ItoBlog

Nagasaki and Hiroshima remembered

A japanese friend of my sister's wrote a piece in the New York Times Sunday Op Ed section, about his thoughts on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is very interesting to see how, for him, the atrocities occurred in a bygone era, that his generation (he was born in 1966) and the ones that have followed are disconnected from the past, if not indifferent to what occured on those mornings of August 1945. The war and the bombs that ended it, represent, as he puts it, "the equivalent of a cultural "game over" or "reset" button. Through a combination of conscious policy and unconscious culture, the painful memories and images of the war have lost their context, surfacing only as twisted echoes in our subculture. The result, for better and worse, is that, 60 years after Hiroshima, we dwell more on the future than the past."

Another Face of Terror

Nicholas Kristof wrote this frightening piece in the NYT today, exposing yet another face of terror.

"When I treat rape victims, I tell the girls not to go to the police,"     Dr. Shershah Syed, a prominent gynecologist in Karachi, told me.   "Because if she goes to the police, the police will rape her.

That's the way the world works for anyone unfortunate enough to be born   female in much of the world.

"I would do exactly the same"

Europe is steadily becoming a part of the civil war that is roiling the Islamic world, and it will require all our cultural ingenuity to ensure that the criminals who shattered London's peace at rush hour last week are not the ones who dictate the pace and rhythm of events from now on.

From BBC News this morning:

Van Gogh suspect confesses guilt   

Mohammed Bouyeri, 27, said he acted out of his religious beliefs and that he would do "exactly the same" if he were ever set free.
Prosecutors say Mr Bouyeri killed Mr Van Gogh in a ritualistic murder committed in the name of radical Islam.   
The November 2004 murder shocked the Netherlands and raised ethnic tensions.          
Mr Bouyeri, who has dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, could face a life sentence if he is convicted.          
"I take complete responsibility for my actions. I acted purely in the name of my religion," he told the court in Amsterdam.                   
"I can assure you that one day, should I be set free, I would do exactly the same, exactly the same," he added.                   
His lawyer told the court on Monday there would be no defence case put forward by Mr Bouyeri or on his behalf.                   
'Martyr' hopes                                      
Mr Bouyeri is accused of shooting and stabbing Mr Van Gogh to death as he cycled along an Amsterdam street.                      
A note stuck to his body with a knife threatened the Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script for Mr van Gogh's film Submission, about violence against women in Islamic society.
Mr Bouyeri was arrested following a shoot-out with police just minutes after Mr Van Gogh's killing.                   
The prosecution said Mr Bouyeri had hoped to die a "martyr" at the hands of the police. The murder sparked a wave of revenge attacks on mosques and counter-attacks against Christian churches in the Netherlands.                   

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/4675421.stm

About the London bombings

I just came back from a weekend at the beach and found dozens of articles (see links below) sent to me by friends analysing last Thursday's London attacks. Most of my friends are pretty lefty in general and usually  disagree with my positions on terrorism, the war in Iraq, US foreign policy etc... and so to no surprise, the articles I received were left-wing, US-bashing, self-flagellating articles from major newspapers like the Guardian and the Independent. Reading them again, I am just amazed and really frustrated to see how, since i began reading them back in the Fall of 2001, when i was studying in London, the respected authors of these articles (Robert Fisk, Tariq Ali etc...) have not budged a millimeter in their position vis-à-vis terrorism and continue to blame the US and its allies as the main  culprits for the massacres orchestrated by Al Qaeda. Just their titles speak for themselves: "The Price of Occupation" or "Blair Put Us in the Firing Line". The attacks in London, in their view, are a direct response to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and to the continued US support to Israel. They claim that, yet again, the chickens are coming home to roost. Of course, stupid, the Bush-Blair dynamic duo is paying the price for its hypocrisy, its simplistic world view, its massacring of thousands of innocent civlians in the Middle East. What truly baffles me is how utterly naïve and short-sighted these positions are. Either these authors are completely cynical or they really believe that if the US decided to make a U-turn on their foreign policy and decided to leave Iraq, leave Afghanistan and end it's support for Israel, that these terrorists would congratulate themeselves on a "mission accomplished" and begin dismantling their terror networks. These authors don't have the intellectual honesty to recognise that the roots of Islamic terrorism are far, far deeper. As Hitchens notes, "We know very well what the "grievances" of the jihadists are: The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won't abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor's liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way."

I absolutely agree that the war in Iraq was poorly planned and based on a poor understanding of the region, which in the end, has created a training ground for new terrorists. But in the same way, by refusing to look at the bigger picture, by systematically flagellating ourselves after seeing innocent bystanders being blown up into pieces rather than examining the true nature of Islamic terrorism, we are ensuring that the fight against terrorism will never be won.

Links to some articles mentionned above:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1524808,00.html
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article297623.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1523821,00.html

Why the world needs a green Middle East

Saudi Arabia is continuing to export Islamist fundamentalism in the Middle East and the US and Europe are picking up a huge slice of the the tab, buying billions and billions of barrels of Saudi oil for their energy-thirsty consumers. Same 'ol, same 'ol, no eyebrow-raising news. But for some, like Thomas Friedman, enough is enough.If we don't want terrorists to be funded, JUST DON'T BUY SAUDI OIL. Friedman is actively promoting what he coins a "Geo-Green strategy" encouraging the Bush administration to invest heavily in renewable energies in order to reduce and eventually end its dependence on Saudi oil. Simple: No more buying Saudi oil. No more terrorists being funded and armed.  And let's not forget, no more greenhouse gases. Great idea in theory but hopelessly irrealistic if western countries only think of protecting their backyards. Joseph Braude explains in this brilliant article how the growing demand for Saudi oil of neighboring Arab countries poses a serious danger and is strengthening Saudi political influence in the region. In short, where Saudi oil flows, Wahhabist ideas follow--which makes the growing oil shortage in many Arab states a coming nightmare.The only way out, he argues, is if Europe and the US work together to apply a geo-green strategy both at home and in the Middle East.

Forced to grow a beard in Iran?

The surprise run-off election today in Iran pits a former hard-liner turned moderate (Rafsanjani) against a until now unknown ultra-conservative (Ahmadinejad). As I write this, the two are neck in neck,  but if the latter wins, we can expect troubled times ahead, including mass demonstrations of young male city employees refusing to grow a beard, something Ahmadinejad has vowed to enforce if elected (I KID YOU NOT). Here's a quick summary of where the candidates stand.

The church's influence in the Philippines

Here's a very interesting article in the IHT today explaining how, despite all the talk of rising islamic fundamentalism in South-East asia, the Filipino Catholic church is by far the most powerful and politically-influential religious institution in the region. All efforts to promote contraception and birth rate control in an overpopulated country are constantly hindered by the church. The author also points to an interesting fact: the Philippines is one of the two remaining countries in the world where divorce is still illegal.

Blair's speech today

I was flicking through the channels this morning and was fortunate to come across Blair's live speech to the European Parliament. It was perhaps the most eloquent speech I have heard from a Head of State in a very long time. I think Blair could not have made a more compelling case for radical reform of the EU, a forward-looking and modern vision coming to grips with the reality of globalisation, the increasing competitiveness of Asia and the stagnant and out-dated EU idealism of the past 50 years. Today's speech dwarfs Chirac's failed attempts at defending current EU policy.Click here to read the full transcript of click on this link to view it. (Real Player required)

Latin America Rises Up

A Brazilian friend of mine rightly noted the other day that there is almost no mention of Latin America in my blog and that i should pay a little more attention of what's going on over there. Arguably, Latin America has been in the shadow of more newsworthy happenings around the world, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. Who cares about Latin America these days, some might say. The quagmire in Iraq, the rape of Darfur, debt cancellation in Africa, China's muscle-flexing or North Korea's 5 foot tyrant offer much sexier stories for Western media. Still, there have been interesting developments in the region worth paying attention to. This very good article summarises a few.

The trouble with Gitmo