Saturday, March 22, 2008
FREE FOUAD NOW
For three months now one popular Saudi blogger has been in jail for criticising some influential people in his country. Fouad al Farhan is 32 years old and a father of two. His long incarceration has forced his nine old daughter, Raghad al Farhan, to come out with a plea for her father's release in this clip. I am joining Saudi bloggers and others in the blogosphere to demand his immediate release. As bloggers we have a right to express our opinions in all matters under the sun. Or don't we?
Update: Pressure is still mounting in the blogosphere for the release of al Farhan. So far KSA authorities are not budging. They have even blocked the blogsite created to give info on the case. This kind of thing has set my mind thinking: it could happen in democratic Nigeria! Those who doubt me would do well to check this report by reporters sans frontiers. Journalists are the targets now but believe me bloggers will soon be the next to be targetted...
Thursday, March 20, 2008
HOW AFGHANISTAN CAME TO BE
My attention was drawn to the above book written by Zbigniew Brezinski who was the United States National Security Adviser to former president Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. That was the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the rise and rise of the resistence movement known as the Mujahedeen. Without doubt the Americans played a key role in the arming of the Mujahedeen and the ouster of the Soviets from the country. It is instructive to note,however, that among the many Saudis recruited for the Mujahedeen job was a little known millionaire who goes by the name of Usama Bin Laden. The Americans must have noted his potentials and showed him one or two tricks that turned him into a billionaire, among other things. But no sooner the war was over than the Mujahedeen and the new government they helped to set up turned into a frankenstein monster for the USA. Many Americans are not aware of this shady side of their government largely due to what is described as their willful ignorance.I am searching for this book and would be surprized if Mr Brezinski did not reveal the cloak and dagger job the CIA did in recruitig and arming sundry Arabs for the Mujahedeen insurgency against the Soviets which direcrtly culminated into the present American invasion of and the quagmire now in Afghanistan.
DOUBLE STANDARD AT FIFA
Reverbrations from the last African Cup of Nations football tournament in Ghana would be with us for a long time. This is judging by the selective punishments that FIFA refrees doled out on the pitch. I am no great football fan in the true sense of the word and therefore missed what amounted to a double standard by some of these refrees. The above picture of an Egyptian player was sent to me with the explanation that he was shown a yelow card for displaying the above writings on his inner shirt. FIFA HQ was said to have defended the action by saying that it was against the habit of players displaying political and religious statements. Well by this statement FIFA has argued against itself since several players have engaged in this kind of thing and they were not sanctioned. In the same tournement a Ghanian player was said to have waved a Jewish flag in response to the Gaza statement, but he was not given a yellow card. If this is not double standard then I dont know what is. Is FIFA fast deteriorating into a neo con zealot?Thanks B.
Monday, March 03, 2008
WHERE CONSENSUS EQUALS DEMOCRACY
Local Government elections are over in KT and all but three of the previuos office holders were returned. Likewise the elections for the ruling party's officials where all of the party executives were eleted un opposed. For both so called elections though the same "democratic" rule of consensus was put into use. My dictionary defines consensus as a broad unanimity or a widespread agreement among members of a group. Now if indeed this were the case one would not bother much. But the reality was that several members of the group were not allowed to partake, least of all agree with the candidates so elected. And they made this known in variuos fora including the media.
This definitely puts democracy in great jeopardy in the state. And indeed the whole country.
But here is praying that the rule of law would one day come to be respected by our leaders.
This definitely puts democracy in great jeopardy in the state. And indeed the whole country.
But here is praying that the rule of law would one day come to be respected by our leaders.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
I have always known that as the campaign for the US presidential primaries got nastier and nastier some one would hit Obama below the belt. Right at the onset they had been saying that his last name rhymes with Osama, even if no one really paid any attention. But now that he appears unstoppable they are reaching for the last salvo. I am surprized though that the Clintons were not involved. Nor the religious far right candidate Huckabee or even people with extreme jewish views like Abe Foxman.
It was in Cincinnati, Ohio, when some one billed to introduce John McCain mentioned it. The guy pointedly repeated Obama's middle name (Hussein) in a way that sought to ridicule the name. Perhaps he wanted Americans to link it in some arcane way with the dead Iraqi leader, or perhaps make Americans to think Obama was a Muslim and so not suitable to become the next president. But McCain was quick to see where that kind of name-ridicule could lead to and he put a stop to it immediately. He cautioned the guy and aserted that Hussein was an American name just like Benjamin Franklin and Omar Bradley. Denigrating people's names, he said, was a form of racial and religious bigotry.
Perhaps this is the last we shall hear about it, but lest we forget, Obama, is not a Muslim. His father was a Kenyan Muslim and the middle name Hussein given to him belonged to his grandfather. Believe it or not in America your religion matters in presidential choices. JFK was the first Catholic and perhaps the last to occupy the White House . This makes the chances of Mitt Romney, a Mormon, to be so daunting. But for a black man to be the president of USA it is now a possibility and the country would surely turn a new leaf both domestically and on the international scene.
It was in Cincinnati, Ohio, when some one billed to introduce John McCain mentioned it. The guy pointedly repeated Obama's middle name (Hussein) in a way that sought to ridicule the name. Perhaps he wanted Americans to link it in some arcane way with the dead Iraqi leader, or perhaps make Americans to think Obama was a Muslim and so not suitable to become the next president. But McCain was quick to see where that kind of name-ridicule could lead to and he put a stop to it immediately. He cautioned the guy and aserted that Hussein was an American name just like Benjamin Franklin and Omar Bradley. Denigrating people's names, he said, was a form of racial and religious bigotry.
Perhaps this is the last we shall hear about it, but lest we forget, Obama, is not a Muslim. His father was a Kenyan Muslim and the middle name Hussein given to him belonged to his grandfather. Believe it or not in America your religion matters in presidential choices. JFK was the first Catholic and perhaps the last to occupy the White House . This makes the chances of Mitt Romney, a Mormon, to be so daunting. But for a black man to be the president of USA it is now a possibility and the country would surely turn a new leaf both domestically and on the international scene.
