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If there is one general feature of North American psyche that does not appeal to me, it would be our inability to see how privileged we are, and the small things we take for granted that other people are fighting for right now. Take Lebanon a state riddled with sectarian violence and all the divisiveness that comes with running a country on religious principles. Al Jazeera reports:
“Thousands of protestors have gathered in Beirut to demand a separation of politics and religion in Lebanon.
The demonstrators marched on parliament on Sunday chanting “secularism” and waving placards calling for the recognition of civil marriage in the Mediterranean country.”
Wow. A secular state not ruled by the wisdom of 2000 year old magic books and the delusional rantings of assorted high priests and mullahs. We take it for granted that we can keep the tomfoolery out of state affairs and run a marginally rational state and by that extension a marginally rational society.
“The idea of a secular political system has faced stiff opposition from ruling politicians who fear an erosion of power if the complex power sharing system between the different religious communities is abandoned.
Power. Control. Influence. Make no mistake, religion rules by no heavenly mandate; only the lowly aspirations of pernicious, greedy men who value power over any so called ‘ethical’ pronouncements their assorted magic books may make.
“What is missing is the political support. In the last election in 2009, all the main political parties paid lip service to the sectarian system,” Elias Muhanna, a Boston-based political analyst and blogger, told Al Jazeera.”
The Lebanese people are rallying for a secular nation. This should be front page news here in the North America where we purport to hold the institutions of Liberal Democracy and personal freedom so dear to our collective identity as a nation. Of course the religious nuttery of the USA precludes covering any movement so clearly geared toward freeing a country from religious rule. Depending on the news cycle it can look like the US is regressing toward some flavour of a theocratic state, where delusional behaviour is openly celebrated.
“Lebanon is home to 18 religious sects, and is deeply divided between Christians and Muslims.
Its sectarian system was soldified in a 1943 national accord in a bid to avoid religious conflict, but the country was torn apart by a brutal 15 year civil war that started in 1975.
The agreement that ended the conflict called for the abolition of sectarianism, but the system has endured.
Under the complicated rules, public sector jobs are subject to religious quotas that change year-on-year in a bid to maintain the delicate balance.”
Such a waste of time and resources all just to keep the people who wear funny hats and irrational attitudes happy and in check.
North Americans should take notice and see what a religious state is like and realize it is not a good outcome if we are interested in maintaining the liberal democratic society which we seem to regularly take pride in while at the same neglecting the institutions that maintain it.
Lawless Mercenaries anyone?
Blackwater, private mercenaries, you remember the ones that ran wild in Iraq shooting civilians pretty much as they pleased as they were busy making millions ‘restoring democracy’ in Iraq?
Al Jazeera reports: “The former president of Blackwater, the controversial American private military contractor, has been indicted for firearms violations and making false statements.
Gary Jackson has been charged with the illegal possession of machine guns, receiving unregistered weapons and making false statements according to an indictment submitted to a North Carolina court on Friday.”
They have tagged the head weasel, but will the rest be held accountable for the mayhem they are responsible for in Iraq? I highly doubt it.
“Jackson left Blackwater, which is now known as Xe Services, last year. The company has struggled to restore its image after a 2007 shooting in Baghdad which saw several of its guards charged with federal crimes.
That case was thrown out of court when a judge found that prosecutors had mishandled evidence, and so far the company’s executives have escaped censure despite a range of investigations in the incidents involving its staff.”
You see, when it comes to justice, we get due process. Our enemies, well they get dead or Gitmoized. I swear, if I hear another commentator bleating “why do they hate us?” or similar courtier-esque drivel that propagates the false history we are being fed… I”ll…I’ll…write another blog article.
Take that forces of evil.
Al Jazeera reports: Mexico has become the top provider of sex slaves to the Americas, according to the United Nations.
Is this report really surprising? I mean with NAFTA and all the globalization free trade nonsense aka the Race to the Bottom how can this be an unexpected result? Mexico is at the bottom of the North American socio-economic heap we should look to this country as laboratory as to the results of unregulated capitalism and what it does to people, especially women who inevitably are on the lowest tier of society.
The report is chilling.
Man, what do I do after denial stops working?
The Canadian occupation of Afghanistan is an international shame. We are killing innocent people and torturing people. The Geneva Convention needs to be dusted off and read 100 times by our military leaders and political drones so they get the idea of human rights are not just for “us” but extend to everyone in the world.
“A parliamentary committee has heard stunning allegations from a former translator who claims the Canadian military tried to cover up the fatal shooting of an Afghan man in October 2007.
Ahmadshah Malgarai also alleged to MPs in Ottawa that the Canadian military “panicked” and rounded up a half a dozen Afghans between the age of 10 and 90 after the shooting of a man sleeping on the roof of a compound in southern Afghanistan.”
Fantastic, murder someone and then round up possible witnesses for intimidation interrogation.
Apparently though Mr.Malgarai did not actually witness the execution.
“Malgarai testified he was not at the compound during the alleged incident, although he was allowed to see the intelligence report and took part in the interrogation of the detained men. He alleged a member of the military personally described it to him as “murder.”
Of course Conservative MP Laurie Hawn was there sowing confusion. Best to muddy the waters in defence of aberrant government policy.
“When Hawn then asked if Malgarai was calling Hillier a liar, Ahmadshad became agitated and accused the Tory MP of trying to put words in his mouth.”
What did happen that night? Something significant, the ripples are to big just to be a false allegation in my opinion.
Alfred Mccoy was right in his book A Question about Torture: using torture as official policy has serious corrosive effects on both the victims and the abusers. The effect is evident already in Afghanistan as the Canadian Armed Forces torture scandal continues to unfold.
Workers in Greece Rally against the looming privatization of their society.
Greece is a mess. The IMF and EU are certainly not helping. It seems that this is the pattern as of late. Greece now Hungary stretched on the debt rack until they privatize their country, not for the benefit of the people, but for the business class and multi-national interests.
“Schaeffler told Al Jazeera: “I think Greece has to save money – and if you need to save money then you must sell your jewellery so to speak.
That’s what Greece should do. They must privatise to raise money, that’s what I said to Bild newspaper.”
I wonder when the IMF will get involved. Disaster Capitalism is lovely in the spring.
You see this sequence of events happen repeatedly. Government tries to help people, investor class loses favoured status, takes toys and goes home, economy retracts and ideologues decry high taxes. Government lowers taxes on business, cuts social spending and the people are unhappy and elect someone to enhance their disenfranchisement.
It is happening in Hungary right now.
“A far-right party in Hungary is on the verge of winning second place in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, appealing to those hard hit by the economic crisis and angry about the presence of Gypsies in the country.”
Black shirts? How original.
Huh, hard economic times and the scapegoating of a section of the population coupled with the rise of a far-right political party? Nothing could go wrong there.
Must be those hard economic times and you know those damn Socialists simply cannot manage money.
“The Socialist government led by technocrat Gordon Bajnai had to make painful budget cuts to rein in the deficit under a financing deal led by the International Monetary Fund, which rescued Hungary from financial collapse in 2008.”
Ohhh, hello IMF. (Where was the mention of the meddling by the IMP in the CBC article? The quote in green is from Al Jazeera.) The IMF would certainly not impose conditions that make it hard on the government to actually run the country would they?
“In Hungary, under IMF tutelage, liberalized trade, tightened money supply and rapid and ill-considered privatization have led to greatly increased unemployment and a redirection of resources away from education and social services and to wealthy bond holders.
Carol Welch, International Policy Analyst at Friends of the Earth, said “The IMF has a consistent record of environmental and economic destruction and poverty exacerbation. We
have to expose this and stop the Fund’s attempt to establish a permanent austerity program for the poor countries.”
Ah yes, the old “We get Free Trade, you get Financial Austerity” ploy in action, it is nice to see the naked pillage of an economy and abuse of a sovereign nation all in the name of capitalism.
Shorter version: Hungary has hard times, IMF fraks things up even worse, people coerced into electing a proto-fascist capitalist dictatorship. Good Times!
News from Iraq is coming in fits and spurts. It requires something of this magnitude to break into the press services headlines. This from the CBC:
“Gunmen wearing Iraqi military uniforms raided homes in a Sunni village south of Baghdad, killing at least 24 people in execution-style attacks, officials said Saturday.
An army official said many of the victims, who included five women, were brutalized “beyond recognition.”
At least seven people were found alive, bound with handcuffs, said Baghdad’s security spokesman, Maj.-Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi.”
The violence, of course, is sectarian in nature.
“Many of the dead were members of local Sahwa, or Awakening Councils — one of several names for the Sunni fighters who changed the course of the war when they revolted against al-Qaeda in Iraq and joined the Americans in late 2006 and 2007, officials said. The fighters are also known as Sons of Iraq.”
So we have people who are the American’s allies being slaughtered. More interestingly the article goes and says:
“But the question of what to do with these nearly 100,000 people in the long term remains. The U.S. handed over control last year of the Awakening Councils to Iraq, which pays their roughly $300 monthly salaries.
The violence comes as Iraq’s major political blocs scramble to get enough parliamentary support to form a government after results from the March 7 election gave no single group enough seats to govern alone.”
No Laws, No Morals, No Accountability, NO PROBLEM!
The Iraqi government is paying people some $300 dollars a month to serve as an armed paramilitary presence in Iraq. What are they thinking exactly? Let us take the worst ideas from the US, yes I’m looking at you Blackwater and other mercenary groups, and implement them as civil policy. Nothing can go wrong there, especially when, as the article says, there is extra political turmoil because of the recent elections.
Fighting a fire with gasoline comes to mind.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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