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metadata i've been trying to generate an rss feed for ublog but had been unable to find a tool for the purpose. procrastination had a link to blogmatrix and voidstar, both offering syndication tools, so i now have an rss feed :D, whoa! thanks zack!
discussing the crisis - 3 lewis, in his latter chapters discusses the rise of america in the arab consciousness from being just another western civilization at the other end of the world to its present representation as the great satan. an argument cited by lewis as carrying a lot of weight in the arab, and i must say a large portion of the non western world, is the issue of american moral depravity. radical and nationalistic commentators often decry the lack of societal values in america and by association, that of the western world. another closely related topic is the apparent lack of a civilization of america as a nation. both of these arguments are intrinsically flawed, though they may do have some elements of truth which have been used to justify the easy manner in which the america, as a society, has been subject to arab ridicule and derision. lewis quotes sayyid qutb, To attract clientele, churches advertise shamelessly and offer what Americans most seek -- "a good time" or "fun" (he cited the English words in his Arabic text). The result is that church recreation halls, with the blessing of the priesthood, hold dances where people of both sexes meet, mix, and touch. The ministers go so far as to dim the lights in order to facilitate the fury of the dance. "The dance is inflamed by the notes of the gramophone," he noted with evident disgust, "the dance-hall becomes a whirl of heels and thighs, arms enfold hips, lips and breasts meet, and the air is full of lust."bill allison talks from personal experience in a very interesting post with reference to this specific quote. it is easy to see why such arguments have gained so much currency not only in the arab countries but also in other conservative cultures like those in india. i was horrified when i first saw the jerry springer show, a feeling worsened by being subjected to trashy talk shows like those of ricki lake, jenny jones and even emmy winning 'outstanding talk show host' montel williams. it may be contended that such material on television either does not affect public behavior and should be taken as some form of perverted entertainment, or the 'the gun is not at fault it is the person wielding it' argument may be used to justify the continued existence of such idiocy on the idiot box. with the news networks' enslavement to public opinion evident from the recent war coverage it is atleast obvious that the talk shows do not represent american society in general, they merely seem to be playing to the audience's perverse fantasies. osama bin laden and fellow extremists, in their harangue against america keep referring to this apparent flaw in the american society and perhaps strongly believe in it along with their fantasy of divine license to root that filth out. by disregarding america's military might with the moral depravity argument the islamic radicals probably committed their biggest tactical error, unfortunately also causing thousands of lives, a major upheavel in the gulf's and the world's political landscape and significant damage to the image of islam in the west. it is their behavior that, and i'm saying this from my own experience, makes muslims subject to verbal abuse from people with little to no knowledge of islam and its followers. the quran, an object of the greatest muslim reverence, has been called the guidebook of terrorists, an assertion that is not only wrong but also rather frustrating. just as the arguments used by the radicals has convinced a portion of their intended audience, so has this talk of islam being an 'evil and wicked religon' and the quran being a tool for recruiting terrorists, created a false but convincing picture of the muslims in the western mind. though it would be tempting to, it is not possible to absolve for its own botched foreign policy in the years following world war II. bernard lewis quotes the incident of the 1953 mosaddeq government in iran being overthrown as an example of american interventionism that constantly alienated the arabs and led to their hate and distrust of america. the cia's cowboy behavior where diplomacy would have played a greater role in winning over the arabian countries to democracy may have contributed as much to the current crisis as anything radical islam came up with. other reasons that continue to fester the wound, so to speak, is the perception that america is solely driven my material gains, of america's eagerness to go to war, its support for israel even in the face of world opposition and of its abject failure in bringing about a lasting solution to the 'palestine problem'. in summary, radicals have attacked america on the basis of its culture, or rather, the alleged lack of it. their belief that american society is intrinsically flawed and will not stand up and fight, literally and figuratively, powered their thrust which eventually resulted in the attacks on the world trade center. the solution to this problem is not that propsed by the people at pnac, neither is it belligerence. the solution, very simply stated, will require the americans to be impartial in their approach to the israel-palestine issue, and to cap their interventionist urges. it will require for the arabs to grow out of their self created cocoon where they refuse to accept all the good that american technology, philosophy and thinking has brought the world.
iraqi protesters shot via war words, this from the new york times, emphasis added, United States soldiers opened fire on Iraqis at an antiwar demonstration here after being "intentionally" shot at by some of the protesters, a United States officer said today, a claim disputed by residents. Fifteen Iraqis were killed and about 75 were injured in the clash, local hospital officials said.there is more.
movies well i've been catching up on a load of movies i'd been intending to watch for a while. here are one line reviews, philadelphia - tom hanks, hiv positive and thus fired from his law firm, and denzel washington, as hanks' cocky counselor, in a brilliant drama show the world what good acting is all about the cider house rules - i'm no fan of tobey maguire but he's well cast in this movie adaptation of john irving's novel of the same name. michael caine and charlize theron share credits, this one's too a must watch. thelma and louise - susan sarandon and geena davis go from fun weekend to a plunge into the grand canyon in this road trip gone haywire, directed by ridley scott. co-starring harvey keitel as the understanding detective and brad pitt as the thieving charmer, this movie put pitt's (!) career on track to super stardom.
islam for today a rather refreshing read, Monireh Ghorji is a grandmother of six and great-grandmother of two with an appropriately wholesome face and gentle demeanor. She's also a mojtahedeh--the female equivalent of an ayatollah--and a feisty advocate of women's rights.islamfortoday has a lot of other interesting material, check it out.
the american sentimentalist if you haven't been reading the american sentimentalist, you've been missing out on some remarkably perceptive essays on the state of the american nation, its people and its leaders. from a recent post, Down the darkened and noiseless suburban streets and the trafficked and trod city arteries; across the moonlit stretches of open fields that make up the back counties of Midwestern states and Great Plains ranch lands alike; around the front doors of bars dumping their evening's sustenance onto the sidewalks like last night's lover ready to forget all by morning's light; in the fluorescent humming of the convenience store brightness that shines when no other is open; walk those who no longer understand who runs their world.mark anderson's articles are as much literature as political commentary, a must read for me, as it should be for you too :)
cheerleading came across this on buzzflash, (my emphasis) BBC Director General Greg Dyke said many U.S. television networks had lacked impartiality during the conflict and risked losing credibility if they persisted with their stance.undermine the credibility? i'm not sure how much of credibility is left to undermine.
discussing the crisis - 2 the first chapter in the crisis of islam, entitled defining islam, juxtaposes islam, as a religion and as a group of people following that faith, a pseudo nation if you will, against christianity and christendom encompassing the protestant, catholic and other related groups. considering the book is aimed at an american/western audience, its reach and appeal definitely is restricted in other areas, this is a good comparison, allowing the reader to compare islamic social and political structure with that of the modern western democracy. religion, for different people, is different things. for the practicing muslim it is a complete set of rules and regulations which define how he does everything. there are recommendations on things like facial hair, the manner in which you drink water, the kind of food that is legal and the proper way to dress. with proscribed ways for such minor details, minor in the western context and not the islamic though, it is not surprising that muslims find it far more difficult to assimiliate with other cultures. they remain together as a cohesive group within larger communities, and stick to their own ways of doing things, speaking a subset of languages and practicing islam according to their perceptions, education and ability. a muslim tries to follow as much of this codified system as is possible, taking liberties based on his immediate social environment. as far as mixing religion and politics, something if tried in the west immediately becomes a topic of derision and debate, is not an issue for a country like say pakistan or bangladesh, essentially because islam is not something you practice in your spare time, it governs the most basic of your everyday activities. a very simple example is the requirement to pray five times a day, at specific times and in a congregation. consider a muslim working on a regular 9 to 5 job, technically he would be required to take two breaks, each of atleast fifteen minutes, to fulfill this religious obligation. though most muslims would compromise in the interests of a career, there are people i know who would much rather not take up a position if it did not offer sufficient flexibility in this regard. the essential presence of islam in a muslim's everyday life now evident, consider a democracy, say malaysia and what was once described to me as a benevolent dictatorship, saudi arabia. which country would i prefer living in? malaysia, because, from what i understand the government does not try and meddle with the everyday life of its citizens. by imposing its own interpretation of the sharia the countries in the gulf have tried to act as the agents of god. from my limited knowledge, islam is least about imposing your own understanding upon others. the quran is the ultimate reference for a practicing muslim and if he or she chooses to practice the religion in a certain way, it is not the government's responsibility to stop them, what else is the expected day of judgement for? the fairly large muslim population in india has remained comparitively immune to the effects of islamic radicalism because india allows the muslims genuine freedom of religion. there are other, deeper problems involving indian muslims, but those do not really concern this discussion. in conclusion, instead of adapting islam to democracy, what truly is required is to try and adapt democracy to islam, something that has successfully, and with little compromise to the its ideals, been tried in countries like malaysia, indonesia and turkey. the push to try and force the islamic way of life into a democratic mold is erroneous and insensitive, and those ready to wage war for that alleged purpose, need to realize that.
discussing the crisis - 1 i've managed to get my hands on bernard lewis' the crisis of islam, a concise commentary on eastern islamic practices, western perceptions of islamic radicalism and perceived solutions to the problem of religious fundamentalism in the islamic context. in this post, and the ones to follow, i'll try and discuss my own take on lewis' work. less a book and more an exteded essay, the crisis of islam, begins promisingly with the introduction establishing the author's scholarlship. there are however assertions inconsistent with my own education and experience as a muslim, more specifically, as an educated indian muslim. when lewis refers to the muslims for example, it is evident he's talking about the muslims around the world, indians, pakistanis, indonesians, malaysians and every other ethnic group that follows islam as a system of belief and practice. in the introduction he talks about a videotape made pubic in october 2001, in which Osama bin Laden refers to some event that occured eighty years ago, and which was purportedly a cornerstone in islamic political history. the event referred to was the breaking up of the Ottoman empire and according to Lewis, though Western observers had some time figuring out the allusion, it was something plainly evident to most muslims. i cannot speak for muslims of other nationalities, but i can speak as an indian, and i'm very positive about this, mr.lewis would be hard pressed to find too many indians of the islamic faith who would know off hand of bin Laden's reference. it is uncertain if this can be explained as evidence of ignorance or of an identity independent from that of the larger islamic body, a more likely reason for me is my belief that radical islam is intrinsically a geographical and political, rather than an islamic problem per se. an integral component of islamic identity however, is the kabah, and by association, mecca and saudi arabia. current events and alleged aggression therefore, in the wider gulf region, have been used very successfully by radical elements in all muslim communities to incite a hatred and distrust for the west in general and america in particular. it is also instructive to note that western mores seem to be in direct conflict with islamic and in many cases asian principles and cultural practices. consider for example hinduism, which places a great deal of restrictions on sexual freedom as compared to current western attitudes. hinduism however, does not seem to be as much at war with the west as islam, why? perhaps because most other cultures have chosen to evolve and adapt to western influences or simply modern practices. islam on the other hand, the 'perfect religion', refuses to consider the idea that it has any flaws whatsoever. muslims believe the quran is the word of god, it is immutable, unchangeable, and, above all, absolute. to even entertain the idea that islam needs to adapt to any external forms of behavior or thought, be it western or anything else, is sacrilege for any practicing muslim. lewis' introduction further talks about a letter in a london based arabic newspaper, printed in february 1998, allegedly faxed in by Osama bin Laden and other radical leaders. the letter talks about how america and not iraq was the aggressor in the 1991 gulf war, along with other rhetoric about the plight of the iraqi people under continued sanctions and of america's oft alleged cabal with israel. those arguments have been used consistenty and very successfully by radical forces in shaping public opinion on the 'arab street'. by going to war with iraq and committing one blunder after another in its conduct, for example the lack of a proper administrative plan post war and the inane handling of international media criticism, america has played into the hands of radical elements, giving even greater credence to their conspiracy theories. it is unlikely the war in iraq will lead to the democratizaion of arabia in the near future, if anything it only seems to be another bloody chapter in an ongoing struggle between islam and the west, with no quick or peaceful resolution immediately apparent.
leave! isn't it a little early for frustration? from the washintonpost, Mohammed is incensed that U.S. troops, during their first few days in Baghdad, did little to stop the wave of looting that eviscerated nearly every government building in the city, including the national library and a museum housing 5,000-year-old antiquities. He also is livid that the U.S. military has not yet restarted power, water and trash-collection service across the city.i just hope this is not a sign of a growing anti-american sentiment in iraq, eventually leading to far more unfortunate and horrifying results. also, this should not used as a tool in 'how ingrate can those iraqis be, we saved them after all!' arguments.
france bashing unmedia speaks about this article on the uss clueless. my comments in response, Measuring by the yardstick being used for France it might be instructive to look at similar trends in America. I've been a teacher's assistant at a public school in Los Angeles and the state of the French public education system as described by Theodore Darlymple is uncomfortably consistent with my own experience here. Guy Milliere, in his frontpagemag claims france will have a muslim majority within twenty years, a claim that is literally laughable. When Steven claims that most of those Muslims will be radicals, he exhibits an increasingly common and unfortunately fashionable racial slur, muslim=bad, islam=radical. He also offers no references or back up for the following claims, The only group with a high birth rate are the Muslims, who are for the most part not making any significant economic contribution to France. Needless to say, any generalization about a group will necessarily have significant exceptions, but taken as a group most of the Muslims are not integrated into French society, tend to be badly educated, are much more likely to be unemployed or to be employed in low paying jobs, and are increasingly miserable and resentful - and radical. Extreme forms of Islam are being preached in France and are becoming increasingly popular, and what they're preaching is revolution. Extrapolation of current trends will make the Muslims a voting majority in France soon, and then anything could happen. But the crisis may happen sooner, because they're smuggling and stockpiling weapons I'm no defender of the French, but if there has to be France bashing atleast don't do it at the cost of objectivity.
more on freedom how much freedom is enough? most of my discussions with a colleague end with me offering the following argument, at what point do you curb an individual's rights? at what point does the abuse become intolerable for other citizens? for, to repeat an oft repeated cliche, with freedom there is responsibility, but not all possess or exhibit that sense of responsibility. two examples, i) i'm no psephologist but i have had the chance to follow elections both in my country and here, the most recent one being that for the governor of california. a big difference in campaigning is the access to and use of mass media here, whereas in india it happens more through blaring loudspeakers and public gatherings. being poor enough not to afford cable television i was subject to gray davis' spiteful campaign against, initially, dick riordan, and then bill simon. i'm no fan of any of these men but almost felt sorry for bill simon when he was consistently and pitifully villified by the gray davis camp. there were similar barbs from bill simon too but davis always seemed more spiteful. objectivity was sorely lacking and this was, in my opinion, a classic example of the abuse of freedom of expression. self censorship should be the by product of a good education, something davis possesses, but unforutnately, in his case, it is not. ii) one of the greatest strengths of a strong democracy is a free and fair judicial system. this is one institution however, that has been abused in every modern state, from america to bangladesh. i've read articles on how doctors prefer giving up their practice rather than continue paying exorbitant insurance premiums to protect against malpractice suits and then there are stories of ridiculous claims, made and awarded in cases ranging from that of hot scalding coffee to imagined sexual harrassment. so my question is, if education does not impart balanced thinking, what does? is there a solution to this or are we already in possession of the best possible system with no likelihood of doing better? maybe i should have taken up sociology or political science instead of engineering.
discussing freedom in matters of choice and expression, america, perhaps, is one of the freest of all societies but there are some cases where the freedom of the individual seems to have been overlooked, consider these, abortion - an issue that always seems to be en vogue in the united states, and yes this is a rather controversial topic. polygamy - being a muslim i'm officially allowed to simultaneously have four wives, something i can do in my home country, if i tried multiple marriages in the us however, though i'll be within the tenets of a fairly conservative religion, i'll be violating the law. my question is, if all the parties concerned do not have a problem with the arrangement why should the government? here are pro and anti sites. prohibition - something america unsuccessfully tried in the 1920s there are other smaller things that demand conformation to a pre-defined framework and where functioning outside that framework requires great effort or is simply impossible. the credit system, or rather culture, is one example. i'm not offering my own views on these subjects, the purpose of this post is to question the assertion that the individual is absolutely free in america. my perception is that here you are afforded a greater number of freedoms but with that you also lose other rights which in the legislative bodies' and, in several cases, the judiciary's wisdom cause harm to society in general. that is the clinching point, there have to be rules that curb some rights, in america there is one set, in india another and in saudi arabia yet another. the debate between the societies is like a carnivore trying to convince a vegetarian into trying meat, 'you have no idea what you are missing', many a times you do not miss what you have never desired or tried. no single set of rules is perfect, albeit some are preferable over the others. how and what we choose is a luxury that may be afforded to almost citizen of the so called western democracies, but to a much smaller percentages of the populace, essentially the educated or the affluent, in say the asian democracies. perhaps that is the real advantage of being a citizen of the west.
chess moves aziz poonawala at unmedia asks, why does israel need weapons of mass destruction? he also talks about how syria has thrown the gauntlet by introducing a resolution calling for a ban on all wmds in the middle east and the possible scenarios arising out of that proposal. good reading with links to other articles on the issue.
american democracy, revisited ideofact's bill allison, in this response to american democracy, ample proof of why i have so much respect for him by the way, presents responses to the points i'd made and i'm inclined to agree with him on most of those. i did not really wish to contest the claim that steiner's description was inconsistent with what america is to most people, my only contention, if it has to be put that way, is that life for people isn't necessarily so bad or limited in other states either. in response to bill's doubts, yes i do experience the desires that steiner talks about, and no i do not think they are unachievable, but is america really the only society where the common man ever aspires to these things and achieves them? not quite. america, for all its perfection, also has its share of imperfections, it is not the utopia that some would have you believe. i've been on both sides of the fence and though the grass is greener here, maybe it is not as sweet. but then i lack experience, years later, with my hair a little lighter and my fingers a little slower, i might just type another post telling you the best days of my life were the days i spent here in the us :)
attacking the gods i've been wanting to discuss something i'd heard a very long time ago, it is a quote attributed to winston churchill. i've been trying for the better part of the past hour to find that quote with proper attribution, and though there seems to be no doubt he said it, i did not wish to put it up until i had some sort of source to cite, i finally came across this article. here's what i'm talking about, He (Winston Churchill) was disappointed and " led to observe anxiously that he had not become the King's [Prime] Minister, or fought a bloody war for six years, in order to achieve the dissolution of the British Empire "( the text in parentheses is mine ) with reference to the 'evil and heinous dictator' saddam hussein's gassing of the kurds in 1988, an example of saddam's tyranny that was incidentally ignored by the americans at that time, consider this, from an article in the straits times, Arguing strongly for the use of mustard gas in 1919, Winston Churchill -- then a secretary of state in Britain's War Office -- said he did not understand the 'squeamishness about the use of gas'.via uggabugga winston churchill, for all his attributed greatness, statesmanship and wizardry with the english language was undeniably an imperialist at heart, as seem to be the folks at this party. to speak in one breath of freedom and democracy and the rights of man and to utter in another breath a resolve for continued british dominance, now that's chuchill the hypocrite for you. from this speech at the westminister college, fulton, missouri, delivered on the fifth of mach, 1946, [.....] We cannot be blind to the fact that the liberties enjoyed by individual citizens throughout the British Empire are not valid in a considerable number of countries, some of which are very powerful. In these States control is enforced upon the common people by various kinds of all-embracing police governments. The power of the State is exercised without restraint, either by dictators or by compact oligarchies operating through a privileged party and a political police. It is not our duty at this time when difficulties are so numerous to interfere forcibly in the internal affairs of countries which we have not conquered in war. But we must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.the prime minister's assertion that the peoples of the british empire were far better off than those under other tyrannical dictatorships may or may not have been true, but those peoples were also by no means experiencing the oft touted pleasures of democracy and freedom either. it has long been my belief, and i'm guessing many historians will agree, that the british left my country not because of gandhi's approach of resistance and protest through non violence, but rather because they could not afford to continue their rule. history has indeed been kind to 'the last lion' since, as he so famously proclaimed, he did write it.
today's quote This is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not always conform to our whim. -James Reston, journalist (1909-1995)via today's awad
american democracy from a post in yesterday's ideofact, this quote from george steiner's novella proofs and three parables, [.....] To me it sounds like the society that says to every man and woman: “Be what you want to be. Be yourself. The world was not made only for geniuses and neurotics, for the obsessed and the inspired. It was made for you and you and you. If you choose to try and be an artist or a thinker or a pure scholar, that’s fine. We will neither inhibit you nor put you on a pedestal. If you prefer to be a couch-potato, an auto-mechanic, a break-dancer, a mile-runner, a broker, if you prefer to be a truck-driver or even a drifter, that’s fine too. Perhaps even better. Because it so happens that ideological passion and ascetic illumination, that dogma and sacrifice, have not brought only light and aid to this approximate world of ours. They have sown interminable hatred and self-destruction.” And when America says, “Just be yourself,” it is not saying, “Do not better yourself.” It is saying: “Go after that Nobel Prize if that’s what fires your soul. Or that heated swimming pool.” Not because America believes that heated swimming-pools are the Parthenon or even a necessity. But because they do seem to bring pleasure, and not very much harm. “Move up the ladder, if you can,” says America, “because the desire to live decently, to give your family a comfortable home, to send your children to schools better than those you attended yourself, to earn the regard of your neighbors, is not some capitalist vice, but a universal desire. Do you know, Professore, America is just about the first nation and society in human history to encourage common, fallible, frightened humanity to feel at home in its skin.an eloquent description of american society, probably representative of what most americans feel is and should be the right description of american democracy and what it has to offer the world. the question for me, as someone who was raised in a different and far more conservative environment, is this: is the idealistic picture painted by steiner consistent with my everyday experience? with the increasing din of jingoistic nationalism, an obvious attempt at the manipulation of public thinking, curbing of rights in the name of national security, the ever widening gap between the rich and the poor, an economy that has steadily spiralled southwards, and the sinful lack of reasoned statesmanship amongst the country's leaders i see things changing to a picture not quite as rosy. is it wrong to say that now american democracy seems poised at a point where it will need to choose between continuing to practice the ideals that have sustained and enhanced it for so long and the proposal to intervene and impose its version of 'the good life' on the rest of the world? for any sustainable society there must be a fine set of checks and balances. for reasons i've just mentioned and others i might discuss in greater detail in a later post, i'm inclined to disagree with the assertion that in the case of american democracy that perfect balance has been achieved and will thus remain for eternity.
going back in about a month i'll have graduated with a masters degree in computer networks, my avowed purpose to be in the land of the free achieved. i'll fly for bombay on the eighteenth, on korean air, via seoul, twenty three hours of flying, vegetarian meal, thank you very much. i'll see my parents, my brother and my brother, again after twenty two months, and try and harmonize my memory with what they look like now, as i will with everything else there. they'll do the same with me, look, listen and gauge, and then decide everything is fine, ubu beta has not been spoiled by the corrupting influences of america, both imagined and real and by unsupervised grad student life. atleast i'm hoping they'll reach that conclusion. then i'll get reacquainted with old friends, all the books i've left behind, books that shaped me, books i used to be burrowed in late at nights, reading in the kitchen since the other rooms were dark in honor of the sleeping. we'll sit down and talk, exchange stories, hug and kiss, and lament the coming of the first of july when i'll have to fly back here. but this time it will be easier, once you have gone and returned, you know the world goes on, even without you around, the youngest has grown from child to adolscent, the younger from adolscent to man, and you have studied, moving from bachelor to master. and time, like a river in flood, rages on.
fahrenheit 451 from the editorial review of fahrenheit 451 ( through amazon ) In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad.from arabnews, this, ( through the dailykos ) It was the final chapter in the sack of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives — a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents including the old royal archives of Iraq — were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the Islamic Library of Qur’ans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze. and this from rush limbaugh's ridiculous and inane defense, If anything, the Iraqis have engaged in "targeted looting," taking back what the Baath Party and other Saddam thugs have stolen from them in the past three decades.i'm actually starting to feel sorry for the american public, is the regard for their intelligence so lost on commentators like limbaugh? the straits times of singapore had this in an article by maureen dowd of the new york times, my emphasis, The coalition forces were guarding the Iraqi Oil Ministry building while hundreds of Iraqis ran off with precious heirlooms and artefacts from a 7,000-year-old civilisation. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld blew off the repeated requests of scholars and archaeologists that the soldiers protect Iraqi history in the museum as zealously as they protected Iraqi wealth in the oil wells. riots at soccer games, yeah that explains it all, thanks rummy.
the question where are the banned weapons? asks paul reynolds of the bbc.
more saddam for less i guess i vastly underestimated the promptness of the war profiteer. after getting this link from war words' 'benny', i searched for saddam on ebay and it turned up 92 pages of results with mostly currency but also a collection of other products ranging from condoms (?!!) to saddam masks.
good reading wander lust throws up some really pleasant surprises at times, the sentimentalist, snow moon and now this. thanks to michele at palaver for opening my eyes to the congo problem and the other links in this post. from the times, consider this, The number of dead is estimated so far at 4.7m. That is more than have died in any conflict since the second world war..... good question: how will the iraqi pie be divided? an article in the guardian/observer speculates. ... and finally, the question of rebuilding iraq, again through the observer.
interesting question should i be more concerned about things like this and this? or about getting a job?
saddam's head with so many pictures of saddam hussein's head being kicked around in the streets of baghdad i wonder how long will it take for some to reach ebay? and will the really big one go on bush's wall of trophies?
realigning the world? from this article via the left coaster, Indeed, this practice of power-balancing-power follows a pattern of history from ancient Greece to the modern era, when Britain confronted France, France and Britain confronted Germany, and all those countries then joined the United States to confront the Soviet Union.
the pieces are in place and all bush has to do is push the go button. bill from the whiskey bar gives an overall picture.
blabber more evidence bush has more mouth than brains, this excerpt from here, Today's focus on Syria came after President Bush, for the first time, personally accused Syria of developing chemical weapons. "I think that we believe there are chemical weapons in Syria," Bush said yesterday. U.S. officials said yesterday they took Bush's statement as very significant, since the possession of weapons of mass destruction was the president's chief reason for confronting Iraq. does he think, or does he believe? funny no one caught that when bush was blabbering away.
syria next? i'm not sure if this is going to make any difference, the american administration seems to have decided to pursue it's own agenda without any regard to world opinion whatsoever.
belligerent state One of the state department's favorite activities seems to be classifying countries as 'axes of evil', 'rogue state' or 'state sponsor of terrorism'. Well, the US has world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, it has chemical and biological weapon capability, it is the only country to have used nuclear weapons. It devotes more money to defense expenditure than any other nation, it has caused civilian deaths in other countries when it has gone to war with little or no evidence of culpability. Makes me wonder how the United States should be classified, definitely not peaceful, unnecessarily belligerent maybe?
quote from the snopes urban legends website, this gem, We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.thanks to arjun for bringing this up.
words freedom, terror, security, wmd, homeland. words and just that, nothing more, words that have lost their edge, they sound trite, meaningless. words should be kept like the tools of a craftsman, sharp and clean, when president bush speaks it looks like he's been chewing on them for a while, like gum, and after having extracted the last bit of flavor, he spits them out, for a sticky meaningless serving in our newspapers and on our television sets. much more surprising is when network news channels like foxnews go on and chew on that tasteless gum all the more, without a murmur of protest from the apparently numbed audience. statesmen like winston churchill and john f. kennedy understood the art of speaking, they could move people with their words, bush on the other hand, needs to fire his speech writer. churchill, during the second world war, held sway over the very minds of people, using human psychology as much as arms and tanks in beating the third reich. kennedy, with his youth and charm gave the people of america the assurance of ultimate victory in the cold war, he dreamt and the nation dreamed with him. with bush, it is one nightmare after another.
when peace is shot In the second such incident in less than a week, the IDF has shot and critically wounded a british peace activist, tom hurndall. he was apparently trying to get children out of the way when he was shot. hurndall has been pronounced brain dead. he is, or was? 21, two years younger than me. if they are shooting and killing american and european peace activists with such disdain what must the common palestinian be subjected to? is it any wonder that the palestinians have made suicide bombings almost a cultural aspect?
on democracy and freedom there is a brilliant post on the american sentimentalist discussing the supposed idea of freedom being the answer to all of mankind's problems. i've been pondering on these very lines and mark anderson seems to have hit the nail on the head with his commentary. the west's and, increasingly, america's assurance that ideals like freedom, democracy, government and a free economy as defined and studied in the west is the only possible way humankind should practice them, is in serious need of questioning by the west's philosophers and thinkers. what is pitiful is that western democracies have chosen to ignore these ideas when it suits them, think china's volume of trade in the us, and have enforced them when there are factors other than concern for fellow human beings influencing their decisions. the entire article on the sentimentalist is well worth your time.
the loss fox news gets an interesting look from today's latimes. the lack of journalistic integrity in america's leading cable news channel is not much of a factor for the public it seems though.
freedom of speech through the whiskey bar, this quote, apparently plucked from a bbc reporter's weblog, one of my close Iraqi friends went up to an American marine and said to him: "I'm going to exercise my right of free speech for the first time in my life - we want you out of here as soon as possible"
patenting for sick minds v2.0 via bar room philosophy, this news item from the guardian. good question: what's next, 'syria, we'll free ya!' ?
historic moments this historic moment brought to you by err...foxnews? note the different tones adopted by fox and cnn, the former says the iraqis brought down the statue with help from american troops, the latter claims it was just us troops, these are the top two news networks in america, whom do we believe? fox actually claims 'we report. you decide'. yeah right.
talking through your... from war words, "The absence of evidence is no evidence of absence"
laughs here's an edited version of something i received in the mail today, "Good news for Iraq. There's a 50 percent chance that President Bush will confuse it with Iran."
a blog by any other name? browsing through my weblog stats this afternoon, i saw a hit coming in from this weblog. interestingly, it is another ublog, i'd seen it before when i submitted my weblog to either globeofblogs or bloghop websites. reading michael's latest post, i was a little disappointed and i must admit, offended. it suggested i may have been inspired to name this blog after seeing his own, besides other invectives. i offered a polite explanation and michael was kind enough not only to edit his post but also to send me an apology through email. he's even added me to his blogroll, and i've reciprocated. you can read the comments on michael's weblog for a complete picture. interesting diversion from war stories and bad poetry i guess. the whole incident reminded me of something similar happening on a software management forum i often hang out at. someone had been usind a pseudonym for a while when another user decided to pick the same name. since usernames were not actually handles, there was no way anyone could ensure exclusive use, everything was on a per-post basis. the original user tried protesting but then resorted to prepending 'the real' to the contested username.
rebuilding now that the war seems to be drawing to some kind of a conclusion, the iraqis face atleast a few more decades of poverty and distress. looks like there is a squabble brewing over who gets to rebuild what the 'coalition of the willing' worked so hard to destroy.
coke and pepsi the cola giants seem to be bearing the brunt of american agression in iraq. an anti war group is leading a boycot of coke, pepsi and other such byproducts of globalization in the indian state of kerala. the soda makers are reportedly facing a fifty percent drop in sales. coke seems to be more concerned about the indian economy though, "it is the indian economy that will be hit" said sunil gupta, vice president of hindustan coca-cola beverages. hmm...
two poems just finished two poems, the second one is way out, i don't expect many to get it. never mind. one suggestion though, after you've read the second poem for the first time, read it again, but not linearly. read the lines in the following manner, 1-4-2-5-3-6-7-8-9-10-11-12. feedback is always welcome and appreciated. like words
sonnet fifty-five came across this sonnet when reading an article on writing poetry at the plagiarist website. enjoy! Sonnet 55
raging cow i almost never click on the ads that yahoo throws at me when i'm checking my mail but this one grabbed my udder, er utter attention ;) whoever came up with the idea deserves a pat on the back. it is funny, gets ur attention and manages to communicate really well, that's more than can be said for most american ads i've come across in the past couple of years. i'm actually looking forward to getting hold of a bottle of raging cow flavored milk. the funniest is the cow's blog, it's even got a hundred things about me section, very well done.
sprintpcs the online services provided by bankofamerica are incredibly good, american express plays catch but still has a long way to go. my experience with sprint pcs however has been pretty frustrating. a monthly payment, posted atleast two weeks ago has still not gotten through, when i tried paying through their website using my credit card, the final confirmation page never opens, plus the site is quite slow. they are outsourcing the payment system, apparently, through speedpay. it would be nice if sprint borrowed a copy of bofa's book of good web services.
metadata i've decided to only focus on this page as my weblog. i've been maintaining a mirror site at xanga, but the lack of customization there and the constant prodding kind of puts me off. as and when i decide to have a so called premium service, it probably will be with blogger, or my own domain. as soon as i land a job i guess i'll get my own domain and use movable type, hopefully that happens soon.
the post war question from the dailykos, fast becoming my favorite weblog for war news and commentary: Iraq is a place where outcomes matter. In 1920, two years after WW I, a nationwide rebellion erupted, and when asked, they're still mad at the British for invading and staying. In 1991, the minute Saddam looked on the ropes, the knives came out. Now, we've created a black hole of a power vacuum. There is no one close to running the country. The Army is gone, the Baathists dying by the bucketload, the various factions are waiting to claim their stake. the entire article is an excellent analysis of what the post war situation could be like and what problems the american administrative efforts could face. the war does not get over with the occupation of baghdad or the killing of saddam hussein. there exist forces in the long oppressed country, simmering just underneath the scarred surface of iraq, that are ready to explode in a confusion of loyalties, demands and expectations as soon as saddam hussein is out of the way. dictatorships function by silencing all dissent and ruling with an iron fist, with the removal of that fist, the pin is being pulled from the grenade, so to speak. a fearsome picture of what could soon be taking place in iraq is the current afghan situation. afghanistan has its warlords, iraq has the kurds, the shias and the sunnis, looks like a melee is on its way.
quote via today's awad, To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919).
double standards it is amazing how blatant the double standards are in the west these days. when salman rushdie writes a satanic verses and the muslim world protests it is an attack on his freedom of expression, he get feted with all sorts of awards with scant regard for the deep religious sentiments for almost one sixth of the world's population. now, when al jazeera reports on the war they get banned from nyse and nasdaq and get labeled as biased, the geneva convention is touted and their website gets a dos attack. why does the us and britain get to decide what is right, what is wrong and how the world should conduct itself. by imposing it's own ideas of freedom on the world, the west is not being true to the very essence of that concept. this article on the al jazeera english website is quite a good read.
learning curve one problem with blogging is when i'm trying to do something, and have a thought, i either have to open notepad and write it down or log in and post it. i'm trying to learn visual c++ now and was going through a tutorial when a thought recurred. we are limited in our learning always by the what we already know. before you stand up and start shouting that a new born babe does not know anything but still ends up into you and me, let me finish, read this through okay? hmm, so as i was saying, the first step to learning, assimiliating information and knowledge in general, is communication. the process starts as soon as you are born, agreed, a child is without knowledge per se, that's the reason it's learning proceeds gradually, from monosyllables to small sentences and then, eventually to, rants. when i first started learning object oriented programming with c++ (both were almost synonymous for me at that time), words like object, class, method etc were only freshly introduced so the meaning i took back from a sentence was unclear till i actually started writing my code and things started making sense. as in any kind of jargon, words have layers of meaning and nuances that you get as you keep working in the field. as you gain experience, the amount of time required to learn newer things in the same field becomes that much easier. if a C programmer decides to start learning visual c++ today, not having any idea of what object oriented programming is, he will have a much more difficult time absorbing the concepts than a c++ programmer like myself. the learning curve from c to java is much more steep than it is from c++ to java. perhaps this is the reason it is so much more difficult to start in a fairly complex technical field much later in life, a longer time to understand new concepts leads to frustration and a gradual giving up on the effort. i could never quite understand the real reason for xml, not until had i actually started using tags for organizing data for personal use did i really appreciate the conceptual motivation behind that standard. once i knew where the potential to use xml lay, i breezed through the tutorial on w3schools. that brings up another point, often, it is easier and quicker to gain a new skill or learn an arcane technology merely by the fact that something we are already pursuing necessiates that technology's use. i prefer web pages to be simple html but i've lately found great use for css in making my webpages look better and to give an overall uniformity to my webpages. with a fairly large number of pages on my geocities website and the poetry section needing to be customized, i used ideas from the bulletin board i'd installed in my netfirms account, and figured out ways to give the page a better look. hmm, that's it.
disturbing a rather disturbing set of poll results in today's los angeles times. the report that almost half the people interviewed think action against syria and iran would be justified had me wide awake in a second, peering as i was through squinting eyes from under droopy eyelids, early this morning. i'd think people would be smarter than that, or is this belligerent, imperialistic outlook taking deeper root in the american psyche? i hope not. they might feel it perfectly justifiable soon enough to go against pakistan, india, and god knows what other country, all in the name of protecting america against terror. are we headed toward another world war? shudder.
quote from today's awad, Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself. -Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)
be afraid i'm a muslim, i have two mohammeds in my name, how wise am i posting all the anti-war material i have? paranoia would dictate i be more careful when i criticize the american government, common sense would say, gimme a break, after all this is the united states of america!, here u say what u like. i don't know what to trust nowadays though, my paranoia or my common sense. it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong - voltaire
imperialism i've been spending a disproportionate amount of my time surfing, culling info from a all sorts of news sources, including a lot of weblogs. my friends think i'm unnecessarily wasting my time, i think i'm spending it in the best possible way. to repeat a cliche, these are very difficult times and as a muslim i feel a responsibilty to educate myself as much as possible about this war. i believe in the concept of freedom and democracy as defined and practiced in the west, but the events that are going on make it harder every day to see the actions of america, britain and the "coalition of the willing" to be purely for the good of humankind. peter arnett, formerly of the cnn and more recently reporting for the nbc was fired for granting an interview to iraqi television and offering them "comfort and support". this cnn article talks about arnett's alleged act of treason. from al jazeera's banning, to this latest incident, there is no denying the immense fear the media and corporate america has of being branded unpatriotic. image, after all, is everything here, you slip once and you are dead with. fox new, rather shamelessly, and in it's usual brash style, has started using the arnett incident in its promotions. arnett has now been hired by a british tabloid, the daily mirror, a paper of low, if any, repute. admitted, arnett may have allowed himself to be used by the iraqi propaganda machine, but the reaction to the episode illustrates how sensitive the americans are to any influential journalist suggesting the war is not going the way it was planned. several articles quesition how many american lives must be sacrificed to spare iraqi civilian casualties. the conclusion of course is that american lives are much more precious than those of iraqis, iraqi civilians are merely 'collateral damage', american lives lost are the only ones that matter. how can right thinking people accept these arguments? as has been pointed by senior commentators, this war was stared on the following broad assumptions, i) the iraqis all hate saddam hussein, they will come out in the streets and welcome the americans as 'liberators' and not 'conquerors' ii) the iraqi soldiers will refuse to fight iii) the war will get over in a very short while, some predicted a 'cakewalk' as it turns out, these assumptions have proved, by and large, to be very erroneous and represent a poor understanding of the political situation in iraq. the economy bounced up in the first few days of the war when some iraqi regiments surrendered en masse. now, with increasing resistance and 'asymmetric warfare', the economy and the war plan are both facing a badgering. recently, the president, in response to a reporter's question about how long the war was supposed to last, replied rather testily, 'as long as necessary'. in face of overwhelming doubt and a fair number of setbacks the administration continues to profess that the war is going according to plans, everything is rosy and very soon there will be happiness and democracy in iraq. i really have no doubt who's emerging victorious from this conflict, my concern lies with it's long term effects, the continuing hatred for americans in the arab world and the horrifying prospects that entails. the short termed thinking that has brought the war upon us will have long and terrible consequences, not only for my generation but for the one that follows ours. the idea of imperialism and world dominance ended with the second world war and if the current american administration believes it can win the world with force and death, it is very sadly mistaken.
free lunch I'm planning to fly home as soon as i graduate and come back just before my opt starts. it will be twenty two long months if i get home on the eighteenth of may, since i've seen amma, bawa, addu, avi, the rest of my family and friends. this post is not about that though, it is about my increasing frustration at getting the tickets. i was about to get northwest for a thousand fifty which was fairly reasonable, and the cheapest deal available at that time. then this very good friend of mine told me he could get me tickets with malaysian for an unbelievable eight fifty. i dropped my northwest plans and decided to go fer malaysian. the reason this deal was sooo sweet fer me, besides the financial one of course, is that malaysian serves halal food, which meant i could gorge on non veg, on most other airlines i'd have to starve or request for the vegetarian cuisine, which is either non existent or entirely unpalatable (vegetarians of the world, i hear ya). newayz, i keep waiting for my tickets but there is a long chain of command here and it's almost been three weeks now. between reminders, communication gaps and the unavoidable weekend delays, i finally came to know today that the tickets will cost around eleven fifty (WHOA!) well, i'm absolutely frustrated right now, there are rumors of tickets for a thousand bucks, not malaysian though, chuck it, i'll go for the cheapest deal, can always cook and carry my lunch+dinner right?
collateral damage news articles like this one are suspiciously absent from the cnn front page and even that of fox news for that matter. the bbc has been dubbed as baghdad broadcasting corp. by some critics who view, what in my opinion is a fairly balanced coverage, as too 'anti-war'. with the way al-jazeera has been treated and the unbelievably administration friendly american press, it isn't difficult to see that cnn and other television media in the us has traded in it's journalistic integrity for network entertainment, live action, straight to your idiot box. speaking of idiot, it isn't the box that's idiot, it's us, who're being made fools with this wool over the eyes coverage.
iraqi poetry came across these two great poems by contemporary iraqi poets. the first one is called the rain song, the second one's old age. both worth a read.
wish question: if someone told you you could have an unlimited quantity of something of your choice, excluding money, and with the stipulation that you cannot use the gift to obtain money, what would you ask for? i'm guessing most people, guys atleast, will ask for cars/watches/bikes and the like, have no idea what women will ask for though. leave ur desires in the comments section :-D |
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