Robert Fisk: Another win that’s too good to be true

Via: The Independent.

At a supposed vote in his favour of 90.24 per cent, Abdul Aziz Bouteflika, the 72-year-old Algerian leader, anointed himself President for an unprecedented – and quite possibly unconstitutional – third term yesterday, provoking riots in the Berber region of Kabilye east of Algiers and the scepticism of all but the entire Arab world. The Algerian parliament had been rail-roaded into giving Bouteflika the chance of a third term so that the old boy could sail on the waves of his allegedly democratic mandate into 2012 when – who knows – he may engineer a fourth term. For a President whose French hospitalisation not long ago raised fears for his longevity, success may provide him with the elixir of life.

He certainly follows in the spirit of the Arab electioneering process. In 1993, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt “won” 96.3 per cent of the vote for his third six-year term in office – his fourth victory, in 1999, brought him only 93.79 per cent, bringing him closer to Bouteflika’s humble 90.24 per cent. It should be remembered, however, that the Algerian President only claimed a modest 73.8 per cent victory in 1999 – no wonder his Interior Minister was so pleased at yesterday’s increased vote.

Thailand’s democratic crisis. By Tyrell Haberkorn

Via: Open Democracy.

The turbulent polarisation between “red” and “yellow” political camps in Thailand is a symptom of a deeper disorder, says Tyrell Haberkorn.

Thai citizens are again living under a state of emergency and the threat of bloodshed. The successive mass mobilisations by supporters of the “yellow” and “red” camps could in other circumstances be seen as evidence of a vibrant engagement with democratic politics; in the context of the near-meltdown of Thailand’s constitutional order, they are more symptoms of a dangerous crisis. Where does Thailand go from here?

The most recent events are part of a series that began in 2005-06 when members of the fledgling Peoples’ Alliance for Democracy (PAD) first donned yellow shirts and called for the removal of the elected prime minister and head of the Thai Rak Thai party, Thaksin Shinawatra. The demonstrators had their wish when (in September 2006) the military ousted the populist Thaksin, who had already left the country amid outstanding conflict-of-interest charges (on which he was to be convicted in October 2008) but who has retained much of his popularity among Thailand’s rural and poor people.

So-Called ’Honor Killings’ Must Stop!

Via: The Palestine Monitor.

It is not an easy life to be born a Palestinian.

You are most likely a refugee, probably a young one, and earthly wealth is a dream. If you reside in the Palestinian Territories, you live under a brutal military and civilian occupation and are subjected to an innumerable amount of difficulties and retardations socially, psychologically and, of course, economically.

If it is not easy being a Palestinian; it is even harder to be a Palestinian woman.

Palestinian women must not only deal with the difficulties of occupation and conflict orchestrated by the state of Israel. They must also beware the ’occupied minds’ of many of their Palestinians brethren – those minds still rooted in traditions that are no longer acceptable.

In the last week, two gazan women, one man and one child have been murdered by their own families in the name of honor and tradition. They can not be returned to the lives stolen from them, but we can at least honor their loss by working to stop such hideous deeds in the future. We can at least insure that their death, meant to restore honor to a family, does exactly the opposite – that shame is instead visited upon this home, and that the act be called and recognized for what it is: murder.

Is life not difficult enough in the tiny Gaza Strip? Is there not enough to worry about with the constant specter of overwhelming Israeli violence? Is there not enough to worry about with the crippling siege starving the children and stunting their future? Must women also fear for their lives in the face of random vigilantism from Palestinians?

Apparently not… This week 28-year-old Rihab Al-Hazin was killed. Only days before, Sufian Arafat Olaiwa, 45, his wife, Miriam Al-Majdoub Olaiwa, 30, and their son, Jawhar Sufian Olaiwa, 5, were also found riddled with bullets.

May they rest in peace; and may their killers receive the just reward for their deeds in the life to come. It is time that Palestinians wake up to the horror of this practice, and hold accountable those who wish to remain sleeping in an archaic past.

Justice begins in the home…

Balkan Myths. By John Feffer

Via: Foreign Policy In Focus.

He nicknamed himself “The Killer” because he was tired of all the stereotypes about the Balkans.

“It was a reaction to the typical perception of internationals to the Balkans, to balkanization, and to the wars and the people here,” Ranko “The Killer” Milanović-Blank explains. “Wherever I went after the war, in Europe, in the United States, and whatever I said, people tried to connect that somehow to the war. I would say, ‘I like this water.’ And they would ask, ‘Did you have water during the war?’ I used to be a human being before the war.”

Violeta Draganova was the first Roma news anchor on Bulgarian television. “The first month when I was working for Bulgarian National Television (BNT) I understood that someone was complaining that I shouldn’t be there because they could ‘hear my Roma accent,’ she recalls.”This was absolutely stupid. I don’t speak Roma so I can’t have an accent. Some of my colleagues liked me, some didn’t. No one ever said anything directly to me, but you can feel it. I learned over the years not to pay too much attention to those attitudes. There will always be people who do not like Roma.”

For more than seven years, Attila Durak has been engaged in his extraordinary Ebru Project of documenting the vast ethnic diversity of Turkey. But he has also spent a decade in the United States. America “respects my ethnicity but asks me to assimilate,” he says. “I am changing when I am there. I’m melting when I’m there. It’s a great freedom to say that I am Turkish American. But after 10 years of saying that, there is no Turkishness left.”

Tony Blair Goes Gaga for God

Via: Truth Dig.

As Britain’s prime minister, Tony Blair played down his religious passions, but he confesses to the BBC, “I’m really and always have been in a way more interested in religion than politics.”  Now that he’s a free man, Blair is launching something called the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which hopes to bring people of different religions together.

You could always start by not bombing them.

BBC:

Huda Jawad, director of the Muslim charity Forward Thinking, says she has doubts about levels of support from Muslims, given Tony Blair’s foreign policy record while prime minister.

She says that it is difficult to reconcile Blair the prime minister and Blair the leader of a faith foundation.

But Mr Blair says that some of the best response to the foundation has been from the Islamic world.

And he is keen to point out to his critics that whatever early problems he may encounter, this is not a short-term project.

Read more

Fidel To Obama: Cuba Needs No Alms

Via: Press TV.

Fidel Castro has reacted to a decision by US President Barack Obama to lift travel and money transfer restrictions on the Latin American state.

The aging Cuban leader on Monday demanded an end to the US-imposed embargo, which has been in place against his nation since 1962 instead of “charity” handouts.

In an article published on the official Cubadebate website, Castro described the embargo as “the most cruel of measures”.

Embargo is “the name piously given to what constitutes a genocidal measure. The damage is not measured just by its economic effects. It constantly costs human lives and causes painful suffering to our citizens,” he said.

The ailing leader nevertheless threw his support behind the first African-American president to lead Washington and said he respects the hard battle he fought for the White House in the face of America’s “centuries-old racism”.

Why Not Send My Tax Check Directly to Wall Street Execs? By Sarah Anderson.

Via: Common Dreams.

The hard-earned income taxes of ordinary citizens are paying for the bloated, unearned paychecks of bailout CEOs.

My husband and I just made out a check to the IRS for $5,021. It’s more than usual because of solid investment returns in his native Canada, where their quaintly regulated banking system continues to hum along. Normally, though, we don’t mind paying our tax bill. We believe that strategic government investment is the way out of this crisis, and we’re happy to contribute our fair share.

But this year I cringed as I dropped that check in the mail, thinking about how I might as well have just handed it directly to a Wall Street executive.

Congressional efforts to recoup the most outrageous of all the outrageous examples of bailout profiteering — the $165 million in AIG bonuses — have stalled in the face of White House opposition. And now comes the news that Obama officials appear to be resorting to money laundering to help companies elude even the extremely modest compensation restrictions that Congress has already enacted.

Killing us softly with detachment. By Kathlyn Stone

Via: Media With Conscience News.

9/11 gave the U.S. military industrial complex the excuse to kill besieged people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and penned in Gazans (via Israel) without getting their hands dirty or even leaving the comforts of home or the security of a military base.

But Americans should be very wary of the high tech weapons being tested on unsuspecting “insurgents.” If military developments follow their historical path, these weapons will be made available for domestic law enforcement in the very near future.

Today, under the Obama “era of change,” barely a week goes by where we don’t see a mention of small groups of Pakistanis killed in the night by unmanned U.S. military drones.

More often than not, the initial reports of bombed terrorist targets turn out to be fabrications, or to be more charitable, “miscalculations” that resulted in the deaths of innocent children and villagers. But when we learn of these accidental killings of nameless, faceless “insurgents” by our drones, robots, and ever more wicked cluster bombs it doesn’t even warrant an apology from our government. To apologize implies the act will not be repeated.

Like gamblers watching their families and jobs disintegrate, weapons manufacturers and politicians just can’t stop playing an expensive deadly game.

What Africa’s farmers need now: fairness. By Jean-Marc Gorelick

Via: Csmonitor.

They don’t need bailouts. But they do need help to avoid ruthless middle men.

Washington – I was sitting in a small village with a group of fellow students in a rural area of Uganda. Our graduate work had brought us to this village, to speak with a sesame farmer about efforts to improve the international marketing of his crop. I had been interviewing for eight straight days in the heat and was exhausted when the farmer said, “The middle men, they are ruining us. Can you help?”

At that point, I put down my note pad. I wanted to know more.

“Who are these middle men?” I asked. And this is when I got a taste of what it’s like for these farmers to live through an international economic meltdown in a place where terms like “subprime” and “toxic assets” mean nothing.

In Uganda, as in many sub-Saharan African countries, agriculture makes up a significant part of the GDP. In 2007, the agriculture sector comprised 29 percent of GDP, while employing over 80 percent of the workforce. This isn’t an exotic niche. It is peoples’ wages, livelihoods, and basic food-security needs.

As global leaders were meeting this month in London to put the global financial system on sound footing, the poorest of the world were sliding deeper into poverty. What stuns me, though, are the voracious middle men who have surfaced to profit from that pain.

Kilcullen: “Afghanistan doesn’t worry me. Pakistan does.”

Via: Rethink Afghanistan.

The Sydney Morning Herald has an interview today with Australian COIN-guru Dr. David Kilcullen, formerly part of Petraeus’ “dream team” and now a consultant to the Obama White House. It makes for very interesting reading.

Although the piece is headlined “Warning that Pakistan is in danger of collapse within months” Kilcullen isn’t directly quoted saying that. But he is directly quoted as saying Pakistan is the real and true central front in the War on Terror ™.

“We have to face the fact that if Pakistan collapses it will dwarf anything we have seen so far in whatever we’re calling the war on terror now,” said David Kilcullen, a former Australian Army officer who was a specialist adviser for the Bush administration and is now a consultant to the Obama White House.

“You just can’t say that you’re not going to worry about al-Qaeda taking control of Pakistan and its nukes,” he said.

Zardari Agrees To Sharia In Swat

Via: Al Jazeera.

Pakistan’s president has signed a regulation allowing the Taliban to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, in the country’s northwestern Swat valley, a presidential aide has said.

Asif Ali Zardari signed off the rule on Monday, his spokeswoman Farahnaz Ispahani said, in a move the Taliban has said will bring peace to Swat and Baijur.

Zardari’s move comes after members of the National Assembly urged him to sign the regulation in a resolution, in an attempt to promote peace in the violence-hit region and between the Taliban and Islamabad.

“The president had earlier come under severe criticism from the arbitrators of the accord [between the Taliban and the authorities],” Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Islamabad, said.

The Threat Of Global Warming. By Richard Whelan

Via: Indy Media Ireland.

The ever increasing threat of Global Warming, and how we must do all in our power to give back what we have taken from the planet, before it is too late for all of us.

Life, as we know it, is unique to our planet Earth. Although much is speculated as to whether or not we are alone in our universe, the depth of our knowledge at this moment suggests that ours is the only planet which can sustain life. As a mere human, it is impossible to associate one’s minature status in a world so large as our own, with such varying ecosystems and regions that have no relation to our own. Our place on Earth is microscopic in terms of the whole world at large and we can’t possibly have an impact on it, positively or negatively. This very common misconception is at this moment an ignorance which we can no longer afford to ignore.