Arabs doubted former British Prime Minister Tony Blair could succeed as Middle East peace envoy because of his unpopularity and because he is too close to Israel and the United States.
Blair had little credibility in the Middle East because he took part in the invasion of Iraq, opposed a ceasefire in Lebanon last year and failed to follow up on many promises to tackle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Quartet - the US, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - appointed Blair on Wednesday, the day he stepped down after 10 years as British prime minister.
The choice of Blair was seen in the Middle East as a present from US President George W Bush for his years of support for Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Even Blair has no confidence from his own people. He was forced to resignation as the British people got fed up from his Americanised behaviour and his countless lies to the British public.
Blair .. No one believes you now except G W Bush and the Israelis. How can you take an unbiased role with these facts? You better retire early and fake your memoires just like your faked evidences of Weapons of Mass Destruction to invade Iraq.
And the "cash-for-honours" allegations? ... say no more.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Albania
A part of Illyria in ancient times and later of the Roman Empire, Albania was ruled by the Byzantine Empire from 535 to 1204. An alliance (1444–1466) of Albanian chiefs failed to halt the advance of the Ottoman Turks, and the country remained under at least nominal Turkish rule for more than four centuries, until it proclaimed its independence on Nov. 28, 1912.
Largely agricultural, Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe. A battlefield in World War I, after the war it became a republic in which a conservative Muslim landlord, Ahmed Zogu, proclaimed himself president in 1925 and king (Zog I) in 1928. He ruled until Italy annexed Albania in 1939. Communist guerrillas under Enver Hoxha seized power in 1944, near the end of World War II. Hoxha was a devotee of Stalin, emulating the Soviet leader's repressive tactics, imprisoning or executing landowners and others who did not conform to the socialist ideal. Hoxha eventually broke with Soviet communism in 1961 because of differences with Khrushchev and then aligned himself with Chinese communism, which he also abandoned in 1978 after the death of Mao. From then on Albania went its own way to forge its individual version of the socialist state and became one of the most isolated—and economically underdeveloped—countries in the world. Hoxha was succeeded by Ramiz Alia in 1982.
Elections in March 1991 gave the Communists a decisive majority. But a general strike and street demonstrations soon forced the all-Communist cabinet to resign. In June 1991 the Communist Party of Labor renamed itself the Socialist Party and renounced its past ideology. The opposition Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the 1992 elections, and Sali Berisha, a former cardiologist, became Albania's first elected president. The following year, ex-Communists, including Ramiz Alia and former prime minister Fatos Nano, were imprisoned on corruption charges.
But Albania's experiment with democratic reform and a free-market economy went disastrously awry in March 1997, when large numbers of its citizens invested in shady get-rich-quick pyramid schemes. When five of these schemes collapsed in the beginning of the year, robbing Albanians of an estimated $1.2 billion in savings, Albanians' rage turned against the government, which appeared to have sanctioned the nationwide swindle. Rioting broke out, the country's fragile infrastructure collapsed, and gangsters and rebels overran the country, plunging it into virtual anarchy. A multinational protection force eventually restored order and set up the elections that formally ousted President Sali Berisha.
In spring 1999, Albania was heavily involved in the affairs of its fellow ethnic Albanians to the north, in Kosovo. Albania served as an outpost for NATO troops and took in approximately 440,000 Kosovar refugees, about half the total number of ethnic Albanians who were driven from their homes in Kosovo.
Ilir Meta, elected prime minister in 1999, rapidly moved forward in his first years to modernize the economy, privatize business, fight crime, and reform the judiciary and tax systems. He resigned in Jan. 2002, frustrated by political infighting. In June 2002, former general Alfred Moisiu was elected president, endorsed by both the Socialists (headed by Fatos Nano) and the Democrats (led by Sali Berisha) in an effort to end the unproductive political fractiousness that has stalemated the government. The political duel between Nano and Berisha continued, however, and little improvement was evident in the standard of living for Albanians. In 2005 elections, Berisha replaced Nano as prime minister.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Antidisestablishmentarianism
When I was in Grade 10, we asked our English teacher, Mr. George Khoury, about the longest word in the English language. He said :" Antidisestablishmentarianism".
Mr. Koury also taught us European History. He was an excellent teacher. Since then, I used to check the dictionaries for this word but with no success. I doubted that I may have the wrong spelling. However, and to my pleasure, I found the word listed in Wikipedia. My spelling was correct. Here is the definition from Wikipedia:
Antidisestablishmentarianism originated in the context of the nineteenth century Church of England, where "antidisestablishmentarians" were opposed to proposals to remove the Church's status as the state church of England. The movement succeeded in England, but failed in Ireland and Wales, with the Church of Ireland being disestablished in 1871 and the Church of Wales in 1920. Antidisestablishmentarian members of the Free Church of Scotland delayed merger with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in a dispute about the position of the Church of Scotland.
Mr. Koury also taught us European History. He was an excellent teacher. Since then, I used to check the dictionaries for this word but with no success. I doubted that I may have the wrong spelling. However, and to my pleasure, I found the word listed in Wikipedia. My spelling was correct. Here is the definition from Wikipedia:
Antidisestablishmentarianism originated in the context of the nineteenth century Church of England, where "antidisestablishmentarians" were opposed to proposals to remove the Church's status as the state church of England. The movement succeeded in England, but failed in Ireland and Wales, with the Church of Ireland being disestablished in 1871 and the Church of Wales in 1920. Antidisestablishmentarian members of the Free Church of Scotland delayed merger with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in a dispute about the position of the Church of Scotland.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Blue Mosque - Istanbul
The results of the new seven wonders of the world will be announced on 7/7/07. Hagia Sofia is nominated from Turkey. From Turkey, my personal choice would be the Blue Mosque.
The Blue Mosque was founded by Sultan Ahmet I. He ordered Architect Mehmed Aga to begin constuction in 1609 and the whole complex was completed in 1616. He made the mosque splendid by the perfect proportion of domes and semidomes as well as the splendid minarets.
Upon the entrance to the mosque, one should pay attention to the gate. The gate is a typical Seljuk- Turkish wooden work with a geometrical design in its center. The star symbolizes the Turkish Generation and very typical of early 11-12th C Turkish Art. After the gate, one meets the breathtaking interior of the mosque with its chandelliers and blue tiles. The mosque is all
surrounded by beautiful 17C Iznik tiles which give its name to the Blue Mosque. It is all carpeted with prayer rugs because people must put their forehead on the floor and therefore the floor should be soft and clean.
The Blue Mosque is the only mosque with 6 minerates. The blue mosque is a magnificent piece of exceptional art and architecture.
The Blue Mosque was founded by Sultan Ahmet I. He ordered Architect Mehmed Aga to begin constuction in 1609 and the whole complex was completed in 1616. He made the mosque splendid by the perfect proportion of domes and semidomes as well as the splendid minarets.
Upon the entrance to the mosque, one should pay attention to the gate. The gate is a typical Seljuk- Turkish wooden work with a geometrical design in its center. The star symbolizes the Turkish Generation and very typical of early 11-12th C Turkish Art. After the gate, one meets the breathtaking interior of the mosque with its chandelliers and blue tiles. The mosque is all
surrounded by beautiful 17C Iznik tiles which give its name to the Blue Mosque. It is all carpeted with prayer rugs because people must put their forehead on the floor and therefore the floor should be soft and clean.
The Blue Mosque is the only mosque with 6 minerates. The blue mosque is a magnificent piece of exceptional art and architecture.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Palestine
On 15 May 1948, 78% of the historical Palestine was occupied by the Zionist Jewish movemont. Palestinians were forced to exile.
On 5 June 1967, the remainder 22% (what is known as the West bank and Gaza). More Palestinians were forced out of their homes.
Here is a brief account of events of the Palestine occupation:
HISTORY
The Jewish invasion of Palestine began in 1881. Before the first large wave of immigrants started arriving, Palestine had a population of half a million; most of the population was either Moslem or Christine, and only 20,000 were Jewish. Every segment of the population enjoyed the religious tolerance characteristic of our civilisation.
Between 1882 and 1917 the Zionist movement settled about 50,000 European Jews in our homeland. In 1917 it succeeded in getting Britain to issue the Balfour Declaration, promising the Jews a national homeland of their own in Palestine.
In the wake of the Balfour declaration and over 30 years, the Zionist movement succeeded in settling more European Jews on the land, thus confiscating the properties of Palestinian Arabs.
By 1947 the number of Jews have increased but constituted only one third of the population; they owned 6% of Palestinian arable land.
Following the Second World War and the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jews, the United Nations, influenced again by the major powers and in sympathy to the Jews, issued a partition resolution granting the colonialist settlers 54% of the land of Palestine. Their dissatisfaction with the decision prompted them to wage a war of terror against the civilian Arab population. They occupied 81% of the total area of Palestine, uprooting a million Arabs (both Moslems and Christians). Thus, they occupied 524 Arab towns and villages of which they destroyed 385, completely obliterating them in the process. This instilled fear into the minds of many Palestinians, forcing them to flee Palestine. Having done so, they built their own settlements and colonies on the ruins of our farms and our groves.
The roots of the Palestine question lie here. Its causes do not stem from any conflict between two religious or two nationalisms. Neither is it a border conflict between neighbouring states. It is the cause of people deprived of its homeland, dispersed and living mostly in exile and in refugee camps.
Declaration of Israel 1948
The Zionist movement managed to get itself accepted as a United Nations member. It further succeeded in getting the Palestine Question out of the agenda of the United Nations and in deceiving world public opinion by presenting our case as a problem of refugees in need either of charity from do-gooders or settlement in a land not theirs.
The 1956 and 1967 Wars
The racist
state launched a war against Egypt in 1956. In 1967, Israel launched another war occupying Egyptian Sinai as far as the Suez Canal, and Syria’s Golan Heights in addition to the remaining lands of Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza). More Palestinians are kicked out of their homes and more settlements are built for Israelis.
All these developments have led to the creation in our area of what has come to be known as the ‘Middle East Problem’.
A Jew who was born in New York and all his ancestors are Americans has the right to go to Palestine and live there. While a Palestinian who was born in Palestine with ancestors going back to hundred of years is not allowed to return to Palestine even for a visit. Does any law permit this to happen? Is there any justice in such a discriminating case?
Judaism vs. Zionism
We do distinguish between Judaism and Zionism. While we maintain our opposition to the colonialist Zionist movement, we respect the Jewish faith. The Zionist movement continues to be a threat to the Jews themselves. They discriminately rank Western Jews as first class citizen, Oriental Jews as second class citizens, African Jews as third class citizens and Palestinians as no citizens at all doing all possible efforts to get rid of all of them and declare a pure Jewish state in Palestine. If you are not convinced, think for a moment what the flag of Israel means; two blue lines with the star of David in between. The two blue lines mean the Rivers of the Nile and the Euphrates.
The present situation
There are 6 million Palestinians living in exile and 2.5 million living in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has gone as far as to literally torture Palestinians by confiscating their water, poisoning their livestock, destroying electrical power plants, and roads. Towns and villages are cut off by roadblocks and check points. People cannot go to prayer, let alone work, to provide their families with an income that can keep them alive. Many in Gaza, one of the most densely populated regions in the world, are living in total darkness due to the recent destruction of their only electrical power plant. 80% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are under the poverty line. 10,000 are in prison. Over the years, the Palestinians have tried to raise their suffering to the Security Council. Without failing a single time, any resolution to condemn Israel was blocked by a Veto by the USA. Encouraged with this support, Israel further suffocates the Palestinians of the West Bank with a hope that such a miserable life will force them to leave Palestine.
THE WALL
The construction of the Israeli separation wall began on the 16th June 2002. It is built inside the West Bank capturing 40% of its area. For the most part the barrier, which could eventually extend over 750 km, consists of a series of 8 meters high concrete walls, trenches, barbed wire and electrified fencing with numerous watch towers, electronic sensors, thermal imaging and video cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, sniper towers, and roads for patrol vehicles.Israel maintains that the Wall is a temporary structure to physically separate the West Bank from Israel and thus to prevent suicide attacks on Israeli citizens
While the Israeli public continues to believe that the wall is a security project, reality on the ground is quite different.
The myth of security: 'The wall will prevent suicide attacks.'
Reality: history shows that a country can never achieve security or peace by enclosing an entire people behind a wall. The imprisonment of a desperate people is a certain recipe for violence and hatred. But security is not the aim of Israel, if that were the case the wall would not have been built deep inside Palestinian territories.
No one would spend 2 billion dollars on 'temporary security measures'
'The path of the wall was planned for political and not security reasons.'
The wall will not separate Israelis from Palestinians but Palestinians from their land! Security will be achieved if the Palestinians are given a viable state with their rights recognised.
On 5 June 1967, the remainder 22% (what is known as the West bank and Gaza). More Palestinians were forced out of their homes.
Here is a brief account of events of the Palestine occupation:
HISTORY
The Jewish invasion of Palestine began in 1881. Before the first large wave of immigrants started arriving, Palestine had a population of half a million; most of the population was either Moslem or Christine, and only 20,000 were Jewish. Every segment of the population enjoyed the religious tolerance characteristic of our civilisation.
Between 1882 and 1917 the Zionist movement settled about 50,000 European Jews in our homeland. In 1917 it succeeded in getting Britain to issue the Balfour Declaration, promising the Jews a national homeland of their own in Palestine.
In the wake of the Balfour declaration and over 30 years, the Zionist movement succeeded in settling more European Jews on the land, thus confiscating the properties of Palestinian Arabs.
By 1947 the number of Jews have increased but constituted only one third of the population; they owned 6% of Palestinian arable land.
Following the Second World War and the atrocities committed by the Nazis against the Jews, the United Nations, influenced again by the major powers and in sympathy to the Jews, issued a partition resolution granting the colonialist settlers 54% of the land of Palestine. Their dissatisfaction with the decision prompted them to wage a war of terror against the civilian Arab population. They occupied 81% of the total area of Palestine, uprooting a million Arabs (both Moslems and Christians). Thus, they occupied 524 Arab towns and villages of which they destroyed 385, completely obliterating them in the process. This instilled fear into the minds of many Palestinians, forcing them to flee Palestine. Having done so, they built their own settlements and colonies on the ruins of our farms and our groves.
The roots of the Palestine question lie here. Its causes do not stem from any conflict between two religious or two nationalisms. Neither is it a border conflict between neighbouring states. It is the cause of people deprived of its homeland, dispersed and living mostly in exile and in refugee camps.
Declaration of Israel 1948
The Zionist movement managed to get itself accepted as a United Nations member. It further succeeded in getting the Palestine Question out of the agenda of the United Nations and in deceiving world public opinion by presenting our case as a problem of refugees in need either of charity from do-gooders or settlement in a land not theirs.
The 1956 and 1967 Wars
The racist
state launched a war against Egypt in 1956. In 1967, Israel launched another war occupying Egyptian Sinai as far as the Suez Canal, and Syria’s Golan Heights in addition to the remaining lands of Palestine (the West Bank and Gaza). More Palestinians are kicked out of their homes and more settlements are built for Israelis.All these developments have led to the creation in our area of what has come to be known as the ‘Middle East Problem’.
A Jew who was born in New York and all his ancestors are Americans has the right to go to Palestine and live there. While a Palestinian who was born in Palestine with ancestors going back to hundred of years is not allowed to return to Palestine even for a visit. Does any law permit this to happen? Is there any justice in such a discriminating case?
Judaism vs. Zionism
We do distinguish between Judaism and Zionism. While we maintain our opposition to the colonialist Zionist movement, we respect the Jewish faith. The Zionist movement continues to be a threat to the Jews themselves. They discriminately rank Western Jews as first class citizen, Oriental Jews as second class citizens, African Jews as third class citizens and Palestinians as no citizens at all doing all possible efforts to get rid of all of them and declare a pure Jewish state in Palestine. If you are not convinced, think for a moment what the flag of Israel means; two blue lines with the star of David in between. The two blue lines mean the Rivers of the Nile and the Euphrates.
The present situation
There are 6 million Palestinians living in exile and 2.5 million living in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has gone as far as to literally torture Palestinians by confiscating their water, poisoning their livestock, destroying electrical power plants, and roads. Towns and villages are cut off by roadblocks and check points. People cannot go to prayer, let alone work, to provide their families with an income that can keep them alive. Many in Gaza, one of the most densely populated regions in the world, are living in total darkness due to the recent destruction of their only electrical power plant. 80% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are under the poverty line. 10,000 are in prison. Over the years, the Palestinians have tried to raise their suffering to the Security Council. Without failing a single time, any resolution to condemn Israel was blocked by a Veto by the USA. Encouraged with this support, Israel further suffocates the Palestinians of the West Bank with a hope that such a miserable life will force them to leave Palestine.
THE WALL
The construction of the Israeli separation wall began on the 16th June 2002. It is built inside the West Bank capturing 40% of its area. For the most part the barrier, which could eventually extend over 750 km, consists of a series of 8 meters high concrete walls, trenches, barbed wire and electrified fencing with numerous watch towers, electronic sensors, thermal imaging and video cameras, unmanned aerial vehicles, sniper towers, and roads for patrol vehicles.Israel maintains that the Wall is a temporary structure to physically separate the West Bank from Israel and thus to prevent suicide attacks on Israeli citizens
While the Israeli public continues to believe that the wall is a security project, reality on the ground is quite different.
The myth of security: 'The wall will prevent suicide attacks.'
Reality: history shows that a country can never achieve security or peace by enclosing an entire people behind a wall. The imprisonment of a desperate people is a certain recipe for violence and hatred. But security is not the aim of Israel, if that were the case the wall would not have been built deep inside Palestinian territories.
No one would spend 2 billion dollars on 'temporary security measures'
'The path of the wall was planned for political and not security reasons.'
The wall will not separate Israelis from Palestinians but Palestinians from their land! Security will be achieved if the Palestinians are given a viable state with their rights recognised.
(Extracts from Jude Sajdi).
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Alitalia .....
They say that if you travel on Burundi airlines, you will almost always hear the Captain announcing :" Ladies and gentlemen... We have just landed near the runway".
On my recent travel on Alitalia, I approached the counter at Malpensa airport (Milan). The Alitalia staff greeted me with a refreshing reassuring smile and announced :" Ladies and gentlemen ..... I am pleased to announce that we are on strike .... therefore, the flight is cancelled".
What a sudden shock.
Now this is the lesson I have learnt. If Alitalia staff are not working, it is because they are on strike. If the Alitalia staff are working, then they will be on strike very soon.
What does Aliatalia stands for: "Always late in travel, always late in arrival". Poor service with distinction.
On my recent travel on Alitalia, I approached the counter at Malpensa airport (Milan). The Alitalia staff greeted me with a refreshing reassuring smile and announced :" Ladies and gentlemen ..... I am pleased to announce that we are on strike .... therefore, the flight is cancelled".
What a sudden shock.
Now this is the lesson I have learnt. If Alitalia staff are not working, it is because they are on strike. If the Alitalia staff are working, then they will be on strike very soon.
What does Aliatalia stands for: "Always late in travel, always late in arrival". Poor service with distinction.
Cashew nuts
No wonder they are expensive. Each fruit holds one cashew nut. To buy 1 Kg of cashew nut, you need a lot of these fruits.
The Cashew . The plant is native to northeastern Brazil, where it is called by its Portuguese name Caju (the fruit) or Cajueiro (the tree). It is now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew "nuts" and cashew apples.
What appears to be the fruit of the cashew tree is an oval or pear-shaped accessory fruit or false fruit that develops from the receptacle of the cashew flower. Called the cashew apple, better known in Central America as "marañón", it ripens into a yellow and/or red structure about 5–11 cm long.
What appears to be the fruit of the cashew tree is an oval or pear-shaped accessory fruit or false fruit that develops from the receptacle of the cashew flower. Called the cashew apple, better known in Central America as "marañón", it ripens into a yellow and/or red structure about 5–11 cm long.
The true fruit of the cashew tree is a kidney or boxing-glove shaped drupe that grows at the end of the pseudofruit. Actually, the drupe develops first on the tree, and then the peduncle expands into the pseudofruit. Within the true fruit is a single seed, the cashew nut. Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the fruit of the cashew is a seed. However, the true fruit is classified as a nut by some botanists.
This picture is taken in Gambia.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Goree Island - Senegal
Goree Island is 20 minutes away by ferry from Dakar, the capital of Senegal. It was used as the center for collecting the slaves for shipment to Europe and America for more than 400 years. Over 20 million slaves were caught and shipped. In harsh and inhumane conditions, 5 millions died.
The slave male must be over 60 kg in weight. If less, he will be fed beans until he reaches the weight and shipped. The slave house in Goree has different cells. The slaves are classified; males, females, children, and mutinists.
All cells eventually lead to an opening where the slaves are pushed into the ships. Standing at this opening, I have felt the suffering and brutality these people have suffered in leaving their lands and freedom into the dark future.
African Americans cry when they visit this place. In the picture, you will see me in the cell of the mutinists. A cell of height of 1 meter to force the mutinists to sit. Cells were cramped. A cell of 3x3 meters will have 50 people standing against each other.
The physical slavery age ended. Have we another form of slavery in the Economic and Political sense?
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