Monday, December 26, 2016

Frightening: Big brother is watching you!

Came today across an information that freaked me out.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/25/british-councils-used-investigatory-powers-ripa-to-secretly-spy-on-public?CMP=share_btn_gp

The translation is "Big brother is watching you!"
Tapping conversations, reading your email, and following you on camera for "crimes" such as dog fouling and loud music! And on top of this Orwellian behavior using your tax money to do it.

It did not take place in North Korea, the culprits are Councils in England. A country that prides itself to have strict privacy rules and tight checks and balances on government surveillance.
In this case Ripa (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act ) "councils were given permission to carry out more than 55,000 days of covert surveillance over five years, including spying on people walking dogs, feeding pigeons and fly-tipping" via "secret listening devices, cameras and private detectives.

With the rise of the extreme right and national socialism in Europe and the US, the government power to enter into our lives and observe us on everyday basis is frightening, much more that terrorism.
Measures primarily intended for combating terrorism were used for issues as trivial as a dog barking or the sale of theater tickets.
Out of fear we are giving away our civil liberty, right to privacy and freedom of information not knowing what we are signing on when we accept to erode civil right and freedom on the altar of safety.

I wonder and shiver at the thought of how these powers, available through advancement in technologies are used in Iran and the Gulf States where governments are not democratically elected. Or in the Middle East and Africa where Parliaments are weak and powerless.
Or in Western countries where "strong men" such as Putin,  Erdogan, and maybe Trump, or in a nightmare scenario Farage, or Marie le Pen, lead!

It is indeed a frightening world, and the culprit is not the acts of terrorists, rather it is that we are letting them win by giving up our citizens rights.





Wednesday, December 21, 2016

"Don’t forget Aleppo" he shouted, but nobody heard...

The Russian ambassador to Turkey has been shot dead by a police officer who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo” as he pulled the trigger.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/19/russian-ambassador-to-turkey-wounded-in-ankara-shooting-attack?CMP=share_btn_gp

Putin reacted say it is a ‘provocation’ aimed at sabotaging Russo-Turkish relations. He chose to acknowledge it as a cosmic conspiracy against Russia by God knows whom, refusing to even consider that the chilling attack is a backlash against Russian military involvement in Syria, the last of which resulted in the destruction and ethnic cleansing of Aleppo.

Erdogan went along with Putin and declared "Attack won't dampen effort to strengthen ties between Turkey, Russia". Then he went on to use it in his drive to tighten his grasp on the country by proposing another conspiracy theory. The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut soon declared "Gulen network behind killing of Russian ambassador".

Donald Trump condemned the assassination calling it a "violation of all rules of civilized order" and attributing it to a "radical Islamic terrorist". Faithful to his two dimensional vision of the world,  he confirms the division of the world between the ''civilized'' world and the ''others'' which happen to be Islamic terrorist. Irrelevant to him whether the perpetrator is Daesh ideology driven, or not.

The current White House condemned, showed sympathy, and stood united with Russia and Turkey in confronting ''terrorism in all of its forms''. Any easy way out from taking responsibility for the failure of the Obama policy of ''leading from behind''.  After 8 years Obama legacy is a violent unsafe polarized world, a US that lost credibility around the world for not standing its ground on red lines, abandoning its friends, and cowering in the face of petty bullies.

There is no denial that what happened is an act of violence that cannot be accept under any justification. But it is too simplistic to say that it was the act of a Daesh lone wolf. The shooter was a police officer and he did not go on a rampage. He shot the ambassador in an execution style manner shouting. He said ''We will not forget Aleppo and you cannot kill people and stay safe''. He did not use Islamic terminology or mention Jihad or any religious group.
He did say Allah Akbar, but anybody raised in the Muslim faith will say it even if he is not religious. It is indicative of ''Islamization'' for those who have no clue of this region of the world.

It is a chilling attack that requires in depth analysis in order to prevent an escalation of polarization and violence that draw us all into a conflict where the choice is no winner, all will lose. Sheer force is not the solution. Combating terrorism requires to drain the pool of disgruntled hopeless and angry young and less young men and women.
This cannot happen if those who have the reigns of power around the world do not submit their actions to the checks and balances of analysis, recognizing the mistake, and learning from them. The starting point is Palestine, the Cold War, supporting dictators, Afghanistan, Iraq, and ....the Iran nuclear deal and leading from behind.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Who is Castro?

I never imagined that I would ask this question until his death.

For me, and most of the baby boomer generation he was the man who symbolized the struggle against oppression and imperialism. He was the man who stood for the struggle against apartheid. He embodies how people can achieve freedom.

I knew that for many Americans he was the enemy given the Cold War divisions and national interests. But I never realized that for the younger progressive generation he was viewed as a dictator.

Some posts about his position as to gay rights surprised me. It is an anachronism. Judging people in retrospect according to issues and causes that were not current decades ago seems strange.

It is true that many of what Castro, the head of state, did go against what I stand for. In fact they go against what he stood against too. He said it himself
"Here is a conclusion I’ve come to after many years: among all the errors we may have committed, the greatest of them all was that we believed that someone ... actually knew how to build socialism. ... Whenever they said. ‘That’s the formula,’ we thought they knew. Just as if someone is a physician.” Castro in 2005.
But I could make the separation between the values that were behind his revolution and the compromise that smudged his life as a player in the game of nations.
“We are now being advised about Cuba by people who have supported the apartheid regime these last 40 years,” said Nelson Mandela on a visit to Havana in 1991. “No honorable man or woman could ever accept advice from people who never cared for us at the most difficult times.”
Africa is not conflicted about Fidel Castro’s legacy. When Africa was a battleground between the Cold War powers, Cuba emerged as a friend of liberation movements. Cuba’s involvement in Africa went beyond the ideological standoff between right and left to a real helping hand: sending soldiers, doctors and teachers when post-colonial Africa was perhaps at its most vulnerable.
My position is not different from Mandela and most of African leaders.
http://qz.com/846337/cuban-leader-fidel-castro-was-a-liberation-icon-in-africa-and-remained-committed-to-the-continent/

The separation in opinions I witnessed within the progressive circles seems generational, history is not read in depth and the world is viewed in black and white.

Here are some of his more memorable quotes: 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/26/a-revolution-is-not-a-bed-of-roses-fidel-castro-in-his-own-words

  • I am not interested in power nor do I envisage assuming it at any time.” - In January 1959, when Castro’s rebels toppled Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista
  • I began the revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I would do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action.” – On the revolution in 1959
  • A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past.” – Castro in 1959.
  • The US government says that a socialist regime here threatens US security. But what threatens the security of the North American people is the aggressive policy of the warmongers of the United States ... We do not endanger the life or security of a single North American family.” -May 1961 (shortly after the Bay of Pigs invasion)
  • We have to stick to the facts and, simply put, the socialist camp has collapsed.” – Castro in 1991.
  • Capitalism has neither the capacity, nor the morality, nor the ethics to solve the problems of poverty.” - July 1991, on the fall of communism in Europe.
  • These changes [the opening to international tourism, foreign investment, some small business and family remittances] have their social cost, because we lived in a glass case, pure asepsis, and now we are surrounded by viruses, bacteria to the point of distraction and the egoism created by the capitalist system of production.” – Castro in 1998.
  • Here is a conclusion I’ve come to after many years: among all the errors we may have committed, the greatest of them all was that we believed that someone ... actually knew how to build socialism. ... Whenever they said. ‘That’s the formula,’ we thought they knew. Just as if someone is a physician.” Castro in 2005.
  • We are not a developed capitalist country in crisis, whose leaders are going crazy looking for solutions amidst depression, inflation, a lack of markets and unemployment; we are and we must be socialists.” – Castro writing in one of his “reflections,” or newspaper columns in 2008.







Thursday, November 10, 2016

Trump is not a fool!

Trump is smart marketer and a good strategists.

He was able to tap into a worldwide trend. His tactics were part of his strategy.
He gained the ultra right vote, but it was not his main strength. It was a side win tactics.
At the end of the day, more Latinos and African Americans voted for him that for the last Republican candidate, and ''college moms'' voted for him.
His strategy paid and the fools are the political establishment and the media who remained in their towers, separate from the beat of the street.

Today I read good post elections analysis Facebook post that said

Don't fool yourselves about the nature of the people who did vote Trump in.  Its not a big shift towards racism, sexism, etc.. Because if you look at the social polling data more that 60% of the population are generally pretty in the middle on social issues.
Look at the breakdown not state to state, but county to county. Its clear who voted him in, its a quarter of the population. Its the people in the more rural areas who got passed by by the economic recovery experienced in the more urban centers. Its people who are stuck in the middle between affordable care and medicaid. Its the people who are really a class of working poor, working constantly to try and pay off debt that will never clear.  
Just like Brexit this was a cry for help. 
The fact that people are still baffled by how this happened and that these people are still invisible to most progressives is part of the problem. On the other hand these people probably would benefit the most from progressive socialist policies, but that's not the nature of populism in the US it tends to take a more right wing form.

It is a good analysis. But it misses on the international dimension of the phenomena.
Ultra right in Europe is also populist and digging into the same disenfranchisement.
It is the rise of National Socialism who combines socialist economic policies with ultra conservative social issues.
It is the failure of the left to address the issues of concern to their historical base.
It is the progressive youth and women losing heart and faith with the left because today they talk and look like bankers and lawyers. They are  isolated in their tower of pedantic cliches.
Bernie was able to reinvigorate the base because he talked with passion in black and white.

Trump won because he talked about the issue of the average person with passion and in black and white.
He looked like a real person. He behaved like a real person people could identify with.
He is no fool.
The political establishment and the media are the fools because they did not and still are resisting to understand the '' why '' Trump was elected.

Sunday, September 25, 2016

A Syrian journalist's saga with British authorities


The title
Syrian activist barred from travel after UK seizes passport at Assad’s request
attracted my attention.

Reading more, I could not believe my eyes.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/24/syrian-journalist-zaina-erhaim-passport-held-assad-request

She is an Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Journalism award winner
She is also a winner of the prestigious Chevening Award, which brings “future leaders, influencers and decision-makers” to study in the UK.
She works for a UK-based, UK-funded organisation.

Her passport was confiscated as she landed at Heathrow airport and after a thorough questioning, she was informed that the document had been reported stolen.
Her picture and fingerprints prove that she is holding her own passport.

Who reported the passport stolen? Not the passport holder. It is the Syrian Embassy of the Assad regime who reported the passport stolen. Their aim, to shut down voices that write or talk against the actions of the regime.

This is a regime that the foreign secretary Boris Johnson blame few days earlier at the Un security council to be "responsible for the vast majority of the 400,000 deaths" and reiterated “There can be no genuine ceasefire unless there is a genuine political agreement that we can have a transition away from the Assad government,”

So how come, nobody took notice of the fact that the credibility of the regime is at stake and that it cannot be business as usual with such a regime. In fact, the ties of the regime to the UK through his wife who is a British national and his long residence in London allowed them to create pressure groups within the country.

Since the start of the uprising, Assad formed a media task force to assist him set a media strategy and follow up on it.
Assad has access to unlimited funds from the state coffers, nepotism, and corruption.
He could bring on board a number of professional lobbyist and to a certain extent win the media war.

In March 2014 a number of emails intercepted from the Assad family inboxes were published According to The Guardian
"Much of Assad's media advice comes from two young US-educated Syrian women, Sheherazad Jaafari and Hadeel al-Al. Both regularly stress to Assad, who uses the address sam@alshahba, the importance of social media and the importance of intervening in online discussions. At one point, Jaafari boasts that CNN has fallen for a nom-de-guerre that she set up to post pro-regime remarks. The emails also reveal that the media team has convinced Twitter to close accounts that purport to represent the Syrian regime."
The end result is a BBC Arabic editorial policy that the least to say is unbalanced as to the conflict in Syria and an administration where the government policy does not seep through to the lower level.

Chief executive of Index on Censorship, Jodie Ginsberg said. “The message the UK sends when it takes such action is that it is not on the side of those struggling to defend human dignity amid the inhumanity of war.”



Friday, September 23, 2016

Lebanon at the UN: shame!



Curious to hear what the Prime Minister of Lebanon said in his UN address, I felt deep shame of my country of origin.

Salam begged the world to help Lebanon elect a president!
Sorry Mr. Prime Minister, the deputies elected by the Lebanese people in a fully democratic elections are solely responsible to elect a President. There is no violent clashes or civil war to physically prevent the elections.
What are you telling the world? That the Lebanese are a people who has not enough self respect to rule their politics? Or is it a recognition that the actual Lebanese politicians are either subservient to or do not have the strength to stand in the face of foreign interests.
May I remind you that during the civil war, at the peek of violent clashes and occupations, the Lebanese Deputies met and elected Presidents on time.
But then maybe Lebanon had self respecting politicians.
Ashamed, ashamed of my country of origin.

The prime minister also urged the world and the U.N. to “devise a detailed roadmap for the safe and honorable return of the Syrian refugees who are present in Lebanon to their country.”
“This detailed plan must be devised within three months and it must detail the transportation needs, the places of departure and the financial cost,” Salam added.
Wow! is this the solution Lebanon is proposing to solve the Syrian refugees problem that is posing dangerous risks to the stability, security, economy and public services of Lebanon.
A clear indication that Lebanon's government is living in a lala land generated by self contentedness and a total disconnect with reality.
Syria is burning, the US and Russia and in catch 22 situation over finding a solution, the EU is struggling to keep its unity and Lebanon has devised a solution that needs the unified strength of superpowers to be implemented!
It would have been more reasonable to curb rampant corruption that is preventing UN and other assistance funds to reach Lebanon. Better to have looked at, and learned from the Jordanian and Turkish solutions to the refugee crisis.
Ashamed of the incompetence of my country of origin.

Then Salam went to warn the international community against looking to Lebanon as a place of “permanent asylum” for Syrian refugees.
Here I am more than ashamed, I am entering the twilight zone. Is it possible for a Prime Minister to take populist discourse to the United Nations? Is it of any value to make public a self made problem generated by fears and bigotry? Is it an answer to a problem that was never raised by anybody, a preventive strike?!
Shame!

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Aleppo is burning

Over five decades the world has turned a bling eye to crimes committed by the Assad regime.
Hafez Al Assad perpetrated the massacre of Hama, invaded Lebanon using political assassination as a tool of governance.
Bashar Assad is today annihilating Syria and its people using barrel bombing civilians and chemical weapons.
The UN is dithering, Obama is leading from behind, Putin is "fighting terrorism", and the EU is burying its head in the sand.
A sorry and shameful sight.


Then the US and Russia meet to take action, the result

Regime aircraft have been pounding rebel areas of Syria's second city Aleppo, which was left out of a deal to 'freeze' fighting despite international outrage over renewed violence.

When will this hypocrisy stop!
Aleppo is left out. It just gives the Assad regime together with Putin and Iran represented by Hezbollah freedom to concentrate their forces to pound civilians in Aleppo punishing them for being the city that rebelled against the oppressive Assad regime seeking and dreaming of freedom.
Is this leading from behind Mr. Obama, or just being too weak to back your own nominal position of being opposed to the crimes of the Assad regime?

If there is another reason, please explain it, maybe the massacred people could understand why they do not deserve the empathy of a country that identifies itself with upholding human right and whose AID programs aim to support freedom and democracy around the world!


Thursday, March 31, 2016

There is a need for Muslim societies to stand against fundamentalism

Today I read a post by a young man residing in Beirut
In cab, listening to radio show on how April Fool's jokes and pranks are un-Islamic.
Honestly and respectfully, this is becoming ridiculous! 

A radio broadcasting from Beirut that can be heard on car radio is definitely a station that is not affiliated to any of the so called terrorist groups. It is most probably one of the main stream religious institutions or Hezbollah station. Or maybe one of the regular news stations doing an interview with some so called Sheikh.

There is something wrong when main stream religion finds it proper to interfere into every practice of daily life to the smallest irrelevant details!

Sometimes it is horoscope, or music, or food, or fun things like April fool joke, or chatting on social media; practices that have nothing to do with religion.
And more so in Lebanon, a country where for 90% of the population, you cannot really tell who is Muslim or Christian.
We rarely hear anything that relates to spirituality or the essence of religion. It is as if Islam is a cult that rules your terrestrial life and actions without any consideration for your human interaction or love or higher levels of thought. 
And this is wrong because, Islam in its essence is a continuation of Judaism and Christianity with the same roots. Most of the Bible and the Old Testament are included in the Koran and most prophets are acknowledged. So how come it became today a religion of exclusion and forbidding?

I do not understand how this is acceptable  
Enough is enough!
High time for all those who consider themselves Muslims to protest this destructive trend. 
Extremism takes root in finding such behaviour acceptable.
 

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Stop Trump campaign, the doom of Republicans

The "stop Trump campaign" is the most ridiculous political movement the Republican party ever launched. Independent of who Trump is or what he represents, he is winning. He has a real following among the Republican following. He has revitalized a party that seemed to have lost its direction. From a party that represents an economic vision it turned into a party that relies on social conservatism for votes.

"Stop Trump campaign" is a movement against Trump. It is not a movement for something or anything. It is ridiculous. What will be the message in their campaign against the Democrats? How will they explain to the voters what they are for? They are advertisement to be for "stop Trump"! A party promoting a negation? Get real, it is more ridiculous that the showmanship of Trump.

I wonder how will the American electorate react?
If they vote for a negation, then I can say without any doubt that it is the demise of the democratic process in the United States of America.
It is frightening.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Clinton negates her vote for the war on Iraq, does it matter?

An Iraqi woman called me today crying. She saw on the news her university bombed to the ground. She felt as sad as when her home was destroyed during the US invasion of Iraq. The worst of it is not the pain she expressed, it is the fatalism that transpired. Farida personifies the lost hope of a whole nation.

The University of Mosul was founded in April 1967, building on the foundations of the 1929 College of Medicine.
It was a respected academic center of higher education in Iraq. The University offered accredited Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate degrees in more than 100 scientific specializations. More than 80,000 students have graduated since the foundation of the University. Many of them contributed to science all over the world.
It was one of the largest educational and research centers in the Middle East, and the second largest in Iraq, behind the University of Baghdad.
US planes leading the Combined Joint Task Force destroyed the university of Mosul in March 2016.
The explanation is that it became a command center for Daesh.
Most probably true, however one wonders how much do the Iraqis need to pay as a price to the US invasion, followed by the war against terrorism.

Hillary Clinton in an effort to be elected President joins today those who said that they were mistaken to vote for the war on Iraq allowing George W. Bush to launch his military campaign.
One wonders what they are apologizing for and if these apologies have any value.
Will the recognition of mistake restore the life of Fardia and all of those who suffered and are still suffering in Iraq?

Removing Saddam was not a mistake.
The catastrophic nation building that followed and handing Iraq to Iran was the mistake.
Then hijacking the elections that Allawi won by pressuring for the restoration of Maliki to power was another more recent mistake that lead to the rise of Daesh.

There is no real accountability for the superpowers.
They can meddle making mistakes and then complain about the world needing them.
A real catch 22 situation and those who pay the price are far far away....

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Italy covers nudes, shame and wrong!

Italy has covered up ancient nude statues ahead of Iranian president Hassan Rouhani's official visit to Rome.
It was done in the name of respect for Iran's Islamic value, what a scam!
Pure hypocrisy,  Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was pandering to Iran.
The Italian government is expecting the Iranian contingent to sign deals worth up to 17 billion euros with Italian companies during the visit.
In layman term "money talks".
So please do not use the excuse of cultural rights.

It offends me.
It is demeaning to women and promotes Iran's culture of despotism and intolerance.
It perpetrates the myth of cultural rights and is hurtful to the struggle for freedom around the Middle East.

Enough is enough, do not talk about supporting human rights while justifying the actions of people that subjugate us under the dark cover of cultural rights.
European women lived enslaved by traditions less than two hundred years ago.
It has nothing to do with culture, it is a stage of development.

What Italy did is unacceptable.


Monday, January 25, 2016

Mr. Kerry, his eyes haunt me

The sadness I saw in the eyes of Suleiman haunt me.
It was the early time of the Syria saga.
It was the time when the Syrian children ran around their schools chanting, we want freedom.
It was the time when the 15 years old Mahmoud stomped over a picture of Bashar el Assad.
Suleiman was telling me how his nephew, Mahmoud had his two legs cut from the knee down by the security forces of Assad.
It was fitting punishment to the crime of stomping over a picture of the President.
The sadness I saw in his eyes will haunt me forever.
Obama, Kerry, Putin, and all those concerned by the crimes committed by Daesh did not look in these eyes.
They are ready to forget the millions of people killed by Assad.
It is a game of nations that has no consideration for the sadness that fell over the Syrian people at the hand of a brutal dictator who chose to kill his people driving them away to become refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and now Europe.
The sadness does not haunt the leaders of the civilized world while they sit at the same table as Assad.
They add to the horror by bullying the Syrian people to accept their executioner.
I do not understand.
I look in the eyes and they haunt me.