"Panem et Circenses"

After having decided to escalate the war in Afghaistan Barack Obama now arrives in Oslo to collect his Noble Peace Prize, while the Israeli government tells all and sundry that the freeze that doesn't exist could not have waited. However, if you think that is absurd, what about this?

'T-Home', as I mentioned in an early post gives me access to some English language channels and my main zapping numbers would appear to be, 153, 164 and 165 with my favourites appearing to be 'Dr 90210' (zapping number 153) and 'King of Queens' (zapping number 165). Escapism of the "highest" order and anyway there was me today thinking isn't 'Dr 90201' getting a bit serious with Dr Rey's wife, Haley, bent over a little coffin crying and me thinking that one of the Reys' two rather lovely kids had kicked the bucket only to discover that it was in fact their dog, a Chihuahua called "Peanuts". Well, to cut a long story short, there was a little formal burial service, with both of the Reys having a good cry, before they took themselves down to some home for stray dogs to get themselves a replacement for "Peanuts", which looked uncannily like "Peanuts". Of course, the new dog has found a new home and a new family and the new family are really happy at the new addition but the grief was obviously very real and Dr Rey finished off the episode by telling us all that there will always be a place in his heart for "Peanuts".

Escapism is necessary but might it not just be that drivel like this occupies that part of our hearts and minds that should be open for the lying and dying on Afghanistan's fields, to the ethnic cleansing that is going on in the Middle East, to the ongoing genocide in the Congo, etc. etc.? Moreover, even the most moronic have at least an inkling that "Die Hard 3", "Rambo" and John Wayne and the 7th Cavalry are ..... well, aren't the real world. However, 'Dr 90201' is the real world, indeed, these are good doctors who do some very good work, and if I had started to empathise with this grown man and woman crying over a little dog, I would have probably ended up putting a bullet through my head after watching a 'Guardian' clip on people suffering in North Kivu at the hands of the Rwandan Hutu milita, the 'Interahamwe',  sometimes known as the FDLR.

Yes, Obama collecting the Noble Peace Prize is absurd and the "freeze" that is not a freeze is a farce. However, as long a we live in a mad, mad, world, where we would rather shed our tears when our pet dog dies or our favourite football team loses than confront ourselves with images of real people being forced off of their land, being blown to bits or having their limbs hacked off, we really aren't going to worry too much about genuine injustice, lies and crimes against humanity. No, the manufacturing of consent is supplemented by big dollops of "panem et circenses" and the human condition is not in a healthy state.

The surge begins in Afghanistan

By yesterday evening at at least 127 had died and 448 had been injured after five suicide car bombings in Bagdhad. Surely, even the most short sighted must now be aware that the so-called surge was nothing more than a gimmick to allow the US a face saving way to create enough temporary security for most of its troops to leave. Of course, the Americans have not quite left and as the so-called "coalition of the willing" has metamorphosed into a "coaliton of one", the fifty thousand Americans who have stayed on supposedly to train the Iraqi government forces. They will increasingly feel out of harms way in their bases, which follow the pipleines much in the same way as the Crusader forts used to be dotted along the pilgramage routes of yore. This is the American "victory" and it would seem to offer them their best possible scenario about 1,500 miles to the east. If it's good enough for Bagdhad it is good enough for Kabul.

Of course, as the post surge operations in Afghanistan begin there is a difference, and that is, while the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, wants the Americans out of his country, over in Kabul the man with the nice shawls is hoping that "Uncle Sam" will stay until 2024, despite Obama wanting to start withdrawing his troops in 2011. Of course, the difference is irrelevant for with Mr Karzai talking about the "force required to secure the entire country", he really doesn't get it, does he. No, this is not about what you or Mr al-Maliki want. This is all about a new "splendid isolation", one that will minimize American casualties, while allowing Washington geopolitical control of both countries without having to control the people.

As more and more resources and more and more money pour into both Iraq and Afghanistan, resistance to both wars will increase in a United States, which already needs Chinese credit to pay the bills. Moreover, neither Iraq nor Afghanistan can be controlled geopolitically like this. It might be worth pointing out that the Crusaders invariably integrated with the local population for the Iraqis and Afghanistanis the cancer in their countries is all too evident. Whatever, the reasoning behind an American strategy that might offer not only a "face saving" limited retreat but also "extended" control of resources in Iraq and Afghanistan, a superficial "winning" of both wars, the reality is that, sooner or later, "Uncle Sam" will be leaving without having achieved anything in either country.

Italian Justice

Amanda Knox was convicted along with her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of her roommate the British student Meredith Kercher. The 22 year old Ms Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison and her 25 year old Italian boyfriend to 25 years after a trial that lasted a year. Now it might appear to the sloppy, subjective Americans that the Italians just don't like them, that justice somehow hasn't been done and that it really doesn't matter that her boyfriend, who is Italian and who is a member of a wealthy and influential Bari family, was also convicted.

Anyway, now we have Knox's mother saying, that she is worried that even an appeal would not be fair in Perugia where "feelings are so against Amanda," and we seem to have an American press that is stirring the Knox fan club into its "Italians are anti American" balyhoo and in the meantime we have Hillary Clinton saying that she will meet Maria Cantwell, the Democratic Senator from Knox's home state of Washington, and listen to her reservations, which include the suggestion that "anti-Americanism" may have tainted the trial.

Yes, the Italians can be a wee bit slow and this was a long trial. Nevertheless, while I don't know all the details of this particular case, it would appear that the American media is also woefully unaware of them. Furthermore, it remains difficult for me to imagine that an Italian court would convict two innocent young people to spending their best years behind prison bars. That, of course, remains to some extent speculation on my part. However, it is an opinion that is supported by my knowing that the Italian legal sytem only recently convicted 23 Americans, mostly CIA operatives, for kidnapping the Egyptian cleric, Abu Omar and, also recently, lifted Berlisconi's immunity from persecution. Yes, there appears to be something akin to the rule of law in Italy, while, on the other hand, in the good old US of A,  50% of the prison inmates are Afro-Americans, despite that group only constituting some 12.8% of the population and we don't hear about Hillary meeting some Senator to talk about the possibilty of racism being behind a particular verdict.

No, unlike many Afro-Americans and Hispanics in the United States, Amanda Knox received a fair trial and her appeal should now go through the proper process in the Italian courts. Of course, should that appeal be unsuccessful, then "Uncle Sam" has at least two possibilities; firstly, he could flex his muscles and bully the Italian government and, if that fails, he could send some of the 23 who were convicted by the Italian courts back to Italy to earn their "American" reprieve, by kidnapping Amanda and bringing her home to a heroine's welcome.  No doubt, she is already thinking up the title of her book - "Italian Justice", "Innocent Behind Bars", "Thank You America" - and I won't be watching 'Larry King' on that particular evening and I am most definitely not going to the film.

There are dung heaps and there are dung heaps

My watching the debate between Finklestein and Dershowitz led to a sort of déjà vu with the very first post in this blog; the reason for the blog and some nineteen months on I would be the first to admit that my potpourri of this, that and the next thing, might have flattered to deceive at times but has generally failed to metamorphose into real scholarship.

No, in keeping with the wise words of my mentor at the then New University of Ulster in the early eighties, my brain has proved itself to be indeed like his proverbial dung heap which, if left long enough, will produce something: a dipping into a the 'Guardian' here, a looking at 'Haaretz' there and abracadabra, lo and behold, as if it were straight from the horses mouth. Nevertheless, Alan Dershowitz makes me think that I am possibly being a little bit too harsh on myself and when it comes to mediocrity there is worse, much worse.

Anyway, there was Finkelstein unmasking Dershowitz for the great fraud that he is and what did I realise? Well, I realised that it gets much worse than the 'Guardian' the 'Haaretz' and any of the other books and publications that I have quoted from when knocking something together. Not only does Professor Dershowitz in his 'Case for Israel' largely plagiarise Mary Peter's great hoax, 'From Time Immemorial', but he also avails himself of sources that make a mockery of any serious debate on a very serious issue. Yes, if it is bad enough that the "author" refers to IDF internal investigations and Israeli government websites as a source of evidence, it becomes ridiculous in the extreme when we have him, quoting the 'Boston Globe' when that paper quotes an IDF source on casualties, quoting an editorial  in the 'Orlando Sentinal' and even quoting the website of a film he had seen, or not seen.

Well, there we are, the dung heap has produced again and from the dung heap comes the conclusion that, while I will never adopt my mentor's favoured "falsificationist" approach, a la Popper, and while I will never have the industry to emulate a Dr Finkelstein, well, there are just dung heaps and dung heaps, aren't there? Furthermore, as I have already indicated there might just be an occassion when my dung heap flatters to deceive and produces a flower of sorts. With Professor Dershowitz on the other hand, it really is just a pile of shite, isn't it?

Is Brown moving away from clumsy individual letters to mass verbal condolences?

Today the death of the 100th British soldier in Afghanistan this year was announced and the prime minister Gordon Brown said his "thoughts were with the families and friends of all the 100 British personnel who have died this year." The dead soldier from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment brings the number of fatalities since Britain got itself involved in this futile "little" exercise in bringing "democracy" to the Hindukush, while ridding the world of terrorism, to 237. Moreover, with 10,000 British troops now in place to help General McChrytal's surge the number of British dead is not only going to increase, it is also going to increase dramatically.

Gordon, therefore, saying that his thoughts are with all one hundred who have died this year might be a demonstration of pragmatism by that "great" statesman. Yes, sending verbal condolences out to one hundred at once is a good idea, especially at a time when there are going to be so many letters to catch up on. Moreover, when we bear in mind that he has had difficulties in the past in getting letters of condolence out promptly, one letter arriving two years late, and when we consider that those handwritten letters that he does send tend to be scribbles that are full of spelling mistakes, Gordon really is doing a bit of quick thinking.

When, oh when, will people begin to realise that these idiots do not care one iota for their own, never mind for the thousands and thousands of innocents who are dying in Aghanistan?

The coming trade war

The columnist, Paul Krugman, wrote that there was probably no strategy behind China's accumulation of some two trillion US dollars and that those reserves were acquired in "the same way Britain acquired its empire: in a fit of absence of mind." Of course, Great Britian had no grand plan at the beginning of the 18th century. Nevertheless, I am not sure what Mr Krugman is trying to say here or say when he likewise contends that China had no strategy when it started to accumulate dollars. The British Empire, we know, was spawned by an ability to react pragmatically to a given situation and the Chinese leadership in Beijing has shown time and time again that it is invariably pragmatic. Indeed, this pragmatism is evidenced by its unwillingness to pull the plug on the United States so long as the yuan is pegged to the dollar. Indeed, my assertion is that it suits China to have a weak dollar.

Of course, in the longer term this reliance on the dollar will have to be broken if China is to replace the United States as the world's major power. Moreover, while there are a number of reasons why this won't happen in the shorter term, it is silly to insinuate that the Chinese have some sort of sentimental attachment to the dollar-based international financial system because it is they who have benefited most from that system.

Indeed, it would appear that China is already preparing a three pronged assault on its dollar reliance by building huge gold reserves, cutting its US bond holdings and starting limited cross border trading with yuan. Whatever else, while pragmatism dictates that the Chinese leadership in Beijing is not going to cut off its nose to spite its face, there is enough evidence to suggest that the financial crisis last year has not only revealed serious flaws in a monetary system that facilitates Anglo-Saxon global hegemony, but could, indeed, also usher in the death knell of that system.

Nevertheless, let us be wary when it comes to predictions. The Economist Oliver Accominotti's comparison between China's dependency on the dollar and France's dependency on sterling from 1926 until 1931, makes interesting reading and his conclusion that "foreign reserves can be both a source of instability for the international monetary system, and a burden for large holders", is sound. However, it is the Anglo-Saxons who have been there before and it is to the "satanic genuis" of Sir Montagu Norman, the Governor of the Bank of England who ensured that France was to give up all aspirations to monetary hegemony, that they will look for their inspiration.

Of course, it might be added, that when it comes to a trade war, the Anglo-Saxons do not need any role models to play their "game". Still, we might wonder if the "pragmatic" Chinese might not be a slightly different proposition from the French in 1926 and the "Asian Tigers" in 1997.  Only time will tell but we can rest assured that at the very least a trade war between China and the United States will be required to end any speculation.

Two Politicians: A Short Story

Merkel's thirty two year old "Familienministerin", Kristina Köhler, is a pretty young lady and she has got a degree in Sociology, but, I mean, you just have to look at her and you realise that Politics really doesn't have very much to do with ability. Nevertheless, she does look quite sweet and maybe, just maybe, somewhere in there, there is a brain and then you get to Bob Ainsworth, the British Defence Secretary and really, it doesn't get anymore ridiculous and if only half of the article in the 'Times' is true; well, it is just bloody offensive that this fool is even allowed to spout off his tuppence worth on Afghanistan.

Anyway, Bob is the product of a British comprehensive school and an ex-factory worker. Now there have been many politically aware horny-handed sons of toil, who left school, more or less unqualified before taking an auto-didactic route to political awareness. However, when you read that Bob's wife
gets upset because Bob reads too many military histories and watches too many war films and when you read of Bob spouting out run of the mill drivel such as:  “There are too many people who do not make the link: they think Afghanistan is too far away, that al-Qaeda have gone somewhere else." It becomes all too clear that this is not only not an academic, analytical mind, but that this is the mind of an idiot, a parrot, someone of, at the very best, a very crude half education.


Nevertheless, Kristina and Bob are not out of place in the world of politics. Indeed, they belong there and they are only indicative of a system that needs nonentities like them to represent its interests; gullible fools who pass on second hand drivel as if they were actually imparting some knowledge. Perhaps, it was never any different and the real personalities, the real politicians, the real brains, only make their appearance when it really all becomes just too silly and, while with Ms Köhler we have not quite reached the "too silly" stage, with Bob we are long since past it; what a fool! Anyway, I have decided to show Kristina's picture and not Bob's; Kristina at least has one admirer.

Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Uganda's proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill has been linked to a US Christian group that is led by the 'Saddleback Church's' senior pastor, Rick Warren. Rick is a man who supports those who burn condoms to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa and Obama it seems agrees at least a little bit with Rick because he choose him to lead the prayer at his inauguration and, one of my "favourite" Zionists, Bibi's "self-hating Jew", David Axelrod, tells me that the president finds Rick's work in Africa just hunky-dory or, at least, something like that.

In the meantime Rick has decided to distance himself from, Pastor Martin Ssempa, who, at least officially, is no longer his man in Africa. We can only wonder why Rick wants to distance himself from him. After all, it is Ssempa who is actively burning the condoms, who compares homosexuality to witchcraft and who enjoys close ties to Uganda's First Lady and wasn't Rick only recently supporting an intiative banning same-sex marriage in California while comparing homosexuality to pedophilia, incest and bestiality? Still, we shouldn't start to think that Rick is on the mend and his distancing himself from Ssempa in general terms, saying that Ugandan minister represents neither him nor his church, was kept in perspective by his refusing to condemn the new legislation in Uganda; a law that can apply the death penalty for the "crime" of homosexuality.

Of course, why shouldn't Obama have friends like Rick at home and, while Rick has his friends in Uganda, the hype man can continue to cultivate his friendship with that great statesman, Yoweri Museveni, and, who knows, when we become better informed through the mainstream media of Museveni's ethnic cleansing of the Acholi people in the north of Uganda, we might even have Obama distancing himself from Museveni not only general terms but also criticising ethnic cleansing per se. Now, that really would worry Bibi and his "self hating" Jew, David Axelrod!