Obamination

Wait a minute Obama are you nuts I mean how in the freaking republic were you thinking coming up with such a barbaric decision I mean not to be considered homophobic but come on people I think Obama has just crossed the police line. I mean if this is Politics I better stay out of it, gay marriage has gone too far you’ve just disappointed too many “Wanna Be’s” even your own pastor is really saying to himself “damn the devil just got invited to the white house”.

Obama came, saw and never conquered he promised to close down the Guantanamo Bay by the first year of his office but oops! he let that slide under the carpet, he also promised to cut down number of troops in Iraq which he did but ended up doubling the number again, what in the banana world was he thinking, marriage is a sovereign treaty between both the male specie and female not Diana and Tanisha, you understand. I am not against Obama but if this is what he brings on the table I better order a KFC burger.

A sad Syria

It’s been a long time since I last wrote down my last post I know I maybe procrastinating too much on when I was to inject some steroids into this blog and yet my attention got shifted to a steroid mate who has been hitting the news in the last four months or so, this dude has been on some high grade steroid bombing his citizens (as he calls them terrorists) with high grade shelling, torture and all the human rights violations possible worst that the Armenia genocide and close to the Rwandan genocide.

It is a sad time for Syria because this dude Assad is really so sad going after mothers and innocent and vulnerable children in the cover of the light who does that Assad? you’ve now joined the Hitler and the SS family good luck with the cyanide (oops), by now telling the BIG boys (USA, and the Europeans) to stay away from the idea of a non-intervention that they could easily come up with as they did with Libya(the no fly-zone) which crippled Gaddafi to the Tuareg’s mercenaries.

It’s also sad to see Russia especially the Kremlin boys play their cards out with people’s lives and since Putin is in the office now he should put in some end into this matter by telling Assad to get on some rehab medication and stop killing his Homs(slang) at Homz. Another sad thing is that Sanctions towards Syria are violating human rights on Syrian people, the lack of basic needs such as food, and clean water kills the whole aspect of sanctions, the BIG boys need to target individuals in the Syrian regime using SMART sanctions to deter their influence and power on killing their own people, with such sadness in Syria it’s hard to place honor on Assad decade rule, his personality depicts a tale of sad rituals and customs that have now brought rumors of religious conflict between the Shia and the Sunni, as power shifts in the middle east it is with such nature that Syria is doomed to fall at the mercies of the Iranians(nuclear) but all in all we pray to God to deliver his people from captivity.

Media Heresy

One wonders where the world would be if we had no TV’s, internet or the paper press, I guess we would still be hunting wild Boers and picking raw guavas in the Amazon or maybe smoking sausages in the Congo. The dark ages are times when men knew nothing but blood and debt, where paranoia was nothing more than a simple thought; men were more like animals and women prize and possessions. But thanks to God great wisdom and knowledge, the media was invented the world became one, the language decoded and the social political interactions became alive.

The media has two different sides of a coin, one that portrays an ethical and moral attitude towards human conflict and the other half truths pushing for self interest ideologies mainly the western ideological construct of the right. The media profess the ultimate one side approach that western governments demand, the domination of the English culture, the assimilation of the western ideology on minority groups is morally unethical and barbaric.

The evolution and development of the electronic media which has had a profound effects on the development of conflict and its internationalization of events, happening in one part of the world are transmitted instantaneously to other parts therefore leading to pressure for action. Social media platform such Twitter, Facebook and Blogs have been used to show progress of conflict for example the recent Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Libya.

The question that comes in mind is there any good that media brings? If you conduct a cost benefit analysis or do a correlation analysis and see how the media has done its moral duty or invited strangers into our homes what is the outcome is it good or less good?

The debate lies in the ethical and moral aspect of the media’s nature for example if the CNN did not display the images of the Rwandan genocide victims on American cable what would have happened, if the media did show the Kurdish massacres by Saddam Hussein what would have been the reactions? The Arab spring as portrayed in the media has been from the western side overlooking the good and positive things that these dictatorial powers have lavished their people with long periods of peace, free education, water and electricity and many good things that some western nations could ever dream of.

The question therefore is Media a tool of new world wars, but today there is now significant, useful and growing body of literature on the causes of conflicts. While the theoretical conclusions in this literature so far are necessarily limited, they are also important, because they direct our attention towards the key issues of the world order, lack of political freedoms and human rights.

Worldless Hustle

Maybe all what we need is good dictators to run our states or a bunch of literate army officers who know a thing or two about human rights, maybe we should all pledge our allegiance to the papacy oh the good old days when men dined with kings, boys slept with swords and queens wore dresses unlike what we see with our fading monarchy and heresy among our hearts. It’s true that we cannot change the past but we can correct it for the future but the sad story is there is no silver bullet solution for what we see on our Televisions and hear on radio, news of total chaos, death and destruction from Nicaragua to Doble in Somalia and from Christ Church to South Ossetia, Georgia. 

What we have now is a sick and complex disease that makes schools release more diplomats, but hey not all is sad news, we have seen good stories aired on blogs and radio from the Caracas Stock Market in Venezuela performing better than the Wallstreet, the rise and fall of iron fist rulers of the Arab world and the withdrawal of American Troops in Sovereign Iraq, such stories made Monday mornings brighter especially the Arab spring which was such an unexpected outcome of the middle class rising against the dons of self rule.

But yet again Earth has seen its worst and (worst’s) of its existence, been able to withstand the incoherent American foreign policy and the Chinese flooding of cheap and sub-standard goods in Africa, the lost glory in European politics to the Iranian Mexican connection, all this are just a taste of old powers retiring and new powers on job training but as we continue to eat of this earth lets be selfless in our actions and love each other more and pray for Gods guidance and protection.

Foreign Aid or Aids

Foreign aid has been questioned by many scholars as being either a proxy for states self interest or being a tool of diplomacy motivated by the need to preserve human dignity but mainly as the majority sees it as being merely a means for dominant states to continue exploitation of developing countries, a way for states to cooperate in addressing global problems, or an ethical manifestation of rich countries obligation to help the poor. Foreign aid is among the real innovations which the modern age has introduced into the practice of foreign policy.

At the end of the Second World War, there had been a few temporary programs of humanitarian relief in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century’s. But the donation from one state or institutions to another to help improve the humanitarian condition was unheard of even unimagined in policy circles or by the media.

Today, in many of the world’s developed and developing states, programs funded with foreign aid from foreign governments and international organizations are colossal and widespread. They are characterized by multi billion dollar reconstruction projects in war ravished states like Iraq and Afghanistan and micro enterprise loans to impoverished women in Bangladesh.

They comprise international research to find more productive crops and less polluting energy sources, scholarships for PhD economists in world class universities, and the expansion of primary education in rural Uganda. Aid supports girls’ education in Peru, and it helps finance the budget of the Ministry of Education in Ghana. Children in Guatemala, Indonesia, and Ethiopia and in numerous other countries are inoculated with foreign aid funded vaccines.

Couples in Latin America, Asia, and Africa use family planning services subsidized with foreign aid. Foreign aid pays for HIV/AIDS research and prevention and is beginning to finance the distribution of life-saving antiretroviral. It funds economic reforms in Malawi, debt relief in Mozambique, and enterprise development in Russia. Political party and media training, elections, judicial reform, and civil society development are supported in numerous countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America with foreign aid, as is humanitarian relief for natural and man-made disasters throughout the world.

The number of organizations and countries involved in providing foreign aid is also large. Several dozen international organizations, like the World Bank, the Asian, African, and Inter-American Development Banks, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), plus approximately thirty governments have significant programs of foreign aid, including all the rich countries of North America, Western Europe, and Japan as well as oil-producing countries in the Middle East and “middle-income” developing countries, like Korea, Thailand, and Turkey. Former socialist bloc countries in Eastern Europe are setting up new aid programs, and even relatively poor countries, like India and China, provide aid to other poor countries. And in at least one case, a rich country the United States has aided another rich country the UK to promote peace in Northern Ireland.

Foreign aid, though large and commonplace, is not without controversy, especially in major countries providing aid. This controversy centers on the volume of aid that donor governments should provide and the related issue of the impact of aid on development. Aid’s critics complain that aid has been ineffective and should be cut. Aid’s advocates argue that it has been effective, can with reforms be more effective in the future, and therefore, on moral and practical grounds, it should be dramatically expanded. However, an important part of the debate on aid effectiveness is often missing—the mix of purposes for which aid is provided. Aid has been provided not only to promote growth and poverty reduction abroad. It has been and continues to be provided for a variety of purposes, of which development is only one.

Colossal Social Failure

Today it looks like everyone wants an office job with all the tech toys, no hassle, no dirt and a stack of office rules and regulation to make them cosy and no sweat on the job. Where I live an older guy just retired he had apprenticed in Europe to recover household goods furniture. Seven years! That is how long it took him to get papers. Nobody even knows what that job is over here, let alone take an interest in learning the trade from him. I heard he was the last pro around.

There are many technical jobs available and not enough qualified people to fill them. The schools are not turning out carpenters etc any more. Few are learning technical trades, such as plumbing, electrician, so the positions go unfilled, or get filled by unqualified people who certainly claim they are qualified. I know, from my good home neighbours who’ve told me of hiring many trades and failing to do work in and around their homes. Their work was sub-standard, only exceeded by their poor work habits. I was told the ones fired, could do a better job myself, and eventually had to, to complete the project, or fix their screw ups. These trades included painters, carpenters, installers or tapers, tile installers, electrician… and cement or concrete experts. With the exception of the concrete contractors work, they had to re-do or fix their screw ups. they did due as much due diligence as one could, re references etc. All I can say, professional standards seem so low now, poor workmanship, is considered good by the majority so to say I used to say ‘You can cure Ignorance, but you can’t cure stupidity’ but the stupidity factor has grown to such heights, that it scares even me; I have seen a car bumper sticker which states: ‘Stupid people are my job security’.

I think we are approaching the levels of ignorance or stupidity & laziness as suggested by the short story of Cyril M. Kornbluth, ‘The Marching Morons’. How do you bail out a “lazy” generation? You don’t. They learn, the hard way, just like the previous generation. They bang their heads against the wall, like those of us that preceded them. Without hard knocks, nothing learned. But I think I think that putting the resources into the hands of the people with the initiative to change their own lives is an option that needs to be seriously considered I know for sure the talent is out there. Let’s capitalize on the energy and turn some of that anger and discontent into productive enterprises and the businesses of the future.

Expelled from Gaza!

It would take some guts; perhaps more nerve than this blogger possesses, to respond to this question in the negative. This idea of the Palestinians to seek statehood is rather absurd, wait a minute the Palestine’s assume that their quest can or would be conceived of as being martyrs of Islamic liberation of Zionism; this basically creates my pessimistic perspective as being mere hallucinations standing between basic aspirations and American dreams.

States do not arise of their own accord; they are endorsed rather than ends in themselves. Once in place they do affect related behavior and outcomes. They are not merely a construct but a sovereign reality, but states do matter. However, there is no universal agreement on this debate, the state concept as being of no use, if not misleading but enlightened men believe that states do matter but only under fairly restrictive conditions.  Scholars see states as much more insidious, as inherent attributes of any complex, persistent pattern of human behavior.  The Palestine quest for statehood is clearly debatable for or against, the Palestine state is characterized by indifference between Fatah and Hamas, interests in Gaza and Israel settlements, and exchange of Katyusha rockets as a common expression of conflict. But the general assembly, the Security Council and the citizens of Gaza need to know is that the world is ideologically a construct that is customized to fulfill the interest of self seeking egoistic individuals.

Islamitics

The society we create is not worth the bones and blood of a single politician. It is ironic, then, that politics is responsible for igniting a conflict with fatal consequences for chaos and disorder in the world.

There has long been a cottage sector of Islamic historians who try to allocate blame for the outbreak of the World Wars. A lot has been written on the subject. I personally do not intend to take part in that sterile debate. Rather, focus on dimensions of customs and religion which led to the Islamic discourse which has in many ways altered the personality of the conflict. Most notably in this view was the introduction of the theory of martyrdom and jihad. Yet by measuring up debates presented in different contributions it is quite possible to a get a glimpse of the differences of opinion and thought between Muslim intellectuals from the majority Sunnis and the minority Shia. Islamist conflicting views of the factors that underlie perceptions of Islam in the context of politics and religion. Islamist believe or claim that the Christian missionaries through their schools or system of education hypnotized and poisoned the minds of innocent children by implanting the myth of the predatory Muslim slave traders and heavily impaired the image of Islam.

Quite interesting to note the differences of belief between the Islamist in relation to Islam being a religion or a political establishment that was motivated by a desire to stifle western influence So let me school you a bit on another concept, the instrumental theory argues that the conflict we subjectively experience is an artificial modern phenomena, and invented by the elite, the islamist identity is a creation and construction by people in power, the elite. This concept also brings out the present day divide between Muslims and Christians due to issues of modernization that has made the Islamist and the Christians become socially aware of the differences among them for this reason, modernization contributed to the religious conflict by making the disadvantages of the islamist quite obvious.

Private Armies

Private military firms or Mercenaries, whatever you may wish to call them are they really the best alternative to United Nation peacekeeping forces? well, the answer may vary depending on your level of ethical literacy if you know what I mean, although it might seem like a simple task, no one as yet been able to come up with the right answer to that question, the debate is interesting and quite wide that being said, it is important to note that private armies as I would call it lack the legal personality that would legitimize their true cause in war or conflict. 

According to security industry specialist, international security has become a $100 billion industry annually; this therefore translates to a profitable venture for private military firms for example Black Water LLC now known as Xe Services LLC, a private military firm in the US was awarded $1 billion contract by the united states government to consult, support marines in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as train Iraqi police force.

Private armies are commercial organizations that deal in professional services complexly connected to combat. They specialize in military skills capacities to war explosive and mine detection and various other roles for warfare and law enforcement duties including calculated warfare operations, covert and intelligence analysis, operational support, forces training, and armed technological assistance etc

The emergence of private armies is directly correlated to an ideological construct meaning that change from traditional thinking of military to a more commercial modernization of security is more present than before. Capitalism as an ideological construct change the thinking from public to privatization this therefore was more efficient or profitable to run military sector as a commercial venture.

Entrepreneurship is another factor that led to private armies establishment, entrepreneurs created digital and complex information systems that surpassed the old and outdated military systems, this therefore made the private entrepreneurs more sophisticated and advanced than their public colleagues and led to a realization of partnership between the two.

Private armies have had a serious public relations nightmare whereby they have time and time again being branded as mercenaries or dogs of war as the media calls them, their role in war torn states such as Iraq, Ivory Coast, Somalia, Chad and Libya, their efforts have been successful but not a clean job, they have been accused by the people of war crimes: assault, human rights abuses, rape, destruction of property, genocide, ethnic cleansing and all manner of ills the society has, many of this private armies have been used by big and small states as proxies to impose their political and economical interest, so as to avoid the spike of the international laws that limit their direct involvement for example the United States of America and the United Kingdom have been known culprits who have used private armies to advance their deep dark secrets to loot oil reserves and diamonds in the name of democracy and violation of human rights all in all this is subject to a wide debate that requires a mature and objective discussion of which this post isn’t part of.

A positive side of this private armies was in the civil war in Sierra Leone, in which the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front was in the middle of an orgy of looting, murder and decapitation,  a private firm Executive Outcomes defeated them with only a force of 300 men and was able to establish democratic elections in Sierra Leone. This success could be compared to the United Nations peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone who used billions and billions of dollars in 3 years to maintain a ceasefire between the Revolutionary United front and the government while Executive Outcomes used less than that amount in 6 months to defeat the rebels and set up government with no known casualties.

All that sounds like a scene from an American movie, but reality bites private armies are not going anywhere because of their “legal” advantage they provide for powerful states that can afford them or for outdated and undertrained military states in developing states, but mainly they come in handy as a foreign policy tools. Private firms such as Executive Outcomes attested how valuable they could do when only a force of 300 men was able to accomplish in Sierra Leone what 18,000 United Nations men couldn’t.

The ethical dilemma of addressing what to do about private armies is confusing, the difficulty to calculate the cost benefit analysis is invaluable but those who fight for financial gain are an stumbling block to much of what we strive for honor.

Arab Spring

DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND TANKS

As the Arab spring rages on, claiming a terrible toll of death and destruction of people and infrastructure, with complete and total displacement of people. While it’s easier to point out that it is typical of Arabs to make noise about almost anything or it is certainly another Arab fundamentalist making quick profit who knows? Well there are several forces that propel the Arab revolution in the Arab world, foremost the fact that the youth in this part of the world are highly unemployed 2 out of every 6 have a job and the fact that the western boys are all up in their business.

The regimes of Ben Ali of Tunisia, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt tight grip on power and resources ignoring the world changing dynamics of globalization, liberalism and the depreciating importance of state supremacy in this new world order has only made matters worse but has deepened the people’s resolve to liberate themselves.

Arab revolution will continue to spark on as long as the warring parties: regimes versus the people settle this out with boxing gloves in the ring, meaning the people are not in any way dressing up for diplomacy nor engage in tea parties, they are to lay out serious deterrence to frighten their adversary for a win lose situation, however illegitimate in the eyes of international law the west sees this Arab spring as an opportunity to grab resources and feed their ever growing economic demand of gas, food and yeah profit.

The stereotype of the Arab revolution has been indicted with severe brutality mainly by regimes army forces, the army backing this regimes have let loose indiscriminate shelling attacks using tanks and a barrage of airborne attacks claiming innocent lives of women and children, brothers killing brothers that has been the slogan used by the west to portray the regimes as blood thirsty individuals with dictatorial tendencies clinging on to power who have serious issues of the rule of law.

Almost daily, local and international media carry stories that regime army allies shell civilian homes where women and children reside as part of a campaign to weaken the revolution momentum this has been used as an legitimate cause by the west to intervene in the case of NATO no fly zone resolution against Gaddafi’s regime aerial bombardment of Benghazi during the start of the revolution.

The regime leaders in the Arab spring have rhetorically failed to acknowledge the responsibility for their country’s state of problems either politically, economically or socially, others having grossly mismanaged the economy such as Ben Ali of Tunisia which is crippled with record youth unemployment and Mubarak of Egypt control of politics for decades has made it quite unpopular with the people.

It would be a serious mistake for the western governments to overlook the Arab revolution as simply as a reinstallation of democracy, this is because of the likelihood of other actors such as Al-Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic insurgents camouflaging itself along the banner of democracy, in the next couple of years don’t be surprised to see Islamic sharia law as the new decree.  The west needs to understand that, not only do the people desperately crave for democracy but politics of accountability and integrity that should take root in the mindset of the people.

There is deep suspicion in numerous political circles is that the Arab revolution is merely a proxy instigated by the west and Israel to fight the war on terror as well as strategically create a resourceful advantage as part of a extensive conspiracy to oppose and divide Islam sphere of influence.

The Arab revolution is a difficult crisis, and no single solution will solve all of its elements, capitalizing on diplomacy between the regime and the people to begin a sober peace process and produce an all-inclusive and feasible peace accord is welcomed but It’s not opinions, tact or diplomacy that are likely to bring an end to the crisis but dialogue between the people and the tanks.

Chinese were Right!

Following the recent riots in Britain which was apparently caused by a broken and sick culture of the British lads. David Cameron who had left the country for only  two days on holiday leaving his trusted colleague Nick Clegg to run the kingdom….. but that didn’t work out so well for Clegg…. the great United Kingdom went into chaos under his careful watch!!!! ……that shows how things would have been if Cameron wasn’t on the ballot….maybe Brown would have risen to the occasion maybe much better than Blair who knows!

But David Cameron has some few lessons to learn from the communist china in handling such uprising and chaos first of all reduce budget cuts and invest solid on great firewall or censorship policy to curtail the organized crime of looting and destruction of public property, censor twits and block Facebook  status updates as well as photo tags and if things get out of hand like the Tibetan uprising close down the BBC and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire….. ….with all that the British police would have an easy job  writing reports, collecting evidence from the Closed circuit television and wait for the Sandhurst British tanks to step in and maintain law and order, well that sounds more like an arab spring does it? well David Cameron i guess the Chinese were all along right! mmmmh!  永远是对的

Diplomacy goes Shtoink!

STATE OF COLD WAR: ESPIONAGE AT WORK

This post will shortly attempt this difficult but important task with the humble understanding that the full story is impossible to know and tell even for the very contributors of the practice. Nevertheless, in this investigation, the author will explore the role of espionage in international relations during the cold war era.

The cold war as we know it was a period during which American national and strategic interests in the world were relatively clear, as a result of the balance of powers, So were Soviet national and strategic interests. Thus, each side advanced the creation of coalitions and proxies in the international system. To advance their interest there had to be first hand information to implement their policies, the use of intelligence agencies was prominent at this era.

After world war II, a state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition started between the Communist World, primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies, and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States and its allies that was from 1947 to 1991. According to Robert Gabrick and Harvey Klehr who have authored communist, espionage and the cold war they state that although the communist Soviet Union was a temporary friend of the United States of America during World War II, the alliance was a uncertain one that soon dissolved as the war was ending.

In August, 1945, the same month that nuclear atomic bombs were dropped and Japan surrendered unconditionally, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) of America had their first interrogation with confessed former communist Elizabeth Bentley. By November 1948 she had submitted a 112 page confession implicating many others in espionage for the Soviets.

The use of secret intelligence systems in the cold war was precipitated by the most significant source of documents which came from the deciphered cables of the Venona Project, a top secret United States Army Signal Intelligence Service program to read Soviet diplomatic cablegrams. These “reveal that hundreds of Americans had formal ties to Soviet intelligence services in the 1930s and 1940s” (Venona, 331).

Using KGB archive files made available to them, historian Allen Weinstein and former KGB intelligence agent, Alexander Vassiliev conclude that “despite later denials, the truth is that a number of American agents and sources, some from doctrinal devotion and others for cold cash, carried on espionage for Soviet operatives throughout the New Deal and war years.

Because of their work, Russian intelligence agencies received substantial and sometimes critical information including many classified documents concerning United States government policies on highly sensitive subjects, its confidential negotiating strategies, and secret weapons developments, including essential processes involved in building the atomic bomb” (Weinstein and Vassiliev, 343). This shows how diplomacy and war prolonged the cold war as secrecy was the order of the day, to survive each state had to sacrifice enough resources for their own existence.