As you can see, this blog is currently asleep. There may nonetheless be stuff of interest to you here, so I will keep it in existence for the time being!
While I am talking to you, I would also like to make it clear that a link to another site does not mean I agree with whatever may appear on it.
The specific reason why I thought it important to say this now is the increasingly intemperate tone of some of the material currently appearing on the Eureferendum site.
March 29, 2009
March 30, 2008
Further efforts in France to suppress investigation into Al-Dura story
John Rosenthal draws our attention to a sinister example of French anti-discrimation laws being used to criminalise efforts to counter discrimination against Israel.
March 29, 2008
Wilders – right and wrong
My first reaction to the appearance of Geert Wilders' anti-Islam film fitna was elation that it had got produced at all. I still think the failure of the Western political establishment to defend Wilders’ right to produce his film was scandalous.
Now I’ve watched it twice and got into a couple of arguments about it, here is what I think about the content:
The issues he is raising – that there is a serious threat to Western freedoms from an Islamist movement drawing inspiration from the Koran with a potential mass base among Muslims in the West - are not imaginary.
I didn't find it racist - from what I’ve seen of Wilders, he’s not a racist, but someone genuinely concerned by what he sees as a serious threat to his country.
What the film is, though, is irresponsible, in the sense that it raises these concerns in an alarming matter without suggesting any positive course of action for dealing with them.
Wilders is a professional politician and it’s a politician’s job to think in terms of solutions. Without that, simple alarm can lead to panic and give scope to genuine racists.
For my part, I am absolutely opposed to any attempt to tackle these issues through being nasty to individual Muslims or depriving any citizen of our countries of their rights. This is a war of ideas, not of races or civilisations.
That said, it is essential that the war be waged. That means first of all defending free speech, including for critics of Islam. “Being offensive” mustn’t become a grounds for suppression of ideas and opinions (otherwise we’d all be in jail).
And secondly campaigning needs to be stepped up for the rights of women and religious minorities in Islamic countries, campaigns which Muslims must be invited to join. Equal rights for Muslims everywhere, but no special privileges anywhere!
Addressing such issues at global level might provide the alternative to the developing trend towards a “separation of the civilizations”.
Now I’ve watched it twice and got into a couple of arguments about it, here is what I think about the content:
The issues he is raising – that there is a serious threat to Western freedoms from an Islamist movement drawing inspiration from the Koran with a potential mass base among Muslims in the West - are not imaginary.
I didn't find it racist - from what I’ve seen of Wilders, he’s not a racist, but someone genuinely concerned by what he sees as a serious threat to his country.
What the film is, though, is irresponsible, in the sense that it raises these concerns in an alarming matter without suggesting any positive course of action for dealing with them.
Wilders is a professional politician and it’s a politician’s job to think in terms of solutions. Without that, simple alarm can lead to panic and give scope to genuine racists.
For my part, I am absolutely opposed to any attempt to tackle these issues through being nasty to individual Muslims or depriving any citizen of our countries of their rights. This is a war of ideas, not of races or civilisations.
That said, it is essential that the war be waged. That means first of all defending free speech, including for critics of Islam. “Being offensive” mustn’t become a grounds for suppression of ideas and opinions (otherwise we’d all be in jail).
And secondly campaigning needs to be stepped up for the rights of women and religious minorities in Islamic countries, campaigns which Muslims must be invited to join. Equal rights for Muslims everywhere, but no special privileges anywhere!
Addressing such issues at global level might provide the alternative to the developing trend towards a “separation of the civilizations”.
March 27, 2008
Kosovo – land of bad analogies
The Serb-Albanian dispute over control of Kosovo attracts bad analogies like jam attracts wasps.
Here are some situations that Kosovo does not in fact resemble very closely:
1. Israel/Palestine. The ‘inalienable rights of the Palestinians’ is code for removing the Jewish state of Israel from the map. Kosovan independence, on other hand, and despite what some Serb nationalists appear to believe, is not part of a plan to wipe out Serbia or the Serbs. Nor, switching the labels around, do Serbs or Serbia have any plan to remove Albania from the map (indeed, whatever war crimes may have been committed there, no evidence has been found of a genocidal plan targeting the Kosovar Albanians in 1998-99).
2. The Kosovar Albanian cause is not part of the new Islamic jihad. Islamists have never been shy about proclaiming their religious identity, but the Kosovar Albanians have consistently asserted not religious, but national demands. Islamists may have tried get on the bandwagon, but that does not mean they have been driving it.
3. Kosovo is not terribly much like Tibet either. It would be like Tibet if there already existed an independent Tibet with a big chunk bitten off and absorbed by China, but since Albania does exist and Tiben doesn't, it isn’t.
Here are some situations that Kosovo does not in fact resemble very closely:
1. Israel/Palestine. The ‘inalienable rights of the Palestinians’ is code for removing the Jewish state of Israel from the map. Kosovan independence, on other hand, and despite what some Serb nationalists appear to believe, is not part of a plan to wipe out Serbia or the Serbs. Nor, switching the labels around, do Serbs or Serbia have any plan to remove Albania from the map (indeed, whatever war crimes may have been committed there, no evidence has been found of a genocidal plan targeting the Kosovar Albanians in 1998-99).
2. The Kosovar Albanian cause is not part of the new Islamic jihad. Islamists have never been shy about proclaiming their religious identity, but the Kosovar Albanians have consistently asserted not religious, but national demands. Islamists may have tried get on the bandwagon, but that does not mean they have been driving it.
3. Kosovo is not terribly much like Tibet either. It would be like Tibet if there already existed an independent Tibet with a big chunk bitten off and absorbed by China, but since Albania does exist and Tiben doesn't, it isn’t.
Wilder's film fitna is out
Fitna, Dutch politician Geert Wilder's film about the Koran, can be found here. What do you think of it?
February 16, 2008
Someone else's interesting discussion on Kosovo
A thoughtful article on the impending Kosovo independence crisis followed by a lot of comments is to be found here.
It's Motoon time again!
Once again it behoves every blogger to relink to the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, as, once again, various Islamic authorities attempt to get the Danish government to ban the representation of Muhammad – i.e. to impose a rule of sharia law on their majority non-Muslim population.
Muslims may (or indeed may not) believe that it is impious to make images of Muhammad. But I am not a Muslim and this rule (if it exists) does not apply to me. Period, full stop, end of story.
In fact, some residual Protestant part of my mind is telling me that the ban itself is surely idolatrous in nature. What does it amount to, after all, but the notion that an all too fallible human being, Muhammad, should be treated with the respect due to the deity?
Blasphemy!
But even so I don’t think anybody should be killed for it.
Muslims may (or indeed may not) believe that it is impious to make images of Muhammad. But I am not a Muslim and this rule (if it exists) does not apply to me. Period, full stop, end of story.
In fact, some residual Protestant part of my mind is telling me that the ban itself is surely idolatrous in nature. What does it amount to, after all, but the notion that an all too fallible human being, Muhammad, should be treated with the respect due to the deity?
Blasphemy!
But even so I don’t think anybody should be killed for it.
Colombia - what am I paying for? - part 3
A couple of weeks ago, vast crowds thronged the Colombian capital Bogota to protest against the FARC, a violent group of Marxist origins that lives off hostage-taking and drug running while enjoying the political support of Venezuelan demagogue Hugo Chavez. Smaller protests with the same message were held across the globe, including in London.
I have previously voiced my concern and suspicion about the agenda of two Colombia-related groups to which my trade union, the University and College Union (UCU) gives money and support. They are the Justice for Colombia and the Colombian Solidarity Campaign, who concentrate their fire not on the various left and right wing gangs that have plagued Colombia for decades, but on the elected government of Alvaro Uribe that has been trying, with American support, to bring the violence to an end.
Now one of these groups, the Solidarity Campaign, has openly stated its opposition to the anti-FARC protests. Clearly this Campaign is working in the interests of the FARC. But is it directly funded by them? Does anyone know?
I have previously voiced my concern and suspicion about the agenda of two Colombia-related groups to which my trade union, the University and College Union (UCU) gives money and support. They are the Justice for Colombia and the Colombian Solidarity Campaign, who concentrate their fire not on the various left and right wing gangs that have plagued Colombia for decades, but on the elected government of Alvaro Uribe that has been trying, with American support, to bring the violence to an end.
Now one of these groups, the Solidarity Campaign, has openly stated its opposition to the anti-FARC protests. Clearly this Campaign is working in the interests of the FARC. But is it directly funded by them? Does anyone know?
Is Castro more respectable than Chavez?
According to Venezuela News and Views, the renowned Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes recently described Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez as a “fraud” and a “crybaby demagogue”. The moral force of this condemnation is, however, much diminished in my eyes by Fuentes’ additional comment that the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro is, in comparison with Chavez, a “respectable man”.
What might be the reason for the different judgements? I think it's probably power worship. What impresses Fuentes about Castro is that he holds all the reins of power firmly in his hands, while the incompetent Chavez continues to tolerate democratic and oppositional loose ends.
Indeed, Fuentes’ comparison seems to me to amount to encouragement to Chavez to respond to his declining popularity not through mending his ways or stepping aside, but through establishing a fully-fledged totalitarian state on the Cuban model.
What might be the reason for the different judgements? I think it's probably power worship. What impresses Fuentes about Castro is that he holds all the reins of power firmly in his hands, while the incompetent Chavez continues to tolerate democratic and oppositional loose ends.
Indeed, Fuentes’ comparison seems to me to amount to encouragement to Chavez to respond to his declining popularity not through mending his ways or stepping aside, but through establishing a fully-fledged totalitarian state on the Cuban model.
January 21, 2008
A bright light on Livingstone
As a former member of Socialist Action (before it split) and its forbears, my main reason for watching Martin Bright’s Channel 4 expose of the Livingstone regime in London city hall was to find out what had become of such former fellow members as John Ross, Redmond O’Neill etc. who are now part of Red Ken’s inner circle.
One thing’s for sure, they’re certainly earning more than me.
A revelation to me was that Ken is, apparently, on the bottle (whisky) from dawn till dusk.
He probably has late night parties in the Mayor’s office where he forces Ross and O’Neill, desperate to keep their huge salaries (and expense accounts?), to drink huge amounts and caper about to Ken’s favourite 70s tunes.
Meanwhile out on the streets, looking up and seeing the lights still on, passing Londoners feel a glow of bracing reassurance that their leader is still at his desk, striving into the small hours to improve their lives.
One thing’s for sure, they’re certainly earning more than me.
A revelation to me was that Ken is, apparently, on the bottle (whisky) from dawn till dusk.
He probably has late night parties in the Mayor’s office where he forces Ross and O’Neill, desperate to keep their huge salaries (and expense accounts?), to drink huge amounts and caper about to Ken’s favourite 70s tunes.
Meanwhile out on the streets, looking up and seeing the lights still on, passing Londoners feel a glow of bracing reassurance that their leader is still at his desk, striving into the small hours to improve their lives.
January 19, 2008
British anti-weather activists meet
We British are famous for talking about our weather, but then we have weather worth talking about: changeable and moody.
Not for long! Leftist activists bent on bringing our country out of its insularity and into the wider world (where the weather is uniformly scorchio or shiver-me-timbers) are rallying to put a stop to climate instability.
There are hopes that the conference will be able to adopt resolutions establishing what the temperature will be on every day for the next century.
Sceptics however point out that there are deep divisions among the delegates. They foresee a major battle over whether we are to get twenty days of sunshine in June or only eighteen. In the likely absence of agreement, the weather will carry on as before.
That is the price we will have to pay for the continuing absence of socialist unity.
Not for long! Leftist activists bent on bringing our country out of its insularity and into the wider world (where the weather is uniformly scorchio or shiver-me-timbers) are rallying to put a stop to climate instability.
There are hopes that the conference will be able to adopt resolutions establishing what the temperature will be on every day for the next century.
Sceptics however point out that there are deep divisions among the delegates. They foresee a major battle over whether we are to get twenty days of sunshine in June or only eighteen. In the likely absence of agreement, the weather will carry on as before.
That is the price we will have to pay for the continuing absence of socialist unity.
France to sell nuclear technology to Arab world
On Pajamas Media, Mr Eugenides draws attention to the fact that France is preparing to provide civilian nuclear technology to a number of Muslim states including Libya, a country still ruled by the very same Colonel Qadhafi who did so much to fuel international terrorism in the latter part of the previous century.
According to French President Sarkozy
Even leaving Libya out of it, please tell me, someone, why should I have confidence that this gift will not ultimately be used to acquire nuclear weapons?
As Lenin almost said
“France will sell us the rope with which we will hang the West”.
According to French President Sarkozy
"The sharing of civilian nuclear [technology] will be one of the foundations of a pact of confidence which the West must forge with the Islamic world."
Even leaving Libya out of it, please tell me, someone, why should I have confidence that this gift will not ultimately be used to acquire nuclear weapons?
As Lenin almost said
“France will sell us the rope with which we will hang the West”.
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