Early yesterday morning in Kabul, we woke to a phone buzzing with text messages and turned on the TV just in time to catch president Obama announcing that the terrorist America had been chasing for around a decade had been killed. Seriously, for real.
(He turned out to have been right under our allies’ nose, actually, but thanks, Pakistan, we can always count on you when we need a frontline state.)
As the news became clearer, we started thinking about the wisdom of venturing out for the day. The past week had been unusually tense even by Kabul’s standards, and the city has been on high alert since the Taliban thoughtfully sent out a memo announcing the launch of its spring offensive. To decode the situation, we did what we usually do and consulted our housemate, a veteran of the jihad and a learned professor of economics. Was it safe to go to work now that OBL had been killed, we asked? “Sure,” he said, as he shrugged on his own backpack and prepared to leave for office. “Nobody in this city remembered that he was alive anyway.” Read more…
Money Don’t Buy You Love… Just Friendly Legislation: UK Edition
The Big Society
The BBC reports on new research that shows that over half of donations to the UK Conservative Party, the present party of government, came from the firms or individuals from the City of London, the financial heart of the country.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which is a not-for-profit organisation, examined records of donations held by the Electoral Commission and Companies House.
It concluded that last year, City donations totalled 50.8% of all money given – up from just under 25% in 2005, the year in which Mr Cameron became Tory leader.
Fortunately a Conservative Party spokesman quickly stepped in to remove any misconceptions that this suggests that the Party is somehow representative of the interests of the rich and richer.
On the very day that the chancellor raised another £800m in tax from bankers – having already introduced the toughest rules on bankers’ pay anywhere in the developed world – it beggars belief that anyone could claim that donors to the Conservative Party are influencing policy.
Beggars belief, dammit!! Oh but, wait they’re not actually bankers?
The research indicated that the majority of big City donors were hedge fund managers and brokers rather than bankers.
Dr Stuart Wilks-Heeg, a lecturer on social policy at Liverpool University, said the findings “raise issues about how influenced and impartial the Conservatives are”.
We're all in this together!
Hmm… Doctor Wilks-Heeg, I wonder. I mean the Conservatives are the party of One Nation, the Big Society now right?David Cameron is nice guy… his forehead is slightly too big, but then Labour Party leader David Milliband’s head is so disproportionately large it looks like at any moment it might bring him toppling to the ground… and compared to the average UK politician he appears relatively, well, nice and normal. Perhaps these people are simply donating because they approve of the Conservative parties foreign policy, or plans for the future of the NHS, or schools? After all, people that work in hedge funds are humancitizens too!
Oh, wait what now? Read more…
Egypileaks: What the Egyptian Uprising Tells Us About the West
Wiklileaks seemed ultimately to show the world what we already knew: stories of collusion, cynicism and hypocrisy at the heart of the mechanisms of power. Real politics is Realpolitik and the rest is just the window-dressing that propagates the myths we need, not because we necessarily believe them, but because somehow in this our age of comfortable cynicism we have succeeded in making our peace with the utter falsity of the public face of the world. Cue depression-party.
There are of course other ways that these myths get exposed, such as recent events in Egypt. When western interests conflict with liberal ideology and its rhetoric, the results are spectacular dance of twisted logic. The story as it is playing out with regards to Egypt goes something like this… Read more…
Two faces of regime change
Today as a million people gather on the streets of Cairo in a show of power that surely must bring down their oppressor of almost 3 decades, Hosni Mubarak, the eight years that have passed since George W. Bush, Tony Blair and a small “coalition of the willing” removed Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq by military might seem a strange, almost anomalous period. Perhaps more pertinent still it was five years ago that Condoleeza Rice declared Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon the “birth pangs of a new Middle East”, as unsuccessful attempts were made to bomb Hezbollah into the past, the same Hezbollah that now essentially governs Lebanon in all but name.
At this very moment an alternative history of regime change in the Middle East is being written on Arab streets Read more…
Palestine and the Heralds of Change
Dear Palestinians, Honorary Palestinians, and Friends of Palestine,
I am writing you from Al Quds, where there is very little mobility or action on the streets in response to the recently published documents, which prove the extent of the Palestinian Authority’s collaboration with the Israeli government, and by default the Zionist movement in reducing Palestine into a statelette of Bantustans and ghettos. Not withstanding the proof of its willingness to dismiss the right of return, to sell off Al Quds (Jerusalem), to take part in undermining our rights (Goldstone), and to police the Palestinians on behalf of Israel. Many, too many in fact, dismissed the revelations as “Nothing New,” and that they serve no end but to undermine the PA, strengthen Hamas, and bla bla bla…the hogwash carries on. What those documents constitute is a proof that all which we knew or thought we knew or accused the PA of doing cannot be refuted. Regardless of how much Saeb Erekat and Mahmoud Abbas and their cronies, thugs and henchmen bray and bellow, the fact of the matter remains unchallenged and unchanged. They have compromised beyond their license, they have gotten us nothing in return, and they are simply and most certainly mediocre and incompetent to lead the Palestinians.
Add to incompetence corruption, duplicity, bureaucracy, nepotism, torture, totalitarianism and misrepresentation. That is what for the past 20 years, since the Madrid conference, a small clique of under-qualified men, hungry for power, managed the fate of the Palestinian people. Every competent negotiator, arbitrator and politician from Edward Said to Hanan Ashrawi were pushed aside, ignored, misinformed so that Arafat and his men could strike the deal that would rather best serve own personal interest than those of the Palestinians. What we have seen in the Palestine Papers and the ensuing result of their publication and analysis is but a mere glimpse into the extent of how indifferent and corrupt the Palestinian leadership has been since it’s illegitimate assumption of power.
Hamas; the beloved arch nemesis of the PA, the grand fear of Israel, and the rabid terrorist organisation which Read more…
Egypt: The Importance of Solidarity
Egypt’s on fire, and it’s going to get much worse before it gets better. The Mubarak regime has cut off telephone and internet access, and the US National Guard has deployed forces to Sinai. In some places electricity and water has also been cut off, and one would deduce that the Egyptian regime thinks it can create a media black out to ‘deal’ with the protests as they please. Unfortunately, the barrier of fear has been broken, and there’s no turning back. Egypt is ours now.
What I’ve been trying to explain to people who ask me about the consequences of this, is that right now, consequences don’t matter. What is happening in Egypt, and the anger on the streets, represents decades of continuous repression on all aspects of social, political and economic life experienced by Egyptians of all stripes: young people struggling to find jobs, lawyers, journalists, Islamists and liberal activists suppressed, beaten and brutalised by the thugs that make up Mubarak’s regime.
The demands of the protesters are clear: much needed political and economic reforms, Mubarak to step down after thirty years of rule. These demands are shared by all in Egypt from various political and social backgrounds. Once these legitimate (and quite frankly, about damn time) demands are met, then we can discuss what will follow.
We will analyze what all of this means in due course, but for now these Egyptians desperately need our support. Change, any change, is better than Read more…
Tunisia: This is Not (Yet) A Revolution
"If the people will to live, providence is destined to favorably respond; and night is destined to fold, and the chains are certain to be broken; and he who has not embraced by the love of life, will evaporate in its atmosphere and disappear."
What we all have witnessed in Tunisia over the past week was the First West Asian/North African Revolution since 1979. But, I feel, the term “revolution” may not fit perfectly…yet.
“Revolution” is predicated on the fundamental change of power structures. What happened in Tunisia was the removal, ultimately, of the Face of the Power Structure. Ben Ali was the head of a corrupt and repressive regime that governments, particularly in Europe and North America, where all too pleased to glorify and support. All the studies by the World Bank, IMF, and others highlighted Tunisia as a shining beacon for the rest of the region – never mind the torture, the brutality, and the pain of the Tunisian people. Like we are all too fond of saying here at ewz, so long as retired Europeans have a place to frollick in the sun, err…whateverz.
While Mohammed Bouazizi may have ‘sparked’ the revolution, literally, by burning himself after police confiscated his license as a street fruit vendor, the seeds for this were already planted decades ago. The countdown to the end of a dictator always begins when he sits on his throne. In Tunisia, a lot of things had to come together over long periods of time to allow these recent events to move so quickly: for over two decades, the Tunisian people had to bear the brunt of a police state physically, but also socio-economically; years of brutality, economic hardships, the growth of Al-Jazeera and Arab satellite news (which beamed footage everywhere), the Internet and social networking (which allowed people to plan, share information, and mobilize), and WikiLeaks (which added fuel to the fire, by disclosing US Diplomatic Cable documents regarding corruption in the country).
Ms. America 2011′s Thoughts on Wikileaks
“You know when it came to that situation, it was actually based on espionage, and when it comes to the security of our nation, we have to focus on security first and then people’s right to know, because it’s so important that everybody who’s in our borders is safe and so we can’t let things like that happen, and they must be handled properly.”
And then Ms. Nebraska became Ms. America 2011 (with a little help from a black bikini, white evening gown, and a “White Water Chop Sticks” piano recital).
What I hate about pageants is they manage to make me hate on beautiful people, and that my friends is really sad.
(via BoingBoing)
Everything you need to know about the new Britney single
The final version of Hold It Against Me has been released after weeks of demo versions and I’m trying to remain calm and not overreact but it is absolutely amazing. If you thought the bass on the demo was crazy you have not heard ANYTHING EVER. The final version has a grinding bass and dips and drops and highs and lows and then the whole thing stops and it goes into this weird 90′s Britney middle eight with speaky parts which isn’t that great if I’m being honest BUT THEN IT DROPS AGAIN INTO ANOTHER (INSTRUMENTAL) MIDDLE EIGHT that resembles late 90′s early 00′s four on the floor hands in the air dance tracks and then the CHORUS COMES BACK WITH A FULL BACKING TRACK THAT ISN’T EVEN ON THE FIRST COUPLE OF CHORUSES.
Ok I’m done. Sorry.
Year in ReviEWZ: Revisting Ewz’s 2010 Predictions
Between 12 months and 1 year ago, we at ewz literally predicted the future, or at least the future we would like to see… lets see how many of our dreams came true (some of them were even serious!).
The Year of Living Seditiously
Image sourced from People Tree
It really hasn’t been a great year for Indian democracy. For a long time, the Indian public got along by telling itself that it had a ‘functioning democracy’. “The bureaucracy may be screwed”, went the reasoning, “and our politicians sure as hell are corrupt, but at least our judiciary and our press is still decent and fair.” The Radia Tapes took care of the latter part of that dream. And a recent order by a lower court in Chhattisgarh, the state at the heart of the Naxal (Maoist) insurgency, has seriously shaken the former.
The sentence in question regards Dr Binayak Sen, a 60-year old paediatrician with a long and impressive record of public service, which won him the prestigious Jonathan Mann award in 2008. At the heart of the affair is the accusation that Dr Sen was passing messages for a jailed Naxal leader and supporting the Maoist insurgency in the state. He was arrested in 2007, and released on bail in 2009 after a lengthy legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. On Dec 24th, the lower court sentenced him to life imprisonment. The good doctor has been convicted, amongst other things, of sedition, under an act dating back to the days of the British Raj. It could have been worse. He was acquitted on the charge of waging war against the nation.
Here’s something funny about sedition. MK Gandhi was tried under the same charge, by the British government, in 1922. So was another freedom fighter, Bal Gangadhar Tilak. More recently, a metropolitan magistrate in Delhi ordered the police to register a complaint against writer Arundhati Roy and others on charges of sedition. Roy had criticized government policies in Kashmir and demanded independence for the state while speaking at a public seminar. 2010, it seems, was the year of living seditiously. Read more…
The Forgotten Emperor of the USA
You were saner than most, Joshua
Some folks ask, How do I get people to take me seriously?
Here is one answer:
He was a self-proclaimed aristocrat, even going so far as to declare himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, indulging in the sort of monarchy nonsense that the country had spilled blood over less than a hundred years before. Yet in spite of it, when this Emperor finally died in 1880, almost thirty thousand people jammed the streets of San Francisco to attend his funeral. And in 1880, thirty thousand people represented over ten percent of the city’s population.
Exactly when Joshua Abraham Norton was born is a subject of some dispute. Various records and testimonies place his year of birth anywhere between 1814 and 1819, and his obituary cited his age as “about sixty-five.” Regardless of when he was born, it is known that Norton was born in London but spent most of his early life in South Africa.
Thats Right…
Declaring yourself emperor will get you places.
Generation “Then What?”
I recently came across an article by Thomas Barlow, written for the Financial Times , basically summing up a generation in their late 20s and early 30s as over-educated, spoilt for options and afraid of commitment, that most likely “grew up in one country, was educated in another, and is now working in a third”. It is damming assessment, but is he right?
For Barlow, the most fascinating feature of this generation is its attitude towards work and the sacrifices that Barlow believes this generation is willing to make for their career. Work “should not be just a means to an end a way to make money, support a family, or gain social prestige but should provide a rich and fulfilling experience in and of itself. Jobs are no longer just jobs; they are lifestyle options.” Furthermore, this generation taught to strive for all that it possibly can, to learn and amass as much knowledge as possible and to always put itself first, “nothing is valued so highly as accumulated experience. Nothing is neglected so much as commitment.”
“At what point, though, does the experience-seeking end?” Barlow asks, suggesting that it is time to grow up and assume a life grounded in personal commitment and not lofty endless searching that will leave a person lonely, if not bored.
And it certainly seems to have struck a chord. After I read the article, a quick search on Google found a great number of blogs hailing it as the article of our generation; it appears to sum us up and so succinctly states our issues.
But at what point does too much freedom completely miss the point?
Irony 101: Wikileaks, the US and Internet Censorship
aka ‘This Couldn’t Have Looked Any Worse If They Outright Tried’
The theme for next year’s commemoration {of World Press Freedom Day} will be 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. The United States places technology and innovation at the forefront of its diplomatic and development efforts. New media has empowered citizens around the world to report on their circumstances, express opinions on world events, and exchange information in environments sometimes hostile to such exercises of individuals’ right to freedom of expression. At the same time, we are concerned about the determination of some governments to censor and silence individuals, and to restrict the free flow of information. We mark events such as World Press Freedom Day in the context of our enduring commitment to support and expand press freedom and the free flow of information in this digital age.
The Virtual Refugee: Digg, Reddit, and Dispossession
I come from there and remember,
I was born like everyone is born, I have a mother
and a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends and a prison.
I have a wave that sea-gulls snatched away.
I have a view of my own and an extra blade of grass.
I have a moon past the peak of words.
I have the godsent food of birds and an olive tree beyond the kent of time.
I have traversed the land before swords turned bodies into banquets.
I come from there, I return the sky to its mother when for its mother the sky cries, and I weep for a returning cloud to know me.
I have learned the words of blood-stained courts in order to break the rules.
I have learned and dismantled all the words to construct a single one:
Home
Within the mighty wilderness of the Internet, there are a number of social network/news sites that web-surfers use. Sites like Reddit, Digg, and 4chan, where people come together and post information (from links to pics, songs to videos, or share their own mundane views) and people proceed to comment – whether anonymously or not – and vote on the value of the content (both comments and posts) presented with no tangible punishment or prize.
But unlike say, Facebook, each of these sites can be conceived as “virtual nations” with their own culture, reflected by their respective unique customs, symbols, styles, and rules. For example, Reddit has its “reddiquette”: rules and norms that loosely hold and govern the nation together.
Within these virtual nations pitched battles occur, in the form of mockery and insults in most cases, to the extremes of hacking and bullying in rarer moments, as well as between these proud cyber-nations or against those beyond their borders. (There are cases of positive actions too, lest we forget and draw their wrath.)
In the everlasting chronicles of these groups, there is one question that recently reared its head:
What happens when a virtual nation collapses?
Wikilicious or Wikilame?
- “Only revealed injustice can be answered; for man to do anything intelligent he has to know what’s actually going on”
It seems that everyone has the names Julian Assange and Wikileaks on their lips (or at their fingertips) these days. The most recent Wikileaks have certainly proved to be their most controversial leak to date, revealing a treasure trove of information that was never meant to see the light of public scrutiny. However crucially, though undeniably interesting, this latest leak comes without the ‘smoking guns’ of previous materials related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, such as the now infamous video of an American helicopter crew gunning down Reuters journalists and civilians with a troubling disregard for human life. As a result, though as I’ve noted already, in my view some of the criticism is undoubtedly disingenuous and reactionary (I’m looking at you Ms. Clinton), there appears to be a growing feeling that Wikileaks (often personified in such critiques by its public face Jualian Assange) has overstepped the mark of legitimate ‘whistleblowing’, defined as the exposure of hidden wrong-doing by powerful actors. But what to make of it all? Read more…
Radia Silence on Indian Media
- Vir Sanghvi will NOT call you back, Niira
One of the most remarkable things about ‘new’ India is its ability to believe in its newness, and to distance itself from the messy realities that exist outside its charmed circle. The new media is-or was-one such shining star in this constellation of glories—including a 9 percent growth rate, luxury malls and a regular supply of celebrities getting hitched in heritage hotels. The ‘new’ media was for the most part considered free, fair, and fearless. Maybe it was a little too given to sensationalism. But when some corruption crazed official reportedly tried to bill the public Rs4000 ($87) for a roll of toilet paper, like in the recently concluded Commonwealth Games, for instance, the media was there, acting as watchdog for the public. Except when it wasn’t. Over the past few days, the chummy connections between journalists, politicians and questionable corporate lobbies have been pushed into the open, with the release of phone conversations between a high-profile PR professional and every power list in town. But for an inordinately long time, the media response to these tapes was a stunning silence. Read more…
Pink Friday by Nicki Minaj: A Review
After ruling the charts through her numerous features on what seems like every song released this year, Nicki Minaj finally dropped her debut major label album, Pink Friday, last week. To say the reaction has been mixed is an understatement. Now that the dust has settled, we can all stop the collective meltdown and actually evaluate the CD. And I’m here to tell you: It’s fantastic.
First and foremost, I’d like to point out to everyone that’s hated on her efforts: It’s a good thing she bothered putting something out for you ungrateful assholes. Lest us forget, only a few months ago, she was making “50K for a verse, no album out!” Hats off to her for putting in the effort to create a complete album and not just rely on her notoriety for success. Joking aside, I can see why some people may have been disappointed. Nicki has, in under a year, created such a strong, consistently high quality, multifaceted persona for herself that anything she put out on her own was going to be a disappointment to people. It’s the same expectation with first-time sex. After all that porn, how is it ever going to compare? What people forget is that, when featuring on a track, Nicki is given the freedom to be as crazy as she’d like – it’s a 45-second feature, tops, and then it’s over. She could pull out her tough-guy, straight out of Queens Nicki alter-ego, go with the sweet and innocent Onika, the outrageous, politically incorrect, tourrettes-inflicted Roman Zolanski, or even the highbrow, nameless British person living inside of her. Or, as evident in her Monster verse, all of them at once. With Pink Friday, there was the challenge of creating a fun but cohesive album, while still showcasing what, under all the zany voices and weird faces, Nicki actually is; a fantastic rapper.
An open letter to Mrs. Clinton
- Mis-speaking again?
We can understand, of course, that your position requires you to be against the Wikileaks. We can even understand that having spent the best part of a couple of decades or more at centre of ‘power’, you might instinctively hate what they stand for and everything they are trying to do.
But for you to call the latest Wikileaks ‘Megaleak’ an “attack on the international community”… I mean srsly? SERIOUSLY? We know of course that you have a selective memory (or a tendency in your own words to ‘mis-speak‘) when it comes to verifiable facts, but this is a bit like Mel Gibson speaking out on Julian Assange’s questionable attitudes to women, or perhaps the Germans criticizing Iranian antisemitism (too much..?).
According to a secretJuly 31, 2009 instruction signed by Clinton, and now available (via Wikileaks of course) on the NYT web site, she asked all US government staff at the UN to spy on everyone else at the UN (via). As the note pointed out:
Read more…
Muslims: The Slayers of Dracula
- You’ve been Halaled, Vlad.
Some folks ask, What have Muslims done for society and human history?
Here is one answer:
Born in the Ottoman Principality of Wallachia, Romania in 1435 AD, he was known as Radu al III-lea cel Frumos to his Romanian countrymen, Yaksikl RaduBey to the Turks, Radu al-Wasim to the Arabs, and Radu the Handsome in English. This ally and childhood friend of Sultan Mehmet II was instrumental in the conquest of Constantinople for Islam. Radu’s participation in that conquest ensured that Mehmet II would go down in history as “Fatih,” or “Conqueror.” Radu was the Ottomans’ secret weapon against the Safavids to the East and the Serbs, Romanians and Hungarians to the West. The Muslim world owes much to this hero of Islam, yet they recorded little other than cursory references to him, perhaps for fear of taking away from Fatih Sultan Mehmet’s limelight. The Byzantines recorded Radu as a reviled despot due to their hatred for his conversion to Islam and instrumental role in ending the Byzantine Empire.
Yet, this Ottoman general had a greater war, a war against darkness. He hunted the very progenitor of the vampire legend who impaled his enemies and drank their blood – Vlad al III-lea Tepes, also known as Vlad Draculea, who would go down in infamy as, simply, Dracula. (click on Dracula for more info!)
That’s right…
Buffy fans owe Muslims big.
