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By Eric Zuesse

The plunging economy of Ukraine has evidently become so bad that Ukrainians now can even feel safe to call publicly for stopping the war against the separatist Donbass region of the country, and for reallocationg those military expenditures so that Ukrainians in the non-rebelling part of the country won’t starve to death.

On July 23rd, Dmitriy Gordon, a leading Ukrainian journalist, is thus, for the first time, publicly urging that the separatist region, Donbass (consisting of the Donetsk and Luhansk districts), be officially acknowledged to be no longer part of Ukraine. He says that “It is better to dissociate Ukraine from the occupied territories of Donbass, to spend that money on housing and financial aid for immigrants [refugees from Donbass] than to keep the people [the vast majority of residents in Donbass] who hate Ukraine [though they actually didn’t hate Ukraine until Ukraine’s government was violently overthrown in February 2014 and the new government bombed them for not accepting that new government]. … I will tell an unfashionable view. Many people think it, but not everyone will dare to say it out loud. Ukraine does not need Donbass. It shackles the country. … It is like a lizard that lays aside its tail. … We need to get away from Donbass, and move into Europe without this tail.”

The choice between guns and butter becomes easier when there is no butter. And the butter in Ukraine is now gone. So, butter is what Ukrainians increasingly want. Thus, for example, RIA Novosti Ukraine news agency headlined on July 19th, “Ukraine Today: Poverty, Absolute Poverty, and Retirees Dream of Death,” and reported that, “Two years ago, the average salary of Ukrainians in dollar terms amounted to 275 American money. Now it’s less than 100 dollars.”

This RIAN report says that, “Neither the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, nor Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, nor Speaker of Rada [Parliament] Volodymyr Groisman — none of them — expresses public concern about the lowered living standards; no one has called to review them, much less to improve these economic conditions.”

It goes on to say, “Expert of the Public Safety Fund Yuri Havrylchenko believes that the current level of income of the majority of the Ukrainian population is poverty, and retirees are in a state of slow death from starvation. … [He says,] ‘In Ukraine, all workers live in poverty. The level of their income and consumption is less than 17 dollars a day. With a few exceptions, almost all pensioners live below the absolute poverty line, consumption is less than $5 a day. This means that they are dying of hunger, only slowly. If they do not even have enough to eat, then what can we say about the cost of everything else?'”

Mr. Gordon, for his part, might be attacked for urging separation, if he were blaming Ukraine for the civil war; so, he instead blames the residents of Donbass (the direct victims of the coup-installed government), as the cause of Ukrainians’ misery. He says: “For the most part residents of the region adhere to pro-Russian views. They hate Ukrainians, don’t want to speak Ukrainian, and they reject Ukrainian and European values.”

He adds, “Criminal psychology is inherent in so many people there … It is no accident Yanukovych was elected so much at the mercy of bandits in the Donetsk region.” Yanukovych had won more than 90% of the votes that were cast in Donbass.

Yanukovych had turned down the offer from the European Union because the economists at the Ukraininian Academy of Sciences had calculated that the EU’s offer would cost Ukraine $160 billion.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.
23 July, 2015
Countercurrents.org

 

Dear All,

Thanks for your concern and support. Below is my statement regarding the refusal of Korean Air to board me on the strength of an email from the US Homeland Security. This statement was released last July 15 in a press conference here in Manila. I will send in separate mail the Urgent Call to Action from Karapatan, a human rights organization in the Philippines. I really want to be delisted from whatever watchlist the US Homeland Security has placed me. The USHS has exercised abuse of its power. I will appreciate statement of support/protest/concern from broad number of groups/ individuals.

I was able to make my deposition on US military intervention via skype last July 17. Last July 18, the Tribunal handed a verdict of guilty to Pres. aquino regime and the government of the US on the gounds that they violated the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and right to self-determination of the Filipino people.

Again, thanks a lot,
Liza
STATEMENT OF FORMER GABRIELA REPRESENTATIVE LIZA MAZA ON HER BEING BARRED FROM TRAVELING TO THE U.S.

I condemn in no uncertain terms the violations of my individual rights and freedoms and the right of the Philippines as a sovereign nation committed by the US Department of Homeland Security through its Customs and Border Protection Agency in collusion with the private airline company, Korean Air.

Last July 9, 2015 after checking in and completing all Philippine immigration procedures required for all departing passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and barely thirty-five minutes before boarding Korean Air bound for the US, the ground staff of the said airlines informed me that I cannot board the plane and that my checked-in luggage will be off-loaded. When I asked the reason why they are barring me from boarding the plane, the airline staff said that they received an email from the US Customs and Border Protection Agency of the Homeland Security saying that I should not be allowed to board the plane. My repeated requests for a copy of the email was denied by the Korean Air staff and Mr. Luigi Luis Santos who identified himself as ground supervisor of the Korean Air told me that the said email, which they received only that morning, was “not for third party dissemination” and that I should go to the US embassy for evaluation.

I have a valid ten-year visa to the U.S. granted in 2008. I have been going in and out of the US before and after 2008 mostly in connection with my work as leader of the GABRIELA Women’s Alliance and later as representative of the Gabriela Women’s Party in the Philippine Congress. My itinerary during these trips include meetings with Filipino communities, networking with women’s organizations and on several occasions participating in meetings and activities organized by the United Nations for CSOs.

Why then was I barred from entering the US this time? I can only surmise that the reason for such arbitrary action was to prevent me from testifying before the International People’s Tribunal as expert witness on the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), both are unequal agreements entered into by the governments of the US and the Philippines. The Tribunal will indict the Aquino government and the US government represented by US President Barak Obama for their crimes against the Filipino people and for violating their civil, political, economic and social rights and their right to self-determination and right to resist.

EDCA is a sell-out of Philippine sovereignty. Negotiated in secret between the two parties, EDCA and the VFA clearly violated the Philippine constitutional prohibition against the presence of foreign troops, facilities and bases on our soil without a treaty. EDCA allows for agreed locations anywhere in the Philippines for US military use free of rent virtually making the Philippines a huge US military base.

In 1991, the Filipino people through a historic no vote by the Philippine Senate rejected a new treaty extending the stay of two of the largest US bases outside its territory – the Subic naval base and the Clark airbase whose presence speaks of the neo-colonial relations of the Philippines with the US. The sites of these bases became haven for rest and recreation industry where violence against women and children is an everyday life. Now with the VFA and EDCA, crimes continue to be committed, the latest of which was the brutal murder of a transgender Jennifer Laude.

These are the truths that the US government does not want the American people and the international community to know.

By preventing me from boarding the plane, from my point of origin, from the very soil of the country of my birth, the US through the tentacles of the US Homeland Security has extended its extraterritorial powers across borders to implement their internal laws and policies in our country in flagrant violation of Philippine sovereignty and in violation of my rights to freedom of movement and association and my right to free speech.

The brazenness of these violations is intended to have a chilling effect not only to activists like me but to ordinary Filipino travelers who may arbitrarily be targeted by the US Homeland Security and without due process declare them undesirable, a threat to human security, terrorists or enemies of the state.

Let me state this clearly and unequivocally: I am neither a security threat to the American people nor am I their enemy. As a former parliamentarian and known feminist, nationalist, and anti-imperialist activist in the Philippines, my whole life as a social activist has been devoted to the struggle for social and national transformation and liberation. As an internationalist, I help build bridges of solidarity among peoples and develop strong bonds of sisterhood among women. My recent participation in a high profile initiative of 30 international women delegation that crossed the Demilitarized Zone that borders North and South Korea dubbed Women Cross DMZ is a commitment to the cause of women’s engagement in the peace process and citizen diplomacy.

I call on the Filipino people to oppose and condemn violations of our national sovereignty and our dignity as a people.

I call on the women of the world to close ranks and assert our rights including our right to participate in the shaping of a community of nations and the strengthening of solidarity of peoples.

I call on the international community particularly the international solidarity workers to oppose any and all acts that will undermine the struggle to attain a vision of a shared humanity and just peace.

 

By Robert Parry

In a rare rebuke to his bullying, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to stop the United States and five other world powers from reaching an agreement to constrain but not eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. Yet, Netanyahu still is dominating how the U.S. public and congressional debate is being framed, with Iran accused of regional “aggression” in four countries.

On Tuesday, a recurring theme on U.S. news broadcasts, such as Andrea Mitchell’s MSNBC program, was that any lifting of economic sanctions against Iran will give it more money to engage in trouble-making in the Middle East with references to four nations – Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen – a central theme in Netanyahu’s speech on March 3 to a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

To repeated standing ovations from U.S. senators and congressmen, Netanyahu declared: “In the Middle East, Iran now dominates four Arab capitals, Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa. And if Iran’s aggression is left unchecked, more will surely follow. So, at a time when many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations. We must all stand together to stop Iran’s march of conquest, subjugation and terror.”

Netanyahu’s reference to “Iran’s aggression,” which is now becoming a conventional-wisdom talking point in Official Washington, was curious since Iran has not invaded another country for centuries. In 1980, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq – at the urging of Saudi Arabia – invaded Iran. But Iran has not invaded any of the four countries that Netanyahu cited.

One of Netanyahu’s citations of Arab cities supposedly conquered by Iran was particularly strange: Baghdad, which is the capital of Iraq where the U.S. military invaded in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-dominated government, on Netanyahu’s recommendation. In other words, Iraq was conquered not by Iranian “aggression” but by U.S. aggression with the support of Israel.

After the Iraq invasion, President George W. Bush installed a Shiite-dominated government which then developed friendly ties to Iran’s Shiite government. So, whatever influence Iran has in Baghdad is the result of a U.S. invasion that Netanyahu personally encouraged.

More recently, Iran has helped the embattled Iraqi government in its struggle against the murderous Islamic State militants who seized large swaths of Iraqi territory last summer. Indeed, Iraqi officials have credited Iran with playing a crucial role in blunting the Islamic State, the terrorists whom President Barack Obama has identified as one of the top security threats facing the United States.

So, in the current Iraqi fight against the head-chopping Islamic State, Iran and the United States are on the same side. Yet, Netanyahu calls Iran’s help “aggression” – and American talking heads repeat that refrain.

Netanyahu also cited Damascus, where Iran has aided the Syrian government in its struggle against the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front. That means that Iran is assisting the internationally recognized government of Syria hold off two major terrorist organizations. By contrast, Israel and Saudi Arabia have provided direct and indirect help at least to Nusra. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Did Money Seal Israel-Saudi Alliance?”]

The Israeli prime minister also mentioned Beirut, Lebanon, and Sanaa, Yemen, but those were rather bizarre references, too, since Lebanon is governed by a multi-ethnic arrangement that includes a number of religious and political factions. Hezbollah is one and it has close ties to Iran, but it is stretching the truth to say that Iran “dominates” Beirut or Lebanon.

Similarly, in Sanaa, the Houthis, a Shiite-related sect, have taken control of Yemen’s capital and have reportedly received some help from Iran, but the Houthis deny those reports and are clearly far from under Iranian control. The Houthis also have vowed to work with the Americans to carry on the fight against Yemen’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, which has benefitted from a brutal Saudi bombing campaign against Houthi targets, an act of real aggression that has killed hundreds of civilians and provoked a humanitarian crisis.

Indeed, Iran and these various Shiite-linked movements have been among the most effective in battling Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, while Israel’s Saudi friends have been repeatedly linked to funding and supporting these Sunni terrorist organizations.

So, there is little truth and much exaggeration to Netanyahu’s depiction of what is going on in the Middle East. Yet, the U.S. mainstream media mindlessly reprises Netanyahu’s falsehood about Iran “gobbling up” nations.

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek.

15 July 2015

By Sarah Lazare

Israeli forces are choking, beating, and abusing Palestinian children as young as 11, arresting and coercing them into confessions without granting them access to lawyers or even informing their parents of their whereabouts, a new investigation from Human Rights Watch reveals.

The findings are contained in a report—Israel: Security Forces Abuse Palestinian Children—based on interviews with six children between the ages of 11 and 15, and corroborated by witness testimony and video evidence. All of the children were accused of throwing rocks between March and December 2014—a common charge that can lead to decades in prison.

“Israel has been on notice for years that its security forces are abusing Palestinian children’s rights in occupied territory, but the problems continue,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director for HRW. “These are not difficult abuses to end if the Israeli government were serious about doing so.”

In each case, parents were not told their child had been arrested and the children were not provided lawyers during their interrogations. Two boys and one girl said they were forced under threat of beatings to sign confessions that were written in Hebrew, a language they don’t understand.

The families of two children were not permitted to visit or even call them during their respective incarcerations of 64 and 110 days.

Israeli forces inflicted violence on the children using stun grenades, chokeholds, and physical beatings. Two children urinated on themselves throughout the course of the arrest due to fear, and several say they suffer lasting psychological impacts, including nightmares.

“When they drove me from the settlement to the office, they put a black cloth bag on my head, and were shouting, ‘We’re going to beat you, you’re going to tell us who was with you throwing stones,'” 11-year-old Rashid from the Silwan neighborhood in East Jerusalem told HRW. “Then they were pushing me around, and cursing me, in Arabic. They kicked me in the shin, and my leg turned different colors. I was freezing. They kept putting me into a car and taking me out.”

Most of the children’s full names are being withheld in the report for their protection.

Though the HRW report falls short of calling the atrocities torture, many organizations—from Defense for Children International-Palestine to the United Nations—have extensively documented Israel’s systematic torture and mistreatment of Palestinian children.

The problem is compounded by the large scale of such arrests and detentions. Palestinian human rights organization Addameer reports that approximately 700 Palestinians under the age of 18 from the occupied West Bank alone are prosecuted in Israeli military courts every year after being arrested and detained. The organization estimates that more than 8,000 Palestinian children have been incarcerated by Israel since 2000.

Whitson emphasized in a statement that Israel’s abuse of Palestinian children is “at odds with its claim to respect children’s rights,” and the U.S. shares responsibility for this mistreatment: “As Israel’s largest military donor, the U.S. should press hard for an end to these abusive practices and for reforms.”

Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

20 July 2015

 

By Paul Craig Roberts

Obama is being praised as a man of peace for the nuclear agreement with Iran. Some are asking if Obama will take the next step and repair US-Russian relations and bring the Ukrainian imbroglio to an end?

If so he hasn’t told Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland or his nominee as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Paul Selva, or his nominee as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford, or his Secretary of the Air Force, Deborah Lee James.

The other day on Ukrainian TV Victoria Nuland declared that if Russia does not “fulfill its obligations,” by which she means to turn all of Ukraine over to Washington including Crimea, a historical Russian province, “we’re prepared to put more pressure on Russia.” During the past week both of Obama’s nominees to the top military positions told the US Senate that Russia was the main threat to the US, an “existential threat” even. With this level of war rhetoric in play, clearly Obama has no interest in reducing the tensions that Washington has created with Russia.

In my last column I wrote that the agreement with Iran does not mean much, because Washington can renew the sanctions at any time merely by making false charges against Iran. Obama knows this even if Lindsey Graham and John McCain pretend that they don’t know it.

The US and its proxies continue to murder people over a large area of the earth. Clearly Obama is not a man of peace, and neither are his European enablers and the United Nations. So what is the reason for the accommodation with Iran after many years of rabid demonization of a country for no other reason than the country insisted on its rights to nuclear energy granted by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?

If you can free yourself from the brainwashing from the presstitute media, three BIG reasons jump out at you. One is that the neoconservatives’ perception of the threat has shifted from “Muslim terrorists” to Russia and China. Unlike Muslim terrorists, both Russia and China are constraints on Washington’s unilateralism. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington has grown accustomed to being the Uni-Power, able to exercise its will unchallenged in the world. The rise of Russian strength under Putin and Chinese strength under the new policy has destroyed Washington’s Uni-Power privilege. Washington wants the privilege back.

Washington is not in good shape, economically or militarily. According to Nobel Economist Joseph Stieglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes, Washington has wasted at least $6 trillion dollars in its 14-year old wars in the Middle East. Despite the extraordinary cost, Washington has been defeated, and is now faced with the Islamic State, a new entity arising out of Washington’s mistakes that is creating a new country partly out of Iraq and partly out of Syria.

Despite its gigantic hubris, Washington has figured out that the US cannot simultaneously take on Russia, China, Iran, and the Islamic State. This realization is one reason for the nuclear agreement with Iran. It removes Iran from the mix.

A second reason for the agreement is that Iran is opposed to the Islamic State and can be employed as an American proxy against the Islamic State, thus freeing Washington for conflict with Russia and China.

A third reason for Washington’s agreement with Iran is Washington’s concern with Europe’s energy dependence on Russia. This dependence is inconsistent with the EU going along with Washington’s sanctions against Russia and with NATO’s military moves against Russia. Washington wants to end this dependence and has hopes that money can bring Iran into becoming a supplier of natural gas and oil to Europe.

The explanation I have provided is realism, not cynicism. All that the agreement with Iran means is that Washington has belatedly realized that the concocted Iranian and Muslim threats are using up time, energy, and resources that Washington needs to apply to Russia and China. Moreover, there were too many threats for the American people to know which was paramount.

One of the reasons that Greece has to be destroyed is to block the entry of Russian natural gas into Europe from the Russian pipeline into Turkey.

Washington has US troops in Ukraine training the Ukrainian military how to subdue the break-away provinces, and the stooge Ukrainian government has taken no steps to comply with the Minsk Agreement. Clearly Washington intends that peace is not in the cards in Ukrainian-Russian relations.

At some point Russia will have to accept defeat or else stop contributing to its own defeat. On more than one occasion when the Russian break-away provinces had the Ukrainian military totally defeated, the Russian government intervened and prevented the collapse of the Ukrainian military. For its consideration, Russia has been rewarded with more demonization and with US aid to the Ukrainian military. When hostilities resume, which they will, Russia and the break-away Russian provinces will find themselves in a worsened position.

The Russian government cannot pursue peace when Washington is pursuing War.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate.

20 July, 2015
Paulcraigroberts.org

 

By Mike Ghouse

Whether you are an Atheist, Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Native American, Pagan, Shinto, Sikh, Wicca, and Zoroastrian or from any other tradition, you may feel a sense of connection with the spirit of Ramadan.

God is a word for the cause that creates, sustains and recycles this universe, and belongs to all that exists and is not the exclusive dominion of anyone. No matter how and what name you call upon him – he (she or it) cannot be a different causer for each one of us.

The physical aspect of human journey from the sperm and an egg stage through the death is programmed precisely. The formula is same for all of humanity; and there is no such thing as a Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or other gene.

Regardless of what is being said about origins in terms of evolution, creation or the big bang, the undeniable fact is our existence, and we have to figure out how to live with each other.

When the universe came into being, two main products of the process were Matter and Life.

While the matter is programmed to be in self-balance and functions precisely for which it is designed, like the Sun, Jupiter, Earth or the Moon playing its part, the (human) life on the other hand was not programmed; we were given complete freedom, guidance and intelligence to create our own balance for survival.

A balanced society is where every one of us functions cohesively in small parcels of this big World Wide Web. It is sustained by respecting the otherness of others and accepting the God given uniqueness of each one of us. If we mess with the web, we mess with ourselves ultimately. If we mess with the environmental balance we will pay for it, just as we bear the loss of health if we mess with what we eat, drink and smoke. There is a consequence for imbalance.

Birth of Religion

We lose the balance if we don’t trust and lie to each other, rob the other, and not keep the promises we make to fellow beings. This is when religion appears; it is the love of the creator for his creation, just as a mother loves her children –someone among us will rise and restore that balance. Didn’t Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad and other masters restore the righteousness and balance in the society? I hope you can relate with this thought in your own scriptures and legends.

An identical spiritual wisdom emerges in different parts of the world simultaneously; the greatest example would be how a mother figures out what to do with her crying baby in the jungles of Amazon or the high society in London.

Indeed, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and as a corollary I would say, faith is in the heart of the believer, and every religion is dear to its believer.

Religion is about love for fellow beings, a majority of us in every religion get that right but for a few, who keep messing up the cohesiveness of the society. Those few are not an identifiable group, but the infraction in each one of us when we become biased towards the others. Religion is never the problem; it is the individuals who don’t get their religion right are the problem.

Ramadan and you.

From the moment we are born to the last rites of our life, and every moment in between is laden with rituals, even though some of us may deny it. Whether we go to the gym, eat, sleep, wear clothes, drive or talk on the phone, we follow rituals.

Rituals signify the milestones of our daily life. Every significant moment of the day is a ritual. It is an unwritten way of measuring our progression, a memory pattern to bring discipline to our actions.

Discipline is necessary to do things on time, manage personal relationships, drive to a destination or keep within budget. The result of disciplined behavior is worthwhile for most people. When we are joyous, whether we are a theist or not, we have to express that sentiment, otherwise a sense of incompleteness lingers in our hearts.

The spiritual masters have captured the human gravity towards rituals and have molded it with the art and science of self-discipline in their respective religions. The noble purpose of each one of them was to bring a balance in our lives and a balance with our environment.

Every faith is composed of a set of unique rituals to bring discipline and peace to human life. Fasting is one of the five key rituals that Muslims around the world observe.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and is generally observed with a ritual precision; it is an annual training or a refresher. It requires one to abstain from food, drink, intimacy, ill-will, ill-talk, ill-actions and other temptations from dawn to dusk, every day for a month. One has to rise above his or her baser desires. Islam gifts this month to its followers to inculcate discipline to bring moderation to their daily lives. Twenty five hundred years ago, Buddha, the enlightened one taught that human suffering is caused by unrestrained desire to possess and had recommended a middle path, and the same recommendation was made by Prophet Muhammad fourteen hundred years ago.

Although Ramadan is popularly known in the west for its culinary delicacies and fancy iftars (ceremonial breaking of fast at sun down), the spirit and intent of Ramadan lies in a human transformation in a month-long inner spiritual journey of finding oneself in tune with spirituality.

Hindus can see that transformation in nine days of fasting during Navaratri, the Jains in 8-10 days of fasting during Paryushana, Christians during 40 days of lent, Jews for 7 days around Yom Kippur….likewise you find fasting is a way of life in most traditions.

God has no need for the hunger or thirst of someone who hurts others, violates their dignity or usurps their rights, said Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The fasting of the stomach must be matched by the fasting of the limbs. The eyes, ears, tongue, hands and feet all have their respective fasts to undergo. The tongue’s temptations, for example — lies, backbiting, slander, vulgarity and senseless argumentation — must be challenged and curbed to maintain the integrity of the fast.

Consciousness of behavior and vigilance over action are the most profound dimensions of fasting: the fasting of the heart focuses on the attachment to the divine. That is when Ramadan really becomes a source of peace and solace, just as Christmas or Dussera goes beyond the rituals to bring forth kindness, charity and caring

True fasting is self-purification; and from this comes a rich inner life that bring about values such as justice, generosity, patience, kindness, forgiveness, mercy and empathy — values that are indispensable for the success of the community.

Knowing about hunger is different from knowing hunger. Empathy is not an intellectual equation; it is a human experience. Our hardness of heart often springs from our distance from the human condition of others. The poor, sick, disenfranchised, oppressed — we rarely walk a mile in their shoes, not even a few steps. “Rest assured,” cautioned one teacher, “if you do not taste what it feels like to be hungry, you will not care for those who are.”

Ramadan will come and go with such stealth that we cannot but be reminded of our mortality. What is it that we value and why? Habits, customs, even obsessive behavior like smoking can be curtailed with relative ease in the face of a higher calling.

For fasting to be truly universal, its benefits must extend beyond the fraternal ties of Muslims and must extend to forging a common humanity with others. Fasting is meant to impart a sense of what it means to be truly human, and its universality is reflected by its observance in Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Sikh, Zoroastrian and other faiths. More about Ramadan at www.Ramadanexclusive.com

Let the spirit of Ramadan develop an understanding and respect for each one of God’s creation – that is all of us. Ramadan Mubarak!

Mike is a speaker, thinker, writer, pluralist and a human rights activist committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. Info in 63 links at MikeGhouse.net and writings at TheGhouseDiary.com

16 July, 2015
Countercurrents.org

 

By Chris Marsden

Greek Prime Minister and Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras secured the backing of parliament early Thursday for the savage programme of austerity he agreed with eurozone officials last weekend.

Obtaining passage of the programme was never in doubt. The legislation was overwhelmingly approved by a vote of 229 to 64. There were six abstentions. Three openly pro-austerity parties—New Democracy, PASOK and To Potami—supported the Syriza government’s bill. The “no” vote included MPs from the Communist Party (KKE) and the fascist Golden Dawn, along with 32 Syriza MPs.

Outside parliament, there was growing anger over Tsipras’ treacherous deal. The public-sector union Adedy held a four-hour strike Wednesday morning. That evening there were several protests in Athens and Thessaloniki. The Communist Party (KKE)-affiliated union federation PAME held a fairly large protest as the parliamentary debate got underway. Demonstrations were also staged by ANTARSYA and anarchists.

The government deployed riot police, who fired tear gas as Molotov cocktails were thrown. Those attacked by the police included members of Syriza’s youth organisation.

But within the parliament building, Tsipras secured the votes of his right-wing coalition partners, the Independent Greeks, in addition to the three pro-austerity parties. The Syriza-led coalition has condemned Greek workers and youth to further suffering, to the point where Greece’s persecutors in Berlin are talking of combining the austerity measures they demanded with “humanitarian aid.”

All eyes were on Syriza’s Left Platform, to see whether expected defections would be sufficiently broad to force Tsipras’ resignation and fresh elections. Earlier in the day, there were reports that Tsipras had phoned President Prokopis Pavlopoulos amid speculation that a rebellion by 40 MPs would be taken as a vote of no-confidence.

Tsipras told his MPs that a vote against the deal would represent a right-wing coup, intended to prove that an “anti-austerity” government was only a “left intermission.” He was backed by Syriza spokesman Nikos Filis, who warned, “If the Syriza government falls, you will be doing a favour to [German Finance Minister Wolgang] Schäuble and the conservative circles of Europe.”

These statements are staggering in their absurdity and hypocrisy. The supposedly “anti-austerity” and “left” Syriza government, elected on a pledge to end EU austerity, is imposing attacks on the jobs, pensions and living standards of Greek workers that go far beyond any accepted by previous governments. It has, moreover, agreed to a de facto dictatorship of the “troika”—the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank—more total and all-embracing than the regime they promised to end. And it has agreed to turn over €50 billion in public assets to a trust controlled by Germany, which will sell off the assets to private speculators and use much of the proceeds to pay off Greece’s creditors.

Filis’ appeal for Syriza MPs to “vote against their own conscience” was echoed by Panos Kammenos, leader of the Independent Greeks, who declared, “We have to vote against our conscience and back the agreement.”

Prior to the parliamentary session, rumblings of dissent were evident. House Speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou, who voted against the government last Friday, was removed from the chair at Tsipras’ request. Deputy Finance Minister Nadia Valavani resigned her cabinet post, saying it was “impossible” for her to remain in a government set on imposing such savage austerity measures. Finance Ministry Secretary General Manos Manousakis also quit. A majority of Syriza’s Central Committee, 109 out of 201, including 15 MPs, voted to reject the agreement.

Tsipras nevertheless secured the support of most of his party. Among those who voted “no,” there was nothing to indicate anything other than a belated attempt to save face by mounting a token protest. The cowardice and lack of principle of the Left Platform, which supported Tsipras to the bitter end, was exemplified by Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, who said he would vote against the deal but would not seek to bring down the government.

For his pains, he is likely to be removed as part of a cabinet reshuffle to purge even the most fainthearted critics and stack the cabinet with those ready to impose whatever austerity measures are demanded by the EU. Four ministers who have spoken against the terms of the latest bailout will almost certainly leave office. Others, including Labour Minister Panos Skourletis, will be elevated in their place.

Even with a reshuffle, Tsipras’ position remains precarious. The government could still fall, with fresh elections as early as the autumn. New Democracy promised to support the government only long enough to get the bailout measures passed into law. To Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis, who controls 17 MPs, said that his party would not join a coalition government with Syriza.

Passing the agreement resolves nothing as far as Greece’s descent into financial hell is concerned. It just speeds up the process.

The International Monetary Fund’s own debt sustainability analysis declared bluntly, “Greece’s public debt has become highly unsustainable … The financing need through end-2018 is now estimated at euro 85 billion, and debt is expected to peak at close to 200 percent of GDP in the next two years, provided that there is an early agreement on a program. Greece’s debt can now only be made sustainable through debt relief measures that go far beyond what Europe has been willing to consider so far.” The IMF suggested that Greece would need a 30-year moratorium in debt repayments.

Germany will not agree to the type of aid the IMF is proposing, and the IMF is, for its part, demanding that the necessary funds be provided by the EU.

Jack Lew, the US treasury secretary, flew to Europe for talks yesterday with Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank. He is meeting with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble today. But Germany has repeatedly rebuffed appeals from Washington for a debt write-down
16 July, 2015
WSWS.org

 

Book Review By Gary Corseri

A Review of GAZA WRITES BACK: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine. Edited by Refaat Alareer. Just World Books, Charlottesville, VA, 2014. 205 pages.

I think I was in the first grade when I first heard about “war.” It was the Korean War the adults were talking about. The new president was going to go to Korea and “bring the boys home.” I could not understand then, and I do not understand now, how people could kill strangers because other strangers told them to do so. This “human race” baffled, and baffles, me!

I have sometimes thought that if wars could be shown in slow-motion, we could put an end to this barbarism that gives the lie to all claims of “civilization” and “humanity.”

GAZA WRITES BACK is one of those very rare books that depicts war in slow motion. The 23 stories here, written by 15 young authors (from late teens to early 30s, all but three female) were compiled to commemorate the 5-year anniversary of “Operation Cast Lead”—the name Israel gave to its 2008-2009 campaign to once more (but not finally) “mow the lawn” in Occupied Palestine—mostly, in this case, in Gaza. It is a book that vivifies and personalizes the horrors, but also adumbrates the gnawing losses, the indelible memories.

“Storytellers are a threat,” Editor Refaat Alareer quotes Chinua Achebe in his Introduction. “They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit.” Alareer continues in his own words: “Telling stories is an act of life… is resistance.” Sameeha Elwan, a contributor to this collection adds that “Cyberspace, as a newly centralized space in which the act of storytelling is constantly in process, provides scattered Palestinians with a place which holds new possibilities of forging new ways of belonging or place-making.”

Two other remarkable facts about this anthology is that many of the stories originated as blogs, and that all of them were written in English by non-native speakers! No mis-interpolations by well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning translators. Every story is at least well-written and worthy of anthologizing, and some are as brilliant and unforgettable as a short story by Hemingway, Katherine Mansfield or Frank O’Hara.

The stories range in style and texture from stark, almost reportorial, to strangely lyrical. In “One War Day,” Mohammed Sulliman depicts a man trying to escape into books (when there is no escape.) The protagonist is sketched, he hardly seems to exist, but there is enough “placement” for us to feel the dreadful emptiness when life is bomb-shattered. Aya Rabah’s “Scars” is a poetic pastiche of life-events wound around wars. “What is massacre, Mom,” young Salam (meaning “peace”) asks in “Scars.” “All that I can tell you is that nothing can justify it, not even the most sacred ends in the world, not even peace itself, understand me?” “Yes, Mom. Nothing can justify our scars.” “I could not explain why I saw death in my son’s eyes at that moment.”

All the stories here are really fragments of life longing to be lived. Prisms of glass, easily shattered by bombs and bullets, but casting, momentarily, rainbow colors when the sun strikes just right.

A fine feature of this collection is the snapshot pictures and bios of the authors at the end of the book. “Why, they are people just like us!” the uninitiated might conclude. “They dress differently, look different, but they are young men and women who study English in universities, hoping to advance to Medical School, or teach English, or become home-makers themselves….”

“Wars never end,” Rabah writes in “Scars.” “I came to agree with my teacher that history is always repeating itself, not necessarily in the same form, but it brings the same deformity to us.”

Now 21, in her bio-note Rawan Yaghi writes: “I believe in literature’s power to cross borders and walls. I have experienced fiction’s ability to erase mental boundaries of nationalities and prejudices, and its ability to reach the human core of people….”

In her bio-note, Elham Hilles notes that “Writing is a way of resistance….” And Hanan Habashi specifies the resistance in hers: “Because many people around the world think they have the right to speak on their behalf, Palestinians are suffering two opposing stereotypical images that are equally disturbing and doing the just cause injustice: the Palestinian as a helpless victim, a mere object of sympathy, or as a bloodthirsty savage. Palestinians are neither.”

Then, what are Palestinians? A people longing for their place; land-hungry; with synaptic and genetic identities and memories as deep-rooted as the olive groves that fill their imaginations. They are a home-sick people who have maintained their identity– in spite of the Nakba (“catastrophe” or forced expulsion from their homeland “as a result of the declaration of the state of Israel in 1948 and the seizure of Palestinian lands”) They are not a “rootless” people as so many in the meandering “Western” world are. In spite of wars and endless hardships, family ties remain bedrocks on which the sacred ground of future generations are seeded and flourish.

Palestine is “our incomplete story,” Hanan Habashi tells us in “L for Life.” “Life is about second chances,” Habashi declares. “You hardly ever deserve them, but at some point we all need them.”

In these stories, the dead and dying have a second chance to live again. They are stories in slow motion—and with context! Stories that provide the heart-context that articles—even by gifted writers—cannot provide… by their generic nature.

Here are stories of resistance, and terrible loneliness, too. “I realized that I will be all alone after your and your father’s martyrdom. You are alone, and I am alone. You will stay alone. I will stay alone. You died alone, and I will die alone. That night, I missed your warm breaths, harmonic heartbeats, and charming smile. That night, I lost my son,” writes Shahd Awadallah.

You cannot uproot an idea! Palestine has been a vibrant idea for thousands of years, a living land with generations renewing the promise decade after decade. Nour Al Sousi, Sarah Ali, Nour El Borno, Jehan Alfarra, Yousef Aljamal, Wafaa Abu Al-Qomboz, Tasnim Hamouda and the others mentioned above have invited us into their homes, to sit at their tables, to be nourished with their stories and their lives. To share with us — their guests…, their kin.

Gary Corseri has performed his work at the Carter Presidential Library, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has published novels and collections of poetry, has taught in public schools, prisons and universities, has published work at Countercurrents, The New York Times and hundreds of publications and websites worldwide.

13 July, 2015
Countercurrents.org

 

By Abdullah Al-Ahsan

The Turkish daily Hürriyet has reported that, “World Uighur Congress (WUC) head Rebiya Kadeer has criticized Chinese oppression of the Uighur Turks living in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, saying that massacres, extrajudicial executions and oppression against Uighurs was continuing (July 8).” Earlier protesters in Turkey have demonstrated in support of Uighur minorities in against alleged Chinese persecution of the minority community. Some extremists have even attacked South Korean tourists by mistake thinking that they were Chinese tourists and some opposition politicians blatantly expressed their support for violent acts. In fact since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan news about the persecution of Uighur Muslims in Southern China are making headlines in many parts of the Muslim world. If I remember correctly, we had witnessed the similar news during Ramadan last year as well.

Is this just a coincidence? Is there anything new in the Uighur situation? Why is such a flurry of this information now? These questions should be examined carefully. In analyzing the accusation of WUC head Rebiya Kadeer one news agency has reported that, “The heavy security measures are part of daily life. Armed security forces guard many corners. It is not possible to freely take a photo due to the security forces. Moreover, people are also hesitant to be in photos or videos (Daily Sabah, July 8).” But is this happening only in Xingjian? Or this is the first time that such events are taking place in the region? Aren’t other regions of China also subject to similar restrictions? Who wouldn’t object to “massacres, extrajudicial executions and oppression” of minorities? But aren’t Muslims victim of such persecutions in Muslim majority countries such as Bangladesh and Egypt? Shouldn’t one fix his/ her own house before finger pointing to others?

Role of the International Media

Interestingly the international media seem more interested in stories of persecution of Muslim activists in Xingjian than in Bangladesh or Egypt. In a feature entitled “Why is there tension between China and the Uighurs?” BBC (September 26, 2014) explained how the crisis originated and how the rights of self-determination of the Uighur community are being denied by the Chinese authorities. Right groups such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI) also have been reporting about the abuse of Uighur Muslims and how they have been denied of their fundamental right including their nationhood in our world of nations today. While one must appreciate these concerns, one must also contemplate on the nature and timings of these features and reports. Are all such reports well-intended? Are the Uighur only people who have been denied independent nationhood in the world today? Why don’t the Kurds have a state of their own? Was China responsible for it or the British? One would find many more examples of su
ch denials in the history of world affairs. How then should one address such issues?

Uighur Issue in the Context of the Clash of Civilizations Thesis

Like all other similar issues the question of Uighur persecution is a sensitive one. In a world mired by the clash of civilizations thesis this, in fact, is a super-sensitive issue. Formulator of the thesis, Samuel Huntington, had warned against possible Chinese-Muslim cooperation against what he called the Western civilization. Is there a hidden agenda behind these reports? Are some spy agencies and prejudiced think-tanks trying to exploit the Uighur situation in order to create distance between the Chinese authorities and the Muslims? There are plenty of evidences of such manipulations in world affairs. Shouldn’t Muslims be carefully examining to find out whether they are being intimidated by the story of Uighur persecution particularly during the holy fasting month?

Records would demonstrate that China has been more careful in handling minorities than many other countries. Compare the Indian treatment of people of Kashmir. The “world’s largest democracy” Indian government has refused to sit with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to discuss the Kashmir issue arguing that the issue was one of India’s internal one, while the communist China has welcomed the OIC to discuss the Uighur issue. For decades China has sought assistance OIC member state Pakistan in facilitating Chinese Muslims to perform the annual Hajj.

The Need for Muslim Reconsideration of the Issue

In fact the international Muslim community should also consider and compare the treatment of Uighur and Hui Muslim communities in China. In terms of the number, both communities are almost the same: about 10 or 11 million people in official figures, but the Huis are scattered all over China as opposed to the Uighurs who inhabit in the south of the country. And the Huis are reported to be doing generally well with China’s opening of business with the outside world.

History has demonstrated that dialogues have produced better outcome than violence in resolving conflicts. The Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdugan officially visited Urumqi as prime minister in April 2012 and he is scheduled to visit again as president soon. Through dialogue create opportunities for the Uighur youth for education, provide them with scholarship, and create hope for the future. This will boost their confidence and they should be able to positive growth of the Chinese economy. Perhaps it would be wise on the part of the Turkish leader to include a representative of the OIC in his delegation. This will help gaining the confidence of the international Muslim community in overall efforts to reduce tension.

Professor Abdullah Al-Ahsan is a historian and Vice-President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).

14 July 2015

By Franklin Lamb

Yarmouk camp, Damascus: Several credible reports this week from Palestinian refugees in Syria and Europe, the latter among those who by various means managed to escape the Syrian conflict with their lives, illustrate the increasing pressure and dangers Palestinians are facing here just trying to survive. And the chances of survival are not likely to improve anything soon.

Three serious cases over the past few days were reported to the Beirut-Washington DC based Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program (sssp-lb.org) which since the beginning of this year has been able to modestly assist a number of Palestinians from Syria obtain visas and refuge in Europe. Providing some cash, sometimes intervention with the Kafkaesque problems they face at the Syria-Lebanon Masnaa border crossing and often contacting Lebanese General Security regarding those agencies seemingly ever changing requirements and unannounced restrictions. Problems for arrivals from Syria trying to reach European embassies in Lebanon have recently been compounded as the government imposes yet more strict measures for their entry and forward movement to Europe. SSSP has been able to provide some housing in South Beirut while Palestinians from Syria wait to receive their visas-usually a six day process- and then provides transportation to Beirut airport as the Palestinians seek a new life in Europe, pending return to their own country, Palestine.

What is happening this week to Palestinians at Syrian checkpoints between Damascus and the Turkish border has alarmed the Palestinian community here and their supporters. The reason is that once a Palestinian refugee arrives in Europe, the person can apply for refugee status also for a child, parent or spouse, who, for various reasons were forced to stay behind in Syria. After some months, the European country normally issues visas in favor of the family members so they can travel and the family is reunited. So far so good…but perhaps no longer.

A related case involves minors who sometime arrive to Europe by themselves without a parent. Such as a precious and precocious 15 year old school-girl from Yarmouk camp, ‘Farah’ who last week traveled, on her own, ignoring this observers fatherly advice, and without a visa, made it to Turkey where she boarded an inflatable boat at Ayvalik with 30 other passengers, and since the motor conked out took turns rowing to the Greek island of Lesbos paying $1000 to a ‘holding bank’ in Turkey to be paid to the trafficker once she arrived in Lesbos and submitted a code from the bank ( the normal fare from Ayvalik, Turkey to the Greek island Lesbos, on a regular secure and insured tourist boat is 30 euros).

An addition to “Farah”, record breaking numbers of migrants are arriving on Lesbos these days, overwhelming local authorities who identify, screen and register arrivals and send them on to the Greek mainland, usually Athens. On 7/5/2015, a record 1,600 Syrians and Palestinians, and some others, arrived at Lesbos in a 24 hour period, whereas the previous daily record was around 500 and where monthly arrivals have grown from 737 in January and 1,002 in February, to 3,348 in March. Almost 5,000 arrived in April and over 7,200 in May. As of this week, more than 6000 refugees have arrived at Lesbos and the numbers keep swelling, part of the 110,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria who have fled to Europe.

As we all know, trips such as these are dangerous. Palestinian refugees from Syria are increasingly trying, in the following order of preference, to travel to Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Britain, and France to find safety and dignity. About 40,000 have succeeded to date (270,000 Syrians have applied for asylum in Europe so far). Thousands of other Palestinians forced to use ‘death boats’ have died trying. For example, on 11/10/2013, around 200 Palestinian refugees from Syria drowned. On 6/9/2014, a boat carrying 400 refugees, including a large number of Palestinian Syrians, capsized and only 11 survived. In addition, since late 2011 until today, approximately 3000 Palestinians have been killed inside Syria without a ceasefire likely anytime soon.

But “Farah” arrived to Lesbos safely last week and was ecstatic when she called me and reported that the six hour boat ride was “fun on the calm sea.” Her good luck continued as she got off the boat and started to figure out what to do next because some Danish tourists saw her and helped her. Three days later “Farah” arrived in Sweden to a new life and plans to apply in the next few days for her parents in Yarmouk to come as soon as possible and unite the family, as allowed in the case of minors by all European countries but not Lebanon. But this young lady’s dream may not come true.

As noted above new procedures at Syrian checkpoints have potentially shattered “Farahs” and other Palestinians dreams of families being reunited in Europe. The reason is that this week credible reports that Palestinian family members who have received visas to join loved ones in Europe including parents of minors in Europe, are being blocked at Syrian checkpoints and are being jailed or returned to Damascus. There has been no government regulation promulgated on this subject to date and details are still murky. On 7/8/2015 this observer received a Skype call from an eight member Yarmouk family that the SSSP had helped to resettle in the Netherlands. They reported that their parents, while en route to Turkey to fly to the Netherlands were stopped at a checkpoint in Syria north of Homs, arrested and jailed. After a few days friends arranged a bribe and they were freed but they were warned by their jailers that “Palestinians can no longer leave Syria for Europe via Turkey or any other route.” As with two other reported cases this week, the only explanation they were given was “if Palestinians left Syria they would lose the Right to Return to Palestine.”

Of course this outrageous feeble excuse is patent nonsense. Every Palestinian refugee on earth from the Nakba or Naksa and her offspring is invested at birth with the Full Right of Return and this right is inalienable and cannot to ceded, relinquished, bargained away or abolished by political leaders, neither by PA officials negotiating with the Zionist apartheid regime or by anyone else. A Palestinians Full Right of Return is individual and vested in perpetuity–at birth.

But what the new “policy” here does mean is that “Farah” and other families from among the more than 110,000 Palestinians who have fled Syria (270,000 Palestinians are internally displaced inside Syria and most of the rest are under siege) may not be able to be reunited until the conflict ends or this new checkpoint practice is repealed. UNWRA and UNHCR have been informed of this recent devastating development and have pledged they will investigate. So should Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and like-minded humanitarian organizations.

Despite the fact that the Palestinian community in Syria, from the beginning of this conflict, vowed to avoid any involvement and to preserve the symbolism of their cause among the whole population as well as maintain Palestinian relations with the Syrian government that has given them more civil rights than any other Middle East country, it does not appear likely that in near term scenarios for ending this conflict carry positive prospects for the Palestinians in Syria. Myriad efforts to enlist the Palestinians in the Syrian conflict has not done much to alter the balance of power among the main belligerents here, but it has benefited the occupiers of Palestine and resulted in more suffering which today includes the lack of basic family needs such as food and water, fuel, electricity, healthcare and even ability to communicate with loved ones. In addition to Yamouk, the camps of Khan al-Sheikh, al-Narab and Handarat in the governorates of Damascus and Aleppo which this observer has visited, are under siege and are facing death.

As a recent (7/8/2015) analysis by Al-Zaytouna Centre’s Maher Shawish suggests, whether the conflict continues or the Syrian state disintegrates into sectarian and ethnic entities, Palestinian suffering will continue here, and their numbers will decline in Syria.

The deterioration of conditions of Palestinians in Syria could stop if the rival parties, with support from their regional and international sponsors, could arrive at a political settlement that preserves the Syrian state and its unity as well as the central cause of people of good will in this region. The cause of Palestine.

Franklin Lamb’s most recent book, Syria’s Endangered Heritage, An international Responsibility to Protect and Preserve is in production by Orontes River Publishing, Hama, Syrian Arab Republic.

11 July, 2015
Countercurrents.org