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At LargeLetter From Djibouti By Jacob Laksin Published 10/26/2007 12:08:30 AM
DJIBOUTI, Djibouti -- If there were to be a contest for the world's most beautiful topography, it would take a formidable challenge to knock Djibouti out of last place. From the air, the country calls to mind nothing so much as a vast, sprawling junkyard, with the gutted remains of single-engine planes, taxicabs, and roofless hovels rusting in an unforgiving, humidity-thick heat. Things improve little from the ground up. The first thought that springs to mind when arriving in Djibouti is puzzlement at how such an economically ailing nation, nearly half of whose 650,000 population lives in poverty, has nevertheless managed to dispose of so much stuff. Indeed, driving through the rocky dirt roads that lead from the capital, one might be forgiven for thinking that refuse is the local equivalent of natural vegetation. There are, of course, countless other troubled regions in Africa; traveling around Tunisia recently, I saw no shortage of villages untouched by the trappings of modernity. But few wore their misfortune as openly as Djibouti. THE EXPLANATION for some of this disrepair can be summed up in one word: khat. A green, leafy shoot common to East Africa and Yemen, the plant is supposed to act as a kind of African Viagra, speeding up blood pressure and generally boosting one's energy reserves. If so, it seems that Djibouti has acquired a particularly bad batch, because khat's effect on the locals, particularly the men, is anything but energizing. "After 12 o'clock the men are completely useless," one civil-affairs worker in Djibouti told me. She meant 12 o'clock in the afternoon. Casual observation bears this out. Look around the capital city any time after midday, and you will see whole packs of men collapsed in restful torpor on roadsides and street corners. It's no surprise that many of the maintenance workers at the American military base in Djibouti, Camp Lemonier, hail from neighboring Ethiopia and Somalia. The locals are just not up to the job. All of which prompts an uncomfortable conclusion. Because crushing poverty is such a famous fact of African life, it's sometimes assumed that Africans bear little to no responsibility for their plight. It's sobering to realize that, in Djibouti at least, one of the chief obstacles to progress and development is Djiboutians. Consider the central government. Djiboutian president Ismail Omar Guelleh's smiling, avuncular face appears on scores of billboards throughout the capital, but his presence throughout the remainder of the country seems decidedly more limited. Colonel Robert Adamson, a trained veterinarian who travels across Djibouti as part of a military-led initiative to inoculate local livestock, notes that he and his colleagues are doing a job that the government won't do. "It's not like we're competing with local projects" Adamson says. "We're doing things that no one is providing for the people."IN FAIRNESS, Djibouti is not the only country on the horn of Africa with problems. Indeed, the neighboring nations succeed in the unlikely task of making Djibouti look downright impressive, if only by comparison. Somalia, home to al Qaeda throughout the 1990s, was notoriously the inspiration for Black Hawk Down. To Djibouti's west, the demented regime of Marxist despot Mengistu Haile Mariam slaughtered thousands of political opponents in the seventies and eighties before precipitating a nationwide famine that became one of the biggest human-rights tragedies of the late 20th century. Today, Ethiopia is locked in an ongoing feud with Eritrea, a country that earlier this month had the dubious distinction of being rated worst in the world in overall press freedom by Reporters Without Borders. "It could be worse," is admittedly a far from perfect pitch to potential tourists, but it's accurate enough as a description of Djibouti's place in this chaotic corner of the continent. But things may be looking up for Djibouti. The United States made a large down payment on the success of the country in 2003, when it chose Djibouti as the site of its military-led development programs -- part of a broader campaign to stamp out future extremism by promoting stability in East Africa. Djibouti's international port remains one of the busiest on the continent, and has continued to attract foreign investment, especially from the Gulf States. Dubai Ports, the United Arab Emirates company that touched off a storm of controversy in the U.S. when it tried to take over the management of prominent American seaports, has been welcomed with open arms in Djibouti; in 2000 it won the right to administer and invest in Djibouti's port for 20 years. There is even excited talk of Djibouti becoming the next Dubai, a modern, business-friendly oasis rising from the empty desert. It's a lovely notion. But the ubiquitous garbage deposits, crumbling buildings and mildly narcotized natives are all reminders that, whatever the future holds, it has not arrived yet. Christy Stoner, an assistant to the U.S. ambassador to Djibouti, puts it diplomatically. "Djibouti is like Djibouti. It's like no other place." Best, perhaps, to leave it at that.Jacob Laksin is a 2007 journalism fellow at the Phillips Foundation.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Colonial West Humiliating Iran :Blix
Colonial West Humiliating Iran :Blix
IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
"People have their own pride whether you like them or don't," Blix said. WASHINGTON — The West's neo-colonial approach in dealing with Iran is humiliating and unfruitful and Tehran should be given reasonable incentives to halt its nuclear program, international nuclear expert Hans Blix has said.
"One feature, which is now key and peculiarly not very much debated ... is the demand -- first of the Europeans and then of the US and also of the (UN) Security Council -- that first Iran must suspend enrichment," the former UN weapons inspector was quoted as saying by Agence France Presse (AFP).
"This is, in a way, like telling a child, 'now first you behave and thereafter you'll be given your rewards'. And this I think is humiliating," he told a conference on international security in Washington on Monday, February 26.
Blix said Tehran feared for its safety, with US troops waging wars in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan.
He warned that the West's insolence would only lead to more intransigence.
"Why did the Iraqis behave as they did in the 1990s (and) send away the UNSCOM inspectors and close the door to them?" Blix asked, referring to the UN Special Commission mandated to inspect Iraqi weapons after the 1991 Gulf War.
"Yet I can see that the humiliation, the fury, was such that they said, 'To hell with it'," added the head of UNSCOM.
"People have their own pride whether you like them or don't."
Six UN Security Council members have agreed on Monday on further moves to make Iran comply with demands to end its uranium enrichment.
In December, a UN resolution barred the transfer of technology and sensitive nuclear materials to Iran.
The US and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran refutes the charge insisting that its program is for peaceful civilian use.
Double-standards
Blix, currently the head of the Stockholm-based Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, maintained that instead of military threats, Iran should be offered reasonable incentives.
''I don't think military threats are useful," he said.
"They will scare a number of people in Iran, yes. But at the same time, I think they are also very dangerous."
The US has been upping the ante against Tehran recently, restoring to the same aggressive rhetoric that preceded the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
US president George Bush has beefed up the US military presence in the Gulf to its highest level since the Iraq war.
Award-winning American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has revealed that the Pentagon recently formed a special group to plan an attack against Iran that can be implemented, upon orders from the president, within 24 hours.
He believes the Bush administration is intent on striking Iran and would do that with or without the UN authorization as was the case with Iraq in 2003.
Blix contrasted the situation with the six-party negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program, during which Pyongyang was given a list of incentives.
He noted that in the case of Iran, the West has taken a completely different approach.
"We haven't heard anything about offers concerning guarantees for security in case they will go along with a renunciation of enrichment."
The international nuclear expert noted that the Europeans put a lot of carrots on the table without much American support.
"It's the United States that can deliver assurances about security. It's the US that can deliver recognition or normalization of relations.
"'The first incentive, I think, is to sit down with them in a direct talk rather than saying to them 'you do this, thereafter we will sit down at a table and tell you what you get for it," said Blix.
"That's getting away from a humiliating neo-colonial attitude to a more normal (one)."
IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
"People have their own pride whether you like them or don't," Blix said. WASHINGTON — The West's neo-colonial approach in dealing with Iran is humiliating and unfruitful and Tehran should be given reasonable incentives to halt its nuclear program, international nuclear expert Hans Blix has said.
"One feature, which is now key and peculiarly not very much debated ... is the demand -- first of the Europeans and then of the US and also of the (UN) Security Council -- that first Iran must suspend enrichment," the former UN weapons inspector was quoted as saying by Agence France Presse (AFP).
"This is, in a way, like telling a child, 'now first you behave and thereafter you'll be given your rewards'. And this I think is humiliating," he told a conference on international security in Washington on Monday, February 26.
Blix said Tehran feared for its safety, with US troops waging wars in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan.
He warned that the West's insolence would only lead to more intransigence.
"Why did the Iraqis behave as they did in the 1990s (and) send away the UNSCOM inspectors and close the door to them?" Blix asked, referring to the UN Special Commission mandated to inspect Iraqi weapons after the 1991 Gulf War.
"Yet I can see that the humiliation, the fury, was such that they said, 'To hell with it'," added the head of UNSCOM.
"People have their own pride whether you like them or don't."
Six UN Security Council members have agreed on Monday on further moves to make Iran comply with demands to end its uranium enrichment.
In December, a UN resolution barred the transfer of technology and sensitive nuclear materials to Iran.
The US and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran refutes the charge insisting that its program is for peaceful civilian use.
Double-standards
Blix, currently the head of the Stockholm-based Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, maintained that instead of military threats, Iran should be offered reasonable incentives.
''I don't think military threats are useful," he said.
"They will scare a number of people in Iran, yes. But at the same time, I think they are also very dangerous."
The US has been upping the ante against Tehran recently, restoring to the same aggressive rhetoric that preceded the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
US president George Bush has beefed up the US military presence in the Gulf to its highest level since the Iraq war.
Award-winning American investigative reporter Seymour Hersh has revealed that the Pentagon recently formed a special group to plan an attack against Iran that can be implemented, upon orders from the president, within 24 hours.
He believes the Bush administration is intent on striking Iran and would do that with or without the UN authorization as was the case with Iraq in 2003.
Blix contrasted the situation with the six-party negotiations on North Korea's nuclear program, during which Pyongyang was given a list of incentives.
He noted that in the case of Iran, the West has taken a completely different approach.
"We haven't heard anything about offers concerning guarantees for security in case they will go along with a renunciation of enrichment."
The international nuclear expert noted that the Europeans put a lot of carrots on the table without much American support.
"It's the United States that can deliver assurances about security. It's the US that can deliver recognition or normalization of relations.
"'The first incentive, I think, is to sit down with them in a direct talk rather than saying to them 'you do this, thereafter we will sit down at a table and tell you what you get for it," said Blix.
"That's getting away from a humiliating neo-colonial attitude to a more normal (one)."
mali PM resigns after feud with president
mali PM resigns after feud with president
29 Oct 2007 17:51:22 GMT29 Oct 2007 17:51:22 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove-->
Source: Reuters
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Background
Somalia troubles
More
(Adds US comment)
By Ahmed Mohamed
BAIDOA, Somalia, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi resigned on Monday after a long feud with the president that frustrated Western backers and split the government while it faced an Islamist insurgency.
With no sure candidate to replace him, it remained unclear whether Gedi's departure would unify the interim government or set it down a new path of disarray.
"Today, I want to state that I am going to resign, that I am leaving the government," Gedi told parliament in the south-central trading town of Baidoa.
"I wasn't forced to resign, it comes from me. I will be here with you as a legislator."
His remarks brought applause from legislators who for weeks have been poised for what would amount to a no-confidence vote in Gedi pushed by President Abdullahi Yusuf.
"With respect to the situation the country is undergoing, the humanitarian catastrophe facing us and the longstanding deadlock among us, I welcome the resignation," Yusuf told parliament.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States understood Gedi's resignation was made "in the spirit of continued dialogue and national reconciliation among all Somali stakeholders."
"We call on the Transitional Federal Government to use this opportunity to engage with key Somali stakeholders, particularly those in Mogadishu, in a consultative process leading to the appointment of a new prime minister," he said in a statement.
Gedi's cabinet has been dissolved and discussions were under way as to who would sit as interim prime minister while a permanent replacement is found.
ACCIDENTAL POLITICIAN
Gedi's resignation came as shells struck the capital Mogadishu for a third day, in the worst fighting in weeks between Islamist rebels and allied Ethiopian-Somali troops.
The Yusuf-Gedi rift had hindered progress by the government, the 14th attempt at installing central rule in Somalia since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's ouster sunk the Horn of Africa country into anarchy in 1991.
Gedi tried to fight Yusuf's latest attempt to oust him by appealing for support from his powerful Hawiye clan in Mogadishu but he never got their full backing. Many Hawiye complain he was not their choice for the clan's top government position.
Yusuf hails from the rival Darod clan, and as such the prime minister had to be a Hawiye under a power-sharing agreement reached at talks in Kenya that gave birth to the government.
Those factors, diplomats and analysts say, made it difficult for the government to return to Hawiye-run Mogadishu until the Ethiopian military helped them over the New Year, only to be met by a Hawiye-backed Islamist insurgency.
That rebellion has challenged a government that has struggled to keep itself together in the best of times, while citizens of Mogadishu have fled the fighting by the thousands.
A veterinary surgeon by trade, Gedi rose from obscurity three years ago to become prime minister at the end of Somalia's peace talks in Kenya. Although he and Yusuf have shared Addis Ababa's support since they came to power in late 2004, the two have been at odds almost from the start.
They began to work together earlier this year until the rift widened again when they backed separate parties interested in Somalia's oil potential.
(Additional reporting by Bryson Hull in Nairobi)
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Somali PM resigns after feud with president
Source: Reuters ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
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Source: Reuters (35 minutes ago)
Source: Reuters
US/Uganda: Bush, Museveni Should Talk Human Rights
Source: Human Rights Watch ");
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Source: Human Rights Watch (14 minutes ago)
Source: Human Rights Watch
SOMALIA: Prime minister quits; violence rocks Mogadishu
Source: IRIN ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-29 14:33:17');
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Source: IRIN (2 hours ago)
Source: IRIN
Ethiopia denies plot to attack Eritrea
Source: Reuters ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-29 14:08:20');
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Source: Reuters (3 hours ago)
Source: Reuters
Somali pirates hijack Japanese tanker
Source: Reuters ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-29 10:17:48');
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Source: Reuters (6 hours ago)
Source: Reuters
More
NGO latest
CWS appeal: Somalia (Mogadishu) Humanitarian Assistance
Source: CWS ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-15 19:30:00');
div_ID++;
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Source: CWS (14 days ago)
Source: CWS
ACT Appeal: Response to Mogadishu Displacements, Somalia
Source: ACT - Switzerland ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-12 15:19:00');
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Source: ACT - Switzerland (17 days ago)
Source: ACT - Switzerland
Welthungerhilfe presents Global Hunger Index 2007: Eradicating hunger - a third of the countries on track - hot spot Africa
World Concern Appoints Africa Area Director
ACT Rapid Response Payment: Floods in Amhara and Gambella, Ethiopia
Source: ACT - Switzerland ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-08 12:49:00');
div_ID++;
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Source: ACT - Switzerland (21 days ago)
Source: ACT - Switzerland
More
Latest images
A resident flees from clashes between Ethiopian troops and Islamist-led rebels in Mogadishu, October 29, 2007. Somalia's prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi resigned on Monday after a long feud with the president that frustrated Western backers and split the government while it faced Islamist insurgency. REUTERS/Feisal Omar (SOMALIA)
More pictures Galleries
29 Oct 2007 17:51:22 GMT29 Oct 2007 17:51:22 GMT ## for search indexer, do not remove-->
Source: Reuters
Alert Me Print Email this article RSS [-] Text [+]
Background
Somalia troubles
More
(Adds US comment)
By Ahmed Mohamed
BAIDOA, Somalia, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi resigned on Monday after a long feud with the president that frustrated Western backers and split the government while it faced an Islamist insurgency.
With no sure candidate to replace him, it remained unclear whether Gedi's departure would unify the interim government or set it down a new path of disarray.
"Today, I want to state that I am going to resign, that I am leaving the government," Gedi told parliament in the south-central trading town of Baidoa.
"I wasn't forced to resign, it comes from me. I will be here with you as a legislator."
His remarks brought applause from legislators who for weeks have been poised for what would amount to a no-confidence vote in Gedi pushed by President Abdullahi Yusuf.
"With respect to the situation the country is undergoing, the humanitarian catastrophe facing us and the longstanding deadlock among us, I welcome the resignation," Yusuf told parliament.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States understood Gedi's resignation was made "in the spirit of continued dialogue and national reconciliation among all Somali stakeholders."
"We call on the Transitional Federal Government to use this opportunity to engage with key Somali stakeholders, particularly those in Mogadishu, in a consultative process leading to the appointment of a new prime minister," he said in a statement.
Gedi's cabinet has been dissolved and discussions were under way as to who would sit as interim prime minister while a permanent replacement is found.
ACCIDENTAL POLITICIAN
Gedi's resignation came as shells struck the capital Mogadishu for a third day, in the worst fighting in weeks between Islamist rebels and allied Ethiopian-Somali troops.
The Yusuf-Gedi rift had hindered progress by the government, the 14th attempt at installing central rule in Somalia since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's ouster sunk the Horn of Africa country into anarchy in 1991.
Gedi tried to fight Yusuf's latest attempt to oust him by appealing for support from his powerful Hawiye clan in Mogadishu but he never got their full backing. Many Hawiye complain he was not their choice for the clan's top government position.
Yusuf hails from the rival Darod clan, and as such the prime minister had to be a Hawiye under a power-sharing agreement reached at talks in Kenya that gave birth to the government.
Those factors, diplomats and analysts say, made it difficult for the government to return to Hawiye-run Mogadishu until the Ethiopian military helped them over the New Year, only to be met by a Hawiye-backed Islamist insurgency.
That rebellion has challenged a government that has struggled to keep itself together in the best of times, while citizens of Mogadishu have fled the fighting by the thousands.
A veterinary surgeon by trade, Gedi rose from obscurity three years ago to become prime minister at the end of Somalia's peace talks in Kenya. Although he and Yusuf have shared Addis Ababa's support since they came to power in late 2004, the two have been at odds almost from the start.
They began to work together earlier this year until the rift widened again when they backed separate parties interested in Somalia's oil potential.
(Additional reporting by Bryson Hull in Nairobi)
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Somali PM resigns after feud with president
Source: Reuters ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-29 17:51:22');
div_ID++;
-->
Source: Reuters (35 minutes ago)
Source: Reuters
US/Uganda: Bush, Museveni Should Talk Human Rights
Source: Human Rights Watch ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-29 17:31:01');
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Source: Human Rights Watch (14 minutes ago)
Source: Human Rights Watch
SOMALIA: Prime minister quits; violence rocks Mogadishu
Source: IRIN ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-29 14:33:17');
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Source: IRIN (2 hours ago)
Source: IRIN
Ethiopia denies plot to attack Eritrea
Source: Reuters ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-29 14:08:20');
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Source: Reuters (3 hours ago)
Source: Reuters
Somali pirates hijack Japanese tanker
Source: Reuters ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-29 10:17:48');
div_ID++;
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Source: Reuters (6 hours ago)
Source: Reuters
More
NGO latest
CWS appeal: Somalia (Mogadishu) Humanitarian Assistance
Source: CWS ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-15 19:30:00');
div_ID++;
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Source: CWS (14 days ago)
Source: CWS
ACT Appeal: Response to Mogadishu Displacements, Somalia
Source: ACT - Switzerland ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-12 15:19:00');
div_ID++;
-->
Source: ACT - Switzerland (17 days ago)
Source: ACT - Switzerland
Welthungerhilfe presents Global Hunger Index 2007: Eradicating hunger - a third of the countries on track - hot spot Africa
World Concern Appoints Africa Area Director
ACT Rapid Response Payment: Floods in Amhara and Gambella, Ethiopia
Source: ACT - Switzerland ");
document.getElementById("timediff").id ="timediff"+div_ID;
update_timediff_span("timediff"+div_ID,'2007-10-08 12:49:00');
div_ID++;
-->
Source: ACT - Switzerland (21 days ago)
Source: ACT - Switzerland
More
Latest images
A resident flees from clashes between Ethiopian troops and Islamist-led rebels in Mogadishu, October 29, 2007. Somalia's prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi resigned on Monday after a long feud with the president that frustrated Western backers and split the government while it faced Islamist insurgency. REUTERS/Feisal Omar (SOMALIA)
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Sunday, October 28, 2007
On Propagands and Islamophopia
By Abukar Arman
October 22, 2007
From Online Journal
The daunting reality facing people of conscience is the seemingly impossible task of controlling propaganda in a free society, and how the protected freedom of the perpetrators increases the vulnerability of their potential victims.
In the past few years, while many good things happened to Muslims in America, dark clouds continue to gather over them as a result of relentless propaganda by certain special interest groups. All one has to do is to randomly listen to talk show radio on the AM dial and hear the overtly expressed hate that hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions in America internalize every day and night. And this, needless to say, makes the backlash of any terrorist attack in the US soil a nightmare scenario for all Muslims.
'But, these are words,' the proponents of status quo argue. 'It is not that they are throwing Molotov cocktail bombs in their homes' they insist in order to minimize the power of words.
Perhaps the most powerful skill possessed by human beings (though not all) is the ability to assemble letters and turn them into words, then cultivate these words into dynamic ideas that shape perceptions, condition attitudes, and change minds. And, like all other skills, this too can be used positively or negatively.
Throughout history, words inspired actions that freed generations from the iron fists of despotism. By the same token, words demonized human beings by labeling their thoughts wicked and their lives contemptible, thus justifying policies of repression and oppression against them.
"We constantly speak of human beings in ways which implicitly deny their humanity - in words which reduce them to being mere representatives of a class, mere symbolic representations of some principle. Bourgeois, Bolshevik, Fascist, Communist... ," said Aldous Huxley in a 1936 speech delivered at the Albert Hall, London. "Not one of these words describes the concrete reality of the men and women to whom it is applied... Most people would hesitate to torture or kill a human being like themselves. But when that human being is spoken of as though he were not a human being, but as the representative of some wicked principle, we lose our scruples," Huxley added.
And history tends to repeat itself so long as we don't use lessons of our past experiences to avert recreating another dreadful chapter. Yesterday it was the Jews; today, it is the Muslims enduring a brutal barrage of demonizing disinformation that some compare to the pre World War II atmosphere.
In this age of Reality TV where the real, the unreal, and the surreal are deeply entangled, few have the ability to decipher the disinformation or propaganda for what it truly is. Few would question: Is stereotyping a major religion in its entirety ethical or even prudent? Is there any historical or a current trend supporting the so-called 'Islamo-fascism' propagated by certain vociferous political and religious provocateurs?
(And assuming their charges were correct) The question that begs an answer is, why are the millions of Muslims in the U.S. not wreaking 'fascistic' havoc? More importantly, why do these provocateurs and their Grand Wizards such as Robert Spencer, David Horowitz, Televangelist Pat Robertson, Daniel Pipes, and Steve Emerson, and the cottage industry of fear, outfits such as FrontPage Magazine, JihadWatch, and LittleGreen Footballs keep ranting and raving hate speech that indiscriminately offends Muslims and only gives more fuel to the radical elements?
Hate speech is described as words uttered, recorded, written, pictured, or communicated in any other means (softly or loudly) that are "intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or a group of people based on their race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion...".
However, as a result of the heinous aggression of 9/11 and the subsequent fear industry, a number of people became desensitized to the dangers of the slithering Islamophobia and its mirrored image, anti-Americanism.
In his radio program on WLW-AM, owned by Clear Channel, host Bill Cunningham had this message for his listeners: "The great war of this generation's time is the war against Islamic fascists... They do not live for life, they live for death. Only through death can they believe they can be with those 72 virgins in heaven and have sex with children for eternity, which is the goal of that religion." And, confident on how frightened into silence Muslims in the US are, when he was asked whether or not he was concerned how his remarks might've offended Muslims, he said he did not get any calls protesting his remarks. So, "I moved on to the Bengals," Cunningham said.
And in the political spectrum, early this summer, while being critical of how in their first two debates the democratic presidential candidates avoided connecting terrorism with Islam, the now frontrunner republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, had this to say: "During their two debates they never mentioned the word Islamic terrorist, Islamic extremist, Islamic fascist, terrorist, whatever combination of those words you want to use, (the) words never came up... Maybe it's politically incorrect to say that. I don't know. I can't imagine who you insult if you say Islamic terrorist. You don't insult anyone who is Islamic who isn't a terrorist."
Now imagine if media routinely described the widely reported sexual abuses committed by individual members of the Catholic clergy as 'Catholic-pedophiliac culture' and blamed everything on Roman Catholicism or the church doctrine. Or, imagine the Zionist brutal oppression of the Palestinian people being routinely referred to as Zio-Nazism or being blamed on Judaism and the teachings of the Torah!
Recently, however, realists such as General John Abizaid who came to terms that in no way is the venomous rhetoric employed by the propagandists in US' best interest started to speak out.
"Adding the word Islamic extremism, or qualifying it to Sunni Islamic extremism ... all make it very, very difficult because the battle of words is meaningful, especially in the Middle East to people," said the former Commander of the U.S. Central Command.
It is crucial to "figure out how we don't turn this into Samuel Huntington's Battle of Civilizations and we work toward an area where we respect mainstream Islam. There's nothing Islamic about Bin Laden's philosophy, there's nothing Islamic about suicide bombing. I believe that these are huge difficulties that we need to overcome, this notion of Christianity versus Islam. It's not that, it doesn't need to be that," he added.
In its true essence, propaganda is different than other forms of communication as it consciously employs half-truths, falsehoods and misleading information to manipulate feelings and attitudes. Propaganda mainly targets the emotion, because emotions stir the targeted subject into a frenzy of impulsive actions.
Hitler clearly understood this. In his infamous Mein Kampf, he wrote: for propaganda to be more effective it "must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect. We must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public. The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous,"
And while it is often projected as 'factual' or 'historical', propaganda has little or no connection with truth or history. "Historical truth may be discovered by a professor of history. We, however, are serving historical necessity. It is not the task of art to be objectively true. The sole aim of propaganda is success," wrote Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.
Accordingly, both facts and history are treated as ever-morphing blocs of information and accounts whose sole purpose is to be conveniently exploited by those who control their access - subjective media, repressive regimes, think tanks, etc.
Today, these gate-keeping entities subjectively frame the debate through relentless disinformation. They box all Muslims with a point of view together - they label some with the dreaded T-word, and frighten the others into utter silence or into an uncomfortable position of having to prove one's "moderate" inclinations all the time.
The propagandists confidently count on their ferocious "noise machine" made of primarily a network of pseudo-media and loyal bloggers with the capacity to repeat any lie long enough to turn it into the prevailing 'truth'.
Recently, a local interfaith body - the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio - that this author is connected with - announced its plan to host an educational forum called "Many Voices of Islam." Its purpose was to provide Muslims a unique opportunity to define themselves and openly share their various spiritual perspectives. The machine waged a hysterical campaign... accusing the association of lack of patriotism, supporting Hamas, and on exposing the country to greater danger.
Ironically, and perhaps while counting on the herd mentality of the frightened masses, this same propaganda machine promotes David Horowitz's spread-the-hate campaign called "the Islamo-fascism Awareness Week" coming to a university campus near you.
Horowitz and his affiliates' hateful mission was first unveiled in George Washington University when students promoting that event plastered provocative fliers all over the university; the most despicable among them being a poster bearing the image of a Muslim man with Islamic attire that read "Hate Muslims? So Do We!"
Meanwhile (and however symbolic), a silver-lining emerged behind the dark clouds hanging over the Muslims in America. Last week, New York's Empire State Building was lit up in green to honor the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
-----------------------
Abukar Arman is a freelance writer living in Ohio.
October 22, 2007
From Online Journal
The daunting reality facing people of conscience is the seemingly impossible task of controlling propaganda in a free society, and how the protected freedom of the perpetrators increases the vulnerability of their potential victims.
In the past few years, while many good things happened to Muslims in America, dark clouds continue to gather over them as a result of relentless propaganda by certain special interest groups. All one has to do is to randomly listen to talk show radio on the AM dial and hear the overtly expressed hate that hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions in America internalize every day and night. And this, needless to say, makes the backlash of any terrorist attack in the US soil a nightmare scenario for all Muslims.
'But, these are words,' the proponents of status quo argue. 'It is not that they are throwing Molotov cocktail bombs in their homes' they insist in order to minimize the power of words.
Perhaps the most powerful skill possessed by human beings (though not all) is the ability to assemble letters and turn them into words, then cultivate these words into dynamic ideas that shape perceptions, condition attitudes, and change minds. And, like all other skills, this too can be used positively or negatively.
Throughout history, words inspired actions that freed generations from the iron fists of despotism. By the same token, words demonized human beings by labeling their thoughts wicked and their lives contemptible, thus justifying policies of repression and oppression against them.
"We constantly speak of human beings in ways which implicitly deny their humanity - in words which reduce them to being mere representatives of a class, mere symbolic representations of some principle. Bourgeois, Bolshevik, Fascist, Communist... ," said Aldous Huxley in a 1936 speech delivered at the Albert Hall, London. "Not one of these words describes the concrete reality of the men and women to whom it is applied... Most people would hesitate to torture or kill a human being like themselves. But when that human being is spoken of as though he were not a human being, but as the representative of some wicked principle, we lose our scruples," Huxley added.
And history tends to repeat itself so long as we don't use lessons of our past experiences to avert recreating another dreadful chapter. Yesterday it was the Jews; today, it is the Muslims enduring a brutal barrage of demonizing disinformation that some compare to the pre World War II atmosphere.
In this age of Reality TV where the real, the unreal, and the surreal are deeply entangled, few have the ability to decipher the disinformation or propaganda for what it truly is. Few would question: Is stereotyping a major religion in its entirety ethical or even prudent? Is there any historical or a current trend supporting the so-called 'Islamo-fascism' propagated by certain vociferous political and religious provocateurs?
(And assuming their charges were correct) The question that begs an answer is, why are the millions of Muslims in the U.S. not wreaking 'fascistic' havoc? More importantly, why do these provocateurs and their Grand Wizards such as Robert Spencer, David Horowitz, Televangelist Pat Robertson, Daniel Pipes, and Steve Emerson, and the cottage industry of fear, outfits such as FrontPage Magazine, JihadWatch, and LittleGreen Footballs keep ranting and raving hate speech that indiscriminately offends Muslims and only gives more fuel to the radical elements?
Hate speech is described as words uttered, recorded, written, pictured, or communicated in any other means (softly or loudly) that are "intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or a group of people based on their race, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion...".
However, as a result of the heinous aggression of 9/11 and the subsequent fear industry, a number of people became desensitized to the dangers of the slithering Islamophobia and its mirrored image, anti-Americanism.
In his radio program on WLW-AM, owned by Clear Channel, host Bill Cunningham had this message for his listeners: "The great war of this generation's time is the war against Islamic fascists... They do not live for life, they live for death. Only through death can they believe they can be with those 72 virgins in heaven and have sex with children for eternity, which is the goal of that religion." And, confident on how frightened into silence Muslims in the US are, when he was asked whether or not he was concerned how his remarks might've offended Muslims, he said he did not get any calls protesting his remarks. So, "I moved on to the Bengals," Cunningham said.
And in the political spectrum, early this summer, while being critical of how in their first two debates the democratic presidential candidates avoided connecting terrorism with Islam, the now frontrunner republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, had this to say: "During their two debates they never mentioned the word Islamic terrorist, Islamic extremist, Islamic fascist, terrorist, whatever combination of those words you want to use, (the) words never came up... Maybe it's politically incorrect to say that. I don't know. I can't imagine who you insult if you say Islamic terrorist. You don't insult anyone who is Islamic who isn't a terrorist."
Now imagine if media routinely described the widely reported sexual abuses committed by individual members of the Catholic clergy as 'Catholic-pedophiliac culture' and blamed everything on Roman Catholicism or the church doctrine. Or, imagine the Zionist brutal oppression of the Palestinian people being routinely referred to as Zio-Nazism or being blamed on Judaism and the teachings of the Torah!
Recently, however, realists such as General John Abizaid who came to terms that in no way is the venomous rhetoric employed by the propagandists in US' best interest started to speak out.
"Adding the word Islamic extremism, or qualifying it to Sunni Islamic extremism ... all make it very, very difficult because the battle of words is meaningful, especially in the Middle East to people," said the former Commander of the U.S. Central Command.
It is crucial to "figure out how we don't turn this into Samuel Huntington's Battle of Civilizations and we work toward an area where we respect mainstream Islam. There's nothing Islamic about Bin Laden's philosophy, there's nothing Islamic about suicide bombing. I believe that these are huge difficulties that we need to overcome, this notion of Christianity versus Islam. It's not that, it doesn't need to be that," he added.
In its true essence, propaganda is different than other forms of communication as it consciously employs half-truths, falsehoods and misleading information to manipulate feelings and attitudes. Propaganda mainly targets the emotion, because emotions stir the targeted subject into a frenzy of impulsive actions.
Hitler clearly understood this. In his infamous Mein Kampf, he wrote: for propaganda to be more effective it "must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect. We must avoid excessive intellectual demands on our public. The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous,"
And while it is often projected as 'factual' or 'historical', propaganda has little or no connection with truth or history. "Historical truth may be discovered by a professor of history. We, however, are serving historical necessity. It is not the task of art to be objectively true. The sole aim of propaganda is success," wrote Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.
Accordingly, both facts and history are treated as ever-morphing blocs of information and accounts whose sole purpose is to be conveniently exploited by those who control their access - subjective media, repressive regimes, think tanks, etc.
Today, these gate-keeping entities subjectively frame the debate through relentless disinformation. They box all Muslims with a point of view together - they label some with the dreaded T-word, and frighten the others into utter silence or into an uncomfortable position of having to prove one's "moderate" inclinations all the time.
The propagandists confidently count on their ferocious "noise machine" made of primarily a network of pseudo-media and loyal bloggers with the capacity to repeat any lie long enough to turn it into the prevailing 'truth'.
Recently, a local interfaith body - the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio - that this author is connected with - announced its plan to host an educational forum called "Many Voices of Islam." Its purpose was to provide Muslims a unique opportunity to define themselves and openly share their various spiritual perspectives. The machine waged a hysterical campaign... accusing the association of lack of patriotism, supporting Hamas, and on exposing the country to greater danger.
Ironically, and perhaps while counting on the herd mentality of the frightened masses, this same propaganda machine promotes David Horowitz's spread-the-hate campaign called "the Islamo-fascism Awareness Week" coming to a university campus near you.
Horowitz and his affiliates' hateful mission was first unveiled in George Washington University when students promoting that event plastered provocative fliers all over the university; the most despicable among them being a poster bearing the image of a Muslim man with Islamic attire that read "Hate Muslims? So Do We!"
Meanwhile (and however symbolic), a silver-lining emerged behind the dark clouds hanging over the Muslims in America. Last week, New York's Empire State Building was lit up in green to honor the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Fitr, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.
-----------------------
Abukar Arman is a freelance writer living in Ohio.
The Naked Conspiracy of TFG Supporters
By Abukar Sanei
As Somalis recently celebrated for the forty seven anniversary of their independence from the European colonizers, the sovereignty of the country once again was jeopardized by the TFG. This was the greatest conspiracy that the TFG has committed against "its" people and "country", and created its rivals, or bashers, if you will. After Ethiopians occupied
The slaughtering of
Saturday, October 13, 2007
hordhac
blog anii ojeedada loo aasaasay waxaytahay in maamulihiiso oo ku soo bandhiigo aragtidiisaa uuna lawadaago qorayaasha kala duwan arimaha laxiidhiidha: siyaasada ,dhaqaalaha ,dhaqan iyo bulshada .
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