Design, Inference, and the Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism

A good post here which checks the validity of Pape' theory about Suicide Bombing and find's it seriously wanting.

Technorati Tags: Suicide Bombing,Terrorism,Statistics

The Quilliam Foundation does NOT represent Islam

I received an email in my Facebook account about this FB group which has been formed. Reading the comments and the commentary, I am still not sure why the authors would say that the QF does not represent Islam? I am not sure who or what is the representative of Islam but clearly a big tent doesn't work here!

The people who started the group are Muslims and they are speaking for themselves and anybody else who follows them. This habit of becoming the self appointed guardians of Islam and pointing to each other and thumping them has perhaps killed more Muslims than all Palestinians killed by their arch enemy Israel. Ironic, eh?

It reminded me of something else which I read today. Sometimes it does feel that the Muslims are their own worst enemies, forever looking suspiciously at everybody and everything, forever paranoid and forever worried. Those MPACUK people are usually very quick off the mark to proclaim anybody and everybody as not being Islamic enough or not doing the right thing or what have you.

On another email list today, somebody was driven from it because one person accused another of being Ismaili. I was having a great discussion on that list about non-conventional sources of energy and wind power and and and, and then this sadly familiar argument breaks out. Bang goes all the interesting debate and discussion, Israel was brought in, accusations flew around the place and what was the end result? a sense of sadness that people again ended up pissing in their own plates.

Give it a rest guys, you have much bigger problems to resolve than to poke at each other.

Technorati Tags: Islam,Muslims

Italy must be broken up

Curiously, we keep on seeing this fault line running for the past many years, the rich north of Italy refusing to pay for the south of Italy. Remember the Comoros Issue? It was a similar situation, that one part of the country is tired of paying for another part. Look at West Germany, so many times I have heard them moan about paying for the Ossies, the East German part, perhaps one of the world's greatest concentrated transfers of wealth ever known to mankind.

But here you go, read what Silvio Berlosconi's (the Italian PM) wife has to say about this topic. I quote:

Italy has never been well-suited to being a single country, and has never matured enough to become one. There is no longer any value in a unified Italy....This is a disillusioned country, even after Berlusconi's victory," she said. "The League expresses concrete demands from the most productive part of Italy, which is tired of dragging the rest of the country and does not find itself represented by the Left-wing."

This needs to be addressed carefully, and no, just because they are in the EU does not mean that separatist tendencies go away, just look at Scotland or the Basques.

Technorati Tags: Italy,Self Determination

An update on the Comoros issue

I wrote about the Comoros issue before. Nobody has been killed in the invasion and toppling of the rebel government. And as I predicted, nobody really gives a toss. And this is what throws up the hypocrisy of people. Just because it is a tiny island off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, it is not important. Hypocrisy galore. Would there be stop the war processions? Would people stand up for the right of self determination? As I said, hypocrisy galore.

But here's a good article on the impact of this intervention by the AU. I quote:

Should the AU have the responsibility to protect in defiance of the whims and self-interest of the regime, where clear human rights violations are taking place? Should it act, or simply react when called upon to do so? Should intervention only be considered when major conflict has already laid waste to peace and security? Has the Comoros intervention signalled a radical departure in the AU’s policy of intervention? Will pre-emption now form a critical component of African peacekeeping and conflict resolution?

And what happened to the rebel leader? Here's an eyewitness note. Oh! and France is involved neck deep in this mess. Not that this war seems to have impacted business and trade, investments are going on. The situation is a bit murkier than I first made out.

Comoros is involved with the Arab League and is thanking Libya and Sudan (holy cow, I can well see those two countries being the standard bearer of democracy and self determination...). Other countries also were involved in the invasion from Tanzania and Senegal. Mind you, the French and the Americans offered logistical help to the AU forces. Very murky indeed.

But, again, the silence on the part of the world is so curious.

Technorati Tags: Comoros,France,African Union,Africa,Indian Ocean,Arab League,Tanzania,Senegal,Sudan,Libya,Self Determination

Manners, are obvious optional at Brown

What is with the American universities? You invite somebody to speak at your college and then you insult them or you throw paint bombs at them. Wonderful, gentlemen, I can see all that education to turn you into good citizens is so good. Truly these people are barbarians, do not even know basic rules of civilised discourse and debate. Then again, when the teachers (the University President...) themselves behave in this manner, are we supposed to be surprised if the students follow suit?

Irrespective of the motive, this was basic bad manners, reflects very poorly on the university and their parents. How would these students like it if I was a guest lecturer there and threw a bucket of warm spit over them if they answered a question badly?

Technorati Tags: Universities,USA

Galloway again and this time its for Yvonne Ridley

And indefatigable Galloway pops up again, hattip: HP. And this time about the other amusing lady, Yvonne Ridley. I quote:

Yvonne Ridley has won her case for harassment, sex discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal against the Islam Channel.

How does Gorgeous George get involved? (not sure but...)

He asked Mohammed Ali whether Yvonne Ridley had been dismissed because she had refused to shake the hand of a Saudi prince. The reply was:

"No. Anyway she does shake men's' hands and even kisses them."

Galloway believes that these allegation were "(a) false and (b) highly damaging to the Claimant's reputation as an Islamic woman"

And the Jews pop up here as well.

As a footnote, you will remember that the Islam Channel initially claimed that they had been forced to sack Yvonne Ridley by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

These chaps are a laugh a minute! :)

Technorati Tags: Anti-Semitism,Islam,Women in Islam,United Kingdom

Galloway warns that "Jewish lobby" is working against Livingstone

How amusing. Indefatigable Galloway warns about the Jewish Lobby. This man is loopy, seriously stupid, but its clear that he is doing it for pandering to his lobby. How amusing, principled politics, my hairy patootie.

Technorati Tags: United Kingdom,Politics,Jews

Zimbabwe Embassy Prank

Bloody brilliant, loved the joke! DONT PRESS 1!!!!

 

Technorati Tags: Zimbabwe,Elections,Humour

'Untouchable' woman dies after Indian medics refuse treatment

Each and every doctor in the hospital who did not provide treatment to the woman should be

1. stripped of their degree
2. their heads shaved
3. tar poured over them
4. feathers stuck on them
5. tied to posts on the way to the garbage chute
6. people invited to throw their organic waste on them
7. and they would not get medical treatment, ever.

Sod non-violence, these animals (with due apologies to animals, they are better than humans anyway) do not need any human consideration, and yes, I know I am descending to their level, but an example needs to be made. May their souls rot in hell.

Compare this to the doctor's I have written about before here and here. But these doctors are scum.

Technorati Tags: Castism,India,Discrimination

And we have another silly reason for terrorism and extremism

I keep on saying that linking Palestine and British foreign policy to British extremism and terrorism in the UK is stupid. Here's my previous essay on how intellectually vacuous this argument is.

But then, I am never surprised that even ostensibly liberal Muslims fall into this frankly dangerous way of thinking. Here's another example of people's who need to go have a rethink about their basic logic circuits.

He starts off well enough, but then homes into the fact that people think that Islam is not violent. I agree. It is not violent. Then he goes and says something like this:

Most of all, British foreign policy has a direct bearing on nurturing extremism. The occupation of Iraq, the byproducts of the "war on terror", the perpetual suffering of the Palestinians are not amenable to Sufi solutions or deprogramming techniques. So we don't need neocon ex-extremists to tell us what extremism is about. They are part of the problem, not the solution. But we do need a viable politics that tackles the root cause of extremism. Whatever the joy in heaven, we cannot allow former lunatics to take over the asylum.

What exactly is the link between a British Muslim and a Palestinian? If it is only religion, then it goes to prove that the religion is violent, because if it was not, then why on earth are British Hindu's not blowing up Londoners because the United Kingdom's foreign policy is supporting the Pakistani government which is not protecting Hindu's in Pakistan? See what I mean? Totally inconsistent and incoherent. These leaders and intellectual people are, to a very large degree, themselves responsible for the rise in Islamophobia. When the Muslim leaders themselves do this.....

Do you see what I mean? People do not understand this kind of thinking and that's why people like Sardar will always be a figure of curiosity rather than a figure of intellectual challenge. It is these kinds of people who are giving support to terrorists. I quote, what i wrote. I have no reason to believe that Mr. Sardar is any different from these so called leaders.

I think that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a bad mistake. That does not mean that I express my opinion by blowing up people travelling by Tube or plane — that would simply make me a murderer.

It is regrettable that these Muslim leaders do not understand politics. Yes, protest against British policy, but write letters to editors, demonstrate in the streets, support antiwar candidates in elections and campaign in forums. I find their supine behaviour and willingness to pander to medieval feudal and autocratic thought processes totally unacceptable.

He should stick to what he does best, writing about medieval manuscripts. FHe has, very creditably, flatly rejected terrorism, but by giving credence to such silly reasons such as foreign policy, he unfortunately undermines his own credibility. And to think that he must be saying so just so that he can play to the peanut gallery. If he was not, then this excuse will not come up or will be more balanced.

Technorati Tags: terrorism,terrorism supporters,united kingdom,palestine,israel,foreign Policy

Green versus Green

When public policy is done on the basis of pressure by single issue organisations, then the result is chaos. Take this example of a wind farm and see how the problem arises. Put up wind farms to generate non conventional renewal energy but then the turbines will smash birds. So who makes the choice? The public do. What did they decide? They decided that birds are more important, so making sure that electricity generation and carbon reduction isnt important. But that is not the issue, the issue is that there is no decision going to be taken while the world keeps on crying for one....


All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

British Government and corrupt practices

It has been days since the Court said that the Serious Fraud Office has "seriously" erred in stopping the fraud and corruption case against BAE for allegedly bribing various Saudi people. Now, who from the government have you heard  saying anything about this case?

This government is very quick to pronounce on everything and everybody under the sun, but not on this. So what gives? (besides the fact that Gordon Brown usually hides and bottles out whenever there is a problem, and wakes up months after the problem is screaming for attention. He met with the British banks months after the wholesale markets problem was identified)

I will tell you what gives! It means that the government knows there is something wrong in this bargain. I have been tracking this for some time now and I am positive that BAE has indeed paid bribes. Why do I think that? Well, see here. The American Justice Department is on the case and I quote:

Another US official said the justice department had concerns that approval could hamper an investigation into whether BAE violated US laws by allegedly bribing Saudi officials over a previous arms deal known as Al-Yamamah. BAE has denied any wrongdoing.

If everything was tickety boo and overboard, why on earth would the Justice Department express concerns about it? It is, after all, not just a banana republic and a tin pot dictator we are talking about. We are talking about, oh!, sorry, a banana republic after all.

What people do not realise is the damage this step has done to the country's internal political and social consistency. For a political government in the form of ministers to interfere with an independent body - which is answerable only to Parliament - is critically insane. This has violated the basic structure of the checks and balances built into our society. Between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, this finely balanced and widely admired system of checks and balances has been tampered with.

For those who think that this is a problem for another country and is  just the normal cost of doing business in those countries, no, it is not. Bribing a corrupt Saudi Prince means that each and every Saudi and Saudi Arabian resident is paying that bit more for those planes, because that excess money could have been used to build some roads, fund some scholarships, pay for some nurses...

It also means that the Saudis think that the Brits agree and accept corruption and bribery. So if they think so and bribe one of the incorruptible British Member of Parliaments, I suppose that would be fine, no? After all, if its acceptable for the Brits to bribe a member of the Saudi Government, it should be also acceptable for the Saudis to do the same, no?

When will these people in government understand that corruption drives away good money and ruins the governance of a country  resulting in decaying the country from inside? Perhaps never, because if they wink and nudge at the BAE corruption, then they are also corrupt. For further details, see Transparency International and the OECD Anti Bribery Convention which the OECD have signed AND ratified.

Shameful!

Technorati Tags: BAE,United Kingdom,Corruption,Bribery,Saudi Arabia.

And more on the BBC's neutrality

A great set of emails on the BBC's coverage of the Israeli Palestinian crisis. But that comment about naming victims reminded me of the joke about people saying, I want to kill a million people and a toad. Everybody asks, why a toad? The million people are irrelevant....

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Suicide Bomber wants his baby on his suicide mission

Oh! that's so nice of him to offer, what else but a suicide bomber wanting to take his wife and baby son along on the same flight which he wanted to blow up. Now that's such a nice family man for you, no?

A man accused of plotting bomb attacks on passenger jets wanted to obtain a
passport for his baby son, a court has been told. The court was told that a
police recording device allegedly captured Mr Ali discussing the possibility of
taking wives and children on a suicide mission. Speaking to co-defendant
Umar Islam, he allegedly said: "Should I take my lot on? I know my wife wouldn't
agree to it, but..."

And I love his choice of bed time stories for his baby son.

The jury also heard that several books advocating jihad and martyrdom were
found in a child's cot in Mr Ali's bedroom.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Hazel Blears, the UK minister, doesnt seem to know of schools or taxation

Here's a question for you, Ms. Blears. You tax me to pay for schooling and general education of the country's citizens and I am very happy to pay for it.

Now, your stupid immigration policy is letting migrants into the country who do not know how to speak English.

So you end up paying £300 million just to teach them english.

So now you want the businesses to pay MORE for this?

So I suppose the companies can reduce their general taxation by a corresponding amount since it is clear that the amount spent on Hazel Blears's salary or on schooling is wasted?

People's english skills help the entire country and our companies are already taxed way too much to pile on more stuff on them. They are already leaving the country then who will pay for all this?

Heavens, the incompetent imbecility of the ministers in this government is amazing. Every department is lead by amazing people who do not seem to have the basics of economics in their head.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

The SFO to appeal against it being called spineless idiots

So now the SFO will appeal against the judgement that their call to drop the corruption inquiry against BAE and Saudi Arabia, eh? This is what the judges said

Lord Justice Moses and Mr Justice Sullivan said in the ruling: "We fear for
the reputation of the administration of justice if it can be perverted by a
threat. "No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to
interfere with the course of our justice."

What does Tony Blair and Gordon Brown do?

Gordon Brown, through his spokesman, has made it clear he was completely
behind his predecessor, Tony Blair, in wanting the inquiry dropped after the
Saudis warned they could stop supplying intelligence to the security services if
the investigation continued.

Wonderful, Gordon Brown, its great to see that you are standing up for justice, transparency and the rule of law.

And the new DG, what does he say?

The judgment of the divisional court raises principles of general public
importance affecting, among other things, the independence of prosecutors and the role of the court in reviewing a prosecutor's evaluation of the public interest in a case like this. The court itself has commented that the issues raised in this case are important points of public interest.

Welcome to the real life, Mr. Alderman, your independence was crucially compromised when you and your organisation cowardly refused to stand up to these Labour incompetent idiots and force justice to take place. THAT was your job and you fell down, and now you are appealing against the fact that somebody said so?

Wonderful, I can well see how appealing your organisation will be to your people. Next time I meet somebody from the SFO, this is what I will tell him, so you work for that cowardly supine organisation? That organisation which protects corrupt companies? So what makes me think that you are worthy of my tax dollars to protect the country from fraud and corruption? Nothing.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Origins of human civilisation have been pushed back to 9500BC

Absolutely amazing story.

None of the circles excavated (four out of an estimated 20) are more than 30
metres across. T-shaped pillars like the rest, two five-metre stones tower at
least a metre above their peers. What makes them remarkable are their carved
reliefs of boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions, and their age.
Dated at around 9,500BC, these stones are 5,500 years older than the first
cities of Mesopotamia, and 7,000 years older than Stonehenge.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Our MEP's are basically common thieves, throw them out.

So the Members of the European Parliament are thieves, eh? they are stealing from me? my tax dollars, yes? up to an amount of £125 million per year. And then they want me to be happy towards these European institutions? Yes, of course, hang a stupid board on my back and welcome to my wallet.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Dogs are better than humans

When stray dogs save an abandoned baby, a new born baby who was abandoned by her mother, what do you say about the relative humanity of dogs versus humans?

A pack of stray dogs have been credited with saving the life of a newborn
girl in India after they found her abandoned by her mother under a pile of mud
in a remote village. Residents of Samastipur, in the eastern Bihar state,
found the girl at the weekend after they saw three dogs barking furiously at a
mound of mud under which she was buried.
"The dogs removed the soil around and began to bark and the baby started crying which drew attention of the local villagers," said Ram Narayan Sahani, a senior district official.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Plans to ban gay jokes rejected by the Lords

Excellent news, and with all due respect to all the gays, I do reserve the right to take the mickey out of you. And you are at perfect liberty to call me a sweaty, hairy, balding, fat git.

Read this and agree! This is another reason why I am not going to vote for Labour, they are spineless unprincipled incompetent idiots. The very idea of submitting something that goes to the heart of what is British is so dangerous that these bunch of morons have to be voted out.

Perhaps one day, I can say more about this government but I suppose I have to keep my mouth shut till I retire...

Technorati Tags: Freedom of Speech,United Kingdom

Jewish Intelligence and Race, the debate continues

Jews are an extraordinarily amazing people, the more I read about them, the most amazing I find them and their history. For example, they are admired for their intelligence. We have email after email going around praising them and wanting to copy their intelligence and smartness based upon some weird relationship between being Jews and say Nobel Prize winners or scientists (see here for a previous treatment of this topic). Then we have people who claim that Jews are responsible for Porn. (I got to read it via an email on a yahoogroup - I have it stored, so if you cannot access it, let me know and I will paste/send). So on one hand, one wants to copy the Jews and on the other hand, they are bad as evidenced from the increasing levels of anti-Semitism.

But to go back to the argument, the UK has been debating the benefits of immigration for a long time and it has become quite heated recently. (See here, here and here for example) Whether they are beneficial or not, whether they add value or not, whether they are benefit scroungers or not, etc. etc. It is good to see that this kind of debate has not changed for decades.

See this paper for example about immigration and Jews. The paper talks about comparative intelligence of Jews and non-Jews, and all this to influence the debate over the level of immigration of Jews into the United Kingdom (one of the crucial aspects to remember is the last line of the abstract, for those who try to use ethnic or religious exclusivity as a way of defence actually end up making things worse as I pointed out in my essay on Islamophobia, I quote: He also considers the role of the British Jewish community in funding and challenging studies of Jewish intelligence, arguing that the community's defensive strategy against negative racial labelling was the cause of discord and change during this period.). While the paper actually is talking more about Racial Science and how it developed, the patterns of prejudice that it throws up is clear.

But given the unique nature of the Jews, they created problems with this emerging field of Racial Science or the future of Anthropology. See this article about how race was determined as a theory in anthropology and how it tried to fit Jews into the picture in the late 19th century. Are Jews white? or are they a minority? Are they an oppressed minority? Or a majority? Which race do they belong to - Caucasian, Mongolian, Negro or Amerindian? Almost two centuries later, and we are still seeing debates about these issues.

There is serious confusion about race, nation, ethnicity and religion (some of which I explored in the Islamophobia article) and the various dimensions of anti-Semitism, dealing with Jews and emergent fields of study are curiously fascinating.

Technorati Tags: Jews,United Kingdom,Immigration

Missile Strike

If you ever wondered what an air to air missile strike looked like, check out this video.

Technorati Tags: Russia,Georgia

The case for better education in the UK

I was in a CIO forum today talking about innovation. But besides all getting very excited about various new technologies, I unfortunately popped the bubble by asking, why is nobody talking about the people and talent aspect? That is my biggest worry here that our children and the British Education System is currently not fit for purpose. I am seriously worried.

For example, I told them, why on earth do we not see security, fraud and internet alerts from the UK? Dont tell me our police are that good, its because our students are so crap that they are unable to try to break into secure systems. You see, if I find a good hacker, I would like to hire him. Its those skills which lead people to make good IT systems, inventions, etc.

The tax system can try what it might but if the people are not educated up to the right levels, they will remain a drag on society. How on earth do people expect structurally and generationally unemployed people to move off benefit and move into work? Not via the school system that we have right now.

Talking to this government is useless, frankly, I despair of the current education department politicians, they are seriously a bunch of wankers and useless. The damage they have done to the country and society is frankly no less than criminal. What else can describe the rapid and relative decline of the British school system and the children's performance?

Here, check out what America is moaning about the school system here.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

The Jews dammed Saudi Arabia

hehehe, sorry, couldnt resist, I know this is a groaner but check out the text and photo here. But serves them right, why would it matter? its bizarre

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Pirates attack tanker

When will people realise that this is a global problem and this has to be handled globally, hard, and quickly! This is causing oil prices to rise, and that will hit the poor even more.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Jews separating fighting Christians over Jewish man

So two groups of Christians from Armenia and Greece respectively were fighting over this long dead Jewish man said to be buried in this Palestinian/Israeli city and it took Israeli police (who are mostly Jewish but some Muslims as well) to separate them.

The mind boggles at the sheer irony of this.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Spanish ship in the pirates grasp off Somalia

I think Spain should send its commando's and rescue its fishermen. But am a bit curious, what on earth is a Spanish fishing trawler doing off the coast of Somalia? Or will it, as usual, turn over and play supinely? Learn from your French colleagues, mate. These pirates need to be thumped very very hard. Talking will not work.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

And BAe gets caught up in another corruption scandal

So now we have a clear cut situation that a Tanzanian minister took bribes for the purchase of a BAe radar system. And he is the fourth Tanzanian minister to resign in the past few weeks.

How amazing, have you heard of any BAe officials in the dock? or having to resign? How does it feel to all the Brits to know that Tanzania is more emphatic in clearing corruption than the Brits? Hang your head in shame, all you bloody ministers and BAe who have dragged the reputation of this country into the gutter.

Apparently UK officials are investigating. Investigating, my ass, it will go down the same way as that of the bloody Saudi deal. Here's a question for you, BAe has been bribing people for the past very many years. How many officials have been prosecuted? HA!

I want heads to roll publicly, I want people who have actually given, approved and were in charge in BAE to be publically prosecuted for theft and corruption. Make a bloody example of these merchants of death and corruption. Disgusting. Spitting on them is being nice to them.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

Muslim moderates 'face hate campaign'

Good for you, mate, go for the girls, best target for you girly men. I quote:

Websites set up by opponents have carried photographs of its director engaged in what they deem to be 'un-Islamic' behaviour. Particular vitriol is reserved for Jemima Khan - the former wife of the Pakistan politician and former cricketer Imran Khan - who will be attending the launch.

Technorati Tags: Islam,Muslims,Women

Europe and Jews few centuries ago

A very interesting post here about how the Christians treated the Jews in their midst. And then they have the gall to talk... But this was good and I quote:

There are two Jews in front of a firing squad and the officer asks them if they want blindfolds. One Jew says “You can take your blindfold and stick it up your arse” The other Jew says “Shush, don’t cause trouble”

Technorati Tags: Jews,Judaism,Europe,History

One million pupils 'failed by Labour exam policy'

Two of that 1 million pupils are going to mine if Labour are not voted out or some good policies are not adopted, I have zero confidence in this government. What a tragedy.  I quote:

An 'entire generation' of school children has been let down by the Labour government, a new study has claimed. The report, by the Bow Group, reveals that almost a million teenagers failed to achieve even the lowest grade, a G, in five GCSEs since the party came to power.

While ministers have boasted about the rise in the number of pupils achieving five C grades at GCSE, they have failed to highlight the growing numbers at the bottom of the pile. Over the past decade the number of teenagers walking away from school without five basic G grades, including in English and maths, has risen - despite billions of pounds of investment in education. Almost 90,000 pupils fell into the category last year, the highest figure since 1998.

Technorati Tags: Education,Schooling,United Kingdom

Egypt and the wall

Further to my post about Egypt and its all, see here. They also want to prohibit people from crossing into Israel. Curious, eh? for such a bad country, way too many people want to get inside that place. Some to blow it,  up some to survive. I quote from this article:

The migrants, including many from Sudan and a growing number from Eritrea, are seeking work or asylum away from conflict at home and harsh living conditions in Egypt, where activists say African migrants face economic marginalisation and racism.

Amnesty has called for an investigation into the border killings and says Israel has pressed Egypt to reduce the flow of people crossing illegally.

Will this stop the migrants? No, and here's a prediction, more African migrants will be killed on this border.

Technorati Tags: Israel,Egypt,emigration,immigration,migration

Here's a nice gesture for you

Here's to all the guys who send me ribbons for nose hair cancer and bracelets to save the dung beetle, and and and, something back for you.

 

 

Let us fragment our societies further

Here we go again. The government, in this case, Indian government, did the right thing, but forbidding any teaching of religion. But Jains want to teach their children about their religion and thus are going minority status. Let us further fragment our society.

Technorati Tags: Jainism,India,Secularism

Brown is white as black is not white and where does yellow go?

Confused? You should be. You see, for the followers of race theory and discrimination, the exclusions cause major problems. Take the example of brown skins. Apparently they are too many brown doctors in the USA so they are getting reclassified as white because they cannot be called as a minority because if they are a minority then how come race does not explain their success and the corresponding bad situation of the black Americans and the corresponding problem of the yellow races is quietly forgotten.

Over this side of the pond, this is the problem and I have spoken about this before. When race theory is explained as a reason for economic deprivation, it does not wash. The racists in the UK will call all browns (myself included) as Paki's, but guess whose ethnic origin citizens are doing better? In some cases, even better than the whites? So you are brown only if you are doing bad, you are white even if you are brown or yellow. But before, you were not brown because brown did not exist in immediate post war Britain, so brown were blacks.

This is the reason why I simply laugh when

1. various governments try to use skin colour to push public policy
2. minorities who cry racism as a reason for economic disparity when it simply is not

It is not racism, do not get confused, folks. I have another post pending on how Jews have been always attacked in a very confused manner, between ethnicity, religion, race, country, and nation dimensions, but for some reason it has not been released yet by the editors!

but very amusing, do check out the first link about desi doctors in USA. Perhaps you will learn why any time anybody talks about racism as a generalised term or relating to governments or to public policy, it is almost always complete twaddle. People are racist and discriminatory, but when moved into governance and public policy, it does not work. If you try to force it to work, then brown becomes white and yellow becomes invisible.

Technorati Tags: racism,USA,UK

And now Yemen enters the FGM game

I have spoken before (here, here, and here) about the fact that as FGM seems to have some Islamic jurisprudence backing, it will be very difficult to remove it in this febrile atmosphere. And as it seems, it is coming true. Now the Yemeni Parliament has refused to ban the FGM practice and the blame seems to be on conservative members of parliament. I quote:

SANA’A, April-13 — Preventing female circumcision and pre-marriage medical tests evoked turmoil and disagreement among Parliament members (MPs) in last week’s session.
The session ended with a unanimous agreement to cancel the term 3, which would prevent female circumcision, and delay the discussion of pre-marriage tests.
The two terms were part of a draft written by the Safe Motherhood Law Project, and introduced by the heath committee inside Parliament.
Najeb Ghanem, the Chairman of the Health Committee in Parliament, expressed his sorrow over the way Parliament discussed the two issues.
“These two topics are very important for guaranteeing women’s rights in Yemen,” he commented in a phone call to the Yemen Times after the session.
According to Ghanem, who belongs to the Islah party, most of the MPs who disagreed with the terms represent the conservative attitudes of most Yemeni citizens. “The committee is aware of the Yemeni conservative community’s positions on these issues. So we [the committee] suggested applying the law of emphasizing pre-marriage medical tests after ten years… that is after we carry out extensive awareness campaign to educate people about the importance of such tests.”
Zid Al-Shami, an MP who suggested delaying the approval of the two terms, confirmed that such topics are “sensitive and need more awareness.”
“I suggested canceling term number three, about preventing female circumcision, for many reasons. First, the term, which was written in the draft, included inappropriate and shameful sentences. Second, female circumcision exists in few regions in Yemen, like in Hodeidah and Hadramout, so it not common practice. And finally, there is still religious debate regarding the issue, so as we have no directives by the heads of religion to forbid female circumcision, we do not have the right to ban it,” Al-Shami explained.

See this is the problem, this is not a question of conservatism or liberalism, it is a question of whether or not you believe in the faith or not. If you do, then by dint of the fact that it is said so (howsoever weak it would be), means that FGM is an indicator of faith. Tragic as it might sound, that is indeed why it will be extremely difficult to remove this.

See the last line? they are waiting for some mullah somewhere to say that it is bad. Now why on earth would a Mullah say so? take 100 of them and 99 will not forbid it. And as is the case, seems like most Yemeni men also prefer to do so.

See what i mean by having a long way to go before this is addressed?

Technorati Tags: FGM,Women,Yemen