Category: World News & Politics

Seven Pillars of Middle East (Un)Reality

I just came across one of the most absurd articles I’ve read in a while, by a certain Kenneth Levin, a clinical instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a Princeton-trained historian, a commentator on Israeli politics and an author of a book I’m sure is full of more nonsense called “The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege”.

The article lists some so-called seven pillars of Middle East reality that he thinks stand in the way of peace with Israel.

Here are the seven points and what I think of each one:

Arab leaders have no interest in genuine peace with Israel
This can’t be more wrong; the Arab leaders wouldn’t want anything more than to have the whole Israel-Palestine problem solved, a peace established, the ability to move on and leave the whole thing behind them. In fact, a number of the Arab regimes, if not most of them, already have secret ties with Israel, and are just waiting for the chance to make them public and announce normalization. Plus more and more of these Arab regimes are coming to think that the only way to help solve the Palestinian problem is by building ties with Israel. All this might be against the will of their people, but the leaders and regimes would do anything to move on and put this problem behind them.

Israeli-Arab peace will come on the Arabs’ timetable
Israeli-Arab peace will come on both side’s timetables, just like any other peace agreement, and the proof is that the Arab leaders have proposed peace and normalization deals with Israel several times that ended up in the bin because Israel wasn’t willing to move from its side. If anyone, it’s Israel that’s setting its timetable, not the Arabs.

All minorities living within the Arab world are under siege
This is very very wrong, and a trip to any country in the Arab world where a religious minority exists can show that; Jews in countries like Tunisia and Morocco, Christians in countries like Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, and the list continues; These people enjoy all their rights and freedoms, and live in peace alongside Muslims.

Continue reading Seven Pillars of Middle East (Un)Reality

Live Earth Concerts Line-Up

Madonna will be heading the star-studded line up for the Live Earth concert at the new Wembley Stadium to highlight the threat of climate change.

Other star performers for the London leg of the global gig are: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Razorlight, Keane, Snow Patrol, Genesis, Foo Fighters, Beastie Boys and the Black Eyes Peas.

Headliners for the U.S. concert at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., include Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Kanye West, Rihanna, John Mayer, Smashing Pumpkins and Fall Out Boy.

Other shows will take place in Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; Sydney, Australia; Tokyo; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The “Live Earth” concerts will be taking place on July 7th across seven continents to mobilize action to stop global warming.

The concerts are forming part of a global publicity drive on the issue, tagged SOS – Save Our Selves – headed by former US vice president Al Gore.

Proceeds from the concerts will create a foundation to combat climate change led by The Alliance for Climate Protection, currently chaired by Mr Gore.

[Source: Sky News, Mercury News]

Israel’s Oppressive Apartheid Regime

“We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one – progressive, liberal – in Israel; and the other – cruel, injurious – in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day.”

— Michael Ben-Yair (Israeli’s Attorney-General 1993-1996), The War’s Seventh Day; Ha’aretz, 3 March 2002.

[Via: Lawrence Of Cyberia]

Holy Land, Holy Blood

Over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since 2000. Since the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada in September 2000, until late January 2007, the Israeli army has killed 5,050 Palestinian men, women and children, wounded 49,760 others and detained 10,4000 others. 351 Palestinian women have been killed, 150 patients have died at checkpoints and 66 others have been killed due to beating by Israeli settlers. 36 medical staff have been killed, 9 members of the press, and 220 sportsmen.

According to B

Al Gore Announces ‘Live Earth’ Concerts

Environmental activists led by former US Vice President Al Gore announced plans yesterday for a 24-hour pop concert across seven continents in July to mobilize action to stop global warming.

The “Live Earth” concerts will be taking place on July 7th and will bring together more than 100 of the world’s top musical acts. The names of the performers haven’t been announced yet though.

The idea of the concerts and a new campaign under the name Save Our Selves (SOS) is to try and reach a global audience of around 2 billion people, through concert attendance, radio, television and Internet broadcasts, in order to raise awareness and mobilize people all over the world to take action.

I think it’s really good to have these kinds of events to raise awareness on very important issues like this, I just hope people all over the world start to realize how much is at stake and try to take actions to solve the problem.

More respect for Al Gore who is throwing all his weight behind environmental issues and global warming.

Update: The official website for the campaign and event is http://www.liveearth.org.

[Source: CNN]
[Via: Jimbo]

Blood Diamond

I finally got to watch the movie “Blood Diamond” yesterday, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou, directed and produced by Edward Zwick.

I’ve been wanting to watch this movie ever since it was released, mainly because I wanted to see how the issue was handled and presented, and secondly because Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role of a Zimbabwean diamond smuggler, with the accent and all, so yeah there was some nostalgia involved.

I really liked the movie, and I think it hits the right spot. As someone on imdb rightly puts it, this movie is a lot like Hotel Rwanda, another great movie which shows how terrible things are in Africa, and that the world is doing nothing to help; except that Blood Diamond shows that not only isn’t the world doing anything to help stop the bloodshed, but in fact is supporting and nurturing it.

The movie handles the issue of blood diamonds, otherwise known as conflict diamonds or war diamonds, which are diamonds that are mined in a war zone and sold, usually clandestinely, in order to finance an insurgent or invading army’s war efforts.
The story of the film is woven around the main characters to portray the sad reality created by the trade of blood diamonds.

The acting was very good, and I’m really appreciating Leonardo DiCaprio more and more as an actor with every new movie I see him in; Djimon Hounsou also gave a great performance as usual.
So it’s only normal that, among the five nominations this movie got for the Oscars, we find the nominations for Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Best Supporting Actor (Djimon Hounsou).
Movie-making wise, the film was really well done too.

I think movies like this one are really important to show people what others in some parts of the world are going through, and how their smallest actions could affect those people’s lives in a very big way.

Africa is an extremely rich continent which has been used, abused and thrown into suffering time and again by the leading powers of the world. It is unacceptable, it is important for the world to see and know this, and action has to be taken to stop it from going on.

Despite all the problems they’re living through, an old man in the movie tells Djimon Hounsou’s character: “just think what mess we would be in if we had oil!”
I can only agree with this old man; these days having oil is a curse for any country, it will only mean unwarranted attacks and wars launched upon its people.

In short, I recommend this movie, and while I’m at it, I also recommend watching Hotel Rwanda.

My score for this movie would be: 8.5/10.

Open Your Eyes…

“War prisoners apart, the average citizen of Oceania never sets eyes on a citizen of either Eurasia or Eastasia, and he is forbidden the knowledge of foreign languages. If he were allowed contact with foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on which his morale depends might evaporate. It is therefore realized on all sides that however often Persia, or Egypt, or Java, or Ceylon may change hands, the main frontiers must never be crossed by anything except bombs.”

— George Orwell, 1984.

Don’t Do It, Mr. President, Don’t Bomb Iran!

Before the U.S. House of Representatives on February 6, 2007; Ron Paul, a Republican member of Congress from Texas, had these words for the President of the United States of America regarding the possibility of striking Iran:

It’s a bad idea.
There’s no need for it.
There’s great danger in doing it.
America is against it, and Congress should be.
The United Nations is against it.
The Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Pakistanis are against it.
The whole world is against it.
Our allies are against it.
Our enemies are against it.
The Arabs are against it.
The Europeans are against it.
The Muslims are against it.
We don’t need to do this.
The threat is overblown.
The plan is an hysterical reaction to a problem that does not yet exist.
Hysteria is never a good basis for foreign policy.
Don’t we ever learn?
Have we already forgotten Iraq?
The plan defies common sense.
If it’s carried out, the Middle East, and possibly the world, will explode.
Oil will soar to over $100 a barrel, and gasoline will be over $5 a gallon.
Despite what some think, it won’t serve the interests of Israel.
Besides

Al Gore Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Former US Vice President Al Gore, who should have become President in 2000 instead of the miserable failure that is Bush, was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world’s attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker announced yesterday.

During his eight years as Bill Clinton’s vice president, Al Gore pushed for climate measures, including for the Kyoto Treaty, that Bush flushed down the drain. Since leaving office in 2001 has campaigned worldwide on climate issues, including with his documentary on climate change called “An Inconvenient Truth,” which is nominated for an Oscar this year.

We’ll know if he wins the Nobel Peace Prize in mid-October, when the results are traditionally announced. The prize is then presented on December 10th.

Personally, I wanted Al Gore to win the US presidency back in 2000, wished he would’ve run again and won it in 2004, and would’ve hoped for him to consider running in 2008, but everything points towards the fact that he won’t.
I honestly think the world would be a slightly better and safer place if he was president of the US.