Housing as a financial commodity

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUAjnUUeqwKHwakE_sdCTz3BQOje1CwM82z5Aoqpo52bLyWN_mMPCrRzcV9ekKe6VxBTLYDW1rlYxM7nfkSx4zaiOTTB3vUfQZJWwLkXgSfBGYOD71F1ctWa1pUgJZMyH6gK6dd-CYLE5P/s1600/ownership.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="493" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUAjnUUeqwKHwakE_sdCTz3BQOje1CwM82z5Aoqpo52bLyWN_mMPCrRzcV9ekKe6VxBTLYDW1rlYxM7nfkSx4zaiOTTB3vUfQZJWwLkXgSfBGYOD71F1ctWa1pUgJZMyH6gK6dd-CYLE5P/s640/ownership.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <i><br /></i> <i>You no longer own your home. </i><br /> <i>Think about it very carefully.</i><br /> <i>It is all owned by the government and/or corporations (one and the same)</i><br /> <br /> Housing, long accepted as a basic need and a human right, has now been transformed into a financial commodity with its value dependent on the vagaries of the market. In highlighting how the process of financialisation has become an impediment to the realisation of this right, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing has in her recent report suggested some remedial measures.<br /> <br /> by Kanaga Raja<br /> <br /> The “financialisation” of housing is one of the greatest challenges to the right to adequate housing, with housing now being valued as a commodity rather than a human dwelling, a United Nations rights expert has charged.<br /> <br /> This admonishment came in a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Leilani Farha, which was presented to the UN Human Rights Council on 1 March.<br /> <br /> The Human Rights Council held its 34th regular session in Geneva from February 27 to March 24.<br /> <br /> At a media briefing on March 2, Farha said the housing sector has been transformed by global financial actors and unprecedented amounts of excess capital. “It is no longer as we once knew it. Housing has been financialised: valued as a commodity, rather than a human dwelling, it has become for investors a means to secure and accumulate wealth rather than a place to live in dignity, to raise a family, and thrive within a community.”<br /> <br /> “Housing has lost its currency as a human right,” she said, noting that the amount of capital now being invested in housing is staggering. Global residential real estate is valued at US$163 trillion, more than twice the world’s total gross domestic product (GDP). “Imagine if that capacity was harnessed for the realisation of housing instead of for speculation and profit.”<br /> <br /> The impact of the commodification of housing and commodified housing markets is devastating, Farha added. Informal settlements are being razed to create space for luxury developments, communities are becoming devoid of human life as houses sit empty – mere vehicles for capital gain – and extreme unaffordability is pushing low- and moderate-income people out of city centres – all in the name of investment.<br /> <br /> “Financialisation has robbed housing of its function as a social good. In financialised housing markets, housing is no longer ‘people-driven’. Decisions about housing – its use, its cost, where it will be built or whether it will be demolished – are made from remote boardrooms with little if any consideration of the outcome,” she said.<br /> <br /> In her report to the Human Rights Council, the rights expert referred to the financialisation of housing as structural changes in housing and financial markets and global investment whereby housing is treated as a commodity, a means of accumulating wealth and often as security for financial instruments that are traded and sold on global markets.<br /> <br /> It refers to the way capital investment in housing increasingly disconnects housing from its social function of providing a place to live in security and dignity, and hence undermines the realisation of housing as a human right.<br /> <br /> “It refers to the way housing and financial markets are oblivious to people and communities, and the role housing plays in their well-being.”<br /> <br /> The report noted that housing and real estate markets have been transformed by corporate finance, including banks, insurance and pension funds, hedge funds, private equity firms and other kinds of financial intermediaries with massive amounts of capital and excess liquidity. The global financial system has grown exponentially and now far outstrips the so-called real “productive” economy in terms of sheer volumes of wealth, with housing accounting for much of that growth.<br /> <br /> “Housing and commercial real estate have become the ‘commodity of choice’ for corporate finance and the pace at which financial corporations and funds are taking over housing and real estate in many cities is staggering.”<br /> <br /> The value of global real estate is about US$217 trillion, nearly 60% of the value of all global assets, with residential real estate comprising 75% of the total. In the course of one year, from mid-2013 to mid-2014, corporate buying of larger properties in the top 100 recipient global cities rose from US$600 billion to US$1 trillion.<br /> <br /> Global investment<br /> <br /> “Housing is at the centre of an historic structural transformation in global investment and the economies of the industrialised world with profound consequences for those in need of adequate housing,” said Farha.<br /> <br /> In “hedge cities”, prime destinations for global capital seeking safe havens for investments, housing prices have increased to levels that most residents cannot afford, creating huge increases in wealth for property owners in prime locations while excluding moderate- and low-income households from access to home ownership or rentals due to unaffordability. Those households are pushed to peri-urban areas with scant employment and services.<br /> <br /> Elsewhere, financialisation is linked to expanded credit and debt taken on by individual households made vulnerable to predatory lending practices and the volatility of markets.<br /> <br /> According to the Special Rapporteur, financialised housing markets have caused displacement and evictions at an unparalleled scale: in the United States over the course of five years, over 13 million foreclosures resulted in more than nine million households being evicted. In Spain, more than half a million foreclosures between 2008 and 2013 resulted in over 300,000 evictions. There were almost one million foreclosures between 2009 and 2012 in Hungary.<br /> <br /> “In many countries in the global South, where the majority of households are unlikely to have access to formal credit, the impact of financialisation is experienced differently, but with a common theme – the subversion of housing and land as social goods in favour of their value as commodities for the accumulation of wealth, resulting in widespread evictions and displacement. Informal settlements are frequently replaced by luxury residential and high-end commercial real estate.”<br /> <br /> According to the rights expert, millions of foreclosures, evictions and displacements and more than a billion people living in grossly inadequate housing conditions and homelessness worldwide signal, among other things, the failure of states and of the international community to manage the interaction between financial actors and housing systems in accordance with the right to adequate housing.<br /> <br /> Impact of financialisation<br /> <br /> According to the report, the financialisation of housing has its origins in neoliberalism, the deregulation of housing markets, and structural adjustment programs imposed by financial institutions and agreed to by states. It is also tied to the internationalisation of trade and investment agreements which make states’ housing policies accountable to investors rather than to human rights.<br /> <br /> The financialisation of housing is also the result of significant changes in the way credit was provided for housing and, more specifically, of the advent of “mortgage-backed securities”.<br /> <br /> The 2008 global financial crisis revealed the fragility, volatility and predatory nature of financialised housing markets and the potential for catastrophic outcomes both for individual households and for the global economy. In the United States, there were an average of 10,000 foreclosures per day in 2008, and as many as 35 million individuals were affected by evictions over a five-year period.<br /> <br /> “Many expected that the global financial crisis and its impact on the human rights of millions of households would act as an alarm bell, forcing States and international financial institutions to reassess the value of unbridled financialisation and introduce reforms to ensure that the financial system addressed rather than exploited the housing needs of low-income households,” said Farha.<br /> <br /> It seemed to have the opposite effect. Individuals and families who were affected by the crisis were often blamed for taking on too much debt, and new rules and regulations were put in place to restrict their access to mortgages. Austerity measures cut programs on which they had relied for access to housing options, and the march towards the financialisation of housing continued.<br /> <br /> States have continued to focus on attracting capital and wealthy investors with reduced taxes and other benefits. Countries like Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain, where harsh austerity measures have been implemented, have enacted policies to entice foreign investors into their domestic markets.<br /> <br /> “Great Wall of Money”<br /> <br /> The report said the amount of money involved in the purchase of housing and real estate is almost impossible to digest. Cushman and Wakefield, an American global real estate services firm engaging in US$90 billion worth of real estate sales per year, publishes an annual report entitled “The Great Wall of Money” which includes a calculation of the amount of capital raised each year for trans-border real estate investments. The total in 2015 was a record US$443 billion, with residential properties representing the largest single share.<br /> <br /> “Housing and urban real estate have become the commodity of choice for corporate finance, a ‘safety deposit box’ for the wealthy, a repository of capital and excess liquidity from emerging markets and a convenient place for shell companies to stash their money with very little transparency.”<br /> <br /> Housing prices in so-called “hedge cities” like Hong Kong, London, Munich, Stockholm, Sydney and Vancouver have all increased by over 50 percent since 2011, creating vast amounts of increased assets for the wealthy while making housing unaffordable for most households not already invested in the market.<br /> <br /> Corporate finance not only profits from inflated prices in hedge cities, it also profits from housing crises. The global financial crisis created unprecedented opportunities for buying distressed housing and real estate debt, which was sold off at firesale prices in countries such as Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.<br /> <br /> The Blackstone Group, the world’s largest real estate private equity firm, managing US$102 billion worth of property, spent US$10 billion to purchase repossessed properties in the United States at courthouses and in online auctions following the 2008 financial crisis, emerging as the largest rental landlord in the country. Other major institutional players invested US$20 billion to purchase approximately 200,000 single-family homes in the United States between 2012 and mid-2013.<br /> <br /> “What is so stark about the pouring of those vast amounts of money into housing is that hardly any of it is directed towards ameliorating the insufferable housing conditions in which millions live,” the rights expert noted.<br /> <br /> If even a portion of those amounts was directed towards affordable housing and access to credit for people in need of it, target 11.1 of the Sustainable Development Goals, to ensure adequate housing for all by 2030, would be well within reach.<br /> <br /> The market rules<br /> <br /> Financialisation under current regimes, however, creates the opposite effect: unaccountable markets that do not respond to housing need, and urban centres that become the sole preserve of those with wealth.<br /> <br /> According to Farha, financialised housing markets respond to preferences of global investors rather than to the needs of communities. “The average income of households in the community or the kinds of housing they would like to inhabit is of little concern to financial investors, who cater to the needs or desires of speculative markets and are likely to replace affordable housing that is needed with luxury housing that sits vacant because that is how best to turn a profit quickly.”<br /> <br /> The report noted that more than 36,000 properties in London are held by shell companies registered in offshore havens such as Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Isle of Man and Jersey. “Many residential rental properties are now owned by bondholders or holders of public stock with no direct connection to properties. It is difficult to know who is accountable for human rights when the owner of housing is a multi-billion dollar fund, bondholders, public stockholders or a nameless corporate shell.”<br /> <br /> The report said that increased prices of housing and real estate assets have become key drivers in the creation of greater wealth inequality. Those who own property in prime urban locations have become richer, while lower-income households confronting the escalating costs of housing become poorer.<br /> <br /> “Patterns of inequality are often starkest in developing countries. In Africa, if current trends continue, the number of households living in informal settlements will continue to increase while the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals is predicted to rise by almost 50 percent in the next decade.”<br /> <br /> The financialisation of housing has dramatically altered the relationship of states to the housing sector and to those to whom they have human rights obligations. Rather than being held accountable to residents and their need for housing, states’ housing policies have often become accountable to financial institutions and seem to pander to the confidence of global credit markets and the preferences of wealthy private investors.<br /> <br /> “Given the predominance of housing-related credit in many economies, domestic housing policy becomes inter-twined with the priorities and strategies of central banks and international financial institutions, which are themselves rarely held accountable to States’ human rights obligations to ensure access to adequate housing and do not meaningfully engage with rights-holders.”<br /> <br /> Accountability to global finance rather than to human rights has been rigorously imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other creditors when governments have faced foreign debt crises. Decisions made by central banks and finance ministers in consultation with international financial institutions are rarely informed by input from stakeholders or those involved with housing policy and programs.<br /> <br /> Austerity measures<br /> <br /> In circumstances where governments should be relying on positive measures and resource allocation to provide housing to households affected by economic downturns and widespread unemployment, many have been held accountable to austerity measures imposed by creditors. They have agreed to dramatically reduce or eliminate housing programs, privatise social housing and sell off massive amounts of housing and real estate assets to private equity funds.<br /> <br /> In many developing and emerging economies, said the report, the World Bank and other international and regional financial institutions continue to actively promote the financialisation of housing as the dominant strategy for addressing the critical need for housing, despite evidence that such strategies fail to provide housing options to the households that are most in need and lead to greater socioeconomic inequality.<br /> <br /> The report further pointed out that there are currently almost 2,500 bilateral investment treaties in force and almost 300 treaties with investment provisions. Provisions in investment treaties generally provide protection for investors from actions by states without imposing obligations on them to uphold human rights.<br /> <br /> Investors are guaranteed fair and equitable treatment, protection from direct or indirect expropriation, and other protections, and have access to an investor-state dispute settlement procedure to seek damages for breaches of those provisions.<br /> <br /> Claims have recently been brought against the Dominican Republic and Panama, for example, on the basis that government decisions to cancel planned luxury developments in order to protect Indigenous territories or environmental resources violated investors’ rights under bilateral investment treaties.<br /> <br /> The government of Mauritius is currently being taken to arbitration by a group of property development companies from the United Kingdom that invested in luxury real estate developments in Mauritius and are now seeking damages for a decision on the part of the government to change its planning policy to restrict such developments.<br /> <br /> “The mere threat of those kinds of claims can have a directive effect on State housing policy. Investment treaty arbitration frequently involves millions of dollars in damages, and thus acts as a disincentive for States to enact and enforce any regulatory measures restricting the profitability of housing or real estate assets purchased by foreign investors,” said Farha.<br /> <br /> In some instances, courts have played an important role in holding financial institutions liable for predatory and discriminatory lending practices, albeit without reference to international human rights obligations. In a recent case, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States ruled in favour of a lawsuit brought by the city of Miami against Bank of America and Wells Fargo for discriminatory predatory lending practices linked to the mortgage crisis.<br /> <br /> “Policy responses to the financialisation of housing have tended to prioritise support for financial institutions over responding to the needs of those whose right to adequate housing is at stake. Spending on bailouts of banks and financial institutions after the 2008 financial crisis far outstripped spending to provide assistance to the victims of the crisis.”<br /> <br /> Nonetheless, a number of sub-national and national governments have started to address the effects of excess capital flows and financialisation on affordability and access to housing for low-income households. Initiatives have been advanced at both national and sub-national levels providing a number of tools that can at least curb the excesses of financialisation and mitigate its effects.<br /> <br /> The report cited the fact that a number of states, including Austria, China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, have instituted restrictions on foreign purchasers of residential real estate.<br /> <br /> Conclusions<br /> <br /> “What is lacking is for States to reclaim the governance of housing systems from global credit markets and, in collaboration with affected communities and with cooperation and engagement by central banks and financial institutions, redesign housing finance and global investment in housing around the goal of ensuring access to adequate housing for all by 2030,” said the rights expert.<br /> <br /> Many states have been too deferential to the dynamics of unregulated markets and have failed to take appropriate action to bring private investment into line with the right to adequate housing. By providing tax subsidies for home ownership, tax breaks for investors, and bailouts for banks and financial institutions, states have subsidised the excessive financialisation of housing at the expense of programs for those in desperate need of housing.<br /> <br /> “There seems to be a gross imbalance between the attention, mechanisms and resources that States have developed to support the financialisation of housing and the complete deficit of housing for the implementation of the right to adequate housing.”<br /> <br /> The Special Rapporteur suggested that the way forward requires a shift to take hold so that states ensure that all investment in housing recognises its social function and states’ human rights obligations in that regard. That requires a transformation of the relationship between the state and the financial sector, whereby human rights implementation becomes the overriding goal, not a subsidiary or neglected obligation.<br /> <br /> The Special Rapporteur believes that can be achieved with more constructive engagement and dialogue between states, human rights actors, international and domestic financial regulatory bodies, private equity firms and major investors.<br /> <br /> The rights expert recommended, amongst others, that an international high-level meeting of states, international financial institutions, human rights bodies, civil society organisations and relevant experts be organised to design a strategy for engaging financial regulatory bodies and actors in the realisation of the goal of adequate housing for all by 2030.<br /> <br /> Third World Resurgence - <a href="http://www.twn.my/" target="_blank">http://www.twn.my</a><br /> <div> <br /></div> </div>

Housing as a financial commodity

You no longer own your home.  Think about it very carefully. It is all owned by the government and/or corporations (one and the same) ...

Read more »

How multinational companies keep avoiding the threat of regulation (Human Rights)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBgQJoZwbZzrP3qVp4hVV5TbaSTIFpFgwgzcPbAcPJv59WcUFWCIRtnseawS3JCbLwWhFOIEevObtJp8P9-wJFuvvxY3oecAOJOsIc1acWczIi78i4lCCqUaKsueYcUFABx-1Ut58GPAT/s1600/child-labour.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="257" data-original-width="722" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBgQJoZwbZzrP3qVp4hVV5TbaSTIFpFgwgzcPbAcPJv59WcUFWCIRtnseawS3JCbLwWhFOIEevObtJp8P9-wJFuvvxY3oecAOJOsIc1acWczIi78i4lCCqUaKsueYcUFABx-1Ut58GPAT/s640/child-labour.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> For nearly 40 years, all attempts at the United Nation to draft a legally binding document to address human rights violations by transnational corporations have floundered.  Flor Gonzalez Correa comments.<br /> <br /> BOLIVIA, Cuba, Ecuador, South Africa and Venezuela proposed a treaty to regulate transnational corporations last year. You'd be forgiven for feeling a sense of d‚j… vu. It has been a long and complicated road to tightening the leash on the giant global corporations which can dominate our lives. The United Nations has had it on the agenda for around 40 years.<br /> <br /> The first attempt, the Draft Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations, was never finalised due to disagreement between developing and developed countries. The second attempt, the draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights (it is fertile ground for catchy titles), was also too divisive.<br /> <br /> When the norms were presented for approval in 2004, they received a fatal blow: the UN Commission on Human Rights said that it had never requested such a document and that the norms had 'no legal standing'.<br /> <br /> Norms are dead, long live principles<br /> <br /> Shortly after, the Human Rights Commission appointed Harvard professor John Ruggie to write a replacement for the norms. After several years of consultations, he produced the Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework for Business and Human Rights and followed it up in 2011 with the Guiding Principles for its implementation. These require business to respect human rights and hand states the responsibility of protecting them and providing access to effective remedy when they are violated.<br /> <br /> The UN Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed both documents and, in contrast to previous efforts, the business community received them relatively enthusiastically. However, some prominent human rights organisations were less optimistic and continued to push for the creation of a binding treaty.<br /> <br /> But let's be clear here. Neither Ruggie's principles nor a treaty on business and human rights will fix corporate misbehaviour.<br /> <br /> Principles vs treaty<br /> <br /> According to the guiding principles, the state has the responsibility to create and enforce national regulations to protect the human rights of its citizens against corporate abuses. That all sounds very good, but we have to remember that states are not always willing or able to create and enforce such regulations.<br /> <br /> To be fair, Ruggie's documents were intended to be an interpretation of existing international human rights instruments, codes of conduct and best practices. They were not aimed at creating new regulations or filling any legal gaps. That is why a treaty could be useful: to create new regulations to cope with current challenges.<br /> <br /> The treaty route, however, also depends on the will of states. To be of any use, a treaty on transnational corporations should have to count with the support of most states, especially those that are home to the majority of these companies. So far, most of them have refused to even entertain the idea of a treaty. Fourteen countries, including France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US, voted against Ecuador's resolution and another 13 abstained.<br /> <br /> At the moment, the only thing we have is a resolution that asks for an open-ended working group on a legally binding document. We don't even know what this treaty would look like, but many states - and business groups - are not interested in finding out and insist on building upon the guiding principles, which you suspect they are aware can only take us so far.<br /> <br /> The principles certainly have political and diplomatic merit. They made explicit the human rights responsibilities of corporations and by securing the approval of the business community, they have made it much harder for at least the largest and most visible companies to claim ignorance when human rights are violated along their supply chains. They also serve as a tool for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to demand governments to hold companies accountable and to denounce any behaviour that goes against the principles.<br /> <br /> Business links<br /> <br /> However, the fact that these are non-legally binding agreements creates an ever-present risk that signatories could back off with few consequences beyond a bruised public image.<br /> <br /> A treaty, if supported by most states, could force companies and states to put human rights considerations above monetary profits and could help clarify what needs to be done when a state is unwilling or unable to create and enforce norms to regulate corporate behaviour.<br /> <br /> In truth, what we are likely to see in the near future is the same story we have witnessed for 40 years. Business keeps opposing any prospect of binding international rules, however necessary. We cannot expect a credible commitment to better rules if the governments who are supposed to create and enforce them have such a close relationship with the business sector.<br /> <br /> As long as countries place the economic interests of their companies well before human rights, then efforts like that proposed by Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, South Africa and Venezuela will continue to be overshadowed.<br /> <br /> Flor Gonzalez Correa is a Teaching Associate in Sociology and Public Policy at Aston University in the UK. This article is reproduced from TheConversation.com under a Creative Commons licence.<br /> <br /> Source:<br /> <a href="http://www.twn.my/title2/resurgence/2015/295/human1.htm" target="_blank">http://www.twn.my/title2/resurgence/2015/295/human1.htm</a><br /> <br /></div>

How multinational companies keep avoiding the threat of regulation (Human Rights)

For nearly 40 years, all attempts at the United Nation to draft a legally binding document to address human rights violations by transna...

Read more »

Only 2 Countries Have Not Joined the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child: South Sudan and…United States

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHpAPMC-hVrT5HhSgt-BPXMHjEpv9BrQuUVW_gG5hlVKPHpaTWFZow3aEHQq3C2ek9oZkE8pHDEaQozcW6m9_xvvYac7o1QlTX0rbcLWaGVph8h7VVJBThtkHwFjgQybfmTcD7BH1RErm/s1600/human-rights-for-all.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="132" data-original-width="382" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGHpAPMC-hVrT5HhSgt-BPXMHjEpv9BrQuUVW_gG5hlVKPHpaTWFZow3aEHQq3C2ek9oZkE8pHDEaQozcW6m9_xvvYac7o1QlTX0rbcLWaGVph8h7VVJBThtkHwFjgQybfmTcD7BH1RErm/s640/human-rights-for-all.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> An international agreement created to better protect children from abuse and exploitation has been embraced by all of the world’s nations except two.<br /> <br /> One the holdouts is still very young as a nation, having only gained its independence four years ago: South Sudan.<br /> <br /> The other outcast doesn’t have this excuse, given its nationhood started about 230 years ago: the United States.<br /> <br /> The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which protects and promotes the rights of children everywhere, has been around since 1990.<br /> <br /> The U.S. was heavily involved in drafting the CRC under the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, and did sign it in 1995. However, President Bill Clinton never submitted it to the U.S. Senate, which must approve it with a two-thirds majority vote before the president can ratify it.<br /> <br /> George W. Bush also did not ask the Senate to ratify it.<br /> <br /> Nor did President Barack Obama, who, during his 2008 presidential campaign, said of the CRC, “It is embarrassing that the U.S. is in the company of Somalia, a lawless land. If I become president, I will review this and other human rights treaties.”<br /> <br /> Obama still hasn’t sent the treaty to the Senate, while Somalia ratified it last week.<br /> <br /> Supporters of the CRC say it’s unlikely the U.S. will ratify it anytime soon, given that Republicans—who have previously expressed opposition to the treaty and often reject ideas coming out of the United Nations—are in charge of the Senate now.<br /> <br /> The basis for U.S. conservatives’ opposition to the CRC is twofold, according to Meg Gardinier, chair of the Campaign for U.S. Ratification of the CRC. One is their stock position that U.S. ratification of international human rights treaties will weaken U.S. sovereignty. The other is their stated belief that being a party to the treaty will undermine the role of American parents in raising their children.<br /> <br /> The treaty is “not meant to set children against parents,” countered Gardinier in an interview with the Inter Press Service. “It is the Campaign’s conviction that the CRC protects children, preserves and strengthens families and is unquestionably improving the lives of children.”<br /> <br /> “The U.S. cannot credibly encourage other nations to embrace human rights for children if it fails to embrace these norms,” she added.<br /> <br /> South Sudan, meanwhile, has passed a bill for the ratification of the treaty. If that happens, the U.S. will stand alone in the world in opposing children’s rights for all nations.<br /> <br /> Source:<br /> <a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/only-2-countries-have-not-joined-the-un-convention-of-the-rights-of-the-child-south-sudan-andunited-states-150127?news=855492" target="_blank">http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/only-2-countries-have-not-joined-the-un-convention-of-the-rights-of-the-child-south-sudan-andunited-states-150127?news=855492</a><br /> <br /></div>

Only 2 Countries Have Not Joined the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child: South Sudan and…United States

An international agreement created to better protect children from abuse and exploitation has been embraced by all of the world’s nation...

Read more »

What does "success" actually mean?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4JknXtz3A1o?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="560"></iframe><br /> <br /> <br /> <b>Islam: </b>The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the most successful man in the entire human history. Being the last Prophet of Islam, he not only set a good example for the whole mankind but also showed to them how to achieve success in this world. Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, a prominent Islamic scholar, has identified 10 successful principles taught by the Prophet.<br /> <br /> “By studying the life of the Prophet we can derive those important principles of success,” he wrote in an article. “To begin from the possible” is one of those principles. The Prophet’s wife Ayesha (may Allah be pleased with her) has explained this principle through a Hadith in which she said: “Whenever the Prophet had to choose between two options, he always opted for the easier one” (Al-Bukhari). To choose the easiest option means to begin from the possible, and <b>one who begins from the possible will surely reach his goal</b>.<br /> <br /> To see advantage in disadvantage was the Prophet’s second important principle, says Khan. In the early days of Makkah, there were many problems and difficulties. But a verse in the Qur’an, “With every hardship there is ease, with every hardship there is ease,” (94:5-6) inspired Muslims. They learned from the verse that if there are some problems, there are also opportunities at the same time. “And the way to success is to <b>ignore the problems and avail the opportunities</b>,” Khan points out.<br /> <br /> Changing the place of action was another principle, which is derived from the Hijrah. According to Khan, Hijrah was not just a migration from Makkah to Madinah but was a strategic move by the Prophet to <b>find a more suitable place </b>for Islamic work.<br /> <br /> “Make a friend out of an enemy” was the fourth principle, which the Prophet learned from the Qur’an, which enjoined upon him the return of good for evil. The Qur’an then added, “You will see your direst enemy has become your closest friend” (41:34). “It means that <b>a good deed in return for a bad deed</b> has a conquering effect over your enemies,” Khan wrote in his article.<br /> <br /> After the Battle of Badr, about 70 of the unbelievers were taken as prisoners of war and many of them were educated people. The Prophet announced that if any one of them would teach 10 Muslim children how to read and write he would be freed. This was the first school in the history of Islam in which all the students were Muslims and all the teachers were from the enemy rank. Here comes the fifth principle: <b>Wring success out of failure.</b><br /> <br /> The <b>power of peace is stronger than the power of violence</b> is the sixth principle. When Makkah was conquered, all of the Prophet’s direst opponents were brought before him. They were war criminals, in every sense of the word. But the Prophet did not order to kill them. He simply said: “Go, you are free.” The result of this kind behavior was miraculous. Most of them embraced Islam.<br /> <br /> No to dichotomous thinking was another principle of the Prophet. “In the famous Muta battle, Khaled bin Waleed decided to withdraw Muslim forces from the battlefield because he discovered that the enemy was disproportionately outnumbered. When the Muslim forces reached Madinah, some commented “O Furrar” (deserters). The Prophet said “No. They are Kurrar” (men of advancement).” Those Madinah Muslims, who commented wrongly about their forces, were thinking dichotomously, either fighting or retreating. The Prophet said no. There is also a third option, and that is to<b> avoid war and find a time to strengthen</b> yourself to make a powerful comeback. History tells us that the Muslims, after three years of preparation, advanced toward Rome and won a resounding victory.<br /> <br /> To bring the battle in one’s own favorable field was the Prophet’s eighth principle. Before the Hudaibiyya <b>Treaty </b>the unbelievers were determined to engage Muslims in fighting, because obviously they were in an advantageous position. But the Prophet, by accepting their conditions unilaterally, entered into a pact. It was a 10-year peace treaty. Until then, the meeting ground between Muslims and non-Muslims had been on the battlefield. Now the area of conflict became that of ideological debate. “Within two years, Islam emerged as victorious because of the simple reason of its ideological superiority,” the scholar said.<br /> <br /> G<b>radualism instead of radicalism was the ninth principle,</b> which is well-established by a Hadith reported by Al-Bukhari. Ayesha says that the first verses of the Qur’an were related mostly to heaven and hell. And then after a long time when the people’s hearts had softened, the specific commands to desist from adultery and drinking were revealed in the Qur’an. “This is a clear proof that for social changes, Islam advocates the evolutionary method, rather than the revolutionary method,” Khan explained.<br /> <br /> <b>To be pragmatic in controversial matters</b> was another of the Prophet’s important principles, he said. During the writing of the Hudaibiyya Treaty, the Prophet dictated these words: “This is from Muhammad, the Messenger of God.” The Quraysh raised their objections over these words. The Prophet promptly changed the word and ordered to write simply Muhammad son of Abdullah. This pragmatic approach adopted by the Prophet brought peace and prosperity for Muslims and accelerated the propagation of Islam.<br /> <br /> <br /></div>

What does "success" actually mean?

Islam: The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the most successful man in the entire human history. Being the last Prophet of Islam...

Read more »

Water is Human Right NOT a Human Need > The most EVIL company in the world

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mUK8NmdcKvc?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="560"></iframe><br /> <br /> <br /> <b>The Value of Water in Islam</b><br /> <br /> Religious scholars can play an important role in teaching citizens about the value of water and how to use it more sparingly and efficiently, but can they provide a solution to Jordan’s water scarcity?<br /> <br /> <b>Limiting water waste</b><br /> <br /> Combining an arid climate, high population growth and limited natural water reserves, Jordan is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world. The annual average water availability per person has dropped from 3,600 cubic meters in 1946 to 145 cubic meters in 2008 – a fraction of the 9,000 cubic meters that U.S. citizens have at their disposal. The conflict in Syria and the influx of more than 628,000 Syrian refugees since 2011 has put further pressure on the country’s scarce water resources, with annual water availability dropping to around 128 cubic meters per person since 2011.<br /> <br /> The average Jordanian knows that the country’s water supplies are limited: scarcity is tangible almost on a daily basis in many towns and villages – particularly during the hot summer months. Jordanian households receive eight hours of running water a week or less, making careful use and preservation essential. Still, the Jordanian government and several NGOs are constantly working to raise awareness of the value of water and to encourage water savings in every area of life. They say that religion is one of the most effective ways of convincing users not to waste water.<br /> <br /> <b>The role of Islam</b><br /> <br /> “Water plays a central role in Islam,” says Professor Abdel Majid al-Salahin, the dean of the Department of Islamic Jurisprudence at the University of Jordan. “The word ‘water’ is mentioned more than 60 times in the Quran and there are also many references to rain, snow and ice. Moreover, the Quran clearly condemns the wasting of water.”<br /> <br /> He gives the example of the hadith (a saying of the Prophet Mohammed) in which the Prophet Mohammad sees one of his companions, Saad, performing the ritual ablution wudu that is required before prayer. As Saad is using a lot of water, the Prophet Mohammed asks him: “Why are you wasting water like this?” Saad is surprised and asks whether it is possible to waste water during wudu. To this the Prophet responds that <b>one must never waste water, even on the banks of a flowing river</b>.<br /> <br />  Jordanians are very receptive to everything that is related to religion. When you talk to people about water through religion, they are more easily convinced.”<br /> <br /> Salahin says teachings like these and others can help make people more aware of the importance of water saving. “Jordanians are very receptive to everything that is related to religion – people here are religious by nature,” he says. “And when you talk to people about water in a religious context and quote passages from the Quran, they are more easily convinced.”<br /> <b><br /></b> <b>Passing on the message</b><br /> <br /> The Jordanian government has long acknowledged the important role that Islam can play in spreading awareness of sustainable water use, encouraging imams to incorporate teachings from the Quran and the ahadith in their Friday sermons. Female religious scholars or waithat – graduates with a university degree in Islamic Studies who follow additional training – also teach women about the value of water in Islam and how they can apply this to daily water use in the household.<br /> <br /> The Quran says that God made all living things from water and this is a very important message for us here at the center and in Jordan in general.”<br /> <br /> – Alham Alatala, waithah at Al Jinan Quranic Center in Amman<br /> Alham Alatala works as a waithah at Al Jinan Quranic Center in the Marka district of Amman, where she teaches women and children about different aspects of Islam and its practice. “We give lectures on many topics such as drug abuse, education, crime, but also water awareness,” she says. The center has a range of activities around the theme of water: it has published booklets about the importance of saving water for children, there are sessions in which older women show younger women traditional ways of saving water, and sometimes they even organize dish-washing competitions to see who can use the least water. “One of our basic aims is to teach children about the value of water. The Quran says that God made all living things from water and this is a very important message for us here at the center and in Jordan in general.”<br /> <br /> <b>Irrational behavior</b><br /> <br /> Such teachings have been repeated for many years in mosques and learning centers across Jordan, but can they really change people’s behavior? “The tradition of saving water is there, but it is not reflected in practice,” says Professor Odeh al-Jayyousi, a specialist in the domain of Islam and sustainable development. “I have a neighbor who is a heart surgeon, and he smokes. This illustrates the disconnect between knowledge and practice. Sometimes we act irrationally. We know this is right, nevertheless we don’t abide by it.”<br /> <br /> A recent study by the Water Authority of Jordan shows that water use in the household remains relatively irrational: the study found that only 5% of domestic water is used for drinking and cooking purposes, while 45% is used in bathrooms and for the irrigation of gardens. There is therefore considerable scope for increasing water use efficiency.<br /> <br />  The tradition of saving water is there, but it is not reflected in practice. There is a disconnect between knowledge and practice. We know this is right, nevertheless we don’t abide by it.”<br /> <br /> – Odeh al-Jayyousi, specialist in the domain of Islam and sustainable development<br /> Read the full interview by Berkan Ozyer with Professor al-Jayyousi here: On Communicating Water<br /> <br /> Policy-makers at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation believe that the teachings of Islam can contribute to raising such awareness. With the support of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and working with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the ministry launched a three-year project in January 2015 to train approximately 1,000 imams and waithat effective ways of engaging their community in water saving and awareness. In addition, a teaching unit for religious studies will be developed at public universities and three large ‘pilot’ mosques will be turned into ‘water-plus-mosques’ and equipped with rainwater harvesting and water reuse facilities. The Abu Ubaidah Mosque in the Jordan Valley is the first example of such a mosque where water is being reused.<br /> <br /> <b>Smart discourse</b><br /> <br /> Al-Jayyousi often contributes to workshops to teach imams and waithat about the link between Islam, water and sustainability. He says that the teachings of Islam could guide believers towards a more sustainable lifestyle, but that most imams lack the technical background to impart such teachings. “There are around 7,000 mosques in Jordan, but many imams don’t have the proper educational foundation to be able to address issues like water scarcity.” He emphasizes the importance of providing a discourse that connects Islam to the realities of the 21st century. “You cannot talk about religious discourse while ignoring environmental realities like climate change, economic realities like oil prices and without understanding political relations.”<br /> <br /> Al-Jayyousi says that once imams make the connection between the teachings of Islam and sustainability they can create their own “smart discourse” and go beyond just quoting passages from the Quran. “The Quran relates the story of when Moses chose 12 springs and instructed each tribe to go to one spring. This is effectively an example of decentralized water management. When they hear this, many imams say they didn’t realize that a modern theme such as decentralization is addressed in Islam.”<br /> <br /> There are, however, limits to what religious leaders can achieve because of current economic and educational levels. Imams in Jordan are employed by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and earn very low wages. “They live barely above the poverty line,” says Jayyousi. “You cannot expect a beautiful discourse from people if they are hungry.” He gives the example of imams who have participated in training courses who ask whether they can take the pen that is handed out to them at the start of the course home for their children. “This says a lot,” says Jayyousi. “You can’t expect people to be innovative, to educate and cultivate themselves if they have to worry about the cost of a pen.”<br /> <br /> <b>Leakage and theft</b><br /> <br /> Religion is also being used to reinforce water legislation: in 2013, a fatwa was issued prohibiting water theft and other abuse of water resources and networks. It states that violating water resources and random well drilling threaten drinking water reserves, which is a shared right for all people.<br /> <br /> Still, water theft through illegal connections remains a serious problem in Jordan, together with network leakages. According to a 2014 Mercy Corps report, 50% of the water that is pumped through the state network annually is lost to leakage and theft. Of this, 76 billion liters is lost to leakage – enough to satisfy the needs of 2.6 million people a year, nearly a third of Jordan’s current population. Illegal well drilling also remains a problem.<br /> <br /> While religion may convince people to use water more efficiently, it alone cannot solve the problem of water scarcity in Jordan in the long term. In the end, problems of network leakage, theft, outdated infrastructure and illegal well drilling form a much greater threat to the country’s water reserves.<br /> <br /> <b>Water in Islam</b><br /> <br /> The word “water” appears 63 times in the Quran.<br /> One of the five mandatory acts or pillars in Islam is salat (prayer), which is carried out five times a day.<br /> Before salat, the believer is supposed to perform the small ablution, wudu. The Quran and the ahadith go into great detail about wudu and how much water the believer should use for each of its components.<br /> Muslims are required to perform the Friday midday prayer, salat al-jumah, in the mosque with the congregation. It is preceded by a sermon, the khutbah, during which the imam focuses on a specific theme. This is an important occasion to deliver messages about water saving.<br /> The mauda (ablution fountain) is a central feature of each mosque, placed strategically for believers to perform wudu before prayer.<br /> <br /> Writer: Berkan Ozyer, 27, is a Turkish journalist based in Istanbul. He works for EKOIQ, a monthly magazine that focuses on sustainability and the green economy.<br /> <br /> SOurce:<br /> <a href="http://www.revolve-water.com/the-value-of-water-in-islam/" target="_blank">http://www.revolve-water.com/the-value-of-water-in-islam/</a><br /> <br /></div>

Water is Human Right NOT a Human Need > The most EVIL company in the world

The Value of Water in Islam Religious scholars can play an important role in teaching citizens about the value of water and how to use...

Read more »

Half a Century of Pain – 50 Years of Agent Orange Disaster in Vietnam – 1961-2011

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1ci7QXPOb597Tfkln2g-gjS6zZikC9oYQDhRVMSB9NmQiZR9PpUeP22C99AROIOBkfY9_qWwIjGEp2uaNsVEVq0V_XwO07nJaCVZewpOc_VGQHh1rv0GebDQWnonQW993NxYTqdjAL_D/s1600/war-222.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC1ci7QXPOb597Tfkln2g-gjS6zZikC9oYQDhRVMSB9NmQiZR9PpUeP22C99AROIOBkfY9_qWwIjGEp2uaNsVEVq0V_XwO07nJaCVZewpOc_VGQHh1rv0GebDQWnonQW993NxYTqdjAL_D/s640/war-222.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif;">A selection of images from the book </span><em style="font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;">Half a Century of Pain – 50 Years of Agent Orange Disaster in Vietnam – 1961-2011</em><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif;">, published by the Ministry of Information and Communication of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.</span><br /> <span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif;">Click here to view images: </span><span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cpa.org.au/photos/half-a-century-of-pain/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.cpa.org.au/photos/half-a-century-of-pain/index.htm</a> </span><br /> <span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "tahoma" , "geneva" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>

Half a Century of Pain – 50 Years of Agent Orange Disaster in Vietnam – 1961-2011

A selection of images from the book  Half a Century of Pain – 50 Years of Agent Orange Disaster in Vietnam – 1961-2011 , published by th...

Read more »

Weather modification - USA and China lead in this field

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LJ1He51Zmjw?rel=0&showinfo=0&start=1470" width="560"></iframe><br /> <br /> Weather modding is the act of intentionally manipulating or altering the weather. The most common form of weather modification is cloud seeding to increase rain or snow, usually for the purpose of increasing the local water supply.<br /> <br /> Weather modification can also have the goal provoking damaging weather against the enemy, as a tactic of military or economic warfare like Operation Popeye. <br /> <br /></div>

Weather modification - USA and China lead in this field

Weather modding is the act of intentionally manipulating or altering the weather. The most common form of weather modification is cloud s...

Read more »

Canada Passes Law Criminalizing Use of Wrong Gender Pronouns

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ucTLLgXNnOQ?rel=0&showinfo=0" width="560"></iframe><br /> <br /> <b>The Feminization of Everything Around the World</b><br /> <b><br /> </b> <b>They call it Human Rights !!!!!!!!!!</b><br /> <b><br /> </b> <b>No more "he" or "she" ... just what?</b><br /> <b>Hey .. </b><br /> <b><br /> </b> <b>Remember this did not happen recently, the program has been in operation around the world at different levels for more than 20 years. Islam and religion in general is a danger to this program as they are very specific about the roles of men and women.</b><br /> <b><br /> </b> <b>Article - 1</b><br /> <br /> <i>June 20 - 2017 - </i>Canada passed a law Thursday making it illegal to use the wrong gender pronouns. Critics say that Canadians who do not subscribe to progressive gender theory could be accused of hate crimes, jailed, fined, and made to take anti-bias training.<br /> <br /> Canada’s Senate passed Bill C-16, which puts “gender identity” and “gender expression” into both the country’s Human Rights Code, as well as the hate crime category of its Criminal Code by a vote of 67-11, according to LifeSiteNews. The bill now only needs royal assent from the governor general.<br /> <br /> “Great news,” announced Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister. “Bill C-16 has passed the Senate – making it illegal to discriminate based on gender identity or expression. #LoveisLove.”<br /> <br /> More at ...<br /> <a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-20/canada-passes-law-criminalizing-use-wrong-gender-pronouns" target="_blank">http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-20/canada-passes-law-criminalizing-use-wrong-gender-pronouns</a><br /> .............................................<br /> <b>Article - 2</b><br /> <b><br /> </b> <br /> <h3 style="text-align: left;"> <b>Toronto (in Canada) professor Jordan Peterson takes on gender-neutral pronouns</b></h3> He zeroed in on Canadian human rights legislation that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity or expression.<br /> <br /> Dr Peterson was especially frustrated with being asked to use alternative pronouns as requested by trans students or staff, like the singular 'they' or 'ze' and 'zir', used by some as alternatives to 'she' or 'he'.<br /> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Helmet, Freesans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.375; margin-top: 18px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> More at ..<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37875695" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37875695</a></div> <div> <br /></div> <br /></div>

Canada Passes Law Criminalizing Use of Wrong Gender Pronouns

The Feminization of Everything Around the World They call it Human Rights !!!!!!!!!! No more "he" or "she" ... ...

Read more »

Muslim Woman heads Guided Missile Frigate System program office in Australia

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMFJ27DTxjYxnPEKZykrTKjPCi0pzw3XBzd8jRr3J63ShPOtSxy406NcAPDvUk5Bscyg_hPpk23nWTLJvJ2sjqYleulR0XICYlg7fFWQcLr7F6Z3PpvKil4qyFgNLDfF71QiWrxqyur4hX/s1600/Muslim-Woman-Australia.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Captain Mona Shindy - Muslim in the Australian Navy" border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMFJ27DTxjYxnPEKZykrTKjPCi0pzw3XBzd8jRr3J63ShPOtSxy406NcAPDvUk5Bscyg_hPpk23nWTLJvJ2sjqYleulR0XICYlg7fFWQcLr7F6Z3PpvKil4qyFgNLDfF71QiWrxqyur4hX/s640/Muslim-Woman-Australia.JPG" title="" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <b>Captain Mona Shindy - Australian Navy</b><br /> <ul style="text-align: left;"> <li>Chief of navy’s strategy adviser on Islamic affairs</li> <li>Heads the Guided Missile Frigate System program office</li> </ul> <i>OK here is the rest of the story ^_^</i><br /> <br /> <b><u>Navy's Islamic Twitter account shut down after anti-Islam group complains</u></b><br /> <br /> The official Twitter account of the Australian navy’s adviser on Muslim affairs was shut down within days of an official complaint by an anti-Islam group about its content, Guardian Australia can reveal.<br /> <br /> Captain Mona Shindy, the chief of navy’s strategy adviser on Islamic affairs, had been active on the @navyislamic account until it was deleted around 22 December.<br /> <br /> Shindy, who also heads the Guided Missile Frigate System program office, had angered rightwing activists with her tweets, including one on 22 October describing the newly launched Australian Liberty Alliance (ALA) as an “extreme, ill-informed fringe group”.<br /> <br /> Days after Tony Abbott was deposed by Malcolm Turnbull she tweeted: “Looking forward to a #PM that unites #auspol & #OZ”.<br /> <br /> The 26-year veteran also expressed support for Australia’s grand mufti, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, who was attacked by government ministers for referring to “causative factors” behind terrorism in a press release expressing condolences for November’s Paris terrorist attacks.<br /> <br /> Shindy wrote from @navyislamic, the “Official Royal Australian Navy Islamic Advisor Twitter account”, that Abu Mohamed was a “righteous and courageous man” who had denounced Islamic State, adding the hashtag #IStandWithThe Mufti.<br /> <br /> The head of the ALA, Debbie Robinson, who has previously described Islam as “a dangerous ideology” incompatible with western society, wrote to the chief of the Australian defence force, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, on 10 December asking the navy to distance itself from the account or delete it.<br /> <br /> Ream More: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jan/05/navys-islamic-twitter-account-shut-down-after-anti-islam-group-complains" target="_blank">http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jan/05/navys-islamic-twitter-account-shut-down-after-anti-islam-group-complains</a> </div> <br /></div>

Muslim Woman heads Guided Missile Frigate System program office in Australia

Captain Mona Shindy - Australian Navy Chief of navy’s strategy adviser on Islamic affairs Heads the Guided Missile Frigate System pr...

Read more »

Man removed from UK flight over 'prayer' message on phone

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgUIUcCAA7kaucjiI9I23HjkUIMyaZBwBe2LDnjz5hICN6KUMSr__2Hqt1vz8w_bavNNrj-WWXK-n29eilJUlwqFzqvXJhxP9lItSYoUd39X4Xfj9Ak9qAFwmcQtgUjuiV5qstEF7lvath/s1600/bible-isi.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgUIUcCAA7kaucjiI9I23HjkUIMyaZBwBe2LDnjz5hICN6KUMSr__2Hqt1vz8w_bavNNrj-WWXK-n29eilJUlwqFzqvXJhxP9lItSYoUd39X4Xfj9Ak9qAFwmcQtgUjuiV5qstEF7lvath/s640/bible-isi.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> A British man was removed from a plane by armed police at Luton airport after a fellow passenger read a message on his mobile phone about “prayer” and reported him as a security threat.<br /> <br /> Laolu Opebiyi, 40, from London, said he was forced to hand over his phone and supply his password in order to establish his innocence after he tried to arrange a conference call prayer with friends using WhatsApp.<br /> <br /> A detective subsequently questioned and <b>cleared</b> Opebiyi but the <b>pilot refused to allow him back on</b> to the easyJet flight to Amsterdam last Thursday and he was forced to wait more than three hours for the next scheduled departure.<br /> <br /> The <b>Nigerian-born Christian believes the passenger next to him assumed he was a Muslim</b> and jumped to the conclusion that he may be a terrorist.<br /> <br /> “That guy doesn’t know me and within two minutes he’s judging me,” he told the Guardian. “Even if I was a Muslim, it was pretty unfair the way I was treated. I don’t think anyone, irrespective of their religion should be treated in such a way. “If we keep on giving into this kind of bigotry and irrational fear, I dare say that the terrorists will have achieved their aim.”<br /> <br /> Opebiyi, a business analyst, said that as they awaited the plane’s 6.45am departure, his fellow passenger asked him: “<b>What do you mean by ‘prayer</b>’?” Taken aback that he had been reading over his shoulder, Opebiyi explained that he was arranging to pray with friends.<br /> <br /> About two minutes later, the male passenger went to the front of the plane and began a conversation with the cabin crew, Opebiyi said. The man was taken to the door of the cockpit and returned 15 minutes later, telling Opebiyi that he was getting off the plane because he felt unwell. A few minutes later, two armed officers entered the plane. They asked Opebiyi for his phone and told him to remove his belongings and accompany them off the plane and into the terminal building.<br /> <br /> After an officer confirmed that he was being questioned because of what happened with the other passenger, <b>Opebiyi explained that he was a Christian</b>, showing them a copy of the Bible in his bag. “They asked me which church I attend and how long I have been going there,” he said. “They also ask if I have ever thought about changing my religion to which I replied ‘no’.”<br /> <br /> They also asked him about the name of the conference call prayer group, which was <b>“ISI men” – an acronym for “iron sharpens iron”, from the Bible quote “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another”</b>. The Guardian understands that the passenger who reported Opebiyi may have misread this as “Isis”.<br /> <br /> An officer eventually told Opebiyi that he was in the clear but that the pilot had said he should take another flight. He suffered further humiliation when an officer accompanied him to the easyJet desk to help him get on the next flight and seven other passengers from the 6.45am flight, who had left the plane because of security fears, also joined the queue.<br /> <br /> Opebiyi said one of them spotted him and said: <b>“If he is on the next flight, I am not getting on the flight.”</b> He said the officer took the female passenger aside and explained the situation. Before Opebiyi boarded the 10.25am flight, the officer shook his hand and expressed sympathy for his ordeal, he said.<br /> <br /> But he now fears he is on a terrorist watchlist because when he returned the next day from his business trip, the <b>electronic passport gate did not let him through and he had to speak to an immigration officer</b> before proceeding.<br /> <br /> “Someone felt I was a terrorist because they saw the word ‘prayer’ on my phone and now I stand in uncertainty about my freedom of movement in and out of the United Kingdom,” he said.<br /> <br /> A Bedfordshire police spokeswoman confirmed that its officers removed an individual from the flight but “were satisfied that there was no concern around the passenger travelling”.<br /> <br /> An easyJet spokesman said: “The safety and security of its passengers and crew is our highest priority which means that if a security concern is raised we will always investigate it as a precautionary measure. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to the passenger.”<br /> <br /> Source: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/03/man-removed-easyjet-flight-luton-prayer-message-phone?CMP=share_btn_tw" target="_blank">http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/03/man-removed-easyjet-flight-luton-prayer-message-phone?CMP=share_btn_tw</a><br /> <br /></div> </div>

Man removed from UK flight over 'prayer' message on phone

A British man was removed from a plane by armed police at Luton airport after a fellow passenger read a message on his mobile phone ab...

Read more »

World Food Program airdrops aid to the city of Deir ez-Zor protected by Russian SU-35s

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/YrduKHEZ4o0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="366" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YrduKHEZ4o0?feature=player_embedded" width="620"></iframe></div> <br /> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">При поддержке российского центра по координации примирения жителям города Дейр-эз-Зор доставили гуманитарную помощь - около двадцати тонн груза. Операция была международной. Российская сторона взяла на себя сопровождение. Безопасность в воздухе обеспечивали истребители Су-35.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span></div>

World Food Program airdrops aid to the city of Deir ez-Zor protected by Russian SU-35s

При поддержке российского центра по координации примирения жителям города Дейр-эз-Зор доставили гуманитарную помощь - около двадцати тон...

Read more »

What the Syrian Death Toll Really Tells us About Western Policy

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH18J0b8Adfn02IHaB9TDxn5QT6AogtPlTWIZrXRKK59GFS9x-epBzikJ1zWp_SKEDYwlqgZDKFUOugwbhlKOHJKNiwWRBWhRBQMnNgefYm30sB6aowbrp0rSW8hCUxNWsV_fEwAjOXfek/s1600/save-syrian-children.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH18J0b8Adfn02IHaB9TDxn5QT6AogtPlTWIZrXRKK59GFS9x-epBzikJ1zWp_SKEDYwlqgZDKFUOugwbhlKOHJKNiwWRBWhRBQMnNgefYm30sB6aowbrp0rSW8hCUxNWsV_fEwAjOXfek/s640/save-syrian-children.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Less than two months after the UN announced “shocking” new casualty figures in Syria, its high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay estimates that deaths are “probably now approaching 70,000″. But two years into a Syrian conflict marked by daily death tolls, the question arises as to whether these kinds of statistics are helpful in any way? Have they helped save Syrian lives? Have they shamed intransigent foes into seeking a political solution? Or might they have they contributed to the escalation of the crisis by pointing fingers and deepening divisions?<br /> <br /> Casualty counts during modern wars have become a highly politicised business. On one hand, they can help alert the outside world to the scale of violence and suffering, and the risks of conflict spreading both within a country’s borders and beyond them. On the other, as in Syria, Iraq, Darfur, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere, death tolls have routinely been manipulated, inflated or downplayed – a tool for the advancement of political interests.<br /> <br /> As if to underline the point, Libya’s new government recently announced that death tolls had been exaggerated during the 2011 Libyan civil war; that there had been around 5,000 deaths on either side – a long way from the reported tens of thousands of casualties that set the scene for Nato’s “humanitarian” intervention, or the 30-50,000 deaths claimed by opponents of this intervention.<br /> While physically present in Iraq, the US and British governments were unable to provide estimates of the numbers of deaths unleashed by their own invasion, yet in Syria, the same governments frequently quote detailed figures, despite lacking essential access.<br /> <br /> Syria’s death toll leapt from 45,000 to 60,000 earlier this year, a figure gathered by a UN-sponsored project to integrate data from seven separate lists. The new numbers are routinely cited by politicians and media as fact, and used to call for foreign intervention in the conflict.<br /> <br /> But Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), whose casualty data are part of this count, calls the UN’s effort “political” and the results “propaganda”.<br /> Abdulrahman, whose daily death toll releases are widely quoted in the western media, argues that many of the UN’s casualties don’t exist. “Yesterday in Qahtaniyah, I had a video of 21 people killed, but 19 names only. Other groups said 40 were killed – where are the 40? Tell them to provide me with only 21 names,” he demands, frustrated.<br /> <br /> When I interviewed the UN spokesman Rupert Colville in January, he conceded: “We can’t prove most of these people have died.”<br /> <br /> And Megan Price, lead author of the UN’s casualty analysis project, whose firm, Benetech, is part-funded by the US state department, explained to me: “We were not asked to do verification of whether the casualties are real.” Benetech’s task was mainly a data collation effort: working from seven separate UN-identified lists, the firm discarded duplicates and victims without names, place and date of death to arrive at the highly-publicised 60,000 number.<br /> <br /> But questions about the accuracy of casualty numbers is only part of the story. Dig deeper, and it’s clear that this data also offers an insight into the Syrian conflict at odds with the story that this is essentially about a brutal regime killing peaceful civilians.<br /> <br /> With the proviso that the data may itself prove unreliable, Benetech’s research nevertheless offers some useful clues about the makeup of the recorded death toll. Only 7.5% are female, making the casualties in Syria overwhelmingly male. Second, the largest segment of the 30% of victims whose ages are included in the records are between the ages of 20 and 30 – who might be classified as males of “military age”.<br /> <br /> The SOHR’s statistics confirm this picture. On 27 December, Abdulrahman cited 148 violent deaths in Syria for that day: 49 rebels, 42 soldiers, three defectors, and the remaining 54 likely to be a mix of noncombatant civilians and unidentified rebels: “It isn’t easy to count rebels because nobody on the ground says ‘this is a rebel’. Everybody hides it.”<br /> <br /> According to Abdulrahman’s conservative estimates, at least two thirds of the dead are armed men – an appreciatively different take on the perception of “civilian slaughter” in Syria created by reporting of the UN’s and other unverified casualty numbers. And the UN itself points out that “the analysis was not able to differentiate clearly between combatants and noncombatants”.<br /> <br /> Even the civilian death toll is nuanced. There are civilians targeted by the regime through shelling and air strikes, civilians targeted by rebels via mortars, IEDs and urban bombings, and civilians caught in crossfire (not targeted). Further to that, there have been reports of sectarian and political killings by supporters of both sides.<br /> <br /> While bald casualty numbers taken out of context have clearly failed to explain what now looks closer to a parity in violence inside Syria, the UN is not wrong that body counts can be valuable indicators in a crisis.<br /> <br /> The problem is that, increasingly, death tolls are used as political tools to scene-set for western-backed “humanitarian interventions” in the Middle East and north Africa and – more broadly – against the kinds of negotiated political settlements that could actually reduce or stop the killing.<br /> It’s time to stop headlining unreliable and easily politicised casualty counts, and use them only as one of several background measures of a conflict. It’s essential too that the media help us avoid such manipulation by asking questions about reported deaths: how were these deaths verified? Are they combatants? Who killed them? How do we know this? Who benefits from these deaths? Was this a violent death or one caused by displacement? How is it even possible to count all these dead in the midst of raging conflict?<br /> <br /> Numbers without context or solid foundations can incite and escalate a conflict, leading to even more carnage. Contemporary casualty data have been inaccurate in so many recent conflicts that it’s time to retire these numbers from the telling of the story.<br /> <br /> Sharmine Narwani is a political analyst and commentator on Mideast geopolitics and a senior associate at St Antony’s College, Oxford University. Follow her on Twitter @snarwani<br /> <br /> Source:<br /> <a href="https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/what-the-syrian-death-toll-really-tells-us/" target="_blank">https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/what-the-syrian-death-toll-really-tells-us/</a><br /> <br /></div>

What the Syrian Death Toll Really Tells us About Western Policy

Less than two months after the UN announced “shocking” new casualty figures in Syria, its high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pilla...

Read more »

Speech by Hafez al-Assad to the Syrian People (2013)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kpEBqi8BLGE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="366" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kpEBqi8BLGE?feature=player_embedded" width="620"></iframe></div> <br /> Speech by Hafez al-Assad to the Syrian People (2013).<br /> After insulting his masters he must fall.</div>

Speech by Hafez al-Assad to the Syrian People (2013)

Speech by Hafez al-Assad to the Syrian People (2013). After insulting his masters he must fall.

Read more »

"1st in Flight - 1st All Women Flight Crew" ... In the World

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkS-rVteIKjbcdPzyJkzvTxKBa2y-7SetMqO44tcqsJWfsDhac6Ffd3UcXNXgCiX5QLHQT72jmj-hMVcBfAzOomhmyBCdQyC1h1Dw7Bh2_RueNhh3vGxYEZgxpILUtGct7obY70wbHUOJ/s1600/flight-crew-all-woemn-Muslims.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSkS-rVteIKjbcdPzyJkzvTxKBa2y-7SetMqO44tcqsJWfsDhac6Ffd3UcXNXgCiX5QLHQT72jmj-hMVcBfAzOomhmyBCdQyC1h1Dw7Bh2_RueNhh3vGxYEZgxpILUtGct7obY70wbHUOJ/s640/flight-crew-all-woemn-Muslims.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> Royal Brunei Airlines.<br /> <br /> RB's first ever female trio at the flight deck; Captain Sharifah Czarena, Senior First Officer Sariana and Senior First Officer Dk Nadiah in the flight deck prior to operating flight BI081 from Brunei to Jeddah wishes Brunei Darussalam a "Happy 32nd National Day" . We are the Nation's "Generation with a Vision"; we are the tomorrow.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuP03Ub90-ZHtwyYfFDtPr5ylgdNpenoUdPTEXlefhsmic0AQ9zS6CWfmWmC5Zs3rWgxxLfkG5SPcuWbZu_cA_wTdzRWnAhC_9VA9fOpoAlXOU23f-QNaeQfD_2D4p0xCv9-28C9fNsoZ/s1600/flight-crew-all-woemn-Muslims-2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuP03Ub90-ZHtwyYfFDtPr5ylgdNpenoUdPTEXlefhsmic0AQ9zS6CWfmWmC5Zs3rWgxxLfkG5SPcuWbZu_cA_wTdzRWnAhC_9VA9fOpoAlXOU23f-QNaeQfD_2D4p0xCv9-28C9fNsoZ/s640/flight-crew-all-woemn-Muslims-2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> The photo was taken before flight BI081 took off from Brunei to Jeddah.<br /> <br /> "1st in Flight -- 1st All Women Flight Crew"<br /> <br /> Muslims are accused of oppressing women - right?<br /> <br /> So how come The Very First All Woman Flight Trio - in the cockpit of this huge airliner - Of All Women are - MUSLIM WOMEN?<br /> <br /> By the way, the 1st Woman Deen of a university (Azhar in Cairo) was a Muslim woman over 1,000 years ago.<br /> <br /> Islam's women have always been at the forefront of medicine, science and technology even at the time of prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, over 1,400 years ago.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://ilmfeed.com/bruneis-national-airline-introduces-all-female-flight-deck-crew/" target="_blank">http://ilmfeed.com/bruneis-national-airline-introduces-all-female-flight-deck-crew/</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.worldbulletin.net/asia-pacific/169785/brunei-national-airlines-all-female-flight-crew" target="_blank">http://www.worldbulletin.net/asia-pacific/169785/brunei-national-airlines-all-female-flight-crew</a><br /> <br /> <b>Any western version of this news item?</b><br /> <b>YES here it is</b><br /> <br /> <b>Ethiopian Airlines launches historic all-female flight  </b><br /> <a href="http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/11/24/ethiopian-airlines-launches-historic-all-female-flight/" target="_blank">http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/11/24/ethiopian-airlines-launches-historic-all-female-flight/</a><br /> <br /> Hold on Western not some 3rd world African nation with no western values (or Muslims).<br /> <b>Try AGAIN dude!</b></div> </div>

"1st in Flight - 1st All Women Flight Crew" ... In the World

Royal Brunei Airlines. RB's first ever female trio at the flight deck; Captain Sharifah Czarena, Senior First Officer Sariana and ...

Read more »

Afghanistan: Are Minerals the Driving Force Behind the War?

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7gyqynEMLeYfK7yhN5dnCjp8GLOe66sZQ3SKuGo_Etvo2Rs5O3dPtXG_HdVdiWjgdV95wAJFf1hYYW2pYQU-VtQC9JqfjvrZ01zxObXAw4ZMxUz4n6d5Q7-vgtyEfTD2jnOfPUaPmqw2/s1600/afghanistan-minral-map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD7gyqynEMLeYfK7yhN5dnCjp8GLOe66sZQ3SKuGo_Etvo2Rs5O3dPtXG_HdVdiWjgdV95wAJFf1hYYW2pYQU-VtQC9JqfjvrZ01zxObXAw4ZMxUz4n6d5Q7-vgtyEfTD2jnOfPUaPmqw2/s640/afghanistan-minral-map.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Last December 13th, the leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the vice-president of India met in Turkmenistan; a table with four buttons was set up so each leader could press a button, simultaneously initiating the construction of the TAPI natural gas pipeline. TAPI is the acronym for the four countries involved in the pipeline construction.<br /> <br /> This event was big news in south Asia and was covered by all the major newspapers in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It should have been big news in the US too, but except for one paragraph in Foreign Policy online, it seems that the US media ignored the story. Even the Houston Chronicle, the hometown newspaper of the largest US pipeline construction companies, ignored it.<br /> <br /> A US State Department spokesman told the Press Trust of India that "The United States congratulates Turkmenistan and its partners on the recent ground-breaking for the construction of the natural gas pipeline to Afghanistan..." Yet, the US media decided that this was news that US citizens did not need to know.<br /> <br /> We have been at war in Afghanistan for over 14 years. The preceding sentence answers the first four journalistic questions of who, what, where and when, but it doesn't answer the most important question - why?<br /> <br /> Many peace advocates have suspected from the beginning that this natural gas pipeline is one of the ways that the coalition of the greedy expected to profit from this war. But the story that the media promoted continuously after September 11, 2001 was that Afghanistan was just a worthless pile of rocks that had no economic value; therefore, the goal of the war must be to deprive terrorists of a base and, as a bonus, to spread democracy, protect women, and rebuild the country.<br /> <br /> In 2010 the New York Times reported on "newly discovered mineral deposits" in Afghanistan. The James Risen article stated that according to US officials "the previously unknown deposits...are so big...that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world." But news of mineral riches in Afghanistan was not really new.<br /> <br /> Since the 1960s, it was reported by the Minerals Yearbook of the US Geological Survey that Afghanistan is rich in natural gas, copper, iron ore, gold, silver, and precious gems. Afghanistan has chromite that hardens steel. It has barite that is used in oil well "drilling fluid." The 1963 entry on Afghanistan in the Minerals Yearbook says "known natural gas reserves are substantial and have potential significance." The 1982 entry reports about the Hajigak iron ore deposit that "a 1977 independent survey concluded that the deposit was large enough and of a sufficient grade to support a major iron and steel industry."<br /> <br /> The high point of reporting by the Minerals Yearbook came in 1992, when they reported on "The country's rich reserves of natural gas, estimated at 2,000 billion cubic meters..." The Yearbook also reported "copper ore from a reserve estimated at 360 MMT (Million metric tons)" and that "rich reserves of iron ore were estimated at 1,700 MMT."<br /> <br /> This knowledge should have served as the starting point for reporters seeking background on Afghanistan after the attacks of September 11, 2001. But reporters must have asked the wrong people for information. They consistently reported that Afghanistan had no economic value aside from pistachios, pomegranates, goats, and sheep.<br /> <br /> Against this tide of misinformation a few brave souls tried to tell the true story to the American people. In an opinion column in the New York Times in November 2001 Ishaq Nadiri, a professor of economics at New York University, wrote that Afghanistan "...once exported natural gas to the Soviet Union. It has large reserves of copper and high-grade iron ore."<br /> <br /> In a December 2001 column in the Christian Science Monitor, John F. Shroder, Jr., a professor of geology at the University of Nebraska, said that he had studied the natural resources of Afghanistan for decades and that it had "what may be the world's largest copper deposit and the third-largest deposit of high-grade iron ore, in addition to reserves of gas, oil, coal, precious stones." Professor Shroder said that several American companies had called him "to find out more about the prospects for post-war mining and hydrocarbon acquisition."<br /> <br /> This news might lead a careful reader to question the nobility of our motives in Afghanistan, but the day after Professor Shroder's column appeared, the New York Times rode into town to put the kibosh on any growing suspicion. In its usual inconclusive way, the Times both denied and confirmed that there might be something interesting going on. The first sentence of their article said that, "There is no oil in Afghanistan, but there are oil politics" But later the article says, "Oil companies and regional experts wonder whether significant new oil and gas reservoirs will be opened to foreign investment," a reference to oil and gas reserves north of Afghanistan in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.<br /> <br /> Aside from the TAPI pipeline there are many opportunities for the coalition of the greedy to make a killing, so to speak. Selling weapons to both sides, opium smuggling, and overcharging for shoddy construction and useless consulting fees are just a few examples, but stealing minerals may be the driving force that makes the war continue.<br /> <br /> President Karzai of Afghanistan was once called paranoid by the New York Times because he said the goal of US policy was to weaken his country, not to strengthen it. But just look at what we've done. Under US guidance, Afghanistan, year after year, slipped down the Transparency International corruption index until it is now tied for second most corrupt nation on earth.<br /> <br /> The October 2015 report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction shows that over 99% of our tax spending in Afghanistan has gone to military spending or supporting a corrupt government. Less than 1% has gone tor food, clothing, and shelter for some of the poorest people on earth, the Afghans, now suffering through their 38th year of war. What better way to steal the mineral wealth of Afghanistan than to create a weakened government and a starving people?<br /> <br /> The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his brilliant "Beyond Vietnam" speech at Riverside Church in 1967 said that an important reason for forming the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and for speaking out against the Vietnam War was "To save the soul of America." If we are going to save the soul of America and bring relief to our suffering sisters and brothers in Afghanistan and in all the wars we are involved in, then our nation must stop being a leader in war and become a leader in peace.<br /> <br /> Source: <a href="http://www.vfpbellingham.org/tipping-the-scale/afghanistan-are-minerals-the-driving-force-behind-the-war" target="_blank">http://www.vfpbellingham.org/tipping-the-scale/afghanistan-are-minerals-the-driving-force-behind-the-war</a><br /> <br /> <br /></div>

Afghanistan: Are Minerals the Driving Force Behind the War?

Last December 13th, the leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the vice-president of India met in Turkmenistan; a table wit...

Read more »

War Crimes and US Responsibility in Syria and Yemen

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-VQT2LF4Bm2Bc0BdOjPTgKfUXjM0GC3zTPooGTqahwnOdt-TPqQZukVzTcn5vOE39YKCVs8xP8dg26fdyJznYYBTou_YLezsj1z_CdmthNETtSyXV2YxljnHDUXF7qpTQRyvp0nxVQRfj/s1600/yemen-war-crimes.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-VQT2LF4Bm2Bc0BdOjPTgKfUXjM0GC3zTPooGTqahwnOdt-TPqQZukVzTcn5vOE39YKCVs8xP8dg26fdyJznYYBTou_YLezsj1z_CdmthNETtSyXV2YxljnHDUXF7qpTQRyvp0nxVQRfj/s640/yemen-war-crimes.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> The international press has rightfully focused attention in the past couple of months on the plight of the people of Madaya in Syria, who have been starved by the Syrian regime and its allies. This week, the United Nations is attempting to draw attention to the similar plight of the people of Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city. Starving out noncombatants is a war crime. Unfortunately, it is one being widely and routinely practiced, sometimes by allies of the United States. Washington has a responsibility to see that charges are brought at the International Criminal Court against civilian officials and military leaders who order such crimes. Where politics makes this step impossible, the United States must at the least mobilize what boycotts and sanctions it can. Where the policy is being carried out by US allies, Washington’s obligations are clear.<br /> <br /> <br /> At least 400,000 Syrians are trapped in conditions of severe food insecurity, caught in the cross-fire of military maneuvers by the regime and its opposition. While Madaya and nearby Zabadani are being starved by the Assad regime and its allies in order to get at Al Qaeda (the Nusra Front) and other hard-line Salafi jihadis using them as a base, Foua and Kefraya in Idlib consist of Shiite populations being starved by the opposition, elements of which are supported by the CIA and by Saudi Arabia and Turkey.<br /> <br /> In Yemen, a Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States is at war with an indigenous tribal group, the Faith Supporters, or Houthis. The result is that the UN’s World Food Program estimates that the country’s third-largest city, Taiz, is only one level below famine, despite the small amounts of food aid it has been able to deliver in the past two weeks. (To be fair, some of that food was paid for by the Saudis.) Indeed, people in 10 of the country’s 22 provinces are in the same boat. Some 7.6 million Yemenis (a country of 24 million) are now food insecure, and some UN agencies suggest the number is double that. Some UN officials have seen a pattern of Saudi airstrikes on food convoys headed to Houthi-held areas, or on ports key to provisioning the civilian population. The Houthis have also been charged with using food denial as a tool of war. The threat of famine is driven not only by military disruptions of food delivery but also by price spikes in what food there is. (Many victims of famine starve to death not because there is no food but because they cannot afford to buy it.)<br /> <br /> Cynics will maintain that wars inescapably involve war crimes. The history of military diplomacy, however, does not support that contention. Outside of superhero movies, no one boasts of killing innocent women and children. Even those who glorify their own ruthlessness depict their victims as dangerous or polluting to the body politic, not as innocent. Rather, movements and governments are eager to justify themselves to the outside world, and gaining its support is sometimes crucial to their success. Throwing light on war crimes, as defined by international treaties and instruments that are now enforceable against individual leaders under the Rome Statute, is crucial to combating this recrudescence of mass brutality in the contemporary world. The 1977 protocols to the Geneva Conventions, which explicitly declare that use of starvation as a method of war is a crime, were signed by Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom, so this norm is not alien but rather something widely agreed to by treaty in the region.<br /> <br /> More: <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/war-crimes-and-us-responsibility-in-syria-and-yemen/" target="_blank">http://www.thenation.com/article/war-crimes-and-us-responsibility-in-syria-and-yemen/</a> </div>

War Crimes and US Responsibility in Syria and Yemen

The international press has rightfully focused attention in the past couple of months on the plight of the people of Madaya in Syria, wh...

Read more »

Did Islam reach France 1,300 years ago? DNA and burial rituals reveals Medieval skeletons were Muslims

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYGkd0rYsQcrIWMxIkX15wuKurl6OY5yKagszytvlSBEAO2rYn1fitlMeHCelpC0c0FOxyFbqYONsJeYOcLXAYafFJqICq8slHUCygr7yWtpgIZ_aQCTdkGBCt6tcxNadnzC9HJyDGXx9/s1600/france-islam.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYGkd0rYsQcrIWMxIkX15wuKurl6OY5yKagszytvlSBEAO2rYn1fitlMeHCelpC0c0FOxyFbqYONsJeYOcLXAYafFJqICq8slHUCygr7yWtpgIZ_aQCTdkGBCt6tcxNadnzC9HJyDGXx9/s640/france-islam.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Did Islam reach France 1,300 years ago? DNA and burial rituals reveals Medieval skeletons were Muslims, suggesting the faith spread further than previously thought<br /> <br /> <ul style="text-align: left;"> <li>Three skeletons were found in Nimes, France orientated towards Mecca</li> <li>Genetic testing revealed the skeletons had been North African Berbers</li> <li>It is thought they had converted and integrated into the Muslim Arab army</li> <li>The findings are the earliest evidence of Muslim presence in France</li> </ul> <br /> It started in the Middle East around 1,400 years ago as small religious community but within a hundred years had spread across a vast empire.<br /> Now the remains of three people discovered in medieval graves dating from the 8th Century have provided new clues as to just how far Islam spread in its early days.<br /> <br /> Archaeologists have used genetic testing on three skeletons found in Nimes in the south of France to reveal they belonged to Muslims from North Africa.<br /> <br /> Each of the bodies had been buried in a way that appeared to follow Islamic rites, with their bodies and heads orientated towards Mecca.<br /> <br /> The DNA revealed their father's families had come from North Africa, which as the time would have been part of the huge Umayyad Islamic empire that emerged by that time.<br /> <br /> While the Umayyad Empire is known to have spread as far as the south of Spain, the researchers say this is the first evidence of the Muslim faith in France during the early Middle Ages.<br /> <br /> The region, known as Septmimania, had been part of the Visigothic Empire before being conquered by the Umayyads.<br /> Writing in the journal Public Library of Sciences One, Yves Gleize, an archaeologist at the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, and his colleagues said three skeletons may have been members of the Berbers tribes who were integrated into the Umayyad army.<br /> They said: 'Our study provides the first archaeo-anthropological testimony of the Muslim establishment in South of France.<br /> <br /> 'Notably, the analyses confirm the Berber origin of some of the first Muslim troops spreading through Europe and also indicate the co-existence of communities in Nimes practicing Christian and Muslim funerary customs without any clear partition of their respective funerary spaces.<br /> 'These results clearly highlight the complexity of the relationship between communities during this period, far from the cliché depiction still found in some history books.'<br /> <br /> The three graves were discovered in a Medieval cemetery in the town of Nimes in an area of that had been the Roman quarter. They were found amidst 20 other graves.<br /> <br /> However, unlike the others, the bodies appear to have been buried with a specific orientation so they were pointing towards Mecca, the most sacred site in the Islamic faith. The archaeologists say the bodies appear to have been wrapped before they had been buried in a pit closed off by stone slabs or stones<br /> <br /> More: <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0148583" target="_blank">http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0148583</a> </div>

Did Islam reach France 1,300 years ago? DNA and burial rituals reveals Medieval skeletons were Muslims

Did Islam reach France 1,300 years ago? DNA and burial rituals reveals Medieval skeletons were Muslims, suggesting the faith spread furt...

Read more »

“I will complain about you to God; I will tell him everything!”

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3-_ZRrelshJhlGR_eR0hFAcwJYHP2DuuhTOZ1b2RrN4U_kzHnBXCAaU0_JORSUo8BJEQhYksYY_Izt6FfD7gBkTHna7miiEUGPHkYxXggHA9pWu-h-h2lHn3W-nDGYLqEihQsm0u6fhF0/s1600/syrianboy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3-_ZRrelshJhlGR_eR0hFAcwJYHP2DuuhTOZ1b2RrN4U_kzHnBXCAaU0_JORSUo8BJEQhYksYY_Izt6FfD7gBkTHna7miiEUGPHkYxXggHA9pWu-h-h2lHn3W-nDGYLqEihQsm0u6fhF0/s640/syrianboy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> While in the hospital, the little Syrian boy felt that soon he would give his soul to God…<br /> <br /> [Ed. – The article below is from a Russian language website here. It has been translated into English by Nina Sidorova ]<br /> <br /> War is a destructive force that spares no one and nothing in its path. Especially scary when the war takes lives and distorts the fates innocent civilians.<br /> <br /> Willy-nilly, one wonders: Who gave the right to political leaders to solve their conflicts through ordinary civilians? Why hundreds, thousands, millions of people have to die because of that insatiable politicians who want to catch and take more and more from the world pie. What is terrible in this creepy, inhuman, bloody cycle that this often affects children …<br /> <br /> On this sentimental picture shows the three-year Syrian boy. He has received numerous severe injuries that led to internal bleeding. Doctors desperately fought for his life of the crumbs. But, unfortunately, those injuries that this little child received were incompatible with life – to save the baby’s life failed …<br /> <br /> While being in the hospital, the boy felt that soon would give his soul to God. Dying, he uttered the words that hooked not only the hospital staff, but also shocked the world.<br /> <br /> Choking with tears and exhausted from the incredible pain, the little boy said, “I will complain about you to God; I will tell him everything!”  Shortly thereafter, the baby’s heart stopped beating … Many believe that this cry from the heart a little sacrifices great misfortune was a kind of sign from above that people have thought again. After all, as they say, truth is the mouth of babes.<br /> <br /> Share this:<br /> <a href="https://richardedmondson.net/2015/04/23/choking-with-tears-dying-syrian-boy-says-i-will-complain-to-god-about-you/" target="_blank">https://richardedmondson.net/2015/04/23/choking-with-tears-dying-syrian-boy-says-i-will-complain-to-god-about-you/</a><br /> <br /> <br /></div> </div>

“I will complain about you to God; I will tell him everything!”

While in the hospital, the little Syrian boy felt that soon he would give his soul to God… [Ed. – The article below is from a Russia...

Read more »

“I helped create ISIS”

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBj6j4rpaniQusllyJ_7t0Vb4i1Pt2QpesY3dzVSxIvcULFWmpuDpah34YUWYQyRwNdEGYu7DdLL1dXC4wsNYgiboEfl4hZm7LDah47SdHwrT4UjdcufeddC1O2uNg2JTyMYS_cBGYOXum/s1600/isis-usa-murder.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBj6j4rpaniQusllyJ_7t0Vb4i1Pt2QpesY3dzVSxIvcULFWmpuDpah34YUWYQyRwNdEGYu7DdLL1dXC4wsNYgiboEfl4hZm7LDah47SdHwrT4UjdcufeddC1O2uNg2JTyMYS_cBGYOXum/s640/isis-usa-murder.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> A former US Marine who served in Iraq in 2003-05 explains how much ISIS is the product of the accumulated wrongs and horrific crimes committed by the US against the Iraqi people during its genocidal military campaign in that country.<br /> <br /> For the last several years, people around the world have asked, “Where did ISIS come from?” Explanations vary but largely focus on geopolitical (US hegemony), religious (Sunni-Shia), ideological (Wahhabism) or ecological (climate refugees) origins. Many commentators and even former military officials correctly suggest that the war in Iraq is primarily responsible for unleashing the forces we now know as ISIS/ISIL/Daesh/etc. Here hopefully I can add some useful reflections and anecdotes.<br /> <br /> Mesopotamian nightmares<br /> <br /> When I was stationed in Iraq with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, in 2003-05, I didn’t know what the repercussions of the war would be, but I knew there would be a reckoning. That retribution, otherwise known as blowback, is currently being experienced around the world (Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, France, Tunisia, California, and so on), with no end in sight.<br /> <br /> Back then, I routinely saw and participated in obscenities. Of course, the wickedness of the war was never properly recognised in the West. Without question, anti-war organisations attempted to articulate the horrors of the war in Iraq, but the mainstream media, academia and political-corporate forces in the West never allowed for a serious examination of the greatest war crime of the 21st century.<br /> <br /> As we patrolled the vast region of Iraq’s Al-Anbar Province, throwing MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) trash out of our vehicles, I never contemplated how we would be remembered in history books; I simply wanted to make some extra room in my Humvee. Years later, sitting in a Western Civilisation history course at university, listening to my professor talk about the cradle of civilisation, I thought of MRE garbage on the floor of the Mesopotamian desert.<br /> <br /> Examining recent events in Syria and Iraq, I can’t help but think of the small kids my fellow Marines would pelt with Skittles from those MRE packages. Candies weren’t the only objects thrown at the children: water bottles filled with urine, rocks, debris and various other items were thrown as well. I often wonder how many members of ISIS and various other terrorist organisations recall such events.<br /> <br /> Moreover, I think about the hundreds of prisoners we took captive and tortured in makeshift detention facilities staffed by teenagers from Tennessee, New York and Oregon. I never had the misfortune of working in the detention facility, but I remember the stories. I vividly remember the Marines telling me about punching, slapping, kicking, elbowing, kneeing and head-butting Iraqis. I remember the tales of sexual torture: forcing Iraqi men to perform sexual acts on each other while Marines held knives against their testicles, sometimes sodomising them with batons.<br /> <br /> However, before those abominations could take place, those of us in infantry units had the pleasure of rounding up Iraqis during night raids, zip-tying their hands, black-bagging their heads and throwing them in the back of Humvees and trucks while their wives and kids collapsed to their knees and wailed. Sometimes, we would pick them up during the day. Most of the time they wouldn’t resist. Some of them would hold hands while Marines would butt-stroke the prisoners in the face. Once they arrived at the detention facility, they would be held for days, weeks and even months at a time. Their families were never notified. And when they were released, we would drive them from the FOB (Forward Operating Base) to the middle of the desert and release them several miles from their homes.<br /> <br /> After we cut their zip-ties and took the black bags off their heads, several of our more deranged Marines would fire rounds from their AR-15s into the air or ground, scaring the recently released captives. Always for laughs. Most Iraqis would run, still crying from their long ordeal at the detention facility, hoping some level of freedom awaited them on the outside. Who knows how long they survived? After all, no one cared.<br /> <br /> We do know of one former US prisoner who survived though: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.<br /> <br /> Amazingly, the ability to dehumanise the Iraqi people reached a crescendo after the bullets and explosions concluded, as many Marines spent their spare time taking pictures of the dead, often mutilating their corpses for fun or poking their bloated bodies with sticks for some cheap laughs. Because iPhones weren’t available at the time, several Marines came to Iraq with digital cameras. Those cameras contain an untold history of the war in Iraq, a history the West hopes the world forgets. That history and those cameras also contain footage of wanton massacres and numerous other war crimes, realities the Iraqis don’t have the pleasure of forgetting.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately, I could recall countless horrific anecdotes from my time in Iraq. Innocent people were not only routinely rounded up, tortured and imprisoned, they were also incinerated by the hundreds of thousands, some studies suggest by the millions.<br /> <br /> Only the Iraqis understand the pure evil that’s been waged on their nation. They remember the West’s role in the eight-year war between Iraq and Iran; they remember Clinton’s sanctions in the 1990s, policies which resulted in the deaths of well over 500,000 people, largely women and children. Then, 2003 came and the West finished the job.<br /> <br /> Today, Iraq is an utterly devastated nation. The people are poisoned and maimed, and the natural environment is toxic from bombs laced with depleted uranium. After 14 years of the War on Terror, one thing is clear: the West is great at fomenting barbarism and creating failed states.<br /> <br /> Living with ghosts<br /> <br /> The warm and glassy eyes of young Iraqi children perpetually haunt me, as they should. The faces of those I’ve killed, or at least those whose bodies were close enough to examine, will never escape my thoughts. My nightmares and daily reflections remind me of where ISIS comes from and why exactly they hate us. That hate, understandable yet regrettable, will be directed at the West for years and decades to come. How could it be otherwise?<br /> <br /> Again, the scale of destruction the West has inflicted in the Middle East is absolutely unimaginable to the vast majority of people living in the developed world. This point can never be overstated as Westerners consistently and naively ask, “Why do they hate us?”<br /> <br /> In the end, wars, revolutions and counter-revolutions take place and subsequent generations live with the results: civilisations, societies, cultures, nations and individuals survive or perish. That’s how history works. In the future, how the West deals with terrorism will largely depend on whether or not the West continues their terroristic behaviour. The obvious way to prevent future ISIS-style organisations from forming is to oppose Western militarism in all its dreadful forms: CIA coups, proxy wars, drone strikes, counterinsurgency campaigns, economic warfare, etc.<br /> <br /> Meanwhile, those of us who directly participated in the genocidal military campaign in Iraq will live with the ghosts of war.<br /> <br /> Source: <a href="http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2016/1720/20-culture.html" target="_blank">http://www.cpa.org.au/guardian/2016/1720/20-culture.html </a><br /> <br /> <br /></div>

“I helped create ISIS”

A former US Marine who served in Iraq in 2003-05 explains how much ISIS is the product of the accumulated wrongs and horrific crimes com...

Read more »