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August 2011
The removal of Muammar Gaddafi from power is being met with jubilation in the
West, a reaction perfectly in keeping with his image as an insane bloodthirsty
dictator so assiduously maintained by the imperialist press. ("Insane
bloodthirsty dictator" is normal Western-whore media-ese for "Dude who doesn't
kowtow to Amerika.")
But in much of the Third World, Gaddafi is viewed with the same affection and
admiration as Cuba's Castro, another "insane bloodthirsty dictator " who has
shown a middle finger to Washington on a few occasions and given valuable
assistance to underdeveloped countries in achieving freedom.
Gaddafi's embrace of liberation struggles for the last 40 years has helped the
Muslims in the Philippines to acquire limited rights (still being denied by
Manila on a regular basis), has helped the Irish Republican Army to bring the
recalcitrant Brits to the peace table (the jury's still out on that one too),
supported the African National Congress in its struggle against the apartheid
regime in Pretoria (contrast his help with Washington's coddling of the
racists), and consistently doled out money and aid to developing countries in
Africa and Asia ignored or abused by the imperialists.
Of course, these acts of fraternal solidarity with oppressed groups made him a
"terrorist" in the eyes of the oppressors and their Yankee puppeteers. The
Lockerbie bombing is all the rage again in the imperialist presses, though no
mention is ever made of the USS Vincennes terrorist act that Lockerbie
avenged. The Berlin disco attack will also be aimed at Gaddafi, with no mention
of the American murders of Libyan women and children with their bombs.
Once again, the West's biased and distorted perspective makes no effort to
provide balance to its reporting of Gaddafi, just as it avoids describing
ongoing American crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. True enough, Gaddafi is no
saint, but neither are any of the Western leaders applauding his ouster. They
have enough blood on their hands to make Muammar look like a hospice care
giver.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 31, '11)
[Re A test for North Korea's
deals on wheels, Aug 29] It is not uncommon that heads of state travel
by train even in our age of the airplane. America's four-time president
Franklin Delano Roosevelt journeyed in the Ferdinand Magellan, a very
well appointed armored train, built by the American Association of Railroads,
and sold to the United States government for the symbolic sum of one dollar.
If North Korea's Kim Jong-il wishes to go by train in his foreign wandering who
are we to quibble and cavil? Has the US already delivered the US$900,000 in
food aid grants? And South Korea its promised $4.5 million?
North Korea's leader has a wider objective in mind, in addition to seeking food
aid and investment, he is signaling that he is willing to return to the
negotiating table in Beijing with no preconditions. Russia and China think that
he is "sincere", but the US and South Korea do not.
The Obama and Lee administrations do have conditions which if accepted will
deem Kim Jong-il "sincere". So while these two allies condemn North Korea for
its nuclear program, they are doing everything to delay and kill any effort to
deal with North Korea's willingness to abide by its 2005 declaration on the
cessation of that very program.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 30, '11)
As in everything else, China is soon to surpass WonderBlubberland in having the
highest percentage of its citizens classified as obese. The reasons are
superficially obvious: McDonald's, fried foods, wealth, leisure, TV, video
games, etc. Perhaps subliminally the Chinese think that emulating us 'mericans
in diabetes, heart disease, impotence and fat farms is a sure indicator of
prosperity and "First Worldness."
The cynic in me thinks this vector of social debilitation is not coincidental.
In order to defang any move towards true democracy, the Chinese Communist Party
has decided to emulate the tried 'n true American policy of zombification of
the electorate. This scheme (I refrain from the toxic implications of
"conspiracy" but you connect the dots) intentionally uses a deft combination of
fatty processed foods, chemically spiked drinking water and beverages,
neuroses-inducing imageries of ideal beauty and fitness, pharamaceutical drugs
to treat the poor health resulting from the tainted consumables, media
manipulation and fear-mongering to reinforce the necessity of taking these
drugs - and "illegal" drugs to offset the disappointment caused by those
"legal" drugs as well as stabilize on a permanent basis the police state.
To this recipe, add to taste social neuterization tactics such as faux
terrorism, economic bubble bursting, political polarization and religious
fanaticism, all tactics honed to perfection in Dunderland to keep the dazed and
confused citizenry from rising up and tearing the hole rotten structure down in
a sea of blood. This cocktail of Better Control Though Chemistry and Prosperity
mirrors the predictable declines of all empires. As with all other things
accelerated in the 21st century, China probably will have 50 years or so before
it's emulation of swollen, bankrupt, incipiently extinct America is complete.
Then it's your turn, India.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 30, '11)
[Re Israel turns
tables on Turkey, Aug 26] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
decided an apology for the killing of eight Turkish nationals aboard the Mavi
Marmara in international waters in June 2010 is not worth the
degradation in relations with Ankara, thinking that he can ride out the storm.
It would not surprise anyone too if stories emerge of the Zionist state's
secret services and military are giving a helping hand to Turkey's Kurds, if
one goes on Israel's past history.
If Netanyahu is reconfiguring his regional alliances, he (if we trust M K
Bhadrakumar's analysis) is playing with a weaker hand: Greek Cyprus and Greece
are unstable and do not have the economic and military and political clout that
Turkey has.
Obviously, Israel is losing traction in the Middle East. It is certain that it
can cause much harm and mischief in the region, but internal conflict and
retreat into a "fortress" mentality in dealing with its neighbors simply
underscores glaring weaknesses.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Italy (Aug 29, '11)
Let the mythmaking begin! Obama topples Libyan Dictator Gaddafi! New American
Foreign Policy means New World Order (Really! We're Serious This Time!) Syria,
Iran, North Korea - Watch Out - You're Next!
Already hosannas and praise are being showered on The Libyan "Victory"
harkening the new era in Get Tough-No Bloodshed-Overthrows of Guys We Don't
Like direction in American foreign policy. Of course, this sort of hyperbole is
not new in Wonderland. Ever since the collapse of the USSR, a never-ending
cascade of books has heaped praise on the various strategies Reagan used to
topple the Evil Empire; he ramped up the arms race, he talked about Star Wars,
he armed the Afghans, he helped Solidarity, etc, ad fictionum. The realities of
the Soviet demise need not concern us here anymore than the reality of Libya's
"liberation" (where Gaddafi is still alive and kicking, I'm told.)
If Libya's future turns out as well as other Muslim countries we've helped
"liberate," we may have to stop the presses and beg the Nobel Prize committee
from forcing yet another Peace Prize into Obama's unwilling hands. Because of
there's one thing you can be sure of, Wonderlanders will muck up a good thing.
The fundamental premise of American foreign policy is to turn any and all
countries into willing or unwilling stooges of imperialism/capitalism, and the
way this is typically done involves massive corruption, usurious loans,
military "assistance" and plenty of advisers, mercenaries and CIA agents
disguised as businessmen, embassy staff and tourists. Be assured these are
already in the works, if not actually in Libya as I write this. But those durn
furrners have a strange way of thanking us for ending their dictatorships, as
demonstrated by our Twin Albatrosses.
No, no, this time's different, you say; no American troops are on the ground to
offend local sensibilities as we mistakenly did in those other Middle Eastern
nations. That belief typically misses the whole point of their offense; it is
the basic evil inherent in American largesse, the built-in cannibalization of
the soul by merciless American capitalism that these people resent and reject.
That was the fundamental premise behind the Iranian people's rejection of
America in 1979, when no US troops occupied their soil, but American influence
and culture had perverted and stained the society and polity of a Muslim
country, even a relatively secularized one like Shahian Iran.
This is something Americans, totally warped and distorted by crass materialism,
rotten-to-the-core politics and a culture of lying and cheating, did not then
and evidently will never comprehend, and why whatever we do in Libya will wind
up slapping us upside our Wonderdunderheads once again. What is that definition
of insanity?: "Doing the same things over and over again and expecting
different results"
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 29, '11)
[Re Kim Jong-il: Tactical
genius, Aug 25] Russia saw purchase in extending a helping hand to
North Korea. Kim Jong-il took it. The Kremlin saw an opening to bring North
Korea in from the cold of sanctions and endless labeling of Kim in all the
darker colors of the political spectrum, which failed or left his critics with
the feeling that they were among the choir of angels.
On the other hand, with a good dash of common sense, Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev saw an opportunity to take Kim at his word that North Korea would be
willing to go back to the six-party talks without preconditions. It is
important that the North Korean leader transmitted his very same wishes through
two former US presidents and senior state department officials and visiting
scholars without a response from the Obama White House. In fact, South Korea
and the US kept harping on a show of "sincerity" that from their perspective
meant North Korea fully meeting any demands they have put on the table. That is
not diplomacy!
North Korea sees opportunities in dealing with Russia that will help the
country and its people, it goes without saying. Russia sees an opportunity for
its gas pipeline, among other projects, go to both North and South Korea. Kim
is a very capable leader, something which his detractors - Aidan Foster-Carter
included - have long-denied.
Would it were President Obama and South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak capable
of such grasp of the geopolitical realities of North Korea's role in northeast
Asia as Medvedev has the courage to seize.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 26, '11)
Today, while browsing the fire-sale bookshelves of yet anther casualty of the
Great WonderCollapse, the soon-to-be-extinct Borders bookchain, I overheard
some good ol' boy white trash Texans talking about the Muslim Anti-Christ (I am
serious, that's the word they used.) One of them tried to sound like an
"expert" on all things Islamic and proclaimed confidently that the Mahdi was
what they called their version of the Christian Anti-Christ.
I held my tongue while this religious trailer-park scholar pontiificated on the
key role the Temple Mount in Jerusalem would play in the coming End Times
(which he assured his enraptured listener was what was really behind the
jihadist movement). I wandered away out of hearing distance, shaking my head at
how Americans have demonized our "enemies" by superimposing on them all of our
home grown prejudices, ignorance, insecurities, shame, hatreds and
superstitions.
By turning Muslims into fanatical Christian-Zionist End Timers, Wonderlanders
have met the enemy a la PogoLand. Consequently, we must vicariously destroy
ourselves by physically destroying "them." There appears to be no way out of
this transposition phenomenon, a psychological status used by its victims to
transfer self-hatred. By vilifying the self in others, one cleanses the self in
the self of guilt and acknowledged evil.
Americans understand how they should feel for their countless evils, crimes,
sins and transgressions around the globe, on a scale so hideous that nothing
short of a national self-immolation would suffice for repentance. Since we know
that won't happen voluntarily, far better to project that remorseful conduct
onto others so that they are punished for our crimes.
Thus our multiple invasions and persecutions of others as "terrorists", our
genocides, subversions and social cripplings, our economic beggaring of poor
developing nations foolish enough to look to us as role models, all these
cruelties are justified to condemn the selfish, greedy, aggressive, pompous and
arrogant American we are certain hides behind every brown, yellow and black
skin we crucify, incinerate or explode. No, I am not a psychologist, but I know
a self-loathing, self-destructive society when I live in one.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 26, '11)
Of all the insidious machinations of the Wonderland right winger, none can
equal the undermining of the American labor movement. Originally conceived as a
means for workers to correct the worst exploitative excesses of capitalist
America, the most popular of people-empowerment movements has been denounced by
the corporatist-whore media using incessant propaganda, myth-making and
outright lies spun of whole cloth.
Part and parcel of that process was the subversion and infiltration of the
unions by agents of the government security organs in order to sow dissension
within the ranks, coupled with political pressure to limit, curtail and in many
cases prohibit legitimate strike actions. The malignant intercourse between
American politicians and corporations has created a hideous mutation of
democracy that feeds on its own citizens, whose efforts to collectively bargain
for protection of their employee rights has been regularly minimized,
criticized and ostracized by those who should be its defenders. Instead, the
right has managed to brainwash Joe Blow Wonderlander into believing that
altruistic, civic minded corporations has his best interest at heart, instead
of those greedy union bosses.
Talk to your average college student today and they will knee-jerk launch into
a mouth foaming diatribe vilifying unions, union members and anything that
smacks of corporate defiance, just like a parrot mindlessly apes human speech
just because it's heard it repeated over and over again. The epithets
"socialist," "communist," and "bleeding heart liberal" will be bandied about in
this parrot-talk, words used to emote rejection of anything pretending to
resemble the popular will, an idea long passe in Zombie Amerika.
If you find the rare neo-con who doesn't sit on a perch and beg for crackers
and can instead carry on an adult two-sided conversation, you will doubtless
hear how unions and their wage demands have forced kind-hearted benevolent
American industry to relocate or outsource, something they would never do on
their own to seek higher profits.
Listening to such verbal vomit would make one swear unions and the progressive
movement were responsible for everything from hordes of locusts to new
Sylvester Stallone movies, and that only conservatives can save American
citizens from themselves and their desire for a decent wage. Never has a
country been so deserving of its coming fate, and never will there be fewer
tears for its demise.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 25, '11)
[Re Sinai clashes
send loud message, Aug 23] An uneasy peace unites Israel and Egypt. The
fall of Mubarak has had consequences which the Zionist state has not fully
grasped. The killing of Egyptian border guards in the Sinai is a warning to the
Likud-led government that Israeli pursuit of "terrorists" into another
country's territory is no longer acceptable. Egypt is not Lebanon.
Israel has much to do to bolster the sagging fortunes of the "spirit of Camp
David". Bad relations with a new Egypt are already shifting money for the
economy to beefing up the military; this unforeseen trend will worsen the
growing discontent among Israelis who, for many, can barely make ends meet.
On the other hand, Israel has lost the initiative; it cannot break relations
with Egypt, and consequently will have to eat "humble pie" in order to maintain
a semblance of business as usual, which it is not. Were it not for the US and
the billions it funnels to both countries the long "cold peace" would hardly
have lasted.
Abraham Bin Yiju
Italy (Aug 24, '11)
[Re
Nawaz Sharif sets new tone for India ties, Aug 18] All the speeches,
proposed prime ministerial visits, meetings and conferences are useless without
finding a solution to the Kashmir dispute. And, the continuation of that
festering sore of over 60 years has huge implications for peace in Afghanistan,
true reconciliation and regional stability.
Both Pakistan and India are using Afghanistan as a proxy to continue their war
over Kashmir. What is needed is a broad regional strategy to close this sad
chapter in their history. Unfortunately, the self-proclaimed "experts" on
foreign policy in Washington have not understood the importance of Kashmir to
the people of Pakistan as well as its military and how that influences their
behavior. You have to search high and low to find any mention of Kashmir in the
deliberations of these "experts".
The Pakistani army, after having suffered two defeats over Kashmir, will never
give up its use of Lashkares (militants) specially recruited and trained in
Pakistan and Afghanistan to counter India in Kashmir. India's response has been
to create as much havoc as possible for Pakistan among the Balochis in its
restless tribal areas and the Pashtuns on both sides of the Afghan/Pakistan
border to counter Pakistan. This all adds to the continuing turmoil in
Afghanistan.
There is a desperate need for enlightened intervention to give the leaders of
Pakistan and India the courage to find peace. Despite all the white noise about
an inflamed climate, no one is better positioned to provide that leadership
than the United States. And, by doing so, help itself out of the Afghan
quagmire.
Fariborz S Fatemi
United States (Aug 24, '11)
[Re For love and profit:
Marriage in China, Aug 19] This is not the sort of writing I am used to
from your journal. Indeed, it is rather typical of the over-simplistic, generic
writing about China I've come to expect from mainstream international news
organizations.
To take up just a few of my issues with this piece:
1.1 million divorces last year represent such a tiny fraction of all Chinese
marriages, I wonder if it rates our attention. Is there a statistical curve
that might suggest it will soon be a larger problem? I think not, and Kent
doesn't point to such a trend.
Of the divorces initiated by the wife, it is ridiculous to imply that all or
even many are gold diggers without proving the point. How can one suggest
without convincing support that all such divorces might not be justified by
circumstances, including severe friction with a woman's mother-in-law, or
profound differences with a "spoiled" only son (another of his absurdly trite
takes on China).
Chinese marriage is a sacred institution? That is a Western concept. In most
places in China that I've studied, marriage is primarily a very formal social
contract in which parents are closely engaged, especially in the particulars of
physical arrangements such as decoration of and use of what everyone views as
the family apartment. Over the past 10 years, living mainly in western China,
I've observed that parents tend to view a gift of an apartment to their
children as an investment in their own retirement, with the intention of
securing a place to live in old age. The children buy into this because
grandparents who raise preschoolers in China need to be physically at hand.
It's a marriage of convenience between the three generations. But this is the
West that I'm talking about. Hong Kong parents may not look at the situation
the same, yet Kent treats this eminently heterogeneous society as a single
cultural phenomenon.
In asking us to believe there is a single readily understood culture evolving
in China, he distorts reality and misses the good, if much more complex, stuff.
Both the writer and Asia Times Online ought to do better.
Parker
China (Aug 23, '11)
The reporter responds: While I am sorry to have disappointed
Parker as a writer, I also think he could be a better reader. There clearly is
a divorce "trend" in China, and it is pointed out in the article, which states: Divorce
rates have been on the increase for eight straight years, with more than 1.1
million couples calling it quits in China's courts last year; in the first
three months of this year, 465,000 divorce cases were filed, a 17% jump, and
many of these cases involve property disputes. Indeed, the
Supreme People's Court studied this trend for three years, and that's why it
decided to revise the Marriage Law to dissuade people from marrying for profit.
Secondly, nowhere does the article state or imply that early divorces in China
are entirely or even mostly the result of gold digging, but the recent cultural
phenomenon of "flash divorce" is well documented in the Chinese media, as are
the social (and romantic) consequences of the skewed male-to-female sex ratio
created by the one-child policy.
Again, the court ruling is a clear response to this.
Finally, speaking of "typical" and "simplistic" assessments of China, I must
disagree that marriage is only a social contract there without any larger
significance. That's why the court ruling, which deals only with the
contractual elements of marriage, has been so widely and hotly debated.
Ideally, conjugal union is supposed to be about more than financial convenience
and decorating the family apartment - in China and everywhere else.
Kent Ewing (Aug 23, '11)
The complete history of Barack Obama has yet to be written, for obvious
reasons. But permit me to at least indulge in some comparisons with other
presidents. Obama's claims to fame include his being the first non-Anglo-Saxon
president, his promise for great political change amidst a time of turmoil, a
Nobel Peace Prize, and his high ideals of fairness, equality and human rights.
With those attributes in mind, the temptation to make him out to be another JFK
is strong; both young, energetic, offering a promise of difference from their
Republican predecessors, would seem to make the analogy a sound one. But on
closer examination, the similarities are superficial at best.
JFK's interest in civil rights was purely cosmetic and opportunistic, his
promise of Camelot more a pick-up line for scoring with hot actresses and
secretaries. Lincoln is sometimes mentioned in the same breath as America's
first "black" president, I suppose for the imagery of the Great Emancipator viz
the Great "Son" of an Emancipatee, but this is more sentimental than authentic.
No, I think the president that Obama will be compared with as his historical
analogue will be Woodrow Wilson. Also a Democrat, America's 24th president was
renowned for his high ideals of democracy and self determination of peoples.
Significantly, Wilson was also the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in
1920 for Wilson's efforts in ending The War to End All Wars (Until the Next
One.) Obama's award of the Peace Prize in 2009 while Americans were still
killing innocent brown people in two separate, open-ended and illegal wars, is
less obvious but perhaps just as ironically appropriate.
Wilson's noble and lofty rhetoric, such as The Fourteen Points, promised a
fair, democratic and unvengeful peace that would give newly liberated
minorities a say in their future and establish an international forum for
avoiding future wars. But Wilson wound up capitulating to the demands for a
Carthaginian peace imposed on Germany and ignoring the desires of millions, as
the victors imposed their old-style European-imperialist vision of
retribution.The Republicans rewarded Wilson's surrender to pragmatism by
rejecting any American involvement in the stillborn abortion called the League
of Nations, leaving Prize Winner Wilson a broken and bitter man who died in
1924.
Similarly, Obama's efforts to negotiate with Republicans over everything from
budget ceilings to cabinet nominations has ended in similar impotent surrender,
despite all of his bluster about bluffs not being called and desire for
"bipartisan" compromise. At least he has so far been fortunate not to see his
whoring of American ideals turn into a Second "War to End All Wars," but it is
probable that Obama will live to see the Coming Collapse he supposedly has
tried so "hard" to avert.
Future histories will condemn both men for their hypocrisy, irresolution and
willingness to bargain their rhetorical principles for faint, distant and
delusional compromises. The Peace Prize they share will remain History's little
ironic inside joke, sort of like English King Henry VIII's papal-awarded title
of Defender of the (Catholic) Faith. The difference will be that what Henry
built survived, but such not be the case for Last President Obama.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 23, '11)
[Re Pyongyang's war face is
painted on, Aug 19] As much as we hear the beating of the drums of war,
an entirely different scenario is being played out between the United States
and North Korea.
The two-day visit of North Korea's Kim Kye-gang to the US is showing results.
North Korea did send a signal that these talks had borne fruit beyond the
simple exposition of positions. Kim Jong-il's government offered to help find
and reclaim and repatriate the remains of US troops fallen in North Korea
during the Korean War. Now, the Obama administration has responded by offering
$900,000 in aid. Is a new dynamic at work? Only time will tell.
Nakamura Junzo Guam (Aug 22, '11)
[Re Dangerous games,
Aug 19] Kim Chol has deliberately misquoted this writer in his article when he
states that I accused President Obama of desiring to make war on Korea. I did
NOT. I did say President Obama is waging war in six countries at once:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya and Sudan and I did NOT include
Korea.
To drop one of those countries out of the group and insert Korea has got to be
a deliberate falsehood. If the writer lies deliberately, Asia Times should
point this out to its readers on its website and withdraw the article.
This could not have happened by accident. To further give weight to this
charge, Kim Chol brings up my former connection with Reuters. Readers should
know I was a workplace contributor to Reuters and never wrote a word about
foreign policy. It is totally misleading to build up my credentials as some
kind of expert on the subject of war with Korea when I am not.
Sherwood Ross (Aug 22, '11)
The recent attack on the British "cultural relations" agency in Kabul has once
again demonstrated that the Taliban own, possess and shall dictate for the
foreseeable future the destiny and fate of Afghanistan.
Fittingly, the date chosen for the symbolic attack coincided with the
anniversary of Afghan liberation from the British imperialist yoke, a reminder
that the Anglo stooges of their owners in Washington are just as impotent and
useless as their forebears in deciding the future of the Afghan people.
Astoundingly, the British are calling this a "cowardly" attack, when clearly it
was a suicide mission. How can men who knowingly go to their death to defend
their nation from neocolonial oppression be called cowards, especially when
their enemies routinely rely on robot drones and long distance artillery and
bombing to spare their "soldiers" from exposure to a warrior's fate?
The fact is, it is that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its
casual brutality towards Afghan peasants that are the cowards, and their
cowardice has galvanized the Afghan people's determination to not only oust its
Christian invaders but to re-impose strict Sharia laws that will preclude
Western corruption in the future.
No longer will Afghans tolerate another imposed stooge-democracy that has made
their country the front line in the West's ideological wars of the 20 and 21st
centuries. Taliban attacks on the invaders will continue with Tet-like impunity
until the NATO Crusaders scurry away like white rats with their tails between
their legs.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 22, '11)
[Re US gropes, muscular
China wrestles, Aug 18] Over the past few years we have been offered a
good look at socialism with US characteristics, so why not ''democracy with
Chinese characteristics''? The truth is, no one knows the right formula for
national governance, and as with other things in life, the most suitable option
probably lies somewhere near the middle of a bipolar ideological polemic.
Though governments perhaps should not be in the business of owning and managing
industries, it is a governmental duty to supervise/regulate a country's economy
and to allocate limited resources in an attempt to maximize societal welfare.
While history shows that planned economies are prone to corruption and
inefficiency, the current crisis in the West amply demonstrates that a
free-market system is all too often exploited and abused by the rich and
powerful to enhance personal aggrandizement at the expense of the
less-privileged and of society at large.
Examining the inherent flaws of each economic system, therefore, shouldn't so
much pit one ideology against another, but should instead involve a greater
amount of commonsense.
John Chen
United States (Aug 19, '11)
[ReNorth Korea
seeks rice deal, Aug 18] North Korea and Burma, as de Paiva, points
out, have on going commercial relations. The news of an impending rice deal on
a barter deal is open to speculation: what will North Korea render in turn?
The easy answer is nuclear technology. Yet western specialist have kicked
around that idea for years with less than convincing evidence. Granted North
Korea may have a shortage of hard currency, the country has other state of the
art technology as well as home grown products which the Burmese may be willing
to accept.
More broadly speaking, both North Korea and Burma are the poster countries the
US and the West have boycotted without, let's admit, increasing any
understanding of the transformation each nation is undergoing.
If that lack of "intelligence" proves anything, it argues in favor of
establishing full relations with them, and relying less on sanctions that cut
both ways.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 19, '11)
[Re Shahzad murder
probe drags on, Aug 18] I am writing with reference to your story
''Shahzad murder probe drags on" dated August 19, 2011. The report states:
"Important witnesses, including… Human Rights Watch (Pakistan chapter) director
Ali Dayan Hasan, have yet to record statements before the commission that could
add a new dimension to Shahzad's murder, Shaukat said.''
The above statement is factually incorrect. I appeared before the Commission on
August 10 and the appearance was widely reported in the Pakistani media. Link
below.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/08/11/saleem-shahzad-case-apns-hrw-chiefs-record-statements.html
This error is disappointing. Please correct your story to reflect the facts. Ali
Hasan
Pakistan (Aug 19, '11)
Editor's note: The article has been amended accordingly.
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the 2nd Russian revolution, it is
fitting that Wonderlanders contemplate how that apparent "victory" for American
democracy has worked out to date.
The Communist party "LIttle Coup That Couldn't", orchestrated with the same
advance planning and forethought as the invasion of Afghanistan 12 years
earlier, ended in complete debacle; the supremacy of arch-separatist Boris
Yeltsin, the prohibition of the Communist Party and dissolution of the Soviet
Union. At the time it was hailed by the US media as the end of the Cold War and
an overwhelming vindication of American capitalism as the Last Ideology Left
Standing.
Little did Wonderlanders imagine that they would experience their own coup
d'etat nine years later, when the neo-cons stole the US presidential election
of 2000, followed soon thereafter by the Burning of the American Reichstags
(aka World Trade Center Twin Towers on 9-11). The succeeding invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq were, of course, a continuation of this reversal of Soviet
chronology (remember, history likes nursery rhymes, rather than videotaped
replays.) But now the convergence of the Clones approaches; just as it was the
American-Saudi manipulation of oil prices in the 80s that brought the Soviet
economy to its knees, the resurgence of said commodity in the 'Teens now places
the Russian economy in the driver's seat.
In the meantime, American capitalism has eviscerated itself, committing
economic hari kari with the sharp blades of post-Cold War hubris and
delusion. Indeed, despite assurances by the Wonderland sages of an End to
History's recurring cycles of autocracy struggling with democracy, it is
obvious that Amerika will now descend into the same nether world of tyrannical
ideologues, demagogic charlatans and Ponzi schemers that post-coup Russia went
through.
Just as we once derisively called the Soviet Union "Upper Volta with nukes,"
the Russians will soon be able to point at a prostrate, enfeebled
"Zimbabwe-on-the-Potomac (without the same good credit)" and shake their heads.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 19, '11)
Now, that we in the West have neutralized our military credibility and
capability in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and now that our economy is
collapsing from our greed, militant, radical Muslims have exploited this
opportunity to revolt and overturn their governments lead by autocrats that we
have been supporting against them for some 40 years.
Now that we can no longer help those dictators squash their people's deep
desire to impose Islamic Theocracies, we proclaim, "We are on the side of "The
People" and of "freedom". Ha!
But, these militant radical Muslims are not fighting for their freedom to toss
God out of their governments and classrooms, and certainly not for their
freedom to go around half-naked in public, kill their unborn babies, watch
pornography, blaspheme, and get drunk in bars, as we enjoy. Indeed, we (the
Nortyh Atlantic Treaty Organization) are fighting, now, in Libya, and soon in
Syria, for their freedom to form Islamic Theocracies to stamp out our freedoms!
Daniel Russell
United States (Aug 19, '11)
[Re Art pricks
Philippine sensitivities, Aug 17] I think it is ludicrous when churches
and governments conspire together to censor material offensive to X or Y faith.
The last time I checked, the Philippines was a constitutional republic not a
religious state.
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, you name it, all should be
subject to ridicule, mockery, questioning, doubt, and merciless criticism. I am
a practicing Catholic but my faith is not unquestionable, in fact, I think that
my faith as well as others should not be afraid to confront public opinion,
being criticized, and being ridiculed. Murdering cartoonists for depicting the
prophet Mohammed, censoring artists for depicting Jesus in not a flattering
way, are all despicable actions.
There is no place for religious non-sense in a democratic republic. Human
beings have the right of freedom of speech. We have freedom of speech not to
talk about the weather; we have freedom of speech so we can say very
controversial and offensive things. If I was a leader in the Philippines, I
would tell the folks asking for censorship of an artist to stay the hell out
and go back to their temple where they belong.
I hope in God that all sensitive religious wackos in all faiths lose their
sensitivities and are confronted with extremely irreverent depictions of their
faith. Keep your faith in the privacy of your home and heart, we are not
interested in showing any respect for it.
Ysais Martinez
United States (Aug 18, '11)
[Re The people's
Ponzi scheme, Aug 15] A few years ago, I would regularly read
Spengler's columns for their very high unintentional-comedy value. Sadly,
Spengler has slipped of late. His "People's Ponzi" column continued his
tradition of being grossly wrong about nearly everything, but was glaringly
absent the goofy absurdity I had come to expect and enjoy.
Without his trademark Islamophobia or crackpot "realism" to lighten things up,
Spengler merely bores his fans by merely committing two serious category
errors: conflating "household real estate assets" with "households" and "the
American people" (not even with "homeowners", which would constitute a slightly
less egregious category error), and bank stocks with "bankers".
That glaring category error allows him to make the clearly fallacious claim
that purchasers of houses as both homes and investments (who Spengler conflates
with the American people as a whole) are more to blame for the depression and
recession than Wall Street. That is, the bush league gambling engaged in by
small-scale house flippers and the like is of greater causal import in
explaining the Great Recession than the major league gambling engaged in by
Wall Street; major league gambling, which, moreover, was a necessary cause of
the aforementioned bush league gambling.
In other words, if it were not for Wall Street's gambling-fueled credit
creation extravaganza, the Smiths and Joneses would never have refinanced their
homes to buy a new SUV, or buy a second or third home in hopes its value would
rise exponentially and pay for their retirement.
Maybe you could ask Spengler to re-write it, and allocate some blame to
Islamofascism for, perhaps, putting subliminal Countrywide home loan
advertisements in American mosques' call to prayer, in an attempt to inflate
greed among the Great Satan's masses - greed which the nation's virtuous
bankers were unable to contain and instead (only grudgingly) facilitated?
Josephus P Franks
United States (Aug 16, '11)
[Re The people's
Ponzi scheme, Aug 15] Spengler writes: "Wall Street gamblers" didn't do
the speculating. The American public did."
This is twisting the truth. The American public was busy on its workplace.
People went to work every day to offices and factories. Every month a portion
of their salary went automatically to their stock funds and brokers. The
professionals did the gambling, the big and small speculators, and the day
traders. The ordinary people were busy at their workplaces. Same with real
estate. Prices were blown up by mortgage bankers in collaboration with
appraisers. People were seduced to buy. If a child is given a pound of
chocolate, overeats and gets sick, who is responsible? The seducer, the parent.
The investment and mortgage banks like pied-pipers led people to their
destruction. Of course they are responsible.
Klement Pyatt
Russia (Aug 16, '11)
[Re The people's
Ponzi scheme, Aug 15] Spengler, you continue to expose yourself as
nothing more than an intellectually dishonest, morally repugnant and servile
tool. Quantitative Easing (QE) and the zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) are
policies and actions taken by and for bankers. This cash ends up overwhelmingly
in bank profits and executive bonuses, exacerbating already extreme income
inequality between finance capital and main street households.
Since 2009 bankers have paid themselves over US$100 billion in bonuses alone.
By contrast, real wages - adjusted for inflation - have fallen in both the US
and UK, where QE and ZIRP have been key tools for boosting bank profits and
executive bonuses. Equities and commodity prices have increased bubble-like
since 2009, via Fed market meddling and ZIRP to infinity. So how are main
street households better off now than your banker buddies in this scenario?
Will you blame main street when this bubble inevitably bursts, as it looks like
it is in the process of doing now? What about the seniors who have not received
COLA increases for almost three years now while prices for food, energy,
insurance, you know the basics of life, have shot up due to QE and ZIRP? Those
grey old Ponzi-scammers! It's their fault! Your poor innocent bankers lamenting
their sad fate really breaks my heart, but you'll have to forgive me if I don't
shed a tear.
Bill
United States (Aug 16, '11)
[Re India leery of
neighbor's new squeeze, Aug 15] This article failed to point out that
it is Sri Lanka's right to defend against the LTTE. It was a bug which needed
to be squashed by any means.
The world already forgot what LTTE suicidal bombers did. Countries in the West
are hypocritical. They are killing innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Libya, and these somehow do not count as serious violations of international
humanitarian law and human rights law. Under Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations
has become a toothless lapdog. Previous leadership proved they had integrity.
South Korea and Japan have long been US lapdogs. US have so successfully
destroyed their back bones that they are incapable of showing any girth.
As for the Israelis, I don't blame them. They won the war fair and square. They
need to do what is necessary for their existence. If Israel is allowed it
protect its border which is illegal in UN Charter with any means necessary then
Sri Lanka cannot be blamed for fighting an all out war on LTTE. We have to
remember that the LTTE used cyanide and showed complete disregard for
International and ethical values by using children and women in its war against
the sovereign state of Sri Lanka. India is also fighting the same kind of war
in its land. India should protect Sri Lanka's right in that war. LTTE also blew
up Rajiv Gandhi! I wonder why India still considering siding with the US and
EU.
Adnan Nafis
Bangladesh (Aug 16, '11)
[Re London riots
reduce lies of left to ashes, Aug 15] Crowing does not suit Chan Akya
well. In fact, it simply reveals that, in the words of Chairman Mao, he is a
"great Han chauvinist".
The riots in England are symptomatic of the failure of casino capitalism that
shook the foundations of global capital markets in 2008. The welfare state that
Labour ushered in after 1945 was embraced by the Conservatives and Liberals
since then.
Today, as a result, to put it in simple terms, of the embrace of the philosophy
that the markets can do no wrong, is an indictment of free wheeling capitalism
not the result of the welfare state. To say otherwise is to join the chorus of
mistaking the tree for the forest of Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, and Alan
Greenspan philosophies which are incapable of coming to terms with a very
serious crisis of laissez-faire economics.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 16, '11)
The relationship between Wonderland and Pakistan is very much like that between
the husband who despises his wife's relatives and friends and the wife who
feels her hubby is taking her for granted.
The US knows very well that Pakistan's regional buddies China, Iran, and
Taliban Afghanistan are knee-deep in Pakistani trade, politics and
intelligence, but tolerates her questionable taste in friends and ethnic
brothers because of America's War on Terror "Big Picture."
Pakistan, for its part, sees a myopic Washington with a skewed world view that
ignores reality, blood-ties and the future. In the past, with Soviets menacing
on one side, a hostile India on the other and a frail economy teetering on the
brink, Pakistan had to play a balancing act, amply awarded in 1971 when the US
used it to make tentative feelers towards the heretofore erstwhile enemy Red
China. I don't know if we've thanked them sufficiently for that yet.
The Soviet imbroglio enabled Pakistan to hang a Cold War sword of Damocles over
a hell bent Washington, so much so that the CIA turned a Nelson's Eye at
Pakistan's development of nukes and the purloining of billions in funds and
weapons. After the Soviets left, America tacitly accepted Islamabad's
stewardship of the Taliban, and ignored the deepening relationship with
extremist groups in both nations. Indeed, if I recall, America politicians were
grateful for such contacts back then; where are all those photos of American
congressmen lining up to kiss pipeline-promising Taliban derrieres in the
pre-9-11 era? Somehow, in "Free Speech" Amerika, those photos are hard to find
these days (along with that of Donald Rumsfeld shaking Saddam Hussein's hand
like he was a long lost Dutch Uncle).
So now the fact the Pakistanis have assisted the Chinese in studying one of
America's downed stealth helicopters is renewing questions about just how long
of a ride Pakistan is taking us for. For the life of me, I don't know why we
would object to the Chinese replicating this technology; after all, how good
was this "stealth" copter if small arms fire brought it down (or maybe it was
the evening dew that did it in.) Wouldn't we want the Chinese to fill the skies
with such obviously defective craft? And what about those attack copters with
the 30 Seals that were so easily destroyed by the supposedly down-and-out
Taliban?
Are we going to get angry if THOSE self-destructive designs are passed on to
the Chinese? Hmm ... maybe we can use this logic. Methinks I've got the perfect
plan to foil those malicious Asians; let's "accidentally" drop a plan into
China's mailbox about reinvigorating America's economy with more Wall Steet
Ponzi schemes and then sit back and watch the Chinese economy implode. Take
that, Sino-Copycats!
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 16, '11)
[Re Why the Syrian
regime won't fall, Aug 12] Pepe Escobar's piece is excellent. He has
put all the plays into context so nicely.
Due to Syria's heavyweight presence in the region other countries have been
cautious to respond. Saudi Arabia has bluntly showed that it is a key player.
It wants a regime change to put a radical government in place. But Doers
America and Israel know the consequences? It is for the United States' and
Israeli interests that Bashar al-Assad will stay. A radical government will
destabilize the region. The United States should really support Syria to be
stable. Whatever Hezbollah stands for their leader is a shrewd politician who
knows how to control peace. The replacement of Assad seems very unlikely.
Adnan Nafis
Bangladesh (Aug 15, '11)
[Re Pride and prejudice
over China's carrier, Aug 12] How could one or two third-rate,
gas-turbine powered, decades-old Soviet-designed aircraft carriers versus
several nuclear carrier battle groups alter the balance of power of anything?
This premise is completely divorced from naval realities. Eric A McVadon, Rear
Admiral of the US Navy (Retired), has the realistic perspective.
Bennett Blumenberg
United States (Aug 15, '11)
The pain to come
for Chinese exports, Aug 12] After reading this, I could only shudder.
If Americans are headed to a time where they can no longer afford to pay for
inexpensive Chinese goods, then there will obviously be major social unrest and
upheaval. One in every seven Americans is already receiving food stamps.
America does not manufacture much other than war equipment, jet airliners, and
mercenaries. I guess American children in 2012 will be hoping to get their own
Blackwater/XE mercenary for Christmas - on a payment plan of course. It is easy
to conclude, from what was not written in this article, what America is facing
in the future.
Bob Van den Broeck
North America (Aug 15, '11)
How Pyongyang's propaganda
backfired, Aug 12] For once, can we at least understand what is said
here, and its importance?
North Korea is not God's chosen land.
North Korea is run by the same kind of dictator as those who have dominated
countries in the Middle East for the past half a century or so.
Decades ago, I witnessed in Australia an event where the North Koreans
attempted to ''demand'' that Australia treat them with respect; their pathetic
pamphlets were stored in a dark corner of the national library.
Conclusion: There could be a good future for the North Koreans. But the Kim
family need to leave office and go somewhere else (to Hell perhaps?) and let
real Koreans take responsibility for their own lives.
Kim (Aug 15, '11)
[Re Pyongyang plays on
Moscow's desire, Aug 12] What does it profit North Korea to exclude
Russia from the "suspended" six party talks in Beijing? The answer is plain as
the nose on one's face: the political and economic returns are one giant-sized
goose egg. Leaving aside the intent of "sources" of the Kyodo News Agency's
July 25, 2011 online entry, the US would protest, as would all other parties to
the talks.
Yong Kwan admits that Russia has come down on North Korea's side on any number
of issues. In fact, the privately circulated Russian report on the sunken Cheonan
distinctly points to the South Korean corvette churning up the dormant torpedo
which sheared it two, resulting in the death of 46 crew. That report convinced
China to join Russia in not supporting the US-Republic of Korea (South Korea)
resolution to condemn the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)
at the United Nations Security Council.
It is easy to forget that Russia is also an Asian power in the same sense, or
perhaps more so than the US, in that its vast land mass lies in Central and Far
East Asia. A stronger case could be made of Russia's desire to play on past
solidarity with and support of North Korea. That argument makes good sense.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 12, '11)
One of the most brilliant movies of all time, Network, featured a
disillusioned middle-aged news reporter, Howard Beale (played by Oscar winner
Peter Finch), who one day had a revelation, a vision of purity and truth that
demanded he speak for the scared, disappointed and leaderless masses of
Americans plagued with the soaring oil prices, inflation, lost wars and
political scandals of the 1970s.
His ranting on national TV captivated the country and shot his networks'
ratings through the roof, as he railed against the convenient targets of
Washington, political corruption and the annoying banality of contemporary
American life. His corporate sponsors initially supported and promoted Beale's
show with profit-conscious enthusiasm, until he began denouncing corporate
America for its relentless commodification of the nation's soul.
His signature rant, "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore,"
was shouted out nightly from thousands of living rooms across America, as his
audience grew larger with each more audacious denunciation of the insidious
capitalist consumption of American morality and dignity. Ultimately, Beale paid
the final price for his messianic vision of a world shorn of such ruthless
corporate control, with his suitably ironic murder on live TV designed to
ensure massive ratings.
Winner of the 1976 Oscar for Best Picture, Network has stood the test of
time; indeed, never has its message been more relevant to an America at its
penultimate nadir. Substitute Afghanistan/Iraq for Vietnam, replace inflation
with subprime meltdown and the scenario becomes identical.
But today, mad-as-hell Wonderlanders rant regularly on the Faux News Network,
the Rush-to-Limbo radio show and thousands of corporate-sponsored right wing
foamathons that deflect attention from the corporations responsible for their
plight and instead pillory those who would stand in the way of these companies'
complete and absolute takeover (ie, liberals, Dumbocrats, and sane people.) It
appears Rupert Murdoch and his media mogul ilk learned valuable lessons from
this gem of a film; coopt the messenger and have him shout from the highest
rooftop "We're mad as hell but we're going to continue taking it until the
Chinese turn the lights out."
Hardy Campbell
Texas (Aug 12, '11)
[Re North Korea nears
age of affluence, Aug 10] This is shameful. Not really. It is really
shameful but laughable at the same time. This is my favorite piece in this
Nazi-like propaganda piece: "The Western world will be left stunned ...
struggling to figure out how North Korea has achieved so much in the absence of
financial and technological assistance from abroad and despite harsh US
sanctions and a virtual state of war with the US."
Really, propagandist? We all know the affluence that Dear Leader and his family
live in, maybe Kim Myong Chol was referring to their affluence in his writings.
There are so many reasons why North Korea is and will be a miserable, almost
starving, Third World state for eternity: lack of freedom of markets, ideas,
and life and if you want to get a little romantic yes lack of resources,
friends, and plain simple creativity to produce instruments for peace. The guy
writing this article should move to North Korea and enjoy the wonders of that
country. Ysais Martinez
USA (Aug 11, '11)
Irony, the stepchild of hypocrisy, is my favorite element of history,
especially when it's the once high-and-mighty that are hoisted on their
self-righteous petards. Not so long ago, the Anglo-Saxon powers and their
Western minions were wagging their moralistic fingers at Iran for violently
suppressing street demonstrations resulting from allegedly fraudulent
elections. Fast forward to the summer of 2011, and now it's the
human-rights-conscious British who are having to violently suppress street
disturbances in the capital city, and for reasons not entirely dissimilar.
The Islamic Republic has wasted no time in chiding the British for their
human-rights "violations," and doubtless Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is
pondering having Arab League troops rushing to assist the British "oppressed
masses" in their struggle for liberation. Other Muslim countries are gleefully
joining in this sublime volte face of history, turning the tables on the
Christian societies long accustomed to quiescent acceptance of ruinous economic
and foreign policies. Evidently the motivations for the "Arab Spring" are not
limited to Arabs or Muslims, a lesson both London and Washington best sit and
ponder profoundly.
The mass response to the killing of Mark Duggan is every bit as political as
anything occurring in Egypt or Bahrain, Syria or Libya. These are violent
reactions to the plutocapitalist theft of the national wealth and the future
patrimony. They are modern "Rodney King" riots, warning shots across the bows
of the Anglo-Saxon ex-superpowers' listing vessels that all of the promises of
prosperity that generations have assumed are part of their birthright are just
delusional illusions, whimsical chimeras that are trotted out every election
cycle to ooh and ahh the hypnotized zombies into making the same mistakes all
over again. Except now the zombies are fighting back.
Now the zombies realize that these elections are shams every bit as rigged as
those claimed in Iran or any other Third World nations, and the only thing the
fat plutocrats acknowledge is the prospect of their lovely mansions being burnt
down around their fat cat ears. But don't expect lights to come on over these
politicos' heads anytime soon; far easier is it for the Brits and Yanks to
claim this is all the doings of hooligan/criminal elements out for an easy
pillaging buck. Huh. Kinda sounds like what happens on Canary Wharf or Wall
Street. The difference is the looting that goes on there is sanctioned and
protected by 10 Downing Street and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Hardy Campbell
Texas (Aug 11, '11)
In the article Unwelcome
Mail in Ma's letterbox [Aug 9] I wrote: "The group of over 30 formed
soon after Ma took office in 2008 and quickly began submitting letters to
Taiwanese newspapers, addressing Ma or his cabinet."
Jerome Keating, a member of the group, wishes to note that "the way that the
sentence reads implies that the group formed primarily to challenge Ma and that
was not the case. The group existed before the 2008 elections."
I regret the error and highly appreciate Keating's comment.
Jens Kastner (Aug 11, '11)
[Re The secret world of
North Korea's new rich, Aug 9]
The former Western intelligence agent who writes under the name of James Church
has written a series of "Inspector O" mystery novels which has not spared the
much pampered "core group" in the DPRK. Andre Lankov brings cold tea to the
table of North Korea's new rich.
In discussing "the secret world" the Soviet-trained Korean expert also has a
hint of superiority: for him and other North Korea watchers the North's
greatest sin is that it has not gone the way of Russia. Consequently, Kim
Jong-il is pilloried for daring to defy common European wisdom and pursuing his
own way, right or wrong.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 10, '11)
Lost amidst all the Dow(n) Jones hubbub is the cheating scandal occurring in
Atlanta, Georgia's, school system. More than 170 teachers and principals in 44
schools are accused of rigging test results in order to get federal funding and
fatter paychecks. Of course, for anyone with even a faint modicum of knowledge
about American education, widespread cheating among students is the accepted
"cool" norm. Educators normally have not had to cheat themselves because they
would just turn a blind eye to their students' practice, which usually would
assure good test results, albeit false ones. But evidently with the relentless
dumbing down of students, even with cheating the results were getting poorer,
endangering the fat government grants (another legacy of King George the
Fourth's "No Child Left Behind" program) that would come their way with
improved scores. With this money dangling before them, the temptation to doctor
scores became as great as the selling of trash mortgages was for Lehman
Brothers. Like everything else in America, money is perceived as being the best
incentive for making things better in a capitalist society. Of course, we only
need to look at the economic state of affairs in Insolvent America to see how
well that logic has worked. Consequently, professional and personal cheating is
now thoroughly endemic in every part of American life, from schools to
governments to brokerage houses to science labs to corporations to the military
to couples, from taxes to financial statements to intelligence reports to oaths
of marital fidelity. Cheating and its unethical brothers, lying and stealing,
are the only ways Wonderland can function anymore, and it is for this reason
more than any other than Standard & Poor's credit downgrading will not only
be imitated by Moody's and Fitch in the near future, but will be followed by
even more drastic knocking off of As. Heads up, Double C Rated Greece. You're
gonna get some company real soon.
Hardy Campbell
Houston, Texas (Aug 10, '11)
[Re Erdogan's
calculated Syrian affront, Aug 8] How will it profit Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to intervene militarily in Syria? Having just
outwitted his own generals, he runs the risk of a using a fighting force with a
damaged morale. On the other hand, Syria, too, has a card to play: it can
support the PKK to do its best to stir up trouble in Turkey.
Although Turkey's intervention might please its NATO ally in the White House or
its wounded partner in Israel, Erdogan may be committing his troops to a long
conflict and making the same mistakes as US president George W Bush did in
invading Iraq and President Barack Obama in Afghanistan.
Furthermore, attacking Syria will cause much consternation among Turkey's NATO
allies at a time of great economic stress. Erdogan has more to lose in going
off to war than a "loss of face".
Abraham Bin Yiju
Palermo (Aug 9, '11)
[Re A world
without a benchmark, Aug 8] There are two aspects of this article that
I want to comment on. The first one is regarding the demographics of tax payers
and the second one regarding the US debt. I just came back from a scholars
retreat at Google in Mountain View, CA and one of the things that we debated
was the future of science and engineering in our nation. It is worth to mention
that US cannot rely anymore in importing engineers from China and India. 10
years ago, almost 90% of the top students in the Indian Institute of Science
would end up in American high-tech companies as consultants or permanent
employees. Today it is a mere 10% given the fact that Indian and Chinese
economies are growing up at a fast phase. According to data collected by
Google, by 2021 the US will be able to provide 51% of the engineers needed to
satisfy the increasing demand for computer scientists (these numbers are just
estimates and I, by no means, am pretending to be mathematically accurate). So
if we are not importing the best and brightest, who will we give permanent
immigrant privileges to? Answer: the unskilled immigrant who has very little to
offer to the American economy. Being a foreign born American citizen myself, I
would not not bite my tongue getting all political over immigration issues. But
relying on foreign skilled labor to boost our economy and create more tax
payers is a thing of the past. That is why high tech companies like Google have
extensive scholarship programs to foster science and engineering among American
students.
My second comment is regarding the US debt. It won't go away any time soon, it
will shake the markets, and it will hurt the poorest people among us. According
to Business Insider, this is the break down of our national debt: Hong Kong:
$121.9 billion (0.9%), Caribbean banking centers: $148.3 (1%), Taiwan: $153.4
billion (1.1%), Brazil: $211.4 billion (1.5%), Oil exporting countries: $229.8
billion (1.6%), Mutual funds: $300.5 billion (2%), Commercial banks: $301.8
billion (2.1%), State, local and federal retirement funds: $320.9 billion
(2.2%), Money market mutual funds: $337.7 billion (2.4%), United Kingdom:
$346.5 billion (2.4%), Private pension funds: $504.7 billion (3.5%), State and
local governments: $506.1 billion (3.5%), Japan: $912.4 billion (6.4%), U.S.
households: $959.4 billion (6.6%), China: $1.16 trillion (8%), The U.S.
Treasury: $1.63 trillion (11.3%), Social Security trust fund: $2.67 trillion
(19%), This shows that America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But
America owes America $9.8 trillion. This is a strong indicator that our
nation's economy is debt-based. In fact, the world markets need debt and need
people to be in debt. Some commentators have said that the worst is yet to
come, I am one of the optimists who prefer to think that the worst is already
over.
Ysais Martinez
United States of America (Aug 9, '11)
[Re A world
without a benchmark and
End of the road for hedge funds, Aug 8] Chan Akya seems to offer a
better read on future US demographic development - having for decades cornered
the market for global top talent in search of opportunities, America is no
longer the Eldorado it once was. Moving forward, the phenomenon of reverse
brain drain, which has been accelerating over the past few years, will likely
have a profound impact on the quality and trajectory of US economic growth.
John Chen
USA (Aug 9, '11)
Perhaps the Wonderland franchise has been extended to the Middle East. That
would explain the mind-boggling audacity of the Saudi government to tut-tut the
Syrian "excesses" that have killed thousands of that country's rebellious
citizens. But evidently the McDonaldization of US hypocrisy has been extended
to Riyadh, which enables them to criticize Bashar al-Assad's Syria for the same
actions the Saudis would adopt in a heartbeat given its long overdue (and
inevitable) popular uprising, with the only notable difference that American
mercenaries would probably be used in the resulting violence. That's because
Saudi troops are too busy violently squashing Shi'ite dissent in neighboring
Bahrain.
The fact that Saudi Arabia represents one of the most repressive, atavistic
regimes on earth does make one suspect that the old adage "It takes one to know
one" may be applicable here, but I opine that the better analogy is the Third
Reich wagging its finger at Stalinist Russia for its bloody purges.
With both US and Israeli help, the Saudis have established not only a rigid
police state but a complex theocratic-dynastic-tribal web of intrigue, double
dealing and telling the West what it wants to hear in order to survive,
ruthlessly suppressing dissent, unorthodox opinions, and any attempts to have
its citizens exercise basic human rights. All of this is done with the active
connivance of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency and
Federal Bureau of Investigation, mind you, American security organs that have
long ago sold US democracy down the river. The Mossad's cooperation is, of
course, not for public consumption, lest the Janus face of Saudi manipulation
be exposed for what it is but have no doubt that the Zionist Gestapo is very
much an integral part of the Kingdom's strategy for survival.
And stay tuned for more Saudi absurdities to come; with that triple stacked
Irony-Hypocrisy-Denial Burger comes a special heaping of State Oppression
Sauce. Next thing you know Riyadh will be charging the families of its fallen
victims for the cost of sharpening those decapitating blades.
Hardy Campbell
Houston, Texas (Aug 9, '11)
[Re Test begins for new
Tibetan PM in exile, Aug 5] I find two replies from prime minister of
the Tibetan government in exile Lobsang Sangay particularly thought provoking.
First, he claims that "China's policies over Tibet ...with the goal of the
ultimate discrimination of Tibetans in mainland Tibet and diminishing Tibetan
identity." How is "ultimate discrimination" associated with "diminishing
Tibetan identity"? If discrimination remains palpable to a minority, would he
then lose his cultural identity? It seems that the opposite is true. A minority
cultural identity is either preserved through discrimination or eroded by
social enfranchisement, particularly inclusiveness in courtship and marriage.
German newcomers to the US tried fiercely, with schools with German as the
medium of instruction, to preserve the cultural identity of their offspring,
who then assimilated into the white melting pot, as a blonde is a blonde.
Second, he feels that "... most likely during our lifetime, Tibet will either
have justice or defeat". He thinks there is a time limit to the Tibetan
struggle. When time expires and Tibet is in defeat by the triumphant Hans, what
happens to the Tibetans? Will "ultimate discrimination" wage on forever against
a cultural non-identity, as the "Tibetan cultural identity" is lost? This is a
fantasy. An ethnic person has predominantly subjective reasoning. The
subjective and implicit truth is that defeat means loss of cultural identity,
not by discrimination but by assimilation, and that a culture is more valuable
than human happiness derived from social inclusiveness, assimilation. The
German newcomers, once fiercely culturally protective, must have felt defeat
was their offspring melting into the white melting pot, and that the German
culture was more valuable than happiness derived from inclusiveness in
courtship and marriage.
I wonder if Lobsang Sangay, after 16 years in the US, has studied the US
Senate's rejection of the Akaka Bill of 2000, which could have granted the
Hawaiians cultural autonomy, citing the American "tradition of assimilation".
The rejection of the Akaka Bill is politically comparable since the Hawaiians
are an indigenous people. Socially, however, the assimilation of the Slavic
people, who were once discriminated against, is more comparable to the Tibetan
situation. For quite some time in the US, a white face was the ticket;
Anglo-Saxon is a choice. Also, what are his thoughts on forced busing of kids
in the US for cultural dilution? Does he think that "Separate is inherently
unequal" and "Separation instills a feeling of inferiority on black children";
both were battle cries for busing? Couldn't whites have paid reparation into
segregated black schools until they are equal with white schools? Wouldn't
separation also instill a feeling of inferiority on Tibetan children?
I don't know about Lobsang Sangay's marital status, but I wonder how a young
person having lived in the US for 16 years can not have thoughts on
inter-ethnic courtship and marriage. What is his advice on young Tibetans in
the US on inter-ethnic/inter-racial marriage? Should there be respect and more
respect that cannot develop into love? Love between a man and a woman of
different ethnicities or races is the ultimate erosion of cultural identity,
called cultural genocide in some circles.
Jeff Church
USA (Aug 8, '11)
In Wonderland, there is no such thing as Bad News. There is Good News, Not So
Good News, Less than Not So Good News and News That Could be Better. This is
all made plausible in the starry eyes of the Average WonderJoe by the adept use
of Government Spin, Official MythMaking, Media Hype and Plenty of Male-Bovine
Droppings. So for the last three years, we have been assured by the same
financial gurus that had told us that the economy was on a sound footing prior
to September, 2008 that everything since then has been "Recovery." Of course,
that has required cooking books until the binding glue tasted like
bouillabaisse, the juggling and faking of numbers, statistics and damned
statistics with the dexterity of an octopus on crack, as well as blaming every
drought, flood and heavy morning dew for retarded "growth", and smoking plenty
of that funny vegetation that is mysteriously growing around the country in
unemployed people's front yards.
So the downgrading of the US's prized Triple-A credit rating by
Standard&Poor's on Friday will no doubt be turned into a huge plus for the
Unraveling Silliness of America. We will be assured once again that we're on
the verge of a turnaround, the budget wars are over, the downgrading is only
temporary, blah blah blah. Of course, everyone in Wonderland can see that the
cow paddies are beginning to pile up with each new Washington assurance of Good
Times Ahead.
Walking amidst fecal architecture that obstructs the view of such a future
would normally make believing in all those rosy prognostications a trifle hard
to swallow. But no worry. US President Barack Obama and his merry band of
pilfering, pillaging plutocrats will tour the talk shows, telling us those are
actually job-creating skyscrapers made of natural American products, and that
wallowing in that stuff for, say, 50 or 60 years, will return the country to
greatness and World SuperDuperPowerDumb once again. Of course, in order to do
this, we will all have to purchase nose plugs and plenty of air freshener; I
hear the Chinese are already cranking up production.
Hardy Campbell
Bovine Ville, Texas (Aug 8, '11)
[Re Starving North Korea
opens its doors for aid, Aug 4] North Korea's doors have remained wide
open for food aid. Pyongyang has allowed non-government-organizations like
Mercy Corp to account for and control to the point of distribution food to
needy provinces before South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak and United States
President Barack Obama, working in tandem, brutally cut off the flow of
cereals, food, and fertilizers in 2008.
This information has not been well reported in the global media, since to do
so, would expose the joint US-South Korean policy of regime change in North
Korea. The hypocrisy of the US and South Korea has never been more blatant: on
one hand, they talk up a storm of human rights and aiding the downtrodden, and
on the other, they engage in collective punishment of a people the simple
reason they do not like the government in North Korea that won't bow to
sanctions and the like, to the displeasure of Washington and Seoul.
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 5, '11)
[Re Local
losers in Lao casino capitalism, Aug 2] We followed with interest the
article, which shed light on the challenges in promoting development in Lao
People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) through the establishment of Special
Economic Zones (SEZ).
We would like to clarify the role and support of the Asian Development Bank
(ADB) in the establishment of SEZs in Lao PDR.
Lao PDR is one of the least developed countries in South East Asia with per
capita GDP of $890. About one third of the 6.3 million people of Lao PDR live
on less than $2 a day. Limited job opportunities have forced more than 250,000
Lao laborers to seek work in neighboring countries. The country requires $15
billion in investments to promote economic growth and development, of which
$7.5 billion is expected from the private sector - mainly foreign direct
investment.
The Government of Lao PDR decided to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to
create an environment that is conducive for private sector development. ADB has
provided support for the establishment of the SEZs in Lao PDR since 2008 to
help jump start private sector development and more importantly create
employment opportunities for Lao PDR people. The focus of the support has been
to put in place the regulatory environment necessary for proper governance of
SEZs.
While there are many upsides to economic development there can also be risks
such as drugs and human trafficking. ADB has been working very closely with
other donor agencies to address the social and health impacts of development in
SEZs. ADB supports programs to help raise awareness of HIV, drug use, human
trafficking, and promote positive behavior. ADB also strongly supports
government's regulation banning the operation of casinos in all future SEZs.
While SEZs have made important contributions in attracting investment in Lao
PDR and supporting economic growth, it will take continued efforts and
commitment to address the associated risks. This is the challenging part in
supporting economic development initiatives. ADB recognizes these challenges
and will continue to support the efforts of the Government of Lao PDR to take
the country out of poverty.
A. Barend Frielink
Deputy Country Director
Lao Resident Mission
Asian Development Bank (Aug 5, '11)
Futureman sounded depressed. "Yeah, it's been a tough week," he moaned. "The
Last Liberal is apparently on his death bed, and no one is quite sure what to
do." "Last Liberal? What's that?" I had to ask.
"Well, neo-cons back in your day blamed everything on liberals, and it always
seemed to work for them, even when most of the things they got blamed for were
originally as a result of Republican policies. That enabled them to continue
wrecking America with their no-tax, always-war, cut-benefits policies, and the
resulting financial armageddon was always the liberals' fault, fault which they
gladly accepted. But even after most of the liberals were either killed or went
into exile out of the solar system, they were still being blamed for everything
that went wrong with the neo-con laws.
That lasted for about 200 years, until there was only one liberal left alive on
the planet, a dude named Higgins T O'Worthyman. He was captured and kept in a
special prison, and he would regularly be trotted out and pilloried on systemic
TV for causing everything from asteroid near-misses with earth to the Jovian
ant-people tax revolts."
"Wow," I said. "One liberal left to take all that blame. How long did that go
on?" "Oh, gosh, like 700 years or so. Higgins was kept alive for the last 600
years using the latest cryogenic preservation technologies, but even that
started to break down. The government started to panic when the public started
to doubt that a decrepit old mummified semi-corpse like O'Worthyman was capable
of causing famine in Indonesia, an outbreak of plague in China and the food
riots in Atlanta. But now we have one last hope left."
"What's that?" "Well, they're going to try and clone his Liberalism genes into
a Galapagos turtle. That way we're guaranteed a scapegoat for a loooong time."
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 4, '11)
[Re US-North Korea nuclear
talks fizzle out , Aug 1] You knew that the US-North Korea talks were
going nowhere when a State Department spokesman called them "businesslike and
constructive". The meaning was clear: each side presented its position and that
was that. Did it clear the air for a future confab? Possibly. Could the outcome
been different? Hardly.
The US was looking for "sincerity" from the North Koreans. Such an attitude
recalled former US president George W Bush's bestowal of a good housekeeping
seal on Russia Vladimir Putin: "I looked into his eyes and found him sincere".
The US team had found a glint of that state of being in the eyes of Kim
Gye-gwan, it seems. Moreover the Americans were not there to find "wiggle room"
to restart the six-party talks. Looking at who the US chose to "talk", they
were the usual suspects, many of whom had signed on to a Council on Foreign
Relations report on Korea calling for "rolling back" North Korea. You have to
wonder how the US can conduct its diplomacy with a strait-jacket rejectionist
position?
Nakamura Junzo
Guam (Aug 2, '11)
[Re Taiwan lowers its
military sights, Aug 1] The title could have suggested insightful
thoughts if the article had indicated Taiwan's more realistic objective
regarding its lower ''military sights''. Namely, it is the way Taiwan will
maintain most of its freedom and democracy as a special administrative zone
within China, with a negotiated Taiwan military to prevent mainland troops from
landing on the island; such negotiated Taiwan military will be Taiwan's lower
''military sights''. Incidentally, Taiwan will have enough resistance to
generate gory pictures of mainland China attacking Taiwan, thus creating an
economic tsunami for China. Such will be Taiwan's military defense; there will
be no more, but it remains rather effective. Taiwan will likely be another Hong
Kong plus a negotiated military settlement; before then, less will remain
meaningless to the mainland side, which will prefer to wait and build up some
more, not just ten years but twenty, thirty, or more.
Indeed, the article has some fine observations; it even gets tantalizingly
close to the crux but its so-called ''more concrete terms'' still fail to
include Taiwan's geography as an island with little energy source. Ambiguous
and not insightful is: ''The edge the PLA has over the Taiwanese armed forces
is becoming increasingly overwhelming, the Taiwanese military says, and within
a decade, the PLA won't have a hard time forcing Taipei into accepting
unification by military means if necessary.'' While there is some basic truth
in this statement, it is still a crude boilerplate.
Still, the article contains a part of the crux, which can be found in: ''That
day, according to the MND's own account, two PLAAF Sukhoi-27 fighters crossed
the centerline in the Taiwan Strait in what was alleged to have been the first
such breach in a decade.'' Such a "breach" did not result in assertiveness from
Taiwan.
Now, think of the year 2030 and substitute ''centerline'' with an oil tanker
leaving Taiwan. Think of the gradual erosion of business confidence in Taiwan
from mere uncertainty of energy supply. If say in 2040 the mainland simply
fires a few shots and vows to do so again without further warning, what will
Taiwan do? Taiwan will not have the courage to launch the first major military
offensive. The Taiwan economy will be paralyzed. Eventually, any commercial
uniqueness of Taiwan to the world will be marginalized by the Chinese mainland.
In diplomatic parlance, since Taiwan is a part of China, there will be no
''breach''. Taiwan will have no venue or avenue to address any grievance.
Protests outside the UN will make no difference as Taiwan will not be allowed
in, as Taiwan is recognized as a part of China at the UN. Sensing that a war is
not in the offing, the governments of the world will be less inclined to abet
Taiwan resistance, upon the background of the diplomatic reality that Taiwan is
a part of China.
''As to what effect the PLA's arms built-up will have on future battle
scenarios, the Taiwanese military believes that by 2020 the PLA can carry out a
blockade on Taiwan, seize Taiwan's outlying islands, launch a full-scale
military attack against Taiwan proper, and deter foreign powers from coming to
Taiwan's help.'' This is the fanciful military picture; there is a simpler and
more gradual but compelling economic picture at work.
While the Taiwan Strait exposes Taiwan's energy link, it also makes mainland
China's micromanagement of Taiwan difficulty. The Taiwan issue, finally with
Taiwan as a truly special administrative zone in China, will gravitate toward
this geographical reality. In conjunction and in really concrete terms, the
true meaning of ''lower military sights'' for Taiwan exists.
Jeff Church
United States (Aug 2, '11)
[Re The collapse of
America's middle class, Aug 1] When American comedian George Carlin
used to say in a nihilist way that "this country was bought and sold a long
time ago," he did not mean it literally but rather subtly. The extreme
divisiveness in the American body politics is business as usual, so yes, our
country was sold to particular domestic interests a while ago.
The Democrats have succeeded in splitting America in as many groups as
possible. We are no longer Americans but rather black or white or yellow or
pink or green, you name it. The ugly truth is that these groups, depending on
the color, feel like others owe them something. Thus that deepens the division
even further, because most of us feel like we owe nothing to anybody. The Tea
Party and the Rush Limbaugh listener types have successfully alienated the vast
majority of independent voters - which most of us are - by preaching their
already expired flavor of Americanism. It's just political hackery. They do not
want Barack Hussein Obama to succeed.
The next elections should be about the economy. But as usual, the groups that
want a dumb America will throw in homosexuality, abortion, immigration, and
other topics in the mix to confuse the voters and focus on trivialities.
Once we are distracted discussing private religious beliefs of people and
requesting copies of their e-mails to snoop, then the masters of our society
will sell us the illusion of choice. Otto Von Bismarck said that "God has a
special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America" and boy
he was right, because despite all the enemies within sabotaging this great
country, it is still standing and it will for generations to come.
Ysais Martinez
United States (Aug 2, '11)
Of all the absurd hypocrisies of Wonderland, few can surpass the utterings,
opinions and oral foamings of Republican neo-conmen "Christians." They rant and
rave about godless "liberals," welfare and entitlement programs, and gay
anything. They glorify all things military, bang war drums incessantly and
praise their devotion to the Right to Life movement.
They belief ruthless capitalism is the sine qua non of Christ's bounty
on earth, vetting the weak from the morally superior. They march off to church
every Sunday, convinced the peace loving half-Jewish hippie who died on a cross
2011 years ago would today be resurrected as a Gucci suited, white Anglo-Saxon
businessman.
They have no problem cutting benefits to children (live ones, that is), the
elderly, the mentally ill and all minorities, but woe unto those who suggest
the wealthy pay any part of their wealth to help support those derelict
good-for-nothing sponges. Otherwise, how could the rich afford those
passing-through-the-eye-of-a-needle lessons?
Somehow they forgot how Jesus practiced welfare when he doled out free bread
and fishes, and didn't charge for his medical services when he cured the blind
and the lame. Needless to say, as a liberal and a Christian, I find everything
about Republicanism anti-Christian, anti-human and anti-American. Equating
neo-conservatism to Christianity is like making virginity the hallmark of the
street walker; they are mutually exclusive ideas.
But that perverse interpretation of the neo-conmen has not stopped them from
supporting the vicious apartheid policies of Israel, or encouraging blatant
racism, treasonous war and financial skullduggery, of doing everything they can
to wreck and destroy the once noble idea of America. They have made the US the
least Christian country in the history of this planet, a history that surely
will assign the American "Christian" the same rank and category as the
Assyrians, the Huns and the Khmer Rouge. God help us all.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 2, '11)
"Greece," Lord Palmerstone, the famous 19th century British Prime Minister,
once remarked, was "an emotional word." The emotions of which he spoke were
stirred by the Greek struggle for independence from the Ottoman Empire as well
as the recognition of what ancient Greece represented for Western ideals and
history. The result of such inspiration was Great Power intervention that gave
the Greeks their own sovereign state, a state that never seemed satisfied with
its original humble status.
The newly freed Greeks, with the substantial aid of their European Big Brother
benefactors, continued to grasp, cloy and connive to expand their rump state to
the modern boundaries they have today. But Greece has never gotten over its
ambitious nature, regardless of how limited their own capacities are, knowing
the rest of Europe will accord them "special status" as they always have.
Consequently, once in the European Union, they have continued their crusade
against fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member Turkey's
inclusion in the EU, have continued to deny the neighboring ex-Yugoslav state
to call themselves "Macedonia" in official forums, have continued to foment
trouble in Cyprus, and until very recently, decided they could go on an open
ended spending binge at the rest of Europe's expense.
That economic arrogance has come to a crashing halt, at least temporarily, with
the bankruptcy of the Hellenic treasury, so that the word "Greece" now inspires
emotion once again in the rest of Europe, albeit the wrong kind. Until the
Greeks recognize that they bear little resemblance to the philosophizing
ancients that they claim to be descended from, and the rest of Europe realizes
it's been played for suckers by these wannabe sages for the last 190 odd years,
little impoverished Greece will continue to cause voices to be raised, teeth to
be clenched and fists to be pounded. But the days when the Lord Byrons of the
world would take Turkish swords into their bosoms for a romantic ideal of
"Greece" are over.
Hardy Campbell
United States (Aug 1, '11)
July Letters
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