Yesterday a colleague told me about a young woman he knows who had been date raped. This is not one of those apocryphal stories about someone who knows someone. This really happened to a real person. Not, as it turned out, to just one young lady, but to five of them. The culprit had raped five women that he was tried for. The police brought the prosecution and were successful. The punishment was a sentence of two years in jail. This will result in the culprit being released in about one year.
This equates to about two months for each rape.
At the same time as this if the crime was robbery the punishment would be much more severe. The message is that we value our possessions far more than our people. The result is that we face a moral deficit in which it’s understood, cool or even hip to stab, rape or even kill but you will be severely punished if you are caught with your hand in the cookie jar.
There is further evidence of this dual morality occurring every day where we, as a society, seem to value possessions far higher than people. It is a grave mistake and should be addressed.
In the final analysis it’s all about moral values or the lack of them. We have all witnessed a rise in binge drinking, misbehavior in young women, and apparent increase in knife attacks amongst British young men. In a society as rich as ours this is indicative of our loss of understanding of what’s right or wrong.
The solution surely isn’t the simple increase of policing, arrest and long- term incarceration. The UK and USA already have amongst the highest numbers of people under lock and key of any society. But the numbers keep rising, which means the systems are failing.
Unquestionably we must also face up to, understand and deal with the society’s ills, which have resulted in a disproportionate number of young black men in prison. This is not a question of color, but is about social inequality brought about by a series of problems within the larger society we all inhabit.
There are simply too many young Afro-Caribbean women left to raise too many of their children without the help or presence of their partners. Where are these young men, why do they leave, and how does this ever get corrected?
Without solutions these problems will become generational with the children of these dysfunctional single parent families repeating the same mistakes.
These are not problems about color, nor are the real question about the prisons; it is about a deeper, more difficult aspect of our society. We are not educating our children properly; they are not being given a moral code that is normally the job of both parents, school and our religious and spiritual upbringing. It might be fashionable to belittle old values but without them our society is lost for the foreseeable future.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
PeaceDeficit
A few years back I recall being taken around several vast, abandoned military bases in the USA that had been converted to civilian use. I remember thinking that was fine if the bogeymen had actually vanished for good as we had been told, but what if he still lurked in the dark corners of this all too small planet we share?
A few years back the governments of the UK and USA solemnly declared that we were going to reap major rewards from the “peace dividend”.
Their contention being that no realistic, symmetrical threat from the rest of the world existed after the collapse of the evil Soviet Empire. Therefore almost immediately we reduced our spending on big-ticket defense items. We cut back on all those things we had thought necessary for us to fight a big land war in Europe and another, lesser conflict elsewhere simultaneously.
Yes, the government leaders stated, we would have to deal with the Islamic fundamentalists and similar types of threat, and yes, there were some little countries with whom our forces might have to contend. But for these asymmetric threats, there was not going to be a need for new building programs for capital ships, main battle tanks and big armies.
Instead we would need lighter, quicker forces we could deploy with extreme speed anywhere in the world. The days when we had to plan for pitched battles on the plains of Europe, or elsewhere, were over for good.
We could, so the argument went, therefore save money on unnecessary and wasteful defense expenditure. But my argument is that we were premature in these and similar reductions in our military spending and preparedness.
Tell these myths to the people of Georgia today. Now their country faces the threat of total occupation and only continues to exist as democratic and free entity while Russia decided its next move and tests the water of world opinion. The Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, has been pleading for a ceasefire for the last two days but the Russians are stating that their first priority is the safety of Russian citizens who they are pledged to protect. First amongst these, we can suppose, are the Russian soldiers now advancing on all fronts in Georgia!
Both sides in this rapidly worsening conflict should remember that there never is a good war or a bad peace.
Now, when we in the Western democracies might well need those ships, planes and men we don’t have them readily available. No one pretends that Russia is the same kind of threat as the Soviet Union; but it might turn out to be worse.
It was far easier to identify the evil inherent in the brutal suppression of freedom and dissent within the Soviet Union and it was also less difficult to predict the actions of such a centrally administered bureaucracy. In other words we could pretty much work out what that ruling gerontocracy was going to do, and how we should react. They were unsmiling, clearly our sworn enemies and wore bad suits and looked the part of Bond villains.
China under the despotic leadership of Mao Tse-Tung was also much easier to comprehend in geo- political terms than the political doughnut it has since become. The Chinese People's Republic is a curious mixture of a capitalist covering of sweet enrichment over a hard core Communist center. No one can know for sure how that will work out in practice; the world has never experienced anything like it.
Look at the polished and media savvy leaders of China and Russia as they smile broadly for the cameras, and understand that the level of threat to freedom has probably increased in direct proportion to their level of sophistication, whilst at the same moment our economies hit free fall. At precisely the moment we need to be strong so we don’t have to act tough, we’re visibly too weak. Don’t, for a second, think the Russians and Chinese are not calculating this into their strategy.
You watch the brutal oppression of dissidents in Tibet and elsewhere under Chinese hegemony and you realize that should the Chinese government turn its mind, energy and resources to increasing its pressure on its Asian neighbors we have to be ready to assist in resistance. The situation in Taipei (Taiwain) is calm now, but can we safely assume this will continue if China is angered or becomes impatient?
Russia is also beginning to flex its dormant imperial muscle and it makes an unappealing and scary picture. We’ve got to realize where this can lead. If Russia finds it is possible to force the issue as desired in Georgia there will be little or nothing we can do to stop it taking similar actions in the Ukraine and the Baltic States. Therefore it is imperative that Nato, led by Britain and the United States does more than make polite noises of protest against Russia’s disguised takeover in Georgia.
This is where it becomes extremely difficult for Europe to act in a concerted manner against Russia. We have become very reliant on the supply of Russian energy to our collective power grids. If we push them about Georgia be ready for them to push back.
That leaves America alone to do more than make noises of protest. No one seriously expects that George Bush will get out the well-battered American big stick with which to combat Russia on the ground. This leaves the US with the discredited economic sanction weapon, which might end up hurting it more than it damages a now, much strengthened Russia.
The only military option the US would have is the use of its ships and planes to harass and bomb Russian military targets and they are simply not going to be that dangerously adventurous. This all leaves Russia with a free pass to do what it wants in the Caucasus region, and that might, very worryingly, awaken another dream for the Russian hawks. If they can get away with this in Georgia how about the Ukraine, and if that’s possible, wouldn’t it be great to get back at the Baltic States?
The UK and the USA and Nato must rethink priorities fast and re-evaluate medium to long-term military spending plans.
Otherwise as China holds onto Tibet and Russia toys with Georgia we have learned nothing. These two events roll out in different parts of the world, and seemingly don’t connect to the peace dividend until you realize that they form part of what is actually a peace deficit. As the Roman writer Vegetius stated, “Let him who desires peace prepare for war.”
You don’t walk down a dangerous, dark alley at night and declare to anyone who might listen, “come and get me, I’m not armed and can’t defend myself,” unless you’re crazy.
The big bad bogeyman never went away, he was just hiding in the dark whilst we went to sleep. It’s time to WAKE UP!
A few years back the governments of the UK and USA solemnly declared that we were going to reap major rewards from the “peace dividend”.
Their contention being that no realistic, symmetrical threat from the rest of the world existed after the collapse of the evil Soviet Empire. Therefore almost immediately we reduced our spending on big-ticket defense items. We cut back on all those things we had thought necessary for us to fight a big land war in Europe and another, lesser conflict elsewhere simultaneously.
Yes, the government leaders stated, we would have to deal with the Islamic fundamentalists and similar types of threat, and yes, there were some little countries with whom our forces might have to contend. But for these asymmetric threats, there was not going to be a need for new building programs for capital ships, main battle tanks and big armies.
Instead we would need lighter, quicker forces we could deploy with extreme speed anywhere in the world. The days when we had to plan for pitched battles on the plains of Europe, or elsewhere, were over for good.
We could, so the argument went, therefore save money on unnecessary and wasteful defense expenditure. But my argument is that we were premature in these and similar reductions in our military spending and preparedness.
Tell these myths to the people of Georgia today. Now their country faces the threat of total occupation and only continues to exist as democratic and free entity while Russia decided its next move and tests the water of world opinion. The Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, has been pleading for a ceasefire for the last two days but the Russians are stating that their first priority is the safety of Russian citizens who they are pledged to protect. First amongst these, we can suppose, are the Russian soldiers now advancing on all fronts in Georgia!
Both sides in this rapidly worsening conflict should remember that there never is a good war or a bad peace.
Now, when we in the Western democracies might well need those ships, planes and men we don’t have them readily available. No one pretends that Russia is the same kind of threat as the Soviet Union; but it might turn out to be worse.
It was far easier to identify the evil inherent in the brutal suppression of freedom and dissent within the Soviet Union and it was also less difficult to predict the actions of such a centrally administered bureaucracy. In other words we could pretty much work out what that ruling gerontocracy was going to do, and how we should react. They were unsmiling, clearly our sworn enemies and wore bad suits and looked the part of Bond villains.
China under the despotic leadership of Mao Tse-Tung was also much easier to comprehend in geo- political terms than the political doughnut it has since become. The Chinese People's Republic is a curious mixture of a capitalist covering of sweet enrichment over a hard core Communist center. No one can know for sure how that will work out in practice; the world has never experienced anything like it.
Look at the polished and media savvy leaders of China and Russia as they smile broadly for the cameras, and understand that the level of threat to freedom has probably increased in direct proportion to their level of sophistication, whilst at the same moment our economies hit free fall. At precisely the moment we need to be strong so we don’t have to act tough, we’re visibly too weak. Don’t, for a second, think the Russians and Chinese are not calculating this into their strategy.
You watch the brutal oppression of dissidents in Tibet and elsewhere under Chinese hegemony and you realize that should the Chinese government turn its mind, energy and resources to increasing its pressure on its Asian neighbors we have to be ready to assist in resistance. The situation in Taipei (Taiwain) is calm now, but can we safely assume this will continue if China is angered or becomes impatient?
Russia is also beginning to flex its dormant imperial muscle and it makes an unappealing and scary picture. We’ve got to realize where this can lead. If Russia finds it is possible to force the issue as desired in Georgia there will be little or nothing we can do to stop it taking similar actions in the Ukraine and the Baltic States. Therefore it is imperative that Nato, led by Britain and the United States does more than make polite noises of protest against Russia’s disguised takeover in Georgia.
This is where it becomes extremely difficult for Europe to act in a concerted manner against Russia. We have become very reliant on the supply of Russian energy to our collective power grids. If we push them about Georgia be ready for them to push back.
That leaves America alone to do more than make noises of protest. No one seriously expects that George Bush will get out the well-battered American big stick with which to combat Russia on the ground. This leaves the US with the discredited economic sanction weapon, which might end up hurting it more than it damages a now, much strengthened Russia.
The only military option the US would have is the use of its ships and planes to harass and bomb Russian military targets and they are simply not going to be that dangerously adventurous. This all leaves Russia with a free pass to do what it wants in the Caucasus region, and that might, very worryingly, awaken another dream for the Russian hawks. If they can get away with this in Georgia how about the Ukraine, and if that’s possible, wouldn’t it be great to get back at the Baltic States?
The UK and the USA and Nato must rethink priorities fast and re-evaluate medium to long-term military spending plans.
Otherwise as China holds onto Tibet and Russia toys with Georgia we have learned nothing. These two events roll out in different parts of the world, and seemingly don’t connect to the peace dividend until you realize that they form part of what is actually a peace deficit. As the Roman writer Vegetius stated, “Let him who desires peace prepare for war.”
You don’t walk down a dangerous, dark alley at night and declare to anyone who might listen, “come and get me, I’m not armed and can’t defend myself,” unless you’re crazy.
The big bad bogeyman never went away, he was just hiding in the dark whilst we went to sleep. It’s time to WAKE UP!
Monday, August 11, 2008
GeorgianAdventure
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s Prime Minister and former President traveled direct from the Olympics to North Ossetia and visited his commanding generals as they invade South Ossetia and, possibly, in case you missed it, the country of Georgia.
For those of you who haven’t been following what happened so far here’s a quick refresher.
Since about 1800 the Georgians regarded Ossetia as part of their country, whereas the Russians similarly considered Georgia a province of Russia. North Ossetia is in the Russian Federation, South Ossetia is in Georgia.
South Ossetia speaks its own language, and most of its people chose to have Russian rather than Georgian passports. It’s not that they wanted to be Russian but they didn’t want to be Georgian. The result was that their tiny country has been semi autonomous for about a decade and a half.
Russia armed, encouraged and provoked their South Ossetian allies to attack the Georgians at every recent opportunity. The Georgians fell for the provocation and retaliated with much bigger scale attacks. This is exactly what the Russians were waiting for. Now they had an excuse to “protect” those with Russian passports in South Ossetia. The Russian peacekeepers of South Ossetia soon morphed into the advance forces of the Russian attack on Georgia.
The Russians have now driven the Georgians out of South Ossetia but are still attacking them in other parts of Georgia. The Georgians, now realizing their huge strategic mistake, are calling for a ceasefire, which the Russians are studiously ignoring. They are calling for the Georgians to totally withdraw from South Ossetia before they will ceasefire.
There are major repercussions that might well flow from these Russian provoked actions. Chief amongst these for the West is the breaching of the major power pipeline in Georgia. This means that there are countries that are totally reliant on that pipeline, which will now have to get their power via Russia.
Similarly there is another semi autonomous region called Abkhazia. Georgia has contended for nearly twenty years with these two regions, in Abkhazia and South Ossetia that want to control their own destiny. Both of these are supported by Russia as part of the Kremlin’s strategy to weaken Tbilisi’s authority.
The West, in particular America, has, some might say, mischievously stirred the embers of this fire. At the NATO summit in Bucharest the Americans pressed for Georgia and Ukraine’s membership of the alliance. Primarily the Germans temporarily blocked this move, but NATO still gave a commitment to offer membership to the two countries membership at some future date. Moscow saw this as a challenge to its dominance in the former Soviet republics.
Russia hasn’t been shy to make it crystal clear that it will do anything to prevent NATO’s expansion on its borders.
America and Britain have been intimately involved in providing arms and military assistance to the Georgians. The claim being that this support is in place to encourage Georgia as an independent, sovereign state.
We were also trying to protect the pipeline across Georgia that carries the crude oil from the Caspian to the Black Sea, which was the only export route bypassing Russia’s stranglehold on energy via this region.
This defeat for the Georgians might well signal the end of Mr. Saakashvili’s rule and set back Georgia’s efforts to establish itself as a modern Western-looking democracy for the foreseeable future. In any event, this small-scale war risks further undermines the already strained relations between Russia and the West. We mustn’t lose sight of the dangers of any conflict in a region like this, and that is the risk of it becoming a bigger war.
For those of you who haven’t been following what happened so far here’s a quick refresher.
Since about 1800 the Georgians regarded Ossetia as part of their country, whereas the Russians similarly considered Georgia a province of Russia. North Ossetia is in the Russian Federation, South Ossetia is in Georgia.
South Ossetia speaks its own language, and most of its people chose to have Russian rather than Georgian passports. It’s not that they wanted to be Russian but they didn’t want to be Georgian. The result was that their tiny country has been semi autonomous for about a decade and a half.
Russia armed, encouraged and provoked their South Ossetian allies to attack the Georgians at every recent opportunity. The Georgians fell for the provocation and retaliated with much bigger scale attacks. This is exactly what the Russians were waiting for. Now they had an excuse to “protect” those with Russian passports in South Ossetia. The Russian peacekeepers of South Ossetia soon morphed into the advance forces of the Russian attack on Georgia.
The Russians have now driven the Georgians out of South Ossetia but are still attacking them in other parts of Georgia. The Georgians, now realizing their huge strategic mistake, are calling for a ceasefire, which the Russians are studiously ignoring. They are calling for the Georgians to totally withdraw from South Ossetia before they will ceasefire.
There are major repercussions that might well flow from these Russian provoked actions. Chief amongst these for the West is the breaching of the major power pipeline in Georgia. This means that there are countries that are totally reliant on that pipeline, which will now have to get their power via Russia.
Similarly there is another semi autonomous region called Abkhazia. Georgia has contended for nearly twenty years with these two regions, in Abkhazia and South Ossetia that want to control their own destiny. Both of these are supported by Russia as part of the Kremlin’s strategy to weaken Tbilisi’s authority.
The West, in particular America, has, some might say, mischievously stirred the embers of this fire. At the NATO summit in Bucharest the Americans pressed for Georgia and Ukraine’s membership of the alliance. Primarily the Germans temporarily blocked this move, but NATO still gave a commitment to offer membership to the two countries membership at some future date. Moscow saw this as a challenge to its dominance in the former Soviet republics.
Russia hasn’t been shy to make it crystal clear that it will do anything to prevent NATO’s expansion on its borders.
America and Britain have been intimately involved in providing arms and military assistance to the Georgians. The claim being that this support is in place to encourage Georgia as an independent, sovereign state.
We were also trying to protect the pipeline across Georgia that carries the crude oil from the Caspian to the Black Sea, which was the only export route bypassing Russia’s stranglehold on energy via this region.
This defeat for the Georgians might well signal the end of Mr. Saakashvili’s rule and set back Georgia’s efforts to establish itself as a modern Western-looking democracy for the foreseeable future. In any event, this small-scale war risks further undermines the already strained relations between Russia and the West. We mustn’t lose sight of the dangers of any conflict in a region like this, and that is the risk of it becoming a bigger war.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Travel
This blog is very much about travel. Allow me to congratulate Heathrow airport on some of the recent changes. Today we pulled up outside Terminal 3 and it was clean, well policed and the roads were working well. The general opening up of the entire area in front of the terminal is a tremendous improvement, long overdue, but excellent.
I parked the car in the recently finished car park for Terminal 3, and it was also clean, easy to park in and well organized. All of this, so far was terrific, and was much to my surprise, as it wasn’t always thus.
Then we went to the Virgin check in which is also hugely enhanced by the widening of the area, which makes it feel much less crowded. There were problems with the conveyor belts but they were coping with the problem. I don’t know how that will work out if the problem continues.
Then we had breakfast upstairs which was edible, very pleasantly served and not too unreasonably priced by English standards. We also visited some shops and these were also acceptable. There is nothing terrible to report in any of these aspects.
Our only gripe was about the lousy signposting between the departure section of terminal 3 and its short stay car park. Please BAA, it would be really easy to correct this and we were not the only people with this observation.
Have you noticed how much it cost to renew your passport?
We are one of the most expensive countries in the world at £72 ($145) for an adult and nothing for a child. There is a comparison price list on the Passport Office web site and this confirms that we are top of the costs. If you live abroad it costs much more to simply renew your passport. I know this through my daughter who lives in the States. Her next passport is going to cost her $250 (£125) and for her children, presently 4 and 7 years old, $160 (£80) each.
Why should it cost that much more for those of us who live abroad to have our passport processed?
Another question we should all be interested in is why the UK produces 6.3 million passports per year whilst countries listed, with similar population to our own, such as Germany, Italy and France only issue 2.5 million, 1.4 million, and 3.3 million passports respectively?
Japan, with a population of nearly twice that of the UK only issued 4.3 million passports. Why is the UK producing so many more passports proportionately?
These figures are those issued by the Passport Office itself.
All of this came to light in the last day before my daughter and her children, Maya and Soli returned to their Los Angeles home. It is, as you with families who live a long way off know, wonderful when you get together with your kids after a long gap, but its awful when they have to go back.
I parked the car in the recently finished car park for Terminal 3, and it was also clean, easy to park in and well organized. All of this, so far was terrific, and was much to my surprise, as it wasn’t always thus.
Then we went to the Virgin check in which is also hugely enhanced by the widening of the area, which makes it feel much less crowded. There were problems with the conveyor belts but they were coping with the problem. I don’t know how that will work out if the problem continues.
Then we had breakfast upstairs which was edible, very pleasantly served and not too unreasonably priced by English standards. We also visited some shops and these were also acceptable. There is nothing terrible to report in any of these aspects.
Our only gripe was about the lousy signposting between the departure section of terminal 3 and its short stay car park. Please BAA, it would be really easy to correct this and we were not the only people with this observation.
Have you noticed how much it cost to renew your passport?
We are one of the most expensive countries in the world at £72 ($145) for an adult and nothing for a child. There is a comparison price list on the Passport Office web site and this confirms that we are top of the costs. If you live abroad it costs much more to simply renew your passport. I know this through my daughter who lives in the States. Her next passport is going to cost her $250 (£125) and for her children, presently 4 and 7 years old, $160 (£80) each.
Why should it cost that much more for those of us who live abroad to have our passport processed?
Another question we should all be interested in is why the UK produces 6.3 million passports per year whilst countries listed, with similar population to our own, such as Germany, Italy and France only issue 2.5 million, 1.4 million, and 3.3 million passports respectively?
Japan, with a population of nearly twice that of the UK only issued 4.3 million passports. Why is the UK producing so many more passports proportionately?
These figures are those issued by the Passport Office itself.
All of this came to light in the last day before my daughter and her children, Maya and Soli returned to their Los Angeles home. It is, as you with families who live a long way off know, wonderful when you get together with your kids after a long gap, but its awful when they have to go back.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
RussianTanksRoll
An odd thing happened at the Olympic opening ceremony yesterday.
Don’t worry; this is not going to be a sporting article, that would be at http://tonyklinger.co.uk/
It was the moment when a very worried look crossed the face of President George W. Bush as he sat in the heat of the Bird’s Nest super stadium. Looking like the front-page character of “Mad” comic books, Alfred E. Neumann, the President’s body language was perplexed, unhappy and hot. You could see he had something other than the two thousand and eight drummers working in syncopated harmony on his mind.
Bush stood up and spotted Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister and former President. A dark frown passed over the American’s face. Words were exchanged. You can imagine the conversation. “Hi Ya Vlad, what are your boys doing in Georgia?” Putin shrugs, “Is in my own back yard, is nothing to do with you, what about this drumming, I’m getting a headache!” Putin then shrugged and left after obtaining a headache pill from Laura Bush who smiled enigmatically and said nothing.
To me it is no coincidence that the Russian leader, because that’s what he still is despite stepping down from the Russian Presidency, is at the Olympics at precisely the moment when the Russian tanks were rolling towards the former Russian province of Georgia.
Formerly Georgia was a part of the Soviet Union, and the Russian leadership seems to have developed a bit of geographic amnesia. They clearly believe these annoying little countries on their borders should still be part of the empire, or at least be in their sphere of influence or control.
Russia doesn’t accept the progressive shift of Georgia and Ukraine towards the West. They are particularly upset and unsettled by both countries wanting to become parts of NATO.
So yesterday Russian tanks rolled into South Ossetia, a rebel province of Georgia.
Russia is becoming progressively more unpredictable as it feels its growing economic muscle. This makes the Western response more difficult.
It isn’t easy to say why this "frozen" conflict escalated now. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Russians timed it for the very moment when the world’s eyes were on the Olympics.
The Russians claim that Georgia launched an invasion of South Ossetia, aiming to pacify the breakaway region. Georgia, meanwhile, stated that its troops entered the South Ossetian "capital" in response to escalating South Ossetian attacks, which have been going on for a week—years, really—as well as the Russian aerial bombardment of Georgian territory.
Pots and kettles come to mind. How can Russia accuse Georgia of doing precisely the same thing it does in Chechnya? The truth is we’re all hypocrites when it suits us. Before America gets on its own high horse don’t forget it’s historical attempts at invasion of Cuba, Canada and Mexico!
Previous tensions—both in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the other piece of Georgia that declared sovereignty—had been resolved without war. Someone wanted this to go further.
Both sides have deeper motives for fighting. The Russians want to prevent a Western oriented Georgia from joining NATO. George Bush called the country a "beacon of liberty"—has long wanted to do. Now the Russians will almost certainly succeed. No Western power has an interest in a military ally that is involved in a major military conflict with Russia.
The Georgian leadership, by contrast, had come to believe that the constant pressure of Russian aggression, coupled with the West's failure to accept Georgia into NATO, compelled them to demonstrate "self-reliance."
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili purchased a great many weapons in preparation for this. He apparently believed a military conflict was inevitable but could be won if he was clever. As of Friday night, with Russian soldiers fighting in South Ossetia—only a few short miles from Tblisi, the Georgian capital—it appears as if he’s made a potentially huge mistake. Russia didn’t send 150 tanks across that border to lose.
Georgia shouldn’t have played the brinksmanship game with the big bear to its north unless it didn’t mean a big hug. It should have stepped back from the precipice—and should still do so if given a chance—but Russia's deployment of such a large and carefully prepared force, not only in South Ossetia but in the rest of Georgia, is clearly an unacceptable breach of Georgia’s sovereignty and international bodies such as the UN must condemn it and order them out of their neighbor’s soil.
The whole thing reminds me of the historical claim by the German government that they had been attacked over the Polish border which they were resisting. That became the start of the Second World War.
Whoever is to blame for the present escalation, the West has little, if any influence on the outcome. Saakashvili's appeals for help and moral support—"This is not about Georgia," he told CNN, "it is about America, its values"—won’t help his country unless Russia allows them to. Putin didn’t look like he was feeling very well disposed to this idea when he shrugged in response to George Bush’s glad handing.
The truth is that the international community should have dealt with this conflict years ago. There was a dangerous security vacuum in the Caucuses; and that always makes war more likely.
In the most dangerous conflict between ideologies since the Cuba missile crisis there is potential for human suffering on an immense scale.
Georgia is an eager ally of the USA, and a successful Russian invasion of Georgia, a country with U.S. troops on its soil, reflects poorly on the West. Our moral cowardice, economic weakness, over extension and distraction elsewhere, ineptitude, lack of ideas, eliminated any thought of our involvement. Now it’s probably too late.
Don’t worry; this is not going to be a sporting article, that would be at http://tonyklinger.co.uk/
It was the moment when a very worried look crossed the face of President George W. Bush as he sat in the heat of the Bird’s Nest super stadium. Looking like the front-page character of “Mad” comic books, Alfred E. Neumann, the President’s body language was perplexed, unhappy and hot. You could see he had something other than the two thousand and eight drummers working in syncopated harmony on his mind.
Bush stood up and spotted Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister and former President. A dark frown passed over the American’s face. Words were exchanged. You can imagine the conversation. “Hi Ya Vlad, what are your boys doing in Georgia?” Putin shrugs, “Is in my own back yard, is nothing to do with you, what about this drumming, I’m getting a headache!” Putin then shrugged and left after obtaining a headache pill from Laura Bush who smiled enigmatically and said nothing.
To me it is no coincidence that the Russian leader, because that’s what he still is despite stepping down from the Russian Presidency, is at the Olympics at precisely the moment when the Russian tanks were rolling towards the former Russian province of Georgia.
Formerly Georgia was a part of the Soviet Union, and the Russian leadership seems to have developed a bit of geographic amnesia. They clearly believe these annoying little countries on their borders should still be part of the empire, or at least be in their sphere of influence or control.
Russia doesn’t accept the progressive shift of Georgia and Ukraine towards the West. They are particularly upset and unsettled by both countries wanting to become parts of NATO.
So yesterday Russian tanks rolled into South Ossetia, a rebel province of Georgia.
Russia is becoming progressively more unpredictable as it feels its growing economic muscle. This makes the Western response more difficult.
It isn’t easy to say why this "frozen" conflict escalated now. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Russians timed it for the very moment when the world’s eyes were on the Olympics.
The Russians claim that Georgia launched an invasion of South Ossetia, aiming to pacify the breakaway region. Georgia, meanwhile, stated that its troops entered the South Ossetian "capital" in response to escalating South Ossetian attacks, which have been going on for a week—years, really—as well as the Russian aerial bombardment of Georgian territory.
Pots and kettles come to mind. How can Russia accuse Georgia of doing precisely the same thing it does in Chechnya? The truth is we’re all hypocrites when it suits us. Before America gets on its own high horse don’t forget it’s historical attempts at invasion of Cuba, Canada and Mexico!
Previous tensions—both in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the other piece of Georgia that declared sovereignty—had been resolved without war. Someone wanted this to go further.
Both sides have deeper motives for fighting. The Russians want to prevent a Western oriented Georgia from joining NATO. George Bush called the country a "beacon of liberty"—has long wanted to do. Now the Russians will almost certainly succeed. No Western power has an interest in a military ally that is involved in a major military conflict with Russia.
The Georgian leadership, by contrast, had come to believe that the constant pressure of Russian aggression, coupled with the West's failure to accept Georgia into NATO, compelled them to demonstrate "self-reliance."
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili purchased a great many weapons in preparation for this. He apparently believed a military conflict was inevitable but could be won if he was clever. As of Friday night, with Russian soldiers fighting in South Ossetia—only a few short miles from Tblisi, the Georgian capital—it appears as if he’s made a potentially huge mistake. Russia didn’t send 150 tanks across that border to lose.
Georgia shouldn’t have played the brinksmanship game with the big bear to its north unless it didn’t mean a big hug. It should have stepped back from the precipice—and should still do so if given a chance—but Russia's deployment of such a large and carefully prepared force, not only in South Ossetia but in the rest of Georgia, is clearly an unacceptable breach of Georgia’s sovereignty and international bodies such as the UN must condemn it and order them out of their neighbor’s soil.
The whole thing reminds me of the historical claim by the German government that they had been attacked over the Polish border which they were resisting. That became the start of the Second World War.
Whoever is to blame for the present escalation, the West has little, if any influence on the outcome. Saakashvili's appeals for help and moral support—"This is not about Georgia," he told CNN, "it is about America, its values"—won’t help his country unless Russia allows them to. Putin didn’t look like he was feeling very well disposed to this idea when he shrugged in response to George Bush’s glad handing.
The truth is that the international community should have dealt with this conflict years ago. There was a dangerous security vacuum in the Caucuses; and that always makes war more likely.
In the most dangerous conflict between ideologies since the Cuba missile crisis there is potential for human suffering on an immense scale.
Georgia is an eager ally of the USA, and a successful Russian invasion of Georgia, a country with U.S. troops on its soil, reflects poorly on the West. Our moral cowardice, economic weakness, over extension and distraction elsewhere, ineptitude, lack of ideas, eliminated any thought of our involvement. Now it’s probably too late.
Friday, August 8, 2008
BoycottDurban2
I have taken the unusual step of using my blog to demonstrate against Durban 2. This conference, like its predecessor, the first Durban Conference, is being used as a means to demonize Israel as if it were a Nazi state.
I sometimes work as an academic and have been trained to discover facts via research, evaluate them forensically and arrive at an objective conclusion. The people making these false claims against Israel simply hate that country and all it represents and, as a consequence are not doing any of this. They are slaves of age old prejudices that dictate their agenda and no facts are allowed in to shed light.
I also work as a journalist and as such was taught that, with any story you should triangulate your facts. In other words if three, separate, legitimate and distinct sources tell you the same thing the likelihood is that there is truth in the story. The claim that Israel is a racist, apartheid state cannot be substantiated using this method. Like any country Israel has faults. But it is not a fault to have an identity, which it wishes to protect. If this is a sin then all the Arab countries, the UK and many others are all guilty of exactly the same thing. Israel wishes to be a Jewish state, just as Saudi Arabia wants to be Islamic, just as the UK is a Church of England country. This doesn’t mean there are not non-Christians in the UK.
Accusations such as the non-Jews are not allowed in the Israeli Defense Forces are not true. There are many non-Jews in these forces. Very few of them are Muslim however, and that is for reasons of national security. How many people of German or Japanese heritage were allowed in the British or American forces during the Second World War? The answer is very few, and the reasons are identical.
Arab Israelis do have the vote and do have members in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. There is now a member of Israel’s ruling government who is an Arab Muslim.
Below is a call for the boycott of Durban 2 that is self explanatory and which we hope you find interesting and thought provoking.
PETITION: "BOYCOTT DURBAN 2!"
By Nasrin Amirsedghi,Thomas von der Osten-Sacken,Alex Feuerherdt
First Published July 29, 2008
Nearly seven years ago, the, UN World Conference against Racism met in Durban South Africa. The official aim of the event was the public recognition of slavery and colonialism as crimes. However, the conference mutated into an upright tribunal against Israel and its right to exist as well as defense for unfree states and dictators. Now, the United Nations plans a Durban Review Conference to take place in April 2009. A group of intellectuals urges European governments to call off their participation in this event/conference.
Recently, French novelist and essayist, Pascal Bruckner has already called to boycott the Durban Review Conference. “Anti-Semitism has become an ideology of the totalitarian movements in the UN, which they use for their own goals”, Bruckner explains his appeal. “Dictators and notorious semi-dictators abuse democratic language and instrumentalize legal standards, bringing them against democracies, without ever questioning themselves. Bruckner says that a “new inquisition” has emerged, using the term “religious slander to oppress any expression of doubt, especially in Muslim countries.” The Antiracism defended by the despots serves “to justify the very same things against which it was originally devised: oppression, prejudice and inequality”.
More than 30 journalists, authors, scientists and artists, In Europe, the United States and the Middle East have joined Bruckner’s petition, among them: Lars Gustafsson, Jeffrey Herf, Benny Morris, Peter Schneider, Seyran Ates, Necla Kelek and Ralph Giordano. They call the European Union member states, and especially Germany, to boycott the “Durban 2” Conference and to push forward a comprehensive reform of the UN Human Rights Commission.
For the initiators and supporters of the petition, the aim is democratization, secularization and universal protection of human rights against the pretended cultural-pluralism, which boils down to defending Islamic Shari’a against individual freedom. The Durban follow-up conference is diametrically opposed to this goal. Additionally, there is a fear of a renewed demonization of Israel, which democrats must confront determinedly. Anti-Semitism goes hand and hand with the support for dictatorships, such as in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Instead of supporting the “Durban 2” conference, it is time to return to the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Therefore, we call for a deep reform of the UN Human Rights Commission, which becomes more and more a forum for diffusion of Anti-Semitism, misogyny and unfreedom.
The initiators and supporters of the appeal hope that it will receive wide support. The petition will be delivered to the German government and to the governments of other EU countries on February 15th, 2009 and needs as many signatures as possible by this date.
The Petition and Instructions to sign, in English and German can be found at: http://boycottdurban2.wordpress.com
Everyone who wants to sign the appeal is sincerely invited. Please send an e-mail with your full name, your profession and your town to boycottdurban2@yahoo.de
Afterwards your signature will be published on the website of the Petition.
The appeal will result in an open letter to the German government and further governments of the EU before the start of the Durban Review Conference. This collection of signatures will therefore be closed by February 1st, 2009.
• Your E-mail-address will not appear on the website and will not be abused for commercial purposes.
I sometimes work as an academic and have been trained to discover facts via research, evaluate them forensically and arrive at an objective conclusion. The people making these false claims against Israel simply hate that country and all it represents and, as a consequence are not doing any of this. They are slaves of age old prejudices that dictate their agenda and no facts are allowed in to shed light.
I also work as a journalist and as such was taught that, with any story you should triangulate your facts. In other words if three, separate, legitimate and distinct sources tell you the same thing the likelihood is that there is truth in the story. The claim that Israel is a racist, apartheid state cannot be substantiated using this method. Like any country Israel has faults. But it is not a fault to have an identity, which it wishes to protect. If this is a sin then all the Arab countries, the UK and many others are all guilty of exactly the same thing. Israel wishes to be a Jewish state, just as Saudi Arabia wants to be Islamic, just as the UK is a Church of England country. This doesn’t mean there are not non-Christians in the UK.
Accusations such as the non-Jews are not allowed in the Israeli Defense Forces are not true. There are many non-Jews in these forces. Very few of them are Muslim however, and that is for reasons of national security. How many people of German or Japanese heritage were allowed in the British or American forces during the Second World War? The answer is very few, and the reasons are identical.
Arab Israelis do have the vote and do have members in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. There is now a member of Israel’s ruling government who is an Arab Muslim.
Below is a call for the boycott of Durban 2 that is self explanatory and which we hope you find interesting and thought provoking.
PETITION: "BOYCOTT DURBAN 2!"
By Nasrin Amirsedghi,Thomas von der Osten-Sacken,Alex Feuerherdt
First Published July 29, 2008
Nearly seven years ago, the, UN World Conference against Racism met in Durban South Africa. The official aim of the event was the public recognition of slavery and colonialism as crimes. However, the conference mutated into an upright tribunal against Israel and its right to exist as well as defense for unfree states and dictators. Now, the United Nations plans a Durban Review Conference to take place in April 2009. A group of intellectuals urges European governments to call off their participation in this event/conference.
Recently, French novelist and essayist, Pascal Bruckner has already called to boycott the Durban Review Conference. “Anti-Semitism has become an ideology of the totalitarian movements in the UN, which they use for their own goals”, Bruckner explains his appeal. “Dictators and notorious semi-dictators abuse democratic language and instrumentalize legal standards, bringing them against democracies, without ever questioning themselves. Bruckner says that a “new inquisition” has emerged, using the term “religious slander to oppress any expression of doubt, especially in Muslim countries.” The Antiracism defended by the despots serves “to justify the very same things against which it was originally devised: oppression, prejudice and inequality”.
More than 30 journalists, authors, scientists and artists, In Europe, the United States and the Middle East have joined Bruckner’s petition, among them: Lars Gustafsson, Jeffrey Herf, Benny Morris, Peter Schneider, Seyran Ates, Necla Kelek and Ralph Giordano. They call the European Union member states, and especially Germany, to boycott the “Durban 2” Conference and to push forward a comprehensive reform of the UN Human Rights Commission.
For the initiators and supporters of the petition, the aim is democratization, secularization and universal protection of human rights against the pretended cultural-pluralism, which boils down to defending Islamic Shari’a against individual freedom. The Durban follow-up conference is diametrically opposed to this goal. Additionally, there is a fear of a renewed demonization of Israel, which democrats must confront determinedly. Anti-Semitism goes hand and hand with the support for dictatorships, such as in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Instead of supporting the “Durban 2” conference, it is time to return to the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Therefore, we call for a deep reform of the UN Human Rights Commission, which becomes more and more a forum for diffusion of Anti-Semitism, misogyny and unfreedom.
The initiators and supporters of the appeal hope that it will receive wide support. The petition will be delivered to the German government and to the governments of other EU countries on February 15th, 2009 and needs as many signatures as possible by this date.
The Petition and Instructions to sign, in English and German can be found at: http://boycottdurban2.wordpress.com
Everyone who wants to sign the appeal is sincerely invited. Please send an e-mail with your full name, your profession and your town to boycottdurban2@yahoo.de
Afterwards your signature will be published on the website of the Petition.
The appeal will result in an open letter to the German government and further governments of the EU before the start of the Durban Review Conference. This collection of signatures will therefore be closed by February 1st, 2009.
• Your E-mail-address will not appear on the website and will not be abused for commercial purposes.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
HealthChecks
The worst and most uncivilized aspect of the USA, a country that many of us hugely admire and love, is the almost total lack of health protection it affords its vulnerable citizens.
In the UK we complain about the standard and timeliness of the care we receive as by right. My fellow British citizens cannot imagine how much worse this situation would be for them if there were no such care provided.
The number of people who drop through the health insurance net in the States is alarming. Many folk, when they get more mature, face an uncertain health future, just when they need it most.
I have an American friend who has to take medication costing him over $1,200 (£600) per month. Put this in context, I also have to take regular prescriptions and in the UK this costs me $15 (£7.20) per month.
Surely a very significant measure of a society’s civilization is how well it looks after its sick and infirm, by this measure America disgraces itself.
Many Americans have the mistaken belief that we all therefore are compelled to use the social medicine, which is free to all at the point of need. This is not the case. We also have a very large and parallel private medical system, available if you want to pay for it. This operates on a totally commercial basis and to obtain these services you need money or insurance, just like our American cousins.
British private medical costs are expensive, but not nearly as costly as America. However, to afford it comfortably you really do need to pay for medical insurance or major treatment could ruin all but the richest patient customer.
Maintaining good health insurance cover is very important if you can afford it, but we all know this becomes ever more unattainable and expensive as premiums increase as you get older. In Britain take a look at forming or joining a group plan which can very substantially decrease the cost of this premium.
An easy and obvious precaution is to look after your body; it never ceases to astonish me when people don’t. You only have the one body and you need it to work as well as it can.
At least once a year try and make sure you give your body a medical check up. You do this for your car if you have any sense, so do it for your own body.
Your bits need to be maintained or they might drop off or cease to function well or at all. The best of these check ups are provided by the big health care providers and health insurance companies.
In my own experience I have every reason to recommend such check ups. I am alive because of these simple precautions. A small irregularity showed up in one of my blood tests. I was called back in to see the doctor who referred me to a specialist. One thing very quickly led to another and before I knew it I was given a colonoscopy which led to the instant, and might I add painless, removal of a polyp. It transpired that this was pre-cancerous. The specialist sat me down and said that cases like mine made his career worthwhile. He told me that had I not discovered the problem I would, eventually have had inoperable bowel cancer. As it was I now had no problem whatsoever. What price that check up?
I recommend that you also have a full body scan every 3 or 4 years. This is a bit costly but its money very well spent. The scanner is extremely sensitive and picks up the very beginnings of medical problems. Watch out for special deals on this service that seem to appear at fairly regular intervals. In the case of my family we found some small issues that, because we were forewarned, should never become big issues.
Nothing, not the diet, exercise or regular health checks will stop you getting ill. However it might help you get through it. I complained to a doctor that it was unfair that I had just suffered a bad bit of health despite my looking after myself, his response was revealing, “if you weren’t so fit you would have died, as it is you survived and now can continue living an active life, so keep the good lifestyle going!”
We can’t keep the clock from turning but we can and should look after ourselves.
In the UK we complain about the standard and timeliness of the care we receive as by right. My fellow British citizens cannot imagine how much worse this situation would be for them if there were no such care provided.
The number of people who drop through the health insurance net in the States is alarming. Many folk, when they get more mature, face an uncertain health future, just when they need it most.
I have an American friend who has to take medication costing him over $1,200 (£600) per month. Put this in context, I also have to take regular prescriptions and in the UK this costs me $15 (£7.20) per month.
Surely a very significant measure of a society’s civilization is how well it looks after its sick and infirm, by this measure America disgraces itself.
Many Americans have the mistaken belief that we all therefore are compelled to use the social medicine, which is free to all at the point of need. This is not the case. We also have a very large and parallel private medical system, available if you want to pay for it. This operates on a totally commercial basis and to obtain these services you need money or insurance, just like our American cousins.
British private medical costs are expensive, but not nearly as costly as America. However, to afford it comfortably you really do need to pay for medical insurance or major treatment could ruin all but the richest patient customer.
Maintaining good health insurance cover is very important if you can afford it, but we all know this becomes ever more unattainable and expensive as premiums increase as you get older. In Britain take a look at forming or joining a group plan which can very substantially decrease the cost of this premium.
An easy and obvious precaution is to look after your body; it never ceases to astonish me when people don’t. You only have the one body and you need it to work as well as it can.
At least once a year try and make sure you give your body a medical check up. You do this for your car if you have any sense, so do it for your own body.
Your bits need to be maintained or they might drop off or cease to function well or at all. The best of these check ups are provided by the big health care providers and health insurance companies.
In my own experience I have every reason to recommend such check ups. I am alive because of these simple precautions. A small irregularity showed up in one of my blood tests. I was called back in to see the doctor who referred me to a specialist. One thing very quickly led to another and before I knew it I was given a colonoscopy which led to the instant, and might I add painless, removal of a polyp. It transpired that this was pre-cancerous. The specialist sat me down and said that cases like mine made his career worthwhile. He told me that had I not discovered the problem I would, eventually have had inoperable bowel cancer. As it was I now had no problem whatsoever. What price that check up?
I recommend that you also have a full body scan every 3 or 4 years. This is a bit costly but its money very well spent. The scanner is extremely sensitive and picks up the very beginnings of medical problems. Watch out for special deals on this service that seem to appear at fairly regular intervals. In the case of my family we found some small issues that, because we were forewarned, should never become big issues.
Nothing, not the diet, exercise or regular health checks will stop you getting ill. However it might help you get through it. I complained to a doctor that it was unfair that I had just suffered a bad bit of health despite my looking after myself, his response was revealing, “if you weren’t so fit you would have died, as it is you survived and now can continue living an active life, so keep the good lifestyle going!”
We can’t keep the clock from turning but we can and should look after ourselves.
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