I did write anything for few months now, I got no real excuse, that is truth, the main reason is just being lazy or maybe lack of motivation. It is a terrible sickness really.
On the other hand there are so many things going on that it's rather difficult to make an opinion about them on the run. So many things changing constantly, even really well informed people have problem to make their mind.
I am trying to watch really carefully what is happening in the Middle East, importance of this part of the world is really hard to overestimate, but as some of you know, I am planning to tie my fate with it, so I guess I am rather personally involved now.
The problem with Middle East is that is kind of difficult to find unbiased news and/or knowledge. Many people and many countries have their interests in there, therefore it's not easy to find out what really is going on or really happened.
I will say again what I said few months ago: Egyptian revolution may be very important not just for Egyptians themselves, but also for rest of the world. No matter what is your political point of view, you probably noticed that something fishy is going on in the world. I will not go into great details here, as I have some very strong opinion regarding some issues, and this post is not meant to discuss those things today.
Egyptians showed us that even in front of pretty brutal regime we can try to do something, it takes courage and desperation. Egyptians showed us that we can never loose hope, we always have to believe that something can be changed.
There are things that badly need change in Europe or other things that really shouldn't be changed. Many people, including myself lost their faith in political parties, we often don't see those people as real representatives of our nations and we often see some things we do not agree with, but really: what can be done? Most of just wave those things away, saying: I can do nothing and it is even usually truth: no one really listens to me, I have no way of saying what is my opinion, except.... for internet. And here I can find that I am not alone, here I can find that there are many people thinking likewise.
I have a dream, I want a world to be a place to live for everyone and I do believe that one day we'll reach this goal.
Thursday 26 May 2011
Sunday 13 February 2011
Multiculturalism is a fact
A day earlier, British prime minister David Cameron said:
"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12371994)
And then:
"Let's properly judge these organisations: Do they believe in universal human rights - including for women and people of other faiths? Do they believe in equality of all before the law? Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government? Do they encourage integration or separatism?" (same source)
If you want to listen to all the speech by Mr. Cameron, you'll find it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiIk14m1EgE
John Rees made a comment on infamous words of Mr Prime Minister, and I will make mine:
1. No, we do not need any more of ANY liberalism, we suffer liberalism for last few decades and I believe that it is well proven this just does not work. It is liberalism that pushed us into the crisis from which Europe will not recover for next few years, not to mention "muscular liberalism", as we also know this one, too, or more precisely Iraqis and Afghanis know it very good.
2. Mr. Cameron obviously decided to carry on very populist politics and this is very sad, especially that he apparently did not watch the news, and was not aware what was happening at the very same time in Egypt.
3. Multiculturalism did not fail, I am alive example of that, as I am not English, living in UK and I feel quite good here and I do appreciate what was built in this country by British government and British people (sadly I feel I have to stretch it: also British people that happen to be Muslims).
4. Making speeches like that can be seen as an afford to alienate and marginalize Muslim majority in UK, and this will certainly not create any greater sense of national identity, unless what Mr. Cameron meant was some sort of "white power"? I'm sorry Mr. Cameron, but Britain is not white any more, it is multi-coloured now and you really cannot change it.
5. There were, no doubt here, made some mistakes in the unifications policy before and I can see it clearly even not being English or even British. The very first one is: the language - many, far too many people that moved over to UK to work are not able to communicate in this language and this problem was not dealt with nearly at all. Moreover wherever you go, you can find a translator, there are clerks in banks and other places that speak foreign languages.... which of course very kind and nice, but the thing is that language and communication are the very first thing that make bounds between people.
Another problem is that English people do not know anything about Islam (for example) and many Muslims here live on the side of the society, because they can feel what Mr. Cameron expressed: not being accepted as part of society, ironically most of those people have British passport, and were born here.....
Dear Mr. Cameron you do not create sense of unity by dividing people....
Saturday 12 February 2011
Did Kissinger influence Egyptian revolution?
President Obama said: "the people of Egypt have spoken.....", they indeed have, they have spoken with the power that smoulders in every big group of the people, the power that can overthrow ANY regime. They have showed how powerful people can be, and it looks the world needed this reminder, as our so called representatives forget very quickly who they represent.
Nearly 40 years ago another important American official said something else, something probably much more close to real Western point of view. This man was Henry Kissinger, very powerful and very influential man, even though he does not hold any official position any more. What Henry Kissinger said was: "The Arabs had been weak; now they were strong." (1) That was any answer for the question why did not USA support any sort of concession from the Israel side after 1967 war, in short: USA do not talk to the weak. And exactly the same president Obama showed during last 3 weeks, neither him, nor his administration was thrilled when first demonstration took place in Tahrir Square, i am sure you still remember this, don't you? USA did not and still do not want any sort of democracy in Middle East, and they will not support any such movement, nor will Europe, because that will mean that governments would have at least partially follow the will of the nations. This is why Arab (and not only) nations have to take their fate in their own hands. because Arabs and all other people of the world do deserve freedom and decent lives. So does Palestinians.
There is no accident in the fact that USA support Israel so extensively for decades now, and it is not that USA likes Israel so much that they are worried about them so much, no way...... Powerful Israel in the middle of Arab countries prevents them from united policy, this is still the policy of divide and rule that was mastered by British Empire, sometimes the policy of the stick (more often) and the carrot, but always a policy, no accidents. It is called realpolitik, the policy based on power and practical issues rather than moral ones, which means: Palestinians can starve and die (so can Tibetans for example) as long as interests of USA are preserved...... or shall I say interests of global companies rather, because it does not look at all that any recent administration or government really represents the people that gave them the power.
If Arabs want to be really independent they have to be strong, as it was put more than clearly by Henry Kissinger.
Nearly 40 years ago another important American official said something else, something probably much more close to real Western point of view. This man was Henry Kissinger, very powerful and very influential man, even though he does not hold any official position any more. What Henry Kissinger said was: "The Arabs had been weak; now they were strong." (1) That was any answer for the question why did not USA support any sort of concession from the Israel side after 1967 war, in short: USA do not talk to the weak. And exactly the same president Obama showed during last 3 weeks, neither him, nor his administration was thrilled when first demonstration took place in Tahrir Square, i am sure you still remember this, don't you? USA did not and still do not want any sort of democracy in Middle East, and they will not support any such movement, nor will Europe, because that will mean that governments would have at least partially follow the will of the nations. This is why Arab (and not only) nations have to take their fate in their own hands. because Arabs and all other people of the world do deserve freedom and decent lives. So does Palestinians.
There is no accident in the fact that USA support Israel so extensively for decades now, and it is not that USA likes Israel so much that they are worried about them so much, no way...... Powerful Israel in the middle of Arab countries prevents them from united policy, this is still the policy of divide and rule that was mastered by British Empire, sometimes the policy of the stick (more often) and the carrot, but always a policy, no accidents. It is called realpolitik, the policy based on power and practical issues rather than moral ones, which means: Palestinians can starve and die (so can Tibetans for example) as long as interests of USA are preserved...... or shall I say interests of global companies rather, because it does not look at all that any recent administration or government really represents the people that gave them the power.
If Arabs want to be really independent they have to be strong, as it was put more than clearly by Henry Kissinger.
Monday 7 February 2011
Importance of street sweepers
Egyptian revolution can change the world, this is what nearly everyone already knows> Egypt is an important country, both to the region and to the world, but its importance is not just geostrategically. What Egyptians are now doing, though I believe they do not even think about it now, is fighting western colonialism in the form of globalization, as they fight exploitation of so called developing countries by those who are developed already, they fight all those negative stereotypes which are willingly believed in the West and they fight racist assumption that are wide-spread through Europe and America (oh, yeah, I know it is not politically correct to talk about it, but me being white I know what other white people say...... and that grieves me a lot).
Europe and USA still have a huge problem with accepting independence of countries in Asia, Africa and South America, we still try to interfere, justifying it with protecting our interests. But... what about about the interests of Arabs, Latinos (heard those "jokes" on "Top Gear" about Mexicans? ), Indians, Black People of Africa etc? Because protecting our interest means that someone is loosing out a great deal. Like USA and UK protected the interest of their companies in Iraq, I do not believe that most of Iraqis are very happy with what happened, and this is just one example.
problem is that none of the western governments is going to accept independence of those countries just on the moral ground, they have mouths full of freedom and liberties, but what they actually do is protecting the interest of global companies, as they ALWAYS did. And they do not even talk on the behalf of the people of Europe and USA, as we never had any benefit of exploitation Africa, Asia or South America.
Hopefully we are witnessing another breach is New World Order, another blow to the system designed to enrich rich and enslave all the others.
Many so called experts claim that there is a danger of turning Egypt in some sort of theocratic dictatorship, but they do not give us any proofs of such assumption, they cannot give us any proofs, because from leaders and thinkers of Muslim Brotherhood say you just cannot draw such an idea, so they just made it up, exactly as they made up Massive Destruction Weapons in Iraq. Muslim Brotherhood is not any more radical that Tea Party (ever heard or read Sarah Palin? she's much worst than Tariq Ramadan in my opinion).
Of course, any government that will emerge in Egypt will face a very hard task of fulfil people's demands, and people are not very patient (though Egyptian might be different ;) ), but this revolution gives them a huge chance of improving their lives from a street sweeper to an university lecturer, because society does not only consist of businessmen.
Europe and USA still have a huge problem with accepting independence of countries in Asia, Africa and South America, we still try to interfere, justifying it with protecting our interests. But... what about about the interests of Arabs, Latinos (heard those "jokes" on "Top Gear" about Mexicans? ), Indians, Black People of Africa etc? Because protecting our interest means that someone is loosing out a great deal. Like USA and UK protected the interest of their companies in Iraq, I do not believe that most of Iraqis are very happy with what happened, and this is just one example.
problem is that none of the western governments is going to accept independence of those countries just on the moral ground, they have mouths full of freedom and liberties, but what they actually do is protecting the interest of global companies, as they ALWAYS did. And they do not even talk on the behalf of the people of Europe and USA, as we never had any benefit of exploitation Africa, Asia or South America.
Hopefully we are witnessing another breach is New World Order, another blow to the system designed to enrich rich and enslave all the others.
Many so called experts claim that there is a danger of turning Egypt in some sort of theocratic dictatorship, but they do not give us any proofs of such assumption, they cannot give us any proofs, because from leaders and thinkers of Muslim Brotherhood say you just cannot draw such an idea, so they just made it up, exactly as they made up Massive Destruction Weapons in Iraq. Muslim Brotherhood is not any more radical that Tea Party (ever heard or read Sarah Palin? she's much worst than Tariq Ramadan in my opinion).
Of course, any government that will emerge in Egypt will face a very hard task of fulfil people's demands, and people are not very patient (though Egyptian might be different ;) ), but this revolution gives them a huge chance of improving their lives from a street sweeper to an university lecturer, because society does not only consist of businessmen.
Tuesday 1 February 2011
Egyptian intifada
Last days I have spent watching carefully what is going on in Egypt, it is important to me for several reasons: though I am not an Egyptian myself, I can say I love this country, but putting personal reasons aside: Egypt is a big and important country and taking down the dictator and introducing democracy in there will, probably, be a turning point for all Middle East and maybe even for a wider area. this is evident from reaction of leaders of neighbouring countries, like Israel or Saudi Arabia which supported dictator Mubarak and Israel is called a democratic country! What a mockery.
Democracy means that all of the citizens have their say in a country, this is not the case in Israel, Saudi Arabia or any of the Middle Easy countries, where tens of millions people every day are oppressed, but they also mostly live in extreme poverty.
I really hope that Egyptians will succeed in introducing democracy, for their sake and for the sake of freedom in the world. This would be an evident proof that reasons for which Western countries support tyrants like Mubarak are just a lie, nothing else but this!
We, in Europe and USA are being told constantly that only those dictators can guarantee a stability in those countries, which extremely peculiar point of view, as it assumes that Arab people are not able to make reasonable decisions! It is racism, called by professor Edward Said "orientalism", the view widely spread throughout western media and, I'm guessing among our so called "elites".
Egypt's protest shows clearly that Arabs are capable of peaceful protesting and non-violent demanding their natural and basic rights!
I hope that Egypt and other countries in region will manage soon to abolish their oppressing leaders and send them to their supporters in Washington D.C. and London.
Democracy means that all of the citizens have their say in a country, this is not the case in Israel, Saudi Arabia or any of the Middle Easy countries, where tens of millions people every day are oppressed, but they also mostly live in extreme poverty.
I really hope that Egyptians will succeed in introducing democracy, for their sake and for the sake of freedom in the world. This would be an evident proof that reasons for which Western countries support tyrants like Mubarak are just a lie, nothing else but this!
We, in Europe and USA are being told constantly that only those dictators can guarantee a stability in those countries, which extremely peculiar point of view, as it assumes that Arab people are not able to make reasonable decisions! It is racism, called by professor Edward Said "orientalism", the view widely spread throughout western media and, I'm guessing among our so called "elites".
Egypt's protest shows clearly that Arabs are capable of peaceful protesting and non-violent demanding their natural and basic rights!
I hope that Egypt and other countries in region will manage soon to abolish their oppressing leaders and send them to their supporters in Washington D.C. and London.
Friday 14 January 2011
Leadership
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011113192110570350.html
"I understand the Tunisians, I understand their demands. I am sad about what is happening now after 50 years of service to the country, military service, all the different posts, 23 years of the presidency," Ben Ali said.
I don't know enough about president Ben Ali to judge whether his sadness over the recent occurrences in Tunisia is genuine or not, I just know what Tunisian themselves write about him on forums and blogs, not much good things....
What stuck me was he astonishment that after so many years of "service" people of Tunisia are apparently not happy. I am not much surprised from little I know about the standard of life of Tunisians.... enough to say that resent riots started as a result of a death of a young man who set himself on fire in an act of desperation after police confiscated his vegetable stall, his only of of earning livelihood. The young man was graduated from a university, had to sell vegetables for living, burnt himself alive because Tunisian police decided to take even that away from him.
I do not really know how common such situations are in Tunisia, but consistency with which young Tunisian keep trying to get illegally to Europe, even though if they succeed their life here would be very difficult, lets me think it must be rather tough life over in Tunisia.
Yet president Ben Ali is surprised.
And he is not isolated in this astonishment, in this lack of understanding of his own nation. That seems rather common illness of politician, not just in such dictatorship countries like Tunisia, but in Europe as well. My personal feeling is that our governments have no really knowledge what their nations want, what is good for them. They talk about things they have no idea at all. Most of our presidents, prime ministers, ministers, members of parliament never in their lives did any work, they were always well off, their went to good schools, never used public transport, they never had to look for a job, to spend hours in job agencies, to cut expenses to cover financial crisis caused by some rich people we will never see. No, they do not know hat is it like. And yet, they claim to speak on hour behalf, to act on hour behalf and most of their actions shows clearly we are actually loosing out on their decisions.
It is assumed democracy is a political system of representatives of some particular group of people, but I do not really feel at all like this would be the case. Do you? I can hardly remember any acts or bills introduces by parliaments or governments that would in some way made my life easier. What can recall easily, though, is constant talk of necessity of cutting off public spendings, constant promising of creating new place of work for millions and millions of unemployed people in Europe
The idea of democracy is actually great, sadly we have a huge problem with putting it into practice. I have read an article claiming that in UK 90% of higher public offices are occupied by graduates of 4 best universities. I don't know whether it is true or not, but it certainly feels like that. I do not think that those people can represent warehouses workers or people spending most of their lives on the assembly lines, can they? I do not see a reason why cannot be a son or daughter of butcher to be a prime minister, why does it have to be a child of a professor or some kind of a noble? What is wrong with butchers?
I will finish today with a quote, a saying by a Prophet of Islam:
"Leader of a group (nation) is their servant". (Prophet Mohammed - peace be upon him)
I wonder if president Ben Ali consider himself a servant of a young man that burnt himself alive?
"I understand the Tunisians, I understand their demands. I am sad about what is happening now after 50 years of service to the country, military service, all the different posts, 23 years of the presidency," Ben Ali said.
I don't know enough about president Ben Ali to judge whether his sadness over the recent occurrences in Tunisia is genuine or not, I just know what Tunisian themselves write about him on forums and blogs, not much good things....
What stuck me was he astonishment that after so many years of "service" people of Tunisia are apparently not happy. I am not much surprised from little I know about the standard of life of Tunisians.... enough to say that resent riots started as a result of a death of a young man who set himself on fire in an act of desperation after police confiscated his vegetable stall, his only of of earning livelihood. The young man was graduated from a university, had to sell vegetables for living, burnt himself alive because Tunisian police decided to take even that away from him.
I do not really know how common such situations are in Tunisia, but consistency with which young Tunisian keep trying to get illegally to Europe, even though if they succeed their life here would be very difficult, lets me think it must be rather tough life over in Tunisia.
Yet president Ben Ali is surprised.
And he is not isolated in this astonishment, in this lack of understanding of his own nation. That seems rather common illness of politician, not just in such dictatorship countries like Tunisia, but in Europe as well. My personal feeling is that our governments have no really knowledge what their nations want, what is good for them. They talk about things they have no idea at all. Most of our presidents, prime ministers, ministers, members of parliament never in their lives did any work, they were always well off, their went to good schools, never used public transport, they never had to look for a job, to spend hours in job agencies, to cut expenses to cover financial crisis caused by some rich people we will never see. No, they do not know hat is it like. And yet, they claim to speak on hour behalf, to act on hour behalf and most of their actions shows clearly we are actually loosing out on their decisions.
It is assumed democracy is a political system of representatives of some particular group of people, but I do not really feel at all like this would be the case. Do you? I can hardly remember any acts or bills introduces by parliaments or governments that would in some way made my life easier. What can recall easily, though, is constant talk of necessity of cutting off public spendings, constant promising of creating new place of work for millions and millions of unemployed people in Europe
The idea of democracy is actually great, sadly we have a huge problem with putting it into practice. I have read an article claiming that in UK 90% of higher public offices are occupied by graduates of 4 best universities. I don't know whether it is true or not, but it certainly feels like that. I do not think that those people can represent warehouses workers or people spending most of their lives on the assembly lines, can they? I do not see a reason why cannot be a son or daughter of butcher to be a prime minister, why does it have to be a child of a professor or some kind of a noble? What is wrong with butchers?
I will finish today with a quote, a saying by a Prophet of Islam:
"Leader of a group (nation) is their servant". (Prophet Mohammed - peace be upon him)
I wonder if president Ben Ali consider himself a servant of a young man that burnt himself alive?
Monday 3 January 2011
The very basic assumption of most modern political systems is that governments represent their electors. This is not true.
Moreover, they not only do not represent the majority who gave them power, their actions more and more often actually work against the best benefit of their nations. Our, democratically chosen governments betrayed us and they keep doing this, they keep lying to us on a daily basis.
If they don't represent me, someone may ask, whom do they represent then? I will answer this with a short story: as a young boy I read lots of stories about Sherlock Holmes, by sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This brilliant detective kept saying: if don't know who the criminal is, look for a motive, this will show you inevitably a perpetrator. I strongly believe this rule of thumb applies here as well. My dear reader, think for few minutes: who is constantly gaining, whose power and wealth increase.
Still not sure? OK, I will tell you.
Those of the shareholders of the global corporations.
Let me put that plain: I do believe and I have good reasons for this that our governments represent nowadays global corporations, which seriously affect the living of the people all over the world.
USA is still the most powerful country in the world, people living there, still enjoy quite often a good living, however both common opinion and statistic say that the life of an average citizen of USA lost on quality during last thirty years, things get more expensive, bills consume bigger and bigger chunks of our salaries, more and more of us lose our jobs, education gets more expensive, so does health care ( I luckily live in the country where this one is free, which is told something bad, as American capitalists keep claiming.... hmm... from my point of view, free health care gives me a lot of benefits, and I'm willing to pay for that). Those processes are very slow, however they take place in USA, in Europe and everywhere else. On the other hand those huge, powerful companies usually increase their profit year by year, like British Tesco, last financial year they had nearly £3 billions of pure profit. Can you even imagine so much money? But those profits happen on someone expanse, and this someone is YOU!!! Whoever you are, and wherever you live, you, my dear reader pay for those ever increasing profits.
Governments and the rich work most of time hand in hand, as in most of the cases members of the governments are those lucky ones who are at the same time part of those very small (comparing to the rest) group of the privileged.
We, the people (sounds a bit odd, doesn't it?) have to understand: THEY - the governments do not represent us any more. We, the people have lost the power, we have lost influence over our lives, over fates of our children, because there is someone else who make decisions, someone who does not care if you have enough money to pay your bill, to pay off your mortgage, to pay for your children education. You don't even know this people, they don't hang around your neighbourhood, even your presence in their neighbourhood would be consider an insult, and you can be sure that a police officer would ask you what on earth are you doing there? You don't even exist for those people. You are the number. Same as the profit. Ooops, sorry, I really forgot, I am talking now about the most important value of our times, and I should do so with greater respect: THE PROFIT.
You, whoever you are and wherever you live have to understand, they will sacrifice you and your family and all of your friends in the name of financial profit. You are not important any more. You are nothing, so am I, of course.
And, no, I don't agree with this, I don't want the world to bow in front the golden calf. Do you remember this story? And, yes, this is a sin, making money more important than a human being is unforgivable sin. It is a sin against humanity and against God. It is also a crime, and it leads to crimes.
Any man, even poor, uneducated, in rags is more important than all of the money of the world. You, my dear reader, are more important than all the money of the world!
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