This BBC article says an increasing number of Asian women are into hard drugs like heroin. Are they? I’m not sure if there are numbers.. though the anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that more girlfriends, whose boyfriends are druggies, are getting into it and then admitting themselves into rehab.
It probably is a big problem, but I’m not sure how big compared to other races. Probably less.. the only Asian girls I’ve known do hardcore drugs (more than marijuana) did cocaine for recreational use.
What’s tragic about all of this- apart from the 200 civillian deaths, 2,300 injuries and the humanitarian crisis- is its counter-productiveness. It isn’t just pointless, but stupid. A febrile obsession with short-termism is winning votes whilst ensuring an endless cycle of conflict, death and suffering.
Jonathan Steele puts it well in the Guardian:
…if Israel hoped to break Hamas’ hold on Gaza it has gone precisely the wrong way about it. Its leaders have done this many times before, repeatedly misreading the way Arab societies work. They believe that if they hit Gaza (or Lebanon) hard enough, the local population will blame Hamas (or Hezbollah) for bringing tragedy upon them. But it doesn’t work like that. Instead, Gazans blame Israel - and close ranks with Hamas…Israel’s best hopes lie with the so-called moderate Arab leaders. But they have been badly undermined by this exercise, and none more so than the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, whose peace talks with Israel now look like consorting with a brutal enemy.
And this is without mentioning the fresh supply of hatred Israel has stored up against itself, creating a new generation of Gazans bent on revenge. Every child who witnessed this week’s bombing is another recruit for the violence of the future.
A friend of mine, a white female if you must know, said yesterday she was shocked at the news reports on the embassy protests on Saturday. She said the media, particularly the BBC, misrepresented what happened, and sent me an email with a personal account. Here it is:
Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.
Controversial? Yes, I’d say they’re controversial. I’d like to see how the useful idiots who have been backing Israel to the hilt so far will justify this. Meanwhile, over 500 people are now dead. But apparently, since Israel is a democracy, it can bomb whoever the hell it likes. This news report and video illustrates Israel’s propaganda effort - trying to paint everyone as Hamas activists despite contrary evidence.
I’m rarely appreciative of this government’s foreign policy stances, but credit where its due to David Miliband, who’s stance on Israel / Gaza I can wholeheartedly endorse. Miliband has also been blogging it here.
I’ve made a documentary podcast for Guardian CIF, which will be released later today (Monday) on their website. It’s about why Asian women are about 3 times more likely to commit suicide than the average.
Keep in mind its impossible to explore everyone in 25 min or so, and that while making a documentary, you can’t explain everything yourself (like in an article, which is why I like writing) - you have to let other people do the talking. So it becomes quite tricky to weave everything into a narrative that makes sense. I hope it works, I haven’t listened to the final product. Constructive criticism is welcome, its only my second doc!
Yes I know… its all fun and games on this blog - from the Gaza demo in central London to questions about the meaning of life. But this article on CIF, on Buddhism, succinctly captures why I’ve always been attracted to Buddhism.
In fact, that Buddha was noted to have said the existence of ‘God’ is irrelevant to dealing with the issues of life is precisely what made me think: Aha! Someone has finally hit the nail on the head. This is why, despite having tons of books on religious philosophy, I hate writing articles about the subject on CIF. People just argue about whether God exists or not. It’s irrelevant. What’s relevant, I think, is to think about how we should live our lives and what makes it more enriching.
The second thing I like about Buddhism is the lack of need for rituals, but unfortunately some sects sort of forgot that bit along the line. I hate religious labels - but I will say that while I identify with (the origins of) Sikhism, I actually prefer trying to follow (the ideas behind) Buddhism. What about you? Can we have a civil abstract discussion without the need to discuss who’s daddy (or missile size) is bigger?
The demonstration for solidarity with the people of Gaza was earlier today. A few points, and more pictures if you continue reading.
1) I know some people will be disappointed, but I saw no mention of Jews, a bit of shouting of ‘down with Israeli terrorism’ and rare, scattered Hizb ut-Tahrir flags. Didn’t see anyone carrying the sign ‘We Are Hamas’ (and rightly too, because I’m bloody well not expressing solidarity with terrorists).
This reminds of the controversy around the earlier ‘March for Free Expression’ demo, following the Motoons, whereby various Muslims were accusing free-speechers of siding with the BNP because they were also at the march. Yet, with the shoe on the other foot, the comments boxes of Harry’s Place is overflowing with people asking if I was comfortable marching with ‘Nazis and fascists’. Love the hypocrisy. Also, bizarre that when all Muslims get accused of being fascists, those comments don’t get deleted.
2) This Guardian report says there was a sea of Hamas and Hizbullah flags. Its absolute bollocks - I saw hardly any, and you can see the pictures as proof. 90% were Palestinian flags. Some website called Insider (or something) had the Hizbullah guy’s picture, but they were easily outnumbered by the ‘Free Palestine’ MAB signs.
3) George Galloway MP, the pompous fool, was speaking. Hardly anyone cheered when they announced him. Oh dear… I even overheard a bunch of religious looking Muslims asking why they keep getting him to speak. Heh. The SWP stands were not very popular.
4) I estimate around 10,000 people attended. The atmosphere at Trafalgar Square was friendly, though full of ‘brothers’ bussed down from the north. I’ve heard there were altercations at the embassy demonstrations after (which I didn’t bother going to).
5) One thing did annoy me about the whole thing. As were heading back down the tube, two hijabi girls tried to get people to shout ‘We Are Hamas’…. but were almost immediately drowned out by ‘Free Free Palestine’ before I even had the chance to get annoyed. Then they started shouting ‘Allah Hu Akbar’. This also happened a bit in the march.
Listen up people. If I want to hear religious cries, I’ll go to the Mosque. Kapiche? I don’t, because I’m not a Muslim. I came to the march to express solidarity with Palestinians, not hear religious chants. Any wonder why more non-Muslims don’t come to these rallies? Because they think they’re dominated by religious nuts.
Muslims aren’t alone in this - go to any rally on Sikh human rights / 1984, and you get people shouting ‘Khalistan Zindabad‘ or ‘Raj Karega Khalsa’… which has no relevance to the fact that its a human rights issue not a religious issue. I wish brown people were more politically mature, honestly.
This Rasmussen Reports poll — the first to survey American public opinion specifically regarding the Israeli attack on Gaza — strongly bolsters the severe disconnect I documented the other day between (a) American public opinion on U.S. policy towards Israel and (b) the consensus views expressed by America’s political leadership. Not only does Rasmussen find that Americans generally “are closely divided over whether the Jewish state should be taking military action against militants in the Gaza Strip” (44-41%, with 15% undecided), but Democratic voters overwhelmingly oppose the Israeli offensive — by a 24-point margin (31-55%). By stark constrast, Republicans, as one would expect (in light of their history of supporting virtually any proposed attack on Arabs and Muslims), overwhelmingly support the Israeli bombing campaign (62-27%).
…
Some argue that Obama has filled key positions with politicians who have a history of virtually absolute support for Israeli actions — Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Rahm Emanuel — because Obama intends to continue, more or less, the Bush policy of blind support for Israel. Others argue the opposite: that those appointments are necessary to vest the Obama administration with the credibility to take a more active role in pushing the Israelis to a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians, and that in particular, Clinton would not have left her Senate seat unless she believed she could finish Bill Clinton’s work and obtain for herself the legacy-building accomplishment of forging an agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians (this morning’s NYT hints at that scenario).
The debate now is in the hands of US Democrats, and I hope they can push their new President to force Israel to make real progress. I also share Greenwald’s view that its too early to say how Obama will approach the issue. This is why I’m not particularly sympathetic to Ali Abunimah’s constant attacks on Obama as if he has real influence on the issue.
Israel believes its has won broad international support in the media for its actions in Gaza thanks to its PR strategy, which through a new body has for months been concerned with formulating plans and role-playing to ensure that government officials deliver a clear, unified message to the world’s press.
…
Of its core messages for the media, there has been the advice that Hamas broke the ceasefire agreements with Israel; that Israel’s objective is the defence of its population; and that Hamas is a terror organisation targeting Israeli civilians. “In general, we think we are succeeding in getting the message across,” said Vatikai.
Israeli officials have also enjoyed a clear edge with coverage. An Israeli foreign ministry assessment of eight hours of coverage across international broadcast media reported that Israeli representatives got 58 minutes of airtime while the Palestinians got only 19 minutes. Speaking for the Israeli military, Major Avital Leibovich said: “Quite a few outlets are very favourable to Israel, namely by showing [it] suffering … I am sure it is a result of the new co-ordination.”
I’m sure it is. Demonstration tomorrow:
HANDS OFF GAZA: STOP THE BOMBING: FREE PALESTINE
Assemble 12:30pm Along Embankment, by Embankment tube station, LONDON WC2 - Nearest tube Embankment or Charing Cross
Join us to call for an end to the killing and an end to the siege of the people of Gaza! Palestine Solidarity Campaign
I’ll be there around 12:30pm. Let me know if any of you are around too.
When I was younger, and studied in India, I used to play kabaddi. There’s actually no better sport than kabaddi when it comes to adrenaline and….erm… perceived homosexual behaviour. It’s a full contact support and frankly, if you escape with your brain intact that’s an improvement. Rugby hasn’t got anything on it. So I’m pleased to hear it might be coming here!
At a gymnasium in Larkhill, Wiltshire, a small squad meets to practise kabaddi, a game as old as the Hindu scriptures, the sport of Indian princes and - according to literature - a pastime of the Buddha himself. First introduced to these isles by Channel 4, which showed it on Sunday mornings in the early 1990s, the sport gained a small but devoted following. It appears to be a violent form of tag combining rugby and Graeco-Roman wrestling in which one man regularly takes on seven opponents while holding his breath and chanting kabaddi-kabaddi-kabaddi - ideally suited, perhaps, to the Army.
And suited to Punjabi men who want to show off their strength and agility to any keenly watching women. But that’s enough of my wasted childhood.
Ashok Das, the Army’s team coach, believes that his players will form the nucleus of an English national team that will challenge India’s dominance. He made this prediction on Indian national television, during the team’s debut tour, during which it narrowly lost to an Indian Army team filled with international players.
“Everyone was praising them,” he said. “They were worried that England will start beating India. They said to me, ‘You are Indian, aren’t you ashamed to do this to your country?’ I said, ‘I was Indian, now I am British. I have to pay back my country. They are not winning at football, now they will win at kabaddi’.”
LOL. At university, a big group of us drove to the beaches at Margate for the day, and then ended up playing kabaddi on the beaches. Happy days. Who’s up for a game at the next Picklers meet?
Melanie Phillips had always been a big fan of Ed Husain, the former Hizb-ut-Tahrir activist turned critic of Islamism. Ed has never been a fan of Mad Mel buts she was nevertheles a cheerleader. Now that Ed has done the shocking act of expressing sympathy with Gazans, Melanie Phillips the Spectator blogger, whose freely peddled conspiracy theories on Barack Obama were a great source of embarrassment to the magazine, has declared that she is no longer a fan. I doubt Ed will shed a tear.
Both Steve M and bananabrain keep saying rather than taking sides we should talk about how peace can be achieved. I agree. But the starting point for peace has to be be the agreement that bombing the hell out of civilians in Gaza, whilst starving them thanks to blockades, is not a starting point. The New York Times reports:
Israeli officials are coming under increasing pressure to ease conditions for civilians, with tight supplies of electricity, water, food and medicine worsening shortages in an area already largely sealed off from the outside world. While Israel on Wednesday refused a 48-hour cease-fire suggested by the French to allow critical supplies into Gaza, it has been sensitive enough to the ever-louder complaints to say it will do all it can to allow in supplies.
Richard Bartholomew, of Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion. Richard, who performs a sterling service tracking religious extremists of various stripes, has angered the website Mosquewatch (I think that the name tells you all you need to know about the site) with his criticisms of them. Mosquewatch’s nature can be gauged by the fact that one of its contributors writes under the name ‘IslamPlague’, while their most recently closed poll found that 59% of respondents (282 out of 475) wanted Muslims to pay a special tax “to keep us safe from Islamic terror.” What particularly riled the Islamophobes on Mosquewatch was Richard’s criticism of Pastor Swank, who writes for the site. Mosquewatch argued that:
“Pastor Swank is a good and decent man. I find it interesting that you would rather defame a Pastor, and not defame the jihadist scum that would slit your throat while screaming “Allahu Ackbar”.”
And people still say animals don’t have the same emotions as humans. Pffft! Madam Miow, who’s blog is great by the way, adds:
here’s more solidarity on show here than I’ve ever seen from my lovely comrades currently ripping themselves apart in the left. Perhaps they should watch … and learn.
Amen to that! May the new year bring more left-wing solidarity… (one always lives in hope).
The farce that is the New Year’s Honours list returns. British sportsmen and women are among the biggest winners. Tax exile Lewis Hamilton is made a MBE, while someone (Robert Plant) who sings songs for heaps of money is made a CBE. A person (Anya Hindmarch) who sold a bag that wasn’t a plastic bag becomes an MBE. Even Sir Chris Hoy found it a bit silly:
“To become a knight from riding your bike, it’s mad.”
Yes it is. Honours should really mean something. They should be awarded to those who perform above and beyond what we expect of normal human beings, for the good of society. That means people like Robert and Caroline Rejdak, who were made MBEs for fostering 117 children of all ages over a period of 30 years. Not people who are simply doing their well-rewarded jobs. Sir Chris Hoy’s win benefited humanity as much or as little as someone else winning would have. People who work in sports, entertainment or business shouldn’t be awarded honours unless they do something that would get them an honour even if they weren’t famous.
There will obviously be some nutters and extremists there, but I think the weekend protests are worth going to…. the massacre of people in Gaza has to stop:
British demonstrations against Israeli bomb attacks in Gaza will gather momentum on Saturday with thousands of people expected to attend a rally in London and smaller protests planned in cities across the UK, say organisers. Yesterday, in the third consecutive day of protest within shouting distance of the Israeli embassy in Palace Green, London, numbers had diminished to around 200 and there were no arrests. The protests are planned to continue tomorrow and on New Year’s Day. A rally will be held at the Egyptian embassy in London on Friday to demand that the country’s border with Gaza be opened, while the capital’s larger rally will assemble on the Embankment at 12.30pm on Saturday
…
Violetta Thomson, 73, from London, said it was the first day that she had attended. She said she could not watch anymore on television without doing something. “I was brought up in fascist Spain and came here 30 years ago. I can recognise fascism when I see it and this is really what Israel is doing. The Israeli people are not fascists, I don’t think they really see the carnage their government is responsible for,” she said.
Beside her, Vicky Scarlett, 75, said: “Human instincts say you must do something about this, it shouldn’t be going on. In the most moderate of terms it is unjust. It’s an abomination for the world to stand and watch this happening.”.
Bangladesh went to national elections yesterday and the result is stupendous and joyful.
The Awami League led ‘Grand Alliance’ has swept back into power in a stunning landslide victory. The elections were conducted peacefully, with massive turnouts with more young people and women voting in unprecedented numbers. This is a massive vote of confidence for secularism, patriotism without nationalism and a rejection of Islamist religious supremacism.
Bangladesh is set for a government with the biggest parliamentary majority since 1973, following Monday’s general elections designed to bring an end to two years of military-backed rule.
In an election marked by high turnout and few incidents, the centre-left Awami League - headed by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina - and its allies pulled off a stunning victory, winning a two-thirds majority in the single-chamber national assembly.
David Aaranovitch writes a somewhat balanced editorial in today’s Times, pointing out the idiocy of Israeli foreign policy in all this:
The historian Tom Segev, writing in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, yesterday reminded readers that “all of Israel’s wars have been based on yet another assumption that has been with us from the start: that we are only defending ourselves”, but that “no military operation has ever advanced dialogue with the Palestinians”. He wasn’t saying that Israel hadn’t the right to stop the rockets from being fired from Gaza, but that it would get the larger process precisely nowhere.
Adamant though I am about the need to combat Islamist violence, it is hard not to see Western and Israeli policy towards Gaza since Israel’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005 as one huge strategic error. There was the refusal to deal with the Hamas Government elected in January 2006, the siding with Fatah in the subsequent internal dispute, the imposition of an effective blockade on Gaza that amounted to collective punishment. The capacity of Hamas to govern, or fail to govern, in the eyes of the Palestinians was thus never tested.
In some ways this policy towards Hamas, though wrong, was understandable. But the failure of Israel to proceed in any substantial way with easing the conditions for Palestinians on the Fatah-controlled West Bank, or the commencement of a policy of dismantling West Bank settlements before an agreement, meant that no encouragement was given to the opponents of Hamas either.
Well, he’s being generous, but the last paragraph is spot on.
There’s a harrowing asymmetry in this conflict that is made all the worse when it is ignored. As reprehensible as the ideology and actions of Hamas are, none of the same criticism is given to Israel for committing acts that are illegal under international law, such as imposing sanctions and collective punishment on 1.5 million people.
Hamas may have broken then truce, but Israel didn’t hold to the conditions of the truce when it didn’t lift the debilitating blockade which has threatened a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. What’s more, it seems that Israel, too, wanted to break the truce.
Diplomatic fronts, such as the US-dominated Quartet, continue to treat occupier and occupied, coloniser and colonised, first-world high-tech army and near-starving refugee population, as if they are on the same footing. Hope is fading that the incoming administration of Barack Obama is going to make any fundamental change to US policies that are hopelessly biased towards Israel.
Some might consider that an unfair assessment, since we are told that every single Palestinian including women and children as young as two, are Jew-hating Hamas terrorists and therefore fair game in a long-range missile attack with F-16s. The Washington Post reports:
The FT’s Gideon Rachman wrote an article. It got ‘Drudged’. He writes about the experience on his blog. In it, he says:
1) There is an unbelievable amount of anger and hatred out there - directed at everything from the UN to big business to Barack Obama. These people can read, but they cannot think.
…
3) There are a lot of people who believe not only that global warming is a hoax - but that it is actually a conspiracy. The fact that the most influential reports on climate change have been produced by an intergovernmental panel (IPCC) - sponsored by the UN - fuels this theory. The idea is that the UN is perpetuating a climate-change hoax, to provide an excuse to impose a world government on America. I’m all part of it apparently.
Earlier, I’d be annoyed. But now I think that despite their hysteria, the global warming deniers have lost all political support. They probably revel in the view that no serious politician in the major English speaking world: UK, USA and Canada even Australia, subscribes to this bullshit anymore, but the fact is the battle is over. The war is won, and I’m happy. These people are politically irrelevant. Soon they’ll be as regarded with as much contempt at the 9/11 ‘troofers’, as the case should be.
Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces “Cast Lead” operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning. The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike.
Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
Oh wait, I thought they were just retaliating against a recent upsurge in rocket attacks?
Meanwhile, a writer on Harry’s Place reckons that a fatwa calling for Muslims “to defend the defenceless women, children and people in Gaza in any way possible,” is inciting terrorism. That’s a bit bizarre, I thought Israelis were also engaging in ’self-defence’? Are they also engaging in terrorism or does this only apply when Muslims want to defend their own? Maybe someone could enlighten me.
I’m going to be doing a fair bit of link-dumping over the coming weeks, as I’m trying to write more and develop more ideas on internet campaigning. So I’m going to throw out short thoughts and ideas. This article on the Washington Post makes a point I wanted to about how political campaigning online, especially in the UK, is badly conceived:
“In this Internet era, it’s not enough to run a campaign; you need to lead a movement,” Mindy Finn, a Republican online political operative, told me less than three days after the election. “That’s what Obama did.” Finn, 27, worked on President Bush’s eCampaign team in 2004 and supervised former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s Web strategy. She worries that, unlike its Democratic counterpart, the Republican establishment hasn’t fully grasped the ways the Web is revolutionizing politics. “If you look at their site,” she said of the Obama campaign, “their online videos, their online ads, everything they did, it wasn’t about ‘me, myself and I.’ It was about ‘we’ and ‘us.’ ”
It was, in essence, about you.
I think the same point can be made here. Most Labour, Tory or Libdem online operations seem to be about promoting the party and their policies, rather than assuming its a new voter who wants to empower themselves or see what this politics business is all about. It isn’t about engaging them in a movement based on any ideology or vision. It’s just: hello! We are the [whatever] party. Come and learn more about us here. In fact, the only party that explicitly thinks of itself as a movement and tries to engage its readers as much as possibly online is the BNP. No wonder they’re so popular. The Green Party, for a small operation that is meant to be radical, actually has a very conservative site, has changed somewhat with a more explicit focus on its most popular policies, on its front page. But there’s no sense of a movement, which is the only way that party will get anywhere.
