It´s time for some potential good news. Last weekend the largest Jewish centre in Europe was opened to great fanfare in the centre of Munich on St. Jakob´s Platz. 68 years to the day from Kristallnacht which ended in the Holocaust. Every member of the Bavarian parliament was at the ceremony opening the new syngogue along with all the leading German politicians except Chancellor Merkel. On the next day, 15000 Munich citizens, watched over by 1500 police and elite soldiers, spent hours standing in line so they could take a look at the new buildings. Skepticism about the size of the complex, including a synagogue, community, centre, school and museum. seemed to disappear in the presence of what was universally felt to be a powerful piece of architecture. Some members of the now 10000 strong Jewish community of Munich remain skeptical that Jewish life can be said to have returned to the centre of the former birthplace of Naziism when 1500 soldiers are a very welcome part of the procession. But nevertheless something has changed dramatically with the building of this centre and that will surely bear fruit in the future.
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Sudan To Choose Who “Intervenes” in Their Crimes?
Roll over George Orwell, newspeak has reached a new high.
Earlier today the Chinese government said that it was up to the Sudanese if the UN would be permitted to prevent the Sudanese government from prosecuting its genocide in Darfur. If that weren’t sufficiently perverse, the Chinese added that Beijing promised to use its seat on the UN security council to “continuously play a constructive roll” in Darfur.
Now the Sudanese are so confident of their oil-for-genocide pact with the Chinese that they have just suggested negotiations begin for “…all financial, material, logistic or technical assistance from the UN in order to strengthen the AU mission in Darfur.”
Confused? Well, don’t be. The Organization of African Unity mission is unlikely to do anything to interdict the Sudanese government so why not make them comfortable? The Sudanese Foreign Minister has made it clear that “there should be no talk about a mixed [UN/AU] force”.
He also wants to discuss the AU missions size and composition. There is no agreement on anything until he’s satisfied. He told the BBC there would be no UN troops.
To drive home the point the Sudanese Defense Minister, Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, said Darfur would become an “invaders’ graveyard” if a UN peacekeeping force was sent there.
Well, surely the UN won’t tolerate being instructed by the very government it seeks to constrain? Yeah, right. It is a good bet that the UN will do the rolling over in this situation. They will try to put a good PR face on this and kick the can a further few months down the road.
Think not? Well, the UN’s head-dude-on-the-scene is no longer on the scene : “UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland has cut short his trip to Darfur after Sudan’s government told him it would be too dangerous for him to travel outside the region’s major towns.” according to the BBC.
And in a few months the death toll will be up from the current 200,000-plus and the refugee count will be more than the present 3,000,000-plus.
And the new UN Secretary General will announce that he is getting up to speed on what’s happening in Darfur.
Orwellian or what?
What ever happened to the Wehrmacht?
So let’s get this straight. North Korea outwits all the military powers in the world and sets off an atomic bomb. Just like Tom Lehrer predicted. But even Tom couldn’t have written a satire in which Germany protests that one of its naval ships was fired upon by the Israeli air force in the same week that Polish custom guards would shoot at a German tourist boat as it entered Polish waters. It turns out that the German military command seems to have been mistaken when it took over coast guarding in Lebanon on the assumption that they would give the orders. Looks like the Lebanese navy, such as it is, will, and that the Israelis have information on every helicopter that takes off from a German naval ship.
Finally, at a Nato meeting in Finland, the Canadian defence minister accuses all the NATO allies except Canada, the UK and the USA of shirking their military responsibilities in Afghanistan as they hide behind thick garrison walls in safe parts of the country, while Canadian soldiers get killed while fighting around Kandahar, something he thought all NATO troops were understood to be doing. Now that would include such tough guys as Germany, France, Spain, Italy, all safely hidden,while Canada, the US and the UK actually engage the enemy. The leading Geman paper brings this story on its front page and wonders if the word “feig” (cowardly) is appropriate.
Genocide for Oil
A serious diplomat, Jan Pronk, seeing the genocide around him— and knowing history will rightly convict him of facilitating genocide—has done the minimum and spoken out about the Sudanese government’s disintegration, and the desperation that will lead to a renewed wave of janjaweed “cleansing attacks” on the minority populace.
The UN, and most particularly Kofi Annan knows this is genocide because we have experienced an earlier one nearby.
But the UN cannot even give the pogrom its proper name–genocide–because of Chinese support for their Sudanese oil suppliers. The Sudanese are now trying to distract the world community with assertions that the UN is being misled by a Jewish conspiracy.
Claims against Jews and their “American toadies” are now the cover for this new genocide. (See this Sudan Tribune piece)
The UN is failing to stop the second African genocide in a generation and now the perpetrators and their enablers are blaming those who would stop them as puppets of a Zionist plot. Americans might dismiss such an outrageous claim, but it is one that is allowed to take root in much of the rest of the world.
We can lament that American credibility is so diminished and its moral authority so wasted that this is allowed to happen. But that does not exempt Americans from doing at least as much as Jan Pronk has done to bring pressure on the world to intervene. This is an issue on which President Bush has spoken forthrightly. See his statement on the White House website.
Iraq and Iran: Bush’s Axis of Evil??
According to Agence France-Presse
“October 15, 2006 — Iraq and Iran have agreed to form a working group to forge closer security and intelligence ties.
Iraq’s cabinet said in a statement today that an agreement had been reached by Iraqi National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubay’i and Iranian Intelligence and Security Minister Gholam Hussein Mohseni-Ejei.
The United States has expressed concern over what it describes as Iran’s role in fuelling violence in Iraq.”
No comment.
Thanksgiving in the Great White North
It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and Canadian newspapers are full of stories about how grateful we should be to farmers and how the Nova Scotia giant pumpkin contest once again had a bumper crop. Such folksy stories must reemerge so that they can be resurrected again next year at this time. There’s also a lot of non-fluffy material about the miserable state of relations between Canada and the US. “U.S. gives up claim that Canadian lumber is subsidized”, “Canada to protest Arar, PM tells Bush”, “Thousands on terror watch lists by mistake”, “Passports could be required sooner: U.S.”, “Boundary commission can’t see border for the trees”, “Deserter who fled to Canada released from prison” (all from pp. 1-6 of the Saturday. Oct. 7 Vancouver Sun).
The question is whether such intense dislike of the attempt by the Bush administration to put up a seamless barrier around US territory will be forgotten quickly up here once a new government comes to power in Washington and presumably begins to remove the most flagrant attacks on its largest trading partner and neighbour. It comes at a time when Western and most Central European countries have virtually eliminated the last remnants of defended national boundaries. Canadians who cross the U.S. border now with non-North American friends and colleagues are shocked to see them being fingerprinted and photographed in a separate lineup. Canadian citizens won’t cross the border as often as they once did if they are to be fingerprinted, and many don’t even own passports, having found North America big enough for their travel.
In today’s Sunday paper there is another border story: “B.C. pair survives high-seas sinking”. A U.S.Coast Guard helicopter heard the distress call of a Canadian fishing boat sinking 200 kilometers off the Washington coast as it was answered by Canadian Coast Guard in Tofino on the central coast of Vancouver Island. It sent its own rescue helicopter, already airborne on a training mission, out from Astoria, Oregon. After returning to base to refuel and pick up a rescue swimmer, the crew was the first to reach the life raft of the fishermen, who came from Vancouver Island and Newfoundland, and plucked them out of the freezing water. A rescue plane from Sacramento and a cutter were also on their way. So there is evidence that there still exists in some quarters a code of conduct that transcends borders and is based on mutual respect, civility and, in this case, courage.
Romney Goes against his church on Stem Cell Research
The Utah delegation to Congress all voted for continued stem cell research because they know the majority of Utahns, who are Mormons like Romney, support continued scientific stem cell research but Mitt Romney decided to take an extreme right wing turn. He is off the farm now and needs to explain his position because it does not square with his church.
Romney’s pandering to the religious extremes is odd because evangelicals are his largest opposition. I can’t figure out what he is thinking. He turned his back on his own people, the Mormons, to appeal to the anti-Mormons, go figure.
Is it guts, nuts or confused?
N. Korea’s “Threat”
This just in from our Oceania Bureau Chief who watches Asia, Australia and Oceania for us. We asked for his thoughts on what is going on in North Korea; are they continuing to try to get Bush to negotiate one-on-one?
“I think they want to indirectly pressure the US by scaring its “allies” and want to give China a reason/need to return to the US with pressure for 1 on 1 talks. But I see the test threat as sort of reassuring in that they wouldn’t say they were going to test if they could test and were planning to do so imminently. Pakistan and India have not tested since the late 90’s. I think they can’t yet test but are feeling hungry going into winter and desperate as Iraq, Darfur, Iran and Mid-east seem to be the world’s focus. It isn’t beyond Kim Jong Il — the Michael Jackson of geopolitics– to act up now just to rain on S. Korea’s UN Sect.Gen parade. That really may play into the timing. Hell, they chose the 4th of July to shoot 6 missiles over Japan. Director Kim watches the calendar and the camera.â€
The Great White North confronts the invisible fence
US President George Bush has announced that Boeing has been awarded a multi billion dollar contract to build a 10,000 kilometer long “invisible fence†along the Mexican and Canadian borders, similar to the one that dog owners place around their backyards to keep fido from leaving the property. 18,000 towers, outfitted with motion detectors and cameras, will ensure that US citizens enjoy the kind of internal protection previously offered to populations behind the Iron Curtain, the Berlin Wall and the North Korean no-go zone.
Canadian authorities were taken by surprise by the announcement of the end of what used to be called “the world’s longest undefended borderâ€. Recalling that more than 37,000 Hungarians showed up in Canada when the Iron Curtain was briefly breached in 1956, Canadian aid societies have begun to make preparations for the expected flow of refugees moving north across the mountains before the watchtowers are in place. In Whitehorse the Yukon government has asked for a 2-year delay to make certain that the 200,000 strong porcupine caribou herd is on the right side of the border lest they get permanently lost amidst the oil drilling equipment dotting the wildlife refuge on the Alaska side of the border. Should the herd cross while under detection, it is feared that an energy crisis will be inevitable as the detectors and cameras become challenged beyond their capabiilties.
Where’s George?
The New Orleans Saints took on the Atlanta Falcons at the refurbished New Orleans Superdome last night. The Superdome sucked up $165 million in its reconstruction made necessary by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Some may argue that the cash could have been better used on dwellings and basic infrastructure that remain unusable in that crippled area, but at least for one night and possibly for the rest of the football season, that investment appeared to mean a lot to the people of New Orleans. The game was preceded by a concert by Green Day and U2. It was actually moving – in an NFL pro-football kind of way. After the concert came the traditional coin toss and who should appear but the President’s Pappy – ol’ 41 himself. Now, George the First and Bill Clinton have together raised millions of dollars for important humanitarian causes and Pappy certainly had a right to be there last night. But I kept asking myself, Where is George the Younger?
Just as presidents have thrown out the first ball at the first baseball game of the new season, couldn’t – shouldn’t – George the Younger have been in New Orleans to toss that coin last night? We’re not talking about any ol’ game here – we’re talking about a symbolic rebirth of a nearly destroyed city.
The answer to my “Where’s George” question is obvious and his absence was predictable. George the Younger would have been booed off the playing field last night had he the balls to show. It was his Administration’s failure, his incompetent FEMA, his “you’re-doing-a-hell-of-a-job-Brownie” nonsense, his total lack of response in the face of one of the most serious natural disasters this Nation has ever faced that is indelibly etched in our brains. His presence would have been a downer unless you get a kick out of laughing at the man. Certainly the Younger’s handlers must have understood and advised him accordingly. This President, who has been such an abysmal failure in virtually all respects, had no place in a celebration of recovery.
John