After the end of the first Gulf War the United Nations at the instigation of the USA and other Western Powers imposed a most horrendous regime of sanctions on Iraq. Iraq was forbidden even to sell oil and as a consequence the quality of life and the civil infrastructure of Iraq virtually collapsed. It is well known that nearly 800,000 children dies prematurely because of the nobn availability of paracteamol, a drug that all take for granted. In these circumstances the UN decided to allow Iraq...
In politics a week they say is a long time. George Bush II must be realising the truth of this cliche' during the course of the past week. First his handpicked nominee for the Supre Court had to withdraw herself from the race as even conservatives were beginning to sak questions about the quality of judicial discretion she possesses. The Democrats quick to draw blood, sought to acquire White House documents during the course of the confirmation hearings. This tactic or ploy is surely unconsti...
The freedom from undue intervention, either from the state or from otherm organised sections of civil society is one of the fundamnetal principles of Blogging. The blogging community is united in the common defence of the right of free expression in cyberspace in the same way in which the philosophe of the eightenth century defended the freedom of the press. While the Justice Wendell Holmes principle applies to Blogging, there cannot and should not be any penalty or procecution for views exp...
The affaire le Tom DeLay is getting messier by the day. It is quite obvious to any disinterested by stander that the senate majority leader was being framed by the Democrats for reasons that have little to do with ideology or even the law. It is pay back time as far as the Democrats are concerned. It is of little consequence that Ronnie Earle has indicted 4 times as many fellow democrats as he has republicans. Tom Delay has not done anything that democrats have not done and to indict Tom fo...
For one thing, the lesson learnt form Katrina were not lost. So when Hurricane Rita came slamming home the State and Local officials were prepared. The evacuation from Houston was fairly orderly and there was minimal loss of life as a consequence of Hurricane Rita. Of coursr, one can say that the different reactions to a similar natural disaster within two weeks of each other has to do with the different ethnic and racial profiles of the two states. In Louisianna the Federal Government wa...
The New from Bagdad is now getting murkier. The British Troops have raided a prison in Bagdad to rescue their own soldiers who had been imprisoned there. We are given to understand that thye Government in Bagadad, a Quisling Government, is operating directly under the control and command of the Coalition forces.Not a single decision is taken without the allied commenders being taken into confidence. This being the case how did the British soldiers get trapped by the Iraqi Security forces. Why...
The hurricane has left a devastated landscape in Mark Twain country. Now that the task of Relief has begun the political questions will now be raised. So close to 9/11 comparisons with that event will be inevitable. 9/11 gave President Bush the much needed oppotunity to look presidential and strike heroic poses in front of the World Trade Center ruins 4 years back. Katrina on the other hand revealed the incomprable incompetence of FEMA whose Director, a college roommate of Allbaugh,has been c...
At this moment the levees have been repaired and the people who have been marooned are being moved to safety. Finally the neighbourhoods that have been under several feet of water are being drained and accorging to the Governor it could take months to get the City on its feet. The loss to the Jazz heritage preserved in Loisianna State Public Library will be too greaT A LOSS. We can almost hear the haunting words of Louis Armstrong :When the Moonlight hits the dreams, thats what we live for in...
The people of New Orleans desetrve a great ovation: they have shown both grit and courage by picking up the pieces after Hurricane Katrina. The days of isolation and being marooned in buildings cut off from supplies and essential commodities does show on the faces of the survivors, but they deserve a great ovation for helping themselves and their neighbours in their hour of crisis. At a time when the Federal Government was extremely slow in responding to the challenge the people of New Orlean...
Thr hurricane that swept through Louisianna has caused widespread destruction. Apart from the loss of life and the disruption in the routine lives of people the thyphoon has raised certain vital questions? Why did President Bush take five full days of dithering before sending the National Guards? Is it because the Iraq war has stretched the forces so thin thast there are no troops left for HOMELAND defence. People have a right to know the answers. The relief that was offered is too little and...
The strongest argument that the Western Media has been making against Bin Laden and his ilk is that they advocate Terrorism in the name of Religion, a religion with which the Christian nations of the World have had at best an uneasy relationship. While Terrorism as a concept has neither been defined nor legislated upon, the USa embarked upon a war against Iraq without any sanction whatsoever, except the much trumpetted QWeapons of Mass Destruction that Iraq allegedly possessed. The result is ...
The lone woman, frail and vulnerable who has sacrificed her son in Bush's War in Iraq, camping outside the Presidential Ranch in Texas has caught the attention of the World. To see the most powerful man in the world cowering in fright in his ranch and sending two of his henchmen to meet with the lady is a sight that is just too good to be true. The reason why George Bush cannot see the mothe of Cassey Sheehan face to face is simple:he was highly economical with truth over the reasons for war ...
Admiral William Leahy, a great seaman and the first Admiral to have been the US joint Chiegfs of Staff, said : It is my opinion thast the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender... Similarly General Dwight Eisenhower stated and I quote his own words: .. I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was , I t...
The movie Casablanca is a classic and like all classics its appeal is timeless. Though the movie was shot in 1940, obviously before Pearl Harbour, the acting of Ingrid Bergman and Humpher Bogard have great contemporary relevance. Playing the role of a cynical, saloon keeper Bogard as Richard or Rick puts on an air of studied indifference to the important political and moral issues before him. One can quite easily get the impression that Rick is a cardboard hero. But that would be a wrong asse...
The great historian E J Hobsbawm has rightly caalled the twentieth century an "age of extremes". The German Holocaust during the course of the World War and the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will for ever be seared in the momory of humankind as the most horrendous instances of mans' inhumanity ro fellow human beings. The moral evivalence between the two cannot be disputed because both were political decisions taken in order to achieve certain strategic and political goals during th...