Sunday, May 3, 2009
democracy and change
Huge democracies like US or Britain are very slow to change. They can only change themselves during war or serious crisis like a financial crisis, otherwise the will to change does not exist in most participants and nothing changes for a long time.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Hidden Price of Tax Cuts
Interesting article at Toronto Star about how each tax cut is a cut to the benefits of the middle and lower income classes. Each tax cut is a bribe to people for voting for conservatives.
Click on the title to read the article.
Click on the title to read the article.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Education must be from birth to 6 years old
To know how effective early education is just watch the fundamentalist religious sects like Bahai's, Fundamentalist Jews, Menonites and other Christian sects. They start the intense religious education of their children very early and by 6 years old, these young ones have been totally converted to that religion in a way that rarely any one of them can break away from the path later in life and nearly all of them remain faithful to the sect and belief. Because early education to the brain is like operating system to the computer. You can't change the operating system once it is installed, you can upload and install other software, but the main operating system will always be there. No other software can be run without the operating system and if they don't run on the operating system, they are rejected.
When the fundamentalist groups can do it so good, why can't we, the rational science loving normal people do the same? The governments should start education much earlier. But what they do? They only accept the children after 6. By that time, any alchoholic, addict, mentally sick, uneducated parent has already clouded their children's mind enough that no education in the world can change them.
If we want a better world, nothing can cut to the bone and no road is more direct to it than a good early education.
When the fundamentalist groups can do it so good, why can't we, the rational science loving normal people do the same? The governments should start education much earlier. But what they do? They only accept the children after 6. By that time, any alchoholic, addict, mentally sick, uneducated parent has already clouded their children's mind enough that no education in the world can change them.
If we want a better world, nothing can cut to the bone and no road is more direct to it than a good early education.
Friday, February 13, 2009
SO MUCH WEALTH AND SO MUCH POVERTY
What is the use of creating so much wealth when most of it is absorbed by the 5% rich at the top and nothing reaches the middle and lower classes. Every year our productive powers is increased but what is the use of it for the masses? As long as the CEOs and the rich pay themselves billions of dollars, the mass of people are not going to benefit from this wealth. Reminds me when I was in England. I was always wondering why despite that this nations plundered the whole world for more than 200 years, the average British are so poor and live in much worse situation than even people in Iran, until I noticed that much of that wealth was turned into huge estates and expensive merchandise for the rich and did not reach the people.
It is so much true that "Trickle down economy would have worked miracles, if only we did not have such huge sponges at the top!".
It is so much true that "Trickle down economy would have worked miracles, if only we did not have such huge sponges at the top!".
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Why did they kill my children?'
Palestinian MD who'd been offered post at U of T demands Israel probe slaying of 3 daughters, niece
From Toronto Star 22 Jan 09
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/575200#Comments
Monday, January 19, 2009
A victory for Israel??? Think twice please
Are they so out of their mind that they call it a victory in Israel? Massacring defenceless people, destroying a whole city, building and infrastructure, butchering more than 300 small children? Has this massacre made them more popular among Palestinians? More popular in the court of world opinion? Has it wiped out Hamas or made it more popular among the people? Can't now Hamas claim victory just by still being present and active and not destroyed under the sheer fire power of the Israelis?
I want to know what has this offensive gained for Israelis which they did not have before? What was the goal they were seeking? They can't even claim they won votes in the upcoming elections. All the polls point to the victory of Netanyahu as before. It looks like just a mad act of revenge against a few home made rockets.
Who are the guys who have the levers of decision making in Israel? What have they achieved by this stupid massacre of people in an open air concentration camp?
I want to know what has this offensive gained for Israelis which they did not have before? What was the goal they were seeking? They can't even claim they won votes in the upcoming elections. All the polls point to the victory of Netanyahu as before. It looks like just a mad act of revenge against a few home made rockets.
Who are the guys who have the levers of decision making in Israel? What have they achieved by this stupid massacre of people in an open air concentration camp?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
The massacre continues in Gaza, shame
FROM PROGRESSIVE.ORG
NEARLY SEVENTY YEARS ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands.
Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz.
This is the description that would now appear in the history books – if the Germans had won the war.
Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured.
IN THIS WAR, as in any modern war, propaganda plays a major role. The disparity between the forces, between the Israeli army - with its airplanes, gunships, drones, warships, artillery and tanks - and the few thousand lightly armed Hamas fighters, is one to a thousand, perhaps one to a million. In the political arena the gap between them is even wider. But in the propaganda war, the gap is almost infinite.
An example of this process surrounds the most shocking atrocity of this war so far: the shelling of the UN Fakhura school in Jabaliya refugee camp.
Immediately after the incident became known throughout the world, the army “revealed” that Hamas fighters had been firing mortars from near the school entrance. As proof they released an aerial photo which indeed showed the school and the mortar. But within a short time the official army liar had to admit that the photo was more than a year old. In brief: a falsification.
Later the official liar claimed that “our soldiers were shot at from inside the school”. Barely a day passed before the army had to admit to UN personnel that that was a lie, too. Nobody had shot from inside the school, no Hamas fighters were inside the school, which was full of terrified refugees.
The Hamas movement won the majority of the votes in the eminently democratic elections that took place in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. It won because the Palestinians had come to the conclusion that Fatah’s peaceful approach had gained precisely nothing from Israel - neither a freeze of the settlements, nor release of the prisoners, nor any significant steps toward ending the occupation and creating the Palestinian state. Hamas is deeply rooted in the population – not only as a resistance movement fighting the foreign occupier, like the Irgun and the Stern Group in the past – but also as a political and religious body that provides social, educational and medical services.
From the point of view of the population, the Hamas fighters are not a foreign body, but the sons of every family in the Strip and the other Palestinian regions. They do not “hide behind the population”, the population views them as their only defenders.
Therefore, the whole operation is based on erroneous assumptions. Turning life into living hell does not cause the population to rise up against Hamas, but on the contrary, it unites behind Hamas and reinforces its determination not to surrender. The population of Leningrad did not rise up against Stalin, any more than the Londoners rose up against Churchill.
NEARLY SEVENTY YEARS ago, in the course of World War II, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad. For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called “the Red Army” held the millions of the town’s inhabitants hostage and provoked retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centers. The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of thousands.
Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the Blitz.
This is the description that would now appear in the history books – if the Germans had won the war.
Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in our media, which are being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas terrorists use the inhabitants of Gaza as “hostages” and exploit the women and children as “human shields”, they leave us no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments, in which, to our deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and unarmed men are killed and injured.
IN THIS WAR, as in any modern war, propaganda plays a major role. The disparity between the forces, between the Israeli army - with its airplanes, gunships, drones, warships, artillery and tanks - and the few thousand lightly armed Hamas fighters, is one to a thousand, perhaps one to a million. In the political arena the gap between them is even wider. But in the propaganda war, the gap is almost infinite.
An example of this process surrounds the most shocking atrocity of this war so far: the shelling of the UN Fakhura school in Jabaliya refugee camp.
Immediately after the incident became known throughout the world, the army “revealed” that Hamas fighters had been firing mortars from near the school entrance. As proof they released an aerial photo which indeed showed the school and the mortar. But within a short time the official army liar had to admit that the photo was more than a year old. In brief: a falsification.
Later the official liar claimed that “our soldiers were shot at from inside the school”. Barely a day passed before the army had to admit to UN personnel that that was a lie, too. Nobody had shot from inside the school, no Hamas fighters were inside the school, which was full of terrified refugees.
The Hamas movement won the majority of the votes in the eminently democratic elections that took place in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. It won because the Palestinians had come to the conclusion that Fatah’s peaceful approach had gained precisely nothing from Israel - neither a freeze of the settlements, nor release of the prisoners, nor any significant steps toward ending the occupation and creating the Palestinian state. Hamas is deeply rooted in the population – not only as a resistance movement fighting the foreign occupier, like the Irgun and the Stern Group in the past – but also as a political and religious body that provides social, educational and medical services.
From the point of view of the population, the Hamas fighters are not a foreign body, but the sons of every family in the Strip and the other Palestinian regions. They do not “hide behind the population”, the population views them as their only defenders.
Therefore, the whole operation is based on erroneous assumptions. Turning life into living hell does not cause the population to rise up against Hamas, but on the contrary, it unites behind Hamas and reinforces its determination not to surrender. The population of Leningrad did not rise up against Stalin, any more than the Londoners rose up against Churchill.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Some thoughts about Israel and the massacre at Gaza
1. Gaza is nothing more than a large concentration camp, and now Israelis are killing the innocent and defenseless inmates with the most advanced military technology of the age. It is like Nazi germans invade Aushwiz with tanks and air raids. Palestinains don't have a government and a military and they can't defend themselves.
2. Is it an honor to kill a defenseless people and claim victory? It is not a war, it is pure massacre and genocide and yet Israelis are going to claim victory cheerfully after killing thousands of women and children. What victory? It is an eternal shame in the history of Israel. But what am I talking about, the history of Israel is written with cruelty and shame.
3. There is no difference between the crushing of the Warsaw ghetto by Nazis and the invasion of Gaza. Both were encircled and virtually cut off from the world for a prolonged period, and when people rose at last against the inhuman tyranny of the occupiers all of them were massacred cold bloodedly.
4. As long as Palestinians were content to live in unsanitary and inhumane conditions in refugee camps without opposition, Israelis let them live. Now that a younger more educated generation of Palestinians have risen against the oppression they all are going to be wiped out by Israelis.
5. Israel is the only government in the world established on a religion, and a religious book. This we can consider a purely racist regime as their book claims openly that Jews are better than all the other races. In fact, in that book, god has a covenant with the Jews. They are his chosen people and they can do whatever they want to do to other nations. Other nations are not human, they are subhuman. This is a pre-modern tribal world view projected into 21st century. In our age and time, we call it racism.
6. Just because an imaginary god, in a mumbo jumbo book 3000 years old has given the land to you does not mean you come after 3000 years and knock on these people’s doors and claim the land belongs to you and when they ask what is your proof, you show them your Torah???
7. Israel was founded by terrorist groups like Hagana. The leaders of those groups like Begin later became the prime ministers of Israel. Did anybody then asked why a terrorist is the prime minister of that country that now they are asking that question about Hamas. If Israeli people voted for Begin and he could be the prime minister, people of Palestine also voted in a free elections in 2006 for Hamas and so Hamas is their representative.
8. Hagana and groups like that did a huge amount of terrorist acts before the foundation of Israel. Who can forget the bombing of the British personnel hotel, or the massacre in Ghana. What can you expect from a government which has its roots in blood and terror?
9. Unfortunately the only part of the world that media are so partial towards Israel is north America. In other parts of the world, like Europe, middle east, etc, people see more of the reality but here the Jewish lobby is so powerful and it owns so many interests in the media that nobody dares talking about the massacre in Gaza and the politicians alike don’t dare even to mention it.
2. Is it an honor to kill a defenseless people and claim victory? It is not a war, it is pure massacre and genocide and yet Israelis are going to claim victory cheerfully after killing thousands of women and children. What victory? It is an eternal shame in the history of Israel. But what am I talking about, the history of Israel is written with cruelty and shame.
3. There is no difference between the crushing of the Warsaw ghetto by Nazis and the invasion of Gaza. Both were encircled and virtually cut off from the world for a prolonged period, and when people rose at last against the inhuman tyranny of the occupiers all of them were massacred cold bloodedly.
4. As long as Palestinians were content to live in unsanitary and inhumane conditions in refugee camps without opposition, Israelis let them live. Now that a younger more educated generation of Palestinians have risen against the oppression they all are going to be wiped out by Israelis.
5. Israel is the only government in the world established on a religion, and a religious book. This we can consider a purely racist regime as their book claims openly that Jews are better than all the other races. In fact, in that book, god has a covenant with the Jews. They are his chosen people and they can do whatever they want to do to other nations. Other nations are not human, they are subhuman. This is a pre-modern tribal world view projected into 21st century. In our age and time, we call it racism.
6. Just because an imaginary god, in a mumbo jumbo book 3000 years old has given the land to you does not mean you come after 3000 years and knock on these people’s doors and claim the land belongs to you and when they ask what is your proof, you show them your Torah???
7. Israel was founded by terrorist groups like Hagana. The leaders of those groups like Begin later became the prime ministers of Israel. Did anybody then asked why a terrorist is the prime minister of that country that now they are asking that question about Hamas. If Israeli people voted for Begin and he could be the prime minister, people of Palestine also voted in a free elections in 2006 for Hamas and so Hamas is their representative.
8. Hagana and groups like that did a huge amount of terrorist acts before the foundation of Israel. Who can forget the bombing of the British personnel hotel, or the massacre in Ghana. What can you expect from a government which has its roots in blood and terror?
9. Unfortunately the only part of the world that media are so partial towards Israel is north America. In other parts of the world, like Europe, middle east, etc, people see more of the reality but here the Jewish lobby is so powerful and it owns so many interests in the media that nobody dares talking about the massacre in Gaza and the politicians alike don’t dare even to mention it.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Israel leaders and soldiers are all war criminals now
More than 500 Palestinians dead in one week, among them women, children and civilians. More than 4000 injured, and everybody knows that some of these injuries are worse than dying outright. By now we have to accept that by any standard Israeli leaders have won the title of war criminals, and not only them, any soldier in the Israeli army who is willingly taking part in this genocide or holocaust is also a war criminal. This blood lust and killing frenzy must be stopped. The world can't sit and watch while helpless innocent civilians are getting killed and maimed like this.
Ground invasion of Gaza
Now Israelis have invaded Gaza again. Do they ever learn? I don't speak of the pure brutality and disgusting affair of invading the most densely populated area on earth with pure military force and killing defenceless people. No, what I mean here is they have been there and done that. They occupied that land for decades, and yet were kicked out at last. What can they do now that they did not do last time? Short of complete holocaust and wiping out the whole Palestinian population there, they can't subjugate them. They will again be bugged down in a senseless war, killing hundreds of innocent people, bringing more hatred upon themselves and at last have to leave Gaza again without achieving a thing.
New David and Goliath
Palestinian Boy and Israeli Tank. Sometimes a picture really speaks a thousand words!
Somalia same story again
When two years ago Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia to overthrow the Islamic government, I predicted this is not the end of the story. Yes, the Islamic government vanished, it just left Mogadishu overnight and left it open for the Ethiopian troops, but it did not mean they disappeared. They just bided their time and started the smart option of a prolonged guerilla war. It bugged down the Ethiopian troops and exhausted them and now they are retreating. Nothing has changed, if anything, it is worse for US now because the Islamists have now become more experienced and vicious.
So again, and again, and again, and again, and again, US makes the same mistake. The right way to deal with the situations was when the Islamic militias took over Mogadishu a few years ago, to come to terms with them. To accept that in the situation in Somalia, they are the only group who can bring stability and rule of law back to the country after decades of lawlessness and warlordism. But no, US could not have any of it. It blamed them to harbor Alghaede and just being Islamic was enough for the evangelical government of George Bush to write them down. Us should have got into negotiations with the group. They should know that the natural ally of the religious governments anywhere in the world is US, not the left wing groups. They should start having normal relations with the government and that is the best way to have any impact on those governments. And this is good for people also as these governments are the only ones who can bring stability to a war torn country after decades of chaos. In due time, after a period of stability, people themselves will get rid of the government if it does not change its colors and does not mellow down.
So again, and again, and again, and again, and again, US makes the same mistake. The right way to deal with the situations was when the Islamic militias took over Mogadishu a few years ago, to come to terms with them. To accept that in the situation in Somalia, they are the only group who can bring stability and rule of law back to the country after decades of lawlessness and warlordism. But no, US could not have any of it. It blamed them to harbor Alghaede and just being Islamic was enough for the evangelical government of George Bush to write them down. Us should have got into negotiations with the group. They should know that the natural ally of the religious governments anywhere in the world is US, not the left wing groups. They should start having normal relations with the government and that is the best way to have any impact on those governments. And this is good for people also as these governments are the only ones who can bring stability to a war torn country after decades of chaos. In due time, after a period of stability, people themselves will get rid of the government if it does not change its colors and does not mellow down.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Don't hate the unions, hate the capitalists
I have noticed here in Canada that many people hate and envy the unionized workers for their high salaries and benefits. I have to say bravo capitalists. They have managed to brainwash people to hate unions instead of asking for more unions in workplace.
It is like a person drowning. Instead of asking the few who are in a boat to save him and teach him to have another boat, he wishes for them to lose their boat and drown like him. Instead of wishing them to lose their wages and salaries and benefits and reduce to your level, you have to ask them to help you to unionize to be able to get the same benefits from your employers.
Have we forgotten what the capitalism would be without unions to leash it? Have we forgotten 19th century capitalism? When people had to work 12 hours days 7 days a week without any benefits and with minimum wages and no benefits. Without unions where were 5 day work weeks with 40 hours and all the health and other benefits? Don't think without unions the benefits and salaries will remain the same. The moment the capitalist feels the sword of union removed, he will push us back to 19th century.
It is like a person drowning. Instead of asking the few who are in a boat to save him and teach him to have another boat, he wishes for them to lose their boat and drown like him. Instead of wishing them to lose their wages and salaries and benefits and reduce to your level, you have to ask them to help you to unionize to be able to get the same benefits from your employers.
Have we forgotten what the capitalism would be without unions to leash it? Have we forgotten 19th century capitalism? When people had to work 12 hours days 7 days a week without any benefits and with minimum wages and no benefits. Without unions where were 5 day work weeks with 40 hours and all the health and other benefits? Don't think without unions the benefits and salaries will remain the same. The moment the capitalist feels the sword of union removed, he will push us back to 19th century.
The rich need the poor for two reasons
The rick need the poor for two reasons:
1. By charity and helping the poor they feel good about themselves. They rob them by billions and return a few thousand back to the poor and that is enough to feel good about themselves.
2. They need the comparison to know that they are so well off. If everybody lives in a mansion and drives a Ferrari how could the rich know they are rich and enjoy their wealth?
1. By charity and helping the poor they feel good about themselves. They rob them by billions and return a few thousand back to the poor and that is enough to feel good about themselves.
2. They need the comparison to know that they are so well off. If everybody lives in a mansion and drives a Ferrari how could the rich know they are rich and enjoy their wealth?
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Genocide at Gaza
The genocide at Gaza is going on full force and yet the international media don't care at all. If a few westerners are killed anywhere in the world we will be bombarded for months about the event, but they don't care if more than 400 Palestinians are killed in a few days, their lives are dirt cheap, they better not live at all and give their lands as a gift to the occupying force.
Israel will pay for it's crimes sooner or later. They just can't understand that sheer force will never work. We are not living in medeival times or even 20th century, when Turks could kill a whole race of Armenians or Hitler could dream of the Jewish genocide. In modern times it is nearly impossible to liquidate millions of people to occupy their lands. This is Israel's plan, but it is impossible and sooner or later the Israeli government will pay for it's hideous crimes.
Israel will pay for it's crimes sooner or later. They just can't understand that sheer force will never work. We are not living in medeival times or even 20th century, when Turks could kill a whole race of Armenians or Hitler could dream of the Jewish genocide. In modern times it is nearly impossible to liquidate millions of people to occupy their lands. This is Israel's plan, but it is impossible and sooner or later the Israeli government will pay for it's hideous crimes.
Iraq and American Withdrawal
5 years ago when the Americans invaded Iraq, I said that the invasion will be quick and victorious, but the aftermath will be a quagmire for the American troops. It happened exactly as I had predicted. Now Americans are happy that the violence rate has dropped in Iraq last year and that soon they will be able to hand over the reins to the Iraqi government. Here is my forecast, the moment the Americans leave for good, it won't be better than Vietnam. The whole country will fall into chaos. With a Kurdish population who wants independence, a Sunni group who are not happy with the system now, and the shi-ites who are in the power now, it is impossible to imagine any other outcome.
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