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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

The sheep and the wolves, the people and the government

A NATION OF SHEEP WILL BEGET A GOVERNMENT OF WOLVES.



An intellectual, also an alpha male, has two options in life. Either side with the wolves and enjoy life eating the sheep, or side with the sheep and suffer like Jesus Christ. Most intellectuals choose some point in between on this scale. I highly respect the few ones who side with the sheep and forego all the benefits of being a wolf.

Blood on Israeli leaders hands, cold blooded massacre

Israel today killed more than 200 Palestinians in air raids. This is a real David and Goliath battle, but this time Goliath is the Jewish people. Shame on the Israeli government. How could a people who had been persecuted under Nazi regime just half a century ago do the same thing to other people???

Israeli leaders should be put on trial in the international court of justice for war crimes against humanity.

Increase other workers' salaries, don't decrease the 3 giants' salaries

Thanks George Bush. The salvation package for the 3 big auto giants came with strings attached: reduce the salaries of their workers to the level of the salaries foreign owned manufacturers pay their workers. How about asking them to pay their workers Indian or Chinese salaries???

Instead of asking the foreign owned companies to increase their workers salaries to the level of the union workers, the US government expects the big 3 to reduce their workers' salaries. Now that is the government of people for people and by people. How about asking the management class in these big 3 to cut their salaries to the level of their workers' salaries and then distribute the huge amount that is gained through that cut through the workers??? But no, of course, that is sacrilege. The only way to save the big 3 is to cut the meagre salaries of union workers.

Let the big three go bankrupt

I don't believe in capitalism. But in the situation that now the three big auto find themselves, I think the best road to pursue is bankruptcy. Let them go bankrupt. Out of the ashes of these corrupt slow monsters will rise small and efficient and powerful new companies with new ideas for the future of transportation. They should not sustain these giants on their death beds and let them live artificially.

capitalists trying to disband the unions under the guise of fighting the crisis

Capitalists are at it again. So the reason for the falling of the house of cards in the automobile industry is only the unions, not the stupidity and greed of the bosses who awarded themselves multi million dollar bonuses.

Even in the middle of such a huge and devastating crisis, they are still after their nemesis, the proletariat and the wage earners. I say:

1. We have to thank Unions. Without the strong unions in auto industry, that can gain good benefits and salaries for the workers, the other industries will be more aggressive in cutting wages and benefits. At least with these unions, other workers can always point at their benefits and ask for the same from their bosses. That is the reason the whole capitalist class hates the big unions and wants to get rid of the auto workers unions.

2. General public, instead of hating and being jealous of the auto workers salaries and benefits should ask for the same from their own industries. This is the name of the game for the capitalists, make other workers angry about why they are getting that high salaries and push them to demand that "they" should get as low as us. While the rational thing is to ask that "we" have to receive as much as them, not that they have to be like us.

Socialism in Nature

When you look at nature, you notice that every complex living organism is actually a socialist state of cells. Cells gather together and work for each other. Every human body is the perfect ideal of socialism. One for all and all for one. Every cell works for the benefit of others and gives, and every cell benefits from the other cells in the community. It is heavily regulated. If cells become selfish and want to run a capitalist system in our body, we won't last for one minute.

Human societies are large complex organizations of living beings. They can only be at their best efficiency when they are socialist, like any other complex organism, like ants and bees societies.

Thoughts on the capitalit crisis

The governments all around the world have interfered heavily in the markets to save the system. They have bought shares in banks and effectively nationalized some big financial institutions. The libertarians and Republican right calls it the advent of socialism. Nope, it is not. It is socialism for the fat cats and the rich. Because when things calm down and the good times arrive again, all this nationalized institutes will be returned to the capitalist owners, not the people who paid with their taxes to save them.

Again, the so-called invisible hand of the market was given the invisible finger. Again and again and again it is proved that the markets can’t regulate themselves and lassaiz fair economy does not work.

We regulate driving. We regulate food producing. We regulate construction and building. We regulate health care. We have regulations for how to make chocolate and baby foods and clothes and beds. But when it comes to economics, they say no, we don’t need regulation, we have to deregulate and let the invisible hand take over. Well, sorry, everything needs regulation and without that things run amok. An important affair like economy needs regulation and if it is deregulated the greedy financial institutions will drive it into gutter.

Thoughts on the current caplitalist crisis

The Republicans in US are howling about socialism. As if the American government is turning into a socialist government. Yes, it is true that however they put it, they have effectively NATIONALISED the mortgage firms and the AIG and other firms they are bailing out, but no, this is not socialism, because the moment the markets improve and there is a whiff of profit in the air, they are going to sell them back to the private sector, to the same fat cats that bankrupted these institutions.

What happens is: They socialize when they lose, they privatize when they gain. Socialise to spread the loss to the general public, privatize when the institutions are profiting.

The question is: Why should the average American pay for the mistakes of the fat cats? Let them die over their own mistakes. Why should they be bailed out by the tax payer money? The economy won't get worse if they pay for their own mistakes!

Yes, they want us all to believe that this is the end of civilization, the disaster of the century, etc. And the media are always happy to oblige and make a mountain out of a mole hill. Not only because most of media belongs to them anyway, but also because this is the business of the media, to make mountains out of mole hills, otherwise they won't sell.

If they manage to convince us all that this is the end of the world and the greatest disaster in the human history, yes, then we will ask our politicians and representatives to vote for the bailout. So it is in their interest to paint a really gloomy picture, whilst it is not as bad as they want us to believe it is. I would say, no, let them sink in their stinking ships, they brought it upon themselves, and now they have to pay. They should not be saved by the taxes of the poor people who have not had any responsibility in the this fiasco.

I would say, just for once, don't believe in their lies. Yes, it is bad, but bad for THEM, not bad for us. Let them pay for their greed.

Wall Street Saved by poor taxpayers money, business as usual

Well, well, well, Republicans and Democrats both voted to save Wall Street firms again. Did we expect anything else? Not me. It is business as usual in the heart of capitalist world. Taxpayers money is used as usual to foot the bill for saving the bungling big firms. They are allowed to gamble with other people's money, to lose billions of dollars, to pay themselves hefty bonuses, and whenever they push the firms over the brink and into the abyss because of their intense greed, the government is there to save them. So, why should they care? Why do we expect them not to repeat the same mistakes again and again. When there is no punishment, when there is always government waiting there to be called to save you, why should you care how much money you lose through your greedy acts, especially that it is other people's money, not yours.

Will the American government ever put a penny into public health care or free education in the university? NO, of course not. It is a free market man! Government is not supposed to help the public in a free market, it only helps the fat cats. But when the fat cats need money, yes, we are there to pay you a trillion dollar out of the same poor people's money. So it is only free market for the poor people, who are left to drawn without any help.

The fall of Lehman-Brothers and the stupidity of the so called financian geniuses of Wall Street

Lehman Brothers joined the other giants of wall street falling one after the other after the mortgage crisis, and yet, you think these rocket scientist geniuses of the financial markets will never make a mistake. What is the difference between these and every other Joe in the street then. They were taken by the same market exuberance in the mortgage markets and before that in the tech bubble like any other person. And yet, they keep rewarding themselves with seven figure bonuses and play these risky games with other people's money and each time it is the small shareholder and mortgage taker that has to pay the price.

Wall Street is all a sham, there is not an ounce of brain in that whole corner of the street in New York.

scientists are the real prophets

Scientists are the real prophets of this world and their work is the real miracle. If ten million people pray for a rock to move an inch, it does not move a micron, but if one people uses his brain and moves the rock, it will move to the top of a mountain. Religion can't do anything for the people, it is the science that is the true miracle. From TVs to Cell Phones to cars and planes, we see the results of this miracle all around us and yet we still believe in religion instead of science.

stupid society yet still worth living in

For an intellectual, the human society is mostly illogical. The wars, the fights, the people using drugs and drinks and cigarettes. One sometimes wants to just escape the society and live like a hermit. But then, without this society we could not live longer than 40 years. Without this society we could not have health care. Without this same society we would live hungry and dirty most of our lives. So at the end of the day, existence of such an imperfect thing is better than no society of human beings.

Ugly Billboards

As a city planner I find it abhorring that the cities let all these huge commercial billboards go up anywhere in the city. Just look at the Dundas Square in Toronto. It makes the city really ugly. I believe there should be some regulations limiting the use of billboards in the cities.

What is Your Ideal Utopia- Part 2

* In my ideal Utopia, the human population on earth won't be more than a few million. Billions of people is too much for this poor planet, we are destroying the environment and the ecosystem totally and we are growing fast. God knows what are we going to do to the planet when our numbers are even more than today.

What is important in a population is the quality of it not the quantity. A few million Israelis have managed to beat 100 million Arabs for 50 years. Less than 100,000 Athenians established the whole foundation of arts and science of the western civilization.

* In my ideal Utopia all the manual jobs are done by robots. Human beings are free for the first time in history to focus on creative pursuits. If the economy of a robotised society is structured correctly, there won't be any poverty, and most things will be available to all free of charge.

*In my ideal Utopia education is totally free for all levels of education up to Ph.D. If we believe that the brain of the people in a society is the most valuable property of that society, we have to be ready to invest as much as we can on these brains, and that is impossible without free universal education up to Ph.D. level for everybody.

* In my ideal Utopia, the celebrities are scientists, writers, artists, philosophers, not Paris Hiltons and pop and rock and hip hop singers and Hollywood stars. The media will make them famous and naturally the public will follow where the media goes. In my Utopia, the teenagers want to be like a famous scientist or writer, not a gangster rap singer.

* In my ideal Utopia, people work out of a love of co-operation and helping each other. Nobody works for greed. People get the highest pleasure out of seeing their fruits of labour helping others and the society, not out of loading gold coins and having larger estates and luxury cars.

* In my ideal Utopia, everybody receives a minimum wage enough to sustain a decent way of life. Having a decent salary, even if people don't work, is a human right. Everybody will have at least a one bedroom house, and has access to complete free health care. When people have enough to live by, they won't fight for a morsel of food and lots of back stabbings and revenge and hatred and envy will disappear.

robots and hopeless optimists

I think I am a hopeless optimist. I see a future where robots do all the manual labour and for the first time in its history mankind is free from manual labour and left to do the real creative work. But then, when I read in the papers how military/industrial complex is enthusiastically pursuing soldier robots, I understand that I again have been too optimistic about this animal called homo sapiens. Of course, how could I forget, we are first going to use these robots to kill each other, and then will think of better uses for them.

Pope and death

We humans know inherently and in our genes that after death there is nothing. There is no after life. Our genes know it very well, and they enforce this reality on us, despite all our beautiful beliefs about life after death. Fear of death has made us build all these religions and fairly tales about a beautiful after life. But, deep down, we all know these are just what they are, fairy tales for children.

We cling at life, we resist dying by all means. Even popes try to live even one day longer if they can. They use the most advanced technologies to survive and live. If anybody among humans would believe in the fairy tale, it must be the religious leaders. But.... they fear it like anybody else. If they really believed in the fairy tale, if they believed they are going to paradise and to a better life after death, they would not try so hard to survive. With the first symptoms of a fatal disease, they would say: No, please don't ask doctors and hospitals to help me. I would prefer to die sooner because I am sure I will go to a better place! Have you ever seen one of them do that???

Aliens, Us, and Chimpanzees

If an alien race visits the earth, I don't think they will differentiate much between us and our keen chimpanzees. We are not that different! What they will report to their home planet is that among all the other animals on this planet, they have found one species that is a tool maker and has managed to build pretty advanced tools. This animal tends to be social and gathers in large groups, but apart from that is not much different from other members of its branch, the primates. It is conniving, predatory, vicious, selfish, greedy. It tends to spend most of its time fighting other members of its species over resources and is very brutal towards any living thing, including its own kind.

Internal Opposition, US and Rome

Christianity was the internal opposition against Imperial Rome's excesses and corruption. Not all Romans approved and supported the imperial order. There was always a great opposition inside Rome and by some Romans against the imperial order. Christianity was one form this opposition expressed itself. Gradually, when the Imperial power was waning, this internal opposition helped to collapse Rome. We see the same thing now in US. It is not that all Americans support the vehement capitalist-imperialist policies of their country. A great number of open minded and intellectual Americans oppose their government's policies. Blacks, university intellectuals, writers, artists, many Hollywood celebrities, and many other groups are among the opposition. They are not yet strong enough to challenge the powers to be, but sooner or later, the story of Christianity and Rome will be repeated in US.

Tibet, China and the protestors

There are lots of protests worldwide over the state of Tibet and Chinese oppression there now that they are taking the Olympic torch city to city. One thinks, would these people protest so much if Tibet was free but China was still a dictatorship oppressing its own people? I don't think so. One wonders! Are Chinese people not as important as Tibetans? Is a government allowed to oppress its own people as much as it wants, without facing any opposition abroad? Why nobody talks about the plight of the Chinese dissenters inside China? Aren't they human?

Sometimes at least, ask what I can do for my country and community!

Human societies are a lot like human body, or any other multi-cell living organism. It is true that cells benefit from living together, but it is not possible for cells to live together if they don't contribute as much as they benefit from this community. Each cell has learnt this simple fact, through billions of years of evolution, that in order to survive in a community of cells, you have to help them as much as you benefit from their help. You have to limit your selfishness and work for the common good of the community.

If every cell tries to get, and not to contribute, the body will not last for one moment. Cancerous cells are like selfish humans who don't contribute to their society and think that the society is there just for them to milk it and get rich quick. Cancer cells kill the body, and in the process, themselves.

Unfortunately many of us in our yet primitive societies have not learnt that we have to contribute to our community if we want to survive. Perhaps we can compare anti-tax neo-cons to cancerous cells. What they preach is that it is good to fleece the society and fill up your pockets in the market, but you don't have any duty towards it when it comes to paying taxes, which is paying back to the body you have been benefiting from.

Stalin, a product of Lenin! Lenin, a product of the Tsars!

I am reading a book titled "Young Stalin". It is by Simon Sebag Montefiore. I have found within the book's pages a totally different man from whom I thought Stalin was. On the one hand most biographies of Stalin are written by his enemies in exile, so can't be impartial. On the other hand, the only biographies with a positive attitude towards this dictator were written only in his lifetime in Russia and are wildly partial and off the mark. We should not forget that after his death Stalin was denounced by his own party so there were no biographies about him published later in Russia. Therefore it is hard to find an impartial book about him. Fortunately this book tries to be that, although it is more negative than positive. The author exhibits all the symptoms of a person who has not lived through similar times and is writing about a man and a time he can't FEEL anything about. I can, however, understand every word, since I have lived through similar times and can feel every moment of the young Stalin's life. I can understand why he did what he did, at least before he became the blood-thirsty dictator he was.

It is fascinating to think what would have happened to Stalin if he had lived in a different time. I try to imagine him in Canada in our time. At most, he would have been a Jack Layton, leader of the NDP. If the Bolshevik coup had been crushed and defeated, he would have been a martyr, or at least an old revolutionary émigré with lots of stories to tell about his adventurous life. He would never have become the Stalin we know now. His life would not have been much different than the life of all the Russian revolutionaries deported after October, or the life of Spanish Civil War heroes after the defeat of the Spanish government by Franco.

What made him STALIN, the worst dictator in history, was the October Revolution. Without Lenin, there could not be a Stalin. Stalin is the natural product of Lenninism. He is the legitimate son of Lenin's brutal Civil War and dictatorship. But we can't understand Lenin without understanding the suffocating dictatorship of the Romanovs and Tsarist Russia. Without that dictatorship, Lenin could not have succeeded in bringing about the October coup. The population would not be ready to tolerate so much brutality. Other parties have tried, after the October, to copy it in other countries, but where the situation was not ready, they were all defeated. German communists tried hard to have their own revolution in 1918 and 1919 but were defeated because German society was more advanced and less brutal at the time. Even British communists tried their hand at revolution in the 1920s, but it was a farce because people would just not accept a bloody revolution.

So, I believe, if we trace the roots of Stalinism, at the end of the day the blame rests with the Tsars and their stupid, backward regime. The same thing can be said about the Islamic Republic in Iran. Yes, they are brutal. But you can't blame it all on them only. Without the brutal, murderous dictatorship of the Shah, Khomeini could not have achieved success and come to power.

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I agree that Stalin could not do what he did without Lenin, but I also believe it was not necessary to be so brutal. There is no logical reason for the necessity of Stalin's extreme brutality. Russia would still become an industrial country, no matter what political system it had. Many other countries went through the same phase without any blood. IT WAS NOT NECESSARY. It was illogical and evil. It can only be explained by Stalin's personality. I believe if other members of the Bolshevik party had ruled Russia instead of Stalin there would not have been such blood bath. Even if Lenin had survived and ruled, he would not expose his fellow contrymen to such a brutality and at least not killed his own party members. Mao was a brutal communist, but he killed much less of his own party members than Stalin did, in a much larger and more populous country.

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CAPITALISM, OR GOVERNMENTAL CORPORATE WELFARE SYSTEM

Bear Stearns downfall and purchase by JP Morgan proves again the hollow claims of capitalists about Laissez-faire economy and the rule of government in it. At times of prosperity when the greed rules supreme, their economists claim that the government should be as small as possible. It should not interfere in the affairs of the market and must let capitalists shave the public as much as they want to fill up their pockets and own 10 estates instead of only 1. Any attempt at wealth redistribution is faced by hollers of interference. NO, it is not good for economy. NO, the government should not interfere at all and should let the economy run its course.

But look at Bear Stearns comedy now. The moment the excess greed turns into the economic storm and the ships start sinking left and right and centre, then the same capitalists turn to the government, with caps in hands, for survival. The same government which was "BAD" and was not supposed to touch their pockets, now has to save them out with "tax payer's" money. The same people, who were not worthy enough as human beings to share in the prosperous times, are now expected to pay out of their pockets and through their taxes to save out the capitalist's companies and corporations.

Women and Men

I watch the pigeons on my balcony. I always used to think these are real romantic birds. Look how deeply they kiss each other. Then I watch more closely and the reality sinks in. They are not kissing, what happenes is as simple as this: The female is getting food from the male. Exactly like how a chick gets food from the parents, she pushes her beak into the males' open beak, and the male regurgitates the food to her. Instantly after she gets some food, she lays down and lets the male have his way and f... her. So no food, no sex, as simple as that. No kissing, just a simple payment.

But when you look deeper into why they do that, you understand the evolutionary reason for this behaviour. In pigeons, it is the male that feeds the chicks once they get older. The female stops feeding them when the chicks are a few weeks old, and it is the poor male that has to feed the chicks. And by getting food(or begging food) from the male, the female is actually TESTING him. She wants to know if this guy is "giving" enough to be willing and ready to share his food. The line of thought is: if he feeds me, then he will feed my chicks too.

Do the females in our species act differently?
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It is not only men who love porn? Women enjoy porn. But porn for women is different from men. Women's porn are the romantic novels and movies consumed by them in huge quantities. For them, it functions exactly as visual porn functions for men.

HUGE MARKETS BEGET DICTATORSHIP AND CORRUPTION

In a country with a huge population, the market is huge. In such a country, the capitalist system can reach the height of its power because of the size of the market. The money and consequently power tends to concentrate in fewer and fewer hands and in the long-run the political system becomes a corrupt plutocracy and democracy dies. In Such a society the gap between rich and poor becomes wider and wider until the system collapses from within. A very good example of such a system is ancient Rome, or the successive empires in China built on the back of millions of peasants. Each empire ruled for a few hundred years and was thrown into anarchy and chaos and fell in a peasant revolution. A modern version is US, where the capitalist and corporation lobby has become so powerful that the legislature just can't pass any laws to narrow the gap and the poor become poorer everyday despite the huge wealth of the country.

If a country is small and has smaller population, the market in not large. As a result, the capitalists in that country can never gather enough money to be able to influence the political system at will. An example of such a country is Canada, or Scandinavian countries, or Switzerland. Democracy in such countries lasts longer and is more vibrant because there is not enough concentrated money to influence it. The lobby power of small capitalists can never compete against the will of the people. These countries tend to have a more just and socialist system and the gap between rich and poor is smaller.