"Israel must be held accountable for any violations of human rights and humanitarian law, Muslim nations said in a draft Organisation of the Islamic Conference statement"
Did heads of government and the cream of world Muslims need to travel half way around the world to say this? What is their own responsibility? War is not a breakdown of negotiations, but an extension of it. If Chiite terrorists think hatred-engineered Islam is a strategy, then they should accept to confront Isreali firepower.
The declaration above seems to read "We can only be held accountable for what we do" False! Muslim nations, meeting in Malaysia seem to forget there is a concept like "crime by ommision". Hezbollah is represented in the Lebanese Parliament, which means the state of Lebanon cautions Hezbollah's activity. How does Lebanon expect Israel to react, when the President of Lebanon thanks Hezbollah for its "sacrifices"? No Muslim, Arabic or Mid-Eastern country has condemned Hezbollah attacks on Israel, although the Chiite Militia fires an average of 75RPG's per day into Israel.
What accountability are we talking about? War is the only generally accepted form of violence. It is the only form of violence codified by laws - "Geneva Conventions". Its is but normal, that a reaction to terrorist activity be disproportionate. A propos ... "disproportionate" as opposed to what? Peace?
It's almost 60yrs since the state of Israel was established as a democracy. Arabs do not seem to realise that, the land they are fighting for is getting smaller by the day. Arabs need to understand that hatred is not a good enough motivation factor to fight Israelis. Hatred is a primitive instinct that will never produce a rational result.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Lebanon-Sense
The Lebanese are not genetically programmed to be victims of war.
Far from that, the most war-torn country of the Middle-East is the playground for intrigues that stretch far beyond its national identity.
The Israeli onslaught on Lebanon, which will definitely get to the gates of Beirut is not the first. But what explains that a country is literally being invaded for the second time in 2 decades and even the UN seems to be giving a head-nod? Of what interest is it to Israel to destroy Lebanon, when they could have dislodged Hezbollah without strafe-bombing vast areas of Lebanon? Is it not in Israel's interest to have a democratically elected leadership next door? Definitely yes!
In attacking Lebanon, Israel is playing two extreme cards. Firstly, even unprovoked, the Israelis always have to prove the military deterrent, in case someone forgets. This time they were provoked, and in the Israeli mind it is justified. Consider this statement by Ben Gurion to Ariel Sharon after the widely condemned Qibya Operation in the fall of 1953, in which 69 Palestinian civilians, half of which were women and children, were killed by Sharon's troops in a reprisal attack on their West Bank village. In the documentary "Israel and the Arabs: 50 Year War" Ariel Sharon recalls what happened after the raid, which was heavily condemned by many countries in the West, including the U.S.
"I was summoned to see Ben-Gurion. It was the first time I met him, and right from the start Ben-Gurion said to me:
-"Let me first tell you one thing: it doesn't matter what the world says about Israel, it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive."
This is how the Israeli mind works. Israeli survival problems and security guarantees are threatened by extreme levels of poverty in surrounding Arabic/Islamic states. Democracy, in the Middle-East is an exception. So Israel is not only a religious and spiritual enemy, it is also a political and economic one too. This means that, the Israelis have every interest in having a budding democracy, Lebanon-style next door. But Lebanon is very slow in change.
It took the Rafik Hariri assassination to kick-start the Cedar Revolution which sent Syrians out of Lebanon. The Israelis are now gambling on getting Hezbollah out of South Lebanon (North of Israel) if the Lebanese realise that their peace has been jeopardised by a Irano-Syrian backed terror organisation. Whether Lebanese loathe Israel or not is another problem. Israeli attacks directly play in the favor of salient democratic forces in Lebanon.
But between the statements of PM Fouad Siniora and the man who has lost eight family members, the is a gaping abyss. Cedar Revolution (Take II) is coming soon. The Lebanese nomenklatura will be ejected, Hezbollah will run amock, and Lebanon will finally have its peace. Or the reverse the Israelis will fight the Syrians and Iranians until the last Lebanese is dead.
Far from that, the most war-torn country of the Middle-East is the playground for intrigues that stretch far beyond its national identity.
The Israeli onslaught on Lebanon, which will definitely get to the gates of Beirut is not the first. But what explains that a country is literally being invaded for the second time in 2 decades and even the UN seems to be giving a head-nod? Of what interest is it to Israel to destroy Lebanon, when they could have dislodged Hezbollah without strafe-bombing vast areas of Lebanon? Is it not in Israel's interest to have a democratically elected leadership next door? Definitely yes!
In attacking Lebanon, Israel is playing two extreme cards. Firstly, even unprovoked, the Israelis always have to prove the military deterrent, in case someone forgets. This time they were provoked, and in the Israeli mind it is justified. Consider this statement by Ben Gurion to Ariel Sharon after the widely condemned Qibya Operation in the fall of 1953, in which 69 Palestinian civilians, half of which were women and children, were killed by Sharon's troops in a reprisal attack on their West Bank village. In the documentary "Israel and the Arabs: 50 Year War" Ariel Sharon recalls what happened after the raid, which was heavily condemned by many countries in the West, including the U.S.
"I was summoned to see Ben-Gurion. It was the first time I met him, and right from the start Ben-Gurion said to me:
-"Let me first tell you one thing: it doesn't matter what the world says about Israel, it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive."
This is how the Israeli mind works. Israeli survival problems and security guarantees are threatened by extreme levels of poverty in surrounding Arabic/Islamic states. Democracy, in the Middle-East is an exception. So Israel is not only a religious and spiritual enemy, it is also a political and economic one too. This means that, the Israelis have every interest in having a budding democracy, Lebanon-style next door. But Lebanon is very slow in change.
It took the Rafik Hariri assassination to kick-start the Cedar Revolution which sent Syrians out of Lebanon. The Israelis are now gambling on getting Hezbollah out of South Lebanon (North of Israel) if the Lebanese realise that their peace has been jeopardised by a Irano-Syrian backed terror organisation. Whether Lebanese loathe Israel or not is another problem. Israeli attacks directly play in the favor of salient democratic forces in Lebanon.
But between the statements of PM Fouad Siniora and the man who has lost eight family members, the is a gaping abyss. Cedar Revolution (Take II) is coming soon. The Lebanese nomenklatura will be ejected, Hezbollah will run amock, and Lebanon will finally have its peace. Or the reverse the Israelis will fight the Syrians and Iranians until the last Lebanese is dead.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Sex-Obsessed Muslims?
A new tool by Google reveals how Africans use the Internet. Not being a surprise, "sex" is one of the most searched words in the Internet, but it may come as an embarrassment to many Muslim countries that their citizens are the world's most frequent digital sex searchers; in particular North Africans. But also in sub-Saharan Africa, "sex" is among the most popular searches. The Google Trends tool also reveals Africa's most popular celebrities and potential markets for African products.
When it comes to using the Internet to look for sex, North Africans in particular seem to have found a new outlet for societal taboos. The sex search on Google is topped by Pakistan, but closely followed by Egypt. Moroccans even reach the top-ten list both in English (6th on "sex") and in French (2nd on "sexe"). Algerians top the search for "sexe", showing twice as much interest as the French and Tunisians. A quick look inside the booming cybercafés in North Africa confirms this obsession.
On a regional outlook, Mauritanians, Malians and Nigerians are the most sex-searching West Africans, followed by the Senegalese, while Ivorians and Gabonese already have found other uses for the Internet. In Southern Africa, Zambians and Malawians are searching twice as much for sex as Angolans and Mozambicans. Tanzanians however are even more interested in finding sex on the Internet, while Ethiopians and Somalis demonstrate a true obsession.
Even homosexuality, which is illegal in most Muslim and African countries, spurs much interest in Muslim Africa. While the search word "gay" is dominated by Latin Americans, it is mainly Filipinos and Saudi Arabians looking for "gay sex". The African "gay sex" list is topped by Kenyans, Tanzanians, Namibians, Zimbabweans and South Africans. In the francophone world, however, Algerians and Moroccans by far top the world's search for "la homosexualité". Algerians also by distance top the search for the "sexe gay", with the French and the Moroccans being somewhat more timid on the issue.
There is of course also an awareness of the risks of unprotected sex. South Africans by far are those most searching information about "AIDS", followed by Indians. Disappointingly, however, there is no other African nation on the AIDS search top-ten list. On the French, Spanish and Portuguese equivalent - SIDA - Moroccans are on second place in a list dominated by Latin American countries.
Also when it comes to meet the AIDS treat, South Africans are the most aware in Africa, Google searches indicate. There is a significant search for condoms in South Africa, but the interest for this AIDS preventing object is by far much bigger in India. South African however top the world's search list of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). The lack of other African countries on the ARV top-ten search list again indicates that the public awareness of these drugs is as low as their availability in other African states.
There are of course quite a few African celebrities attracting fans and followers. Football stars are among the most searched for. Ivorian star Didier Drogba is the most searched African football star, closely followed by Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o. Nigeria's Augustine 'Jay-Jay' Okocha has fallen well behind Eto'o since end-2004 on Google searches. No African football star can however beat French superstar Zinédine Zidane, of Algerian descent, who totally dominates searches.
As expected, football stars are most popular in their home countries. Eto'o is among the searches most done in Cameroon, but he also is very popular in Gabon, Mali and Côte d'Ivoire. Drogba is most searched in Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Mali. Okocha has a totally different fan basis, comprising of Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya. Zidane has an even wider audience, being most popular in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, Morocco and finally France.
It may be hard to believe that any African politician could compete with the popularity of the continent's football stars, but the pan-African icon Nelson Mandela almost reaches the world-wide popularity as Zidane. In South Africa, Mandela knocks out any football star - even local hero Lucas Radebe by a facto of one to twenty. Only in a few francophone West African countries, Eto'o generates more searches as Mandela; in Nigeria the two are on level.
Moving further into South African politics, three ANC leaders are competing for attention. On a world-wide scale, scandal-ridden ANC deputy leader Jacob Zuma has drawn more Google searches than ex-President Mandela since early 2004. President Thabo Mbeki lags very far behind both of them. Only among South African Internet users, President Mbeki narrowly beats Mr Zuma, but doesn't even reach half the searches as Mr Mandela. Outside South Africa, President Mbeki draws almost no attention.
Comparing African leaders, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe seem to take a clear lead among Internet users in 2006. Congo's Joseph Kabila is fighting with Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and South Africa's Mbeki over the third place - which in April was temporarily conquered by Chad's embattled President Idriss Deby. Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had her heydays in January and has been falling on statistics since then.
Even when it comes to economics, Google Trends could prove a nice tool for African business analysts. If you want to offer safari holidays, Google reveals that the word "safari" is most searched by South Africans, followed by Singaporeans, Britons and Swiss - a good market indictor. The biggest non-African markets for "beads" may be found in the US, Australia and Singapore, it seems. Sweet mangos catch special interest in Lithuania, ostrich products in Iran, while there seems to be a market for "khat" in Viet Nam and Malaysia.
The Google Trends tool was only presented earlier this week - in a basic, unfinished version - but has already been praised on the technology market for opening up new possibilities within sociology analyses and market research. Search trends can be followed to a city level in most countries. Critics however warn that making search results public in an ever more detailed manner could collide with privacy rights.
Courtesy of Afrol News
When it comes to using the Internet to look for sex, North Africans in particular seem to have found a new outlet for societal taboos. The sex search on Google is topped by Pakistan, but closely followed by Egypt. Moroccans even reach the top-ten list both in English (6th on "sex") and in French (2nd on "sexe"). Algerians top the search for "sexe", showing twice as much interest as the French and Tunisians. A quick look inside the booming cybercafés in North Africa confirms this obsession.
On a regional outlook, Mauritanians, Malians and Nigerians are the most sex-searching West Africans, followed by the Senegalese, while Ivorians and Gabonese already have found other uses for the Internet. In Southern Africa, Zambians and Malawians are searching twice as much for sex as Angolans and Mozambicans. Tanzanians however are even more interested in finding sex on the Internet, while Ethiopians and Somalis demonstrate a true obsession.
Even homosexuality, which is illegal in most Muslim and African countries, spurs much interest in Muslim Africa. While the search word "gay" is dominated by Latin Americans, it is mainly Filipinos and Saudi Arabians looking for "gay sex". The African "gay sex" list is topped by Kenyans, Tanzanians, Namibians, Zimbabweans and South Africans. In the francophone world, however, Algerians and Moroccans by far top the world's search for "la homosexualité". Algerians also by distance top the search for the "sexe gay", with the French and the Moroccans being somewhat more timid on the issue.
There is of course also an awareness of the risks of unprotected sex. South Africans by far are those most searching information about "AIDS", followed by Indians. Disappointingly, however, there is no other African nation on the AIDS search top-ten list. On the French, Spanish and Portuguese equivalent - SIDA - Moroccans are on second place in a list dominated by Latin American countries.
Also when it comes to meet the AIDS treat, South Africans are the most aware in Africa, Google searches indicate. There is a significant search for condoms in South Africa, but the interest for this AIDS preventing object is by far much bigger in India. South African however top the world's search list of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). The lack of other African countries on the ARV top-ten search list again indicates that the public awareness of these drugs is as low as their availability in other African states.
There are of course quite a few African celebrities attracting fans and followers. Football stars are among the most searched for. Ivorian star Didier Drogba is the most searched African football star, closely followed by Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o. Nigeria's Augustine 'Jay-Jay' Okocha has fallen well behind Eto'o since end-2004 on Google searches. No African football star can however beat French superstar Zinédine Zidane, of Algerian descent, who totally dominates searches.
As expected, football stars are most popular in their home countries. Eto'o is among the searches most done in Cameroon, but he also is very popular in Gabon, Mali and Côte d'Ivoire. Drogba is most searched in Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon and Mali. Okocha has a totally different fan basis, comprising of Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire and Kenya. Zidane has an even wider audience, being most popular in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, Morocco and finally France.
It may be hard to believe that any African politician could compete with the popularity of the continent's football stars, but the pan-African icon Nelson Mandela almost reaches the world-wide popularity as Zidane. In South Africa, Mandela knocks out any football star - even local hero Lucas Radebe by a facto of one to twenty. Only in a few francophone West African countries, Eto'o generates more searches as Mandela; in Nigeria the two are on level.
Moving further into South African politics, three ANC leaders are competing for attention. On a world-wide scale, scandal-ridden ANC deputy leader Jacob Zuma has drawn more Google searches than ex-President Mandela since early 2004. President Thabo Mbeki lags very far behind both of them. Only among South African Internet users, President Mbeki narrowly beats Mr Zuma, but doesn't even reach half the searches as Mr Mandela. Outside South Africa, President Mbeki draws almost no attention.
Comparing African leaders, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe seem to take a clear lead among Internet users in 2006. Congo's Joseph Kabila is fighting with Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and South Africa's Mbeki over the third place - which in April was temporarily conquered by Chad's embattled President Idriss Deby. Liberia's Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf had her heydays in January and has been falling on statistics since then.
Even when it comes to economics, Google Trends could prove a nice tool for African business analysts. If you want to offer safari holidays, Google reveals that the word "safari" is most searched by South Africans, followed by Singaporeans, Britons and Swiss - a good market indictor. The biggest non-African markets for "beads" may be found in the US, Australia and Singapore, it seems. Sweet mangos catch special interest in Lithuania, ostrich products in Iran, while there seems to be a market for "khat" in Viet Nam and Malaysia.
The Google Trends tool was only presented earlier this week - in a basic, unfinished version - but has already been praised on the technology market for opening up new possibilities within sociology analyses and market research. Search trends can be followed to a city level in most countries. Critics however warn that making search results public in an ever more detailed manner could collide with privacy rights.
Courtesy of Afrol News
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