The U.S. government has met its target of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees for the 2008 fiscal year, which ended on Sep. 30, and promises to admit more than 17,000 for the next year, in addition to 5,000 under a special visa programme.

Approximately 1.5 million Iraqi refuges live in Syria, Jordan and other neighbouring countries. Ninety thousand of them are seeking resettlement in the U.S., according to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Groups that advocate on behalf of refugees have praised the increased numbers of Iraqi refugees being resettled in the U.S. But considering the vast number that are seeking resettlement, the groups say the U.S. is still not doing enough.

"The U.S. certainly met its goal for this year, but next year's target of resettling 17,000 Iraqi refugees falls far short of what is needed," said Kristele Younes of Refugees International.

and, a short clip that also appeared on al jazeera today is a first-person piece from bangladesh talking about the relationship between the u.s., climate change, and increasing numbers of environmental refugees:

meanwhile, america's parter in crime, the zionist regime, is up to its usual tricks: killing palestinians, destroying the environment, and abusing workers.

In August, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, the international watchdog organization, asked three Israeli companies to respond to a report by an Israeli non-governmental organization that protested the treatment of Palestinian workers at West Bank settlement industrial parks. Kav LaOved, which is concerned with the rights of migrant and Palestinian workers employed in Israel and Israel's illegal settlements, reported on the rising number of claims by Palestinian workers employed in West Bank settlements following an October 2007 Israeli high court ruling that the country's labor laws applied in the settlements.

Amongst the companies whose labor practices were criticized in the Kav LaOved report was Royalnight, a textile manufacturer owned by Royalife. In 2003, Royalife established a factory in the Barkan Industrial Park located near the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank. Royalnight's sheet sets, bed skirts, quilted blankets, and decorated pillows are exported to and marketed in the United States and Europe. According to Kav LaOved's report, Palestinian workers who come from all over the West Bank have to work under poor health and safety conditions at Royalnight's textile plant. To evade liability, work permits are issued under the name of a different employer, and workers employed through a Palestinian contractor are paid less.

In 1999, the United Nations Economic and Social Council criticized the practice of Israeli companies, including most of those operating in the Barkan park, moving their factories to the West Bank to escape the higher health and environment standards applicable in Israel. Kav LaOved states in its report that the Royalnight textile plant is no different: "Health and safety standards are poor, the working environment is noisy and the air is full of fabric dust. Most work is carried out standing, and the workers take five minutes breaks at their own expense."

The report adds: "[Workers] complain of exposure to dangerous cleaning substances and of working near cutting machines lacking safety devices. The company does not employ a Health and Safety official and the workers have received no instructions or cautions regarding possible dangers of operating machinery."

In an unsigned letter, Royalife replied to the Business and Human Rights Centre's query and the allegations raised by Kav LaOved: "All complaints are not correct. While Western Europe and the United States moved the industry to countries like Pakistan, India, China, with much lower labor costs, we tried to keep the textile industry in our region, enabling income to the people who live in the area."

However, Kav LaOved writes that Barkan Industrial Park is "away from the eye of the law. Israeli employers have found ways of evading the high court ruling by for instance issuing pay slips with false attendance reports. The normal practice is to register fewer working days than those actually worked, so it appears that the minimum wage is being paid." According to the report, "workers employed through a Palestinian contractor are paid between six and eight shekels an hour, whereas workers employed directly by the factory are paid between nine and 11 shekels an hour." At the time of writing, 3.5 shekels was the approximate equivalent to one US dollar.

Palestinian workers from the occupied territories were once widely employed inside Israel. But following the Oslo Accords, Israel has dramatically reduced the number of work permits issued to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since April 2006, Gazans are no longer able to receive work permits for employment inside Israel or its West Bank settlements at all. Those in the West Bank who do receive the permits find that they are only valid for three months at a time and Israel's severe movement restrictions make it difficult for even permit-holders to reach their places of employment.

Israel's closures have significantly contributed to rampant unemployment and underemployment in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, where 33 percent and 80 percent of the population, respectively, is dependent on international food assistance, according to an April 2008 report by the International Labour Organization. The World Bank has identified Israel's closure and movement restriction regime as a leading cause of the rapid deterioration of the Palestinian economy.

The dire economic situation means more Palestinians are forced to seek work in Israel's illegal settlements, where they are vulnerable to exploitation. Palestinian human rights organizations have reported that Palestinian workers are coerced into collaboration with Israeli security services to receive the permits necessary to work in the settlements and inside Israel.

So far, Royalnight has gone unpunished for its profitable exploitation of Palestinian workers in its settlement manufacturing plant. The goods it exports are likely marked as "Made in Israel" even though the Barkan Industrial Park where its sewing factory is located is built in violation of international law on stolen Palestinian land. However, there is a growing movement to hold companies like Royalife accountable. Earlier this year Barkan Wineries terminated its lease at the Barkan Industrial Park and moved its operations inside the internationally-recognized boundary between the West Bank and Israel, following a campaign against the company's settlement operations that tarnished its image (the company, however, still owns a vineyard in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights). As the international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel's rights violations increasingly gains momentum, the exploitation of Palestinian labor by Israeli companies operating on occupied land will surely come under further scrutiny.

Adri Nieuwhof is a consultant and human rights advocate.

still questioning the logic of boycott?

But Americans take simple freedoms like moving from home to work unhindered for granted. They expect it. This is all about privilege. Though in the U.S. right now some of this privilege is connected to one's class--can you afford the gasoline for your car? Or can you access public transportation? And always it is about white privilege. Driving while Black (and I would add Brown) means that you cannot travel freely even between home and work because when you get in your car you are likely to be pulled over, searched, and perhaps arrested. Muslims have been experiencing this phenomenon at airports increasingly since 9/11. African Americans have known this to be a part of their lives for decades. Being Black or Brown in American means being branded criminal. This is similar to the ways that Americans and Israelis alike brand Palestinians terrorists. This idea is embedded into the culture and psyche of Americans and Israelis alike. (Just check out this latest piece showing that leading Israeli terrorists made a campaign video for Obama.)

But what happens when you're a white guy from Chicago and you get branded by Sarah Palin as a terrorist? This was a story a few months ago. And actually I know Bill Ayers as a colleague. Last year we spoke together on a panel at DePaul University. He was one of the only other people speaking there who could be considered a comrade in terms of his political positions about Palestine. I respect him and I respect his work. At first when I saw the reports on Al Jazeera of Palin talking about this so-called "terrorist" I couldn't figure out who it was. Then I sat down to read the newspapers and I first saw this New York Times blog that related the narrative:

“There is a lot of interest, I guess, in what I read and what I’ve read lately. Well, I was reading my copy of today’s New York Times and I was interested to read about Barack’s friends from Chicago.

“I get to bring this up not to pick a fight, but it was there in the New York Times, so we are gonna talk about it. Turns out one of Barack’s earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, and they are hardly ever wrong, was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that quote launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and US Capitol. Wow. These are the same guys who think patriotism is paying higher taxes.

“This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America. We see America as the greatest force for good in this world. If we can be that beacon of light and hope for others who seek freedom and democracy and can live in a country that would allow intolerance in the equal rights that again our military men and women fight for and die for for all of us. Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country?”

First, let's get one thing straight: Palin does not read The New York Times. I would be shocked if the woman knew how to read at all. But she makes a point to emphasize this at the beginning because of the Katie Couric interview in which Palin could not name one newspaper or news source that she reads. Her outrage in the above quote about this is laughable--as is her notion that the New York Times "hardly ever gets it wrong." Really? Interesting. Come to think of it maybe she does read once in a while--maybe that is why she's so clueless about the Middle East. Or, I take that back--I think maybe someone reads to her. (Then yesterday on Fox News she stated that she was just too "annoyed" at those questions to be able to answer. She was outraged that she was not allowed to just read from her talking points. That a journalist actually was doing her job. Oh, yeah, that's why she had that deer in the headlights look on her face.) And, actually, if you read the original New York Times article that Palin was referring to, you'll see that it is really pointless. It makes it clear that although their political work may have overlapped over the years, Bill Ayers and Obama are hardly friends. And I haven't asked Bill, but I suspect it's mutual given Obama's selling Palestinians down the river and a whole lot of other progressive issues.

it's this insidious demonization of people--always already Brown, Black, poor, politically radical--that is so disturbing. As is the silence surrounding the presidential campaign of Cynthia McKinney and her running mate Rosa Clemente. With all this talk about the way in which somehow race and gender are no longer factors I find it compelling that this Green Party team featuring two of the most progressive candidates in a long time are shut out of the process. That's the good ol' American democracy Palin is fighting for. No, it's not, actually. But McKinney and Clemente are. Here is what they say about racial profiling:

5. We Want to Stop the War at Home Now!

The decision by Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown to prosecute the San Francisco 8 is chilling in the message it sends about impunity in the face of clear police wrongdoing. The San Francisco 8 (several of whom were members of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense), are being prosecuted and investigated by the very same police officers that committed torture against them decades ago. Obviously not satisfied with the 32 Black Panthers killed by law enforcement by 1973, a decision has been made to continue targeting Black Panther members in another way.

We want the hundreds of political activists falsely imprisoned by COINTELPRO and similar programs from the 1960's to the present to be released from prison immediately. We want full disclosure on all the government's spying and destabilization programs and for restitution to be provided to victims of these governmental abuses and their families for the suffering they have long endured.

In addition, members of the general public have become targets for police repression, including Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, and other easily identifiable minorities. By 2004, Cincinnati had seen 18 young people murdered at the hands of brutal cops. Louisville, Kentucky saw seven young Black males killed in four years. In New York City, three unarmed Black men were killed within a period of 13 months. In fact, the book Stolen Lives lists the names of over 2000 people killed by police during the 1990s. Unfortunately, it is clear that the poor and people of color are disproportionately affected by the disproportionate application of force by law enforcement. Adding insult to injury, offending police officers are rarely if ever punished.

We believe that disparities in sentencing and in the criminal justice system as a whole can be overcome with political will to change the policies and punish those guilty of the racial profiling that often result in disparate treatment at each step of an encounter with the criminal justice system.

In study after study, the dismal performance of the criminal justice system against people of color has been documented. Policies designed to close the disparities in sentencing and treatment at the hands of the criminal justice system must be implemented with more than deliberate speed.

And here is their position on the prison industrial complex:

7. We Want to End Prisons for Profit Now!

We want an end to privatization of prisons and prison health services. We want an end to the racism that serves as an engine of growth for a profit-driven prison system. We want an end to prison labor schemes that are little more than corporate subsidies that provide little training or rehabilitation for inmates. We want reconciliation, transformation, preparation, rather than incarceration based on retribution and vengeance. We do not want race and class to serve as the primary determinants of punishment. And we want an end to the death penalty.

We believe that the prison-industrial, criminal injustice complex of today still operates in many respects as a vestige of slavery. And just as punishment was meted out disparately for Blacks and whites during slavery, these conditions persist today. For example, in the state of Virginia, a white person could only be sentenced to death for murder, but slaves could be sentenced to death for 71 offenses. Today, according to "Minding the Gap," despite higher drug use by White Illinois teens, African American youth who make up 15.3% of Illinois's youth population, are 59% of youth arrested for drug crimes, 85.5% of youth automatically transferred to adult court, 88% of youth imprisoned for drug crimes, and 91% of youth admitted to state prison. Disparities permeate the system from the laws enacted, to those who enact the laws, to those who enforce and interpret them.

Paul Street reports in Black Agenda Report, "one in three Black males will be sent to state or federal prison at some point in their lives compared to one in six Latino males and one in seventeen white males." Writer Tim Wise writes, "According to FBI data, the percentage of crimes committed by African Americans has remained steady over the past 18 years, while the number of Blacks in prison has tripled and their rates of incarceration have skyrocketed."

Clearly, it is time to rethink prison policy and the criminal justice system upon which it rests. Just as prisons for profit underscored profit-maximizing strategies, we need to explore new terrains for justice-maximizing policies, including prison abolition. We need public policy solutions that focus on reconciliation and restorative justice. Racism should not be rewarded with profits.

Notice that their statement makes it clear that the prison system in the U.S. is basically an extension of slavery. And it is. Instead of reparations for slavery, African Americans and people of color more generally have found themselves basically performing slave labor in prisons. There was never any 40 acres and a mule. There was a movement from the plantation to the prison. Which is why one of my favorite parts of their platform is reparations for slavery--something you definitely won't hear McCain or Obama talk about. Here is their position on reparations:

3. We Want Reparations Now!

African Americans are now sustaining the worst loss of wealth in U.S. history due to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, an estimated $71 billion to $92 billion, according to United for a Fair Economy.

We believe that the U.S. government never kept its promise to former slaves of the overdue debt of forty acres and two mules. Forty acres and two mules were promised as restitution for slave labor and the mass murder of Black people. Enduring racial disparities reflect the U.S. government's failure to address the reality and the vestiges of Black poverty in this country. Hurricane Katrina is but a manifestation of the generations of previous neglect combined with current neglect.

A 2003 Harvard University study found that Black infant and maternal mortality rates are 2 and 3.5 times higher than for whites. The New York Times wrote that by 2003 nearly one half of all Black men between the ages of 16 and 64, living in New York City, were unemployed. Dr. David Satcher found in 2005 that 83,750 Black people died from premature deaths for no other reason than that they were Black. And in its 2005 report, United for a Fair Economy told us that it would take 1,664 years to close the home-ownership gap and that on some indices the racial disparities are worse now than at the time of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In its 2006 report, United for a Fair Economy told us that Blacks and Latinos lost ground, and that in order to close the racial wealth divide in our country, it would take the equivalent of a "G.I. Bill for Everyone" that would include comprehensive federal investment in low-income families and communities, with an emphasis on people of color. In its 2007 report, United for a Fair Economy concluded that, while Blacks overwhelmingly vote Democratic, they had little to show for such party loyalty according to the statistics reflecting the State of Black America and the policy initiatives of the Democratic Party in its first 100 hours as a Congressional majority. In 2008, United for a Fair economy concluded that it would take 440 years to close the racial disparity on per capita income.

That one million Black votes were not counted in the 2000 Presidential election is symptomatic of a host of broken promises, the denial of self-determination, and a refusal of both major parties to deal with the vestiges of slavery, racism, and discrimination with which too many families are forced to live today.

We urgently need policies enacted on the federal and local levels that will address the enduring disparities in education, health care, imprisonment, family income, wealth, home ownership, that reflect purposeful malign neglect of communities of color in this country. Further, these public policies must also specifically recover economic losses sustained during the current sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Can you imagine Gwen Ifill asking Palin and Biden a question about reparations in a debate? Will never happen. All of their positions are amazing, by the way, and you can read the rest of them on their campaign website.

There is one person who has been making these connections between slavery and the prison industrial complex for years. Angela Davis, who actually ran for Vice President herself on the Communist Party ticket, pioneered this political and historical work as an academic and an activist. She not only makes these connections, but also focuses on issues of privatization of the prison system which has made it profitable to house people of color because Americans view them as a surplus population. The companies who profit from this are numerous, but here is a sample of some Davis identified in 1998:

Many corporations whose products we consume on a daily basis have learned that prison labor power can be as profitable as third world labor power exploited by U.S.-based global corporations. Both relegate formerly unionized workers to joblessness and many even wind up in prison. Some of the companies that use prison labor are IBM, Motorola, Compaq, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Microsoft, and Boeing. But it is not only the hi-tech industries that reap the profits of prison labor. Nordstrom department stores sell jeans that are marketed as “Prison Blues,” as well as t-shirts and jackets made in Oregon prisons. The advertising slogan for these clothes is “made on the inside to be worn on the outside.” Maryland prisoners inspect glass bottles and jars used by Revlon and Pierre Cardin, and schools throughout the world buy graduation caps and gowns made by South Carolina prisoners.

Notice that companies like Motorola, which are tremendously invested in the Israeli Terrorist infrastructure are on this list. These issues are connected economically and politically: who Americans and Israelis lock up and how they profit off of this wholesale imprisonment of people of color in the U.S. and Palestinians here.

These are not issues you'll see on American television. But if you watch Al Jazeera you can hear discussion of these issues. One of my new favorite programs is Avi Lewis' "Inside Story." This is the same program that I posted something about last week when he did a show on American imperialism in Hawai'i. This week he devotes the half hour (why isn't it an hour?!) to an interview with Angela Davis. She talks about the relationship between slavery and the prison industrial complex and the solution to this, which in many ways resembles McKinney and Clemente's platform for reparations for slavery. I encourage people to watch this program below. It is definitely not something you'd ever see on mainstream American television.

And just to seal these ties between American prisons and its criminalization of people of color I will close with a couple of stanzas from my favorite Suheir Hammad poem, "letter to anthony (critical resistance)," which shows how Palestinians are criminalized in very similar ways:

II

i have always loved criminals
i tell people who try to shame
me into silence

with words like television conjugal
college libraries they say
can you imagine a library in a nigerian a chinese a
colombian prison do you know what happens in the world americans are spoiled no idea
how lucky we are here

even you often write how
your time has offered reflection
meditation deepened your faith
but you 27 and have 10
years to go nowhere how much deeper
you going to get until a system based
on money deems you rehabilitated

i have always loved criminals
and the way you bomb my tag
butterphoenix all across your letters
reminds me our affirmation is
considered vandalism

i have always loved
criminals and not only the thugged
out bravado of rap videos and champagne
popping hustlers but my father
born an arab baby boy
on the forced way out
of his homeland his mother exiled
and pregnant gave birth in a camp

the world pointed and said
palestinians do not exist palestinians
are roaches palestinians are two legged dogs
and israel built jails and weapons and
a history based on the absence of a people
israel made itself holy and chosen
and my existence a crime

so i have always loved criminals
it is a love of self
and i will not cut off any part of
me and place it behind fences and bars
and the fake ass belief
that there is a difference between
the inside and the outside

there is no outside anywhere
anymore just where we are and
what we do while we are here

and there
are people anthony who make a connection
between you puerto rican rhyme slayer beautiful man and
young girls twisted into sex work and these
people nazim they are working to stop prisons
from being economically beneficial to depressed
communities and these people
bronx bomber they imagine a world
where money can't be made off the hurt
of the young the poor the colored the
sexualized the different and these people
nymflow they never heard you
spit lyrics and they won't
see the brillians from these mere words
but these people
42851-054 5812
they believe human
beings can never be reduced
to numbers not in concentration
camps or reservations not in
refugee camps not in schools
and not in jails

~~~

Almost 9,000 Palestinians are being held in prisons inside Israel, in violation of international humanitarian law. In hundreds of cases, Israel forbids adult relatives to visit, so it is left to children under 16 to maintain the family contact.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1703765327215644777&ei=V9LoSNP4C5HS2gKP3JSpCw&q=B%27Tselem]

~~~

Rasmi al-Khatib was 13 years old in October 2001, when he was playing soccer with friends. A soldier fired at the children and a bullet struck him. Since then, Rasmi's left arm has been paralyzed.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8254427100166528536&ei=J9PoSMmCJYLi2gK3n6CiCw&q=B%27Tselem]

Al Jazeera's Matt McClure reports from Mangalore, where the police are being accused of siding with the Hindus against the church-going community.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCHPmzk0kEQ

"""

Hundreds of tunnels under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt are keeping many of the Palestinian territory's 1.5 million impoverished residents supplied with food and fuel.

On Saturday, Egyptian authorities found the entrances of three tunnels and confiscated a large amount of fuel about to be smuggled into the territory.

Sources say there are more than 6,000 Palestinians employed in the clandestine industry, which merchants say is heavily controlled by the Hamas authorities.

Strict rules are imposed on what can be brought in - weapons, drugs and people-trafficking are prohibited - and tunnel operators are taxed.

Ehab Gheissen, a spokesman for the interior ministry in the deposed Hamas-led government, said: "It is the right of the Palestinian people to do whatever they can to break the siege they live under.

"They have a right to do whatever they can to get what they need, including through tunnels, but at the same time we are watching all of the things that are being brought in."

The tunnels were previously used to smuggle weapons to fight the Israeli occupation, but the blockade that was enforced after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 has made the smuggling of basic supplies a necessity.

Shortages have sent prices of flour and milk soaring, and the industry established around the tunnel smuggling system is now worth millions of dollars.

Sami Abdel Shafi, a Gaza-based business analyst, said: "These days, most of the anecdotal evidence we hear is that the tunnels are being used to bring in very human items, for lack of proper medicine in the Gaza Strip.

"They are used to bring in shoes, chocolate and 7-Up, things like that.

"Then again, all of the quantities being brought in are being blown out of proportion I feel, 1.5 million people deserve a lot more than having to operate under ground, they deserve a much better chance at operating an economy above ground." [...]

A diverse range of items, such as cigarettes, teacups and spare parts for motorcycles, were among the items awaiting collection. But no matter how important the tunnels are in keeping the Palestinian economy going, there is a human cost. At least 35 people have died in the tunnels since the beginning of the year, according to the UN.

General Mahmoud Khalaf, a military analyst, told "These tunnels are not neccessary, and illegal procedures should not be used to transport goods."

"The fact that these tunnels are seen as vital is an allegation perpetrated by Hamas to justify these actions. But yes, I do admit the Israeli-imposed siege has made life harder, but I believe these means are not the way forward."

Abu Mohammed lost his son and a brother when the tunnel they were digging fell in on them. Since then, he has stopped his other children from going down the tunnels."What can we do? We have to eat and they were making money for the family. But now, I won't allow them to work no matter how poor we are. It's just not right," he told.

Egypt is under pressure from Israel to crack down on the tunnels, some of which are in sight of the border police.

Cairo says it is making efforts to halt the trade, and the UN says that during a two-day period in August, 28 tunnels were destroyed by the authorities.

Mohyeldin reported that some Palestinians even boast that the Egyptians will never be able to shut all the tunnels because it is also a lucrative trade for many Egyptians.

But Abdel Shafi warns that longer the tunnels remain a lifeline, the more it will undermine the chances of a proper Palestinian economy being developed."It will have catastrophic consequences in the long term, even if it does provide or alleviate some of the need for the moment," he said."The Gaza Strip cannot be sustained on the operations of the tunnels."

In Gaza, 85 per cent of the population relies on aid and unemployment is running at 45 per cent.  """

Poverty forces Afghan children into smuggling... but who's fault it is ?!

Who bring them war ,destruction, blood, hunger, poverty, ...?

[EN]

"""   Many Palestinians that I met during my travels in the West Bank told me that to know what Palestine really was about and meant, I had to go to Nablus. Most of them also told me that Nablus was their favourite city. After spending 5 weeks there this summer, I understand why. Arriving from Ramallah (on the fastest taxi/service ride I have ever experienced) the first thing you see on arriving in Nablus is its most famous checkpoint: Huwara. Huwara, its people and its colour. Yellow. Yellow like the hundreds of taxis and services parked on both sides of the checkpoint. You need them to leave the city and to get inside the city. Since the start of the second intifada, entry to Nablus by car or truck has mostly been forbidden. You cross the checkpoint on foot, on your way in and out. Once in a service (cheaper taxis that take people from one set stop to another, most of them old Mercedes) it takes only 5 mins to reach Nablus’ vibrant city centre. And then, something else hits you and you start to realise that Nablus is like no other place in the West Bank. The city centre is bustling with life. Cars come out of nowhere, people chat in the middle of the road, falafel shops at every street corner, a man sells coffee to stationary drivers, fruit sellers, people waving at you to stop for a chat, sounds of “welcome, how are you” coming from all directions. Nablus is non stop. You hear, smell, taste and see here. All at once. This is the best example I’ve seen so far of controlled chaos.

People seem to live here. Everyone I meet is smiling, laughing, inviting me to their homes for tea, asking me about my country. Everyone seems so happy to see me here. Everyone.

After a few days in the city, I realise that this is only the outside. Inside everything is a lot darker. Nablus reminds me of a clown. Smiling to hide its suffering.

Everyone is happy to see a foreigner, an international, because not many come to Nablus. Walking around the city you quickly realise that there is no tourism here. Only a few NGOs operate here bringing internationals (a nationality in itself in Nablus. Anyone coming from Europe, the U.S.A, Scandinavia... is called an international) into Nablus. People want to know my story and I want to know theirs. They want to understand why the world has forgotten them and I want to understand what has happened to them. They want to “take off their veil”, allow me in. I cannot refuse and decide to film them. For them to talk and the world to listen. To give them a platform to express themselves.

After a few interviews, it rapidly becomes obvious to me that everyone has a story here.

Bashir tells me that he had to stop his studies for a while because he could not afford it. He had to work in Ramallah for long hours, making only 20 shekels a day. Both his parents are unemployed. Like nearly 70% of the population in Nablus. A huge increase compared to the 1997 rate (14.2%). Nablus’s citizens have lost 60% of their income since the start of the second intifada. Most people here are young (50% of the population is under 20) and highly educated. Nonetheless most of the youth here is either unemployed or work in shops selling anything they can (some shops sell groceries but also clothes, house utilities....). Shops can be open for up to ten hours a day without a single customer. Nablusis simply don’t have money to spend.

Hakim tells me that everytime he hears the Israeli Army during the night, he wakes up, gets dressed and sits quietly on his sofa waiting for them. Not because he’s guilty of anything. Except maybe of being Palestinian. No one is safe in Nablus during the night. The situation is extraordinary. Nablus was one of the first cities to welcome a Palestinian police force a few months ago (around November 07) but this police force only acts from 6am till midnight. From midnight onwards the Israeli army takes over. Every night the Israeli army enters the city and its refugee camps (Balata, Askar, El Ayn) and, with the help of loudspeakers, sound bombs and weapons, arrest Palestinians, quite often ransacking their house, beating them and their families, and sometimes killing them. The Israeli army has “carte blanche” here. Even during the day. A police officer told me that the Israelis sometimes call them during the day to tell them that they’ll be down (the army base overlooks the city, on top of a mountain) in a few mins. They clear the place on the spot to let the Army do “its job”. It is as simple as that.

Hassan tells me that one day he was arrested while going through Huwara checkpoint. He spent 11 months in jail. To this day no one has told him why. The only thing he knows is that it was administrative detention. In every story you hear, jail comes up. For a male citizen of Nablus, jail is pretty much compulsory. Nearly half of Nablus’s male residents have gone past the Jail square. However this is no board game, and these men are not just visiting, some of them are incarcerated for months at a time without knowing why they were arrested in the first place or when they’ll be released.

Maroof tells me that during the first and second invasions of Nablus, while he was working as a volunteer with the fire brigade and the Red Crescent, he was nearly killed twice by the Israeli army. They knew he was working as a paramedic. Maroof witnessed many times blatant human rights violations by the army. The ambulances were not allowed to do their job properly and to rescue people. A lot of people died as a result of not being taken to hospital in time. Maroof and his team were once forbidden to leave the old city. They had to stay there for 12 days without edible food.

And then there is Saed who lost his mother in 2002 when she was assassinated by an Israeli sniper. There is Eslam who twice saw the Israeli army occupying his house and could not go out for days at a time. There is Ala from An Najah University (the biggest university in the West Bank) who cannot sleep at night because of nightmares due to multiples Israeli Army interventions and beatings in the old city during the night. There is Amad who went to jail with his whole family for 3 months in 2005.

And then there is this Palestinian girl, 17 years old, from Balata refugee camp, who tells me, on my last day in Nablus, while sharing a meal people from the camp had prepared for us:

“Tell me. What was the image you had of us before coming here? Did you think we were all killers? Did you think we were all crazy? Because I’ve got friends in Europe who told me that over there people think we are all crazy and terrorists. You know it hurts me so much when I hear things like this. We’re not crazy. We’re good people here. I mean not everyone’s good. Like everywhere else. But most of us are good. Nice people. Do you see many terrorists in this room? Do we all seem crazy to you? We’re just normal people and we want to live a normal life. But life for us is hard here. Can you tell the truth to your people when you go back to Europe? Can you tell them who we really are, please?”

I am so touched I cannot answer. Can you?

Although I've been following the Palin fiasco each day, I hadn't planned on blogging about it. Mostly it's been for my own personal daily dose of humor. I thought about it a bit when Rania began blogging about her last month. But now the anticipation of the vice presidential debate has pushed me over the edge. That and Tina Fey's HI-larious spoof of Palin on Saturday Night Live. (If you have not watched this video, click on this link. It is unreal.)

I've been dying to see the debate tonight between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Mostly for its entertainment value. I've been subjected to these little "first person" opinion pieces on Al Jazeera where they let one American narrate why they support a particular candidate. This one features a woman who says she was a democrat, but now because Hillary Clinton is not a nominee she's voting for McCain. Why? Because Palin is a woman. Since when does having a vagina make one more qualified to lead a country? (Let us not forget the dangerous policies of Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto to name a few women who made the world a worse place.) Feminism does not mean supporting a woman because she's a woman. Feminism is an ideology that Americans like to water down to the lowest common denominator. Palin is no more a feminist than Clinton is; both have retrograde politics that actually serve to harm women. If you want to see a real feminist politician Cynthia McKinney and her vice presidential running mate Rosa Clemente are your candidates. Anyway here is American moron #1:

Apparently, Katha Pollitt says that the debate will not be as lively as one could hope for given that McCain had the format changed to accommodate Palin's inexperience:

The McCain campaign, tacitly acknowledging how out of her depth she'll be no matter how many all-nighters she pulls, demanded – and, shockingly, got – special modifications to the VP debate format so that there would be no follow-up questions. After all, it wouldn't be right to expect Palin to compete on normal terms with Joe Biden, who has the totally unfair advantage of being deeply versed in domestic and foreign policy and knowing how the world's business is done. Lower standards for potential leaders of the world's most powerful country, in the name of diversity. That's what Republicans stand for now.

Is it not too much to expect that a person a heart beat away from the presidency speak the language of her country proficiently? On Palin's linguistic deficiencies:

I began to notice the problem during Palin's interview with Charlie Gibson - not coincidentally, her first major unscripted foray into the public speaking realm. When Gibson asked her whether she agreed with the Bush doctrine - and then had to explain to her what it was – she replied: "If there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country." Even to the untrained ear that sentence sounds awkward. "Legitimate and enough"? It can't possibly be elitist to suggest that "legitimate and sufficient" would have come off as more literate.

That particular question in the Gibson interview was also horrifying to watch with respect to her inability to answer a simple question about U.S. policy. You can watch the interview and Palin's incoherent bumbling about on Huffington Post. But the question of Pakistan struck me in ways that seem to differ from others. On the Huffington Post, for instance, and in other places people focus on her straying from McCain's position on invading Pakistan. (I think this is why McCain had to chaperon Palin on a second Katie Couric interview later.) But what struck me was that Gibson had to ask her two or three times what Palin thought about invading Pakistan. Her answer was so completely incoherent that even Gibson finally said, "let me finish. I got lost in a blizzard of words there," and then he asked her to give a simple yes or now answer. She didn't. Or couldn't. I'm thinking that she believes if she throws enough words around together in a big whirlwind she will be able to bullshit her way through an answer. And in spite of this: mish ma'oul! another American moron on Al Jazeera actually said "she's articulate." I kid you not.

For those of you who have not seen the interview with Katie Couric, here are a few highlights, accompanied by commentary from the Young Turks, which is also worth a chuckle. There are three videos. The first shows us that Palin doesn't read any newspapers--and not only that: she cannot name any!:

The second one appears to show that Palin endorses Hamas victory when they were democratically elected in Palestine--not something I have trouble with, to be sure, but certainly something that puts her at odds with McCain not to mention most elected American officials:

The third one shows that she has no knowledge of any Supreme Court cases aside from Row v. Wade:

Perhaps average Americans can't name Supreme Court cases either, but the point Palin is running for Vice President. Here is a starter kit for those "average" moronic Americans who want someone to lead them who is "just like them":

For my British readers, let me explain something. Een mai cahntree, the supreme court has a particular aura and lore. One learns about the court as a schoolchild. A special tone of reverence often creeps into teacher's voice. If nothing else one is taught pretty early and pretty thoroughly the following: Marbury v Madison (1803) set the precedent of judicial review; the Dred Scott decision (1857) upheld slavery; Plessy v Ferguson (1896) upheld segregation; and Brown v Board of Education (1954) ended it.

For the mildly curious American of Palin's (and my) generation, round two of supreme court schooling might include United States v Nixon, in which the court unanimously ordered Richard Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes, which forced Nixon's resignation; Baker v Carr, which established the principle of one person, one vote; University of California v Bakke, in which the court initially upheld affirmative action; and of course Roe v Wade.

I am not saying that every American knows or should know these eight decisions. Lord knows most Americans probably don't know how many justices sit on the court (now that I think of it, probably a good question for Palin). But it seems to me not too much to ask that someone who might be the vice-president or even president of the United States should know them, and many more important court decisions.

As a result of this supreme incompetence, even conservative columnists are now asking for Palin to bow out. Kathleen Parker writes:

Palin's recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I've been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I've also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there's not much content there. Here's but one example of many from her interview with Hannity:

"Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we're talking about today. And that's something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this."

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama's numbers, Palin blustered wordily: "I'm not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who's more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who's actually done it?"

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

Apparently, Parker got a lot of flack for that column and responded in a second opinion piece on the subject:

Mrs. Palin's fans say they like her specifically because she's an outsider, not part of the Washington club. When she flubs during interviews, they identify with that, too. "You see the lack of polish, we applaud it," one reader wrote.

Of course, there's a difference between a lack of polish and a lack of coherence. Some of Mrs. Palin's interview responses can't even be critiqued on their merits because they're so nonsensical. But even that is someone else's fault, say Mrs. Palin's supporters. The media make her uncomfortable.

Or it's the fault of those slick politicos who are overmanaging her.

"Let Sarah be Sarah" has become the latest rallying cry among my colleagues on the right. She'll be fine if we just leave her alone, they say. Between prayers, I might add.

This issue of who is a Washington insider or who is a political elite among the media and voters interviewed on television is disturbing. These are the American morons I keep finding on Al Jazeera. They say things like "I like her, she is a mom just like me." No, she's a moron just like you. Since when do we want someone who is "just like us" to be the head of state. She's not running for prom queen. She's running for the second most important office in the nation. Why is it that these moronic Americans think that to be coherent, intelligent, well-read is a deficiency when running for the White House? We've had eight years of that, do we really want 4 more?

There is a funny piece on Dissident Voice today by William Blum that labels this phenomenon "Palintology":

What’s the proper term to use to categorize a person who is … blindly patriotic, jingoist, an evangelical Christian creationist, gun and hunting enthusiast, National Rifle Association supporter; denies the science behind global warming, with a philosophy of “dig, dig, dig”, and in foreign policy: “bomb”, “bomb”, “bomb”; untraveled, uneducated, ignorant, a devoted book-banner, racist, opposed to equal rights for gays, fanatically anti-abortion, anti-feminist, and has a 17-year-old daughter pregnant and unmarried?

The proper American term is “white trash”. Or, as the honorable governor of Alaska apparently prefers, “redneck” — “Rouge cou” is what she called a business she registered.

And what do you call the person if on top of all that she declares in the year 2008 that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9-11 and that “a surge in Afghanistan also will lead us to victory there as it has proven to have done in Iraq”? The proper term is “scary” or perhaps “scary moron”.

And what do you think of this person when you learn that she believes that the war in Iraq is a “task that is from God”? I think this is actually a form of insanity. There are people in institutions all over the world charged with killing others, who insist that they were acting under God’s command.

And if the above is not enough to make you fall in love with the woman, consider that she believes that humans coexisted with dinosaurs 6,000 years ago; and have a look at a video of the vice-president/president-to-be undergoing an exorcism performed by a minister to free her body from “witches”.6 When we consider the flak that Barack Obama received because his minister is not in love with US foreign policy, imagine what Palin will get for having a minister who performs witch exorcism. Nothing.

Palin complained in her incoherent interview with Couric that she has never met a head of state, but she somehow thought this was a feather in her cap because she is a Washington outsider. This is also called a lack of experience--something people were saying about Obama until Palin came along. But with the United Nations General Assembly meeting last week she had the opportunity to meet foreign heads of state. After her meeting with Hamid Karzai, he told Al Jazeera that she was "capable." Hmm...what does that tell us about Karzai?:

The Alaskan governor held brief meetings with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and Alvaro Uribe, Colombia's president, in New York on Tuesday.

"I found her a capable woman. She had the right questions on Afghanistan. She was concerned and she said how she can help," Karzai said after the meeting at a Manhattan hotel.

Karzai and Palin discussed security problems in Afghanistan, including cross-border attacks from fighters in Pakistan and the need for more US troops in Afghanistan.

After Palin's meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, the two found themselves in quite an imbroglio:

Zadari's greeting to the Alaskan governor at their meeting at the UN headquarters in New York - described as "overly-friendly" by the Christian Science Monitor - has earned him a fatwa from some of Pakistan's radical Muslims.

Benazir Bhutto's widower tells Alaska's first woman that she is "even more gorgeous in life" and says he can see why "America is crazy about you". But what really got radical clerics backs up was his comment that he might hug the Moose-hunting governor if his aide insists hard enough.

For Palin, the incident appears to have confirmed jokes that her meet-and-greet sessions with world leaders at the UN were "speed dating" diplomacy.

But Zadari faces much harsher condemnation for his conduct. His remarks managed to unite both hardline Islamic leaders and Pakistani feminists in condemnation.

One radical Muslim prayer leader said the president shamed the nation with his "indecent gestures, filthy remarks, and repeated praise of a non-Muslim lady wearing a short skirt." Meanwhile, Tahira Abdullah, a member of Pakistan's Women's Action Forum, criticised the president for failing to show decorum and behave like a "mourning widower".

Of course, no visit to the UN would be complete without an American politician fawning of a leader from the Zionist state:

President Shimon Peres met Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin Thursday and the two exchanged some warm words. Peres was on hand to deliver a speech at an international conference organized by former United States President Bill Clinton.

Upon meeting the Israeli president Palin told him she has wanted to meet him and get to know him for years. She added that the only flag in her office, aside from the American flag, is the Israeli flag, stressing that she wants Israelis to know that she's been a longtime friend of the Jewish state, and will remain such.

The outrage meter is not high here. It's obligatory. I'm sure she believes it. I'm sure she's as Zionist as the rest of them. But then again, aside from Nader and McKinney, what candidate isn't? But like all right-wing evangelical Christians in the U.S., that enduring support for the Zionist state is usually coupled with anti-Semitism. Apparently, her church in Alaska is host to various anti-Semitic speakers:

Imagine, for a moment, that Obama had a similar record. Imagine that he joined a preacher onstage right after that preacher had spoken about "Israelite" control of the financial sector. Imagine that he had won his first local election against a man with a Jewish-sounding last name amid suggestions that his opponent wasn't really a Christian. Imagine that he had sat in church this summer and listened without protest to a sermon blaming Israel's agonies on the country's adherence to Judaism. All this would likely have resulted in something near hysteria among both the professional media and the demagogues of talk radio.

Yet on Palin, the self-appointed defenders of American Jewry have been fairly quiet. That's because, when it comes to the chosen people, those on the left are held to very different standards than those on the right. Palin, like many right-wing evangelicals, is wildly hawkish on Israel, and in American politics, that's seen as synonymous with friendliness toward the Jewish people. Yet as Pat Robertson and many others have proven, promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories is not incompatible with fanatical Zionism. Palin would, in all likelihood, be an ally of that messianic fringe of the Jewish community determined to thwart any possibility of peace with the Middle East. That doesn't mean her candidacy shouldn't give other American Jews real reason to worry.

Of course, everyone who is supporting Palin is waving their feminist flags (though if I could control the feminist club they would never be allowed in in the first place). Gloria Steinem puts it this way:

Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

On the whole what this election is showing us is that it's all about racism and white privilege as Tim Wise reminds us in his piece "This Is Your Nation on White Privilege":

White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you dangerously naive and immature.

White privilege is being able to say that you hate "gooks" and "will always hate them," and yet, you aren't a racist because, ya know, you were a POW, so you're entitled to your hatred, while being black and noting that black anger about racism is understandable, given the history of your country, makes you a dangerous bigot.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the "lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…


White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Bill Maher called Palin a bimbo on his show "Real Time" last week. It's an interesting discussion of Palin with Ralph Nader as one of the guests. Nader takes offense at Maher's characterization of Palin as a "bimbo." Nader says it's sexist; Maher says it's not and names off men he'd call a bimbo too. Just a point of correction, here, though: a bibmo is a specifically gendered word: "an attractive but empty-headed young woman, esp. one perceived as a willing sex object." That's the Oxford English Dictionary's definition. Empty-headed, yes. Sex object, god, I hope not.

Some years ago in South Africa, when insomnia or rebelliousness took hold, one could while away the wee hours by watching the BBC or CNN on feeds provided by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) after the SABC’s normal broadcasting hours. It wasn’t the most exciting television, but it gave night owls some quality viewing whilst also providing a bit of exposure to news and commentary beyond the narrow confines of South African political and social interests.

Then the SABC decided to get sophisticated and nationalistic, beginning to run late night local content rather than exposing the small number of after-midnight viewers to potentially subversive (that is, thought-provoking) programmes of news and opinion emanating from places considered to be colonialistic, imperialistic and capitalistic.

Thus it is that nowadays all we can get on the SABC after midnight is either SABC news (not bad but rather parochial), sport (limited usually to soccer or rugby – neither of which gets my juices pumping) or mindless and repetitive hip-hop type ‘music’ which, for a man of my age, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment for crimes uncommitted.

Even the SABC’s arch-rival, eTV, ever the populist ratings chaser, can only muster either repeats of programmes from earlier the same night or a truly dumbass and mindbendingly boring ‘game’ involving dirge-like monologues from a single presenter purportedly taking phone calls from supposed contestants trying to ‘win’ ridiculously small prizes.

On top of which, in a cunning conspiracy against Spearpoint, broadcast signals to my home from both the SABC and eTV are apparently scrambled as part of a shrewd plan to force me to subscribe to the local satellite TV carrier (DSTV). This wouldn’t be so bad if I could afford the lunatic sums required to be able to access those channels – such as the History channel, the Discovery channel, the BBC, CNN, a couple of cooking or travel channels, and so on - with some interesting content. But no, Spearpoint is financially limited to the most basic of satellite packages and which consist of the three SABC channels, eTV, al-jazeera English news (actually quite good if overly centred on southern Asia), a single sports channel, a poker channel (which I quite enjoy on occasion since there used to be a time in my dissolute youth when I used to make quite a bit of money and a few enemies playing the game) and a feed from Botswana Television.

Now Botswana TV (BTV) during normal viewing hours is pretty much the same as many African national television stations; very focused on its own affairs (although it sometimes carries good movies and documentaries). However, BTV after hours can be very interesting – as in recent weeks – when it doesn’t shut down its late night transmissions. Prompted, no doubt, by the Presidential race in the USA, BTV has recently been carrying a feed from the American TV station MSNBC.

Of course, the programmes transmitted are governed by the time difference between deepest, darkest Africa and the Eastern Seaboard of the USA, so the full range of what MSNBC offers is not available to us paupers here.

Nonetheless, what a joy!

For the first time in my life I have been able to follow, in some detail, the progress of an American Presidential campaign – from an American perspective rather than as edited by non-American anti-Americans in places outside the USA.

And even allowing for an apparent bias towards the Democratic Party by the hosts of those talk shows that I am able to watch, I have been greatly enlivened by the style and content of hosts such as Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow and their stables of expert commentators. Thanks guys (you know what I mean, Rachel).

(I’m just praying that BTV hasn’t been pirating the feed from MSNBC, gets caught and has to shut it down. If that is the case then I’m praying, equally hard, that MSNBC doesn’t find out until well after November 4^th.)

Anyway, based (in part) upon MSNBC’s influence upon me, I humbly proffer the following Spearpoint-assessment of the Republican Party Presidential candidates as I understand them at this time. Justification for being so brazen as to offer opinion on an electoral process that is not mine is based upon the simple fact that, no matter what America does, how or to whom it does it, we in the Third World (and elsewhere) will be directly affected in some way, sooner or later.

To begin with, I have to say just how intriguing it is that, for what is probably the most advanced and sophisticated country on the planet, America and Americans appear to be so engrossed in the style and packaging of their Presidential candidates rather than the content of the policies being proposed.

This pre-occupation with presentation leaves Americans open to a number of dangers. Take, for example, the present incumbent, George Dubya.

Riding on the coat-tails of his father (who, it would seem, knew at least enough to be able to start and stop a just war without bankrupting both his own country and the rest of the planet), George Jr., although probably spoiled and indulged as a child and youth, exuded an apparent air of toughness during his campaign for the White House. The American public seemed to love it, with results that everyone on the planet will have to live with for generations. What was missed, unfortunately, was that the air of strength was, in fact, a rich kid’s petulance and poutiness backed up by daddy’s position in life. And, I suspect, an overindulgence in Tom Clancy novels.

Beyond that, and although supported by clever and ambitious political hitchhikers, George Dubya has proven to be an intellectual and moral lightweight with the attention span of a snowball in a blast furnace. Poor George always was in over his head.

It would seem that the great packaging flim-flam is again being perpetrated on the American public again with the Republican Party Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates.

John McCain, to this outsider at least, appears to have made a political career based upon his earlier (and unfortunate) experiences as a POW in North Vietnam. His POW status looks as though it is the central plank of his definition of his service to the American nation and he seems never to tire of speaking about and referring to it. This, of course, falls in well with America’s apparent perception of any uniformed service (military, paramilitary or civilian) as being tantamount to semi-divine elevation.

Now Spearpoint has had the very real privilege of having known and worked with a fair number of ex-servicemen over the years. In all that time, most of those individuals known by me have always been so modest and reticent about their war time experiences as to be, at times, infuriating. But, if anything, their reluctance to speak of and to take advantage of their past glories (if one can use that term) only served to heighten their stature in the eyes of all those around them. I remember one with particular affection; a quadriplegic who, for some reason, seemed to take pleasure from sharing conversations and cigarettes in the sunshine with a young and callow Spearpoint, only ever conceding that his terrible wounds had been sustained at Gallipoli but never, never, referring to or otherwise speaking of his military experiences during the Great War. Or another, captured during the North African campaign in World War II and so savagely tortured by the Germans that his feet and legs carried the disfigurements and pain decades later. These were men to be revered and respected.

There was one, however, who reached field rank in a combat unit during the Burma campaign of World War II. In addition to insisting on the use of his military rank in civilian life, this man then calculatedly used his previous status to never cease talking of his (presumably real) experiences as he relentlessly carved out a commercially successful niche for himself and his business, forever trading on the natural awe and respect most people have for old warriors. His eventual reward was to be regarded with disdain, dislike, distrust and, in certain instances, with outright contempt.

None of the above comments is intended to take anything away from either John McCain or his experiences as a US serviceman. However, and at a personal level, Spearpoint will always be skeptical and suspicious of those who make self-glorified capital (of any kind) from past experiences that were, to a greater or lesser extent, shared by many, many thousands of others who survived those same types of experiences. It should not be forgotten that, aside from those who managed to make it back home, there were many thousands who, killed or missing in action, didn’t get home and whose stories and histories– perhaps more glorious than those of McCain – we shall never fully know. And, as is often the case in war, pure blind chance all too frequently determines survival, rather than skill, prowess or battlefield bravery.

It is also the experience of Spearpoint that, career soldiers/airmen/sailors aside, the main effect of military service – particularly when drafted against one’s will – was to provide the mettle in one’s character upon which could then be formed a better citizen in any of a thousand different ways. Most military experience is gained when one is very young, when one’s knowledge and experience of the world is extremely limited and when one tends to be most enthusiastic and unquestioningly accepting about one’s beliefs, norms and values. It is also the time in the lives of most individuals, before the advent of spouses, children, mortgages and a million other social responsibilities, when young people are adventurous and carefree, able and willing to embark upon reckless exploits before the true value of human life is properly comprehended by the participants. It is only in this way that wars have been such a permanent feature of human existence; the young are too stupid to understand the effects and costs of the jingoism being thrust before them and are, therefore, perfect cannon-fodder. Middle-aged men make for poor grunts since their age and general life experience tends to allow them greater powers of threat-recognition and subsequent circumspection.

The point here is that it is fallacious to base one’s entire persona and identification on just a couple or so years’ experience in very early adulthood. Especially when, as with John McCain, one is on the final, steep dip-slope of life. Because, surely, a person is – or should be - more than what they were for a few years as a youth or young adult, even if those early experiences lent or swayed them towards certain pre-dispositions.

Perhaps Spearpoint is being less than fair towards John McCain, in which case an apology is extended; I know little of the man beyond what I have seen on television and read in the press over the past few months. But Spearpoint is old and experienced in his own way, has no particular axe to grind, and has a history of being right much of the time about people and their motives – even at a remove. And Spearpoint has, at the moment, a firmly negative opinion of the man.

It is also unfortunate, perhaps, that John McCain presents himself as hugely competent and experienced whilst constantly appearing to be taken unawares when the unexpected happens. His willingness and propensity to prevaricate and then to attack from a position of weakness has, I think, been clearly demonstrated during this presidential campaign. Similarly, when caught out or under pressure he has a distressing tendency to look like a rabbit caught in a spotlight; gambler he might claim to be, but a poker player he is not. The body language is, somehow, not right.

And, speaking of body language, Spearpoint has noticed something about McCain when in the presence of and when talking about Sarah Palin, his Vice-Presidential running mate. The guy is distinctly uncomfortable – and Palin is equally discomfited.

The public embraces have been perfunctory and decidedly cool. No kisses on the cheeks have been seen to land. The arms in the embraces are stiff and defensive. There has been little eye-contact – Palin’s eyes sweep over McCain as if he is not there, whilst McCain’s eyes are everywhere except on Palin where there is any chance that she might notice.

When McCain speaks of Palin it is as if he suddenly switches to a ‘Palin sub-menu’ on his list of ‘correct-things-to-say-about-party-and-running-mate’. He flashes a stunningly insincere - and immediate - manufactured smile measured in milliseconds and then changes the subject as quickly as possible.

Spearpoint suspects that, (and despite other commentators suggesting that he is merely embarrassed at having inappropriate thoughts about his attractive running-mate – although have you noticed how fiddles with his wedding band when he stands behind Palin on the rally platforms?), John McCain does not like his Vice-Presidential candidate. Spearpoint further wonders whether John McCain had any say in the selection of Sarah Palin for the coming task – that, in other words, Palin was foisted on McCain against his better judgement. (Which, if true, would somewhat raise McCain in Spearpoint’s estimation).

There is little doubt in Spearpoint’s mind that Sarah Palin is reasonably smart and fanatically ambitious. There is equally little doubt that Palin is not averse to using her – at first glance – good looks to charm and sway those she would seek to influence and that she uses her sexual weaponry, together with her homey hockey/soccer mom image and populist and fundamentalist views and certainties of life, in place of any significant breadth of knowledge or interests beyond what she grew up with as a child. Palin has, I suspect, little room or use for the very real philosophical and existential uncertainties of life as experienced by the majority of the people of America and the rest of the world.

If that is, in fact, the case then one must feel not only very sad for America in terms of the quality of the leadership being offered by the Republicans, but also extremely fearful for the consequences of pitting a Palin against, for example, a Putin or a Medvedev – both of whom are just as ambitious but far, far more educated and worldly-wise; there is not much doubt in Spearpoint’s mind that both those gentlemen not only know by name the titles of their national newspapers and magazines, their editors and where they live but they also know, to the millimetre, the position of every one of their national borders.

To expect someone - even as photogenic and outwardly attractive as Sarah Palin - to somehow assimilate all of the necessary and basic information and background to the role she has been chosen by the Republican Party in a matter of days is clearly too much. The woman is, I believe, in her early forties, set in her ways and opinions and the task is simply beyond her; neither she nor America has the luxury of boundless time in which to improve and hone her brain.

Nor is it purely a matter of style. The job of Vice-President requires substance more than anything else – particularly when there is a very real and distinct possibility of an aged John McCain being unable to complete even his first term as President. Palin might be sufficient for Alaska and Alaskans (I don’t even want to think about what that might say about that State and its inhabitants), but it is manifestly clear that being an airhead (one might be tempted to go so far as to say a ‘bimbo’) is not heavyweight enough for the job of running the most powerful nation on the planet – unless, of course, one wishes to fulfill the prediction of the Iranians that the American empire is about to disappear. Look at the trouble George Dubya got us all into – and he grew up with smart parents in a political household.

The prospect of a further George Dubya administration under the title of ‘McCain and Palin’ does nothing to quicken Spearpoint. The likelihood of a Palin administration is just too terrible to contemplate.

The USA will lose tremendous credibility around the world if the McCain/Palin ticket wins in November.

The problem is, I suspect, that McCain will, true to form, stoop to whatever level he thinks fit in order to achieve his personal ambitions. I would be surprised, for example, if, come the vote in the House on the $700 billion ‘bailout’ package, McCain does not engineer an ‘intervention’ by himself so that he can claim that he – and he alone - managed to heroically sway the dissident Republican members sufficiently to agree the package and thus to save America and the world.

Spearpoint’s high regard for and respect of the United States of America cannot here be proven or demonstrated – but it is there. I just wish, now and then, that America would realise that, in selecting its own leaders, it is also selecting global leaders with a reach and impact far beyond your own shores. We outside America often dream of achieving what you have achieved and we are fearful of what it would mean to have an America no longer capable of not giving us not only wonderful science and technology but also the aspiration and standard of the love of freedom together with a chance to follow your example. Just please give us a good example.

Spearpoint.

2^nd October 2008

In a similar fashion to the France 24 Team's special report 'The Dalai Lama's demons' a report by Nicolas Haque found that Dorje Shugden practitioners were not allowed in shops, that monks had been expelled from their monasteries, and Shugden practitioners were in hiding because of their determination not to abandon the 400 year old spiritual practice that has been passed on to them by their Holy Gurus.  Footage is shown of shocking 'name and shame' posters in a local town, encouraging violence against those monks who refuse to give up this Deity.

There is more footage of the Dalai Lama and Samdhong Rinpoche defaming Shugden practitioners with words like 'terrorists' and 'liars'.  The Dalai Lama says that Shugden followers have taken to killing and beating people, starting fires and telling endless lies.  in particular, he praises the monasteries for expelling the Shugden monks.  Finally the Dalai Lama exhorts the monasteries to take hard action against the Shugden monks with the words  "tell them the Dalai Lama is responsible for this"

So much for the tolerance and religious freedom he's always talking about in the West.  Who can now doubt the Dalai Lama's hypocrisy?

Mai! camilosilor, da! voi aia care transmite-ti din cocotier ca inca, nu v-ati dat jos din el! da! voi aia care va stergeti la cur cu frunze de palmier uscate, ca hartia igienica o importati din "tara vrajitoarelor"! da! voi aia care a-ti studiat in " tara vrajitorelor" si a-ti ajuns doctori, pentru ca acolo scoala se rezuma la sapat gauri in pamant ,poate-poate o iesi petrol!Voi, v-ati gasit sa vorbiti de Romania?Voi ?

Voi, cei care inca va ucide-ti femeile cu pietre? care taiati mana celui care fura? care mancati cu mana( cu cea stanga! pentru ca  dreapta e ocupata cu scarpinatul la coaie)? Voi, vorbiti?

 Este adevarat, unii romani se mai duc la alde MamaOmida, Rodica si alte " magiciene"( era sa spun academiciene), aia mai fraieri, desigur! Dar in nici un caz, nu se duc sa-si trateze bolile la ele, se duc sa asculte vorbe (  chiar daca nu sunt adevarate) care ar vrea sa se intample, asa cum si voi mergeti la Mecca si ascultati vorbe din Coran si sperati sa se intample!

 Daca as face o "vrajitorie" si ati ramane fara petrol, punem pariu ca a-ti da ,Rolls-ul pe o camila si a-ti veni la Dumnezeul vostru sa-l rugati sa va dea ploaia?

 Asa ca Al Jazeera se poate compara cu OTV-ul romanesc, doua televiziuni egale cu ZERO!!!