Tag Archives: commentary

Guest Post by Mitchell Gray: Reflection on _L’Etranger_, by Albert Camus

11 Sunday Feb 2018

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Books, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, International Development, Islamic Small Wars

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Camus-CVR-TheStranger.jpg

Every US military leader ought to study the Algerian War of Independence from 1954 to 1962. The problems in Indo-China and Southwest Asia could have been reduced. Here was insurgency, terrorism, asymmetric warfare and the “eastern” method of warfare.

This novel was published in 1942 and is set in Algeria, a French colony since the 1830’s. France encouraged French citizens to colonize in Algeria and France also brought Algerians to France.

Camus won a Nobel Prize for literature for The Stranger in 1957 during the uprisings.

The end of WWI in 1918 ushered in a wave of anti-colonialism and this included Algeria. Independence was craved.

The novel focuses on the “antihero” Mersault who is a simple man who impulsively shoots and kills a nameless Arab on a beach on a blinding day. He is tried for murder.
After WWII France was very weak and began to lose contested colonies such as in Southeast Asia. The Front de Liberación Nationale (FLN) in Algeria spearheaded the fight and brutalities occurred on both sides as the French resisted independence.

The “absurdity” (Camus rejected that he was an Existentialist) of the trial was that Meurault was depicted by the prosecutor as “uncaring” or indifferent towards his dying mother. The outrage was not that he murdered an Arab but that he was not an appropriate son. That was his real crime.

Finally, in 1962 Algeria achieved independence and hundreds of thousands had been butchered. The fighting was extreme violence and cruelty. Hatreds fueled the inhumanity.
Critics point out the Arab victim was never named nor developed by Camus. This was seen as the French snobbery towards the native Arabs.

Algeria suffered an extremely brutal and cruel civil war in the 1990’s with ISIS like brutality. The Islamic party won elections in 1991 but the government canceled them.

Blood flowed. Heads fell. Flesh burned. Fear ruled.

Algeria is a major natural gas supplier. France still has great influence and al Qaeda has large cells there. Terror attacked still occur.

Europe battles problems with its Muslim populations especially from Algeria and neighboring Morocco. For decades the Algerians were marginalized and they claim treated as inferiors by France. Many joined ISIS.

We must learn from history and this includes novels that capture popular moods. We must learn better ways to live among ourselves and realize every human life is equal.
Meursault was a murderer. His crime was not being a bad son. But in this novel, much is learned about French attitudes towards their colonial possessions. We still deal with these attitudes today.

Mitchell Gray is the author of I Heard You Were Going on Jihad: How a Minnesota FBI agent may have prevented a second wave of attacks before 9/11 and exposed the Oklahoma terror network (Minneapolis: Mill City Press, 2015).  An Iraq War veteran, he previously provided valuable information to counter-intelligence agencies after 9/11, had practiced as an attorney, and taught as an adjunct professor on matters having to do with the oil and gas industries.

Reference

Above: cover of and Amazon link to the graphic novel adaptation.

Camus, Albert.  The Stranger.  New York: Vintage Books, 1946.

Related Online

Film trailer: The Battle of Algiers (film with subtitles), released September 1967 in the United States (IMDB).

–33–

FTAC – ‘Trump’s Entanglements’

04 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Russia

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/malignant-narcissism/

The medieval way of doing business — commercial or political — may have relied on a kind of personality that we today call “authoritarian” or “autocratic” and possessed of some predictable characteristics especially when found demonstrably bullying and strutting. By contrast, the America mid-west ethic favors hard work, humility, and a quiet if firm demeanor.

Putin’s lines of power — Putin-Assad-Khamenei — and of influence — Putin-Orban, Putin-Erdogan – leverage the affinity between authoritarian leaders, who, not so surprisingly, aggrandize themselves at great cost to the finances and freedoms of their constituents.

From Washington’s standpoint, both Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump present “strong personalities”, but Trump’s earlier association with Paul Manafort, a major political consultant to the world’s dictators, and Sergei Millian, a Russian businessman — http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russia-trump-political-conflict-zone/story?id=42263092 (“Trump, Millian” is also an easy look-up online) — signals the idea that a kind of authority may present to the public, in old socialist language, “the masses”, a public reality that masks off personal interests.

Not too long ago, the Russian state could have been described as “post-Soviet” and on its way toward democracy as known in the open societies of the west. Putin’s more evident narrative starts out that way, and in fact with the endorsement of a powerful Russian billionaire — Berezovsky. The west was back then quick to forgive and get in, but adjustments by Putin over time — this December will mark the 25th anniversary since the dissolving of the Soviet Union — have transformed the state into a familiar authoritarian system, this time ultra-nationalist and imperial in its actions and intents. Trump, hardly alone in this, may have been inveigled in the earlier “glasnost” state of affairs — the same in which the “Uranium One” deal developed — but even so soon after so much east-west cooperation, today is very different as regards Moscow’s resurgent anti-western stance and Trump’s entanglements.

The piece looks a little off-hand as to how Americans prefer themselves as personalities and, by extension, what may have been preferred in those most divisive and raucous of election seasons.  If there had been a Harry Truman in the mix (or if ever there was)  — someone who shouldered responsibility quietly and returned to a modest life — he would have been steamrolled and buried beneath the machinery of Big Politics (say, whatever happened to Rubio?).

An Aside on the Coming Election

Syndicate Red Brown Green has made a loud appearance in this election round, and BackChannels interprets the color code this way:

Brown – New Nationalists – Trump – Representative Portion of Loud Republican Moral Authoritarianism

Red–Green – Old Comrades and Neo-Islamists – Clinton’s Party and Its Portion of the Fascists on the Far Left

The extreme divisions in America’s body politic serves Moscow, and BackChannels wonders to what extent over time (decades) and today KGB-style FSB “Active Measures” (Wikipedia) have contributed to the nation’s very own mud fest of an election season.  As regards that suspicion, let it include the cultivation of the Far Left on campus and in the think-tanks across decades, as the Wikipedia page referenced asserts the following: “According to Stanislav Lunev, GRU alone spent more than $1 billion for the peace movements against Vietnam War, which was a “hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost”.[3] Lunev claimed that “the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad”.[3]”

–33–

Political Myopia – Chilcot in the Post-Soviet Context

07 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, Fast News Share, Great Britain and United Kingdom, Iraq, Middle East, North America, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

BackChannels places conflicts involving Iraq in the post-Cold War framework and suggests that military engagements were part of “containment” and the “building down” of Soviet alliances that remained in character authoritarian and openly supportive of terrorism.

Note too that Russia today refuses to designate either Hezbollah or Hamas as terrorist organizations; that is has met in recent years with PFLP (easily looked up online), well recognized for the hijacking of airliners in the 1970s; and, sigh, that it is most responsible for allowing / enabling / encouraging Assad to incubate ISIS — by deselection for bombing and combat — in Syria as that conflict got under way.

Basically, Russia then and Russia today criminally manipulates foreign political constituencies to suit its own kleptocratic appetites. Hussein (and Gaddafi) were part of that enterprise, and perhaps as God willed it, both are gone (and thank God).

Yesterday’s BBC report on the Chilcot report  keeps itself narrowed on the image of Iraq as an oasis of stability, however miserable, under the rule of a strongman, and the report itself reasserts at face value the idea that “regime change” in Iraq linked to direct threats posed by WMDs, which imbroglio BackChannels would shove into a bin labeled “Potential Convenient Pretexts” (sorry the same don’t really work out) and the more general “Global War on Terror,” which period of observation appears to start on September 11, 2001:

10. After the attacks on the US on 11 September 2001 and the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in November, the US Administration urned its attention to regime change in Iraq as part of the second phase of what it called the Global War on Terror.

Source: “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry: Executive Summary: Report of a Committee of Privy Counsellors: Ordered by the House of the Commons to be printed on 6 July 2016”, PDF, page 5, Item 10).

It is unfortunate that governments most devoted to “classical liberalism” and democracy should feel the need to resort to manipulating their “masses” (instead of free constituencies) because they have failed to publically educate the same in the longer-lived themes of geopolitics and history — or worse, lost that battle to the New Old Now Old Far Out and Lost Left that relies on short memories to promote their own ultimately authoritarian, fascist, and totalitarian outlooks.

I don’t know what BackChannels is going to do when the 25th Year Anniversary of the Dissolving of The Soviet passes on December 26, 2016, but as that day is still coming up, it’s going to harp on it with the hope that other “English” and Europeans and others less free or more so catch a glimpse of Putin’s Excellent World (PEW), the world from which it has emerged, and the malignantly narcissistic worldview it continues to promote or install wherever it may.

-33-

FTAC – Hebron – Three Dead

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Politics, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

A confection celebrates the kidnapping of two Israeli and one Israeli-American teenagers. The photo had been posted by the IDF prior to today's discovery of the bodies.

A confection celebrates the kidnapping of two Israeli and one Israeli-American teenagers. The photo had been posted by the IDF prior to today’s discovery of the bodies.

As I type, there are ugly murder stories all over the web, from ISIS in Iraq to children raped and swung from tree limbs with their own scarves (India). Some not Jewish, not Israeli, not American must wonder why these get so much attention (three dead Jews — who cares?). The answer is these would have cared about others far from themselves and would have been part, one way or another, of inspiring good and justice and then been a part of drawing down all that other injustice, mayhem, and murder in the world.

That’s a lot to suggest . . . perhaps a lot to promise . . .but I think it comes with the territory, from Pharaoh to now.

I don’t like everything I read about the Jews and Israel. As a matter of fact, I was earlier this afternoon reading about Sabra and Shatila and the IDF both controlling access to those camps and standing aside as Christian Phalangist militia slaughtered in that Palestinian refugee camp old men, women, and children. That event was not among the Jewish State’s finer moments (September 1982), but here’s the thing: perhaps we learn even from — or starting with — our own failings and missteps and trespasses. I would not expect as much from ISIS today as it has indulged itself in the most wanton orgies of killing; Hamas seems equally unable to repair or restrain itself or related loose energy running around the Gaza Strip (which over the weekend launched multiple rockets against Israel). Name them all, they seem to raise their children with a murderous hate for others, Jews first (thank you very much), and when their children do as they have been trained . . . .

I am wondering: are we — is the whole world — going to see celebration photos this time?

I’ve no further comment.

Reference

http://pamelageller.com/2014/06/dead-bodies-three-jewish-kidnapped-teens-found-near-hebron.html/ – 6/30/2014.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/three-kidnapped-israeli-teenagers-found-dead-reports-say/2014/06/30/4e6a271a-007a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html – 6/30/2014.

http://www.commdiginews.com/news-2/sons-of-israel-gilad-shaar-eyal-yifrach-and-naftali-fraenkel-found-murdered-20608/ – 6/30/2014.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4536458,00.html – 6/30/2014 (IDF seals off Hebron).

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4536477,00.html – 6/30/2014.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/06/netanyahu-vows-hamas-will-pay-after-bodies-of-3-kidnapped-israeli-teens-found – 6/30/2014.

http://www.un.org/sg/statements/index.asp?nid=7830 – 6/30/2014.

At this point, it is quite possible to believe Meshaal when he says that he knew nothing about the kidnapping and that he has no idea what happened to the teens. But Meshaal and the leaders of Hamas have a problem. As long as they don’t denounce the Qawasmeh family, and as long as they let the family take them down a dead end time after time, the leaders of the movement will be forced to pay the price.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/qawasmeh-clan-hebron-hamas-leadership-mahmoud-abbas.html#ixzz369yobDuq – 6/29/2014.

Related on anti-Semitism from earlier this month (same subject): http://firstonethrough.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/eyal-gilad-naftali-klinghoffer-the-new-blood-libel/ – 6/23/2014.

 

# # #

Guest Post – Asad Khan – When “FATA” Came Calling To Islamabad

05 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Asia, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Pakistan, Politics, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

FATA has been in the eye of the storm for the past 10 years and other than drones, bombs and shells, what pacification measures have the government taken, other than to be scared witless of the terror merchants and their cronies?

______

The news to which the commentary responds:Suicide attack on Pakistan court leaves 11 people dead days after Taliban announced month-long ceasefire | Mail Online – 3/3/2014.

On that horrific and too familiar a kind of story, one of my friends in Islamabad, Asad Khan, who states on his Facebook page, “every human has the right to communicate with the creator, in the manner s/he thinks best . . . “, provided me permission to relay his thoughts here.

As an editor in this process, I’ve added paragraph breaks to help ease the reading, question marks to the interrogative statements, and applied rote grammatical corrections (“has” to “have” for example) where needed.

“MPAs” refers to members of the Provincial Assembly; “MNAs” to members of the National Assembly.  There are a few other acronyms sprinkled about (“FC” refers to “Frontier Corps”), but the reader is online too and look-up works fast.

Guest Post by Asad Khan

The Police Service is the most vilified, most underfunded, most politically manipulated, probably most demoralized, and most undertrained of all government services.

With this background of our own home grown “keystone cops”, should we be surprised that the terrorists came calling to the courts and turned it into a shooting gallery, shooting innocent people as if they were sitting ducks.

I think what has happened in Islamabad should not come as a surprise to anyone, least of all to the current political leadership. I have always expounded the view that we should have job descriptions and selection criteria for ministers and other leaders and policy makers. For example what are the qualifications of the interior minister, other than the fact that a whole bunch of nincompoops have voted him to the national assembly on false promises?

The same holds true for the rest of that galaxy of greats and near greats that adorn the corridors of power in Islamabad.

First of all I would like to ask the interior minister to define the roles of the police departments/service, the FC and various other “law enforcement” agencies that he lords over?

Probably he will not know the answers to this/these question(s).

Next what is the internal security policy for the nation as whole, not just Raiwind, Lahore, and Punjab in that order, and not just security for the star spangled generals, judges, ministers and MPAS or MNAS?

Does the interior minister know the shelf life of a cartridge in the bandolier of a Police Constable, or when it was purchased, and to how many rain falls and sun shines that cartridge has been exposed to?

Probably it is beneath the dignity of that snotty, arrogant minister to know such trivia.

Why must the Police Constable die in the line of duty protecting a judge who does not value his (police constable’s) life?

What has the government done for Malakand, post 2009 conflict other than some nicely written fraudulent reports?

FATA has been in the eye of the storm for the past 10 years and other than drones, bombs and shells, what pacification measures have the government taken, other than to be scared witless of the terror merchants and their cronies?

We are adopting the line of appeasement not because of our love for the Taliban, but because we are scared blue of them.

Has the Interior Minister, or the PM or the CM ever been to the funeral of a police constable or an FC jawan killed in the line of duty in KPK?

I don’t think so.

Has a survey ever been conducted to know the views of the police or the FC?

I don’t think so.

If I were a Police constable or an FC jawan I would not throw my life away for the protection of some judge or politician.

Have the powers that be ever stood in the shoes of a police constable and thought of these things?

The post-event inquiries ordered by the Head Judge, the PM, CM and what not make me laugh.

It is a joke on the nation.

Pakistan can only get out of the morass it is in if we have honest, decent men and women at the helm of affairs, but unfortunately this will never be. The West is rooting for parliamentary democracy because they know that this sham “democracy” is our nemesis and will be the cause of our eventual downfall. Robber barons will keep on replacing one another and this game of musical chairs will keep on going, and we will keep on sinking deeper and deeper until the sands of time will cover us and there will be no trace left, and the freebooters will take their loot and head West, to out their miserable lives there.

For the present, this country is being run by mafias and unless their hold is broken, and they are made accountable for their actions, we can bid sayonara to any hope for the better.

# # #

Nigerians – Dead, Maimed, Refugee – Again – Boco Loco In Dark Space

25 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Nigeria, Regions

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

It is a co-ed school about 45 miles south of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, and difficult to communicate with because extremists last year destroyed the cell phone tower there.

Islamist group slaughters 43 children in Nigerian boarding school | Mail Online – 2/25/2014.

“Dark space” has nothing to do with color, race, creed, religion: it has to do with communicating and policing.

Any location without reliable 24/7 cellular communication becomes an easy target for marauders — and these most barbaric and sadist of Muslims, so they claim that status for themselves, prove the worst of marauding gangs.

Reactive tactics and strategies fail just as reliably as cell service.

Show business — shows of force, state public relations — won’t work either, and so far plainly hasn’t.

*

But, how do we encourage security agencies that refuse to use intelligence information sent to them by citizens or fail to coordinate intelligence information from various security outfits and government agencies?

Recently, a fellow gave sensitive information to a policeman on some suspicious activities within his workplace but the policeman waved it aside that even if he tells his boss, the officer will not trust his information or may accuse him of belonging to Boko Haram. Now how do we encourage the government or security services when a junior policeman does not have confidence in his superior officer?

Opinion: Nigerian security agencies and the fight against Boko Haram | – 1/24/2014.

Nigeria’s army may be brave, but as much as it may request weapons, what it needs most is a locked tight loyal intelligence service, one capable of tracing financing and arms sales, detecting related cabal and traffic in planning, and knowing, not guessing, where its enemy wanders.

*

In the backs-of-beyond, whether the remote corners of Columbia-Ecuador, the Durand Line separating Afghanistan from Pakistan, or the remote villages of Nigeria, producing structural changes may prove the most expensive but necessary response to a force now roaming and killing at will: cell systems, forts, roads, helicopter pads, airfields — all of it: and then, as too often demonstrated in Pakistan, mere police, even a barracks full of them, simply will not stand off a force superior in numbers for the 30- to 45-minutes it may take to lose a firefight while waiting for “backup”.

Opposite that tack: as refugees spill in from affected areas, they are doing defense naturally: fleeing the death for the safety of great numbers and improved state response to attack.

*

Boko Haram are better armed and are better motivated than our own troops.

Boko Haram and a Nation at War, Articles | THISDAY LIVE – 2/20/2014.

*

“It would appear that they have established bases in certain parts of the northeast that nobody can even penetrate or go to, and they’ve excluded every symbol of authority in those areas,” he said. “Some even say they are in control of various local governments in the northeast and are collecting taxes and running the show in those places.”

Boko Haram’s Funding Remains ‘Elusive’ – 5/22/2013.

* * *

BBC News – Nigeria school raid in Yobe state ‘leaves dozens dead’

Muslim group slaughters 43 children in Nigerian school, children burned alive, Jihadists shot and slit the throats of children who tried to escape through the windows | Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

Thousands fleeing Boko Haram find little comfort in Niger | Reuters

29 Boys Killed as Boko Haram Attacks Boarding School in Nigeria – NBC News.com

* * *

“Boko Haram came in at about 4.00 a.m. (0300 GMT), just when we were getting ready for the morning prayers,” said Bama resident Abba Masta, who lives near the palace.

“There was shooting everywhere and they set the palace on fire. Many died. Students had to run for their lives as they attacked the government girls college as well.”

It was one of several deadly attacks this week.

Boko Haram fighters kill 47 in attack in northeast Nigeria -police | The Indian Express – 2/20/2014.

Related: NCTC.gov – 2014 Counterterrorism Calendar, n.d.

When a government asks “Islamists” to lay down their arms (say “Pretty Please”?), it may do so with faith in reason, but better with these to have faith in the savagery that drives and the greed and lust that ensures their continued swimming in blood and money.

# # #

Adding to the Hungarian-Iranian Connection

11 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Eurasia, Europe, Hungary, Iran, Middle East, Politics, Regions, Russia, Ukraine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

President Janos Ader and Prime Minister Viktor Orban in separate messages felicitated the anniversary of victory of the Islamic Revolution to President Hassan Rouhani and First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri.

In his message, President Ader underlined the efforts of both countries in expansion of bilateral cooperation in all fields, which secure interests of the two countries.

Farsnews – http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13921122000527 – 2/11/2014.

______

More BackChannels pieces on Hungary’s drift toward nationalist socialism and Iran:

Hungary – How Distant in Time? – Comment: Holocaust Memorial Boycott | BackChannels – 2/10/2014.

Hungary’s UN Envoy Seeks to Clear National Conscience, Admits Hungarian Collusion in the Holocaust | BackChannels – 1/26/2014.

Erdogan – Turkey : Jobbik – Hungary — Amplifying the Politics of Division | BackChannels – 1/25/2014.

Reference for the European Commission – Scheppele’s Proposal to Counter Resurgent (Hungarian) Nationalist Urges | BackChannels – 12/2/2014.

A Note on the Hungarian Jobbik Party’s Relationship With Iran | BackChannels – 11/14/2014.

_____

There have been additional references to Hungary in relation to other subjects, e.g., European reparations to the Jewish community, but it’s the drift into nationalism that catches play here and with it movement within the European aligned NATO state to cement relationships with the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

As as happened over the course of Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s tenure, drift toward fascism may draw a strong liberal response from the middle and thereby stall a conservative state movement.

Similar dynamics have also surfaced in Kiev — Ukraine protests take center-stage at EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels | News | DW.DE | 10.02.2014 – which population has found itself in The Bear Trap, i.e., aesthetically, politically, and spiritually aligned with European modernity and its social values but beholden to a state in which the “vertical of power” — the Autocrat — determines the character, position, and values of the state and states it makes its buffer.

Hungarians may express themselves, take to the streets, and throw fits, but Papa Putin with the checkbook and gas tap has sufficient clout for leaving the Ukrainian government to shrug off its liberal critics.

That particular Bear has also aligned itself with Iranian interests — the better to drum up defense and nuclear sales business — and to the extent that it also holds Hungarians in its paws by way of energy supply and sales, it may stalls Hungary’s westward inclinations and, possibly, encourage  those who feel comfortable with thuggish mafia-style Putinesque Russian politics.

The effects of the axis — Putin-Assad-Khamenei — made visible by the collapse of Syria, a lingering post-Soviet artifact may be just emergent in the discussion eastern European politics.

If I had budget plus swift graphic arts I would do this with clusters, but a linear verbal illustration might suffice:

Putin-Assad-Khamenei (Middle East) | Putin-Orban-Yanukovych (Eastern Europe)

Where tanks may once have been dispatched, cash and energy may suffice — and money gets around without conscience.

Additional Reference

Hungary

Viktor Orbán in Moscow: “Putin’s new little kitten”? | Hungarian Spectrum – 2/1/2014: “Moreover, one must keep in mind that for Hungary Russia is a much more important partner than vice versa. In trade relations the Hungarian share of Russian imports is only 2%. On the other hand, Hungary because of its dependence on natural gas and oil is heavily dependent on Russian goodwill.”

Putin $14 Billion Nuclear Deal Wins Orban Alliance – Bloomberg – 1/15/2014: “The deal shows Putin’s ability to use Russia’s control over energy resources to extend his sway beyond the former Soviet Union. Last month, he pledged a $15 billion bailout and a cut in the price of natural gas to Ukraine and promised to lend as much as $2 billion to Belarus.”

Ukraine

Ukraine protests take center-stage at EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels | News | DW.DE | 10.02.2014

BBC News – Putin meets Ukraine’s Yanukovych on Sochi sidelines – 2/8/2014: “Under pressure from Moscow, President Yanukovych had refused to sign a far-reaching association and trade agreement with the EU.”

Putin, Yanukovych promise closer economic ties amid Ukraine protests – CNN.com – 1/23/2014.

European Union and the United States

From the above cited BBC news link: “Washington’s European envoy Victoria Nuland was heard using an expletive to disparage the EU’s handling of the crisis and revealing Washington’s determination to influence the outcome of the Ukrainian struggle.”

Марионетки Майдана – YouTube – 2/4/2014.

Obama cancels meeting with Putin amid Russia tensions – NBC News.com: “Given our lack of progress on issues such as missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last twelve months, we have informed the Russian Government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda,” the White House said.

______

The collapse of the Soviet Union left Soviet business and political relationships as well as Soviet style in place: at least as much would seem embodied in the post-KGB, now FSB person of Russian President Putin who has accepted the defeat of Russian communism — or the armored covering of it — but not of Russian empire and the idea of a Russian way of doing things, even if regress to a 19th Century stance with class empowerment through patronage and equal footing with despots similarly endowed becomes the price paid by Russia’s constituency for the privilege of being different, quintessentially Russian, and now as in the Romanov-then, also cut out of the money but restored in pride.

Additional Reference

Sochi Olympics: Opening ceremony evokes Russian pride before torch is lit – Washington Times – 2/7/2014:

SOCHI, Russia — A Russia in search of global vindication kicked off the Sochi Olympics looking more like a Russia that likes to party, with a pulse-raising opening ceremony about fun and sports instead of terrorism, gay rights and coddling despots.

And that’s just the way Russian President Vladimir Putin wants these Winter Games to be.

# # #

FTAC – Burma – Royhinga – Persecution – No Response

24 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by in Burma, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

Burma is fascist more than Buddhist — it’s an odd twist but due in light of the crushing of the “Orange Revolution” led by Buddhist monks — and as such remains, despite dog-and-pony-show elections, an unconscionable dictatorship. The persecution of minority Muslims than fits the familiar pattern of nationalism in poor states: minorities are on the outs, no less than Roma or Jews in eastern Europe, and only the expression and scale of the hate differ.

The Rohingya have been left to fight or flee.

“Dark Space” would be sweeter in science fiction, but around the world it refers to informationally secluded areas — could be a mafia back room or a valley remote from a capital and difficult to police — and they are in all effects wild and ruled largely by fear in the face of ruthless force.

As regards political rhetoric, it hasn’t helped Islam to have credit for the destruction of Buddhas of Bamiyan. That criminal act may be ascribed to the Taliban, of course, but it reflects on Muslims in general where the discourse is pursued on general terms. To get anywhere with any of this, we have to dive beneath whatever impressions have been made by our separable ethnic, national, and religious labels and then approach each troubled region x area x population x political themes as an interesting challenge. While the UN may provide a platform for as much, it / we have no common experience, much less way, of coordinating force beyond “peace keepers” that would seem to work only in well organized situations, e.g., the defense of the airport at Mogadishu, the watch for border activity in southern Lebanon. The world has no police and Uncle Sam, who has done his share, wants to work of some war-related debt (and get back to watching television, I suppose).

Peeve of the moment: how come Buddhists are committing genocide against Muslims in Burma and no one says a thing?

It’s not true that no one says a thing: Rohingya may face another wave of genocide | Islam | World Bulletin – 1/23/2014.

However, as suggested, the UN plus China, Russia, and the United States, plus the Ummah in its largest aspect, and whoever’s left share no common conscience and few common humanitarian interests to the extent than any may care to band to depose the junta and impose contemporary open democratic civilization and harmonious relations or any vertical of power in Burma.

* * *

The situation is little different within Syria where the caring outside world has proven itself at providing food and tents and assorted other humanitarian aid outside the combat arena.

Within: you’re on your own!

* * *

It’s odds-even as to whether Iraqis will wake up this week and back the government regardless of clan, family, or sectarian allegiances to ensure the ejection of ISIS from Fallujah.  There it’s open war.  State forces have ringed the city.  Supplies have been moved in.  But Kerry says its not America’s fight — it’s Iraq’s.

Fallujah Has Fallen to Al-Qaeda | Video – ABC News – 1/23/2014.

Ditto, I’d say, for the Royhinga of Burma.

# # #