resurrection. In one, gnomes rated Jesus for style, another entitled "Saviour-cam" showed Jesus with a camera on his head staring at his feet.

"I do think the cartoons would offend some readers, but only because they were silly," Kaiser said.

Unlike Muslims, who consider depictions of the Prophet to be deeply offensive, many Christians adorn churches with images and sculptures of Jesus. However, some Christian congregations have protested at portrayals they perceive as blasphemous, especially in the cinema.

The editor of Jyllands-Posten has apologized for offending Muslims by printing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, including one of the founder of Islam holding a bomb in his turban, but defended his right to do so in the interests of free speech.

Dozens of newspapers in Europe and elsewhere have reproduced them with the same justification."Perhaps explaining my story of three years ago in its proper context at least won't make matters any worse," Zieler said.

2006-02-07T15:45:00.000-05:00

Blog Buster- Horoscope: Once you have a blog, it is like you are all out there. Because of this blog, I get all kind of e-mails. Some of those are unexpected, but often interesting.

Today I got a message that said," Hi, Fellow!I like your blog!I just came across your blog and wanted to drop you a note telling you how impressed I was with the information you have posted here.I have a weekend love horoscope
site. It pretty much covers weekend love horoscope related subjects. Come and check it out if you get time :-)Best regards!"

So, I was flatered and visited this blog. I learned that Chinese Horoscopes Much More Than An Animal . Colette York wrote: These days, when it comes to Chinese horoscopes most people know which of the 12 Chinese animals they are, based on the year they were born. However, nothing in life is ever that simple. If all there was to it was 12 animals that would mean there wouldn't be much variation between the characteristics of people, just 12 types, or possibly 24 if you consider male and female. Well I can tell you there is FAR more to a Chinese horoscope than knowing which of the 12 animals you are.

The first thing to remember is that Chinese horoscopes are based on the Lunar calendar not the solar one, that is why Chinese New Year falls anywhere between the middle of January and the middle of February. So you see if your birthday is during this period you may not be the dog you thought you were, you may be a pig instead! But, with 12 animals in the list each twelfth year the animal is repeated as they cycle through; doesnt seem so complicated? Well unfortunately the Chinese calendar works on a 60 year cycle not a 12 year one. This means that each animal occurs 5 times in the 60 year cycle (12 x 5 = 60) and each one is unique so there are actually 5 types of each animal. So if you are a Rat, you could be a Rat on the roof, or a Rat in the field, or a Rat in the Warehouse, or a Rat on the beam or finally a Rat on the mountain.

Then there are the 12 Palaces, Ming, Brothers and Sisters, Marital, Man and Woman, Wealth, Sickness, Moving, Servants, Officials, Property, Fortune and Virtue and finally the Parents Palace. Each Palace influences a different aspect of your life.

There are 5 elements, Wood, Metal, Water, Fire and Earth and 37 Stars and they all come together to produce a unique chart just for you.The key to it all is your 8 character horoscope determined from your year, month, hour and time of birth, 2 characters for each, in Lunar years of course.

In fact your very own personalised Chinese horoscope has so many possible variations that there are millions and millions of combinations. So you see with all these parts that make up a full Chinese horoscope it is not enough just to know that you are a Pig or a Dog or a Cock."

Intersting! Isn't it? So, if you are into horoscopes, may be you should have a look at this blog: http://all-about-horoscope.com/

2006-02-06T21:25:00.000-05:00

Cartoon Controvercy: I was not posting any thing on the Cartoon Controvercy on my blog on principle. However, I saw this editorial in the Outlook, which is published from nowehere but Afghanistan. I thought you might find it interesting.

Freedom of Press or Contempt of a Faith

On Friday, September 30, 2005, a Danish paper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons, showing the images of Prophet Mohammad, seriously lacerated the feelings of the Muslims of the world. According to the Muslim faith no one can draw the images of the Prophet Mohammad and the violation considered to be a serious contempt of the religion Islam. Regardless of being affiliated with this or that religion an important principle should always be followed which is the promotion of intra religious harmony. This is only possible by respecting the faith of each other. When ever this principle is neglected human societies faced grave consequences. The situation further deteriorated when on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 the France Soir, alongside the 12 original cartoons, printed a new drawing on its front page showing Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy figures sitting on a cloud, with the caption "Don't worry Muhammad, we've all been caricatured here." Later on the other Publications in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain also re-ran the same cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, perhaps as a symbolic action to show their support for free speech.

No doubt that freedom of press is a prominent value which should be defended unanimously by not only the journalist community but all the peace and freedom loving people throughout the world but a thin border between the freedom of press and expression and the contempt of the faith of the people should also be kept in mind.

But the case of Danish cartoonist is a little bit different, no one has the right to use the excuse of freedom of press and expression to offense the faith of the others since these freedoms which are the globally accepted values must also consider others' rights and aspiration that might hurt other people's freedom. It becomes more important issue at a time when a bunch of unsound people are creating misunderstanding among the human societies. The misuse of the freedom will do nothing but to strengthen the hands of those elements who believe in violence. The cartoons in the Danish paper were the second in nature after the desecration of the Holy Quran last year in the US naval detention center in the Guntanamo bay, which sparked a series of violent protests all over the Muslim world including Afghanistan which left behind tens of dead.

Keeping in view the gravity of the issue, immediately Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the paper which for the first time published the cartoons, apologized the Muslim community. This move of the Danish officials to some extent healed the strong wave of hatred against the Danish government in the Muslim world, where the series of the huge protests still continues against the contempt of their religion. Nevertheless now it is clear that the Danish Cartoonist did not draw the cartoon with the intentions of insulting the Muslim. The Muslims of the world should accept the apologies of the Danish government and the paper and showing their generosity and broad heartedness, forgive both the government and the paper of Denmark.

At any cost this issue should not be misused by the militants and the radical elements who just want to lapse the freedom under these pretexts. The promotion of violence under any context is not a desirable phenomenon. The Daily Outlook Afghanistan also advises the journalist community of the west that in addition to preserve the freedom of press and expression, should also keep in mind the other values, including to respect the faith and beliefs of the others people. We need to promote the harmony among the various religions, regions and civilizations. We have to promote the concept of global family with the mutual respect with all it dimensions.