Murray Rubin

2011-12-12T20:43:00.001-05:00

THE PRACTICE OF PHARMACY
MUST CHANGE

I’m the king of the castle
and you’re the dirty rascal,
I’m the king of the castle
get down you dirty rascal.

The castle, of course, is the provision of health care for the people of Ontario, and the king of the castle is the doctor. Whether in private practice, in government or in the hospital, the medical doctor has the last word. The practice of medicine, with new scientific discoveries and technologies, has changed in the last 100 years adding more and more jobs to the medical profession but hardly ever taking simpler jobs from the profession and giving them to other health care givers, well trained, who can do the job as well or better, but at less cost. The province of Ontario now cannot afford to pay the doctors for jobs that can be done for less money. If I were a nurse I would write about “nurse practitioners” who also have a part to play, but as I graduated in Pharmacy and with many years of experience,I intend to talk about my profession.

For as long as I can remember the busy pharmacy has had a helper, usually a person who counts the tablets, answers the phone, and puts back the bottles of tablets on the shelf. But all the filled prescriptions MUST be checked by the pharmacist for accuracy and signed. The bulk bottle of drugs has to be checked by the pharmacist .The helper or assistant had no official status with the Ontario College of Pharmacists and learned by experience. With an amendment passed by the Ontario Legislature, a new professional group has been constituted .This group, legally referred to as “Registered Pharmacy Technicians” can fill prescriptions without the direct supervision of a pharmacist. Pharmacists under their scopes of practice are responsible for the therapeutic or clinical portions of the prescription. In essence, they are responsible for the patient. They are accountable for ensuring the medication prescribed or the therapy the patient is being treated for is appropriate. This responsibility extends to both a refill and new prescription and the pharmacist must sign off that this has been checked and approved. Technicians are accountable for the technical portions of filling the prescription, i.e. the drug, strength, quantity, directions and any other technical aspects of filling that prescription and signing off on that portion. Simply put, on any prescription, the pharmacist is responsible for the patient and the technician is responsible for the prescription, i.e. accuracy of dispensing.

The dispensing of medication to a patient is NO LONGER the sole responsibility of the pharmacist when a registered technician is part of the process. It is a shared responsibility.

I believe the Ontario Government through the ministry of health has thought long and hard about this development because it allows the pharmacist the leeway and time to act as a professional advisor to the prescriber, the medical doctor and to do some of the jobs given to doctors, at a lower cost. The big question is how long it will take the politicians to take the next step and allow the Pharmacist to do the job and be paid for same. The medical profession is well-funded and not to be taken lightly. I intend to outline where there is room for improvement.

The government is very worried about the cost of medication for the seniors of Ontario. This is a legitimate problem which I know about first hand, as a senior myself and a retired pharmacist. From my experience filling prescriptions, seniors are on too many drugs and the drugs are not monitored carefully. Many side effects occur, and it takes a lot of time to correct. Doctors are paid by the visit, and too long with one patient is not cost effective. Drugs are the specialty of pharmacists and they can remedy the situation in a shorter time period taking into consideration the senior may also be taking over-the counter drugs of which the doctor is unaware.

Brand name drug companies are always searching for new and better drugs. This is the way the system works. They always find new drugs but not necessarily better drugs and when doctors are influenced to use them, at a much higher cost, the pharmacist can advise the doctor if the change is in the best interest of the patient and not just a move to make money for the drug company.

Pharmacists should legally be allowed to prescribe and administer by injection pharmaceuticals under controlled conditions. Today the public visits the pharmacist much more than any other health professional. Injections by the pharmacist can be allowed for influenza vaccines and for palliative home care patients. Pharmacists can prescribe, to treat minor conditions, adjust dosage, provide emergency supplies and allow substitution of another drug that can have a similar therapeutic effect but be cost effective.

Drug therapy is constantly changing and the pharmacist is in the position, or should be, to be aware of all the changes. The pharmacist is the drug therapy expert, the physician is and remains, the diagnostician

2011-11-30T09:28:00.000-05:00

SEPTUAGENARIAN PERILOUSLY TESTS
PARKING-TICKET LAW

While blue hornet writes up his Lexus, Murray Rubin peels off

Globe & Mail article May 29, 2010 by Jeff Gray

Retired pharmacist and businessman Murray Rubin, 79, doesn’t look like an outlaw, with his mustard shirt and wispy white hair. But looks can be deceiving. He was, after all, the subject of possibly the shortest police chase in Toronto history.

Mr. Rubin agrees to tell his tale to The Globe & Mail at a downtown Tim Hortons, flanked by his lawyer and friend of 60 years, John Weingust, an 80-year-old anti-parking-ticket crusader and black belt in tae kwon do who ran against David Miller for mayor in 2006, winning 332 votes.

Around midday on Easter Sunday last year, Mr. Rubin parked his Lexus on Yonge Street to check if a local pub was showing a tennis match featuring Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak.

When he noticed an officer writing him a ticket, he bolted to his car and pulled out before the ticket was fastened to his windshield, as he lawyer friend has told him is allowed under Ontario law. But the officer put on his siren and lights, and gave chase.

As little as 20 feet down the street, Mr. Rubin says he stopped: “I immediately stopped, I never ran away from the police in my whole life!” When asked by the officer what he thought he was doing, Mr. Rubin says he told the cop that his lawyer had told him that driving away before a ticket is issued was “fine.”

(Mr. Weingust, at this point, interrupts his client: “No, not it’s fine. It’s legal. That’s what I told him.”) This did not appease the officer, who warned Mr. Rubin that he was “going to pay for this,” Mr. Rubin said. “He was not angry. He was livid!”

Mr. Rubin said the officer then pointed to his gun and added, “I am not a parking attendant.”

Mr. Rubin insists that he was not intimidated by the gesture, which he understood was meant to illustrate that the officer was a real cop, not a gunless parking attendant. Mr. Weingust interjects, saying the officer was trying to intimidate his client.

“Aw, come on, Jack, I don’t want to get this guy in any trouble!” Mr. Rubin said. “He’s starting his career….You can tell the chief, I’m not interested in going after this guy.”

But Mr. Rubin allows that the officer had an “inflated idea” of his power. “He’s a new cop, I doubt if the guy’s over 25 years old. And he couldn’t believe this old shit is going to run away from him.”

He was kept waiting, he says, for more than half an hour while the officer wrote up a parking ticket, as well as a ticket for unsafely pulling away—Mr. Rubin says he did pull away safely, since there was no other traffic—and for allegedly not wearing a seatbelt.

The parking ticket was tossed out for being incorrectly filled out. And after hearing testimony from both Mr. Rubin and the officer—who denied all the allegations—a justice of the peace at Old City Hall tossed out the other two tickets as well.

Mr. Weingust has written three letters to the police, including one to Chief Bill Blair, complaining about the officer’s “threats.” But, the lawyers says, he has never received a response. While both them say they no longer want to lodge a formal complaint against the officer, they do want to know why their letters were never answered.

Contacted by The Globe, police spokesman George Christopoulos said the officer’s superiors looked into the matter last year, interviewing him shortly after receiving Mr. Weingust’s letter. The case was dropped, however, after police were unable to reach Mr. Rubin, despite, Mr. Christopoulos said, leaving several phone messages.
‘
Reached by phone, Mr. Weingust disputed this version of events, denying that he or Mr. Rubin ever heard back from police. “This just doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “I just don’t understand this thing at all.”

Regardless of where the truth lies, it was not the first time Mr. Rubin had pulled away from an impending parking ticket. And it likely won’t be the last.

“I hate the parking guys,” he says, leaning across the table at Tim Hortons, gritting his teeth. “It’s a rip-off. The city is using it as a method of taxation, and it bothers me. So whenever I can, I run away. And if I get a ticket, I go down, I ask for a court date, I always show up, and they usually give it to you for 40 per cent, 50 per cent.”

Mr. Rubin is not alone. The city says runaways cost it $4.8 million in lost revenue in 2008. Other provinces allow cities to mail tickets to would-be scofflaws, but doing so here would require changes to legislation at Queen’s Park.

Until then, Mr. Rubin remains unrepentant: “It’s a game! They hide in the doorway while you’re going in, and they run over and give you a ticket. It’s a game. So I’m playing their game. If they get it on my windshield, I’m done. If I can get away, that’s what I do.”

2011-11-26T13:51:00.000-05:00

MALES DOMINATE WORLDWIDE

The status of women has improved substantially in certain parts of the world; at least it has not deteriorated. For people who read my blog they are well aware of my contention that the search for Power, Self-Interest and Hypocrisy govern all relationships on every level. Because of the physical strength of men, their ability to dominate other men and women, extends back into the beginnings of recorded history. It is without question a “Man’s World”, it always was, and will be for the foreseeable future. There are, fortunately, a few ways of measuring the position of women in societies throughout the world.

How many women have ruled their respective countries? Egypt was ruled by queens around 3000B.C. However it was not until after the First World War that women became ministers of the revolutionary governments in Russia, the Ukraine and Hungary. Development was very slow but at the end of the 20th century women were regularly named to the cabinets of ruling parties. But even to-day some countries have no women as ministers. In 1960 Sirivano Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka became the world’s first female elected Prime Minister and in 1974 Isabel Peron of Argentina became the first woman president. In 2009 Monaco was the last country with elections to have its first female member of parliament. There are 193 members of the U.N. and there are 29 female leaders. Queens rule in Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In Denmark and the Netherlands the first born of the Queen is heir to the throne, but most significantly in the United Kingdom a new law is in the works to have the same system. At present, the male heir becomes king even if not the first born.

Now let’s talk business. When the leadership of 2000 of the world’s top performing companies were studied, it was found only 29 or 1.5% of the CEO`s were women. It then should not be surprising that only one woman, Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay made it to the top 100 of the rankings. In the judiciary I am proud to say that Canada has 3 Supreme Court judges out of 9, a very unusual occurrence.

It is not in the halls of power whether Parliament, Multi-National Companies or Supreme Court of Nations that the real problem lies. Most women throughout the world do not aspire to these high positions. It is the rape and abuse, both physical and verbal that takes place in the homes, villages and cities where women live their daily lives in constant fear of offending some man or men in power over them. From the poorest homes to the most majestic palaces women have to be submissive. In many Moslem countries women are not allowed to go to school. Honour killing of women is a tradition prevalent in many countries in the East, where the perpetrators are never punished even if the law provides for such action. A 2008 study of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights found that 83% of Egyptian women reported sexual harassment and 62% of Egyptian men admitted they had harassed women. The 12 women interviewed and the advocacy group, said reporting sexual assault to the police was a waste of time as they were not sensitive to the problem.

What prompted me to write this article? It is the second on this subject in my blog. Marriage, the most sacred of institutions between men and women, belies the so called equality of men and women. Norway, a country that prides itself on equality of sexes, is one of 127 countries…including 12 members of the European Union…that do not explicitly criminalize rape within marriage, according to a United Nations survey published in July 2011. Laura Turquet, chief author of the 2011 report, sees explicit criminalizing of spousal rape as crucial, both symbolically and practically. “Explicit legislation accompanied by clear protocols sends a clear message to the police and the courts that sexual violence is never a private matter. 40% of rapes in which the perpetrator did not know the victim were prosecuted with conviction rates of more than 70%, by contrast, only 14% of suspects in partner rape were convicted. Why is sexual violence still so prevalent in countries where gender equality has made such gigantic strides? Some experts argue that as society moves to redistribute power between genders, there might be a transitional period where violence rises as the last expression of male domination

Equality between sexes is on the rise but is not moving as quickly in the homes and bedrooms of all nations including those in the west.

2011-11-22T16:09:00.000-05:00

MEN RULE

Upon rising in the morning an orthodox Jewish man recites a benediction giving thanks to God for not having been born a woman. When confronted that this is sexism he will argue that this is not negative towards women but allows God to place different obligations of observance on the two sexes. I take exception to that interpretation. No matter the religion, the country, the society and the life-style, in one way or another, women are treated differently and more often than not, the end result is not in their favour. The extent of the negativity will vary depending on the men in their lives, the nation where the woman lives and the religion she practices.

If one goes back hundreds of centuries, it is easy to see why women were dominated. The rule of law was non-existent and women were, in most cases, physically weaker. Especially during pregnancy and child-rearing, women needed to be protected by a man from other men. Eventually in western society laws were promulgated which gave women a measure of protection and the beginnings of the opportunity to attain equality. The discovery of the birth-control pill, for the first time allowed women the possibility of determining when they would become pregnant. However even with laws to protect women, because of the private nature of the relationship between the sexes in the home, physical strength usually determined the outcome of disagreements.

The Convention on “The Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women” was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

The Convention defines discrimination against women “…as any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, social, civil or any other field”.

By accepting the Convention, States commit themselves to undertake a series of measures to end discrimination against women in all forms, including:

a. to incorporate the principle of equality of men and women in their legal system, abolish all discriminatory laws and adopt appropriate ones prohibiting discrimination against women
b. to establish tribunals and other public institutions to ensure the effective protection of women and against discrimination, and
c. to ensure elimination of all acts of discrimination against women by
persons, organizations or enterprises.

Ninety per cent of all the nations in the UN have ratified this Convention including Saudi Arabia. This clearly shows that the Convention is of no use to protect the rights of women and is not worth the paper it is written on.

Life for women in North America and Europe has many shortcomings and it would be negligent to leave the impression that lives lived in the west are without hazards. It can be both violent and unfair.

…In the U.S. a woman is raped every six minutes and a woman is battered every fifteen seconds.
…1 in 3 female trauma patients taken into the emergency department in a hospital are victims of abuse.
…In Canada a government report reveals that indigenous women between the ages of 25-44 were five times more likely to die violently than all other women of the same age.

If a woman had confessed to the sexual acts of David Letterman, and was a T.V. personality, would she still have her job? If Hilary Clinton, the wife of President Bill Clinton, had confessed to extra-marital sex in the white house, would she have been elected senator from New York? A woman who has had many sexual partners is looked on as a slut or a whore but a man in the same position is called a womanizer, a swinger or a skirt-chaser….a definite difference in attitude.

Many women today are single parents, raising families by themselves. Fewer women are holding top executive jobs in Canada, according to a study by Rosenzweig and Co. The report said the number of women at the highest ranks of the one hundred biggest publicly-traded companies declined to thirty-one women from thirty-seven. There is an irony in all of this, as study after study shows that when corporations tap into the huge talent pool of women for top jobs, financial performance improves and shareholders benefit. Sylvia Bashevkin, a noted author on women’s affairs, recently stated “that the prospects for Canadian women in public life seem to be getting worse, not better.

If the results of the U.N. Convention had a moderate effect in the West, in the Middle East and the East they had no effect at all.

In North Africa, six thousand women are genitally mutilated each day. Thousands of women are sold into sexual slavery in China. Two hundred women in Bangladesh will be disfigured when their spurned husbands or suitors burn them with acid. Thousands of women in India will be murdered by their families and in-laws in domestic disputes. Violence against women is rooted in a global culture of discrimination which denies equal rights with men and which legitimizes the appropriation of women’s bodies for individual sexual gratification or political ends. Every year, violence in the home and throughout the world devastates the lives of millions of women. (Amnesty International 2001)

Nonie Darwish, a convert to Christianity from Islam, details some of the rules abided by the leaders of radical Islam and a large percentage of their followers.
…In the Muslim faith a Muslim man can marry a child as young as one year old and be sexually intimate with this child, consummating the marriage by age nine.
…The dowry is given to the family in exchange for the woman who becomes his slave.
…Even though a woman is abused she cannot obtain a divorce.
…To prove rape, the woman must have four male witnesses.
…Often after a woman has been raped, she is returned to her family and the family must return the dowry. The family has the right to execute her (an honour killing) to restore the honour of the family. A husband can beat his wife “at will” without giving an explanation. The husband is permitted to have four wives and a temporary wife for an hour (prostitute) at his discretion.
…The Sharia Muslim law controls the private as well as the public life of the woman.
…According to the Quran, a daughter can receive only half the inheritance of a son, a woman’s testimony in court is worth half of a man’s and the compensation for the murder of a woman is half that of a man.

In Afghanistan the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 raised the hopes that women would rapidly regain their human rights. Ongoing threats to women’s security make their participation in public life almost impossible. Afghan women are still among the most vulnerable in the world. Recently Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, and supposedly in favour of more freedom for women, secretly passed a law dubbed “the rape law” which requires among other things that women submit to sex with their husbands every four days with few exceptions. The law applies only to the Shia minority who make up ten to twenty percent of the Afghan people. When the women staged a rally to protest the law they were attacked by groups of men calling them whores.

The “Social Institutions and Gender Index” ranked the ten worst countries for gender inequality:
1. Sudan
2. Afghanistan
3. Sierra Leone
4. Mali
5. Yemen
6. Chad
7. India (there are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan)
8. Iran
9. Pakistan
10.Iraq

The Muslim world represents twenty percent of the world’s population and in general pays lip service to the demands of the United Nations for equality to women. There is no REAL equality of women ANYWHERE in the world. I believe that Canada should remain in Afghanistan if only to protect the hard-won minimal rights of women there.

2011-11-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

HYPOCRISY

Hypocrisy according to the Oxford dictionary is “the practice of claiming to have higher standards or more laudable beliefs than is the case”. Humans should be aware that no matter the organization’s standing in the world, whether it is government or private, religious or secular, it is under the management of flawed individuals who cannot escape their own short-comings. I intend to press my point by highlighting three cases of absolutely disgraceful conduct by employees of organizations that claim to have standards above and beyond the norm

Starting with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCMP, Robert Dziekanski, and I am sure the name is familiar. He came from Poland as an immigrant, and expected to meet his mother at the airport. He spoke no English. His mother was waiting for him nearby, but out of sight. Eight hours passed and he was agitated and confused. His mother had left after being told he did not arrive. He began throwing some small furniture around and yelling, and as it became known later crying for help in Polish. In 45 seconds after the RCMP arrived, they tasered him and one of the officers pinned his head to the floor. It appears he died quickly of heart failure. The officers acted inappropriately, there was no danger to anyone, but the point I want to make is, in a subsequent hearing, they all lied and told a story of a very aggressive man hitting out at them. A bystander’s video of the whole event negated all their testimony.

Canadian newspapers have been filled with articles about the Boy Scouts of America. Is there a youth organization, or any organization, more imbued with the reputation for the clean-cut American image that can do no wrong? But to protect that image for the executives of this organization, is more important than the safety of the young boys under the care of the supervisors hired by the organization. That an organization with this program would attract sexual deviates is a foregone conclusion, but to avoid notifying the police about these men and even, in some instances, moving them about to other scout groups is intolerable. The “Scout” brand must be protected under all circumstances.

The Roman Catholic Church has no equal in the Christian world. It is big and wealthy and undoubtedly is responsible for a great deal of momentous works to the benefit of all humanity. But it insists on maintaining the celibacy of its clergy and under these defined circumstances it has to attract men who use the church as a cover for their deviant activities with young boys. Rather than report these activities to the police, or at least dispense with these men from the clergy, they move them around from parish to parish where they continue their sordid activities.

The world, to say the least, is an imperfect place and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the American Scouts and the Catholic Church cannot avoid incidents happening in their activities but they can take measures to minimize their occurrences. Do a stringent background check on all new applicants and when an incident is reported and proved ,fire the person involved and if it is flagrant report it to the police.

It must be policy to protect the public more than the reputation of the organization.

2011-10-18T13:03:00.000-04:00

DEMOCRACY MY WAY

It has been said that Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others. I have no reason to argue with that proposition. The problem, of course is in the nature of human beings who can subvert the best system and do regularly. Allan Levine, a Canadian writer, in a biography of William Lyon Mackenzie King, a former Prime Minister of Canada during the Second World War has documented that Mr. King was self-righteous, egotistical, petty, vain, and exhibited other negative characteristics not known to the public. Imagine if the electorate had known that King peered into his shaving cream for future events of the day, or talked amiably to dead people including his mother. He never would have been P.M. for 22 important years. It is safe to say that negative personality traits of candidates are never brought to the public’s attention. But there are many more faults with the system. Consider the recent federal election in Quebec. The New Democratic Party wanted to gain the $1.50 per vote given to every recognized party, so they threw in any nominations in Quebec to get the money. One of the candidates had never even visited the riding. How absurd! Because of a desire to punish the Bloc Quebecois the New Democratic candidates were elected. The Quebec voters in these individual ridings did not even remotely know who they were supporting. Certainly a perversion of democracy!

I cannot forget the situation amongst a few countries in the European Union. Greece may soon go bankrupt. How can an elected parliament spend so much more money than they collect? Very easily if there are members looking for re-election, and they don’t give a damn. Let the future government worry.

Freedom House, an American based institution, dedicated to promoting democracies currently counts 115 electoral democracies ---that is countries with governments chosen in competitions—it ranks only 88 of them as free, the other 27 are partly free, meaning that the judiciary is not fully independent, or the press is controlled or corruption is rampant. Even when the system works it works poorly.

Self-interest and maintaining power is constant in all elected officials of all countries. Politicians are more interested in retaining their position than in doing the proper thing for the country. There usually is a compromise between what is good for the country and what will help in re-election. Lying about what can be done is the modus operendi because you cannot get elected by saying “No”. I think that bears repeating, you cannot get elected by saying NO to your constituents.Because people must compromise their principles,so often the best potential candidates just never run.

The problems in all democratic countries are very apparent. The new candidates are not well known by the public and the main interest of sitting members is getting re-elected. The election itself is really a contest between parties whose platforms in a democracy are not really different. Attack ads are now the norm. And in any case they do not come through very often with the truth and their promises. There are five problems with the present system. The best candidates do not run, and candidates and parties are more interested in re-election than in looking after the country. Also a person with original ideas will hardly ever get a nomination. The government spent 300 million for the election in 2008 and the real issues, which are very complicated, are never really debated. Nobody knows how much was spent by special interests and candidates in the election.

How to run a country and get the best people into parliament? My system works this way. Anyone who is a citizen and over 35 who feels qualified to be a member of parliament can apply by sending in a form given to them by the government. I am not going to go into the details but the “designated people” reading the application would find out a lot about the people and their abilities, and how useful they would be as members of the legislature. The”designated people” are composed of a committee chosen by the present parliament and sit in the present parliament. There are no names and addresses on the form, only the province, and the exact identity of the individual is not on the application. The salary must be substantial because the term in office is 6 years and there is no second term There is no pension and we can do away with the Senate, which is nothing more than a way to pay off people by political parties for past services. There are 308 seats in the house so I recommend 616 of the applications be accepted. The 616 applications are put in a closed box and the 308 new members are chosen by lot. The people chosen will be a body much superior in intelligence and ability than present members. People who are not qualified would not be chosen. That cannot be said for the present system. The people chosen would be given a riding near to their homes and would consider that riding their home base. The” designated people” who choose the future candidates are from the sitting members but no one knows who will actually sit in the next parliament because the last names are chosen by luck. This system for all practical purposes eliminates the political parties. But as mentioned, in an effective democracy, the top parties are very much alike. They all make promises to get elected, and then do only what they can and what they have to, for re-election. The only important reality in party democracy is the government must have an election every few years.

Before closing I should go back to Mackenzie King, who though a bit of an odd-ball, ran the country quite well. I still however, would like sane, capable people looking after the affairs of state, and the system I propose fills the bill. What it doesn’t do is tell you who might be the next Prime Minister. And so to make my idea more palatable and to give the public a say in who would lead the country, the chosen members select 4 people from among themselves who they think would make a good Prime Minister. These 4 people have a public debate on television and a traditional election is held to choose the P.M. and this elected P.M. chooses the cabinet. It is similar to the American system of electing a president irrespective of which party is elected in the house and senate.

What I have accomplished is that very capable people are in parliament with no promises being made, serve for 6 years and then retire to private life. The interests of the country are first and foremost, a pleasant change from the present, where every member is primarily interested in how changes will affect their re-election Members will form temporary alliances to achieve a desired end but the useless party system which is self-serving is eliminated.

2011-09-25T10:58:00.000-04:00

ROBOTS AND HUMANS

By this time, people who read my blog should be aware that I do not write about frivolous events, such as buying a brown suit, or a new car or that I met a friend I hadn’t seen in years in the mall. I look at the world around me and question how humans are evolving. I am not a big follower of science fiction yet in a way this article verges on that area. Considering the developments in human technology I consider this article to be of a very serious nature.

I do not have to make any of my readers aware that the most significant development technologically has been the advancement of the computer. Starting from simple adding machines to book-keeping systems which really were not computers but appeared so, computerization of all aspects of human ventures is an everyday fact. I was amazed recently when I learned if you carry specific types of communication devices with you, retailers can make contact in the part of the city in which you are, and offer you a particular product. How did they know you were interested in that particular product? Of course they follow Google or you had an apps about the product. Wikipedia is another interesting phenomenon. It is a multilingual encyclopedia that literally has the answers to questions about the world around them that most people have.

As surprised as you think I am with the effects of computerization I have saved the best or the worst, whichever way you look at it for the end. There is such a practice as “neuromarketing”. Scanning peoples brains to scientifically, understand what stimuli they respond to(and therefore how best to influence them as consumers). Not a very pleasant prospect for me. But even more frightening is the development of Artificial Intelligence or better known as AI .Hans Moravec, the renowned roboticist at Carnegie Mellon predicts that Robots will surpass human intelligence by 2030, will develop human-like consciousness, will be aware of the world and socially interact, will gain the the ability to replicate themselves and pace their own evolution.

Natural intelligence evolution starts from wormlike animals with a few hundred neurons occurring more than 570 million years ago. Very primitive fish that appeared 470 million years ago had about 100,000 neurons. One hundred million years later, amphibians with a few million neurons emerged from the swamps. One hundred and fifty million years later, the first mammals appeared and had brain capacities with several hundred million neurons. At the same time there were dinosaurs which eventually became extinct with several billion neurons. The first hominids of about 30 million years ago had brains of 20 billion neurons. Present humans have brains operating with approximately 100 billion neurons

Compare this to the artificial intelligence evolutionary track beginning with the first electromechanical computers built around 1940 which had a few hundred bits of telephone relay storage. By 1955 computers had acquired 100,000 bits of rotating magnetic memory, followed 10 years later with millions of bits. By the year 2000 a few personal computer owners configured their PCs with tens of billions of bits of RAM.

If one accepts the comparison of computer bits to neurons as described by Moravec, then the computer’s growth in evolution each decade is unreal compared to what it took Mother Nature to achieve every hundred million years. Moravec calculates that human engineering of AI is occurring at 10 million times the speed of natural evolution.

Intelligent human behavior occurs out of the interplay amoung the brain, the body and the world .Ideas, thoughts, concepts and reasoning are shaped by our perceptual system—our ability to perceive, move and interact with the world. It is the opinion of Moravec and Rodney Brooks( founder of iRobot Corp and Heartland Robotic Inc) that in order to achieve human-level intelligence, any AI system would develop the same way humans develop. And these scientists believe as the robots became more human-like they would evolve with their interaction with the environment. The idea that humans will compete with robotic entities according to the two scientists will leave humans at a disadvantage. Humans will be unable to match the rapid evolutionary jumps available to artificial beings.

Humans now have enough problems competing with each other, black against white, rich against poor, east against west, religion against religion. What a mess to throw in Humanoids in the mix. The only thing worse would be an invasion from another planet

I am not sure I accept at face value the future as outlined by Brooks and Moravec.

2011-08-23T17:38:00.001-04:00

JEWISH SECURITY

Jewish people are paranoid about their security, no matter where they live. Justifiably so! Since the beginning of recorded history the Hebrews and then the Jews have been expelled from the Middle East twice, from Spain and Portugal, discriminated against throughout Europe, and in Russia suffered pogroms, where they were killed as well as being forced to live in only certain parts of the country. In Germany they were well established as citizens before suffering the evils of the holocaust. The Germans inflicted these horrors on the Jews in the European countries that they conquered. This is only a modest history of the problems of being Jewish. It is only in the 19th and 20th century that Jews have felt reasonably secure in North America

Jews came to the United States to flee the suffering in Europe. When they first arrived they faced a great deal more anti-Semitism than at present, but not to be compared to what they faced in Europe. Anti-Semitism still exists in North America in the guise of Anti-Zionism. For many years after the 2nd World War, and because of the holocaust, it became unfashionable to be blatantly anti-Semitic. Not so to-day! Israel has become the Jew of the world’s nations. What other nations can do is unacceptable for Israel

I have a problem! I am a very loyal Canadian Jew. There is no conflict with loyalty to Israel. There are Israeli Jews, Israeli Moslems, Israeli Christians, and Israeli Hindus. For me the term Israeli refers to a nationality. I feel entirely comfortable in Canada. Recently I met a former Canadian born Jew who made aliyah (an emigrant to Israel). We argued about the treatment of non-Jews in Israel. I am very unhappy about this situation. This person, whom I respect, answered security is the priority for the Israeli government. Eventually there would be blatant anti-Semitism in Canada. It was only a matter of time.

I have confidence this will never happen here. I love Canada and my family and I are comfortable as Canadian citizens. Anti-Semitism has grown in Europe. It is due in my opinion, to the influx of Moslems and the fact that Europe is comprised of Nation –States with one big endemic majority of the original peoples followed by Moslems who, it seems to me, are not willing to integrate with the majority or are not allowed to integrate. Except for the First Nations, Canada and the United States was formed completely with immigrants from all over the world.Anti-Semitism can exist in a minor way, but because the two countries are so diverse, it makes all immigrants sensitive and fearful of discrimination.

2011-08-16T11:08:00.000-04:00

WOMEN’S TOILETS

No, this is not a silly topic, even though when I mentioned it to a few civic politicians as an election platform, they looked at me with a dazed and unbelieving stare.

My ideas on this topic were originally formed during an intermission at Massey Hall when I had this unusual thought. Two separate washrooms, the men’s and the ladies’ were adjacent to each other, the men briskly walking in and out, and the long line-up at the women’s door stretching around the corner. From then on I noticed at any large event, during an intermission, the women had to wait, and of course, there was a group of men waiting for their partners to exit.

Women represent 50% of the population, but waiting in a line-up for the use of the ladies’ room has been a fact of life forever. This situation is patently unfair and must be changed. Several jurisdictions have seen the light. States such as New York, Virginia, Texas and California have passed a bathroom equity bill demanding a two to one ratio of women’s toilets to men’s in public places. Hong Kong and Singapore have a similar law.

Society is well aware of the physical differences between men and women, but is very slow to take action. If the “pee” was on the other foot, rest assured, there would be more men’s toilets than women’s.

2011-07-03T14:06:00.000-04:00

SOCIALISM
A FAILED SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

Socialism, a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the
means of production, distribution, and exchange,should be owned or regulated by the
community as a whole. (Oxford Concise Dictionary)

It is very apparent that the idea of Socialism as a successful, modern system of
government of nations, has been swept away into the dust bins of history.Of course
complete theoretic Socialism never existed anywhere.

At the advent of the Socialist system, as introduced by political parties in Europe and Asia,
it cannot be denied that it had the effect of bringing greater equality between people. This
was implemented in a variety of ways. Governments in many countries, took over ownership
of the means of production and land holdings(in Russia after the revolution in 1917) and in
Hungary and Poland after 1947. Stock markets were closed and resource wealth was
nationalized .Top incomes were reduced, and full employment at the bottom of the income
scale was introduced.( many were in fact make-believe jobs). Free education opportunities
were increased, and explicit policies were introduced to limit wage spreads between
intellectual and physical labour, as well as between the more and less skilled workers.
Cheaper transportation, subsidized vacations, child allowances and pensions, received
by all citizens further equalized incomes

And therein lay the problem with equality. It took away all incentives to work harder
and to learn It didn’t pay to be better. Being an entrepreneur could land you in jail
as a speculator. Lack of incentives led to lower productivity and very little, if at all,
innovation. Advanced Socialist economies like Russia and China, which were autocratic,
in their many years of existence, never produced a single consumer product that was
successful internationally. In addition equality led to a perversion of the system.
People high up in the Communist party, (a version of Socialism), directors of large
enterprises, decorated military personnel ,managed to live very well on so called small
salaries. They received from the government large apartments, country dachas, and
chauffeur-driven cars. This system ensured that the salaried job holders would not
be independent of the top echelon of the Communist party

The system failed miserably. China and Russia, the two leading Socialist countries
eventually saw that they could not compete with Capitalism and the entrepreneurial
system. Their societies are now Capitalistic

Socialism was not successful because it defies the natural self-interest of the
individual, which is the foundation of human nature, and can never be changed.

2011-06-13T15:59:00.000-04:00

LYING IS US

Most people will lie if it is in their interests. That is just part of human nature, unless of course the lies can be quickly exposed.

DNA bar coding, or the analysis of genetic sequences to identify a specimen, is being used to help determine where food-and in some cases, food contaminants-come from. A mouse head in a T.V. dinner and a bird’s carcass in the salad in a Calgary restaurant were easily sourced by DNA testing. The mouse was found to be a variety prevalent in Thailand and that is where the chicken in the dinner came from. The bird was found to be a yellow warbler native to California where the lettuce in the salad was harvested.

Determining contaminants allows manufacturers and retailers to determine liability but the testing has an even greater use. It can be used to pinpoint human food fraud .Many restaurants advertise premium Angus beef in their hamburgers but it is impossible for a customer to know if in fact they are being served the premium brand. There is a lot of marketing noise out there but DNA technology cuts through the bedlam and provides proof of product integrity. Over a nine year period U.S. government testing discovered up to 37% of fish and 13 % of shell fish were mislabeled. It’s a simple matter of a low value passed off as a high end one. The cost of conducting genetic testing has decreased dramatically over the past decade It is still prohibitive for the average consumer to do their own testing but by testing hundreds of thousands of samples the U.S. government can do it for as little as $1.00 per test. Hopefully the Canadian Food Inspection agency will soon follow the American lead.

2011-06-10T08:56:00.000-04:00

WHERE GOES CHINA?

If you have read any of my other pieces you may recall that I believe humans act similarly, their actions governed by three personality traits, that may differ in degree but are found in every living adult person. To repeat, they are Power, Self Interest and Hypocrisy. I literally can predict, if I have all the facts, how individuals or nations will act

I bring this up in relation to a book-review I have just read by an author Yuan-Kang Wang who wrote” Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics”

“Does Chinese strategic culture emphasize harmony and defense, thereby assuring that China’s rise will be peaceful? Or is the culture realist, encouraging China to push its interests harder as its capabilities increase? Wang`s thesis is that China has a strategic culture that is predominately peaceful and defensive but that this culture has little influence over the country’s grand strategy. He tests the thesis with a rich historical account of China`s international actions from 960 to 1644, showing that the Song and Ming dynasties alternated between defensive and offensive behaviour depending on the balance of power with neighbouring political units. The practical implication is that China’s behaviour will continue to emphasize defense so long as it is weaker than the United States but will become more assertive if the opportunity arises.” How assertive will China become. It just depends on how much stronger it is than the United States. That’s the way the world works and will work in the future. China’s neighbours will side with the U.S. as long as they feel the U.S. is strong enough to protect them and will change sides quickly if and when conditions change.

2011-06-01T15:44:00.000-04:00

ISRAEL APARTHEID WEEK

Lies, Deception, and MORE Lies! That is the modus operandi of the anti-Semites posing as anti-Zionists who promote the fiction” apartheid” in Israel under the name “Israel Apartheid Week”. Apartheid is a word coined by black South Africans to describe their situation in the civil society of white dominated South Africa. The word “Apartheid” has connotations that have absolutely nothing to do with the position of Palestinians in Israel. In truth, it might better describe the situation in Arab countries which have, in most cases, laws limiting the freedom of Palestinians, including not allowing them to become citizens in the Arab country in which they reside.

Apartheid week postures black people ( substitute Palestinians) facing discrimination and subjugation in Israel. Neither group faces this problem. Israeli pilots flew 3 hour non-stop, back and forth, from Ethiopia using 21 Hercules planes, 10 Boeing 707`s and 3 El AL jumbo jets to bring 14,325 black Jews to Israel , and probably saved their lives in the overthrow of the Ethiopian regime. If the Israeli government is anti-black why bring in the Ethiopians. The promoters of this fiction try and transpose Palestinians for blacks to take advantage of the negative meaning of “Apartheid”

How to account for the following?

Omar Barghouti Arab advocate of boycotting Israel Doctoral Student at Tel Aviv University
Walid Badir Arab Israeli football star captain of Ha Poel Tel Aviv team
Mira Awad Arab actress ,singer representing Israel at 2009 Eurovision Song contest
Majalli Wahabi Arab Deputy speaker of Israel, acting president in Feb 2007
Roda Mansour Israeli Historian, poet and former ambassador to Ecuador
Salim Joubran Arab Israeli Supreme Court Justice

To make the situation even more ludicrous many Jews were in the forefront of fighting “Apartheid” in South Africa. I bring forward two well known names, both now dead, Helen Suzman and Arthur Goldreich who fled South Africa to escape jail. Apartheid makes no sense in Israel and never has.

2011-05-28T22:44:00.001-04:00

DOUBLE STANDARDS

Israel’s killing of
Sheikh Yassin,
The founder and spiritual
Leader of terrorist organization
Hamas - 2004

Kofi Annan, UN secretary general: “I do condemn the targeted assassination of
Ahmed Yassin and the others who died with him. Such actions are not only contrary to international law but they do not help the search for a peaceful solution.”

“The EU recognizes Israel’s right to protect its citizens against terrorist attacks. Israel is entitled to do this under international law. Israel is not, however, entitled to carry out extra-judicial execution as contrary to international law.”

Spokesman for French Foreign Ministry Herve Ladsous “France condemns the action taken against
Sheikh Yassin, just as it has always condemned the principle of any extra-judicial execution as contrary to international law.”

The Holy See unites with the international community in deploring this act of violence that cannot be justified in any state of law. Lasting peace cannot come from a show of force.”

America’s Killing of
Osama bin Laden,
Leader of terrorist organization
Al Qaida – 2011

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed Osama bin Laden’s death as a key turning point in the world’s struggle against terrorism.

The President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek said, “We have woken up in a more secure world.”

EU High Representative Catherine Ashton said: “I would like to congratulate the US, pay tribute to its determination and efficiency in reducing the threat posed by terrorists and underline the close cooperation between the EU and US in the fight against terrorism.”

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on state radio that bin Laden’s death is a “victory for all democracies fighting the abominable scourge of terrorism.”

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said that while Christians “do not rejoice” over a death, bin Laden’s death serves to remind them of “each person’s responsibility before God and men”, expressing hope that bin Laden’s death “would not be an occasion for more hate, but for peace.”

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda: “We are strongly concerned that the assassination of Mr. Yassin will lead to a continuing chain of hate and violence, greatly affecting the peace process in the Middle East,” he said. “We condemn this act on the part of Israel.”

Malaysia has strongly condemned the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin: “the extra judicial killing of political leaders was against international law.”
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar meanwhile said the action was a manifestation of terrorism.

Jack Straw, then British Foreign Secretary, said: “But (Israel) is not entitled to go in for this kind of unlawful killing and we condemn it. It is unacceptable, it is unjustified and it is very unlikely to achieve its objectives.”

Russia on Friday expressed its regret over the US veto of a UN Security Council resolution denouncing Israel’s assassination of Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto said today that the country welcomed the death of Osama bin Laden as “significant progress of counter-terrorism measures”.

Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says he hopes that the death of bin Laden would help bring universal peace and harmony.

The death of Al Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden is “important and positive to relax tensions at a time in which the Arab world is calling for more freedom of expression,” Brazailian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said Monday.

“Russia was among the first countries to face the dangers inherent in global terrorism, and unfortunately knows that Qaeda is not from hearsay,” the Kremlin said. “Retribution will inevitably reach all terrorists.”

2011-05-14T23:23:00.000-04:00

OSAMA BIN LADEN’S ONE MISTAKE

The following article comes from the Algemeiner Yiddisher Jurnal.

One thing made Osama bin Laden public enemy #1. One thing made him a target for America’s hit squad. One thing – and only one thing – made his assassination justified and praised by world leaders. He didn’t just kill Jews.

Had he limited his terrorism to Jews only, he would not have been targeted. The same world leaders who today take great pride in his death would have celebrated his life. He would not have been killed by President Obama; he would have dined with him.

He would have been invited to the United Nations. He would have had a worldwide speaking tour. He would have won the Nobel peace prize.

Think I’m crazy? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the President of Iran. His resume includes much more than just politics. He and his Persian mentors ordered Hezbollah to bomb the Jewish Community of Argentina in the 90’s and killed hundreds of Jews. He has stated – time and again – that he wants to destroy Israel. He wants to kill 6,000,000 Jews (interesting number) who live here and he is feverishly working to build a bomb that will do just that.

Has he been targeted? Is this animal on anyone’s “hit list”? Actually, just the opposite is true. He recently spoke in the UN. He was a guest speaker in Columbia University. Why? Because he is only interested in killing Jews.

Khaled Mashaal is the leader of Hamas. Hamas is a sworn enemy of Israel. It has killed and maimed thousands of Jews since the “peace process” came about. It has fired over 5,000 missiles into Israel, aiming for Jewish homes and hoping to kill Jewish children.

Has he been targeted? Is this beast on anyone’s “hit list”? Actually, just the opposite is true. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently invited Mashaal to Moscow. Former US President Jimmy Carter has embraced Mashaal and considers him a “partner for peace” Why? Because he is only interested in killing Jews.

Yasser Arafat was the leader of the PLO for almost four decades. He has more innocent blood on his hands than bin Laden. Yet this murderer was a guest at the Clinton White House more than any other world leader! He spoke in the UN. He was accepted around the world as a leader and spoke in over 30 countries. He won the Nobel Peace Prize. Why? Because he was only interested in killing Jews. (And his successor Mahmoud Abbas is as much of a Jew-murderer as him.)

Although I can go on, I will give just one final example: Adolf Hitler. The world knew about his plans for the Jews as early as 1933. The world knew about Kristallnacht back in November of 1938, and of the concentration camps shortly thereafter. Yet the entire world called this monster “Herr” Hitler. They gave his respect. They recognized him as a leader. All that changed when Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. From that point on he became an enemy. Why? Because until that day he was only interested in killing Jews.

Osama bin Laden violated the golden rule: In addition to killing just Jews, he also killed non-Jews. That is why he was targeted and for no other reason!

The message to Jews – and the State of Israel – is very clear. Learn to defend yourself. Learn to take revenge yourself. The world will not help you with Iran, Hamas or the PLO/PA.

Ahmadinejad, Abbas & Mashaal will not make the same mistake as Bin Laden. They will continue to be accepted and embraced by the world. Understand this, accept this and deal with this.

“We have no one on whom to rely, other than our Father in Heaven.” May today’s Jewish leaders – and the brave warriors of the IDF – engrave this on their hearts. And may they – very soon- do to these terrorist exactly what was done to Bin Laden.

2011-05-14T22:35:00.000-04:00

JEWISH SOLDIERS

There is no stigma designed to be more hurtful to Jews than the words uttered by anti-Semites that they do not participate in the defense of their country. Jewish soldiers have fought and died in the armies of their countries in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Mexican American War, and American Civil War, Boer war on both sides, Russian-Japanese War, WWI and WWII, Israeli-Arab war, Korean and Vietnamese wars. There are many instances of Jews being made officers of very high rank and awarded medals for bravery.

Simon Wolf, a Jewish activist of the 19th century collected the names of over 7,000 Jewish-Americans who fought on both sides in the American Civil War and published the list in a directory in 1895. Between 1850-1860 there were about 80,000 people of the Jewish faith in the U.S. and it appears just short of 10% served. In every major war that the U.S. fought, Jews were in the army in greater proportions than their percentage of the population. 11,000 American Jewish soldiers, airmen and marines were killed in WWII. General Maurice Rose commanded the U.S. 3rd armoured division and was killed in action.

2,956 British Jewish servicemen and women were killed in World War 2. Brigadier Frederick Kisch was the chief combat engineer of the British 8th army under Montgomery in North Africa (killed in action). 700 or more Palestinian Jews served in the British Commonwealth forces and gave their lives. There was a 5,000 strong Jewish infantry brigade in the British army that fought in Italy.

A higher percentage of Jews fought in WWI for Germany than any other ethnic group. 12,000 died. Yet in 1916 the German High Command ordered a census of the Jews in the army designed to show a lack of patriotism. It showed the opposite, yet in the Nazi era Hitler used it to propagate his “stab in the back” theory, advancing the idea that they lost the war because of the Jews

30,000 Polish Jews were killed in action in 1939 defending Poland against Germany, with many more killed in the free Polish forces in Italy and North Africa

Between 1874 and 1914 there were more Jews in the Russian army than non-Jews in proportion to the general population. For example, in 1907 Jewish soldiers constituted almost 5% of the entire military but 4% of the population of the empire. There were some 300,000 who served in the Russian army during WWI. Despite a vociferous anti alien campaign that blamed Russian military failures on Jews in general and on the Jewish population inhabiting Galicia in particular, Jewish soldiers (as reported by military censors) shared patriotic enthusiasm with their Russian parallels. Regimental commanders stated that Jews “by and large fulfilled their military duty satisfactorily” participated in combat “on par with others”. 200,000 Soviet Jewish servicemen were killed in the Second World War. There were lots of officers of the Jewish faith who served with distinction. The majority were purged by Stalin from the military or posted to Siberia.

Thousands of Jewish soldiers died in the French army as well as the Free Greek, Czech, Free French, Belgian, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand armies. There were even Jewish soldiers in the British Indian army.

The victories of the State of Israel should put to rest the perfidious statements of the anti-Semites about Jewish fighting ability. Will it? Who knows? Anti-Semites never fail to surprise me with their new lies about the Jewish people and now they have the internet to pass those lies.

2011-05-11T08:32:00.000-04:00

Democracy Canadian Style

The recent Canadian election has strengthened my conviction about the short-comings of the democratic system of government. But why should it not be so! The people, who developed the system, over many years, are imperfect and will remain so forever.

Winston Churchill stated in one of his many speeches in the British house of commons “ Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the other forms that have been tried from time to time”

The theory behind the democratic system is that people will choose from a nominated group of candidates and vote for the person best for themselves and the country. The parties will put forward people who are capable, and best represent their programs. The problem of course, is that all citizens over 18 have the right to vote, and most have only the vaguest idea about the persons they vote for. If that is not bad enough, the parties with limited chance of winning an area, put up any candidate in order for them to say they fielded people in all ridings, and of course, to pocket the $1.50 for every vote they get.

And so we get a situation where a 26 year old woman, in the Quebec riding of Berthier-Masinange is elected. She admits to never having set foot in the riding, not speaking French and became a candidate at the behest of a friend.

There was some speculation after the election , when she was not seen publicly, that she did not want the job. Not very likely!. Her regular job is as assistant-manager in a bar at a much lower salary.

There is something to be said about the “Charm and Absurdity” of the Canadian Parliamentary system when a person can get elected, having never made an appearance in the riding in order to be judged by the voters

2011-04-09T12:22:00.000-04:00

CLEAN ENERGY

The truth is that the world does not have an energy shortage. It simply lacks an energy infrastructure capable of
using the abundant source of solar energy that we receive
daily from the sun. The current worldwide demand for energy per day is 363 terawatt-hours per day. (1 terawatt-hour is equal to 10 million kilo-watt hours). The fact is that
the world’s needs could be met by just covering 0.5% of the world’s land area with silicon panels.
I picked up this information by reading the Jan-Feb issue of the FUTURIST, an American magazine

Energy is crucial to maintain our life-style but it is just as
important, or even more so, that we use clean energy because our planet is irreplaceable and fouling the house we live in is not a rational option. You also may not realize that moving energy from point to point is itself energy consuming and wasteful. Try and imagine the cost to move gasoline throughout the world or electricity.

Fossil fuels are a form of stored energy created by the sun
over millions of years . Our sun, and there are millions of suns, has been producing energy for several billion years and sends daily to the earth more than 2 million terawatt-hours of energy. Remember the earth uses daily only 363
terawatt-hours per day. Fossil fuels in the form of coal
and oil produce most of our energy to-day but is very
polluting

There are four major sources of energy that the sun
provides. They are heat, wind, photosynthesis ( in the form of biomass) and photovoltaic rays. Heat warms the earth
and cannot be used as a source of energy. Wind power can on occasion be used, but is not available world-wide. Biomass is a product of photosynthesis but is less efficient
than photovoltaic rays and is used by the agricultural and
forestry industries. Biomass is the energy stored in non-fossil organic matter such as wood, straw, fallen leaves and
forest waste

The suns rays fall, more or less, throughout the world. With
silicon panels we can produce the energy locally but how
can we store it? A tank of anhydrous ammonia connected
to an on-demand ammonia dissociator is an efficient energy
storage and supply system. I assume this system works like
a battery. What is required in addition to the tanks
1. a photovoltaic system
2.an electricity converter for DC and AC current
3. a water electrolysis system.
4. a unit for extracting nitrogen from air
5.. a haber-type ammonia generator making anhydrous
ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen
6. an on-demand ammonia dissociator
7. various pumps and compressors

The appropriate system would be designed for residential,

commercial, industrial and transportation sectors with the emphasize on in-site facilities. Fossil fuel use and its attendant pollution would be radically reduced. One-eighth of U.S. oil is not burned as fuel, but is instead used to make other materials such as asphalt for roads and fertilizer.

Governments must rethink their energy policies and fund this new system by taxing heavily the use of fossil fuels. A politically dangerous task but absolutely essential to fund this solar-ammonia-hydrogen infrastructure which would be relatively pollution free in producing energy

2011-04-09T12:17:00.000-04:00

2011-01-08T18:41:00.000-05:00

Changes are Coming to our Lives. Some are Already Here.

1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term. Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive. Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Cheque. Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with cheques by 2018. It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks. Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the cheque. This plays right into the death of the post office. If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper The younger generation simply doesn’t read the newspaper. They certainly don’t subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can’t wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you’re holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don’t need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they’ve always had it. But you are paying double charges for that extra service. All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes.

6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death. Not just because of illegal downloading. It’s the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is “catalogue items,” meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with, older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, “Appetite for Self-Destruction” by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, “Before the Music Dies.”

7. Television. Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they’re playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It’s time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery. Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The “Things” That You Own. Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in “the cloud.” Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it. If need be. But all of that is changing. Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest “cloud services.” That means that when you turn on a computer, the internet will be built into the operating system. So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet. If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud. If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud. And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider.

In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That’s the good news. But, will you actually own any of this “stuff” or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big “Poof?” Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.’

9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That’s gone. It’s been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phones. But you can be sure that 24/7, “They” know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And “They” will try to get you to buy something else. Again and again.

All we will have that can’t be changes are Memories

2011-01-05T09:20:00.000-05:00

IMMINENT TELEVISION CHANGES

I find people and the societies in which they function fascinating. Today the
world is changing so quickly that it is hard to keep up. New inventions and
innovations on old inventions, will alter dramatically the way we live. Peoples
values, attitudes and beliefs are changing. The pace of change is constant.

Television, in the last 70 years has been branded as a failed medium. While
there is no denying the popularity of TV, it is criticized because it emphasizes
the lowest common denominator of our society. It has been compared, as
entertainment to the decadent Roman circus. In his book “Assault on Reason”
former Vice-President Al Gore says that the average American citizen
has seen a steady loss of complexity in political conversation in the last
50 years.

As the internet advances however, it could herald a complete change in
how television operates The television sets sold now have a function
which connects to the internet. Tens of thousands of specialty channels
with a variety of options could become standard fare. A two way
communication system could be common, person to person and many to
many, not one to many. Films can be produced by amateurs at low cost.
With the accelerated popularity of You Tube, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter
Foursquare there can be as many as 100,000 specialized channels by 2015
Voice commands and computer programs will simplify the needs of the
Information Technology consumer. The I-Pad will be at the heart of the
change. This “Killer App ” seems likely to sell tens of millions of tablets
annually as media centre computers and Internet TV’s roll out across the
country. Try to imagine a TV type tablet, smaller of course, that displays
your top 50 channels on a home screen

Paying for these changes will be a problem but these new I TV creators
Organizations, individuals, communities who are currently shut out of
North American screens will find a way.

2010 Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs

2010-12-21T09:45:00.000-05:00

2010 Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs

1. Jews should get the hell out of Palestine. They should go home
to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else.
Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are
owned by Zionists. They put their money where their mouth is.

Helen Thomas former U.P.I. Senior White House correspondent

Murray Rubin COMMENT-- When I was a child they told us to go
back to Palestine. The Jews cannot win. The rest is absolute garbage.

2. Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and its been
used cheaply.He`s the product of a series of actions. Its cause
and effect.
“ Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than to the
Jewish people” (there is a greater focus on the Holocaust than
on Russian suffering because of) “the Jewish domination of the
media” There’s a major lobby in the United States” They are
hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most
powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has fucked up U.S. policy
for years

Oliver Stone, film director

Murray Rubin COMMENT- Hitler should be an easy scapegoat.
He was responsible for the death of 100`s of millions of people. Mr
Stone is talking about the U.S. where there is more focus on the
Holocaust. In Russia I am sure more focus is placed on their losses.
The U.S. does what is necessary for the U.S. not Israel

3. “Jews” had always been a problem in European countries. They
had to be confined to ghettos and periodically massacred”—“-Even
after the massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue
to be a source of even greater problems for the world”

Mahatir Mohammad former Malaysian P.M.

Murray Rubin COMMENT The Jews were not the problem. The
anti-Semites like Mohammad are the problem. The Jews were very
successful in Europe and thrived there.

4. The Jews have no historical or religious ties to the Temple Mount
or the Western Wall. There is no archeological evidence that the
Temple Mount was built during the period of King Solomon.

Al-Mutawakil Taha Deputy Minister of Information for P.A.

Murray Rubin COMMENT It is so ridiculous as to not warrant an
answer.

5. All Jews have a certain gene---that makes them different from
other people.

Murray Rubin COMMENT Not qualified to write on genes

Thilo Sarrazi Central Bank Executive for Germany

6.”—Don`t underestimate the power of the Jewish lobby on
Capital hill—You should`nt underestimate the grip it has on
American politics, no matter whether it`s Rupublican or
Democratic”

Karel de Gucht—European Union`s Chief Trade Negotiator

Murray Rubin COMMENT The power of the Jews is a figment
of the imagination of the anti-Semites.

7. “ He`s (Jon Stewart) upset that someone of my ilk is almost at
his level---I’m telling you that everyone who runs CNN is a lot
like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish are an oppressed minority? (Sarcastically) Yeah”

Rick Sanchez, former CNN correspondent

Murray Rubin COMMENT Who says the Jews in the U.S. are an
oppressed minority? Not the Jews! Not now

8. The ( Nuremberg Trial) was the biggest legal farce in history—
The legend about six million supposedly murdered Jews acquired a legal basis, even though the court did not have a single document signed by Adolf Hitler concerning
the extermination of Jews.

Dr Petras Stankeras, historian and Interior Ministry advisor, Lithuania

Murray Rubin COMMENT millions of people disappear from the earth
and this ass-hole is looking for a signed document by Hitler authorizing
the extermination of Jews.

9. “I would like to teach some of my neighbours some manners—I don’t
care if they wear frock coats and funny suits and hats covered in plastic
bags and insist on wearing their hair in ringlets ( if they’re male) or
covered up by wigs (if they’re female), but I do think they could treat
their neighbours with a bit more courtesy and respect. I didn’t realize
that goyim were about as welcome in the Hasidic Jewish shops as
Martin Luther King Jr, at a Ku Klux Klan convention. I didn’t realize that a purchase
by a goy was a crime to be punished with monosyllabic terseness or that bus
seats were a potential source of contamination or that road signs and parking
restrictions were for people who hadn’t been chosen by G-d

Christina Patterson journalist The Independent Newspaper U.K.

Murray Rubin COMMENT This statement was take completely out of
Context. I read the entire article in the newspaper and her criticism of Moslems
is even more pointed. I think with Jews she was referring to the bad manners of some of the ultra-orthodox

The Social Network and anti- Semitism
Yahoo Finance, Goldman Sach`s Message Boards 2010

10. “da-m Jews, bemanke and geithner`s free money scheme to the banks
destroyed the value of the rational American`s savings and of the Chinese
Economic development of Asia” YAHOO
“And what do ya know, Goldman Sachs the leading jewry criminal FACEBOOK
Organization!!! Where’s the Gestapo when you reali need them??? TWITTER
“I never hated people before. Today I hate the guts of Jews. The
Jews have poisoned America. They have poisoned good people. I
Never would have thought that I would hate the Jews.For what the Jews have done to Americans, it is unforgiving…(sic)”
“Irony how US always bail out the Jews &Jews end up screwing USA!!! (sic)”

Facebook 2010 sites include
“ Kill a Jew a year” “ Kill a Jew a day”

Twitter:
“ Droppin bows on Jew nose, throwin cracks at wetbacks and pullin triggers on
Filthy---well you get it”
“mrs Clinton runs scared of war crimes by Israel, the jewish vote rules the USA, USA is not a free minded places, a control lap dog of Israel

Murray Rubin COMMENT The anti-Semitism on the internet is vicious. Everything that goes wrong is blamed on Jews. If they made these statements about blacks there would be riots on the streets

2010 Top Ten Anti-Semitic Slurs

1. Jews should get the hell out of Palestine. They should go home
to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else.
Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street are
owned by Zionists. They put their money where their mouth is.

Helen Thomas former U.P.I. Senior White House correspondent

Murray Rubin COMMENT-- When I was a child they told us to go
back to Palestine. The Jews cannot win. The rest is absolute garbage.

2. Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and its been
used cheaply.He`s the product of a series of actions. Its cause
and effect.
“ Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than to the
Jewish people” (there is a greater focus on the Holocaust than
on Russian suffering because of) “the Jewish domination of the
media” There’s a major lobby in the United States” They are
hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most
powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has fucked up U.S. policy
for years

Oliver Stone, film director

Murray Rubin COMMENT- Hitler should be an easy scapegoat.
He was responsible for the death of 100`s of millions of people. Mr
Stone is talking about the U.S. where there is more focus on the
Holocaust. In Russia I am sure more focus is placed on their losses.
The U.S. does what is necessary for the U.S. not Israel

3. “Jews” had always been a problem in European countries. They
had to be confined to ghettos and periodically massacred”—“-Even
after the massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to continue
to be a source of even greater problems for the world”

Mahatir Mohammad former Malaysian P.M.

Murray Rubin COMMENT The Jews were not the problem. The
anti-Semites like Mohammad are the problem. The Jews were very
successful in Europe and thrived there.

4. The Jews have no historical or religious ties to the Temple Mount
or the Western Wall. There is no archeological evidence that the
Temple Mount was built during the period of King Solomon.

Al-Mutawakil Taha Deputy Minister of Information for P.A.

Murray Rubin COMMENT It is so ridiculous as to not warrant an
answer.

5. All Jews have a certain gene---that makes them different from
other people.

Murray Rubin COMMENT Not qualified to write on genes

Thilo Sarrazi Central Bank Executive for Germany

6.”—Don`t underestimate the power of the Jewish lobby on
Capital hill—You should`nt underestimate the grip it has on
American politics, no matter whether it`s Rupublican or
Democratic”

Karel de Gucht—European Union`s Chief Trade Negotiator

Murray Rubin COMMENT The power of the Jews is a figment
of the imagination of the anti-Semites.

7. “ He`s (Jon Stewart) upset that someone of my ilk is almost at
his level---I’m telling you that everyone who runs CNN is a lot
like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart, and to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish are an oppressed minority? (Sarcastically) Yeah”

Rick Sanchez, former CNN correspondent

Murray Rubin COMMENT Who says the Jews in the U.S. are an
oppressed minority? Not the Jews! Not now

8. The ( Nuremberg Trial) was the biggest legal farce in history—
The legend about six million supposedly murdered Jews acquired a legal basis, even though the court did not have a single document signed by Adolf Hitler concerning
the extermination of Jews.

Dr Petras Stankeras, historian and Interior Ministry advisor, Lithuania

Murray Rubin COMMENT millions of people disappear from the earth
and this ass-hole is looking for a signed document by Hitler authorizing
the extermination of Jews.

9. “I would like to teach some of my neighbours some manners—I don’t
care if they wear frock coats and funny suits and hats covered in plastic
bags and insist on wearing their hair in ringlets ( if they’re male) or
covered up by wigs (if they’re female), but I do think they could treat
their neighbours with a bit more courtesy and respect. I didn’t realize
that goyim were about as welcome in the Hasidic Jewish shops as
Martin Luther King Jr, at a Ku Klux Klan convention. I didn’t realize that a purchase
by a goy was a crime to be punished with monosyllabic terseness or that bus
seats were a potential source of contamination or that road signs and parking
restrictions were for people who hadn’t been chosen by G-d

Christina Patterson journalist The Independent Newspaper U.K.

Murray Rubin COMMENT This statement was take completely out of
Context. I read the entire article in the newspaper and her criticism of Moslems
is even more pointed. I think with Jews she was referring to the bad manners of some of the ultra-orthodox

The Social Network and anti- Semitism
Yahoo Finance, Goldman Sach`s Message Boards 2010

10. “da-m Jews, bemanke and geithner`s free money scheme to the banks
destroyed the value of the rational American`s savings and of the Chinese
Economic development of Asia” YAHOO
“And what do ya know, Goldman Sachs the leading jewry criminal FACEBOOK
Organization!!! Where’s the Gestapo when you reali need them??? TWITTER
“I never hated people before. Today I hate the guts of Jews. The
Jews have poisoned America. They have poisoned good people. I
Never would have thought that I would hate the Jews.For what the Jews have done to Americans, it is unforgiving…(sic)”
“Irony how US always bail out the Jews &Jews end up screwing USA!!! (sic)”

Facebook 2010 sites include
“ Kill a Jew a year” “ Kill a Jew a day”

Twitter:
“ Droppin bows on Jew nose, throwin cracks at wetbacks and pullin triggers on
Filthy---well you get it”
“mrs Clinton runs scared of war crimes by Israel, the jewish vote rules the USA, USA is not a free minded places, a control lap dog of Israel

Murray Rubin COMMENT The anti-Semitism on the internet is vicious. Everything that goes wrong is blamed on Jews. If they made these statements about blacks there would be riots on the streets

Glaza Flotilla Incident

2010-11-29T10:10:00.002-05:00

The [Flotilla] Organizers are Supporters of Movements and Organizations such as [Global] Jihad, Hamas, Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda"

"The flotilla, which was supported by the terroristic Hamas movement and tried to breach the blockade on this movement in Gaza, was a preplanned provocation against Israel. The grave outcome [of the takeover] was in direct proportion to the violence [employed by the flotilla activists] as they tried [to breach the blockade]. The [flotilla] organizers are supporters of movements and organizations such as [global] Jihad, Hamas, Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda, and have a black record in terms of smuggling arms and [perpetrating] terror operations. And indeed, the Israeli forces discovered on the ships weapons and ammunition that had been prepared in advance.

"The naval blockade on the Hamas movement in Gaza is legal in light of this movement's actions in the Strip. Had Israel allowed the flotilla – which was not legal – to reach the Hamas movement, it would have opened a route for smuggling weapons and terrorists into the Gaza Strip. No sovereign country would allow its citizens or its sovereignty to be harmed. Moreover, the attempt to force a path to Gaza by sea does not [really] benefit the people of Gaza, since the land crossings are sufficient for [the purpose of] supplying their needs. International aid organizations provide Gaza with all the necessary food, clothing and medical [supplies]. Over 15,000 tons of basic aid supplies enter the Strip every week. Construction materials enter it under the supervision of international organizations, in order to prevent the terroristic Hamas movement from commandeering them and using them for building military fortifications. The land crossings are the most efficient way to deliver supplies to Gaza, and the flotilla organizers know this perfectly well. They also know that since December 2008, their ships are not allowed to approach [the Gaza coast].

"The protests and demonstrations that broke out in various capitals are without meaning or value, as are the emergency summits [convened by] the Arab League, the E.U. and the U.N. The wave of protests will not change a thing, but a full and immediate investigation of the events will reveal all the details of what really happened... and [then] everyone will know the truth about the Hamas movement..."

[1] Al-Watan (Kuwait), June 3, 2010. It should be noted that, at a June 4, 2010 rally, Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah said that some papers in the Gulf had published articles supporting the IDF raid on the flotilla, but their authors were a minority that would be taken care of by people of honor. Al-Safir (Lebanon), June 5, 2010.

[2] The full message of the Israeli navy was as follows: "You are approaching an area of hostilities, which is under a naval blockade. Gaza coastal area and Gaza Harbor are closed to maritime traffic. The Israeli government supports delivery of humanitarian supplies to the civilian population in Gaza Strip and invites you to enter Ashdod port. Delivery of supplies will be in accordance with the authorities' regulations and through the formal land crossing to Gaza and under your observation, after which you can return to your home ports." The reply was: "Negative, negative. Our destination is Gaza."

Arabs and Muslims Run to Israel

2010-11-29T09:52:00.002-05:00

Arabs and Muslims Run to Israel
by Khaled Abu Toameh

Many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have a dream: to work or live in Israel. Some even say they are prepared to pay large sums of money to obtain Israeli citizenship.

Others pay a lot of money to Palestinian and Jewish traffickers who help them bypass checkpoints to enter Israel in search of work and good life.

These are not self-hating Palestinians. Nor are they "pro-Israel traitors" who support the Zionist movement.

Many Palestinians feel that neither Fatah nor Hamas has done enough to alleviate their suffering. Many Fatah leaders who stole billions of dollars of international donations earmarked for the Palestinians have invested their fortunes in hotels, tourist resorts and real estate firms in the West. Hamas, on the other hand, prefers to spend millions of dollars on purchasing [and smuggling] large amounts of weapons, including rockets and ammunition.

It is a disgrace for Arab and Muslim dictators, particularly those who make billions of dollars from selling oil, that their constituents have to seek work and refuge in Israel and the West. It is also a disgrace for Fatah and Hamas that thousands of Palestinians cannot find jobs or a good life in the two Palestinian states in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Arab and Islamic regimes are spending billions of dollars on building new mosques and madrasas while nearly half of their people are illiterate and live under the poverty line. University graduates in these countries are forced to search for work in the West because of poor working conditions and lack of opportunities.

The absence of good government, transparency, accountability and democracy in these countries is driving Arabs and Muslims to seek work and a better life not only in North America and Europe, but even in places like Israel.

A wealthy Arab prefers to spend millions of dollars on a private zoo than building a hospital or a university. Why should he when he and his family members could travel anytime they wish to receive medical treatment at Mayo Clinic or study at Harvard University?

In many ways, these Palestinians are not different from the African immigrants who try to infiltrate Israel every day through Egypt. The immigrants come from Sudan, Ethiopia, Eretria, Nigeria and other African countries.

Like the Palestinians, the Africans are prepared to pay a lot of money to get into Israel. Egyptian traffickers charge up to $1,000 for each immigrant.

But for the African immigrants, the journey is also a very dangerous one. In the past three years, Egyptian border guards have shot and killed dozens of African men and women who tried to cross the border into Israel.

Last week a 23-year-old Sudanese man was fatally shot by Egyptian troops as he tried to enter Israel. Another four asylum-seekers were taken into custody.

While the Egyptians are killing the African immigrants, Israel is providing the lucky ones who manage to cross the border with jobs, as well as medical and social services.

True, Israel is not 100% perfect. But an African Muslim or Christian still prefers Israel to countries like Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran. As a "refugee" from Darfour, Sudan, who now lives in Tel Aviv, explained: "I feel more secure in the Jewish state than in Sudan or any Arab or Islamic country."

For many Palestinians, it is easier to find a job in Israel and Canada than in any Arab or Islamic country, most of which impose strict travel and work restrictions on them. Palestinians cannot enter most Arab and Islamic countries without a visa.

One can understand why a Palestinian needs a visa to enter the US or any European country. But why does a Palestinian need a visa to visit his relatives in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt?

Many Palestinians from the West Bank who visit Arab countries often find themselves thrown into detention centers for weeks, months and years without trial. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians are believed to be languishing in prisons throughout the Arab world, especially in Syria and Egypt.

‭‮

Palestinians in the Arab World: Why the Silence?

2010-11-29T09:43:00.001-05:00

by Khaled Abu Toameh

When was the last time the United Nations Security Council met to condemn an Arab government for its mistreatment of Palestinians?

How come groups and individuals on university campuses in the US and Canada that call themselves "pro-Palestinian" remain silent when Jordan revokes the citizenship of thousands of Palestinians?

The plight of Palestinians living in Arab countries in general, and Lebanon in particular, is one that is often ignored by the mainstream media in West.

How come they turn a blind eye to the fact that Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and many more Arab countries continue to impose severe travel restrictions on Palestinians?

And where do these groups and individuals stand regarding the current debate in Lebanon about whether to grant Palestinians long-denied basic rights, including employment, social security and medical care?

Or have they not heard about this debate at all? Probably not, since the case has failed to draw the attention of most Middle East correspondents and commentators.

A news story on the Palestinians that does not include an anti-Israel angle rarely makes it to the front pages of Western newspapers.

The demolition of an Arab-owned illegal building in Jerusalem is, for most of these correspondents, much more important than the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Lebanon continue to suffer from a series of humiliating restrictions.

Not only are Palestinians living in Lebanon denied the right to own property, but they also do not qualify for health care, and are banned by law from working in a large number of jobs.

Can someone imagine what would be the reaction in the international community if Israel tomorrow passed a law that prohibits its Arab citizens from working as taxi drivers, journalists, physicians, cooks, waiters, engineers and lawyers? Or if the Israeli Ministry of Education issued a directive prohibiting Arab children from enrolling in universities and schools?

But who said that the Lebanese authorities have not done anything to "improve" the situation? In fact, the Palestinians living in that country should be grateful to the Lebanese government.

Until 2005, the law prohibited Palestinians from working in 72 professions. Now the list of jobs has been reduced to 50.

Still, Palestinians are not allowed to work as physicians, journalists, pharmacists or lawyers in Lebanon.

Ironically, it is much easier for a Palestinian to acquire American and Canadian citizenship than a passport of an Arab country. In the past, Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were even entitled to Israeli citizenship if they married an Israeli citizen, or were reunited with their families inside the country.

Lebanese politicians are now debating new legislation that would grant "civil rights" to Palestinians for the first time in 62 years. The new bill includes the right to own property, social security payments and medical care.

Many Lebanese are said to be opposed to the legislation out of fear that it would pave the way for the integration of Palestinians into their society and would constitute a burden to the economy.

The heated debate has prompted parliament to postpone a vote on the bill until next month.

Nadim Khoury, director of Human Rights Watch in Beirut, said, "Lebanon has marginalized Palestinian refugees for too long and the parliament should seize this opportunity to turn the page and end discrimination against Palestinians."

Rami Khouri, a prominent Lebanese journalist, wrote in The Daily Star that "all Arab countries mistreat millions of Arab, Asian and African foreign guest workers, who often are treated little better than chattel or indentured laborersâ€¦The mistreatment, abysmal living conditions and limited work, social security and property rights of the Palestinians [in Lebanon] are a lingering moral black mark."

Foreign journalists often justify their failure to report on the suffering of Palestinians in the Arab world by citing "security concerns" and difficulty in obtaining an entry visa into an Arab country.

But these are weak and unacceptable excuses given the fact that most of them could still write about these issues from their safe offices and homes in New York, London and Paris. Isn't that what most of them are anyway doing when they are write about the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip?

Power, Self-Interest and Hypocrisy

2010-11-29T09:24:00.002-05:00

Power, Self-Interest and Hypocrisy govern all human activities whether done as individuals, corporations, nations or as international bodies.

I therefore can call the United Nations a qualified failure. It is a qualified failure because it is active, functioning, and can be used quickly to facilitate negotiations between nations with disagreements. It is a failure because the nations involved place their own interests above everything else.

Haiti had an earthquake which shook the nation. The world was shocked with the intensity of the wreckage and all nations rushed to pledge aid. It was the thing to do. But it has come out that only 1/3 of the money and aid pledged arrived. A far cry from what is needed! Lightning does not strike twice in the same place. It did in Haiti. The cholera epidemic is an unmitigated disaster, but it is easily curtailed. Haiti need drugs, doctors, nurses and health –care workers immediately and the disease can be stopped. The problem is so easy to solve if the world’s nations acted at once. There is a question about the derivation of the epidemic. It seems that the disease is related to one that struck Nepal, and there are Nepalese peace-keepers nearby. An investigation was called for by local people. Will it happen, not very likely? It would reflect negatively on the U.N Nations use the U.N. to advance their own agenda. Saudi Arabia has just secured a seat on the governing board of the United Nations Women’s Rights Council. In this country women are not allowed to drive an automobile, cannot vote, cannot hold public office, own property in their own name. In addition every woman must have a male guardian who makes all decisions about schooling and marriage. In the World Economic Forum’s study of gender equality Saudi Arabia ranked 129 out of 134 nations surveyed. Yet Saudi Arabia was allowed on this Women’s rights Council .The main purpose of the U.N. is to facilitate cooperation in International Law, International Security, Economic Development, Social Progress, Human Rights and World Peace, HOWEVER only if it does not interfere with the needs and aspirations of the members of the Security Council who have a veto on all that occurs. There are 43 million people around the world who have left their homes fleeing conflicts and natural disasters, yet the U.N. commission for refugees spends a vastly disproportionate amount of time on the Palestinian Refugees who should have been resettled years ago. This, of course, is facilitated by Islamic Arab States who are able to avoid the need to repair the shortcomings of their dictatorships by diverting the masses from their own problems.

Individual groups within a nation thwart the needs of the nation. I speak of the religious right in Israel who continue, legally and illegally, to build settlements in the West Bank against the the wishes of moderate Israelis who represent the majority of the nation.

Health care corporations have a reputation of hiding results which do not advance their interests in promoting products for sale to the public but high-lighting clinical trials that do.

In a tennis match it is common for a player to apologize, with a hand gesture, when a ball goes over by just hitting the top of the net ,drops over, making it impossible for the opponent to reach the ball and return it. Recently I saw a match where Rafael Nadal hit a ball but it touched the top of the net, but DID NOT go over. The look on his face was pure anguish., yet I am sure if the ball had gone over he would have made the gesture to apologize. Hypocrisy is alive and well with individuals

Power, Self-Interest and Hypocrisy are built into the psychological structure of humans and are here to stay. and to be honest I do not have an answer for the problem nor does anybody else.

An Unpredictable Future

2010-10-29T09:28:00.002-04:00

The changes in society worldwide are being implemented at ever increased rates, and while not all of a revolutionary nature, certainly portend an unrecognizable future.
Islam whether seen as a religion of peace and love or a religion to proselytize the entire world, is a major factor everywhere. While religion in the west is on the decline, Islam seems to be growing. There is no country, of significance, that is not affected. In China, there are 7 ½ million Uygurs, not a significant number compared to the total population, but in conflict with the central Han dominated government. Chechyna, a mountainous state in Russia dominated by Moslems, in recent years fought 2 wars against the central authority. Kashmir, mostly Moslem, a strategic area bordering India, Pakistan and China, is the source of seemingly permanent dissension between Pakistan and India. While Pakistan is primarily Moslem, India, surprisingly enough, has more Moslems than Pakistan as citizens. Turkey and Iran are two Moslem countries, of huge significance in the middle east, where the Israeli and and Palestinian conflict has been waged for over 60 years. Saudi Arabia, a country floating on oil, funds many madrasas (religious schools) in an effort to promote the Islamic religion and along with Egypt is one of the two most influential Arab countries in the Middle East. Africa has many Muslim states, but with the exception of Egypt, does not play much of a part in world politics. Because of the number of Muslim states,they have a disproportionate say in the General Assembly of the United Nations, but are not represented in the Security Council. In the west people looking to better their lives economically represent a solid proportion of the immigrants. They seem to do better in Canada and the United States, as enlightened immigration laws make it easier for them to integrate. Most terrorists, or freedom fighters, as called by Moslem countries practice Islam, and while Islamic countries, at this point are not militarily strong, they gain the attention of the world with attacks on civilian targets. An internal problem in the Islamic religion is the bitter hatred between Shias and Sunnis as represented by Iran and Saudi Arabia. Whether positive or negative remains to be seen, but Islam’s importance is not in doubt.

On the other side of the population spectrum is Israel. A small nation with a Jewish majority situated in the Middle East. Without question, and I believe without bias, easily the most successful country to have entered the United Nations since its inception. Israel is very successful militarily, economically and intellectually. It is the origin of more start up enterprises of any country with the exception of the United States, and if able to defend itself will be a large factor in changing the type of life practiced by people born after the year 2000.

Anti-Semitism has returned in full force, and it is my belief that this perversion of human nature is a permanent fixture in human activity.. How a population of only 14 million people can arouse so much antagonism is beyond belief. Nations and persons wanting to benefit personally use the fictitious threat of Jews as their method of eliciting support.

No area of human endeavor is more affected by swift change than communication. After humans developed language and the skill of putting words in print it was many centuries before the real revolution started. Postal systems, telephone, radio and television followed quickly but pale in comparison to what is happening now. An individual anywhere in the world can communicate with persons thousands of miles away instantaneously using the internet, Facebook,You-tube, twitter and a variety of electronic modes too numerous to mention.. The ability of states to control communications is in doubt and where this new development will lead is impossible to predict.

When you are out in the morning walking to work or to school, 20% of the people are carrying a cup of coffee. Who would have predicted that new restaurants could be successful selling a product sold by everybody? Years ago, when you saw individuals by themselves talking in an auto, you would have suspected mental illness. Of course they have hands free speakers and mobile phones. Recently I saw a young lady at a checkout counter at a large grocery store with both hands in her apron.. I instantly new that she was not allowed to talk on the phone when she was working, so she was texting a message.. When politicians have the courage to face the oil companies, electric cars will replace the present gas guzzlers.

2010-10-18T10:48:00.002-04:00

ANTI-SEMITISM - THE ULTIMATE HATRED

As a Canadian-born Jew in his 80th year, the issue of anti-Semitism has been for me both a fascination and a horror. How can a mere fourteen million people, spread throughout the world over such an extended period of time, elicit so much antagonism and hatred? Why have Jews in Europe and the Middle East been the victims of so many unparalleled atrocities? Is there an ultimate solution to the problem?

I would like to begin by citing a statement by Jean Paul Sartre.” If Jews did not exist they would have to be invented as anti-Semitism works by miss-direction with Jews serving as a false cause for other issues”. Sartre is saying that each interest group uses anti-Semitism as a club to promote their own parochial interests. If the problem has not been solved in two thousand years, far be it for me to even try, however I can outline, as I see it, the truths, half-truths and outright lies, that nurture this human failing called anti-Semitism.

There is no doubt that the seeds of anti-Semitism were planted over time by the Catholic Church which, only until recently, accused Jews of being responsible for the killing of Jesus Christ. As the charges were laid years after the event occurred, the veracity of what actually happened could be in doubt. What is not in doubt is the unfairness of the atrocities perpetrated on people two thousand years after the fact. However there is a good practical reason, from the Church’s point of view, to attack and convert the Jews. The Christians saw themselves as the next progressive step in the development of monotheism and therefore, the true believers in Christianity could not tolerate the hesitation of the Jews in accepting their new religion. How much easier it would have been for them, to promote their ideas, if Judaism had just disappeared. That did not happen.

Could anti-Semitism function if Jews existed in far larger numbers? Probably not to the extent it exists to-day, as they would have had their own national state earlier, and found their place among the nation states of the modern world. Antagonism towards Jews would have occurred in a way similar to other nationalities. Small numbers of Jews spread throughout many counties are easy targets of people and nations with anti-Semitic tendencies.

An article in “Front Page Magazine.com” by Daniel Pipes and Gunmar Heinsahn criticizes the idea that the Arab-Israeli war is the most dangerous in the world. Tony Blair, former British Prime minister, told the U.S. congress in 2003 that terrorism will not be defeated without peace in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians. This leads many European countries to see Israel as the root cause of all terrorism.. Nothing could be further from the truth. Gunmar Heinsahn did a survey of conflicts since 1950. He showed that since that time approximately 85,000,000 people throughout the world were killed in wars. During that time period the statistics show that 35,000 Arabs and 16,000 Israelis died during the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict, which is one out of 1700 persons killed in wars since 1950. An insignificant number compared to the 85,000,000 millions killed. In fact 8, 000,000 Muslims have been killed since 1948 and over 90% were killed by fellow Muslims.

Historical accident and Jewish religious law allowed Jews to be successful money lenders, most certainly a mixed blessing. Money lenders are not anybodies favorite people. The Catholic Church forbade Christians from charging interest, but needed money lenders in order to allow economies to function efficiently. According to Jewish law, Jews were allowed to charge interest, just not to fellow Jews. As Europe’s official money lenders, Jews were necessary and despised. They sometimes did charge exorbitant rates, but with the economic climate it probably made good sense. Capital was scarce, and lenders frequently risked having their capital seized or having the debtors obligations cancelled. Money lenders did not enhance the reputation of Jews and fed the anti-Semitic feelings that already existed.

Success breeds jealousy and by any standard a significant proportion of the Jewish people are successful.. They are educated and innovative, shown by the number of Nobel prizes they have won, and are prominent, if allowed, in any of the university professions. This very success, in so many fields, allows the anti-Semites to encourage the idea of Jewish hidden control of finance, government and literally the world. Absolute nonsense, but the idea never dies, regardless of the fact that we are dealing with 14,000,000 people in constant fear of attack and loss of life.

The State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, and the dialogue in the Jewish community was very positive. After 100`s of years of no home state the Jews would be like other nations, and have a homeland. The hope was that anti-Semitism would disappear. It was not to be. What happened was that anti-Semites, who for a period of time after the holocaust, found it untimely to utter anti-Semitic statements, could now hide their feelings by using Israel as a scapegoat. A simple rule exposes realistic criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. If Israel is expected to act in a manner not typical of a democratic state, it is anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism.

It is so easy to sum up. Anti-Semitism exists because of the Catholic Church, paucity of Jews, purported dangerous Israel, anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism, money lending history, and success of so many Jews in life, which breed jealousy. These are seemingly insurmountable burdens to overcome.

2010-10-17T07:50:00.001-04:00

2010-09-05T09:22:00.002-04:00

MY ROADMAP TO OLD AGE

When you love your wife more now than when you married her.

When a wet dream means that you knocked over a glass of water from your night table.

When you go from the kitchen to the bed-room and you forgot why.

When you talk nonsense and young people are respectful, not critical.

When people who look old give you their seat on the bus..

When you find pornographic photos rather dull.

When your closet is full of perfectly good clothes you never wear

When you get up 3 or 4 times a night to go to the bathroom.

When your kids are over 50

When your grandchild opens a jar of jam for you.

When you can say something sexual to a young woman and she just laughs and takes no offence.

When you renew a magazine subscription one year at a time.

When the weddings you attend are for your friend’s grandchildren

When masturbation is not an option because your right hand gets too tired.

When every day is the week-end.

When the desk at the tennis club finds it difficult to arrange a good game for you

When all the politicians look like kids playing government.

When you don’t have a clue about all the options on your cell phone except to send and receive calls

When the regularity of bowel movements are a constant topic with your old friends

When you have to write down everything you do in order to remember what you have done or arranged

When you cannot find the note that tells you what you have to do.

When you spend most of every day in your pyjamas.

When all the little things that go wrong with you physically, never really get better.

When nothing astounds you because you have seen it all.

2010-06-22T10:13:00.000-04:00

SELF-HATING JEWS

Whenever a person throughout the world does something particularly distasteful, I always look to see if that person is Jewish. You can sometimes tell by the name. I don’t know why I do this, as I am in reality, not even remotely responsible. As a secular Jew living in a free and democratic society, it is difficult for me to understand the antagonism of fellow Jews, secular or religious, towards their own people. Jews, throughout their long history of exile and subordination, have continually faced the problem of being a small minority, dependent on the toleration of the majority in the country in which they reside. There is a desire to be like the others and escape from their Jewish roots. Self-hatred in cases such as these, manifest themselves in a loathing for one self, and other Jews, whose history has produced the conditions in which they live.

Some Conversos in Spain (Jews who were coerced to convert to Catholicism) took the lead in calling for the degradation and social segregation of Jews. Jews who embrace the world view of anti-Semites do not enhance their positions in the society in which they live. The Conversos were hunted down and persecuted by the Inquisition. German Jews, as close to being gentiles without actually converting, went to the gas chambers with their eastern European co-religionists and the communist Jews did not escape the Stalinist Gulag. At the end of the 19th century, the playwright and novelist Arthur Schnitzler was an acute observer of this psychopathology in Vienna. He recalled in his memoirs that “anti-Semitism did not succeed until the Jews began to sponsor it”. Revolutionary leftists like Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg had to feverishly block out the needs of their own people in order to prove they were true internationalists.

Israel was not free of the self-hatred of Jews. Some Labour Zionists openly sympathized with the anti-Semitic critique of Judaism and with the dominant stereotype of Jewish parasitism that was widespread among socialists in general. As Zionists they blamed the “Galut”, the Jewish diaspora, for having turned the Jew into an eternal alien from their society.

The Israeli scholar Yehezkel Kaufman attacked the proposition that Jewish self-hatred could be a constructive path to salvation. There is nothing worse than to accept “the false image of a people burdened with the sense of their sin”. To these Jews in Palestine, whenever Arabs fought the British it was anti-colonialism but when Jews rose up against the British policy in Palestine it was terrorism. Arab nationalism was progressive while Zionism was invariably epitomized as imperialistic.

There is another concept of the Jews and their place in world history espoused by George Steiner, professor of comparative literature at Cambridge, Oxford and Geneva. “The true vocation of the Jews,” he says, “was to act as the cultural ferment of humanity rather than to establish a territorial state based on force of arms.” This ridiculous idea, which could be just below the foolishness of a “chosen people”, is bringing Israel in conflict with humanity. Jealousy is a powerful weapon, and the world does not need Jews, with or without a state, telling people what to do, or how to live.

Israel Shahak, a deceased Jerusalem chemistry professor, has stated that Israel is a terrorist state far more racist than Nazi Germany. He travelled the world to lecture on the evils of Zionism and the Jewish religion. The professor was hailed by Edward Said, an Arab professor, as a courageous dissident

The role of growing numbers of expatriate Israelis and Diaspora Jews such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein, in hate fests of incitement, has been escalating.

Anne Roiphe, a U.S. author, points out that the various Jewish groups in the West who support the Palestinian cause as if it were synonymous with peace or social justice generally show through their deeds and words that “they have empathy for all victims of violence, greed and abuse, except for the Jews.” They love all mankind but not their own people. Self-hating Jews, regardless of motive, provided valuable ammunition over the ages to the anti-Semites. Nothing has changed today.

2010-05-13T08:11:00.000-04:00

TERRORISM AND FULL CIVIL LIBERTIES
INCOMPATIBLE!

Laws are passed by legislators that reflect the political. social and economic conditions of the times. I doubt if much attention was paid to enact laws on speeding vehicles in the horse and buggy era. Today many legal battles are being fought in the high courts of the United States by civil rights lawyers who are adamant that the freedoms of speech and association proclaimed by law in the latter part of the 20th century be retained.

Ralph D Fertig, a 79 year old civil rights lawyer, says he would like to help a militant Kurdish group in Turkey find peaceful ways to achieve its goals. A provision of the U.S. Patriot Act bans providing” material support” to terrorist organizations. The law takes a comprehensive approach to its ban on aid to terrorist groups, prohibiting not only providing cash, weapons and the like but also four more ambiguous sorts of help—training, personnel, expert advice or assistance and service

David D Cole, a lawyer with the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which represents Mr Fertig, told the court that the case concerned speech protected by the First Amendment “ promoting lawful, non violent activities” including “human rights advocacy and peacemaking. A number of victims of the McCarthy-era persecution filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court to remember the lessons of history. The latest appeals court decision in Mr Fertig`s case, in 2007, ruled that the bans on training, service and some kinds of expert advice were unconstitutionally vague. But it upheld the bans on personnel and expert advice derived from scientific or technical knowledge

The radical legal theories propping up such civil liberties absolutism might make for interesting academic debate, but when the judiciary embraces these arguments, the ideas become live threats to national security. The law represents “a considered wartime judgment by the political branches of the optimal means to confront the the unique challenges posed by terrorism”. Allowing any sort of contributions to terrorist organizations, as defined by government, simply because the donor intends that they be used for peaceful purpose is the height of naivety. No quarantine can isolate good activities from the evils of terrorism.

The challenges of the McCarthy and the Civil Rights eras cannot be compared to present day terrorism. Playing by the Queensbury rules advanced by activist ideologues will transform the American constitution into a suicide pact. It may well be necessary to strip convicted terrorists of their U.S. citizenship. This would never be contemplated in past times. The security of citizens should be the primary concern of our judges and lawmakers.. Civil Rights libertarians have sought full constitutional rights for foreign terror suspects and relentlessly pursue an outlandish notion of privacy which would block intelligence gathering. This is frightening to say the least.

2010-04-15T19:46:00.000-04:00

SLAVERY IS NOT QUITE DEAD

It was reported in local newspapers April 14 2010 that in Kandahar Afghanistan ,a gunman lying in wait, shot and killed an 18 year old girl as she left her job at a U.S. development company, casting a spotlight on a stepped up campaign of the Taliban to intimidate women. What could this young innocent girl have done to be executed in such a brazen and open manner? Nothing more than learning a new language, and having a job outside the control of men in her family.

Recently there were many letters to the editor criticizing the presence of Canadian troops in this country. What are they going to accomplish? To these letter writers it is a waste of lives and money. I could not agree less. Women represent 50% of the world’s human beings and in this day and age societies that leave them literally as sex slaves cannot be allowed to exist without challenge. The problem lies with the U.N. All the human rights edicts issued by this organization count for nothing as the organization will not interfere in the internal affairs of a state. The governments of most Islamic states place women on a very inferior level. I resent the European countries who will not help the U.S. and Canada in their fight against the Taliban terrorist regime. How hypocritical that France bans the wearing of the niqab in dealing with public institutions yet takes very little action in Afghanistan.It is worth while for Canada to use the troops, if nothing more than to free the women in Afghanistan, and give them an opportunity to be educated and make a success of their lives.

Am I naïve?

press Freedom in Dubai

2010-04-13T17:17:00.001-04:00

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Dancing with the sheiks: Freedom in a global age
Home / Ethics / Ward's Words /
April 13, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey
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In the new “hybrid” globalized societies, such as Dubai, media freedom takes on hybrid forms. Stephen J.A. Ward speaks with James Piecowye, host of the emirate's strictly monitored English-language radio talk show, about taboo topics and pushing the boundaries of a restricted press.Around the world, dozens of organizations, from Freedom House to Reporters Without Borders, advance the ideal of a free press and a free citizenry. The ideal suggests there is one type of free press to be secured globally: the Western model of a constitutionally protected free press. What stands over and against the free press? The typical examples are the media systems found in China or Burma. But this thinking is too simple for a global age. The attempt to develop a free press follows different pathways in different regions. New ways of combining media freedom and responsibility are evolving. Consider the impressive development of media in the more liberal Arab states, such as Dubai. Rather than quote statistics, I will describe one journalist in Dubai who experiences daily the tensions at work as the Arab media evolve. “Freedom” within limits It is 10 p.m. in Dubai and I am a guest on Nightline – Dubai’s English-language radio talk show. The host is James Piecowye, whose studio is in the radio station DubaiEye, 103.8 FM, part of Arabian Radio Network. The network is one of the largest media conglomerates in the Middle East and owned by the ruling family of Dubai. Piecowye is a Canadian who earned a doctorate in communication from the University of Montreal. He arrived in the United Arab Emirates a decade ago to teach at Zayed University, a college for Emirati women. About four years ago, he decided to try radio broadcasting after deciding that Dubai’s English radio was a “wasteland” of classic rock and pop stations. Radio, and especially talk radio, is new to Dubai. Before 1971, there was no locally operated radio in the region. Citizens relied on the BBC, Radio America, and stations in Lebanon and Jordan. When radio was established, a Western style was often adopted. Each night, on air, Piecowye carefully walks a tightrope between the listeners who call in and the state officials who monitor the show. Some boundaries are clear: Topics such as homosexuality, drugs, prostitution, abortion, and religion are taboo. When Dubai World announced recently it was $40 billion in debt, shocking the markets, Piecowye could not discuss the problem on his show. Even discussion of lifestyles, such as dating, is sensitive in a country that outlaws kissing in public. Still, Piecowye manages to provide interesting discussions using officials, scholars, and professors to discuss sanitation, traffic, education, and tonight’s topic – media ethics. He finds inventive ways to discuss sensitive topics. For example, he cannot ask callers to discuss the drug problem. But he can invite the chief of the Dubai narcotics division to discuss what the division is doing to combat drugs. In Canada, using only official comments is considered one-sided and, well, boring. In Dubai, it is a way of putting the issue into the public sphere.Working without a net Yet, despite these precautions, any show can be cause for worry. “Offensive” is a terribly subjective word, even in a country with strict laws. “Often, I am never really sure where the line is between offending and not offending, and who will take offensive to what,” said Piecowye. Having grown up with CBC Radio, Piecowye adds: “I attempt to bring Canadian journalism values into my show.” He takes on the role of the neutral CBC-like moderator who seeks facts and reasoned discussion.” But here is the kicker: Piecowye works without a tape delay. Offensive comments by guests or his callers potentially can go straight to air. Luckily, this has happened rarely. And what happens when officials do not approve of something on Nightline? The radio station gets a call from a well-placed person who expresses official displeasure. Such calls are taken very seriously. Violations of media laws in Dubai can be a crime, leading to jail or swift deportation. The danger is always there: One seriously offensive broadcast and Piecowye’s decade of service to Zayed University and Dubai could be in jeopardy. So, on this night, I and three other international ethicists engage in discussion with Piecowye about global media ethics, the theme of a conference we are attending. We talk in general terms about what global media ethics is, and how media can be made more responsible. We are fully aware that there is no tape delay. No one wants to get Piecowye in trouble by uttering an offensive comment or by raising a taboo topic. I find myself, like Piecowye, dancing with the sheiks and their monitoring officials — at least in my imagination. I find myself rephrasing comments before they come out of my mouth. Nonetheless, our group has a lively discussion on media freedom and responsibility, without directly attacking media restrictions in Dubai. Negotiating freedom Piecowye later recounted an on-air anecdote that captured the experience: “One night I was struggling to not say something that couldn’t be said, and I got a text message from a listener. The person wrote, ‘We know what you’re trying to say, so why don’t you just SAY it!’” This experience of ‘saying some things but not saying everything’ defines the working conditions of many journalists in Dubai and other Arab countries. It is not full media freedom but it is not insignificant, either. It should not be dismissed as odious self-censorship. It is an important and evolving experiment that runs counter to hundreds of years of tradition. Dubai’s Nightline shows that we need a nuanced understanding of how to advance media freedom globally; there is no master plan. The evolution of media freedom will depend on the country’s media laws, the culture’s tolerance of free speech, and local definitions of what is appropriate and what is offensive. In many countries, journalists will negotiate for increasing freedom, and learn to navigate around limits. In the new “hybrid” globalized societies, such as Dubai, media freedom will take on hybrid forms. There is no guarantee that liberalizing forces will win; and no predicting how far they will advance. There is no saying how this dance will end. But Piecowye and other journalists continue to expand the boundaries of media freedom, working pragmatically within the limits of law and society.Stephen J. A. Ward is the James E. Burgess Professor of Journalism Ethics in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He is the founding chair of the Canadian Association of Journalists' (CAJ) ethics advisory committee and former director of UBC's Graduate School of Journalism.
Posted by Magdalen Bowyer 2010-04-08 10:14:24
Stephen writes an accurate word picture about a piece of Dubai life. I know. I lived there over a period of 12 years.
And with all due respect to Stephen, I need to give voice to my understanding of his proposal that freedom has limits.
You see, freedom has no limits. Suggesting that it does is a false premise.
Stephen has been seduced in the same ways that I was seduced. He comes from a place of deep respect and openness to a culture and its people BUT he's committed to being comfortable and staying safe.
Since when is it freedom to silence truth? What does it do to a people, local or expat, to feel you are constantly muzzled? Stephen speaks to the real fear (and it's real): speak wrongly and the radio host could find himself in jail. Yikes! THAT kind of prevailing knowledge and insistent fear wears a body down. Not to mention how it twists one's psychology around.
There are many things I love about the Arabian Peninsula, its people and its culture. And I challenge Stephen's statement that "hundreds of years of tradition" are being countered here. My experience is that the local traditional customs are more true and fierce than many western ways of communicating. What is being challenged here are the POWER STRUCTURES. Who benefits when personal power is externalized rather than internalized?
Many of us do well to become more self-aware in our speaking and communicating - that means we realize the impacts we are having on those around us and the world we live in. But inherent in that process of becoming self-aware is the deep knowing that we are accountable to what wants to be expressed through us. Self-censorship is not conducive to evolution - never has been, never will be.
Tony Morrison said it best: "The function of freedom is to free someone else."
Posted by Claude Adams 2010-04-07 17:36:00
Interesting column. But I'm not clear how Piecowye is expanding the boundaries of media freedom by, for example, inviting a policeman in to talk about the drug problem. What gets into the public sphere is more official propaganda. The real story remains muted because of official censorship and, even more insidious, by constant self censorship for fear of giving offense. Where's the public benefit?
If everybody is constantly "rephrasing" themselves, even those visitors like Stephen who would have nothing to lose by speaking candidly, it's hard to see how progress will come. Somebody has to break the rules, or at least bend them to the breaking point. Somebody has to risk their comfortable job. "Dancing with the sheiks" is just not good enough.
I encountered this problem in Rwanda, as part of a group of teacher/journalists brought in to "professionalize" local media. I felt it was part of my job to represent Western media practices, by NOT censoring myself. When I wrote an "offending" blog entry, officials made it clear I was not welcome in the state media. It was a learning moment for me, and the Rwandan journalism students I was teaching.
When the rules are offensive, the authentic journalist finds ways to subvert them.
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Some things never change

2010-04-11T08:27:00.001-04:00

THIS WAS WRITTEN IN 1968 42 years ago - Astonishing!
You probably don't remember the name Eric Hoffer. He was a longshoreman who turned into a philosopher, wrote columns for newspapers and some books. He was a non-Jewish American social philosopher. He was born in 1902 and died in 1983, after writing nine books and winning the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His first book, The True Believer, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a classic. Eric Hoffer was one of the most influential American philosophers and free thinkers of the 20th Century. His books are still widely read and quoted today. Acclaimed for his thoughts on mass movements and fanaticism, Hoffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983. Hopewell Publications awards the best in independent publishing across a wide range of categories, singling out the most thought provoking titles in books and short prose, on a yearly basis in honor of Eric Hoffer. Here is one of his columns from 1968 -- 42 years ago! Some things never change! ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~
ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION...by Eric Hoffer – Los Angeles Times 26/5/1968. The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel , the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single one. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations, when they are defeated, survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews. No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia . But, when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one demonstrated against him. The Swedes, who were ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we did in Vietnam , did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troops in Norway . The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. and Jewish resources. Yet at this moment, Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general. I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us all.

2010-04-11T08:09:00.000-04:00

DISHONEST PEOPLE REMAIN DISHONEST

EVEN IN A HORRENDOUS TRAGEDY

Life is complicated! When the terrible natural disasters happened in Indonesia and Haiti, the world took instant notice. Money poured in to the agencies that are well prepared to help out. But getting the money is only the beginning. To make a difference the agencies must work with the local authorities, pinpoint where the most immediate problems lie, and act. Easier said than done!

In Indonesia, the Canadian Red Cross, a respected organization known world-wide, hired Indonesian contractors to supervise the building of homes for the flood stricken people. The homes were built, and built well, but the workers were not paid, and both the contractors and workers were not local to the flood area. The Canadian Red Cross eventually paid off most of the workers that remained without pay. The problem was solved with money, but the contractors will probably escape without charge, and it appears they had no problems cheating the agency and the workers even in such a drastic situation.

Haiti is different, but dishonest people still hold the upper hand. On Wednesday March 31, 2010, representatives from more than 100 donor countries, under the auspices of the United Nations, will assemble in New York to hear Haitian president Rene Preval unveil government plans to spend 3.9 billion of donated money to build government offices, health centres, schools, court-houses and other important structures. “Rebuilding Haiti does not mean returning to the situation that prevailed before the earthquake” says Preval. But is that true? What has changed? Aid groups have declared that the Haitian people do not want the government involved in the distribution of funds or supplies. Since 1990, the United States alone has provided Haiti with 4 billion in aid with no lasting impact. But the UN works only through governments. That is their modus operendi, and the fact that the government was and probably still is corrupt, carries no weight. The United Nations is more interested in doing it their way than making sure it is done well.

Speech by Benjamin Netanyahu P.M. Israel to American Cogress

2010-03-26T12:57:00.001-04:00

Senators,Members of Congress,Defense Minister Ehud BarakMinister Uzi LandauAmbassador Michael Oren,Howard Kohr, David Victor, Lee Rosenberg Leaders of AIPAC,Ladies and Gentlemen,As the world faces monumental challenges, I know that Israel and America will face them together.We stand together because we are fired by the same ideals and inspired by the same dream - the dream of achieving security, prosperity and peace.This dream seemed impossible to many Jews a century ago.This month, my father celebrated his one-hundredth birthday. When he was born, the Czars ruled Russia , the British Empire spanned the globe and the Ottomans ruled the Middle East .During his lifetime, all of these empires collapsed, others rose and fell, and the Jewish destiny swung from despair to a new hope - the rebirth of the Jewish state.For the first time in two thousand years, a sovereign Jewish people could defend itself against attack.Before that, we were subjected to unremitting savagery: the bloodletting of the Middle Ages, the expulsion of the Jews from England , Spain and Portugal , the wholesale slaughter of the Jews of the Ukraine , the pogroms in Russia , culminating in the greatest evil of all - the Holocaust.The founding of Israel did not stop the attacks on the Jews. It merely gave the Jews the power to defend themselves against those attacks.My friends,I want to tell you about the day when I fully understood the depth of this transformation.It was the day I met Shlomit Vilmosh over forty years ago.I served with her son, Haim, in the same elite unit in the army.During a battle in 1969, Haim was killed by a burst of gunfire.At his funeral, I discovered that Haim was born shortly after his mother and father had been freed from the death camps of Europe .If Haim had been born two years before, this daring young officer would have been tossed into the ovens like a million other Jewish children.Haim's mother Shlomit told me that though she was in great anguish, she was proud.At least, she said, my son fell wearing the uniform of a Jewish soldier defending the Jewish state.Time and again the Israeli army was forced to repel attacks of much larger enemies determined to destroy us.When Egypt and Jordan recognized that we could not be defeated in battle, they embraced the path of peace.Yet there are those who continue the assault against the Jewish state and who openly call for our destruction.They seek to achieve this goal through terrorism, missile attacks and most recently by developing atomic weapons.The ingathering of the Jewish people to Israel has not deterred these fanatics.In fact, it has only whetted their appetite.Iran's rulers say " Israel is a one bomb country." The head of Hezbollah says: "If all the Jews gather in Israel , it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."My friends,These are unpleasant facts, but they are the facts.The greatest threat to any living organism or nation is not to recognize danger in time.Seventy-five years ago, many leaders around the world put their heads in the sand. Untold millions died in the war that followed.Ultimately, two of history's greatest leaders helped turn the tide.Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill helped save the world. But they were too late to save six million of my own people.The future of the Jewish state can never depend on the goodwill of even the greatest of men.Israel must always reserve the right to defend itself.Today, an unprecedented threat to humanity looms large.A radical Iranian regime armed with nuclear weapons could bring an end to the era of nuclear peace the world has enjoyed for the last 65 years.Such a regime could provide nuclear weapons to terrorists and might even be tempted to use them. Our world would never be the same.Iran's brazen bid to develop nuclear weapons is first and foremost a threat to Israel , but it is also a grave threat to the region and to the world.Israel expects the international community to act swiftly and decisively to thwart this danger. But we will always reserve the right to self-defense.We must also defend ourselves against lies and vilifications.Throughout history, the slanders against the Jewish people always preceded the physical assaults against us and were used to justify these assaults.The Jews were called the well-poisoners of mankind, the fomenters of instability, the source of all evil under the sun.Unfortunately, these libelous attacks against the Jewish people also did not end with the creation of Israel .For a time, overt anti-Semitism was held in check by the shame and shock of the Holocaust. But only for a time.In recent decades the hatred of the Jews has reemerged with increasing force, but with an insidious twist.It is not merely directed at the Jewish people but increasingly at the Jewish state.In its most pernicious form, it argues that if only Israel did not exist, many of the world's problems would go away.My friends,Does this mean that Israel is above criticism? Of course not.Israel, like any democracy, has its imperfections but we strive to correct them through open debate and scrutiny.Israel has independent courts, the rule of law, a free press and a vigorous parliamentary debate - believe me, it's vigorous.I know that members of Congress refer to one another as my distinguished colleague from Wisconsin or the distinguished Senator from California .In Israel , members of Knesset don't speak of their distinguished colleagues from Kiryat Shmona and Be'er Sheva. We say - well, you don't want to know what we say..In Israel , self-criticism is a way of life, and we accept that criticism is part of the conduct of international affairs.But Israel should be judged by the same standards applied to all nations, and allegations against Israel must be grounded in fact.One allegation that is not is the attempt to describe the Jews as foreign colonialists in their own homeland, one of the great lies of modern times.In my office, I have a signet ring that was loaned to me by Israel 's Department of AntiquitiesThe ring was found next to the Western wall, but it dates back some 2,800 years ago, two hundred years after King David turned Jerusalem into our capital city.The ring is a seal of a Jewish official, and inscribed on it in Hebrew is his name: Netanyahu. Netanyahu Ben-Yoash.That's my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back 1,000 years earlier to Benjamin, the son of Jacob.One of Benjamin's brothers was named Shimon, which also happens to be the first name of my good friend, Shimon Peres, the President of Israel.Nearly 4,000 years ago, Benjamin, Shimon and their ten brothers roamed the hills of Judea .Ladies and Gentlemen,The connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel cannot be denied.The connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem cannot be denied.The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 year ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today.Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital.In Jerusalem , my government has maintained the policies of all Israeli governments since 1967, including those led by Golda Meir, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin.Today, nearly a quarter of a million Jews, almost half the city's Jewish population, live in neighborhoods that are just beyond the 1949 armistice lines.All these neighborhoods are within a five-minute drive from the Knesset.They are an integral and inextricable part of modern Jerusalem .Everyone knows that these neighborhoods will be part of Israel in any peace settlement.Therefore, building in them in no way precludes the possibility of a two-state solution.Nothing is rarer in the Middle East than tolerance for the beliefs of others.It's only under Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem that religious freedom for all faiths has been guaranteed.While we cherish our homeland, we also recognize that Palestinians live there as well.We don't want to govern them. We don't want to rule them. We want them as neighbors, living in security, dignity and peace.Yet Israel is unjustly accused of not wanting peace with the Palestinians. Nothing could be further from the truth.My government has consistently shown its commitment to peace in both word and deed.From day one, we called on the Palestinian Authority to begin peace negotiations without delay.I make that same call today. President Abbas, come and negotiate peace.Leaders who truly want peace should sit down face-to-face.Of course, the United States can help the parties solve their problems but it cannot solve the problems for the parties.Peace cannot be imposed from the outside. It can only come through direct negotiations in which we develop mutual trust.Last year, I spoke of a vision of peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state.Just as the Palestinians expect Israel to recognize a Palestinian state, we expect the Palestinians to recognize the Jewish state.My government has removed hundreds of roadblocks, barriers and checkpoints facilitating Palestinian movement.As a result, we have helped spur a fantastic boom in the Palestinian economy (Coffee Shops, restaurants, businesses, even multiplex theaters)And we announced an unprecedented moratorium on new Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria .This is what my government has done for peace. What has the Palestinian Authority done for peace?Well, they have placed preconditions on peace talks, waged a relentless international campaign to undermine Israel 's legitimacy, and promoted the notorious Goldstone report that falsely accuses Israel of war crimes. In fact, they're doing right now in the UN in the grotesquely misnamed UN Human Rights Council.I want to thank President Obama and the United States Congress for their efforts to thwart this libel, and I ask for your continued support.Regrettably, the Palestinian Authority has also continued incitement against Israel.A few days ago, a public square near Ramallah was named after a terrorist who murdered 37 Israeli civilians, including 13 children. The Palestinian Authority did nothing to prevent it.Ladies and Gentlemen,Peace requires reciprocity. It cannot be a one-way street in which only Israel makes concessions.Israel stands ready to make the compromises necessary for peace.But we expect the Palestinians to compromise as well.But one thing I will never compromise on is our security.It is hard to explain Israel 's security predicament to someone living in a country 500 times the size of Israel . But imagine the entire United States compressed to the size of New Jersey .Next, put on New Jersey 's northern border an Iranian terror proxy called Hezbollah which fires 6,000 rockets into that small state.Then imagine that this terror proxy has amassed 60,000 more missiles to fire at you.Wait. I'm not finished. Now imagine on New Jersey 's southern border another Iranian terror proxy called Hamas.It too fires 6,000 rockets into your territory while smuggling even more lethal weapons into its territory.Do you think you would feel a little bit vulnerable? Do you think you would expect some understanding from the international community when you defend yourselves?A peace agreement with the Palestinians must include effective security arrangements on the ground.Israel must make sure that what happened in Lebanon and Gaza doesn't happen again in the West Bank .Israel's main security problem with Lebanon is not its border with Lebanon . It is Lebanon 's border with Syria , through which Iran and Syria smuggle tens of thousands of weapons to Hezbollah.Israel's main security problem with Gaza is not its border with Gaza . It's Gaza's border with Egypt , under which nearly 1,000 tunnels have been dug to smuggle weapons.Experience has shown that only an Israeli presence on the ground can prevent weapons smuggling.This is why a peace agreement with the Palestinians must include an Israeli presence on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state.If peace with the Palestinians proves its durability over time, we can review security arrangements.We are prepared to take risks for peace, but we will not be reckless with the lives of our people and the life of the one and only Jewish state.Ladies and Gentlemen,The people of Israel want a future in which our children no longer experience the horrors of war.We want a future in which Israel realizes its full potential as a global center of technology, anchored in its values and living in peace with all its neighbors.I envision an Israel that can dedicate even more of its creative and scientific talents to help solve some of the great challenges of the day, foremost of which is finding a clean and affordable substitute for gasoline.And when we find that alternative, we will stop transferring hundreds of billions of dollars to radical regimes that support terror.I am confident that in pursuing these goals, we have the enduring friendship of the United States of America , the greatest nation on earth.The American people have always shown their courage, their generosity and their decency.From one President to the next, from one Congress to the next, America 's commitment to Israel 's security has been unwavering.In the last year, President Obama and the U.S. Congress have given meaning to that commitment by providing Israel with military assistance, by enabling joint military exercises and by working on joint missile defense.So too, Israel has been a staunch and steadfast ally of the United States .As Vice President Biden said, America has no better friend in the community of nations than Israel .For decades, Israel served as a bulwark against Soviet expansionism. Today it is helping America stem the tide of militant Islam.Israel shares with America everything we know about fighting a new kind of enemy.We share intelligence. We cooperate in countless other ways that I am not at liberty to divulge. This cooperation is important for Israel and is helping save American lives.Our soldiers and your soldiers fight against fanatic enemies that loathe our common values.In the eyes of these fanatics, we are you and you are us.To them, the only difference is that you are big and we are small. You are the Great Satan and we are the Little Satan.This fanaticism's hatred of Western civilization predates Israel 's establishment by over one thousand years.Militant Islam does not hate the West because of Israel . It hates Israel because of the West -Because it sees Israel as an outpost of freedom and democracy that prevents them from overrunning the Middle East .That is why when Israel stands against its enemies, it stands against America's enemies.President Harry Truman, the first leader to recognize Israel , said this: "I have faith in Israel and I believe that it has a glorious future - not just as another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization."My Friends, We are gathered here today because we believe in those common ideals. And because of those ideals, I am certain that Israel and America will always stand together.
=

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2010-03-25T09:20:00.000-04:00

PARKING TICKETS (2)

About 2 years ago I did an article on the “parking ticket “scam in the city of Toronto. Recently two news articles awakened my attention to this issue. I do not intend to go over my original piece except to suggest that it be read again. Nothing has changed for the better. Everything still applies but it is my opinion that, if anything, parking conditions are even worse

In 2002, 250 police officers received more than $100,000 yearly in pay; the year 2006 showed 708 at this rate, and by 2009, 1006 had this stipend. Two police constables saw their salary rise to $161,892 and $151,042 and were amoung 380 who topped the $100,000 mark in 2009. Please note these are not high ranking officers but constables on the street. When police constables appear in court during a scheduled off day as a witness, they are paid a minimum of 4 hours at 1 ½ times their basic wage even if the appearance lasts only 15 minutes. David Soknacki, a former city budget chief was apprehensive of ticket writing police issuing tickets with the expectation of additional overtime pay. Of course if there is an incentive for officers to increase their overtime pay by writing parking tickets, many will take it

Recently, on the Danforth, a motorist given a ticket for illegal parking, was also charged with assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon, and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. I am more than certain that the motorist hit the parking officer in frustration and anger, but the rest of the charges are probably laid on as pay back, for the assault on the issuer of the ticket

A few years back the city was making so much money that they decided not to fight the case in court if the parking violator appealed by setting a court date. They did this by not setting a court date and the ticket expired. They did not have to pay overtime to the officer for appearing in court. When motorists caught on, they changed, and issue a court date each and every time.

Close to 100 million dollars are raised each year for parking offences. The fact that it is irritating to the public carries no weight with the politicians. The city needs the money and the public does not take action at the voting booth. Not yet!!

Khaled Abu Toameh , Israel Palestinian Journalist writing in Jerusalem

2010-03-22T14:27:00.001-04:00

March 16, 2010 5:00 AMby Khaled Abu Toameh
What About The Arab Apartheid?
How come the Lebanese students who recently talked about Israel's "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip during Israel Apartheid Week on many North American college campuses had nothing to say about the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been massacred in Lebanon over the past four decades?
Dozens of refugees were killed and hundreds wounded in the three-month offensive that also destroyed thousands of houses inside the refugee camp. Reporters said it was the worst internal violence in Lebanon since the civil war that hit the country between 1975-1990. And just three years ago, the Lebanese Army used heavy artillery to bomb the Nahr-al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon.
Yet who has ever heard of a United Nations resolution condemning Syria or Lebanon for committing horrific atrocities or discriminating against the Palestinians?
The Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian students and professors who took part in the anti-Israel events on campuses have clearly "forgotten" that their regimes probably have more Palestinian blood on their hands than Israel. In the early 1970s, the Jordanians slaughtered thousands of Palestinians in what has become known as Black September. Can somebody point to one United Nations resolution condemning that massacre?
And where was the United Nations when Kuwait and several Gulf countries expelled more than 400,000 Palestinians in one week? The exodus took place in March 1991, after Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi occupation. Ironically, the first week of March is being celebrated on university campuses as Israel Apartheid Week with no reference to the mass expulsion of Palestinians from the Gulf.
Although there are more than 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon in twelve refugee camps -- which human rights organizations and Palestinians say have the worst living conditions of all the refugee camps in the Middle East -- as in most of the Arab countries, these Palestinians have been assigned the status of "foreigners," a fact which has deprived them of health care, social services, property ownership and education.
Even worse, Lebanese law bans Palestinians from working in many jobs. This means that Palestinians cannot work in the public services and institutions run by the government such as schools and hospitals. Unlike Israel, Lebanese public hospitals do not admit Palestinians for medical treatment or surgery.
Can somebody imagine the outcry of the international community if Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a law today prohibiting Arabs from working in certain professions or receiving medical treatment? Ironically, the Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more rights in the Jewish state than their Palestinians brothers do in any Arab country.
The same applies to Palestinians living in most of the Arab countries. While Israel has never stripped its Arab citizens of their citizenship, Jordan has begun revoking the Jordanian citizenship of thousands of its citizens who are of Palestinian descent. Jordan was the only Arab country that has ever granted Palestinian Jordanian citizenship. In recent years, however, the Jordanians appear to have regretted that decision.
As for the rest of the Arab countries, Palestinians can only dream of obtaining citizenship. It is almost impossible to find a Palestinian with Egyptian or Moroccan or Kuwaiti citizenship.
Is it not absurd that Jordan and Egypt have been arresting Palestinians who demonstrate in support of their brothers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip or collect donations for them while Israeli citizens hold almost daily protests inside Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians?
And is it not ironic that the government of Binyamin Netanyahu is doing more to boost the Palestinian economy in the West Bank than any Arab country? .
At first glance, it looked as if the students who were distributing leaflets and posters that depicted the suffering of Palestinians inside Israel and the Palestinian territories, particularly those living in refugee camps, were actually talking about the suffering of Palestinians in their own countries - Lebanon and Egypt.
How come there was no talk on these campuses about the plight of Palestinians living in most of the Arab countries, where they have been subjected to discrimination, massacres and intolerance?
Perhaps the time has come to start paying attention to the plight of the Palestinians in the Arab world.
Perhaps the time has come for these students and professors behind Israel Apartheid to consider holding not Arab Apartheid Week, but a year-long seminar to discuss repression and discrimination against Palestinians living in various Arab countries. Of course one week would not be enough for this topic and that is why there is need for a whole year.
We have heard enough how "awful" Israel is. Let us take a look now at what is happening to the Palestinians in the Arab world. Or is something the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week do not want to hear about?
March 16, 2010 5:00 AMby Khaled Abu Toameh
What About The Arab Apartheid?
How come the Lebanese students who recently talked about Israel's "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip during Israel Apartheid Week on many North American college campuses had nothing to say about the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been massacred in Lebanon over the past four decades?
Dozens of refugees were killed and hundreds wounded in the three-month offensive that also destroyed thousands of houses inside the refugee camp. Reporters said it was the worst internal violence in Lebanon since the civil war that hit the country between 1975-1990. And just three years ago, the Lebanese Army used heavy artillery to bomb the Nahr-al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon.
Yet who has ever heard of a United Nations resolution condemning Syria or Lebanon for committing horrific atrocities or discriminating against the Palestinians?
The Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian students and professors who took part in the anti-Israel events on campuses have clearly "forgotten" that their regimes probably have more Palestinian blood on their hands than Israel. In the early 1970s, the Jordanians slaughtered thousands of Palestinians in what has become known as Black September. Can somebody point to one United Nations resolution condemning that massacre?
And where was the United Nations when Kuwait and several Gulf countries expelled more than 400,000 Palestinians in one week? The exodus took place in March 1991, after Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi occupation. Ironically, the first week of March is being celebrated on university campuses as Israel Apartheid Week with no reference to the mass expulsion of Palestinians from the Gulf.
Although there are more than 400,000 Palestinians living in Lebanon in twelve refugee camps -- which human rights organizations and Palestinians say have the worst living conditions of all the refugee camps in the Middle East -- as in most of the Arab countries, these Palestinians have been assigned the status of "foreigners," a fact which has deprived them of health care, social services, property ownership and education.
Even worse, Lebanese law bans Palestinians from working in many jobs. This means that Palestinians cannot work in the public services and institutions run by the government such as schools and hospitals. Unlike Israel, Lebanese public hospitals do not admit Palestinians for medical treatment or surgery.
Can somebody imagine the outcry of the international community if Israel's parliament, the Knesset, passed a law today prohibiting Arabs from working in certain professions or receiving medical treatment? Ironically, the Arab citizens of Israel enjoy more rights in the Jewish state than their Palestinians brothers do in any Arab country.
The same applies to Palestinians living in most of the Arab countries. While Israel has never stripped its Arab citizens of their citizenship, Jordan has begun revoking the Jordanian citizenship of thousands of its citizens who are of Palestinian descent. Jordan was the only Arab country that has ever granted Palestinian Jordanian citizenship. In recent years, however, the Jordanians appear to have regretted that decision.
As for the rest of the Arab countries, Palestinians can only dream of obtaining citizenship. It is almost impossible to find a Palestinian with Egyptian or Moroccan or Kuwaiti citizenship.
Is it not absurd that Jordan and Egypt have been arresting Palestinians who demonstrate in support of their brothers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip or collect donations for them while Israeli citizens hold almost daily protests inside Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians?
And is it not ironic that the government of Binyamin Netanyahu is doing more to boost the Palestinian economy in the West Bank than any Arab country? .
At first glance, it looked as if the students who were distributing leaflets and posters that depicted the suffering of Palestinians inside Israel and the Palestinian territories, particularly those living in refugee camps, were actually talking about the suffering of Palestinians in their own countries - Lebanon and Egypt.
How come there was no talk on these campuses about the plight of Palestinians living in most of the Arab countries, where they have been subjected to discrimination, massacres and intolerance?
Perhaps the time has come to start paying attention to the plight of the Palestinians in the Arab world.
Perhaps the time has come for these students and professors behind Israel Apartheid to consider holding not Arab Apartheid Week, but a year-long seminar to discuss repression and discrimination against Palestinians living in various Arab countries. Of course one week would not be enough for this topic and that is why there is need for a whole year.
We have heard enough how "awful" Israel is. Let us take a look now at what is happening to the Palestinians in the Arab world. Or is something the organizers of Israel Apartheid Week do not want to hear about?
Khaled Abu Toameh Tel. 050 -7471212 POBOX 49192 Jerusalem 91491
Khaled Abu Toameh Tel. 050 -7471212 POBOX 49192 Jerusalem 91491

2010-03-20T09:49:00.000-04:00

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

FREEDOM TO CHANGE RELIGION

FREEDOM FROM RELIGION

As a liberal free-thinking person my interests in Canada, as it applies to religion, was to confirm that our government allowed the free practice of all religions and did not favour one religion over another. I believe this state of affairs exists now in our country .I worry however about Islam and the 57 countries where Islam is the only, or the predominate religion.

As the people who read my blog know, I am an atheist. I cannot, in all honesty, believe in a God, anybodies God, whose existence has never been proven empirically, and the fact that agnostics or atheists cannot prove the absence of a God, is not sufficient for me to change my beliefs. I will readily admit however that the psychological state of most human beings may be such that the belief and idea of God helps humans cope with the stresses of life. Through the centuries of recorded history, all over the world, most humans from the cave-man to modern man needed the presence of a super-power i.e. Sun, Moon, unseen God,in order to function, or at least they believed they needed it. Around the individual Gods, are built up administrative bodies who set the rules, regulations, customs, practices, which distinguish one religion from another, and allow control by priests, ministers, imams and rabbis. To-day most countries outside of the Moslem world allow freedom of religion as long as the religion does not interfere with secular society.

In 1990 the Cairo Declaration or so called “Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Islam” was drafted and subsequently ratified by all the Moslem member nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). This is a 57 state collective which includes every Moslem nation in earth and is the largest single voting bloc in the United Nations (UN). Both the preamble and concluding articles (24 and25) make plain that the OIC`s Cairo Declaration is designed to supersede Western conceptions of human rights as enunciated, for example in the US Bill of Rights and the UN`s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The opening of the preamble to the Cairo Declaration repeats a Koranic injunction affirming Islamic supremacy (Koran 3:110 “You are the best nation ever brought forth to men…you believe in Allah”) .These statements capture the indelible influence of the Islamic religious law Shari`a—the Cairo Declaration claiming supremacy based on “divine revelation” which renders sacred and permanent the notion of INEQUALITY between the community of Allah and the infidels (us) Thus we can see clearly the differences between the Cairo Declaration which sanctions the gross inequalities inherent in the Shari`a and its western human rights counterparts which do not refer to any specific religion or to the superiority of any group over another, and stress the ABSOLUTE equality of all human beings. Enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Bill of Rights is the guarantee that laws may not be made that interfere with religion “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom either alone or in community with others and in public or private., to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. The gravely negative implications of the OIC`s based Cairo Declaration are most apparent in its transparent rejection of freedom of conscience in article 10 which proclaims:

“Islam is the religion of unspoiled nature. It is prohibited to exercise any form of compulsion on man or to exploit his poverty or ignorance in order to convert him to another religion, or to ATHEISM.Ominously, articles 19 and 22 reiterate a principle stated throughout the document, which clearly applies to the “punishment” of so-called apostates from Islam

Rifqa Barry, 17, a teen-age American girl said she was threatened by her family because she converted from Islam to Christianity She had to run away from her home town to escape the wrath of her family. This is happening in America.! Are there other occurrences that we do not know about like “honour killings?” When the Shari`a law is in contradiction to the laws of the state the state laws must be obeyed. This is not Islamophobia, it is common sense and the way we want to live.

In the Moslem world a Qatari Liberal and former dean of Islamic Law at the University of Qatar, Dr Abd Al-Hamid Al Ansari published an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al_Jarida in which he drew attention to the incitement against secularists and liberals in the Arab world, a matter which he says has reached the proportions of a jihad war against them. A prominent Egyptian lawyer and women’s rights activist recently announced her conversion to Christianity in Cairo, Egypt . The announcement brought shock waves in and beyond Egypt. This is perhaps the first case ever of its kind, where a Muslim woman, who is also a Shari`a expert, has openly challenged Islamic apostasy from within the Muslim world

Modern western society cannot contemplate Shari`a law in its midst It is in contradiction of all everything for which we stand, including the equality of men and women.

2010-03-17T15:11:00.000-04:00

CELIBACY AND DEVIANT SEXUAL

BEHAVIOUR

Celibacy and Deviant Sexual Behaviour are not really life-styles characteristic of most men and women in the general population. However in the Catholic Church it is expected of priests and nuns to be celibate and a question has arisen, does the need to be celibate create actions of child sexual abuse or deviant sexual behaviour in general.

The Vatican has vehemently denied that its celibacy requirement for priests is the root cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal convulsing the church in Europe now, and in the recent past in North America. Suggestions that the celibacy rule is in part responsible for the deviant behaviour of sexually abusive priests have swirled in recent days in opinion pieces in German newspapers. There are even suggestions that when the present Pope Benedict XV1 was active in Germany he did not take sufficient action to defrock the priests involved , or even move them to jobs where there was no chance to encounter young children Much of the furor was spurred by comments from one of the Pope`s closest advisers, Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who called last week for an honest examination of issues like celibacy and priestly education to root out the origins of sex abuse His office quickly stressed Schoenborn wasn`t calling into question priestly celibacy, which had just been reaffirmed recently by the Pope as an “expression of the gift of oneself to God and others”

In my opinion celibacy does not create deviant sexual abusers. This is inherent in the personality of the person involved. It however makes good sense, for an individual so inclined by nature, and aware of the law and requirements of society, to take a job in a field where one is not expected to be sexually active, so as to hide their behavior from the public. There are many opportunities to take advantage of children in this job.

It also is beholden on the church to take immediate action if a priest is suspected of this activity.

2010-03-17T15:05:00.000-04:00

2010-01-24T15:29:00.000-05:00

TOLERANT ISLAM

A Contradiction in terms?

When I started public school in 1936 at the beginning of class we sang the national anthem “God Save The King” and recited the “Lord’s Prayer”. Canada was a secular nation, but for all practical purposes a Christian secular nation. Nobody minded! Jewish families with very few exceptions accepted the status quo.All were free to practice their religion as they saw fit although there was discrimination against Jews in the teaching profession, banking, insurance, and entrance into professional university courses

All has changed! Government institutions are tolerant of the main religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, to such an extent that the term “Merry Christmas” has been replaced by “Happy Holiday” to take account of the fact some other religious holidays might fall at the same time. For me, as a young Jew, Christianity was synonymous with Christmas. Happy Holidays is a much more neutral term and encompassed everybody whether you were Christian or not.

In the beginning of the 20th century, France, Italy, Spain considered themselves Catholic nations and England was just as firmly Protestant. In the 21st century religious institutions in western nations do not have the positions of power as in the past and all religions and their practices are accepting of one another’s dogma and practices. The idea of Protestants and Catholics engaged in deadly religious wars is part of the history of these religions. When Tito died, Yugoslavia broke up into religious factions and the Christians of Serbia fought and tried to expel the Moslems in Bosnia. It was the U.S. a predominately Christian country that ended that slaughter. The fighting in Northern Ireland is somewhat sectarian but mostly economic It has been resolved. Israel, a majority Jewish state has complete freedom of religion for all. In general western democracies are relatively free of religious strife It would be hard to make the same statement about the 57 Moslem countries that comprise 1 ½ billion people.

Christian evangelists in an article in a publication called “Battle Cry” point out that in January 2010, the Afghan government warned that conversion to Christianity was punishable by death. What a deplorable act of chutzpah! If a citizen wants to convert to the religion of the saviors of the country, the person faces a death penalty. In Pakistan, Turkey and the Philippines there are many instances of anti-Christian activity. Saudi Arabia, the supplier of much of the oil to the west is one of the most oppressive countries for Christians. There are no churches in the entire country, even though foreign workers make up 1/3 of the population and many of them are Christian. It goes without saying that Jews are not allowed into the country at all.

Many religious texts like the Bible, Koran and the Old Testament are filled with demands that are inconsistent with modern practices and ethics. Fundamental Christians and very orthodox Jews do not, in these instances, follow the exact requirements as written many years ago. The attitude of Islam towards other religions is not in some instances, in keeping with the laissez-faire attitude of the 21st century. In general the western world is open to all religious beliefs, even atheism, while some Imams preach that apostasy should be punishable by death and even accept the idea that committing suicide and killing innocent by-standers can be tolerated, even to the extent of killing other Moslems.The number of Moslems who adopt this attitude is probably small, but the acts themselves can be so horrendous, that they are able to create resentment against the whole religion, even in a very tolerant western world.

2010-01-11T15:36:00.000-05:00

CANADA`S MANY FIRST NATIONS

Bill Kniatt, a minister of Indian and Northern Affairs in the 1980`s, responding to the continuing welfare dependency in many aboriginal communities responded “What would you suggest in an isolated locale, without markets, without resources, without an industrial base and without economic opportunities. You try as best you can to provide a social safety net, as we do to all Canadians.

It is ironic, but originally the land allotted to the natives, to be used as reserves, was land of limited economic value, distant from the majority of Canadians. This was true in most cases but not all Now the leaders of the First Nations, comprised of the elected chiefs and their associates and families, anthropologists, social workers, lawyers, etc, are fighting to keep the native people on these non-productive useless parcels because the land represents their claim to some form of self-rule, perpetuating the idea of nationhood. I find it difficult to believe that these leaders do not take into consideration that their jobs depend on the status quo.

In a speech made by First Nations Regional Chief, Angus Toulouse, at the “Make Poverty History” campaign launched in 2006, said “The reality to-day for First Nations communities is ongoing poverty, and an increasing gap in living conditions with other Canadians…First Nations poverty is the single greatest social issue in Canada to-day”. Poverty breeds crime, but this magnitude of poverty would bring crime with any other community, under similar conditions. There is a justified feeling of guilt in the minds of the Canadian public as to how we have treated the native people. How else to explain the failure of the of the Ontario Government to stop the influx of drugs and contraband cigarettes through the reserves bordering the United States, or the inaction of the Ontario Provincial Police in protecting a land-owner in the Caledonia land claims dispute with the Mohawk Six Nations. An out-of-court settlement was reached in Caledonia with the Ontario government settling with the land-owners. The federal and provincial governments throughout Canada have a two-tiered system in their application of the law towards aboriginals and other Canadians. There is a preferential treatment of the aboriginals that corrodes the law. Because of the guilt factor governments, provincial and federal, do not ask their police forces to crack down on infractures of the law because it will bring newspaper headlines and the futile lives of most of the poor aboriginals will be exposed for all to see. Thirty-eight percent of the deaths of young people on reserves are due to suicide. Twenty-seven thousand aboriginal kids are in foster homes, a figure larger than the number of young people taken by the government from their families many years ago, and put into residential schools.

When the Canadian public is so sympathetic to the plight of the aboriginals why is no action taken to begin the process of recovery? The answer lies in two directions. The governments have made such a mess, that the cost to fix would be horrendous for them, and the leaders of the First Nations feel that their people should decide for themselves how to run their affairs. The First Nations leaders advocate two major initiatives, land claims and self-government. Land claims are supposed to give the natives an economic base from which to regain self-sufficiency. However in some areas where the reserve land has resources, there are still people living off welfare. The self-government will bring back the pride of their culture that they lost by government control. I quote from the book “Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry” by Frances Widdowson and Albert Howard. “The legal and culturally sensitive bureaucratic solutions to aboriginal problems that the industry proposes, would continue to keep natives isolated and dependent, thus perpetuating existing social pathologies and not incidentally justifying demands for more funding for the Aboriginal Industry.” Billions of dollars are squandered each year and without going into detail you cannot make an economic and social success on these reserves. It is impossible to make it work regardless of the edicts of the institutes, journals, university departments and government funded agencies, all controlled by associates of the Aboriginal Industry. If you disagree with the decisions of these groups you are branded “racist”. End of conversation!

In the last 15 years, government committees have been influenced in their negotiations with the representatives of the natives by a concept called “Traditional Knowledge”. This is defined by Widdowson and Howard as knowledge and values which have been acquired through experience, observation from their lives on the land, and spiritual teachings handed down verbally from one generation to the next. North American tribes had no written history before the arrival of Europeans. In my opinion it is another lever to keep the situation as it is, controlled, and in the hands of the present native negotiators, aboriginal and non-aboriginal.

There are over 600 recognized First Nations` tribal governments spread all across Canada, half of which are in Ontario and British Colombia. They can be as diverse from each other as the English, French and Dutch are from each other in Europe. The A.F.N. (Association of First Nations) can be compared politically to the E.U. (European Union).
Native tribes were here prior to Confederation, many years prior to the formation of Canada, and we conquered them in some cases, and made treaties in others. To a great extent the problems they face were created by the British government and subsequently by the Canadian government. The policy of giving money to the aboriginal communities is not leading to integrated and successful lives for them in Canada. The system, as it stands, does not work, it needs changing. It will not be simple, and must be favourable to the Aboriginals so that it brings their standard of living to the level of all Canadians.

Power, self-interest and hypocrisy are not exclusive to any particular group of humans. The people leading the aboriginals do not want changes that take away their power or jobs. How else to account for Mayor Glen Hudson and the four band councilors of the Pequis First nations, a community of 7200 people, getting between $295,000 to $440,000 in tax-free salary. This is particularly outrageous, but this scenario is common in a lot of western Canada reserves with oil, gas and forestry on their property. Even wealthy reserves have unemployment while local band councilors live in large homes and travel extensively. Why are these leaders so free to take advantage? They purport to maintain traditional tribal culture, but the end result is that essential services such as education, health and housing are wanting.

The idea of “Traditional Knowledge” cannot be backed up with scientific evidence that it is useful in benefiting the people. If the aboriginals want to keep their traditional culture, they should maintain it as all immigrants to Canada do, with private effort and very little government money. The issue of land claims must be addressed expeditiously. It is native land and must remain so as long as it makes economic sense. If not, the land should be taken back by the government and the persons living there should be compensated, not for the value of the land which could be nominal, but for past injustices. This is not a short-term plan but may well take up to fifty years to complete, and when it is over the aboriginals will be another minority in a country of minorities. Hundreds of small aboriginal nations living in Canada with certain rights of self-government have produced a failing life-style for the natives and never-ending trouble for the Canadian government.

To summarize I suggest the following:

1. Welfare funding and other government help should be given directly to the native people and not through their tribal organizations.
2. Uneconomic reserves should be broken up and the people living there should be compensated by the government.
3. Schools to provide education for the youth and career jobs for adults should be run by the government on reserve land with aboriginal input.
4. Culture, religion and life-style must be maintained by the individual aboriginal.
5. All over Canada, non-native groups should form organizations to facilitate these changes and to exert pressure on the government.
6. Whatever the cost, land claims must be addressed within a set number of years and not put off by tactics of the government or native groups.

I sympathize with our native people, but the system in place now is not working for them or the Canadian government and people

2009-12-21T11:10:00.000-05:00

Mel Brooks Explains Everything-About Being a Jew

I may be angry at God or at the world, and I am sure a lot of my comedy is based on anger and hostility…It comes from a feeling that as a Jew and as a person, I don’t fit into the mainstream of American society. (Mel Brooks and I disagree on this point. I think I fit into Canadian society)

Feeling different, feeling alienated, feeling persecuted, feeling that the only way you can deal with the world is to laugh- because if you don’t laugh you’re going to cry and never stop crying-that’s probably what’s responsible for the Jews having developed such a great sense of humour.The people having the greatest reason to weep, learned more than anyone else how to laugh.

Based on the accomplishments of individual Jews, Nobel Prize winners and heroes of modern culture, as well as the amount of attention Jews get in the media, you’d never believe the correct answers: There are little more than 13 million Jews in the world, comprising less than ¼ of 1% of the worlds population!!!

Do you think it`s just a coincidence? Twenty-one percent of Nobel Prize winners have been Jews, even though Jews comprise comprise less than ¼ of 1 % of the worlds population. Choose any field and you will find that Jews have excelled in it.

Think of the names of many modern-day figures, most responsible for the intellectual turning points in history-Marx, Freud and Einstein- and you will find proof of the Biblical verdict:” Surely this is…a wise and understanding people” There is simply no way to deny it

Jews are really smart. There must be a reason-and I can give you three: heredity, the environment and a unique value system.

HEREDITY-Historians have pointed out a fascinating difference between Jews and Christians. In Christianity, as well as in many other religions, holiness was identified with asceticism, great spirituality with the practice of celibacy. For centuries the finest minds amoung Christians were urged to join the church and become priests. That effectively condemned their genetic pool of intelligence to an untimely end.

Jews, on the other hand, took quite seriously the first commandment to mankind-to be fruitful and multiply. Sex was never seen as sinful; but rather, as one of those things created by God that he surely must have had in mind when he declared in reviewing his work.” Behold everything was very good”

Amoung Jews, the most intelligent were encouraged to become religious leaders. As Rabbis, they had to serve as role models for their congregants as procreators and “fathers of their countries” Brains got passed on from generation to generation, and Jews to-day are still reaping the benefits of the frequent sexual activities of their ancestors.

ENVIRONMENT-If challenge and response are the keys to creativity and achievement, it`s no surprise that Jews are smart; they`ve been challenged more than anyone else on earth. The school of hard knocks is a wonderful teacher. Jews had no choice but to learn to be better than anyone else since the odds were always so very much stacked against them.

When you`re born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you tend to get fat and lazy. When you`re born with the lash of a whip on your back, you quickly learn to become crafty, street smart, and knowledgeable in everything that will help you make it through life.

A UNIQUE VALUE SYSTEM- We still haven’t touched on the most important reason of all. Jews are smart because they have been raised in a tradition that treasures education above everything else, that considers study the highest obligation of mankind, and that identifies the intellect as part of us created in” the image of God” To be illiterate was unheard of in the Jewish world, not only because it was a sign of stupidity, but more significantly, because it was a sin.

Jews are obligated by law to review the Bible in its entirety every year, dividing it into manageable weekly sections. The widespread custom when a child turned 3 years old was to write the letters of the Hebrew alphabet on a board in honey and have the child learn them as he licked them off, equating their meaning with the taste of sweetness.

Jews studied the Midrash and it taught them: The Sword and the Book came from Heaven together, and the Holy One said:” keep what is written in this book , or be destroyed by the other” Jews studied the Mishna and it taught them. “Say not when I have leisure.”

Philosophical Teyve, that delightful creation of the Yiddish writer Shalom Aleichem and the lead character of Fiddler On T he Roof, explained that Jews always wear hats because they will never know when they will be forced to travel. What he did`nt say, which is probably more important, is that they always made sure to have something under their hats and inside their heads-because physical possessions could be take from them, but what they accumulated in their minds would always remain the greatest merchandise a Jew possesses

And you thought Mel Brooks was only a funny man.

Mel Brooks has a lot to say about why Jews are successful but he leaves out a very important part of the history of the Jews.” Why is there Anti-Semitism” on an ongoing basis?. Is it the purported killing of Christ, is it jealousy, or is it the habit of generations passed on from father to son?

2009-12-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

AIR POLLUTION

Listening to the 6 o’clock news on C.B.C. the other day I was piqued at the statements coming from the mouth of an executive of the Sierra Club of Canada. He knows, in that all knowing tone, that the vast majority of Canadians are in favour of cleaning up the environment, and saving our planet from eventual destruction. I am sure if you asked individual Canadians if they are for cleaning up the environment their answer would be a resounding YES. But if the question was more nuanced and took in the price to be paid, there would be some hesitation.

Prime Minister Harper is in favour of a clean environment as much as the next Canadian. He breathes the same air as we do. But if he announced unilaterally changes that would elevate the costs of doing business in Canada, and the U.S. did not follow, thousands of jobs would be lost in Canada, and the reduction of air pollution would be less than negligible. The U.S. is the biggest polluter in the world and Canada must act in unison with the American industry to keep Canadian companies competitive. The total of Canadian pollution in the world hovers between 2-3 percent, and cutting our pollution in half, a nearly impossible task in the short term is impossible, and would have very little effect on the world. So why are Canadians the target of so much anger in Copenhagen, where the conference on pollution is being held. Simply, the U.S. has to be brought on side and Canada as an English speaking neighbour, is acting as the surrogate target for the real enemy of the Environmentalists, the U.S. It makes no sense to harangue the country you want to influence, especially if Barak Obama is president, who is perceived as friendly.

In reading this piece, one might think that I was not in favour of taking action to lower the pollution generated by Canadians. Nothing could be further from the truth. While I do not believe that Science has proved conclusively that man is responsible for all the earth-warming, there is no question that we are responsible for some, and lowering our pollution footprint makes good common sense The question is how much and in what period of time?

2009-12-18T14:07:00.001-05:00

2009-12-03T11:01:00.001-05:00

Winning is all that counts

Principles are often overlooked in striving for success. It never ceases to amaze me how the need to be successful is more important than the need to be ethical, even if your actions directly contradict the ethics of your cause. This is true whether you are describing an individual, a corporation, a religion or a country.

I bring to your attention, a now 70 year old black woman Claudette Colvin. On March 2 1955 Colvin, then a 15 year old black girl in Montgomery Alabama was riding the bus home from school, faced a driver who demanded that she give up her seat to a middle-aged white woman, even though three other seats in the row were empty, one beside her, and two others across the aisle.” If she sat down in the same row as me, it meant I was as good as her”, Colvin said. The young girl was dragged off the bus and handcuffed. The arrest was big news and black leaders, among them Martin Luther King, jumped at the opportunity to use her case to fight the segregation laws in the courts. It was not until Dec 1 of the same year that Rosa Parks, a seasoned veteran of the NAACP( it was unknown to me that she was a secretary at the NAACP) refused to go to the back of the bus as demanded and became according to TIME magazine one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. Calvin knew Rosa Parks, secretary of the NAACP in Montgomery, but she was passed over in favour of using Rosa because she had lighter skin colour and would be more acceptable to the white majority. My Ma told me “let Rosa be the one. White people aren’t going to bother Rosa- her skin is lighter than yours and they like her”

So here is the NAACP, fighting to outlaw discrimination because of colour, choosing the lighter colour of Rosa for the darker, feisty Claudette. It seems colour does matter for the NAACP.

2009-11-25T09:14:00.000-05:00

CASTRATI

I cease to be amazed at the ability of civilized human beings (whatever that means) to find a way to kill, torture and terrorize one another. In my lifetime, a period of close to 80 years, there have been three massacres that have captured the attention of the world. Starting with the holocaust, the indiscriminate killing of European Jews, and followed by the slaughter of Tutsis, by Hutus, in Rwanda. A few years ago the Sudanese government began the killing of African farmers in the western region of Darfur. As many as 400,000 people, the exact number unknown, have died, murdered in their villages. These outrages are perpetrated for reasons of power, jealousy and hatred.

But what about small injustices on individuals, instigated by persons or institutions of standing, with their victims. I am talking about CASTRATION. I was shocked to read an article in the Globe and mail by Robert Everett-Green about the prevalence of castration of young boys from the 16th to the 18th century to feed the demand for elaborate high-pitched soprano voices. The practice began in the churches to be able to form all-male choirs with strong soprano voices. Women were banned from singing in church choirs, but that’s another injustice. The larynx and vocal chords of a castrated boy would stop developing leaving him with a high-pitched soprano voice, but the chest cavity would grow resulting in a powerful voice. It achieved the aims of the church, but left the boy unable to produce children and enjoy the pleasures of sex. A pleasure that remains from youth until, in some cases well into the 80`s. Impoverished parents, for money I am sure, gave their sons over to the church for this purpose. How could parents do this to their male offspring? Castrated men were much in demand as baroque opera singers but not all succeeded. Many ended up as prostitutes, thieves and social outcasts. Some became priests. It is estimated that 4000 boys a year were castrated to fill the demand for strong soprano voices Was any serious thought given to the long-time happiness of the boy by the parents and the church? I think not!

2009-11-24T10:57:00.000-05:00

NEVER AGAIN

This speech was given in the Orthodox Synagogue of St Louis by Joe McCain, brother of Senator John McCain of Arizona.

The Jews will not go quietly again. NEVER.

There is a lot of worrying popping up in the media just now -- “Can Israel Survive”? Don`t worry about it. It relates to something the Palestinians, the Arabs, and perhaps most Americans don’t realize -- the Jews are never going quietly again. Never. And if the world doesn’t come to understand that, then millions of Arabs are going to die. It’s as simple as that.

Throughout the history of the world, the most abused, kicked-around race of people have been the Jews. Not just during the holocaust of World War 11, but for thousands of years. They have truly been “The Chosen People” in a terrible and tragic sense.

The Bible story of Egypt`s enslavement of the Jews is not just a story, it is history, if festooned with theological legend and heroic epics. In 70 AD the Romans, which for a long time tolerated the Jews- even admired them as “superior” to other vassals- tired of their truculent demands for independence and decided on an early “Solution” to the Jewish problem. Jerusalem was sacked and reduced to rubble, Jewish resistance was pursued and crushed by the implacable Roman War Machine—see “Masada”. And thus began the Diaspora, the dispersal of Jews throughout the rest of the world.

Their homeland destroyed, their culture crushed, they looked desperately for the few niches in a hostile world where they could be safe. That safety was fragile, and often subject to the whims of moody hosts. The words “pogrom”, “ghetto”, and “anti-semitism” come from this treatment of the first mono-theistic people. Throughout Europe, changing times meant sometimes tolerance, sometimes even warmth for the Jews, but eventually it meant hostility, then malevolence. There is not a country in Europe or western Asia that at one time or another has not decided to lash out against the children of Moses, sometimes by whim, sometimes by manipulation.

Winston Churchill calls Edward 1 one of England’s very greatest kings. It was under his rule in the late 1200`s that Wales and Cornwall were hammered into the British crown, and Scotland and Ireland were invaded and occupied. He was also the first European monarch to set up a really effective administrative bureaucracy, surveyed and censused his kingdom, established laws and political divisions. But he also embraced the Jews.

Actually Edward didn’t embrace Jews so much as he embraced their money. For the English Jews had acquired wealth -- understandable, because his people that could not own land or office could not join most of the trades and professions, soon found out that money was a very good thing to accumulate. Much harder to take away than land or a store, was a hidden sock of gold and silver coins. Ever resourceful, Edward found a
way -- he borrowed money from the Jews to finance imperial ambitions in Europe, especially France. The loans were almost certainly not made gladly, but how do you refuse your king? Especially when he is “Edward the Hammer”. Then, rather than pay back the debt, Edward simply expelled the Jews. Edward was especially inventive -- he did this twice. After a time, he invited the Jews back to their English homeland, borrowed more money, and then expelled them again.

Most people do not know that Spain was one of the early entrants into the Renaissance. People from all over the world came to Spain in the late medieval period. All were welcome—Arabs, Jews other Europeans. The University of Salamanca was one of the great centres of learning in the world—scholars of all nations, all fields came to Salamanca to share their knowledge and their ideas. But in 1492 Ferdinand qnd Isabella, having driven the last of Moors from the Spanish Shield, were persuaded by the righteous fundamentalists of the time to announce `the Act of Purification`. A series of steps were taken in which all Jews and Arabs and other non-Christians were expelled from the country, or would face the tools and the torches of the Inquisition. From this` cleansing` come the Sephardic Jews—as opposed to the Ashkenazis of Eastern Europe. In Eastern Europe, the sporadic violence and brutality against Jews are common knowledge. `Fidler` without the music and the folksy humour.At times of fury, no accommodation by the Jew was good enough, no profile low enough, no village poor enough or distant enough.

From these come the near-steady flow of Jews to the United States. And despite the disdain of the Jews by most` American` American, they came to grab the American dream with both hands, and contributed everything from new ideas of enterprise in retail and entertainment to becoming some of our finest physicians and lawyers. The modern United States in spite of itself, IS the United States in part because of its Jewish blood.

Then the Nazi Holocaust—the corralling, sorting, orderly eradication of millions of the people of Moses. Not something that the other realms in other times didn’t try to do, by the way, the Germans were just more organized and had better murder technology.

I stood in the centre of Dachau for an entire day, about 15 years ago, trying to comprehend how this could have happened. I had gone there on a side trip from Munich, vaguely curious about this Dachau. I soon became engulfed in the enormity of what had occurred there nestled in this middle and working class neighborhood.

How could human beings do this to other human beings, hear their cries, their pleas, their terror, their pain, and continue without apparently even wincing? I know longer wonder. At some times, some places ANY sect of the human race is capable of horrors against their fellow man, whether a member of the Waffen SS, a Serbian sniper, a Turkish policeman in 1920`s Armenia, A Mississippi Klansman,because even in in the United States not all was a Rose Garden. For a long time Jews had quotas in our universities and graduate schools. Only so many Jews could be in a medical or law school at one time. Jews were disparaged widely. I remember as a kid Jewish jokes told without a wince-`Why do Jews have such big noses? `

Well, now the Jews have a homeland again. A place that is theirs. And that’s the point. It doesn`t matter how many times the United States and European powers try to rein in Israel, if it comes down to survival of its nation, its people, they will fight like no lioness has ever fought to save her cubs. They will fight with ferocity, a determination, and a skill that will astonish us.

And many will die, mostly their attackers, I believe. If there were a macabre historical betting parlor, my money would be on the Israelis to be standing at the end. As we killed the kamikazes and the Wehrmacht soldaten of World War II, so will the Israelis kill their suicidal attackers, until there are not enough to torment them.

The irony goes unnoticed -- while we are hammering away to punish those who brought the horrors of last September here, we restrain the Israelis from the same retaliation. Not the same thing, of course – We are We, They are They. While we mourn and seethe at September 11th, we don’t notice that Israel has a September 11th, sometimes every day. We may not notice, but it doesn’t make any difference. And it doesn’t make any difference whether you are pro-Israeli or you think Israel is the bully of the Middle East. If it comes to where a new holocaust looms – with or without the concurrence of the United States and Europe -- Israel will lash out without pause or restraint at those who would try to annihilate their country.

The Jews will not go quietly again.

Joe McCain

2009-11-04T16:49:00.000-05:00

TOUGH DRUG LAWS WON`T WORK

A Toronto Star journalist, Joe Fiorito, wrote an article recently criticizing the drug laws in place to-day in Canada. I agree in general with what this journalist said, so I am reprinting his article. If you go to my articles on the subject in this blog under “illegal drugs” you will see where we differ.

Eugene Oscapella was in town the other day. He is a lawyer and a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, and worth listening to any day of the week

His audience was made up of people who work on the front lines with the drug users of Toronto; there were also some drug users in the room.

A bit of background: the Senate is now discussing Bill C 15, a piece of crime legislation that will, if passed, provide mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug related offences.. Oscapella began his talk by drawing attention to a quote from a cocaine user:

“You might just be bored, or alone. Everybody was welcome into the club of disaffection. And if the high didn’t solve whatever it was that was getting you down, it would at least help you laugh at the world’s ongoing folly and see you through all the hypocrisy and bullshit and cheap moralism”

Had that man been in Canada, and had he been caught with cocaine, then according to the provision of our proposed crime bill he would have been tossed in jail for two years

His name?

Barack Obama.

We’d all like the worst aspect of the drug problem to go away.- politicians most of all- think that the best thing to do is to keep drugs on the criminal side of the ledger and to threaten people with tougher penalties.

Here’s the problem, according to Oscapella and almost everyone else who looks at drugs with a clear eye: The first result of the prohibition of any substance- alcohol, tobacco, cocaine- is the creation of a black market.

Oscapella cited some figures from Pakistan in the 1990`s, where a Kilo of Opium cost $90.00 to produce on the farm. By the time it is processed and hits the street as heroin, that kilo is worth $290.00.

Drugs are less about getting high, and more about making huge pots of money.. As for risk, it is possible to fit enough heroin to supply this country for a year in the back of a cube van; a year`s supply of cocaine will fit in a shipping container. How many shipping containers and cube vans come into Canada in any given year? What’s the cost of a timely bribe?

In other words, criminal law has created a lucrative black market, and criminal law is powerless to stop it.

The new crime bill provides mandatory minimum sentences of one year, under certain circumstances, for the sale of marijuana; two years for the sale of heroin, meth or cocaine near schools or near kids; and two years for running marijuana grow up.

Oscapella said, “If you’re a mom-and-pop producer of marijuana, mandatory minimums will scare you out of business.” Yeah, so? “Organized crime will step in; the government has moved the competition out of the way.”

This is an unintended consequence of the worst kind. Banning a substance makes it wildly lucrative; punishing the small fry makes it easier for the bad guys to do business.

Alas, the new bill fails to address the causes, and the consequences, of the harmful use of drugs. We are budgeting billions for new jails, but we are spending peanuts on the treatment for drug users.

Oscapella said, I think tellingly, “No parent thinks, ‘if my kid gets arrested, I want him in jail. I want him to have a criminal record’. He also said that the best approach to ending our drug problem is the medical health model. It worked with tobacco.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

2009-10-28T10:53:00.000-04:00

MEN RULE

Upon rising in the morning an orthodox Jewish man recites a benediction giving thanks to God for not having been born a woman. When confronted that this is sexism he will argue that this is not negative towards women but allows God to place different obligations of observance on the two sexes. I take exception to that interpretation. No matter the religion, the country, the society and the life-style, in one way or another, women are treated differently and more often than not, the end result is not in their favour. The extent of the negativity will vary depending on the men in their lives, the nation where the woman lives and the religion she practices.

If one goes back hundreds of centuries, it is easy to see why women were dominated. The rule of law was non-existent and women were, in most cases, physically weaker. Especially during pregnancy and child-rearing, women needed to be protected by a man from other men. Eventually in western society laws were promulgated which gave women a measure of protection and the beginnings of the opportunity to attain equality. The discovery of the birth-control pill, for the first time allowed women the possibility of determining when they would become pregnant. However even with laws to protect women, because of the private nature of the relationship between the sexes in the home, physical strength usually determined the outcome of disagreements.

The Convention on “The Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women” was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

The Convention defines discrimination against women “…as any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, social, civil or any other field”.

By accepting the Convention, States commit themselves to undertake a series of measures to end discrimination against women in all forms, including:

to incorporate the principle of equality of men and women in their legal system, abolish all discriminatory laws and adopt appropriate ones prohibiting discrimination against women
to establish tribunals and other public institutions to ensure the effective protection of women and against discrimination, and
c. to ensure elimination of all acts of discrimination against women by
persons, organizations or enterprises.

Ninety per cent of all the nations in the UN have ratified this Convention including Saudi Arabia. This clearly shows that the Convention is of no use to protect the rights of women and is not worth the paper it is written on.

Life for women in North America and Europe has many shortcomings and it would be negligent to leave the impression that lives lived in the west are without hazards. It can be both violent and unfair.

…In the U.S. a woman is raped every six minutes and a woman is battered every fifteen seconds.
…1 in 3 female trauma patients taken into the emergency department in a hospital are victims of abuse.
…In Canada a government report reveals that indigenous women between the ages of 25-44 were five times more likely to die violently than all other women of the same age.

If a woman had confessed to the sexual acts of David Letterman, and was a T.V. personality, would she still have her job? If Hilary Clinton, the wife of President Bill Clinton, had confessed to extra-marital sex in the white house, would she have been elected senator from New York? A woman who has had many sexual partners is looked on as a slut or a whore but a man in the same position is called a womanizer, a swinger or a skirt-chaser….a definite difference in attitude.

Many women today are single parents, raising families by themselves. Fewer women are holding top executive jobs in Canada, according to a study by Rosenzweig and Co. The report said the number of women at the highest ranks of the one hundred biggest publicly-traded companies declined to thirty-one women from thirty-seven. There is an irony in all of this, as study after study shows that when corporations tap into the huge talent pool of women for top jobs, financial performance improves and shareholders benefit. Sylvia Bashevkin, a noted author on women’s affairs, recently stated “that the prospects for Canadian women in public life seem to be getting worse, not better.

If the results of the U.N. Convention had a moderate effect in the West, in the Middle East and the East they had no effect at all.

In North Africa, six thousand women are genitally mutilated each day. Thousands of women are sold into sexual slavery in China. Two hundred women in Bangladesh will be disfigured when their spurned husbands or suitors burn them with acid. Thousands of women in India will be murdered by their families and in-laws in domestic disputes. Violence against women is rooted in a global culture of discrimination which denies equal rights with men and which legitimizes the appropriation of women’s bodies for individual sexual gratification or political ends. Every year, violence in the home and throughout the world devastates the lives of millions of women. (Amnesty International 2001)

Nonie Darwish, a convert to Christianity from Islam, details some of the rules abided by the leaders of radical Islam and a large percentage of their followers.
…In the Muslim faith a Muslim man can marry a child as young as one year old and be sexually intimate with this child, consummating the marriage by age nine.
…The dowry is given to the family in exchange for the woman who becomes his slave.
…Even though a woman is abused she cannot obtain a divorce.
…To prove rape, the woman must have four male witnesses.
…Often after a woman has been raped, she is returned to her family and the family must return the dowry. The family has the right to execute her (an honour killing) to restore the honour of the family. A husband can beat his wife “at will” without giving an explanation. The husband is permitted to have four wives and a temporary wife for an hour (prostitute) at his discretion.
…The Sharia Muslim law controls the private as well as the public life of the woman.
…According to the Quran, a daughter can receive only half the inheritance of a son, a woman’s testimony in court is worth half of a man’s and the compensation for the murder of a woman is half that of a man.

In Afghanistan the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 raised the hopes that women would rapidly regain their human rights. Ongoing threats to women’s security make their participation in public life almost impossible. Afghan women are still among the most vulnerable in the world. Recently Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, and supposedly in favour of more freedom for women, secretly passed a law dubbed “the rape law” which requires among other things that women submit to sex with their husbands every four days with few exceptions. The law applies only to the Shia minority who make up ten to twenty percent of the Afghan people. When the women staged a rally to protest the law they were attacked by groups of men calling them whores.

The “Social Institutions and Gender Index” ranked the ten worst countries for gender inequality:
1. Sudan
2. Afghanistan
3. Sierra Leone
4. Mali
5. Yemen
6. Chad
7. India (there are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan)
8. Iran
9. Pakistan
10.Iraq

The Muslim world represents twenty percent of the world’s population and in general pays lip service to the demands of the United Nations for equality to women. There is no REAL equality of women ANYWHERE in the world. I believe that Canada should remain in Afghanistan if only to protect the hard-won minimal rights of women there.

2009-10-19T10:30:00.000-04:00

It`s Our Land : Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu was asked about Israel’s occupation of Arab lands.

His response was “It’s our land”. The reporter was stunned- read below.

“Crash Course on the Arab Israel Conflict” as compiled by a Christian
University. It makes sense and it is not slanted.

Nationhood and Jerusalem. Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, two
thousand years before the rise of Islam.

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a
Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of
the modern State of Israel .

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE, the Jews have had dominion
over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the
land for the past 3000 years.

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more
than 22 years.

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem
has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the
Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital,
and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy
Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to
Jerusalem.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward
Jerusalem.

9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to
leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. 68% left
without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. ( I personally question whether this
statement is completely true.)

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab
brutality, persecution and pogroms.

11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around
630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is the same.

12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into Arab
lands despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since
WW II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been
absorbed or integrated into their own people’s lands. Jewish refugees were
completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger then the state of New
Jersey.

13. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are represented by eight separate
nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation.
The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself
each time and won.

14. The PLO`s charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.
Israel has given the Palestinians most of the west bank land, autonomy under
the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.

15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were
denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and
Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of
all faiths.

16 The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council
resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.

17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were
directed against Israel.

18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by
the Jordanians.

19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient
Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of
preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

2009-09-30T07:17:00.000-04:00

PAST MISTAKES

PRESENT PROBLEMS

Our world is a complicated place. A price has to be paid for mistakes made in the past, but not seen as mistakes at the time. Since the beginning of recorded history men and nations have judged previous generations by present standards but the standards of law, justice, ethics and technology are in constant flux. As I have mentioned in other essays I believe that power, self-interest and hypocrisy are always at the forefront. When acceptable standards today are evaluated, it is difficult to measure right and wrong, taking into consideration the values of the present and the past.

At present, with the apparent warming of our earth due to the CO2 produced by heating, industry and travel (imagine banning the car 100 years ago because of pollution or not using coal as a source of electricity) there is conflict between nations who have been
industrialized for 2 or 3 centuries such as the United States and England and the nations who have just arrived at this level such as India, Brazil, China and Russia.

All nations, more or less, accept the premise that it is necessary to clean the environment. But it is expensive, and the newly industrialized nations demand that the original and first polluters pay a hugely disproportionate amount to them to allow them to comply. They insist, and rightly so, that they were not responsible for the present problem. In order to accommodate these demands, the costs would be very high and would lower the standards of living for the U.S. and Western Europe. If you take into consideration the times when this pollution took place, those nations were not acting in other than an acceptable manner. The problem is, that with national sovereignty, no country is in a position to police another countries action, except by force of arms. Not a very pleasant thought, but the environment just keeps on being polluted.

There is no question that the aboriginal tribes were the first to populate North and South America and all things being equal should control both continents. But all things were not equal and Western Europeans with their advanced technology, primarily fire-arms, were able to wrest control. The Europeans fought with one another and eventually countries were formed, but in all cases the aboriginals became second class citizens in the lands in which they were born. It is far from easy to apply legal standards of the day to events that happened centuries ago. Morally, even if we accept the idea of universal principles transcending particular cultures and periods, which for the most part conformed to the then prevailing notions of right and wrong, there are still problems. You cannot look at the Puritans in New England who fought the aboriginals for their survival in the same light as the miners who killed men, women and children for gold and land.

In Canada, under the British Mandate, the slaughter was less extensive (not a very reassuring thought) but the result was the same. The Natives lost ultimate control of their own destiny and land. There are 100`s of First Nation tribes who live in parts of Canada where, under present circumstances, it is nearly impossible to sustain themselves. Some aboriginals were assigned land that at the time the government felt was useless, but subsequently was found to contain wealth in minerals. But First Nations do not want their land torn up and lakes polluted. They have seen profit hungry mining companies ravage the environment. They do not want to move. They want to maintain identity and sovereignty, as self-governing people. The government spends $7.3 billion a year with pathetic results. To add to the problems, the civil servants who make most of the decisions, the lawyers who fight the cases for the aboriginals and some of the chiefs of the tribes and their families and friends, want to keep the system as it is. Just keep the government money rolling in. I believe that First Nations want to contribute to a strong and vibrant Canada. But how?

Pollution and the situation of the aboriginals are but two examples of the problems created in the past which need resolution in the present.

Difficult To Believe

2009-08-22T09:33:00.002-04:00

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The Israel Test – Interview with George Gilder in the Globe and MailJuly 31, 2009 – 10:49 am
Here’s a piece from the Report on Business section of the Globe and Mail:
The Israel Test: A guide for capitalismThe Globe And Mail, Fri Jul 31 2009by Neil Reynolds
OTTAWA — Early in 1981, with his million-copy bestseller Wealth and Poverty, George Gilder established himself as the intellectual herald of the Reagan Revolution. The New York Times aptly described the book as “an eloquent defence of the capitalist high ground” – apt because the high ground is mostly a matter of ethics, not economics, and Mr. Gilder is primarily a moralist. “Faith in man, faith in the future and faith in the providence of God,” he wrote, “are all essential to successful capitalism.” Without a vision, in other words, the people perish.
Even in his exuberant embrace of free-market economics, though, Mr. Gilder conceded that capitalism remains everywhere threatened – by the envy of people (especially intellectuals) who can’t abide the greater success of other people. A dedicated churchman and “classic WASP,” Mr. Gilder found this ubiquitous sin a serious violation of the 10th Commandment. (Indeed, he once observed, the only people desperate for capitalism are people who don’t have it.) In the 28 years since Wealth and Poverty, the number of impoverished people denied the benefits of a competitive economy has fallen dramatically (along with poverty itself). Without doubt, George Gilder is one of the reasons why.
In the intervening years, Mr. Gilder published a number of books that celebrate the capitalists and the entrepreneurs who pull the world along with them as they invent the future and then reinvent it again and again. Among his other significant books are The Spirit of Enterprise, his 1986 volume on entrepreneurial achievement, and Microcosm, his 1989 treatise on technological achievement.
Now he’s back with another celebration of extraordinary free-market achievement. In The Israel Test, published earlier this month by Richard Vigilante Books, he boldly asserts his thesis: “Israel has become one of the most important economies in the world and is second only to the United States in its pioneering of technologies that improve human life.”
Mr. Gilder is an iconoclastic thinker with his own particular perspectives. He is certainly controversial. But against a background of growing anti- Semitism, there is a need to recognize Israel’s importance for democracy and its contribution to the global economy, and to ponder the reasons behind this tiny country’s outsized contribution.
Simply put, Mr. Gilder asserts that Israelis now form “the vanguard of human achievement.” In commerce, in science, in technology and indeed (necessarily, under the circumstances) in military strength, Israel has forged one of the most creative societies on Earth. It is crude envy of Israel’s success, Mr. Gilder says, that explains contemporary anti-Semitism: “At the heart of anti- Semitism is resentment of Jewish achievement.”
It is the same crude envy that has afflicted other exceptional peoples throughout history, Mr. Gilder argues – from Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, for example, to the overseas Chinese in Indonesia and Malaysia. But Jews attract extraordinary hostility because they have succeeded in extraordinary measure, he argues.
This of course is not the only explanation for such ancient and difficult hatreds. The roots of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are deep and complex and rooted in a long history.
Still, some facts are difficult to refute. Citing research by sociologist Charles Murray in Human Accomplishment, Mr. Gilder says that in the first half of the 20th century, Jews won 14 per cent of the Nobel Prizes awarded in literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. In the second half of the century, the percentage rose to 29. Thus far in the 21st century, the percentage has risen to 32 per cent. Further, Jews have won 51 per cent of the Wolf Prizes (physics), 28 per cent of the Max Planck Medals (theoretical physics), 38 per cent of the Dirac Medals (theoretical physics), 37 per cent of the Heineman Prizes (mathematical physics) and 53 per cent of the Enrico Fermi Awards (lifetime achievement in energy research).
Among these award winners were some of the most gifted minds of the past century. John von Neumann (the brilliant mathematician whose life story is cherished by Mr. Gilder) won the Enrico Fermi Award in 1956. Born in Hungary, the son of a banker, Mr. von Neumann could joke with his father in classical Greek at age six – and given a minute or two with a phone book could recite in perfect order every name, address and phone number on any given page.
Now, though, Israel “concentrates the genius of the Jews,” according to Mr. Gilder. Since 1990, he notes, the country has “sloughed off its manacles of confiscatory taxes, oppressive regulations, government ownership and socialist nostalgia.”Mr. Gilder’s rule of capitalism is that the good fortune of others is one’s own good fortune too. He frames his “Israel Test” in personal terms: What is your attitude toward people who surpass you in accomplishments? Do you aspire to their excellence – or do you seethe at it?
The Israel Test, he says, is “a pivot, a litmus test, a trial” that will decide the survival of democracy and freedom in our time.
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3 Responses to “The Israel Test – Interview with George Gilder in the Globe and Mail”
Interesting, although I can’t say I agree with everything.
Thanks.
By David Pinto on Aug 1, 2009
It embarrasses me to admit that Mr Gilder is right. My basic premise has been that given the opportunity all people will be able to achieve success at the same rate Why do Jews succeed more than others? I do not know and I hate to admit they are more clever ,but what other answer is there?
By Murray Rubin on Aug 4, 2009
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2009-08-18T14:30:00.000-04:00

ANTI-ZIONISM CAN BE ANTI-SEMITISM

There is a perception in the gentile world that Jewish people are paranoid about anti-Semitism and that Jews believe that all criticisms of the policies of Israel are based on an anti-Semitic foundation. A simple rule will expose true anti-Semitism. If Israel or Jewish people are expected to act or react in a manner which is not consistent with the way most nations or people act, ipso facto, you are dealing with anti-Semitism. Israel can lose a battle, but never a war. Japan, Italy and Germany lost the Second World War, but nobody spoke of dismembering their nation at the time. From the moment the state of Israel was declared, the Arab nations “wanted to throw the Jews into the sea”. The prospect for a separate Palestinian state was not even contemplated in any manner by Arab nations until Israel won her first war for independence. The Arab nations accepted the idea of a Palestinian state in order to use the refugees as a weapon against Israel. If the attacking Arab states had accepted a Palestinian state along side Israel, the issue would have been resolved in 1948 but the Arab powers did not accept a Jewish state in the Middle East. The attacking Arab states wanted the land for themselves. Jordan took over the west bank and East Jerusalem. The autocratic Arab leaders do not want a democratic country in their midst, as it might set an example for the powerless Arab masses. It is my personal belief that if the Arabs had won in 1948 there would be no Israel and as a matter of course no Palestine. The land would have been divided between the conquering nations.

The idea of proportionality was advanced by non-governmental organizations (NGO`s) such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW). These organizations are so credible and moral when it comes to violations outside the Middle East. When Russia and South Africa fell off the human rights fund-raising map, they needed new targets to keep the donations coming. They were incredibly successful. Human Rights Watch executive director Ken Roth has a $350,000 yearly salary package. With a base of people worldwide who are permanently anti-Semitic and the fact that Israel is no longer seen militarily as the under-dog, they saw Israel as a perfect villain. These organizations need to be on good terms with the Palestinians because they are based in their countries. It is not possible to criticize an Arab regime from within, but you can say anything about Israel freely from within, with no repercussions, as Israel, which is a true democracy, has freedom of speech. Israelis take advantage of this right and can, and do, criticize their government. Arab newspapers have no such ability to freely express themselves.

The human rights NGO`s produced impressive battlefield reports based on unverifiable eyewitness information. They stated that Israel was acting in a criminal fashion by hitting Gazan civilian areas, but the organizations did not stress that Gaza neighborhoods were the source of missiles fired into Israel, which began as soon as Israel left Gaza. The fence that the Israelis built to protect themselves from suicide bombers is another bone of contention that the NGO`s have with Israel. What normal country would not try and protect their citizens? The fence has reduced suicide bombings by 98.5% Also never mentioned are the fences that exist today between India and Pakistan at Kashmir a disputed area, South Korea and North Korea, Spain and Morocco, Saudi Arabia from Yemen and Iraq and last but certainly not least the U.S. from Mexico. It is true some Palestinian land is on the Israeli side of the fence but changes can be made and have been made by the Israeli Supreme Court. The Palestinians insist on their right of return to Israel or compensation but not a word about the 865,000 Jews thrown out of Arab countries having to leave behind land and assets.

The Human Rights organizations call for a two state solution, both entities in secure and negotiated borders, but they do not question the actions of Fatah which raise doubts as to the real intentions of the government of the Palestinian Authority. On Aug 4-5 2009 Fatah convened its sixth General Conference, the first such gathering in 20 years.
In order to give the Israelis confidence that Fatah is serious about establishing peace with their country, Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, must publicly eliminate five principles that are basic foundations to the continuation of the conflict. Fatah must use a map of the Middle East that shows a State if Israel, Fatah must eliminate the call for the destruction of Israel, Fatah must not endorse violence and terror, Palestinian schools must stop an education campaign of hate against Israel and Fatah must recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. To this day there is no reliable partner for peace talks.

2009-08-04T23:27:00.000-04:00

DEMOCRACY IS NOT FLAWLESS

It had always been my contention that if only all the countries in the world became functioning democracies, wars, violence and turmoil would become
events of the past. Winston Churchill in a speech many years ago said that
democracy was a terrible system, but the best that man has been able to
devise. In recent years George W. Bush, former United States president, blamed tyranny, terrorism and violence on the lack of democracy, and stated if the Middle East countries would democratize, the area would be stabilized. George W. Bush and I were wrong.

British researcher Paul Collier writes in a startling new book “the idea that
democracy stabilizes at-risk societies and discourages violence, the blind
assumption at the heart of Western foreign policy these last 20 years, is wrong.”

In a book “Wars, Guns and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places”, Collier an Oxford University professor with twinned passions for international
development and number crunching, analyzes nation- by- nation political
and military data going back to 1960. His results portray an extraordinary
pattern. Wealthy nations, like our own, do indeed benefit from democracy.
Political freedom systematically reduces the risk of civil war, insurgency
and other forms of violence. But in poor nations, the effect is the opposite.
In sub-Saharan Africa and the poor Muslim nations of the Middle East and
Central Asia, democracy can be expected to render societies more violent, not less.

The threshold, Collier found, is about $2700 per capita per year. At income
levels below that, a nation that takes its political cues from Beijing or Riyadh will be less likely to fall into civil war than one that takes its cues
from Washington, Ottawa or London.

What is the explanation? In poor nations education levels tend to be low,, and the electorate tends to be poorly informed, perfect conditions for a
demagogue. Think of Chavez and the millions of uneducated slum dwellers
who voted for him, captivated by his “Bolivian Revolution”. Under these
conditions criminals or terrorists can be elected. Hamas legitimizes its rule
by attacking the Jews and Mugabe the whites.

In poor societies with strong ethnic and sectarian cleavages, democracy can
be disastrous. Elections are seen as a winner-take-all contest that puts the
machinery of state completely in the hands of the winning tribe, colour or
sect. If the government changes hands the losers imagine the same fate for themselves as they handed out when they were in government

For democracy to work the rule of law must be applied impartially.
Trust must prevail between all segments of society, but most importantly the opportunity for an individual to succeed, no matter whom, must be apparent
to all. This objective can be difficult to achieve, even in Western democratic societies.

2009-07-22T09:52:00.000-04:00

1`

Nurture and Nature
CREATE THE INDIVIDUAL

There are no inherently evil religions, nationalities and races. Human beings and their actions in the course of their lives, is predicated by the genes they inherit from their parents, and the norms of the community in which they have been raised.

This hypothesis makes sense but can be difficult to prove. All societies and countries have their similarities and differences. What is necessary is a constant in a different society or country in order to prove this premise. The one institution which prides itself on being a constant entity no matter where it is located in the world is the Catholic Church. I believe that by forbidding priests and nuns to marry, this religion attracts more than the average number of people who have problems with their sexuality, and being a member of the clergy of the Catholic Church is a convenient cover for many sexual deviations.

Canadians are painfully aware of the physical and sexual abuse suffered by aboriginal children who were taken away from their parents and sent to residential schools where the teachers and administrators were Catholic priests and nuns.

In Ireland tens of thousands of Irish children were sexually, physically and emotionally abused by nuns and priests for over 60 years in a network of church-run residential schools meant to care for the poor, the vulnerable and the unwanted. A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment permeated most of the institutions. Some 30,000 children were sent to such places over six decades because of pressure from their local priests, often against the families` wishes. They were sent because their families could not afford to take care of them, because the mothers had committed adultery or given birth out of wedlock, or because one or both of their parents were ill, drunken or abusive. The difference between the Canadian and Irish experience is that the government of Canada promoted residential schools in order to eliminate aboriginal culture. The resultant abuse in both countries was the same.

Sexuality is an integral part of the human condition. The church took away the right for priests and nuns to have normal sexual relations which created an environment where people who felt the need, could have abusive relationships with children in hidden and controlled surroundings. There is an ongoing argument on the relative importance of genetics (nature) and environment (nurture) in determining how a person will react to a given situation. Why are some people kind, caring intelligent, helpful or mean-spirited? Certainly genetics is heavily involved but by how much? If society (local community) promotes a unique situation, I believe that different nationalities or ethnic groups will react similarly.

The Catholic Church is an institution that prides itself on being rigid in its rules and regulations throughout the world. Priests are not allowed to marry, neither in Canada nor Ireland. In both countries thousands of miles apart when the same conditions apply, the result is the same, pedophilia and sexual abuse in church schools in Ireland, and native schools in Canada. While I do not have statistics at hand I am sure if the conditions were similar in any country, this abuse would occur. This article is not to be taken as condemnation of the Catholic Church but as an illustration that given the same circumstances all human beings ca, but not necessarily will, react in a similar fashion.

2009-07-22T09:45:00.000-04:00

1`

Nurture and Nature
CREATE THE INDIVIDUAL

There are no inherently evil religions, nationalities and races. Human beings and their actions in the course of their lives, is predicated by the genes they inherit from their parents, and the norms of the community in which they have been raised.

This hypothesis makes sense but can be difficult to prove. All societies and countries have their similarities and differences. What is necessary is a constant in a different society or country in order to prove this premise. The one institution which prides itself on being a constant entity no matter where it is located in the world is the Catholic Church. I believe that by forbidding priests and nuns to marry, this religion attracts more than the average number of people who have problems with their sexuality, and being a member of the clergy of the Catholic Church is a convenient cover for many sexual deviations.

Canadians are painfully aware of the physical and sexual abuse suffered by aboriginal children who were taken away from their parents and sent to residential schools where the teachers and administrators were Catholic priests and nuns.

In Ireland tens of thousands of Irish children were sexually, physically and emotionally abused by nuns and priests for over 60 years in a network of church-run residential schools meant to care for the poor, the vulnerable and the unwanted. A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment permeated most of the institutions. Some 30,000 children were sent to such places over six decades because of pressure from their local priests, often against the families` wishes. They were sent because their families could not afford to take care of them, because the mothers had committed adultery or given birth out of wedlock, or because one or both of their parents were ill, drunken or abusive. The difference between the Canadian and Irish experience is that the government of Canada promoted residential schools in order to eliminate aboriginal culture. The resultant abuse in both countries was the same.

Sexuality is an integral part of the human condition. The church took away the right for priests and nuns to have normal sexual relations which created an environment where people who felt the need, could have abusive relationships with children in hidden and controlled surroundings. There is an ongoing argument on the relative importance of genetics (nature) and environment (nurture) in determining how a person will react to a given situation. Why are some people kind, caring intelligent, helpful or mean-spirited? Certainly genetics is heavily involved but by how much? If society (local community) promotes a unique situation, I believe that different nationalities or ethnic groups will react similarly.

The Catholic Church is an institution that prides itself on being rigid in its rules and regulations throughout the world. Priests are not allowed to marry, neither in Canada nor Ireland. In both countries thousands of miles apart when the same conditions apply, the result is the same, pedophilia and sexual abuse in church schools in Ireland, and native schools in Canada. While I do not have statistics at hand I am sure if the conditions were similar in any country, this abuse would occur. This article is not to be taken as condemnation of the Catholic Church but as an illustration that given the same circumstances all human beings can, but not necessarily will, react in a similar fashion.

2009-07-09T19:52:00.000-04:00

Throughout the year, Members of Congress go to the floor of the House or Senate to deliver floor statements on a variety of issues that are important to them and their constituents. Earlier this week, Senator Menendez of New Jersey delivered the following statement which I thought you would appreciate reading. Please see below for the transcript.
ACKNOWLEDGING ISRAEL'S HISTORY -- (Senate - June 16, 2009) Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, last Wednesday, a few blocks down the street, a neo-Nazi opened fire at the Holocaust Museum. He murdered a security guard and terrorized the museum's visitors, including schoolchildren, who had come to learn, to express sympathy, and to pray. That evil act was the work of a killer who had made his hatred of other religions and ethnic groups well known. And it was a reminder that intolerance, ignorance, and anti-Semitism have not yet been defeated in our world. This tragedy reminds us of the need of sound understanding of one of the darkest episodes in the history of the world. Far too many misrepresent the significance of the Holocaust, especially in regard to the State of Israel and her people. And far too many people deny it happened altogether, out of bigotry, hatred, and spite. In the face of so much misunderstanding, I am compelled today to speak up about the role of the Holocaust in Israel's history and Israel's challenges in preventing anti-Semitic murder from continuing to happen. The Holocaust was the most sinister possible reminder that the Jewish population in exile was in constant jeopardy. It was a definitive argument that anti-Semitism could appear anywhere, and its horrors galvanized international support for the State of Israel. But let us be very clear: While the Shoah has a central role in Israel's identity, it is not the reason behind its founding and it is not the main justification for its existence. The extreme characterization of this mistaken view is the following: The Western powers established Israel in 1948 based on their own guilt, at the expense of the Arab peoples who lived there. Therefore, the current state is illegitimate and should be wiped off the face of the map. This flawed argument is not only in defiance of basic human dignity but in plain defiance of history. It is in defiance of ancient history as told in biblical texts and through archeological evidence. It ignores the history of the last several centuries. Because of what is at stake, it is well worth reviewing this history in detail, and let me make a modest attempt at a very broad overview. There has been a continuity of Jewish presence in the Holy Land for thousands of years. Jewish kings and governments were established in that area that is now Israel several millennia ago. After untold years of Jewish sovereignty, based in Jerusalem, the land of the Jewish people fell repeatedly to invaders--Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and many others. Jews were repeatedly massacred and expelled, and the departure of so many from the land they had always called home developed into an unparalleled Diaspora. From the 16th century until the earliest 20th century, the land that is now Israel was under the control of a distant Ottoman caliphate based in Istanbul, and during this time, as earlier, many Jews returned to their ancestral homeland. The Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I, and the treaty granted Great Britain a mandate over the area then known as Palestine. The League of Nations endorsed and clarified this mandate in 1922, requiring Britain to reconstitute a Jewish national home within the territory they controlled, in accordance with the declaration made by British Foreign Secretary Balfour in 1917, making the restoration of Jewish communities in that area a matter of international law. By the time World War II had ended, there were more than 600,000 Jews living in the British Mandate of Palestine. In 1947, the United Nations approved a plan to partition the territory into Arab and Jewish states. The Jewish Agency accepted the plan. The Arabs did not. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel declared its independence. On May 15, five Arab nations declared war. Despite being surrounded on all sides, Israel prevailed and expanded its borders, providing a small additional measure of security against attacks which were certain to come--and did. So to be clear, the more than 700,000 Palestinians who left Israel were refugees of a war instigated by Arab governments, bent on seizing more land for themselves. But the Arabs who left Israel after its modern founding weren't the only displaced population in the Middle East. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who left Europe during and after the Holocaust in the 20th century, more than three-quarters of a million Jews fled or were expelled from their homes in Arab and Middle Eastern nations--in cities that many of their families had lived in for nearly a millennium. Their possessions were taken, their livelihoods were destroyed, victims of nationalism and hatred of Israel. Several thousand years of history lead to an undeniable conclusion: The reestablishment of the State of Israel in modern times is a political reality with roots going back to the time of Abraham. And so the way to consider the immeasurable impact of the Holocaust in Israel is not to ask whether the State would exist otherwise. It is, at least in one sense, to imagine how even more vibrant Israel would be if millions upon millions had not been denied a chance to know it. The attacks on Israel have barely stopped since 1948--not just attacks by armies but attacks by individuals, attacks by tanks and terrorists, attacks that have come in the form of stones and they have come in the form of speeches. Its enemies have attempted to assassinate its people with rockets and assassinate its national character with hateful rhetoric. Today it is still surrounded by hostility; its back is still to the sea. It is surrounded by hostility from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza strip. In looking at the threat Israel faces on its southwestern border, one fact must be absolutely, indisputably, unequivocally clear: There is no moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas. Israel is a sovereign democratic state of 7.5 million people--Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Hamas is a terrorist organization. It won control of Gaza after men in ski masks waged gun battles with another branch of Palestinian leadership. It used that control to launch rockets at sleeping children in the nearby Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Sderot. This is the thanks Israel got for withdrawing from Gaza. Hamas does not recognize agreements that Palestinian leaders have reached with Israel in the past, it does not recognize Israel's right to exist at all, and in fact it is ideologically committed to Israel's annihilation. Gaza's people thirst for freedom and opportunity but are held hostage to Hamas's thirst for destruction. And even today, after the consequences of menacing Israel became clear in a disastrous war, weapons are flowing freely through tunnels into Gaza, Hamas has rearmed and is readying itself for the day when it is going to take on Israel again. Hamas and Hezbollah may be the head of the snake when it comes to terrorism, but the tail extends much further. The weapons terrorists use were sent from Iran. Money they received was sent from Iran. Propaganda supporting Hamas's campaign of terror and calling for Israel's destruction was conceived in, produced by, and broadcast from Iran. The fundamentalist regime in Teheran isn't just an emerging threat. It doesn't just have the potential to be a threat to Israel's existence. It is a threat to Israel's existence. Under no circumstances whatsoever can we allow that conventional threat to become a nuclear one. Especially in light of the threat of Iran, and in light of the threat extremists pose to so many innocent civilians around the globe, the importance of Israel as a strategic ally and friend to the United States could not be clearer. It is hard to overstate the value of having such a stalwart democratic ally in such a critical part of the world--an ally in terms of intelligence gathering, economics, politics, and culture. Israel arose in a desert rampant with repression, a force of moderation against fundamentalism and extremism. It is an ally we can constantly depend on and count on to be with us in international fora and on the key decisions that affect the safety and security of Americans around the world. For more than six decades, it has been a key U.S. trading partner and a scientific innovator. We have Israeli engineers to thank for everything from advances in solar power to cell phone technology to AOL Instant Messenger. Equipment we are using in Iraq to fight terrorism and keep American troops safe was developed in Israel. Medical treatments we are using in U.S. hospitals to fight cancer, heart disease, and chronic pain were developed in Israel. Israeli-born actors are stars of Hollywood, and an Israeli astronaut has accompanied Americans into space. So it is not only in the interest of Israel to have its full history recognized, it is in the national interest and the national security interests of the United States. It is in our interests to fully remember the unbreakable bond that has made us both stronger over the last 61 years and to make it unmistakable that our commitment is as strong as ever. The argument for Israel's legitimacy does not depend on what we say in speeches. It has been made by history. It has been made by the men and women who have made the desert green, by Nobel prizes earned, by groundbreaking innovations and enviable institutions, by lives saved, democracy defended, peace made, and battles won. There can be no denying the Jewish people's legitimate right to live in peace and security on a homeland to which they have had a connection for thousands of years. We can and must move forward in the peace process, and look for ways to reach agreement between all sides. But we cannot erase the moral distinctions between tyranny and freedom, and we must not edit history. If we stay true to history and follow our moral compass, I am optimistic that talks can lead to understanding and resolution of the very sensitive, detailed, and tough issues we face. The next pages of Middle Eastern history are not doomed to be stained by an endless, senseless fight to the death. It doesn't have to be that way. Different peoples of vastly different backgrounds have peacefully thrived in the Middle East for generations upon generations, and this coexistence can happen once more. Let us remember the words of Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat in 1978, when he accepted the Nobel Prize for peace--words that not long before would have seemed incredibly unlikely. He said: Let us put an end to wars, let us reshape life on the solid basis of equity and truth. And it is this call ..... of the great majority of the Arab and Israeli peoples, and indeed of millions of men, women, and children around the world that you are today honoring. And these hundreds of millions will judge to what extent every responsible leader in the Middle East has responded to the hopes of mankind. I have been to Israel. I have shaken the hands of its citizens and visited its holy places. I know that in the heart of Israelis there is a strong desire for peace. We can never lose sight of why peace is so important. After the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust, the Jewish people would forever be mindful that no one knows what turns history will take and every day we are mindful that anti-Semitism has not gone away, whether in the form of a firebombing of a French synagogue, defamatory comments of a government official in South Africa, or a senseless murder in Washington DC. Israel is the one place in the world, the one place where anti-Semitism can be structurally impossible. It is a field of hope on which fear can be vanquished, an island of refuge that can stand firm no matter how stormy the sea of history turns. That is why we must always keep it safe and always keep it free. The United States is not simply allied with a government, it is an ally of Israel's people. It is an ally of Israel's democratic ideals. It is an ally of its history, of its aspirations for peace and prosperity, its can-do spirit, and amazing resilience in the face of threats from all sides. In that sense, we are not just Israel's allies, we are admirers, we are partners, and we are friends. I plan to do everything I can to see that we support this friendship this year, next year, and every year thereafter. Let me close by saying Martin Luther King said: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. We know that in Israel's quest for security, there will be trials along the way, there will be setbacks, and there will be dangers too tremendous for words. But if we continue the work we do and continue to stay true to the values that drive our journey, then the long arc will eventually rest in place in the land of Israel and it is a just and lasting peace that will be at hand. I yield whatever time I have, and I yield the floor.

2009-06-21T08:41:00.000-04:00

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Telling the Truth about the Palestinians
A briefing by Khaled Abu ToamehApril 27, 2004
http://www.meforum.org/604/telling-the-truth-about-the-palestinians
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Khaled Abu Toameh, an Israeli Arab, is the West Bank and Gaza correspondent for the Jerusalem Post and U.S. News and World Report. He previously served as a senior writer for the Jerusalem Report, and a correspondent for Al-Fajr. He has produced several documentaries on the Palestinians for the BBC and many other networks, including ones that exposed the connection between Arafat and payments to the armed wing of Fatah and the financial corruption within the Palestinian Authority. Mr. Abu Toameh received his BA in English Literature from the Hebrew University and currently lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children. He addressed the Middle East Forum in Philadelphia on April 27, 2004.
As an Arab journalist working among Palestinians, I am often asked if I feel threatened while I work. I am indeed frequently placed in life-threatening situations, yet the threats I experience do not come from the Israeli occupation, but from Yasir Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA). At least 12 Palestinian journalists have been attacked by masked men in the past four months in what appears to be an organized campaign to intimidate the media. Only days ago, a photographer working for Agence France-Presse had his arms broken by a masked man in Ramallah. Agence France-Presse did not do anything about this attack, but a great outcry is raised when Israeli soldiers allegedly harass journalists in the territories.
The Lack of Independence in the Palestinian Media
Twenty years ago, while studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, I worked for the PLO's newspaper Al Fajr (The Dawn). Al Fajr was more than a paper; it was a PLO institution. At the paper we basically received and carried out orders from Arafat's office in Tunisia. Although I eventually became an editor there, I did not mention my position at Al Fajr on my resume for years because I did not consider the work that went on there to be real journalism. Now, after being censured for my outspokenly critical views of the Palestinian media, I consider my time at Al Fajr testament to my knowledge of the lack of journalistic freedom at the PLO newspaper.
I continue to witness what is happening to the Palestinian media under Arafat. Many of my Palestinian colleagues actually envy me for writing for an Israeli paper. Working for the PLO, I was not able to write a word of my own free will. Yet in two years at the Jerusalem Post my editors have never told me what to write. I can function as a journalist at the Jerusalem Post in a way that many Palestinians have tried to function under Arafat, but have failed.
Arafat's Attack on Free Speech
When Arafat returned to the West Bank and Gaza from his exile, his security forces ignored pursuing terrorists and instead arrested independent journalists not loyal enough to the PLO. Over 38 journalists were forced out of their jobs or the country. This was not given much attention by the foreign media because at the time Arafat was allowed to do whatever he wanted in the name of Oslo. Although they did not cover the story heavily, I was not alone in pointing out to foreign journalists that the first thing Arafat did when PLO returned to the territories was to restrict freedom of speech.
Arafat has complete control over the Palestinian media to this day. Almost all Palestinian newspapers are financed by the PLO, and serve as a mouthpiece for the organization, which is basically Arafat's office. Some days the headlines for the three major Palestinians papers are identical. The lack of freedom at these papers is a big disappointment for Palestinian journalists; they were freer to write what they wanted under Israeli occupation before the PLO returned from exile.
Arafat's suppression of free speech is another example of an Arab leader not allowing the people to speak out. In this way Arafat is no different from other Arab dictators, who see the role of the media as subservient to – and a mouthpiece for – their regimes. In the Arab world, if you are an independent journalist or you criticize the regime, then you are branded a traitor – and that kind of suppression of dissent is how dictatorial Arab regimes survive.
Palestinian Media and their Impact on Foreign Media
The lack of free speech in the territories should not be dismissed as an internal Palestinian problem. When Palestinian journalists are intimidated, it affects foreign journalists, who depend on Palestinians to be their guides and translators in the territories. When foreign journalists interview Palestinians, many translators often mistranslate or even reprimand Palestinian interviewees critical of the Palestinian Authority, and foreign journalists' ability to accurately gather facts is thus hampered.
Another problem with the Palestinian media is the sad fact that some Palestinian journalists see themselves as foot soldiers serving the revolution. These so-called journalists are often politically affiliated with one group or another. Under the PA, you basically cannot be a journalist if you are not a member of Fatah or the security forces. All the credible independent journalists have been fired by the three major Palestinian newspapers, and there are many professional Palestinian journalists, but they have been forced to seek work with the Arab and foreign media.
There are some in the foreign media who knowingly hire consultants or journalists who are really political activists, and rely heavily on them for their reporting. These "consultants" include former security prisoners and political activists who are hired by major media organizations, including American ones, who are often aware of these so-called journalists' problematic backgrounds. Despite the bias of their consultants, which inevitably affects their reporting, the media organizations keep quiet about the consultants' backgrounds. It is hard to say if this acquiescence by foreign media organizations is due to intimidation or to the need to maintain a good relationship with the PA, but it seriously affects the ability of journalists in the region to report the facts on the ground to the world.
Conclusion
People in the rest of the world therefore do not get an accurate picture of what happens in the region, and there are two parties to blame for this journalistic failure. Partly to blame are foreign journalists who allow themselves to be misled by some of their Palestinian consultants. The bulk of the blame, however, rests with the PA, whose tyrannical approach and control of the media creates an atmosphere of intimidation and fear among Palestinian journalists.
Summary account by Robert Blum, research assistant at the Middle East Forum
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2009-05-07T09:37:00.001-04:00

Lies and Anti-Semitism
A Common Occurrence

Recently I saw a documentary called “Paris 1919” which was a movie version of a book by Margaret MacMillan of the same name. It describes the negotiations and machinations of the leaders of 30 countries which eventually culminated in the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty between Germany and the victorious allies. Of special interest to me in particular was the statement that 500,000 Jewish citizens of Germany fought for their country in the Great War and that part of the negotiating team for the Germans were two Jewish bankers. Having bankers at the negotiations was natural because the treaty was all about reparations and money. But “Jewish Bankers”! I am sure that the other bankers were not referred to as Christian bankers, but the statement found its way into the text, probably inadvertently, by Macmillan because it seems so natural to put the Jews in charge of money . This is a perpetuation of the myth that Jews control the financial world and all money. I did not know that 500,000 Jews fought for Germany in the Great War. Hitler’s vicious statements that the Jews were responsible for Germany’s defeat and did not play a part in the war are shown to be blatantly untrue. It was well known that Jews were very loyal Germans. Lies, lies, and more lies represent the interaction between the anti-Semites of the world and the Jewish people whether rich bankers or poor people living in modest circumstances in Russia.

I do not know the exact circumstances surrounding the death of Jesus Christ, but for certain the people who called Jews his killers are equally in the dark. There was no written history of the event at the time, and aside from conclusions written many years after the event, academic students remain uncertain as to what really happened. What is certain is that Jesus Christ, teacher and healer, was crucified on the orders of Pontius Pilate on charges of sedition against the Roman Empire. Even if some Jewish religious leaders brought evidence against Christ to Pontius Pilate,is that any reason to punish generations of people who had nothing to do with the act. Many years later it was in the interests of the Christian Church to blame Jews, as it saw itself as the successor religion to Judaism, and it was politically expedient to do so.

Recently an historic ruling in a Russian court has pronounced the infamous “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” an anti-Semitic forgery- the first such verdict in the land where the fraud originated 90 years ago. Contemporary evidence shows that the protocols were written by Czar Nicholas 11`s secret police in 1903. As much as 60% of the document is a bold plagiarism from an Anti-Semitic tract published in France around that time. The Jews supposedly had an agreement to destroy the Christian civilization. The absurdity of the idea considering the relative number of Jews and Christians in the world is apparent.

Talk about lies! Alfred Dreyfus a Jew and a French military officer was implicated in a political scandal which divided France in the 1890`s and early 1900`s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent. Sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated French military secrets to the German embassy in Paris, Dreyfus was sent to the penal colony at Devil’s Island in French Guiana and placed in solitary confinement.

Two years later, in 1896, evidence came to light identifying a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy as the real culprit. However, high-ranking military officials suppressed this new evidence and Esterhazy was unanimously acquitted after the second day of his trial in military court. Instead of being exonerated, Alfred Dreyfus was further accused on the basis of false documents fabricated by French counter-intelligence officers seeking to re-confirm his conviction.

Word of the military court’s framing of Alfred Dreyfus and of an attendant cover-up began to spread, largely due to a vehement public protestation in a Paris newspaper by writer Emile Zola, in January 1898. The case had to be re-opened and Alfred Dreyfus was brought back from Guiana in 1899 to be tried again. The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (the Dreyfusards) and those who condemned him, the (Anti Dreyfusards) such as the Anti -Semitic newspaper La Libre Parole, and Hubert-Joseph Henry.

Eventually, all the accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were demonstrated to be baseless. Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army in 1906. He later served during the whole of World War I, ending his service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) seems to have made an intense study of the life and ideas of Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. Goebbels perfected the technique of the “Big Lie”, which is based on the principle that a lie, if audacious enough and repeated enough, will be believed by the masses. And certainly nothing is more audacious than the concept that the Jews are newcomers to the Middle East. In the Old Testament the ancient capitol of Israel is mentioned over 600 times. In the Koran it is not mentioned at all. Ahmed Qureia, the chief Palestinian negotiator at the 2007 Annapolis Peace Conference was quoted as saying that the Jewish Temples never existed at all and Israel has been working to invent a connection to Jerusalem. The PA in recent television programs has included the notions that the Hebrews of the Bible have no connection to the Jews of to-day, the Hebrews of the bible were Arabs, the prophets of the bible were Muslims, and that the Jews of to-day are descendents of a 13th century Khazar tribe with no history in the Middle East.

No lie is too far-fetched to fall on deaf ears. The Anti-Semites of the world are there, ready willing and able to pass on the misinformation

2009-05-02T18:03:00.000-04:00

Highway Driving

Safely and Economically

I consider myself a careful highway driver. I don’t take chances. Not too fast, but fast enough, so that I do not represent a road block to the normal flow of traffic. Driving too slow can create tensions in the minds of the drivers behind, and they can take excessive risks in passing the “slow-poke.” A slow poke is a driver who travels 10-15 K below the suggested speed limit.

In 2008 the price of gasoline reached $1.40 per litre. Speeding up and slowing down by using the brake takes an excessive amount of gas and the mechanics at my dealer suggested when driving on the highway to use the “cruise control to save money on gasoline. I had often looked at this apparatus on the steering wheel but I never used it on a regular basis

And then I did, and a new world of highway driving opened up. When I get to the highway, I set the cruise control at the speed limit, pull over to the right side of the highway and enjoy a complete tension free trip to my destination. I move to the left side only when a driver is below the speed limit and I am forced to pass. What surprises me is that many drivers feel under some compulsion to pass me, but I feel secure and safe driving on the right side at the speed limit, tension free.

2009-04-27T16:34:00.000-04:00

POWER, SELF INTEREST, SEXISM & HYPOCRISY

In an essay in my blog on December 9 2008, an article entitled “No Borders Exist for Racism, Sexism and Religious Intolerance” I stated that the presence of power, self-interest and hypocrisy are present in all human affairs and know no country borders.

Power is not easy to acquire and jealously held. In Kandahar, Afghanistan swarms of angry men, shouting epithets and hurling stones, confronted hundreds of Afghan women, who were staging a rare protest against a law that allows husbands to demand sex from their wives. This protest took an incredible amount of courage. What a disgusting but pitiful picture of these men fighting desperately to keep what power they had, in a society so bereft of any but male power. The law if ultimately passed would have applied to the Shia community which represents 10-20 % of the Afghan population. The only country in the world according fewer rights to women is the Sudan. In essence these acts have very little to do with Islam but everything to do with the absolute necessity of keeping control.

The hypocrisy that existed in the American and British armies before and during the Second World War is difficult to accept. Here are two democratic countries waged in an epic struggle against the fascist regime of Nazi Germany, where all human rights were non-existent, yet both countries were able to demand that the second division of the free French army led by General Philippe Leclerc would be made up entirely of white soldiers when the division entered Paris. In fact nearly the entire French army was made up mostly of people of colour from the French African colonies. To be fair, because the entry to Paris would attract international publicity, it may have been a political decision by the British because the white troops would appeal to the whites of France. Not so by the Americans! The U.S. army refused to let black conscripts into combat units. The blacks were left to do the menial tasks behind the lines. It was President Truman who eventually desegregated the army.

Louis Guilloux, a French writer, found himself working as an official interpreter for the American army. He looked on the American nation as the greatest democracy in the world and was horrified by the fact that there was segregation in the army. In two court-martials in which he played a role, an African American and a white American officer were charged with murder. Both soldiers were drunk but the white American had been a hero. The African-American was found guilty and hanged and the white officer was freed. On investigation he found in the years 1943-1946 the American military executed 70% of its own soldiers for crimes committed in Europe. 55% of those executed were African Americans who constitute 8.5% of the American army. There seemed to be a different standard of justice for black and white soldiers in the American forces.

Drugs that were once legal

2009-04-13T11:22:00.016-04:00

Treatments from our great granny's time, very effective medication!

Bayer 'S Heroin

A bottle of Bayer's heroin.
Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive substitute for morphine.
It was also used to treat children with strong cough.

Coca Wine

Metcalf Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market.
Everybody used to say that it would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal treatment.

Mariani wine

Mariani wine (1875) was the most famous Coca wine of it's time.
Pope Leo XIII used to carry one bottle with him all the time.
He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vatican gold medal..

Maltine

Produced by Maltine Manufacturing Company of New York .
It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after every meal..
Children should take half a glass.

A paper weight:

A paper weight promoting C.F. Boehringer & Soehne ( Mannheim , Germany ).
They were proud of being the biggest producers in the world of products containing Quinine and Cocaine.

Opium for Asthma:

Cocaine tablets (1900)

All stage actors, singers teachers and preachers had to have them for a maximum performance.
Great to "smooth" the voice.

Cocaine drops for toothache

Very popular for children in 1885.
Not only they relieved the pain, they made the children happy!

Opium for new-borns

I'm sure this would make them sleep well (not only the Opium, but 46% alcohol!)

Problem with Muslims in Western Democracies

2009-04-13T10:00:00.001-04:00

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Special Dispatch 2309 April 10, 2008
Reform Project
Liberal Gulf Writers: Muslim Groups in Europe Are Exploiting Europeans' Openness
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Two recent articles in the Gulf press discussed the attitudes of European Muslims towards the West. On December 2, 2008, Bahraini liberal Shi'ite cleric Dhiya Al-Mousawi published an article in the liberal Kuwaiti daily Awan on the Mumbai terrorist attacks, some of the perpetrators of which were Muslims who were naturalized British citizens. The second article, by liberal Kuwaiti columnist Khalil 'Ali Haidar, was published October 5, 2008 in the UAE daily Al-'Ittihad. Both writers criticized Muslim groups in Europe for harming the West while at the same time enjoying Western freedoms and services. Haidar treated the subject more broadly, criticizing all Islamic movements and parties in Europe on the grounds that they are promoting Islamic extremism, that they have taken control of the lives of the European Muslims, and that, instead of attempting to bridge the gap between the East and the West, they have consciously brought about isolation, alienation, and, ultimately, jihad-motivated terrorism against the West.

Following are excerpts from Al-Mousawi's and Haidar's articles:

European Muslims Are Spitting Into the Well from Which They Drink
In an article titled "When the Terrorist is British Born," Al-Mousawi wrote: "…It is sad that in Western countries there are thousands of Muslims who receive citizenship for themselves and their families after having been expelled from their respective homelands. [The West] gives them asylum, work, shelter, and health insurance – [yet] they are the first to turn their backs on their second homeland. Worse, some of them think nothing of committing suicide in the squares, in the very countries that have granted them and their families protection… It is odd that some sheikhs curse and revile the West from the pulpits of the Western [mosques,] and wish for the destruction of the [Western] countries, as the police of those countries guard them…"(1)
The Islamists Have Taken Control Over the Lives of the Muslims in the West
Al-Haidar wrote, in a similar vein: "The problem of Europe and the U.S. is neither the Arabs nor the Muslims. It is the Islamists, both parties and groups, who have taken over the political, religious, social, and cultural life inside and outside Islamic and Arab countries. [These parties and groups] have influence over the Muslim minorities of the Western countries… They have focused on imposing restrictions on the first generation [of immigrants], on brainwashing the second generation, and on excommunicating unions, organizations, and mosques. For many years – in fact, since the end of the Second World War – Western countries have been welcoming Arabs and Muslims, and providing [them] with extensive opportunities for preaching and [other] activities. They have treated them with amazing kindness. With time, the Muslims grew in power, and tightened their grip on the very heart of these societies.
"The presence of Islamists [in the European countries], with all their different parties, groups, and schools of thought, has been a testing ground for relations between their Muslim minority, which has been influenced by the indoctrination [carried out by different] parties, and these democratic societies. For many years, Islamists, and especially the Muslim Brotherhood, have complained about the oppressive [policies] of Arab regimes, the freezing of freedoms, surveillance, etc. [Abu A'la] Al-Mawdoudi's(2) writings, [originally in Urdu], have gained popularity in the Arab world, corrupting the youth and distorting their outlook. [Al-Mawdoudi] proclaimed to the entire world, and especially to [his] liberal European opponents, the advent of a new social order superior to Western democracy on every count – in liberty, flexibility, religious tolerance etc. – that will be introduced under the leadership of Muslim youth uncontaminated by the filth of Western civilization and its materialist [values]."
The Islamists Have Wrought Alienation and Terrorism
"The ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Al-Tahrir party,(3) and Egyptian, Pakistani, and other Islamic groups has cast the Arabs and the Muslims in Europe into darkness and confusion. With their books, films, and extreme separatist ideas, they have paved the way for the proliferation of different forms of extremism, and hence to overt terrorism.
"The unceasing attacks on Western civilization, on man-made laws, and on Oriental studies, as well as on [what they regarded as] the cultural invasion and Western conspiracies – have made it difficult for [Muslims] to integrate into the new environment to which they migrated while hating it. [However, his integration] as far as his material interests or the aims of his party were concerned [was never impeded]…"
The Absence of a Culture of Revival and Innovation
"The Islamic party movement has not embraced the idea of revival and innovation; as a consequence, it has failed to see a positive side to Western society or to study Western literature, art, and culture so that it could create a model of modern culture, literature and art that combines Western and Islamic [elements]. Even the Muslim Brotherhood leaders, along with others who are proud of the Islamic civilization and profess to be heirs to the Baghdad and Andalusian civilizations – [even they], during the half century [of their sojourn] in Paris, London, or Germany, have not produced a [single] new idea, [let alone new] art or culture worthy of notice...
"True, they have established publishing houses to circulate their parties' books and publications; they never let up in improving their media weaponry, such as the press, television, and other [media outlets]; they developed their own financial institutions and banks [and called them] 'Islamic: no interest'; they established private schools, which only further isolated Muslim boys and girls from their European environment and thus enhanced the Islamic parties' control of their [lives] – and this is only a partial list. But what they have failed to do is to act as a bridge between East and West, as have, say, the poets of the [Muslim] diaspora. They also never helped plant seeds of modernization, democracy, and creativity – cultural, artistic, and literary – in the Arab and the Islamic worlds.
"Most reports on [Muslims in Europe], produced with great enthusiasm by the media, are about fights between [different] mosques, family honor murders, or extremist religious discourse. Not a single one of their associations has ever sponsored a useful cultural program, nor has any of their parties ever translated an encyclopedia or organized a study group to explore an aspect of culture, education, or ties between East and West. Neither have any of these circles invested effort [in a project] – not even to reexamine the writings of Islamic parties and modernize them by removing extremist ideas and the ideology of heresy accusations."
Abusing Tolerance
"Western tolerance towards Muslims in Europe and in the U.S. on freedom of religion in general, and its respect for Christian and Jewish converts to Islam in particular, has not been used as a model by any Islamic party. It didn't teach them religious tolerance; it didn't lead them to acknowledge that religious choice is a personal matter; it didn't prompt them to protect non-Muslims in the Arab and Muslim world. On the contrary, they became increasingly offensive, since they perceived that the West was conceding to their demands and treating them with tolerance. Thus, they gained ground and popularity, and their arrogance was became boundless …
"The Islamist literature, publications, and sermons, even in the heart of Europe, have essentially retained the conceptual structure of ancient [Muslim] writings, in that they continue to treat any input from civilization as refuse, all the amazing technological innovations as purely material development, and the life and values of the West as decadence and degradation."
The Connection to Violence and Terrorism
"It has often been said that moderate Islamic groups have nothing to do with violence and terrorism. But this is an illusion. All the ideas of terrorist groups fit the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, of the Al-Tahrir [party], of Al-Jama'a Al-Islamiyya in Pakistan, and others. Ideas like idol worship, the rule of God, the establishment of shari'a, and others, which have assumed new fundamentalist connotations associated with new ruling parties, were not invented by Al-Qaeda or Fath Al-Islam. The notions of cognitive isolation, the invalidity of man-made laws, and serving God; the undermining of the values of homeland and citizenship, as well as all facets of political realism; proclamations such as the Muslim Brotherhood's motto 'Death for the sake of Allah is our highest aspiration,' and numerous other [slogans] – all these have not been invented by Al-Zarqawi, bin Laden, or [Sheikh Abu Muhammad] Al-Maqdisi…
"What can we expect of a youth who encounters [the following] idea, [which appears] in a book frequently discussed by the Muslim Brotherhood: 'Today we live in a jahiliya [the pre-Islamic era of idol worship], akin to idol worship in [Muhammad's] time and worse. We are surrounded by idol worship. Human achievement and beliefs, people's traditions and customs, their traditional sources, their arts and literature, their laws and regulations, and even most of what we regard as aspects of the Islamic culture, Islamic authorities, and Islamic thought and philosophy – all these are products of idol worship."
"This is a simple passage from the book Milestones by Sayyed Qutb. This book has been translated into all the languages of the Islamic countries: Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Malaysian, Indonesian, and others, as have hundreds of other Muslim Brotherhood books. These books are brainwashing thousands of youths in the Muslim world, and drawing [many of them] towards extremist terrorist organizations.
"Is not this passage, which has been read [and reread] by Islamists for over 40 years, the main reason for the Muslim's deepening sense of alienation from both his own society and from the society in Europe, America, or Australia to which he emigrated?…
"There is no doubt that it is these ideas, texts and doctrines – some of which seem innocuously 'moderate' [to us, after] they have poisoned our souls – that have shaped the views of many Muslims, men and women, worldwide, and have brought forth a generation of jihadi terrorists.
"It is this [phenomenon] that has precipitated the clash between the Islamists and Western societies in America and Europe."(4)
Endnotes: (1) Awan (Kuwait), December 2, 2008. (2) Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdoudi (1903-1979)(1903-09-25), also known as Mawlana (Maulana) or Sheikh Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi, was a Sunni Pakistani journalist, theologian and political philosopher, and a major Islamist thinker. He was also a political figure in his home country of Pakistan, where he founded the Jamaat-e-Islami Islamic revivalist party.(3) Hizb Al-Tahrir (Liberation Party) is a radical Islamic group whose agenda is to rally Muslims with a call for a new Caliphate.(4) Al-Ittihad (UAE), October 5, 2008.
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Problem with Muslims in Western Democracies

2009-04-13T09:47:00.001-04:00

2009-03-28T10:03:00.000-04:00

The stupidity of the war on drugs

A make-work project for the police, a source of income for crooked politicians, drug gangs and terrorists

Harry J. Anslinger was an outspoken racist and the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a unit of the treasury department between 1930 and 1962. Known as the “father of the drug war” and as the “first drug scar”, Anslinger helped fight against opiates, cocaine and marijuana.

He was the man who brought the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 to the floor of the Senate, where it was passed. These are some of the statements said by Anslinger, during the hearing:

There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S. and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”

“The primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

“Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its user’s insanity, criminality and death.”

“You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”

“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

WHAT NONSENSE!

The world relates to the term “global economy”. Banks, auto manufacturers, insurance companies, energy companies and pharmaceutical companies sell their services and products world-wide. Governments are in constant communication about the state of affairs of world business. The U.S. government, by promoting credit to poor risks created a recession world-wide. What has this got to do with illegal drugs? It shows that American laws can instigate turmoil world-wide. In spite of the most stringent drug policies and punitive laws in the world, the U.S. has the highest levels of cocaine and marijuana use per capita, according to a study of 54,000 people in 17 countries. 16.2% of people in the U.S. have used cocaine at some point in their lives. This rate was about four times the rate of the second place country, where 4.3% said they had tried cocaine. The researchers found that 42.4% of people in the U.S. reported marijuana use. New Zealand was second with 41.9%. Drug use is related to income and not simply related to drug policy. Statistics show that liberal drug policies do not encourage more use since countries with more stringent policies towards illegal use did not have lower levels of people using illegal drugs.

In the U.S. there is an organization called “Law Enforcement against Prohibition” (Leap).
It is composed of 10,000 policemen, prosecutors, judges, and others who make up the membership of this organization. Howard Wooldridge, Leap’s Washington representative, is a former policeman, detective who lectures civic groups on the futility of punitive drug laws.” It is a waste of time, effort and money.” Our society has a perverse value system. The Kellogg’s cereal company had no problem using Michael Phelps on their advertising program, although he had an arrest for drunk driving. He was arrested, fined and sentenced to 18 months probation and community service after pleading guilty. This happened before his success in the Olympics Yet when he was caught on camera taking a puff of Marijuana, they cancelled his contract. Drunk driving is acceptable but smoking Marijuana, which is far less dangerous, will harm the company image.

Pakistan is fighting a war for survival against Islamic radicals and Mexico is waging a do-or-die battle with the world’s most powerful drug cartels. In Afghanistan, Canada’s soldiers are being killed by the Taliban. The money from the sale of Heroin, Cocaine and Marijuana to Americans pays for these activities. Killings, kidnappings and bribing of Mexican police are rampant in border cities. Hillary Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state said theU.S.`s “insatiable appetite for illegal drugs was to blame for much of the violence plaguing Mexico”. Mexico’s former president, Ernesto Zedillo along with three other heads of state of countries from Central America stated that they could not afford the war on drugs. Could the U.S. explore the possibility of an alternative like decriminalization of Marijuana.

The war on drugs is an absolute disaster. It funds crooked politicians, the criminal element in our society and the war by terrorists on the west. The answer of course is a policy of “Limited Acceptance” similar to the methadone treatment for heroin addicts. The government would buy and distribute the drugs, with the help of health professionals .The addicts would be closely monitored and attempts would be made to break them of the habit. The criminal element would be completely eliminated. Barack Obama, the new American president, may be the person to make the change. He has appointed R Gil Kerlikowske as drug czar. It appears this man is more interested in harm reduction, and policy reform than enforcement.

The conservative element in our society is sure that with lenient laws the use of these drugs would increase. That is a theory that has never been proven and by starting with liberalization, one drug at a time, can easily be disproven or verified.

2009-03-18T22:04:00.000-04:00

LIES, SO HUMAN, SO NATURAL

In an article written on December 9, 2008 under the heading “No borders exist for Racism, Sexism and Religious Intolerance” I described the human condition as encompassing the need for power, self-interest, hypocrisy and deceit. The recent incident involving the untimely death of Robert Dziekanski after being tasered by four R.C.M.P. officers in the Vancouver airport is a case in point.

The four policemen, after only a minute on the scene, exercised the power they felt they needed to take control of the situation. Mr. Dziekanski was a relatively big man, and they probably felt the easiest way to handle the situation was to use the stun gun. It appears the instant the four officers saw he was dead, they immediately began to fabricate a story. They would have to justify the repeated use of the taser on this harmless man to protect themselves. It was necessary to concoct a story and lie their way out of this untenable situation. The officer stated that Mr. Dziekanski was waving a stapler in a threatening manner, was advancing on the officers, which necessitated the repeated use of the taser. In fact, as captured on video, the
40 year old Dziekanski did not grab a stapler and wave it threateningly over his head, and he did not advance on the officers in a threatening manner. He fell after the first shot was fired and it was not necessary to wrestle him to the ground as they claimed.

When a situation is serious enough and the ability to verify facts is lacking, it is reasonable to assume that most people will lie to absolve themselves of guilt. Self-interest is a part of human nature. Who knows how far up the chain of command of the R.C.M.P. this fabricated story goes, because it appears that officer Millington, even when faced with evidence that he is lying, is sticking to the main part of his story. After all, it is his supervisors in the R.C.M.P. who will decide whether he retains his job.

No profession or calling is immune from lying for personal advantage. If policemen can lie, why not medical researchers? Is there any area greater than medical research, that demands complete honesty? Medical computer experts at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Centre, have developed a program that can scan reports for plagiarism. They randomly searched “Medline”, one of the largest on-line sources of medical research, and found 9000 duplicate articles attributed to different authors. Harold Gainer, the senior scientist in charge of the sleuthing effort stated, “it is definitely the tip of the iceberg”. Copying an article is bad enough, but the plagiarist does not know if the original research was done honestly, and the plagiarist may be perpetuating bad research leading to incorrect decisions by doctors who base their prescribing habits on false results.

There are other major problems. Investigators are looking for quick professional recognition, and need to compete successfully for research funding. Academic institutions, supposedly a bastion of truth, can have a financial interest in the outcome of a research project.

The Taliban was the government of most of Afghanistan before the Americans invaded and deposed the rulers. This government did not have complete control because parts of the country were ruled by local warlords, who paid their troops with money derived from the sale of poppy seeds (heroin), grown by local farmers. The Taliban, as the government, outlawed the growth of poppy seeds as they felt their religion, Islam, did not allow it. However when they needed money to fight the new government, they encouraged its growth in the area under their present control. Religious principles can be ignored when you need the money.

There is nothing more sacred to the Jewish and Israeli psyche than the remembrance of the holocaust where 6 million Jews were slaughtered. Holocaust deniers are considered outright anti-Semites when they state that the killing of the Jews by the Nazis is a falsehood. Israel has a strategic alliance with Turkey. The Turkish government wants Israel to use its influence on the U.S. congress to prevent the passage of a resolution recognizing the genocide of the Armenians at the beginning of the 20th century. Canada has passed such a resolution in parliament. Israel, desperate for an alliance with at least one Moslem country, hypocritically says nothing about the massacres. Yet the hypocrisy of Turkey is so apparent when Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, condemns Israel with charges of mass-killings and massacres of civilians in Gaza when Israel was protecting itself from missiles raining down on civilians, and the number of deaths cannot be even remotely compared to the 2 million Armenians slaughtered by the Turks

Much evidence suggests that we humans lie to one another with aplomb. Bella DePaulo a visiting professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, took a survey and found that college students told an average of 2 lies a day although most of the lies fell into the minor fib category.

There are many ways to practice hypocrisy, deceit and lying. It happens by telling a complete lie, a partial lie or not giving information at all when it is relevant. No race, religion or nationality is immune from all three when the stakes are high enough.

Proportionality

2009-01-13T13:18:00.001-05:00

Proportionality is the operative word of many commentators and critics when they write or discuss the actions of Israel in their war with Hamas in the Gaza strip. Newspapers throughout the world are filled with comments at how disproportionate is the Israeli response to the rockets from Gaza and in fact how few Israeli lives have been lost, and how little the damage has been inflicted by Hamas, but the issue of proportionality has many facets, some more important than others, and all not exclusive of one another.

Footage of air strikes with the ensuing photogenic explosions and dramatic plumes of smoke, quickly followed by shots of collapsed buildings and enraged mourners, makes far better copy than a rational discussion of the motives of both sides.

I think it is worthwhile to discuss what led up to the present situation. Israel unilaterally left Gaza to the Palestinian people with the hope it would be the start of the formation of the first part of a state. There immediately began a rain of thousands of rockets on Israel and the cry by Hamas that the state of Israel had to be removed. Not a very proportional response!

Hamas sends their rockets indiscriminately into residential areas of the south of Israel. Their aim is to kill Israelis. They send these missiles from residential areas of Gaza fully expecting the Israelis to retaliate on the site of the launch but Israel tries to be very careful not to hit schools or hospitals. The Palestinian people must know that there will be a response, but they have no say in the matter because, in fact, a dead Palestinian civilian is nearly as important as a dead Israeli for propaganda purposes. If the Israelis’ tactics were to purposely send their bombers into residential areas, the carnage would be far greater than it is. There is no proportionality in the attitude to civilian deaths between the Israelis and Hamas.

What about the question of the blockade of Gaza by sea and land? When Israel left Gaza it was prudent to see how the Palestinians would use this freedom. If they had started to govern like a responsible administration, the Israeli control of immigration and of imports would have ceased. In hindsight the Israelis are happy at how they handled the situation as it is doubtful that allowing free imports would have left the region trouble-free. There would have been more armaments brought in resulting in more deaths among the Israelis and Palestinians.

Proportionality is in the eyes of the beholder. Recently a group, considered a terrorist organization by the Canadian government, was defeated in Sri Lanka. Their last stronghold was overrun and they were bombed into submission by air and land forces. Over the years 65,000 people have been killed in the war with the Tamils, mostly civilians. There was not a single rally on campuses world-wide in support of the Tamils. Jewish leftists have not demanded an end to the war of aggression against the Tamils, no European government has said the acts of the Sri Lankans were out of proportion, and the BBC did not call the Tamils “activists”.

I quote from a Globe and Mail editorial on January 13, 2009 entitled “Selective on rights”:
In a world of cruelty and barbarism, the United Nations Human Rights Council and its predecessor organization have long opted to make one small democracy, Israel, their major obsession. On Monday the council lived up to its reputation for bias with its overwrought condemnation of Israel’s “grave violations” in Gaza while soft-pedaling the role of Hamas in precipitating the crisis with rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.

Canada was the only one of the 47 member countries to vote against the unbalanced resolution. Canada’s was a diplomatically brave, and correct vote, at odds with the abstentions of other Western countries that were unwilling to defend outright, the principle of fairness, to say nothing of the role of the Arab, African, Asian and Latin American countries, including such human-rights abusers as China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia (all, shamefully, members of the council) in singling out Israel for condemnation.

It is so obviously true that Israel is held to a different standard of proportionality than any other country in the world.

Israel and the war in Gaza

2009-01-13T11:30:00.001-05:00

The following article was written by Ian O’Doherty on January 5, 2009. Mr. O’Doherty is an independent Irish journalist.

WHY THE ISRAELI PEOPLE HAVE FINALLY HAD ENOUGH

So, it’s genocide now, is it? Or is it actually another holocaust, something which one typically restrained Palestinian analyst described as “worse than Hitler’s war against the Jews”?

Are we watching the ethnic cleansing of an entire people? Are we witnessing the deliberate eradication of a race?

Well, no actually, we’re not.

Yet the conventional dinner party wisdom which we’ve had to put up with in the media, both here in Ireland and generally across Britain, is that somehow Israel is the aggressor in the rapidly worsening situation in Gaza.

Footage of air strikes with the ensuing photogenic explosions and dramatic plumes of smoke, quickly followed by clips of collapsed buildings and enraged mourners, makes far better copy than actually looking at the reasons why Israel has done what it’s done.

Anyone who devotes only a cursory glance at the news, both print and television, would be forgiven for thinking that, out of spite, might and malice, Israel has decided to destroy the Palestinian people.

The problem with that conclusion – and it’s not something you’re going to learn from the BBC and most other outlets – is that, contrary to the currently popular belief, Israel is actually acting with a ridiculous degree of restraint.

Over the last couple of years, thousands of rockets have been landing on Israeli soil and, finally, they have had enough.

But behind that statistic there is a human dimension which tends to be rather ignored.

I know many people in the southern Israeli town of Sderot and what is remarkable about their stories is not the number or make of rockets which have fallen on them on a daily basis for years, but the psychological carnage this wreaked upon them.

One woman freely admitted to me that she hasn’t had a proper night’s sleep in more than two years as she and her family now basically live in their bomb shelter and it’s hard to tell who she hates more – the Muslim terrorists of Hamas or the Israeli government which she thinks has abandoned them.

It’s a common feeling amongst residents of southern Israeli towns who have been the silent victims of a long campaign of violence, intimidation and murder carried out by Hamas. And now, finally, that the Israelis have said that enough is enough, they are somehow meant to be the aggressors? They are people of good conscience on both sides of this argument, but one of the main problems in this debate lies in the cowardly tendency of the Western median to apply equivalence to both sides.

Thus, Hamas is seen to be as legitimate a government as the Israelis, and its rocket attacks across the border from Gaza are seen as being part of a yet another, intractable, interminable Middle Eastern dispute.

There’s just one problem with that approach – it’s completely wrong.

Hamas is a fundamentalist Islamic organization intent on the eradication of the state of Israel and all its citizens; a violent fascist regime that allows honour killings and the execution of homosexuals to continue in its sphere of influence. Bankrolled by Iran, it manages to make even Hezbollah look like a moderate organization.

But Hamas is clever.

As a friend of mine from Sderot pointed out, one of its favourite tactics is to launch Qassams from Palestinian schoolyards – while the schools are still in session.

Hamas does this, you see, knowing that the IDF can’t immediately strike back (they can vector a rocket launch site within 90 seconds) because the last thing the Israelis need is footage of a devastated Palestinian school with dead kids.

And, over the last week, we have seen carefully manipulated footage of dead civilians, with the fact that they were effectively used as human shields conveniently ignored. When Israel pulled out of Gaza – ironically, the last battalion of IDF troops to leave Gaza contained some people from Sderot – they were acceding to international and internal pressure. The doves on the Left said it was to prove to Palestinians that they wanted to give Palestinians independence, the hawks on the Right – and there are some truly scary right-wingers in Israel, even as ardent a supporter of the country as I am, will freely admit that – prophesied that it would lead to carnage.

And, lo and behold, virtually as soon as the last jeep left Gaza the rockets started. And then the blockade began, and the whole damn mess started all over again.

But there’s a bigger picture here, something which Israelis have been trying to broadcast to the world, but which, thanks to their spectacular inability to accurately and sympathetically portray their point of view, has not been properly transmitted. It’s this --Israel is the front line of the war between democracy and Islamic-fascism.

Would you rather live in a society with a free press, equal rights for women -- and anyone who knows an Israeli woman will know that they’re not easily suppressed, anyway -- equal rights for gay people and a proud and stubborn belief in the right of the individual to lead their life in the way that they see fit or would you rather exist in a society where women who dare to speak their mind are executed, where gay people are not just shunned but murdered and where having a dissenting thought marks you out for death?

The civilian deaths in Gaza are to be mourned, and anyone who says otherwise is reprehensible. But in a sick and twisted irony, they are mourned more by Israelis than by Hamas, who know that every dead Palestinian kid is worth another piece of propaganda.

Here in the West, where we share the same values as Israel, we need to start standing shoulder to shoulder with this tiny oasis of democracy in a vast desert of savagery.

To do otherwise is moral cowardice of the most repugnant kind.

Yesterday, today and beyond

2008-12-31T08:52:00.001-05:00

The twentieth century has seen changes in our society which are nothing short of amazing. If you wanted to describe what happened, you could use one word “computer”. It is the most profound technological development since the steam engine started the industrial revolution 200 years ago. To-day, not only every desk in a typical office has a computer on it, but they are used by farmers, garage mechanics, dentists, doctors, pharmacists in addition to 100`s of other occupations. According to 2005 statistics, two-thirds of homes in the United States had computers. In the early 50`s computers were used in data processing by banks and insurance companies but they were huge, expensive and generally out of sight. The difference between the old and new computers is the microprocessor which was developed in 1969 and is essentially a cheap computer on a silicon chip.

The computer has had profound changes on a myriad of other areas in society. In 1950 a million overseas telephone calls originated in the United States. To-day the figure is 6.27 billion. On the streets, in trains and in office buildings people are in touch with one another, and while waiting in airports and bus stations, are using their laptops to do business. Cash was king. People were paid by cash, and paid their bills the same way. Credit cards and debit cards, made possible by the computer, are making cash obsolete.

In 1954 more than a third of Americans belonged to a union. To-day the figure is 14% but half of these workers are government employees. There are far fewer strikes. Women spent their working day at home, but now over 60% are out in the work force. Greatly improved household appliances make house work far less time-consuming. Female corporate officers are not unique as they were 50 years ago.

The internet is a part of the communication revolution. It is as important to the microprocessor as the railroad was to the steam engine. The internet allows people with common interests to find one another, including buyers and sellers, and acts as a broker. Firms that trade information such as stock brokers, travel agents or auction houses must change or go out of business. Newspapers are in financial trouble. Bloggers and internet journalists can respond quickly to breaking news and individuals, for next to nothing, can organize their own web site. Retailers are moving quickly to advertise their products on the web, and rentals and sales of industrial properties, apartments, and homes have decimated the classified advertising section of newspapers.

But we are only at the beginning of change caused by the near ability of computer- type machines to improve themselves by using artificial intelligence. The Acceleration Studies Foundation refers to this period as the “Singularity”. It will be unlike anything humanity has ever experienced. We would at first see changes that we can easily comprehend. How the world changes around you, using interconnected camera surveillance systems and the Global Positioning System. It will record the flow of traffic on the 401 or the changing migratory habits of geese. There will be a proliferation of sensors which will reveal what you bought, and where you bought it, and how much you paid. With an iphone to track your location, you can be told how to avoid a friend near you, or if the pollen level or smog level in a certain neighborhood will affect your health. In the future, as information ceases to be simply a tool and begins, literally, to weave its way into the fabric of our lives, the question of who controls that data flow, in terms of both code and hardware, assumes central importance. Efforts to make sense of the massive flow of information would be enhanced with the addition of a machine analyst. Environments would thrive with intelligent agent systems knowing what to filter and what to emphasize. It is likely that such a system would need to learn how to emulate your own thought processes. None of these systems would truly need to be a self-aware, self-modifying intelligent machine, but they in time, could reach that point. Even the closest process we have to computer crafted soft-ware still betrays the presence of a human maker. Yet, if the potential benefits of these worlds would be enhanced with intelligent artificially formulated information, so would the dangers. Avoiding dystopia will be a challenge worthy of the human mind.

It is tough to be a Jew

2008-12-22T11:02:00.001-05:00

It is very difficult to experience the emotions and thoughts of another individual, especially from a different culture, race, religion or nationality. Inner feelings are predicated on life experiences and no two are alike. A constant in the Jewish world is fear, responsibility and guilt. Fear for what can happen, and responsibility and guilt for the real or imagined short-comings of the Jewish world whether in the diaspora or in Israel.

In the Yiddish vernacular the following expression is used very often, even by Jews who do not speak Yiddish. “Tzis shver tzu zan a Yid”. The simple translation would be “It is tough to be a Jew”.

What is prompting me to write this piece in a country where I feel “nearly” completely at home? Notice the word “nearly” and the answer is, of course, Bernard L. Madoff, an American Jew. What a disaster! Mr. Madoff has committed a fraudulent crime which may have no parallel in recent history. It is hard to imagine the magnitude of the fraud when it is reported that 50 billion dollars is involved. In the bail-out of the Canadian car companies our government is spending only 4 billion dollars. When I speak to other Jews about this affair, the first words they utter “Why did he have to be a Jew”.

Bernard Madoff was an equal opportunity thief. Thank goodness for that! He involved some very high profile Jewish charities in his scam such as Yeshiva University, Steven Spielberg`s Wonderkinder Foundation and Boston philanthropist Carl Shapiro`s charitable foundation.

He also victimized institutions of tremendous importance who should have known better like the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nomura Holdings of Japan and the Mann Group, the world`s largest hedge fund.

A non-Jewish observer of this scene might be tempted to say “So what, there are many honest Jews who do so much good for the world”, and that, of course, could also be part of the problem. In the October issue of Vanity Fair 2007 is an article that considers the 100 most powerful and influential people in American society. Jews represent 2.5% of the American people but of the 100 names listed, 51 are Jewish. Jews represent 0.4% of the world’s population but 20% of the Nobel Prize winners. Albert Einstein, physicist, Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, James Salk developed the polio vaccine, Henry Kissinger, American Secretary of State, Pierre Mendes-France, French Prime Minister, George Soros, philanthropist, represent only a few of the very intelligent and successful Jews in the world. For people with anti-Semitic inclinations it is perceived as too many Jews in too many important positions. Forget the good they do!

After the holocaust, Israel, a Jewish state, was formed and from then on anti-Semites would find the state a convenient target for all that used to be targeted at Jewish people. The Arab-Israeli conflict has always been front and centre in newspaper head-lines throughout the world. Since 1950 it has resulted in 51,000 deaths, but to place the war in proper context, if you rank conflicts since 1950 by the number of human deaths, this one ranks 49th. This is the only area in the world where the refugee problem is never solved. The Arabs would like a bi-national democratic state when no other democratic Arab state exists in the region. Why should Israel take a chance, when a two-state solution is the proper and safe course to take? The land mass of Israel is minuscule compared to the area comprising the Arab world. Arnold Toynbee, an historian, was quoted “ that the displacement of the Arabs is an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis” and, to add insult to injury, Tony Blair, the former British Prime-Minister, is saying what others have said: the ruckus in the Muslim world won’t go away until at least the Arab/Israeli situation is resolved, neglecting to take into consideration the internecine conflicts in the Arab world and really out –of –date anti-imperialistic sentiments.. What about the terrorist bombings in England, Spain, India, France, Argentina, Indonesia, Kenya, etc., and the wars between Shiites and Sunnis? I once read that some religious leaders in the Sunni community believe the Shiite part of Islam was started by converted Jews. It seems that Jews can be blamed for everybody’s problems.

Yes, my gentile friends “Tzis shver tzu zan a Yid”.