Global

Ahmedinejad is playing a brilliant hand. Why not? Who is the victor of the Iraq War? US? UK? Saddam Hussein? Iraqi people? Well, ladies and gentlemand, it is Iran.

Iran led US on a wild-goose chase in Iraq, made sure they are in turn humiliated and start in-fighting. Now, the Iranian leader Ahmedinejad is popularly elected, and turning the media game on its head, and leaving Israel and US scratching its head.

Iran cannot defeat US in aerial war, so it builds underground facilities and world-fastest under-water missiles that can break US ships in half. And US has no known defence to these missiles.

The Emir of Kuwait met with the Ruler of Dubai and the next day, the Gulf News editorialized:

Be Wary of Such Friends

US view of the UAE is a lie based on a falsehood wrapped in a misconception

One must reserve a certain amount of admiration for former US Senator Gary Hart. As a guest speaker of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies he expounds the view that there should be a global force to police the Gulf – a sort of UN2.

It takes considerable gall to make such suggestions to your host nation, thereby implying a level of incompetence in the ability of the UAE and other Gulf countries to protect their own. But then, that sort of talk has been permeating the corridors of power in Washington in recent weeks, ever since the DP World bid for P&O. It would seem the UAE, all of a sudden, is no longer fit to handle its affairs competently and securely. And this, after more than 30 years of collaboration between the US and the UAE.

Cartoon equating star of david with Nazism -- oops -- anti-Semitism.
Cartoon showing a black man -- oops -- racism.
Cartoon insulting Muhammad -- ahaa -- freedom of speech.

These cartoons don't defend free speech, they threaten it
(Simon Jenkins, The Sunday Times February 05, 2006)

I think, therefore I am, said the philosopher. Fine. But I think, therefore I speak? No way.

Nobody has an absolute right to freedom. Civilisation is the story of humans sacrificing freedom so as to live together in harmony. We do not need Hobbes to tell us that absolute freedom is for newborn savages. All else is compromise.

Should a right-wing Danish newspaper have carried the derisive images of Muhammad? No. Should other newspapers have repeated them and the BBC teasingly “flashed” them to prove its free-speech virility? No. Should governments apologise for them or ban them from repeating the offence? No, but that is not the issue.

Freedom of Speech vs. Respect for Others

What prevents the mainstream press from breaking taboos? Freedom of speech is tempered by the desire to not offend other people. The oft-repeated example is the reverence for the Holocaust.

I know my literature: there was nothing of literary value in those cartoons, and there was no principle involved, as there was no pre-existing condition. It was a provocation and the manufacturing of an issue.

Some Q&A:
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Was it a minor issue: maybe, but it brought together many years of Islamophobia in Europe and thus was a watershed point.

Do Arab media caricature? Yes, the Zionists, not the Jews or any other religion. Moses, David and Jesus are prophets revered by Muslims.

The earthquake was centered in Ramallah, Palestine and the aftershocks are still being felt all over the world. The political tsunami is unprecedented since 1945.

The usage of the word "terrorist" with respect to Islamic resistance movements lost all rational meaning in the space of 24 hours with the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections.

The stakes are high now: Bush was mumbling sheepishly -- ok, a bit more than usual! Rice was at a loss for words. The Israelis are locked in meetings as I write this and Amre Moussa was on CNN somewhere in between the lines. Even Daniel Pipes, the inplacable foe of Islam and Palestine, said, "Now that Hamas has apparently won the Palestinian elections, the West is hoist with its own petard." We hope that Daniel Pipes' vitriol has now turned against the West and rational people will see him for who he really is -- another casualty of democracy!

Swami Agnivesh, Rama Mani and Angelika Köster-Lossack International Herald Tribune
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2005

ROHTAK, India In recent years, the world has been shocked by the Taliban's ruthless suppression of women in Afghanistan, the practice of female genital mutilation in parts of Africa and the abuse of female domestic labor in places like Saudi Arabia. Yet it is the world's largest democracy that is the undeclared winner in the contest of violence against women.

In India, female foeticide - the sex-selective abortion of girls - has led to an alarming "gender gap" in the country's population. In 1990, when the census showed that there were 25 million more males than females in India, the government reacted by introducing a law making it illegal to detect the sex of a foetus through ultrasound examination. Yet by 2001, the gender gap had risen to 35 million, and now experts estimate it as high as 50 million.

by Zbigniew Brzezinski

courtesy Tribune Media Services International THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2005

Sixty years ago, Arnold Toynbee concluded, in his monumental "A Study of History," that the ultimate cause of imperial collapse was "suicidal statecraft." Sadly for President George W. Bush's place in history but - much more important - ominously for America's future, it has lately seemed as if that adroit phrase might be applicable to the policies pursued by the United States since the cataclysm of 9/11.

Though there have been some hints lately that the administration may be beginning to reassess the goals, so far defined largely by slogans, of its unsuccessful military intervention in Iraq, Bush's speech of Oct. 6 was a throwback to the more demagogic formulations that he employed during the presidential campaign of 2004 to justify the war that he himself started.

BUSH: Thank you for the warm welcome.

I'm honored once again to be with the supporters of the National Endowment for Democracy.

Since the day President Ronald Reagan set out the vision for this endowment, the world has seen the swiftest advance of democratic institutions in history. And Americans are proud to have played our role in this great story.
Russia, Egypt, Pakistan, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia - our best friends are all democratic now!

Our nation stood guard on tense borders. We spoke for the rights of dissidents and the hopes of exiles. We aided the rise of new democracies on the ruins of tyranny.

by Akber Choudhry

While Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan brought much needed change and common sense to the country, it is becoming hard for even his staunchest supporters to support him any more.

Like drunkards, it has become the inevitable sad end of military rulers that they fade into ignominy, ranting and raving and becoming even more meaningless. And in case it is not obvious, completely out of touch with reality.

President Musharraf is not at this stage yet, but has definitely started to trudge in that direction. Why? A very simple reason: when policies and statements do not relate directly to a loss of votes, they become detached from reality. What is reality? Reality is the man on the street -- the shrewd but simple man or woman who can see the truth when they encounter it.