Did you know that more than 18% of South Africa population is HIV positive? And if we take Lesotho, Swaziland & Namibia, the HIV penetration is more than 20% in total. That’s like one in every five individuals. Shocking, isn’t it?

1st Dec is World AIDS Day.It is an international day to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS around the world.

There are more than 33 million people living with HIV around the world today. And nearly 2 million people died of HIV related illnesses last year.

What can we do?

1. Find out about HIV and AIDS. Discuss with family, friends and colleagues. Make sure what we know is reality and not just myths.

2. Know your HIV status. Get yourself checked if you have any doubts or were exposed to risk.

3. Discuss the use of condoms with your sexual partners to avoid transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

4. If someone tells you that they are HIV positive, respect that and don’t tell others without their permission. The virus does not spread by physical contact like shaking hands, hugs or kisses.

5. Wear a red ribbon as a symbol of support, and to raise awareness.

Lets unite in our fight against HIV and AIDS.

Source:
http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/GlobalReport/2008/2008_Global_report.asp

The recent re-shuffling of provincial chiefs of China has sparked much speculation about the future of China Communist Party. Of the new provincial leaders, some are expected to become the sixth generation leaders of CCP, two of the hot favorites are Ms Sun and Mr. Hu.

Ms Sun is the first woman in more than two decades that has managed to ascend herself to such a top post. The other, Mr. Hu, often gives people the misconception that he is related to the current president of China, Hu Jin Tao. Even though they are not related by blood, both new chiefs are protégés of the current supreme leader.

To some, the re-shuffling is just another ordinary allocation of the top jobs. It doesn’t mean anything else other than the usual lack of democracy, human rights, corruption and so forth. At the extreme, voices that criticize China’s communist political system will even be louder since these leaders are not democratically elected.

Increasingly, I am appreciating such political system. You might say, “Yes, just another totalitarian rule”. However, this is not totally true. China is in fact a combination of democracy and socialism (I think I’ll write about this another time).

Anyway, the system that rules China now has prevented much pandemonium in the society (other than the ethnic tensions). For decades, transitions of power have been smooth. There were little struggles of power. Comparatively, nations such as U.S. and India need to spend lots of money on campaigning and fighting for support from the electorate, a wasteful use of resources.

You may argue that the cost of having a communist system is much higher than that of democracies due to corruption. Over the years, however, we have seen attempts by the central government to tackle corruption (many get hanged, are westerners crying “no human rights” again?). Furthermore, leaders are becoming more educated, which allow new leaders to become increasingly aware of western ideas such as democracy. Among the new provincial chiefs, Mr. Hu graduated from Beijing University while another one has a Phd!

Despite the westerners’ cries of the lack of human rights, China can be boasted to be one of the more stabilizing countries, with political situation improving.

Readers of Shakespeare can compare Buddhadeb to the tragic heroes depicted in the literature. What a tragedy this has become. A man who two weeks back began his tenth year as the chief minister of West Bengal suddenly finds himself consigned to redundancy. The man who could have become the Deng Xiaoping of Indian Left, who could transform communism into a new mantra of progress and positive thinking finds himself ditched by his own party.

In 2006 the Left coalition had thundered to power with a two-thirds majority, riding on the urban and middle-class vote who saw the vision of a resurgent Bengal. Unfortunately the gigantic mandate has become a distant memory. The current memory is dominated by the almost shocking triumph of the Trinamool-Congress combine in the general elections post the Nandigram-Singur debacle and more recently the maoist siege of the rural areas.

This is perhaps not surprising to many, as Buddha has become a victim of the same Frankenstein the party had created in its 32 year rule. In its three decade rule it has created a society where institutions are brazenly politicized, where violence has been legitimized, and the bengali ethos has been corrupted to such a level that he has become a constantly sneering contemptuous and narrow visioned individual(with notable exceptions). The leftists disdained merit and instead of generating talent, it encouraged envy of talent. This resulted in bengalis thronging to mumbai, bangalore, delhi, etc where his talent and intelligence was not looked as being against left ideology.

With all his advantages, “Brand Buddha” sadly failed to build the political support needed for reform, relying completely on the comrades and cadres (who have by now become used to imposing their writ by force) who had become jealous of his popularity and cult. The failure of the left leaders to rally behind him and unite the party to the cause of reform led to factionalism within the left, not used to dealing with personal charisma. His own colleagues in the government destroyed the bridges he was trying to build between the party and people. The systematic destruction of Bengals intellectual capital, the culture of negativism, the development unfriendly government machinery shredded the new industrial policy and the radical changes it visioned. More sad was that, Buddha himself did not stand up and lacked the political skill to sell his policies to his own comrades. Only if he had delivered Singur, which was promised as the harbinger of a resurgent state and showed the same zeal and enthusiasm as he showed when he got Sector V at Salt Lake going, things would not have come to such a pass.

The expected regime change in 2011 will only go as so far in replacing one set of comrades with another set of party faithfuls. Bengal is being streaked with violence and blood once again as one set of violent party workers try to replace another set of violent party workers. Didi might replace dada at the red citadel and colour it white (or green) but it will take more than a change in political leadership to awaken Bengalis from the slumber it has got into and turn around the process of decay.

To Buddhas credit, he started the process and tried, now it will be upto his successor to give the final push. Will it be the deep ravine or the paradise on the other side of the steep mountain?

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

POLLY TICKS

Technology is good but we don’t understand it. We need a philosophy
of tech, taking into account its psycho-socio-political implications.
Tech made us human, in that it required an opposable thumb for
manipulation, also freeing our forelimbs for erect walking. But I think
its effect was deeper than this. Tech required us to concentrate on
the task in hand, freeing us from instinctual drives.

This required a repository for
thoughts not of relevance.

Hence, could tech have caused the split between conscious and
unconscious mind? If so, then a specifically shortsighted conscious
would have been the result, with the possibility that the more
information we have, the smaller and more individualistic our
conscious becomes. History bears out this possibility, with moves
against spirituality and community as tech information increased. If
this process continues, the time could come when tech shrinks our
mind so much that we are no longer human. We can see this in moral
behaviour. We seem to be far more benevolent to each other
nowadays, but could this only be because tech provides services and
order which cancel out our need to survive? It could be that we have
simply sidelined morality instead of being moral. Modern info-tech
holds problems. Information and surveillance has now come to the
point that the private is disappearing. As this trend continues, we are
increasingly monitored, and this is allowing authority unprecedented
control over us. Tech is taking away our freedoms. It is also taking
away our ability to think. Computer tech is rigid, with tasks now
following strict patterns taking away our ability to use our initiative.
This is transferring to society, where rules are becoming increasingly
fundamental. We are becoming cogs in a social machine. Forget The
Terminator. The machine world is already here, and it’s subtle! All
these problems can be overcome if we realize that they exist. Do so
and tech can be what it should be. Our servant, and not our
master.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: So the police
have passed 4 cases of possible
law-breaking MPs involved in the expenses
scandal to the Crown Prosecution Service. The rest
may not be suspected of breaking the law, but they did break
the spirit of decency and trust. Once upon a time certain institutions
had a culture of decency, which people offended at their peril. Once
trust goes, those institutions are tarnished for decades.

BRIT NEWS: The long awaited Iraq War Inquiry has begun. We’re told
its range will go far and wide. I’m always suspicious of such affairs,
as they cannot be independent as they are always headed by
an establishment figure, with certain endemic biases built
into the system. But we will see how ‘open’ this
inquiry becomes when Tony Blair stands
before it, most likely in January. But
sadly the very idea that this will
bring confidence back to
govt is laughable.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – Friday Flash 55
Three Word Wednesday

THE LIGHTHOUSE

Banish disaster from the rocks,
Shine a beam, mental blocks
Conscience alert, fend off the crash,
Mind is safe with neuron flash;
The lighthouse there, within the mind,
Makes those dark thoughts hard to find,
Plain sailing through the ocean of life,
No wrecks here – avoiding strife

LITTLE MAN BIG

Fiction: I guess some people crawl through life happy. Ambition is
nowhere to be seen and the daily grind becomes somehow comforting,
adding security, belonging, meaning. My wife was like that, but I was
not. So often I’d dream of breaking out of the grind, making it big. But
always she’d laugh, remind me I’m just a little man – a little cog in a
big machine – and I should be happy with my lot. The world, she
advised, will never hear of me. And of course, when my promotion
came, she had plenty to say – taking too much on; trying to fill shoes
too big for my feet. Well, I did become big – eventually – and
everyone knew my name. Wife killers become big like that.

POMMY GRANITE

Not fruit but a Brit as hard as stone,
A Pom, as in Oz we’re known,
Masters of cricket and rugby, too,
Excellent sports, I’m telling you;
Ideas we have like seeds in a fruit,
From democracy to gravity we recruit;
But named after juices all the time?
Please don’t get me onto lime

FLASH 55 – VENETIAN OUTCOME

Fiction: It was an unreasonable demand. These merchants make lambs
of lions with their deals. But this lamb will not be silenced. This is one
merchant who has ripped me off once too often, and I was
determined to get justice. So I got my pound of flesh. It went down
well with a nice claret.

Call back Wed for
3 Word Wednesday

© Anthony North, December 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

The Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources was not happy when Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim was quoted as saying, “We knew the diversion canal was not big enough to take this.” Instead of attempting to explain the context of his astonishing statement, they had objections piped directly to the Ministry of Communications and the Arts (MICA), and resulted in a blogger’s column being taken down. Thanks to the internet, the “incriminating” post can still be read here.

But why did the Minister not take issue with the Straits Times, which quote him uttering more gibberish like, “It is not possible… to plan for every event.  Thursday’s weather… occurs once in 50 years. If we design for the largest rainfall or highest tide, then we are going to have huge canals in Singapore.”

Obviously,Yaacob Ibrahim is not well versed with environmental engineering, where it’s routine to plan for 100 year storms. Mega projects, like the $226 million Marina Barage, were undertaken to specifically address contingencies like the Nov 19 flooding of Bukit Timah. The Barrage was part and parcel of the building of new canals and drains, including the Marina Reservoir, an integrated $2 billion system designed to alleviate flooding in the city. When it rains heavily during low-tide, the Barrage’s nine numbers of 26.8-metre-long hydraulically operated steel crest gates are supposed to be lowered to release excess water from the reservoir into the sea. If heavy rain falls during high-tide, the crest gates remain closed and seven massive drainage pumps are activated, which can pump up to 6.3 billion gallons of stormwater out to sea.  Yap Kheng Guan, Director, 3P Network, PUB, had boasted in Aug 2007: “So look at this system – the gates and the pumps – as (a) means in which you can manage this water level. The water level will not become so high that it will threaten some of the low-lying areas in Singapore”. Water agency PUB was so confident, they expected to activate only two of the pumps for an average of 4 to 5 times a year during high tide or monsoon seasons – plenty of spare capacity to handle freak storms. That property was destroyed and commuters inconvenienced inspite of the years of planning and large sums of taxpayer’s money washed away simply means somebody screwed up. Apparently the PUB Water engineers thought only of low lying areas such as Chinatown, Jalan Besar and Geylang, and forgot about Bukit Timah. In the aftermath, PUB announced that it will widen the Bukit Timah diversion canal, from its 11 metres on average to 26 metres, not the huge canal the Minister had envisaged.

But Yaacob Ibrahim need not worry or fret. The system in place is such the Minister is never held accountable for any SNAFU (Situation Normal- All F#*Ked Up). Take comfort from the Home Affairs Minister, if he can survive the Whitley Detention Centre debacle why can’t you?  In the worse scenario, Santa may not bring you the presents you wished for.

To a starving person, God will appear in the form of bread alone.

Poverty is but the worst form of violence.

“As a jungli, as an adibasi I am not expected to understand the legal intricacies of the resolution. But my common sense tells me that every one of us should march on that road to freedom and fight together. Sir, if there is any group of Indian people that has been shabbily treated it is my people. They have been disgracefully treated, neglected for the last 6000 years. The history of the Indus Valley civilization, a child of which I am, shows quite clearly that it is the newcomers – most of you are intruders as far as I am concerned – it is the newcomers who have driven away my people from the Indus Valley to the jungle fastnesses. This Resolution is not going to teach Adibasis democracy. You cannot teach democracy to the tribal people; you have to learn democratic ways from them. They are the most democratic people on earth… The whole history of my people is one of continuous exploitation and dispossession by the non-aboriginals of India punctuated by rebellions and disorder, and yet I take Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru at his word. I take you all at your word that now we are going to start a new chapter, a new chapter of Independent India where there is equality of opportunity, where no one would be neglected. There is no question of caste in my society. We are all equal. Have we not been casually treated by the Cabinet Mission, more than 30 million people completely ignored?… If history had to teach me’ anything at all, I should distrust this Resolution, but I do not. Now we are on a new road. Now we have simply got to learn to trust each other. And I ask friends who are not present with us today that they should come in, they should trust us and we, in turn must learn to trust them. We must create a new atmosphere of confidence among ourselves”.

- Constituent Assembly, 19th December 1946.

“Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity… That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we may fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over”.

- Constituent Assembly, 14th August 1947, Midnight.

“Although I have every respect and praise for this Constitution, yet there is one thing which I am most afraid of, and it is that this Constitution is tendentious to create a class – a class that democracy has created everywhere – of professional politicians.’ All democracies are run by professional politicians’ and I am afraid that is the main cause of their failures, because such people begin to live on democracies. It becomes with them a profession, the Statecraft’, becomes their only source of living. That is the bane of democracy and I want to make the future generations aware of this. It creates professional politicians’ – those whose earning depend on politics, with the result that they cut themselves adrift from all creative professions. If this democracy is also to be run by such persons who will have nothing else to fall back upon, and who live on Ministries or on the memberships of the Parliament, then this democracy is doomed, I am sure… But the picture from the villagers’ point of view is dull and dead. I cannot give argument to convince the villager that from 26th January 1950 his lot will be better. Nor is there anything tangible through which he can better understand this Constitution; because we give the villager nothing but the vote, which we will take from him after two years. That is the only thing we give him. So, I submit that it is only when those who till the soil are enabled to run this Constitution that they would appreciate it to be their charter of rights and freedom. Otherwise the Constitution is dull. There must be a leader. I hope our Indian earth is not so sterile that it will not give birth to a leader who will whisper life into this mould of the Constitution so that it could speak… Notwithstanding anything contained in this Constitution, no citizen of India shall draw for his personal use either from the public exchequer or from private enterprise a pay, profit or allowance which exceeds the earnings of an average wage earner”(this last statement he called the Mahamantra).

- Constituent Assembly, 25th November, 1949.

“We must begin by acknowledging the fact that there is complete absence of two things in Indian Society. One of these is equality. On the social plane, we have in India a society based on the principle of graded inequality, on the economic plane we have a society in which there are some who have immense wealth as against many who live in abject poverty. On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril. We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy which this Assembly has so laboriously built up”.

- Constituent Assembly, 25th November, 1949.

First of the quote owes its existence to a spirited & gifted speaker Jaipal Singh – himself an adibasi, a Munda from Chotanagpur. He expresses his fear that Adibasis are unlikely to be treated fairly in the new nation whatever the protestations to the contrary of others, when speaking on the ‘Objectives Resolutions’ moved in the Constituent Assembly(CA). Yet he chooses to repose his faith in the words of Nehru. Stirring words of the next quote need no introduction. But they do reinforce 63 years later the sense of betrayal of reluctant confidence reposed by Jaipal in the man who uttered them. Mahavir Tyagi, a great Gandhi follower, minces no words in telling that self-serving politicians are likely to hold the constitution a hostage & make a mockery of all pious ideals. Most will agree that his stunning indictment rings true today though his prescription at the end must have met with strong disapproval when it was uttered. Many would be though wistful today as to why wasn’t his ‘Mahamantra’ included in the Constitution. The man who is described as the architect of Indian constitution, Dr. Ambedkar, speaks of his awareness of the infirmities of Indian democracy. Democracy to thrive & succeed requires the triad of Social, Economic & Political equality; just fulfilling the last will ultimately consign whole arrangement to the dustbin of history.

Constituent assembly (CA) debates, the breadth & depth of which I became aware of after reading ‘India after Gandhi’ by Ramchandra Guha, are rhetorical, ideological, prejudiced, contentious, and are greatly influenced by the upheavals in India of the time from 9th December 1946 to 25th November 1949 during which it held its sessions. But they are also eloquent, rousing, analytic, profound, and surprisingly prescient. People who sacrificed their careers, creature comforts, health, wealth, even life in the cause of freedom struggle & the makers of our Constitution – at least some among them –, are holding a mirror to our face, a mirror to the face of India that is Bharat. What do we see there? Have we redeemed their pledge? Not wholly, or in full measure, but do we have a face to say at least substantially? It depends. It depends upon whom we ask. If we ask the adibasis for whom Jaipal Singh spoke, if we ask the villagers, daily wage earners for whom Mahavir Tyagi spoke, if we ask those who suffer grossest economic or social inequality for whom Ambedkar spoke, or if we ask those from whose eyes tears haven’t ceased to flow for whom Gandhi spoke; then what answer would we expect to hear?

Activists like Dr. Biyanak Sen, Himanshu Kumar, Sudha Bhardwaj, and others are telling us that answer. An answer we refuse to hear, to see, to know or to contemplate about. If Jaipal Singh, Mahavir Tyagi, Ambedkar, Gandhi were to come today, where will we find them – with Chidambaram, Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi in Delhi or with the adibasis in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, and elsewhere? The government of the current ruler of India, granddaughter in law of Nehru & the newest-comer to India, would in all probability brand them terrorists or extremists, jail them or would have them die in an encounter with security forces for resisting the onslaught of the state by standing tall in solidarity with the tribals & the poor.

O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

It has been heard that the gnome-like, perpetually-blue-turbaned Indian PM, who was visibly stunned and overwhelmed by the Hollywood gala arranged for him in DC ( and cannot stop waving his hand until told to stop), has given some serious advice to his sidekick, the former lawyer for the Enron’s in India, Mr. Chidambaram (PCC).

The Background

The PM knows that the Bankrupt Big Brothers (BBB) in this world (or the G7 if you would) can still call the shots by issuing bonds and printing money and would very much like India to be on her best behaviour, to be a wedge against that runaway superpower, China. Yes, China, buys the bonds so the US can have cash to buy the goods from China for cheap, so US workers have no jobs, an arrangement that is nearly as schizoid and perplexing as the cuckoo’s nest. China, they do not trust. India, they could, provided India nods its head quietly from time to time on screwing the Iranians, the Palestinians, occasionally the Russians (former “natural friends”) and even its former “third world” non-aligned partners from the past, and also simultaneously shimmy-ing up to the Israelis on intelligence, rocketry, underhanded arms deals and counter-insurgency operations.

India has enough foreign exchange reserves to bail out the IMF once in a while, by buying gold from it (never mind the fact that it also has to import food again, using the same reserves, after so many years) and being in the good books of the BBB. And of course also slyly nudge the price of gold up, slightly, as a side benefit.

The Indian ruling class are dependent, servile, but also manoeuvring and self-serving. They serve the BBB well, but they have their own plans. The Indian ruling class do have a trick or two up their sleeves. They have the washing-machine-cum-dryer crazy ugly-rich who have the purchasing power parity (PPP- or the Power to Piss on the Poor) to regenerate the collapsing neo-liberalized world commodity market and save the pickled posteriors of the G7. So, India’s behaviour is being watched and even controlled in order for India to play a significant role in offsetting the influence of China.

Words Of Caution

So, PM Manmohan Singh (MS) has some words of caution for his Home Minister PC Chidambaran (PCC) as he covertly initiates his continuously postponed Operations against the Naxalite-Maoists in the 15 or so provinces of India. MS would like PCC to understand that BBB is keen that India’s PPP is useful for the G7 to pull it out of the CCC (Continued Capitalist Crisis).

The advice is the following:

-Tone down the law and order rhetoric. Up the “root cause” rhetoric. That is, talk about “development” as your troops empty their magazines on the tribals. Talk White, don’t be a Negro! That is what southern plantation owners in pre-civil war US would tell their Uncle Toms.

-Talk about “neglect of tribals” when you burn down the villages and hamletize.

-Talk about “past abdication of responsibility of the government” when you herd women into stockades and occasionally let loose your repressed Indo Tibetan Border Force, the CRPF, The Cobra Force and other outfits onto them.

-Turn down the rhetoric, about “Operations” and quietly launch the assault on the Maoist enclaves in tri-junction areas of provinces and displace the tribes into adjoining provinces, one state at a time. In small spurts. Less publicity. Physically evacuate the forests and fence the people in, so you can sort out the good from the bad. The wheat from the chaff, the fish from the water. This will create animosity amongst the provinces and even amongst the tribes, as India’s first citizens become displaced persons (DPs) in their own country. This has already started happening in districts of Andhra adjoining Orissa and districts of Maharashtra and Chattisgarh.

-Talk less about military operations and talk more about Intelligence-bound operations. Huh? Military Intelligence! I thought that that oxymoron had been clichéd out, years ago! Well, PCC has revived it.

Intelligent Delay? Or Delayed Intelligence?

Once slated for start up in October, then pushed to November, then December and now Green Hunt will be started in January, by the time the elections in Jharkhand are settled. Why is there such a postponement? Apart from the significant and well-articulated opposition amongst India’s civic society leaders (there will be an important public meeting in New Delhi on December 4th, where Supreme court lawyers, judges, writers, economists, academics, civil rights activists will be speaking) there is one more reason. It has been reliably learned that some of the semi-retired, bravado-spewing cops who are training these counter-insurgency special forces in “jungle warfare”, as they refer to it, have clearly stated that Cobra, Python, Rattle, Boa or Viper, they are not ready in large enough numbers to swarm the Naxalites. When MS and PCC woke up to find out about the Maoists, two years ago, they had around 5,000 fighters. And perhaps 20,000 sympathizers. With all the Operations that have been carried out officially and unofficially, there are reports that they now have over 250,000 sympathizers. Much of what is said about the Maoists ‘military strength is exaggerated. It is not their numbers that matter, however. India already has the largest armed police force in the world. The BSF and CRP are the largest para-military force in the world. So why is such a large force being freshly inducted and trained to go to battle against the Maoists? Because they have now realized belatedly that the Maoists are the tribals (nearly twenty percent of India’s population), they are Indians like you and me, they are not foreigners, and they are not bearded jihadists or Asiatic looking Manipuris and “hostile” Nagas (as they used to be called). When it came to the North east and Kashmir, the insurgents were anybody who did not look like Punjabis, Dogras, Jats, Mahrattis, Biharis, Madrassis–the “regular Indians.” Now there is a problem! The entire triangular belly of India is composed of primarily aboriginal people. And they are turning away from Delhi’s rule over them. How will you sort out the good tribal from the bad tribal? Besides, for those who are more historically inclined and have looked up past upsurges like in Algeria, China, Vietnam and even Iraq, will know that mobile guerrillas walk and move to a different tune than your regular army. When an Army crosses a river, it is visible for miles around, no matter how highly trained they are. A small guerrilla band can effectively deal with them, effortlessly, by collapsing the roads and the bridges. So, when a regular Army moves, it must make a wide sweep with thousands of troops to strategically sanitize its route. This will not work in the forest of Gadhricholi, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand or Junglemahal. So you need troops who can move in forests, wade through rivers and more importantly have the knowledge about local dialects and language. Who will be the spotters for these troops? Of course there is the Salwa Judum solution, which has already proved itself to be a monumental failure, increasing the ranks of the Maoists considerably. So, PCC knows or has realized that you need an “intelligent” force to deal with the Naxalites. Because the Naxalites are an intelligent enemy and they are as fiercely patriotic as anybody else, if not more! PCC has an Intelligence problem! Or, perhaps a deficit?

Speaking at the 44th Raising Day celebrations of the Border Security Force , Chidambaram said, “I expect the BSF to hone the skills and tactics that were developed by it during the anti-militancy and counter-insurgency operations and adopt to the new conditions that they will face in the Naxal-affected areas.

“In these areas, operations have to be intelligence-based and (security forces) have to secure the support of the community and people living in those areas,” the Home minister said.

Now how do you do that? You come with drones overhead (this is now publicly acknowledged by the Indian government that the Maoists are in such densely forested areas, where no roads exist, that the government is sending drones to spot warm bodies by imaging) and how do you shake hands with the tribals when you are spotting them like fleeing deer from your vantage point in the clouds? It is no longer a secret that Bankrupt Big Brother is assisting in the technological aspects, after succesfully killing hundreds of “AfPak” civilians, while operating the drones. So, how do you win over the support of half-naked, starving people 5,000 feet below on the ground?

If the BSF, the EFR, the CRPF and also the Cobra (whose much ballyhooed nose got bloodied badly by the Maoists recently) knew how to do community work, put women in command, with respect, in all significant operations, help with digging canals, distributing rations, setting up health care centers, helping with harvests, quadrupling minimum wages and selling price of tendu leaves, protecting tribal lands and people from contractors and police, not occupying the smattering of schools that there are, then the Maoists would become redundant. Because that is what the Maoist have been doing for over twenty five years and have built up their “base” areas. That is what “intelligence” is all about.

I have news for PCC. The Maoist have been on the ground for over twenty five years. If you want to get “intelligence” going about the conditions on the ground, talk to them. Your super-cop trained counter-insurgency troopers and Special Police Officers will survive a few weeks or even a few months and then they will start killing each other, as happened in Vietnam, when BBB tried to organize various tribes against the NLF and eventually they all ended up taking the boat to California when the NLF stormed Saigon.

What MS is telling PCC, is make sure that you don’t give the country bad publicity, when you go on the rampage. Make sure you “win over” the people first! Make sure, you make it look good when your troops manhandle, murder, fake-encounter and maraud the tribal nation. Do it with “intelligence.” Because BBB is watching. And that is what PCC is mildly bringing up with the troops. Anti-Naxal Offensive To Be Intelligence-Based: Chidambaram. Huh? By Trevor Selvam 29 November, 2009, Countercurrents.org

For the uninitiated, the flowing of lines and seemingly idiosyncratic spattering of dots and dashes that characterize the Arabic script can appear an inscrutable enigma. That it is a cursive system with few clues as to exactly where discrete elements find their borders only adds to the puzzle. Without an overly onerous measure of study however, the mystery is breached and the tangled jungle of vines gives up its fruit, and its secrets, that the right to left procession of ascending peaks and receding troughs is regular, logical, and rigidly ruled. When one learns how to tease apart the sound sequences encoded in the script, meaning emerges, but the cracking of the code is bittersweet; what was once tantalizingly obscure devolves into the simply mundane–written words doing what they do–mere signs signifying something out there in the world, but what thing and which world? Even as the first great mystery fades, another comes into being: that ineffable quality in the arrangement and execution of these sound symbols that is more than the sum of its parts and the source of its captivating beauty.

Of all the so-called Islamic arts, al-khatt (or trace ) holds a privileged position. Combining function with perfect form, the hyper-stylized and fantastically ornate expressions retain a suppleness and a subtlety unmatched in other cultures. They are at once stirring and deeply soothing. Adapt scribes, whose masterworks can be seen adorning mosques and monuments, ancient coins and illuminated manuscripts, take the written words and weave them together not quite as poets do–into a tapestry of ideas and imagery that flood the mind–but rather into a blank canvas upon which one cannot anticipate what might emerge. The effect is a paradox. The work is in its nature one of arabesque (generally of highly spiritual matters), the form in which it is rendered allays the impulse to simply read–beginning at the beginning and ending at the end–one finds himself instead caught up in the unbounded net of loops and hooks, eyes wandering forward and backward over the field, infinitely fine in its detail, distinct, atomic; yet revealing the harmony and symmetry of the whole at a further remove. This tidal shifting of perspective transforms consciousness, offering a glimpse into what lies beneath and beyond our senses.

The transcendent beauty of the Arabic trace is well recognized and often heralded as the greatest and most well developed of the fine arts in Islamic civilization. That this should be so is often explained, particularly in the West, by early Islam’s censure of anthropomorphic figures and images–particularly in a religious context–as a safeguard against idol worship slipping in through the backdoor, as it were. In the absence of drawing and sculpture, stylized writing became the preferred mode of artistic and religious expression simply by default. This explanation, while credible, seems somewhat stingy. The fact is that the Arabs, to whom Islam was first revealed, have and have always had an especially profound reverence for the spoken and written word since well before the Islamic period. Pre-Islamic or Jahili poetry best represented in the epics of Al-Khansa, Asma bint Marwan, Antara ibn Chaddad, and Imru’l-Qays, to name but a few, was extremely well developed and widely celebrated as an art form.

The trace in Islam, assiduously cultivated over millennia, owes its genesis less to a prohibition against certain other art forms than to the serendipitous revelation of Al-Qur’an, unprecedented in form and unsurpassed in beauty, to a people who would recognize it as such. As the verbatim word of Allah, it existed outside time–eternal, unchanging, and uncreated–the transcribed emissions of a celestial wavelength, as it were. It was poetry of the most ineffable intensity and beauty to Arabs hearing it recited for the first time. It was believed to speak in an Arabic more majestic, more euphonious, more mesmeric that had been known in the time before Islam, al-Jahiliyya. To hear its surats (verses) intoned or, for the able few, to read them was to know language that was a gift from the supreme source: “Who has not begotten, nor is He begotten, and there is no one comparable to Him.” The entrancing music of the message compelled attention that removed all doubt as to belief and obligation. Hearing it recited under the hot sun in a town square or shivering by an oasis in the cold night, the camel driver, the souk merchant, and the slave were uplifted by Allah’s new commandments and commitments. Ancient tribal loyalties became loyalty to the greatest tribe of all–Islam and all those whose jihad (struggle in the path of Islam) proved true at the end of their time were wondrously rewarded.

So Allah will ward off from them the evil of that day, and cause them to meet with splendor and happiness.

And round about them will go youths, never altering in age; when

thou seest them thou wilt think them to be scattered pearls. And when

Thou lookest thither, thou seest blessings and a great kingdom.

Yet, as much as the eudaemonia experienced in the hearing and the reading of its scriptures, as much even as the confidence-building of their clarity and rigor, the unique balm of Muhammad’s message was that it lifted the Arabs out of an aged inferiority complex. Ishamel’s people had languished in their Jahiliyya of error and ignorance for centuries while other peoples of the Fertile Crescent boasted in writing of God’s special favor.

At last, after more than a millennium of axial revelations, Ishmael’s progeny had been chosen to recite the truths that superseded the gospels of Zarathustra, Abraham, Moses, Mani, and Jesus. The “UnCreated Creotor” chose the Arabs as custodians of mankind’s final covenant, for the “only true faith in God’s sight is Islam.” Surat Al-Hijr assures Believers that the “day will surely come when those who disbelieve will wish that they were Muslims.” The truth of that prophecy was about to be tested when ‘Uthman, the third Caliphe who reigned from 644 to 656, ascended the throne. It was under his guidance that the gathering and authentication of materials bearing the transmitted word of God, bits of which had already been assembled by Abu Bakr, the first Caliphe who ruled from 632 to 634, were pressed to a conclusion by a bevy of scribes who owed a considerable debt to A’isha, the Prophet’s child bride, Zayd ibn Thabit, the multilingual secretary, and ‘Uthman himself. The definitive Qur’an of 114 surats, or chapters, arranged more or less according to length, materialized in 650. The finished version was ‘Uthman’s singular legacy to his faith, but it also played a part in causing his violent death. He, too, like ‘Umar before him and Ali after him, was stabbed to death by a fanatic, who was none other than A’isha’s brother, Muhammad, son of Abu Bakr. By the time Ali ascended the caliphate in 656, many Muslims had already memorized the entire Mushaf.

Kufic script

There were also several Arabic scripts in circulation. The Iraqi city of Kufa, founded in 640, eventually became a religious and cultural center, attracting scholars from across the newly established empire. The Kufic script, which evolved from even earlier forms, is distinguished for its being non-cursive and geometrical. Its angular character made Kufic particularly suitable for use in adorning architecture, but was also the main script for transcribing Al-Qur’an for several centuries.

Thuluth script

However, newly developed cursive scripts (Thuluth comes to mind), more fluid and elegant in form, had unseated the Kufic style by the 11th century as the preferred mode of Qur’anic writing. The demands of the state likewise furthered the evolution of the Arabic cursive script via the massive number of documents generated by the Islamic empire’s vast bureaucracy.

Ibn Muqla applied this system to the six major cursive scripts, the 'Sitta' and a few others; thus codified, the scripts were prevented from degenerating into an indisciplined multiplicity of styles. Qadi Ahmad, 16th century Persian artist and critic, said of him: 'May it not be hidden from the minds of the clear-sighted that Ibn Muqla was the inventor of the six styles of writing (Sitta)... he took the circle for the basis of writing, introduced (this invention) instead of the Kufi, and taught it. The six styles are: Thuluth, Naskhi, Muhaqqaq, Rayhani, Riqa' and Tawqi

Probably the most important of all scribes, Abu Ali Muhammad Ibn Muqla (886-940), is credited with regularizing the geometries and rules of proportion for calligraphic writing, for which he invented and developed several new styles. Ibn Muqla’s script became the de facto official script for secular writing, variations of which remain the main Arabic script used today.

While the Arabic script and its subsequent developments were certainly meant to convey a message, the medium took on a form of its own. The more penmanship was used as ornamentation, the more abstract its form became, often rendering the resulting work almost completely opaque to many readers. This did not detract from the work’s aesthetic appeal and, indeed became a legitimate function of writing. Qur’anic verses and sayings of the prophet could be contorted into fantastic shapes–a bird; a tiger; a lamp; a five-pointed star; a man prostrate in prayer. The divinely inspired words taking the form of a material object enjoins the observer to consider that which underlies all reality–that which is eternal and infinitely intricate.

The complexity of the language would later manifest itself in the prose of writers such as al-Mutanabbi and Abu’l Ala al-Ma’arri in the East and Ibn al-Arabi and Ibn Rushd in the West, all of whom in their odes soared to rhapsodic heights and drove their huge audiences into rapture. They used prose as a razor-sharp Aristotelian instrument to convey their message. Their knowledge of the language was so immense and natural that they could be eloquent and clear; they did not need fillers, verbosity, or display for its own sake.

Maghrabi script

It is true that the ‘Abbassid dynasty (750–1258), followed by the Mamluks in Egypt, and later, the Fatimid, Mughal, and Ottoman Empires in the East as well as al-Andalus in the West were all great patrons of the arts, and schools of calligraphy flourished during their respective reigns, when on the other had the scribes in Timbuktu (Mali), who practiced Sufi Islam, not only refined the existing styles but also created numerous novel forms. This can be seen in the fine, lean, and most steely prose of the manuscripts that were written at the time. The development of this style as an art form was called Maghribi. It coincided with the proliferation of the holy book in The Maghreb in the 8th century, following the defeat of the Jewish Priestess al-Amira al-Kahina by Hassan ibn Noman in 690. Nowhere is this reality more obvious than in the inscriptions one finds in the 8th-century mosque in al-Kairawan (Tunisia) and in manuscripts hosted in the 12th-century Great Mosque of Qutubiyya in Marrakesh (Morocco). Painstakingly transcribed by hand in exacting detail, a single copy of Al-Qur’an could take several months to complete in the Maghribi style. The reverence for their labor’s object and the sense of divine purpose the scribes must have felt in transmitting the perfect words of God’s message to mankind, transformed their effort into a sacred act of devotion, and the Maghribi script that was its vehicle was exalted and rendered ever more beautifully. The ductus developed by Mahmud bin Umar (1463-1548), Grand Cadi, (Islamic leader) of Timbuktu and one of the greatest jurists in the history of the city, is a case in point. The curly writing of Ahmed Baba (1556-1627), the last Chancellor of Sankore University in Timbuktu, is another.

Timbuktu script

At the same time that copyists in al-Mashraq were refining a fleshy script, their counterparts in al-Maghreb were developing a bony style. As in the East, the round skinny script used in the Islamic West came in different sizes and forms. Perhaps on analogy with the three pairs of majuscule/minuscule scripts that make up the Six Pens, Maghribi script is often juxtaposed as a pair of opposite sizes: Andalusi, from al-Andalus, the Arabic name for the Iberian peninsula, is often used for a small, compact variant that is the counterpart of a larger and looser style known as Fasi (literally from Fez in Morocco). By the 16th century the two are said to have merged into one average-sized script. The style that one finds in manuscripts dating back to the Early Modern period assembled in the Ahmed Baba Center for Research and Documentation (CEDRAB) in Timbuktu is closer to the Fasi script than to its al-Andalusi half-brother. It is visually distinct thanks to the descending letters with large bowls and swooping curves. The shafts of the letters often swell at the top, and they, like most initial strokes, begin with a left serif. The strokes on fa’ and (kaf) are generally diagonal and contrast with the rounded bodies of these letters. Final alif ends with a spur or point at the bottom. Sad is a smooth lozenge, without any initial bump. In addition to the distinctive script, several features of pointing, vocalization, orthography, added in red ink, are characteristic of the style. And if the materials are dense, the difference in illumination is much less pronounced. Suffice it to add that the stroke appears uniform and this may well be due to the way the scribe cut his pen, which was carved out of a thinner cane that came originally from the swamps in Senegal, and which was much softer than its counterpart in Fez or Tunis.

Timbuktu

Here, the mythical past of Timbuktu, which was for centuries a desert crossroads, a major center for trading and for learning where thousands of manuscripts were written and stored, re-emerges to supply wonderful details of a forgotten golden age of Islamic history. The famously remote mud-walled city has been keeping a secret. In the past few years thousands of ancient manuscripts have been discovered there, mostly at the Sankore University-Mosque, a major center of intellectual life from the 12th to the 16th centuries. These rare documents are enormously important to the story of Africa. Some 15,000 have been located and filed under the aegis of the United Nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization (UNESCO). Perhaps 80,000 more lie untouched in chests, attics, and corners of the city. The precious manuscripts were the glory of the Niger river valley from the 12th to the 19th century but are now threatened by decay and illegal traffickers who take them, written in Arabic or sometimes Fulani by scholars from the old Malian empire and beyond, to Switzerland where they are enhanced before being sold to private collectors. Ali Ould Sid, head of the Timbuktu cultural mission, is alarmed: “The manuscripts found in homes need to be identified, protected, and restored. Otherwise, Timbuktu will be stripped of a written heritage whose importance can hardly be overestimated.” Doing away with the neglect and illegal export is something Ould Sidi is determined to uphold. For him (and for us) reclaiming a legacy, and a fabulous one at that, tells us by some other way of telling, that black Africa had and continues to have a literary history that goes beyond the mere notion of Africa as a continent of “song and dance.” It includes poetry by men and women, legal reflections, and scientific treatises. It also reveals that Africa has not only an oral but also literate culture–a corrective to the statement made by Hugh Trevor-Roper in 1963: “Perhaps in the future, there will be some African history to teach. But at present there is none. There is only the history of Europeans in Africa. The rest is darkness.” The claim brings to mind Derrida’s concept of over-representation: that history in Europe is dead not because it has nothing new to offer to the world but because it neglects the history of vast lands and peoples it once occupied.

Sankore mosque Timbuktu

Until recently, Timbuktu was seen as a holy, mysterious, and inaccessible place; a three-syllable-word, in the Western popular imagination at least, that leads to the end of the earth. Both the cliché and the “real thing” gave the city a reputation that fascinated explorers such as the Scotsman Mungo Park, France’s René Caillé, and the German Heinrich Barth. “Timbuktu is” wrote Charles de Foucault, “a waste land in the middle of another waste land, namely, the Sahara.” We may want to put it another way by saying that Timbuktu is a city of citadels and castles made of mud and sand in what is now northwestern Mali, on the edge of the Sahara desert, near the left bank of the Niger river. It began as a Tuareg encampment in the 11th century and came into its own in the 14th century as a trading post on the route between the old West Sudan and The Maghreb. Salt from Taoudenni in the north, gold from the mines of the Bouré region in the southwest, and slaves from Ghana passed through it. Later, Arab and Persian merchants were joined by travelers and Muslim philosophers acting as missionaries. The Sahel (the savannah area south of the Sahara) split between those peoples who accepted Islam as a way of life and those who did not. The Mossi people in what is now Burkina Faso resisted conversion whereas the Songhay empire, which succeeded the Malian empire at the end of the 14th century, embraced the new religion. The production of manuscripts in Timbuktu was linked with the spread of Sufi Islam, which was and is still widely practiced in the region. As a result, the three largest cities in the region, Timbuktu, Gao, and Djenné, became centers of an Islamo-Sudanese civilization the influences of which can still be felt today. In the 15th century the population of Timbuktu was an astonishing 100,000 (today it is 30,000), including 25,000 students, members of the Sankore University-Mosque. Ulema (scholars) lectured and scribes recorded their words on bark, camels’ shoulders, sheepskin, papyrus or paper from the east and later from Italy via Tunisia.

Over centuries they built up a priceless body of philosophical, legal, and religious writings. There is a vast variety of knowledge within these manuscripts, from the positions of the planets to the tonality of musical instruments, the prices of textiles to kola nuts. Caravans on the route from Agadez (now in Niger) to Tichit (now Mauritania) via Sokoto (now in northern Nigeria) carried quantities of information between enlightened merchants as well as blocks of salt, sacks of tobacco, and paper. For nearly 300 years trade and knowledge developed mutually. These manuscripts prove that it was never true that African civilizations relied solely on oral traditions, as scholars, including the late Hamadou Hampâte Bâ, suggested. Yet even as this cache is being discovered, it is in danger of disappearing, as sand and other grit are abrading many of the aging texts causing them to disintegrate. There is also a danger that these precious findings might fall into the hands of people who are more interested in making money than understanding the past of a proud people who left an incredible legacy. It is in this sense that the following set of questions is de rigueur: How can this rich vein of written wisdom be safely and sensibly tapped before time destroys it? Are we able to safeguard a key element of Africa’s historical consciousness? What should be our role as scholars to protect and restore an incredible portion of Islamic and/or Jewish history?

The Jewish community played a positive role in bringing not only gold from the Sudan to Christian Europe but also jealously guarded the culture of the time. They were well established in the ports of The Maghreb by the Middle Ages–the Cresques family, represented by Abraham Cresques (1325–1387), the father of cartography in Timbuktu, settled there in the 12th century–so trade routes linked them to the interior. The celebrated Arab trader Hasan ibn al-Wazzan, nicknamed Leon the African, wrote of a Jewish presence in Gao in the 15th century. Ismaël Diadé Haidara, is a descendant of the Kati dynasty of Ulema goes, into detail explaining the history of his family’s collection of rare manuscripts, kept in a restored house near the Jingereber mosque. “This trove began in 1468 when my ancestor, the Islamicized Visigoth Ali bin Ziyad al-Kuti, moved to West Africa from Toledo. After that it didn’t stop growing for several generations of Kati. We decided to get the texts out in 1999.” The Kati library is a rich lot of medieval knowledge, with writings ranging from manuscripts that deal with good governance, food, medicine, love, death, and the dangers of tobacco. Law, theology, medicine, grammar, music, and mathematics are all covered in works by scholars from Gao, Timbuktu, and Djenné. For now at least, the tomes are stored on shelves protected from sand and dust. Legal documents pertaining to the Jews and Christians of Timbuktu testify to the tolerance and intense commercial life of the city. Slaves sold and freed are recorded, together with the prices of salt, spices, gold, and feathers, on parchments attached to gold-illuminated letters from sovereigns from both sides of the Sahara.

Islamic calligraphy

The heritage that Timbuktu holds has a powerful lesson to teach us. Take the calligraphic works as an example and the case will be clear enough. The scale, proportion, and context guide our consciousness to a contemplative place, offering us in the process a chance to glimpse something profound. The sublime beauty of an illuminated manuscript, its pages adorned with scripts of various sizes and different colored inks, overlapping and interweaving into a composition that is white marble of the Taj Mahal or Cordova’s Great Mosque, so captivating and hypnotic are these that the individual words from which they are composed seem to fade in and out of resolution. These works entreat us to not merely see the finite word, the singular concrete object among a multitude of others, but to step back and take a wider view, to observe how the many merge into one, again a singularity, but one containing everything.Arabic Traces In Ridges of Sand By Mustapha Marrouchi, 30 November, 2009

Countercurrents.org

…Robert Burns, relegating William Wallace into second place.
At least according to the competition run by STV and The Daily Record Newspaper. You can read more about the other nominees and me having a wee moan about the fact that John Knox was not included among the final 35 names here.
Read the proclamation of the result at the Greatest Scot homepage.
Burns is worthy of such popular affection. STV’s biographical outline points to his enduring and wide-spread appeal.
They didn’t have a full rundown so I don’t know how close Billy Connolly got to winning.

Pangong Lake is shared by China and Indian Occupied Ladakh. This is the site of Indo-Chinese tensions

NEW DELHI: After Chinese objections to construction of a road in a forward area of south-eastern Ladakh, India today claimed that the incident could be a result of different perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). New Delhi is said to be ‘concerned’ about the fresh dispute in the area, where Chinese troops have reportedly been painting the rocks and writing messages in Mandarin.

Ladakh map Pangong Lake Karakorums. Pangong lake is the only body of water shared by Bharat and China. This lake in the Muslim majority area of Ladakh is a source of tension between China and India. The boundry was never demarcated between Delhi and Beijing and there exists a Cease Fire Line renamed "Actual Line of Control"

Pallam Raju, Minister of State for Defence, said the matter is being inquired. “We will inquire into the matter. The whole problem arises in the different perception of the actual border. That is why it has possibly been stopped,” he said.

Work on the road to link the Demchok village, located 300 kilometers south-east of Leh, beyond India’s last post in the Ladakh region was stopped in October after objections by China.

The road was being constructed under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to connect two remote villages, Demchok being the last settlement on the Indian side.

Ladakh (Indian Occupied Kashmir) map showing Pangong Lake: This is a site of recent tensions between "India" and China. Bharat has been unable to settle its border disputes with any of its neighbors. While Pakistan successfully resolved its border with China, Bharat has been unable to do with Nepal, Mayanmar, Pakistan, Lanka, Bangladesh and China. This is a continueing source of Sino-Indian relations

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has also drawn the Centre’s attention to the incident. The government is planning to take up the matter through diplomatic channels with Beijing, sources said.

Officials claim that the construction of road was well within the Indian territory. The 3.8 kilometer stretch was almost complete when Chinese army personnel intervened and stopped further construction.

The Chinese army had also raised the issue in a flag meeting with their Indian counterpart.

The People’s Liberation Army troops have adopted aggressive tactics and there have been several reports of violation of the LAC. The ministry of external affairs is likely to intervene and take up the matter with the Chinese foreign office through diplomatic channels.Express News ServiceFirst Published : 01 Dec 2009 05:04:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 01 Dec 2009 08:10:58 AM IST. China objects, India obliges

Kalau tv series ada season break mereka, boleh tak aku nak buat season break gak? :p memang kena maki ngan dura sebab terover perasan.

aku dah update pasal Sabah. cuma tinggal wedding lynda dan bachelorette dura. yang part dura tu, kena tunggu aku dapatkan gambar dari nana. yang lynda plak. sebab kalo bleh nak gambar lagi. :p

tapi mungkin akan berehat sebentar minggu ini kerana agak busy mengadap bakal ratu sehari yang akan melangsungkan majlisnya hujung minggu ni. cuak tak adura? hehehee..

trip aku ke JB plak tak banyak nak update sebab sibuk menemani mereka sibuk bershopping. tak pegi mana2 tempat nice untuk capture gambar menarik pon. =( maybe next time, i guess.

ade apepe lagi yang aku lupa nak update? tolong peringat ye.. makaseh..

malam ini sesi bermain badminton..

The aggressive US posture in Pakistan, and the drone bombing, and the 30,000 surge was the last hurrah of a dieing regime in Kabul. RAW agents and Karzai apparatus can do only so much damage. CIA operatives can do only so much.

The [Indo-US] defence partnership is no more than a framework, valid for 10 years, with a formal agreement still in the future. With New Delhi playing negotiating hardball, it will take years to negotiate the agreements that are needed for real partnership. The End User Monitoring agreement, a political minefield for any Indian government, has been finalised painstakingly. Another political hot potato, a Logistic Support Agreement (LSA), remains to be hammered out; so does a Communication and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA). A formal defence pact can materialise only upon this foundation.

Only after that, for all its political impetus, will the US-India relationship begin to give India what it most urgently needs from the US: high technology. So far, the message has not flowed down from the top floors to the functional levels of the US State Department, the Pentagon and the Department of Commerce, which issue the licences needed for exporting sensitive technologies.

This is especially so with the inwardly focused Obama administration, which does not view India from the balance of power perspective of the Bush-Rice regime. India remains a fellow-democracy, something greatly cherished in the American psyche; and a lucrative market, something that America loves even better. But New Delhi remains marginal to Washington’s immediate foreign policy challenges.  Ajay Shukla Business Standard

Indian policy makers have come to a rude awakening. The earth has shifted underneath them. We have been reporting the imminent demise of the Karzai farce for weeks and months. The inevitable is happening. After spending one Billion Dollars in Afghanistan the Indians have nothing to show for it except the blood of innocent people in hospitals in Peshawar and hoteliers in Islamabad.

The disappointment that tinged this conclusion stems from a tendency to measure the success of visits in terms of big-bang agreements. Phrases like “common ideals”, “shared values” and “vibrant linkages” that filled the Obama-Manmohan joint declaration are considered useful preambles; but observers want the real stuff as well. However, this time round, with a “Global strategic partnership”; a “New framework for the US-India defence relationship”; and the “US-India civil nuclear agreement” already delivered, there wasn’t much left to sign. Ajay Shukla Business Standard

India with dreams of super power status is the biggest loser in this peace deal. The 107 “Consulates” should be packing their bags. One cannot imagine any circumstance where the current level of Indian influence has any staying power in Afghanistan. The 10,000 Indian soldiers ostensibly there to protect their construction workers will have to go back where they came from. The construction work will be slowed down and wound up. The Indian presence follow the same residence that allowed Lord Curzon to pursue a policy of On to the Oxus, but had to retreat after the defeats at Maiwand etc. The Indian delegation had to pack up its bags and leave Kabul after the Soviets left Afghanistan. A similar fate awaits India.

For the bulk of the Indian strategic community, the unthinkable is happening – the prospect of an Afghan settlement involving the Taliban is increasing. From all accounts, the Taliban appear edging closer to the Afghan capital and tightening their control in the provinces ringing Kabul.

Indian policymakers, who have been bogged down in the labyrinthine passage of the Indo-US nuclear deal, need to take note that the ground is dramatically shifting. Regional security is set to transform. Several factors call for reckoning. First, there is cause to worry about Washington’s attention span in the period ahead to press ahead with the Afghan war.

…The Taliban today operate in virtually every Afghan province. They have the capacity to mount sustained offensives. It has created a parallel government structure. Pamela Constable, correspondent of The Washington Post and old hand on the South Asia beat, wrote recently: “In many districts a short drive from the capital, some of them considered safe even six months ago, residents and officials said the Taliban now control roads and villages, patrolling in trucks and recruiting new fighters.”

Tariq Ali didn’t mention Maulana Fazlur Rahman, but New Delhi knows how farcical it would be to remain in the grip of paroxysms of nervousness about the redoubtable Islamist leader. India’s apprehensions withered away once the Maulana, variously described as the “Father of the Taliban”, began visiting India. Equally, India needs to do some “out-of-the-box” thinking about the Taliban Indian Ambassador Bhadrakumar Asia Times

Pakistan will have to tread carefully. An overly aggressive policy in Afghanistan will rankle many of the powers to be. Slowly but surely, the Durand Line has to be erased, and the inevitable union between Afghanistan Pakistan will emerge.

President Zardari recently visited Tajikistan and agreed to build a rail and road network from Dushambe to Gwader. This surely did rankle feathers in Delhi. The Bharati defense establishment is in a tizzy. Unable to come up with a proper reply, they are going through the motions of a diplomatic response. Since Russia brokered the deal between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan, Delhi is unable to undo the alliance. Premier Singh could not go to Dushambe so the Delhi bureaucracy did the next best thing, they are sending President Pratibha Patil’s to visit to Tajikistan on September 2. Pakistan cannot remain impervious to the threat of spread of challenges from Afghanistan to neighboring countries. It has been very active indeed

Delhi is fishing on troubled waters seeking alliances with countries way beyond its shores. Foreign interference, regional rivalry, Bharati dreams of hegemony play active parts in Delhi’s designs. For Bharat the violent manifestations of separatism and extremism add to the potential for instability beyond the Amu Darya and the Kabul river– in Central Asia.

The visit of the Ms. Patil provides a rare backdrop to pin Bharati thoughts on Delhi’s approach to regional security issues in South and Central Asia. Bharat which was ascendant in its relations with the Central Asian Republics a decade ago and made some huge inroads into Tajikistan. It is now a bystander as it watches Tajikistan slip away to the various interests arrayed in front ot is. The region is still caught in the vortex of security problems and threats that may appear temporary of episodic but are real, formative and more complex than anyone could imagine. The West sees the biggest threat to regional stability originating from Afghanistan. However the regional view is different. Tajikistan sees a local insurgency and Uzbekistan is threatened by the IMU. The militancy is intermingled with the activities of radical extremists and drug traffickers.

Regional radicalism, local insurgencies, revolutionary zeal, are huge problems in Central Asia. Simultaneously a high level of strategic and geographical uncertainty has dogged the region for some time. Paradoxically this instability stems from big power rivalries exacerbated by the multiple invasions of Afghanistan and the ongoing war on terror. Oil remains the prize for all the energy starved nations surrounding Central Asia. The Black gold gives the region the focus that it doesn’t want. Its importance as a major source of oil and gas props it up as an alternative to the volatile Middle East and Caspian regions. Russia’s status as a regional power and a source of energy to Europe has made the regions security more complex.

The major powers of the world Russia, the US and China are competing to consolidate their hold on the region through complex matrix of relationships that simultaneously inculcate competition and promote cooperation at the same time. This concept of ChiUSA, ChiRussia, AmeriChin and AmerRussia makes the situation more complex. The strategic rivalry disguised as cooperation is worsening security in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan with a huge spillover in Pakistan. As local Tajik militants threaten Tajikistan’s dictators the house of cards in Central Asia seems ready to implode like the USSR slipped into chaos for a decade. This strategic uncertainty has humongous implications for the world and the region.

Pakistan is not averse to being the promoter or participant in a competing efforts. In fact Pakistan was very active in Central Asia right after the imploding USSR had left a huge vacuum north of the Kabul River. Pakistan is affected by the ongoing struggle for spheres of influence between the pro-Russian and pro-American vectors or among contending programs for the region. The Russian energy plans compete with the US Greater Middle East plans. The rise of Red China andAmerica’s new banker mingles with the the EUs expansion. The rise of Muslim parties in Turkey have brought it into the game also. A hint of irredentism can be seen in the moves by Ankara. Turkey sees Pakistan as a strategic partner for increasing its influence in its former countries. The IMU and other groups in the region are pressing for the inevitable integration of the region. It would be best for all players to peacefully support a democratic Central Asia rather than set up dictatorships that are more aligned with the Western powers. The West and Russia can support a Pro-Western democratic Central Asian Union or it will have to deal with a Anti-Western totalitarian Caliphate.

The international players involved in the region are supporting the regions fragile stability but may face a backlash akin to the Iranian revolution. The current American policy focuses on drawing the Central Asian countries into its sphere of influence. It is looking at stabilizing Afghanistan, pacifying Pakistan and neutralizing Iran. As the US nears a peace deal in Afghanistan it surely rankles Indian feathers in Delhi. Any movement towards peace is seen with suspicion by the pundits of the Ganges.

Is the Bharati President’s visit to Tajikistan largely ceremonial? Some would like to think so. Many in Delhi would like to see Pratibha Devisingh Patil consolidate the two bases in Tajikistan and ensure that the deal with Pakistan does not jeopardize Bharati interests in Tajikistan and the region. Bharat is jittery about Pakistan simultaneously appearing on several templates in South Asia, Central Asia, and the Greater Middle East. The Bharati discussion on the decade old Afghan war was narrowly focused on an Anti-Pakistan agenda. It failed to see the hidden American agenda of the Afghan war–encroachment into Central Asia. Egged on by the Bush Administration in the post 911 era Bharat tried to become a regional player. That regional play painted a target on Delhi. Bharati assets in Central Asia are now seen as interference in the big power play between Russia and the US. Russia sees Delhi with suspicion because it has become too close to America. The US on the other hand sees Bharati moves as competition. America’s latent agenda is not hidden anymore. The core agenda of GWOT was and remains the pursuit of Plan of a New American Century (PNAC) and global domination . Many Neocons see it as the unfinished business of the Cold War. Many analysts will see 2008 as the year of Cold War 2.

The appointment of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Robin Raphel as a member of the Richard Holbrookes team is a ominous sign for Delhi and a good omen for Pakistan. On October 28th 1993, Robin Raphel stated that Washington did not recognize the Instrument of Accession to India as meaning that Kashmir is not forever more an integral part of India. She expressed the view that the whole of Kashmir is disputed territory, the future status of which must be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of Kashmir.

Her appointment is the clearest signal yet of the US rapprochement with the Taliban and gives us an inkling to the American Exit strategy which was publicly announced by President Brack Obama and is being openly discussed in the US Congress. The opinion polls surely show a trend whereby neither the the American public nor the US Congress will not tolerate a perpetual mimetic warfare in Afghanistan. Mr. Raphel enjoys privileged access to the Taliban leadership in Qandahar. This is deja vu repetition of the 90s. History repeats itself. The Taliban was seen as a solution by the CIA. Congressman Rohrabaker was instrumental in setting up the Taliban to bring security to Afghanistan. The plan had worked. However the Neocons in the Bush Administration wanted a war and show th world that America could occupy and create new realities in the region. Many contend that the 2nd nuclear bomb thrown on a distraught and surrendering Japan was lobbed on Nagasaki as a warning to Russia, not as an assault on Tokyo. Many see the attack on Afghanistan and the destruction of a Russian ally–Iraq as warning to a resurgent Russia and a rising China. The games with the Taliban have already begun. The surge was the first play in an Exit strategy. Mr. Raphel has openly and actively campaigned for the Talibans unique credentials as an indigenous force capable of stabilizing Afghanistan, which posed no real threat to world or American security.

It is obvious that America has wanted to strategically dominate Central Asian even before 911. Does NATO have an open-ended stay? Will NATO expand to include Pakistan within its fold? The writing is on the wall . The U.S. is unable to win the war in Afghanistan without Pakistan. It tried it for a decade. It did not work. The US used Bharat to counteract Pakistani moves and wanted to gobble up Afghanistan like Puerto Rico and Hawaii. It did not work. In a post American Spanish war, the US had annexed the Philippines and had to regurgitate the country and accept it as an independent state, after losing 20,000 soldiers. Now in a change of policy, the US wants to do the same in Afghanistan. It want to stabilize Afghanistan by pacifying Pakistani fears. Bharat has been asked to curtail the activities of its consulates. The US is also encouraging the NATO-Pakistan partnership. NATO ties with Pakistan which were on a medium-term basis seem to be going beyond the Afghan war. Bharati analysts wonder how a NATO with Pakistan and Turkey would manage the interests of Delhi.

China, Russia and the US all feel threatened by the radicals in AfPak. The only way to reduce the simmering temperatures in the Hindu Kush is to include the Pakistanis. This is a lesson learned by two great powers of our time. The rehabilitation of the Taliban in a setup in Kabul and its inclusion in mainstream Afghan politics is not only on the anvil, it is going to be one of the results on the “elections”. Gulbuddin Hikmatyar’s Hizb e Islami is a major player in the Afghan majlis. Mr. Karzai has promised is the inclusion of the moderate Taliban in the government. Bharat sees the inclusion of the Taliabn without its formal disarming, as a clear and present danger to its interests in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Bharat is trying to do the calculus and factor in what the ascendance of its nemesis in the region will entail for its security. Delhi is unable to learn a lesson from the fact that King Zahir Shah is dead. Bharatis unable to see the writing on the wall–”All roads to Afghanistan lead through Islamabad”.

As the U.S. political engagement of the Taliban gains traction and as a new government in Kabul tries to include the Talibs into its for, Washington will surely expect New Delhi to keep the Bharati profile in Kabul below the parapet. These contradictions present Bharat with huge challenges. For the first time in a decade Bharatis confronted India with a regional security paradigm with contradictory tendencies. Bharat has to keep the lines of communication open with Pakistan.

The Bharati president’s visit to Dushanbe takes place at a critical juncture when several tectonic plates are converging together will full force. The blind men in Delhi and those who travel with Ms. Patil cannot hear the inevitable earthquake. The deaf in Delhi cannot see the U.S. creating a new power equation in Kabul which includes the Taliban.

Admiral Mullen, Richard Holbrooke, Genral McChrystal, and all the half dozen envoys to AfPak seem to be discussing and end to the war in Afghanistan and serious engagement with the Taliban. After a brilliantly successful operation which culminated in the decapitation of the TTP, the British just ponied up an additional $800 million for the rehabilitation effort in Swat. The Foreign Secretary David Miliband underscored the reconciliation with the Talibs in his recent speech at the NATO headquarters.

Just brining the Talibs into Kabul will not solve everything. Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country and it is effected by its neighbors. The IMU and the Tajik rebels are also key stake holders in Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Can Washington count on Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to acquiesce to the process? It would be to American interests if a democratic dispensation is placed in Dushambe andTashkent. Pakistan is rooting for reconciliation with the Talibs. Sensing victory the Talibs are a bit reluctant. The ISI and the Pakistani government has openly offered to help the US in bringing the Talibs to the table if the US sequestered Bharati involvement in Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan is important to peace in Afghanistan as it lies just north of the Amu Darya (known as the Oxus during the reign of Lord Curzon) . Pakistan is critical for peace in the Pakhtun heartland. Iran in important in Herat. All of Afghanistan’s neighbors, including Iran have to buy in to the new dispensation. This includes Dushambe in northern Tashkent in Northwestern Afghanistan and Islamabad in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Bharat faces a complex regional security challenge. Pakistan has a huge advantage in the endgame in the Afghan war. It has correctly anticipated the the inevitable shift in the regional alignments. It clearly sees the picture as the U.S. presses ahead with its long term strategy in Central Asia. Mr. Zardari’s recent visit to Tajikistan was a clear indication of far sightedness. The visit also produced some tangible results. Hooking up Dushambe to the warm waters of the Arabian sea world surely put a smile on the ghost of Catherine the Great. She had told her progeny to extend Russian links to the ocean. Pakistan’s smart geopolitical positioning is now paying dividends. Islamabad is in the driver’s seat. It can take advantage of an intense US desire to leave Afghanistan with a face-saving ”victory”. Islamabad has checkmated Bharat which had seemed to control Afghanistan. Delhi overplayed its hand by sending in its army of mercenaries which caused havoc with normal life in Pakistan. Bharati grandstanding on Mumbai and its interference in Tibet and Xinjiang created a Chinese backlash which forced the US to ask Delhi to cool its jets.

Bharat’s plans to paint Pakistan into a corner seem to have backfired. Most countries supported Pakistani efforts in Swat and want it to continue the eradication of the evil doers. The Pakistan Army is taking its time. Pakistan’s burgeoning ties with the Turkey and NATO seem to be a virtual U.S. guarantee against any coercive diplomacy on Indias part. Islamabad’s an all-weather friendship with China keeps Bharat out of the loop. Mr. Zardari’s active regional diplomacy with Iran kept Bharat out of the energy grid. The Pakistani machinery’s partnership with the Central Asian States with active participation of Russia are a brilliant move which caught Delhi off-guard. Pakistan has a geographic advantage. It lies between, Russia, China and Afghanistan. It has become a key interlocutor for regional countries. Energy and the Talibs make it an indispensable player in the region. Iran, has learned its lessons from the 90s. By fighting Pakistan and supporting the Northern Alliance for a decade it locked itself out of Afghanistan. Tajikistan sits on a powerder keg. Uzbekistan faces huge issues with the IMU. All these factors make Pakistan indispensable to the region.

The frontline Central Asian states, Russia and Iran are under compulsion to seek out Pakistan as an important interlocutor in seeking a practical solution to the issues affecting their national security. Turkey, Iran and Pakistan have reignited the ECO as a regional mechanism to bring peace and stability to the region. All countries of the region including Russia and China have formed bilateral and regional formats for engaging Pakistan on all fronts. Pakistan remains an irreplaceable ally for the U.S. To achieve its goals in Central Asia the U.S. is obliged to strengthen Pakistani military capability. Pakistan continues to take a nuanced approach towards the various militant groups that threaten Indias security. Islamabad is careful in not confronting American interests directly. At the same time it is pushing its own agenda at its own pace. Delhi watches on the sidelines. The trip to Tajikistan by Ms. Patil will be just a show of pomp–full of sound and fury–signifying nothing.

President Zardari recently visited Tajikistan and agreed to build a rail and road network from Dushambe to Gwader. This surely did rankle feathers in Delhi. The Bharati defense establishment is in a tizzy. Unable to come up with a proper reply, they are going through the motions of a diplomatic reponse. Since Russia brokered the deal between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan, Delhi is unable to undo the alliance. Premier Singh could not go to Dushambe so the Delhi bureaucracy did the next best thing, they are sending President Pratibha Patil’s to visit to Tajikistan on September 2. Pakistan cannot remain impervious to the threat of spread of challenges from Afghanistan to neighboring countries. It has been very active indeed

Delhi is fishing on troubled waters seeking alliances with countries way beyond its shores. Foreign interference, regional rivalry, Bharati dreams of hegemony play active parts in Delhi’s designs. For Bharat the violent manifestations of separatism and extremism add to the potential for instability beyond the Amu Darya and the Kabul river– in Central Asia.

Once the US forces leave Afghanistan, Bharat will have to pack its bags quickly and make a hasty exit from the graveyard of empires. Like their ancestors, Abdali and Ghaznavi, the Taliban really hate Bharat. Nightmare scenario for India in Kabul: The Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

The inevitable is happening. After spending one Billion Dollars in Afghanistan the Indians have nothing to show for it except the blood of innocent people in hospitals in Peshawar and hoteliers in Islamabad.

India with dreams of super power status is the biggest loser in this peace deal. The 107 consulates should be packing their bags. One cannot imagine any circumstance where the current level of Indian influence has any staying power in Afghanistan. The 10,000 Indian soldiers ostensibly there to protect their construction workers will have to go back where they came from. The construction work will be slowed down and wound up. The Indian presence follow the same residence that allowed Lord Curzon to pursue a policy of On to the Oxus, but had to retreat after the defeats at Maiwand etc. The Indian delegation had to pack up its bags and leave Kabul after the Soviets left Afghanistan. A similar fate awaits India.

For the bulk of the Indian strategic community, the unthinkable is happening – the prospect of an Afghan settlement involving the Taliban is increasing. From all accounts, the Taliban appear edging closer to the Afghan capital and tightening their control in the provinces ringing Kabul.

Indian policymakers, who have been bogged down in the labyrinthine passage of the Indo-US nuclear deal, need to take note that the ground is dramatically shifting. Regional security is set to transform. Several factors call for reckoning. First, there is cause to worry about Washington’s attention span in the period ahead to press ahead with the Afghan war.

…The Taliban today operate in virtually every Afghan province. They have the capacity to mount sustained offensives. It has created a parallel government structure. Pamela Constable, correspondent of The Washington Post and old hand on the South Asia beat, wrote recently: “In many districts a short drive from the capital, some of them considered safe even six months ago, residents and officials said the Taliban now control roads and villages, patrolling in trucks and recruiting new fighters.”

Tariq Ali didn’t mention Maulana Fazlur Rahman, but New Delhi knows how farcical it would be to remain in the grip of paroxysms of nervousness about the redoubtable Islamist leader. India’s apprehensions withered away once the Maulana, variously described as the “Father of the Taliban”, began visiting India. Equally, India needs to do some “out-of-the-box” thinking about the Taliban Indian Ambassador Bhadrakumar Asia Times

Pakistan will have to tread carefully. An overly aggressive policy in Afghanistan will rankle many of the powers to be. Slowly but surely, the Durand Line has to be erased, and the inevitable union between Afghanistan Pakistan will emerge.

India a secret player in Afghanistan: Bases—Lashkargarh, Qushila Jadid,Khahak,Hassan Killies. We published the breaking news in July, when  Indian soldiers were ready to go to Kabul: Anti-ISI Campaign unleashed. We published the real reasons behind the bombing of the Kabul Embassy. Kabul bombing: Ruse to send Indian troops to Afghanistan? We analyzed the situation from a historical perspective. The Singh Doctrine Fails to achieve Akhand Bharat. This Rupee News story analyzes Lord Curzon’s “On to the Oxus” policy and its final retreat to “back to the Indus”. The India Doctrine considers Afghanistan as part of the Indian sphere of influence. Authors from Bangladesh barrister Munshi, and Dr. Isha Khan have recently written about the “India Doctrine” which discusses the Indian plans to recreate Akhand Bharat.

پاکستاان لیجر

Noticias de Rupia | Nouvelles de Roupie | Rupiennachrichten | новости рупии | 卢比新闻 | Roepienieuws | Rupi Nyheter | ルピーニュース | Notizie di Rupia | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی | DefensebriefsIntellibriefs Translate to: RSS feed: | RUPEE NEWS | October 9th, 2008 | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی | اخبار روپیہ |

Despite an overwhelming body of evidence, the media is not reporting the facts.Pakistan’s National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) submits proof of Indian RAW involvement in terror bombing in Pakistan. Blunt message to New Delhi to stop! The News of Marines is hidden.America’s Secret war in Pakistan-MSNBC uncovers Marines with long beards and without uniforms

Now because of the dire situation in Afghanistan, the number being proposed is much higher. UK Brig. Smith: “We’re not going to win this [Afghan] war”

Rupee News has already reported that the Indian analysts are predicting a cacodemon situation for India in Kabul. Nightmare scenario for India in Kabul: The Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

India intelligence: “‘the aim of RAW is to keep internal disturbances flaring up and the ISI preoccupied so that Pakistan can lend no worthwhile resistance to Indian designs in the region.”

• Anatomy of Indian Intelligence Services and Alliances
• RAW facts on South Asia- India fails to occupy countries.
• LTTE was created by India

The basic implication is that most of the NATO and ISAF forces will withdraw from Afghanistan. When the Soviets withdrew it took the Afghans a decade to purge Afghanistan of the remnants of a decade long Soviet Occupation. It may take the Afghans a bit longer. Mr. Karzai surely will either be hanging from the nearest tree or enjoying life on one of the islands that he has purchased for himself.

“Whenever the wind stops howling over the mountains of Tora Bora, a deep, rich chuckle can presumably be heard echoing down the valleys. If he is still alive, nobody will be enjoying the plight of America more than Osama bin Laden. The anarchic carnage in the American financial and political system brings in sight a humiliating withdrawal and defeat in Afghanistan and Iraq. It even raises the possibility of the final collapse of the evil empire which Osama forecast.” British columnist Neil Lyndon

Noticias de Rupia | Nouvelles de Roupie | Rupiennachrichten | новости рупии | 卢比新闻 | Roepienieuws | Rupi Nyheter | ルピーニュース | Notizie di Rupia | PAKISTAN LEDGER | پاکستاني کھاتا | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی | DefensebriefsIntellibriefs Translate to: RSS feed: | RUPEE NEWS | October 9th, 2008 | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی | اخبار روپیہ |

Another leading economic expert has stood down in a sweeping set of resignations following comments from former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

UCD professor, Morgan Kelly, credited with being the first to map out the extent of the over-inflation of Irish property prices, has said that following Bertie Ahern’s ringing condemnation of ‘cynics and knockers’ he had decided to resign his post at UCD and concentrate on growing bluebells. His comments echo those of David McWilliams, Gareth Fitzgerald, Kevin Myers and the entire board of of NESC — all of whom have resigned in the last twenty-four hours, reportedly to dig their gardens.

In an interview with VIP magazine Ahern lit the fuse that would finally shame the intelligentsia into silence, “I can’t understand people who are always bitching… I don’t know why they wouldn’t go out and dig the garden or grow bluebells or do something useful.” Commentators have pointed out that in a country where resignations on principle are rare, it is likely that only a figure with the moral authority of Mr Ahern could have effected this wholesale change in Irish public life with such astonishing speed.

In further developments, the Irish Times have announced that columnist Fintan O’Toole is to go extended gardening leave while TV3 have confirmed that ‘Tonight with Vincent Browne’ is to be axed. It is thought that the position of Michael O’Leary is now untenable after his recent attack on the government on the Marion Finucane radio show. A Ryanair spokesperson last night said that Mr O’Leary was considering his position and unavailable for comment.

Mr Ahern, who had previously expressed astonishment that those “sitting on the sidelines cribbing and moaning” didn’t commit suicide, was reported to be quietly pleased at the effects of his remarks saying, “It took me years to achieve this overnight success. I like doers – people who paint their house, bake, work, whatever, too much thinking only upsets the apple tart.”

The recent acquisition of Advanced Bionics by Sonnova Holdings (Phonak) of Switzerland indicates not only a healthy hearing instrument market, but also signals a new direction for Phonak into implantable hearing devices.

Announced earlier in November, Sonnova Holdings has agreed to purchase the assets of Advanced Bionics for $489 million USD. Advanced Bionics principal shareholder is Mr. Al Mann. Closing date for the transaction is scheduled for sometime in February. This acquisition signals the entrance of Phonak into the cochlear implant market, a large and growing segment of the hearing industry. This market has been long dominated by Cochlear Corporation, an australian company that commercialized the invention of Graham Clarke, MD.

The cochlear implant has been described by many as a miracle medical device. It’s purpose is to stimulate the auditory nerve by placing an electrode array into the cochlea, and tonotopically aligning electrodes with neural elements located within the cochlea. The device is implanted in the mastoid cavity behind the ear, and receives its power, and electronic signals, via an R/F link to an external component that looks much like a BTE hearing aid. The Advanced Bionics Hi Res 90K has been described as the most sophisticated neural prosthetic device in commercial distribution. Cochlear Corporation has just released its Nucleus 5, which may take that claim away from AB. Only time will tell.

In the United States there are about 750,000 people with a profound sensorineural hearing loss who would be candidates to be recipients of the cochlear implant. To date, there are approximately 200,000 cochlear implant surgeries performed worldwide. Cochlear Corporation predicts that in ten years, over 1 million people will have this marvelous device.

Through this acquisition Phonak is expanding into implantable hearing devices, and is the first hearing instrument company to do so. With a 24% share of the HI market, Phonak is demonstrating its commitment to future growth and strong returns by making an impressive investment in the growing implantable device market during a time of economic uncertainty and downturn.

• There were cases filed against him by the Ehtisab Bureau of Saif ur Rehman in 1999.
• Pakistan’s ambassador in the US Husain Haqqani, co-accused in Ms BB case of TV channels
  Mr. Haqqani was out on bail by the Lahore High Court after 79 days in detention.
• The FIR in one of the case was quashed by the Sindh High Court

Pakistan Ambassador to the United States of America, Hussain Haqqani. – AP File Photo

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Ambassador to the United States of America, Hussain Haqqani never applied for any benefit under National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) in any alleged case against him, said his lawyer Sohail Hassan Qaiser senior advocate of Akhtar Awan Law Associates.

Haqqani’s lawyer stated that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) created by former President General Musharraf had never initiated any reference against Haqqani.

There however, were some cases filed against him by the Ehtisab Bureau of Saif ur Rehman in 1999.

Explaining the circumstances, Qaiser said that Haqqani had to go under physical torture in illegal custody. Later he was handed over to FIA after three days and in order to camouflage their act, three fabricated cases were filed against him. He was later released on bail by the Lahore High Court after 79 days in detention.

He further informed that FIR in one of the case was quashed by the Sindh High Court whereas the other case was dropped by the investigation agency after failing to find any evidence.

The third case that purportedly is on the list of cases dropped after the issuance of NRO (as reported in the media) had never reached the stage of prosecution during the last ten years as far Haqqani and his lawyers know and therefore there was no question of Haqqani requesting any relief under NRO.

‘The investigation agency may have dropped the case on its own volition,’ the lawyer added.

Haqqani will approach the competent forum to get his name cleared from a patently false case filed with the express motive of political victimization; the lawyer said and added that it was also under consideration to file cases against all those who were responsible for fabricating false cases against him. Haqqani never sought relief under NRO: lawyer, Friday, 20 Nov, 2009

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s main opposition party Sunday demanded the president give up the sweeping powers he inherited from his predecessor, setting the stage for political turmoil just as the Obama administration wants the country to focus on fighting the Taliban.

President Asif Ali Zardari’s grip on power is increasingly under threat from opposition lawmakers and elements within the powerful military who want him to resign or divest powers to the prime minister and take on a ceremonial role. Opinion polls show him to be desperately unpopular 15 months into a five-year term.

His presidency suffered another blow Saturday when an amnesty protecting him, several key allies and thousands of other officials from graft prosecution expired. While he enjoys immunity from prosecution as president, opponents could now go to the Supreme Court to challenge his eligibility for office.

Adding to a sense of a government under siege, Taliban militants have unleashed a surge of suicide bombings in recent weeks in response to an army offensive into one of their strongholds close to the Afghan border, killing hundreds of people.

The nuclear-armed country’s Western backers had hoped Zardari and the civilian government he leads would usher in political stability after the chaos that marked the end of the nine-year tenure of his predecessor, military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Zardari took the presidency months after his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a suicide bombing at the end of 2007.

A major factor in his unpopularity are the many presidential powers he took from Musharraf, who staged a 1999 military coup and resigned last year amid nationwide protests. Among the most important are the authority to fire an elected government and appoint top military chiefs.

On Friday, Zardari transferred another Musharraf-era power — the command of the country’s nuclear arsenal — to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. The move, which had no impact on nuclear security, was seen as an attempt to allay some of his critics within the military by giving up some authority.

Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and chief minister of Pakistan’s largest province, Punjab, said Zardari should act to now to transfer the other powers to the prime minister, noting that the president had already promised to do so.

"The nation would appreciate this act," Sharif told reporters Sunday.

Late Sunday, Zardari said he would make an announcement "soon" on changes to the constitution needed to divest those powers, but the statement gave no specifics. He already promised at least twice give up some of his authority to the prime minister since taking office.

He also took a swipe at his critics, saying the democratically elected government "was being subjected to a vicious campaign to tarnish its image by the remnants of dictatorship."

The political upheaval comes as President Barack Obama’s administration is expected to announce this week a new strategy for defeating the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and on Pakistan’s northwestern border. To have much hope of success, the U.S needs a stable Pakistani government committed to fighting militants blamed for attacks in both countries.

Pakistan’s original constitution envisages a parliamentary style of government in which a popularly elected prime minister is the chief executive and the president is a ceremonial head of state. But Musharraf, who was widely despised when he stood down, accumulated powers to stay in office.

Shabaz Sharif did not repeat a remark by one opposition lawmaker on Saturday calling on Zardari to resign, neither did he call for anti-government street rallies, perhaps wary of pushing the country into chaos and paving the way for more military rule.

Some analysts have said they believe opposition leader Nawaz Sharif — whom opinion polls show to be the most popular politician in the country by far — would prefer to wait for national elections that he is seen likely as winning than join any movement to push Zardari out. Such a drive would likely require the support of the army, which has had uneasy relations with Sharif in the past.

That reluctance could help Zardari complete his term so long as he takes on a ceremonial role, analysts say, especially given that impeaching him looks all but impossible because the party he heads is the largest in parliament.

Zardari, 54, has long been haunted by corruption allegations dating back to governments led by his late wife, Bhutto.

He denies any wrongdoing. He spent several years in prison under previous administrations in connection with the allegations which he says were politically motivated.

Since taking office, the president has found himself locked in a power struggle with the powerful military, which sees defense policy and relations with India and Afghanistan as its responsibility despite being nominally under civilian control.

Military chiefs have objected to his friendly overtures toward India and his acceptance of a multibillion dollar U.S. aid bill that came with conditions they feared imposed controls over the army. Pakistan’s president told to give up powers By CHRIS BRUMMITT (AP) – Associated Press writer Asif Shahzad contributed to this report

Details are leaking out about the President Obama’s new strategy on Afghanistan and new plans for Pakistan. Gone is the Bruce Riedel’s AfPak linkage, at least the acronym is dead semantically. Foreign Policy—a Pro-Republican think tank (formerly known as Plan for a new American Century—PNAC) which reflects Conservative thinking and the Christian right’s point of view. The Foreign Policy article is based on the leaked letter from President Obama to President Zardari delivered to Islamabad by the US National Security Advisor James L. Jones. According to the letter, the US wants Pakistan to go beyond South Waziristan and attack the Haqqani Network in North Waziristan. The Haqqani Network is part and parcel of coalition of forces fighting the US occupation in Afghanistan. According to US analysts many of the Haqqani fighters are imbedded in the rugged region of North Waziristan. In return the US will attack the TTP.

Obama’s speech Tuesday night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., will address primarily the Afghanistan aspects of the strategy. But despite the public and political attention focused on the number of new troops, Pakistan has been the hot core of the months-long strategy review. The long-term consequences of failure there, the review concluded, far outweigh those in Afghanistan.

"We can’t succeed without Pakistan," a senior administration official involved in the White House review said. "You have to differentiate between public statements and reality. There is nobody who is under any illusions about this."

This official and others, all of whom spoke about the closely held details of the new strategy on the condition of anonymity, emphasized that without "changing the nature of U.S.-Pakistan relations in a new direction, you’re not going to win in Afghanistan," as one put it. "And if you don’t win in Afghanistan, then Pakistan will automatically be imperiled, and that will make Afghanistan look like child’s play." Washington Post. November 30th, 2009

In return for storming the Anti-US forces out of Pakistan, the US is ready to offer more military and financial aid to Pakistan.

On the Pakistani side, the U.S. and the Pakistani government have worked out a deal that would commit Washington to additional military aid, economic assistance, and intelligence cooperation as part of an expanded effort to combat extremists elements residing in Pakistan, according to the source.

What’s not settled is exactly what the Pakistanis would have to do in return for the added support. The two sides are in negotiations over what the source called a "grand bargain" that would involve Obama administration support for any of a number of Pakistani asks in exchange for the Pakistani government actually going after all extremist groups in Pakistan — including those focused on creating havoc in Afghanistan.

The outlines of this offer were communicated in a letter from Obama to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in a letter delivered personally by Jones. Zardari has yet to formally respond, according to the source.

"Obama is saying to the Pakistanis, if you commit 100 percent we will commit 100 percent," the source explained, adding that the details of exactly what will go on between the Obama administration and the Pakistani government will take weeks or more to iron out.

For that reason and because the White House is extremely aware of Pakistani sensitivities in the wake of the botched rollout of the Kerry-Lugar Pakistani aid bill, Obama is likely to "soft pedal" the Pakistani side of the new strategy during the new strategy announcement, the source said.

Also, the administration is expected to drop the use of the abbreviated term "Af-Pak," which angered many in both countries, while still maintaining the linkage of the U.S. approach to both nations as part of one comprehensive issue.

Top administration officials are already scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill beginning Wednesday.

The White House declined to comment on the details of the strategy as outlined by the diplomatic source. Details leak out ahead of Obama’s big Afghanistan speech, Mon, 11/30/2009 – 11:15am

According to the Washington Post, some of the US carrots will be considered as “Greek Trojan’s bearing gifts”. Pakistanis view “regional cooperation with India” with deep suspicion. If this is the lynchpin of the new US policy, it might as well be Dead on Arrival (DOA).

Proffered U.S. carrots, outlined during Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s October visit to Islamabad, center on a far more comprehensive and long-term bilateral relationship. It would feature enhanced development and trade assistance; improved intelligence collaboration and a more secure and upgraded military equipment pipeline; more public praise and less public criticism of Pakistan; and an initiative to build greater regional cooperation among Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. Washington Post. November 30th, 2009

Some US analysts and policy makers do not know the fact that US pressure on Pakistan doesn’t always produce the desired results (from a US point of view).

Expansion of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship will require overcoming significant public and political mistrust in both countries. Officials said that they recognize the difficulty in delivering on either U.S. promises or threats, and that "our leverage over Pakistan is very limited," the senior administration official said.Washington Post. November 30th, 2009

There were about three decades of massive US-Pakistani collaboration. Neither Ayub Khan, nor Zia Ul Haq or Pervez Musharraf fully met US expectations and all three periods led to “divorce”/”extended separation between the US and Pakistan—all three left with huge Anti-American feelings on the ground, which made it more, not less difficult for the US to deal with the Pakistanis. President Ayub Khan threw out the Americans, and closed down the US air base at Badabar. General Zia Ul Haq took the aid, and built the Pakistani Nuclear bomb. President Pervez Musharraf used US aid but according to the Americans did not fully chase the militants in Pakistan. The latest threats by President Obama may also backfire—with dire consequences for the American policy in Afghanistan.

At the same time, although the administration’s goal is to demonstrate a new level and steadfastness of support, short-term U.S. demands may threaten Pakistan’s already fragile political stability.

"It’s going to be a game of cat-and-mouse with them for a while," another official said, adding that "what we’re trying to do is to force them to recalculate" where their advantage lies,… Washington Post. November 30th, 2009

If Pakistan agrees to the “Grand bargain”, it will ask the US to roll back Bharati (aka Indian) presence in Afghanistan, halt support for anti-Pakistan insurgents by CIA/RAW/Mossad, stop criticism of Pakistan in public, a FTA with the US, and the proliferation of Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZs) in most of Pakistan. These are the basic requirements. Actually the Pakistanis should ask for an real aid package of $100 per annum, wiping off the debt, construction of National Highways from Karachi to Torkham along with speed trains. Pakistan should ask the US to wipe off the $50 Billion debt, build 5000 American sponsored schools, construct 50 new US universities and create 1000 brand new hospitals.  These should be the basic requirements from the Pakistani side

President Obama is expected to announce plans to send more troops to Afghanistan.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Obama expected to lay out strategy for Afghanistan on Tuesday
• Anti-war Democrats skeptical of sending more troops to the region
• Reed: Obama must show that troop increase is part of shifting operations to Afghanis
• Rep. David Obey says proposed tax would create sense of shared sacrifice

(CNN) — As President Obama prepares to unveil his long-awaited strategy for Afghanistan, key members of his own party warn that he’s facing a tough sell.

The president is expected to lay out his plans for the 8-year-old war Tuesday night at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.

Obama’s announcement is expected to include a significant boost in troop levels. The Pentagon is making plans to send about 34,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in anticipation of Obama’s decision, a defense official said.

Democrats say Obama must strike a difficult balance, convincing the public that sending more troops is the right thing to do in order to get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible.

“I think he has to make a speech that shows that all of our efforts are pointed to our reduced presence in Afghanistan, but I think he has to also indicate again and again how critical this is to our national security,” Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a West Point graduate, told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Reed said he will support the president as long as he explains how adding more troops would allow the United States to eventually shift operations to the Afghan people.

Obama will explain Tuesday why the United States is in Afghanistan, its interests there and his decision-making process, but “the president does not see this as an open-ended engagement,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Video: Afghanistan war tax?

Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ed Rollins said Obama will have to address some key questions from within his own party.

“There has to be real clarity. Why are we there? How long are we going to be there? And equally as important, what is the mission and how is the mission different now than it was two years ago or four years ago?” Rollins said.

“Democrats have to be convinced. The president’s party is certainly very divided on this issue. I think he’ll have the Republican support he needs, but at the end of day, if this is not a bipartisan effort, long-term, they won’t get the resources and the funding to make it work,” he said.

The president ordered more than 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in March. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, reportedly has called for up to 40,000 more to wage a counterinsurgency campaign against the Taliban, the Islamic militia originally ousted by U.S. military action in 2001.

About 68,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, along with about 45,000 from the NATO alliance.

Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Donna Brazile said Obama needs to explain what has changed since he first laid out his strategy for the region.

“I think the president needs to update us on what has occurred since March that requires to send more troops, more civilians, and how will this be different than, say, what it was two years ago or even in the near future?

“So I think this is a very important speech to not just convince the left but to convince the country that this is an important use of our resources,” she said.

The cost of the war has been a sticking point for Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi cautioned last week, “There is serious unrest in our caucus about, ‘Can we afford this war?’ “

Prominent Democrats close to Pelosi, including House Appropriations Chairman David Obey, are proposing to pay for the way with an increase in income taxes for all Americans, except military families. Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin is proposing a similar tax, but only for wealthy Americans.

“My point and our point is simply that, in this war, we have not had any sense of shared sacrifice. The only people being asked to sacrifice are military families,” Obey said.

“I’m very dubious about this whole effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but if we’re going to do it, we shouldn’t do it in a way which will destroy every other initiative that we have to rebuild our own economy,” he said.

Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, says he has concerns about sending more troops to Afghanistan, given the cost.

“I’ve got a real problem about expanding this war where the rest of the world is sitting around and saying, isn’t it a nice thing that the taxpayers of the United States and the U.S. military are doing the work that the rest of the world should be doing?” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“So what I want to see is some real international cooperation, not just from Europe but from Russia and from China,” he said.

Critics of the war have also expressed concerns about the legitimacy of the Afghan government. Afghan President Hamid Karzai won another term in office this month after his opponent for the runoff withdrew.

Sen. Paul Kirk Jr., D-Massachusetts, explained in an opinion piece in The Boston Globe why he opposes a troop increase.

“Without a legitimate and credible Afghan partner, that counterinsurgency strategy is fundamentally flawed. The current Afghan government is neither legitimate nor credible,” he said.

“We should not send a single additional dollar in aid or add a single American serviceman or woman to the 68,000 already courageously deployed in Afghanistan until we see a meaningful move by the Karzai regime to root out its corruption,” he added.

Obama, he said, has “inherited no good options, but a more focused strategy with no additional troops stands out as preferable to all the others.”

Americans are divided over the best way forward in Afghanistan, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released last week.

Half of the people questioned said they would support a decision by Obama to send an additional 34,000 troops to Afghanistan, while 49 percent were opposed.

The survey indicates that 52 percent oppose the war, compared with the 45 percent who support it. Obama’s Afghan plans met with skepticism from Dems. November 30, 2009 11:34 a.m. EST

The deliberative process behind President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy has produced public disagreements, both within the cabinet and war council, over the proper way forward. On Monday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that, with the president ordering his plans carried out, those divisions have largely been worked out. Certainly, he stressed, no one felt they “lost” with the final proposal.

“I don’t think anybody participated in this process thinking, ‘If I offer something in the Situation Room and it is not adopted, then somehow I’ve lost,’” Gibbs said. “I know there is a Washington game of trying to pick winners and losers. I think when the people step back and look at what the president’s ultimate decision will be, I think that everybody sitting in that room had a valuable contribution in making this a better policy for the men and women in our armed services and, quite frankly, for each and every American.”

Gibbs’s remarks seemed aimed at the disparity that emerged between U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, whose memo calling for a 40,000-troop increase was leaked several months ago, and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl W. Eikenberry, who warned against a troop buildup very late in the deliberations. Asked specifically about those two people, Gibbs insisted that, upon leaving the final discussions with the White House on Sunday night, “both of those individuals in Afghanistan and the president felt very good about our way forward.”

A far more interesting fallout of the Afghanistan debate, however, relates to Vice President Joseph Biden, whose skepticism about sending more troops to Afghanistan was made public in a Newsweek article this October. By Biden’s calculations, it made shaky strategic sense to invest more resources and troops to Afghanistan when “al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan and Pakistan has nuclear weapons.”

Details of Obama’s war plans going forward aren’t fully illuminated at this point. And there may very well be a sufficient Pakistan component to the strategy. But if the two briefings Gibbs had with reporters on Monday provided any indication, the preponderance of attention seems likely to be on building up Afghani institutions to ensure that they aren’t overrun by insurgents or terrorists.

“The threat from al Qaeda exists in very real ways,” Gibbs said. “Not just emanating from the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan but throughout the world. The reason that al Qaeda was in Afghanistan was because al Qaeda had the safe haven protection of the government run by the Taliban. What the president will discuss tomorrow is ensuring that we prevent the Taliban from being capable of controlling the government of Afghanistan as well as incapable of providing safe haven from which al Qaeda can plot and undertake terrorist activities like we have seen previously happen in the United States.” Huffington Post

Swiss Sharply Criticized After Vote to Ban New Minarets

Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

People wait for a tram near a mosque in Zurich on Monday. By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE

Published: November 30, 2009

GENEVA — Switzerland’s political leaders on Monday faced a chorus of criticism at home and abroad over an overwhelming popular vote to ban construction of minarets.

The referendum, which took place Sunday, has propelled the country to the forefront of a European debate on how far countries should go to assimilate Muslim immigrants and Islamic culture.

Government ministers trying to contain the fallout from the vote voiced shock and disappointment with a result that the Swiss establishment newspaper Le Temps called a “brutal sign of hostility” to Muslims that was “inspired by fear, fantasy and ignorance.”

The country’s justice minister, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, said the vote was not a rejection of the Muslim community, religion or culture, but reflected fears among the population.

With support for the ban from 57.5 percent of voters, however, ministers were forced to acknowledge that they had failed to quell popular anxieties about the impact of what right-wing parties have portrayed as “creeping Islamization.”

Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf said that it was “undeniably a reflection of the fears and uncertainties that exist among the population; concerns that Islamic fundamentalist ideas could lead to the establishment of parallel societies.”

Outside Switzerland, criticism was harsh.

“I am a bit shocked by this decision,” the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said in an interview with RTL radio, calling it “an expression of intolerance.” He added: “I hope the Swiss come back on this decision.”

The Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, whose country holds the rotating E.U. presidency, described the vote as “an expression of quite a bit of prejudice and maybe even fear.”

Muslim communities within Switzerland reacted cautiously, clearly concerned to avoid inflaming tensions. “We were a bit shocked, we hadn’t expected this result,” Abdel Majri, president of the League of Swiss Muslims, said in an interview. “This is another step towards Islamophobia in Switzerland and Europe in general.”

The government and most Swiss political parties had opposed the motion, he noted, attributing the size of the majority in favor of the ban to right-wing playing to popular fears and misconceptions, he said. “We are looking at how we can repair the situation,” he said.

Muslims in Europe expressed concern that there would be less understanding of the ban among non-European Muslims less familiar with European politics and culture. “We are a bit afraid of the rise of extremism on both sides,” said Ayman Ali, secretary general of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe.

Those concerns were born out by the stern reaction from even moderate Muslim leaders in the Middle East. The ban was “not considered just an attack on freedom of beliefs, but also an attempt to insult the feelings of the Muslim community in and outside Switzerland,” Ali Gomaa, an influential Egyptian mufti, was quoted as saying by the Middle East News Agency.

The head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, representing 57 Muslim countries, expressed disappointment with the vote, which a statement on the its Web site said “stood to be interpreted as xenophobic, prejudiced, discriminative and against the universal human rights values.”

The statement added that “it would tarnish the reputation of the Swiss people as a tolerant and progressive society.”

Swiss newspapers quoted Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf as saying Swiss exports and tourism from the Middle East could suffer as a result of the vote Sunday.

Critics of the ban within Switzerland, meanwhile, started exploring the possibilities for challenging its legality. Ms. Widmer-Schlumpf reportedly said the ban was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Switzerland is a signatory.

UN rep Asma Jahangir warns Swiss over minaret ban

Tuesday, 01 Dec, 2009

The human rights expert said the ban violated Switzerland’s international obligations and marked ‘clear discrimination.’ Above: Asma Jahangir, UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief and chairperson Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

GENEVA: A UN human rights expert warned on Monday that a Swiss referendum vote banning new minarets restricted religious freedom and violated Switzerland’s international treaty obligations.

‘I therefore urge the Swiss authorities to abide by all its international obligations and to take the necessary measures to fully protect the right to freedom of religion or belief of members of the Muslim community,’ said Asma Jahangir, UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

‘As also stated by the United Nations Human Rights Committee a month ago, such a ban is contrary to Switzerland’s obligations under international human rights law,’ the statement released by the United Nations added.

In a referendum on Sunday, more than 57 per cent of voters approved a right wing proposal to ban the construction of minarets in Switzerland.

The vote had no impact on mosques themselves or religious worship, according to the Swiss government, which had opposed the ban.

However, Jahangir insisted that a ban marked ‘clear discrimination’ against Switzerland’s Muslim community.

‘I have deep concerns at the negative consequences that the outcome of the vote will have on the freedom of religion or belief of members of the Muslim community in Switzerland.’

‘Indeed, a ban on minarets amounts to an undue restriction of the freedom to manifest one’s religion and constitutes a clear discrimination against members of the Muslim community in Switzerland,’ she added.

The 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Switzerland has ratified along with 164 other countries, obliges governments to protect and respect freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

The Swiss Green Party has also said that it was considering an appeal against the ban to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Swiss People’s Party, the country’s biggest political group and the only mainstream force to back the ban, warned Monday that it would rather pull out of international treaties than submit to a UN or European decision.

Although it captured some 28 per cent of the vote in the last general election, the right wing SVP cannot command a parliamentary majority on its own.

Freedom of worship is one of the cornerstones of Switzerland’s founding constitution.

16 November 2009

Flight Niena ke Trg jam 8 malam. Kami bangun jam 12 tengah hari. sungguh kepenatan yang amat sangat. Ingatkan nak singgah tengok budak2 ni main badminton tapi sebab dah lambat dan hujan mencurah2, batalkan saja niat tu. Pertamanya kami ke Nilai 3 untuk cari barang kawin niena. ada barang yang untuk gift niena yang dia beli kat sabah tu (kat kedai yang berjam2 kami kat ctu) lagi murah dari kat nilai ni. luckily she bought them. next thing yang perlu dilaksanakan hari tersebut adalah ke ofis untuk melangsaikan satu perkara terlebih dahulu.

Kemudian gerak ke Puchong untuk ke Dios Astana Bridal untuk mencari kain net tuk niena. rupanya dekat saja ngan kedai mamak ABC yang aku selalu lepak time blaja dulu. huhu..

banyak tingkat kat kedai tu. aku tertarik kat tingkat yang ada banyak baju pengantin. tidak la extravaganza sangat baju nya tapi ada la yang cantik gak. harga nya? yang aku nampak hanya seribu ke atas. tapi aku tak tengok yang bergantungan tu. tengok yang kat patung je. adalah yang menarik di pandang.

tak banyak nak capture. takut kena marah. hehe.. ni pun curik2. tapi takpe kan. ni kira aku promote la. aku taktau dari segi harga semua sebab aku tak survey tempat lain. belum sampai masanya lagi.. =)

kemudian kami singgah alamanda untuk lunch. taktau nak makan mana, last2 secret recipe jadi pilihan. kat trg pun ada na.. =p

rasanya sapa yang makan nasik ni? isk isk isk…

dah makan, terus gerak ke airport sebab jam hampir pukul 7 ptg. tak dpt nak anta niena ke dalam sebab dia pun akan terus check in semua. hee.. saya akan merindui kamu niena..

next time i will see her is on her wedding day. insya Allah.. =)

15 November 2009 – hari ketiga

Hari terakhir di Kota Kinabalu. Jam 12, kami checked out dari hotel dan terus ke melaksanakan aktiviti membeli belah kami. Habiskan masa di Pasar Filipina untuk membeli gelang kristal, ikan kering dan kerepek. Banyak kami beli, nasib baik ada this one guy baik hati membungkus semua hasil belian kami dalam kotak untuk dibawa naik ke kapal terbang.

lepas sesi membeli belah, kami ke airport seawal jam 6. tunggu je kat airport sambil dinner. tepat jam 8:05 mlm kami bertolak ke KL. ahh.. selamat tinggal KK. semoga dapat sampai lagi sana. mau ke kundasang plak. =)