Asia « Tikkunista!

11. Eyecandy: Isolated Cultures

Apr-20-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: See cultures you don’t normally get a chance to. Two of them look like appealing places to travel, don’t they?

*The Nenets of Siberia In Focus

In arctic northern Russia, industrialized resource extraction and climate change are presenting a double threat to the Nenets, an indigenous people native to Siberia. The Nenets depend heavily on their reindeer herds, using them for food, clothing, tools, transportation, and more as they migrate more than a thousand kilometers across the tundra every year

* Mustang: Nepal’s former Kingdom of Lo The Big Picture

Mustang, or the former Kingdom of Lo, is hidden in the rain shadow of the Himalaya in one of the most remote corners of Nepal. Hemmed in by the world’s highest mountain range to the south and an occupied and shuttered Tibet to the north, this tiny Tibetan kingdom has remained virtually unchanged since the 15th century. Today, Mustang is arguably the best-preserved example of traditional Tibetan life in the world.

* Glimpses of Humanity in Choreographed North Korea In Focus

2. The Rise of China

Apr-13-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Start with the fact that the population of China is greater than all of North America and all of Europe together. So generalization about China are shaky at best. But here are some fascinating looks at Chinese history, at the emergence of a more assertive Chinese foreign policy, at the rise of megacities, and at how the US fits in.

* The Myth Of Chinese Exceptionalism Stephen M. Walt

Steve (and others) have written about American exceptionalism. It won’t surprise you to learn that China has its own brand. Most Chinese people — be they the common man or the political, economic, and academic elite — think of historical China as a shining civilization in the center of All-under-Heaven, radiating a splendid and peace-loving culture. Because Confucianism cherishes harmony and abhors war, this version portrays a China that has not behaved aggressively nor been an expansionist power throughout its 5,000 years of glorious history. Instead, a benevolent, humane Chinese world order is juxtaposed against the malevolent, ruthless power politics in the West…. All nations tend to see their history as exceptional, and these beliefs usually continue a heavy dose of fiction. Here are the top three myths of contemporary Chinese exceptionalism.

Myth #1: China did not expand when it was strong. Many Chinese firmly believe that China does not have a tradition of foreign expansion. The empirical record, however, shows otherwise….

Myth 2: The Seven Voyages of Zheng He demonstrates the peaceful nature of Chinese power. In the early fifteenth century, the Chinese dispatched seven spectacular voyages led by Zheng He to Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and East Africa. The Chinese like to point out that Zheng He’s fleets did not conquer an inch of land, unlike the brutal, aggressive Westerners who colonized much of the world. Instead, they were simply ambassadors of peace exploring exotic places…

Myth 3: The Great Wall of China symbolizes a nation preoccupied with defense. You’ve probably heard this before: China adheres to a “purely defensive” grand strategy. The Chinese built the Great Wall not to attack but to defend…..

* Calls For Foreign Policy Overhaul In China Guardian

It is evident when China`s aircraft carrier carves it way through the waters of the Yellow Sea. It is written between the lines of its growth statistics. It is built into the gleaming walls of the African Union headquarters half a world away. As the country`s might increases, China`s maxim of “keeping a low profile” looks increasingly irrelevant, even absurd, to many.

Calls for a fundamental overhaul of foreign policy are growing. “We will have to deal with pressures from abroad to remain modest and prudent, while domestically we are faced with complaints that China has been timid,” said Wang Jisi, dean of Peking University`s school of international studies.

“There is a real debate going on about the direction of Chinese foreign policy, not only among scholars, but also among officials: is it time for China to take a more proactive foreign policy?” said Linda Jakobson, East Asia programme director at the Lowy Institute.

* How The Rise Of The Megacity Is Changing The Way We Live The Observer

Few in the west have paid much attention to the astonishing rise of Chengdu, despite a population (including its rural hinterland) of more than 14 million and its evident economic power and growing sense of self-confidence. Few have heard much either of cities like Ghaziabad, Surat or Faridabad in India, or of Toluca in Mexico, Palembang in Indonesia or Chittagong, the Bangladeshi port. Or of Beihai, another Chinese city on the northern coast. But this is likely to change. Each of these cities is among the fastest-growing settlements in the world….Experts estimate that the number of megacities of more than 10 million inhabitants will double over the next 10 to 20 years, it is these less well-known cities, particularly in south and east Asia, that will see the biggest growth. …

Optimists see a new network of powerful, stable and prosperous city states, each bigger than many small countries, where the benefits of urban living, the relative ease of delivering basic services compared to rural zones and new civic identities combine to raise living standards for billions. Pessimists see the opposite: a dystopic future where huge numbers of people fight over scarce resources in sprawling, divided, anarchic “non-communities” ravaged by disease and violence.

New Chinese cities, too, have their problems – though arguably less severe than those in south Asia. For every pound Indian authorities invest in urban infrastructure, their Chinese counterparts spend seven. This, however, is still insufficient to cope with the speed of urbanisation. Chengdu has become a test case for how China resolves these varied challenges. It has been named as one of China’s “pilot reform regions”, giving local authorities extraordinary powers to experiment….

* America’s Place in the New World New York Times

The most potent challenge to America’s dominance comes not from the continuing redistribution of global power, but from a subtler change: the new forms of governance and capitalism being forged by China and other rising nations.

The democratic, secular and free-market model that has become synonymous with the era of Western primacy is being challenged by state capitalism in China, Russia and the Persian Gulf sheikdoms. Political Islam is rising in step with democracy across the Middle East. And left-wing populism is taking hold from India to Brazil. Rather than following the West’s path of development and obediently accepting their place in the liberal international order, rising nations are fashioning their own versions of modernity and pushing back against the West’s ideological ambitions.

As this century unfolds, sustaining American power will be the easy part. The hard part will be adjusting to the loss of America’s ideological dominance and fashioning consensus and compromise in an increasingly diverse and unwieldy world.

If American leaders remain blind to this new reality and continue to expect conformity to Western values, they will not only misunderstand emerging powers, but also alienate the many countries tired of being herded toward Western standards of governance.

3. Stratfor & Wikileaks

Mar-02-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Wikileaks this week released 5 million documents from Stratfor, a right-wing research firm. Some chaff, but also some amazing stories. The first one is just mind-blowing.

* No Honour among Thieves Arms Merchants Ynet

WikiLeaks has released an e-mail exchange between employees of Stratfor, the US-based global intelligence company, which reveals Israel and Russia made a deal to swap access codes for defense and surveillance equipment.

According to the leaked document, Israel gave Russia the “data link codes” for unmanned aerial vehicles that the Jewish state sold to Georgia, and in return, Russia gave Israel the codes for Tor-M1 missile defense systems that Russia sold Iran.

* Top 5 Stratfor Revelations Juan Cole Informed Comment

Wikileaks is publishing internal memos of the Stratfor security analysis firm. A few tidbits have emerged in these very early days, to wit:

1. Up to 12 Pakistani active-duty and retired officers from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency knew that Usama Bin Laden was in Abbottabad and were in regular contact with him. The Pakistani chief of staff is denying the report.

2. Dow Chemicals hired Stratfor to spy on activists in Agra who continue to protest over the Bhopal environmental disaster that blinded many workers and destroyed their health. I.e., Stratfor was not just doing analysis but was involved in private intelligence operations against civil society groups that had a right to protest.

3. Stratfor Vice President Fred Burton, a former State Department official involved in counter-terrorism, lamented that in the old days the US would simply have assassinated Venezuelan leftist leader Hugo Chavez and Bolivian leftist leader Evo Morales.

* Wikileaks’ Stratfor Dump Lifts Lid On Intelligence-Industrial Complex Pratap Chatterjee Guardian

What price bad intelligence? …The most striking revelation from the latest disclosure is not simply the military-industrial complex that conspires to spy on citizens, activists and trouble-causers, but the extremely low quality of the information available to the highest bidder. Clients of the company include Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, as well as US government agencies like the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Marines.

Analysts working on the Middle East for the company appeared to be very poorly informed, with no more experience than a semester of studying abroad, according to journalists who have studied the documents. “They used Google translate to read al-Akbar news articles,” says an incredulous Jamal Ghosn, associate editor of that newspaper in Beirut, Lebanon. “This is a guaranteed way for good intelligence to be lost in translation.”

Mike Bonnano of the Yes Men, a group of international pranksters who impersonate corporate executives and government leaders to highlight environmental and social abuses, was astonished to discover that his group was being tracked by Stratfor, which was apparently making money selling a list of his public-speaking engagements.

2. Fighting the Power: Protest World Wide

Feb-24-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Three related stories explore people fighting their rulers. While the Tibetan story (and the accompanying video) is particularly heroic journalism, all three show why the Guardian remains an invaluable source of news.

* Tibetan Acts Of Self-Immolation Rise The Guardian

On the roof of the world, Chinese paramilitaries are trying to snuff out Tibetan resistance to Beijing’s rule with spiked batons, semi-automatic weapons and fire extinguishers. Every 20 metres along the main road of Aba, the remote town on the Tibetan plateau that is at the heart of the current wave of protests, police officers and communist officials wearing red armbands look out for potential protesters. Dozens more paramilitaries sit in ranks outside shops and restaurants in an intimidating show of force. At the nearby Kirti monastery, Chinese officers in fire trucks keep a close eye on pilgrims prostrating themselves, in case their devotion turns to immolation.

Outsiders are not supposed to see this. The Chinese authorities have gone to great lengths to block access to Aba, in north-western Sichuan, which is home to more than half the 23 monks, nuns and lay Buddhists who have set fire to themselves in acts of defiance aimed at the Chinese Communist party in the past two years. The authorities have blocked internet and mobile phone signals. Checkpoints have been set up on surrounding roads to keep outside observers, particularly foreign journalists, away. But after a 10-hour drive through mountain valleys and snow-covered plains, the Guardian was able to get into Aba and witness how the authorities are trying to quell dissent with security, propaganda and “re-education” campaigns. These tactics have had little success.

* Greece Lies Bankrupt, Humiliated And Ablaze The Guardian

Greece got rid of its military dictators in July 1974. But almost four decades later, as the debt-stricken country endures a crisis that some might say is almost as bad as the long dark night of their rule, it is still impossible to protest in the cradle of democracy. When tens of thousands of Greeks tried to demonstrate peacefully in front of the large sandstone parliament building on Sunday night, they were met almost immediately with volleys of teargas. The toxic fumes were the authorities’ answer not only to the popular opposition unleashed by the prospect of yet more austerity but the fear that underpins it. For angst, like uncertainty, is now haunting Greece.

What followed was textbook chaos: a familiar mix of young punks with no relation to ordinary protesters going on the rampage, setting fire to banks, stores and cafes. Scenes of bedlam and mayhem that ensured the event taking place inside the Athens parliament – a ballot on deeply unpopular measures in return for the rescue funds that will keep bankruptcy at bay – was thoroughly drowned out.

* Belarus Dissidents Defy KGB The Guardian

Dania has a new game; he puts his bears in a car and drives them round the flat. When they reach their destination, he tells them: “This is your new prison.” Like his dad. Recently Dania, four, told his mother: “Mummy, maybe we should move to London.” A year ago the Belarus authorities threatened to take the boy into care, but in any case Irina Khalip cannot leave Minsk, where she is under house arrest….The only place Khalip can go is Vitebsk, in the east. Since November her husband, Andrei Sannikov, has been imprisoned there. Sentenced to five years, he was one of the opposition candidates who ran against Alexander Lukashenko in the December 2010 presidential election, the overture to the worst clampdown in 20 years.

Elected with an 80% share of the poll, the president crushed the feeble hopes of liberalisation fed by the European Union. Prosecuted for “massive disturbance of public order”, the main opposition leaders were held responsible for sporadic outbursts of violence on the night of the election’s first round. Almost 30,000 massed in the capital, Minsk, to protest against vote-rigging, but the gathering was brutally dispersed. Defying the regime is a dangerous pursuit….

4. US Decline: As Seen By Chomsky

Feb-17-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Every website I went to this week had reposts of these two major pieces by Chomsky. That’s a slight hyperbole, but Google reports over 1000 reposts already of these two. As always, Noam is scathing, cogent, and specific about the ongoing decline of the American Empire.

* “Losing” the World Noam Chomsky NationofChange

Significant anniversaries are solemnly commemorated — Japan’s attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, for example. Others are ignored, and we can often learn valuable lessons from them about what is likely to lie ahead. Right now, in fact.

At the moment, we are failing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s decision to launch the most destructive and murderous act of aggression of the post-World War II period: the invasion of South Vietnam, later all of Indochina, leaving millions dead and four countries devastated, with casualties still mounting from the long-term effects of drenching South Vietnam with some of the most lethal carcinogens known, undertaken to destroy ground cover and food crops. … The aggression later spread to the North, then to the remote peasant society of northern Laos, and finally to rural Cambodia, which was bombed at the stunning level of all allied air operations in the Pacific region during World War II, including the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

When the war ended eight horrendous years later, mainstream opinion was divided between those who described the war as a “noble cause” that could have been won with more dedication, and at the opposite extreme, the critics, to whom it was “a mistake” that proved too costly. By 1977, President Carter aroused little notice when he explained that we owe Vietnam “no debt” because “the destruction was mutual.”

There are important lessons in all this for today, even apart from another reminder that only the weak and defeated are called to account for their crimes. One lesson is that to understand what is happening we should attend not only to critical events of the real world, often dismissed from history, but also to what leaders and elite opinion believe, however tinged with fantasy.

* The Imperial Way Noam Chomsky Truthout

In the years of conscious, self-inflicted decline at home, “losses” continued to mount elsewhere. In the past decade, for the first time in 500 years, South America has taken successful steps to free itself from western domination, another serious loss. The region has moved towards integration, and has begun to address some of the terrible internal problems of societies ruled by mostly Europeanized elites, tiny islands of extreme wealth in a sea of misery. They have also rid themselves of all U.S. military bases and of IMF controls.

A newly formed organization, CELAC, includes all countries of the hemisphere apart from the U.S. and Canada. If it actually functions, that would be another step in American decline, in this case in what has always been regarded as “the backyard.”

Even more serious would be the loss of the MENA countries — Middle East/North Africa — which have been regarded by planners since the 1940s as “a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history.” Control of MENA energy reserves would yield “substantial control of the world,” in the words of the influential Roosevelt advisor A.A. Berle.

2. Understanding Reactions to Syria

Feb-10-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: The key to understanding why Russia and China opposed NATO UN action in Syria is looking at what happened to Libya and Iraq, both stable countries reduced to chaos in the name of oil profits granting democracy. We start with this week’s Guardian looking at the horror of what’s currently going on in Libya, then follow up with a focus on both Russia and China.

* Libyan Militias Accused Of Torture The Guardian

Three months after the killing of Muammar Gaddafi, concerns are mounting about the mistreatment and torture of prisoners held by Libyan militiamen who are operating beyond the control of the country’s transitional government, as well as by officially recognised security bodies. Amnesty International warned that prisoners from Libya and other African countries have been subject to abuse. The warning comes against a background of anxiety in western capitals about Tripoli’s failure to tackle security and political issues….

The aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières has added its voice to the chorus of concern by announcing that it had halted work in the coastal city of Misrata because staff were being asked to patch up detainees during torture sessions. “Patients were brought to us in the middle of interrogation for medical care, in order to make them fit for more interrogation,” said MSF’s Christopher Stokes. “This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions.”

* Cynicism Around Syria Vijay Prashad Counterpunch (Thanks Judith)

Rehearsed statements filled the stale air of the UN Security Council on the last day of January. The Arab League’s Nabil el-Araby pleaded with the Council to adopt a draft resolution on Syria furnished by the Moroccan delegation to the UN. The Moroccan resolution is based on a report by the Arab League’s human rights mission to Syria. This draft called for an immediate cessation of violence in Syria and a national dialogue. “We are attempting to avoid any foreign intervention,” el-Araby told the Council, “especially military intervention.” …

The Qataris are eager to install their allies in the Muslim Brotherhood to authority in the region. They have funded the Brotherhood lavishly from Tunisia to Egypt. They would like to move their influence into the Mashriq, bringing their influence to bear against their principle enemy: Iran. …

The Arab League’s el-Araby need not have been worried about the Security Council sanctioning intervention. This is not on the cards. The Russians, burned by the example of UNSC resolution 1973 for Libya, are unwilling to allow any open-ended statement from the Council. They seem to have come to terms with the reality that any Council authorization for intervention by anyone means military action by NATO. No other power has the military capability to act with the kind of force demonstrated by NATO. …

*Chinese Envoy: Veto aimed at Protecting Syria from Civil WarJuan Cole Informed Comment

Special envoy on Middle Eastern affairs Wu Sike explains that China feared the resolution would push Syria into a full-fledged civil war. He said he also wanted to avoid another Iraq or Libya fiasco. This is the first time I’ve seen either Russia or China give the Bush administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq as a reason for their opposition to further Western intervention in the Middle East. The chickens are coming home to roost. Bush and Cheney thought that they were nailing down another American century, but they may have been hastening the demise of that whole notion.

3. Islam, and Muslims

Feb-10-2012 | Comments (2)

Bird’s Eye: Yes, this is a somewhat mixed set of posts. General statements about a billion people can be. We start with a surprisingly insightful piece from Cracked magazine, looking at misperceptions. Then we look at Islamophobia in Canada, as an example of the absurd demonization Harper is promulgating. Then an interesting pair: Rushdie is blocked from reading in India, as a result of The Satanic Verses imbroglio. Malik’s article quotes the Bradford Council of Mosques’ Shabbir Akhtar who said, at the height of the Rushdie affair, that self-censorship “is a meaningful demand in a world of varied and passionately held convictions. What Rushdie publishes about Islam is not just his business. It is everyone’s – not least every Muslim’s – business.” Akhtar has changed… read his current views on questioning faith from the T.E.S.

* 5 Ridiculous Things You Probably Believe About Islam Cracked (Thanks, Kofi!)

#5. If You’re a Muslim Woman, You Have to Wear the Veil

So for instance, in France they have about 3 million Muslim women. French police decided to figure out how many of them wore burqas and/or niqabs and found the number to be … 367. Not 367,000, but 367, a number so small that from a statistical point of view, it’s barely enough to register as a margin of error. As for the rest of Europe, the numbers are even more disastrous for the burqa business (for instance, Belgium has 500,000 Muslims, a couple dozen wear the burqa).

Yes, there are Middle Eastern countries where the veils are required by law (namely Iran and Saudi Arabia) and combined those countries have less than 5 percent of the world’s Muslims. There are actually more Muslim countries that outright ban the wearing of the veils than there are that require them

* Pep Talk Led To Terrorism SuspicionsCBC News

A Muslim man alleges he’s become a terror suspect simply because of a workplace quip – he says all he did was tell his sales staff to “blow away” the competition at a trade show. Now Saad Allami is seeking $100,000 from the Quebec provincial police force, one of its sergeants and the provincial Justice Department.

Allami says in a Quebec Superior Court filing that he was arrested in January 2011 and accused of being a terrorist because of a pep talk he gave fellow employees. Allami was a sales manager for a telecommunications firm when he sent out a text message to staff urging them to “blow away” the competition at a New York City convention.

* To Name The Unnameable Kenan Malik.

Salman Rushdie had to back out of attending the 2012 Jaipur Literature Festival because of an assassination threat against him. The lack of support for Rushdie shows that the defence of free speech is no longer seen as an irrevocable duty, writes Kenan Malik.

…Rushdie was due to have attended the festival – which is quickly becoming one of the most important global literary events – to give a talk on Midnight’s Children, the film of which is released later this year, and to take part in a discussion on the history of English in India. Rushdie has visited India many times over the past decade and has attended the festival before. This time Muslim activists issued threats. Instead of standing up the bullies, both local and state governments caved in, both exerting pressure on the festival organizers to keep Rushdie away. “I am sure the organizers will respect the sentiments of the local people”, said Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, whose capital is Jaipur.

In the end Rushdie cancelled his trip having, he said, received information about a plot to assassinate him, a plot that now appears may have been invented by the Rajasthan police to “persuade” Rushdie not to come. In response, the novelist Hari Kunzru and the writer and poet Amitava Kumar, both speakers at the festival, publicly read passages from The Satanic Verses. Later, two other speakers, Jeet Thayil and Rushir Joshi, did so too. The novel is still banned in India, having been placed on a proscribed list in 1988 by the then-premier Rajiv Gandhi, who, facing a crucial election, crumbled under Islamist pressure. The festival organizers distanced themselves from what they called Kunzru and Kumar’s “unnecessary provocation”, and put pressure on other speakers not to follow suit.

* Ex-Defender Of The Faith Shabbir Akhtar Times Higher Education -

I lived in Malaysia for three years in the kind of uncertainty westerners face only in times of war. The five daily calls to prayer are the only predictable events in the capital city, Kuala Lumpur. The power cuts are frequent, the traffic jams continuous. Islam is the official religion, but materialism is the ruling creed.

Living in a state where Islam was empowered deepened and darkened my idealistic view of my faith and my people. Though born and raised partly in Pakistan, I had a second childhood in northern industrial England. Here I belonged to a powerless minority and a despised religion. Upon arrival at the International Islamic University, I joined the ruling Muslim majority. Before, when I was in the minority, it was easy to play the moral card.

New lecturers must meet the Saudi-Kurdish rector in his opulent rooms on campus. He invites us to settle down into the comfort and security of dogma. It is us against the world; and the world, especially the western hemisphere, is very wicked. Believers, he tells us, having nothing new to learn. Western-style free inquiry is aimless. Besides, what is the point of free inquiry if God has already revealed to us the whole truth?

6. The Art of Protest

Feb-03-2012 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Protests: we march down the street, wave banners, and maybe click in the little box to send a prewritten letter to a preselected recipient. Doing that is better than not doing it… but here are a few more challenging acts of protest to emulate. The Target video is a must see. Adbusters, the Canadian group who catalyzed the Occupy protests is becoming a nexus for such actions.

* 5 Acts of Creative Disruption NationofChange

• When Target spent $150,000 to support a Minnesota politician who favors anti-gay legislation, thousands of people decided to boycott the big-box chain. But instead of simply shopping elsewhere, these activists turned to the popular musical-style TV show, GLEE, for inspiration. With choreography, a catchy tune, and Target accessories as props, they took shoppers and employees by surprise.

• To draw attention to the destructive practices of Enbridge, the oil company responsible for the 2010 spill in Michigan, pranksters The Yes Men—Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum—coordinated a campaign called “MyHairCares”: In the name of the company, they requested that salons send in discarded hair to be used as an oil sponge.

* Doll ‘Protesters’ Present Small Problem For Russian Police The Guardian (Thanks, Linda)

Russian police don’t take kindly to opposition protesters – even if they’re 5cm high and made of plastic.

Police in the Siberian city of Barnaul have asked prosecutors to investigate the legality of a recent protest that saw dozens of small dolls – teddy bears, Lego men, South Park figurines – arranged to mimic a protest, complete with signs reading: “I’m for clean elections” and “A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin”.

“Political opposition forces are using new technologies to carry out public events – using toys with placards at mini-protests,” Andrei Mulintsev, the city’s deputy police chief, said at a press conference this week, according to local media. “In our opinion, this is still an unsanctioned public event.”

* Occupy Education Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters (25 minute video)

For the past eight months Chilean high school students have shut down classrooms, organized massive street protests and refused to go to school. Watch this Al Jazeera report about Latin America’s most unequal education system and what young people there are doing to fight back.

10. World Travails

Sep-23-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: Big Picture shows us the student protests still ongoing in Chile, while In Focus shows us life in Peru, and Pakistan trying to deal with this year’s floods. Too much to be Eyecandy, to many great photos to be news. Take a look and file as you will.

* Student protests in Chile The Big Picture

* Scenes From Peru Alan Taylor – In Focus

* New Devastating Pakistan Floods Alan Taylor – In Focus

Sept 9th, 2011 :: Year 8, Issue 25

Sep-09-2011 | Comments (0)

1. 9/11: The International Results

Bird’s Eye: Three sections on 9.11 this week (and at that we didn’t rerun the iconic pictures!) We look at the effects internationally, at the effects internally, and at the growing fight to regain those freedoms we have lost. Internationally, we start with a blazingly insightful Robert Fisk, who explores the unasked question: Why? Chomsky gives an accurate overview on the decade, and explores some of the roads not taken, and Andrew Sullivan (The Daily Beast) asks if we let Bin Laden win… but concludes that we let our fear win, and concludes that, “Until we decide to grasp hope again, the war will live on. Within us all.”

* For 10 Years, We’ve Lied To Ourselves To Avoid Asking The One Real Question Robert Fisk The Independent (Thanks, Antonia!)

By their books, ye shall know them.

I’m talking about the volumes, the libraries – nay, the very halls of literature – which the international crimes against humanity of 11 September 2001 have spawned. Many are spavined with pseudo-patriotism and self-regard, others rotten with the hopeless mythology of CIA/Mossad culprits, a few (from the Muslim world, alas) even referring to the killers as “boys”, almost all avoiding the one thing which any cop looks for after a street crime: the motive.

Why so, I ask myself, after 10 years of war, hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths, lies and hypocrisy and betrayal and sadistic torture by the Americans – our MI5 chaps just heard, understood, maybe looked, of course no touchy-touchy nonsense – and the Taliban? Have we managed to silence ourselves as well as the world with our own fears? Are we still not able to say those three sentences: The 19 murderers of 9/11 claimed they were Muslims. They came from a place called the Middle East. Is there a problem out there?

* Was There an Alternative? Looking Back on 9/11 a Decade Later Noam Chomsky

We are approaching the 10th anniversary of the horrendous atrocities of September 11, 2001, which, it is commonly held, changed the world. On May 1st, the presumed mastermind of the crime, Osama bin Laden, was assassinated in Pakistan by a team of elite US commandos, Navy SEALs, after he was captured, unarmed and undefended, in Operation Geronimo.

A number of analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some major successes in his war against the U.S. “He repeatedly asserted that the only way to drive the U.S. from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing Americans into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately bankrupt them,” Eric Margolis writes. “’Bleeding the U.S.,’ in his words.” The United States, first under George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, rushed right into bin Laden’s trap… Grotesquely overblown military outlays and debt addiction… may be the most pernicious legacy of the man who thought he could defeat the United States” — particularly when the debt is being cynically exploited by the far right, with the collusion of the Democrat establishment, to undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny.

* Did Osama Win? Andrew Sullivan

...I was, like most of us, simply terrorized. And it’s only now, a decade later, that I’ve come to see how significant that feeling was, how transformative it would become. We often talk about terror in terms of the terrorist. We do so less in terms of the terrorized. But it was how this act changed those of us who were bystanders that made this event more awful than a mere mass murder. It was mass murder as theater and as threat.

It took months for this initial trauma to ebb, years for my psyche to regain its equilibrium. And it took me close to a decade to realize just how slickly Osama bin Laden had done his evil work, how insidiously his despicable performance art had reached into my mind and altered it, how carefully he had set the trap and how guilelessly I—we—had walked right into it.

We need to understand that 9/11 worked. It worked as a tactic to induce American self-destruction, even if it failed spectacularly as a strategy to advance Al Qaeda—and its heretical message of suicidal warfare—across the globe.

4. Global Warming’s Coming Attractions

Sep-09-2011 | Comments (0)

Bird’s Eye: As we head further down the climate change path, countries are reacting differently. Some (the US) are in denial. Some (China, the Middle East) are scrambling to prepare by buying land (“agro-imperialism” is your new political word for the week: remember it.) Others, like Canada, are gambling that the disasters destroying millions of lives overseas will help their economies at home. There is some good news on the environmental front… but is it too little too late?

* Water wars: 21st century conflicts? Al Jazeera (Thanks, Gabe!)

As global warming alters weather patterns, and the number of people lacking access to water rises, millions, if not billions, of others are expected to face a similar fate as water shortages become more frequent.

Presently, Hassain is one of about 1.2 billion people living in areas of physical water scarcity, although the majority of cases are nowhere near as dire. By 2030, 47 per cent of the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Environmental Outlook to 2030 report.

* Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism? New York Times

In a series of meetings, Saudi government officials, bankers and agribusiness executives told an institute delegation led by Zeigler that they intended to spend billions of dollars to establish plantations to produce rice and other staple crops in African nations like Mali, Senegal, Sudan and Ethiopia. “They laid out this incredible plan,” Zeigler recalled. He was flabbergasted, not only by the scale of the projects but also by the audacity of their setting. Africa, the world’s most famished continent, can’t currently feed itself, let alone foreign markets.

…Foreign investors — some of them representing governments, some of them private interests — are promising to construct infrastructure, bring new technologies, create jobs and boost the productivity of underused land so that it not only feeds overseas markets but also feeds more Africans. (More than a third of the continent’s population is malnourished.) They’ve found that impoverished governments are often only too welcoming, offering land at giveaway prices. A few transactions have received significant publicity, like Kenya’s deal to lease nearly 100,000 acres to the Qatari government in return for financing a new port, or South Korea’s agreement to develop almost 400 square miles in Tanzania. But many other land deals, of near-unprecedented size, have been sealed with little fanfare.

* Total Arctic Sea Ice At Record Low In 2010: Study Reuters

The minimum summertime volume of Arctic sea ice fell to a record low last year, researchers said in a study to be published shortly, suggesting that thinning of the ice had outweighed a recovery in area. The study estimated that last year broke the previous, 2007 record for the minimum volume of ice, which is calculated from a combination of sea ice area and thickness. The research adds to a picture of rapid climate change at the top of the world that could see the Arctic Ocean ice-free within decades, spurring new oil exploration opportunities. (Editor’s note: Well, that’s good news then, innit?)

*Top Ten Good News Green Energy Stories Juan Cole Informed Comment

Here are the week’s top ten energy good news stories.

1. A Japanese technical innovation has the potential to double or triplethe power generated by wind turbines.

2. Germany now gets over 20% of its energy from low-carbon sources:6.5% wind, 5.6% biomass, 3.5% solar, 3.3% hydro and 0.8% other.

3. Over 100 companies are researching wave energy, which will likely provide 180 gigawatts of power by 2050. It takes the world’s 440 nuclear power reactors to produce 376 GWe at the moment, so this would be equivalent to building 220 new nuclear plants.

August 26th, 2011 :: Year 8, Issue 23

Aug-26-2011 | Comments (2)

1. Bali and Indonesia

Bird’s Eye: Welcome back! All July we were travelling in Bali, so the least that can be offered as solace for abandoned Tikkunista readers is some photos and insights. Bali is a small (PEI, or RI) island, 95% Hindu, but part of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country. Indonesian Islam differs from that of the Saudis’, as an excellent Washington Post article delineates.

* Bali: The Images

2400 shots, edited down to 123, and precisely photoshopped to exacting tolerances by skilled craftspeople with pride in their work.

* Bali: The Words

Peter’s take on Bali

Diana’s take on Bali

* Saudi Beheading Fuels Backlash In Indonesia The Washington Post

The beheading of Ruyati binti Satubi — executed in June for the killing of an allegedly abusive Saudi employer — stirred such revulsion here that even the most strictly observant Indonesian Muslims now ask how the guardians of Islam’s most sacred sites can be so heedless of their faith’s call for compassion. At least 20 Indonesians, nearly all women, are on death row in the Persian Gulf kingdom….. The acrimonious rift between the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad and Indonesia, home to the largest community of his followers, even led to calls for a boycott of Mecca by hajj pilgrims. The mood became so testy that when Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa announced that he had received an apology over the beheading from the Saudi ambassador in Jakarta, the kingdom’s usually mute embassy promptly issued a statement that accused the minister of lying.

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